Page 44 of Mated on Live

The door opened and she glared at him. “Why didn’t you tell me I look like this!?” Her face was wet from where she had already cleaned it.

He just grinned. “I already told you that you looked beautiful, lov’alel. You want me to repeat it?”

She tried and failed not to smile before tossing back her hair. “Yes, I do. I require adulation at least once a day, twice on Sundays, and constantly on special occasions.”

“Noted, my beauty,” he nodded formally. “Then, let me tell you that you’re absolutely breathtaking this morning.”

She leveled a finger at him. “Doesn’t count when I look like a swamp witch and you’re humoring me. When do you want to leave?”

“Half a mark.”

“Fine, I’ll be ready.” She turned, flouncing back into the privy.

He smiled, getting back to work. A full mark later, they were finally leaving the hotel, getting on a landing shuttle, and returning to his ship.

Chapter 17

Sophie

“So, from what I understand, starships don’t run on fuel the way you or I think of it,” Sophie said, speaking into her camera as she fiddled with the controls on the ship. “There’s actually two different methods depending on how you’re traveling. One is crystal based. Which, all my crystal girlies can use to rub into everyone’s faces: they were right. Crystal energy is real. But it’s like a specific crystal? Or like a specific crystal cut specifically? Or something. Honestly, Serval isn’t really knowledgeable about starship engineering, but not everyone can be perfect. The point is, that’s how they travel faster than light through subspace. And once you have your subspace crystals set, you’re pretty good. They don’t break down or don’t do it that often or something? It’s complicated.

“The other method of travel, slower than light travel, doesn’t use the crystals. Instead, that method is done through a fusion reactor, I think he said. And that doesn’t require traditional fuel either. It works by using this super special metal thingy or whatever in like a nuclear reactor style thingy – like I said, he’s not good at explaining it. The point is: our stop isn’t to ‘refuel’ the starship. I misspoke yesterday when I said that. What we’re refueling is the food synthesizer, our water tanks, and we need to clean out our septic tank. So, the fancy spaceship doesn’t really need anything. It’s the squishy people inside that need refreshing. That’s why we’re at this charging station.

“However!” She grinned evilly at her new combot. “Serval showed me how to operate the ship yesterday. Including the gravity generator. Which is not connected to the charging station. Which means, now that he’s not here, I can turn it off at will!”

Cackling like a mad witch, she disabled the artificial gravity. The indicator changed, now showing that the gravity was off. She didn’t notice an immediate change, but when she bounced, trying to test how quickly it was wearing off, she immediately lifted off the ground.

She cried out in surprise, then laughed in delight as she grabbed hold of the control panel to keep herself from flying off. Her guts had dropped suddenly, like she was falling from the top of a high roller coaster, but it never stopped. Her hair didn’t flow like it was in water, it just kind of moved to a position and then stayed there until she touched it. So did her clothes.

“Yes!” She yelled eagerly, laughing as she looked at her combot. The little robot was already capable of hovering, and so it wasn’t affected by the sudden loss of gravity. “And now! We begin my new challenge series! Zero-G! For today’s first challenge, I’m going to attempt to get dressed, do my hair, and do my makeup, in Zero-G. So, let’s get ready with me, space style!”

Then, just because she could, she proceeded to do flips in the air. Zero-G flips were fun, because she could just spin. And unless she grabbed hold of something, she didn’t stop. The air was still there, of course, but air resistance, at this speed, was negligible. There was nothing stopping her from doing cartwheels or backflips or just flipping upside down entirely.

So, she did.

Laughing wickedly, having the time of her life, she did tricks for the camera. Until she remembered that she did, in fact, intend to get dressed. She had brought her clothes and stuff into the bridge so she wouldn’t have to try leaving the room and risk not being able to get back. She’d be editing out anything too salacious, so she didn’t care about stripping down to her undies. She didn’t think she’d be able to get out of view of the camera anyway.

It was her first time in Zero-G. She didn’t want to risk breaking something – either herself or the ship – so, for now, she was just going to stay here and edit out anything too weird or personal.

The outfit she had chosen was another one from Kiseck. It featured the blackest tights she’d ever seen that hugged her form, keeping her butt nice and high without squishing her thighs and while still being snug, but not tight, around her waist. It went with a tunic style shirt made of flower silk designed to look like flower petals that had been sewn together in a color pattern resembling the pinks and yellows of a beautiful sunrise. It came with silver sandals that had crystals dangling from them that matched the bracelets that went around both wrists.

And since it was a get ready with me video, she decided to do the elaborate eye wings that she hadn’t done while on Holivair. She wasn’t going anywhere, but that wasn’t really the point of a get ready with me video. She didn’t have to actually leave, she just had to get dressed.

The hard part wasn’t really the makeup so much, it was the hair. While it would stay where she put it, she wasn’t used to it not actually falling down and she struggled to get her long locks into order. Her swooping bang, like a cartoon princess, was easy. But that was a style she could do with her eyes closed in an unfamiliar room, zero-g was no challenge there.

“And that’s the completed look!” Sophie declared after she finished, beaming into her combot. She was floating sideways now, slowly rotating around in a big circle, sitting cross legged, as she posed. “This alien casual wear is good for a fun night in, or a chill night out. I love how easily the makeup goes on out here. And I really love-”

The door to the bridge swooshed open and she turned her head. Serval was there, floating, one hand on the doorway, giving her an unreadable look. She smiled.

“Hola, mi amor,” she greeted, beaming.

He just stared at her. “What does that mean?”

“What? Hola? That means hello.”

“No. The other one.”

“Oh, amor?” She smiled, batting her lashes sweetly. “Oh, nothing. Just kind of a general term of endearment. Don’t think too hard about it.”

---