Chapter Text
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01
In The Cave
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Kind of out-of-the-blue, isn't it? Some cold highlands cave isn't exactly most people's idea of a good time… then again, none can say we spartans aren't used to the roughest of the rough.
Six crossed her legs again, then folded her left arm across her body in a bar stretch.
Well, you're here, she's here, at least one of you is certainly interested, and you've both got time to kill… is there really any harm in asking?
Kat unclasped her helmet, putting it down gently beside her. "Hey, Six," she called.
The other spartan looked up, fixing her eyes on Kat.
"Tell me to get bent, if I'm out of line," Kat said, her tone deliberate. "But… well, wanna fuck?"
Six's eyebrows rose - and stayed that way, much longer than her usual passing twitches that passed for expression. She didn't speak up immediately, and when she did, she sidestepped the question.
"Is this a common advance?" Her head tilted. "Casual sexual encounters between members of a fire team?"
"Not, ah… not uncommon, depending on the fireteam," Kat replied. "I'm given to understand it's pretty widespread, in the regular marines and infantry. Rarer in the spartan corps, what with our unusual hormone profiles, but extant."
Six continued looking at her, though her surprise had already relaxed back into a neutral look. Or at least, as neutral as one could be, when sitting unmoving, making direct eye contact, and seldom blinking.
Under the stare of the mismatched eyes, Kat suddenly felt rather small, and she looked away quickly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have, and I won't bring it up again."
"I did not say no."
"Huh?" Kat looked back just as quickly. "...I guess you didn't, did you."
Six shook her head, and somehow her expressionless gaze managed to convey an analytical air. "Are there contemporary examples of such encounters occurring between spartans?" She asked. "In defiance of anti-fraternization rules, that is."
Kat shifted uncomfortably. "Well… I don't want to kiss and tell…"
"Noble Three and Noble Four."
Her voice carried just enough inflection to sound decisive, and Kat hung her head. "Yes. Those two are, as they say, an item."
"I suspected so." Six brought a hand up to her mouth in an almost exaggerated thinking pose. "Searching out their tells was useful practice."
"Seems dangerous to me," Kat said, her voice growing darker. "Sex is just, well, sex… but a close relationship like that seems like asking to be hurt. After all, we series-threes are made to die."
"But spartans never die." Six put on an actual smile, and Kat wondered if she meant to be mocking - since the expression certainly came across as more than a little plastic. "They only go missing in action."
What the hell? Miss stoic, silent and down-to-earth, spouting that old poeticism? "Hah. Very clever, Six."
"My answer is yes, by the way."
"... Oh."
"How does one go about this?" Six was already reaching for the tension clasp on her collarbone, which had to be undone to access the outermost of the five zippers that went into sealing the armored gambeson.
"Go about… what?"
"Fucking."
"How does one - wait. You've never done this before." It was a statement, not a question.
Six nodded.
Fuck, not even a quickie in an empty locker room in boot camp? Must have been an unpopular kid. Practically everyone in Beta Company managed that at least once.
"Dammit, Six," Kat groaned. "That's… awkward. Do you really want your first time to be in some damp, cold cave?"
The other spartan glanced out at the misting rain, then back, at the bare rock of the cave floor. Finally, she looked back to Kat. "It will do."
"You're sure?"
"Do you intend to rescind the offer, Noble Two?" Six's voice remained as opaquely even-toned as ever. "I do not intend to rescind my acceptance."
Kat looked at Six for a long minute, and finally, she shrugged. "I guess we're doing this, then," she said, reaching for the plating clasp under the back of her left gauntlet.
Six watched attentively as Kat removed the armor, plate by plate. When the vambraces and rerebraces were removed, she finally spoke up.
"May I help you?"
"Sure." There was no way to make a graceful task out of disassembling a MJOLNIR mkV-B armored battlesuit, but two pairs of hands could cut eight or ten minutes down to just three - and sure enough, with Six's help, it took less then a hundred and fifty seconds to strip down to just the black undersuit.
I wonder if she drilled rapid arming and disassembly… she's certainly got quick hands.
When the last plate of cerulean alloy clattered to the ground, Six reached for the tension clasp on the collarbone of Kat's gambeson. As the elastic fell open, Kat almost went for the same clasp on Six's undersuit, but Six was as quick with the fastenings and zippers of the under-plate layers as she had been with the metallic exterior. In a scant few seconds, she was detaching the white right sleeve, then pulling it off of Kat's shoulder; a few seconds more, and she was peeling the membrane layer open and pushing the suit material down Kat's arms, leaving her clad only in the armor's thin dragline-silk undergarments.
Kat pulled the peripheral clasps and zippers open herself, and wriggled her shins out of the lower legs of the suit. That done, she spread out the gambeson on the flattest section of the rock floor to be found.
"Not exactly a queen sized bed, but it'll do." Kat quickly shucked off the silk, then reached over to get Six's peripheral zippers. Though the other spartan did not shift her expression, a tiny noise of surprise escaped her, and Kat noted it for future reference as she helped Six out of her undersuit and placed the other gambeson beside her own.
Though still clad in the silk - little though the tight, gossamer-thin shirt and shorts left to the imagination - Six reached over to Kat, touching her fingertips and then palm to the bare skin of Kat's shoulder just above the collarbone. It was light, hesitant, but Kat could tell she was curious.
Kat took ahold of Six's hand, stopping her. "Don't worry about me," she said, a smile playing over her lips. "I'm ahead of you in this game, aren't I? Let me make you feel good."
For a moment, Kat almost thought she saw a look of confusion in Six's eyes, but the other spartan nodded and let her hands fall. Her gaze was back to neutral, almost clinical, but seemed to track over Kat's body with great attention to detail.
Kat resisted the urge to cover herself like a bashful teenager. "Like what you see?"
"Yes."
It was a whole word, rather than just a nod. Kat wondered if it meant Six was flustered; if so, it certainly didn't show on her face.
Kat touched the hem of Six's silk shirt, but the discordant sensation feedback brought her to a sharp halt, and she looked down at her hands - one, flesh and skin over bone, the other, polymers and silicone over titanium. "I… do you want me to disconnect this?" Her left hand ghosted over the anchor point in her right shoulder.
"No." Six tilted her head inquisitively. "Why would I?"
Looking away, Kat flushed. "It's not… not quite a human hand. I'd understand if you'd think it felt strange, or -"
"Do you want to touch me with it?"
Kat frowned. "What do you mean?"
"If you want to touch me with your right hand, then I want to be touched by it," Six said patiently, taking Kat's artificial hand between both of her own.
"Oh." Kat looked into the dark glass and glowing green optics assembly in Six's left eye, and felt a little silly, then, for worrying as she had. "I do want to touch you, then."
Six nodded then, dropping her hands and leaning back a little to give Kat better access, just as tight-lipped as ever. Kat frowned as she reached for the hem of Six's shirt again. "Six… I know you don't, well, talk, when you can avoid it," she murmured. "But I'll need feedback here. I'm not a mind reader. If you don't like what I'm doing, tell me, okay?"
A nod, then a blink. "I… will speak up if I wish you to stop," Six confirmed, her voice soft.
"Good." Kat pulled on the fine fabric, and Six obligingly lifted her arms, wriggling awkwardly out of the final layer of cloth. The shirt mussed her short hair, leaving it standing on end; Kat would have laughed at the sight if she wasn't a little wary of coming across as unkind.
The other woman's skin was a detailed map, telling the secrets otherwise hidden under the black ink in her duty file. All spartans were scarred, even the young ones, but the prevalent theme for most of them were the skin grafts of plasma burns - sometimes with needle starbursts or the neat lines left by energy swords. In contrast, Six's body was almost exclusively adorned with shrapnel marks, knife scars and even a few healed-over bullet holes. Until Noble Team, Six had been a slayer of men, not aliens.
She twitched when Kat touched her, shivering, and Kat almost pulled away. "You good?" She asked, worried all over again, but Six nodded.
"You can lie down, you know." The padding of two armored undersuits wasn't quite a mattress, but the hydrostatic gel layer was a much better cushion than bare rock. Kat wasn't entirely sure if Six could parse the difference between a suggestion and an instruction, but either way, the other spartan let herself sink back onto the material.
She still seemed so tense. Though she didn't shiver or twitch away again, Six clearly wasn't very relaxed.
Kat halted her touches, laying her hand flat on the center of the other woman's chest. "Still alright?"
Six opened her eyes, nodding, although her heart rate didn't slow.
"Well… you just seem really tense."
"I always become tense in unfamiliar scenarios," Six replied seriously, and Kat let out a soft chuckle.
"Cute way of putting it." Kat's voice turned serious again. "But, I don't want you pushing yourself into this on my account."
"I will speak up if I wish you to stop." The calm repetition didn't ease Kat's worry as much as she would have liked, but Six was an adult; there was only so much worry that could be appropriate, before it came time to simply let the other party make their own decisions.
So, Kat moved her hand again, drawing tantalizing trails around Six's breast without ever quite centering in. She brought her other hand up, touching the side of Six's neck where it met the shoulder, and Six let out a tiny gasp.
"Good?"
"Good," Six echoed, her tone a little less even than before.
Emboldened, Kat ran her hand her hand higher, tracing the shell of Six's right ear as her other hand found a nipple.
"Ah!"
"Good?" Kat couldn't help but grin, although she tried not to be too smug about it.
"Yes," Six hissed. "Good. Very good."
High praise indeed.
Kat went to touch Six's left ear, but was met with a very different reaction. The other spartan yelped, jerking away. "Stop!"
"Sorry." Kat withdrew her hands immediately. "Not there?"
"No. Not…" Six blinked, sighing softly through her nose. "Not that side of my head, or neck."
"Got it." Kat tilted her head. "Stop for good? Or -"
"No." Six reached out quickly, grabbing Kat's right hand. "Continue."
"Alright." Kat backtracked into safer territory, and she felt the tension begin to bleed out of Six's muscles as she touched her. As Kat's fingers drifted lower, if anything, the assassin seemed more relaxed than she had been before.
Maybe she just needed tangible proof that she can say no?
"Ah - ahaha," Six squeaked, squirming a little, and Kat's grin might have lit up the whole cave.
"Are you - damn, are you ticklish there?"
"I - I think so."
"That's cute as hell." Kat moved her fingers again, encircling Six's hips with her hands. "Still good?"
"Yes."
Kat didn't waste any more time. Six gasped, squirming as she had before - although she was pushing into the touch, this time.
"Good?"
"Yes," Six replied, her voice breathless. "I think."
"If you need me to stop, just say the word."
Six nodded, closing her eyes - for a moment, at least, before Kat moved her fingers again. There was a hum rising in the back of her throat.
Never would have guessed she'd be one to make a lot of noise.
The other spartan was already wound up like a clockspring. It only took anither minute or two before she twitched, her eyes closed tightly, and her whole body seized up with toe-curling tension. The hum became a gasp, a series of sharp breaths - and then trailed off into soft laughter. Real laughter, not a ticklish giggle.
"Are you - are you laughing?" Kat's tone was incredulous.
Six just nodded, her eyes still closed. There was a bright smile on her face as she rolled over, snaking her arms around Kat's midsection.
"Ісус Христос." Kat half-heartedly tried to push Six's arm aside, but the other spartan only clung tighter. "A cuddler? I'd have believed it, maybe. But, damn, I didn't think you could laugh."
Six let out another short chuckle, but then appeared to sober up in the span of less than a second. "Neither did I," she replied, her voice quiet.
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