I grabbed a pair of underwear and walked over to the other side of the deck to where the crew showers were. “No wonder Cassie reacted like that.” I chuckled when I saw that it was just a large open area with shower heads spread out along the bulkhead. “There's no privacy at all here.”

“Welcome to Long Haul Shower Etiquette 101.” Donny laughed as he came into the compartment. “Eyes up. Lather fast. Rinse quick. Run.”

“Run?” I asked.

“Have you ever been on a long space voyage with unattached women?” Donny asked as he pulled out a basket-like tray and dumped his tools and things into it.

“No.” I said.

“Whew. Well.” Donny said and unzipped the jumpsuit he wore. “Unless you're good at handling very horny women, they are going to eat you alive.”

“Am I speaking to a victim or a survivor?” I asked, and he laughed. I pulled out a tray for myself and carefully put everything I had on me into it, including the jumpsuit and clean underwear, then covered it in Presence and made it solid.

“Luckily, they know I've got a weird sense of humor and they'll only pay me attention if I pay them attention first.”

“So, it doesn't really matter if you're interested in them or not?” I asked.

“After a few months of being alone out here in the depths of space, you're gonna start thinking that anything is 'interesting', if you get my meaning.” Donny said and grinned.

“I think I do.” I said and pulled off my robes. “Just so we're clear, I'm not interested at all.”

“HA!” Donny barked a laugh and walked over to the closest shower and hit the button. He was covered in soap and in less than a minute, he was scrubbed and rinsed off.

“Okay, that was impressive.” I said. “Only my guardian could do that faster.”

“I've had a lot of practice.” Donny said and grabbed a towel. “Have fun, kid.”

“What do you...” I stopped talking as Luxea walked into the compartment and Donny grabbed his tray and walked out.

“Hi.” Luxea said. “Are you getting settled in?”

“I only just found underwear.” I said and pointed to the tray, and she laughed.

“Cassie is such a tease.” Luxea said, immediately guessing what had happened. She grabbed a tray and put her things in it, then unzipped her jumpsuit. She turned to face me as she did and the cloth slowly parted to show off some of her cleavage. “Are you going to just stand there and stare at me, or are you going to get a shower, too?”

“That depends on if you want me to stare or if I should do what Donny said.” I responded.

“What did he say to do?” Luxea asked and eased the jumpsuit off of her shoulders and held it in place with a hand just above her breasts.

“Eyes up. Lather fast. Rinse quick. Run.” I said, word for word, and she laughed again.

“All right, I can't argue that's not a smart way to act.” Luxea said, and then she let her jumpsuit go and let it fall to the floor. “Are you going to do that?”

“I've promised my first time to a good friend.” I said right away, and she nodded.

“It's good to keep your word.” Luxea said and stepped out of the jumpsuit and walked over to one of the shower heads. “I hope it doesn't come back to haunt you.”

“I've waited this long, I can wait a little more.” I said as I put my robes in another tray and pulled off my long sleeved t-shirt and tossed it on top. I pulled off my tight-like pants next and put them on the pile, and with Detect Presence active, I saw that Luxea watched me as I undressed. I took off my underwear next and added it to the tray, then I walked over to the shower head right next to hers. She stared at me with raised eyebrows, looked down at my exposed and very well muscled body, which was from all of the intense physical training I've done, then she looked back up at my face.

I hit the button for the soap to cover me, then sighed. “I forgot the tie in my hair.” I said and turned my back to her. “Would you mind?”

“N-no, of course not.” Luxea said and reached up to my hair and fumbled with it, then managed to get it untied. She didn't hesitate to run her hands through my long dirty blonde hair and fluffed it out.

“Thanks.” I said and turned back to the shower and lathered up. It took a bit longer to do that with having to do my hair as well, and Luxea stood there and watched me the entire time. I turned on the water and rinsed off, and I could see that Presence had gathered in different spots on her body. Surprisingly, it wasn't at her breasts or pubic area. One area was at the nape of her neck and the other was at her belly button.

I could clearly see that she was aroused as well. I don't think she has ever had someone just wash themselves solely for her enjoyment. I thought and turned to her. “Is your shower broken?”

“Hm? What?” Luxea blinked her eyes for a moment and managed to take her eyes off of my body and looked into my eyes. “Are you really sixteen?”

“Today is my birthday.” I said, and she caught her breath. “I better go dry off.”

“Y-yes, you... you probably should.” Luxea said.

I gave her a slight bow, which made her catch her breath again, and I walked over to the towel rack and stood there for several minutes as I dried myself off completely. I saved my hair for last and dried it as much as I could, and when I put the towel down, I heard her gasp.

“Let me brush your hair!” Luxea said and came over to me. “Please.”

“Don't you need to shower?” I asked.

“Oh! Yes, I should.” Luxea said, sadly.

“I can wait.” I said and slipped on the clean pair of underwear.

Luxea gave me a warm smile and walked back over to the shower and she was as quick as Donny was in lathering and rinsing. I held in my laugh as she quickly came back and instead of drying off, she just wrapped a towel around her body and one around her hair, picked up her tray, and took my hand.

“My sleeping berth is up on the next level.” Luxea said.

I stacked up my two trays and picked them up and tucked them under my arm and she led me from the shower and into the central shaft. She didn't even bother trying to use the handhold as she jumped up and out into weightlessness. I chuckled as she dragged me with her and we floated up to the next level in a perfect line and landed on the deck.

“You've done that before.” I commented, and she laughed.

“Only a few times.” Luxea said and used her elbow to turn the handle on the hatch to open it. She took me into the hallway and down to the end, then she had to put her tray down as she opened the hatch. “It sticks and I can't use just my elbow.” She said in explanation, then picked up her tray, dragged me inside and shut the hatch.

I put my trays down on the floor, out of the way, and waited for her to tell me where to sit.

“Give me a minute.” Luxea said and tucked her tray onto a small shelf, then she quickly tidied up the place and shoved things away and out of sight.

“This is supposed to be a double bunk compartment, isn't it?” I asked.

“It still is.” Luxea said. “The top bunk stores when it's not needed and the compartment is almost twice as big as the single bunk.”

“One of the perks of being the first officer?” I asked, and she chuckled.

“No. I stay here so that when we have a few extra passengers and have to share, I don't have to move all of my stuff.”

I smiled. “That's pretty smart.”

“Thanks.” Luxea said and went to the shelf above her bunk. She moved a couple little things around and picked up a huge wooden paddle-like thing.

“I thought you were going to brush my hair, not beat me to death.” I joked, and she laughed as she turned it around to show me all of the thick bristles.

“I saw all that hair and it's desperate need to be brushed!” Luxea said.

I chuckled. “Yes, it's my hair that has the desperate need.”

Luxia pointed to her bunk and I sat down on the edge of it, and she climbed onto it behind me and knelt. “This might take a while.”

“I don't have any plans to be anywhere.” I said. “What about you?”

“I'm off-shift until tomorrow morning.” Luxea said and started at the end of my hair and did little strokes with the huge brush.

“Then we have a bit of spare time to waste.” I said and closed my eyes. I concentrated on the flow of Presence in the small compartment and it was pretty sparse. I guess being so far away from a planet would reduce the amount of Presence floating around. I thought. I'll have to be careful if I try to absorb it to use.

“Thank you for this, Ullir.” Luxea said. “I haven't combed someone's hair in a long time.”

“What about Cassie?” I asked.

“She never takes her hair out of the ponytail.” Luxea said. “In the central shaft without gravity, it goes... well, everywhere.”

“I can imagine.” I chuckled. “Even on the planet, I had to keep the ponytail so that my hair was easier to keep under control.”

“Why didn't you ever get it cut?” Luxea asked.

“It's a part of me.” I said. “It grew from me and parts of me are in it, and if I cut it off and discarded it, it would be like losing part of myself.”

Luxea stopped brushing my hair, then she leaned forward and hugged me from behind as she rested her chin on my shoulder. “You really can use and manipulate Presence, can't you?” Her towel had mysteriously disappeared and she pressed her bare breasts against my back.

“Ever since I was a child.” I said.

“Can you show me something?” Luxea whispered in my ear and she shifted her body slightly to rub her nipples on my back.

“I already did that.” I said.

Luxea lightly kissed my cheek. “That was then, this is now.”

“Okay.” I said and used Presence Hand to pull the towel off of her head and her medium length blonde hair fell down onto us.

“Hey, what...” Luxea let me go and leaned back to look up at the towel that hung in the air. “Are you doing that?”

I turned around and saw the Presence that was gathered at her neck glowed a little more brightly than it had before. I reached out with a fingertip and touched the spot.

“Oh!” Luxea gasped and put a hand on mine and her other hand down between her legs as she looked at my face. “How did you know I'm sensitive there?”

I didn't say anything as I gathered a little bit of Presence into my fingertip and pushed it into her through that spot. I had done something similar with Lashina and I wondered if it would work with someone else.

“By the Goddess.” Luxea breathed as she tried not to moan. “What... oh, my...”

I traced my fingertip down her body towards what I believed to be another erogenous zone and her breath sped up.

“Ullir... oh... w-wait... wait.” Luxea said and caught my hand before it touched her belly button. “If you're saving yourself for a special someone, you can't be doing sexual things with other women.”

“Like letting them comb my hair or letting them watch me as I shower?”

“Ye...” Luxea stopped talking and smiled. “I thought it was me that was trying to seduce you.”

“I swear to god that I wasn't trying to seduce you.” I said, and she covered her mouth.

“You... you shouldn't say such things.” Luxea said.

“I just thought you hadn't had anyone just treat you normally in the shower.” I said. “Someone that didn't try to hide or just let you look as much as you wanted.”

“I... I haven't.”

“I haven't had someone brush my hair in years.” I said, thinking back to Emari. “When you offered to do it out of the blue like that, well...”

“You like it, too.” Luxea said, and I nodded. “Then what was this?” She asked and lifted her hand from between her legs and showed me that her fingers were wet.

“The one I'm saving myself for, showed me that she enjoyed feeling my Presence.” I said. “It wasn't sexual for the most part. It just made her feel good.”

“Oh, it definitely felt good.” Luxea said and looked at her other hand where she had stopped my progress on her belly. “But... you were...”

“I was aiming for your belly button.” I said. “I didn't mean to make you nervous.”

“My belly button?” Luxea looked down at it. “Why there?”

I don't think she knows it's a Presence focus point for her. I thought. “If I may?”

Luxea let my hand go and I didn't bother trying to drag it the rest of the way. I gathered a little more Presence into my fingertip and poked her belly button with it and pushed my Presence into her.

“Gah!” Luxea gasped and warm liquid poured out from between her legs. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around me, then panted as her body trembled.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “I didn't hurt you, did I?”

“By... by the goddess... n-no, I'm not hurt.” Luxea said and tried to even her breath out. “I'm not hurt at all.”

“Can I ask what happened?”

Luxea didn't say anything as she let me go and rubbed herself between her legs, then she spoke. “Open your mouth.”

“What? Why would... muh!” I stopped talking when she lifted her hand and shoved her wet fingers into my mouth.

“That's what happened.” Luxea said. “I haven't finished like that in a long time.”

I wanted to ask her what she meant by 'finished'; but, she still had her fingers in my mouth. I didn't want to start drooling on her or the bed, so I closed my mouth and sucked.

“Mmm.” Luxea said and slid close. “L-lick them, too.”

I didn't have a lot of room to do that, so I just flicked my tongue on the bottom of her fingers and she closed her eyes.

“Oh... oh, yes. Just like that.” Luxea said as she put her other hand between her legs. “Mmm!”

I wasn't sure why she was enjoying it so much, so I gathered another little bit of Presence onto my fingertip and waited for a moment, then poked her belly button again and shoved Presence into her.

“GAH!” Luxea gasped and her whole body shook. She was breathing heavily and she didn't open her eyes as she took her fingers from my mouth and laid back onto the bunk.

“Luxea? Are you okay?”

“N-no.” Luxea said. “By the Goddess, no.” She took several deep breath and opened her eyes to stare at me. “Ullir, you... you can't do that anymore.”

“But...”

“Yes, it felt good.” Luxea said. “It felt really, really good.” She said. “So good that... I think... I'd give up everything to... to just...” She shook her head. “Don't do this with anyone else. Not even me.”

“Luxea...”

Luxea tried to sit up, and she couldn't gather the strength. I reached for her hand and she pulled it away. “If you intend to save yourself for your special someone, you can't just casually do what you just did.”

I opened my mouth to ask her why it felt that good, then decided that staying ignorant for now was the best choice. “I promise.”

“Oh, thank the Goddess.” Luxea said and closed her eyes. “Ullir.”

“Yes?”

“I can't... finish your hair... right now.” Luxea said and yawned loudly.

“That's okay. I think you've had enough of my company for a while.”

Luxea chuckled for barely a moment, then she started to snore.

That really wiped her out. I thought and saw that the two spots that had Presence inside her were barely glowing at all. Well, there's more proof that if you use up too much Presence, you'll fall unconscious until you recover.

I picked up the blanket and laid it over her, then I put on the jumpsuit from one of my trays. It fit well, so I opened her sleeping compartment hatch and picked up my stacked trays, then stepped out and shut the hatch. I felt someone approaching and turned to meet them.

“Damn that old hag!” Cassie exclaimed.

“It's not what you think.” I said.

“No?” Cassie asked. “Your hair is half-messy and you're carrying a shower tray!” She said and pointed at my arm accusingly. “You'd only be doing that if you just came from the shower!”

“Cassie...”

“I don't want to hear it!” Cassie said. “I thought you were different! I thought you liked me and not her! You even called me beautiful!”

Actually, I said your mother must have been very beautiful. I thought; but, I didn't say it out loud.

“If you'd let that blonde whore touch you, I don't want anything to do with you.” Cassie said and turned to her sleeping compartment and opened the door. “Stay away from me from now on, Mister Ullir!” She said and stepped into her compartment, then poked her head back out. “...and I better not catch you looking at me either!”

“Don't worry. You won't catch me doing it.” I said as I walked by her sleep compartment and opened the hatch to the central shaft.

“Good!” Cassie said and shut her hatch. I stood there and waited for a moment, because I knew what was coming, and her hatch opened again. “Hey! I meant that you can't look at me at all!”

“That's not what you said or what I heard.” I said without looking at her and stepped through the outer hatch.

“HEY!” Cassie yelled.

I turned and looked at her as I shut the hatch. “Oops! I just saw you!”

“I'm going to kill you!” Cassie's muffled voice said through the hatch.

“You shouldn't piss her off like that.” Evelyn said as she walked over to me. “Redheads have epic tempers.”

“It was also a misunderstanding and she wouldn't let me explain.” I said.

Evelyn looked at my messy hair and the shower trays under my arm. “By the looks of it you went back to... by process of elimination... Luxea's sleeping compartment to have some private time.”

“It was private, but all we...”

“I honestly don't care what you do with other people.” Evelyn said and motioned for me to step aside.

“But...”

“We all have needs that we want to fill.” Evelyn said and touched my arm to make me step aside. “You're tall and handsome, and I wouldn't mind seeing that hair all spread out on my bunk as I ride you.”

My eyes widened and I raised my eyebrows at her.

“Unlike the other two, I have no problem asking for what I want.” Evelyn said and opened the hatch. “I sleep in that compartment.” She said and pointed. “You can check my schedule in the database for when I'm free.”

I opened my mouth to respond and she shut the hatch in my face.

“I told you!” Donny's voice boomed across the central shaft and I turned to see him wave at me. “They'll eat you alive!” He said and laughed a full belly-shaking laugh.