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You were trapped between him and the kitchen counter.

Caleb had been acting weird ever since you both left the formal party the Fleet held to congratulate his recent achievement. You wondered if something had happened, maybe the higher-ups said something that aggravated him again. They have never seen eye-to-eye when it comes to handling the Fleet after all.

He was looking into your eyes with such intensity, and that combined with the prolonged silence started to make you feel uneasy. You recognized this Caleb. He was still wearing his Farspace Fleet Colonel mask on.

🍏 “…Caleb? Did something happen?”

🍎 “….”

🍏 “You haven’t said anything since we left the party,” you touched his arm, softly rubbing it trying to make him feel less tense, “you know you can tell me when something—“

🍎 “I saw you talking to that young lieutenant.”

You could smell the strong hint of alcohol in his breath, what with his face only inches away from you. Didn’t he only take one glass of champagne? You were pretty sure you only saw him take one, after all you never took your eyes off him the entire— oh.

🍎 “What were you talking about? You seemed to have such a good time with him. I could hear your laughter even from where I was standing,” he said almost in a whisper. It wasn’t a question out of curiosity. He was interrogating you.

🍏 “Uhh… We were just talking about how tough the first few days are for a rookie Fleet Officer. You know, since I also experienced it when I came to Skyhaven before we met again? Haha…” you blabbered under his incriminating gaze, which you realized only makes you appear even more guilty. Why would an innocent person be this anxious? You could’ve just said—

🍎 “And you went to such great length, looking for something in common just to be able to talk to him because…?” he asked dangerously close next to your ear. There was no more space between your bodies, no more way for you to escape.

Your heart was practically jumping out of your chest at this point, this reminds you too much of the interrogation room back then. You felt ridiculous for still feeling scared of this Caleb, but felt even more ridiculous noticing there was also a small tinge of excitement inside of you.

🍏 “Umm… Because I just didn’t wanna feel awkward standing alone…?”

That should’ve been a good enough answer since it implies anyone was fine as long as you had someone to talk to, that the male lieutenant was totally irrelevant.

But that answer didn’t seem to satisfy Caleb.

He grabbed both sides of your face roughly and started kissing you in such desperation, no, ANGER, which caught you off guard. You had just indirectly told him the man was totally random and he was still upset??

But then you remembered something even more important than what was happening.

It was past 3 AM right now and Caleb had a special morning assembly tomorrow that would be attended by important people the Farspace Fleet had been trying to get to work with for months.

He had to wake up early and deliver a speech tomorrow. This past week you had been staying at his place, you had seen him memorize his long speech during breakfast, before bedtime, basically every little time he could find in the midst of his hectic days. He barely even had time to spend with you. You figured this must be really important for him and so you had been waiting patiently until that cursed speech day would finally be over and done with.

Your mind was pulled back into present time as you realized something growingly hard was pressing your lower stomach.

No, we can’t do this today… Not when victory is so close for both of you, you are NOT about to let his drunken self do something impulsive and blow off everything you both had been working so hard on.

Caleb was still going back and forth between sucking and licking your lips when you tried to push his chests, but he wouldn’t budge.

🍏 “Mmhh…. Hahhh…. Caleb—“ You called to him as you turned your head to the side.

But he wasn’t listening. He chased your lips and started suckling on it.

🍏 “Ugh— Mmmhh….” you turned your face to the other side once again, “—Caleb! Listen to me!”

Come to think of it… He had never really listened to you, didn’t he?

At least not when you’re pleading like this. In this exact kind of situation, doing this exact kind of thing.

He clicked his tongue, visibly irritated, then grabbed your head this time. One hand firmly gripping behind your head while the other was holding your face, cheek to chin, in place so tightly the leather was digging into your skin.

You were also starting to get irritated. And aroused, but the annoyance you felt was still bigger. How dare he try to seduce you when clearly you were the only one capable of making sound decisions at this moment!

So you decided to use your best skill that Caleb himself had acknowledged to be “unbeatable.” You bite his lips hard enough to give him electrocuting pain. You made a promise in your heart to give it hundreds of kisses later, but for now he just had to deal with it. It was for his own good.

🍎 “OUCH!”

Caleb pulled his face away in surprise, one of his hands instinctively reached for his lips while the other was gripping the edge of the counter. You took that chance to move aside and run towards your bedroom door.

🍎 “?! Where are you going??”

He was still standing there, looking annoyed and confused, when you finally got behind your door and locked it from the inside.

🍏 “Go to bed!! You have that speech tomorrow, remember?!”

🍎 “Come out of your room right this instant, Pips. I’m not finished with you.”

You could hear the heavy thuds of his footsteps as he was getting closer. You prayed his drunken brain wouldn’t remember he had the master key to all the rooms in this house.

🍏 “Caleb, you’re drunk! Your mind isn’t thinking straight!”

🍎 “Drunk and I can still talk just fine. Open the door!”

You were frantically trying to keep the door knob from turning. Even if you had locked it and everything, you knew it was useless because he could take that door off its hinges if he was feeling crazy enough to do it.

🍏 “Sleep! We can continue tomorrow, I’ll let you do whatever you want later if you could just let tonight pass peacefully!”

🍎 “How can I sleep peacefully when I’m still feeling like this?? Come out Pips, please… I just want to ask a few questions.”

🍏 “Talk then, I’m listening!”

🍎 “I need to see your face when we’re talking!”

🍏 “NO!! I’m scared of you right now!!”

The door knob stopped moving. Caleb didn’t say anything.

You wondered if he had finally given up and went back to his room. You waited and waited, until a few minutes had passed.

🍏 “….Caleb?”

There was no answer.

🍏 “….Caleb, are you still—“

🍎 “Alright. I’ll go to sleep now.”

🍏 “….Really?”

🍎 “Tomorrow. Let’s talk again tomorrow.”

🍏 “….Okay. Good night, I’ll wake you up in the morning.”

There was no response. He must have gone to his room, you thought.

Then you heard the sound of the opposite door closing.

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He didn’t return your good night. That was unusual.

He must had been really upset… or maybe even angry.

Was he still angry because he was jealous you talked to that officer?

Or… was he angry because you said you were scared of him?

Maybe it reminded him of the time when you were avoiding him for months because you weren’t used to his Colonel side yet. Especially since he was still wearing his uniform earlier.

Did you accidentally hurt him by saying that? But you said that because he was behaving impulsively and you were afraid he would also make you lose control and therefore ruin tomorrow for him.

It had been an hour since you both last exchanged words and you were feeling more and more guilty as time passed.

🍏 “….I should go check on him. Maybe change him out of his uniform too… Couldn’t possibly be comfortable sleeping in that.”

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You opened the door to his room softly. There he was, lying on his stomach and as expected, still wearing his uniform. You walked to his side and crouched down, making sure to be as silent as possible.

As you watched his beautiful lashes touching his cheeks and listened to his even breaths, you noticed his expression seemed much more relaxed than earlier.

🍏 “Dummy Caleb… You made me say hurtful things because you just wouldn’t listen,” you said in an almost-inaudible whisper while gently stroking the stubbled skin on his cheek with your fingertips.

🍏 “I’m sorry I said I was scared of you. I didn’t mean it the way you might’ve thought…”

Your fingers slowly slide over to his slightly parted lips. You could see the bite mark you left on his lower lip and chin and stroked there too, hoping it might help lessen the pain.

🍏 “I know how important tomorrow is for you and how hard you have been preparing for it. I’m not going to let anything ruin it, even if it’s your own doing.”

Then something caught your fingers, hard. Something leather-y and big.

🍎 “Are you sorry too for looking at another man when I wasn’t there?”

🍏 “??! Caleb, you’re awake??”

He pulled your hand forward until you fell on top of him. Then he turned your bodies over so now not only was he on top of you, he was also caging both of your sides with his clenched arms once again. Except this time there was absolutely no more chance to get away with his hand gripping your fingers so tightly.

Maybe… If you pretend to fall asleep…

🍎 “Answer me. Do you regret talking to him now that you know how much I dislike it? Don’t you think you should’ve just waited patiently for your big brother to come back to your side?”

🍏 “But you were taking so long—!”

Wrong answer. And now he was back to pressing his tongue down into your mouth with a renewed flare of anger. This time he made sure you wouldn’t be able to do any of your previous tricks again.

🍏 “Hahh— Are you seriously using your evol to hold my teeth in place right now??!”

🍎 “No more biting, I have an important speech tomorrow.”

🍏 “SO YOU DO REME—MMPPHHH!!”

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None of you got any sleep in the end, but everything still turned out to be alright.

Because Caleb is Caleb, and there has never been a time where he failed to do something he has put his mind into.

Not even when he was hungover and sleep deprived.