Self Care
It had been six days since last time Amelia had sex. They were in space and there was a lot of time to “Make Your Own Entertainment” as it were. From Drax and her getting their groove back after the space station, they had pretty much always found time for a couple of hours of afternoon delight. And Drax was thorough, so it generally was a couple of hours.
Then her period turned up and between the cramps and the grumpiness, she was just not letting him anywhere near her. That had passed, but she still felt kind of awkward asking for sex. In her experience, it was occasionally easier to just take matters into her own hands. Which wasn’t to say that as soon as Drax showed an interest she wouldn’t drag him back to his room and rip his pants off, it was just… less complicated this way.
She could just rub one out in about ten minutes and get back to her school work.
So she did. Then she washed her hands and put it out of her mind. She finished reading about the sexual practices of the Ranx, which was surprisingly erotic for what was basically a parasitical humanoid.
She stopped -before getting to the rather less appealing section about how to remove eggs from the host when they were discovered- to make lunch.
She really wanted tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, which just wasn’t possible given the ingredients at hand. But she was able to improvise something grilled cheese-like and make a vegetable based soup.
Peter seemed happy with the combination, but when Drax came in, he took one look at the scene and said, “What have I done to displease you?”
Everyone looked blankly at him. He looked at Amelia in genuine distress. “I did not mean to offend. Please tell me so that I can avoid do it again in the future.”
Amelia frowned. “Nothing? I’m not upset. You don’t like lunch?”
Drax sat down and stared at his plate like he wanted to either hit something or someone.
“I could make you something else if you would like.” Amelia offered.
Drax stood up and left.
“What was that about?” Peter asked.
“Damned if I know.” Amelia replied.
“Ignore him,” Rocket said. “He’s probably just pissed that he didn't get any this morning.”
Amelia looked at Peter, “Was he like this when I was away?”
“Now that you mention it, yeah. Pretty much just like this.”
“Huh.”
Gamora came in and helped herself. “Are you up for practice after lunch?” she asked Amelia.
“I want to get to the end of the section I’m working on, but if you give me a couple of hours, sure.”
Amelia was exhausted by supper. Drax had out done himself. She had no idea what was eating, but it was delicious. She was washing dishes when Drax leaned in toward her a gave a low rumbling whisper.
“What has happened that so displeased you that you would withhold your favour from the entire crew?”
“Whoa. Wait?! What? I have no idea what you are talking about Drax.”
“I can smell your pleasure but not your partner.”
She turned a looked blankly at him, and caught Rocket doing a face palm in the back ground. It still took her a moment to translate that. When she did, she blushed and looked appalled.
It was Peter who replied. “Dude! Commenting on someone’s masturbation habits is never a good idea.”
Gamora added, “She is allowed to please herself. She doesn’t need to invite you every time.”
Drax looked affronted, “Of course not! But, you have also expressed interest and she has shunned us both!”
Gamora wasn’t having any of that, “It doesn’t matter! She doesn’t need a partner if she doesn’t want one!”
“Why would anyone chose to be alone if they had willing partners?”
Peter was not helpful, “Well, you are kind of clingy.”
At this point Amelia decided to let them get on with it and finished washing the dishes.
“I am not clingy!”
At that point Rocket added his two bits, “Look, sometimes people just don't want to be touched. She might still not want someone handling her.”
Drax rolled his eyes, “I know that you can smell as well as I can that her cycle stopped two days ago.”
Amelia and Peter both made a slight choking noise.
Gamora came back with, “What ever her body is doing does not dictate her choices. It is her choice to make, not yours.”
Rocket added, “Don’t talk to me about smell, I know WAY more than I want to about how much time you ALL spend wanking off in the mornings.”
Amelia chuckled.
Peter blurted out, “Even Rocket knows better than to comment!”
“Whaddaya mean by that?”
At that point Amelia turned to interrupt. “Ok. Stop.” They all turned to look at her. She turned to Drax. “When I was your slave you could order me not to touch myself. Would you have done that?”
Drax looked thoughtful. “It would not have occurred to me to do so.”
“I know you … engage in self care,” she saw the blank look on his face, “I know you masturbate sometimes. Should I be offended?”
Drax started to speak, then stopped. He considered his words for a long time before finally saying, “This sounds like a trap.”
Amelia smirked. “Well spotted. Let’s consider sex like any other bodily function. Say dinner. The supper you cooked tonight was amazingly good. I enjoyed it. We all enjoyed it. It took a long time to prepare and we all took our time eating and savouring the flavours. But sometimes, I just need a quick snack and will just grab a piece of fruit out of the chill chest. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy your cooking. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“So… If I occasionally need a quick study break and just spend a couple of hurried minutes taking care of any random sexual needs I might have at the time, it doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy all the time and effort you put into pleasing me. Understand?”
“No, but I will try.”
“You enjoy that I want sex outside of the two days a cycle that I can get pregnant. Think of this as a side effect of that. Plus, if I know how to make myself come, I can tell you what I like. Otherwise it would just be haphazard fumbling that was only randomly pleasurable. Trust me, satisfying sex is a lot harder to achieve for women than the vids would have you believe.”
Drax gave her a thoughtful nod.
“The other thing to consider here is that i am not a fan of taking pleasure from someone without a plan to return the favour in short order.”
“I do not understand ‘not a fan’.”
“I consider it dishonourable.”
“Ah.” Amelia wasn’t certain he actually understood what she meant, but his expression was clear, as soon as she made it a point of honour, Drax would question her no further. She would have to think about that.