Waking Up With You

Posted on Wed Oct 24, 2018 @ 10:36pm by Danielle Mercursi-Mallory & Lieutenant Commander Arrda

Mission: An Oceanic Shoreleave
Location: Personal Quarters
Timeline: MD 38 || 0900 Hours

The feel of lips on her roused Danielle from a sound sleep and she slowly opened her eyes and stretched her arms to get the lethargy of sleep from them. When she brought them down, she found the broad, strong shoulders of the man she had spent every night with for years and a smile graced her lips.

"G'mornin'," she said sleepily as her nose registered the scent of fresh coffee and something like faint paint fumes on the air that the circulation system hadn't quite eradicated. She knew her husband was an artist at heart and it had never bothered her, but curiosity woke her up more.

She reluctantly released the man she was married to and sat up a bit while she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. When they focused, she saw the easel which sat facing the bed and a smile graced her lips. It was a perfectly rendered image of her sleeping in the bed and done so realistically that it could have been a photograph.

"You shouldn't have, Arrda," Danielle said, her voice still husky from sleep, but always filled with all the love she had for him. "Thank you, my eternal love." She turned her head and saw the breakfast tray and reached for the card and her smile got even fonder when she read it.

"Never do I want to wake up to a day in which I have to be without you, my handsome poet."

He smiled, warmed at her response to his art and, well, just... her. He kissed her again and stepped back. "Such beautiful words. Perhaps you were an Artist once upon a time, my Love." he whispered. "I will always be here, with you and for you." His right hand came up, and he stroked her cheek. "Now, you should eat that before it gets cold." He said with a smile.

"My art was made with a phaser," she said as she uncovered the dish to reveal French toast stuffed with bacon. "Oh my," she said as she reached for the knife and fork. "Either you've been very bad or I'm in for a real treat today."

Arrda chuckled at her reference to 'art', even though he had meant in a past life. Still, she was quite the little comedian. As to the food... "Do I have to have done something bad to spoil my wife?" he asked playfully.

"Then I must be incredibly lucky," Danielle said before she took a drink of her coffee followed by a bite of the breakfast. A groan of pleasure escaped her as well as a bit of syrup which dripped from her lip down to her chin and she closed her eyes while she chewed and swallowed. "This is so good."

Arrda smiled, resisting the impulse to lick the syrup off of her chin -- that would start something and let her breakfast get very cold. "I'm glad you're enjoying it, my Love." he said sincerely. "You have a bit of syrup..." He gave up and leaned in, licking the syrup off of her chin and ending with a soft kiss before standing once more. "I intend to spoil you rotten tis Leave." he stated, still smiling.

She returned the kiss with a smile. "I'm going to stink up the entire ship by the time we get back," she said. "But who am I to deny you anything?" She cut another piece of the rich breakfast and offered it to him while she reached for a piece of fruit.

"Well, they can just deal with it." he said, smirking. Leaning forward, he took the bite of food in his mouth then slowly slid it off the fork, eyes locked with hers the entire time and that smile never leaving his lips even as he sat back and chewed the food slowly.

"Oh, you tease," Danielle accused him after eating her piece of fruit and reached for her coffee. "You did that on purpose and I'm going to get you back before the end of shore leave. Mark my words, Arrrrrda."

"Oh, I have no doubt of that, my Sweet." he said, still grinning. "In fact, I'm counting on it."

She took another bite of her delightful breakfast, chewed and swallowed before taking another drink of coffee. "Someone has to keep you on your toes and I'm that one. You do it to me, so fair is fair."

He chuckled. "And you are so good at it, too."

"I had to step up after I met you," Danielle said with a smile. "And it was worth it."

Arrda smiled back. "Somehow I think it was always inside of you." he complimented. He paused for a moment, thoughtfully. "I would like your opinion on something I have been thinking about for some time." He knew she would speak honestly and forthrightly. It was part of her charm as far as he was concerned.

"Sure," she said as she took another bite of the delicious breakfast treat. "You know I'll always be honest with you."

"I told you why Starfleet records have my name as Douglas Mallory. And it made sense at the time. But this is the twenty-fourth century now and the Federation. I've been thinking about legally going back to only my original name so that all of my documents would be under it instead of the Human name I chose during the Earth Mission. There is no longer a need for the Human name, as far as I can tell. What do you think?"

"How long have I been calling you by your given name, Arrda?" Danielle asked after listening to him. "Have I not always told you that you should go by it? You should put the official change in immediately if not sooner."

Arrda thought about what she said. She was right; since he had told her his given name, she had never used the Earth name. And she had told him on numerous occasions that he should simply go by it. But choosing to use it was different than going through all of the bureaucratic nonsense to have it officially changed in the records. He sighed. "You're right, of course." he said after a moment of consideration. "It will still take a while for it to get all straightened out. Earth -- correction, the Federation -- still has far too much bureaucracy for my tastes." he grumbled.

She offered him another bite of her breakfast. "Then now is the best time to get it set in action," she said. "I can't see them disputing it as it is your given name. Why deny your heritage?"

He took the offered bite of food and chewed thoughtfully. He had not thought of it that way, as denying his heritage. He had simply gotten used to it, but hearing her call him by his name for this long had really made him think about it, had brought it from the back of his mind to the front. And now, that idea of denying his heritage really gave him pause. He loved his family and would never purposely deny them. Was that really what he was doing?

He frowned. "I never really thought of it that way." he said softly, thoughtfully. "I... you are right. I will send the request for the change to Starfleet. They can get the process started as they'll have to fix my civilian records to make it official before they change their own records." he said. Leaning forward, he kissed her softly. "Thank you, my Love."

Danielle smiled and returned the kiss. "You are more than welcome as always," she said. "Now let's finish breakfast and begin reclaiming you. As long as I still get Arrrrda to myself."

He chuckled softly. "Always, my Dearest." He really did love the way she purred his name. No one else would ever say it the way she did, and that was fine with him.

She gave him another smile, then reached for her coffee. "Now that that's settled, do you want to stay underwater on Pacifica or one of the rare land resorts there?"

Arrda thought about that for a moment. "While I have been to worlds that were mostly water like Pacifica, I never stayed long. I think it would be a different experience to stay under water." After all, land he had, both on Marai and on Earth. They could do that anytime. "What would you prefer?"

"I think underwater would be amazing," Danielle said. "I've never been in an underwater resort before. As long as they have proper shielding for it, I'm all for it."

He nodded. "And it's something I haven't done either. It should be fun." He smiled. "I'm sure their shielding is fine. They've been doing this a while now."

"There's a first time for everything," the former Security officer in her said. "Perhaps we should get to see if we can bring our own force field generator."

He tilted his head, his eyes showing a bit of playfulness. Even though he actually agreed with her, he could not resist teasing her. "Little paranoid, are we, Dear?"

"Like you weren't planning on doing something similar," Danielle said with a light laugh.

Arrda laughed good-naturedly. She was right, of course. "You know me too well." he said with a smile. "I will ask the captain. After all, I have to talk to him anyway about the name thing." he offered. "Anything else you'd like while I'm at it?" He was still grinning, showing that he was half playing with her with that question. She was not so demanding.

She made a show of thinking about it while she sipped her coffee, then gave a nod. "Three harpoon guns, six pounds of coffee, two Ktarian Chocolate Puffs and eleven gallons of sun tan lotion," she said.

He chuckled again. "Well, you don't ask for much, do you?" he joked, leaning forward to place a soft kiss to her lips. "I'd better shower then and go see the captain."

"See, this is why I'm your wife," Danielle said as she got out of bed and headed for the matter reclamation unit. "He's a Commodore."

Arrda chuckled. "Damn. Yeah, sadly I'm getting old, so I need you to remember things for me, apparently." he joked as he dropped the robe on the hook in the bathroom and got into the shower. "Maybe I need you to wash me too." he added with a ink. A little play never hurt anyone, after all.

"You aren't old," she objected. "You're seasoned and experienced. You just have too much in your head. As for washing you, if I went in there, you would definitely be late getting to see the Commodore."

"And there you go, doing it again. You're making sense again. Stop it!" he joked as he got into the shower and began to clean himself. "And seasoned? What am I, a steak?" he added with a chuckle, unable after all to resist the joke.

Danielle walked into the bathroom and looked at him. "Steak?" she asked. "Baby, you're one hell of a slab of beef."

He chuckled and poked his head out of the shower. "Flattery will get you everywhere, my Dear." he said, tapping the tip of her nose with a wet forefinger then retreating back into the shower to finish cleaning.

She laughed and wiped her nose. "I know. That's why I do it," she grinned before she leaned against the counter and watched him.

"I suspected as much." he said over the sound of the shower. Finishing, he stepped out and grabbed a towel off the rack, beginning to dry himself. He did not mind her watching him. If anything, it was a turn-on, but he was trying to be serious and get ready to see the Commodore; he did not need his wife distracting him. "You know that's distracting, right, the watching?" he said with a smirk, suspecting that was also why she did that.

"Not at all," Danielle said. "Now if I were watching while dressed up like a Ferengi who was dressed up like a clown and kept trying to buy you, that would be distracting."

Arrda gave his wife a look between disgust and horror. "No, Dearest, that would not be distracting; that would be disturbing." he corrected, smiling then. He could imagine what Aidan would have said to that Concept, was actually glad his son wasn't here to show her just how disturbing that Concept was.

She gave a full belly laugh and winked at him. "I'll make it up to you later," she promised. "Now get dressed and go see the Commodore."

"Yes, Dear." he said with mock reverence. He chuckled then and finished drying, wrapped a towel around his hair and went to dress. Once dressed, he took the towel off of his head and looked for his brush... which seemed to have grown feet and walked off. "Have you seen my brush, Dear?" he asked, turning toward her.

"On top of the dresser," Danielle replied before she pointed to their bedroom. "Right where you left it."

He smiled at her, a bit sheepishly in fact. He was one of those people who always put the same object in the same place. He was very organized and so, for him to forget where he left something was rare to say the least, almost unheard of. "Of course it is. Thank you." He said with that same slightly embarrassed tone. Then his eyes glittered, and his tone shifted to playful again. "You see what you do to me? You just distract the hell out of me." he said with a chuckle as he went to retrieve the brush and began to brush out his hip-length hair.

"You've forgotten all about work and I consider that to be worth distracting you from," she said as she came up to him from behind. "Did I ever confess to you that I've felt jealous of your hair? I just want to cut it all off and glue it to my own head at times."

Arrda chuckled again. "No you didn't, but I'm glad you never acted on that desire." he admitted. "I'd look pretty foolish bald." he added with another chuckle. He turned, brush in hand, eyes taking in his wife with a look that, while not lascivious, was definitely appreciative of her beauty. "But I don't see why you're jealous of it. Yours is lovely." he complimented sincerely. Her blond was so different from much of his family, with the exception of Arreith, and he found that difference... stimulating. That and other things that she brought to his life.

"Yours is so long and thick," Danielle started to say, then guffawed. "Your hair, I mean. I could play with it all day."

Arrda laughed with her. He had known what she had meant, but her reaction to her own words had made him laugh at the possible misperception of them. "Yes, I'm sure you could. And I'd be very inclined to let you." he answered, his own response ambiguous on purpose. "But I do need to speak to the commodore, so..." He made a show of sighing heavily. "The play will have to wait." he said with a wink.

She mock sighed. "Then I guess I'll have to be content to stay here and pack some neon speedos for you and some bikinis for me. Do you prefer hot pink or neon green?" she asked.

The look he gave her was playful but somewhere between horrified and reproachful. "I hope to the Mother Creator you are not serious." he said after a second, the grin he wore belying the very serious tone he was using. "After all, if I did wear something like that, which by the way, I wouldn't -- at least not in those colors" he said with a wink, "you would spend our entire leave fighting off other women." He studied her for a moment with mock seriousness. "Then again, perhaps that was your plan?" he teased. "An excuse to render all potential rivals unconscious?"

"You didn't know?" Danielle asked as she went to their wardrobe and pulled out a couple travel cases. "Where you're concerned, there can be only one and I'm her."

He raised his eyebrows at her, but chuckled. "And now you're going Highlander on me?" he teased. But at the same time, it warmed his heart to know that she would fight for him, even if she was only making a joke. That joke came from somewhere in her psyche, somewhere that likely felt very seriously about it. Thus, it was endearing.

She laughed as she began to pull articles of clothing out to pack. "I can't tell all my secrets, can I?" she teasingly asked him. "Ahhh...if I only had a sword, but I have you and that makes everything as it should be. Now brush that lovely hair of yours before I use it to tie you down and keep you all to myself."

He studied her for a moment then continued with his hair brushing. "You know, I think you could likely do it." he commented as he drew the brush through his hair. He was still smiling at her because he was half joking, but only half.

"Well, I did learn a thing or two when I was in Starfleet," Danielle said idly. "Such as setting sixteen of a phaser will completely vaporize nearly anything it hits instantly. I wouldn't do that, of course." She packed a few more items. "It wouldn't give me the satisfaction of beating some bitch to a pulp if she tried to sink her claws into you."

One of his friends had once told him that he was a bit of a masochist, pointing out the similarities in the women he had chosen to marry. Her last statement really drove that home. At the same time, he couldn't help but to laugh at the image of Danielle going all Street Fighter on some woman. Wow, had his life really messed him up that badly? Apparently so, he thought as he put the brush down, moved over to kiss her with a smile, then left their quarters to speak to Commodore Aravan. Oh, yes, he was definitely on a slippery slope here...

She returned the kiss with a smile and enjoyed the view as he left, then turned to resume packing for their trip. Yes, it was going to be a great time, she mused as she packed a special knuckle duster in her case, and gods help the woman that tried to take him from her.