Date night with Meli

The words of the elderly jellyfish stuck with Dustin, and he found himself pondering them while looking at his wardrobe two days later. They’d returned to the ship shortly after the meal, to a round of kissing - the others having apparently missed them just as much. A series of weave jumps later had them in orbit of a stunning trinary star system - and Meli had announced prior to dropping in that they would be pausing their ongoing jumps here for at least three hours so that she and Dustin could have a date.

Dustin had wisely not asked the reason for the pause in travel - his fiancé clearly had something she wanted, and he was more than happy to grant it given how hard she worked for the mission. The others had more or less herded him for the entire day - Rye fussing to make sure he was organized and had no work that could pull him away, Emely checking that he was in place to get ready on time; it was rather sweet, the two of them working so hard to ensure Meli and he had a good evening. At last however, the pair had left him, with Rye planting one hand on Emely’s back so that her fingers just brushed the base of the fox girl’s tails. With a comment about taking good care of Emely and that he should get dressed in something nice ringing in his ears, Dustin had walked through to his bunk - and was now stood trying to decide on his outfit for the evening.

Meli had given him only the vaguest of ideas as to her plans, and it wasn’t as if he had many different styles of clothes to wear in the first place. Making a mental note to upgrade his wardrobe as soon as they encountered a planet of naturally gifted tailors, he eventually settled on the smartest casual outfit he had - black jeans with a matching shirt and tie. Feeling a little like an extra from a video from one of his grandparent’s classic emo rock bands due to the monochrome outfit, he sighed, brushed his hair one final time and stepped out into his ready room. “Sola, locate chief science officer Meli’a please?” he said as he moved towards the corridor. The AI’s voice responded as he reached the far door. “Meli’a is currently located in the observation deck. Shall I notify her that you are looking for her?”

Dustin shook his head, walking briskly towards the lift. “No; I’ll go there myself. She’s waiting for me I hope.” Sure enough, when he stepped into the observation deck a short while later his fiancé was stood staring out into space. Where normally the view would be the black void however was a sight that took his breath away. The system’s stars sat in a near-perfect three-way equilibrium, their different radiances causing light to flood the deck and Meli to look like she was glowing with an inner fire. “Wow” he said, taking in his lover’s appearance as he walked to join her by the window. Where normally the Velca dressed in greys and largely casual outfits off duty, today she was wearing an elaborate dress that left one of her legs exposed to the hip and plunged precariously deep between her ample breasts. Her hair too had been styled up into an artful display that left a handful of sculpted curls to drape back down over her shoulders.

Hearing him approach, she turned and smiled before handing him a tablet. “What’s this?” He asked, glancing down at the screen. “My date plan - and our first activity. After carefully considering whether I wanted to have a human style or a Velca style evening, I decided on both. Both is good.” She replied, before gesturing out at the view. “I’ve noted that you like looking at space, so I thought we could first of all spend some time observing these stars. The tablet will allow you to get data, and is set up to allow imaging. I for one wish to get a high-quality scan of the light from the smaller of the three. Oh, and also a picture of you in front of them.” Dustin smiled at that. “You know you can just ask if you want to take pictures of me?” He said, stepping closer.

Meli wrapped her arms around him then, before standing up on her toes to kiss him rather seriously. “Yes, Li’ah’a, I know that. But what’s a date without research data for a Velca, and what’s a date without a photo of the person you’re with or the two of you together for a human? And after we’ve done that, we’ve a meal being prepared to be delivered in hydroponics bay three. That’s the more human part of the date by the way - meals seem to be traditional to most of your cultures.” Dustin smiled down at her and nodded. “Anything else?” At that, the Velca’s ears flickered suggestively. “That depends on how the date goes. Although as an aside, this dress does not feel comfortable with any underwear, so I am not wearing any. And I arranged for some additional bedding to be moved into the storage bay opposite hydroponics three.”

That boded well for the rest of Dustin’s evening; his smile grew marginally wider before his first lover stepped back, breaking their embrace. “So, with that to look forward to - what shall we do about these stars first?” In response, Dustin tapped his tablet a few times before pulling Meli close once more. “First things first is a picture of the two of us with those stars in the background. Smile!” And, giving the startled woman just enough time to compose herself he thumbed the button to take a picture. Turning the tablet around, the two of them looked at it critically. “A full-black outfit really doesn’t show off the light from those stars that well, huh?” He said first, before Meli pouted and added “and that angle makes me look even shorter and my body more stacked than I am already cursed with.”

Dustin gave his fiance’s backside a squeeze at that remark. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s a good thing. Human culture, remember. But this picture is just for the two of us anyway, y’kno? Figure we should get some mementos of our dates. You can fuss about it when it’s just a picture of you - pictures of both of us are always going to have things we each view as flaws because they’ve got to fit us both in frame.” Meli gave a huffy noise before stepping back. “Okay. Well lets get some pictures of each other, and then we can look at the light readings.”

The pair spent the next hour engaging in what could only loosely be called research - neither of them were massive stellar scientists, and in any case Sola’s sensors had already gathered much clearer data than they managed manually. But they were having fun, and got a range of photos of each other and the three stars before at last Meli looked at Dustin with a gaze he’d learned usually meant trouble. “You know, Li’ah’a, you are right about that outfit not really flattering the light from the suns. How about we take one more picture each before we go and eat?” As she said this, the Velca walked over to a table nearby - for the first time Dustin realised there was something piled on it, which the woman quickly shook out into a thick blanket.

Walking back to the window, she spread the soft cover on the floor and smiled at him. “We can consider this an appetizer before the meal. Or, you know, further research into how the light reflects from different species.” With that, she reached up and clicked the clasp of her dress. Much like most of her other outfits, it seemed that only one or two clips held the entire thing together and a moment later Dustin found himself staring open mouthed as his lover lowered herself to lie on the blanket covered only by the light of the three suns.

“Pictures, Dustin.” She said after a moment, adding “It’s colder than I thought in here, and I want my hands to not be shaking when I take pictures of you.” That snapped him out of his reverie, and he busied himself with the camera to distract himself somewhat from the voluptuousness on display. A half dozen different images later and Meli declared that they had enough before she began to dress. “Needless to say, those are for our eyes - or those of our mutual lovers - only.” She mused as she fiddled with reattaching the clasp. “And now that you have some photos of me, it’s my turn. Strip please.”