Tomas sat in his quarters packing to depart for his most recent assingment. He was torn about how he actually felt about the whole thing, especially now that he had been given some time for it to sink in. He had been informed that he'd be making a trip to Tadath, make a few appearences, and answer any questions the younger men and women had about the Navy.

On the one hand, Tomas was quite upset about having to embark on such an assignment. For one, this was supposed to be one of the rare periods of time where that he had completely to himself, the kind of times he really liked to kick back, relax and enjoy. Instead he was being sent on some mission he knew the Vast Empire had other personnel that could carry it out.

Having said this, Tomas couldn't help but feel proud of himself. He had been chosen for this assignment specifically. He was a poster boy for the Vast Empire Navy, and to him that meant something. The higher ups must have seen something about him in deciding he was the one for the job.

The squadron commander's last concern was with the choice of target planet. Why the High Command had chosen Tadath, the planet holding the headquarters of the Army was beyond him. He couldn't help but think that this would lead to trouble, namely to him should he encouter any of the ground pounders while there.

Once packed and ready to go, Tomas made his way to the assigned hangar and shuttle that would be taking him to his destination. He was surprised to see Mira sitting up on a cargo container when he entered the hangar, her feet dangling over the side.

"What are you doing here?" Tomas asked puzzled. He hadn't been told of any company, and was on his own as far as he knew. Mira giggled her most mischievous laugh.

"Guess they wanted to appeal to both sexes, and I daresay they chose a good pair to do that," she replied with another laugh and a wink. Tomas simply blushed in response, before liftinging Mira down off the container.

The shuttle trip in itself was nothing out of the ordinary. The personnel on board basically consisted of the two pilots, Mira and Tomas and as a result the two Vipers had a fair amount of privacy back in the passenger portion of the ship.

Tomas was hesitant of doing anything, as although they were on their own one of the pilots could come back at any time to check if they needed anything, or who knows what. He was already regretting the kiss in the hangar, unsure why exactly he had gone through with it and extremely thankful that no-one had taken notice. It was a dangerous game they were playing and frankly, Tomas did not want to take any more risks than necessary at this point.

On this occassion, Mira had no problem with it slipping into the seat next to him and settling into one of the portable game systems he saw her playing so often. He had a suspicion that she even played these things while out on patrol missions too, but now was not the time or place to bring that up. At the current time it simply felt unnecessary.

Mira grew bored of it after a while and to Tomas' surprise, curled up into his shoulder and fell asleep. With little in the way of pillows on board the shuttle, Tomas relaxed as well figuring nothing would seem out of the ordinary should a pilot come to wake them up.

With Mira's warm body pressing against him, Tomas found it difficult to keep his own eyes open and eventually fell asleep himself, using Mira's body to support him just as she was doing likewise.

OOC:

Okie Mira, feel free to write whatever you want from here till when we get to the hotel (or you can cut it shorter, I just want to write about the room mix-up. :P

By his reckoning, Tomas had woken back up with about a half hour to go before they reached Tadath. On the other hand, Mira was still curled up and fast asleep on his shoulder just as she'd been before. The only distance now that Tomas noticed, was a lack of feeling in his arm. The pressure of Mira's body had apparently cut off the blood-flow enough for it to stay asleep. He wanted so badly to move it, as it was tingling and numb, but at the same time Mira looked so cute as she slept that Tomas didn't want to wake her up.

Instead, Tomas was resigned to using his eyes to look around the compartment they were in, as well as taking fleeting glances out the viewport at the hyperspace outside and later the system itself as the shuttle emerged from hyperspace.

As the ship entered the atmosphere, Mira jumped slightly from the turbulence causing Tomas to chuckle. He couldn't help but think how cute she looked as she yawned and stretched.

"So we check into the hotel, have some off time then tomorrow head to the recruit table?" Mira asked with another yawn.

"Well hello there sleepy-head. Yep, that sounds about right." Tomas quickly regretted the first comment, as Mira punched him in the arm who at this time had just started to wake up itself. Sharp feelings of pins and needles shot through it as a result, causing a gasp to be released. Tomas hid it as best he could, knowing that only more such pain would result if Mira found out.

Out of convenience, the hotel itself had installed a shuttle platform for instances just like this. As the two Vipers disembarked, Tomas watched the ship disappear over the skyline. It, or another shuttle like it would be back to pick them up when the mission was over and done with.



"You've got to be kidding me!" Tomas spoke in outright disbelief.

"I'm sorry sir, but we've only got the one booked for you. Your superiors made no mention of needing a second one when they made the reservation," the clerk explained gently.

"Well, is there anything you can do about it? A second room perhaps?" Tomas asked, though secretly hoped he and Mira would be 'stuck' in the same room for the duration of the trip.

"Once again, I'm sorry. There is a provincial grav-ball tournament running at some of the nearby arenas. The hotel is booked solid with teams of teenagers, their coaches, parents, the like." Tomas let out a mock sigh.

"I guess we'll take it then."

"Very good, sir. We really are sorry for the inconvenience. Here are your keys, and you will find the gravlift around the corner. We will have your luggage delievered to the room in about an hour."

"Thanks," Tomas managed to reply taking the keys and handing one to Mira before moving off in search of the lift.

"Only one room, eh? Ooooooh." Mira said with a giggle as they entered the lift and began the climb upwards.

Opening the door to their room, Tomas couldn't help but gasp. "Well would you look at this? The Navy went all out on this one?" The room itself seemed ginormous, especially compared to their quarters back home.

As Tomas stepped further inside, Mira checked out the refresher unit. "Oooooh, it's got a jacuzzi and everything!" She exclaimed as she returned to the main room. "And ... ooooooooooh."

"Heh, yeah..." was all Tomas could reply.

"Only one bed! Shotgun!" Mira called with a laugh, before diving on the bed and spreading out her limbs such that she covered the entire thing.

"Errrrr, uhhhh, I guess I'll take that repulsor couch then." Tomas replied, looking off into the corner.

"I'm just playing with you silly, now come here." By now Mira had sat back up, her legs dangling over the edge. As she finished her laughing, she bounced up and grabbed Tomas by the collar pulling him down on top of her.

Tomas sighed, he hated seeing Mira feeling so dejected and unloved but the bottom line was that he truly wasn't ready to take that next step. It wasn't that he didn't want to, he just feared by pursuing that path it would take away from all of the specialness that they had. At some point soon he felt he go to that next level, but now just didn't feel like that time. When he was ready, there was no doubt in Tomas' mind that he would make it memorable. Maybe not the "act" itself, as he had heard the first time could be a bit of a letdown, but he was determined to make Mira feel special beforehand and reward her handsomely for her patience.

Now that he was alone, Tomas decided to take a closer look around their hotel room and also picked at some of the food now abandoned and left to cool or melt, whatever the case may be. Eventually, Tomas wandered out to the balcony. No one could really see us from here, it was just another excuse. Tomas sighed. The balconies were 'dug in' to the structure, causing walls on either side to block the views of their neighbours. Even the traffic of the planet hovered by several floors down.

In the end, Tomas resigned to laying back on the bed still clothed in what he was in before. That was ... until Mira burst into the room.

"You still aren't ready yet?!?" she complained. "We're gonna beeeee lateeeeee." Despite her complaining, Tomas was having a hard time believing it as her solution was to pounce on top of him. Unable to get up and change, Tomas failed to see how Mira intended for him to get ready while in such a position.

"Wouldn't that make the actual changing part a bit hard to do, not to mention slower. I thought we were in a hurry?" Nevertheless, Mira had already placed her hand over Tomas' eyes and proceeded to remove her top rather deftly for only using one arm. The pants on the other hand were a different story as she hopped on one foot trying to get part of it off her leg. Her bouncing had also caused her hand to move around, giving Tomas glimpses of her scantily clad form. The drinks didn't help either as she struggled to get her first leg out of the pants, before tumbling to the floor. Tomas laughed as he tried his best not to look.

"You know I could have just turned around, or closed my eyes." He stated before turning and looking for the clothes that he had been planning to wear. "Hun, have you seen my shirt?" They'd only brought so much stuff, causing Tomas to wonder how he still hadn't found it. Digging to the bottom of his bag, Tomas finally had found it and stood up still with his back turned to Mira. If Mira could be confident enough to strip right there, he figured he could too removing his pants and reaching for the other pair on the bed.

"Hey!" He yelped with a jump. Something had grabbed his rear end and considering there was only the two of them in the room it was obvious what it was. "Mira!...." Tomas protested, what had started as a yell, ended much less fierce as Tomas turned and found Mira right up close to him, this time in only her undergarments. Her only response was a giggle as she threw her arms around his neck and attacked his lips with her own.

Tomas went to catch Mira before realizing that the bed was there and figured there'd be less danger if he just let her fall. He reached out reflexively again when she bounced slightly, but once again relaxed as  the woman came to a rest. He would not have heard the end of it had she bounced off the bed onto the floor and he had done nothing to prevent it. Then again, with how much she appeared to have drunken he wouldn't be surprised if she giggled it off and pulled him down with her.

"I'm a bad girlfriend, aren't I?" Mira asked through the bedsheets. Tomas was surprised he understood what she had said, as between her face pressed into the bed, and the slightly slurred voice it was kind of hard to make out. He'd never seen Mira so drunk, in fact as he thought back he had a hard time remembering times Mira had decided to drink at all. Well there was that one time...

"C'mere yous," Mira had said, roughly grabbing Tomas by the collar.

"Mouse, you feeling alright?" Tomas replied, pulling back and looking into the girl's eyes.

"Whereja going doll?" Mira said stumbling after him, her hand tracing its way down his chest.

"Uh Mouse ... MOUSE" Tomas said, fighting back a yelp as Mira's hand found its target. "We can't do this." Tomas knocked her hand away and retreated backwards. There was no escape route, as Mira backed him into a wall. Tomas' eyes went wide as he scanned for an exit path.

"Luver boy, what's wroooong?" Tomas couldn't understand what was going on. He'd never seen Mira drink a drop previously, and tonight she had decided to go all out and was now beyond wasted as a result. He couldn't see anyway out of this and thought he was a goner when Mira's eyes closed and she began to throw up. Tomas wasn't sure how but he barely managed to get out of the way.

Needless to say the remainder of the night, as well as much of the next day did not go well for Mira. Tomas had taken it upon himself to look after her. It turned out she didn't remember anything come the morning, which come to think of it was probably better off.

"What? No. Why?" Tomas replied reflexively. He sat down and gently pet Mira's hair. He hoped this wouldn't be a repeat of that night, though it seemed she was at least a little more composed this time around. Satisfied she wasn't going anywhere fast, Tomas got up and collected the remote before returning to the bed. "So what do you want to watch?"