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claudeng80 · 7 years

Text

Pressure

AU: Star Trek (Sequel to Historical Fiction)

Board Location: B4

Obi had not anticipated the romantic possibilities of the laboratories, but Shirayuki was quickly remedying the lack. His head thumped against the wall of the lab as Shirayuki pushed him, the feathery tendrils of a Rigellian climbing fern catching at his hair, the light glowing purple from the Zilm’kach blooming overhead. She had climbed onto a germination pod to reach him and he laughed, reaching out to steady her, but she reeled him in, twining her arms around his shoulders like the vines she cultivated, stealing his senses and throwing him off balance. He tilted back to lean against the wall again and it was her turn to laugh as he pulled her along.

It had been a week since he’d discovered Shirayuki using his likeness in a romance simulation and they’d kissed. His life had been remade. He went to work, but it passed in a haze. The only time that seemed real was the time he spent with her. His eyes met hers, a nearly level view for once, and he wondered how she’d hidden that look for so long, how he’d missed the way she saw him. He’d been too busy hiding his own feelings to look her in the eyes, most likely. But they saw each other now.

He trailed a hand across her lower back, feeling the curves of spine and hip, her little wiggle as his fingers came too close to her ticklish sides, the unconscious stretch as he pressed into the muscle along her spine. He hadn’t planned on giving her a massage, but she’d been on her feet most of the day already and if that was what she needed…

Her eyes said that was not what she needed, no matter how she curved and stretched under his hands and leaned forward into him. Her body lay against his from hip to breast now, and she slid her hands up into his hair, nails zinging electricity across his scalp. He couldn’t keep from gasping, and at the sound she leaned into him even further, belly pressing into his and cheekbone sliding along his jaw until her lips met the skin of his neck. For a breath she just held him, breathing him in, then she turned her head just the degree it took to latch her lips to the underside of his jaw.

His head fell back without conscious volition, and he’d never see that shade of purple again without feeling her lips and tongue working their way across his neck, pausing at his pulse, nibbling playfully on the tip of his chin. One hand left his head and drifted down his arm, and he was never happier to be out of uniform as when her fingers teased his bicep under the edge of his sleeve, smoothed across the inside of his elbow, then closed around his wrist.

He held his breath as she pulled back, wondering if he’d done something she didn’t like, and he couldn’t read her eyes. She looked like she was waiting, but he had no idea for what. She grunted as he loosened his hands from her back and pushed down on his wrists.

Someday he would learn that Shirayuki wasn’t so good with her words when it came to things she wanted. She either hid them (see fantasizing about him in the holodeck for who knows how long) or just showed him. She pulled his unresisting hands against her ass, eyes somehow shy even as she was fanning the roaring flames that made up his blood. He should question this, he should ask her what she wants, but he pulled her up closer, up on her toes on her box, then entirely off the ground. She grunted in pleased surprise and wrapped her legs around his hips, her hands pulling in his hair but he didn’t even care, she could be tearing it out in clumps and he still wouldn’t have been able to move, addicted to the air at her skin, warm and smelling of some unidentifiable flower.

Her shoulder was delicate and pale under the neck of her uniform, reddening where he nipped too hard, but her gasp was more pleased than pained. She peppered kisses along his hairline, any skin she could reach, and he understood, he wanted every spot of her kissed, loved-

At the sudden needle-sharp stab in his ears, Obi pulled back with a gasp. Alarms blared, adding to the pain, and Shirayuki looked frightened now, sliding back to the ground, hands releasing him to clutch at her head. He’d been through worse decompressions, but it was never something to take lightly. “Where’s the shelter?” His voice sounded weak and distant, even to himself, and there was no knowing whether ear pain or thin air was to blame. He worked his jaw to try to equalize the pressure

“Lata’s lab next door.” Shirayuki grimaced, and Obi mirrored the expression. Nobody wanted to be locked in a small compartment with Lata for any period of time, but it’s not like there were a lot of choices. Obi started for the door, but Shirayuki wasn’t moving. He paused to look back, and she asked, “Do you trust me?”

Of course he trusted her, that required no answer. He just held out his hand, and before he knew it she was towing him into the back of the lab. The sun-lamps were bluish and chill around what looked to be a monster caricature of a flower laid flaccidly across the lab floor. It trembled as Shirayuki climbed into its center, its wedge-like petals curling up as she braced on them, and she tugged at him to follow. They knelt, the spongy surface beneath them ridged and grooved in a pattern that bit into Obi’s knees. It reminded him of the sole of an environment suit’s boot. Shirayuki hung off the side, scratching at a sickly pink petal until it started to move on its own, curling in slowly like hands. Once she had three or four petals moving, the rest started to follow suit, and Obi started to feel like the pearl in a very large oyster as one petal after another met in an arch above their heads.

“Are you sure this is safe, miss?”

“Of course I am.” Her eyes weren’t quite as confident as her voice, Obi thought as the petals started to push down on his head and he had to hunch, then sit. The last thing he saw before the light was blotted out was Shirayuki’s eyes, and if he were going to suffocate in a giant zombie flower, at least he’d be with her. When everything came to a rest, he couldn’t quite sit upright, but Shirayuki probably could.

“And this is going to be airtight?”

“It’s a giant cabbage from Pellinar Alpha. We’ve been studying its natural pressure seal, and there is nothing else like it. It’ll hold against even a full decompression.”

“Oh, the pressure storms.” It was amazing that anything lived on Pellinar Alpha, let alone something this large. He’d seen the planet once, from the air, marveling at the intricate shapes the seasonal decompression winds weathered the landscape into, but his father hadn’t allowed him off the ship for the entire week they were there. That actually brought up an important point. “And how long it is going to keep us sealed in here? I’d rather not have to call for transport out.” His communicator was in his pocket, even off duty, just in case, but he would never ever live down a request like that.

There was the little whine in her throat that meant Shirayuki was about to speculate. Great. “Once the pressure equalizes, it should just be an hour or so.”

He was still worried. “But the storms last for weeks.”

A roving hand caught at Obi’s knee, and Shirayuki pulled herself closer. “Actually, we’re pretty sure that pressure isn’t the primary stimulus that keeps them closed throughout the storms, there are chemical messages passed throughout the root network reminiscent of …” She caught herself and reined in her enthusiasm. Normally Obi would encourage her to go on, but normally they weren’t in imminent danger of suffocating in a plant. “Anyway, I’ve been stuck in here before. It didn’t last but about an hour.”

As though someone knew he’d been thinking of it, his communicator blipped. “Lieutenant Obi, check in. You don’t appear to be in a pressure shelter. Are you in distress?”

“I’m safe, sheltered in place in lab eleven with Scientist Shirayuki.” Please don’t ask any more questions, he hoped. All of his co-workers had figured out how he felt about Shirayuki months ago, but nobody knew about the developments of the last week.

“Explain the nature of your shelter.”

Oh, he was in for it now. “It’s a plant. Scientist Shirayuki assures me we have sufficient atmosphere and it should just stay sealed for an hour or two. Don’t worry about me.”

He could hear giggling over the communicator. “Oh, I’m not worried about you anymore, I’m worried about Scientist Shirayuki stuck in there with you. Behave yourself, I don’t want to have to tell your children they were conceived in a plant.” The comm clicked closed. He was never going to speak to Ensign Kai again. He wasn’t sure Shirayuki was going to speak to him either.

But those were her fingers twining into his hair, and her lips on his cheek. “Are they gone for good?”

“Should be.” He had to trust her that there was enough air in there, because it sure didn’t feel like he was getting enough. “What did you do last time, stuck in a plant for an hour?”

She hummed against his neck. “I used my imagination.”

“Thought about root networks?” She’d darted out of meals and social engagements often enough with sudden ideas. The thought of her constrained with nothing to do but think for an hour … it was a bit terrifying.

“Thought about you in here with me.” Her teeth scraped the corner of his jaw, then she pushed against his chest until he was lying flat on the springy floor of the flower and settled herself on top of him. She was far more aggressive in total darkness than she was in the light. Then she stopped, sighing heavily. “But we should probably rest and conserve oxygen while we’re in here.” Her voice trailed off.

Obi was just about to deflect with an innuendo about how lying on top of him like that was definitely not minimizing his oxygen consumption, but she finished her sentence in a whisper. “But after, would you like to come back to my quarters?”

He was going to have to check himself into Sickbay if she kept stopping his heart like this. “Just to be clear, you want - “

“Yes.” She interrupted. He wished he could see the blush she was surely sporting now. But then she’d see his in return. It sounded like there’d be another opportunity later.

If she could put herself out there like that, maybe he could too. She deserved to know. “I love you,” he whispered.

#obiyukibingo #obiyuki #fanfic #shirayuki in space #in which a plant saves the day #thank you classic sci-fi for all the ideas i borrowed #the plant is roughly based on one from heinlein's red planet #and the planet inspired by larry niven's we made it #i do but sample from the feast-table of our forefathers

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