#aetherloved

A sleepy kiss in the early morning for @aetherloved

For once he awoke slowly, eyelids lifting like two heavy metal doors. The filtered light coming through the curtains had started to creep across the floor and climb upwards, landing upon his arm that hung over the side of the bed first. It was pleasantly warm as the full rage of summer had not yet descended fully upon the city. He laid there on his stomach for a moment, blinking, feeling as if this early-morning calm was still a lingering part of a dream. For what was more cruel than a nightmare? Having a good dream ripped away too soon.

Lifting his arm, he almost reached for his phone but stayed his hand at the last moment. No. He wouldn't let knowing what time it was let reality start to seep into this half-dream. After staring at the brightening sun for a moment longer he turned his head and the sight he beheld made his eyes open just a bit wider.

Her back was facing him and he watched, quietly, the soft rise and fall of her shoulder as she breathed. The ends of her hair fell like little waterfalls from the pillow and he took a piece between his fingers. Wrapping and twisting it around it was almost enough to lull him back to sleep but a small stretch from her kept him focused.

Caleb shifted himself up closer to her, pulling her hair back from her neck. Pressing two fingers to the right spot he could feel the steady and relaxed beat of her pulse. Just a small reminder that yes, yes, she really was there. Not a dream, for no dream could capture her as well as the real thing.

Happy Birthday, Ai-li ! - @aetherloved

Lunchtime couldn’t have been a less romantic time to decide to meet, but Ai-li’s working schedule had been a little too inconsistent to guarantee a birthday dinner and maybe a post-celebratory drink. Gideon was sure she’d already made plans with Caleb for that anyways, so fitting himself in her schedule felt appropriate, if a little disappointingly shitty. But it hardly mattered. 

He was sat outside her building with a little bento cake he’d frosted himself, decorated with two fat dollops of lime green frosting to make those cute little frogs all the girls went crazy for. One had coral pink hair that looked like an unfortunate Fraggle Rock mullet, while the other had unconscionable huge Popeye arms that were almost as voluminous as his adorably corpulent form. Just the two of them as demented-looking frogs, overlooking a little blue pond with blobby little lilypads floating in it. Three huge sparklers were jammed in it like an austere Buddhist offering of incense, but the decoration had no time to be regretted now that he saw Ai-li’s bright hair in the depths of the vestibule, approaching the door.

@aetherloved

"Whatever you do, don't be afraid of the dark." - "Night of the Hunter" by Thirty Seconds to Mars

It was the first step onto solid ground in months yet the occasion had only little more than an hour left to it. The ship had docked for a restocking of supplies and would soon be off again, back into the dark abyss. Caleb coughed into a handkerchief as he supervised the well-oiled process; breathing in fresh air after only subsisting on recycled air was like a boot camp for the lungs and he winced a bit from the chest pain. However it would all pass once he stepped aboard again, where he was more home than anywhere else.

Attention, sir, a young woman wants to see you.

The voice of his personal drone sounded like a deepened swarm of hornets beside his head and he looked at its center red flickering "eye" before turning around to see Elizabeth waving hesitantly in his direction. A small smile found a way through the stiffness of his face to settle itself yet the beating of his heart would have betrayed his true emotions were it visible within his ribcage. With a straightening of his cap he strode over to her.

"Even way out here I can't elude you," he said, grinning slightly wider and placing a hand upon her arm, "but then again I did give you these coordinates even though they were technically classified." There was a trace of playfulness in is eyes, a teasing brightness to what were more usually described as black holes. "Are you here to see me off a second time?"

Their surroundings became blurred and expanded, like setting two mirrors to face each other. Tunnel vision and Elli was at the center. The singularity. The one towards whom he would always fall and embrace in his falling.

One who would think nothing of falling right along with him.

Even her voice was like an echo, her lips not quite matching up in time with the words that fell from them. Teasing little thing she was. Ah, but he wouldn't have it any other way. Watching her fiddle with his pant strings, the way her fingers moved as if stricken with a mind of their own . . . the way they touched him. She knew exactly what she was doing and it was that ease, that contentment, that delight, that made him sink ever deeper into her beautiful trap.

"Too far?" He breathed that question out with what sounded like the last bit of breath held in his lungs. That grip made every bit of him tense and he tipped his chin down to nip at those fine fingers, not once breaking that deliberate eye contact. "I'm not so sure either of us know what too far means." It was then his own hands decided to move, one sliding up her thigh and the other swimming beneath that large shirt to drag up her back. He'd sink his fingers beneath her skin if he could, drag them over pristine muscle and bone. But this would have to do for now.

He broke their gaze first, completely encircling her with one arm and putting his mouth to her jawline. Fingertips pressed into the spaces between her ribs, an instrument to be played by him alone. His own skin started to burn and he wanted to feel more of hers still cool to the touch. He wanted too much.

for @aetherloved

The din of the event hall was nothing but a muffled groan of various voices by the time it was carried down to one of the small rooms on one of the flanking wings. Like static in his ears Caleb tried to ignore it as he peered at his uniformed self in the mirror; a statue being given a few finishing touches with a chisel before the curtain was pulled back and he was put on display. Making an appearance at the Fleet's gala was more akin to an unwritten rule than an actual requirement, though somehow that made it feel like it was more important that he did so. There'd be no speeches to make, nor would there be any other reason for the spotlight to be on him, yet he knew it would be pointed in his direction regardless. But not necessarily because of him.

The sudden sight of her in the mirror almost made him flinch. Almost. He felt his body tense a bit, felt himself straighten his posture even more than it already was. The title of Colonel fit him like his black leather gloves fit him and the imposing figure he cut only worked to further secure it, yet there in that quiet room in that small, quiet moment before the outside called, he was able to simply be Caleb.

"You never fail to show me up," he said to their reflections, not at all trying to hide his eyes drifting over her from top to toe. He took in a breath but turned around to face her before speaking again, as if the breath that held his next words was his last. "You look absolutely beautiful." It was her, and her combined with him, that would attract the eyes they'd have to navigate through.

At first he looked at her reflection in the glass, a transparent outline speckled with the pin-point light of distant stars. She herself was a galaxy with plasma hair and the crystals of icy moons stitched into her skin. If his eyes were black holes hers were white; what his destroyed hers created anew from the remnants of that destruction. And within her galaxy he spun, kept close by the strong force she exerted upon him.

But Elli was not a calm galaxy and when he moved his gaze from her reflection to her true face he felt the sudden, intense heat of a sun burning inside. As he patrolled in an expansive orbit to keep the expanse within his reach safe he kept a tighter and more watchful orbit around her. Nothing and no one would get through the barrier he'd established though many had tried (and many that even she didn't know about).

Caleb prided himself in dealing with each and every ping on his radar before they even became a thought in her mind. In this case, however, they had come close enough to catch her attention and it had set off in him a reaction that could not be quelled in any way except for the way he knew well. And now, here, she was telling him she was not worth that effort . . . oh, what she would say if she knew just what he would do and had already done for less.

"I risk my life every day. I have a target permanently carved onto my back"—of my own doing—"all to keep what I consider important safe." His voice was cool, collected, though he knew she would pick up on the subtle shifts of sound. She always did.

In a few strides he stood in front of her, an eclipse of that burning sun. "Now, you're thinking you're not worth it?" His nostrils flared a bit as he took in a breath, unsteady on the inside as he couldn't decide whether or not to reach out to her. Instead he leaned in, lowering his head down enough that his chin touched the top of her ear. "Do you know how close they were, how close their shadow came to engulfing you? Now they've run off and you want to tell me I shouldn't go after them . . . after they almost tore you from me."

┊ ⋆ @aetherloved howled:

ears  flatten,  eyes  narrow,  and  he's  aware  of  some  undercurrent  of  antagonism.   his  hands  slip  into  his  pockets  as  his  golden  eyes  roll  to  the  heavens  at  the   attempt  to  make  him  feel  stupid.

Hold his arms and legs! Get his arms and legs and put the guard in his mouth! We have a few iterations to run today . . .

His entire body was tense, from his furrowed brow and clenched jaw to his fingers and toes curled as if tightly gripping something out of fear. Out of pain. Intense pain that such a tiny body shouldn't ever experience. He wailed as the faceless dreamfigures prodded his muscles into spasms and at the same time held him down on the table so firmly he could feel the new bruises start to form. He ached, he hurt, but through the broken cries he was able to get out one word. Elli!

"Elli!" His eyes shot open and his arms flailed for a moment, the grip those people had on him still feeling all too real. But he wasn't in the bright room anymore. Instead the room was peacefully dark save for the small light that glowed on one of the bedside tables. As his sight adjusted to the light he tried to ease his breathing, his chest feeling like it was on fire. Nostrils flared as he made himself breathe steadily in and out, in and out.

It wasn't until Caleb felt his body coming back under control that he realized she had been holding onto him. He only now heard her voice, light and soothing. A balm for his mind and soul. The glow from the light illuminated her from behind and he lifted an unsteady hand to try and touch that glow. It looked warm and soft and . . .

Exhaustion took over as his hand found hers, a bulwark now against the nightmares. Curling his body against hers he fought to keep his eyes open. He wanted to imprint the glowing image of her on his mind, something to reach for if those figures should reappear. "Savin' me again, pipsqueak," he mumbled against her knuckles, "you just need some wings to go with that halo."

After exhaling deeply he allowed his eyes to close and was able to utter just one request. "Stay with me."