The afterglow

“So, is that a common thing?”

“What fucking in the shower? How vanilla were you with your ex?” Blackfire said as she was back to combing her hair again.

She wrung out about four more loads from him. In fact, she probably would have still been doing so if he didn't finally put his foot down. By that point she had enough from it and figured he had gotten his 'reward' by that point. Besides letting him stop the fun could also be seen as a reward. So, they had cleaned up since they were already there in the shower. A few playful gropes on her end but she didn't push it past that.

Blackfire was currently trying to fix her hair once more after drying off and getting dressed. Zac had picked out a new pair of pants and a sweatshirt (the ship was cool enough that he wasn't burning up in it). Blackfire had put on a sports top and leggings as she wasn't planning on going anywhere any time soon. A lot of her 'lounging' gear wasn't made with.... young guests in mind. She had picked up just a few outfits to make up the difference while at the station. Between that and Cupid's new wardrobe, she should be fine around Layla.

"Well, I do have a few questions about that um.... water reclamation." He paused as he thought, "How much...."

"PFFFF please. That's a sick thought; a good one to have but no you don't have to worry about drinking our own fluids. Even a beat-up ship like this has its own way of splitting off.... 'Run off' from the water before it gets recycled." She caught a snag in her hair and grunted as she tried to get rid of it, "I wouldn't have drawn you into the shower otherwise. Besides, Landry works the same way."

She had a point; given how badly they ruined the sheets last time; this really should have been in his mind sooner. That was a weight of his shoulders though.

"Got it. But um..., no. What I was going to ask at first was; you just seemed revved up for lack of a better word. All from a little pendent.” he pointed out as he walked over to her in front of the mirror.

He gestured towards her neck where she still wore the tiny, clumsy, and basic pendent. She just shrugged in reply, focusing more on her hair than him and his question.

“Mmm, on a normal day probably not. But I was riled up from that fight. And getting a gift after a battle is…, kinda a turn on for my people.” She said as she got her hair caught up in her brush. Seemed like a pretty big knot than the one before.

“How many of those cultural turn ons am I gonna have to deal with.” Zac asked as he craned his neck to look over her long hair.

“Wouldn’t you like to know? Besides many of them are just old wives tails; they never worked on me before. Just… let me…”

Her words died when the brush was taken from her. She turned her head to glare at the man now holding it as he gestured for her to turn back around.

“Let me.”

“YOU!??” she screeched, glaring at his reflection in the mirror, “I’m not letting you near my hair!”

However, he simply leaned down and kissed that one area by her ear which froze her mid-protest. With her stunned, he went to work. His motions were smooth and fluid, even able to work out the knots without having to pull them out. His fingers were a bit bigger than her own so it took a bit longer, but he had a surprising skill. He even started to hum a bit as he worked; a nameless tune that made her relax her shoulders.

“Okay Minion…., or should I say Knight; how are you doing this?” she asked. He was supposed to be just some big strong man that dragged things around, not someone skilled like a hair dresser.

“My Ex taught me how.”

“Pfffff, what did she threaten to whip you?” Blackfire said as she fought not to grin.

"You know she wasn’t that bad when I first met her…., and doing this kinda thing for her was easy enough…, and just let us bond together." He answered back.

She wasn't expecting that as a response. One she didn't have much of a comeback to. Instead, she sat there in silence for a while as he did her hair. Zac kept at it, unsure for how long he was supposed to do her hair. His ex usually told him when to stop but Blackfire didn't seem to have any innate tell to her. Then again, if she was 'cat like' she probably wouldn't want him to stop till she finally decided to do so. And she'd probably tell him to get back to work if he stopped too soon.

"What was she like?"

"Hmm?" he muttered.

"I’m asking how was your ex-wife." Blackfire stated.

He wasn't expecting that, nor was he sure just how to proceed with talking about her. The few girls he'd been with before hadn't wanted to hear about it though most the time they weren't there for anything else beyond just a night. Blackfire wanting to hear about the woman she was to replace and had been compared to; that felt like one hell of a landmine. At the same time, trying to wiggle out of it could lead to some problems too.

With a sigh he just resigned himself.

"…. That… depends on when you ask me." He said, slowing down his brushes as he thought, "So you can break it down into before and after. And I'm assuming you'd want to hear both."

Blackfire simply nodded but said nothing. Leaving him to go at his own pace.

"Her name was Eliza. We met in high-school. Yeah yeah, roll your eyes about a high-school sweetheart." he started, noting the action she did in the mirror, "At the time she was still headstrong and so sure of herself but at the time people could tell that was kinda a front. That's what happens when you have everything and then have it ripped from under you."

"But she didn't want to bow or scrape to anyone, even with her new status in life; she had her pride still. At least not in front of anyone. I found her crying one day after a rather... public cat fight with some of her old friends. We hit it off cause I helped her out without coming off as pitying her."

"At that time, she was strong and stubborn..., but could learn to change her ways if you really tried to talk to her, get her involved with doing the solution rather than tell her what to do or why it's wrong. She had a bit of a cute side too; she was pretty stylish and was fun to watch her try to make certain outfits work. There was always a blush on her face if you saw her mid outfit assembly. Or when she brunt something in the oven."

"It was the little things like that, the chinks in her armor that drew me to her. And well things went as they did and we got married, had Layla and the movie cuts out then."

"So, what happened?" Blackfire asked.

"...., wish I could say. Maybe if I knew I could have fixed it or saw it coming. But her family was closer to her than I thought, with some pretty bad habits and tendencies. And when they got back into money, they came coming back into her life, going back to the 'good old days' of being on the top. So, she started to fall back into those old habits herself because she had the backing, she needed to get away with it."

"She was turning around pretty well and then basically got a shit ton of cash and told she didn't need to try anymore. So, for as much as you think I was picked for you because I'm some sort of a 'bad girl tamer' or something," he gave a weak shrug, "Kinda failed at doing that."

"You at least tied her down long enough to have a kid." she puffed up her chest as she spoke, "but besides that, it's clear to me you aren't going to be able to repeat that process to me."

"I Dunno. You have anyone in your life?"

"Come again?" she turned her head back to look at him.

"Eliza fell back into her bad habits because she had people she did care about or at least trusted the opinions of come and take her back into that line of thinking. Yeah, I can blame her for being that 'weak' to do that but if it wasn't for her family, maybe we'd still be married. Maybe. You though? Who's going to come along and tempt you into putting on the pirate queen hat again and pillaging planets?" he asked as he kept working her hair.

"I don't know enough about your story, but most the time villain team ups are temporary. So, I don't know if you'd have someone break down the door mid breakfast and ask to go conquer a planet or something. So maybe I could have some kind of effect on you."

"Are you saying you can actually Tame me, Knight?" she growled out as her eyes flashed with power.

"No. Just that your situation is different from Hers." he reached his hand down to tease that spot behind her ears, breaking her focus and causing her glow to dissipate, "You're a bit like her in mannerism, but you're both wildly different in your own ways. So don't feel like you need to compare yourself to her. For better or for worse, you're Blackfire. I mean if I wanted someone just like my ex, I would have still been with her, wouldn't I?"

".... Just keep combing."

He quietly did so as Blackfire sat there in thought.

She didn't want to admit it but he was right...., would anyone even be worried that she just completely vanished? ..., her sister maybe but that was about it. Anyone that would be in a position to care would also be in a position to benefit from her absence anyway. And she was on the back foot anyway, so it wasn't like she had ample minions and servants at her beck and call. Heck, when she got back, what was going to be different?

At least here it was.... different. In a humiliating way yes, but different. Her life had needed a bit of a shakeup but she assumed it would be just go find a new power source not.... getting forcefully married to a human.

"Bah...., it's a road trip at best, one I suppose I've been needing to de-stress." she thought as she leaned her head back further into Zac's hands, "And maybe a more pleasant one that I thought it would be."