Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Three, Part Two

 Notes: We're winding up to a goodbye, followed by a hello, followed by a--well, just read and see ;)

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Three, Part Two

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Chapter Twenty-Three, Part Two

 

Even if Kieron wasn’t entirely sure he trusted Elanus to keep his word, even if he might change his mind and decide he didn’t want things to go anywhere between them, their talk changed the last few months before Cloverleaf Station was back in relative safety from something painful to something truly enjoyable. Every care, every worry was quiet now, tucked into the back of his mind like the memory of an old wound—it twinged from time to time, but was easy to ignore.

Elanus made it easy to ignore everything but him and Catie. His liveliness increased, his chats with Catie took her learning to new heights, and he spent a tremendous amount of time with Kieron. Everything from sex to simple conversation to the occasional talk about their pasts, and the things they wish had gone differently, or that they’d done better. Those talks happened in Kieron’s room, where Catie didn’t listen in. Everything else—even the sex, after a make-out session in the control room got out of hand—happened all over the place. Cloverleaf Station might be shamrock green on the outside, but the inside had been cold and sterile before this, and now it felt…well, like a home. Like a place for family.

“What’s your home like on Gania?” he asked one day while Elanus and Catie were debating over a new skin for the Lizzie. The ship wasn’t sentient yet, and couldn’t pick for herself, and Kieron, as Elanus put it, was “no fun when it comes to aesthetics, I could paint her black or orange or leave her matte gray and you’d just say it was fine when it’s not, it’s going to clash with her interior, like this shade of pink, Catie!”

“It doeeeesnnn’t! It’s beauuuuutiful!”

“My home?” Elanus asked, returning Kieron’s attention to the moment. “It’s lovely. Growing up I lived on the ground level in Chelen, but as soon as I registered my first patent and began my company, I bought a suite in the highest skyscraper in the city. Upper mid-level, but every year after that I bought another, and now my home rises all the way up to the top of the building. I’ve even got a space there for Catie, if she gets tired of living at the lab.”

“I waaant to live with youuuu,” Catie said firmly. “You and Keeeeron.”

“How does that work?” Kieron asked, moving the conversation onto firmer ground. He wasn’t afraid of the topic of living spaces now, not exactly, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up too high either. “Vertical housing.”

“It works very well, for the most part. Each level consists of one or two rooms, and there are several lifts to take you up and down as needed. There are stairs that transition to a ramp as well, in case the power goes out for some reason.” Elanus’s face relaxed as he spoke, clearly thinking about the home he’d left behind without a second thought months ago. “I’ve got an amazing view of the city. Chelen is the second-largest city on Gania, but it houses two-thirds of the universities. There’s always something to do there—opera is a favorite attraction, but there’s everything from zoomball fields to fight clubs for people who just have to get their aggression out in other ways.”

“Tell me something else about your home.” Kieron was trying to build a picture in his mind, and finding it hard.

“Here, let me show you. Catie! Can I have a projection with slide, external to internal?”

“Yes, Daddeee.” An image appeared in the air, a picture of a massive building, larger than any skyscraper Kieron had ever heard of before. It had to span ten kilometers or more at the base, and hardly got any more slender as it got higher.

Elanus laughed. “I see that look on your face. Remember, Gania has less gravity than Earth, or most of the planets that humans find tolerable to live on. Something that would collapse elsewhere can stand there without issue. This building is Sunface South. There are two other buildings like this in the city.”

“How can anyone stand being in that much shade all the time?” Kieron asked.

“You haven’t spent much time in cities, have you? It’s very well-lit,” Elanus assured him. “And there are reflective systems in place that help with lighting, I actually designed one of—wait, I’m getting distracted. Closer please, Catie.” She drew their attention to a glowing line near the top of the building. “These are mine,” Elanus said with pride as they got deeper into the image. “I see the suns rise at least once every day, twice some days depending on the season. There’s nothing quite like it.” He kept talking, drawing Kieron’s attention to the color of the walls, the art, the furnishings “—and it’s all changeable, of course, except for that chair which was literally molded to fit my form, that’s got to stay.”

It was fun to look at, but it was more fun to listen to Elanus and Catie. The truth was, Kieron knew how little he really knew about homes. He knew that he’d never lived in one before, not really—this place was the closest he’d come. Trakta had been too uncomfortable, filled with rules he wasn’t allowed to follow and people who knew they shouldn’t get too close to him because he was “other.” Cloverleaf Station was much the same—fine enough when Zak had been alive, a purgatory when he wasn’t, and only now just starting to become something he could see himself missing once he was gone.

“So that’s basically it.” Elanus finally finished describing his ridiculously elaborate home. The hologram disappeared. “Do you think you’ll like it?”

“I can’t wait to see it in person,” Kieron said.

“Good.” Elanus wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in for a tight hug. “Good. You will. I’ll make it—it will fit you, I swear it will. You might not see it yet, but I do.”

Kieron turned his face against the base of Elanus’s neck and nuzzled the warm skin there. “I know it will.” He tilted his face up and got an affectionate kiss in return.

“Aawwwwwww!!!” Pink and red hearts began to blink in and out of existence all around them. “Daddeeee! Keeeeron! You’re so cuuuute!”

“Aaand it’s time to take this somewhere else,” Elanus said with a chuckle. “Catie, will you help your sister get her logarithms tidied up?”

“Yess, Daddee.”

“Thank you. And you—” He made to pull Kieron up from the chair he was sitting in, but Kieron beat him to it.

“Let’s go,” he said, and led the way out of the hangar and toward his room.

It was easy now to sink back on the bed, easy to undress and let the weight of his partner on top of him ground him, easy to kiss him until his lips ached, easy to prepare himself and relish the slide of Elanus’s enormous cock in and out of him. There was nothing to be ashamed of; not the wanting, not the having, not the aftermath. Grunts and sighs, swear words and blessings, begging and pleading—some of it made him blush, but he never turned his face away. He just loved it. Reveled in it. Used his body to make himself happy, rather than forcing it to move despite itself.

The happiness wasn’t fleeting either, not the simple physical release he knew from other people. In fact, what came after—lying together, wrapped around each other with no urge to leave or different place to be, was blissful. It wiped the anxiety from Kieron’s mind faster than anything else he’d ever experienced.

“The station’s back in the safe zone next week,” Elanus said softly.

“Mmm.”

“I found a person to manage things here. They’re not as good as you, but they have a lot of deep space experience.”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll get them settled, so you can leave for Trakta first thing.”

That was enough to prompt an actual reply. “I could do it.”

“Let me. You’ve got a long way to go, so it’s better you get started as early as possible. I’ll still probably beat you to Gania by weeks.”

“Where you’ll be waiting for me,” Kieron murmured, his lips touching Elanus’s collarbone. He shivered, and Elanus’s arms tightened around him.

“Where we’ll both be waiting for you.”