He had been anxiously waiting and hoped the pruning didn't show. After the extensive phone call with Dex, Hunter had done his best to "follow the droid" to the hot tub. When the panel slid aside aim was taken. Water splashed towards Jack in the blink of an eye. Hunter felt a little playful and was looking to bite off more than he could chew with the memories of their game night still trying to color his cheeks. "You're late....though I suppose you had to get rid of the others and find time to shut down the com badges." Ice blues watched to see what kind of mood Jack might be in, after all it had been several hours and no telling what or who might have gotten to her in between. He could hope for something close to his though, but maybe that was too much to ask after one...one what exactly' "We've set course for the Berin system. Long range sensors are picking up anomalies in the area." It was hard to keep his eyes from drinking in all of her. She had only just rolled out from the wall and now she was wet and not in the way she had anticipated. Tossing the bag on her shoulder in the corner it clanked against the ground hard. A hand on her hip she flashed him a grin that said he was asking for trouble. "So I heard and you are lucky I planned ahead and hacked your badge too." That was all the answer she was going to give him for now. He would just have to suffer without knowing how she heard the slight shift in his voice when saying he would see her later in front of the crew. This little half fae has her ways of listening in when she needs too or at best a program listening for keywords for her. The shimmer of hoping for trouble and best of all the fight to beat back the smile he wanted to give in his eyes made it difficult for her not to tell him. Did he know he had such a boyish charm when he smiled? Her fingers pulled the flight suit the rest of the way down showing she was already wearing her suit. Impossibly pale feet came free of the platform boots.

Hunter let a chuckle out thinking of what they would think if they saw him. "I'd imagine they would be trying to prove I was some clone if they saw me actually having fun in swim trunks no less." Hunter turned towards her slowly reaching out to take hold of her shoulders. True he had done this once before, but would she let him doing it again? Rolling thumbs over what he assumed was knots, his fingers followed suit. "It's their loss I suppose, imagination doesn't stray too much further than how to be more efficient for many of them. Others, well they are entertaining enough and needed on the ship to help keep up morale." It was nearly natural for him to begin digging his thumbs into her back. Working around her wings and with her back towards him he had time to compose his features and regain his footing if she verbally threw him. "You're always so tight Jack. That can't be good for you." Hunter changed the subject from the crew to her in the hopes that she would carry the conversation. At present his fingers were thinking for him. She moved naturally towards his light pull on her arms. Wincing now and again as he dug into what felt like gravel instead of muscle she couldn't help when her wings flickered against him. With the current projects it might be time to consider Doctor Lang's offer of muscle relaxers at the end of the day. There was a growing list of crew members she had in mind when she picked the hiding place for this hot tub. Many of them thought they were the playboys of the ship despite the fact that they can't tell a relay from their own fingers. Glowing greens looked over at that last comment of Hunter's. "It's called stress and wings. I can't imagine yours is much better, but...I bet it would be one hell of a fight if we had to go to see Lang for it." A wicked grin appearing on her face til he found the next knot sending her wings flickering at each roll of pain. How the hell was he so damn good at this!"!

The skin on his arm tingled with the light brushes. "Perhaps I have, or maybe I'm just good working around wings." Hunter dug his thumbs in along her spine, his finger splayed outward using acupressure, until he swallowed. Her body flexed back into his hands bringing her closer to him. The bubbles of the tub played a clever game of peek-a-boo with the strings of her suit and oh how easy it would be for boyish antics to slip a finger into the loop and pull the whole knot free. His mouth going dry, his hands slid downward, finger tips brushing the edge of the loops. Now was his chance, but the trust she had placed in him. Sharing her space, this moment no matter what they were had his hands balling up into fists under the water and is mouth struggling for his next words. "Or maybe I should quit while I am ahead tonight?" The curve her shoulder into her neck pulled at his eyes. "What did you bring to drink tonight?" Something else to do with his hands might help break the hold she seemed to have on him. Hunter was to use to being an admiral of fleet instead of any other man with an interest in a woman. Eying him over her shoulder Jack tried not to protest, as Hunter pulled away again. He is the admiral after all and there were some lines he wouldn't cross. No matter how badly either party might want too. This might be their time away, but there were still limitations. "I was in a mod so vodka, cranberry juice and crushed ice. Makes it like a slushy which I thought would be great in the tub." Bobbing her way to the edge, Jack hung over. Half of her body in and the other have out, wings flicking water everywhere as she reached for the small cooler inside her pack. Hunter hadn't gone running from her yet. Maybe having a friend or close friend wouldn't be so bad.

Oh were they really going to go there" Jack could almost feel a knot or two coming back and found her drink rather interesting. "I had my suspicions on what you thought of me before our game night and during, but.." Tossing back her slushy as best she could hoping for the words to come out right. Her eyes found his trying to give weight and honestly to her choices. "But I didn't want to put you in a position that would compromise all that you have worked for. Now rewind to something about a message. Something caught you off guard?" Jack had a sinking feeling her name had come up in the message or at least there might be a project of hers that was on the table for discussion. "Did I say message....I meant the back rub. Must be a problem with the universal translator." It sounded good, it was just a pity that she was an engineer and might be able to call him on his bluff. She was right and he didn't want her to be right. The struggle between Hunter and Admiral K'lar was one he couldn't take lightly even if that is exactly what he wanted to do to her lips. Feathery and soft as he thought her eyelashes would be against his face. The battle raged on inside him and had Hunter backing farther into his corner of the tub. "That seems right....as to the compromising position, I honestly don't know where to go from here." "First, I don't think we could every play poker ?cause that was a horrible bluff. Second, if you think that we should take a step back only because of rules and propriety on the ship, then I understand. Believe me the massages you give are..." Her wings flickered quickly with her heart rate as she found herself without anything in her container to distract her lips from spilling out her thoughts. "Very good and I look forward to the next time you offer. I just didn't want to cross a line with you that you couldn't or didn't want to. I'm an Absinthe. We know all about crossing lines. No matter what you decide I have enjoyed what we share."

He reached across tempted for the briefest of moments to touch her cheek and pull her into him. Instead he grasped her hand and drew it gently to his lips. Tenderly he kissed the tops of her knuckles letting his nose linger on the back of her hand...His ice blue eyes never left hers staying firm in his answer. "It is enough that it happened, and that I at least give you the choice of continuing to spend time with me. However you decide it should be." "Somehow I think despite whatever my answer would be I would find you jogging by my lab in the wee hours of the morning." Smiling in relief as much as confusion, there were many things running in both their heads and no doubt the late hour and vodka was not helping matters. "I have enjoyed all the time we have spent together. Even tackling you to the floor, so my choice is pretty clear or at least I think I've made it so." Fingers still locked with his, Jack did not want to let go of him. The kiss to the back of her hand bubbled in her mind with many questions. Did he do it because he knew what a real kiss could do' Was it because he still was unsure about her" Was he just being kind and taking things slow" Slow?! There were surrounded by constant threat! Why the hell would they take anything...oh..Her mind suddenly crashed to a halt as she looked deeper into his eyes causing her cheeks to blush with color. Perhaps you stark raving idiot...he really does like you! Not like school boy she is girl and he is boy no no no...that look. That look....and her mind for the first time in a long time went blank. It was an interesting dilemma now that Jack had brought it up and he for one was grateful he didn't need to decide. It was in jest of course, but he was pretty sure that he would do exactly as she had said and keep his morning run encountered her lab. He was as certain that he would probably stand outside of its door and never cross the threshold, unless he was there for an official reason.

Keeping her grasp just as firm on him as he to her, Jack was not going to let him back away now. This was getting to the good part! Jack pulled on him as she splashed again trying to get a rise out of him. Her pull had his knuckles brushing her torso briefly as the water rose to greet his face. "And I think it is strongly advisable for you to start fighting back before I dunk you in this tub." She rolled her body off to the side closer to his portion of the tub. At this moment there were no lines and their com badges off. With the skeleton crew running third shift it was unlikely that they would be needed. "I would say that depends on the torture. You never know how much you could like something till you try." Hunter was extremely aware of where his knuckles were which probably explained why he wound up with a face full of water. Still she was starting this, and it could as easily be considered a game as anything else. He pulled back on her arm and proceeded to send a splash of water Jack's way, while pinning the back of her hand against his abdomen. "You planning on some kind of water torture tonight?" His tone had lightened, and the amusement he was feeling was there for her in undertones. If she checked his eyes though they would have a glint to them that said he was feeling it much more. Laughing and sputtering as she couldn't escape the wave of water he sent her way, Jack used her wings to flick that water back at him in a light spray. The edge of his abs danced over her knuckles and she couldn't help herself as her fingers rolled defining the edges in her mind. Her laughter could account for the color in her cheeks, but that was still out for debate. "That is one way of looking at it considering you and I are not likely to give up anytime soon." Water dripped from her hair as she used her free arm to bring up the next mini tsunami for him.

Jack swallowed hard as she found herself saved and pressed to Hunter much closer than she was before. Her mind wasn't ready to admit like her body was how much this felt natural. It took her several seconds to gather her own will to hop over the side of the tub after parting from his arms. She gathered her things and tossed him his com badge. Jack's droid peeked out of the panel using its magnetic pads to stay in place. Maybe it would be a good idea to install them in her boots, not that it would have helped her in the tub. "Droid, disengage the scramble coding on admiral K'lar's badge only. Set mine to pick up all transmissions." Well there went her secret as to how she was able to hear things when you weren't there. Hunter's badge was already chirping for him while Jack's hummed with back and forth chatter. "You shouldn't be waking the admiral! It was your damn fault for trying to take us through and asteroid field no matter how minor!" "I am in command of this shift and it would have saved us two hours if you had stayed focused on the drift of the smaller ones." "And you would have watched for the larger ones? Yeah right. You call the admiral and I am turning this ship around before Jack kills you, Lang brings you back and then Jack and the Admiral kill you again." It seemed the younger officers were squabbling on the bridge trying to outdo one another and flash their accomplishments the Admiral's way in the morning. Jack was doing her best not to snicker and snort. Snatching the badge from the air Hunter was activating it even as he was listening to the squabble going on between the helm and the officer in charge. He let out a sigh that may have had a bit of a growl too. "Admiral to the bridge....Report." He could have laughed at how quiet things got when the call went through. He moved closer to Jack leaning in and whispering into her ear. "Next time you're going down Absinthe." Hunter winked, he couldn't say why he felt the need to do so, it just happened and then he was off into the Jeffries tube trailing his towel and droplets of water from his suit. "Give me ten minutes, I am on my way." Ten minutes he hoped would be enough to get to his quarters and throw on a uniform. The third shift would be too afraid to notice that he wasn't quite so freshly pressed when he arrived. http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/s573/AKrugerAllen/Jack%20and%20Hunter/JnHHottub_zps630a3498.jpg