Gestures, part 6
This is the week I only worked two days, but this also turned out to be the week that my sons got Thursday and Friday off. I’ve got nothing written and a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Guess what I’m doing next.
Title: Gestures
Status: Part 6 of 10
Genre: science fiction, romance, slash
Rating: PG 13
Content: trying to explain, pain, a startling opinion, hunger, seconds, scraping, home and family, foul smell, knife, stars, distraction, tanning, walking into it, Colton, a handprint, kisses, food, not thinking
Length: about 3,200 words
Summary: Lion tries to talk Colt into staying with him. And he might not be the only one who wants Colt around.
Masterlist
The village elders asked Python to stay with them. Here he could live together with Lion and no one would stop him.
Lion got up and strode into the jungle. Colt took the chance to follow him. “He isn’t going…” Colt started again. “Lion go, Python go. Lion stay, Python stay.”
Lion stopped and turned around. “Horse stay?”
“Horse go. Horse fly.”
Lion grunted. “Star.”
Colt took a deep breath and let out a sigh. “Star go, Horse go. Star stay, Horse go. Horse home.”
Lion crossed his arms and stomped a foot.
Colt tried again. “Horse home not Star home. Horse fly Star home. Horse fly Horse home.”
Lion shook his head. “Horse Star mate.”
“Horse Star not mate.”
“Lion know. Lion hear.”
Colt closed his eyes. “Lion hear noise. Not mate noise. Sex noise.”
Lion raised his eyebrows.
Colt turned away. Lion would never understand, just like he’d never understand how much Colt ached knowing that the man he’d had a crush on for as long as he could remember would never love him in return. Leave with him, yes. Sleep with him, definitely. But once they were off planet, Orion would use his pragmatic feet to walk away from Colt as the soonest opportunity.
Or maybe he’d stick around long enough to make Colt think he’d really stay and then someone better would come along and that would be that.
Did this make Colt pragmatic too?
When had that word started to taste so bitter to even think?
Lion touched Colt’s shoulder. “Horse sad. Star make Horse sad. Lion make Horse happy.”
Colt sighed. “How can you even say that? How can you turn away from the one who loves you so much and waste your energy on me?”
“Words.” Lion’s voice sounded small and young.
Colt turned back to him. “Python heart Lion. Python good. Python strong. Python brave. Lion heart Python. Python heart Lion. Lion see Python. Horse come. Lion see Horse. Horse go. Lion not see Horse. Lion see Python.”
Python dropped out of a tree and laughed. “Lion good. Lion strong. Horse find Star. Horse not see Lion.”
Colt looked down at his feet. He was giving advice he wasn’t willing to take. But Python wasn’t seriously saying Colt should turn to Lion because he wore the snug smile of someone who knew he’d already won.
Let him win. Let Python and Lion be happy together. Colt wanted them to be. He liked them both and he wasn’t staying. He had a home and family that he didn’t see enough of already. He had a job he loved.
Once he was off this silly planet, flying among the stars, he would get over the emotions flooding through him.
He took a long walk in the jungle, staying on the well trodden paths, but unfortunately he strayed too close to the village and the children corralled him into helping them bring back fruit filled baskets. They could fill the baskets much fuller if he helped them carry their bounty home.
Orion looked up from his latest project then looked pointedly at Lion and Python. “Should I be jealous?”
Colt sat down his baskets with a trifle too much force. “Of what? They aren’t going to convince me to stay. And even if they did, I’d make sure you got home.”
Orion stood up and wiped his hands across each other. “Home isn’t what I’m worried about.”
Colt’s walk should have been a great deal longer. He used up all his control not to shout. He took three deep breaths. “Then what are you worried about?”
“You.” Orion’s arms wrapped around him. They were the same height. Orion leaned his forehead against Colt’s. “They aren’t going to convince you to join them and make a happy little threesome? Because I can tell you right now that I won’t put up with that. I don’t share well.”
Colt leaned back. “No, Lion just…”
“No,” said Orion. “I’m talking about the other one. The little fierce one.”
“Python?” Colt turned to look at Lion and Python. Python drew Lion’s attention toward something in the jungle as he smiled in Colt’s direction.
Colt shook his head. “Python isn’t interested in me. He’s got Lion. That’s who he wants.”
“Colt, my dear, my love.” Orion ran his fingers across Colt’s cheek. “I may not be able to speak the language or understand more than two words in ten, but I have eyes. How do you think I survived this long?”
Colt glanced back toward Lion and Python. That couldn’t be why Python wasn’t jealous of him anymore. Whatever Orion saw or imagined he saw was because Colt and Python were friends, wasn’t it?”
Orion’s hand brought Colt’s face back to his. “Look only at me.”
And then his arms wrapped around Colt and he kissed him.
Maybe the future didn’t matter. Maybe he should just reach out and enjoy the present.
-
Colt rolled away from Orion and blinked. His stomach rumbled loudly. He’d missed yet another meal in Orion’s bed.
He stretched and pulled on his clothes, or as much of them as were left. He was getting a nice tan on his chest and shoulders now that he was shirtless, but the only way to cover up was to pull his coverall top-half on and the fabric had been meant for space not steamy jungles.
Colt’s stomach rumbled again. He walked to the doorway. Some people ate, but most stood around Python’s pelt. Colt joined them.
The pelt needed to be moved out of the village before Python could do the next step in the tanning process because it would reek. The villagers had a place for tanning. The pelt would be moved there.
A woman offered Colt a bowl of hot stew. She must have heard his stomach. Or maybe all the energy he’d expended last night. He blushed at the thought.
She laughed with the other women at the fire.
The villagers discussed how the pelt should be moved while Python scrapped the salt off. When Colt finished his bowl, he got on his knees to help.
Python grinned at him.
Did Python harbor any romantic or at least sexual interest in Colt? Did Colt really want to know?
Not enough to risk the embarrassment he would face trying to get the idea across. And once Python knew he knew, all Colt could do was say no.
What was the point?
He went back to work in earnest. He hardly noticed when Lion joined them.
When the pelt was mostly salt-free, the villagers explained several ways the giant pelt could be moved. Lion listen to them, then rolled the heavy pelt up and lifted one end. Colt hurried to the other side, but he was not needed.
Everyone wanted to help carry the pelt.
Colt stepped back. Orion pressed another hot bowl into his hands. “You’re still hungry.”
Colt smiled. “How did you know that?”
Orion lowered his eyelashes. “Because I ate two bowls this morning and you expended much more energy than I did last night.”
Colt rubbed his arm against Orion’s. “Did I?”
Orion smiled back. “That’s how I like it.”
A group of children interrupted them. Small animals would need to be hunted for part of the tanning process and the bark of a certain tree needed to be gathered off the forest floor.
Colt glanced back as he followed the children into the jungle. Maybe someday he’s get Orion to do most of the work. Colt was sure Orion would enjoy that too.
-
Python laid the pelt out in the tanning clearing fur side down and used the knife Colt had given him to scrape it clean.
Colt helped all he could with his own sharp knife. Python wouldn’t let the others near his treasure. Lion wasn’t allowed to help because the treasure was for him, but he got around that by cutting down trees and erecting a clothes line type thing over the fire pit. Orion had designed the stand years before, but now that Colt was around to translate, it finally got built.
While Orion and Lion worked at the edges of the clearing, digging holes, and planting logs, and twisting rope, Orion wasn’t as soaked up in his work as normal. He asked Colt for stories about his home and family. Colt told about his sister’s first day of school and his mother’s job and the trees that grew around his house. He told of the few memories he had of his father and the way his mother talked about him even though that made her sad.
The scraping of the pelt wasn’t hard, but it was tedious. The stories helped the time pass, but Colt wished Orion would have shared a few of his own.
When Colt’s throat got sore, he stopped to drink fruit juice the children provided. Lion filled the gap telling stories of the antics of the children from his village.
Orion said he didn’t need a translation and went back to his diagram. He did need help when the time came to explain to the gathered children when and where they could help.
The rope and log design was like nothing Colt had ever seen. Everything was at odd angles, but with the rope strung up, it was strong enough for the children to use as a jungle gym. Funny since they had the jungle itself around them.
After Python declared the pelt completely scrapped, he lit a fire under the most foul smelling substance Colt had ever been in the presence of. Colt quickly thought up an excuse to be far away: he could collect dinner with the children.
Kite entered the village at the same time as Colt, but from the other direction. Colt offered to help him with the small animals he’d caught. Kite was very impressed with Colt’s knife, so Colt offered it to him. Colt had a few knives left and hopefully he’d be off planet soon.
Other Hunters wanted their own knives, but Colt said that he knew Kite, he could trust him, and that Kite had done him a good turn leading him to Orion. They grunted and complained. Colt hoped the knife wouldn’t cause Kite greater problems.
Python came back to the village and left with food for himself and Lion.
Colt hoped the tanning smelled better than it had this afternoon.
Orion wandered into the village sometime later. He muttered about analysis and compounds and only ate a few bites of the food Colt had saved for him before puttering into his hut without so much as a good night.
Colt stayed outside until the cook fire burned low and the stars came out in all their brilliance.
Just a few more days. A few more days until he was up among them. A few more days until all these earthly problems were immaterial. He would have no worries in space. Maybe he could send Orion home on the next regular shuttle. Then he could rinse his hands of him forever.
“Aren’t you coming to bed?”
Colt tilted his head. Orion squatted and touched Colt’s face. “Or are you studying the night sky? I did that a lot at first. I was really homesick.”
He pointed at a bright star. “That’s Deresla III, I think. I calculated it once. And that blur over there is the solar system my family calls home. Come to bed before I get melancholy.”
Colt sat up. “It’s not long now before you’ll be home.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Colt caught Orion’s hand. “You don’t want to go home? Do you want to stay here?”
“No. Not here.” Orion tugged Colt toward his hut. “But the galaxies are many and each has numerous solar systems with life sustaining planets.
Did Orion want to see and touch and explore just like Colt? But before he could ask, Orion seized his mouth and thoroughly distracted him.
-
Late afternoon the next day Colt braved the tanning clearing to see his friends. As Colt drew close the smell of tea grew stronger, but it wasn’t a tea Colt recognized.
In the clearing Python had stripped naked and was packing the top of the hide with a generous layer of wet reddish brown stuff, which stained the skin on his arms and legs a deeper brown.
The pot on the fire contained simmering bark, which Python was applying to the pelt. The bark, according to Python, didn’t come out of fur very well, so he’d protected his loincloth by removing it.
Lion watched the pots and Python.
Colt understood that even if Python wasn’t exactly his type. He could have lived without Python’s I-know-more-than-you-do personality, but he had to concede that he liked the part of Python that could do anything and the strength hidden in his sleek muscles. Colt sat by Lion and admired the view.
Lion bumped his shoulder. “Like?”
Colt grinned. “Pretty.”
Lion laughed. “Python pretty?”
Python stopped and looked up.
Colt shrugged. “Python pretty. Lion pretty. Star pretty.”
Lion grinned. “Horse pretty.”
Colt nodded graciously.
“Stay.”
Colt had walked right into that one. Time to change the subject. “Lion Python home? Here? There?
Lion looked at his hands, but Python shook his head. Python, as far as Colt could tell, was a traveler. He wouldn’t be content to sit still forever. Neither would Colt. “Fly. Go. Live.”
Lion sighed.
Python turned back to his work. “Come back?”
Colt closed his eyes and leaned back until he was laying down. In a mystic fairytale universe, he could fly off for jobs and then come home to two jungle men without weeks of walking or the language barrier or missing his mother and sister.
He sighed. Why even image the impossible? “Star not share.”
Lion grunted. Python laughed. “Star leave Horse. Horse come home.”
So that excuse hadn’t worked. He didn’t really have another. “I’d love to guys. Really love to. If a thousand things were different…”
Lion leaned over Colt. Colt brush Lion’s hanging hair. “I really have never been to a place that felt so much like home or met people I wanted to stay with so badly. But Lion, beautiful, sweet, gentle Lion, I can’t be here and be myself.”
“Colton, is he trying to seduce you again?”
Lion shot away from Colt.
Colt got up on his elbows as Orion walked into the clearing.
“Cole-ton?” asked Lion.
Colt put his hand on his chest.
Lion made the question sound again.
Orion pointed at Colt. “Colton.” He looked up at the sky and back at Colt. “Horse from the place of fire: Colton.”
“Cole-ton.”
Colt grinned. “Colt.”
“Colt?”
Python clapped his darkened hands on Colt’s chest. “Colt.”
His eyes said that Colt belonged to him or, at least, with him.
Colt turned away from the beautiful naked man practically in his lap. The pelt was mostly covered in bark. He pointed at it. “Help?”
Python shook his head. “Soon. Eat first.”
Lion bounced to his feet. “Lion go.”
Colt stood up. Lion couldn’t bring back enough for four alone. Orion took Colt’s hand and stopped him from following Lion. “No. Colton and I will stay here.”
Python nodded without waiting for a translation and clapped Lion on the back. The two disappeared into the jungle.
Orion tugged Colt to the only clear space not next to the pelt or fire and traced the handprint on Colt’s chest. “They want to take you from me.”
Colt sat down and leaned against a tree. “They won’t succeed.”
Orion caressed Colt’s hand. “You wish they would.”
Colt sighed. “If I was the type to be happy here, I would never have been in the position to find you.”
“But if you hadn’t had me to find?”
“Then I wouldn’t be here at all.”
“But if you found yourself here, say looking for someone else.”
Colt lifted Orion’s hand and kissed his palm. “I only came because of you. Anyone else, anything else, and I would have left it.”
Orion grinned and his eyes sparkled in the sunlight. “But you were tempted.”
Colt looked up at the sky. “Does it matter?”
“But if you want to stay…”
Colt closed his eyes. “I would not be happy here. Not without my skipper. Not being grounded. We can’t even communicate properly.”
“But he loves you.”
Colt laughed although he wanted to cry. He felt water at the corners of his eyes. “He loves me like no one ever has.” Colt took a deep breath and said it. “He loves me like I wish you did.”
Orion climbed into his lap. “Maybe we can fix that.”
His kiss was warm and gentle, but at the same time urgent and persistent and it almost made Colt forget that their time together was finite.
-
Colt pulled his coverall back on as Python and Lion returned. They hadn’t been to the village. They didn’t have bowls and the small deer-like creature was still in its skin.
Python butchered it quickly and, while the chunks of meat were grilling over the fire, he skinned what was left and set it aside. Colt hoped that Python wasn’t going to make them wait for that to be tanned. Lion had brought fruit and roots. The four ate those as the smell of cooking meat overpowered the tea smell.
Python arms were still brown up to his elbows. He scrapped the deerskin while Lion took the part of the deer they weren’t eating to the village. The pelt was so small that Python finished scrapping as Lion returned and then he covered the pelt with wet bark.
Now if that was all Python had to do to tan something, then why were they still waiting on the cat pelt.
Python grinned. “Cat pelt nice nice. Last long long. This,” he set another handful of bark on the deer pelt, “fast. Short.”
Orion laughed. “And here I thought he would have lengthened out the process just to make you stick around longer.”
“Horse need shoe.”
Now that was true enough, but didn’t these people repair and reuse everything?
“He’s wooing you.”
Colt frowned and looked at Orion. “Then should I not take them?”
“You need them.”
Colt wiggled his foot. The lacing attaching the sole to the uppers was unraveling and the back of the upper had a tear that got bigger every day.
“I’ve never seen anyone tan like this, but I have the feeling Python’s been around more than I have. He’s taken such good care of the cat hide, like he really cares about it, but he spends much less time than I’m used to and totally skips some steps that the village uses ever time.”
Colt leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. Orion leaned against him. Colt wrapped an arm around Orion. Colt didn’t want to think about motivation. He didn’t want to think about killing creatures so he could eat them. He didn’t want to wear dead animals on his feet. He just wanted to go home.
Only he was no longer sure where home was.
Title: Gestures
Status: Part 6 of 10
Genre: science fiction, romance, slash
Rating: PG 13
Content: trying to explain, pain, a startling opinion, hunger, seconds, scraping, home and family, foul smell, knife, stars, distraction, tanning, walking into it, Colton, a handprint, kisses, food, not thinking
Length: about 3,200 words
Summary: Lion tries to talk Colt into staying with him. And he might not be the only one who wants Colt around.
Masterlist
The village elders asked Python to stay with them. Here he could live together with Lion and no one would stop him.
Lion got up and strode into the jungle. Colt took the chance to follow him. “He isn’t going…” Colt started again. “Lion go, Python go. Lion stay, Python stay.”
Lion stopped and turned around. “Horse stay?”
“Horse go. Horse fly.”
Lion grunted. “Star.”
Colt took a deep breath and let out a sigh. “Star go, Horse go. Star stay, Horse go. Horse home.”
Lion crossed his arms and stomped a foot.
Colt tried again. “Horse home not Star home. Horse fly Star home. Horse fly Horse home.”
Lion shook his head. “Horse Star mate.”
“Horse Star not mate.”
“Lion know. Lion hear.”
Colt closed his eyes. “Lion hear noise. Not mate noise. Sex noise.”
Lion raised his eyebrows.
Colt turned away. Lion would never understand, just like he’d never understand how much Colt ached knowing that the man he’d had a crush on for as long as he could remember would never love him in return. Leave with him, yes. Sleep with him, definitely. But once they were off planet, Orion would use his pragmatic feet to walk away from Colt as the soonest opportunity.
Or maybe he’d stick around long enough to make Colt think he’d really stay and then someone better would come along and that would be that.
Did this make Colt pragmatic too?
When had that word started to taste so bitter to even think?
Lion touched Colt’s shoulder. “Horse sad. Star make Horse sad. Lion make Horse happy.”
Colt sighed. “How can you even say that? How can you turn away from the one who loves you so much and waste your energy on me?”
“Words.” Lion’s voice sounded small and young.
Colt turned back to him. “Python heart Lion. Python good. Python strong. Python brave. Lion heart Python. Python heart Lion. Lion see Python. Horse come. Lion see Horse. Horse go. Lion not see Horse. Lion see Python.”
Python dropped out of a tree and laughed. “Lion good. Lion strong. Horse find Star. Horse not see Lion.”
Colt looked down at his feet. He was giving advice he wasn’t willing to take. But Python wasn’t seriously saying Colt should turn to Lion because he wore the snug smile of someone who knew he’d already won.
Let him win. Let Python and Lion be happy together. Colt wanted them to be. He liked them both and he wasn’t staying. He had a home and family that he didn’t see enough of already. He had a job he loved.
Once he was off this silly planet, flying among the stars, he would get over the emotions flooding through him.
He took a long walk in the jungle, staying on the well trodden paths, but unfortunately he strayed too close to the village and the children corralled him into helping them bring back fruit filled baskets. They could fill the baskets much fuller if he helped them carry their bounty home.
Orion looked up from his latest project then looked pointedly at Lion and Python. “Should I be jealous?”
Colt sat down his baskets with a trifle too much force. “Of what? They aren’t going to convince me to stay. And even if they did, I’d make sure you got home.”
Orion stood up and wiped his hands across each other. “Home isn’t what I’m worried about.”
Colt’s walk should have been a great deal longer. He used up all his control not to shout. He took three deep breaths. “Then what are you worried about?”
“You.” Orion’s arms wrapped around him. They were the same height. Orion leaned his forehead against Colt’s. “They aren’t going to convince you to join them and make a happy little threesome? Because I can tell you right now that I won’t put up with that. I don’t share well.”
Colt leaned back. “No, Lion just…”
“No,” said Orion. “I’m talking about the other one. The little fierce one.”
“Python?” Colt turned to look at Lion and Python. Python drew Lion’s attention toward something in the jungle as he smiled in Colt’s direction.
Colt shook his head. “Python isn’t interested in me. He’s got Lion. That’s who he wants.”
“Colt, my dear, my love.” Orion ran his fingers across Colt’s cheek. “I may not be able to speak the language or understand more than two words in ten, but I have eyes. How do you think I survived this long?”
Colt glanced back toward Lion and Python. That couldn’t be why Python wasn’t jealous of him anymore. Whatever Orion saw or imagined he saw was because Colt and Python were friends, wasn’t it?”
Orion’s hand brought Colt’s face back to his. “Look only at me.”
And then his arms wrapped around Colt and he kissed him.
Maybe the future didn’t matter. Maybe he should just reach out and enjoy the present.
-
Colt rolled away from Orion and blinked. His stomach rumbled loudly. He’d missed yet another meal in Orion’s bed.
He stretched and pulled on his clothes, or as much of them as were left. He was getting a nice tan on his chest and shoulders now that he was shirtless, but the only way to cover up was to pull his coverall top-half on and the fabric had been meant for space not steamy jungles.
Colt’s stomach rumbled again. He walked to the doorway. Some people ate, but most stood around Python’s pelt. Colt joined them.
The pelt needed to be moved out of the village before Python could do the next step in the tanning process because it would reek. The villagers had a place for tanning. The pelt would be moved there.
A woman offered Colt a bowl of hot stew. She must have heard his stomach. Or maybe all the energy he’d expended last night. He blushed at the thought.
She laughed with the other women at the fire.
The villagers discussed how the pelt should be moved while Python scrapped the salt off. When Colt finished his bowl, he got on his knees to help.
Python grinned at him.
Did Python harbor any romantic or at least sexual interest in Colt? Did Colt really want to know?
Not enough to risk the embarrassment he would face trying to get the idea across. And once Python knew he knew, all Colt could do was say no.
What was the point?
He went back to work in earnest. He hardly noticed when Lion joined them.
When the pelt was mostly salt-free, the villagers explained several ways the giant pelt could be moved. Lion listen to them, then rolled the heavy pelt up and lifted one end. Colt hurried to the other side, but he was not needed.
Everyone wanted to help carry the pelt.
Colt stepped back. Orion pressed another hot bowl into his hands. “You’re still hungry.”
Colt smiled. “How did you know that?”
Orion lowered his eyelashes. “Because I ate two bowls this morning and you expended much more energy than I did last night.”
Colt rubbed his arm against Orion’s. “Did I?”
Orion smiled back. “That’s how I like it.”
A group of children interrupted them. Small animals would need to be hunted for part of the tanning process and the bark of a certain tree needed to be gathered off the forest floor.
Colt glanced back as he followed the children into the jungle. Maybe someday he’s get Orion to do most of the work. Colt was sure Orion would enjoy that too.
-
Python laid the pelt out in the tanning clearing fur side down and used the knife Colt had given him to scrape it clean.
Colt helped all he could with his own sharp knife. Python wouldn’t let the others near his treasure. Lion wasn’t allowed to help because the treasure was for him, but he got around that by cutting down trees and erecting a clothes line type thing over the fire pit. Orion had designed the stand years before, but now that Colt was around to translate, it finally got built.
While Orion and Lion worked at the edges of the clearing, digging holes, and planting logs, and twisting rope, Orion wasn’t as soaked up in his work as normal. He asked Colt for stories about his home and family. Colt told about his sister’s first day of school and his mother’s job and the trees that grew around his house. He told of the few memories he had of his father and the way his mother talked about him even though that made her sad.
The scraping of the pelt wasn’t hard, but it was tedious. The stories helped the time pass, but Colt wished Orion would have shared a few of his own.
When Colt’s throat got sore, he stopped to drink fruit juice the children provided. Lion filled the gap telling stories of the antics of the children from his village.
Orion said he didn’t need a translation and went back to his diagram. He did need help when the time came to explain to the gathered children when and where they could help.
The rope and log design was like nothing Colt had ever seen. Everything was at odd angles, but with the rope strung up, it was strong enough for the children to use as a jungle gym. Funny since they had the jungle itself around them.
After Python declared the pelt completely scrapped, he lit a fire under the most foul smelling substance Colt had ever been in the presence of. Colt quickly thought up an excuse to be far away: he could collect dinner with the children.
Kite entered the village at the same time as Colt, but from the other direction. Colt offered to help him with the small animals he’d caught. Kite was very impressed with Colt’s knife, so Colt offered it to him. Colt had a few knives left and hopefully he’d be off planet soon.
Other Hunters wanted their own knives, but Colt said that he knew Kite, he could trust him, and that Kite had done him a good turn leading him to Orion. They grunted and complained. Colt hoped the knife wouldn’t cause Kite greater problems.
Python came back to the village and left with food for himself and Lion.
Colt hoped the tanning smelled better than it had this afternoon.
Orion wandered into the village sometime later. He muttered about analysis and compounds and only ate a few bites of the food Colt had saved for him before puttering into his hut without so much as a good night.
Colt stayed outside until the cook fire burned low and the stars came out in all their brilliance.
Just a few more days. A few more days until he was up among them. A few more days until all these earthly problems were immaterial. He would have no worries in space. Maybe he could send Orion home on the next regular shuttle. Then he could rinse his hands of him forever.
“Aren’t you coming to bed?”
Colt tilted his head. Orion squatted and touched Colt’s face. “Or are you studying the night sky? I did that a lot at first. I was really homesick.”
He pointed at a bright star. “That’s Deresla III, I think. I calculated it once. And that blur over there is the solar system my family calls home. Come to bed before I get melancholy.”
Colt sat up. “It’s not long now before you’ll be home.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Colt caught Orion’s hand. “You don’t want to go home? Do you want to stay here?”
“No. Not here.” Orion tugged Colt toward his hut. “But the galaxies are many and each has numerous solar systems with life sustaining planets.
Did Orion want to see and touch and explore just like Colt? But before he could ask, Orion seized his mouth and thoroughly distracted him.
-
Late afternoon the next day Colt braved the tanning clearing to see his friends. As Colt drew close the smell of tea grew stronger, but it wasn’t a tea Colt recognized.
In the clearing Python had stripped naked and was packing the top of the hide with a generous layer of wet reddish brown stuff, which stained the skin on his arms and legs a deeper brown.
The pot on the fire contained simmering bark, which Python was applying to the pelt. The bark, according to Python, didn’t come out of fur very well, so he’d protected his loincloth by removing it.
Lion watched the pots and Python.
Colt understood that even if Python wasn’t exactly his type. He could have lived without Python’s I-know-more-than-you-do personality, but he had to concede that he liked the part of Python that could do anything and the strength hidden in his sleek muscles. Colt sat by Lion and admired the view.
Lion bumped his shoulder. “Like?”
Colt grinned. “Pretty.”
Lion laughed. “Python pretty?”
Python stopped and looked up.
Colt shrugged. “Python pretty. Lion pretty. Star pretty.”
Lion grinned. “Horse pretty.”
Colt nodded graciously.
“Stay.”
Colt had walked right into that one. Time to change the subject. “Lion Python home? Here? There?
Lion looked at his hands, but Python shook his head. Python, as far as Colt could tell, was a traveler. He wouldn’t be content to sit still forever. Neither would Colt. “Fly. Go. Live.”
Lion sighed.
Python turned back to his work. “Come back?”
Colt closed his eyes and leaned back until he was laying down. In a mystic fairytale universe, he could fly off for jobs and then come home to two jungle men without weeks of walking or the language barrier or missing his mother and sister.
He sighed. Why even image the impossible? “Star not share.”
Lion grunted. Python laughed. “Star leave Horse. Horse come home.”
So that excuse hadn’t worked. He didn’t really have another. “I’d love to guys. Really love to. If a thousand things were different…”
Lion leaned over Colt. Colt brush Lion’s hanging hair. “I really have never been to a place that felt so much like home or met people I wanted to stay with so badly. But Lion, beautiful, sweet, gentle Lion, I can’t be here and be myself.”
“Colton, is he trying to seduce you again?”
Lion shot away from Colt.
Colt got up on his elbows as Orion walked into the clearing.
“Cole-ton?” asked Lion.
Colt put his hand on his chest.
Lion made the question sound again.
Orion pointed at Colt. “Colton.” He looked up at the sky and back at Colt. “Horse from the place of fire: Colton.”
“Cole-ton.”
Colt grinned. “Colt.”
“Colt?”
Python clapped his darkened hands on Colt’s chest. “Colt.”
His eyes said that Colt belonged to him or, at least, with him.
Colt turned away from the beautiful naked man practically in his lap. The pelt was mostly covered in bark. He pointed at it. “Help?”
Python shook his head. “Soon. Eat first.”
Lion bounced to his feet. “Lion go.”
Colt stood up. Lion couldn’t bring back enough for four alone. Orion took Colt’s hand and stopped him from following Lion. “No. Colton and I will stay here.”
Python nodded without waiting for a translation and clapped Lion on the back. The two disappeared into the jungle.
Orion tugged Colt to the only clear space not next to the pelt or fire and traced the handprint on Colt’s chest. “They want to take you from me.”
Colt sat down and leaned against a tree. “They won’t succeed.”
Orion caressed Colt’s hand. “You wish they would.”
Colt sighed. “If I was the type to be happy here, I would never have been in the position to find you.”
“But if you hadn’t had me to find?”
“Then I wouldn’t be here at all.”
“But if you found yourself here, say looking for someone else.”
Colt lifted Orion’s hand and kissed his palm. “I only came because of you. Anyone else, anything else, and I would have left it.”
Orion grinned and his eyes sparkled in the sunlight. “But you were tempted.”
Colt looked up at the sky. “Does it matter?”
“But if you want to stay…”
Colt closed his eyes. “I would not be happy here. Not without my skipper. Not being grounded. We can’t even communicate properly.”
“But he loves you.”
Colt laughed although he wanted to cry. He felt water at the corners of his eyes. “He loves me like no one ever has.” Colt took a deep breath and said it. “He loves me like I wish you did.”
Orion climbed into his lap. “Maybe we can fix that.”
His kiss was warm and gentle, but at the same time urgent and persistent and it almost made Colt forget that their time together was finite.
-
Colt pulled his coverall back on as Python and Lion returned. They hadn’t been to the village. They didn’t have bowls and the small deer-like creature was still in its skin.
Python butchered it quickly and, while the chunks of meat were grilling over the fire, he skinned what was left and set it aside. Colt hoped that Python wasn’t going to make them wait for that to be tanned. Lion had brought fruit and roots. The four ate those as the smell of cooking meat overpowered the tea smell.
Python arms were still brown up to his elbows. He scrapped the deerskin while Lion took the part of the deer they weren’t eating to the village. The pelt was so small that Python finished scrapping as Lion returned and then he covered the pelt with wet bark.
Now if that was all Python had to do to tan something, then why were they still waiting on the cat pelt.
Python grinned. “Cat pelt nice nice. Last long long. This,” he set another handful of bark on the deer pelt, “fast. Short.”
Orion laughed. “And here I thought he would have lengthened out the process just to make you stick around longer.”
“Horse need shoe.”
Now that was true enough, but didn’t these people repair and reuse everything?
“He’s wooing you.”
Colt frowned and looked at Orion. “Then should I not take them?”
“You need them.”
Colt wiggled his foot. The lacing attaching the sole to the uppers was unraveling and the back of the upper had a tear that got bigger every day.
“I’ve never seen anyone tan like this, but I have the feeling Python’s been around more than I have. He’s taken such good care of the cat hide, like he really cares about it, but he spends much less time than I’m used to and totally skips some steps that the village uses ever time.”
Colt leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. Orion leaned against him. Colt wrapped an arm around Orion. Colt didn’t want to think about motivation. He didn’t want to think about killing creatures so he could eat them. He didn’t want to wear dead animals on his feet. He just wanted to go home.
Only he was no longer sure where home was.