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Entry tags:
Ground Control the Major Tom, Commencing Countdown, Engines On.
Who: Hikaru Sulu & Pavel Chekov
What: Hikaru Sulu leaves earth married, returns in need of a divorce. Ama and Miri write a fic through RP.
Rating: NC-17 probably.
What: Hikaru Sulu leaves earth married, returns in need of a divorce. Ama and Miri write a fic through RP.
Rating: NC-17 probably.
Step 1 ► disengage the external inertial dampener.
The three of them had gone up to the space-dock together, one last family trip into space before Hikaru was gone for five years with millions of light-years in between. They had lunch on the observation deck, and Hikaru quizzed Reiden on the continents, the countries, the small islands and mountain ridges down below. David only watched, and at a glance Hikaru could swear that his husband of three years and high school sweetheart was trying to memorize his face, the curve of his neck, the way he smiled and laughed, the way he looked with Reiden in that moment, at that age, in this lifetime.
There would always be messages sent back and forth, as many calls as there were deep space docks and federation signal posts, but there would be many more days of radio silence. Maybe Hikaru would die out there, and how long would it take for that message to get back to Earth from dock to dock? Maybe a Klingon warbird would knock him out of the airlock, or he might be poisoned by unfamiliar air masquerading as oxygenate, or blown to dust until all that was left was the stars in Reiden's eyes.
He might just come back a completely different person, but of all the possibilities, that's the one Hikaru doubts the most. Reiden sniffed and nodded into David's shoulder, and as Hikaru kissed her forehead he committed to memory the smell of her hair, then the taste of David's lips. I love you's were exchanged, whispered in earnest along with promises to keep himself in one piece, don't crash that thing into a sun, don't go falling in love with some Orion slaver with an exotic deciduous tree farm, before Hikaru pulled himself away and took his place aboard the ship. He could handle five years, and he wasn't going to die. With his fingers dancing on the console, he was going to live.
It was three months into the five year mission when it became reasonably well known among the crew that Lieutenant Sulu's relationship with his husband, while committed and monogamous, was flexible when it came to long stretches of time apart. Space is vast and endless, and there was logic to their arrangement that even Spock himself would struggle to dispute. Five years and millions of light-years apart, and the two of them agreed that going without sex for that long would be akin to torture. Hikaru had held out for two whole months, when the idea of sleeping with someone other than David went from making his chest hurt to doing nothing for him at all and then back around to seeming worthwhile.
The arrangement hadn't been a secret per say, but maybe Kevin Riley wasn't the best first blowjob to give in two months, given his inability to keep his mouth shut once liquored up. He'd brought it up in a group, bridge lieutenants gathered in the bar while Mitchell and Farrell were stuck at the helm during a particularly dull beta shift. Of course Hikaru had to answer once all eyes were on him, including Riley's apologetic and devastatingly cute ones. If he didn't, the rumor machine would set itself rolling out of his control, and he couldn't see himself undermined. Not like that.
From that point on, Hikaru just assumed that his relationship status, while nobody's business, was understood by most. Maybe it was helpful in a way, not having to explain it again and again. Doors opened and keeping himself relatively satisfied came easily enough, without the burden of the fraternization rules that came with a rank higher than his own. He missed David's smile, the warmth of his body, waking up and seeing his hair sticking up at odd ends against the pillow, but maybe not enough. David was back home, behind him, and ahead was an endless void of opportunity. No, he can't look back just yet, not for longer than the periodic long distance call. The look back would only magnify the distance, he tells himself. It would hurt too much.
Yeoman Janice Rand turned 21 eight months into the mission. The party that Kirk throws for her in conference room Phi is everything that she deserves for her hard work and diligence. Jim had mentioned that he was going to throw her something worthy of everything that she had to put up with chasing after him, one night after he and his head pilot had fucked in his quarters after sparring had turned into wrestling, and then into a friendly reminder that just because they're friends doesn't mean that Sulu can get away with not taking orders. They'd slept together a few times now, a small handful of releases on terms they both understood, through a loophole in Starfleet code that let Kirk get away with it. Hikaru had said it was a great idea, she deserved a whole planet for putting up with him.
Janice was already three drinks in when Hikaru got around to giving her her present, a Bolian Delphine to go nicely in her room, and one plant that wouldn't reach out to try and grab her for affection. She loved it and pulled Hikaru into a hug, but it wasn't long before Ensign Palamas cut in, and Hikaru excused himself to let the two of them have a moment together. He went over to the bar where Pavel was standing, filling himself a glass of something unidentifiable green and leaning in to his young friend.
"Janice looks happy."
Re: Step 1 ► disengage the external inertial dampener.
With a shrug and a glance of disapproval at the green drink in Hikaru's hand, Pavel turned to face the rest of the room. His shoulders fell back and he crossed his long legs at the ankle when he leaned back on the bar. "She deserves to have a good time," he said and took a long drink from the strong-smelling, clear liquor in his glass. He snuck a look at Hikaru's face, then at his broad shoulders and muscular arms. It was easy to understand what the rest of the crew -- Riley and Kirk and more than a few others -- found attractive about a fling with someone like Hikaru. Pavel found it attractive, too, whatever the unspoken rules of his friendship with his pilot.
"I'd need a night like this if I had to deal with Kirk the way she does." When Kirk looked up at his name, feigning a cry of injury, Pavel lifted his glass to the captain and grinned conspiratorially at Hikaru.
I liiiive!
That look that Kirk shot him gave way to a proper response, another feigned injury to being ganged up on by his two best helmsmen. It's just the two of them again then, when Kirk across the room disengages to turn his attention elsewhere, and that's for the better. Conversations were better without just between the two of them, and hadn't that been the case from the beginning? He's thought about it before, how well he and Pavel clicked. He attributes it to a combination of things; their natural chemistry as pilot and navigator, having survived life or death situations, and a combination of sheer dumb luck. He wouldn't have it any other way.
He smiles, letting their shoulders stay together comfortably as his gaze returned to Rand and Palamas, their hands together, talking quietly between the minimal distance between them. He misses that sort of intimacy, shared air and connected bodies outside the realm of sex, beyond the purely physical.
"Here's hoping that we don't run into any emergencies that ruin the rest of it. We could all use the break."