![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mokuyoubiΠ
Spencer woke up slowly, warm and comfortable despite the fact that he was on his back and Ryan was lying almost completely on top of him, his hand clinging to Spencer’s shoulder. Jon had an arm flung over Ryan’s back, hand on Ryan’s hip, but his fingers were brushing back and forth over the bare skin exposed between Spencer’s pyjama top and bottom. It tickled, but in a nice way.
He opened his eyes and met Jon’s over Ryan’s head. Jon smiled, sleepy and content, his hair flying in all directions. The mark on his forehead glinted dull silver in the starlight. Spencer had been curious since he’d first seen it, and now when he touched it, Jon didn’t flinch away. “Hey,” Jon murmured.
“Hey,” Spencer said.
Jon pressed a kiss to Ryan’s shoulder. Spencer liked Ryan’s shoulders, always had, even when he wasn’t supposed to notice things like that about his best friend. He liked the way they were kinda bony but defined, and there was this little dip that led into his collarbone where Spencer had wanted to kiss forever. Except, watching Jon kiss it was nice, too.
Ryan stirred a little, made a small, happy sound and snuggled closer between them. Jon’s hand moved from Ryan’s hip over Spencer’s stomach and to the bed and he lifted himself up, leaning over Ryan to kiss Spencer.
“Mmph,” Ryan muttered into the curve of Spencer’s throat. “You’re squishing me.” Every movement of his lips brushed against Spencer’s skin. Spencer made an apologetic sound, but he wasn’t sorry enough to stop kissing Jon, because Jon’s kisses, he was learning fast, were an amazing thing, lazy and intense and wet without being sloppy.
Ryan groaned and danced his fingers down Spencer’s side, finding his ticklish spot and digging in. Spencer jerked away from the kiss with an involuntary burst of laughter and shoved Ryan back from him, but Ryan just smiled and said, “I wanted my turn,” and replaced Jon’s lips with his own. Ryan’s kiss was deep and possessive, like all those years of friendship somehow translated into ownership. It made Spencer shiver to realise how badly he wanted Ryan and how much he’d ignored that for the sake of their friendship.
“I like your shoulders,” Spencer said when they parted. Ryan blinked at him like he didn’t know what to make of that, so Spencer just kissed that little dip, just how he’d always imagined.
The door chime rang and they sprung apart guiltily, but Jon just laughed at them and got up to answer it while they rearranged themselves at a respectable distance. Mikey didn’t seem to notice anything strange, anyway, when the doors slid open.
“Breakfast is just about ready, if you’re hungry. Though, it’s Gee’s turn to cook, so…” He made a face, perhaps his most expressive so far, that said just what he thought of his brother’s cooking. “Proceed with caution.”
Spencer wanted the opportunity to talk to Jon and Ryan now that they’d had a chance to sleep on things, because maybe Jon was confident about how things would proceed, but Spencer was mostly confused and worried. If he’d ever thought taking his relationship with Ryan to the next step would be easy, he would have done it years ago. Not to mention throwing in two other people they both had feelings for and were attracted to.
But Jon and Ryan were already wrestling over who got to use the ‘fresher first and neither of them seemed overly concerned about the state of things, so he decided it could wait.
When they were clean and dressed they made their way down to the mess. Gerard’s cooking turned out not to be awful so much as strange. “Macaroni and cheese is not a breakfast food,” Ray admonished.
“I baked it,” Gerard said.
“Gerard likes to expand our horizons,” Frank explained, as they were eating. It was actually pretty good—lots of different sorts of cheese, crunchy on the top, gooey underneath. “He experiments with the cuisines of other cultures, but sometimes he doesn’t understand what constitutes as breakfast food and what doesn’t.”
“At least he’s not still on his Klingon kick,” Alicia said around a mouthful. Everyone of the crew—even Ray—shuddered and Spencer was glad he’d missed it.
“Time is relative in space, anyway,” Gerard said, somewhat peevishly. “I don’t see why we have to limit ourselves by adhering to the social construct of ‘time of day,’ as laid down by the Federation, or whoever.”
Ryan was nodding his head along like it was something revelatory and Spencer groaned to himself, wondering if this meant Ryan was going to go around changing the time on all their clocks, or write a piece in his paper or something.
“Smells amazing!” Spencer looked up because that voice was strangely familiar, though not belonging to anyone on the crew.
“How can you eat anything at all? God, I’m so hung-over.”
“Wait, this Pete? This Pete is your admiral Pete? They let you have an armada?” Spencer demanded, flailing around a little bit, but seriously. Pete? This Pete?
“Pete?” Ryan repeated, raising his head. “Oh, hey, Patrick. Pete. Why are you sort of wearing a Starfleet uniform?”
“You know each other?” Gerard asked, arching a brow.
“Spencer, you really need to get laid more,” Pete said. “It will make you happier and calmer and a lot less like a scary guard dog, m’kay? I can help in this endeavour.”
Spencer narrowed his eyes dangerously and both Ryan and Jon leaned in front of him at the same time, which made Pete giggle, hand to his mouth. “Or, apparently, you have enough help.” He helped himself to a plate and began to pile it high with food. Patrick groaned again in distaste and flung himself on to the sofa. Mikey rubbed his head in a mothering sort of way.
Ryan, apparently, finally put two and two together, because he said, “Wait, Pete! You know where Brendon is!”
“Saw him last night,” Pete confirmed. “Crazy parties Gabe throws.”
“And you’re just letting Patrick keep his hang-over for the fun of it?” Mikey asked in his low monotone, but he was giving Pete a strange look.
“He’s being a bitch because I wouldn’t put on the uniform,” Patrick told him, and he and Mikey shared a knowing look.
“If you saw Brendon last night, they’re close, right? Can’t you just, I don’t know, tell Gabe to give him back?” Spencer asked.
Pete twisted his lips. “That would be cheating,” he said at last.
“Fuck cheating,” Jon growled. It was startling how angry he sounded because he was, in Spencer’s experience, usually so mild. “We want Brendon back.”
“All in good time,” Pete said, eyeing Jon like he was assessing him. “You’re still over a day away from the armada.”
“You know how Frank is,” Gerard said fondly. “Always has to win, and since we knew Gabe was going to get The Academy, we had to get every other goddamn thing on the goddamn list.”
“Sweet. You got me a Starfleet officer, too?” Pete asked.
“A willing one, even,” Ray piped up.
“How novel,” Patrick said darkly, glaring at Pete.
“How are they a day away if you were with them last night?” Spencer asked. He did not approve of the way the conversation kept getting away from him.
“I thought you two didn’t even like Starfleet,” Pete said.
“Brendon’s different,” Ryan said quickly. “I thought you were in a band,” he shot back.
Pete shrugged. “Everyone has hobbies.”
“Your band is your hobby?” Ryan sounded scandalised. Spencer knew how Ryan got about music and Pete and Patrick had always seemed really into their band.
“Nah,” Pete corrected, “having a fleet is. I mean, I can’t play music all the time. Gerard would get on my case about how I wasn’t being socially responsible, or some shit.”
Spencer would like to know how that worked, because Pete’s band played on DS9 pretty often, and toured a lot of planets playing, too. It didn’t seem to leave a lot of time to head an armada of ships.
“Anyway, everyone else is waiting, so you guys could, like, step it up past warp three, don’t you think?” Pete asked of Gerard.
“Bite us,” Mikey muttered. Spencer wouldn’t have said that to Pete. Pete was likely to actually do it.
But Frank said, “We’ll be there by this evening. We still have one thing to pick up.”
The one thing they had left to pick up turned out to be a Silvan glyph stone. Spencer knew, because Ryan had mentioned it once when talking about using it as a stone in his jewellery, that it was a rare antique.
Pete’s armada or fleet or whatever was waiting at an uncharted space station beyond where any Alpha or Beta quadrant explorers had travelled. Gerard mumbled something about Pete keeping it that way on purpose, though Spencer would have liked to have known how that was possible. He would have also liked to know exactly to where and by what means Pete and Patrick had gone away so quickly after breakfast. When they finally got to this station, and got Brendon back, Spencer was going to demand some answers.
Three light years and eighteen hours before they reached the empty space was the Paunsel system, composed of six planets, the third and fourth of which were inhabited by the Paunse, a society renowned in the Gamma quadrant for their scientific and archaeological knowledge. They also happened to be the only people in the Gamma quadrant who knew what a Silvan glyph stone was, and one of the few, precious stones was on display in a museum on the third planet.
Gerard kept insisting on calling the thing a caper and Ray, somewhat uncharacteristically, wondered if the fact that there were only ten of them would prevent them from pulling an “Ocean’s Eleven” and kept quoting and making references to some Earth movie.
“I thought you said Patrick asked you guys to do it without breaking any laws this time,” Ryan pointed out, when Gerard revealed their intentions towards the stone.
“He said try not to break thirty-seven intergalactic laws this time,” Frank explained, stressing the number. “We’re probably only going to break like, two or three, and they’re not intergalactic.”
“Infallible logic,” Gerard said, deadpan, in an impressive impersonation of his own species.
“Oh my gods. I broke a prisoner out of confinement, sat back while he was whisked halfway across the galaxy, and now I’m going to be party to breaking and entering and theft. I’m going to lose my job. Odo is going to fire me, and then he’s going to lock me up.” Spencer might have been being melodramatic, maybe, but it was one thing to help some Bajoran smuggle medicine on the station for poor colonists, and another thing entirely to help steal a rare artefact as part of a game.
“We can, like, knock you unconscious,” Gerard said helpfully. “And tie you up. And then you could honestly say that there was nothing you could have done to stop us.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Dax told him with a mischievous smile. Spencer knew he shouldn’t have been surprised that she was so eager to participate, but, seriously, she was a Starfleet officer. “Live a little, Smith.”
Ryan, too, was inordinately excited about the plan, even going so far as to offer to provide a distraction and displayed a heretofore unknown (to Spencer anyway) zeal for burglary.
There was no way Spencer was letting Ryan get involved without being there to make sure everything went smoothly, so in the end, he agreed too. Jon, apparently, was entirely unfazed by the whole situation. But then Spencer remembered at least a dozen stories of Jon’s from when he’d been with The Academy and they’d committed crimes far more scandalous.
Gerard was really good with makeup and costumes and he knew a lot about Gamma quadrant species, so while they were en route to Paunsel III, he managed to hide the distinguishing features of all the involved crew. After, he made them up to look like a crew of Andorians.
Spencer felt he looked ridiculous, but Ryan looked eerily beautiful with his pale blue skin, soft pink lips and shining silver hair. Dax, Gerard, Alicia and Mikey all made it look good, too, but Spencer took comfort in the fact that everyone else looked as stupid as he felt. Well, maybe Jon looked sort of adorable. But mostly stupid.
Being a society interesting in studying other societies, the Paunse people had been exploring the Alpha and Beta quadrants ever since the opening of the wormhole. When Alicia waved them and expressed an interest to sell some Andorian artefacts to the museum, the head curator was more than happy to see them.
Mikey, Ray and Alicia took care of the actual meeting with the curator. Ray was really excited to get a chance to play a role and even though he hammed it up a little, the curator fell for it.
Ryan was perfect for distracting the tour guide the curator had assigned to the group. Gerard had explained that before they sold the artefacts they wanted to see the facility. Ryan played the part of the curious, somewhat clueless protagonist to Gerard’s overbearing know-it-all and Dax’s plucky, contradictory for the sake of argument scientist. Between the three of them, the woman was falling over herself to answer questions and correct assumptions (not to mention trying to score a date, though with which of the three of them, Spencer couldn’t say for sure).
Lingering behind the four of them, Jon, Spencer, and Bob were able to get the lay of the land. Spencer was glad Bob was on their team because he was big, and sure Spencer didn’t know him all that well, but he got the impression that he was a competent guy. He and Bob had gone over the blueprints of the museum before going down to the planet, finding all the entrances to the room that housed the stone.
The stone was guarded by a force field, and that was where Frank came in. He’d thrown a fit about being left on the ship and tried protesting, “But I’m the captain!” However, in the end, he’d been forced to admit that he was the best with a transporter and the switch had to be made quickly.
Ryan shot them a look when they arrived in the room, then made a big show of noticing a sculpture through the archway into the next room. Gerard hurried forward making bold statements about its origins and Dax countered them, listing off the reasons he was wrong. Their tour rushed along behind them, trying to correct them without offending anyone.
Bob followed them as far as the door and then stayed there to keep watch. Spencer took the entrance from which they’d come and Jon positioned himself between the camera and the display, bending over it as if intent on studying it.
Alicia had put together a neat comm. device that resembled an earring. It was completely hidden by Spencer’s hair anyway, but if someone did catch a glimpse of it, it wouldn’t raise any suspicion. Now he reached up, pretending to fiddle with it, and tapped the button in the centre of the device.
From his point of view, Spencer couldn’t see the stone disappear and be replaced with the replica, but a few seconds later Jon straightened up. On cue, Bob wandered on after the others and Spencer followed behind with Jon. His face didn’t betray anything, but Spencer could tell by the sparkle of his eyes that everything had gone as planned.
The funniest part was that they hadn’t wanted to risk selling a fake Andorian artefact, and they just so happened to have an antique chest from one of Pete’s previous games. So not only did they manage to get away with the Silvan glyph stone, but they also got a handsome payment for an object they’d originally stolen from the Andorians.
Spencer had never wanted to live a life of crime, and he still didn’t. He hadn’t joined station security because it was convenient; he’d done it because he wanted to help people. Still, he couldn’t help the rush of adrenaline he got when they stepped out of the museum, not quite free and clear. Even once they were on the ship his heart was still beating faster and his stomach kept flipping. And. It felt good.
“That was so much fun,” Ryan said in a quiet, awed voice while Bob and Gerard were preparing a celebratory lunch.
Ray and Mikey had set a new, more direct course for the Pete’s station and stepped up to maximum warp, which meant they should see Brendon in a little over six hours. And Ryan looked pretty with the blue make-up blurring around the edges and his hair still silver-tipped, falling in his eyes. Jon chuckled near Spencer’s ear and Spencer said, “Yeah.” Then he grinned, hanging his head. “Yeah it was.”
Jon leaned into his shoulder, face close enough to kiss Spencer’s neck and Spencer put his hand in Ryan’s hair and pulled him in for a kiss. It made the thrill of stealing seem weak in comparison, shivers running up and down his spine.
When they pulled back, the crew had the decency to pretend they hadn’t noticed the little group display of affection going on in the corner. Only, the idea of them being seen didn’t bother Spencer so much. In fact, he wanted them to be seen. He wanted people to know. His hand tightened convulsively around Jon’s shoulder.
People knowing meant that if it didn’t work it would be that much worse. That was a large part of why Spencer liked to keep his affairs to himself. Not even his parents had known about the last three girlfriends he’d had, only Ryan. Of course, he’d already waved his parents to tell them about Jon and Brendon. Even though he’d only mentioned them as friends that had to mean something.
Spencer didn’t want to think about what that meant, this weird, possessive, demonstrative streak. But it didn’t make him take his arms from around them, or keep him from laying his head on Jon’s soft hair.
Ρ
Pete’s station was like something out of every amusement park ever. The decorating scheme was…not so much, just random colours and patterns and furniture and art that didn’t match at all, but somehow worked together. There were five decks of rooms and ostensibly they were assigned to various members of the fleet, but everyone kind of just moved around as they pleased. Brendon figured that might have something to do with the large amount of sex going on between the various crewmembers.
On the upper most deck was a large open space that managed to look as though it were outdoors on a mild weathered planet, though it was not a holodeck. The ground was mostly pale blue grass of a moderate length, though there were plenty of wildflowers, smooth pebbles lined the shorn, even grass of the putt-putt golf greens that stood to the side of a large playground. There was a pool that had been styled to resemble a lake, complete with sand on the shores and a wooden dock extending into the gentle ripples.
The ceiling was a huge view screen that had been programmed to behave like the sky, giving off light and heat during the day and moon and star shine at night. It was random, with clouds and scattered birds. Vents around the room gave off faint breezes, stirring the leaves of the trees and bushes that lined the walls and stretched high above.
Brendon was given a tour of the entire station, including the Promenade like area with it’s arcade games, seven differently themed bars, and a snazzy fashion shop (all clothing designed by Pete, occasionally with assistance from Travis, Victoria or William). He’d also been introduced to more members of the fleet who generally stayed on the station, making sure things ran smoothly and taking care of security issues and the like. Jamia was all business, Brian was hot, Worm was funny, and Zach was very cuddly for such a scary looking guy.
Most of the Infinity, Cobra (minus Gabe who was attached to William at the hip), and The Hush crews had stayed on the main deck, but The Academy, and the Cab had flocked to the lower most deck, which was the largest by far and housed, to Brendon’s disbelief and amazement, an actual zoo. Pete claimed there were over 16,000 different animal species from all over the universe. Brendon hadn’t really believed it. He was inclined to believe he was on a holodeck. Pete said it was 7,000 acres, and Brendon didn’t care, because there was no way the station was that big. Like, even a fraction of that size.
But when he’d tried to challenge it, Pete just got his big grin. “Remember how you told me my ship wasn’t possible?” He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet like he wanted Brendon to argue some more so Pete could prove him wrong. And Brendon was really bad at not reacting when provoked.
“Whatever. We both know that was an illusion. Just like this place,” Brendon said.
“Ooooh really?” Pete drawled. He made this weird flourish with his hand and all of the sudden Brendon was actually on the deck of the ship in the bottle. For a second he freaked out, because from within it looked like he was in open space. Only, he didn’t implode and he could still breathe, but…
Brendon walked along the deck, the wood echoing under his heels. Beside them, the space station loomed and a plank extended from the ship to the neck of the bottle, disappearing into the docking bay.
“How did you…” Brendon wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask. “How the hell did you make us—I mean, that wasn’t a transporter that brought us here.”
“No,” Pete agreed. “I brought us here.” He looked quite pleased with himself.
“I don’t understand,” Brendon said. He wasn’t being wilfully stupid. It just didn’t make any sense. “How?”
“Because I wanted to. Like, say I wanted to fly?” Pete said, and suddenly he was floating above the deck. “Or maybe you’ve always wanted to be in outer space. Like, actually be there, without the ship or the suit or anything between you and the black, even though you knew you couldn’t survive it, and sometimes you just don’t care?”
Brendon had never said anything like that to anyone, because he was worried it might sound suicidal, even though he’d never do actually do it. Only Pete waved his hand again and the glass bottle disappeared and it was suddenly blindingly dark and cold. Distant dots of stars on ink black were like needles driving into his eyes and all the oxygen went from his lungs. Everything pressed in and Brendon remembered the lectures he got on what happened when you’re exposed to the black, in what order.
Then Pete touched his hand and the glass didn’t come back, but Brendon could breathe again, or, well, he didn’t need to breathe anymore. And the cold was still there, only he felt disconnected from it. The only thing that was real any more was the oppressive force of blackness all around him, swallowing him.
It was gone almost as quickly as it came, and they were standing in the zoo again, where it looked like the outside and there were animals from hundreds of planets and the warmth after the cold left Brendon sweating. That fact, along with the sudden inability to breathe quickly and deeply enough let him know he hadn’t just hallucinated it all.
“Who are you?” Brendon panted.
“I’m Pete,” he said. “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name.”
Brendon couldn’t help the breathless puff of laughter that got out of him. Pete, all these people, and their fucking weird obsession with 20th century Earth music. “Well, see, Pete, what’s puzzling me is the nature of your game.”
Pete threw back his head and laughed. “See, look, I knew this would be awesome,” Pete said. “You just have to learn how to appreciate it.” Brendon still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be appreciating, but he got, with sudden, perfect clarity, that Pete wasn’t trying to hurt him, and that when this was all over, Pete would make sure he got back to DS9.
Then, using his finger like it was a pen, Pete began to draw on the air, leaving green, wavering lines behind. He spelled out Pete Wentz and then said, “I don’t have any really lame anagram,” and oh my god, Brendon might have fallen a little bit in love with Pete for quoting the Rolling Stones and referencing Harry Potter all within the same five minute span. He flicked his fingers and the letters began a little dance. But instead of rearranging themselves to form other words, they bent to form a circle and wriggled a bit, until the single letter Q hung in the air.
Brendon felt his eyes go wide and he looked from Pete to the Q and back again. “You’re…you’re Q?” he gasped.
“I’m not the Q. Not like you’re thinking. I’m not the one Starfleet warned you about, anyway. I mean, we’re both Q, but I’m Pete. And he’s Q,” Pete said and Brendon had a little trouble following it. “He likes annoying Starfleet captains who won’t sleep with him and leading mini-coups in the Continuum and then reforming and doing the whole thing over again. I have way more fun than he does. Anyway, Brendon, I have a proposition for you, but I think it should wait until your friends get here,” Pete said.
“My friends?” Brendon repeated. Did Pete mean Starfleet? Or could it be, possibly, that Spencer and Jon and Ryan had actually come after him? The mere thought made hope and something stronger flutter in his stomach.
“They’ll be here in a few hours. In the meantime…” With another flourish of his hand, Brendon was suddenly holding the biggest mai tai known to mankind. “You know, drink and be merry. And no matter what Mikey says, don’t try to ride the unicorn, okay?” Brendon wanted to ask who Mikey was, but Pete was gone in a flash of light before he had the chance. Then what else Pete had said caught up with Brendon and he exclaimed, “There are unicorns?”
So, Brendon drank and was merry. It was easy when William was hilariously terrified of giraffes and Gabe had to be dragged out of the reptile house after making one too many (read: his billionth) snake as a metaphor for his penis jokes. Cash had to be told multiple times not to climb into the cages with the animals, no matter how cute and fluffy they were, and then Chiz had to be pulled away from a boxing match with some kangaroo-like creatures from Epon Prime. And, it turned out there were indeed unicorns, in silver and white with gold and iridescent horns. They frolicked about, never letting any of the visitors get very close.
It also didn’t hurt that there were cabana boys inexplicably all over the place who were only too happy to come along and replace their drinks just as they were about to finish them off. Brendon didn’t question it. Q.
They didn’t get to see the whole zoo, which William patiently explained was impossible, because Pete was forever adding more specimens from his latest expeditions. Sisky had the idea that Pete did it on purpose just so no one ever could see the zoo in its entirety. Brendon was beginning to get that Sisky was a little paranoid, though. Luckily, the Butcher just petted Sisky’s hand and gave him an ice cream cone, which successfully distracted him.
No matter how much fun he had at the zoo, and later swimming in the lake with Greta and Bob, and later playing with vintage arcade games, no matter how much alcohol Pete plied him with to make him mellow, the buzz of anxious anticipation remained in his stomach. Because they were coming. For him. He kept checking the clock, forever dismayed to find that only a couple minutes had ticked away. Until, at last, Andy announced that the Helena was approaching.
Brendon wasn’t the only one excited. Apparently whoever these guys were, they were popular, because there was a mad rush around him. The fleet readied themselves and the station for the arrival. Pete even did a little hand flourish and actually made himself a mostly respectable uniform. Well, more respectable than his pink and yellow and blue bat suit thing, though he ended up resembling a pirate captain straight out of the 17th century, complete with huge feathered hat. Brendon thought, at least Ryan would like it.
Then the Helena docked and Pete made everyone stand aside so that Brendon could get to the airlock. He was so excited and more than a little drunk that he couldn’t stand still. He didn’t even know what exactly had happened between him and Ryan the last time they’d seen one another, but apparently it didn’t matter, because Ryan was here.
The airlock hissed open and suddenly standing was an issue, because in addition to being drunk he had a very fierce Ryan thrown at him. Jon and Spencer followed more sedately, but they kept him and Ryan upright and their arms held him just as tight. Ryan’s mouth was somewhere in Brendon’s throat, but when he whispered, “I’m sorry. Brendon, I’m so sorry,” Brendon heard him perfectly.
Brendon squeezed them all tighter and pressed a kiss to the hair on Ryan’s temple and maybe that was crossing some boundaries, but he wanted Ryan to know it was alright, that he’d already been forgiven. Besides, Brendon had been worried and confused, but not angry.
Only then he saw Dax coming out of the airlock and stiffened in their embrace. “Lieutenant!” he exclaimed. His body snapped to attention despite the added burden of three extra sets of limbs. Ryan went equally tense and dropped his arms from around Brendon, stepping hastily back. The look on his face was the same as it had been when he’d last seen him, closed and hurt. Apparently hugs and kisses and sorrys weren’t enough.
“At ease, Ensign,” Dax said, in that easy way she had that made him wish she wasn’t so much higher ranking than him, because it made having conversations with her awkward, especially when he got excited. “I’m not here in an official capacity.”
“That’s right,” the Vulcan behind Dax said, and made a face at Gabe. Which was weird, because, well, Vulcan.
“Whatever, dude. So you got a Starfleet officer. So did we. And ours is a dude,” Gabe said derisively. “And, we got The Academy. You are so totally owned.”
The tiny tattooed guy beside the Vulcan looked like he was getting ready to throw himself physically at Gabe and engage in some serious violence. The Vulcan laid a hand on his shoulder in restraint and smiled placidly. “We shall see.”
“Yeah, you better win,” Spencer said darkly. Brendon felt warm all over that Spencer still hadn’t entirely stopped hugging him. He’d loosened his grip so he was more just draped over Brendon’s back. Jon had shifted so he was sort of holding Brendon’s arm but had a hand on Ryan’s back, too. It was nice, though it would have been nicer if Ryan were touching him, too. “I’m not going to have been involved in a museum heist for nothing.”
“You were involved in a museum heist!” Brendon exclaimed. “Without me?”
“There are many things,” Dax said slowly, “that have happened for all of us, that I’m sure we will never discuss with anyone else on Deep Space Nine, ever.” Spencer and Ryan nodded their heads solemnly, but Jon wore a little smirk.
Brendon was so curious. Everyone was super cool, but he just wanted to get Ryan and Jon and Spencer alone and just talk. “Do we get to go home now?” Ryan asked. He looked weary.
“Ross…Ryan,” Pete said and sidled up to him. “Don’t you trust me?”
Ryan eyed him. “Pete. I trust you, like, as far as I could throw you.”
“You could probably throw me pretty far,” Pete said in a charming, wheedling sort of way, all playful, batting eyelashes. Ryan didn’t seem impressed. Brendon realised they were talking like two people who knew each other and now he was burning with his curiosity. “Anyway, you guys can’t go anywhere yet, because Joe and Travis have to tally the scores and then we have a big party.”
“Which differs from your other parties how?” Brendon interjected under his breath.
Pete scowled at him. “Everyone’s here now. So, party. And then, my precious panics…my darling, pretty, odd boys…” Pete sounded like he was talking nonsense, but he had this look like he could see something no one else did. “Then we have to talk.” Ryan and Spencer squirmed at the attention. Brendon, however, was learning that maybe he should trust weird, wacky Pete.
“How long will it take to tally the points?” Brendon asked, fishing. Pete smirked.
“Plenty enough time, I think, for you to show your little friends your room.”
Brendon was torn, because even if he wasn’t on duty and Dax wasn’t there as a representative of Starfleet, he still felt weird just taking off without her. But Pete mentioned his zoo to her and her eyes lit up and the whole crowd from the Helena followed as Pete led her off, the other Vulcan of the group exclaiming “Unicorns!”
“Come on,” Brendon said, giving them a tour of what they saw only on the way to his quarters. Because they really needed to see all of the station and everything, but right now he just wanted to be close to them and talk. He knew it was ridiculous because they’d only been apart a couple of days, but with the stress of being kidnapped and everything, it felt like a lot longer.
Jon took his hand as they walked and after some weird looks between Spencer and Ryan, Ryan took his other hand. He jumped in surprise at it, because Ryan still didn’t look very happy, but Spencer got this private little smirk at it.
“I can’t believe you guys came after me,” Brendon said.
“Are you kidding?” Spencer demanded, and he sounded a little pissed. “You think we’d just leave you to fend for yourself after being kidnapped?”
Brendon felt bad for upsetting him, but he couldn’t help it. People didn’t just go off gung-ho after potential kidnappers. That was what the Federation was for. “How did you even know where to find me?”
Spencer gave him a look like he was a moron. “I am a security officer, you know. And Jon has contacts.” Jon nodded in agreement.
“But why did you go with them?” Ryan exploded, and Brendon was glad they were almost to his quarters. He hurried them in even as Ryan went on. “Did I…Was it because I…How did they get you?” he finished at last.
“Ryan, no,” Brendon said, and dropped Jon’s hand to take both of Ryan’s. “Gabe, he has this weird hypnosis thing where he can make you think you’re seeing something that isn’t there. He makes you see the thing you want to see. And he used it on me, then Ryland hyposprayed me and they dragged me onto their ship, and by the time I woke we were already long through the wormhole.”
Spencer had nice long, cold fingers, and he pressed them too. “I’m going to kick this Gabe guy’s ass,” he said, voice low and even. And then, to Brendon’s immense surprise, Spencer replaced his fingers with his lips. Brendon felt his eyes go wide.
Before he could express his surprise, Jon put his hand behind Brendon’s head and pulled him down into a kiss. He made a sound of muffled surprise against Jon’s lips, but Jon just kissed him deeper, more insistently. Spencer bit gently at Brendon’s neck and Brendon sort of wilted under the onslaught, parting his mouth to Jon, sagging against Spencer. He clenched tight to Ryan’s hands and Ryan squeezed back.
“What?” Brendon began, when Jon let him go. He was sort of dazed and couldn’t really open his eyes very far, but then Ryan stepped into Jon’s place and wrapped his arms around Brendon’s neck.
“Brendon,” Ryan said, very seriously. “We have to talk. I have to tell you why I…why I said what I did.”
“It’s alright,” Brendon reassured him. He so didn’t care. Not anymore, because apparently whatever it was had passed.
“It…it isn’t,” Ryan said. He paused, mouth open, eyes down, obviously trying to find his words. “Brendon, I wouldn’t be here right now if you didn’t mean so much to me, and I wouldn’t…What we’re all doing…”
Ryan looked helplessly at Jon and Spencer and Jon kissed him light and quick on the lips while Spencer stroked a hand over his cheek and wow…Brendon had maybe sorta realised what it meant that everyone was touching him, but seeing them touch Ryan drove the point home.
“What we’re doing, I never would…I mean, you three are. I want you to understand, so that when I get stupid again, because I will, I don’t want you to go away again,” Ryan finished, blushing at the admission like it was something to be embarrassed by.
“Ryan.” Brendon finally let himself touch Ryan more intimately, hands falling to Ryan’s hips, pulling him close ‘til they were flush against each other. “Ryan, I didn’t leave willingly. And when Gabe took me, I was on my way to see you. In fact, Gabe made me think I was seeing you. You can’t drive me away. I mean,” he added, grinning sheepishly, “not that I want you to try.”
Though he looked on the verge of tears, that made Ryan laugh a little. His hands toyed with Brendon’s hair and he tugged, just gently, but what he was asking was clear. Brendon wouldn’t deny him, couldn’t deny him when he wanted it just as much. He tilted his head and closed the space between them.
And, god, Ryan’s kiss! It was sweet, and hesitant, his lips moving slowly like he was mouthing words into Brendon. Brendon’s hands clenched tight on Ryan’s hips and tried to say with his kiss just how much he’d meant what he said. Ryan made a soft sound and made Brendon rub their hips together, and he felt Ryan going hard against him. He opened his mouth and Ryan reciprocated at once and then he forgot about trying to say anything with the kiss except want and please.
“Brendon,” Spencer murmured in his ear. He stroked a finger down the side of Brendon’s neck, sending shivers down his spine. “Brendon.” His voice was coaxing, fingers carding through Brendon’s hair.
Maybe it was criminal that he hadn’t kissed Spencer yet. His lips parted from Ryan’s with a wet sound and Ryan’s eyes were glassy, his cheeks flushed, his lips glistening from Brendon’s mouth. Brendon would have felt it a shame had no one kissed that mouth, so he was glad that Jon did it, leaving Brendon to Spencer.
Brendon had never been, despite what his mother said, a greedy boy. He’d never expected or even hoped to be in this sort of situation. But having three different men who kissed him in such delightfully different ways…perhaps he would quickly become spoiled.
Spencer was all sharp teeth and quick slips of his tongue and soft, soft lips that curved into a devious smile when Brendon moaned. He half turned, taking one hand from Ryan’s hip to pull Spencer closer to them. Jon was pressed into Brendon’s thigh, and they were all hard and he could feel all of them.
“What are we doing?” Brendon asked, dazed, when Spencer left his mouth to suck on his neck. “Oh my god, what are we doing?” He wasn’t worried so much as filled with disbelief.
Jon stopped kissing Ryan to murmur, “It’s alright, Bren,” and then he was kissing Brendon again and it was dizzying and unbelievable, except Brendon totally believed him that it would be alright. In fact, if the way Ryan was moving his hips in tight circles against Brendon’s were any indication, it would be a lot better than alright.
He was about to suggest moving to the ridiculously large bed (Pete had said something about facilitating orgies when Brendon had commented on it—now he had to wonder if Pete had actually been joking), when the comm. chimed.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Travis’ voice called, and Brendon guessed it was a station wide announcement. “We have a winner.”
“Party on the upper deck,” Pete cut in. “And yes, that means you guys, too, Brendon.”
“What did he—?” Ryan began, but Brendon shook his head.
“I’ll explain later.” Then, Brendon looked at all of them and said, hoping they got his meaning, “Later.”
“Later,” Jon promised him, and Spencer hugged him and Ryan kissed him. Later was going to be a very good thing.
Next Part:
http://moku-youbi.livejournal.com/3349.html
Spencer woke up slowly, warm and comfortable despite the fact that he was on his back and Ryan was lying almost completely on top of him, his hand clinging to Spencer’s shoulder. Jon had an arm flung over Ryan’s back, hand on Ryan’s hip, but his fingers were brushing back and forth over the bare skin exposed between Spencer’s pyjama top and bottom. It tickled, but in a nice way.
He opened his eyes and met Jon’s over Ryan’s head. Jon smiled, sleepy and content, his hair flying in all directions. The mark on his forehead glinted dull silver in the starlight. Spencer had been curious since he’d first seen it, and now when he touched it, Jon didn’t flinch away. “Hey,” Jon murmured.
“Hey,” Spencer said.
Jon pressed a kiss to Ryan’s shoulder. Spencer liked Ryan’s shoulders, always had, even when he wasn’t supposed to notice things like that about his best friend. He liked the way they were kinda bony but defined, and there was this little dip that led into his collarbone where Spencer had wanted to kiss forever. Except, watching Jon kiss it was nice, too.
Ryan stirred a little, made a small, happy sound and snuggled closer between them. Jon’s hand moved from Ryan’s hip over Spencer’s stomach and to the bed and he lifted himself up, leaning over Ryan to kiss Spencer.
“Mmph,” Ryan muttered into the curve of Spencer’s throat. “You’re squishing me.” Every movement of his lips brushed against Spencer’s skin. Spencer made an apologetic sound, but he wasn’t sorry enough to stop kissing Jon, because Jon’s kisses, he was learning fast, were an amazing thing, lazy and intense and wet without being sloppy.
Ryan groaned and danced his fingers down Spencer’s side, finding his ticklish spot and digging in. Spencer jerked away from the kiss with an involuntary burst of laughter and shoved Ryan back from him, but Ryan just smiled and said, “I wanted my turn,” and replaced Jon’s lips with his own. Ryan’s kiss was deep and possessive, like all those years of friendship somehow translated into ownership. It made Spencer shiver to realise how badly he wanted Ryan and how much he’d ignored that for the sake of their friendship.
“I like your shoulders,” Spencer said when they parted. Ryan blinked at him like he didn’t know what to make of that, so Spencer just kissed that little dip, just how he’d always imagined.
The door chime rang and they sprung apart guiltily, but Jon just laughed at them and got up to answer it while they rearranged themselves at a respectable distance. Mikey didn’t seem to notice anything strange, anyway, when the doors slid open.
“Breakfast is just about ready, if you’re hungry. Though, it’s Gee’s turn to cook, so…” He made a face, perhaps his most expressive so far, that said just what he thought of his brother’s cooking. “Proceed with caution.”
Spencer wanted the opportunity to talk to Jon and Ryan now that they’d had a chance to sleep on things, because maybe Jon was confident about how things would proceed, but Spencer was mostly confused and worried. If he’d ever thought taking his relationship with Ryan to the next step would be easy, he would have done it years ago. Not to mention throwing in two other people they both had feelings for and were attracted to.
But Jon and Ryan were already wrestling over who got to use the ‘fresher first and neither of them seemed overly concerned about the state of things, so he decided it could wait.
When they were clean and dressed they made their way down to the mess. Gerard’s cooking turned out not to be awful so much as strange. “Macaroni and cheese is not a breakfast food,” Ray admonished.
“I baked it,” Gerard said.
“Gerard likes to expand our horizons,” Frank explained, as they were eating. It was actually pretty good—lots of different sorts of cheese, crunchy on the top, gooey underneath. “He experiments with the cuisines of other cultures, but sometimes he doesn’t understand what constitutes as breakfast food and what doesn’t.”
“At least he’s not still on his Klingon kick,” Alicia said around a mouthful. Everyone of the crew—even Ray—shuddered and Spencer was glad he’d missed it.
“Time is relative in space, anyway,” Gerard said, somewhat peevishly. “I don’t see why we have to limit ourselves by adhering to the social construct of ‘time of day,’ as laid down by the Federation, or whoever.”
Ryan was nodding his head along like it was something revelatory and Spencer groaned to himself, wondering if this meant Ryan was going to go around changing the time on all their clocks, or write a piece in his paper or something.
“Smells amazing!” Spencer looked up because that voice was strangely familiar, though not belonging to anyone on the crew.
“How can you eat anything at all? God, I’m so hung-over.”
“Wait, this Pete? This Pete is your admiral Pete? They let you have an armada?” Spencer demanded, flailing around a little bit, but seriously. Pete? This Pete?
“Pete?” Ryan repeated, raising his head. “Oh, hey, Patrick. Pete. Why are you sort of wearing a Starfleet uniform?”
“You know each other?” Gerard asked, arching a brow.
“Spencer, you really need to get laid more,” Pete said. “It will make you happier and calmer and a lot less like a scary guard dog, m’kay? I can help in this endeavour.”
Spencer narrowed his eyes dangerously and both Ryan and Jon leaned in front of him at the same time, which made Pete giggle, hand to his mouth. “Or, apparently, you have enough help.” He helped himself to a plate and began to pile it high with food. Patrick groaned again in distaste and flung himself on to the sofa. Mikey rubbed his head in a mothering sort of way.
Ryan, apparently, finally put two and two together, because he said, “Wait, Pete! You know where Brendon is!”
“Saw him last night,” Pete confirmed. “Crazy parties Gabe throws.”
“And you’re just letting Patrick keep his hang-over for the fun of it?” Mikey asked in his low monotone, but he was giving Pete a strange look.
“He’s being a bitch because I wouldn’t put on the uniform,” Patrick told him, and he and Mikey shared a knowing look.
“If you saw Brendon last night, they’re close, right? Can’t you just, I don’t know, tell Gabe to give him back?” Spencer asked.
Pete twisted his lips. “That would be cheating,” he said at last.
“Fuck cheating,” Jon growled. It was startling how angry he sounded because he was, in Spencer’s experience, usually so mild. “We want Brendon back.”
“All in good time,” Pete said, eyeing Jon like he was assessing him. “You’re still over a day away from the armada.”
“You know how Frank is,” Gerard said fondly. “Always has to win, and since we knew Gabe was going to get The Academy, we had to get every other goddamn thing on the goddamn list.”
“Sweet. You got me a Starfleet officer, too?” Pete asked.
“A willing one, even,” Ray piped up.
“How novel,” Patrick said darkly, glaring at Pete.
“How are they a day away if you were with them last night?” Spencer asked. He did not approve of the way the conversation kept getting away from him.
“I thought you two didn’t even like Starfleet,” Pete said.
“Brendon’s different,” Ryan said quickly. “I thought you were in a band,” he shot back.
Pete shrugged. “Everyone has hobbies.”
“Your band is your hobby?” Ryan sounded scandalised. Spencer knew how Ryan got about music and Pete and Patrick had always seemed really into their band.
“Nah,” Pete corrected, “having a fleet is. I mean, I can’t play music all the time. Gerard would get on my case about how I wasn’t being socially responsible, or some shit.”
Spencer would like to know how that worked, because Pete’s band played on DS9 pretty often, and toured a lot of planets playing, too. It didn’t seem to leave a lot of time to head an armada of ships.
“Anyway, everyone else is waiting, so you guys could, like, step it up past warp three, don’t you think?” Pete asked of Gerard.
“Bite us,” Mikey muttered. Spencer wouldn’t have said that to Pete. Pete was likely to actually do it.
But Frank said, “We’ll be there by this evening. We still have one thing to pick up.”
The one thing they had left to pick up turned out to be a Silvan glyph stone. Spencer knew, because Ryan had mentioned it once when talking about using it as a stone in his jewellery, that it was a rare antique.
Pete’s armada or fleet or whatever was waiting at an uncharted space station beyond where any Alpha or Beta quadrant explorers had travelled. Gerard mumbled something about Pete keeping it that way on purpose, though Spencer would have liked to have known how that was possible. He would have also liked to know exactly to where and by what means Pete and Patrick had gone away so quickly after breakfast. When they finally got to this station, and got Brendon back, Spencer was going to demand some answers.
Three light years and eighteen hours before they reached the empty space was the Paunsel system, composed of six planets, the third and fourth of which were inhabited by the Paunse, a society renowned in the Gamma quadrant for their scientific and archaeological knowledge. They also happened to be the only people in the Gamma quadrant who knew what a Silvan glyph stone was, and one of the few, precious stones was on display in a museum on the third planet.
Gerard kept insisting on calling the thing a caper and Ray, somewhat uncharacteristically, wondered if the fact that there were only ten of them would prevent them from pulling an “Ocean’s Eleven” and kept quoting and making references to some Earth movie.
“I thought you said Patrick asked you guys to do it without breaking any laws this time,” Ryan pointed out, when Gerard revealed their intentions towards the stone.
“He said try not to break thirty-seven intergalactic laws this time,” Frank explained, stressing the number. “We’re probably only going to break like, two or three, and they’re not intergalactic.”
“Infallible logic,” Gerard said, deadpan, in an impressive impersonation of his own species.
“Oh my gods. I broke a prisoner out of confinement, sat back while he was whisked halfway across the galaxy, and now I’m going to be party to breaking and entering and theft. I’m going to lose my job. Odo is going to fire me, and then he’s going to lock me up.” Spencer might have been being melodramatic, maybe, but it was one thing to help some Bajoran smuggle medicine on the station for poor colonists, and another thing entirely to help steal a rare artefact as part of a game.
“We can, like, knock you unconscious,” Gerard said helpfully. “And tie you up. And then you could honestly say that there was nothing you could have done to stop us.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Dax told him with a mischievous smile. Spencer knew he shouldn’t have been surprised that she was so eager to participate, but, seriously, she was a Starfleet officer. “Live a little, Smith.”
Ryan, too, was inordinately excited about the plan, even going so far as to offer to provide a distraction and displayed a heretofore unknown (to Spencer anyway) zeal for burglary.
There was no way Spencer was letting Ryan get involved without being there to make sure everything went smoothly, so in the end, he agreed too. Jon, apparently, was entirely unfazed by the whole situation. But then Spencer remembered at least a dozen stories of Jon’s from when he’d been with The Academy and they’d committed crimes far more scandalous.
Gerard was really good with makeup and costumes and he knew a lot about Gamma quadrant species, so while they were en route to Paunsel III, he managed to hide the distinguishing features of all the involved crew. After, he made them up to look like a crew of Andorians.
Spencer felt he looked ridiculous, but Ryan looked eerily beautiful with his pale blue skin, soft pink lips and shining silver hair. Dax, Gerard, Alicia and Mikey all made it look good, too, but Spencer took comfort in the fact that everyone else looked as stupid as he felt. Well, maybe Jon looked sort of adorable. But mostly stupid.
Being a society interesting in studying other societies, the Paunse people had been exploring the Alpha and Beta quadrants ever since the opening of the wormhole. When Alicia waved them and expressed an interest to sell some Andorian artefacts to the museum, the head curator was more than happy to see them.
Mikey, Ray and Alicia took care of the actual meeting with the curator. Ray was really excited to get a chance to play a role and even though he hammed it up a little, the curator fell for it.
Ryan was perfect for distracting the tour guide the curator had assigned to the group. Gerard had explained that before they sold the artefacts they wanted to see the facility. Ryan played the part of the curious, somewhat clueless protagonist to Gerard’s overbearing know-it-all and Dax’s plucky, contradictory for the sake of argument scientist. Between the three of them, the woman was falling over herself to answer questions and correct assumptions (not to mention trying to score a date, though with which of the three of them, Spencer couldn’t say for sure).
Lingering behind the four of them, Jon, Spencer, and Bob were able to get the lay of the land. Spencer was glad Bob was on their team because he was big, and sure Spencer didn’t know him all that well, but he got the impression that he was a competent guy. He and Bob had gone over the blueprints of the museum before going down to the planet, finding all the entrances to the room that housed the stone.
The stone was guarded by a force field, and that was where Frank came in. He’d thrown a fit about being left on the ship and tried protesting, “But I’m the captain!” However, in the end, he’d been forced to admit that he was the best with a transporter and the switch had to be made quickly.
Ryan shot them a look when they arrived in the room, then made a big show of noticing a sculpture through the archway into the next room. Gerard hurried forward making bold statements about its origins and Dax countered them, listing off the reasons he was wrong. Their tour rushed along behind them, trying to correct them without offending anyone.
Bob followed them as far as the door and then stayed there to keep watch. Spencer took the entrance from which they’d come and Jon positioned himself between the camera and the display, bending over it as if intent on studying it.
Alicia had put together a neat comm. device that resembled an earring. It was completely hidden by Spencer’s hair anyway, but if someone did catch a glimpse of it, it wouldn’t raise any suspicion. Now he reached up, pretending to fiddle with it, and tapped the button in the centre of the device.
From his point of view, Spencer couldn’t see the stone disappear and be replaced with the replica, but a few seconds later Jon straightened up. On cue, Bob wandered on after the others and Spencer followed behind with Jon. His face didn’t betray anything, but Spencer could tell by the sparkle of his eyes that everything had gone as planned.
The funniest part was that they hadn’t wanted to risk selling a fake Andorian artefact, and they just so happened to have an antique chest from one of Pete’s previous games. So not only did they manage to get away with the Silvan glyph stone, but they also got a handsome payment for an object they’d originally stolen from the Andorians.
Spencer had never wanted to live a life of crime, and he still didn’t. He hadn’t joined station security because it was convenient; he’d done it because he wanted to help people. Still, he couldn’t help the rush of adrenaline he got when they stepped out of the museum, not quite free and clear. Even once they were on the ship his heart was still beating faster and his stomach kept flipping. And. It felt good.
“That was so much fun,” Ryan said in a quiet, awed voice while Bob and Gerard were preparing a celebratory lunch.
Ray and Mikey had set a new, more direct course for the Pete’s station and stepped up to maximum warp, which meant they should see Brendon in a little over six hours. And Ryan looked pretty with the blue make-up blurring around the edges and his hair still silver-tipped, falling in his eyes. Jon chuckled near Spencer’s ear and Spencer said, “Yeah.” Then he grinned, hanging his head. “Yeah it was.”
Jon leaned into his shoulder, face close enough to kiss Spencer’s neck and Spencer put his hand in Ryan’s hair and pulled him in for a kiss. It made the thrill of stealing seem weak in comparison, shivers running up and down his spine.
When they pulled back, the crew had the decency to pretend they hadn’t noticed the little group display of affection going on in the corner. Only, the idea of them being seen didn’t bother Spencer so much. In fact, he wanted them to be seen. He wanted people to know. His hand tightened convulsively around Jon’s shoulder.
People knowing meant that if it didn’t work it would be that much worse. That was a large part of why Spencer liked to keep his affairs to himself. Not even his parents had known about the last three girlfriends he’d had, only Ryan. Of course, he’d already waved his parents to tell them about Jon and Brendon. Even though he’d only mentioned them as friends that had to mean something.
Spencer didn’t want to think about what that meant, this weird, possessive, demonstrative streak. But it didn’t make him take his arms from around them, or keep him from laying his head on Jon’s soft hair.
Ρ
Pete’s station was like something out of every amusement park ever. The decorating scheme was…not so much, just random colours and patterns and furniture and art that didn’t match at all, but somehow worked together. There were five decks of rooms and ostensibly they were assigned to various members of the fleet, but everyone kind of just moved around as they pleased. Brendon figured that might have something to do with the large amount of sex going on between the various crewmembers.
On the upper most deck was a large open space that managed to look as though it were outdoors on a mild weathered planet, though it was not a holodeck. The ground was mostly pale blue grass of a moderate length, though there were plenty of wildflowers, smooth pebbles lined the shorn, even grass of the putt-putt golf greens that stood to the side of a large playground. There was a pool that had been styled to resemble a lake, complete with sand on the shores and a wooden dock extending into the gentle ripples.
The ceiling was a huge view screen that had been programmed to behave like the sky, giving off light and heat during the day and moon and star shine at night. It was random, with clouds and scattered birds. Vents around the room gave off faint breezes, stirring the leaves of the trees and bushes that lined the walls and stretched high above.
Brendon was given a tour of the entire station, including the Promenade like area with it’s arcade games, seven differently themed bars, and a snazzy fashion shop (all clothing designed by Pete, occasionally with assistance from Travis, Victoria or William). He’d also been introduced to more members of the fleet who generally stayed on the station, making sure things ran smoothly and taking care of security issues and the like. Jamia was all business, Brian was hot, Worm was funny, and Zach was very cuddly for such a scary looking guy.
Most of the Infinity, Cobra (minus Gabe who was attached to William at the hip), and The Hush crews had stayed on the main deck, but The Academy, and the Cab had flocked to the lower most deck, which was the largest by far and housed, to Brendon’s disbelief and amazement, an actual zoo. Pete claimed there were over 16,000 different animal species from all over the universe. Brendon hadn’t really believed it. He was inclined to believe he was on a holodeck. Pete said it was 7,000 acres, and Brendon didn’t care, because there was no way the station was that big. Like, even a fraction of that size.
But when he’d tried to challenge it, Pete just got his big grin. “Remember how you told me my ship wasn’t possible?” He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet like he wanted Brendon to argue some more so Pete could prove him wrong. And Brendon was really bad at not reacting when provoked.
“Whatever. We both know that was an illusion. Just like this place,” Brendon said.
“Ooooh really?” Pete drawled. He made this weird flourish with his hand and all of the sudden Brendon was actually on the deck of the ship in the bottle. For a second he freaked out, because from within it looked like he was in open space. Only, he didn’t implode and he could still breathe, but…
Brendon walked along the deck, the wood echoing under his heels. Beside them, the space station loomed and a plank extended from the ship to the neck of the bottle, disappearing into the docking bay.
“How did you…” Brendon wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask. “How the hell did you make us—I mean, that wasn’t a transporter that brought us here.”
“No,” Pete agreed. “I brought us here.” He looked quite pleased with himself.
“I don’t understand,” Brendon said. He wasn’t being wilfully stupid. It just didn’t make any sense. “How?”
“Because I wanted to. Like, say I wanted to fly?” Pete said, and suddenly he was floating above the deck. “Or maybe you’ve always wanted to be in outer space. Like, actually be there, without the ship or the suit or anything between you and the black, even though you knew you couldn’t survive it, and sometimes you just don’t care?”
Brendon had never said anything like that to anyone, because he was worried it might sound suicidal, even though he’d never do actually do it. Only Pete waved his hand again and the glass bottle disappeared and it was suddenly blindingly dark and cold. Distant dots of stars on ink black were like needles driving into his eyes and all the oxygen went from his lungs. Everything pressed in and Brendon remembered the lectures he got on what happened when you’re exposed to the black, in what order.
Then Pete touched his hand and the glass didn’t come back, but Brendon could breathe again, or, well, he didn’t need to breathe anymore. And the cold was still there, only he felt disconnected from it. The only thing that was real any more was the oppressive force of blackness all around him, swallowing him.
It was gone almost as quickly as it came, and they were standing in the zoo again, where it looked like the outside and there were animals from hundreds of planets and the warmth after the cold left Brendon sweating. That fact, along with the sudden inability to breathe quickly and deeply enough let him know he hadn’t just hallucinated it all.
“Who are you?” Brendon panted.
“I’m Pete,” he said. “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name.”
Brendon couldn’t help the breathless puff of laughter that got out of him. Pete, all these people, and their fucking weird obsession with 20th century Earth music. “Well, see, Pete, what’s puzzling me is the nature of your game.”
Pete threw back his head and laughed. “See, look, I knew this would be awesome,” Pete said. “You just have to learn how to appreciate it.” Brendon still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be appreciating, but he got, with sudden, perfect clarity, that Pete wasn’t trying to hurt him, and that when this was all over, Pete would make sure he got back to DS9.
Then, using his finger like it was a pen, Pete began to draw on the air, leaving green, wavering lines behind. He spelled out Pete Wentz and then said, “I don’t have any really lame anagram,” and oh my god, Brendon might have fallen a little bit in love with Pete for quoting the Rolling Stones and referencing Harry Potter all within the same five minute span. He flicked his fingers and the letters began a little dance. But instead of rearranging themselves to form other words, they bent to form a circle and wriggled a bit, until the single letter Q hung in the air.
Brendon felt his eyes go wide and he looked from Pete to the Q and back again. “You’re…you’re Q?” he gasped.
“I’m not the Q. Not like you’re thinking. I’m not the one Starfleet warned you about, anyway. I mean, we’re both Q, but I’m Pete. And he’s Q,” Pete said and Brendon had a little trouble following it. “He likes annoying Starfleet captains who won’t sleep with him and leading mini-coups in the Continuum and then reforming and doing the whole thing over again. I have way more fun than he does. Anyway, Brendon, I have a proposition for you, but I think it should wait until your friends get here,” Pete said.
“My friends?” Brendon repeated. Did Pete mean Starfleet? Or could it be, possibly, that Spencer and Jon and Ryan had actually come after him? The mere thought made hope and something stronger flutter in his stomach.
“They’ll be here in a few hours. In the meantime…” With another flourish of his hand, Brendon was suddenly holding the biggest mai tai known to mankind. “You know, drink and be merry. And no matter what Mikey says, don’t try to ride the unicorn, okay?” Brendon wanted to ask who Mikey was, but Pete was gone in a flash of light before he had the chance. Then what else Pete had said caught up with Brendon and he exclaimed, “There are unicorns?”
So, Brendon drank and was merry. It was easy when William was hilariously terrified of giraffes and Gabe had to be dragged out of the reptile house after making one too many (read: his billionth) snake as a metaphor for his penis jokes. Cash had to be told multiple times not to climb into the cages with the animals, no matter how cute and fluffy they were, and then Chiz had to be pulled away from a boxing match with some kangaroo-like creatures from Epon Prime. And, it turned out there were indeed unicorns, in silver and white with gold and iridescent horns. They frolicked about, never letting any of the visitors get very close.
It also didn’t hurt that there were cabana boys inexplicably all over the place who were only too happy to come along and replace their drinks just as they were about to finish them off. Brendon didn’t question it. Q.
They didn’t get to see the whole zoo, which William patiently explained was impossible, because Pete was forever adding more specimens from his latest expeditions. Sisky had the idea that Pete did it on purpose just so no one ever could see the zoo in its entirety. Brendon was beginning to get that Sisky was a little paranoid, though. Luckily, the Butcher just petted Sisky’s hand and gave him an ice cream cone, which successfully distracted him.
No matter how much fun he had at the zoo, and later swimming in the lake with Greta and Bob, and later playing with vintage arcade games, no matter how much alcohol Pete plied him with to make him mellow, the buzz of anxious anticipation remained in his stomach. Because they were coming. For him. He kept checking the clock, forever dismayed to find that only a couple minutes had ticked away. Until, at last, Andy announced that the Helena was approaching.
Brendon wasn’t the only one excited. Apparently whoever these guys were, they were popular, because there was a mad rush around him. The fleet readied themselves and the station for the arrival. Pete even did a little hand flourish and actually made himself a mostly respectable uniform. Well, more respectable than his pink and yellow and blue bat suit thing, though he ended up resembling a pirate captain straight out of the 17th century, complete with huge feathered hat. Brendon thought, at least Ryan would like it.
Then the Helena docked and Pete made everyone stand aside so that Brendon could get to the airlock. He was so excited and more than a little drunk that he couldn’t stand still. He didn’t even know what exactly had happened between him and Ryan the last time they’d seen one another, but apparently it didn’t matter, because Ryan was here.
The airlock hissed open and suddenly standing was an issue, because in addition to being drunk he had a very fierce Ryan thrown at him. Jon and Spencer followed more sedately, but they kept him and Ryan upright and their arms held him just as tight. Ryan’s mouth was somewhere in Brendon’s throat, but when he whispered, “I’m sorry. Brendon, I’m so sorry,” Brendon heard him perfectly.
Brendon squeezed them all tighter and pressed a kiss to the hair on Ryan’s temple and maybe that was crossing some boundaries, but he wanted Ryan to know it was alright, that he’d already been forgiven. Besides, Brendon had been worried and confused, but not angry.
Only then he saw Dax coming out of the airlock and stiffened in their embrace. “Lieutenant!” he exclaimed. His body snapped to attention despite the added burden of three extra sets of limbs. Ryan went equally tense and dropped his arms from around Brendon, stepping hastily back. The look on his face was the same as it had been when he’d last seen him, closed and hurt. Apparently hugs and kisses and sorrys weren’t enough.
“At ease, Ensign,” Dax said, in that easy way she had that made him wish she wasn’t so much higher ranking than him, because it made having conversations with her awkward, especially when he got excited. “I’m not here in an official capacity.”
“That’s right,” the Vulcan behind Dax said, and made a face at Gabe. Which was weird, because, well, Vulcan.
“Whatever, dude. So you got a Starfleet officer. So did we. And ours is a dude,” Gabe said derisively. “And, we got The Academy. You are so totally owned.”
The tiny tattooed guy beside the Vulcan looked like he was getting ready to throw himself physically at Gabe and engage in some serious violence. The Vulcan laid a hand on his shoulder in restraint and smiled placidly. “We shall see.”
“Yeah, you better win,” Spencer said darkly. Brendon felt warm all over that Spencer still hadn’t entirely stopped hugging him. He’d loosened his grip so he was more just draped over Brendon’s back. Jon had shifted so he was sort of holding Brendon’s arm but had a hand on Ryan’s back, too. It was nice, though it would have been nicer if Ryan were touching him, too. “I’m not going to have been involved in a museum heist for nothing.”
“You were involved in a museum heist!” Brendon exclaimed. “Without me?”
“There are many things,” Dax said slowly, “that have happened for all of us, that I’m sure we will never discuss with anyone else on Deep Space Nine, ever.” Spencer and Ryan nodded their heads solemnly, but Jon wore a little smirk.
Brendon was so curious. Everyone was super cool, but he just wanted to get Ryan and Jon and Spencer alone and just talk. “Do we get to go home now?” Ryan asked. He looked weary.
“Ross…Ryan,” Pete said and sidled up to him. “Don’t you trust me?”
Ryan eyed him. “Pete. I trust you, like, as far as I could throw you.”
“You could probably throw me pretty far,” Pete said in a charming, wheedling sort of way, all playful, batting eyelashes. Ryan didn’t seem impressed. Brendon realised they were talking like two people who knew each other and now he was burning with his curiosity. “Anyway, you guys can’t go anywhere yet, because Joe and Travis have to tally the scores and then we have a big party.”
“Which differs from your other parties how?” Brendon interjected under his breath.
Pete scowled at him. “Everyone’s here now. So, party. And then, my precious panics…my darling, pretty, odd boys…” Pete sounded like he was talking nonsense, but he had this look like he could see something no one else did. “Then we have to talk.” Ryan and Spencer squirmed at the attention. Brendon, however, was learning that maybe he should trust weird, wacky Pete.
“How long will it take to tally the points?” Brendon asked, fishing. Pete smirked.
“Plenty enough time, I think, for you to show your little friends your room.”
Brendon was torn, because even if he wasn’t on duty and Dax wasn’t there as a representative of Starfleet, he still felt weird just taking off without her. But Pete mentioned his zoo to her and her eyes lit up and the whole crowd from the Helena followed as Pete led her off, the other Vulcan of the group exclaiming “Unicorns!”
“Come on,” Brendon said, giving them a tour of what they saw only on the way to his quarters. Because they really needed to see all of the station and everything, but right now he just wanted to be close to them and talk. He knew it was ridiculous because they’d only been apart a couple of days, but with the stress of being kidnapped and everything, it felt like a lot longer.
Jon took his hand as they walked and after some weird looks between Spencer and Ryan, Ryan took his other hand. He jumped in surprise at it, because Ryan still didn’t look very happy, but Spencer got this private little smirk at it.
“I can’t believe you guys came after me,” Brendon said.
“Are you kidding?” Spencer demanded, and he sounded a little pissed. “You think we’d just leave you to fend for yourself after being kidnapped?”
Brendon felt bad for upsetting him, but he couldn’t help it. People didn’t just go off gung-ho after potential kidnappers. That was what the Federation was for. “How did you even know where to find me?”
Spencer gave him a look like he was a moron. “I am a security officer, you know. And Jon has contacts.” Jon nodded in agreement.
“But why did you go with them?” Ryan exploded, and Brendon was glad they were almost to his quarters. He hurried them in even as Ryan went on. “Did I…Was it because I…How did they get you?” he finished at last.
“Ryan, no,” Brendon said, and dropped Jon’s hand to take both of Ryan’s. “Gabe, he has this weird hypnosis thing where he can make you think you’re seeing something that isn’t there. He makes you see the thing you want to see. And he used it on me, then Ryland hyposprayed me and they dragged me onto their ship, and by the time I woke we were already long through the wormhole.”
Spencer had nice long, cold fingers, and he pressed them too. “I’m going to kick this Gabe guy’s ass,” he said, voice low and even. And then, to Brendon’s immense surprise, Spencer replaced his fingers with his lips. Brendon felt his eyes go wide.
Before he could express his surprise, Jon put his hand behind Brendon’s head and pulled him down into a kiss. He made a sound of muffled surprise against Jon’s lips, but Jon just kissed him deeper, more insistently. Spencer bit gently at Brendon’s neck and Brendon sort of wilted under the onslaught, parting his mouth to Jon, sagging against Spencer. He clenched tight to Ryan’s hands and Ryan squeezed back.
“What?” Brendon began, when Jon let him go. He was sort of dazed and couldn’t really open his eyes very far, but then Ryan stepped into Jon’s place and wrapped his arms around Brendon’s neck.
“Brendon,” Ryan said, very seriously. “We have to talk. I have to tell you why I…why I said what I did.”
“It’s alright,” Brendon reassured him. He so didn’t care. Not anymore, because apparently whatever it was had passed.
“It…it isn’t,” Ryan said. He paused, mouth open, eyes down, obviously trying to find his words. “Brendon, I wouldn’t be here right now if you didn’t mean so much to me, and I wouldn’t…What we’re all doing…”
Ryan looked helplessly at Jon and Spencer and Jon kissed him light and quick on the lips while Spencer stroked a hand over his cheek and wow…Brendon had maybe sorta realised what it meant that everyone was touching him, but seeing them touch Ryan drove the point home.
“What we’re doing, I never would…I mean, you three are. I want you to understand, so that when I get stupid again, because I will, I don’t want you to go away again,” Ryan finished, blushing at the admission like it was something to be embarrassed by.
“Ryan.” Brendon finally let himself touch Ryan more intimately, hands falling to Ryan’s hips, pulling him close ‘til they were flush against each other. “Ryan, I didn’t leave willingly. And when Gabe took me, I was on my way to see you. In fact, Gabe made me think I was seeing you. You can’t drive me away. I mean,” he added, grinning sheepishly, “not that I want you to try.”
Though he looked on the verge of tears, that made Ryan laugh a little. His hands toyed with Brendon’s hair and he tugged, just gently, but what he was asking was clear. Brendon wouldn’t deny him, couldn’t deny him when he wanted it just as much. He tilted his head and closed the space between them.
And, god, Ryan’s kiss! It was sweet, and hesitant, his lips moving slowly like he was mouthing words into Brendon. Brendon’s hands clenched tight on Ryan’s hips and tried to say with his kiss just how much he’d meant what he said. Ryan made a soft sound and made Brendon rub their hips together, and he felt Ryan going hard against him. He opened his mouth and Ryan reciprocated at once and then he forgot about trying to say anything with the kiss except want and please.
“Brendon,” Spencer murmured in his ear. He stroked a finger down the side of Brendon’s neck, sending shivers down his spine. “Brendon.” His voice was coaxing, fingers carding through Brendon’s hair.
Maybe it was criminal that he hadn’t kissed Spencer yet. His lips parted from Ryan’s with a wet sound and Ryan’s eyes were glassy, his cheeks flushed, his lips glistening from Brendon’s mouth. Brendon would have felt it a shame had no one kissed that mouth, so he was glad that Jon did it, leaving Brendon to Spencer.
Brendon had never been, despite what his mother said, a greedy boy. He’d never expected or even hoped to be in this sort of situation. But having three different men who kissed him in such delightfully different ways…perhaps he would quickly become spoiled.
Spencer was all sharp teeth and quick slips of his tongue and soft, soft lips that curved into a devious smile when Brendon moaned. He half turned, taking one hand from Ryan’s hip to pull Spencer closer to them. Jon was pressed into Brendon’s thigh, and they were all hard and he could feel all of them.
“What are we doing?” Brendon asked, dazed, when Spencer left his mouth to suck on his neck. “Oh my god, what are we doing?” He wasn’t worried so much as filled with disbelief.
Jon stopped kissing Ryan to murmur, “It’s alright, Bren,” and then he was kissing Brendon again and it was dizzying and unbelievable, except Brendon totally believed him that it would be alright. In fact, if the way Ryan was moving his hips in tight circles against Brendon’s were any indication, it would be a lot better than alright.
He was about to suggest moving to the ridiculously large bed (Pete had said something about facilitating orgies when Brendon had commented on it—now he had to wonder if Pete had actually been joking), when the comm. chimed.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Travis’ voice called, and Brendon guessed it was a station wide announcement. “We have a winner.”
“Party on the upper deck,” Pete cut in. “And yes, that means you guys, too, Brendon.”
“What did he—?” Ryan began, but Brendon shook his head.
“I’ll explain later.” Then, Brendon looked at all of them and said, hoping they got his meaning, “Later.”
“Later,” Jon promised him, and Spencer hugged him and Ryan kissed him. Later was going to be a very good thing.
Next Part:
http://moku-youbi.livejournal.com/3349.html
