NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52: Dusty the Auto Duster
I was very happy my bath was designed in a way that it automatically kept the water exactly on the temperature you wanted it to be because we had been kissing for so long that a normal bath would already have become ice-cold. Was that the most healthy thing for your skin? In a normal situation, not really, but the bath lotion I had added earlier negated that completely. Luna just tasted too good to let go.
Because, and unfortunately, we actually still needed to get washed, so we decided to stop fooling around, at least for the moment, and started washing ourselves. I helped Luna wash her back, after which she helped wash mine. I did notice she was still really careful around my shoulder area, being extra gentle as she scrubbed around. It honestly felt really good when she did. It was an area of my body that I didn’t really show to many people, let alone let them touch it. Whenever someone like Eva would need to get around to it to give me my periodical checkups, I was never really a fan of that. But with Luna… I felt a lot more at ease. And now I think back on it, when she proposed to give me a massage back on the ship after our first ground mission… I wasn’t really opposed to that, either.
“Lauren? Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“You went a bit quiet there. You are not in pain, right?”
“No, I was just thinking.” I chuckled.
Luna then continued washing my back. “By the way… have you been taking your medicine since we came back? I don’t remember seeing you taking it.”
“Whoops.”
“Lauren!” Luna poked me in the side, which made me start laughing. “You really need to take them. It's important!”
“I just forgot.” I looked over my shoulder back at my girlfriend. She had started pouting. “I will take them the second we get out of the bath, okay?”
“You better.” She continued pouting. “I don’t want you to get hurt after all...”
“It’s true that Eva would probably try to throw something at me if she knew I had forgotten.”
Luna rolled her eyes and splashed some water on me. “I’m serious though. You need to take your meds.”
“I know, I know.” I leant back to give her a kiss on her cheek. “It’s just been a rather hectic homecoming. So I’m glad you are here to remind me of them. Very glad, in fact.” I leant back once more, this time to kiss her for a bit longer.
While I was tempted to just continue that for a while, Luna was wise enough to stop me for the time being. “We should really get done with bathing soon. I’m also starting to get really hungry…” As if on cue, her stomach started growling. This made Luna blush a lot. It was hella cute.
I chuckled once more. “Right, then we probably should finish up.”
After that, we quickly rinsed our bodies and washed our hair. Even with the skin care product, the skin on my hand already started to wrinkle a little when I got out of the bath and wrapped myself into a towel. Luna’s skin still looked perfect though as she got out too. I quickly offered her a towel as well, as I didn’t want her to be cold. The temperature in the bathroom was good, but being wet still made you feel rather cold, especially after a hot bath.
We dried ourselves and now it was time for some good wintry lounge wear. As per usual, I picked out comfy black leggings and a blue hoodie of a regional football team. But I was way more excited to see what my girlfriend would be wearing. Luna had picked out a light pink sweater with a little white cat stitched at the bottom, with a pair of very soft looking white leggings and a pair of light pink socks to go with that. It was adorable. While on board the ship, she used to dress quite comfy too, but she generally stuck to the loungewear the navy had provided us with. Sometimes she would wear her own stuff but it was very rare to see her in a getup that was completely of her own.
“What do you think? It’s not too childish, right?” She asked.
"What? Childish? Why would it be childish? It looks adorable as fuck. I’m a big fan, especially of the little kitty here.” I gently poked her on the lower part of her belly where the kitty was on her sweater.
She giggled. “I know. That’s why I bought it.”
“We should get one with sharky as well.”
As I suggested that, she just started beaming. “Those exist?”
“Surely they do.” I nodded. “And otherwise we can just sew a little sharky patch on ourself. But I’m pretty sure they do sell them, though.”
“Oooooh.”
“We can order it together with your other winter gear. How about that?”
“Yesss!”
“Speaking about Sharky, we should probably unpack him later.”
Luna nodded. “But we were gonna make some food first, right?”
“Yeah.” I opened the bathroom door and left it open for a bit so it could air out a little. The rest of the house had gotten to temperature as well. “You can head down already and pick out something to cook, I will go and grab the auto duster real fast.”
Luna nodded once more and headed down the stairs. As she was heading down, I turned around to go and grab the auto duster. I saw it laying about this morning when I was grabbing some clothes for Luna. It had apparently crashed on the other side of my bed near the window. It was a bit too cold to my liking to really spend too much time there, so I had decided to come and collect it later.
I picked it up from the floor where it fell and headed towards the staircase. From what I could tell at the moment, it seemed as though one of the rotors had trouble turning. Just needed a bit of oil, minor maintenance and a recharge and it would be up and running soon without much issue.
When I entered the living room, I put the auto duster on the table.
“Oh, is that the duster?” Luna asked as she took a couple of eggs out of the fridge.
“It is.” I nodded.
“Looks a bit low-tech to me, doesn’t it?”
“Because it has rotor blades?”
“Mhmm.” Luna nodded once again.
“It’s easier to fix by yourself.” I replied. “I like things that I can try to fix and maintain by myself.”
“Like your heating unit?”
“Yep.” I smiled. “The high-tech part of this thing is how it removes dust. If that broke, I wouldn’t be able to fix it myself, but they sell that part separately.”
Luna put down the eggs as she’d been listening to me anyway and walked over. She quickly studied the little auto duster. “Does it use a laser to remove dust?”
“It does.” I pointed at one of the lenses in the auto duster’s main body. “Just zapping that dust away. Don’t ask me how it works physics wise because I have no clue.”
Luna chuckled. “Are you fine with Eggs, bacon and baked beans in tomato sauce?”
“Definitely.” I smiled and leaned in to give her a kiss. “I think I want some hot dogs on the side too, though. We can eat whatever’s left later if we get a bit queasy.”
“Sounds good. I’m happy I took a couple of cans of sausages with me.”
“You clearly are the most valuable player of the day.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Luna countered. “I do rank not being frozen to death a bit higher.”
“Hmmm, but hotdogs though. Let’s call it a tie.”
“Fine.” Luna giggled. “Are you going to help me cook or are you going to fix little Dusty here first?”
“I’ll help you cook. Dusty can wait a bit longer.” I had a feeling that nickname was going to stick around. I actually never thought about giving it a name, but then again, I guess the little guy deserved it. -Hmm, I’m pretty sure I can get some googly eyes at the store too to stick on it… Why haven’t I done this earlier? It’s a brilliant idea!-
I helped Luna cook up a nice lunch. I got to say I didn’t really miss the very small kitchenette back in my cabin. It was a lot more comfortable and fun to cook when you actually had some space to work with. I did notice that Luna still didn’t really use much space as she was prepping food, and when she did, it was because I had put what she needed a bit further away. It made me wonder what kitchens looked like back on Luna’s planet. If they even had kitchens to begin with. So I just decided to ask.
“Of course we have kitchens.” Luna replied with a somewhat amused smile on her face. “The food is a lot worse, but we do have kitchens.”
“Oh, the more you know. And for what it’s worth, I think your cooking is really good. Your technique is even better than mine.”
“Thanks. I did try to read up on it since we started living together…” She blushed.
Wow, you definitely couldn’t blame Luna for not investing enough time and energy into our relationship. -Maybe I should try to make her a cake or something…-