Reaching Alignment
Font looks wonky in my submission text box, so sorry if some or all of it is in Noteworthy. Anyway, an Otter and his boyfriend return to Terra(c.AD2700 Earth) and shit goes down. Don't worry, though, the tears are from joy. I didn't want to end with a sex scene because it felt wrong. And if I tried it would never be done on time.
As fun as weightlessness is, I was rather glad as the shuttle landed. Six months planetside, and I was looking forward to it. Two hours of decontamination, another two for the blood tests to come back and I was on the lawn in front of the shuttle station. As I was taking deep breaths of air enriched with life, feeling the blades beneath my feet, there was a young Russian Blue and his tabby girlfriend were exchanging bit of saliva for the first time in well over a year.
Someone's getting welcome-home-from-space sex tonight. I looked to Devon, "shall we?"
"Oh Myles," was all that I got before the most beautiful corgi ever had his arms around my shoulders and our lips touched. I felt him. I returned his kiss, one of the most intimate things one can do. Sex is a close second, though. We proceeded to fall over. The grass feels even better with my corgi in my arms.
That's what you get for twenty-four months on a station with spin gravity. As your body naturally adjusted to the lurch of being thrown against the edge of a ring, it was weird when you got back to natural gravity without the boat rocking beneath you.
After a minute of just laying there with him in my arms, we burst into laughter as we lay there. A ten minute walk, a twenty minute metro ride, and another five minute walk hand in hand led us to the building we rented from. Two flights and 3C was getting stabbed with the key from my pocket. As soon as the door is closed behind us, my hands grabbed Devon, one on his side with the other caressing his face with webbed fingers. A beat. His eyes are green and I love them. I hold him as close to my body as possible, my lips against his forehead.
We weren't pressed for time, or catching a few hours of sleep as tests ran. With his hands on my back, we were just holding each other. I let go, and so did he. I looked around, "well, loves like Maven got around to dusting last week like I asked. Now let me see..."
"Where are you going?" I heard as I went to the kitchen cabinet, reaching in the back.
"I promised myself that if I thought it proper, it give this away as soon as we were planetside," I quickly removed the box, so as to preserve the surprise. "Remember how you got my to apply to the Phaeora team fount out in September?"
"Yeah," a puzzled flick of the ear.
"And how I was accepted?" my hand held the box in my pocket.
"Yeah," a small droop, I hoped to God he didn't think I was leaving him.
"And how you told me it would do wonders for my career even if I had to leave the Terra I know forever?" my rudder tail flicked.
"Yeah," he looked down. Dammit, Devon, you know better!
I got down on one knee. Who knows why we still do that? I pulled out the box and opened it to him, "I can bring a spouse along, and I spent the last month pitching you. If they like you, they'll even put you in the same lab if we can prove we aren't teenagers abou-"
"Stop talking, you silly otter," tears were in his eyes as he saw the emeralds set in white gold. He nearly tackled me and I held him even closer than before.
"So you ready to make our list of things to do on Earth?" I wasn't letting go.
"Sure," but he knew we couldn't hold each other forever.
I got up and offered him a hand before taking out a notepad, "oh yeah!" I picked up the box and took out the ring. Back on one ring, "so was that a 'yes?'" A nod. I slid the ring slowly onto his finger. I kissed him for the second time today and picked up the pencil.
"So, let's see..." I titled the list and made the first bullet, "I'll do one, then you. Hmm... Ice cream!"
As I scribbled, Devon gave me a skeptical look, "get married. Really Myles, ice cream?"
I added stars and hearts next to this one, "it sounds so much better when you say it. Go again. That one is for both of us."
He has the most beautiful smirk, "now you're writing like a teenage girl. Fine... Butterflies."
Half an hour later, two sheets of bullets outline what we'd be doing the next six months. Leaving a planet was hard. And I was glad variable nat-grav terraforming was a very lucrative business. And a project on Phaeora would be even more so once it took off.
"So what about MBeta? Do we just leave her?" My ears flicked to my corgi's voice. Apparently someone had entertained running away to another planet for some time. Or was hoping to get a jump home for a year when the project was finished. Though it helps to have lived six years in space.
"Oh, well I called up some of my best grad students from last time we were planetside, and recommended the lab call them up if any openings arrived. They're fresh, but Harrison and Detke can fill our places, they work hard enough," I had my arm around his waist.
"Well I'm glad for them," a nuzzle against my chest.
I held his hand, "though now I'd like to engage in sexual relations with my now fiancé in a real bed instead of a cot or the pansy showers in the middle of the night cycle."
"You have such a way with words, Myles," that smirk again. How does he manage it? I guess that's why I popped the Question.
"I don't see a protest," I proceeded to pick him up wedding style. When I opened the bedroom door I saw the bed nicely made. Maven is a wonderful landlord, no matter what anyone says, "it's so pristine, we can't have that."
Hands grabbed and groped as civvies were strewn about. I groped Devon's thigh as I looked into his deep green eyes, "I'll go. Try not to cum, though, I want to sleep tied to my special puppy."
No matter where we went, you will be my home. Forever and for always. Till death, and even then, I will love you from the stars. Every twinkle a kiss from whatever Heaven lay waiting for the kind. Never shall we part.
I made love that night so sweet as to only be surpassed by my our wedding night. I love him still.