Work picks up again, and any romance with Garwa is put on hold.

It had been a few days since your encounter in the hall with Garwa, which you had been thinking about almost constantly since then. On top of her in the hall like that, her soft body pressed against you, not a care in the world. That was until about 25 minutes after that she started turning a different shade of gray, and not a good one. She said she didn't regret it, which you believed her, but she was also embarrassed about having to refill her helmet from a water fountain.

You kept wearing the amulet in your off time-- safety regs forbade you from wearing jewelry while working for obvious reasons-- which always made Garwa flustered. You had asked her why yesterday and she was barely able to string a few syllables together before you just smiled at her, which completely stole her ability to talk. Today, you were trying to hack the maintenance ticket computer, Garwa keeping you company.

"The band's really great, been listening to their discography for a bit now, you should really come to that concert with me in a couple weeks." you spoke aloud to Garwa while trying to gain root access to the terminal.

"I don't know, it just doesn't translate well into water like you might think." Garwa watched a jury-rigged system monitor, watching for if a system admin took notice of what they were doing. "But if you want me to go, I'd love to go with you Mr. Zambac." You smiled as you could hear her smile.

"We're off-shift, Garwa." you chuckled

"Sorry, Michael, being in here flicks a switch in my head. Any progress yet?"

"I'm getting there... and... yes!" You excitedly looked up at your main monitor as windows started cascading all over it, each one an individual ticket, the flurry of White, Yellow, the occasional orange, and the bursts of reds made your smile disappear though.

"By the Seas, that's a lot of red..." Garwa slowly stated as the screen went from mostly white to red and orange, until becoming totally red.

"How? How even?" You wonder, how was the station functioning? Was it held together with holograms and paperwork? "I-- uh, okay, lemme just..." you plug your personal tablet into the computer and quickly download all the service tickets. "We're going to be busy for a while here, that's for sure. Think everyone can handle double shifts? I might even do triples." your hands shake slightly.

"Michael." Garwa said, coming over and placing a hand on your shoulder, "I think everyone will be more than willing to do what it takes to keep this station fully operational. Just don't forget to relax, okay? And if you need some help with that..." Garwa pulled you into a hug, your head resting on her chest, "Just let me know." You closed your eyes for a moment and relished being held by her, and her softness.

"Thank you." you reply.

You had spent the rest of the night going through the red tier alerts and sorting them by priority. Then sending them in packets to the rest of your team in pairs, obviously you and Garwa were together. This particular ticket was not extremely delicate, just guiding repair drones along Ring 1 to replace radiation shielding, rivets and bolts.

"Garwa, saying I wouldn't need a condom is kinda alarming." you furrow your brow and look over at her, her eyes still glued to her drone controller.

"No, no, Mr. Michael, If you want to, you can, I won't stop you. It's just, It's only necessary during my fertile phase of my cycle, if we're even compatible like that. But I've only kissed you without my rebreather on, an-and I would really really really love to feelyouonmyskin" Garwa said, decreasing in volume and increasing in speed

"What was that?" you cock an eyebrow

"S-Selanians have reproductive cycles in both sexes. Males have a 1 month cycle, and Females a 2 month. Most of the criteria for selecting mates in history was seeing if their cycles lined up, but that's not a concern now and human males don't do that, right? You can always-- you know." Garwa spoke quickly

"Garwa, of House Chosam, are you getting flustered on shift?" You tease

"Maybe" she repsonded cutely

"And, you're assuming we have compatible parts."

"We do!" Garwa responds very enthusiastically, "Sorry, I've been doing a little, well, a lot of research. Selanian and Human genitals are surprisingly similar in form and function, except mine become internal when not in my fertile phase or just very, uhm, aroused."

"Is it retracted right now?" You say without looking at her, guiding a drone through drilling out some corroded bolts holding Ring 1's struts together. The noise Garwa's rebreather made was weird enough to make you look over to see her clinging onto the console she was at, "Don't wreck your drone over there, Garwa." she shot you a look and you winked back at her. You noted that her suit was getting incredibly tight again, guessing that she hasn't gone up a size or two yet.

"It's not." she suppressed a moan, "And, I'm almost done with my side of repairs. Are you?"

"Almost, but after this it's cleaning the nutrient distributer on Ring 3, I'm absolutely amazed that there hasn't been more of a stink about not being able to use any of the cafeterias on that ring for a few months."

"And after that, it's the end of the shift, yes?" Garwa came over to you and wrapped her arms around you from behind, her hands tracing over your torso sensually.

"A quick break, then second shift."

"Mr. Zambac--" she started

"Garwa." you docked the drone and turned to her, "I would love nothing more than to get you out of your suit and explore every inch of you body," you gripped her in your arms, "But I also need to make sure the place we live doesn't fall apart." You frowned slightly as you could feel her almost deflate in your arms.

"It's lasted this long, maybe it can last one more night?" she pleaded, you were surprised at how much emotion she was putting into your interactions since that make out session, maybe this was a side only shown to mates?

"And I don't know how it did. So please Garwa, just a week or so and then, we can take some time off work and spend as much as we want together, okay?" your hands cradled her head, her own hands clasping over yours as her eyes looked up at you.

"You have a deal, but I am going to start my fertile phase by that time, so.." she trailed off again

"so..?" you blushed a little

"So, I'll be very, ah, needy." she tilted her head and maintained eye contact.

"Well!" you coughed slightly, "Fulfilling needs is what I do, right?"

"Yes, and, you do it very well, Michael." Garwa nuzzled her head against your chest for a moment. "Let's get going, there are some details I'd like to talk about on the way to the next ticket." Her stomach growls as she picks up her toolbox, "And I'd like to get a few bites to eat."

"So would it be better to meet in my apartment, or yours?" You ask grunting while prying a rusted bolt off a gyroscope. The thing so misaligned it was having people walk on walls.

"Your apartment, I would like to focus on you, and I would be far too full of eggs for what I want to experience with you if I were to host." Garwa said as he helped push the wrench. This special wrench was almost three feet long, specially made for the huge bolts of these machines

"Why would that mean focusing on me? What about you?" You pulled on the wrench further, steadily making progress in degrees per minute

"Because, my uh, you call it a vagina? Needs to remain immersed in water, so I would need to wear special underwear. But don't worry! Most of my pleasure will be from my tet'thal." Garwa explained

"Tet'thal?" You asked now at a position of pushing down on the wrench.

"Oh, there's no translation, it's the other skin tone Gunna mentioned that one time. Mine is cream colored."

"You punched Gunna for even mentioning it."

"Things are different now, Michael." she winked at you. That was new.

"Wha-What about your skin, and your suit?" You stammer slightly as you finish this rotation of the bolt, only a few more to go.

"If you set your room's humidity to the highest setting allowable for you, then I should be able to spend about two hours outside of my suit." Garwa helped set the wrench again and started pushing it up.

"My room will be a sauna" you say with slight exasperation.

"Just means you'll get to see me all glistening." Garwa replied coyly. You almost fell off the wrench. "Y-you do want to see me, right?" she asked almost so quiet it wasn't picked up by her rebreather.

"What?" you stop entirely and look at Garwa with concern, "Of course I would." You put a hand over her shoulder, "What-- why even ask that?" Garwa also stopped.

"I-- my body is, All the other women on the station are so thin, and I'm not, and--" her rebreather hissed a bit, clearly indicating rising distress.

"Hey, Hey, Garwa, c'mere." you pulled her into a hug, Your mind raced as to what to say, a misstep might mean the end of it all, but you wanted to-- needed to-- be honest with her about how you felt. You let go enough to you could look into each other's eyes. "You are the most beautiful, and most attractive, and ravishing, stimulating, arousing, and enchanting woman on this whole station." you pause, "You know, I haven't been able to stop thinking about that kiss in the hall we had a few days ago, and I've been wanting more ever since." You try your best. Garwa looked up at you, her head slightly bobbing in place as if deep in thought. She silently nuzzled her head back against your chest.

"Thank you so much, Michael."