disclaimer: BABYLON 5, Ivanova, Talia, and all characters and situations thereof, are all rights and © J. Michael Straczynski and Babylonian Productions. This is a not-for-profit effort for the purpose of fan-to-fan appreciation of some wonderful characters. Events take place after Ivanova is made captain. hot telepathic flesh. copious sweating involved. drink plenty of liquids. :D enjoy.

Moisture

It was a hot planet. Lush, humid, and insidiously warm to the degree of inflicting near death lassitude upon muscles and will. The sentient beings here worshiped their natural climate as a deity. Acclimated, the inhabitants had no need for artificial temperature adjustments, nor did they bother to provide such an alternative for those life forms unlike themselves who visited their planet.

Talia moved ever so slightly in her seat, her posture expressing in the least discernible manner possible, her body's desire for release from the hot oppressiveness of her formal clothing. She wanted to melt, give in to the heat and lie inert, conquered at last by the jungle's heavy, moist air and its damp weight upon her body and senses. But she was at a formal diplomatic function, a very conservative, formal function, and as she stood once again from her seat to set lethargic, gloved hands in the polite motion of applause, she realized she no longer found her verdant, green surroundings enchantingly beautiful, and quite possibly, nor her irritatingly cool companion.

Talia slid heavy lidded eyes to affirm once again, how sharp Susan still looked in the burdensome heat; how her full dress uniform showed no embarrassing dampness; how her cool, blue eyes remained veneered in command regard, seemingly unaffected by the weight of the humidity and the equally burdensome, useless, hot air normally expelled at these long-winded diplomatic functions. Her lover did not even have the sympathetic decency to visibly share in Talia's physical suffering.

Talia stifled a sigh, inhaling air the temperature of a radiating cooking unit. Discreetly, she twisted her gloved fingers, twined demurely in her lap. She wanted nothing more but to rip those gloves off and toss them farther than any pair of gloves could go--representative of Psi-Corps be damned. Beneath the black leather, her hands were impossibly damp, and sweat trickled within every possible crevice and confine of her clothed body. In another time, another long ago place, Talia would have suspected this situation to be some ludicrous practical joke on Susan's part to get the telepath to take her clothes off.

She stole another glance at her possible tormentor. The captain stared resolutely ahead, as if completely engrossed in the current, ponderous speech given. She gave no sign of discomfort. If anything betrayed the effect of the temperature upon her lover, it was the small trickle of perspiration that slid slowly down from Susan's smooth temple.

In another few minutes, Talia was certain she would become nothing but the water of her own sweat, moisture made one with the 'Divine Air', as the people here so lovingly referred to their sacred, humid weather.

More applause; for what, Talia no longer could recognize, the speeches becoming one long, agonizing train of words leaving mouths to thicken the already burdened air. A sound in the far distance suddenly boomed, breaking the cocoon of oppression surrounding the outdoor function; the rumble of thunder.

As the telepath wearily bent to regain her seat, she felt the surprising splash of a drop of water strike her face, and as she glanced up in curiosity, felt another strike her lidded eyes.

Divine rain in the divine climate did not require the residents who worshipped it, to remain in its presence, nor thankfully, for the planet's guests to do so either. Talia felt Susan firmly take her arm. The hot wind picked up, flapping the banners surrounding the now hastily abandoned function. She watched the trees whip to a frenzy beneath the rolling dark of a suddenly ominous sky. She ran with Susan across the lush grass for the sweet smelling wood of the rambling, luxury complex they were housed in. Rain began to strike her back, bringing with it the temporary relief of wind moving the humid air across her body. She reached the protective overhang of a terrace just as the pelts of large drops coalesced into a thick, dumping downpour.

Talia breathed but found little relief from the still oppressive humidity. She was tempted to step out from under the terrace's protection and stand in the sheet of solid, tropical rain that relentlessly fell, roaring upon the ground, if she could be certain she would not drown, or be beaten down.

"It's over," she heard Susan gently murmur beneath the rain's insistent noise, the captain's tone surprisingly light in the heavy heat. "Let's go."

Talia turned with a huff and walked quickly down the terraced arcade to their room, her wet shoes making angry, loud marks upon the polished wood floor. She was feeling completely fed up with the captain, for some reason.

Within the privacy of their quarters, Talia began to strip off her sticky gloves, kick off her bothersome shoes--struggle with the zip of her top to get the confining clothing off. Even under the roar of the constant rain pouring outside, she could hear the quiet click of the entrance door as it slid shut.

The captain was now somewhere in the room, but Talia ignored her.

She jerked her skirt down, finally able to step out of it--she shouldn't have worn the usual undergarments. The camisole and slip stuck to her hot skin--she wanted them off--

She felt the irritation of a wool clothed arm slide around her waist from behind--forcing her to desist in undressing further. Talia turned, her breasts and hands brushing wool and metals so annoyingly, insistently close. She would not look into Susan's eyes.

"You're angry," Susan observed, soft in word, soft in touch and in lips which dared to approach and teasingly kidnap the beads of moisture on Talia's exposed skin.

"I am hot, and I don't know why you brought me here, and I don't know why we had to go to this stupid function, and I don't know why you had to come to this stupid planet in the first place," came Talia's peevish, husky retorts.

Unperturbed by the irrational accusations, a coaxing, warm mouth covered the telepath's, hushing her complaints. Talia responded hungrily, angrily.

"And you thought it was beautiful here," Susan murmured, when their breathing mouths ended their contact.

"Take off your jacket," Talia whispered roughly.

Hands moved over the telepath's body firmly, possessively, now slipping under her thin, damp undergarments as she tried to force Susan to shrug out of her own clothes. Thunder masked the sudden, needful sounds that broke from Talia's throat. She felt the stinging bite of her bra separate from her irritated flesh, revealing angry red marks beneath her breasts. Susan's hands upon those sensitive marks were soothing and painful all at once. She gripped Susan's damp, clothed back as the captain's insistent fingers slipped the moist, tight confines of her panties off her skin.

"Do you know what they said...in those speeches?" she heard murmured low to her. Talia ignored Susan and roughly pulled her shirt from her pants.

"They talked about moisture....they talked about Divine Water....they talked about wetness, and I thought about you." Susan slipped one of Talia's hands into the crotch of her undone dress pants. The telepath's fingers slid against the hot, wet evidence of Susan's aroused desire.

She felt the bed upon her back. She lay naked beneath Susan. The trees outside cast their frenzied, windswept shadows upon the walls and ceiling as she felt Susan's mouth upon her fevered skin, felt her lover's hands firmly stroke and knead her willing flesh. A wool clothed thigh parted her own bare legs. She opened them to Susan. The rough cloth itched against her exposed softness. Deeply she breathed the humid, jungle scented air, electrified with thunder and lightning.

"So hot," Talia inhaled desperately, eyes shutting. She gave up to Susan's hands, to her mouth on her skin, to the encompassing heat without and within her. "Too hot...."

Susan's mouth move down to explore her hungrily. She felt Susan's tongue strike her center and ignite further fire.

Sweat suffused her body. The planet wrapped her in its heat, stifling arms of pressure. It gripped her body with the weight of its moist air even as Susan's mouth possessed her. She was reduced to wetness and fever and to blood pounding to the erratic beat of the whipped shadows. She gave up. She let the planet in. Her body tightened to the brilliant presence of lightning. She came undone to the smash of rolling thunder. The storm drowned her heated cries. She became moisture.

the end.

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