*Timeskip*
'Thoughts'
"Speech"
[Telepathy]
—————
Sitting across from Selene, I tried moving my new 'appendage' in her direction but it was hard, extremely so. It wasn't like moving your arm through the air, it was more like moving your arm through an extremely thick mud, and the further I stretched it, the harder it got. After a grueling 10 minutes of pushing my psychic power in her direction, I was finally able to create a link with Selene. She raised both her eyebrows when she felt the psychic force connect with her, but since she didn't resist, the connection formed smoothly.
[That was so much harder than I was expecting.] I thought.
[Did you expect it to be easy?] I heard a teasing voice respond.
Looking up at the girl in front of me with a dry look, I responded, [Not at all, but I didn't think it would take 10 minutes to push my psychic energy less than 5 feet away…]
All I received was a shoulder shrug in response. We continued talking for another five minutes before I suggested, [Try moving, I'm curious if it will break the connection. It's kind of hard to tell, but I don't feel like I'm getting tired just sitting here talking.] After the connection, I could feel a subtle drain of my mental energy, but it wasn't enough to make me any more tired than I was already, and I was slowly recovering.
Selene nodded and stood up before walking away, doubling the distance between us. The further she moved, the more mental energy I could feel was being drained every second I kept the connection open. By the time she reached the other side of the room, I could feel my mental energy draining quickly. Releasing the connection, I felt the tendril of psychic energy that was connecting my mind to Selene quickly retract and return to me before disappearing into my forehead.
"This is gonna take a while to train." I sighed out loud.
"I don't think it will take as long as you think, if you're diligent. Plus, it's something that can be trained while we're traveling, it's not like it takes any equipment, at least not yet." Selene comforted me while placing my head in her lap.
I smiled at my new soft pillow, "I know, I know. At least it gives me something to do while we look for a good job…"
She smiled and started running her fingers through my hair. It was nice, peaceful. If anything, it reminded me when I was a kid and my mom would scratch my head or back to help me fall asleep. Mentally exhausted from training, I quickly fell asleep in her lap with a content smile on my face.
"An… Andrew… Wake up." I heard a melodic voice rousing me from my sleep. Looking up, I could see Selene looking at down at me with a smile.
"Sorry, I guess I accidentally fell asleep. Your lap is too comfortable." She giggled with a light blush on her face.
"As happy as I am that you like my lap, my legs are falling asleep, and I'm getting hungry, we should eat something." She replied.
I stood up from my new favorite pillow and helped her stand. She thanked me as she held my hand as I pulled her up, only to have to catch her since her legs were still asleep.
"Hah, alright let's go, I'll make us some dinner." I said as I picked her up in a princess carry, getting a squeal out her in the process. I tactfully ignored the blushing android in my arms as she punched me in the chest lightly before settling into my embrace. "Warn me next time…" she whispered.
"Yes ma'am." I chortled as I set her down on the bar stool in our kitchen before going to make food. Since we were still at the station, I was able to get some ingredients delivered to the hanger in just a few minutes instead of using a meal kit. Twenty minutes later, a fresh pepperoni pizza was presented on the table in front of Selene and I. It wasn't actually pepperoni, but it was the closest thing I could get, and it didn't taste much different as all. As for the rest of the ingredients, most except the dough was made from scratch, not that it's very hard.
"What's this?" My beautiful ship operator questioned with interest. "It smells amazing!"
"It's called pizza, I had a hobby for cooking for a while when I was young. I'll start making some new things for us besides meal kits when we dock." I said back, excited to put my only other hobby aside from gaming to use. "Try it, you'll love it, I promise." I said as I took out a knife and cut the pizza into slices, and handed her one on a plate.
She looked at me and smiled, "I don't doubt it, you can make a meal kit taste great, I can only imagine when you make it with fresh ingredients." She took the slice and took small bite of it before closing her eyes and savoring the flavor.
A few seconds later, her eyes opened wide, sparkling. She quickly devoured the rest of the slice before running over to me and grabbing my shoulders, shaking me. "You're making this more often." I laughed nervously at her enthusiasm, but it made me proud nonetheless.
"Don't worry, I'll make this among other things from now on. Especially when we're in a relatively safe system." She beamed at my reply before running back to her seat and grabbing another slice. I chuckled and quickly grabbed three slices and put the on a plate before biting into one myself. 'Definitely better when you make it from scratch.' I thought to myself as I took in the delicious flavor.