Lana sat down at the kitchen table with a book of andyne fairy tales.
"So uh..." said Arin, filling the kettle and putting it on the stove. The kitchen was just off the living room, on the left upon entering Arin's quarters. The hallway that branched off to the right led to Arin's bedroom, the bathroom, and the office, which contained the laundry closet.
"Make it so, Captain," said Lana, smirking. "What's up?"
Arin rolled her eyes, brushing her wing feathers on the counter in annoyance. "A whole library at your disposal and you're reading my homeworld's stupid fairy tales?"
"First of all, it's not at my disposal," corrected Lana, sitting back in her chair. Her yellow hair hung in a loose ponytail, clashing spectacularly with the bright red color of the fuzzy pajamas she wore. Arin wore a similar pair of fuzzy pajamas, modified for her large, sparrow-colored wings with a strap that buttoned in the back. "You forget that I can't go to the library myself. Robbie brought up my last batch of books for me, and I think he gave me the ones he picked out to read by accident - he's on an anthropology kick right now."
Arin rolled her eyes. "Even if you got the wrong books, why would you want to read something as gory as andyne fairy tales at the breakfast table?"
"Arin, it's a quarter to two in the morning, breakfast isn't for another three or four hours." Lana yawned, stretching.
"I'm just saying, andyne fairy tales are the absolute worst," snorted Arin. "Have you read all of the Crimson Changeling books? Or the Werewolf Astronaut series?"
"I've read every Crimson Changeling book out right now, twice, and your brother recommended the Werewolf Astronaut series to me yesterday." The switch on the kettle clicked, and Lana stood up while Arin poured her mug of tea. "I'll go start up Quark-Nado 6 where we left off." Lana gave her Arin peck on the cheek as she left. It was still weird thinking that since midnight, it had been September 28, the day before Arin's birthday. Arin didn't want to think about it, nor about how old she was, and busied herself with preparing the tea.
Arin glanced at the clock on her oven as she passed: 1:49 AM. Arin tucked her wing around Lana, settling in on the couch with her tea for Quark-Nado 6: The Quarkening. Lana dimmed the lamp as the movie resumed, except the lamp wasn't the only thing that dimmed - everything else did too. The television blinked out last, and they were left in total darkness. Lana moved to sit up, but Arin held onto her with her wing.
"They're doing maintenance on the power grid for a few hours tonight," sighed Arin. "I forgot all about it - but I have emergency lanterns if the dark bothers you."
Lana didn't say anything, but stopped trying to get up and cuddled up to Arin. They sat quietly for a long moment; the usual low buzzing and machine noises they were both so used to hearing was replaced with a hollow silence, punctuated by the distant echo of rain outside.
"Is your bedroom window still open?" Lana asked Arin.
Arin's stomach dropped, reminding her how full her bladder was: it wasn't difficult to hold at the moment, but after all the tea she'd had that night, it wouldn't stay that way for long.
Lana pulled away, sitting up. She overbalanced as she started to stand up, and caught herself heavily on one hand - directly on top of Arin's bladder.
Arin yelped and Lana scrambled to her feet. Arin hadn't leaked yet, but she'd come dangerously close. Lana's hand found Arin's in the dark and pulled her up off the couch. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to fall on you!"
"You must really want to close that window," grunted Arin, just barely containing another bladder leak.
Arin's bedroom was lit by the muted glow from an industrial floodlight outside; the ship was at an aircraft dock for maintenance work, which was lit to daylight-levels at all hours. In that light, it was easy to see that the window was closed.
"See? I remembered," sniffed Arin. Lana plopped down on Arin's bed with her book.
"And there's enough light to read by!" said Lana, giggling when Arin groaned.
"Well, what else are we gonna do?" asked Lana.
Arin took a deep breath and recited: "Well, Lana, this *is* a smut piece-"
"I'll do whatever you want if you read a story with me," insisted Lana as Arin sat down next to her. "Please?"
"Deal, but...why though?" asked Arin, though she was already snuggling up to Lana so that her head rested on Lana's breasts, and her leg straddled one of Lana's thighs, so that her bladder pressed up aginst Lana's knee.
"Because when the power goes out, you read books," said Lana matter-of-factly.
Arin yawned "It's not 'out,' it's just turned off for a few hours." She leaned over to look at the titles in the book's table of contents. "And all of these andyne bedtime stories are um...terrible. Can we try another book?"
Lana squirmed. The books were all out in the living room, stacked on the cabinet next to the tv. "But it's dark and we're comfortable...there's a myth from my world you might know. It's not gory, and everyone doesn't die."
Arin didn't reply. There was a long, awkward silence, during which the splashing of rain seemed to make Arin's bladder fill faster. She had the brief urge to just let go right there, lying across Lana, but she was already comfortable too, and didn't want to have to get up and change the sheets in the dark.
Arin broke the silence. "Lana, you can start the story whenever you want."