Founders

34: Friday July 17, 0200 hours CST: Zach Seeks Comfort After An Argument

Zach thought of Colette after settling Colleen in for the rest of the night. He realized she was already on duty. At least he had kept on her, and that should count for something. He could bother her again starting at 10 AM. He rinsed off in Head A1 and went to work completing his previous workday.

Coming out of Head A1 into Medical Bay A, Ayana was there. "Hey," said Zach, edging past her.

"You've been a stranger," said Ayana, smiling at him. "I heard you had a lot of fun with Khushi yesterday afternoon."

What did she know, Zach wondered. "The movie you mean?"

"Of course the movie," she said with a bit of a look. "Have you guys been doing other things behind my back?"

"The movie wasn't behind your back. Was it? She said she'd invited you."

"Of course I knew," said Ayana. "I found out about it at the last minute, but that has nothing to do with you."

"I didn't know. I assumed she'd spoken to you about it," said Zach.

"Of course you did," Ayana agreed. "Look, there's a weird vibe going on between us. We're good buddies, right? Hey, divide up the crew between us, and all that, right? We haven't communicated since you set me up with Khushi. Thank you, by the way, truly and deeply, thank you Zach." She got very moved and grabbed him in a fierce hug. Zach put his arms around her and hugged her back. Oh, she smelled so good. Well, enough of that, he thought. She continued, "You did us both a huge favor."

Ayana let go of him, looked into his eyes, and continued in a different tone. "You must think I'm an ogre for my recent behavior, but I'm not, Zach."

"I know you have your reasons. Khushi explained them to me. I can see your point of view."

"It's not just an opinion, Zach," Ayana explained. "You don't know what it's like to be a lesbian in India. It's not exactly frowned upon, but it's considered childish, like wetting the bed. A young woman, lesbian, straight, asexual, whatever, is expected to get married and have a big family. She must do it for her family by hook or by crook or be shunned, no ifs, ands, or buts. Especially Khushi. You saw her family."

"I did."

"Then you know how strong her family's expectations are for her. She's been indoctrinated from birth to think not of her own happiness and success, but that of her family. If she steps out of line, her parents would shun her until she stepped back in again. Maybe not even then. They can't know."

"I get the idea, but nothing has changed for her. I still see her pleasing others before thinking about what she wants."

"She doesn't know what she wants!" Ayana said angrily.

"That's exactly what her parents would say," Zach pointed out.

"Except I really want what's best for her!"

"Her parents would say that too," Zach pointed out.

"I'm not proposing a lifetime of abstinence, Zach. I'm talking about only a few months so she can clear her head. And it's something I'm going to be right with her on at every step. In the beginning, we agreed to an open relationship. I need a little sexual variety. She thinks she wants men. She thinks she is not interested in other women, just me. So we decided to go monogamous since she agreed to try this. No outside partners."

Zach knew Ayana was violating that rule despite her promise to Khushi, but on the other hand, he had just cuckolded Ayana, so he had no moral high ground in the matter. "Look, you two do what you want. I don't know anything about being gay. Have you talked to Colleen? Gotten some counseling? Because you two have been fighting."

"Yes, we have seen Colleen, and we'll continue to," Ayana assured him. "We have a regular weekly session. I promise you that I want Khushi to live her best, fullest life, Zach. And I actually hope that includes you sexually. You're a really great guy. If there's any man I trust to treat her right, it would be you. I miss our friendship, Zach. You're eight for eleven, man. I give up!"

"Nine for eleven."

"Shut the front door. You boinked Miss Nobel Icicle?"

"Don't call her that. You know what happened to her."

"What men did to her, yes."

"Men?! In general?!" fumed Zach. "Now you're pissing me off."

"It's not you in particular, Zach," Ayana assured him. "I'm speaking of systemic sexism propagated by men. It continues to put men in positions of power over women. This inevitably leads to the abuse of women. And are you a part of that system? I don't think you can see your way out of it."

"I'm NOT a part of THAT!" Zach fumed, and got out of there quickly before he lost any more of his temper. He got to the other side of Radial Arm Bay A1. He thought to himself sarcastically, well that went well. That was really mature, Zach. He called Ayana. "I'm sorry for my outburst. Anming's torture is a really emotional thing for me right now. My behavior was inexcusable."

Ayana replied, "I'm sorry too. I wasn't trying to imply that you had anything to do with Anming's torture. I honestly don't think that for a moment, Zach. You are one of the best, kindest people I've ever met. I wanted to mend things with you, Zach, and through my careless blabberings, I fucked it up again. I feel horrible."

"Well, I forgive you. Let's keep trying."

"Likewise," Ayana concluded. And the conversation ended.

Zach was still upset at himself and the world, and he didn't understand why. He strode antispinward past Berte's to Colby. In the dark, he lubed his cock. "Hey baby," said Colby sleepily, "Oh ahh slow down, honey. Slow... c'mere. Oh you're crying. It's okay, baby. It's okay. Colby is here to take care of you. Come on now, oh yeah. That's my stud." Then there was a lot of panting and pushing in the dark for a while. Then, "Mmm yeah baby, mmm yeah baby, HUH-AH!" she climaxed as he kept moving in her.

"RRRAH!" Zach ejaculated into Colby. He slid out and patted a towel on her. He got up and put on his scrubs.

"Hold it, buster," said Colby. "Is Anming okay?"

"Anming is great. Anming is fine," said Zach shortly. "I ran across Ayana and we argued. It-"

"Okay," said Colby. "That's all I needed to know. I know your dealings with our crewmates outside of Anming and me are complicated. I'm always ready to listen to anything on your mind, if you want to talk to me about it. Are you talking to Colleen about it?"

"Yes."

Colby chuckled, relieved. "Well you had me terrified, because this is your first night with Anming. I was terrified and having a very deep, satisfying orgasm well up in me, and that's simply unfair."

"I'm not sorry," Zach smiled.

"Don't be!" said Colby. "Have you and Anming just been resting, or..."

"This is where it gets unclear how much I should be sharing," said Zach.

"She's my heart!" said Colby. "She's me. She's sharing our bed, Zach. Tell me everything in detail. Jesus, I'll probably be watching you two go at it tomorrow night. It's not like you need to soft pedal it."

"Okay." Zach looked inwards, trying to do it justice. "We kissed. We talked. We horsed around. Things got serious. I was very worried about her being ready, prepared, not hurting her. She kept begging me to not hold back. Finally, I didn't. She took it like a champ."

"She had fun?" Colby clarified.

"She gave me some kind of review involving exploding into sparkles," chuckled Zach. "Now I'm worried that lightning won't keep striking."

"Calm down and go back to her. Everything will be fine, babe," said Colby. "I need to sleep." She turned out the light. Zach left quietly.

To avoid Medical Bay A1 where he had run into Ayana, Zach walked antispinward to Head B1 to wash up. Perhaps the avoidance was childish behavior; perhaps it fell into the category of self-care. At any rate, he continued antispinward to arrive at Anming's the long way around the rim. By the dim light, he saw Anming was sleeping peacefully. He let her sleep and went to finish his duty for yesterday.

At 4:30 AM Zach was back, and he climbed into bed with Anming. He was tired, but not tired enough to not be immediately aroused by her proximity. He was pulsing hard looking at and touching her naked body in the dim light and remembering her curses or endearments in Chinese punctuated by howls of ecstatic orgasm. He checked her and found her to be not just moist, but wet. The exploration of his fingers roused her some.

He lubed up his cock and spread her as she roused further. He pushed slowly but firmly into her deliciously tight vagina as she emitted a mewing noise. He grabbed her ass and took her in earnest with even more thrilling pleasure than he recalled. He must have been much more tense than he'd seemed to himself the first time. Her regular whimpers began. One of his fingers was lubed up, and he used it to tease her anus as he held her ass tightly and plumbed her, but remembered not to penetrate his finger very far into her anus. Suddenly, she thrashed and fought, but he had her firmly pinned. Her eyes were wide now and bored into him fiercely. Then her expression softened, and she moaned, "Oh, Zachary!" He could feel her hips and legs relax and open more to him, and her arms, instead of thrashing around, grabbed his back. Her nails dug in. After one particularly strong growl and squeak relaxed her, she squeezed her eyes shut and emitted a string of Chinese ending in a wet, full-throated howl. He entered his short strokes and she continued vocalizing loudly, knowing he was close, "Ah! Oh! Oh! Ah! Arrrrrr! EEP!"

Zach climaxed with a "RAAHHH!" and a good big squirt of cum and relaxed onto the bed.

A minute of blissful silence and closeness later, he fetched a towel and pulled out with a splash. Even more than after Colby, he felt gloriously right with the world. He fell directly to sleep.

(To be continued)