Quiet Concern

Posted on Thu Jan 5th, 2023 @ 5:24am by Lottie & Immy
Edited on on Thu Jan 5th, 2023 @ 5:32am

Mission: S1 Episode 4: The Cloud
Location: Slave Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 2 at 2315
2163 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Immy entered the slave quarters she shared with Lottie as quietly as she could. The room was dark, though a nightlight in the corner projected a dull golden light over the room enough for her to see where she was walking. She moved to her bed, grateful she had taken her shower at Jasper's since it meant less noise. She pulled off her green top and skirt and began to silently put on the bedtime clothes she'd laid out for herself before she had left earlier. A pink bikini-strap shirt and white shorts.

"Immy...?" Lottie's voice came softly, almost fearfully from the other bunk. The Trill spotted girl slowly sat up in her bed and looked over to her companion. On seeing it was Immy, she did seem to relax a bit. "You're back, then. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Immy said, though truthfully she was already starting to be sore. She'd experienced things with Jasper she had obviously never experienced before and she was starting to pay the price for it. She pulled on her shorts and settled in her bed, pulling the covers and lying down, hoping her movement toward bedtime would keep the conversation short enough that she wouldn't have to tell Lottie anything. "I'm fine. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Lottie continued to just look over at Immy for a moment and then settled down. "I was just worried about you was all. You were gone for a long time."

"I guess I was." Immy said with an easy smile. She liked having someone who cared about her enough to worry when she was gone. It was a rare thing for people like them. "Well I promise I'm alright, so there's no need to worry anymore."

"Okay." Lottie nodded mostly to herself and closed her eyes. The silence settled between them for a few long moments.

"Immy?"

"Yes, Lot?" Immy answered, her heart accelerating a bit, though she kept her voice calm and sweet.

"Um..." Lottie hesitated and squirmed slightly before propping herself up on her elbows. "You... smell different. Kind of like a man?"

"Yes." Immy said, her mind racing to try and answer that particular observation. She spoke again, awkwardly. "I had a date. He...smells like a man.."

For a moment, Lottie didn't answer. She just lay there in bed frowning to herself and trying to think. Immy had seemed happy to go, but coming home smelling like a man meant that he had been close - very close. She looked over to Immy through the dark, her expression one of genuine concern.

"Are... are you sure you're alright?" She asked slowly, the concern that might not have been apparent on her face in the darkness was certainly apparent in her voice. She perhaps even sounded a bit alarmed by the notion.

"I feel great, actually." Immy said, her brow furrowing a bit. "Why?"

“Well it’s just usually when a woman smells like a man or a man smells like a woman um…” She drifted off and her cheeks flushed in the darkness. “Well it’s because they um…”

"Oh, I see.." Immy said with a frown. She was quiet for a while, before she awkwardly offered "well, Lottie...we did.."

"Oh... oh no. Oh Immy..." Lottie got up and immediately moved over to Immy's bunk and knelt down next to it. She grabbed the other woman's hand. "I'm so sorry. Did he hurt you badly? Let me get you something." She stood and moved over to the replicator. It was extremely limited, but she was hopeful. She tapped in a few commands and smiled as it dispensed what she was after. It was a long strip of very cold, thick cotton. She brought it over to Immy.

"I know this isn't pretty but if you put this in your panties it will um... help with the pain."

“Lottie…” Immy responded, sitting up on her bed and looking at her roommate with kind eyes. “You’re so sweet. This was on purpose; it was my idea, actually. And it did hurt a bit, but only in the ways I wanted it to. There’s nothing to worry about.”

"But I thought you didn't..." Lottie frowned, still holding the strip out to Immy. "You must really like him a lot to go through that kind of painful thing. Do... do you need to go to sickbay? I will go with you. I know it can be scary and embarrassing but they'd help you."

"I didn't. This was an exception. He's...different." she said with hesitation in her voice. "He saved my life earlier and he did it just out of the kindness of his heart. He protected me...like a man protects a woman. It might seem silly to you...or even wrong...but...I wanted him."

Immy took the cloth. Despite her words, it could only help. She slipped it down her shorts and gave a sigh of shock and relief at the coldness.

"He got a little excited at the end is all. I'm going to be okay. Just sore for a few days."

Lottie got down on her knees by Immy's bed and took her hands. She began to rub them gently, trying to comfort Immy from something Lottie obviously interpreted as a traumatic event regardless of if Immy had been willing or not. "If you're sure... but I really will go to sickbay with you if you'd like. It would be okay."

“No, I think I’m okay.” Immy said, not so much perplexed or surprised by the other woman’s reaction as understanding. Sex was, after all, so often a forced or pressured issue for a slave that she wasn’t too shocked Lottie had no context of it being pleasant, desired, or good. In honesty, they were even forbidden to marry. Immy had always felt that was perhaps the most evil rule of all, considering the importance of the family. They were, in the end, harder to control than an individual. “Did you enjoy your cookies?”

“I always enjoy cookies.” Lottie gave a slight smile and squeezed Immy’s hands. She still didn’t look overly convinced that everything was fine, but she didn’t continue to press. “I’m glad you… enjoyed yourself. You deserve it.”

Immy kicked herself internally. She was sure Jasper would have let her order a whole tray of cookies if she had asked, but she hadn’t stopped and thought about it. She sighed; it was too late at this point. Maybe she would be able to do something like that for Lottie in the future.

“I’m not sure what I deserve; never have been.” She said, She’d certainly not lived an innocent life and there was so much Lottie didn’t really know about her. She knew the clean version; the version she could handle.

"Well, then trust me." Lottie gave Immy a smile and finally moved back to her own bed. "I'm really happy for you even if you did have to do... that. I hope he treats you well."

“He was wonderful. Very kind and gentle.” Immy said with a grin as her head met her pillow again. “Haven’t you ever had a man you liked? A crush, even?”

Lottie made a sound between a snort and a giggle at the question. “Oh no. No, that wouldn’t be allowed at all. My former master and his wife were very kind to me and Master made sure I was treated well by his sons and the husbands of his daughters.”

"But still, you never...liked anyone in particular?" Immy probed again. She had rarely seen a slave like Lottie, so perfectly positioned for the life she was born into. Immy was particularly the opposite, of course, since she had been born free, but still, Lottie was a marvel. "Come on, Lot. There had to be someone."

At Immy’s insistence, Lottie considered the topic for a moment longer. She wasn’t sure she really ever did feel what Immy was alluding to, but maybe she had and she just hadn’t realized it. It wasn’t as if she had a mother to explain things to her and she only had the education her masters had provided her with. “There was… a young man that used to help make deliveries to the house that I served. On occasion if I was there to greet him, he would give me a piece of hard candy. He had a handsome face and he was kind.”

Immy listened to what her roommate said with some thought.

“If your masters were so kind, Lottie, how did you come to be a military slave?”

"They did not want to." Lottie said and frowned, pulling the blanket up over her body and up to her chin where she held it. "My master lost all of his money on a bad investment and I was really the only thing of value they owned, so they sold me to the military because they gave the highest offer."

Immy considered the idea, picturing Lottie being thrust out of the comfortable bubble she had been used to. As far as slaves went, Lottie had been highly sheltered, safe, and cared for, it seemed. The only masters she ever had cared nothing for her and treated her well because she never made trouble, or at least never got caught.

"That must have been very...painful for you." Immy said, understanding why Lottie hadn't had too much opportunity for crushing on boys.

"It wasn't easy, no." Lottie confirmed with a slight frown. She sat up and pulled her knees to her chest. "My masters and their other slaves were the closest thing I had to a family... I know that sounds really stupid but I didn't have anyone else."

“That doesn’t sound stupid.” Immy said, having heard something similar from many other slaves. She herself had been deprived of her mother when she was enslaved, and she was the only family she’d known. “I’m sure you’ll have a family again; you actually do deserve it, unlike some. Maybe you’ll find some man you really like and start a family of your own one day.”

“Maybe, though the military tends to not like to free their slaves. We have had some exceptions but given the journey we are looking at, I don’t expect more.” Lottie pointed out. “I don’t think I could do what Eritrea did and I don’t have the skills Tuli has.”

"Well, if you could, would you?" Immy asked, watching Lottie and waiting for more than her verbal response. "Be free, I mean? Is that what you want?"

Lottie was quiet for a moment and considered the question. “I don’t know what I would do with myself if I was.”

It was the honest truth. Lottie had been a slave since birth. She had been raised to be a slave, educated to be a slave, housed like a slave; there had never really been even an inkling of freedom in her life. Her first masters had been very kind to her and treated her well; they'd invested so much time into her it really felt like they had cared. She played with a strand of her hair absently and looked over to Immy. "Maybe cook."

“If you find the right man, that won’t be a problem.” Immy said. Many of her solutions seemed to revolve around having a man fix them for her, so this statement was par for the course for her. “I could see you being a little house wife…unless you meant working as a cook..”

“Um, I was just thinking of working as one. I'm a good cook and… well, not many people want to marry someone like me. I’m Stannei, that doesn’t really help prospects.” Lottie noted and absently reached up to touch her spots on her temple.

“There are other Stannei, Lottie.” Immy said with a smile. “And many men who won’t care once they see how beautiful you are, inside and out.”

“Maybe so, though I don’t know that I’d want to bring a child into the Terran world with Stannei blood or lesser.” Lottie sighed and shifted to lie back down. “We should go to sleep. I’m glad you’re alright and you had fun.”

Immy said nothing for a few seconds as her mind worked. Perhaps it was because Lottie was one of the kindest slaves she’d ever met or some residual endorphins from her night with Jasper, but she felt particularly good. She pulled her covers closer to her face and her eyes fluttered closed.

“I’m glad you’re my roommate, Lottie. Goodnight.”

"I'm glad you're mine too. Goodnight, Immy. Sleep well." With that, Lottie shifted onto her side and curled up to sleep. Morning always came early.

END