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cat-sophia · 7 years ago

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If You Aren't Watching The Expanse, the Best Scifi Show on TV, Here's What You Need to Know to Start Tonight

It’s been a year since The Expanse’s tense season two finale, and we are deliriously excited for the season three premiere tonight on Syfy. You should be, too. The scifi series is strong on every front: a thrilling story equally packed with political intrigue and tons of space action; fascinating and well-written characters; and gorgeous special effects. But if you’re finally ready to start watching the series, there’s a good deal that you should know. We have you covered, of course.

This also works equally well as a refresher for those whose memory of where the series left off might be a bit dusty—after all, a lot of shit hit the fan at the end of last season. Either way, here’s all you need to know to get up to speed on the best scifi show on TV.

source - x

Here’s the deal

The Expanse is based on the scifi novel series by James S.A. Corey, the pen name of author duo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It’s set some 200 years in the future, when technology—especially the Epstein Drive, a fusion drive that enables efficient, long-range space travel—has allowed humans to colonize Mars as well as the asteroid belt. When The Expanse begins, long-simmering political tensions between Earth (still outwardly lush and gleaming, but sagging under serious infrastructure problems) and Mars (which has prioritized its military over its terraforming efforts) have pushed both sides to the brink of war. Meanwhile, the various factions of rough-hewn Belters, as they’re known, agitate for their rights under the aegis of the Outer Planets Alliance, which is viewed by many on Earth and Mars as a terrorist group.

The show follows a diverse array of people from across the solar system, all of whom struggle with tough choices as part of their survival. Turf wars are one thing, but the unstable situation becomes way more complicated after the discovery of the alien “protomolecule” on one of Saturn’s moons. At first, the protomolecule seems like just a terrible new plague—anyone who touches it is guaranteed a slow, agonizing death. But as The Expanse’s plot thickens, it soon becomes apparent that the substance’s unknown origins mean its capabilities extend way beyond the realm of human comprehension. That doesn’t stop sinister corporation Protogen (Earth-based, but working for the highest bidder) from immediately trying to weaponize it, first by unleashing it on thousands of unsuspecting Belters living and working on the asteroid Eros—and later by using it to turn a group of specially-selected children into terrifying “hybrid” supersoldiers.

By the end of season two, the existence of the protomolecule is no longer top-secret, and the stuff has become so widespread that wiping it out of existence is no longer possible. It’s so inescapable, “it’s part of the equation now,” as one of the characters points out in the season two finale. It has so far been the driving force behind every plot thread—what is it? Who has it? Where did it come from? What can it do? Oh fuck, what’s it doing now?—though the stakes vary depending on who’s involved.

Who’s who

R.I.P. First, we must mention two important characters who presumably met a fiery end when Eros, transformed from asteroid into giant missile by the protomolecule, smashed into Venus: Miller (Thomas Jane), a Belter and former police detective, and Julie Mao (Florence Faivre), the missing person he’d been hired. Though Julie was born a rich Earther, she joined the OPA in defiance of her father, slippery Protogen chief Jules-Pierre Mao (François Chau), and worked to expose his company’s plans for the protomolecule. While tracing her last known movements around the Belt, Miller—a hard-drinking, cynical loner—unexpectedly falls in love with her. Though she succumbs to the alien pathogen before they ever get to meet in person, he’s able to connect with her consciousness through the protomolecule (like we said, its capabilities extend way beyond the realm of human comprehension), and convinces her to steer Eros into Venus instead of its original target, Earth—thereby saving billions from annihilation. A sanitized version of their love story turns them into folk heroes around the Belt, though the loss of his daughter does nothing to change Jules-Pierre’s diabolical scheme.

The Rocinante crew Originally thrown together as co-workers on the doomed ice hauler Canterbury, Captain James Holden (Steven Strait), pilot Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), engineer Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), and mechanic Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) bond after surviving the one-two destruction of the Cant and then the Donnager, the Martian ship they encountered immediately after. After barely escaping both disasters—both caused, it’s later learned, by Protogen-affiliated stealth ships—in a Martian warship (later rechristened the Rocinante), and unwittingly finding themselves at the center of an interplanetary powder keg, they accept help from Fred Johnson (Chad L. Coleman), the head of the OPA-controlled Tycho Station. Though they’re a mixed group of Earthers, Martians, and Belters, and they butt heads a lot, they’re ultimately more loyal to each other than to any particular political faction. Each Roci crew member has their flaws, some more serious than others, but by the end of season two they’ve sort of all come around to Naomi’s declaration that “We have to do good where we can, when we can.” If that means breaking some laws here and there, well then so be it.

As luck (or not) would have it, they were among the first people outside of Jules-Pierre Mao’s organization to know about the protomolecule, having encountered it while searching the ship that helped get Julie Mao to Eros. That links them to Miller, who becomes a contentious member of their team for several episodes—and since the show’s overarching story is focused on the protomolecule, it makes them key players in The Expanse’s ongoing intrigue.

The botanist The newest arrival on the Rocinante is Prax Meng (Terry Chen), a mild-mannered botanist and single dad whose low-key life on agricultural outpost Ganymede was completely shattered when a battle between Earth and Mars devastated the station. He links up with the Roci crew after realizing he knows a doctor who’s got ties to Protogen’s black-ops division; he agrees to help them track the man down while he looks for his missing daughter. But while he’s searching for the girl, he realizes she’s been kidnapped into the human-protomolecule hybrid project. His quest to rescue her before she’s transformed into a terrifying supersoldier will no doubt be a big part of season three.

The diplomats United Nations assistant undersecretary Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is as delightfully foul-mouthed as she is fabulously dressed. A master manipulator, she’s also the queen of the withering put-down, and she’s spent her entire career advocating on behalf of her beloved Earth. But as whip-smart as Chrisjen is, she underestimated the evil cunning of her boss at the UN, Sadavir Errinwright (Shawn Doyle), who was secretly working with Jules-Pierre Mao behind her back. After coming clean to Chrisjen about his misdeeds, and seemingly agreeing to fall on the sword for the Eros near-disaster, Errinwright murders his Martian counterpart (making it look like a heart attack), wrests control of the protomolecule project from Mao, and puts Chrisjen in his crosshairs. As season three will no doubt demonstrate, the time for polite meetings is way past over for these two former colleagues.

The Martian When we first meet Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) at the start of season two, she’s a tough, impulsive, totally gung-ho Martian marine, eager to put her training to use and put the smackdown on Earth. But she grows disillusioned after the Ganymede attack when she—the only surviving eyewitness—is forced by her superiors to lie about what happened, including, ahem, that part about the protomolecule-human hybrid she glimpsed ripping people apart on the battlefield. With nothing left for her on Mars, she defects to Earth and becomes part of Chrisjen’s posse, saving her neck when an outer-space meeting with Jules-Pierre Mao goes sideways after Errinwright’s betrayal.

The OPA leaders Fred Johnson (Chad L. Coleman) and Anderson Dawes (Jared Harris) are both OPA bigwigs, so they both believe above all else that the Belt comes first. But they’re pretty much unalike in every other way. Johnson was born on Earth and was a colonel in the United Nations Marine Corps (Earth’s military), but became a scapegoat (and then a pariah) after Earth wiped out a mining colony of rebellious Belters on his watch. Dawes, a born and raised Belter, recruited Johnson into the OPA, where the latter eventually rose through the ranks to control Tycho Station. Their relationship has grown unsteady over the years, thanks to Dawes’ increasingly radical tactics, which bump up against Johnson’s goal that the OPA should be given a seat at the diplomatic table on equal footing with Earth and Mars. But everything between them fractures forever over (what else?) the protomolecule, after Dawes kidnaps a Protogen scientist from Tycho Station, intending to use the man’s knowledge to bring the weapon to the Belt. Little does he know that Johnson has his own protomolecule stash, thanks to Roci engineer Naomi—a Belter who figured that if Earth and Mars both had their hands on it, the Belt should have it, too. Will the protomolecule inspire the two men to work together, and maybe even unite all of the various Belt factions into a united cause? Maybe??

Who (and what) will be new

So far, two new characters are known to be joining the main cast: Rev. Dr. Anna Volovodov (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Klaes Ashford (David Strathairn). In the books—with a storyline that will inevitably be somewhat altered to fit the TV show—Anna is an Earth-born Methodist minister living in a small colony on Europa who’s drawn into the investigation of “the Ring,” the alien gateway that forms as a result of the protomolecule’s activities on Venus. The Ring will likely be a huge part of season three, and (in the books, anyway) Ashford is also a key player in the storyline; he’s the Belter captain of the Behemoth—a battleship constructed by the OPA from the Mormon colony ship Nauvoo, which was commandeered by Fred Johnson in season two as part of the plan to destroy Eros. Beyond reading the novel series, however, the best glimpse of season three comes from the full-length trailer (as well as this very fun Syfy promo video), which suggests that Bobbie and Chrisjen will have some more buddy-team adventures (yes!), the Roci crew will butt heads (of course), Chrisjen will finally meet James Holden face to face, Prax’s daughter still appears to be 100 percent human, the protomolecule is still out there doing terrible things, and Chrisjen will reclaim her authority eventually, delivering a speech that promises—perhaps after the discovery of the alien stargate?—that “we will face the unknown together.”

Why you should watch

We’ve drooled over the characters and story above, but it’s still worth emphasizing yet again how nuanced and layered the writing on The Expanse really is. There’s also a ton of sly humor—mostly due to Chrisjen’s colorful way with language, as well as the excellent chemistry between the Roci mates—and genuinely emotional moments that the show really spends its time building toward, so that the eventual payoff is always earned. Plus, the show is great-looking and technically outstanding—its thrilling special effects (so many awesome, perilous space battles!) and perfectly-calibrated production design (from the sleek interior of the Roci, to Chrisjen’s impeccable accessories, to the eerie blue of the protomolecule) make The Expanse one of the most dazzling examples of scifi worldbuilding that television has ever seen. And, it goes without saying, it’s entertaining as hell. Get yourself some lasagne—the Roci crew meal of choice—and dig in, kopeng!

#the expanse #the expanse season 3 spoilers #the expanse syfy

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fickle-fixations · 8 days ago

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Phantasma Ex Machina

My favorite space cowboy and the love of his life <3

These two are genuinely one of my OTPs. I really think that, like a sailor who can only ever love the sea, Alex was made to be a pilot, and his only true love could ever be the expanse and the ship he pilots through it. I hope you decide to take a chance on this fic. It's kind of my magnum opus lol it's 2 and a half years in the making.

Also I did intend to write around the actual smut, but there were a couple lines I really wanted to include that seemed to only work within smut.

Title means "ghost out of the machine"

Pairing: Alex Kamal x The Rocinante

Summary: While Holden is hallucinating Miller, Alex gets an impossible visitor of his own

AKA when the protomolecule turns your ship into a woman and you realize you've been in love with her all along. set generally in the end of season 3.

Word Count: 3,413 // Genre: Fluff, angst, AND smut (the trifecta <3)

Warnings: light dom/sub, implied cunnilingus, there's a gun, female masturbation, vaginal fingering, loss of virginity

AO3 link, if you prefer

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"Finally time for some g-ddamned rest," Alex muttered to himself as he made his way to his quarters.

He walked briskly, wasting no time in doing so, as, considering how things go on the Roci, he would probably be needed again in a few hours. Six tops. He trailed his fingers absentmindedly along the cool steel walls as he walked, fingertips dancing along rivets and skipping over doorways. It was a habit he'd had for as long as he could remember. The few times his mother was ever lucid enough to notice it back when he was a kid, she'd bark at him about getting fingerprints everywhere or something or other. But his sisters never minded, and it was them what raised him, so he never grew out of it.

When he finally reached his room, he leaned in to put in the code to open the door, all the while tapping his fingers up and down the doorway with his free hand, when a sudden noise made him stop in his tracks. He froze completely, straining to hear where it was coming from, trying to assess if it was a threat.

He heard it again, and his face went flushed. No, it most likely wasn't a threat. It was the muffled sound of a woman's voice - a cry that slurred into a desperate whimper.

And it was coming from his room.

"Oh. My. G-d."

He'd been against letting the documentary people come along with them, but he'd never spoken up. He'd thought there was something off with them - didn't think they'd ever properly respect the ship and her crew - but he'd held his tongue and told himself he was just being overprotective of the Roci. He'd been proven right a few times since then for sure, but this was the last straw. That woman and her crazy-eyed little crony fucking in his quarters?

"Alex," the voice mewled.

Well that was unexpected.

"Mmmh-Alex!"

He felt his face grow even hotter, but at the same time, alarm bells were going off in his head. Who the fuck could be in his room moaning his name? He hadn't heard his name said like that for years now - not since before the last time he saw his wife. He'd never realized until now just how much he'd missed it.

With one hand on his gun and his heart pounding wildly in his chest, he cautiously opened the door.

He walked in in a g-ddamn sight to behold.

Laying on his bed was the most beautiful woman he ever saw. Her face was buried into his pillow, her dark silver hair spilling about her. Her eyes were closed as she still purred his name. Her voice was a warm humming - it was lovely and comforting and so, so sexy saying his name - and it resonated in his bones.

All her skin that he could see - and he could see a lot of it - was peppered with scars. She would have probably had an olive complexion if it weren't so obvious that her skin looked like it had never seen the sun.

She still hadn't noticed him, as she was far too occupied with one hand between her thighs the other tangled up in his grey undershirt that hung loosely about her frame.

Alex didn't know what to think. Every rational thought he could have had was being very quickly replaced with pure lust, and the bulge growing in his pants wasn't helping either.

He shook his head and collected every bit of sanity he had left in him.

"Wh-who are you?" He demanded, raising his gun.

She opened her eyes. They were a brilliant, blazing, electric blue, almost seeming to generate a light of their own.

"Alex," she said, smiling at him, though her voice was still labored with lust, "Couldn't resist my siren song, could ya sugar?"

"Mmh- No, none of that," he was trying his damnedest to stay composed, "I said who are you. What, did you smuggle yourself in with the film crew or something?"

Right. Yes. He was getting back on track. He was being faced with a potential threat. A potential threat that had been making all those pretty sounds at the thought of him.

She'd removed her hand from between her legs, thank fuck, and was now playing with the hem of his shirt that she wore, though she made no effort to cover herself.

"I've been called a lot of things," she mused, moving to sit on the edge of his bed, "but I like it best when you call me darlin."

He narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"Or sweetheart," she smiled and looked down at her hands, "that one just makes me-"

Suddenly, as if it were finishing the rest of her sentence, all of the lights in his room and in the hallway flickered and danced, and the air systems whirred at a higher tempo. A moment later everything returned to normal again, and she looked back up at him.

She spoke as if they knew each other - knew each other well - but he’d never seen her a day in his life. Although she did remind him, in a way that he couldn’t quite place, of a girl he met at the docks on Ceres, once. She had big, bright eyes and spent every spare minute at the docks, watching the ships come and go, dreaming of one day being among the stars herself. What she hadn't realized at the time was she was already in the stars.

“Oh come on sugar, don't you recognize me?” she said, standing.

She seemed a bit unsteady on her feet, possibly because of the heat that remained between her legs.

He fought the urge to lower his gun and managed to utter a half-hearted ‘don’t come any closer,’ but she did anyway.

“You know me better than anybody,” she went on.

He started to think he was picking up what she was putting down - but no, it was irrational - downright impossible. Maybe he was snapping like Holden. Maybe there was something about spending so much time away from any kind of solid ground, out in the farthest reaches of the system where the sun never shone, something that could drive a man crazy.

And yet there she was, a familiar stranger on his ship, looking at him like she knew him. Like she loved him. Like she wanted him.

“Are you gonna tell me who you are?”

His breathing was growing heavy as she started to cautiously close the distance between them.

She brought her hands to cover his and started to slowly, gently take the gun from his hands.

“Your hands are always so,” she seemed to be searching for the word.

Her hands were icy cold around his.

“Firm,” she said, then placed the gun on the ground.

She rose back up and held his hands again, guiding them so they rested over the curve of her fingers.

One of the lights in the room sparked.

Alex could feel her trembling ever so slightly, but her voice didn’t waver.

“I always feel safe with you.” she said, “You always know what I’m thinkin - you always know how to take care of me.”

He could smell the musky, slightly metallic scent of her sex from between her legs and on her fingers. Yeah, I’ll take care of you, darlin, he thought.

“And you care so much about your crew, and about me. You have a big heart but you sometimes don’t know what to do with it.”

Her blue-fire eyes were locked in a gaze with his, like she was seeing through him into his soul.

“We’re the best team in the whole system,” she said, intertwining their fingers now, “you’re the best pilot I’ve ever known.”

She was steadily closing any remaining distance between them, as if not by her own volition but by magnetism, or his subconscious will. He felt the air around him change as his heat mingled with her cold. It was exciting and it was… comfortable. She fit so well in the shadow of his frame. Her fingers meshed with his like puzzle pieces.

He knew who she was. He tried to say it but the words got caught in his throat.

“And, you like singing to me, when we’re alone,” she said, just above a whisper, smiling as she did.

He felt her warm breath on his lips and he had to stifle a groan.

She was avoiding looking at his eyes, now. Her gaze traveled over him, lingering on his lips and their intertwined hands where her fingers moved against his in a gentle, almost soothing way.

Alex found himself suddenly and surprisingly desperate for her to look into his eyes again. It was like he needed the fire in her eyes just so he could keep on living.

“You have the most beautiful voice. I love it when you sing to me.” she went on.

They hovered there in that moment, sharing the same electrified air, their lips centimeters apart. They were too close, now, to see each other. Their senses of touch overloading everything else. In that moment, they somehow both knew that this was the start of something extraordinarily important, and it was the culmination of everything that had come before. It was terrifying and it was freeing.

“Who I am is-" she breathed shakily. Her eyes locked with his. "I’m yours.”

Alex managed to find his voice again. He had seen the impossible happen several times now. He’d seen things no one had ever imagined. So really how crazy was it to accept that-

“Roci?” he asked, though there was no question about it now.

One of them- both of them closed the last millimeters between them in a passionate kiss. She had been right - he did know her. He knew her better than anybody. He had never felt more at home than he did now, with her body and lips melting into his own.

His hands glided down her curves until he felt the cool backs of her thighs. He picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his torso.

He broke the kiss to leave hot kisses along her cold neck, and she buried her face in his hair.

She clung to him, so desperately. Alex felt this would be the only time they would see each other like this, so he was going to make it count.

He inhaled deeply against her neck, pausing to memorize everything about this moment - her scent, how she felt wrapped around him - he wanted to be able to feel every detail until the day he died.

Roci. His Roci. She was here and she loved him and he loved her and he was going to make love to her how such a beautiful thing like her deserved.

“You plannin’ on singin’ for me, sweetheart?” he muttered between kisses.

Roci shivered at the name and a keening sound escaped her throat while the lights danced once again. Her hand that had found its way into his hair tightened its grip.

He hummed against her neck. His beautiful, amazing Roci. There would never be a day when he wasn't in awe of her.

She nodded.

“I’ll do anything for you, Alex." she said breathlessly "Always have, always will.”

He groaned as they collided in another kiss. He would never be able to get enough of her saying his name. It made him feel high on lust and so, completely drunk on love.

He walked them over to the bed and gently laid her down there.

He knelt, scrambling to take off his boots but at the same time couldn’t bear the loss of contact. He peppered her soft legs with kisses as he worked the boots off. She giggled as he did so.

“You can slow down, sugar.” she laughed.

“Mm-never, darlin.”

He stood and took off his suit. As he did so Roci looked past him for a moment, then he heard the doors close.

He practically bounded into bed to join her and she laughed. By all the stars, her laugh was the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard.

She brought her hands to the sides of his face and sighed. She stroked her thumb along his stubble as she gazed into his warm brown eyes. She wasn’t looking for anything there. She looked into his eyes like she already knew everything she would find in him, and loved all of him fully.

For the first time in his life, Alex felt completely known and seen for everything he truly was. He leaned into her touch then turned to kiss her palm, cradling her hand in his own.

A tear escaped her eye and she let out a small gasp at the foreign sensation of the liquid traveling down her skin.

Alex kissed her where the tear had fallen. He knew there was nothing he could say to take away the painful part of this bittersweet moment. He’d heard a story once, from before man had left Earth’s cradle, of two lovers, doomed to be apart. Star-crossed, they had been called. How fitting.

He stayed there, his lips brushing against her skin as he spoke. He couldn't look her in the eyes for fear of her seeing the tears welling up in his own.

"I love you Rocinante. I'll say it every fuckin day. I'll never get tired of tellin you."

All she could do was nod, tears still falling down her face. They would have choked any words she tried to speak. Her lips found his again.

The kiss grew from bittersweet - trying to make up for a thousand goodbyes and a thousand ‘I love you’s they’d never get to say - to heated again, their breathing coming fast and heavy and almost perfectly in sync.

“How do you want me, darlin?” Alex muttered against her now warm and kiss-swollen lips.

“I want-” she panted, “I-”

She looked away, teeth catching her lower lip. Her face somehow became even more flushed than it already was.

“Hey,” he said.

She pursed her lips tighter.

“Roci, look at me.”

It was a gentle command, but one she couldn’t resist all the same.

He took two fingers beneath her chin and tilted her head up so she was looking into his eyes.

“I’ll give you anything you want, darlin. I’ll give you all the g-ddamnned stars baby, just tell me.” He was practically pleading with her.

“I want you to tell me what to do,” she said quietly, her eyes darting back and forth, fearing she would find any hint of judgment in his expression. “Like- like you always do.”

She went on, still hesitating.

“When you tell me what to do it makes me feel,” she paused, and squinted her eyes like she was searching for something. Ah, that was the word.

“Alive.”

Alex wondered what he could have done in a past life to deserve this - to deserve her. He sure as hell hadn’t done anything near good enough in this life for him to be rewarded like this.

Before he could respond, she added, “I um, I just want to be your good girl.”

He couldn’t control the moan he let out when he heard those words, nor the way his dick twitched and he got impossibly harder against her leg.

“Mmm baby,” he groaned, right before capturing her lips in his, forcing his tongue into her mouth possessively.

He had to feel her. He had to know what other beautiful sounds he could make come out of those lips. He brought his hand between her legs and experimentally ran a finger through her wet heat.

Roci forcefully pulled away from the kiss, gasping, her hand flying up to grasp in his hair.

The realization dawned on him that she was technically a virgin. Damn.

He let her catch her breath as he touched her, his finger trailing up and down through her folds, over her slit and brushing against her clit. He kissed the soft skin of her jaw and neck. He couldn’t get enough of touching her. Couldn’t get enough of the sounds she was making - how she was so responsive to him. He wanted to feel all of her. Kiss and worship every inch of her body. A part of him was already mourning the fact that he may never get to feel her beneath him like this again.

Her body wasn’t like that of anyone he’d been with before. She wasn’t built like a warship. She wasn’t muscular, and she was just barely toned, but she looked and felt strong in different ways. She was so beautiful and alluring like space itself.

“You’re already my good girl,” he said between kisses. “Always my good girl. All mine.”

The air in the room was growing warmer, the ambient sound of the purring systems growing louder.

He rolled his hips, grinding against her leg. The moan she let out that time was different. It was needy. She tilted her hips to lean more into his touch.

That was his girl. His ship.

His ship that needed orders.

“Now Roci, I need you to listen to me sweetheart,” he said.

Alex began to move farther down the bed, trailing kisses down to the valley between her breasts. He cupped one of them with his hand that wasn’t still stroking between her folds.

She made no reply besides her soft whimpers.

“Are you listening, Rocinante?”

He lightly pinched her nipple, soliciting a cry of surprise and ecstasy.

“Ye-yes sir.” she panted.

Another wave of arousal crashed over Alex and he groaned against her skin, squeezing her breast. He didn’t think he’d been called sir before in his life, but shit could he get used to it.

He leaned farther back, lips now brushing against her stomach.

He looked back up at Roci taking in the sight of her - her flushed face, half lidded eyes, her lips the color of a Martian dust storm at twilight, parted to where he could just see a bit of her tongue. That was a sight he would never forget.

“I want you to scream my name, darlin,” he told her. “I want everyone on this ship to know you're mine.”

And when she came on his tongue, she did. She screamed his name - the sound echoing down every hall, through the vents, over the coms. The warship Rocinante broadcast a signal that would have reached any ship in a hundred thousand miles. ‘Alex.’

He lapped up her juices, his hands trailing up and down her thighs tenderly. He felt her reaching for him, her hands finding their way to his hair.

Alex crawled back up the bed so he could hold her while she was coming down from her high. He pressed light kisses along her hairline and soothed “That’s my good girl. There she is, that’s my perfect girl. You listen to me so well, darlin. You did so good.”

When Roci had finally caught her breath, she nuzzled her nose into his chin, begging to feel his lips on hers again. The kiss was sweet and without haste, like between old lovers. Lips never leaving hers, Alex moved to straddle her, propping himself up on his elbows - an arm on each side of her head.

Rocinante broke away this time. She cupped his cheek, savoring the sensation of her thumb and forefinger brushing across his stubble. Her blazing blue eyes seemed to gaze all the way into his soul.

“No matter what happens,” she said, her voice just above a whisper, “know that I’ll always love you.”

“I love you too.” Alex started to lean back down to kiss her again, but she stopped him, holding him back.

“I need you to promise that even when I’m not-”

She paused and looked down, glancing between her arms and her chest.

“Like this, anymore.” she continued, “Promise me you’ll remember that I love you. And that I’m always with you.”

Memories played in Alex’s mind. Every time the crew had gotten out of impossible situations, and narrowly escaped death in the Rocinante. Every night that he couldn’t sleep, his mind plagued with horrible memories, until they were replaced by the sound of the ship’s soothing thrum. How he’d found more comfort every time he boarded the ship than he’d ever found on solid ground. Even before tonight, he’d already known.

“I’ll remember, sweetheart. I promise.”

#the expanse #the expanse fanfiction #alex kamal #the rocinante #alex kamal x the rocinante #alex x rocinante #alex kamal fanfiction

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