Calm Before the Storm [part 1]

Posted on 22 Feb 2015 @ 12:37am by Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Petty Officer 3rd Class Ellsworth Hudson

3,378 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Quarters 04-1007 EN
Timeline: MD -03, 0600hrs

[ON]

Since his childhood, Oren had always been an early riser. Up before dawn more often than not, it never took Oren's parents much effort to get him to get to school or breakfast. In anything, it was him knocking on their bedroom door in the forsaken hours of the morning, demanding an audience like the spoiled little prince that he was. But, even with his love of greeting a new day still in place, when Oren woke up in Ellsworth's bed that morning, he didn't feel too much like getting out of it.

Instead he took a moment to just watch the much younger Betazoid. In his sleep, he appeared much less graceful but equally beautiful than he did when awake. With his face half buried into his pillow, Ellworth's hair stuck out every which way in defiance to gravity, and there was an undeniable snoring noise emanating from his half open mouth. Oren laid there to savor the image, feeling a comfortable warmth spreading through his chest, and his limbs feeling lighter than they had in ages. Inwardly, he rolled his eyes at himself; he was being ridiculous, staring at someone sleeping like the smitten teenager he'd never admit to being. Carefully, wishing to save the image before him and distract himself from feelings he still couldn't quite admit to himself, Oren reached over to the paDD lying on the nightstand and promptly took a picture of Ellsworth in this state.

For posterity. Or blackmail, whichever came first.

Ellsworth snorted once, then again a little more loudly before letting out a long moan. He stretched and an arm bumped Oren, reminding him of his evening company. He kept his eyes closed and let a hand run over the exposed skin, bringing a sleepy smile to his face at the warm feeling beneath his fingertips.

"Good morning, babe," Ellsworth said, finally cracking one eye to look at him.

The vision was blurry but Oren seemed to be fully awake, which somehow didn't surprise him. It would probably take him a half hour at least to be fully awake, perhaps longer. The idea of staying in bed with him for hours on end sounded like the most appealing thing he'd thought of in weeks. In the hazy moments of earliest morning, his paracortex was slow to stir - K'os was a non-existent thought as his mind struggling only to process what was immediately near him. Ellsworth closed his eyes again, melodramatically stretched and rolled around a little bit, and then wrapped his arms around the El Aurian while nestling up to him. He was so still and quiet that for a moment it seemed like he might have fallen back asleep.

"I love you."

'Well, that didn't work,' Oren thought in regards to his earlier intentions, looking down at Ellsworth snuggling up to him. A smile smile spread over his lips at the other man's words, letting them settle someplace warm and still inside his chest as he ran his hand over Ellsworth's back. "I love you too," he replied, softly, a small hesitation between the first and second word as he tried to settle the sudden nervous energy entering his body. It wasn't that he hadn't said the words to Ellsworth before (one way or another), but in the early hours of the morning, with the Betazoid's half-naked body settled comfortably against his own, they seemed to hold a much deeper meaning he'd gotten unaccustomed to.

"I know," Ellsworth grinned. His eyes had managed to open to a squint even though the ambient light in the room was relatively low. It just seemed to take so much effort to open your eyes in the morning, especially when warm and comfortable. Thinking of the day ahead, he immediately turned pouty and flopped an arm off to the side while sighing. "Will you stay in bed with me all day? Let's just tell our shift leaders we're sick." He rolled to the side then swung a leg out and dragged himself so that he was laying perpendicular to his previous position with the sheet hiked up to expose one leg and leave a foot hanging off the bed. He smiled up at Oren and stretched his arms out to him, as if to ask for a kiss. "It's just too perfect."

Chuckling, Oren indulged him by leaning down and pressing his lips against Ellsworth's in a gentle kiss, letting his hand rest in the Betazoid's hair. Briefly, he entertained the idea of going all the way and just staying in bed, but knew that it probably wasn't the best idea. Firstly, because it might lead to a road he wasn't quite ready for yet and, secondly, Oren knew he wouldn't be able to handle it, lazing around all day.

When he finally pulled his lips away, Oren still let himself linger there, inches from Ellsworth's face. "You don't want to jump out of bed and greet the day?" he teased, nipping playfully at his chin. "I hear the weather forecast is 'dark'. We haven't seen that in ages."

In a quick move, Ellsworth wrapped his arms around Oren's neck and pulled him down into another quick kiss; he'd always been more than a little greedy with the pleasurable things in life, and just one kiss was never enough. He smiled lovingly and let go of the El Aurian before he made him uncomfortable then rolled to his side of the bed. He stretched out prone, hovering dangerously close to the edge with his exposed back to Oren.

"Dark, huh? You make a way better archaeologist than weather forecaster," Ellsworth said to the wall before turning to look over his shoulder at Oren with a grinning starry-eyed look. "Your eyes get all sparkly and you move your hands around a lot and you use big words." He rolled back toward Oren for just a moment so he could look at him properly and suddenly seemed very earnest - no smile, no giggle, just wide honest eyes. "It's sexy." He watched him for a minute or two longer and then rolled over again and vaulted out of bed, as if suddenly he was some sort of energetic morning person.

Back on the bed, Oren stared at the place Ellsworth had been only moments ago, speechless. After a moment, his brain seemed to catch up to him and he turned his head towards the brunette. "What?!" he asked in disbelief. He'd been called many thing in his life, but sexy wasn't one of them. Pretty, yes. Cute, certainly. But sexy just wasn't a word that was usually in the vocabulary of people when they spoke about Oren. Not that he minded that; he certainly didn't want to encourage people to proposition him.

He continued to stare at Ellsworth from his position on the bed for a moment longer before deciding to get up. "What does that even mean? I never really got that," he admitted, stretching his arms up above his head and tilting his torso to one side and the next to feel the pleasant stretch in his obliques.

Ellsworth watched him stretch, doing a very poor job of hiding his admiration. Oren didn't have the perfect body but it was in many ways very close - not too thin, not too muscular, not too bulky. He'd always interpreted muscles going taut beneath exposed skin as a sort of open invitation, but he knew that wasn't going to be the case with Oren. And despite the feeling of some frustration, he felt okay with that.

"I don't know," Ellsworth said as he shambled toward the bathroom. "It's just hot." He grinned over his shoulder at Oren before disappearing into the bathroom, as if he planned to leave it at that. Water turned on and ran for a moment before he spoke up again, "It's like... Your passion is infectious. You should see yourself when you talk about that stuff. You almost jump in place. It makes me smile to see you happy, and you're so much smarter than me. It's attractive. I mean, that's attractive, when someone is smart. It makes them beautiful. I don't always know what you're talking about, but I like listening to it because it's important to you. It makes me start thinking about other things while I'm watching you, like how your lips move when you talk and the sound of your voice and the life in your eyes. Your jaw line, how smooth your neck is, the way you smell, and..." His head appeared back around the corner of the bathroom, and he frowned. "Sorry."

Oren smiled back. "Don't apologize. I'm not as innocent as you seem to think I am," he reminded Ellsworth, hoping he'd believe him. While Oren deeply appreciated people acknowledging his sexuality as an important part of his interactions with people, he couldn't help but struggle walking the fine line between making sure people respected his boundaries and not letting them treat him like some prude, blushing at the mere mention of impropriety. .

"I don't mind you talking about these things. If I'm uncomfortable with anything, I'll tell you," Oren continued, walking over to the replicator. "Besides, I know how it feels when to look at someone and not really hear anything they're saying. I had a girlfriend back during my University days. She'd talk for hours about her interpretations of Klingon Operas but all I could really see was how pretty she looked in her dance leotard," he admitted with a chuckle. He shook his head, smiling at the memory as he pondered breakfast for a few moments. Suddenly, he twisted his hand around to touch his own back. "I have a tattoo for her here. It's a ballerina." That said, his fingers found the drawn dancer at once, as if by instinct.

In the bathroom, Ellsworth snorted at the mention of the ballerina, as if to give his opinion about a woman he'd never met. She'd attained a place in the tattoo, which must have meant she was important to Oren, and that made him feel irrationally annoyed and jealous. Looking at himself in the mirror, he wrinkled up his nose and curled his lip a little bit. He wanted a place on the tattoo and thought maybe in time he mig-... Suddenly, he clutched both sides of the sink and bent at the waist, feeling incredibly nauseous. He'd almost lost himself enough in the domestic morning routine to forget about K'os, but now that the young half-Vulcan was also up and moving Ellsworth was violently reminded of his presence on the ship. The reminder, especially at such a moment, was so frustrating that he clenched his jaw until his teeth hurt.

He poured himself into rejecting all thoughts of K'os though it seemed like an exercise in futility, like trying to shut a door against a hurricane. He managed to regain at least some composure, enough to walk back into the main room, and immediately wrapped his arms around Oren from behind. He laid a few kisses on the upper portions of the expansive tattoo and allowed himself to slip into the easily played role of jealous lover.

"I bet she was a terrible dancer, and she had an annoying voice. And you only got the tattoo cuz you were really drunk and she talked you into it." He grinned and released Oren from his embrace but kept at least one hand on his body, feeling like the coolness of his skin somehow acted as a damper to the hot fire that was the once again ever-present K'os Beaumont. "At least that's what I'm gonna pretend."

Oren smiled, but eyed Ellsworth's a bit suspiciously. Something felt off in his words, and he briefly considered bringing it up, but the smile on Ellsworth's face make him reconsider. It wasn't the time for bringing new things up, now that they had just started getting over their past issues. Instead, he smiled at him. "Yeah, you keep pretending but..." he sighed. "She was perfect and, in the end, she didn't end up being a dancer. She became a veterinarian," he revealed. "She's married now, with two kids, a boy and a girl." As he spoke the last sentence, his voice became lower, less energetic now that his thoughts turned to his past lover. Suddenly, and with obvious effort, he seemed to perk up. "So! What do you want for breakfast?" he asked, looking at Ellsworth again.

Ellsworth lifted an eyebrow but decided not to inquire more. There were certainly enough secrets swirling around the room without trying to pry into them. "I want... Chocolate chip pancakes with Ktarian chocolate cream whip and... Some bananas. And Tarkalian tea." He turned his gaze upward, as if thinking, then looked back at Oren with a grin. "And a foot massage. And a kiss. And a date on the holodeck with my favorite man. That's probably too much, though, so I guess I'll just settle for the pancakes. And moba fruit with the bananas. And the kiss."

Oren couldn't help but smile at Ellsworth's request. It was childish, but he'd always thought of Ellsworth's childishness as refreshing rather than annoying, like some other people on the ship did. There was just something heartwarming in his complete lack of filter when it came to his thoughts and feelings, Oren couldn't help but be smitten.

"Coming right up," he said, setting his mind to the task of replicating. He motioned for Ellsworth to sit nearby before finally bring him his breakfast while making sure the syrup didn't get everywhere. He'd momentarily thought of replicating him the delicious recipe Tyrion had shown Oren during their days together, but thought better of it, knowing Ellsworth wouldn't appreciate the gesture, no matter how amazing the pancakes were.

Setting the plate besides Ellsworth, Oren gently settled his hands on his cheeks before lowering his mouth to Ellsworth's in a soft but deep kiss. It only lasted a few moments before Oren finally decided to pull back. "How was that?" he asked, a cheeky grin on his face letting Ellsworth know Oren knew exactly what game he was playing.

Ellsworth grinned back at him. "Perfect, of course. Everything you do is perfect, my perfect man." He felt like his eye was about to twitch so he looked away quickly to the breakfast plate and made a show of picking up the utensil to dig in. It was a spoon for the moba fruit, standard issue - the exact same spoon he'd thrown at K'os in the middle of the night. The sight of it almost made him drop it, as if he'd picked up a poisonous viper. He jammed the spoon down into the fruit to help stabilize his hand for fear it might start shaking. "Are you gonna sit and eat with me, or do you wanna do some more stretching? I do enjoy some entertainment with my meals."

Oren laughed, shaking his head. "I'm not much of a breakfast person," he admitted. That said, Oren had never been much of a gourmand. For him, eating was just something he had to do to keep himself alive. Sure, he enjoyed the occasional sweet treat for the sake of it, but if there was a nutritional hypo he could take that would satisfy all of his daily needs, he would take it. "You enjoy and I'm going to go take a shower and get dressed," he told him, kissing his cheek fondly before taking the overnight bag he'd packed for himself the night before and disappearing into the bathroom.

Ellsworth watched him go and smiled, sadly. He wasn't even going to eat, yet he still fixed the food and put it in front of him. It was a small thing, but those were the sort of things that had always been missing from his life. For all that people thought of him, he wasn't so completely self-involved and self-absorbed that he couldn't see the small things; in fact, he actively looked for them and held on to them and cherished them in his heart because they seemed to be an integral part of true love. He glanced at the door and recalled the words exchanged with K'os the night before, that they should take it slow. Take it slow, but still take it. Put the thing in motion, set themselves on the path to reunion, move inevitably toward Oren's broken heart.

What am I doing?

Inside the bathroom, once the door closed, the smile on Oren's face disappeared. He glanced at the locked doors, wondering. Something was wrong with Ellsworth, that much was very obvious to Oren's experienced eye. Although his words were still genuine and the light in his eye was ever-present, there was something lurking beneath the surface of every sentence, every playful compliment. Despite the levity that filled their little morning together, Oren couldn't shake the feeling of pessimism coiling inside of his belly. Staring at himself in the mirror, Oren's thoughts turned to the events of the night before and Ellsworth's brief departure from the room. At the time, he'd pretended to be asleep, not wanting to add to his friend's distress and assuming he simply couldn't sleep. Oren often had the same problem, sometimes for weeks on end; insomnia would plague him until the early hours of the morning, when he'd decide enough was enough and just get up out of bed, defeated.

By the time Ellsworth had come back, Oren was asleep. Now, Oren felt tired, running his hand over his face and rubbing the fatigue from his eyes. He tried to focus on his present actions, but his mind wasn't feeling particularly merciful that morning.

'He's having second thoughts,' it supplied, making Oren wonder if this was how it would always be, something secret going unsaid between them. Shaking his head as he stepped into the shower, Oren tried to set those thoughts aside, knowing that Ellsworth was probably just unsure and Oren couldn't blame him. He knew he wasn't exactly the easiest person to deal with, especially for a Betazoid and especially for one like Ellsworth. He was so young and, despite his openness, inexperienced. That in itself made Oren nervous, forcing him to think and then rethink everything he did and said, worrying about how Ellsworth would react. It felt exhausting but, with his feelings for Ellsworth what they were, he believed it would be worth it.

The pancakes had started out delicious, but the more he chewed the more they soured. Eventually he had to push them to the side, then, thinking better, hastily disposed of them in the replicator so he wouldn't hurt Oren's feelings. So he wouldn't hurt Oren's feelings... What an absurd thing to say. He could hardly stomach his own words - how could he possibly even try to be considerate of Oren at this point? Putting food away in the replicator? If he'd truly been worried about his feelings he would have told K'os to go away. He would have thrown the bowl of ice cream at his head and screamed at him and pushed against him with his mind until he drove him back into the corridor.

But...

Ellsworth hadn't done that. He'd thrown a spoon, but that had been a half-hearted move. In reality he practically fell into the other man's arms and begged for the telepathic connection. He'd buried his nails in K'os' back and kissed him and made their minds one, perhaps the most intimate of all actions. The only thing that had kept him from going further had been the thing inside K'os' mind and his own stubborn pride, and it made him sick to his stomach to sit at this table, having just eaten breakfast prepared special for him, while his 'boyfriend,' his love, showered in the other room. His dark eyes shifted to the bathroom door, and he frowned. Were those not the thoughts and actions of a depraved person?


[To be continued]

Oren Idris, Ph.D.
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

PO3 Ellsworth Hudson
Quartermaster
USS Galileo
[ PNPC - Mott ]

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