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Newt cries out so loudly and suddenly, Hermann pulls away in surprise. "Did I hurt you?"
Panting, eyes wide, Newt shakes his head. "No, that was…"
"Have you… never been touched? Never touched yourself?"
"Not like that!"
Hermann looks at his hand, which had barely taken hold of Newt, then at Newt himself. "As long as it was… pleasurable."
"Yeah! It just caught me by surprise, I guess. I've never been concerned with any kind of sex. I don't even know what would happen if I got a woman pregnant." Newt grins widely all of a sudden. "When she's ready to give birth, out pops a miniature white nova or something. Or some kind of crazy nebula. Just gas. Pfffff." He starts to laugh, and Hermann follows suit.
They only stop when Hermann kisses Newt and pushes him gently back to the bed. "If it ever feels uncomfortable, you must tell me to stop. Do you know what an orgasm feels like?"
"Nope."
"I hope you soon will."
"Me too.It sounds fascinating."
Hermann stretches out alongside Newt, so their bodies touch from shoulder to ankle, and very gently takes hold of Newt's erection. While Newt remains silent this time, his whole body tenses. "If it feels like you must make noise, then do so. I'd like to hear you," Hermann says softly, encouraging Newt who looks so naive and vulnerable at the moment.
And when Newt answers, his voice is shaky in a way Hermann has never heard before. "All right."
This time, when Hermann strokes gently, he's prepared for Newt's shout.
***
The next night, after Newt smiling at Hermann all day, just as Hermann's finished cleaning up the kitchen, Newt stands in the doorway. "Something you need?"
"Nah. But hey, I…" Smiling, not grinning. "You know that was super great, right?"
Finally Hermann smiles back, not because he hadn't been happy, but because he'd been worried about Newt's mindset. Keeping the man quiet, under most circumstances, was a difficult thing. "I did find it very enjoyable." And to his surprise, Newt blushes. "This is so unlike you."
"I think I'm still processing the whole thing. It's a lot to take in!" Newt replies with a breathless wonder.
Hermann can hardly remember his first sexual encounter other than the fact he hadn't found it nearly as enjoyable as Newt had.
"But here, I made you something. Come and see."
After hanging the wet dish towel, Hermann decides the rest is fine to leave and follows Newt out of the kitchen. He's expecting something in the living room, though has zero idea what Newt might have made for him, but no. Newt continues out the back door to the telescope on the patio.
"Look."
With his brow furrowed in confusion, Hermann looks through the telescope and gasps. "What?"
"It's kind of weird. I mean, it's not like I can just make that. I can't, especially not in a human body, but it's a little like knowing exactly where to find the prettiest flower in a field of flowers. Technically, I made it kind of, put the pieces together to make it happen, but really I just knew where to find it. It should become more widely known in a day or two, but right now, it's just for you."
Hermann couldn't remove his eye from the eyepiece. "I want to set up the camera. Can I do that?"
"Sure, dude. It'll still be there for the next billion years."
Much like his whole experience with Newt, Hermann has to remind himself that he doesn't need to hurry lest it end before he's ready. He gets the necessary gear from the house to take pictures through the telescope. When he heads back out, Newt already has the table set up for him.
Newt leans against him as he stares in wonder, taking picture after picture. Even though their telescope is expensive, it's a toy compared to what's used in observatories, so the pictures come out vague and sadly indistinct. But Hermann loves them anyway; he's never seen anything like this, not personally. "What is it?"
"Just a pulsar. Looks cool though, right?"
It's almost infuriating how casual Newt is about it, and yet Hermann can't find it in him to do anything other than smile. "Yes, it is very cool." He turns his head and presses a kiss to Newt's neck. "Thank you. I'll cherish it for the next billion years."
When Newt blushes, it starts on his cheeks, but goes all the way to the tips of his ears.
"Tell me what other things you've never done."
"Swimming," Newt says as his eyes close and he tilts his head to expose more of his neck to Hermann. "I've never been swimming."
"Then that's what we'll do."
***
Newt holds his hand. "You're so warm."
Newt looks both stricken and terrified. "Don't leave me, Hermann. I don't want to be alone again."
"Don't worry. You'll be right behind me, I'm sure. Too much junk food." Hermann manages a weak chuckle, then relaxes back into his pillow with a sigh. "It'll be nice not to hurt. I've forgotten what that's like."
That's it. Newt begins to cry silently. "You're supposed to be afraid of dying, remember?"
"That was before I lived so many years. I don't want to die, but I'm not afraid now." He smiles, still, because it doesn't take any of his strength to do. "Besides, you said I'd be beautiful in five billion years."
"You're beautiful now, you jerk."
"Newton…"
"Can we just… not talk about it? You're probably right; I'll die of a broken heart once you're gone, and then I'll be part of the collective universe again. I like to think I've been useful, that I've learned things, the small things that don't mean anything to a black hole or a collapsing star. But they mean everything. You mean everything to me. Some day, someone will notice an alignment of stars that maybe wasn't there before, and they'll document and track them until they decide it's worthy to be a new constellation, and they'll call it Hermann."
Hermann laughs, but it is obviously taxing on him. "They won't."
"So maybe they won't, but it'll be you in the stars."
"What about my nebula?"
"There'll be that too, but there might not be any humans left to see it."
"But you will. That's enough." He sighs again, and his breath is much shallower this time. "Newton…"
"I know. Good night, old man. I'll see you when I see you."
***
The air is hazy with green clouds, making it impossible to see the sky this night. He swears in frustration; this is the third night in a row he's been unable to see through the haze. Packing up his comm array dish that connects him to the observatory electronics, he swears under his breath.
"Need some help? You sound out of sorts."
He glances back at the one that's just come up on the roof. "I'm fine, just frustrated. I saw a nebula last week, but the weather's not been cooperating since."
"Bummer." He adjusts his visor so it's no longer slipping down his face and covers all his eyes again. "So… need some help?"
For a moment, he tightens his hold on his equipment. "Do you have an interest in space?"
"Absolutely. Why else would I be up here at this time of night?"
"All right then." He hands over the power pack, and when the other takes it, their tentacles briefly slip against one another.
They smile at one another.