What is Love? (2/2)
Posted on 23 Feb 2016 @ 12:36am by Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Haeften & Petty Officer 1st Class Rebecca Williams
Edited on on 23 Feb 2016 @ 3:16am
2,524 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo: Holodeck One
Timeline: MD90 2000hours
Previously....
Rebecca was the first to break the silence between them both.
Her head turned ever so slightly so Wilhelm could hear the words that she needed to say...wanted to whisper. Tears still traced paths along her cheeks as the woman’s eyes remained closed. Her forehead rested against the side of his head as her arm still held him close.
"I can't stop this...I can't stop falling in love with you."
....And Now....
Wilhelm turned his head slightly towards the lady’s ear, his tears of sadness now becoming tears of joy at hearing Rebecca’s words. He pulled his head away, to look into Rebecca’s tear-stained eyes. His hands came up to gently hold onto William’s cheeks.
“I...don’t know if there is such a thing as love at first sight, but I think when I saw you, what I felt was the strongest candidate I have ever seen. Ever since that day, I have wanted to jump on a table in the lounge and shout from the rafters of how I feel about you…”
Wilhelm’s lips moved closer to Rebecca.
“But right here, right now, I do not have a lounge, or a table, and I don’t care…”
Closer he moved, his warm breath being felt on Rebecca’s lips.
“I…”
Closer.
“...love you…”
Closer still.
“...Rebecca Williams.”
With that declaration, Wilhelm Von Haeften, Chief Science Officer of the USS Galileo, put his lips onto the woman he loved. His kiss was one of extraordinary tenderness and restrained passion, his lips not pushing hard into her own, but clasping them lightly, delicately. It was the kind of kiss that would have made even the greatest holonovel siren seem like they were in a high school play.
Rebecca was startled at the kiss as her mind struggled to process the words he had spoken, her body tensed as if to pull back back and break the contact but under it’s own volition, her arm moved to disentangle itself from between their bodies before her hand came to rest on the back of Wilhelm’s neck to pull him in closer.
For once instinct didn’t fight...it gave in as the woman matched the dance step which her lover set. Her lips stayed as light as a feather as they brushed across his, creating a seal which could be so easily broken by just a gentle gust of wind.
Rebecca tightened the hand at the back of Wilhelm’s neck as fresh tears rained from her eyes as she finally understood what he had said. He was in love with her...her the woman who tried to shatter his heart into a million pieces...her the woman who’d tried to toss him aside and caused the man to shed unnecessary tears. Still...Wilhelm loved her.
Wilhelm felt Rebecca respond to him, positively. The pressure of his lips upon her own increased slightly as happiness and drunken joy flowed through him. Wil did not know if Rebecca’s reaction was a confirmation of how they felt, but he was certain it was not a rejection.
Von Haeften’s hands removed themselves from Rebecca’s cheeks to cradle the back of her head, the other to go to her waist and pull her body to him, the incredible warmth of her flesh flush against his own.
Rebecca easily knew the direction in which this was headed as her body fit so perfect against his, even through the layers of clothes that adorned their bodies. As heat flushed through her skin, the woman shook her head a little before forcing herself to pull back,to break their intimate hold and kiss.
The woman moved her hand from Wilhelm’s neck to his shoulder, her eyes studied his as the breath raced in her chest. Rebecca just watched his eyes as if they'd hold the answers that she needed to find...that she needed to hear.
He loved her...but it didn't take any of her fears away. She was changing and it scared her...it scared her more than she could have ever believed and she didn't know what to do...how to do it.
Tears filled Rebecca’s eyes at what she found studying her so intently...those blue eyes that never failed to excite her, tease her, laugh with her...they burned as before as their darkened hue intently returned the woman’s gaze. She saw the trace of fear...it wasn't a fear which echoed hers, a fear of the unknown...she recognised it was a fear of losing her...the woman he'd taken that fall for and now loved.
How easy it would have been to return to his arms, to kiss him hard and deep and to take all of her worries away. To take his body with hers as the world became just about Wilhelm and Rebecca and that no one, nor anything, would matter anymore. But that was the easy way out...to ignore it all until she hit out at the next wall because she became so overwhelmed…until the next guy decided to flirt with her and she became a tongue tied twat because all her thoughts were of was this man standing infront of her now, hoping and wishing and wanting her...nothing more nor nothing less, just her...Rebecca Williams.
“Rebecca Sylvia Williams….Sylvia Rebecca Williams as my parents named me. Sylvia was more regal...more exotic to the men they paraded me to. They wanted a daughter who would only ever be a mistress to society, to be society's brightest gem...instead they got a daughter who played mistress to any man that took her fancy. They got their gem...a diamond in the rough which was tarnished and unevenly cut.”
Wil looked at Rebecca for a few seconds. He knew this side of her, the side when she got serious and melancholy. The German decided to interject with some humor.
“For the record, I hate the name Sylvia.” he smiled.
More seriously, he said “And maybe you think you are unevenly cut, and tarnished, but let me tell you that no gem of beauty, either on the ground or in the cosmos that I have seen, can equal your shine and loveliness. I love you the way you are; ever bit of sass and sarcasm, every wrinkle and line, every curve and crevice, every mote of out of place hair, every tattoo, every thing you think is an imperfection is a work of art to me my sweet.”
“And when you get tired of me...decided that you've had your fun and it's time to move on...what happens then?” There was no anger or resignation in Rebecca’s words...she was laying herself bare for Wilhelm to see in its entirety.
“You think I love you because of sex? I love you for you Rebecca; I’d feel the same way if you were a nun, or if you abstained completely from it, or wanted to wait until marriage. I love just being around you; it’s fun to just exist around you. The things you talk about, the history, the philosophy, the culture, that turns me on about you more than any dirty thing you could say in the bedroom.” Wil said earnestly.
Rebecca wanted to close her eyes, to block out the words that Wilhelm spoke. Why didn't he understand? He could do better than her...he could have his choice of any woman in this world...why did it have to be her.
Her hand moved his Wilhelm’s shoulder to his cheek, caressing the warm skin beneath her fingers as she felt the salt stains from the tears she had caused...tears he would never have had to shed had it not been for her.
“I'm scared...more scared than I've ever been in my life...you change me...make me think and act and do things I've never done before. I can't even flirt with another man without becoming tongue tied and finding myself comparing him to you...I'm not used to this….I'm not used to you.”
“If it helps, I can’t look at any other woman either; all of them seem pale and hollow next to you, like a cheap forgery, a mild mirror. I’m scared too my love. Don’t ever be fooled for one minute that I am not frightened out of my wits. I love you, and I fear losing you, and I more fear losing you because of me. I am mortified of becoming boring, dull, intellectually unstimulating for you, dull in our more...intimate moments…” Wil said.
“...more than that, I fear not being worthy of you, of not earning your love every day by forgetting an anniversary or a birthday, a small fight or misspoken word...I am very afraid. But I know I can conquer all these things with you by my side, able to urge me forward onto greatness with you.”
As Rebecca’s fingers lightly traced the curve of Wilhelm’s cheek, it was as if she was trying to memorise it in her mind's eye. Anniversary and birthdays...why did they matter when all that matter was the two of them.
“You were made for this...you were created to love and share that love with others. It's part of you. Me? I'm created from a different mold...I was created to push back, to never form connections and run at the first sign it was happening….I don't know love….I don't know how to give it or receive it.”
Wil simply smiled at the woman.
“Quid es Amare*?” he said, in Latin, meaning what is love.
“You know what love is?” he asked. He gave Rebecca a small kiss. He felt Rebecca give back almost instinctively as their lips met.
“Feel that? The instinctive flow of our lips together, the flow of emotion through that simple act? It was all but instinctive. Maybe our molds are different, but they seem to meld and mesh everytime we touch, as if of one. You know how to give love; I feel it from you whenever we are together, and I don’t just mean physically. When we hold each other at night, I can feel it in my very soul. If that is not love, then I ask you once more my sweet, Quid es Amare*”
Rebecca’s fingers moved from Wilhelm’s cheek to trace the lips which had only moments ago fit so softly and perfectly with hers.
The soft skin gave way under her fingertips, just as it had when her lips pressed the same places. She could feel how they were still damp from their shared kiss, even when you looked beyond how brief it may have been.
His lips meant more to her than that...she remembered how they curved ever so gently each time he sought to tease her or just to laugh at something she had said. She remembered how his tongue traced each lip quickly but deliberately each time he just needed a moment before answering a question.
Most of all she remembered each kiss that they shared...the soft and tender when he'd wake her in the morning; the heat and passion when their bodies moved to a rhythm they both set; the loving and caring when they just lay together, bodies and limbs entwined as they sought to capture the moments after the passion; the quick steal of a kiss during an encounter on a deck when they were going about their duties...so many but so little.
Rebecca’s fingertips moved back from Wilhelm’s lips but only travelled the short distance before they pressed against her own...lips she thought she knew as well as every inch of her body...but each kiss she shared with this man taught her more, opened her eyes wider to an experience so new.
“Show me...show me that it's ok to fall in love with you?”
“Every day love. I would show you every day.” Wil responded. The German wanted to kiss her again, but settled for a much more staid embrace, holding her close to him, letting her feel his heartbeat against his chest, his pulse reverberate through his arms into her back as he held her.
Rebecca had expected a kiss not this...as her eyes closed she felt the tears still escape as they were quickly absorbed by Wilhelm’s shirt. His heartbeat...beneath her ear she could hear the rapid pace as if the man had just run a marathon. With each beat the woman's arms moved around him until she had him locked into her embrace, never wanted to ever let go.
This time she just let the tears come...she didn't hold back as everything she'd held back finally came loose. The fear, the need, the want...the most basic of emotions but right now the emotions that mattered the most. The emotions she needed to unlock and release...to let them free.
Wil held her there for a long time, until he could feel Rebecca’s body start to loosen its grip, most likely from exhaustion from such a strong release of emotion. He led her over to a couch that was against the wall near a balcony that looked down onto the market below. People still walked briskly to and from places, their voices barely a whisper as they reached the balcony from the street below.
He sat down against one arm, patting the seat with his left hand, allowing Rebecca to choose whether to lay her head in his lap or to lay on his shoulder, or some other position.
“Come here hon.” the German asked.
Rebecca hesitated as the pull of exhaustion and release of emotions made her movements more sluggish. Although his right hand still held his, she missed the presence of his body against hers; the warmth and comfort him just holding her brought with it.
Momentarily Rebecca let Wilhelm’s hand go, the woman positioned herself lying along the couch as her head settled against his lap. Faced outwards she could see the faint breeze that tugged and teased against a net curtain. She felt as her lover's hand rested against her head before untangling what ties were left of her ponytail, gently teasing the strands loose before returning to rest against her temple.
He didn't need to say anything, the quiet murmur of the voices below, inter speckled with soft laughter as couples and friends met and socialised was enough...all that Rebecca needed was Wilhelm...she didn't need anymore.
Von Haeften simply stroked Rebecca’s hair as he felt her breathing slow and steady, until he was certain she had fallen asleep.
*what is love
[OFF]
Lieutenant JG Wilhelm Von Haeften
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo
&
Petty Officer 2nd Class Rebecca Williams
Yeoman to Captain Jonathan Holiday
USS Galileo
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