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Was I ever grateful for that punch in the face. I sure didn't think so at the time, let me be clear, but man it was terrific. I had a real foul mood that day, the kind you'd egg on in your head - where you looked at people and sent hateful thoughts at them, daring them to hit you so you could get even angrier. I guess I was making those eyes to the dockhand, he knew what was up. He was no gem either, I've never met a zheroid who was, but this one understood me.
Captain used to say zheroid antennae let them read minds, and then Freda would back him up, she'd make up something about stealing our thoughts with their huge purple eyes. Something dumb anyway. I was glad they weren't here for this delivery, couple of racist idiots. Maybe you call it speceist on another planet? Anyway if they were here they'd have been the ones to get punched and that would've been way worse. We'd seen zheroids on a couple planets before, and I didn't care for this one's mood, sure, but I'd never make up random shit about 'em. There's no such thing as mind reading, I don't care where you're from.
Yeah that delivery was something else. Never seen a dock so dusty and deserted, not one other ship in the whole place. Well, none that'd fly, there's always a half dozen dismantled cargos and dropships at a port in this neck of the galaxy. They don't make ships around here, they scavenge them. Which is fine, our ship's a beast of a stitch job, ugly as the cratered moon but flies like a comet. My ship, I guess I should say. For the time being.
That was what put me in the mood. I could handle the ship myself, I may only be seventeen but I've been working delivery jobs my whole life. I know what you're thinking, a whole ship ran by some kid? Well get bent, I know what I'm doing. Most of it is automated by Viridian Enterprise Cargo's Technical Operations Robot. Surprised I remembered all that actually, we always just call him VECTOR.
Still, finishing the whole gig solo was far from easy. The crew had a system. Freda always handled the red tape, I'd call shots in the cargo bay, Ralph and Jonny did engine check and refuel, and cap greased the palms. There's four palms to grease on a zheroid, maybe that's why he didn't like them. By the time I handled all that with 'loose fists' back there barking at me like there was a line forming I didn't even want to pay up. I did, okay? I'm no thief, but it hurt. Not like the hit to my eye, of course, more like a rope around my balls.
So when I told the green guy to get out of my sight before he got burnt up on liftoff he nailed me. I probably deserved it. Wasn't the first time, won't be the last. He had a weird look on his face afterwards though... hard to tell sometimes, but he was angry before and then... not? I dunno, I never spent much time with a zheroid, honestly, so I had to pick up on emotions in the moment. I mean the punch was clear, but an aggressive face is pretty readable no matter what species you are. The other expression coulda been anything, but made me think it was somewhat sad.
I barely had both feet in the bay when I barked out at VECTOR to close up and start the engines. It went through its usual routine, I just glared out at that dockhand while the door slowly shut; twenty system checks cleared but it stalled on personnel. Yeah, I know the crew isn't the right size VECTOR! That's just what happens when they all eat the local wildlife and get sick, I gotta pilot it myself. Lucky I don't like fish, not even Earth ones. Also lucky I'm not a bad pilot. I told VECTOR this the other night, manifesto change and all that, so I said to shut up and override. Nice being a captain sometimes. Acting captain, as VECTOR calls me. Still a captain.
From the cockpit I made sure breaking the atmosphere was smooth then headed straight to habitat for a shower after that miserable dustbowl of a station. Planet didn't promise a lush paradise, but I definitely landed on the driest spot possible. I tried not to scratch out too much sand from my hair on the way down, but I was already leaving a cloud behind me as I went.
I sealed myself up into the wet room and stripped off, shirt fabric scraping over my slightly raw face made me decide to inspect a bit. No broken skin or nothin', but some blood under the surface, maybe a little puffy near the cheekbone. I leaned in close and stretched my jaw, it was sore, but there was nothing too bad about it. I was more pissed at the sand and dust covering my chest, what good was that damn suit anyway? Don't know what else I was expecting when I checked in the pants, it was sweat-caked dirt all the way down. I traced a line of muck through the crease of my abs to find my belly button filled. I wiped it disgustedly on my clothes and put everything I had on into the washer, then started the shower.
Bathing in this thing was always funny. We put it in the spin section so the water could still fall, but it always pooled on one side instead of underneath. Dripped sideways off you too sometimes, it was a trip. I gave myself two head to toe scrubs to be sure, and attended to some stubble here and there and underneath. Not all around, but the boys were a neat pair. Checked all the crevices more than usual. You can laugh at a sandy crack all you like, that's just plain uncomfortable. The second session below the belt got things all stirred up, if you get my meaning. Cap woulda been bangin' on the wall ten minutes ago for anyone spending this long, but I'm captain today and I'll bang whatever I want in here.
A soapy finger or three might have found their way in deeper than the sand did, but there's no harm in being thorough. Real thorough. The kind of thorough you lose yourself in during a sudsy massage up and down you midsection. Didn't have to be quiet about it either, I moaned like I had been really hit. This was pent up, I might have taken shore leave on another delivery, but a certain face-busting dockhand put me off that mood. Now I was in the mood for a good nut-busting.
I'd gotten into a rhythm with my left hand, teasing the length of my shaft and then breaking off to rub past my hard torso up my chin. Every few right handed strokes over my prostate I'd switch directions. Bumpy and smooth, hard and soft, inside and out, in all the right places. Oh that climax was building. Between the hot stuttering breaths and the clenching in my taint I barely managed to notice the alert sounds outside.
'Damn it', I thought, 'what did we hit?' The water stopped and dribbled sideways off of my dick, along with a healthy amount of my own slime. I toweled off what I could as the wet room vacuumed it all out. It did a decent job of drying but I still took the towel as I ran a quarter circle around the spin section to the console. Running naked and half wet with a hardon was one of the more awkward things I'd done in here. Didn't rank top, mind you.
It wasn't a collision warning though, VECTOR's readout said 'Intruder: Cargo Bay.' Well shit. That's what it meant when it stalled on personnel check, we didn't have too few people we had too many! Hopefully it was just a lost little beast like the last time, but you couldn't really be too careful. Didn't want some pirate stowaway messing up the delivery, so I reached for Freda's hidden blaster. She didn't think anyone knew where the fake panel was, but me and the mechanics know when something gets unscrewed around here. I had my own gun hidden too, but I kept it stashed in cargo, it'd be too late to grab it by then. I like to think it's a secret but cap probably knows.
I climbed out of the spin section without dressing, I had to deal with this quick. Hit my knocker on a couple of ladder rungs along the way, still hard for some reason, blue balls were kicking in I guess. At the cargo door I used the panel to check cams. There wasn't anyone obviously in the room when I got to looking, nothing had moved, so I went inside. It was as quiet as I left it, but too dark to see in the corners. After a quick sweep I reached over to the cargo computer screen and had VECTOR run a bio scan. Two red dots showed up: mine and another one just behind me. Sliding lights up to max I whipped around, finger on the trigger.
"No please don't!" the little figure cried out. It was a kid, some human boy, what the hell was going on? Even with full lights it was still half dark in his hiding spot. He crouched between two shipping pods, but I could see him cowering with his arms crossed over his face. And shaking. Scared him half to death, the poor thing.
"Hey, whoa kid, I'm not gonna hurt ya," I told him, making my voice friendly as I could. My heart was racing too, I felt so bad, aiming a gun at some kid. "I won't shoot." I put the safety back on and aimed it way up high but he didn't turn around to see any of that. He had no reason to trust me, I figured. I turned back and told VECTOR to shut the alarm up. I hate that noise, probably wasn't making the kid any happier either. "No gun, okay? Listen." I tried to reassure the boy as I crouched down to put it on the floor with an obvious clack and slid it away. "Hear that? It's gone, look. I'm sorry I scared you. The blaster was for if you were a wild animal or a bad dude. I got nothing against you."
His head slowly peeked back over his shoulder, still hunched into a ball and shaking a bit. I caught sight of a pair of sharp eyes, they scanned all over for the gun. I pointed back along the ground so he could see it was far away. He eased his posture slightly as he wiped some wet from his face.
"See? It's gone," I reassured him. He glanced up for a second but dropped his gaze. Wouldn't look me in the eye. He was fixated on something though, I followed his eyeline downward to figure out what. "Aw geez," I blurted, no wonder he was intimidated, there wasn't a gun pointed at him but I still was. Couldn't tell you if my face or my dick was more red. He probably could have. I grabbed the towel which was doing no good around my neck and quickly stood to make myself decent. Still porting a hardon made it impossible to tie without a huge bulge, but hey, at least it wasn't threatening to poke him anymore.
I crouched down again and then he paid more attention to my face. "You don't have to hide in there. Come on out," I coaxed, sticking my hand out to him. He still didn't want to though, he shook his head. "Ey, I dropped it remember? We gotta get out of here, if we stay in cargo too long we're gonna freeze to death. Company don't pay to heat up the goods for the whole trip." He inched forward out of the darkness and reached for my hand but stopped after a second, this time turning his head to the ground, his face as flushed as mine had been. I looked down with him and saw he was crouching in a puddle still growing from drips out of his pant leg. "Aw, listen that's no problem bud. I pissed myself last time there was a gun in my face too. Just come on out." Okay it wasn't the very last time, but it wasn't so long ago either.
The boy screwed his frightened face into almost a weak smile and let me help him up. Weighed nothing, he didn't even come up to my collar. His getup was some kind of one piece jumpsuit, it was dark and form fitting and must have been soaked all down his legs. The material glistened from different angles, not from wet though, kinda like a night sky, and it picked up almost no shadows. There were marks on it, barely lighter lines running down his sides and branching off at angles. Looked like a diving suit, high neck but short sleeved. At least if it was a wet suit it woulda been still comfy in his current state, I figured.
He was shaped like he belonged in it, too. Vee shaped swimmer proportions, even for a little guy. Strange to pick someone dressed like this up off that desert planet. I could only start to smell the wetness just then, it was far from as bad as I'd smelt before. The cargo bay wasn't exactly a fresh flower garden to begin with. "Sorry," he squeaked. I guess he caught me looking at the pool.
"I said don't worry about it. But you can't stay like that, come on." I led him back to the wet room, always kind of a struggle while the ship is accelerating. I stayed ahead obviously because I knew the way, but I also didn't want to be below him on a ladder while he was still dripping. He was glancing around the whole time, getting a good look at the funky old ship, all wide eyed and slack jawed. Probably his first time on one. I'd try to point out this and that, being kindly and welcoming, but he didn't talk more than to say 'oh' once or twice. At the room I let him know about the washer for his clothes and the shower, the controls for when he was done and which cubby had the towels.
"I'm gonna go clean up a bit, and in the mean time you're gonna think up a good explanation for why you're on my ship. Got it?" He nodded all distracted-like while he took in the strange room, maybe a bit shocked. I thought I was being friendly enough, hopefully he'd come around.
With his back to me I could see him starting to pull his arms out of his jumpsuit and peeling it down as the door closed up. I twisted my head to keep my eyes on him as the gap got smaller, blame it on my unfinished session earlier, the sight of some skin got me interested. There was no shirt under the suit, just his pale skin. It looked real soft and smooth, a couple of freckles here and there but mostly a creamy white canvas.
He had a small waist but taut young muscles wrapping his torso, lean like I was some years back. I guess I still get called lean, but I've filled out where it counts from all the lifting during cargo hauls. The room sealed up just as he got his suit rolled down to show off the top of some white lining at his waist. Probably a bit yellow now. I kept calling him little guy, but he might have been a teen. Hard to peg these things. I was adjusting myself without noticing, but snapped out of it once he was out of sight.
VECTOR made quick work of decontamination in cargo when I went back to check. Pretty routine really, he could clean up a lot worse than that in no time. It was getting real cold, good thing I didn't find him as a frozen corpse. You could drop off almost anything at Depot without too many questions, but they sure asked a lot when a dead body came in. Never heard of anyone bringing back a dead kid before, I was real glad I didn't have to answer to that. I did a quick inspection then locked down cargo for the rest of the trip.
The engines were almost done accelerating, so we were about to lose gravity in all but the spin section. Then I remembered the kid and headed back down. Knocking on the wet room door I raised my voice a bit so he could hear me inside, "hey, it's no big deal or nothing but the room is about to turn around." Trying to think up a quick explanation was tricky. "It's a space thing, grab hold of the rail," was all I managed. VECTOR beeped at us as the main thrust engines dropped out and I spun out to my side, very used to the process of reorientation after all these years. I heard a mild thud and an 'oof' inside, nothing violent, but I thought I'd ask, "you okay?"
"I'm sideways now," he shouted through the door, I didn't know what to make of it. Sounded fine, I figured. I told him to take his time and stepped over to the lounge area to sit, grabbing a console to check on nav and comms, and a drink while I was at it. We were on course, no surprises. Cap sent me a note from the med frigate he and the crew got taken on. They were almost back at Depot, and they'd be fine as soon as they finished detox treatments. He had some colorful words about the stomach pumping. Headquarters also sent word about recompense, being difficult. They always were, but I knew I'd harass them some more and they'd bend. No way I'm coming off this mission with less than two man's pay, I thought.
The water stopped and the kid stepped out from the wet room, naked except for a towel hanging from a fist held close in front of his stomach. I gulped at his boldness. Decent little figure on him, so why not, right? Tight like I saw from behind, at the age where you'd drop that paunch and hit a growth spurt. He maybe hadn't done much of that growing part yet. Not quite fully exposed or anything but he still looked baby smooth all over. I wondered about that. Biting his lip anxiously he glanced around with a lost look on his face so I asked "what's up? Feeling better now?"
"I don't got any clothes," he pointed out.
"Heh, I can see that," I laughed. "Yeah the clothes take a bit longer, and they'll have to dry too. We can hang out in towels for a bit, you know how to tie it up like I did?" He shook his head no, but gave it a shot, stretching it out around himself. He bent almost enough to make me stop wondering about the full smoothness. Almost.
You can tell when someone's doing a simple thing wrong, but those are the hardest things to explain. He must have thought I made a knot in my towel because he was wrangling the thick cloth into ropes and twisting it up. That was never going to work, and he almost fell right out of it when he let go, barely catching it again before it passed his groin.
"Ey, I'll show you, watch here." Given his awed gaze from earlier I made sure to keep my own goods out of sight this time so he'd focus on the towel. I unwrapped carefully and held it up flat in front of me. "Keep it level, pinch it up near your waist, wrap all the way around and use the tightness to just give it one tuck at the end." He got it mostly right but wasn't pulling hard enough. "C'mere," I beckoned him over and knelt in front of him, "that's good you just gotta sqeeze a bit." My hand grabbed at the towel near the small of his back to keep him steady. He was soft and warm. I applied some extra pressure and tucked in the corner underneath his belly button. He was softer and warmer there. I went in deeper than my judgment figured I should but not as deep as my curiosity wanted. Surprisingly he smiled, which was softest and warmest of all.
"All done up," I said giving him a pat on his leg, glad to see that he was at ease. Maybe I could get some answers out of him. I pointed to the couch opposite me and we both sat down. Well, it was all the same couch, big U-shaped thing, but I wanted to look this kid right in the eye. "So how 'bout it little guy, you had some time to get your story straight, why don't we start with names." He didn't really respond to that so I kept talking, "I'll go first, I'm Domenic. You could call me Dom if you want, and this is The Warbler, my cargo ship."
"Cole," was all he said. Sentences were so far not this kid's strong suit.
"Cole is your name, and you're from Zhera?" I asked him slowly. He nodded, head still darting all over looking at the ship, and gave a mumbled kind of 'uh-huh' while he kicked his legs absently against the base of the seat. "Is your family there?" His face got a little darker, not exactly sad but it didn't surprise me when he just shrugged. "You don't know? Or are you lying to me? Are you some kind of secret spy?" I put on a mischievous smile to keep the mood light.
He responded with a very low laugh, shaking his shoulders once, "Nuh-uh, my name is really Cole but I don't know where my family is." Choked me up to hear, but he said it quite plainly. At least he was talking. I stared at him for a few seconds, chewing on my lower lip like I do when I'm thinking. I knew what it was like not to have family, 'cept at least I knew what happened to mine.
"Well somebody on Zhera is missing you, when we go back who am I going to take you to?"
His eyes shot open wide and he sat up straight. His hands gripped the cushions 'til he had white knuckles. "Don't take me back, please!" He was dead serious. I knew he'd get upset when I asked it, the kid was running away, bound to be afraid. His eyes were on the brink of tears all of a sudden, which I wasn't expecting.
"Okay calm down," I said, putting my hands up. "I know you're running from something, I don't like your planet much either but it's your home. Why don't you want to go home?"
He got a cross look on his face. "It's not a home, it's work. It's slave work and I'm never going back." I was shaken more than a little. Nobody said anything about human slaves on Zhera. Kids too, I thought, getting a sick feeling in my stomach.
"That's awful," was all I could say for some time. He sat back in the chair and avoided looking at me, he just crossed his arms, one hand over his shoulder and one across his midsection. Any other kid and I'd think he was sulking, but this guy looked like he was putting up whatever defenses his small body could against me. "Pretty brave of you to run from that buddy, I'm glad you made it." He didn't look at me but shifted slightly and loosened up a little. "Pretty sneaky too, you escape all by yourself?"
"Some zheroids helped. Irixi was really nice, but he told me I couldn't hide there forever. It took a long time for a ship to come that he felt good about, but yours was perfect he said." The name Irixi sounded familiar, I thought for a second before realizing it hit me.
"Wait, that was him at the dock." He peeked at me from the corner of his eye and nodded. "And you snuck on board when he punched me! I have you to thank for this," I did my best at some mock anger with a friendly grin as I pointed up to my cheek. His mouth twisting out of his frown and the sight of him fighting back a smile was a beautiful relief. I told you, that punch was great.
So far there wasn't any reason to mistrust him, but that didn't stop this whole thing from feeling like a kidnapping. I wanted more answers. I picked up the console and had VECTOR call back to the port. We were still in range for video comms, and sure enough I was answered by Irixi. He looked as mean as when I was loading up. "I think you left something on my ship," I said.
"Yeah, ten pods full of biomass, you idiot," he snapped back at me.
"Nah nah nah," I shook my finger at him while I scooted sideways around the couch. Leaned in close to the kid so his face was over my shoulder and gave an accusing stink-eye into the camera, "something else." His face changed right away. I recognized the look from after he hit me, wide eyed, antennae perked up.
"You found him," he said much more softly. "What are you going to do with him?"
"I found him? Of COURSE I found him, what kind of idiot plan..." Cole shifted in his seat next to me, my stupid anger was probably making the little guy upset. I breathed deep and took a second to calm. "I thought about firing him back at the planet in an escape shuttle, or turning this thing around and handing him back to you myself. Maybe get a little money back from you for wasting my time. But then he got to talking and now I think maybe I shouldn't. A kid might say anything to get his way though, even if it's some pretty fucked up stuff. Maybe you can help me sort out what I should believe."
He filled in some things about the slavery, sparing details with innuendo on account of Cole listening in. The kid lived it, but maybe hadn't seen the worst. Some were slave laborers, working conditions we didn't even put animals through on Earth anymore. He said Cole was a household slave, made to clean and carry and serve all day. My gut was telling me he was leaving out some other kinds of slaves.
"Let's say you two aren't lying, somebody might still come to get him back."
"I hid Cole at the docks for weeks and nobody came looking, I think it's safe to say they're not going to check for him in space." The green guy was pretty convincing. "You'll do what you want, but please trust me. Trust Cole."
I let the kid have the console, trying to gauge an honest reaction between them. Cole thanked him and promised that he was well. He asked about a few other names but Irixi first dodged the question and when it came up again he told Cole there was nothing he could do. Seemed pretty legitimate, enough to choke me up for a minute.
I took the screen back and laid it out for him. "Look, I don't got any place to take him, but maybe I can help him find a better life somewhere out there. Least he's not around with a violent guy like you anymore" I said, pointing at my face. He looked at me foul again but thanked me, then wished the boy well one last time and that was all we saw of him.
"Did he really hurt your eye?" Cole asked. The boy was kind, not like I'd have been if somebody put me to work for my whole childhood.
"Nahh. You gotta get to know me kid, I like messing with folks. Don't you like to joke around?"
"Teasing is mean," he replied, quite seriously.
"I do it in good fun! You were laughing before, be honest." He denied it but I remembered. I put my arm around his neck and muscled him in close, "yeah you did, I saw you. VECTOR watches everything on the ship, he'll play it back for me." He went a little red and the corners of his mouth pulled back. "You thought it was funny, didn't you?" I continued to prod, giving him a tickling poke in the ribs. He laughed immediately and squirmed in my grip, then relaxed.
"They used to tell us in the house that we couldn't lie or smile or be bad. That humans like me didn't deserve to feel anything but how to be a good servant."
"A good slave, you mean. That was where you worked, at some rich zheroid's house? That planet sucks and you should forget everything they ever taught you. Lucky for you I hardly got any money, so I only treat people bad for pretend. You can't get away with it for real if you're broke. And you, little mister, are now broker than I am, so no real meanness." I poked him again for emphasis, and he squealed. His stomach growled, almost like I knocked something loose in there, and I realized I hadn't eaten for half the day, even before the delivery. "You sound like I feel, what do you say to some food, huh?"
His eyes lit up at hearing that. "I'm starving. I hardly ate anything in weeks."
"Yeah I can tell, I couldn't feel any muscle between your skin and bones," I said as I pinched at him again. He threw my arm off his shoulder and flexed as hard as he could for me. "See? You do know when I'm joking around." I mimicked him and he laughed and took another pose. He had a sturdy little body, whatever he had to do at that house involved some lifting, his arms weren't frail twigs and his core looked pretty tight. When I bent my arm in to match his last pose he reached out and grabbed around it, so I stood up and he held on, dangling up above the cushions. I did my own share of lifting, life in the cargo bay made sure of that. "Alright strongman, come with me to the galley and we'll see what's good."
Galley was the first ship term he asked know, the first of many. I explained it to him as I led him to the other side of the spin section. I pointed out the cabins first, which were nicer than a lot of ships I'd seen, surprisingly nice for our usual crew. But that was only because cap was cheap though, strange as that sounds. The company paid for a ship to hold a crew of seven and room for that many again on top - we sometimes delivered more than cargo - but it always seemed spacious since cap just scraped by with his skeleton crew of five. Felt huge with just us two.
Cole had no input on what he wanted. It was kinda dumb to ask really, it's not like I could have delivered on many requests. Without cap and the rest of them around I didn't restock a lot of food for the return trip to Depot. I worried about it briefly while I stared into the pantry, but how much more could this little guy possibly eat? I hoped to figure it out quickly, a change in course for supplies was tricky, cost a good amount in fuel and time. I liked the kid but I was also expecting a nice payout.
A lot of the supplies were really basic, but I grabbed a packet of tomato sauce I made myself and vacuum sealed back home, something special and tasty. "You like spaghetti?" He just shrugged. Did he not know what spaghetti was? "You know, noodles," I clarified, shaking the container at him, still no reaction. "This is a pretty common meal here guy, what are you used to eating?"
"Rice and bread and beans," he began listing the most plain sounding food you ever heard. I wondered if they even spiced what he ate at all. They probably didn't. He didn't seem sad about it but it was sure making me depressed, what a shitty life for such a sweet kid to have suffered. I guess you can get used to anything.
"We eat all that too, but tonight you're going to have something new, you'll love it." His grin split ear to ear. I asked him to help by grabbing us some forks and plates behind him, but he just pawed at the countertops and opened the cabinets underneath, looking confused. I held back laughing at him this time, it wasn't at all obvious now that I think about it. "Yo, they're on the wall." Where a typical kitchen backsplash would be was a neatly tiled arrangement of metal plates and cutlery. He asked about them sticking to the side, "Remember back when I told you when the wet room was gonna shift earlier, well that happens to the whole spin section, galley and all. When it spins we get pushed down to the floor like now, but if the rockets are on it pushes us back against that other wall. Us and everything else in the kitchen, Actually we usually just close it up on liftoff, but we still keep them secured so there aren't sharp things flying all over the place. Pull hard."
Cole opened up and got more talkative as his excitement for dinner grew, telling me some things about his old life. His room, his jobs, people that were at least decent to him, some other kids and some adults. He made his escape sound pretty thrilling, he was smuggled out of the mansion by a bunch of zheroid workers bent double inside a big box, then got chased like a dog through the streets by his owner's security drones. I really felt for the guy, he'd seen a lot of shit in his short years.
He started asking more questions too, he wanted to know where everyone on the ship was, and why I kept giving orders to someone who never answered. I introduced him to VECTOR, I guess he never knew a computer with a name before. A timer beeped out when the pressure boiler was done, I took out the pasta, dressed it and gave it a toss, then dished it out. He took the seat at the booth across from me, and before there was time to say 'bon appetit' Cole had dug in.
He went crazy for the dish, noodles whipping around his face while he slurped at them. With his mouth full he exclaimed how good they were, sending even more sauce flying. I hadn't even had a first bite, I was just staring, amazed at this little slob. "I'm glad you like them. You know, the less you get on the floor the more you can get in your mouth." He laughed again but hardly slowed the assault on his dinner. I rolled my eyes and finally took a bite. I do pretty good work in the kitchen, I gotta say.
I hadn't given a lot of thought to the half-naked state we were in, and I maybe should have. Cole finished his plate and started licking it clean, which found a way to get sauce to all kinds of new places on his body. It was an awful thought but I wondered how somebody trained as a house slave was so comfortable making a mess like this. I didn't say anything like that though, if this was happy for him then I could take some extra cleanup for his sake. I mean, he was gonna help me clean up all this too, that's for sure.
"I'd offer you more but I think you might have another serving left on your face." He stuck his tongue out and swiped all around his mouth, which was never going to be able to get it all. "There's a cloth in front of you that we like to call 'a napkin', it'll help you get some." He gave an impish chuckle but didn't go for it, just locked gaze with mine in a challenging stare and continued to try and prod his tongue further out. I pointed my finger at a big chunk leftover on the tip of his nose, but he still didn't get the hint, tongue straining upwards in vain, so I leaned forward across the table and swiped it off.
Next thing I knew his whole mouth was around my finger, tongue lapping all over it while he sucked the sauce off. This kid was something else, I was not expecting that. My towel began to tighten up and my face heated. I twisted my finger around inside while his soft velvety muscle made spirals around it, then slowly pulled it out of his mouth with a slurp. The kid was still a mess, so I took a swipe with two fingers from a smear on his cheek. He devoured them both, this time putting a hand in a soft grip around my wrist. Cole was completely shameless about the sucking, I couldn't help but grin.
I realized I was full-on chubbed, and wondered what this kid was thinking. I tested further, this time using the bottom edge of my palm to take what sauce I could off his neck. He guided my hand up to his face and gave it a tongue bath, licking hungrily, his own face flush while he smiled. I tried to pull my hand back but he moved forward with it, attacking the lingering flavor. He got up out of his seat to follow my marinara flavored palm and I saw he was as excited about this as me, his boyhood tenting inside the towel.
Now that he was standing in front of me I pushed my luck and dipped my fingers into the thick streaks of tomato left on his chest, returned them to the back of my other hand and smeared it up my arm. The boy didn't so much as blink, he immediately bent down and made long licks up the trail.
Transferring some from his tummy to my shoulder and across my pecs he continued to follow, wetting my body with his mouth. My nipple didn't slow him down, so I put a few dabs there one after another. I took a long blink, my eyes rolled back while he lapped, and had to steady my breath a little. My mind resisting the idea of leading him off my sensitive nubs but I had to see where the boy would follow. He was getting cleaner so I used the remnants on my plate to trace up the tight groove in my chest and neck, and all along my jawline.
He didn't miss a beat. Cole stepped in so our toes touched and following my trail of leftover dinner. His face was now in contact with mine, I could feel his lips dancing on my chin and his quick hot breaths passing over my face. I shuddered as goosebumps raised on my skin and the towel slicked a little inside from my excitement. Cole moaned, either from enjoying the flavor or from the growing tightness in his own wrapping. His hands found their way to my shoulders to steady himself while he put more of his weight on me.
Watching as the last of the sauce made its way from the plate to my lips, Cole's toothy smile was as wide as possible. I grabbed the tyke by his tight little waist and let my eyelids get all dreamy, breathing real heavy. I parted my lips but he didn't make contact with his own, instead mashing his tongue flat over my mouth, swiping left and right furiously. At one point I think I felt his teeth scraping some leftovers up my chin. I opened my eyes and my brows bunched together confusedly. Don't get me wrong, this kid was making me as hot as I'd ever felt, but for all the contact it was clearly not a kiss. He didn't pick up on my sudden shift to unease though so I let him continue. The longer it went the more I figured he was either as starved as he said or actually obsessed with the flavor.
He arched his back and pushed away from my face, still all smiles. "That was the best! Nothing we ever had in the home was even close to as tasty." I didn't know if he meant the spaghetti or me. Okay I knew by that point, but it was harder for me to switch gears than this kid I guess. There was his hard little boy tent when I glanced down though, no denying that. "And now we're all cleaned up."
"Maybe I got a tongue bath but you're still a mess." I held him as he twisted around to see what was left on him. I looked him over for any remnants and put my own mouth to work when I saw some on his shoulder. He spun back giggling and writhing as I sucked on his skin. "We missed a spot. Oh there's another," I went on to taste my way down his chest to his ribs. I didn't actually find any on his nipples but I did make a stop, I got the impression he didn't mind. There wasn't a drop left on him when I finished lapping up the ridges of his small but incredible torso. I traced a final wet line from his ribs to his sternum and up his neck before I backed off.
Suddenly my conscience decided to wake itself up, a little later than it should have. "Uh... I didn't get too carried away for you there did I? I feel bad now, if that's the kind of... 'cleanup' you had to do before you ran away." There was a lot I wanted to know. I figured if that kind of contact was something he was able to slip into like that then maybe he'd be okay talking about it.
Cole seemed to get my meaning. He turned sideways in between my legs, half sitting on my lap and put on a bit of a pout, surprisingly. "I wasn't big enough to be a pleaser, I only got to hear about it."
"Oh..." I tried to figure exactly why he seemed disappointed but was coming up short on ideas, so I figured I'd just ask. "You think that would have been better?" I put my arm around his side comfortingly
"The pleasers never got starved or hit! And they told me they got to sleep in nice beds and go outside. If they did what we just did, well that was SO much more fun that I ever got to have. Ever!"
"Well don't get me wrong, that was fun," I tried to think of what to say without being too graphic, "but y'know... sexy stuff doesn't feel good like that when you're forced to do it. Your older friends might not have wanted to tell you that."
"One of them said he liked it when he got good at it, but he wasn't older, he was just bigger," he said, gesturing his hands in a wide circle around his waist, "and he wasn't my friend. He thought he was better than me because they all told him he was the right shape to sleep with." There was a little hint of knowing the way he tossed his head at the word sleep.
"The more I hear about your planet the more I hate it. You are a perfect shape, by the way." His lower lip bunched up like he hadn't ever heard anything nice before. He couldn't look me in the eye for a minute, the little guy was getting emotional. "Well we won't need to wash ourselves now, but you're going to help me wipe the table. We can have fun like that but we gotta share the work too."
Cole was a happy little assistant, and cleaning was clearly second nature to him. I felt bad maybe reminding him of this part of his old life, but he didn't seem to be thinking of it. I guess it's all in context.
While we put the galley back in order I noticed our towels were a little looser. I caught him glancing into the deepness of my more exposed vee, and I couldn't help but watch his lovely contours also. I leaned over the counter to reattach our plates when the little bugger snuck up behind me and gave a tug right where the towel was holding together. It fell to the floor and he burst into a fit of laughter. I'd covered up to avoid spooking him earlier, but now that he was having a good time I turned around for him. He gawked as I stood confidently swinging in front of him, just as fascinated as before.
"If you want to see something that someone keeps hidden it's polite to ask." He'd usually laugh at my poor acting, although I did kinda mean it, but this time he didn't react. He couldn't tear his eyes away, it was like he was frozen. "Hey, what's so interesting about this thing anyway?" I asked him as I flopped it around some.
"It's so... I mean it's..." he stumbled over the words. Getting exposed always makes me real frisky, so it was active, you could say. Not quite pointing out at him like last time but not relaxed either. Man it had a lot of ups and downs since liftoff. "... huge." I could only laugh after hearing that. It's a fine size, but nobody's ever been at a loss for words at it before. I don't know if it would have dropped my jaw, involuntarily anyway, I've dropped jaw for plenty of dicks like it before. Maybe when I was his age I guess.
"I'm taller than you too you know, I don't hear you all impressed about my height!" I put on my usual playful tone as I rewrapped myself to get his attention back.
"No, but you're not TEN times taller than me..." he said, quite seriously.
"What!? It's not ten ti... Okay buddy let's just see about this." Turnabout's fair play, so I took a grip of his towel and gave it a yank too. I didn't get much of a chance to size him up, he squealed and was too quick at covering himself bashfully. I did get a good look at his buns though as he ran howling with laughter out of the room. Quite a sexy little number, this one.
Tucking myself back into my covering I saw him peeking around the corner. "Okay sorry," he said, "I won't do that again."
I worried he thought that I was mad at him, which couldn't have been further from the truth. "Won't do what, this?" I dropped the towel one more time which made him double over with laughter. He squeezed at his hidden little crotch, probably unconsciously, but they boy clearly was excited by what he saw. I definitely wasn't ten times bigger, if only judging by the length of his cupped hand. "Doesn't bother me one bit, It's cool."
"Cool..." he tried the word on for size, not quite understanding the use. It was lucky he spoke my language at all now that I think about it, he'd pick up on some extra slang easily. "Cool!"
"Heh, cool. Well the ship needs some attention for now. VECTOR, add a new level one crew member, Cole." He blushed and went wide eyed at his 'promotion.' It wasn't really, passengers are level one for comms and doors, but I let him think what he wanted. "You can use the console over there or in your room."
"I get a room?!"
"Don't get too excited bud, it's a bed and a door and not much else. The one on the right is mine, you can pick any other one you want. Oh and your suit's probably all dry too, have a check." I strolled out of the galley past him hiding in the doorway, his head tracked me the whole time. I felt like a piece of meat... and kinda dug it, I won't lie.