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A routine mission to cut their teeth on, that was all this was. Gale Crimson took a few steadying breaths, quickly going over his mental checklist from training as he walked through one of the maintenance tunnels the Reapers used to move around between their base and parts of Mountain Glenn. It was on his third check of his rifle that his partner smacked his shoulder, bringing him back to the present as he looked up and met her gaze.
“You need to loosen up Gale” Athesis said with some concern as she scanned the area. “We’re about to enter our AO now, you need to keep your eyes up, got it? I’ll scout on ahead and see if I can find whatever’s setting off our motion trackers, you follow up behind.” Gale nodded at the Viper as they both affixed their masks and tapped into their abilities to fade into the shadows, Athesis slithering on ahead.
“Comm check, one two. Come in Athesis, you read.” Gale called in.
“I read you Gale, are you missing me already?” Athesis responded, even over their helmet communicators, it was easy to tell she was smiling.
“Every minute feels like an eternity without you, Athe.” Her partner called back, voice dripping with sarcasm.
A chuckle from the Viper passed over the communication. “Alright, time to get serious. Contact me in an emergency but otherwise just keep an ear out for my signal, understood?”
Gale pinged his comms twice in an affirmative and they fell back into silence as they continued their stalk through the ruins.
Their mission continued in much the same manner as this, sneaking through the ruins towards the triggered alert sensors and hiding from packs of Grimm in near complete silence until they reached their target. Gale climbed up the ruined store building overlooking their target, pinging his comm to warn Athesis that he was coming up behind her before taking position next to her, looking out the window.
“Just a few White Fang scouts, five in total. We shouldn’t have any trouble taking them out” Athesis reported her findings. “Two of them are grouped pretty close together, I’ll slip down and take them out.”
“Roger, I’ll take the other three out from up here.” Gale pulled out his Vektor and knelt in front of the window, sighting in on one of the scouts as his partner slithered down to the street silently. “Ready to go on your signal.” His response came a few seconds later in the form of three signal pings right before Athesis lashed out at her two targets, coiling around one and crushing the life out of him while taking the other one out with her wrist blade in one swift motion before he even had a chance to bring up his aura. At the same time, the slightly muted crack of Gale’s rifle reported out three times in a staggered succession as the three unaware guards met their end. “Textbook, Athe. Nicely done. I’ll meet you down there in a moment.” Gale scanned up and down the street with his rifle, double checking that there were no hidden enemies waiting for them until a noise made him freeze. Growling. Coming from behind him. A Beowolf had managed to find its way into the building while he was focused on the street below. Turning just as the beast lunged, he turned a strike that would’ve gored his neck open into one that cut deep into the side of his torso. Drawing his sidearm, he opened fire, not giving the Grimm a chance to attack again as he watched it drop to the ground and start fading away.
Athesis was racing up the stairs as fast as she could, the sight of Gale’s vitals redlining on her HUD pressing her to throw all caution to the wind as she burst into his perch, finding him bleeding heavily on the ground. She pulled out her emergency medkit, stabilizing his wounds before picking him up and carrying him back to base, fortunately making it back to the tunnel system without running into any threats.
When Gale next opened his eyes sluggishly, it’s to the sound of a steady beeping and the smell of disinfectant. Quickly scanning the room, his panic subsided when he realised he’s in the base med bay while a quick check of his stomach revealed that his wound has been cleaned, stitched and is healing up decently aside from a few nasty scars. What came as a greater surprise was when he looked to his right and saw his partner laying her head on the bed next to him, breathing softly as she slept. Rubbing the back of her head, she startled awake and sat up, bleary eyes blinking adorably before they focused on him and narrow with a cold fury, her tail rattling.
“What were you thinking!?” She started yelling. “I told you to keep your eyes open, I told you to pack up and get back to my position.” She looked down, eyes welling up as her hands clenched onto the bed sheet. “We’ve been together since we first started training, we promised to always have each other’s back so do you have any idea what it was like to get up those stairs and see you bleeding out? I thought I’d lost you.” She fell silent after that, just shuddering slightly and looking down. Not knowing what else to do, Gale puts his hand on hers and squeezes gently to get her attention. Two pairs of watery eyes look into each other for a moment before she lunges forward, her lips pressing against his, shocking him stunned. He was still stunned silent when she pulled away, darting out of the room without a look back, leaving him with a welling happiness inside him.
The following week
Since the incident with Athesis, Gale’s stay in medical passed in a blur and it didn’t feel like long before he was up on his feet again with a nasty scar to remind him of it. Playing on his mind far more, however, was how he’d confront his partner when he caught up to her. Over the last week, he had spent much of his time dwelling on their interactions with new context and wondered how much of what he had written off as her being friendly had really been her trying to be more than that. Before long his thoughts turned to how a relationship between them could work, it wasn’t unheard of in the Reapers for this kind of thing to happen, no matter how well trained or augmented they were even the Archon and his officers realised that if you kept dozens of people cut off from the outside world and in constant life and death situations then certain urges would come to a head and allowances would need to be made. Even so, they’d be monitored carefully to make sure their intimacy didn’t put themselves or anyone else at risk, damningly enough he thought he’d be alright with that.
It didn’t take him long to follow her signal into one of the patrol tunnels, finding her sat on her coils looking at the wall. Taking a seat next to her, he waited for her to be comfortable enough to speak first.
“I’m sorry.” She began. “I shouldn’t have kissed you or admitted to all that stuff. It was unprofessional and unbecoming and I don’t want you to be uncomfortable working with me.”
Gale sat in silence as she vented her apology, letting her get it off her chest before he reached up, took her hand in his and squeezed it comfortingly. She looked down in surprise and found him looking up at her with a smile and the tension fled her body. Leaning down, she kissed him again and this time he returned it eagerly, wrapping his arms around her as her tongue played with his. Breaking off only when they needed to breath, Athesis rattled her tail happily, a red flush spreading up her neck before she pulled Gale with her into the nearest disused maintenance room and barring the doors behind them.
Athesis starts unbuckling her outfit before she looks over to Gale, somewhat sheepishly. “I’m not moving too fast here, am I?”
Snapping out of the trance watching his partner strip put him in, Gale shook his head. “No no, besides when’s the next chance we’ll get anyway?” Seeing her smile as he started taking off his own clothes, they were quickly stood bare in front of each other. She rested a hand on his chest and started slowly trailing it down, resting on his scar for a moment before letting it fall towards his crotch, slowly rubbing and pumping his shaft to full hardness while at the same time, Gale’s hands went to work.
Brushing them along her waist, he quickly found her genital slit and parted it, revealing the pink flesh within before he slowly slid a pair of his fingers inside. It felt softer than Gale expected, smooth and gentle compared to the hard scales coating the rest of her body, not unlike the affectionate side that his partner was revealing to him in this moment. He guided his probing based on Athesis’ reactions and when brushing his fingers across a certain spot made her tense up and groan, breaking the attention she was paying to his length, he assaulted it mercilessly, hooking his fingers and rubbing circles along it.
“Ah, I take it I’m doing well then Athe?”
Gale was having fun teasing Athesis, more fun than he was expecting if he was honest. She meant the world to him, and being with her like this felt so natural, so right. The way that she touched and stroked him was wonderful, but the way she twisted and writhed in pleasure at his ministrations was incredible. He could find himself getting addicted to spoiling her like this if he wasn’t careful.
His partner tensed up in short order, putting her hands on his shoulders to brace herself as she clamped down on his fingers, letting out a low hiss as she leaked out against his hand.
Gale chuckles triumphantly at the sight of his partner twitching and panting, still holding on to him as though she was about to fall down. A pink flush grew across the lighter scales along her front and she smiled at him, pulling him in for another kiss as she coiled herself around him, her tongue invading his mouth as she slowly enveloped him with her tail.
“My turn,” She whispered with a sultry hiss in his ear, smiling down at her helpless partner. Athesis planted a kiss on his nose, lined his cock up with her slit and squeezed him, both of them groaning as he slips into her easily. With Gale unable to move, Athesis sets the pace, holding him tight and using him, hissing in his ear as she constricts and loosens her tail to push him in and out, her walls gripping tightly onto his length as he moans and mumbles in her ear. Groaning, he tenses up, his cock twitching and filling up her depths with his love. Athesis shudders happily as she feels a warm sensation in her core, she keeps him wrapped up in her coils as she lays against the ground, basking in their shared warmth.
A few minutes of basking in the afterglow later, the two kiss once more and get their clothes back on. Unlocking and slowly opening the door, they both let out a sigh of relief when they don’t find anyone waiting outside. Making their way back towards the main section of the base, it was Gale who broke the silence. “You know, we’re going to have to let command know about this.” He looks up at her sheepishly.
“Oh? Planning on making it official so soon?” She responded with a wry smile.
“Well, yeah. I care about you Athe, not just as a friend I mean.”
A deep blush spreads over her face as they continue their walk back, but she slips her hand into his as they go.