"We have a commercial grade chest freezer for storing these fish," said Kira. "There should be enough room to store all of the fish within it, but if there's not, we can always leave some outside. I could use some help stocking it, though."
"I've got you covered, Mom," said Jove. He scooped up an armful of frozen fish and started off toward the kitchen.
"Where did your sister run off to?"
"Her room, probably," said Jove. "If I had to guess, I'd say she's either playing vertimon or resting her knee."
Jove winced as soon as the words were out of his mouth, realizing what he'd just done.
"Eve injured her knee?" asked Kira. "When was this?"
"It's really not that bad," he said.
"Is it the same knee she had surgery on?" Kira frowned and flipped a few unruly strands of dark red hair out of her face. "Why wasn't I told about this?"
He leaned forward as she opened the freezer's lid and indicated where to dump the fish. "All the obvious reasons. She knew you'd try to sideline her if you thought she couldn't keep up."
"That's ridiculous," snapped Kira. "I'm the director of this station. I need to have all the information, including any health considerations, before coming to a decision about who to assign where."
"She's your daughter, not your employee," he said.
"Was she injured when I sent both of you to Port Sirius?" asked his mother.
He didn't answer, instead continuing back into the entrance chamber to grab more fish. Eve was presumably still in her room, and Jove could hear the water running through the pipes, meaning Aster was likely in the bathroom.
"Jovian." His mother came up surprisingly quickly behind him. "Please. I don't want you keeping secrets from me."
She touched both his shoulders from behind, and he felt a powerful stirring within him as he remembered how she'd helped him the previous nights.
"She was," he said, with a fair amount of reluctance. "But she managed fine. It's more of an old ache than a new pain. I shouldn't have brought it up to you to begin with."
"I'm glad you did." Kira kissed him on the cheek, lips soft and pressing for a beat longer than necessary.
Jove turned to face her more directly, kissing her back on the lips. She was hesitant, but she didn't stop him, and she looked oddly pleased as the intimate moment came to an end, tension ebbing in the wings.
"Don't tell Eve I told you," he said.
"I'll do my best to discover it naturally," she said. "Now… back to the fish."
She patted his chest, close as they still were.
"Back to the fish."
They kissed once more, this one more intense than either of the previous two as though it needed to follow the rule of threes. Jove pulled her against him briefly as she made to move back toward their task, letting out a low groan as he unabashedly let his crotch rub against her softness.
She pulled away from him, squeezing his hand once. The fish only just fit inside the chest freezer, the last few needing to be arranged like puzzle pieces to maximize space and let the lid close. In his opinion, it was a fantastic problem to have.
"We'll be eating a lot of fish in the next few days and weeks," said his mother. "Months, probably. I hope you're fine with fish soup for tonight, as it's hard to do much else with them when they're this frozen."
"I'll eat your soup anytime," he said.
"Glad to hear it." She smiled, and they stared at each other for a few seconds before remembering the rest of the world.
Jove had several practical problems which still needed addressing, all of which related to his new feline companion. He found Mango in his bunk, laying directly on his pillow, which was less than ideal, given how much he'd already seen her shedding.
She swatted at him when he tried to move her. It was hard to square Andromeda's suspicion away with his own experience with the cat, but he forced himself to stop and consider the possibility that she might well be hiding surprises.
"If you are as intelligent as you seem, why won't you let me pet you?" He crouched down to be at eye level with the cat as he spoke.
Mango gave no response.
He knew, first and foremost, that even his most impassioned defense of his new pet would fall on deaf ears if she started peeing and pooping wherever, as cats often do.
There was a plastic storage bin in one of the empty bunks that only had the remnants of some long-gone researcher's dirty laundry within it. Jove brought it to the hydroponics lab and spent a little while going through the materials in search of a substitute for kitty litter.
He settled on a mixture of clay, sand, and tiny little rocks that had either been used for some experiment or maybe strained from soil and never discarded. It seemed like it would work, though he had to hope Mango would prefer the mixture to wherever else she might be tempted to go.
He set the cat's box up in the bathroom, which was still steamy presumably from Aster's shower. He brought the cat to the tiny door he'd cut in the front of the box and set her down, watching expectantly. Mango sniffed it briefly and then made to leave the room.
"Maybe you need to eat first?" he mused. "Let's get some food in you."
Andromeda was prepping the fish for the soup that his mother had announced for dinner, and Jove had easy access to some scraps that seemed like they'd be right up the cat's alley. He filled a bowl with water and brought her both, setting them down for her inspection.
Mango sniffed the water, helped herself to a decent drink, sniffed the food, and walked away from it.
"We don't exactly have any kitty chow laying around, you know," he called after her. "I'm not sure what you're going to eat if you don't like fish."
The cat stopped briefly to look back at him before continuing on her way, elegantly unconcerned with the human attempting to please her.