Of Salt and the Seas of Titan

As Keen tried to introduce himself, and was seemingly unaware of how hot he was, Alex struggled to form words. Keen had to repeat himself "Do you need help?", to which Alex responded "Yes???"

He knew the moment he'd answered, how weird it sounded. Of course he needed help. Why did he send off the beacon if he didn't need help? And why had he just answered with a question? His brain seemed to be like slogging through molasses, even the kind made with all chemicals since the maple trees all died. He gathered his thoughts, and tried again, though this time, he didn't manage to make actual words... instead saying something more like "yeaap", but whatever, the sexy stranger had seemingly understood.

Alex finally managed to introduce himself, and started to explain what had happened, only stopping once he'd realized that he was babbling, and that Keen was just silently staring at him with a slight smile.

"And now it's broke, and I have no spare parts", he finished with, trying to regain his composure. It didn't help that he was definitely super hard, and Keen hadn't yet noticed it yet, or maybe he'd noticed and was just too polite to say anything. Alex wasn't a prude, and had no issue with nudity or sexuality, but he also wasn't used to having an erection while interacting with a complete stranger whom he needed the help of. Even as his underwear and shipsuit did it's best to cover it, Alex couldn't help but glance down for a moment, noting that yeah, it was definitely very visible. As he looked up, he realized that his glance had caused Keen to follow his eyes, almost like Alex had made him look.

On Keen's part, he was really trying not to look, but when Alex glanced down, he followed, and found him staring at something that while maybe not a record breaker, could definitely would've definitely been gold or double platinum back on earth. His bulge appeared to be threatening to break out of his shipsuit, the zipper in the center pushing out like it had been through the wash too many times, even though the suit otherwise looked new. Keen's mind instantly went places he didn't intend it to, but he did his best to tamp down these emotional escapades before he too started presenting something of his own to Alex.

Keen tried to steer the conversation back to the issue at hand, trying to ignore what else he could do with his hands in this moment. Which he kind of really wanted to do, but I'm pretty sure there has to be a law against groping a stranger in an airlock. If there wasn't, there should be one, so that he could break it.

"Are you any good at re-wiring astro control panels? Mine is shorted out, and I don't have spare parts", Alex concluded with.

"I'm amazing with my hands, let me take a look at it, we'll see what comes up." Keen responded with, as he realized that he had definitely just hit on Alex, and hadn't even meant to do so. "I mean, we can probably fix it, I have a ton of parts on my ship, I'm sure I can find something that fits you." Damn, he did it again. At least he hadn't mentioned using his tongue.

Alex escorted them to the bridge, which wasn't exactly a far float in his ship, more like turning around and moving a few feet out of the airlock. He pointed to the control board, which was half-disassembled already, and Keen drifted over to take a look. As he peered into it with a flashlight, Alex moved over to take one of the pilots chairs. As he did, he didn't notice that he was drifting a bit, and accidentally bumped into Keen while he was bent over slightly looking into the innards of the board. And by bumped, I mean bulge to butt, with just the slightest amount of momentum. Alex accidentally moaned slightly, and uttered "ugghn, sorry", as he pulled himself into the pilot's chair. Alex was dying internally, he knew there was no way that Keen would have failed to notice this, and worse, he hadn't exactly been quiet in his own response, though he'd done his best to cover it up by moving to the pilot's seat. He exclaimed "Better lock in these belts, don't want to be drifting around, right?" trying to change the topic and cover up what had just happened as quickly as he could.

For Keen's part - he wasn't sure what to make of that, other than for a moment, once he realized what he was feeling, he had a second of fear that his interrupted session in the shower had come back to haunt him, and he was going to explode in his underwear. If that wasn't enough, the smell of vanilla was even stronger here, next to Alex, almost like he was producing it himself. He managed to not let Alex see his own hardon, and instead leaned further into the panel. But as he did so, he realized that he was basically exposing his ass to Alex, and while one wanting to stop doing exactly that, but two, was overcome with a lot of new thoughts, that he'd never really considered. Like what would it feel like? Could he even take something that big? He'd be the top, right? Or would he? He'd be open to experimentation. He liked trying new things anyway.

Keen hid his own reaction by saying "umm yeah, looks like this is a goner, you need a lot of new chips here.", and definitely not turning around in that moment, lest Alex see that he wasn't the only one turned on. Keen continued "I have a lot of spare parts in my ship, I probably have a control board that we could use to swap with this one, and get you back flying in no time", as he carefully maneuvered himself into the other pilots seat, trying to shield his semi from Alex's view. "Let's take this over to my ship, find something similar, and come back and test it", Keen concluded with.

As Keen was talking, Alex was doing his best to not stare at Keen's ass, which looked really good in the shipsuit. Like really, really good. Like could he touch it? No, that was probably crossing a line. But what if he just reached over to adjust the strap on the other seat? Or handed him a tool? He did have a tool to hand him, but... no, that was definitely crossing a line.

Keen drifted off, for a moment, before returning to the topic - "We can just take my shuttle over, pick up a replacement, and be back in an hour. And I even have a hot shower if you're interested."

As he said it, Keen realized that he'd just asked Alex if he wanted to come over, and get naked in his bedroom. Did he really just ask that? He didn't mean for it to sound like that, but in his head, he was already picturing Alex taking a real hot shower, gravity and all. Water droplets sliding down his chest, over his tattoos... so 'wet', in so many ways. Ripping his focus back to reality for a moment, he lamely concluded "if you want to, that is."

Alex didn't say anything for a moment, only looked with concentration, like he was trying to solve a puzzle in his head. His tongue was stuck out slightly as he concentrated (omg his tongue, it's so long), and then seeming his puzzle solved, his face returned to a smile (with dimples!) after a moment. He responded slowly "Sure, we can do that, if you're okay with having a stranger on your ship, that is. I promise I won't bite, much."... and the moment he said, it he was blushing, in realization of what he'd just said. Normally, that was a simple joke, but his mind went straight down into the deepest gutter in existence, and he was suddenly imagining a hot shower, Keen in it, and his tongue doing amazing things to Keen's sexy ass. Things that were definitely considered illegal in most of the settled colonies, and well worth getting arrested for.

Alex tried to cover up his awkward pause, realizing that he'd been fantasizing about Keen for long enough that it was almost certain that Keen had noticed something was off. He quickly pushed out of his seat, and twisted quickly, trying to hide his ever present and growing "present", so to speak. But in doing so, he twisted just a little too fast, like a junior space eagle, and also like a space eagle, ended up somewhat spread eagle, with a lot of parts of him a lot closer to Keen's face than he'd intended. Big parts, as it turned out, and turned out again. He quickly grabbed a handhold and pushed off into the kitchen area, trying to pretend that did not just happen, he hadn't just put his hard cock right in Keen's face repeatedly.

Keen for his part, showed impressive stoicism, as he did not stick out his tongue or any other part of himself, as much as he really, really wanted to.

Fortunately for both, the moment passed, and Alex tried to be the gracious host of his tiny little ship, and asked "Do you want something to drink? I have water, and... and water", with yet another awkward pause, this time for a totally different reason. Keen could tell that there was something in the pause, but chose not to press it, instead accepting the water pouch and trying his best not to ignite as his hand momentarily touched Alex's in the exchange.

Both did their best to ignore the inner struggles that each was encountering in that moment, while neither realized that the other was having the same exact struggle too. Both opened their water, and drank deeply, and after his first sip - Keen commented "Your water tastes a lot better than mine!", which immediately caused Alex to blush with the realization that the water recycler cycle was pretty short, so Keen wasn't just drinking water, but in fact, a little of himself there too. This seemed not like the right moment to mention this, not if he wanted to get back home ever again, so he held his tongue, and ignored his ever present cock trying to burst out of his ship suit. It was getting hard to the point where it kind of hurt, like he needed to cum soon, but he couldn't do that here with Keen on his ship. This little ship had zero privacy... which gave Alex an idea - he needed to go to Keen's ship, which must be bigger if it had its own shuttle.

Instead of even acknowledging Keen's comment about the taste of the water (and his taste of him?), Alex instead said "Yes, we should go to your ship, I'd love a hot shower, I haven't had one in months!", which definitely did not cause either of them to picture the other naked in the shower, in the slightest.

Keen got up, handing the empty pouch back to Alex to use again, and responded "Oh yeah, you'll love my shower, it's huge, you can fit two or even three people in it!", and then both of them were definitely thinking about naked shower time together, there was no hiding the huge and awkward pause that followed.

They both moved to head into the airlock, and accidentally bumped hips and legs in the process, which both ignored the mild sparks, real or imagined that had just occurred. Alex realized that he was jumping ahead to get on someone else's shuttle, which was impolite, so he pulled himself back and gestured for Keen to go first. And it had nothing at all to do with seeing Keen's sexy ass as he floated through the tunnel between the two airlocks, not at all. Alex glanced over at the controls, to see that the ship was still scanning, and more or less still in orbit, but slowly decaying. He'd only have a few more days, maybe a week before he'd have to either fix the ship or abandon it, at this rate. After a final glance at his home to make sure it'd all be okay, he cycled his own airlock closed from the outside, and glided through the portal between the ships.