Distractions

Posted on 31 Oct 2015 @ 12:57pm by
Edited on on 01 Apr 2017 @ 2:33pm

3,662 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo, Pieter and Tyrion's quarters
Timeline: MD04 - 1700hrs

[ON]

Dr. Pieter Van Zyl had not been in his office, and when Dr. Pieter van Zyl was not in his office then he was reliably in his quarters. As soon as the doors parted, Ellsworth grinned at him and shoved forward the jar of spiced peaches he'd found in storage. He hadn't been able to locate the item in any manifest - personal or otherwise - and that officially made it contraband. Unofficially, it made it Property of Ellsworth Hudson, the quartermaster who was too lazy to fill out contraband paperwork. Besides, they were just peaches. They made a fine gift because everyone liked peaches, right?

"Hi, Piet," Ellsworth smiled. He dipped a little closer to the other man by balancing himself on his left foot while letting the right one extend out behind him, almost in an Arabesque type of ballet move. "I came to check on you and make sure you're okay. The ship is totally trashed. I brought you some peaches, too."

Blinking several times, Pieter's eyes moved from the can of peaches in his hands to Ellsworth's head, his gaze contemplative. As if he was wondering if hitting the Betazoid over the head with the can would be worth the inevitable rash should the can break.

Breaking out of his thoughts, Pieter's expression turned a bit sour, more so than usual. Pieter led him into his quarters. The small room was identical to Ellsworth's and it appeared that the botanist was in the process of tidying up. His roommate was nowhere to be seen, which was just as well. Stepping over a box containing some of the cleared debris, Pieter picked up a paDD from the still intact coffee table.

He held it out to Ellsworth after typing something into it.

"My VOICE was damaged during the incident. Waiting for approval for a replacement," it read.

"Huh," Ellsworth said. He put the peaches on a nearby table and began typing into the PADD, even though he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that Piet could read his lips. approval from who? why didn't you just ask me? i could requisition one from the industrial replicator. duh. it's like my whole job.

Pieter rolled his eyes at the response. "I sent in a requisition through the proper channels. Instead of looking at your requisitions, you're here, giving me peaches. Which I cannot eat." Eyes scanning over his answer to check for possible spelling errors, Pieter handed it back. Before Ellsworth could take proper hold of the paDD, he snatched it back. "I'm allergic," he tagged onto the end, anticipating Ellsworth's question.

well how was i supposed to know that? you told me not to snoop in people's personnel files looking at that stuff! Ellsworth frowned at him with furrowed brow as he handed the PADD back. But before Piet could read it he snatched it back and began furiously typing out more. you sure are mean sometimes, piet! you coulda come and asked me for the requisition. you know there's a big backlog with the damage and stuff. dr allyndra probably woulda signed off on a medical necessity waiver. He started to hand it over but jerked it back yet again. and another thing! i came all the way down here to check on you and bring those stupid peaches so youd better tell me thank you.

Ellsworth shoved the PADD over to Piet and folded his arms in front of him, looking everywhere by at his mentor to try and hide that he was upset. He did a predictably poor job at it, but his pride goaded him into making an effort.

Pieter let out a frustrated sigh, one of the rare noises the man made. He did admit to himself that he wasn't taking the lack of his VOICE gracefully, but he would die before admitting it to Hudson. After all, the Betazoid had come to check on him. He was, in fact, one of three people who did, not counting his superiors.

"Thank you for the peaches. And for checking up on me. It's appreciated." Unbeknownst to Pieter, his disposition seemed to counter the sentiment in his message. It seemed that the lack of VOICE, however monotone and lifeless its voice module, took away a lot.

yeah i can see that, Ellsworth hastily typed back, doing his best to strike a sarcastic look. He hesitated in handing the PADD back, wondering if it paid off to continue being nice to Piet. It was supposed to be its own reward, but sometimes he wondered... im glad youre okay. i was worried about you. theres a lot of damage on this deck. if you had died then no one would mentor me and i would be wild forever and get kicked out by some vulcan or something.

Pieter's lip quirked in a small smirk. The new Bosun was no pushover, that much he knew. Luckily, Ellsworth didn't really need as much guidance as Pieter wanted him to believe. It was always better to keep someone like Ellsworth on their toes. As he contemplated his answer, a bright light flashed above the front door, following the chime. With a tap against the proper button, Pieter allowed the visitor in. He was only slightly annoyed to see Oren there. After all, he'd managed to avoid being in the same room with them both for months.

As much as Ellsworth had only moments ago been protesting that he was worried about Piet, the botanist became an afterthought the moment Oren entered the room. The young Betazoid's face lit up as soon as he turned and saw him; he started to take a giant bounding leap toward him but brought himself up short, only going forward as far as one heavy-footed step. Oren was an officer now. You couldn't throw your arms around an officer's neck. You couldn't give an officer Eskimo kisses. You couldn't tell an officer that he has the prettiest eyes and they make your heart flutter every time you see him. At least, not in front of Pieter Van Zyl you couldn't.

"Oh, hello, Lieutenant Idris."

If Pieter could make a noise to show his disgust at Ellsworth's fawning look and awkward almost-leap into Oren's arms, he would. Instead, he chose to show his utter disapproval with just his face before turning to greet Oren properly with an expectant look.

Oren, still a bit confused at finding Ellsworth there, chose to give him a sweet, more contained smile in greeting before replying to Pieter.

"I came to see if you were alright," he said, signing back the same.

Pieter motioned to Ellsworth. "Hudson did the same." He held up the can of peaches briefly.

Oren chuckled, turning to the Betazoid. "Are you trying to kill Pieter with canned goods?" he asked with a teasing smile.

"No," Ellsworth said, grinning stupidly as he edged a little closer to Oren. His eyes glanced down at the El Aurian's hands briefly, and then he looked up. "I didn't know! I just wanted to do something nice for him. Maybe get him to smile... He made like...a constipated look a minute ago. It might have been a smile. You know, it's hard to tell with him."

Oren let out a small laugh he then tried to stifle, looking up at Piet with a guilty expression. Pieter replied with an annoyed look, motioning between them. Oren relayed everything he'd said about Pieter to him. As a result, Pieter pushed Ellsworth gently, in warning. He never looked constipated! The nerve!

"I had to tell him," Oren said before Ellsworth could say anything. "He can't hear what you're saying, it's rude to keep him out of the loop."

Ellsworth stumbled a little bit but grinned at Piet. "Sorry." Turning to Oren, he said, "His thing is broke, and he's being anal about getting a new one. Of course. I can make one for him, but he filed the paperwork for it." He rolled his eyes. "That'll take forever. There are like 147 requisitions ahead of him, I bet. He knows I can get a doctor to sign off prioritizing it. Can you tell him to give me the requisition? He won't listen to me."

Oren looked over Pieter, an uncharacteristically serious, almost cross look on his young face. Ellsworth watched as he signed something to Pieter, who swiftly replied. After a few moments, the discussion seemed to get heated as the two men began to get frustrated, their movements and gestures becoming faster as passions rose. Finally, Oren seemed to say something that Pieter took great offense at and then the much taller man cast a glance at Ellsworth before deflating. He looked between them, frowning deeply before taking his personal paDD, opening up the proper requisition page and handing it to him, all the while avoiding his gaze.

"Wow," Ellsworth said, accepting the PADD from Piet. He gave the man a funny look before turning back to Oren with a broadening smile. The smile quickly turned mischievous as he edged closer to him, eyelashes fluttering and voice low and full of false bashfulness, "Hmm, Lieutenant Idris is a man of action. How'd you do that? You'll have to teach me your secret..."

Oren returned the smile with a coy one, but his eyes were still on Pieter. "Well, Pieter and I have history. It would be truly tragic if I didn't know what to say to get him to do something." Looking Oren up and down, taking in his body language, Pieter seemed to get the general tone of what the other blonde was saying and shook his head at him, but not without returning the smile with a sly one of his own. Clearly, a lot was left unsaid.

There was a lot that Ellsworth "missed" on a day to day basis, largely as a result of his self-absorbed nature. But what he never missed was a look. And the looks he saw made his back stiffen immediately. Pieter and I have history. He shifted a little from foot and foot and did the only thing he knew how to do: obnoxiously reinsert himself into the conversation.

"Well, that's good!" Ellsworth said, too loudly, even wincing a bit at the volume himself. "I didn't realize you and Piet knew each other so well. You never mentioned it. He never mentioned it, either. Or... Maybe he did. Uh. Sometimes I'm not paying attention so well. Anyway, it's funny that we both came to check on him, huh?"

"A little," Oren agreed with a knowing smile as he watched the Betazoid fidget. Not wanting to add to his nervousness, he pointed to the paDD in Ells' death grip. "Are you going to approve Pieter's new VOICE?" he asked, hoping to bring Ellsworth attention back to the topic at hand.

"Huh? Oh. Right," Ellsworth said, glancing down at the device. Knowing he was under Piet's watchful gaze he actually read through the requisition just in case he slipped something in there as a test. Afterward, it was a simple matter of setting up the requisition for approval from Sickbay, which Dr. Allyndra was always quick to do, and then have it replicated and delivered. Ellsworth looked up with a very satisfied grin. "Someone should deliver your new VOICE shortly, Piet."

Oren translated the fact to Pieter who, with his reply, made Oren laugh. He turned to Ellsworth, grabbing his arm. "He says thank you and get out," he said, still giggling as Pieter took the canned peaches and shoved them into his free hand. "Come on," he said, walking to the door and pulled Ellsworth with him.

"Are you sure you understood him? You laughed," Ellsworth said, sounding as if no one should ever laugh during a conversation with Piet. He allowed himself to be pulled out of the room but cast one more confused look at Piet over his shoulder. Out in the corridor, he was quick to give Oren a silly smile. "I'm going to pretend you showed up here at the same time as me just so we could run into each other."

Oren returned the smile with a soft one but felt a genuine sadness at Ellsworth's comment. Him saying he would pretend something wasn't uncommon and each time Oren found it incredibly sad and heartbreaking that Ells believed he had to pretend someone went out of their way to spend time with him.

As they slowly walked down the corridor, he made sure to walk closely to Ellsworth, but kept his hands in front of him to resist the temptation of holding his hand. "Pieter isn't so bad. He was my roommate for years."

"Hmm, a quiet roommate," Ellsworth mused as if it was an impossible concept. He cleared his throat and found an interesting line on the corridor wall to follow with his eyes. "So... You, like, know him well? Or something?"

Oren let out a soft noise as if he was thinking about his answer. Finally, he said: "We spent a lot of time together at one point, " he revealed.

"Oh."

Oren turned his head to look at Ellsworth and found him a pitiful sight, head slightly hanging, his eyes fixed on the floor. Expression softening, Oren gave into his first impulse and reached over to take his hand.

"What's wrong?"

Ellsworth quickly and naturally took the hand up so that it fit in the perfectly comfortable position as before when things were different between them. He gave a little smile and shrugged.

"You guys were looking at each other funny. I've never seen Piet look like that. He's always like," Ellsworth paused and made a sour face, his best imitation of Piet. He was quick to add, "I'm not jealous! I just...didn't expect it. It was weird. Like, not that it should matter. You know, with things like they are."

Oren said nothing for a few moments, simply enjoying the contact. It didn't feel as forced or strained as he'd imagined it, holding Ellsworth's hand again. "It isn't like that," he eventually said. "Pieter was a good friend to me when not a lot of people were."

Ellsworth squeezed his hand slightly before admitting, almost as if he hadn't heard Oren, "Ugh, I was jealous! I think. It felt like jealousy. There, I said it. I thought maybe... And, it made me jealous." He cut his eyes to gauge the El Aurian's reaction then bumped him gently, shoulder-to-shoulder. "That was nice of him. He's a good person, even if I complain about him. And he's grumpy. And he calls me Hudson. And frowns at me. And marks lots of things wrong on my PADD."

"Yeah, he does that." Although he rolled his eyes, Oren's expression was fond. "He is a good person. He's picky and maybe a bit petty but, , if he wasn't, he'd probably be dead by now."

"Cuz people bring him peaches?" Ellsworth asked, grinning sheepishly.

Oren chuckled, gently swaying their joined hands between them. "Because, if he isn't careful and nitpicky like that, he could get sick again."

"Did you take care of him? I didn't know he was sick. He, like, never talks about himself."

"He really doesn't," Oren agreed, swinging their linked hands between them as he pondered the possible repercussions of revealing any information about Pieter to Ellsworth of all people. "He gets sick easily, especially on planets. The artificial environment serving in the fleet provides, is the best place for him, " Oren explained, hoping Pieter wouldn't be too mad that he shared the information. It was no more or less than he'd seen Pieter give to people he worked with when asked.

"Huh," Ellsworth said, simply. "I wonder how come he never said anything." Thinking up a joke, he grinned and leaned into Oren. "Maybe he thinks I'm artificial enough that there's no danger around me, huh? It's kinda funny that he's sensitive to stuff cuz he's, like...not sensitive. You know? So stoic and...beefy." He cut his eyes to look at Oren, to gauge his reaction. "He is. He's beefy. Like, there's beef up here." For emphasis, he pushed his shoulders back and shoved his pecs forward.

Oren snorted. "You should see him naked." He stopped, realising what he'd said and blushed. "Not that I've seen him naked... Well, I have but not a lot. Just, you know, a reasonable number of times. No more than half a dozen." Finally, he shut his mouth, pursing his lips and avoiding Ellsworth's eyes, still blushing and hoping no more stupid things left his mouth.

Ellsworth felt jealousy rise up. He didn't need to be the sole object of Oren's affection, especially in a historical sense, but he wanted to be the sole object. Wanting and needing were two different things, he reminded himself and took a deep breath to help suppress it. Even in his most careless days he recognized jealousy to be unhealthy. Instead of making a big deal out of it, or, worse, making Oren feel bad for expressing himself, he decided to go in a different direction...

"Does he have a hairy butt? I bet he does. I bet it's, like, fuzzy. I always imagined it's fuzzy. Not too much, just right," Ellsworth said, looking up and off into the distance.

Oren laughed, relieved at the uncommon show of social grace from Ellsworth. "I didn't know you gave it so much thought," he said with a chuckle. "But I can neither confirm or deny that information without risking my life," he teased.

"I have a lot of free thinking time while he's rambling on about regulations and stuff," Ellsworth said. He smiled or tried to, but it turned lop-sided. He'd made an effort to avoid the "silly" feelings, but it would only take him so far, so he quickly rushed on to change the subject away from Oren's nude romps with his mentor. "So, I guess I should make sure that his thing gets replicated right. They've been messin' stuff up lately. Uh... Do you wanna meet for dinner later?"

Oren opened his mouth to agree but then thought better on it. Was agreeing truly the best decision? What kind of message would it send to Ellsworth? That he was a pushover? That he'd earned Oren's full affections again? Maybe he had but was Ellsworth ready to know that? Sure, his behaviour was more mature and acceptable than it had been, but Oren still didn't trust him to stick to it?

Still, how many times could he make a show of avoiding Ells before he got bored and left, giving up for good. After all, it didn't take a scientist to work out that any long-term relationship between them was bound to end in disaster. Despite that, Oren still found it difficult to fully cut ties and move on.

"Uh, Oren?" Ellsworth asked, jostling him slightly. "Hello? It's just a simple dinner. Everyone has to eat. It's, uh, probably not worth overthinking, you know?"

Focusing his attention back on Ellsworth's face, Oren let out a small, uncertain noise. Finally, relief came as the more rational part of his brain supplied an actual solution in the form of a reminder.

"I can't, " he said, maybe a bit too quickly, relieved that he had an actual, real excuse for the refusal.

" I already have dinner plans with someone. "

"Oh, okay, that's fine," Ellsworth said, doing an admirable job of not sounding disappointed. He tried to wait an appropriate amount of time before asking his question, though he failed utterly. "With who?"

About to answer, Oren reconsidered. Instead, he gave Ellsworth a small smile and said, "You don't really get to know that yet." Although he had the intention to give the information, or lack thereof, gently, his voice was firm and left no room for argument. There had to be some limits, after all.

Ellsworth seemed mollified by that, choosing to interpret it to mean there wasn't somebody else but rather just an ordinary dining companion. He might be wrong, but he was pretty good at choosing to believe what he wanted to believe. Moreover, he knew he could be wild sometimes. Or, rather, often. That Oren chose to set boundaries appealed to him on some level; he responded positively to it (even as some part of his mind railed against not knowing) and found himself attracted by it.

"You know, I kinda like officer Idris."

Oren smiled, shaking his head fondly. "Good," he finally said reaching over and giving Ellsworth's hand a squeeze. Letting the moment hang between them for a few seconds longer, he finally let go. "I have to go back to Pieter. I wanted to speak to him about something but then..." He trailed off, giving Ells a once over. "You were very distracting."

Ellsworth grinned from ear to ear. "Yeah, sometimes I can be that way."

"Mmm." Oren nodded. "I'll see you," he said after a pause before leaning over and giving Ellsworth a small, friendly peck on the cheek.

Ellsworth leaned into the kiss as much as he could subtly manage. He very reluctantly let their hand slide apart until he was just barely holding on by his fingertips. "Okay, well... Tell Piet hi! I'm glad I got to see you. And... I'll see you soon, okay? Oh, give Landi a hug for me, too! And, um, have fun at dinner."

With a cheeky smile, Oren turned and walked down the hallway back to Pieter's quarters. He could be distracting too.

End

PO3 Ellsworth Hudson
Quartermaster
USS Galileo
[ PNPC - Mott ]

Lieutenant JG Oren Idris, Ph.D.
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed