
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/13899576.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      Other
  Fandom:
      Original_Work
  Character:
      astra_tyqi
  Additional Tags:
      Transgender, Implied/Referenced_Incest, Age_Difference, Adventure,
      Beginnings, Science_Fiction, Implied/Referenced_Underage_Sex
  Stats:
      Published: 2018-03-07 Chapters: 1/? Words: 4046
****** Astra and Tyqi 1 ******
by KallutoCeleste
Summary
     A prologue of sorts. A hostile planet. A fated journey. Not what it
     sounds like.
     Warning : dickgirls an cute boys
‘They’re assholes. You shouldn’t listen to them.’
The boy was unfazed, grinning still. He stepped over the lowest edge of the
outcrop, following her lead and said, ‘Gosh Astra. My innocent ears are burning
and all that.’
Though he could only see her back, as she rather expertly navigated up the
rocky incline, he felt like he could see her smirking. ‘Oh yeah. Innocent.
Sure. As long as we're talking about fairytales.’
Tyqi pouted. His copper hair was matted with sweat, the long bangs plastered to
his face. ‘It’s not a fairytale though. The priests said that those with pure
hearts really can reach the starcastles.’
The dirt was a reddish brown that caked their books, each footfall releasing a
little cloud of dust. Dust that glimmered. Astra wiped sweat off her forehead,
fingers stained rust-red. She glanced briefly up at the sun, and then back to
her hand. ‘They’re not called starcastles. And the priests are assholes.’
The boy stumbled a little, knocking a knee against the flat edge of a rock.
‘Wait. So they’re real? The starcastles?’, he asked. He wasn’t doing a good job
of keeping excitement out of his voice.
She didn’t seem to be listening to him, staring up past the horizon. After a
while, she mumbled, ‘Cmon, we’re gonna get cooked if we stay here longer.’
‘Hey, you didn’t answer! They’re real aren’t they? You came from there right?
My friend said that everyone that-’
‘They’re just called stations. Nothing castle-ish at all. Trust me.’
For a while the boy seemed lost in his own thoughts, hefting the small supply
satchel that he was tasked with as he followed the dark-haired woman up the
side of the steep hill.
It was afternoon on the second day. The beta moon was up, the crescent
shimmering through the hazy sky. They’d been on the move for a few hours now.
This was the fourth place they’d checked out since they started. Luck had not
yet been on their side. But it wasn’t the worst of her expeditions. Far from
it. Truth be told, Astra had expected the boy to be a chore by this point. But
his enthusiasm hadn’t faltered. Yet.
She looked back at him, running her hand through her hair. The slight, soft-
skinned boy’s thoroughly dishevelled, sweaty, dusty state was at odds with his
smile and the far away look in his eyes. ‘What? Cat got your tongue?’
He shrugged, ‘I dunno. You can get into trouble talking about that stuff right?
I didn’t really expect you to tell me.’
She smirked. It was increasingly easier to do so around him. ‘You’re concerned
for me?’
The fifteen year old suppressed a wince as he scraped his other knee against
something again. Sometimes he had the grace of a swan. Other times, the grace
of a fish on land. His little grin returned quick as a flash though. ‘That’s
right! I’m a real princess. Always -huff- thinking of others.’’
The woman waited till he was close enough. ‘Humble too. Here, take this’, she
said, handing him one of her tool satchels. It was just as heavy as the pack he
was already carrying, which wasn’t as heavy as he made it out to be. ‘Keep
climbing for a bit. I need to check some signals.’
Tyqi whined. ‘I’m sposed to be your partner, not your pack mule!’, half-
buckling under the weight of the satchel. It was barely a couple of pounds. But
Astra suspected that’s how much he weighed too.
‘Your mom said to make use of you. I am. Get to it.’
‘Ruuuuuuude! What if there are monsters up there?’
‘There aren’t any. I checked.’
‘How?’
‘I have a scope.’
He looked like he had something else to say, but deflated instead. ‘Fine. But
if i find any monsters up there-’
‘I’ll come over and apologize.’
‘That’s right’, he said cheerfully.
Truth be told, Astra did not need to check on anything. She’d pulled out her
transceiver, but it didn’t show anything new. She just needed a moment alone,
right? Just a little bit to breathe. The harsh environment had barely much
effect on her anymore. But the boy…
She should’ve never let Demi talk her into taking him along. Truth be told, he
wasn’t even really annoying. Sometimes even helpful. The cheeky bastard seemed
just genuinely happy to be around her. And that aggravated her somehow. Maybe
she was too used to working alone.
Sunlight tingled at her scalp. Sweat rolled down her forehead. Deep breaths.
She tugged at the crotch of her jeans, giving it some space to breathe.
Astra glanced up the slope. His frame was not generous, but it wasn’t skinny
either. There was a curvature to it that was easily missed, unless you looked
close. And Astra had, though she’d never admit it to herself. Why did he wear
those tiny shorts whenever she was around? Why did it matter to her?
‘Fuck it’, she spat. The quicker this was over with the better. Vigor somewhat-
renewed, her boots crunched over dusty gravel again.
 
Craters covered the surface of the desert like pockmarks. Most of them weren’t
natural. Debris, spacejunk, empty fuel canisters...they found their way to the
surface. Since the re-colonization, traffic to the backwater planet had
quadrupled. Fresh resources, fresh vistas to exploit. It might as well’ve been
the galaxy’s tagline.
The locals had their own problems, and now they had to deal with space trash
slamming down over their planet. Someone’s trash was someone else’s treasure,
however.
As they neared the very tip of the crater’s rim, Tyqi huffed, ‘Jeez. Next time
let’s take a speeder.’
Astra took her satchel back from the boy and started to rummage through it.
‘Yeah sure. Let’s get a speeder with a turbo and you can sit in the back
drinking fruitmilk. It’s so obvious!’
The boy grinned, ‘That’s thinking I can get behind’, before a look of wonder
blossomed on his face. They were finally over the slope, the massive concave
stretched out before them. ‘This is the biggest one yet, Astra!’
‘Yeah yeah. Just be careful. If you trip you’re gonna rolling all evening.’
He grinned. ‘You’d catch me right?’
‘Nope.’
‘Nuhuh, you totally will! You’ll catch me and make sure I was alright and look
into my eyes and-’
‘I’m going to kick you down.’
‘Okay okay jeez!’, he giggled.
It was much easier to climb down. Even Tyqi was used to it by now. Soon, they
were in the shade cast by the steep edges of the crater. Heat seeped out of the
rocks. Seeped out of them. It was like a load taken off them.
Astra had her scanner out again, and was actually using it this time. ‘I hope
we find something this time’, the boy quipped as they walked side by side on
the crater’s floor. ‘It would be a shame if we didn’t.’
‘Yeah, a shame. And I wouldn’t get paid.’
‘And that. But it’s not the worst thing right? It’s not like-’
‘Shh..’. She slapped the side of the scanner.
‘What? What is it?! Did you find something’
‘Calm down. I think there’s a cave system here.’
‘Whoa! Right under us? Dyou think the stuff could be there?’
‘Crater’s old. Pre-colonization. It’s ideal for aelpherrite. ’
‘How dyou know it’s old?’
‘No scavengers.’
The boy looked around. ‘Are there really caves though? I don’t see an
entrance.’
The woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn’t mind
explaining, she just never expected that she would have to. She said, ‘We’ll
make camp here. Remember to put your stuff down carefu-’
Tyqi was already unceremoniously dropping his pack onto the ground. It landed
with a sound that made the both of them cringe. It was not a good sound. But it
didn’t come from the pack. The source was the ground itself. It groaned. A low,
heavy rumble joined by the sound of tiny rocks being dislodged.
The ground shattered, a whiplash of a crack ripping through the air. The chasm
swallowed them whole.
---
‘I’m alright, I swear!’
‘Alright my ass. Just stay still.’
The boy tried to crawl backwards but Astra had her hand around his ankle. ‘I
said, say still.’ Her voice was firm.
He pouted, but then gave up. She made him lay his legs out straight. His shorts
were cute on him, but utterly useless at protection. The little spray
applicator in her hand wasn’t brand-name, but it would do. She pinned his leg
to the stone floor as she sprayed over the deep cut bruise, the cleansing agent
pushing dust and grit out of the wound and sterilizing it.
 
They’d fallen maybe three meters. The landing was relatively soft, and they
were lucky to have avoided the shards of stone poking out of the sand. The sand
was red like blood, glittering metal and as fine as talcum. The shards were
dark obsidian, but were cut through with glowing blue patterns. Hexagons. Right
angles. Each one was different
Tyqi bit his lip, hands clenching against the sandy floor. The stinging
sensation was familiar to him. His mom had lost count of the number of times
he’d come home scraped and bruised. He was not graceful. Astra let go of his
leg and reached into his pack, searching for bandages.
‘I’m sorry.’ Astra threw him a glance. He wasn’t grinning anymore. He was
still. Downcast.
He could’ve gotten them killed. She’d warned him about this only yesterday. Did
he even understand what could’ve happened? He shouldn’t have even been here, he
had no business even-
‘These things happen. But now you know. Stay still.’
Like a light, the smile was back on- until Astra tightened the bandage that is.
He hissed as she tied the knot. ‘Dyou think it’ll leave a mark?’
She smirked. ‘What? You don’t want scars?’
‘No. Scars are for like...big buff badasses.’
‘And you don’t wanna be strong?’
‘Nuh. I’m a flower.’
‘And you came along on a scavenging hunt out into the desert. With a stranger’
‘That’s right. Wait, you’re not a stranger.’
Astra pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn’t know how to deal with him. She
was skilled in situations that began with , ‘How much?’ and ‘Fuck off’. That
was her scope.
He broke the silence, ‘I know we gotta get back by tomorrow but, can we take a
bath first?’
She opened her eyes. And stared into his with an flat intensity. Her expression
beyond incredulous. ‘We’re thirty miles from civilization. We’ve fallen into an
underground cave. We’re low on supplies, and it’s burning hot outside. And you
want a bath. Did you hurt your head?’
It’s what she wanted to say. But she wasn’t as eloquent as her thoughts. A tilt
of her head and ‘What?’ communicated the same sentiment.
‘A bath. You know, that thing people do to get clean. Usually with water?’
‘Where are we going to get water?’
He pointed behind her.
It was dark but for the blue patterns woven across the rocks. Astra narrowed
her eyes. The patterns were mirrored. As she moved closer, eyes widening. The
pool of water was reflected her incredulous face. She reached out and cupped
some of it in her gloved hands. It was clear, and cool. A quick sniff betrayed
nothing.
She hesitated..and then brought her hands to her lips. It was pure , unsullied
water. Filtered through the ages. Delicious.
She’d been hunting aelpher for a couple of years now. She’d never seen anything
like this. It was incredible.
Tyqi shuffled beside her, ‘It’s not too deep right?’ he said, hopping on one
foot.
From the reflection, Astra could see that it wasn’t his injury that hobbled
him. He was kicking his shorts off, his top already pulled off, the boy’s bare,
soft sweat-drenched skin shimmering on the water.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked. Why was her voice suddenly hoarse? Why was her
chest tight? His young boyhood dangled, the barest hint of fuzz wreathing it as
he gingerly dipped a toe into the water. Astra knew it wasn’t uncommon for some
boys to embrace femininity. But as she watched a shiver run up his long, supple
legs, she wondered if he hadn’t been born with it. Even his cock was more
adorable than anything else, his foreskin like a cute pout atop the smooth
length.
The boy didn’t answer. With a bite of his lower lip, he slipped into the water,
sighing as the cool water embraced him. She tore her sight away from him as he
sank deeper, until everything below the waist was submerged.
‘Aren’t you coming in? Astraaaaaaaa- cmon, this is so good!’
She gulped. Given the tightness in her pants...she couldn’t risk this. ‘I’ll
pass, thank you.’
‘Aww cmon, it’s okay. I won’t look, if that’s what you’re afraid of-’
She dared to look again at him, his easy smile and his soft untoned body
illuminated by the aelpherrite. It frustrated her. She wasn’t meant to look,
she wasn’t meant to think. The water was too clear.
And then something tugged her back to reality. Something that incensed her. ‘I
just put that bandage on! You dumbass!’
The boy peered down at himself. ‘Oh’. To his credit, he did look genuinely
sheepish. ‘I uh... thought it was waterproof?’
Astra pinched the bridge of her nose. She’d done it a lot today but it wouldn’t
be the last, that was certain. But truth be told she was relieved. His
clumsiness pulled her away from those dangerous thoughts. He was young, sure,
but there were more reasons for her trepidation.
‘Just...be careful. And don’t stay in there for too long.’
‘Kaaaaaaaaaay’,’ he sang before simply dunking himself underwater, bursting out
of the water a couple of moments later. Astra sat down on nearby rock, and
picked up a smaller obsidian piece, the aelpher patterns on it in perfect
concentric circles. As the boy happily bathed himself, washing away what was
probably a week’s worth of grime compressed into two days, Astra took a deep
breath.
‘You know we’re stuck here right?’, she asked
The boy rubbed at his arms, ‘We are? I’m sure we’ll find a way out.’
‘You’re not worried?”
‘I was, at first.. But you’re with me so I’m not.’
Silence reigned, except for the sound of water. Astra didn’t really know what
to say.
He spoke again, looking away from her.
‘I know, by the way’
‘What?’
‘You. Mom. You and mom.’
‘That’s...it’s not how… Look, we’re just...like-’
‘I know my mom. I know what she’s like. She doesn’t do it for just anyone.
She’s not like those kinda girls.’
Silence. And then Astra spoke finally.
‘Just having sex doesn’t mean that I love her.’
‘Yeah. It doesn’t. But you love her. Don’t you?’
Drops of water dripped off the tips of his drenched hair and into the placid
surface of the little lake. He turned to look at her.
She shook her head. ‘Yeah. Yeah.’
He grinned wide. ‘Knew it!’ he cheered, and then dunked himself into the water
again.
When he resurfaced, it was with a question. ‘Hey. So why did you say the
priests are assholes?’
‘Cause they are. Don’t say that word.’
‘What? Assho- Okay fine!’ he amended at a look from her. ‘So...why?’
She thought about it for a while. ‘If you saw something...great. Something
beautiful or something like...fantastic. You’d want to share it with your
friends right?’
‘Yeah. Yeah.’
‘The priests keep it for themselves. And they tell everyone that the only way
to get it is if they do as the priests say.’
‘It’s not?’
‘It’s like this lake. Imagine there was a lake like this but big enough that
you couldn’t see the end. So you’d never run out. And everyone could have as
much as they wanted.’
‘Is that what the starcastles are like?’
‘They’re just stations. They’re like...gates. To other places’
‘Where do they go to?’
‘Many places. Hundreds. Thousands.’
His eyes were wide.
‘And anyone’s allowed to go?’
Astra smiled wanly. ‘Listen kid. There’s only two people in the whole universe
that can tell you if you can or can’t do something. You, and the person you’re
doing it to. That’s all there is.’
He tilted his head in question. She said, ‘It’s just something someone told me
once.’
‘It’s a nice idea.’
‘You’ve been in there long enough. Cmon. We got work to do.’
‘Ummm...Did we bring a towel?’
Astra pinched the bridge of her nose.
---
The moons were out. From the chasm they’d inadvertently opened, they had a good
view of both. Astra looked up at the stars. Why had her life gotten so
complicated? Before Demi...it had all been so simple. She’d drag ass through
some backwater planet too remote for a science delegation. Make enough money
selling mineral samples to afford lodging and whores. And when interest in the
planet dried up, all she’d have to do was hitch a ride to the next one.
And then she’d met the boy’s mother. Just thinking about Demi made Astra smile.
She’d never really felt like this before. That feeling in her chest. The
tightness.
But for an aimless soul like Astra, loving a woman was complicated. A woman
with a son? Square it. A woman like Demi, with a son like Tyqi? It was almost
too much to comprehend. Her feelings towards him were...she didn’t even want to
think about it.
She glanced over. The boy was asleep on his belly, using his pack as a pillow.
Her jacket was his mattress. His tank top was his blanket. It barely covered
his naked body. She looked away.
The sky was painted a deep midnight blue, stars sprinkled like crystal powder.
Maybe she was just frustrated? If she could just...relax a little. All the
thoughts would go away?
The lake was placid, undisturbed. Silence reigned but for the distant whistle
of wind.
It was short work to pull herself out of her jeans. Curse her foolishness in
denying herself that bath. It would have been so good. Her thighs were sweaty.
Her cock was erect. The thin sheen of liquid that covered her foreskin-ringed
bulbous head was not sweat.
She had to be quiet. Tyqi was just there. The silence was gently disturbed. Her
grip on her shaft was tight, the girthy rod rarely given to such treatment. Her
breaths were half covered moans and the gentle slap of her fist up and down her
length echoed gently around the cavern. It wasn’t loud enough to wake Tyqi up.
She hoped.
But the only way to make sure would be to glance over. He was out cold. The
tank top was laid over his back, and just about covered his ass. Just about. It
would be child’s play to tug it to the side. Just a little.
Her hand hovered over him, frozen. Her other hand was the opposite. She held
her cock with a deathgrip as her heartbeat thudded in her ears. Rational
thought had long since fled her. Heavy fog stuffed her mind. A small eternity
later, her fingers touched fabric.
She tugged it aside. Her cock twitched in her hand. Her chest rose and fell.
Quicker. She pumped her cock like it hurt, lust overwhelming her, her teeth
gritted. His plump, pert young cheeks were almost like nothing she’d ever seen.
The thought that she was jerking herself to the son of her lover only made her
blood pump harder, precum leaking out of her tip, dancing with her strokes.
‘What are you doing?’
His eyes were wide open, overwhelming confusion in them. The growing panic of
not understanding what was happening, of waking up to this.
Astra froze, needles of ice entombing her heart. The look in his eyes alone was
enough to shatter her, the weights of her guilt coming down on her in one.
 
And then the silence was invaded by something else. The sound of little rocks
dislodging, splashing down into the water. It came from above.
Confusion turned to sudden alert, fear. Tyqi opened his mouth only for Astra to
hurriedly press a finger to his lips. Her eyes broadcasted a clear message.
‘Quiet!’
Their nakedness forgotten, the moment pushed aside, Astra crawled quietly over
to her pack. She found her pistol. The touch of cold metal was reassuring.
The sound of boots on dirt. Astra cursed herself. She hadn’t set up a sensor
net. She didn’t have her scope out. She’d been totally unprepared. Her thumb
hit the charge indicator on the pistol. It was full.
It was hard to say exactly which side the sound was coming from. She scanned
the edge of the chasm through her sights, her heart beating a million a minute.
Scavengers? Cultists? Both were dangerous. You couldn’t reason with the latter,
but the former were the crueler.
She didn’t have time to wonder why they’d be here. They already were. A hint of
a shadow on the lip of the chasm. She swiveled to face it through her sights,
her grip steady. Dust trickled down as the shadow loomed over them, twin moons
high in the sky behind it.
It didn’t move further. Tyqi was under an outcrop of rock but Astra was bathed
in moonslight. Plainly visible.
The figure stood silent, as Astra kept the pistol aimed directly at it. Just
far enough that she couldn’t make out the face.
‘-Hey!’, she shouted. ‘You! Show yourself!’
The sudden outburst echoed. The figure didn’t move. ‘Hey you!’, she yelled
again.
Did Tyqi speak cultist? She didn’t know. But she didn’t want to involve him.
She didn’t want to reveal him. She thanked whatever gods that for once he was
actually quiet.
It was bad. If they had guns, the two of them would be dead before they knew
it. Aelpher didn’t have much street value...but that had never stopped
scavengers.
She was about to call out again, when the figure moved. Her grip tightened on
her pistol, her knuckles white. The moonslight revealed...feline features. Long
whiskers, large irises...a cat’s face.
Astra deflated.
Gaulcats were about the size of a large dog, and largely just skin and bone.
But they were about as harmful as a fly. They often waddled on their rear legs,
to cool themselves off. It stared at Astra for a couple of seconds before
scampering away.
She swore, lowering the pistol. She let herself breathe. Deep breaths.
‘Is it..Is it gone?’
He was sitting up, holding his top up to his chest like it would protect him.
His eyes were wide. She did her best to smile reassuringly. ‘Yeah. It’s just a
gaulcat. Searching for food probably.’
‘What...what kinda food?’
‘Relax. It’s a herbivore’, she said, running a hand through her hair. ‘Jeez.
You got spooked huh?’ she smirked.
The boy pouted. ‘I only got scared cause you were all tense and you got your
gun out and-’
‘I was just being careful. Hah. You’re cute when you’re flustered. Like a
princess.’
The boy coughed pointedly...and gestured towards Astra. She looked down to what
he was pointing at.
It had all happened so quickly...Her cock had only just softened. It dangled
out of her pants, unattended, exposed. Blood rushed to her face along with the
memory of the circumstances that began it all.
Tyqi yawned. ‘I was having a nice dream. I think’, he stated flatly, before
fluffing up the pack he‘d been sleeping on. His tank top was on him again. He
snuggled against her jacket, getting comfy.
She met his eyes, aghast. She didn’t know what to say. His smile was the same
as ever. Just about. ‘Goodnight Astra’, he said, turning a little to his side.
Deliberately, he pulled the fabric off himself...exposing his ass to her.
‘Don’t stay up too late. You’ve got to to think up a way out of here in the
morning. And clean up if you have to, you won’t disturb me’, he mumbled and
then yawned.. Within seconds he was asleep.
Astra stared incredulously at the boy. Had he just said….did he mean…what…
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
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