After much heated and flustered back and forth by Mittana and Xev, during which the Tik`rs and Rina headed home, it was settled that Mittana would indeed be Jason’s engineer and the engineer for his future team. To this end Jason handed over all of his ARMS save for his armor unit, although both of the women chastised him for being prudish about being naked in public. Mitanna did so because Sil`phane wore little clothes to begin with and that is when they wore them. Xev on the other hand guessed at the fact that most Humans were a bit shy about not wearing clothes. The Rucono also had this tendency and programmed into their androids that resembled them a sense of modesty. Despite Xev seemingly having no modesty whatsoever to Humans, the fact she wore and preferred to wear clothes in most situation showed that she did indeed have this trait programmed into her.

When Mittana was given the ARMS she took off to her workshop, but Xev and Jason stayed where they were. Even though his injuries had long since been healed Jason’s body was still extremely sore. He couldn’t move without pain and there wasn’t much that would make Jason move before he had to given this predicament. As much as he loathed to admit it, Xev’s lap made for a comfortable resting place. It was made even more comfortable by Xev stroking her hand through his hair. After a while he began to doze off unapologetically gazing at her breasts looming above him. He had just enough awareness to notice that Xev started to move her hand down his chest and into his pants.

“What are you doing?” Jason asked groggy, but didn’t move to stop her for the first time. After having got to know her over the course of the last several weeks he had a sense that even though she constantly teased him she wouldn’t do anything that he truly didn’t want her to do. If she had wanted, there was nothing that he could do even in his best condition. Usually he would reject her immediately, but this time, the bouncing bosoms, warm lap, hair stroking, and thoughts he had on his mind left him open to her ministrations.

Xev smiled down at him though he could not see it, “It’s good for the pain. Every life form I know of has similar mechanisms and It’s unhealthy to not do this once in a while and I know you haven’t in a while.” She took hold of him and manipulated him. He could stop her her with a word, but he had been worn down. Jason knew that she was right, at least the part about his health and how long it had been. It didn’t take long before his orgasm hit, his body tensed causing all sorts of agony that lasted a fraction of second before he released.

At that moment Mittana returned to the preparation room, entering through the door. She heard Jason moan, saw that the two of them hadn’t moved and thought that she saw Xev had her hand down his pants, but immediately upon hearing someone came in Xev pulled her now sticky hand away. Mittana paused, she looked at them with a funny look on her face trying to piece out what had just happened. She thought to her and then proceeded as if she saw nothing. “I...I registered you for another match tomorrow. I’ll have your ARMS ready by then, but they’re J-rank so not much I could do,” she said still stunned by what she saw.

Xev casually licked her her fingers clean of Jason, “Thanks,” she purred, expressing her gratitude, although who towards was vague, “He should back up and ready for action by then.” Her eyes locked on Mittana as if she were going to pounce on her, “Your services are much appreciated, Kitty. Let’s hope that we can work together in the future to keep his equipment in top condition.”

“R.. right. I’m… I’m gonna go now,” Mittana pointed at the door, spun on her heels and awkwardly rushed out.

Xev giggled at Mittana’s behavior wondering if the girl liked Jason. It didn’t matter to her other than what trouble it could bring to her plans, but if she did like him like that it would be better for Xev to attempt to have them hook up. If they didn’t then it risked conflicts to arise and them to lose a good engineer that they couldn’t replace easily. Having seen them, Xev hoped that Mittana would sort her emotions out quickly so that Xev could take actions to make sure that the nascent team didn’t fall apart. Meanwhile, Jason had fallen deep asleep in her lap, trapping her on the sofa until he moved or woke up, unless she wasn’t to risk waking him up. She wanted him to rest and heal though so she was trapped until further notice. She let her hand fall to his chest and adjusted her position to get a little more comfortable expecting to stuck there for a while.

The following day Jason woke up and stretched. His soreness was gone. When he stretched he found that his movements were restricted by the sofa and Xev, but unlike yesterday she was allowing him to move freely. He sat up and looked around wondering what they were still doing there. At the very least he had expected Xev to move them to the Tik`rs’ inn.

“Morning,” Xev said from the other side of the sofa.

“Uhhhhh… Morning?” Jason wasn’t sure how react to the situation he found himself in.

“Early morning, but still morning. Sleep well?”

“Yeah…, ” he said timidly, “I think we need to talk…”

Xev laughed, “It’s not like that. You’re great, but I’m not built for…,” she stopped mid sentence thinking about she was about to say, “I mean, physical pleasure and emotions are different for me, and many you’ll find here.”

Jason cocked his head to the side, “By many you mean…?”

She feigned like she was insulted, “Already looking to move on. What a fickle species.”

“No no. I mean…,” flustered, he tried to correct the misunderstanding.

A smile crept over her face, “I’m kidding. Humans seem to be like those that created the Kesruc, but most of the other species here aren’t. They were strict monogamists, but the Kesruc were made to be versatile in our bonding and mating.”

“We’re not strict monogamists. Naturally we’re closer to hierarchical polygamies. The top male gets several women, but those women often also have another male they are in a secret relationship to. Culturally, though, we moved towards monogamy to the point that polygamy is illegal,” He explained.

“Going against one’s nature usually only leads to strife,” she said for the first time looking sad. This was something that she had learned from her experiences. In the past she had forced her kin to have empathy and it had lead them to hate her and to eventually send her to Debris. She didn’t think what she had done was wrong, but there was only sadness for her in doing it. And then once she was on Debris she tried to fit into the culture. It didn’t work. Every species that she found herself trying to blend in with was so alien to her nature that either she would be unsatisfied or they’d grow increasingly angrier at her for one reason or another. Being called a whore by a Sil`phane in heat is quite the thing. Thinking about an entire civilization attempting to subvert their nature, to her, was something that she could only feel pity for.

“Following your nature doesn’t seem much better to me,” Jason replied thinking back on his life and all the times that following his nature had lead him to be an outcast by those around him. In his life he had always followed what came natural to him. If something didn’t feel right when he tried it he gave it up. When things felt right he’d follow those feeling and delve deeper into those things. Those were the times that brought him the most happiness in life for that moment, but taking a fuller picture of his world, those were the things that people always used to attack and ostracise him, and make him feel the worst.

“I don’t know, pleasure and happiness, no matter how finite seems better than hating every part of life,” she said sensing that Jason hadn’t had a happy life, especially after overhearing the conversation he had with his brother. “Besides, I think when we become unhappy while believing that we’re following our nature, we’re likely to be lying to ourselves about something,” she tried to give Jason a hint that maybe he might have got something wrong without pushing him.

Jason didn’t want to admit it, but the reality of his conviction wasn’t that he thought it was better to run away when one could or play peacemaker in those situations, but that he couldn’t bring himself to stand up in those situations. He had an urge to confront those that he thought did wrong, but it was easier to let it go. He might feel bad about it. He might get chastised about it for being a coward, but ultimately it was a simple choice of possibly dealing with major negative consequences that could end any semblance of a future he had, but were more or less transient or put it off, out of his mind, and accept the minor ongoing consequences. In the moment he always told himself that he could handle those minor consequences, but he was too smart not to understand in the back of his head that all of those things added up, big or small, and continuing down the path he had been would only lead to an empty life. “Maybe…,” he said somewhat hoarsely. He coughed and cleared his throat, “So ummm… Giving hand jobs to half-unconscious guys is just in your nature?” he tried to change the subject with a joke.

“Half asleep, fully asleep, waking up, fully awake. There’s never a wrong time for a hand job or anything else sexy, and I didn’t see you complaining,” she grinned looking at him, not giving him the satisfaction of trying to embarass her. “It’s what I was programmed for. It’s my nature to please my…,” she stopped again, this time blushing, “to please others and doing so gives me pleasure. Not to mention its healing, great exercise, lets me test vitals, and provides a tasty meal,” she winked at him.

Jason’s face turned bright red, “Wha…wha... what?!”

“Are you saying you’re not all healed up from yesterday?” she asked ignoring the obvious thing that had made him react in such an embarrassed way.

He instantly shot back, “I’m fine, I meant the meal part. Are you saying you…”

“Waste not want not,” she flashed a innocently large smile at him, “The Rucono were very intelligent when it came to the design of their machines. If we were to be designed for a given area it is likely that we could live off the resources involved in that activity. There’s not much difference species in that regard, but even so Humans and Rocono are similar so it is somewhat of a boon for me. Imagine eating the most mediocre of foods for 300 years and then suddenly your blessed with something like your favorite food, but not quite. You’d probably develop the same love for the new food as your old favorite. Same deal here.”

There wasn’t a single thought that passed through Jason’s head that didn’t make him feel more awkward about the current situation. He looked like his mind was having a melt down until he stood up and said, “I think I need to stretch my legs,” and quickly made for the exit.

“Alright, We’ll talk later about how I like my food,” Xev called after him, unable to control herself. When he was out of the door she burst out laughing at the poor inexperienced boy. She was going to have lots of fun with him in the future, even without him feeding her any more.