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"I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy."
"So, stay here."
"Unfortunately for us both... I like crazy."
John had crawled into the airlock of In Amber Clad after landing harshly on the outside of the frigate. Returning the bomb to the fusion core of a Covenant Carrier wasn’t his best idea, but it had worked. Cortana always called him lucky, and he was, but not for the reasons she was referring to.
Now they had a couple of hours before reaching the next mission and he would be thrown back into the fighting. Earth’s guard dog was pacing in the belly of the ship, adrenaline high still running from the fighting and jumping out of a space station without a backup plan. Cortana had her eye on his vitals while also confirming mission details with Johnson and Keyes in the cockpit. She was always good at multitasking.
“Chief, you seem stressed. Your vitals aren’t falling to normal levels and you need to be combat ready in a matter of hours.” She was paying close attention then.
“I know.”
“Your stunts never have you this riled up, I’m curious what the difference is this time? You generally do like showing off.” She was poking fun at him, relying on familiar banter while also prodding him to show she cared. It made him feel, something.
He’d never admit it, but she was the closest thing he got to human interaction.
“Cortana.”
“It’s because they got close. This is about Earth, isn’t it?”
“I’m fine.”
“But we need you at your best. You know I could always help with that.”
“What.”
“Your suit? I can run certain subroutines that activate in response to your vitals. No need to be shy, it’s just the two of us back here.”
John had stopped pacing. His posture was still tense and he tilted his head in confusion.
“Go sit down, and let me help you. I can take care of you if you’ll let me.”
It wasn’t an order. It was a choice, and he had no problem listening to her. Walking to the seats lining the bulkhead, he sat, leg muscle twitching.
“Good boy.”
He never got to dream when they put him into cryo, but she was always there, calling him back. It was like that now. This was him waking, on the edge of consciousness when his first thoughts are of her and having her call his name, for something more than the next fight.
“Not gonna strap in? What if the ride gets rough?”
He wasn’t going to acknowledge that beyond a twitch of his lips. Cortana saw it anyway. She was the only one who saw every part of him.
John sat there, back straight with his hands on his knees. He could sit like this for hours, and he had, whatever the mission had needed. The picture of a machine of war, waiting to be powered on and sent out. The little toy soldier sitting in the cargo bay waiting for orders. Only she knew the difference.
“You’ve worked so hard, you can rest now.” She sounded even closer, not the usual helmet comms but like a whisper right in his ear. A shimmer in the neural net, a ghost in the machine.
He could feel her making through the suit, heating the gel layer under the bodysuit, contracting the armor in a way that mimicked the touch of human hands. She worked up from his calves to his thighs, heat and pressure coming so close before moving to his shoulders and arms. A tease.
“Sit back.”
She continued using the suit to unknot the muscles in his arms and back, following the lit up pleasure centers of his brain. All the while she murmured how good he was doing, how much he deserved this. The ship’s engine hummed in the background, the droning creating a soundtrack to their little moment of peace.
Just a short rest, it was fine to take a moment, just the two of them. He was a good boy, he deserved this. The pressure and heat increased and moved back down his body.
John leaned his head back further, helmet resting on the wall as he spread his legs a bit. To an outsider he looked as if he was just resting his eyes before the next mission.
Cortana knew he was putty in her hands.
“You’re being so good” she whispered again, and watched him shake a little. The movement invisible outside the suit.
“Tell me what you want.”
She kept up the constant touching, working out the pain in his lower back, ghosting over scarred ribs and surgical lines, down towards where he wanted most. Where he needed her to touch.
“Please.” He said it so softly, only for her.
She knew what she did to him, what she meant to him. He wasn’t good with words and there was never time, save for stolen moments like this. But she knew. She had him down to a science, knew what made him tick, and knew what he couldn’t ask for and couldn’t say.
A warmth spread up his neck as she tried to touch as close to his face as she could like this.
“Relax, I’m going to take care of you.” Another shiver as the heat increased and the bodysuit squeezed at his thighs.
A touch right between his legs made him clench his fists. He relaxed as she squeezed him with the suit and began her litany of praise again.
She was working his dick at an infuriating pace, light grazes and feather touches of heat while more pressure from behind prodded at his entrance. He spread his legs a bit more.
Sensing his annoyance, she picked up speed, working his dick in quick strokes.
“You’re doing so well, and so eager.” He could almost blush at how wet this was making him. He was dripping inside the suit, sweat and slick building up as Cortana continued to rub at his dick. She moved some of her attention to his slit, not stopping her focus on his dick as she pushed something round and smooth inside. A sharp breath through his nose was the only outward sign. His heartbeat and brain waves told her the full story. He was eager.
With little warning she began to move inside him, pulsing and shifting the extra part of the suit.
“T-this is new.” Damn it, there’s no way she didn’t catch his stutter.
“The Mark VI has all kinds of new features, John.” He felt a thrill when she said his name, and another when he knew she saw it.
“And I couldn’t wait to test them out.” A smirk audible in her voice, and then she was moving again. The feeling of her surrounding him with the suit, inside and out, was almost too much to handle. The feeling of warmth working his muscles while she worked his dick and fucked him lit his nerves on fire. His breathing became heavier as she worked him open, exploring which spots made him twitch and huff. A whine made its way out of his throat.
“Patience, who knew you were such a brat?”
She stopped working the upper half of the suit and focused on making John squirm. Picking up speed, she fucked him with her new toy, finding an angle that made him shift in his seat and grunt as she built up a rhythm. He could imagine it was her fingers on his dick, slick and hot as methodically worked him to the edge. She knew he was close.
“John,”
Cortana was right there, warmth pressed against his back, squeezing at his chest, while heat pooled in his belly. His thighs were trembling, tension running through his body like grabbing a live wire, waiting for her. The toy inside him began to vibrate.
“Come for me.”
And he did.
Hips bucking, and back arching off the seat, he came. Teeth gritted trying to hide the small noise of pleasure ripping its way out of his throat. The suit constricted as she held him through the aftershocks, whispering praise as she ran hands down his sides.
“You were good, so good, let it all out.” The warmth surrounded him again. He was boneless in the seat, Cortana supporting him enough til he leaned back against the bulkhead.
“Sleep, I’ll wake you when they need you.” He was already mostly gone.
“Cortana.”
She knew.
And he slept.
And he dreamed.