Kent/Feldspar

[videointhenoise]

"Just once more," they had said when Ellie's team petitioned for it. She was busy with Palmer, falling in love with science while he fell in love with God, and Kent was left to pick up the pieces. He wanted another damn go at it. The Machine had a pricetag in the billions; it was begging to be used again.

But they wouldn't let Ellie go. They wouldn't let just anyone go. They wanted someone who knew how it worked, who had been there from the beginning, but someone who isn't completely taken in by Ellie's words.

That leads them to a dozen people and they end up with Kent. He's blind, but that's not what decides it. They claim that he wouldn't hallucinate the way Ellie did. That he has a unique perspective.

And, he's already proven himself steady and loyal.

He experiences it all the way that Ellie does, but something goes wrong on the other end. Maybe another terrorist attack. Maybe not. All he knows is that he's in the sphere and then, suddenly, he's floating, unable to find his footing until a great crash and he slams into the bottom of the machine.

He groans, pulling his helmet on with a grunt and a wince.

"Fuck this," he mutters, finding the edge of the sphere with his hands. There was a door there somewhere. He just - has to find it.

Comments

[videointhenoise]

Kent stands up and joins them, chuckling as he rubs his chin. "Well, we're never going to hear the end of it," he says, gently sliding his arm around Feldspar's shoulders.

"We have a saying at home. 'In for a penny, in for a pound.' Means - we're already in trouble, so we might as well keep going."

[getfeldsparred]

“This crater is too small,” Feldspar mumbles, still looking out from the front door as the sounds of giggles slowly fade away.

They shut the door and sink back into Kent. “Oh yeah? Is that the logic we’re going with here?”

[videointhenoise]

"Why not?" he asks, tightening his arm around them. "After all, we don't know what the hell we're doing. Not really."

[getfeldsparred]

"I know in theory what to do, but in practice...yeah. Uh..." They turn and slip their arms around Kent's shoulders. "Guess we'll just have to find all that out, won't we? If we...if this...I mean, if it'd even work, right?"

[videointhenoise]

Kent casually pulls them to the bed and sits down. "Depends on what you mean by work? We can just go back to the kissing."

[getfeldsparred]

Kissing works. Kissing works really well. They fit really well together, or at least their mouth and lips do.

"Let's...yeah, let's do that some more," they agree, leaning forward to kiss him again. They go for deliberately sweet this time, just to shake it up.

[videointhenoise]

Kent smiles, holding them close, kissing them back with gentle hands along their back. And once he's out of breath, once he has to pull away, he cups their face and grins. "Alright. Alright, I think we need to - talk logistics."

He smiles to himself, resting his forehead against their shoulder.

What the hell is he even doing? He never wants to stop.

[getfeldsparred]

They groan in protest. No, no talking, just more kissing! More and more, they want everything that can be thrown at them. But Kent has that science brain, all planning and logistics and thinking, and Feldspar falls back against the bed, letting him fall too if he's leaning too far.

"I don't want to talk logistics, I want to keep kissing you. Can't we just do that tonight and worry about everything else in the morning?"

[videointhenoise]

"No, because if you keep kissing me, then I'm not going to let you go tonight," he warns them playfully, letting them fall back on the bed. "And you'll have to stay here. All night."

[getfeldsparred]

"I don't see how that's supposed to be a threat." More like the best sort of promise, spending the night with his best friend who they definitely didn't just kiss. And then kept kissing. "You've slept with me before. I'm a good bedmate."

[videointhenoise]

He sighs and stands up. "Yeah, but I was three seconds from lying on the floor. Do you know how hard it is to pretend that I haven't wanted to do that for - a long time?"

He reaches up and rakes his fingers through his hair. "I feel like I'm a kid again. And not in the good way. I was popular, you know. I had girlfriends. I didn't want girlfriends, but I had them," he laughs.

[getfeldsparred]

It suddenly occurs to Feldspar that they could probably push their fingers through Kent's hair now too, if only he'd come back to the bed and lie down with them.

"I wanted to kiss you too," they tell him simply, as though that was the point. "Probably since you took off your helmet. You're handsome. I think Gneiss said it when I first brought you back, and they were right, of course."

They fold their hands and rest them on their stomach. "What's the issue? Aside from the fact that we're both biologically and culturally very different."

[videointhenoise]

Kent shakes his head, leaning against his desk. "There is no problem. There's just - the unknown. Which I try very hard to get through every day."

But he can't stay there. Feldspar grounds him, as strange as that is, so he joins them on the bed again and takes their hands. "Guess we can try this your way, though. I'm not actually opposed to it."

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar sits up as Kent sits back down, holding his five fingers with a kind of reverence. They squeeze his fingers and brush his knuckles with their thumbs.

"I don't want to feel like this is difficult. Here, let's fix it. I like you very much, do you like me?"

[videointhenoise]

Kent laughs because he knows how he sounds. He knows that he sounds absolutely crazy.

Hell, he sounds like Ellie. Overthinking everything. That puts it a little more into perspective, and he is able to bring himself back to this moment, with Feldspar holding his hand.

"It's not difficult. And yeah. I'm crazy for it, but I do." He leans over to kiss him again.

[getfeldsparred]

Kent probably is crazy for it. Everyone knows that they're a mess at the best of times, and a disaster at the worst.

But he likes them, and Feldspar likes them back. They kiss Kent softly and pulls back again. "Then there's nothing complicated about it. If you're worried about stigma, that's not a thing here."

[videointhenoise]

"I am," he murmurs in between kissing him and lying down on the bed. "Worried about what people will say about you. They love me, after all." He slides his hand down their back. "Maybe you talked me into this."

[getfeldsparred]

“That’s true,” Feldspar nods, pulling Kent even closer, hooking a leg over his hips. If they do something Kent does like he’ll just tell them - they have faith in his ability to advocate for himself.

Feldspar takes Kent’s head in their hands, finally able to touch him exactly as they want to.

“Maybe I did. They wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. If I set my sights on something it’s impossible to get me to give up on it.”

[videointhenoise]

"Poor me," Kent teases and automatically raises up against them, rocking his hips close.

He realizes just at that moment that he and Feldspar haven't had any talks of anatomy beyond flirtatious initial conversations...and that maybe the bulge against Feldspar's leg might be a surprise.

Well, that's for later. Kent is enjoying the kiss.

[getfeldsparred]

Everything’s kind of new; Kent’s body may be Hearthian-shaped, but he’s definitely not Hearthian. There’s long hair and a brush of some kind of hair on his eyes and face, his mouth doesn’t purse like a Hearthian, his ears are small and delicate, his nose lifts - there’s bound to be a lot of differences underneath his clothes. Feldspar would be a liar if they said they weren’t eager to explore his body.

They bring Kent’s face close and kiss and suck on his lips, marveling at how warm he is, how soft his skin, how good his mouth tastes. They have another taste, dipping their tongue back into his mouth to lick at teeth and tongue and lips.

[videointhenoise]

Kent happily opens his mouth to them, deepening the kiss again and again, pressing his fingers into their back. He trails those fingers down along Feldspar's spine and marvels at the strength of the muscles there. He can feels scars and bumps and tense knots and he massages his fingers along them.

He pulls back to catch his breath, sliding one leg around their's.

"Clothes off," he finally decides because, like them, he wants to feel them.

[getfeldsparred]

Clothes off. Oh. They weren’t expecting…

That’s so quick.

Not that the blood’s not rushing to various parts, and Kent’s face is flushed and they’re both starting to sweat, their kisses becoming hot and heavy, everything feeling kind of hurried and desperate.

They sit up and start to pull off their belt and tunic, the civilian clothes underneath their flight suit. Then they go for Kent’s shirt, hands shaking slightly from adrenaline as they pull apart the buttons and see more hair.

“You’re hairy here too…” they marvel.

[videointhenoise]

"Yeah, that's how we keep warm," he chuckles, running his fingers along their chest. "Otherwise, we'd freeze to death."

He sits up to kiss them again. "This alright?"

[getfeldsparred]

“Yeah,” Feldspar says without an ounce of hesitation in their voice. “Yeah, I want to see you.”

They pull apart Kent’s shirt even further and stop. There are little puckered…nibs, for lack of a better word, at the peak of Kent’s very strong-looking pectoral muscles.

“What are these?”

They touch one, first with their fingertips and then with their thumb when the skin starts to respond.

[videointhenoise]

Kent swats their hands away playfully. "Nipples. Useless in males. Females use them to feed babies. But they're...real sensitive still." As evidenced by how he squirms under them.