the delphic expanse

Yup, it's that time again. If you're new to the word prompt system, or if it's been so long you forgot, here's how it works:

Every month I throw down a prompt, usually one word or a short phrase. You write an Enterprise story inspired by the prompt. You do not have to include the actual word or phrase itself in the story. Just write where the prompt takes you.

Stories can be any style--drama, humor, romance, mystery, action, whatever. Het, slash, gen--anything goes. There are no minimum or maximum word count requirements.

After you write it, polish it up with a beta reader, and submit it to the archive! Be sure to label it as this month's prompt response--we like to put those together in a series for quick reference later on.

Your prompt, should you choose to accept it, is one I threw down elsewhere a long time ago. But I like it, and I never had a chance to write it then, so here we go:








MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS




Now get out of here and go write something.

I wrote my one and only NC-17 fic to that prompt

So do another one! Or illustrate it!

I did one of this one, but there's always room for more, LOL!

But, Bluetiger, I notice that wonderful story isn't archived here! It would be more than welcome in our archive.

Here's the story I wrote for this prompt. The Little Miracle

And I might revisit that world again.

You guys could do something totally different, take the prompt in a completely different direction.

That too! I was thinking the same thing. OOOOOOOH. Idea forming, I can feel it…

Thank you, Honeybee.

I guess we will just have to see if the muse has anything on the back burner, Aquarius

Okay, this is just some quick little throw-away thing I wrote, so I don't know that I'm gonna archive it. Maybe later, after some cleanup and refinement.

TRUTH OR DARE

“Truth or dare?”

Trip couldn't see T'Pol's face, snuggled as it was against his chest, but he could feel the eyebrow climbing.

“I beg your pardon?” she asked.

Trip shifted, the deep, soft pillow swallowing him all over again. He pulled T'Pol closer into him, swallowing her in turn. “It's a game,” he explained. “You choose truth or dare. If you pick dare, I get to dare you to do whatever I want, and you have to do it...”

“I do not believe I'll like this game,” she interrupted.

“...and if you say truth, then I get to ask you a question and you have to answer it truthfully.”

T'Pol lifted her head to look him in the eye. “I always answer you truthfully,” she said with the hint of righteous indignation only a Vulcan could pull off.

“I know,” Trip said gently. “But these questions are different.”

“In what way?”

Trip grimaced with playful impatience. “You gonna play or not? Pick one.”

“It's late,” T'Pol answered. “We both have duty shifts in the morning.”

“Coward.”

T'Pol's eyes widened. It was the only betrayal of her emotions. Lifting her chin slightly in defiance, she said, “Truth.”

Trip closed his eyes in defeat but smiled. “That figures.” As T'Pol settled against his chest again, he said, “Okay, fine. Not counting tonight, when was the last time you had a sexual fantasy about me?”

T'Pol tensed slightly in his arms. She wasn't accustomed to discussing thoughts and feelings out in the open. Sometimes, Trip thought, talking to her was worse than talking to another guy, she was so buttoned up. But they were alone, and what they'd done once they'd crawled into bed was about as unbuttoned as it could get. Her personal barriers would still be pretty low.

“Today...” she answered awkwardly, “...while I was realigning the sensor array...several of my thoughts were in anticipation of the sexual encounter we would have after the movie.”

“Really?” Trip asked excitedly.

“It was only for eleven seconds.”

“So? What were they about?” He was brimming with pride and intrigue.

“If I understand the rules correctly, you are only permitted one question.”

“Alright, alright,” Trip conceded, disappointment over the lack of details not quite dousing his initial enthusiasm over the answer. “Your turn.”

“Which do you prefer?”

“No, you have to say it.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Say truth or dare. It's the rules.”

“Truth or dare.” She was cute when she was slightly annoyed, but at least she was getting into the spirit of things. For T'Pol.

Trip grinned smugly. “Dare.” He was going to show her how much fun the game could be, one way or the other. He didn't think she'd let him down. T'Pol would never admit it, even when confronted with the evidence, but she could have a pretty filthy mind when she wanted to.

“Very well,” T'Pol said. “I dare you to omit meat from your diet for one month.”

“Not that kind of dare!”

“You said it could be of my choosing.”

Trip rubbed a hand across his face. “Well...yeah...but...it's supposed to be fun.”

“It will be 'fun' for the animals that don't get eaten,” she pointed out.

Trip's exasperation level was climbing. “I mean the kind of fun that leads to confessing some deep, dark secret you wouldn't normally tell, or that makes somebody do something kind of crazy for your own amusement.”

“Vulcans don't use others for their own amusement.”

He snickered. “And I'm gonna have about a million aches and pains tomorrow as evidence to the contrary.”

“If you would prefer not to play...”

Trip heaved a sigh and considered. “One month?”

T'Pol nodded.

“Not even catfish?”

T'Pol just stared at him.

“Alright,” he said reluctantly. She was doing something against her nature by playing. He knew he needed to man up and do something in return for her, even if it wasn't quite how the game was supposed to go. “But the catfish thing hurts.”

She gave him an unsympathetic look.

“My turn,” he said. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“You ever gonna pick dare?”

“No.”

Trip shook his head. “Okay. Last week, when you said you couldn't come to the movie...did you really have an experiment to check on, or did you just not want to see the movie?”

“I had an experiment to check on,” she answered evenly.

Trip nodded in satisfaction.

“And I didn't want to see the movie.”

“Are you kidding me? Kentucky Fried Movie is a classic!”

“The man in the preview said that someone had urinated in our popcorn.”

Trip covered his eyes with his free hand. He shouldn't laugh. But he was going to any way. “Okay, fine, darlin'. Jokes about screwing with your food aren't funny. Got it.”

She began to relax again, perhaps prematurely.

Trip was still laughing. “If anyone ever wants to piss in your popcorn or anything else, they're gonna have to go through me first.”

“That is...most appreciated,” T'Pol responded dryly.”Truth or dare?”

Trip's laughter quieted. “Truth.” If she was going to be stingy on the dares, he could be, too.

“Why do you want to play this game?”

He pulled back a little to look at her. “Are you serious?”

T'Pol blinked wordlessly. She was serious. She was indulging him, but she wasn't getting it at all.

“I dunno...I guess...to have fun. To share something just between us. Stuff nobody else is gonna see and hear...”

“You're searching for a mutually intimate experience?”

Trip considered. “Yeah...I s'pose that's right.”

T'Pol quirked an eyebrow. “With the objective of sexual relations.” It wasn't a question. She knew him too well.

“It's not mandatory, but it helps,” he said flippantly.

Trip began to feel warm and tingly all over. The sense of “fullness” he felt inside let him know that T'Pol was opening the bond and letting thought and energy full more freely between them. It was more intense than usual, though, the tingle becoming an electric sizzle and pop throughout his mind.

She showed him how much she regretted leaving him to attend last week's movie alone. Though she didn't always care for Trip's taste in cinema, it was the experience of sitting there beside him and sharing something he had a passion for that she enjoyed. She wouldn't be denying herself that experience again any time soon.

She showed him how much it meant to her that he was willing to adopt her Vulcan philosophies regarding dietary choices, even for a short time. She had no desire to change who he was. She only wanted him to understand through experience, to occasionally share something that was important to her.

She showed him eleven seconds of another kind of game, involving a Jeffries tube and uses for decon gel he hadn't previously thought of.

Trip ran his hand along her hip. He felt a tickle along his own.

T'Pol had deepened the connection to the point where they could each feel what the other was feeling.

“I like your game better,” was the last thing he was able to choke out until morning.

Tell me again why you're thinking that you might not archive this AWESOMENESS??? Fantastic, fantastic stuff. I love this!

Oh, that's adorable! Special props for him giving up the catfish! For her. Just for a month. Terrific job.