Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Three (section)

===Physical Therapy and Other Euphemisms===


Alex awoke again.  Freya had removed the shirt from the clock and flicked the lights on already, and was sitting in the corner of the room, reading a slate.  She noted his rising breath and smiled at him.  “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Alex grunted, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.  “Wow, it’s local eleven?  I’ve never slept in that late,” he said.

Freya pulled the shirt on, letting it hang to her thighs.  “You feeling better?”

“A bit.”  He sighed.  “I guess I can just go and-”

“Bup bup bup, no gloom and doom,” she said, waving a stern finger.  “Go see what the day’s schedule is.”

Alex blinked.  “Schedule?  What?”

Freya passed him on her way to the bathroom, waving him to follow.  Bewildered, Alex rose and followed her into the room.  She was posing by the bathtub, smiling seductively.  Alex noted with interest that the lights were now a dim red, and the empty tub was ringed with, of all things, scented candles she had acquired somewhere.  “…Interesting,” he said.

“Isn’t it?” she asked playfully, sauntering up to him and slowly sliding her arms around his waist.  “I felt bad for making you miss the workout this morning, so I figured we could just have a workout here, instead,” she explained, running her hands down his back.  “Nice…thorough…deep-muscle workout…”  Alex struggled to keep a grin from breaking out on his face and failed.

“I see.  Any…particular reason…the tub struck your fancy?” he asked, as he ran his own hands up her rock-solid frontside to lift the shirt away.

She snickered.  “Well, we’re going to be spending so much time here today, I wouldn’t want to gross out the chambermaid…and goodness, you’re just going to be a hot mess when I’m finished with you, may as well not have to go too far to clean up,” she whispered, guiding him back to the lip of the tub.


As lunchtime arrived, Jake proposed the group make a point of returning to the nearly abandoned café they had used the previous day, which they at least knew would be nice and quiet.  As they arrived and placed their orders, Remilia spoke up.  “Venus, that was amazing.  That gallery…and the Salamanders just MAKE that stuff?”

“Mountains of it,” Venus replied.  “The seven Sanctuaries and Prometheus station, the Reclusiae of the larger ships, the temples in the deserts…they all look like those.  Most are actually bigger than this one,” she said.  “This is the smallest Sanctuary.”

“Absolutely incredible.  My hands were itching when we went through the hall with all the wall-mounted sculptures.  I felt like a shoplifter,” Jake said.

“Well, you didn’t take anything, and nobody seemed to resent their Princess admiring their work, so I think it went all-good,” Venus said happily.  “And that one Battle Brother was pretty impressed with your little spiel.”

Jake winced.  “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent.”

Venus chuckled.  “I think he was more amused and maybe relieved, really.  I think he was afraid we wouldn’t understand any of that stuff.”

“Well, I did, and it was amazing.  That large ceramite block carving, the one with the silver face mask set into its surface?  You could fetch sixty million credits on Terra for that, without breaking a sweat,” Jake said.  “Sixty mil, cold.  More at auction.”

“Wow.  How do you know that?” Remilia asked as their drinks arrived.

“Remember when I said my grandfather designed watches?  He sold the prototypes at auction.  I’ve been to several,” Jake explained.  “Amazing places.”

“Cool.  Want to stop by an auction house tomorrow?” Venus asked.  “See how Nocturneans barter?”

“I’d love that!” Jake exclaimed.


Alex let the frothing, soapy water rise to his chin before gesturing the faucet to switch off.  He was so tired, even that took a few tries.  Freya’s promised workout had finally concluded after two hours, and as the candles burned themselves out around him, and the fans cleared the air, he felt, for the first time since his father had left the Star for Clymene several days before, at absolute peace.

He was leaning back on the sloped side of the tub, feet splayed out before him.  Freya was straddling his legs, resting her entire front against him from the stomach up, her own legs drawn back outside his.  She had been in that position for nearly ten minutes at that point, since her final round of energetic lovemaking had sapped the last of his strength, and seemed content to stay put.  She was resting her chin on his shoulder and had both arms wrapped around his neck.  She hadn’t moved as the water rose up their bodies, and had remained still as he turned it off.

The sound of the fan was the only thing in the room as they rested.  He had worked her pretty red hair free of its braids in an idle moment some time before, and it fanned out in the water, turning the water under the red lights of the room into a deep, bloody crimson.

She was listening carefully.  The sounds of his body attempting to recover from its exertion were familiar, and primally relaxing.  Tuning her own sounds out, she listened contentedly to his muscle chill and contract as the water washed over it, and heard the blood in his neck pulse and flow as she rested her head beside his.

Though she would have been lying to say that the motive behind her workout had been completely altruistic, and in hindsight could have picked a more comfortable pose, he was in no shape to complain.  The fans clicked off as the ambient water and heat in the air dropped down to near-normal levels, leaving only the sound of their faint, labored breathing.

Finally, he stirred.  “Freya…thank you,” he whispered.

“Any time,” she murmured.  “Well.  Maybe not any time, those candles are expensive, but on special occasions,” she corrected.

His chest budged a fraction as he tried to laugh.  “…Still.”  He very gradually slid his arms around her waist under the suds.  “I feel…” he trailed off.
They both closed their eyes and let the moment stretch on.  It had been sex, sure, but somehow, they both wanted it to be more than that, too.  It was a mutual desire, easily granted.  Freya leaned her head sideways a fraction, pressing it against his sweaty hair.  “Alex…I love you too.  You know that, right?”

Alex’s eyes didn’t move.  “I do,” he whispered.

“Good.”  She let out a long, relieved breath.  “Just making sure.”  She kissed the bare flesh of his shoulder, which was sun-scarred from their stay on hellish Nocturne.  “I may check again, later.  To…err on the side of caution,” she informed him.

“Feel free,” he said.  He slid his hands down to her legs and squeezed her calves.  “Mmm…hey, let me up,” he said.

“No.”

“I gotta wash my hair,” he slurred.

She grabbed a shampoo bottle and poured some on his head, then worked some tub water into it with her hands.  “Let me,” she said.

He closed his eyes again as she went to work, all business.  She scooted another few inches up his torso as she did, and he felt her breasts knock into his face.  He had to stifle a loopy giggle, as his brain chemistry was still out of whack, and for some reason, it was the funniest thing he had ever felt.

As she rinsed him clean at length, he opened his eyes again, looking up at her with a tired grin.  He lifted his hands slightly, beckoning her to turn around.  As she did, he grabbed the same bottle and returned the gesture, squirting some of the chilly substance into her luxurious red hair.  As she sank back onto him, he slowly massaged the red mass with his hands.  “So…aside from…playing doctor, then playing dress-up…what do you have in mind for today?” he asked.

She rose up a bit more against him, until her head and his were level again.  “Mmm…a lazy afternoon watching shitty movies…poker with the guys after a take-out dinner…then falling asleep in your arms after writing home.”

“Sounds good.”  Alex ran some water through her hair, washing the shampoo away, and leaving it glistening under the red room light.  He slid his hands over her stomach and down to her waist, leaving them to rest against the aching muscle.  “Did I strain you?”

“No, I’m just a little sore from overuse,” she reported.  She slid back down his front a little and splayed her hands over his.  “Ahhh…I regret nothing,” she dreamily said.  She grinned as she reviewed the past two hours in her eidetic memory.  “Healthy, growing boys need their exercise.”

Alex smiled.  “So do athletic, growing girls, it seems,” he said.

“Yup.”  She snuggled back into his arms with a sigh.


The two teens enjoyed their blissful soak for a while longer.  When, at last, Alex found the strength to stand, and regretfully reported that further activity at that point would have been agony, they dried off and staggered into the bedroom, sinking into the bed in front of the holoscreen.  Venus had rigged all of their holos to play off of slates as soon as she had arrived, and Freya started a random movie on the screen before curling up on Alex’s flank.  After less than ten minutes, he had drifted into a doze, and she switched the holo off.  She lay in silence next to his muscular frame, listening.  He was relaxed, wonderfully so.  She indulged in her loving audio surveillance for a few minutes before tugging a blanket out of the pile of spares on the dresser and draping it over his bare body.  She then gestured the heat down and cuddled up next to him, keeping them both warm.  She let her own eyes close and drifted off into a peaceful nap.

A knock on the door roused her, around an hour later.  She blinked sleep away as she quickly donned a shirt and peeked out the hole.  Discovering her visitor to be a chambermaid, she opened the door a hair and smiled apologetically.  “Sorry, but we’re staying in today,” she whispered.

The serf sighed at the irregular occurrence, but nodded assent and moved on to Venus’ room.  Freya slid the door shut and padded over to where Alex was still fast asleep, pulling the shirt back off.  She leaned over him and nipped his ear, rousing him.  “Hey.  Wake up.  It’s local afternoon.  If we sleep much more, you’ll be awake all night,” she said.

Alex shifted a bit, rising onto his arms.  He looked up at his girlfriend, admiring the way her hair draped down over her chest and shoulders.  “If you say so…”