A Matter of Time

They hadn't anticipated the ringing in their ears, or the fact they'd break such a heavy sweat. Martin and Vicki Rochester clasped to their arms around one-another's head, their legs entwined. The couple let go of one another -- slowly, almost fearful.

So much could have gone wrong in this process. Did they get everything right?

"You OK?" Martin asked, as he started to cough himself.

Vicki's eyes were bloodshot. She squinted as some sweat sprinted down her brow.

"Good," she said, then started to cough herself.

Martin shook his head, looking around them. It was in the predawn hours -- as they'd intended. If all went perfect, it was currently 3:43 a.m., Sept. 1, 1989. Vicki lifted the FluX devise up to her face. The handheld computer shimmered with its own light, 132,309,043 binary numbers zipping along its face. She dragged the fingernail of her pinky along the bottom, and the face went black.

Vicki's heart almost stopped. FluX was their lifeboat, their compass and their tracking device.

FluX went back to gray, and then lit up. It hummed, chirped and settled.

"Talk to us, FluX," Martin said.

A woman's voice spoke from it softly. "Time is: zero-three-forty-three, Sept. 1, 1989."

The couple smiled. That was a long time from 2023, where they'd started their trip a few moments ago.

"We did it," Martin said, pulling his wife's face to his for a kiss. For 35 years, they'd worked on this program.

They'd worked for decades for this moment. A moment that brought them back decades. Humans had traveled to the Moon, uncoded the human genome and now traveled through time. All within 100 years. It had been a bloody -- but productive -- century.

"Yes, we did," Vicki acknowledged. And now, they had a small mission.

The couple were in their mid-50s. They'd been together 35 years. And at this place, 1989, they'd just moved in together a few weeks ago. And they wanted to set a few things straight.

The grass around them was wet from dew. It was Bryant Park, about 10 blocks south of the campus of Indiana University. The sense that they were alone was positive. They'd done their research. At this place, they were close enough to their apartment. At this place, they were far enough from suspicion.

Vicki leaned forward and kissed her husband.

"Well," she said, "seems like we've got a few hours to kill."

They'd been wearing simple styles for people their age for the late 1980s. Both were in khaki shorts and feeling pretty ridiculous in their shirts.

"This is like something my grandmother was wearing," she laughed a month earlier, back in their time, when they were finalizing the details. They both wore fanny-packs, which looked ridiculous but would come in handy.

It was 3:45 a.m. and they'd spent some moments looking at the stars. Breathing the air. Kissing, just a bit. They were a couple that had been through a lot, but were together.

Vicki knew Martin's intentions through his movements. He'd touched the inside of her elbow and her knee at the same time. They were alone, aside from FluX and the crickets in the nearby bushes. She kissed him back and pulled him close.

"We've never made love in 1989 before," she said.

Martin laughed. "That's just ridiculous. That needs to change."

He unbuttoned her multicolored blouse and moved it onto their only other piece of luggage, a knapsack he'd brought along that they'd bought in a second-hand store. Originally manufactured in 1987 and still in good shape 37 years later. His wife's skin was known to him, and while older, she'd eaten healthy and stayed active all her life. She had her wrinkles, but she was still sexy.

Martin sucked along her neck as she scratched down his broad shoulders and back. She hesitated, just momentarily, and then pulled him closer to herself. This was going to happen.

Her hands ran through his steel-gray hair as he kissed down her chest. Her breasts rose toward the stars as his mouth sucked and his tongue flickered along them. They'd made love thousands of times and fucked hundreds of times -- there was a difference -- and this was an instance of making love.

He kissed softly down her belly and pulled her khaki shorts off. He smiled as he could see, through the help of FluX's glow, her tattoo she'd gotten during their honeymoon. Three stars along her hipbone. He ran his tongue along her panties and knew she was wet for him.

"Quietly," she said. Sure, they had fake IDs in the knapsack, but police involvement wasn't a goal of their mission. However, she was horny. She'd read about the first woman who went to the Moon a few months earlier, and how horny she was after getting back into the lunar lander. That wasn't intended for public distribution, but in 2022, information leaks quickly.

It made sense. She felt like this on her honeymoon -- after the awkward moments -- just wanting to have sex. She was wet and feeling wild. Vicki put her hand onto her husband's shorts, feeling his stiffness. He'd never needed ED drugs, and she always appreciated that. She rubbed him through the fabric, unbuttoned the shorts and deftly unzipped them. He hadn't been wearing underwear and his shaft was free for her to pull.

She licked her palm and rubbed him.

At the same time, Martin licked two fingers and rubbed Vicki's clit. They put their sweating faces next to one another, kissing slightly, but mainly preparing. Their breathing was still heavy. Partially from the thrill of the travel; partially from the thrill of the stay.

Without words, she got up and Martin moved his legs underneath her. She slid onto his hardness and moved up and down. Their legs were entwined. Bodies connected. His lips traversed her neck and her breasts. Her hands pulled at his shoulders as she impaled herself onto him. They both grunted quietly. This wasn't like their week in the Caymen Islands when they fucked non-stop and talked dirty for hours on end. This was back where they started, and both were acknowledging that in their silence.

"I love you," he said, leaning back onto the wet grass and looking up to his wife. Her image, even in the dark, was more dazzling than the stars that sparked above her.

She pressed her weight down on him, holding his belly as she enjoyed his length and girth. She took his hand and placed his thumb on her clit so he could play and bring her closer to her climax. Martin thrust up quickly. He wasn't 22 anymore, but he knew what he was doing. His fingernails gripped into her thighs -- one of his top 10 favorite sexual acts with his wife. Just a smattering of pain when she's achieving pleasure.

Vicki stretched her body backwards and her walls inside seemed to buckle as she came hard, shaking the roof of her body. She returned her lips to her Martin's and her tongue flickered like a flame against his. She reached down and pulled him out of her, wet with her lubrication.

"What now?" she said, knowing it was his turn to cum.

He rolled her over to her side, and pressed his length back into her. He loved making love, but they had to be a bit quicker than they usually were. Both knew this. Sure, it was 4 a.m. in the morning, but at any moment, a police car could drive nearby and see them. Or a bluehair could wake up and notice the shadows in the dark and come out with a flashlight and a cane. He wanted to cum quickly -- and it wasn't something he was used to.

As if reading his mind, Vicki put his thoughts at ease with just one phrase.

"Fuck me hard, Martin."

She was 55 now, but still knew what to say to him to let him go off like a bear trapped in a meat deli. He slammed inside her, his cock squeezed by her pussy, his balls slapping her ass. He'd conquered time and he owned this body -- as she owned his. There were so many things he needed to do, but right now, he needed to cum. He felt his balls swelling as he pounded. Vicki reached up and dragged her nails down the soft gray hair of his chest, and he began jetting inside her.

Sure, he should have been quiet, but it's not every day you travel through time and have sex with the woman who has been your life for 35 years.

"Oh God, yes!" he yelled. The ejection of cum into her made Vicki's walls tremble again and she enjoyed another orgasm, this one softer, but still pleasurable. She repeated his words, "Oh God, yes," as he fell on top of her.

He breathed into her ear. The ringing was gone and the sweat of the travel was just replaced with the sweat of the stay. The stay together. The sex together.

"I love you," they said in unison.

A small chirp came from FluX. A woman's voice softly spoke.

"The time is zero-four-fifteen..."

The couple embraced and let their bodies readjust a bit, pulling on some of their clothing but letting their orgasms left on the grass. In the east, the sky began to change from black and covered with stars to that first early light -- dawn was an hour away.

"Want to watch sunrise from the highest point on campus?" Martin said.

"I always want to do that," Vicki acknowledged.

She put FluX on vibrate and tucked the devise into a hidden pocket inside her fanny pack. From her fanny pack, she pulled a key. It was a key from 30+ years before that she never turned in, from their first apartment.

Martin and Vicki needed to visit Marty and Victoria's place after the younger version of themselves went to their daily classes starting at 9:10 a.m.