Nature's Fireworks
Posted on Thu May 7th, 2026 @ 1:38am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion
Mission:
Die Hard: Chimera Edition
Location: Tessa's Quarters
Timeline: After Guys' Night
Henry shuffled into Tessa's quarters, yawning and heavy-footed. While he'd had a few drinks, his brain had decided that he was not drunk, but rather pleasantly tired and relaxed. He saw Tessa sitting at her desk with her back to him and smiled. "Hey, Angel," he said.
Her head jerked up at the sound of his voice and Tessa spun around the chair so fast she initially lost balance, but revealed at least one deck of playing cards on the table she was sitting at, “You’re home!” She squealed in excitement, launching herself up and at him, arms open wide.
Henry caught her and swung her around, kissing her as if he hadn't seen her in days, rather than hours. "Glad to know you missed me," he said, grinning like a fool when they finally broke apart. "What've you been up to?"
She kept her arms wrapped around his neck and never let her weight touch the ground. “Mostly just waiting for you and seeing what this card game called Poker is all about, only to find out that there are HUNDREDS of versions of the same game, depending on where you’re from!” She tried to throw him off balance, but when she failed at it finally dropped to the ground, but not releasing him, “And at the girls party, someone suggested strip poker, which is where if you lose a hand you gotta take clothes off? Who in their right mind would play that?”
They paused a moment and as their eyes met, they both said, "Kally."
Henry chuckled and bent over to kiss her again. "Well, it's a pretty common human custom among the young and the daring," he said. "And among friends?" He shrugged. "There are worse ways to do something embarrassing and-or thrilling." He hadn't thought he'd overindulged on Bradley's high-octane homebrew, but he was starting to wonder if it was affecting his mood more than he'd thought. "Well, next time there's a regular game among some of our friends, we should definitely crash it." He lifted her up and sat her down on her desk, bringing her more to his eye level and kissing her again. "But that's for later. For now, I just need to kiss the girl I love and am going to marry." He kissed her again and grabbed her legs, putting them around his hips. A small voice in the back of his brain warned he was definitely more relaxed than usual. Another small voice told him to ask Brad for a spare bottle.
“Henry, we talked about that already.” Tessa said in a dreamy voice after they broke for air, her hands reaching up underneath his shirt, “It is not our custom to lifebond.” Her bare hands rested on his chest, but the rebuke was softened as she kissed him again. “The girl that loves you back, though?” She pushed his shirt further up but would need his help to get it off from this angle, “Thinks you’re wearing all too may clothes right now. If you wanted to try this strip poker, we could, but it may take too long!”
"Strip, yes; poker no; love you, yes; giving up, no; but with you, forever." He punctuated each bit with a kiss, then made a similar move and began pulling her clothes off as well.
“Stubborn git.” Tessa got out as they had to part briefly to remove his shirt, but it was enthusiastic nonetheless. Then she was pressed against him again, hands everywhere to strip him down.
One would think with their amorous attitudes, it would be a direct line to their bed. However, as it turned out there had been several stops made along the way at her desk, her chair and at one point the floor. Eventually they'd concluded the evening and fallen asleep together. It was around 0230 when it happened. in the pitch-black room, a small flash happened, setting off a small chain reaction as the space between them began to softly warm and glow for just a moment. It wasn't long and it spread like the ripple of a pond along Tessa's midsection, and then faded completely.
Maybe it was the shift in temperature that woke Henry up, or the brief glow of light, or the slight movement of Tessa next to him. He couldn't really say, since by the time he actually opened his eyes and looked around the, once again, completely dark room, there was nothing unusual happening to give him pause. He shrugged to himself, nestled down into Tessa's arms more and held her tight, enjoying another blissful, regular evening.
Between the temperature change or the lack of blankets, which were in a tangle on the ground, Tessa stirred for a half a moment before snuggling deeper into his protective hold and returning to peaceful sleep and the dreams of which she wouldn’t remember.
The next morning Tessa had risen much earlier than Henry and in a fit of inspiration had made breakfast for them before he had woken up. She brought a piece of very well done bacon over to him and waved it under his nose in an effort to rouse him without having to nudge him and grinned at him when his eyes finally snapped open. “Looks like you needed the sleep!”
Henry stretched and grinned at her, taking the bacon, then he grabbed her and pulled her into bed, flipping her onto her back and kissing her. "Yeah, well it's your fault. Thanks for that," he said, smiling.
“I don’t recall making you do anything last night; you were far too willing a participant.” She hooked one leg over his to keep him where he was at as he took a bite of the bacon and offered it to her, his mistake on that part as she bit it off at the nub he was holding.
"Well, you know what bacon does to me," Henry joked, giving her the last of it before kissing her again.
“I do?” She asked coquettishly, grin never leaving her face, “Well, maybe, a little bit. Especially after that time I tried enticing you with that sausage, and the look on your face with I bit off the end of it.” She couldn’t help it as she pulled him down again for another kiss, remembering the incident and the horror on his face at her gusto in the moment.
Henry kissed her but shuddered a bit at the memory of the maniacal look of glee on her face as she first teased him with the sight of it going to her lips, then viciously taking a bite off the end. It didn't help she'd had the same look on her face during foreplay. He couldn't bring himself to turn her down, but he'd never been so nervous during oral sex in his life.
He kissed her neck and up to her ear, nibbling on it. "We could call out...just say we gave each other something and we got no sleep last night, and need a day off. It wouldn't be too far from the truth, right?" He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her neck. It was an offer he made at least once per week, and they never went through with it, but it was fun to dream.
“I’m due in Operations in an hour and I’m reasonably sure that Lady Rala wouldn’t want me to skip out on the first lesson she’s going to be teaching me in regards to the Operations systems.” With every time he offered, she had to make up a different reason as to why she couldn’t justify it, especially when he did it more than once. Not that she wouldn’t prefer this attention instead, but how would he know she was her if she didn’t keep focused. “But, if we skip breakfast…”
"You've already gone to the trouble," Henry said, accepting their fate. "We'll just have to save time showering." He grinned and kissed her again.
“Mmmm…” Tessa moaned in pleasure, pulling him even closer to her, “I suppose… But I do so dislike showering alone.”
"Great minds think alike," Henry said, grinning and surrendering to her kiss.
