Binary Love (18+)

Analysing...

"What are you working on?" Nova startled, clattering some of her equipment together, before she remembered who the deep voice belonged too. Quickly putting everything back in place, she resumed the delicate work of creating slides again.

"I'm comparing samples of Blue," She replied, "I want to have a look at what we found on Arcadia."

As soon as she had woken up, Nova had started to resume her work on the drug. Even with Mark now awake, she was still anxious to figure out what was going on, hoping that knowledge would help them to avoid danger. Besides, whether he was willing to admit it or not, he still needed to rest and recover.

A slight blush crept up her cheeks as she remembered last night. Nova wiggled a little in her chair, tightening her legs together in a vein attempt to stay focused.

She heard a rumbled laugh came from the bed behind her; Mark had likely noticed the increase in heartbeat and temperature, giving away her flustered state.

It turned out that by retaining most of Mark's main frame, he still had a lot of the capabilities he had previously. He could connect to other devices and process information at a startling speed. This was certainly useful in some ways, but for right now it meant that Nova couldn't keep her reactions to him private.

"What are you thinking about?" Nova didn't need to turn around to see the smirk curling up his face - she could hear it in his mock innocence. Still, she turned around, readjusting her mask to cover as much of her blushing skin as possible.

He was propped up on some pillows, his back resting again the headboard, leisurely watching her from the comfort of the medical bed. Just looking at him - his chest, his arms, his handsome face - made her feel weak at the knees. Sometimes, when she looked at him, it was hard to remember that he was still Mark, the same man that she had spent months together with in her workshop. Normally, she would never imagine an Alpha lupus being even remotely interested in her.

Not that she was going to complain - she was undeniably attracted to him - but she couldn't help but feel like there was now a ticking clock, counting away the seconds until he decided to leave her and explore the galaxy.

"Stop trying to distract me." She admonished him, watching as his ice blue eyes twinkled with mischief. His smirk turned into a full blown smile, displaying all his perfect teeth that she had painstakingly attached. On the chassis, they hadn't given much of an impact, but he now used them with devastating charm, clearly aware of how to use his grin to his advantage.

"Oh? I would never do a thing like that!" He said playfully.

She scoffed, before spinning on her chair so that she could return to examining her samples.

Nova was enjoying this new, light-hearted side to Mark. It was as if by getting a new body, he had a new spurt of confidence to him.

"You seem to be taking the transition well." Despite being a statement, her voice gently trailed upwards towards the end.

"It was... jarring when I first woke up. Emotions are harder to understand then I realised and I can't seem to control them."

"Ah, well, you can't really 'control' emotions. It's more like... we experience emotions, and how we feel is just how we feel, but our actions - our behaviour - is actually what we can control."

"I don't understand..."

"Well, if someone is angry or upset about something, they can't just flip a switch and that feeling goes away." Nova explained, while delicately placing two slides to one side so that she could test them. "But, what we can do certain things to help us to manage them, and most of the time that's done by being mindful of our behaviours. So instead of us trying to control our emotions, we try to not let emotions control us."

"Ah, I think I understand now. When I was on the Mayflower, sometimes clients would decline certain services, despite their physical responses indicating arousal." His low voice carried across the room, slow and measured in tone. "So, even though they might have been sexually interested in something, they were not letting their desire dictate their choices."

This was the first time Mark had ever truly referenced an experience he had upon the Mayflower. Although he had discussed the brothel previously, including it's Madame, he had never talked about a client before. Granted, it wasn't exactly detailed, but Nova got the impression that depending on how she reacted, it would greatly impact on whether he would share more in the future.