Stupidly, Anna’s words bothered Alex a lot. He wanted to find that Dimitri guy and punch him so hard he wouldn’t even be able to look at Tracht, and he wanted to shake Anna and make her eat her words about him, too. Hitting Anna was probably out; no matter how mad at her Tracht was, he wouldn’t let Alex get away with something like that. But if Alex got some time alone on Cadmus station, maybe he could track Dimitri down and rough him up a bit. If he wore a mask, it might seem like a random mugging.
He kind of toyed with that idea between studying and writing Tracht’s log. Even if he didn’t get to actually go through with it, it was a nice fantasy.
The studying was getting to be less of a pain; he kind of liked understanding what everybody was talking about when they said to go aft or portside. Parsons helped out too, apparently really eager to get Alex up to speed with the ship lingo.
The door to Tracht’s office opened. Alex looked up from his spot on the couch and watched Espinosa walk in.
“Captain, I think we need—” She stopped when she realized Tracht wasn’t in the room. “Where’s the Captain?”
Alex shrugged. “Washroom.”
“And he left you here alone?” Espinosa sneered at him. “Make sure not to touch anything. Or steal anything.”
Alex had always thought she didn’t like him, but had never been able to place it. Turned out she was just like Anna, thinking Alex wasn’t good for anything.
“Yeah, whatever.”
She strode over and leaned against the desk. “I don’t know why he hasn’t gotten rid of you yet.”
Because Alex was just that good at sex. He was going to tell her as much, only then he noticed her shirt. Unbuttoned slightly to give just a hint of the breasts underneath.
“Nice tits,” Alex said in his skeeviest voice.
Her mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”
“I mean, I think they’re nice. If you smile a bit more, maybe people won’t think you’re such a frigid bitch.”
He’d shocked her into speechlessness. Even while the words poured out of his mouth, he knew they were a bad idea, but if he was going to get shit for it anyway he might as well go all the way.
“No matter what you do though, Tracht isn’t gonna notice you. He’s not into pussy. So you can stop strutting around here, trying to impress him.”
Her face reddened with anger and Alex was kind of riding high on that, knowing that at least Espinosa wasn’t going to try anything with Tracht. Fuck her, and fuck Anna for thinking that Alex wasn’t good enough. And fuck Dimitri too.
That was when Tracht walked back into the office. One look between Espinosa and Alex, and Tracht had figured out that something had happened.
“Ms. Espinosa. I hope Alex hasn’t done anything untoward.” He stepped closer to her.
She shook her head. “No. Or rather, yes, but it is of no concern.” She took a deep breath, and then she was back to her usual professional blankness. “I came to talk to you about an issue with the exhaust pipes.”
They kept talking about whatever the problem was, and Alex stewed by himself. He did catch Espinosa buttoning up her shirt, so he counted that as a victory. He’d touched some sort of nerve.
===
Alex thought Tracht might have forgotten about the incident. A few days passed, and the worst he did was make Alex play the role of a table.
He really, really should have known better.
“Why are we here?” Alex asked when they stopped in front of the med bay. Tracht pushed him inside.
“You’re getting hairy again. And there’s some unfinished business.”
The private room had been renovated with new padding on the walls to insulate sound better. The chair was the same as ever, and Alex started balking at having to lie down and spread his legs wide for Singh.
“Can’t I just shave? Or we could wax—” Alex suggested when he saw the epilator sitting on the table.
Singh laughed. “It’s cute when he thinks he has a choice.”
Thanks to Nadia’s mails, Alex had kind of forgotten that Singh was so creepy. Nadia made Singh sound borderline nice sometimes. But yeah, Singh knew exactly what Tracht was into and was willing to play along, so she was just as terrible. Maybe even worse.
They got him on the table and strapped down, his legs spread wide in the stirrups. He’d done this often enough now that it shouldn’t have affected him as much, but something about Singh being there too, staring and touching and making her damn commentary, was setting Alex off all over again. He whined when they removed the cock cage, which had provided a semblance of protection.
The first passes of the epilator on his legs were bearable. Not fun, but bearable. He winced with every hair they pulled from his chest and stomach, and by the time they approached his armpits he was shaking and sobbing.
“Tracht. Please. I can’t—”
Tracht kissed him and then raked his nails down Alex’s newly bare chest. His skin was still sensitive, and all the nerves lit up. Alex felt his dick twitch.
“You absolutely can. Now lift those arms up.”
With tears blurring his vision, Alex lifted his arms. Different from last time, Tracht strapped them down, so even if Alex wanted to he couldn’t protect himself. He closed his eyes and tried to focus just on Tracht’s fingers trailing behind the epilator, sometimes digging in hard to make the pain worse, other times gently soothing. His dick got really confused about it all.
Of course, once they used the epilator on his balls, Alex’s dick shrank right back into itself.
He thought that was it. He thought Tracht fondling his bare skin was the end of it, and maybe they’d go back to Tracht’s cabin and Tracht would fuck Alex while he was still feeling raw and vulnerable.
Singh put the epilator away and picked up a syringe.
“Whassat?” Alex slurred.
“Hmm? Oh. That’s your punishment for how you spoke to Ms. Espinosa.”
Oh. Ohhh, no. Alex shook his head and wished he weren’t strapped in so tightly.
Tracht started squeezing Alex’s balls. “I do believe I’ve spoken to you about cussing. And about how you treat women.”
There was a reason though. Espinosa was rude to Alex first. “She said—”
“I know what Ms. Espinosa said, Alex.” Tracht emphasized this by putting so much pressure on Alex’s balls that he cried out in pain. His vision went white for a moment, and when he was aware of his surroundings again he noticed he was babbling apologies.
“If you can’t handle a few snide comments, there is absolutely no way I can take you out in public. So, Alex, you absolutely will learn how to control yourself, is that clear?”
Alex nodded quickly. “Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Please, jus—”
“In any case. Since you are so fond of ‘tits,’ Dr. Singh and I have devised a way of getting you better acquainted with them. We just entered dead space too, so you can enjoy this for at least a month.”
Alex didn’t quite get it, not until Singh swabbed the skin on his chest clean and pushed the syringe into the side of his pec. It stung, but a lot less than the epilator. When she pulled the syringe out, Singh cupped Alex’s pec and pushed it up a bit. “Soon this will be nice and soft,” she said.
Oh. Oh god. They were going to actually give him breasts. Alex vaguely remembered Tracht threatening him with that once.
“I dun want tits,” Alex whined. “You don’t like chicks anyway.”
“I assure you, Alex, you will not at any point be mistaken for a woman.” Tracht stroked Alex’s cock, and damn but it felt good. Alex made an embarrassing sound that was a cross between a moan and a sob.
Singh repeated the procedure on the other pec. She wiped a few spots of blood away and put little bandages over the spots she had injected.
“We’ll have to inject him once a week, and I’ll give you the hormone supplements for his food,” Singh said. She absently petted along the side of his chest. “I think we could get him up to a respectable B cup.”
So all Alex had to do to avoid all this was starve himself.
...That wasn’t happening. Alex was going to have tits.
He collapsed against Tracht when they finally let him up. If he had any energy at all he would have been glaring at Singh.
Goddamn Espinosa and Singh and Anna. This was all their fault.