Chapter 90: One of the Conditions is the one

Ethan stared at the notifications and left them hanging.

The fight was still in his bones. The Hornscale Beast had fouled his jumps, swallowed attacks and thrown them back harder, then looked straight through a barrier that was supposed to be a wall and found him anyway. He could stand here turning that over until the diesel ran out, and it still would not open a door.

The Space was too small. It had grown, and the soil was good, but the room was not. If he kept pulling people in they would end up sleeping shoulder to shoulder on ground that was supposed to be a refuge, and a refuge that could not hold them was only a nicer box. He needed another expansion. The system had already named the price, clean and cold, and one of the lines was not an ability. It was a person.

[Survival Space Expansion Requirements]

[Requirement One: Obtain two additional SSS-Rank Abilities.]

[Requirement Two: Establish an intimate connection with an eligible gift target with whom the host has not previously been intimate.]

[View current expansion progress?]

He dismissed it. The abilities were done, Energy Shield and Matter Restructuring both sitting where they belonged. The second condition was the one with a face on it.

His eyes went to Aria. She was a short way off with Elena, the wrap still on her arm, hair loose from the last fight. Plant Symbiosis had come from the system’s reward, and the upgrade had made it sharper, so that through the plants she could feel movement at a distance. That had already mattered against the Hornscale Beast. She was more than the ability, though. Observant, steady, the kind of person who had stayed in a fight where the gap between her and the thing on the dome was obvious, and had not broken.

He was not going to pretend his interest was pure. The rewards were too large to ignore. He was also not going to treat her like a receipt.

"Elena."

She turned. "What is it?"

"I’ve been thinking about the Space. We need more room, and I found a way to expand it again."

A little light came into her face. "How much larger?"

"Enough to matter."

"Then what’s the catch?"

He gave her a look. She had learned to ask that first, and he liked that about her.

"There are conditions. I’ve met most of them. One of them is personal."

She studied him. She knew enough about the system by now to know the rewards came with a bill. "Does this hit the rest of us?"

"Not directly. The expansion helps everyone in here."

"Then I hope you finish it."

She did not push. She turned back to Aria and kept talking, and Ethan watched them a moment longer before he went to Aria himself.

"Can we talk?"

She glanced at Elena, then nodded. "Of course."

They walked far enough that the others would not hear. He explained the remaining condition without dressing it up, because he was not interested in walking her into a yes she would hate later. Aria listened. When he finished she looked down for a moment, thinking.

"So this is necessary for the expansion?"

"It’s one of the conditions."

"And you’re asking me because you think I’m the right person?"

"Partly." He held her eyes. "I won’t force it. If you’re not all right with it, say so, and I’ll look for another way."

She studied his face, maybe checking whether he meant it. The apocalypse had taught her that kind voices could still be planning something ugly, and trust was expensive. She did not hand it out for free. He had also pulled her out of the Museum, put her back with Elena and Lana, and stood between the group and things that would have eaten them. She was not blind to the calculating part. She had seen how fast he went cold when someone threatened them, and she had also seen him put his body in front of other people’s.

"I understand," she said.

He waited.

She took a small breath and met his gaze. "I want to do this. Not only because of the expansion. Because I trust you."

For a second he did not answer. He had expected more questions, or time, and the decision caught him slightly off guard. "You’re sure?"

"Yes."

He nodded. "Then we take our time."

A small smile. They went back long enough for him to tell Elena he would be occupied, with no extra explanation. Elena looked between them once, curious, and chose not to ask.

They went into a separate room in the Space, and the door closed.

The quiet in there was different from the Museum. No roars, no glass underfoot, just the low hum of the Space and the sound of both of them breathing. Aria stood with her back to the door, coat still on, the wrap pale on her arm. She looked at him once, checking, and he stayed where he was and let her decide the distance.

She shrugged the coat off. Under it the shirt was thin from too many days, and the shape of her showed clear in the low light, full breasts with the soft weight of them pulling the fabric, the curve of each one plain when she shifted. Her waist had narrowed. Her hips had not. The worn pants sat low on a round ass, the cheeks filling the cloth when she turned. Hunger had taken the color from her face. It had not taken the body.

"Come here," she said, quiet.

He did. She met him halfway, and the first kiss was careful, almost a question. Her mouth was warm. She tasted like the water they had rationed and something sweeter under it. He kept his hands at her waist until she made a small sound and pressed closer, and then he let one palm slide up her back, slow, feeling the line of her spine through the thin shirt.

She kissed him again, deeper this time, her tongue touching his, unhurried. One of her hands found the back of his neck. The other rested on his chest, over his heart, like she was counting it. He broke the kiss only long enough to look at her. Her eyes were open. She nodded.

He eased the shirt up. She lifted her arms and let him take it off, and her breasts were bare in the low light, heavy and soft, the nipples already tight. He bent and kissed the top of one, then the other, gentle, his mouth open against the warm skin. She breathed out and threaded her fingers into his hair. When he took a nipple between his lips and sucked, slow, she made a sound that was almost a laugh and almost something else, and her hips shifted against his.

"Easy," she murmured. Not a stop. A pace.

He kept it easy. He kissed back up her throat, her jaw, her mouth, while she worked his shirt off between kisses, palms flat on his chest, then lower, over the bandages on his back with care so she did not pull the wound. Her hands were warm. She undid his belt without looking down, still kissing him, and he stepped out of the rest when she pushed the cloth off his hips.

She turned and sat on the edge of the low bunk, then lay back, and the pants came off with a small lift of her hips that he helped. Naked, she was all soft curves and long legs, the dark hair between her thighs, the full breasts settling against her ribs. She held a hand out. He took it and came down over her, bracing so his weight did not land on the bad arm or his own back.

They kissed again, slower. His hand slid down her side, over the curve of her waist and the swell of her hip, and settled between her legs. She was already wet. He stroked her gently, two fingers sliding through the slick heat, circling, not rushing. She sighed into his mouth and opened her thighs a little more. When he eased a finger inside her she clenched around it, warm and tight, and kissed him harder.

"That’s good," she whispered.

He worked her like that for a while, kissing her, thumb on the soft bud above, finger curling inside until her breath went uneven and her hips rolled up to meet his hand. She came quiet, a shudder against his mouth, her free hand gripping his shoulder. He stayed with her through it, kissing her cheek, her temple, until the tremor eased.

She reached between them and wrapped her hand around him. He was hard, heavy in her palm. She stroked once, slow, then guided him to her. He pushed in carefully, an inch at a time, watching her face. She was tight and wet and hot around him. When he was all the way in she exhaled, long, and her legs came up around his hips.

"Move," she said.

He did, slow and deep, each stroke a full slide out and back in, their bodies meeting soft. He kissed her the whole time, her mouth, the corner of it, the place under her ear. She kissed him back, hands on his shoulders, then in his hair, then sliding down to hold his hips and pull him in a little deeper on the next thrust. The bunk creaked. Outside the door the Space was quiet. In the room there was only the wet sound of them and their breathing and the small noises she made against his lips.

He kept the pace. No hurry. When she tightened around him he slowed even more, grinding deep, and she broke the kiss to gasp his name once, soft. He kissed her again. She came a second time with her face against his neck, legs shaking, and the pulse of her around him pulled him over. He buried himself and stayed there, spilling inside her in long pulses, mouth on hers, both of them breathing hard through the kiss until it gentled into something smaller.

They stayed like that. He did not pull out right away. She kept her arms around him, one hand idly stroking the back of his neck, and neither of them spoke for a minute. The system could wait. The Museum could wait. She had said yes, and he had kept it slow, and for a little while that was the only thing in the room that mattered.

When he finally eased out of her she made a small sound and pulled the thin blanket up over both of them. He lay on his side so the wound would not take his weight, and she fitted herself against him, her breasts soft against his chest, one leg over his. He kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes.

"Still sure?" he asked, quiet.

"Still sure."

They stayed until the breathing evened. Then they dressed, unhurried, and he opened the door.

When he came back to the main area, the notification hit almost at once.

[Eligibility confirmed.]

[Intimacy requirement fulfilled.]

[Survival Space expansion conditions satisfied.]

A faint smile. "Finally."

The interface opened.

[SSS-Rank Survival Space Upgrade initiated.]

[Spatial structure expanding...]

The ground under his feet began to hum.