Orbital Academy 03

"We won't be helping?" Missy asked, concerned, "What's going on?"

"It's a Drake. Earth class," Captain Appet replied, shortly, "We plan on letting you Rooks handle emergencies that come up, but we can't have you on something this dangerous."

The rookies relaxed a little bit, but remained uneasy. The Captain seemed to pick up on their unease, "Relax, the squads we're sending out have dealt with Drakes before, myself included. I won't say this is routine, but we're not anticipating any losses. That said, this will most likely take us all day, so classes are cancelled. Get some sleep, take a day to relax. Everyone except Missy."

Missy's stomach dropped as her squadmates turned to look at her. The confidence she had been slowly building since the preceding day seemed to shatter as she quietly asked, "What did I do?"

"Nothing too egregious," Captain Appet answered, sternly but not unkindly, "the pendants have fingerprint sensors embedded in them, that tell us which rookie grabbed them. I'll expect you to have a pendant for me by the time I return, and I expect you to get it yourself. No matter how long it takes." With that Captain Appet left, leaving the room full of awkward silence.

"I, uh...I guess I owe you a favor now," Preston broke the silence sheepishly, rubbing his neck, "it's only fair, right?"

"No," Missy snapped, turning her back to him. Her fists were clenched and she was shaking with embarrassment, "I didn't mind so much when I thought I owed you, but that was the first time I ever-" she broke off as she realized her entire squad was her audience, but she continued angrily "-my favor was way over the top and you know it. So no, right now I don't want any of your favors. But when I do, you owe me way more than just a favor. You'll owe me double...no, triple the favors I did for you." She could feel her face blushing bright red as the quickly hidden smirk on Li's face told her that she wasn't being quite as subtle as she meant.

"That's bullshit, I was just trying to help you out," Preston retorted hotly, "you don't have to be a bitch about it." Missy saw out of the corner of her eye that Aimee was about to speak, but she stepped forward and jabbed her finger into Preston's chest.

"I know you were," she said, her voice low, "but our entire time here your problem has been not thinking about how your actions affect other people. So I'm going to help you learn that. Every time you're an asshole, you're going to owe me another favor. And I'm going to make sure you pay up. And calling me a bitch makes it five."

Without another word Missy spun on her heel and stomped toward the door.

"Missy where are you-" Julia started, and Missy snapped an answer before the other girl finished asking,

"If I'm going to get a pendant today I might as well get an early start."

On her way out the door, Missy heard the room burst into chatter, highlighted with Tess' voice.

"Fuck, Preston, how much of a dick do you have to be to get Missy to yell at you?"

It was a bruised, sore and tired Missy that returned to the barracks, just after lunchtime. Her legs screamed with each step she took, and she could feel her pulse pounding in her head, the baseline to the raging headache she was nursing. She dragged her feet and absentmindedly ran a hand along her bruised left arm, but clutched in her hand was a sweaty pendant, and she felt a kind of fierce pride. The barracks were empty except for Preston, lounging on his bunk. The room was dim when she entered, lit only by the lights over each individual bunk and the screen Preston seemed to be reading from, and he looked up when she entered.

"I told them we should keep the barracks dark when you got back, that you'd probably want to sleep," he said, setting the screen aside.

"I do," Missy groaned, wincing as she slumped into her bed, "every muscle I have hurts." He was watching her cautiously, like she was a dog that might bite him, and she smiled tiredly, "and that was...quite nice of you. Thank you Preston."

"Yea, whatever," Preston said awkwardly, "oh, and um...I know you'll be hurting too much to want those..uh..'favors' you mentioned," he shifted uncomfortably, not meeting her gaze, "but when you do, I uh, got this." He pulled a small cylinder from beneath his pillow. Missy sat up on one elbow, examining the item. It was a few inches long, with two tiny golden nubs on one side and a white button at its base.

"What is it?" She asked, curious in spite of the soreness in the arm that she leaned on.

"I spent two weeks of luxury resource tokens on it," Preston replied, still not looking at her, "It's a VTM." Missy gave him a blank look, and he clarified, "a ventral tegmentum manipulator."

It wasn't that she wasn't impressed that he had gone to such lengths for her, but she was too tired to attempt to figure out what a ventral tegmentum was.

"What is it?" She repeated

"It's a...a relaxation and stress reduction tool"

"What is-"

"It's a sex toy."

Missy stared at Preston's face for what felt like minutes, and then burst into a fit of giggles.

"It's not funny!" Preston's face flushed, but his look of injured bewilderment only made Missy laugh harder. The whole thing was just so ridiculous; Preston, the very picture of alpha male swaggering, worried enough about fulfilling his 'favors' that he had spent their only tradeable commodity on a toy to make sure she was satisfied. It was so ridiculous, and in an odd way so strangely sweet that Missy felt bad for laughing at him, but the entire scene seemed too surreal for her exhausted mind to handle.

She lay there exhausted, trying to stop the giggling, and Preston stood awkwardly with a toy in his hand, trying to bluster but coming off confused and embarrassed. She curled up as the laughing hurt her aching body, but it felt good to laugh. Preston stepped forward angrily, and pressed the golden nodes of the cylinder against the strip of bare skin between her boot and the leg of her pants.

When her entire body clenched, every muscle suddenly tense, Missy thought he had tranquilized her. Her body started quivering, and then suddenly she felt like she was on fire with pleasure. She sucked in a sharp breath as her back arched, her fingers clawed at the sheets. It took her long, fiery seconds to even realize she was having an orgasm, but the word itself didn't seem to explain the chords of pleasure that were singing through her body. Preston pulled the cylinder away, and Missy collapsed onto the bed.

The few seconds of contact had been enough for her to break into a sweat, and she was panting. It took a moment for her to pull herself together, to think about anything but the shivers that were still twitching in her lower spine and legs. The soreness that had permeated her body a few moments ago now felt more like the pleasant ache of a morning stretch.

"What...was that?" She finally managed to gasp, and Preston gave a look not unlike a petulant smile.

"Not laughing now are you?" He said, and he pressed the gold studs into her ankle again.

Missy's legs spasmed, and she fell backwards into bed as the next orgasm hit her. It felt good, amazingly good, but knowing what to expect made it easier to think this time. There was a nervous flutter of fear that tainted each wave of pleasure, of worry. She knew Preston had been trying to be kind, and she knew she shouldn't have laughed at him, but was he getting some kind of vindictive kick out of this? Her stomach clenched and her breathing quickened, and she wanted to succumb to the pleasure that was pulling on every muscle inside her, but she was frightened of the way Preston was standing over her.

"Preston, stop, please stop," she gasped, as soon as she was able to speak through the disorienting feelings of heat and wetness between her legs. To her surprise, Preston stopped immediately, stepping back and waiting for her to catch her breath. Grateful for the reprieve, she let her head flop down on her pillow, not caring that her sweat-drenched hair would leave a damp spot. "You stopped..." she said, uncertainty making it sound like a question. The surprise must've shown on her face, because Preston tilted his head, smiling like she'd made a joke.

"Well yea you asked me to," he replied, "what did you think I wasn't going to stop?" The silence stretched between them, and as it continued the smile slowly slipped off of his face. "You thought I wasn't going to stop?" Missy wasn't entirely sure what to say. She had in fact thought that he wasn't going to stop, but she wasn't sure she wanted to admit the fact to him after seeing the horror on his face. Her silence was admission enough on its own, and Preston took a step back. "The fuck...is that really what you think of me? What you all think of me?"

"I don't know..." Missy half shrugged, "you always come off as such a...well a giant douchebag, really. I thought you knew that."

Preston was slowly shaking his head, "I knew people thought I was a jerk...I know I can come off that way sometimes...but I didn't know you think I'm the kind of person who would do that." He was sitting on his bed staring off into space, as if he was in shock. He looked so vulnerable, sitting there with that lost look on his face, that Missy's heart seemed to melt.

"Hey," she stood, then almost collapsed as she put her weight on legs that were still shaky and weak, "look, you may come off that way, but that doesn't mean you can't change."

"I wouldn't even know how. I wouldn't know what to do!" he suddenly looked up, "wait, you could help."

"Me? What could I do?"

"Well you managed to tell me what I was doing wrong. Twice. Plus you did it in a way that'll stick in my memory," he half smiled, and for an instant the old confident Preston was back, but he then slumped, "no one's ever called me out like that. I thought it was because I was cool...but maybe no one cared enough to correct me? But you're different."

"What's so special about me?" Missy leaned against the bed next to him, awkwardly putting a hand on his shoulder because she had no idea what else to do.

"I don't know," Preston shrugged, "You're fun to hang out with. And you call me on my shit. And you're good with your mouth. I want to hang out with you all the time."

"Plus the stuff with my mouth, you want that all the time too" Missy smiled. He half-grinned in response, and didn't deny it.

"Preston," she fixed him with a quizzical look, "did you just ask me to be your girlfriend?"

"What? No." Preston shook his head emphatically, "I just want to hang out and screw you and spend time with you..." he trailed off, "...so I guess, yea, kinda. I just don't like the word 'girlfriend', it sounds so committed..."

Missy started giggling again, and the blush creeping up Preston's cheeks made her giggle even harder. The giggling fit on her already shaky legs was too much, and she slipped to the ground, helplessly laughing and looking at him through tears in her eyes. Preston looked half embarrassed, half amused back down at her. "Stop laughing," he grumbled, abashed "or you'll get another hit of the VTM." Missy's giggling fit calmed down, but the smile on her face didn't leave.

"Three hits," she said.

"What?"

"You still owe me three," Missy stretched out an arm, presenting her bare wrist to him from the floor, "and you wouldn't want to break the deal you made with your girlfriend would yo-" her taunting was cut short as Preston pressed the VTM against her wrist, reaching out and gently holding her arm so that the contact wouldn't be broken. The third orgasm seemed to tear through her, and she gasped and moaned as her entire body tingled and then released. She couldn't process a thing beyond the prickling across her skin, beyond how wet she was, beyond how much she wanted these feelings to never, ever stop.

When Preston pulled the VTM away, she moaned in disappointment, her hips lifting from the ground in useless protest. "More," she breathed, arching her back on the ground, "I want more." Her body was drenched in sweat, and the work-out suit she was wearing seemed far too constrictive and hot. Missy slid the shirt over her head, gasping as the cool air flowed across her skin. The touch of the air alone was enough to send shivers down her spine; it felt as if she could feel each air current that ran across the skin of her stomach, against her pale breasts.

Preston seemed fixated by the sight of the girl at his feet, topless and squirming with a mixture of pleasure and frustration. "Preston, more," she demanded, snapping him out of it, and with a wicked grin Preston leaned down, and pressed the golden studs directly against her hard pink nipple.

Missy clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle a scream, as she ground her legs together and her mind caught on fire. Her entire body ached, her pussy ached, her skin ached, and she shook with the pure intensity of the feeling. She couldn't hold on to any thought but to pull herself closer to the man that was causing her such feelings.

She came down from the high of her fourth orgasm and slumped to the floor, her muscles releasing the tension of weeks as she lay there, spent. The room seemed to swim for a moment, but eventually Missy's surroundings slowly slid back into focus. Preston was leaning over her, beaming. A grin to match his own spread across her face, and she reached out to run a finger over his ankle, the only thing she could reach without lifting her arm.

"You about done there?" Preston asked teasingly. Missy glanced down at herself. Her pale skin was shimmering, and she had soaked through her underwear and left a damp patch on her work-out pants between her legs. Although she could barely lift her head, she gave a shy smile in response.

"One more?" She asked.

"It's potentially addictive, so it's limited," Preston replied, "only five charges a month. I figure I'll save the last one for some time I need to shut you up with an orgasm."

"Aw, so I don't get my last one until you need to shut me up? Well, okay," Missy said innocently, then took a deep breath and started shouting, "PRESTON'S GOT A GIRLFRIEND! PRESTON'S GOT A GIRLFRIEND!"

The last charge through the golden studs were applied on her stomach, halfway between her belly button and the waist of her pants. It seemed to tie her entire body together, every nerve alight. Missy felt each muscle she had; the orgasm wasn't just flowing through her between her legs where she wanted it, but in her legs, in her breasts, in her fingers, every centimeter of her given over to it. Each movement rubbed her soaked underwear against her already sensitive clit and lips, and she ground her legs together to send shockwaves through her hips as she came.

Her entire body was utterly spent when the orgasm finally stopped. She was vaguely aware that Preston was lifting her into her bed, and she smiled at the feeling of his arms around her; strong and snug. She barely felt him covering her with her blanket, but she did register the surprising amount of tenderness. "Preston's got a girlfriend," she mumbled in a singsong voice, with a smile, closing her eyes.

"Yea yea, shut up," Preston replied, and the lights in the room flickered out. As she drifted off into an exhausted sleep, she heard him add "I guess no one told me having a girlfriend would be so much fun."