Battletech: Planet's Fall

Butcher sat on his bed, looking through a technical manual. Something about armory procedure and equipment. He mouths the words he's reading, and it's clear he is not a speed reader.

"This bathroom is almost as big as my old bedroom, it's amazing." Mei's voice echoed of the tiles in the adjoining room. "The shower looks big enough, have you tested the water pressure yet?"

She stepped into the bedroom having finished brushing her teeth and cleaning off her makeup. Their time together had been such a blur that she wasn't sure if he had seen her without makeup before and was a touch nervous.

"Being able to shower freely together after a long day sounds heavenly, the bed sheets will probably last longer as well."

"Yeah, I checked it out already. The pressure's fine," he says, looking up at Mei-Ling. Setting the manual aside, he stood and made his way past her to brush his own teeth. As he passed by, he takes her hand in his and squeezes it for a moment then releases it.

"How are you feeling with the storm?"

"Between the storm and my cramps I wanted to give and just lay down earlier but it's not as bad now. I'm still ready to take this thing off but it isn't painful anymore, just an annoying tingle; it's like a static shock. Remind me not to lose any more limbs."

She plopped down on the bed and bounced a few times to test it.

"Is this another double mattress setup like your last room?"

"Not yet. No time to get a second one yet," he replies.

"And I'll do my best to remind you not to lose any more limbs. I don't want them goin anywhere."

He becomes quiet, the sound of teeth being brushed is faintly audible.

She picked up the book to see what he was reading, careful not to lose his place.

"So I still don't know what to do about my old room. It's a perfect place to keep my drums but it feels awfully selfish when people like Yoko and Ducky are stuck in a shared space. I suppose I could do both, keep stuff there and let them use the room but that also feels selfish, if I'm gonna let someone stay there I should give them the whole room, or at least not take up all the free space in it. Hrafn is small but that doesn't mean she deserves less after all."

"I mean, it's up to you. As far as I'm concerned you should have a space you can go to be alone when you want. Just cause you'll be here more don't mean you shouldn't have your own space."

"Do you want your own space? You've given up a lot to accommodate me but it isn't anything we can't roll back if you are having second thoughts."

She put the book back down and looked at the door way, her head and heart conflicting on what they thought the answer would be.

The sound of rinsing comes and goes then a few seconds later he walks out. "That's not what I mean. I mean like a place for drumming or anything else like that."

"Well I would still probably cart everything down to storage when I wanted to play just out of respect for my neighbors. I really should just talk to someone about renting extra storage. If I could do that it would solve all my problems. As supplies dwindle there has to be some space to spare."

John moves to the bed and sits next to her. "Whatever you think is best for handling it. But I ain't trying to roll anything back," he says leaning over and kissing her cheek.

"You are here cause I want you here and you wanna be here. That ain't changed and ain't likely to either as far as I'm concerned."

"I don't think so either, I wanna be right here." She returned his kiss with one on the lips and one of his hands in hers. "So the other night I hung out with Yoko while I was packing my room up. She says she's a better shot than you are." She said teasingly.

"Yep. I helped her do some maintenance on her pistol," he says with a nod. He lays back and invites her to lay back with him.

"We had our second martial arts lesson yesterday. She's a quick learner. I figured you two must chat since she was trying to tease me."

"Oh yeah, she's trying to get a RISE out of you. I told her it won't work and I think that has only made her want to try harder." She said laying back on him. "I give it a week before she's knocking on that door."

"I doubt it. I suspect she don't want anything like that with me. Unless you mean just visiting you in which case, just let me know and I can spend some time in the armory," he replies, running his fingers through her hair with one hand and rubbing her back with the other.

"I wouldn't be so certain, she's a capricious one and I speak very highly of you. She doesn't make plans or think too far ahead so she could do anything, a real wildcard. She also gave me an amazing massage that really helped with me cramps."

"Well, you know how I am about that. I ain't starting anything," he says.

"But... you should tell me how that massage works. Teach me and you got a devoted personal massager. I don't want you sufferin or feelin bad."

She rolled off of him and on her back before pulling her shirt up. She took his hand and began to guide it in gentle circles around her belly button.

"She started by doing this while kissing my neck."

"Okay. I can do that," Butcher replies, his fingers drawing the indicated circle and his lips pressing gently to her neck. He does this for a good minute before asking, "What else?"

"Then she told me that a little sex could help, nothing fierce or deep but enough to get the my muscles moving and some endorphins to kick in. Well, she was talking about self pleasure truthfully. So I asked her to demonstrate."