MAR

:::Chapter Three:::

I couldn't help but admire my bond mates large wet back. As much as I worked out, it was impossible for me to get even close in size as he was. I continued to scrub it down, indulging in the feel of him.

Humoring my strange enjoyment of water, OAC always insists a water based sanitation room to be installed in our quarters, instead of the traditional air sanitation room. Getting clean by a blast full of air was no fun. Water...I liked the way it slid down my body, trailing through waist length hair and reflecting beautifully in the dim light. I liked the feel of warm skin, slick with hot soapy water.

I trailed my hand down OACs strong back, forgetting that I was supposed to be scrubbing. I was mesmerized by the trails of bubbles sliding over hard ridges and down his spine. All the way down till it hit...

"You really need to get over your touchy feely stage, MC," OAC stopped washing his hair to glance over his shoulder, "it's almost as inconvenient as your spacing out. Have you asked the scientists about any way to stop it?"

I stopped washing his back, knowing that he was getting annoyed with it. "Yea, I've asked them about it." I squeezed some soap into my hands and started washing my hair. "They said that I should just wait til I grow out of it."

"We have been waiting! It's been over four hundred years since you should have stopped it. Mine didn't last for longer than fifty years, like most people. Isn't there anything you can do? This is going to be a long assignment, and it's just going to get in the way if we have to pause every day so that you can cuddle."

Closing my eyes I let the water rush over my head, rinsing out the soap in my long pale hair.

"Dr. RD also suggested that I bring the topic up during my next quarterly check up. Which, by the way, I'm going to have to do at Consta."

"What? Why's that?"

"This mission's going to take too long," I opened my eyes and looked in his frustrated eyes, "I'm sorry, I know it'll delay our departure time, but it's something that needs to be done. I'll make sure it's quick this time."

"Another inconvenience!" OAC roughly pushed me aside and stalked out of the shower room, trailing water into the other room.

Knowing he needed a few minutes to cool off, I finished cleaning up before slowly following him.

"You should have told me sooner, MC," OAC was roughly drying his hair with a towel when I entered the room. "Now I have to reschedule everything. Do you realize how much trouble that's going to be causing everybody?"

"You know, I do help with mission planing. Of course I realize how much of a delay it'd cause. I'm sorry, but it's not something that I can change. It's your fault that I have to go to these appointments, anyways," I grabbed the towel from OACs hands and used it on my own hair. His hair fell in ringlets around his face, causing his usually harsh face to look soft. "If you hadn't ran to the adults when I told you about that Amnerian I wouldn't have to go every quarter!"

OAC walked to the dresser and picked up a hair brush, pulling it through his hair with more force than needed. "Don't blame your inconveniences on me. I was in the right."

"Yeah, well, I told you about it in secret. You weren't supposed to tell anybody about it!"

"How could I not? Do you know how crazy you sounded?"

"I am not crazy!"

"Yeah? Then why do the authorities make you go see a doctor every quarter?" OAC tossed me the brush, but I ignored it, letting it hit my bare chest and fall to the floor with a thump.

It hurt. Not the brush hitting me, but the sudden knowledge that OAC, my bond mate, saw such an imperfection in me. He ignored my hurt gaze and my sudden silence, stridding to his side of the bed.

He laid down, facing away from me. I turned off the lights before slowly sliding into bed next to him, trying not to move around to much. The bed was another example of how much of an inconvience I was. I couldn't sleep with out my bond mate laying next to me. "I'll make sure they give me a way to fix this when I get there," I told him quietly in the dark.

"Good."