Whispers from my Muse - "It's Time All Good Little ArchMage's Were Asleep"

I had been working almost 36 hours without a stop to get the Sunbeam operational again. Towards the end, I was getting so punch drunk that Penny had needed to follow along behind me and correct almost everything I had been working on. Finally, she had tried to pull the tools out of my hands using one of her remotes, and ordered me to bed. When I turned to yell at her, and realized I was seeing two of everything, the snarl died in my throat.

"Thank you, I think that's the best idea I've heard all week" I said with a sigh as I threw the tool I was holding over my shoulder. "If anyone comes looking for me, tell them I died and to go talk to Bob. He can either shoot them, or tell them to get lost. I don't care which."

I'd been working up close for so long that it took several seconds of blinking before my eyes decided that they would try to show me the way up the grav tube to the flightdeck. Thankfully, Penny dimmed the lights as I floated up the tube. My sight was not great under the best of conditions, and I'd been pushing way to hard lately. "Thanks..." and I stumbled to my cabin. With all the work I'd been doing in the lab, I'd taken to sleeping on the ship during the weekends. As the door irised open though, I found I had company.

"Shit Penny, why didn't you tell me she was asleep in here?" I hissed under my breath.

"Because she was even more tired than you are when she wandered in here about an hour ago. I seriously doubt that you could make enough noise to wake her at this point."

I backed out of the doorway and stood in the corridor. "Which of the other cabins is cleaned up?" When I didn't get an immediate answer, I knew something was wrong.

"Was I, or was I not, a witness when you accepted Kalindra's formal request to become her mate?"

I had to think about it for a moment, which should tell you how tired I was at that point. I also completely missed the tone in Penny's voice. "Yeah, what of it?"

"That is your mate in there you idiot!" she yelled in my ear via tight-beam. "The least you could do is to sleep in the same room with her. Or was that dive off the tower just reflex?"

I leaned against the bulkhead to rest and get my thoughts straight. "It isn't that easy."

"The hell is isn't! Brother or not, there are times I don't think you have two working brain cells you can call your own. She is your mate, and don't you dare try to tell me you don't love her because I know better. Now get in there and get some sleep."

"And what happens when she wakes up and finds me laying there beside her?" I said with a sigh.

"What ever comes naturally, I would think."

"You really don't understand me as well as you claim then. We're not the same damn race for Christ's sake! What the hell is natural about that?"

"Brian, do you love her?"

I glared up at the sensor array over the door. "You're suppose to know that, remember?"

"And I think I do" answered my sister. "I've seen the inside of your mind and what I've seen there meets every definition of Love I know of. You just need to admit what the real problem is and deal with it."

"And just what the hell would that be?"

"That you're worried you'll look like an idiot because you're still a virgin."

Unfortunately, that was most of the problem, and I knew it. "Great, now I'm getting advice on my sex life from a chunk of carbon crystal..."