The rest of the elevator ride passed by in silence as Alex closed his eyes and rested his head back comfortably. He didn't want to think about his shitty morals right now and just wanted to enjoy his time with his beautiful and slutty scientist.
Sadly for him, that dream was going to stay a dream. With Alter Gwen being the one who was out, she kept flinching every time he so much as moved a muscle. She was still sitting beside him, despite her legs being recovered by now. Having lost the will to stand for hours and exerting herself for no real reason.
A few hours passed with Alex sitting in that position with his eyes closed before he heard Gwen speak to him, "Alex?" She shook his shoulder, "Are you up?"
"Mhm," He nodded without moving.
"What's wrong?" Gwen asked, grabbing his arm and pulling it around her neck. She leaned close to him and rested her head on him while pulling his hand on her shoulder.
"Nothing much," Alex said, lightly rubbing Gwen's shoulder as he felt her familiar warm and loving aura.
"Something's wrong," Gwen said, "Did Alter me say something? Or did the calibration process tire you out too much?" She asked him and grabbed his face, pulling him to meet her eyes.
"I'm not particularly thinking about anything, Gwen," Alex said with a smile.
"Fine then, don't tell me," She made an annoyed face and moved away from him.
"Don't be like that," Alex smiled, not minding coaxing her a little. He pulled her closer and asked her, "Where do you think that this Earth's Infinity Stones could be?"
"How am I supposed to know?" She asked with a frown, "You are the one familiar with this whole universal authority business."
"I know," Alex said, "But you work better with the technical stuff. You examined my Time Authority to make it compatible with the Dyson Core, it should've given you some kind of idea."
"You're going to put me to work making a detector for your Infinity Stones, aren't you?" She asked, dread creeping into her features.
"You are so understanding," Alex pretended that he did not notice her expression and showed his happiness with a tight hug, "I love you."
"No, Alex motherfucking Hunt," Gwen snapped, "I will not be worked to death by you. No way in hell!" She shook her head in denial, "You already have me working on your Cosmic Energy generator, I am not doing anything more! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to extract something as obscure as Cosmic Energy?" She continued her rant, "It's pretty much impossible with the current technology that we have. How the hell am I supposed to extract some kind of formless energy that is apparently generated from the goddamn prosperity of life? What the hell does the prosperity of life even entail? We have seven billion people on Earth. Do I need to double the number to generate a speck of Cosmic Energy? Do half of them need to die for that? Can it be a natural death? What if they die because of some sort of calamity? Argh!" She grabbed her hair in frustration as Alex smiled wryly at her endless ranting.
"Come here," He said with a wry expression, grabbing her and pulling her into his lap before wrapping an arm around her waist, "Shh …" Two tendrils wrapped around her arms and extended up to her hands, forcing her to free her hair as Alex held her head and gently caressed her hair, fixing it.
"I'm just …" Gwen mumbled, "So frustrated." She leaned into Alex's embrace, feeling comforted by his light caress.
"Sorry …" Alex smiled wryly, "I didn't think it was that big of a deal."
"You can work tirelessly like the immortal slime that you are, but I'm just a human. I still get tired, okay?" She said.
"I get it," Alex said still rubbing her head.
"No, you don't get it," She said, "You keep working, and that makes me feel guilty that I'm not helping you. You are just doing so goddamn much, while on the other hand, I'm whining about this when I'm barely working on one project."
"You don't have to match me in the effort department," Alex said, "As you said, I'm an immortal slime. You don't need to match my pace."
"You're the one who thinks that," Gwen said, "I can feel you working every fucking moment. Your mind is always busy and occupied. No matter what we're doing, even if I'm comfortably cuddled with you in bed, I can feel your mind working in so many directions that I cannot even fathom. It's- It's so hard for me to not feel like shit about being frustrated about one project when you are doing all that."
Alex gently kept rubbing her head and allowed her to let out all her emotions. By the end, Gwen was clutching his shirt while continuing her ranting with a breaking voice. He finally asked her, "Do you feel it now?"
"What?" She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.
"Do you feel me working now?" He asked.
"Don't play with me, asshole," She snapped at him, "You just closed our connection. I feel even worse right now. I feel like someone has my heart in a fist and is clenching it."
Alex coughed awkwardly before releasing the block on the empathetic connection that he had with Gwen, "All right, my bad. But I have to be working, honey. I have to manage two planets, a multitude of hosts and so much more."
"But …" Gwen needed a whole lot more coaxing after bursting out like that. So much, in fact, that the rest of the elevator ride passed by with Alex lightly rubbing Gwen's head and back and comforting her as she kept spiraling down into a pit of meaningless self-loathing.
By the time the doors opened, Gwen was fast asleep in Alex's arms as he thought to himself, 'I thought I'd be getting sex, but then this shit comes up,' He shook his head tiredly as he got up from the couch with Gwen in his arms. He walked forward as a portal formed in front of him that he passed through, appearing inside Gwen's dorm room. He'd already left a clone of himself and one of Gwen to take care of the after-party and celebration for the scientists and engineers that were going to come up any time soon.
'She needs a break,' Alex decided, 'I've been overworking her for the longest time. Within the span of a month or so, we've made the Dyson Core and Planetary Shield, and even modified it to work with Time Authority, not to mention all the other smaller stuff that I had her work on …'
Now that they had the luxury of time, Alex could take some of it to finally relax with Gwen.
…
The next morning, Gwen woke up due to the sun shining on her eyes but just flipped to the other side while pulling the blanket and curling up.
"Morning, honey," Alex said from her side, having been deprived of the blanket completely.
"Sleep more," Gwen mumbled, not even bothering to open her eyes.
"As my lady wishes," Alex smiled before turning and spooning Gwen, wrapping one arm around her waist and slipping the other under her head, letting her use it as a pillow.
Gwen leaned back and accepted Alex's comfortable position, "You're pulling my hair ..." She mumbled uncomfortably before feeling her hair being bunched up and slid to the side without even having to move, "Thanks," She mumbled before humming comfortably in Alex's warm arms.
As the minutes passed, Gwen felt herself unable to go to sleep, "I'm tired," She mumbled.
"I know. You desperately need a break," Alex said, "That's why I'm enforcing a month-long no-work policy for you. You are not going to enter that shitty lab for at least a month."
"That's not what I meant," Gwen chuckled helplessly, "I meant that I didn't want to get out of bed …"
"Well, it's already decided," Alex said nonchalantly, "And I'm not going back on my word. If you dare to even think about work, I have more than enough ways to make your mind go blank."
"No no no no …" Gwen shook her head as she turned around while still using Alex's arm as her pillow and looked at him, "I have so much to do. If I don't finish the cosmic energy scanner by the end of the week, the whole project will be delayed by at least a few months," She said hurriedly.
"Then let it," Alex said, "We have all the time in the world. You are taking a break, end of story. Now, I have an extremely important question for you," Alex took up a serious expression that made Gwen look at him attentively.
"Go on …" She raised her brow as if encouraging him to speak.
"Do you want to stay in bed for some late-morning sex, or go get brunch?" He asked her with the most serious expression he could muster.
Gwen scowled at his words and raised her fist to punch him, "I have to work, Alex," She said as a tentacle shot out of nowhere and grabbed her wrist mid-swing.
"I guess morning sex it is," Alex sighed before turning and getting on top of Gwen. Before she processed the situation, her hands were grasped by Alex's hands as he held them at her sides before using his knees to spread her legs apart.
"Alex, no …" Gwen resisted half-heartedly even though she was already feeling a sense of arousal rushing through her heart and spreading to her entire body.
"I did say that I have many ways to make your mind go blank. All of those ways are sexual in nature," Alex clarified with a chuckle as she pouted at him.
***
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