Radiance Chapter 8: We’ll be Coming Round the Mountain.
“We need to avoid drifting towards a place called Flagstaff,” Gregory said to the rather odd group he’d found himself suddenly a part of, Seven checked his map screen again looking for this Flagstaff.
They were currently stood at the base of a mountain range that if they successfully navigated would take them out of what they had figured out was the Mohave area thanks to their new friend Gregory.
They all glanced up at the softly spoken and still rather jumpy human, “Why?” Ven asked curiously, Seven still couldn’t help but snigger at the makeshift backpacks the two claws were wearing to carry the food and supplies, the pair were like giant pack mules with claws and teeth.
“It’s the heart of the Legion’s territory, they run a huge section of this area, I doubt they’d take kindly to a runaway slave, a guy in power armour, a robot girl and two death….err I mean claws walking through their territory, if they don’t shoot us on sight then we’ll all wind up hunted until they put us in cages, it’ll be worse for me because I’m a runaway, they’ll want to make an example of me in front of the other slaves, I’ll be lucky to just be castrated,” Gregory said and both Ven and Seven instantly winced though both Visa and Wisp didn’t look much better at that.
Ven placed a huge hand on Gregory’s back and the man jumped before realizing he was just trying to comfort him, “S-S-Sorry I don’t mean to jump like a flea on a tin roof in the desert sun every time you come near me, I’m just still not used to being able to actually talk with one of your kind without you know you trying to claw my face off” he stammered and Ven huffed a bit but then nodded.
“Yes I can imagine to one of your kind our non-sentient kin can be rather intimidating, but I don’t mean you any harm Gregory, you have not harmed or insulted us, so you have nothing to fear from us, I truly hope that in time you can understand this,” he said and Seven was actually surprised by the tinge of what sounded like hurt in his gravelly voice.
Gregory nodded, “I’m trying Ven I truly am but instinct is a hard thing to overwrite you know? If it’s any consolation it isn’t just you guys, hell I jump if my own kind comes near me half the time, after what I’ve been through hell I jump at my own shadow these days because I half expect it to have a whip” he said and Ven growled.
“You too huh?” he said in a meaningful way and Gregory glanced at him.
“The Enclave used stuff like that on you too huh?” he asked and Ven nodded.
“And worse, hell they used auto-turrets and flamethrowers on Seven there, so trust me when I say you’re among people who understand your pain,” he said and Gregory smiled softly to himself.
“I know this sounds wrong, but that’s actually comforting in a way, to know that others can understand me,” he said and Ven placed his hand on his back again and this time Gregory didn’t jump.
“We understand more than you know small one,” he said and that made Gregory smile again which in turn made Ven smile, Seven glanced at Visa who glanced back at him and they just shrugged at one another.
The mountain trail was not by any means easy-going, it was rocky, steep and in many places loose underfoot, Seven had surprised both himself and Visa when she’d slid on some gravel and he caught her, thanks to his power armour enhanced strength he’d managed to even keep the large female claw upright, she looked down at him as he held her by the waist and he scales seemed to change colour, “Err thank you Seven” she said and he nodded but didn’t let go immediately until he was sure she had her footing back.
She repaid the favour only moments later when Seven’s heavy boot sid forwards on the loose rocks and he very nearly became the first human in history to do the splits in a suit of power armour, that was until a huge set of hands appeared around his steel covered chest and yanked him upright.
“Umm thanks Visa,” Seven said as she lifted him and placed him down on his feet again, he was utterly amazed at her power being able to lift a fully power armoured human who was carrying both weapons and equipment like he weighed n more than a doll.
“Just repaying the debt, a noble claw such as myself always pays back what is owed,” Visa said with a slightly haughty note in her voice lifting her chin and head to take on something of a regal posture, Ven just sniggered in the background.
“Ask her how noble and regal she is after she eats a bad cut of mole rat, never heard a fart echo before” Ven sniggered behind her and Visa whirled around to cuff him but the huge caw was hiding behind a rather confused Gregory who now appeared to have become part of a deathclaw dance competition as the pair danced and weaved around him.
“Don’t tell him things like that!!” Visa howled swinging cuffs at her giggling brother.
Seven just shook his head and chuckled to himself, then he just looked at Wisp and the pair shrugged at one another, at least this walk through the desolate landscape of the mountains wasn’t going to be boring with these two around.
“I’m sure if you ask nicely Seven will let you hold his hand, those power armour gloves are big enough to fit” Ven chided making Visa howl some more while swinging more cuffs, Ven darted out from behind the still confused Gregory and dashed over to hide behind the bigger shield of Seven and Visa gave chase, but the gravel hadn’t finished with all of them yet.
Visa slipped forwards and tried to correct herself using her tail which only succeeded in spinning her around a hundred and eighty degrees and now she was sliding backwards towards them, Ven dove for cover but in his armour Seven was much slower and couldn’t get out of the way, he tried t brace himself but a couple of hundred pounds of sliding claw does not stop easy as he found out.
Seven braced and put out his hands to try and catch her but the last thing he saw was Visa’s tail flick right up vertical revealing a surprisingly round pair of cheeks as she slammed her hands down in order to try to use her claws to stop her slide, didn’t work and she slammed arse first right into Seven sending them both flying backwards.
Thanks to the armour’s incredibly sturdy frame hugging and holding Seven in place he didn’t rattle around too much inside the thing as it crashed down flat on his back, in front of him it was pitch back and when his senses realigned he couldn’t see anything, he could hear Visa groaning from somewhere above him and he figured she must have landed atop him hence why he couldn’t see anything, she must be laid over his visor.
“You ok?’ he said his voice sounding muffled even despite his modulator, the was a deep groan from above him.
“Ugghh I think so” Visa replied.
“Wow Visa, if you were that desperate to try out that thing you saw in that magazine full of naked humans before you could have at least asked poor Seven to take his armour off first” Ven giggling voice said sounding kinda strangely muted, Seven was confused by the statement and he looked at the rune which activated his headlamp and as it burst to life his heart and at first he was filled with a sense of confusion at what he saw, he saw something kinda round and crinkly surrounded by what appeared to be a perfect triangle of smooth soft looking flesh surrounded by scales, then closer to the lower part of his face was what appeared to be a kind of scaly slit that looked to be covered by what looked like a retractable flap of scaled flesh that had been forced back by the base of his helmet’s respirator valves, suddenly his entire being seemed to utterly freeze solid.
Directly outside of his visor was the underside of Visa’s tail, infact if the visor and helmet were not there it would be pressed against his face, his blood ran both fiery hot and icy cold all at once as he realised that he was staring right into Visa’s tail hole and if her tail hole was against his eyepieces that meant the thing against his respirator valves was her……….
Visa let out an ungodly shriek and she seemed to utterly vanish from existence like she’d just been erased from space and time itself, it took the incredibly confused Seven a moment to realise that somehow she’d managed to propel herself vertically upwards in an incredible leap landing a few feet away with her tail tucked between her legs.
Seven’s headlamp deactivated as the light sensors kicked in to tell the computer that it was not needed, Seven sat up and looked around himself in confusion, Wisp was looking between them in surprise, Visa appeared to have utterly changed colour her scales going so dark that she looked almost black and Ven was laughing so hard he actually needed to prop himself up on the till rather confused Gregory.
“W-W-W-What did you see?” Visa stammered in a voice that was somehow halfway between incredibly embarrassed and homicidal rage.
Seven instantly decided that the truth was not going to be the best option here as it would most likely end up in an honour killing, “Err nothing why? One moment everything was black, then I asked are you alright, I heard Ven say something and then you just vanished” Seven said trying to sound confused though his modulator helped in covering his true voice tone.
“Oh come now Seven don’t be modest, tell Visa all about how you just got as close as humanly possible to the underside of her tail and what a glorious view she gave you and while you’re at it tell her that she’s welcome to show you again any time you lie down,” Ven said before cracking up laughing.
Visa literally looked at him like she was ready to become an orphan and an only child by her own hands, that’s when Seven’s armoured foot decided it was going to show off his incredible human flexibility by jamming itself royally into his gob again.
“Honestly Visa I didn’t see anything but I’m sure if I had it would have been just as beautiful and lovely as the rest of you and utterly nothing to be ashamed of, infact if you had chosen to show them to me then I’m sure I’d have felt damn honoured to see a noble claw’s most sacred treasure,” he said before his mind caught up and mentally face palmed as it realised the words that just tumbled out of his mouth.
Everyone stared at him in shock and utter surprise as he clambered back to his feet, every single one of them wore the same exact expression of wide-eyed shock and surprise, well except Wisp but he still imagined a face in that metal helmet doing the same thing.
Seven was fucked and he knew it so he did the only thing he could, he doubled down, “What?” he said with a shrug.
“Wow never imagined I’d hear a human call a claw beautiful so earnestly before but just wow Seven and I’m not even joking this time,” Ven said.
Seven now in a hole of his own making doubled down again, “What would you prefer I lie and call her ugly? Who knows maybe to most of my kind she is but I don’t think so, I think she is an utterly fine specimen of your kind, big, strong, graceful well when she’s not skating on gravel anyway, honestly having my experiences of what my own kind does not only to others but each other hell I’d take one of your kind any day, we call you monsters but from what I’ve seen humanity fits that bill a whole lot better wouldn’t you agree?” he said trying to defuse the whole thing with humour utterly unaware that his invisible shovel made of words was hard at work making the hole deeper and deeper.
Ven turned to look at his sister who seemed to have transformed into a giant oversized schoolgirl all of a sudden, she was twiddling her claws around and shifting her weight constantly from one foot to the other while her tail bashed about between her legs, she seemed both utterly lost and like she wanted to explode into motion but was unsure what to do with herself all while staring at her huge hands.
“D-D-Do you truly think this way Seven?” she stammered suddenly and he noted that all of the venom had gone from her voice so he assumed his flattery had worked in calming her and breaking her embarrassment and anger.
“Wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t, don’t exactly need to lie do I?” he said and Ven suddenly cracked the largest smile Seven had ever seen in his life.
“Well I do believe young Seven has made his feelings on the matter perfectly clear dear sister, I do believe that human saying fits really well here, the ball is in your court I believe it goes,” he said and Visa looked suddenly startled but then just silently nodded, then without another word the group continued on their walk.
The two claws were surprisingly quiet as they walked but Seven noticed that the pair of them were glancing at him rather a lot, suddenly Wisp sidled up to him after falling back to catch him at the rear of the column, “Normally I’d have said what in the name of hell are you doing, but then I thought about it and I kinda came to a realisation, who in the name of hell am I to judge anyone, I’m a cloud of living gas floating about inside a stolen body, hell anyone I ever go after is never going to really see the true me even if I show them said cloud, so I guess I should be congratulating you, took some serious balls to just come out and say something like that” she said and Seven glanced at her in confusion.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well the way you pretty much confessed your feelings like that for Visa, I mean Jesus you really do like to live dangerously don’t ya Seven, I mean seducing a deathclaw, just wow my friend, just wow, but hey like I said not gonna judge you, she’s a sentient being and has the same heart, thoughts and feelings that we do so I guess why the hell not? Braver person than I am” she said and Seven froze inside his armour.
“I-I-I seduced her?” he stammered his brain finally managing to interpret the true depth and meaning of those words that had tumbled out of him in the heat of the moment and his eyes suddenly seeing the metaphorical hole lip way up above his head.
Wisp nodded, “Well those were some pretty romantic words you said to her and to be fair wit was rather lovely, I didn’t realise you had something like that in you, I guess some people can just see the true beauty in everything around them, so if it doesn’t pluck her heartstrings then she must be made of stone, but by the way, she’s acting and keeps looking at you I’d say you certainly plucked the right one, I just hope you can handle her, that’s a whole lot of girl to keep happy right there, I hope you’re up for the challenge champ,” Wisp said slapping his shoulder and making the armour ring around him.
“Y-Y-Yeah me too” Seven stammered as he realised the true depth of what he’d got himself into.
“Well I just wanted to say well done anyway, its good to know that I picked the right guy to break out of that place, we really do need more people in this world who look at it with eyes like yours, who knows if I can find another one like you who can look past things like physical appearance maybe I can get me one too,” Wisp said playfully and with that she skipped back to the front of the line stopping only to pat Visa on the shoulder as she went past, Seven swallowed hard.
His mind raced like an engine on full as he contemplated this situation, now it wasn’t that he found Visa unattractive, to his great surprise that wasn’t the case all, there was more than one thing oddly beautiful about the large female claw, from the way she swished her long tail as she walked, to the way she carried herself with a regal sense of self-assurance and confidence, to the shape of her, she was built like a living tank, with muscles in places that Seven didn’t even have places.
Not to mention that surprisingly feminine shape to her, her lovely hourglass shape, the way her chest swells seem to bounce softly as she walked, the incredibly pert and round rear end that looked like you could bounce a grenade off it, those powerful legs that seemed to go on forever and could most likely crush any man lucky enough to be allowed between them, even her face was oddly handsome.
Seven found himself staring at her back as she walked infinitely glad that his eyepieces were mirrored so she couldn’t see what he was looking at, but he kept asking himself over and over what the hell do I do?
But then he came to a sudden and stark realization, the answer was glaringly simple and obvious, fucking own it.
He had said it, he had said those words to her and he had done so proudly, to take them back would be the act of a coward and Seven was no a coward, plus another realisation crept in, to do so could possibly break her heart and that mere thought actually caused him a very real pain in his chest, that’s when the whole thing just slotted together it was like someone threw a box of jigsaw pieces into the air and by a miracle, they all landed in exactly the right place and formed the picture, he really did have feelings for Visa, fucking strong ones.
It was like a slap to the face and arrow to the heart all at once, somehow he had started looking at her as more than just a deathclaw, he had started looking at her as a woman an odd, strong, powerful and vicious one to be sure, but also graceful, exotic and above all else, beautiful.
“It’s starting to get light we should start thinking about seeking shelter,” Ven said noticing the glow to the east, they’d left the shack in the daytime and had travelled right through the night to get as much distance as they could into the mountains but they didn’t want to be out during the daylight as well.
“Hey check that out,” Wisp said suddenly and they all looked where she was pointing.
Well below them now they noticed three objects circling in the sky above the area where their battle with the legion had been, it appeared there was another battle going on right now as little red streaks shot from the sky into the ground and Seven instantly realised they were tracer bullets.
“It’s the fucking Enclave, those are vertibirds but what are they fighting?” he exclaimed.
“It’s the Legion,” Gregory said solemnly and they all glanced at him.
“How can you tell?” Seven asked.
“I can’t be sure but it makes sense, they would have sent more hunters when their team didn’t come back and your Enclave must have had a team or something local when the fight went down, they must have heard it and called in support,” he said and the other glanced at one another.
“Makes sense to me, well if as long as they’re not fighting us let them kill the shit out of each other I say, let’s get out of sigh before day breaks, on this terrain, it will be almost impossible to track us,” Ven said and the others nodded in agreement.
“Up there, there’s a whole lot of caves, even if they do make it up here not only will they have to pick the right one but they’ll be fighting in close confines,” Wisp said and they set off at a brisk pace towards the cave network.
The caves were like a network of natural tunnels that cut their way through the mountain, most of them were only small with entrance’s that the two large claws couldn’t hope to get through but there were one or two that they could, Wisp lead the way in through one such cave using her powerful headlamp and sensors to scan ahead of them as they entered the darkness.
Gregory looked nervous as all hell as they walked into the darkness, he was wringing his hands and constantly looking around himself, Ven seemed to notice this and gently patted him on the shoulder making him nearly jump out of his skin with the first one.
“Don’t worry Greg you in good hands here, me and my sister will protect you and if by some miracle anything gets past us they gotta get through robot girl and tin man there and trust me you do not want to make him mad, we saw him throw an entire tunnel at a huge pack of feral ghouls, pretty much turned them inside out in one hit with that power of his” he said reassuringly to the slender human at his side.
Gregory looked up at the large male claw and tried to smile a brave smile but Seven could see easily that he was still pretty scared, suddenly out of nowhere he felt a gentle nudge on his back and the soft clang of metal from his armour, looking up he noticed Visa had appeared to his side also.
“Do not be afraid in here Seven, I will protect you” she said softly but trying to sound confident, this confused Seven as to be fair thanks to his power armour he really hadn’t been feeling any kind of fear as that odd sense of disconnection was there, it took him a moment and some quick hand gestures from Wisp to make him realise that she was trying to impress him.
“Umm thanks, Visa I appreciate it, I’m sure with you around nothing is going to try taking us on because who in their right mind wants to tangle with a big strong claw-like you,” he said as he caught sight of Wisp miming ‘Go on’ movements with her hand before doing what appeared to be her version of a thumbs up.
He seriously couldn’t believe this was happening, it was like his life had wound up in some kind of sci-fi romance novel or something, I mean where else was a non-corporeal human girl inside a robot’s body going to try and help him romance a seven and a half foot tall sentient reptile woman?
But it seemed to work as Visa smiled proudly and puffed out her chest which kinda showed off her chest swells to the point that Seven had to force himself not to look because his headlamp highlighted what he was looking at.
“Indeed and I’m glad you see that Seven, it shows what I believed about you, that you are both a male of good taste and humility, who knows that it is not only a male that can be strong and do the protecting but that females are equally capable in that area as well, this shows your good character,” she said proudly.
The group continued into the caves until they found what they believed would be a good campsite, it was a circular hollow with what appeared to be the remnants of human ancestry to it, straight away both Wisp and Seven’s headlamps picked out cave paintings like those done by cavemen thousands of years ago, but these appeared to be far more recent, they seemed to depict the bombs falling and destroying everything.
Seven spotted something and pointed to it, “Hey look at this, I think this was done by kids” he said and they all looked at him and then what he was pointing at.
There appeared to be a painting of a large group of small figures about thirty or so and two large ones, all blatantly human, it showed the two large figures taking the smaller ones into the caves when the bombs were falling, it showed them living in the caves and the large figures teaching the smaller one’s things, then the large ones seemed to get sick and die.
The small figures then had to fend for themselves, it showed them using the caves and surviving until they got to be big themselves and then it showed them leaving the caves for what they hoped was a bright future by the last picture showing them all walking into the sun.
“Wow the war created a whole new caveman-like civilization,” Wisp said.
“I wonder what happened to them, I mean there have always been nomad tribes around here ever since I can remember, the Legion tries to hunt them down to make them into slaves and now and then they succeed but most are really good at hiding,” Gregory said.
“Well they certainly made use of this place, there are two sub hollows branching of this one, one leads to kind of pool room which is filled by natural underground river creating a kind of natural bath and water source, the other if basically a natural latrine, its a hole the drops down into the same water source but much further down, so any waste would not only be broken down but filtered out by the rock without either tainting their drinking or bathing water, a smart choice really,” Ven said appearing out of one of the two narrow tunnels branching off the hollow.
“Yeah and by the look of that there that makes a natural chimney for a fire to light and warm the cave,” Seven said pointing to a natural indent in the side of the main hollow with the remnants of a fire still set into it.
There was more evidence of the dwellers that had lived here as well in the form of old decaying bedding made from animal furs and a variety of grasses that had been left behind when they left, Seven couldn’t help but feel slightly nostalgic at this scene, it was like a very old and primal part of his brain had resonated with it, like incredibly distant memories locked within his DNA had come alive at his exposure to this, like a man with a warrior lineage in his distant past who has never held a bow in his life picking one up and his body instantly knowing what to do without instruction, a form of highly evolved instinct.
There was a third tunnel that leads out from the water hollow and they all guessed this had been their escape route if something somehow found them, they appeared to have made some kind of primitive doors to block up the tunnels made from rocks and a wooden support from which could be slotted perfectly into the entry tunnel effectively sealing it but also acting like a kind of camouflage as it looked like a rock slide in a way, it was pretty smart because only getting right up to it would you realise the deception.
It was also pretty heavy and as Seven moved it and he heard his power armour’s servos whirring like crazy he found a whole new respect for the kids who had built it and used it to protect themselves.
“How’s the power level on that battery going Seven?” Wisp asked suddenly as Seven stepped back dusting his metallic hands-off, he glanced at the guage and found himself rather surprised considering the suit had been in motion pretty much all even and night.
“Not even down to three quarters yet, hell I’d gauge its just shy of having used five per cent of its charge,” he said and Wisp nodded her head approvingly.
“Well to be fair it is a nuclear battery, I mean who in their right mind would think that a battery that uses nuclear fusion to produce energy would run out quickly? That’s just silly” she said and Seven nodded in agreement, this was true considering the amount of energy that fusion produced even a small thing like this should run for absolute ages.
Seven placed the armour behind the door to further add to the makeshift barricade as the thing could only be pushed into the cave and not pulled out thanks to two large logs that stuck out of either side to act as a brace, so with the extra weight of the armour added to it it would be almost impossible to move.
Seven stretched himself out raising his arms above his head and when he relaxed he found Visa gazing at him and when he met her gaze she quickly looked away before glancing back a few times in what looked like the claw equivalent of shy eye.
Her brother noticed it as well and an evil grin appeared on his face, “You know dear sister after all that trooping around in the dust, sand and dirt it would probably be a good idea to make use of that bathing pool wouldn’t you agree?” he said, his statement seemingly caught Visa off guard and she nodded.
“Yes, a bath would be nice, my scales are beginning to itch from all the dust that’s working under them,” she said and now Ven nodded.
“Good then its agreed, so you go take a bath first and get your favourite human to help you then I’ll have one later while me, Wisp and Gregory start preparing a meal,” he said both Visa and Seven’s heads both snapped around to face him wearing the same shocked look, then at each other than at him again.
“W-W-What!?” they both stammered in perfect unison and now Wisp jumped in too.
“Oh, that’s a splendid idea Ven! I saw some candles in that bathing pool room, I’ll go light them then those two can have a nice relaxing bath together and Seven can scrub Visa’s back and visa versa, hey you gotta take every opportunity that comes right? Wouldn’t want to piss fate off when he’s offering us such an obvious chance right?’ she exclaimed her voice echoing off the tunnel walls as she ran into the bathing chamber to light the candles.
Seven’s heart was going a mile a minute, his throat seemed to have closed up and his senses seemed to be miss firing like an electrical storm was going on in his head and by the look on Visa’s face the same thing was happening to her, she looked seriously conflicted, but before either of them could muster up enough brainpower to form an argument against it Wisp reappeared having lit the candles and both himself and Visa had been grabbed by both Ven and Wisp and both were steered into the bathing chamber at the end of the long rock tunnel, “And don’t come back till every inch of both of you is thourghaly clean and I mean squeaky clean” Ven said and with that he vanished, leaving both Visa and Seven stood alone together in a now candlelit room.
The bathing room was basically a surprisingly deep rock pool fed by what looked like a mini waterfall that ran down the wall of the cave and vented out through another little gully on the other side of it, it wasn’t huge and while either of them could fit comfortably inside it both of them would basically be pressed together at all times especially with Visa being so large.
Suddenly the big fiery female claw had gone from large apex killing machine predator to nervous schoolgirl again and was ringing her claws and shifting from one foot to the other constantly, “Well I err umm this wasn’t my idea but it umm seems like it would be err a waste of an opportunity to get to know each other err I mean get clean together err I mean if you want to that is if you don’t that’s fine I’ll just…..” Visa began to ramble.
Seven couldn’t help but be utterly enamoured with her complete flip in demeanour and personality, it was actually incredibly comforting to know that there were things that utterly rattled the incredibly confident apex predator just like simple things seemed to do to him, so sucking up his reservations and inhibitions he decided to take a leap of faith, plus if it didn’t work he probably wouldn’t live long enough to care anyway as she’d probably take his head off his shoulders with a single swipe of those claws of hers.
So Seven stepped forwards holding a deep breath and place a very nervous hand on the big female claw’s arm and looked up at her in the soft yellow candlelight which made her look even scarier than usual as it gave her maw a kind of grinning demonic skull like effect, “I’d be honoured to take a bath with you Visa, I mean how many other humans could say they got to bathe with a strong powerful claw such as you?” he said trying to reassure her as well as bolster her confidence.
“You would!? Err I mean of course you would! Yes! Indeed it is an honour for a human-like you to bathe with me and it is an honour that I being the noble claw that I am will grant you Seven, so please, disrobe and let us bathe” Visa said in a voice that sounded like a machinegun on full auto.
Seven smiled as Visa’s demeanour changed yet again and he chuckled softly to himself, but then his heart froze, bathing meant disrobing, that meant naked, naked in front of her.
Seven swallowed hard wondering why in the name of hell he was suddenly so incredibly nervous, it wasn’t like he hadn’t been naked in front of a female countless times before, but that had always been forced, it hadn’t been his choice at all, but now this was different, this was a female he actually liked, this was someone he trusted, someone that he was somehow attracted too, someone who’s opinion mattered to him a great deal.
So somehow with her, it made it all different, it was like a little voice in his head was screaming for her approval, like the mere thought of her being disgusted or disliking what she saw filled him with dread.
But Seven sucked it up and with a deep breath, he turned his back to her and slowly began to remove his clothing, piece, by piece, by piece, till there was nothing left to remove and he stood there as naked as the day he was born, with another incredibly deep breath he steeled his jangling and fraying nerves before finally turning around to face her.