Naughty

[Erich Jaenke 0]

Naughty

Rated Keb for Erich Content

 

Erich had two drinks before even getting his meal at the restaurant. Soon he needed relieve himself, but he also could feel Ambassador Mizu’s immediate desire to speak alone to his daughter. He excused himself for a few minutes, but the bathroom was not far enough away to silence Keb’s thoughts over the noise of the other patrons.

 

“Keb,” the ambassador said in a hushed, warning tone, “you need to be careful. You do realize he can read your every thought?”

 

A bit of teenage rebellion stirred up in Keb, and she rolled her eyes at her father. “Yes, Dad, I’m quite aware that Erich’s from Betazed, and I know he knows what I’m thinking. We’ve had a few discussions about it. It...doesn’t bother me.” Her statement was not completely true, which stung Erich a bit, but she was trying to defend him.

 

Keb’s father shook his head and rubbed his beard. “You have to watch that he does not take advantage of you,” he said, still quiet and concerned. “He can tell you exactly what you want to hear, because he knows what that is. How do you know if you can trust him?”

 

“You always told me: trust but verify,” Keb answered. “And...I’ve been trying to do just that with him. He’s a hero; just got an award today for saving our home planet.”

 

“As did you,” her father pointed out. “Just...watch yourself, all right? You’d...be better off with a more...equal match.”

 

“Humans can lie, too,” Keb countered.

 

Erich couldn’t justify hiding in the washroom any longer. He washed his hands and went back to rejoin them. They both halted their conversion and sat up as they caught sight of him walking back to the table. Father and daughter expressed the same emotion -- wrenching guilt over talking about someone behind one’s back -- A rare sight on Betazed.

 

He looked at them for a moment, not knowing how to respond. He cleared his throat and pursed his lips. “I-I need to go outside for some fresh air. If you will excuse me.” He wasted no time making a beeline for the restaurant’s front door.

 

“I will return, just need some fresh air,” he said with a quick glance to the maitre’d as he walked outside. Erich kept his beeline pace as he crossed the street and into the nearby park. Soon Erich lost sight of both Keb and her father. His mind could hear both of them.

 

Erich knew he had panicked and held no desired to jeopardize Keb’s relationship with her father. This was not a matter of his heightened ability, just any old Betazoid. As far as he knew her father did not know he was special. Walking further away he could still feel them, but as they were family the patterns were harder to discern.

 

But even against her father’s similar patterns, Keb’s voice rang out in his head. She was telling her father just how grateful he ought to be that a Betazoid saved his life. Behind what she was saying, though, was the growing affection she had for Erich; somehow her anger made it glow all the brighter, like iron heated in a forge.

 

At one end of the part a stone pathway lay before him. Tall bushes lined each side of the winding path. He figured it would abruptly end, but it opened into a circle of stone and grass some twenty meters in diameter. At the far end was a stone bench, but right in front lay an oblong pond. Water poured out of a statue standing in the middle. The gurgling noise of the running water broke his flight response. He sat on the bench and pressed his hands to his face.

 

It was only a few minutes before Keb sought him out; the peaceful park barely caught her senses as she searched for Erich. She didn’t speak before sitting down next to him, though her thoughts were a jumble of worries and questions--mostly about what her father or she had done to make Erich run away from them. She reached for his hand, enveloping it in her own with gentle cautiousness.

 

“I should not have run, but I did not want to say something to anger your father. I don’t think he trusts me, or at least not Betazoids.” He glanced at her. “It stung for some reason.” He let out a long sigh. “He must think I’m unstable.”

 

Keb lowered her eyes to the ground. “He doesn’t really know you yet,” she said. “Maybe it was a bad idea to invite you...it’s...too soon.”

 

Erich nodded. “Guess we’ve not really been able to decompress from the past week.” He paused, clasping her hand. “I should go back, perhaps tell him it was Manticore business.”

 

Keb giggled all at once, that burst of immature rebellion swelling in her heart. “Or we could do terribly naughty things out here--or make him think we are--and drive him batty.” She met his eyes and sobered a little from her wild thoughts. “Not that I’d want him to have a heart attack or anything...he’s being silly about you, that’s all.”

 

The Betazoid’s mind wrapped around the word naughty and took a chance. He leaned over just as she was off balance and kissed her straight on the lips, not giving her time to react, nor him time to read her mind. He held her motionless, trapped in the moment. Startled at first, Keb melted into the kiss, and a smile was playing on her lips as Erich pulled back enough to look at her again.