Ells and Mel

Posted on 09 Oct 2014 @ 11:35pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ellsworth Hudson & Petty Officer 3rd Class Melinda Clare

2,730 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Quarters 04-1007 EN
Timeline: MD 09 - 2000 hrs

[ ON ]

Ellsworth stepped back, stretched his hands out toward the bed for some perspective and then moved forward again to move the pillow a few centimeters. He wanted the bunk to look absolutely perfect for his new roommate, who he was way too excited to meet. Another third-class petty officer! And a girl! With red hair! From Brooklyn! (Whatever that was.)

The thought of it almost made him squeal. Ollie had been sweet and all; at first, it was a struggle to not look at him a bit lecherously but eventually it became more of a struggle from different personalities. Ellsworth could be loud and rambunctious and Oliver... Well. He was the commodore's yeoman. He was held to a different standard. And he was much more serious about the direction of his life.

It had only occurred to Ellsworth very briefly that Petty Officer Third Class Melinda Clare might just be the red-headed Brooklyn version of Oliver Morris. But wishful thinking had very, very quickly shoved that from his mind.

Melinda Clare had learned, throughout her brief career, to always pack light. The enlisted always got moved around, officers never had that problem. But, she didn't mind, it meant she got to meet new people. That was one thing she loved and that was meeting new people. She hadn't been on Galileo long but this was already her second move. She also didn't know too many people just yet and that was partly due to her shift. Gamma shift was a tough one, but it suited her well.

When she had gotten her new room assignment she had been surprised that the other occupant was a male. Not that she minded of course. Males were fun, at least in her opinion. The name had rung a bell, but she couldn't place a name with the face and that was okay too. She was easy going in that respect. Nothing ever phased Melinda Clare, not even all the Tribbles. Life was too short - and in her job too dangerous - to worry about such trivial things.

It didn't take long, even having to wade through the sea of Tribbles, to get to her new quarters. She went to ring the chime and then realized she didn't need to. Instead, she used the keypad, entered the code and the doors swooshed open. She stepped in and the doors closed behind her and smiled at the man who stood by a bunk. "Well, hello there roomie! I'm Melinda Clare." She stepped forward and offered a hand.

Ellsworth whirled around and dove at her hand, shaking it as vigorously as a Bolian toupee salesman.

"Hi! Are you Melinda? Oh my goodness, you're so tall and gorgeous!" he exclaimed, letting go of her hand and quickly walking around her like she was a statue on display. She was tall for a female human and definitely very pretty, especially her hair. Ellsworth imagined getting to sit on his bunk and braiding it for her, gossiping about what had been happening in Ops and around the ship. A real roommate, like the ones in holonovels. "Oh! I'm Ellsworth." He stopped in front of her again, clicked his heels together and popped off a quick salute. "Petty Officer Third Class Ellsworth Hudson, Quartermaster, USS Galileo, sir." His eyes darted from side to side in a mockery of his own mockery, and he finally relaxed into a huge grin. "But you can just call me Ells."

Melinda smiled and then giggled. "Ells and Mels," she said as her light giggle continued. She then snapped her fingers. "Now I know why your name sounded familiar when I saw it on the PaDD," she knew the moment the words left Ellsworth's mouth she was going to like him. "So, mister quartermaster sir, which bunk is mine?"

"This one is yours," Ellsworth said, turning to the bunk on the opposite side of the room. He gasped; the pillow had fallen. A hand flew out and pressed against her mid-section, indicating she should stay in place. He rushed over, adjusted the pillow again and frowned mightily at it so it would stay in place. He spun on the ball of his right foot, folded his hands in front of him and beamed brightly at her. "This one! I made it up for you. Ollie had the bunks separated, but we can put them back together if you want more room. I don't mind if you sleep on top of me, but it makes me nervous sleeping up that high, sooo... Yep."

Melinda observed and gave a quick glance of the small quarters. It wasn't anything new to her except Ellsworth kept everything neat and clean. She liked that. "The bunks apart are fine," she said as she placed her duffel on the immaculately made bed. "Besides you wouldn't want me on top," she winked at the shorter man. "So, so far so good. I say we are going to get along famously, don't you agree?" She took a seat on the bunk to try it out, the mattress was still firm despite a man, who was heavier then her, slept on it.

"Of course," Ellsworth gushed. "Do you need help with your things? I processed your paperwork but I don't know if you need anything to be carried anywhere... Have you made many friends on the ship, yet? What's Brooklyn like?" He stood there for a long moment, almost vibrating in place, then blushed and smiled nervously. "I'm sorry. I'm just excited. I've never had a girl roommate before. Uh, I mean, a woman. A woman roommate. Female. You know what I mean!"

A broad grin formed on Melinda's pale pink lips. "You are adorable Ells," she said lightly. "To your first question," she shook head head. "No, I don't have anymore to carry then this," she patted her duffel. "I have learned in my career that us enlisted get moved around the most, I have learned to pack everything I need in one duffel. I'm sure a quartermaster can appreciate such efficiency," she winked. "Second and third question, yes I have made a few friends and Brooklyn is lovely. I should take you there some time." She stood up from the bunk and took a hold of Ellsworth by the shoulders, "and yes I know what you mean. No worries and no need to be nervous. "Just treat me like one of the guys." She lifted a hand from Ellsworth's shoulder and indicated her chest, "Just with a nice rack."

"Oh, I usually flirt with most of the guys, so I'm not sure how this is going to work," Ellsworth said, trailing his eyes down to the indicated area before flicking them back up. He wasn't much of a rack judge, but it did seem like a nice rack. Not misshapen or lumpy or disproportionate, and it seemed to have the right number of parts, too. How did you compliment a woman's "rack"? Your breasts are very shapely, proportionate and symmetrical? "But it's probably a good thing that you pack light because I may have exceeded my allotted storage space..."

He turned to the room's single shared closet and opened the doors, which revealed that only about a third of it was empty. The rest was crammed full of shirts, pants, shorts, shoes, boots, hats, scarves, socks, and some very loud Risan beach wear. Ellsworth looked at the floor and blushed a little bit, nudging one foot with the other; everything was incredibly well organized in there, but it was just...a lot. He was willing to admit that he may have shopped a little too much on shoreleave, but only a little.

"I can probably move some of it if you need more space...."

Melinda stepped up to the closet and began to look through the clothing. "Why Ells you have quite the taste," she said as she turned and looked back at the quartermaster. "It's okay though, it's enough space to hang my uniforms, I can make it work I assure you." She then smiled. "I could tell you were the flirty type, but the question is are you the gossipy type?"

Ellsworth grinned, looking like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing. "Uhhh... Maaaybe? A little bit? I mean, not too much. Okay, a lot. But not mean-spirited gossip. Not the, 'Oh my goodness, can you believe those shoes Ensign Rice was wearing?' kind of gossip. More like the, 'Have you seen how cute Ensign Jones's butt is?' kind of gossip. And it is cute. Really cute."

"Good to know," Melinda said and then smiled. "It never hurts to know someone who can discern good butts from the bad," she again winked at Ells. "So, when are we going to go out for a drink," she eyed him with a bit of suspicion. "Are you even old enough to drink?"

Ellsworth puffed out his cheeks then let the air go out in a rush, as if to say that was a silly question. "Of course I'm old enough to drink." He cut his eyes to the side and lowered his voice. "On most worlds." He cleared his throat and took her hand, starting to drag her to the door. "Let's go now! I need a drink. A lot of drinks. My boyfriend broke up with me, and I'm supposed to get drunk. Or at least that's what they do in the holovids... Ooo, and the bar is stocked with all kinds of-...oh, wait. The bar is closed. Stupid orange alert."

"Stupid orange alert," Melinda echoed except her words were more of a grumble. "But hun, you eat ice cream not drink when you break up with a boyfriend." She smiled. "Eat ice cream, braid each others hair and watch bad movies."

"Okay!" Ellsworth said, taking it for an invitation. He slid over to the replicator with a huge grin. "What kind of ice cream do you like? I like chocolate. And lots of others. But especially chocolate. Do you like bad movies? I like romantic movies, but..." He frowned. "We shouldn't watch those now cuz I've cried enough. Buckets and buckets over that...idiot."

Melinda frowned. "I'm sorry Ells, I'm sorry that happened to you," and she was. Everyone had gone through a bad breakup at least once in their life, it was almost like a rite of passage. She stayed silent for a moment, it didn't take empathy to know the her new friend had been hurt... was still hurting. "But, you are in luck, chocolate is my favorite as well."

Ellsworth retrieved two bowls of Delavian chocolate ice cream from the replicator and presented one to Melinda with great ceremony. Before he spoke again, he managed to stuff in three mouthfuls in quick order. It would give him a headache, he knew, but at least it wouldn't pack on a bunch of fat in unsightly places. The universe had seen fit to bless him with exceptional genes; virtually anything he ate was metabolized quickly, and he never seemed to gain very much weight no matter how hard he tried.

"It's okay," he finally said, flopping down on to his bunk and digging out another small scoop of ice cream. "At first, I was really upset. He just transferred off the ship without saying a word! Can you believe it? I cried and I cried and I cried... I thought I might dehydrate. I cried alone, I cried with people, I cried with tribbles." He popped the spoonful of ice cream into his mouth and closed his eyes, enjoying the special moment.

"But then I thought, why am I crying so much? He's just one boy, right? The universe is full of boys. Boys like Ensign Jones, with cute butts and spots. And boys like Dr. Idris, with cute...everythings. They're everywhere. And K'os was just one stupid boy out of all those boys, so you shouldn't cry too much, you know? It's like letting him win. I don't know what he's winning, but it's like letting him win. And I don't like to lose. So I'm not going to cry anymore. Nope."

Melinda had taken a hold of the offered bowl and sat on her own bunk, tucking one of her long legs beneath her. She scraped some of the ice cream onto the spoon and slipped it into her mouth, she almost moaned in ecstasy at the taste. "Well, that is good that you came to your senses. Men are hardly worth crying over," she said with a slight smirk. She took another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and slid the spoon from between her lips. "There are a lot of cute men on this ship, atleast the ones I have seen so far."

Ellsworth let the spoon linger in his mouth while the ice cream melted, one eyebrow raised. He slipped it between his lips and gave a sly little smile, tapping the spoon against the edge of the bowl. "I'm not sure how well I can compete against you; your hair is prettier than mine." He grinned, calling to mind all the different men he'd seen on board. Some of them were...beyond his reach...but that didn't keep him from admiring. "Lots of cute ones. Lots and lots. Do you have anyone waiting for you? Back home? Or...another ship?" He frowned suddenly, tilting his head to the side. "Do people even do that? Transfer, but stay in the relationship? I don't know how Starfleet relationships work..."

"I don't," Melinda said thoughtfully. "At least not at this moment," she took her spoon and pointed it at Ellsworth, "I have left a trail of broken hearts." She dipped her spoon back in her ice cream, scooped up a bit and slipped it between her lips. For that brief moment she lost herself in Ellsworth's questions. "You know," she finally said, "I am not sure how people maintain relationships in Starfleet. I mean, I suppose it helps families can live on board starships now. But that still doesn't mean partners will get assigned with each other. But yet the pickings would be slim on a starship this small, the probability of finding a mate or even a friend with benefits would still be slim. Unless you swing both ways and well... that would just raise the probability right?" She took another bite of her ice cream and let the silkiness of the dessert envelop her for another moment. "We should do research."

Ellsworth laughed. At first it seemed like a joke, because the thought of him doing research was just absolutely laughable. He didn't know the first thing about the scientific method. Or any other method, really, except luring men into bed, shopping and organizing things. He had those methods down quite well, of course.

"The ship is very small," he agreed, nodding as he thought over what she'd said. "Imagine if I was on a Galaxy- or Sovereign-class." A sly grin spread across his face. "I'd be absolutely exhausted all the time, I think." He took another bite of the ice cream and furrowed his brow. "What sort of research? Determine the probability of finding a mate on a Nova-class starship?"

Melinda shrugged. "Sure, or we can take on all of Starfleet," she winked at Ells. "I'm an ambitious gal."

Ellsworth looked playfully dismissive. "Oh, I'm sure you are! And beautiful, too. But I'd collect way more field data than you." He reached up and ran a hand through his hair, expertly resetting to its perfectly coifed position. "I'm already off to a pretty good start on this ship!"

"Of course you are. How could anyone resist such a pretty boy," Melinda said and her smile broadened. "I can barely resist you... however, I am sure I can give you a run for your money." She laughed. After a few moments of light laughter, she calmed and kept her gaze on her new roommate. "Oh Ells, I think we are going to get along famously."

[OFF]

Petty Officer 3rd Class Ellsworth Hudson
Quartermaster
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Mott]

&

Petty Officer 3rd Class Melinda Clare
Operations
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Williams, IV]

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