FIC: Roswell New Mexico - Moving Forward 23/?
Summary: Alex gets to work on dismantling his father’s legacy. He has help because Caulfield was only the beginning.
TITLE: Moving Forward
RATING: R (for language)
CHARACTERS: Alex Manes, Jenna Cameron, Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin, Max Evans, Isobel Evans-Bracken, Liz Ortecho, Maria DeLuca
PAIRING: Rath/Zan, Liz/Max, Alex/Michael, (past Michael/Maria, past Isobel/Noah)
AUTHOR: Melanie
Summary: Alex gets to work on dismantling his father’s legacy. He has help because Caulfield was only the beginning.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
FEEDBACK: Please?
Moving Forward 23/?
Max had put his foot down on sharing a room with Michael while Alex was there so Isobel finds herself with a roommate for the fifth consecutive day.
He does snore, he didn’t when they were children, so she wonders when it began.
Obviously after they went to having separate rooms as pre-teens. She gets tired of trying to block it out about three am, thinks for a moment about throwing something hard at him and instead goes downstairs to the living room.
She’s woken in the past to find Michael and Rath on the couch, talking quietly. She’d never interrupted them, just sat at the top of the stairs and listened to the quite hum of their voices.
Neither of them are there, though Vilandra, is sitting on one side of the couch, knees drawn up to her chest, looking small and lost. When she comes around the couch Vilandra looks up at her, brushing at her red eyes with long fingers. Her hands are shaking.
“Good morning,” Isobel offers and Vilandra smiles a tiny smile at her in return. The bruises around her neck look horrible, and she wonders how close they came to Vilandra not being able to flee with Alex because she was dead.
“Its very early,” Vilandra says.
“Max snores.”
Vilandra laughs a little.
“Zan and Rath were still sleeping,” she offers. “And I’ve been sleeping so much that I didn’t want my turning over in bed to wake them.”
“Normally I wake up and Michael is down here with Rath, talking.”
“Even when we were children Rath was an early riser, it used to drive Zan crazy to wake in the morning and Rath would be gone, meditating in the garden or practicing with his weapons, sparring with the guards, Rath was never one for idle time.”
“You knew them when they were kids?” Isobel asks, and she turns slightly so she’s facing her mother. Michael might know more, by virtue of his late-night conversations with their father but she doesn’t know anything really about their parents lives prior to them having kids.
“We grew up together, I was there the day they bonded,” she smiles wistfully at the memory, “Zan told me once, I think we were around ten or so that he knew they’d be bondmates. He was not one for precognition, I think he just adored Rath so much that even at ten he knew that the only way he’d be able to keep him close was to bond with him. I was so happy for them when it finally happened.”
“You weren’t angry at them being together?” Isobel vaguely remembers a conversation with Rath, months in the past where he’d told them that Vilandra had been jealous of the bond.
“No, absolutely not,” Vilandra says, she looks at her in confusion. “Anyone with eyes would have known that that Zan and Rath would be together, that included me. I was a little jealous that meant they’d spend a more time alone together then with me…” she rubs her hands together.
“We were fifteen and I was more then a little in love with the both of them. Thinking back now, my ladies and I think that might be how Kivar was able to first gain access to my mind.”
“But Rath bonded to Mara, Michael’s mom?”
“That was later, after Zan and I bonded, I don’t even know how we were able to do that with Kivar’s interference… though maybe he thought it a necessity for his plans,” Vilandra shrugs. “There was a brief time after Zan and I bonded that they tried to make the effort to bring Mara into our fold, and I know I could have loved her given the chance. She was bright and happy, and she was so very good for Rath. But Kivar has already weakened any friendship that remained between Rath and I, I didn’t understand at the time why Rath wouldn’t trust me alone with her, why he continually distanced himself from me, not like I do now…”
Tears are in her eyes again and Isobel doesn’t know what to do for her. Her mother is like a shattered glass, broken into so many pieces that she’s isn’t sure they’ll even be able to put them all back together and make her whole again.
“I loved them,” Vilandra says and she turns her face away, so Isobel can no longer see her tears. “I loved them, and he took them from me, I could have loved her too and we weren’t given the time.”
Isobel reaches out a hand and touches her mothers’ arm and Vilandra turns to her, tears streaking her face, eyes red.
“You don’t have to offer me comfort,” she says. “I know I am a stranger to you, to all of you.”
“I had a husband once,” Isobel says, she swallows thickly, forcing herself to breathe. “Max, Michael and I, we think he did to me what Kivar did to you. He was in my head and he controlled me, I don’t even know all the things he did using my body that I don’t even have memories of.”
Vilandra looks horrified and so angry. “Tell me he’s dead or tell me that the council brought him up on charges, so you could deliver his sentence.”
“He’s gone.”
Vilandra reaches out a tentative hand and Isobel takes it, gripping it tightly. She wants to hug her, but she can remember those first days after they’d found out what Noah had done to her, he’d been gone, and Max had been gone and she didn’t want anyone, not even Michael, touching her.
“Zan is having one of our mind healers come sit with me tomorrow, to see what damage Kivar has wrought and what we can do to rectify it,” Vilandra says quietly. “You can join us if you like? It might help to settle your mind.”
Isobel nods once and they sit there in silence, Vilandra keeps her hand within her own and breathes, Isobel breathes with her as the sit in the silence of the room.
********************************
Vilandra doesn’t want him or Rath to go with her to talk to the mind healers, apparently she wants to take Isobel and it’s the first thing she’s asked for since they got her back so Zan nods and watches his wife and his daughter head four buildings over with Stass and Tare shadowing them.
Once they’re out of eye sight he corners Rath in their room, just because Rath hasn’t voiced that he’s feeling neglected doesn’t mean that Zan doesn’t feel like he’s neglecting him with almost all his focus having been on Vilandra.
So he shuts their door and backs Rath against a wall, it feels like ages since he’s had Rath pulled tight against him, mouth against his. Rath just holds him, hands pushing up under his shirt, nails digging into his skin. Zan shudders against him and he doesn’t know if he can articulate how much he wants Rath in their bed, warm bare skin against his, body and mind open beneath him.
How much he just wants.
Rath starts moving forward, forcing Zan to take steps back and he takes them, trusting that Rath won’t have them falling to the ground, he feels the bed against the back of his legs and he goes down willingly, Rath following him down.
Legs spread so Rath can settle between them and they can grind together, clothing still a barrier between them and Zan thinks it would be nothing to slide off his pants, to get his hands moving to push down Rath’s.
Rath does it instead, biting a kiss against his lips and then pushing himself away so he can stand at the edge at the edge of the bed, slowly pulling off his shirt and pants as Zan watches and breathes, then realizes he could be shedding his own clothing.
His movements are swift, eyes not leaving the slow motions of Rath undressing in front of him.
When he drops his shirt, he smirks at Zan, running long fingers over himself and Zan would likely be embarrassed and would never admit to the sound that escapes him if it were to have happened in public. He sits up in the bed and draws his hands up Rath’s legs, pressing his lips to the smooth skin of his stomach.
One of Rath’s hands settle on the back of his head, stroking through his hair gently as he kisses a meandering path to where Rath is still stroking himself gently. When Zan takes him into his mouth Rath makes a noise that is half gasp half moan, hand stilling on the back of his head, Zan drags his tongue up the underside of him, lets one of his hands travel between Rath’s thighs and presses fingers against him.
Rath swears at him, a curse in some language that Zan either doesn’t speak or Rath has never taught him the fun words for, and Zan would grin but instead he takes him back in his mouth.
“Zan,” Rath moans, and he winds his fingers in Zan’s hair pulling him back enough that he drops from Zan’s mouth. Zan looks up at him and he doesn’t know what picture he makes but Rath’s eyes are wide, pupils blown.
Zan bites his lip as Rath bends to kiss him, moves up the bed as Rath climbs onto it, straddling his legs and reaching across the bed to try and grab at the bottle of lube that Zan had left on the side table helpfully when he knew he meant to seduce Rath at some point during the day.
Zan holds onto his legs helpfully and doesn’t reach to touch or stroke him no matter how much he itches to have his fingers wrapped around him, after Rath growls at him to “just wait a minute” as he pours lube over his own fingers.
He would love to see the sight of Rath stretching himself open, instead he lays there, dragging restless hands over Rath’s thighs, maneuvering closer and closer to where one of his most favorite parts of Rath is hard and leaking against his belly.
It’s not nearly long enough, Zan would have taken longer, would have slowly worked his way up to four fingers and likely had Rath growling at him to “hurry the fuck up”, but Rath grips him in lube wet fingers and sinks down on him way faster then Zan is prepared for.
He’s barely stretched himself and Zan has to close his eyes and hold tight to Rath’s legs to try and keep him from moving; he’s going to come immediately which may have been Rath’s plan all along when he finally opens his eyes and sees Rath smirking down at him.
He doesn’t like this position, it leaves all the control up to Rath who doesn’t even have to brace his hands on the bed in order to start moving, he moves in waves and Zan just holds on as Rath takes his pleasure from his body and drags Zan along with him.
“Love you,” he gasps and Rath smiles at him, leans down, finally bracing his hands on either side of his head and kissing him sweetly. He rolls to the side onto his back, Zan slipping out of him as he moves and Zan doesn’t waste the time to think just rolls on top of him, driving back in and he can feel Rath’s legs hook around his.
“Love you,” Rath murmurs as Zan kisses him, their bodies moving together and as much as he loves Vilandra, loves having Vilandra back and safe, there is a part of him that misses the freedom of being able to roll over in bed and make love to Rath when the sky is still dark and the air is still.
He comes and Rath comes minutes later with both their hands wrapped around him. He curls up next to him, rubbing come into his skin and luxuriating in Rath pressing kisses to his temple.
“It’ll be okay,” Rath murmurs against his skin. “We’ll have stolen moments like this until she’s ready to talk about where we go from here.”
“It was easy with Mara,” Zan says, he knows he sounds petulant, like a child that is being held to a schedule that they don’t agree with.
“Mara knew what she was getting herself into,” Rath says. “She knew I was already bonded to you, you introduced us after all. And though we talked at the beginning if we were to ever be bonded if she would be amenable to opening our bed to you and she was; I don’t think she thought that would ever be a thing that would happen. She adored you, she thought you had a kind heart.”
Zan laughs, even to his ears it sounds sad.
“Vilandra and I had a conversation like that after we first bonded,” he thinks it was Vilandra having that conversation with him, he doesn’t think if Kivar had been in control of her then if that conversation would have gone as well as it had.
“See, we’ll be okay, she needs time, we need time,” Rath says. “When we’re home, on Antar, that will be soon enough to determine if Vilandra and I will be able to bond and if she will join us in our bed together or if your relationship with your wife will stay separate from ours.”
“You sound so sure,” Zan says and he lifts his head, so he can look directly at Rath. There is no hesitation, no doubt, nothing that would scream that his words are anything but the truth.
“Vilandra and I were friends once, without the shade’s interference maybe we will be able to be more now,” Rath says and he smiles gently at him, kisses him sweetly.
“I love you,” he murmurs, and he links their fingers together, closes his eyes.
“I love you, too.”
********************************
Their conversation on Alex’s new leg that morning had been comprised of a shrug and a comment of ‘illegal surgery’ and when Michael had kept pushing he finally got a ‘ask Ryder’ which are not answers no matter how much Alex seemed to think the topic was closed.
So Michael corners Bren because his dads had disappeared into their bedroom and he’s not interrupting them.
Alex has been dragged along behind him because Michael has Alex’s hand firmly gripped within his because he doesn’t trust Alex to hide with his new leg somewhere that Michael can’t find him.
“Healers,” he says, he’s slightly out of breath because Bren has been hard as hell to find even though the compound is really not that big, they find him on the ship, which logically should probably have been the first place that he looked since that seems to be where everyone is right now.
“Are you injured?” Bren asks and his eyes are wide and assessing, like if he looks hard enough he’ll figure out where he’s hurt and how bad the injury is.
“Alex’s leg,” Michael waves, “the prosthetic, they did something to it.”
Bren looks at Alex, looks down at his legs which are covered by pants and not visible and then back up at Alex who shrugs and continues to look unconcerned.
“Okay?” Bren looks between them and he looks slightly confused, like he’s not sure what the issue is. His expression matches Alex’s which Michael doesn’t find comforting at all.
“I have a healer in one of med rooms,” Bren says slowly, and he leads the way, down hallways that Michael barely remembers traversing with his dad and when they get to their destination Bren shoves past and into the room the healer must have been set up in.
No one stops them, and Michael tries to ignore the slight bows he gets when people see him, Alex is smirking next to him which he also ignores.
“You know we’re trying to set up a schedule,” the healer says, then he sees Michael and flushes a bright red. “Sorry your highness, didn’t see you.”
“This shouldn’t take long,” Bren says. “The… when they had Captain Manes they replaced his prosthetic with an artificial limb, Michael has some concerns that I’m hoping you can put to rest.”
The healer looks at Bren who just shrugs at him and takes a step back to take up position by the door, the healer looks between Michael and Alex.
“Okay,” he says. “My name is Baren the ninth, you may call me Baren or Healer Baren if you are more comfortable. Can I ask you to remove your pants or is that too presumptuous?”
Alex shrugs then looks down at where Michael is still gripping his hand. “You have to let go,” he murmurs, and Michael lets out a breath that likely sounds like a sigh and let Alex’s fingers go.
“If you are not comfortable having me examine your bonded your highness, I can call another Healer in?” Baren asks and Michael shakes his head while Alex removes his shoes and pushes his pants down, he’s wearing a pair of Michael’s boxers which he is not very successful in hiding the resulting grin at seeing.
Alex hands his pants off to Michael to clutch at and Baren indicates the high bed in the corner for him to sit on.
In the ships glaring bright lights his leg looks even more alien. But Baren looks as unconcerned as Alex when he presses against where the leg fits seamlessly up against where Michael remembers his stump ending.
Michael takes a step closer and sets Alex’s pants down on the bed behind him, touching Alex’s back. If there wasn’t so obvious a difference between the two Michael wouldn’t even be able to tell that wasn’t the leg that Alex was born with.
“There doesn’t seem to be any signs of rash or swelling,” Baren says. “Are you experiencing any discomfort?”
“No, it’s…” Alex bites his lip. “How do I take it off? You know, care for it? Every other prosthetic I’ve had there’s been limitations as to how long I can wear it and as the swelling went down there were new ones to try and…” he drawls off as Baren is staring at him in confusion.
“You don’t take it off?” Baren says slowly, “I’m not sure why you would want to? It looks like the surgery was a success, without running a complete diagnostic on it, visibly it looks as if the initial integrations with your nervous system are on track. If you want, we can do a scan and see if any surprises were left behind…”
“If you’re talking about the kill switch I disarmed that before we escaped,” Alex waves, “It would have been bad to have been in the process of escaping and have the leg stop working,” he says when he realizes that Michael and Bren both have mirrored expressions of horror on their faces.
“Then it should be fine, we’ll give it another few days, then we’ll re-evaluate and if it makes you more comfortable we can look at skin coverings so it’s not so obvious,” Baren shrugs.
“So he doesn’t need to do anything special with it?” Michael presses.
“If I had been involved in the surgery I would be monitoring his general health, check ins every month or so to evaluate the nervous system integration, possibly some sessions with a mind healer just for mental health checks.”
“Okay,” Michael nods and Alex rolls his eyes at him and hops off the bed, Michael still holds out his hands to help steady him. He doesn’t think that will be a habit that stops any time soon regardless of Alex’s shiny new leg. He hands his pants back and Alex pulls them on.
“Thank you,” Michael nods and Baren smiles at him, smiles even wider when Alex takes his hand back and leans slightly into him.
********************************
Isobel isn’t sure what she expected a mind healer to be like, probably more like the therapists that she’s been talking through her trauma with.
“You don’t need to participate if you don’t feel comfortable,” the older woman whose name is Karo says.
“Can I just watch for now?” Isobel asks and Karo smiles and nods and Vilandra squeezes her hand. They sit across from each other on mats on the floor, her mother periodically cries and Karo makes murmuring sounds of encouragement.
They never say a word out loud and the hours go quickly, quickly enough that Isobel hasn’t even realized that several hours have passed until her stomach growls at the missed lunch.
“I think that is enough for today,” Karo says and Vilandra lets out a smooth exhale and opens eyes that look much clearer to Isobel’s untrained eyes. “How do you feel my lady?”
Her mother sits there for a moment and then smiles, wiping at her eyes. “Better? More stable definitely.”
“Good, your bond is recovering nicely. You and Zan should meditate together, maybe convince Rath to join you if you do mean to attempt to bond at some point in the future,” Karo says.
Vilandra nods and they both smoothly come to their feet, Isobel touching her mother’s arm, letting her take her hand.
“Thank you, Healer Karo,” Vilandra says and her voice is so kind, so sweet.
Isobel aches for the mother they were kept from as children, she thinks this Vilandra would have been right behind her and Max and Michael when they got up to mischief and would likely have been hiding the evidence from their other parents with a smirk or disarming smile.
“What does it feel like?” she asks as they walk the short distance back to the house.
“It’s peaceful, it’s like having someone help you sort through things and events and then place them back into the order they should be, so you can process them. And smudge the events that will cause pain or discomfort while you’re trying to work through them,” Vilandra thinks for a moment.
“Next time,” Isobel decides, she’s let the memory of Noah dictate how she’s led her life for so long now. If anything can get her past it, will allow her to touch Rosa and not wonder if she’s doing it because that’s what Noah wanted or if that’s what she wants, she’s willing to do it.
Vilandra smiles at her and the front door opens as they reach it, Zan looks between them with an expectant look and Isobel smiles as Vilandra cups his face in one hand and presses a gentle kiss to his lips.
When Isobel looks past her parents kissing in the doorway into the house she can see her other father standing just the slightest distance away, grinning, looking happy and relaxed.
Zan wraps his arms around Vilandra and hugs her tightly, when he releases her so she can enter the house, she walks right into Rath’s arms.
She doesn’t kiss him, not the way she did with Zan, but she brushes her fingers across his lips and smiles at him, he cradles her head in his hands and presses his lips to her forehead.
Later she’ll tell Rosa how easy they were with each other, that she never thought she’d be able to see the way the bond lights up between any of them, but she swore she could see the one strung between Vilandra and Zan, and she could see the possibility of one dancing in the air between Vilandra and Rath.
********************************
TITLE: Moving Forward
RATING: R (for language)
CHARACTERS: Alex Manes, Jenna Cameron, Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin, Max Evans, Isobel Evans-Bracken, Liz Ortecho, Maria DeLuca
PAIRING: Rath/Zan, Liz/Max, Alex/Michael, (past Michael/Maria, past Isobel/Noah)
AUTHOR: Melanie
Summary: Alex gets to work on dismantling his father’s legacy. He has help because Caulfield was only the beginning.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
FEEDBACK: Please?
Moving Forward 23/?
Max had put his foot down on sharing a room with Michael while Alex was there so Isobel finds herself with a roommate for the fifth consecutive day.
He does snore, he didn’t when they were children, so she wonders when it began.
Obviously after they went to having separate rooms as pre-teens. She gets tired of trying to block it out about three am, thinks for a moment about throwing something hard at him and instead goes downstairs to the living room.
She’s woken in the past to find Michael and Rath on the couch, talking quietly. She’d never interrupted them, just sat at the top of the stairs and listened to the quite hum of their voices.
Neither of them are there, though Vilandra, is sitting on one side of the couch, knees drawn up to her chest, looking small and lost. When she comes around the couch Vilandra looks up at her, brushing at her red eyes with long fingers. Her hands are shaking.
“Good morning,” Isobel offers and Vilandra smiles a tiny smile at her in return. The bruises around her neck look horrible, and she wonders how close they came to Vilandra not being able to flee with Alex because she was dead.
“Its very early,” Vilandra says.
“Max snores.”
Vilandra laughs a little.
“Zan and Rath were still sleeping,” she offers. “And I’ve been sleeping so much that I didn’t want my turning over in bed to wake them.”
“Normally I wake up and Michael is down here with Rath, talking.”
“Even when we were children Rath was an early riser, it used to drive Zan crazy to wake in the morning and Rath would be gone, meditating in the garden or practicing with his weapons, sparring with the guards, Rath was never one for idle time.”
“You knew them when they were kids?” Isobel asks, and she turns slightly so she’s facing her mother. Michael might know more, by virtue of his late-night conversations with their father but she doesn’t know anything really about their parents lives prior to them having kids.
“We grew up together, I was there the day they bonded,” she smiles wistfully at the memory, “Zan told me once, I think we were around ten or so that he knew they’d be bondmates. He was not one for precognition, I think he just adored Rath so much that even at ten he knew that the only way he’d be able to keep him close was to bond with him. I was so happy for them when it finally happened.”
“You weren’t angry at them being together?” Isobel vaguely remembers a conversation with Rath, months in the past where he’d told them that Vilandra had been jealous of the bond.
“No, absolutely not,” Vilandra says, she looks at her in confusion. “Anyone with eyes would have known that that Zan and Rath would be together, that included me. I was a little jealous that meant they’d spend a more time alone together then with me…” she rubs her hands together.
“We were fifteen and I was more then a little in love with the both of them. Thinking back now, my ladies and I think that might be how Kivar was able to first gain access to my mind.”
“But Rath bonded to Mara, Michael’s mom?”
“That was later, after Zan and I bonded, I don’t even know how we were able to do that with Kivar’s interference… though maybe he thought it a necessity for his plans,” Vilandra shrugs. “There was a brief time after Zan and I bonded that they tried to make the effort to bring Mara into our fold, and I know I could have loved her given the chance. She was bright and happy, and she was so very good for Rath. But Kivar has already weakened any friendship that remained between Rath and I, I didn’t understand at the time why Rath wouldn’t trust me alone with her, why he continually distanced himself from me, not like I do now…”
Tears are in her eyes again and Isobel doesn’t know what to do for her. Her mother is like a shattered glass, broken into so many pieces that she’s isn’t sure they’ll even be able to put them all back together and make her whole again.
“I loved them,” Vilandra says and she turns her face away, so Isobel can no longer see her tears. “I loved them, and he took them from me, I could have loved her too and we weren’t given the time.”
Isobel reaches out a hand and touches her mothers’ arm and Vilandra turns to her, tears streaking her face, eyes red.
“You don’t have to offer me comfort,” she says. “I know I am a stranger to you, to all of you.”
“I had a husband once,” Isobel says, she swallows thickly, forcing herself to breathe. “Max, Michael and I, we think he did to me what Kivar did to you. He was in my head and he controlled me, I don’t even know all the things he did using my body that I don’t even have memories of.”
Vilandra looks horrified and so angry. “Tell me he’s dead or tell me that the council brought him up on charges, so you could deliver his sentence.”
“He’s gone.”
Vilandra reaches out a tentative hand and Isobel takes it, gripping it tightly. She wants to hug her, but she can remember those first days after they’d found out what Noah had done to her, he’d been gone, and Max had been gone and she didn’t want anyone, not even Michael, touching her.
“Zan is having one of our mind healers come sit with me tomorrow, to see what damage Kivar has wrought and what we can do to rectify it,” Vilandra says quietly. “You can join us if you like? It might help to settle your mind.”
Isobel nods once and they sit there in silence, Vilandra keeps her hand within her own and breathes, Isobel breathes with her as the sit in the silence of the room.
********************************
Vilandra doesn’t want him or Rath to go with her to talk to the mind healers, apparently she wants to take Isobel and it’s the first thing she’s asked for since they got her back so Zan nods and watches his wife and his daughter head four buildings over with Stass and Tare shadowing them.
Once they’re out of eye sight he corners Rath in their room, just because Rath hasn’t voiced that he’s feeling neglected doesn’t mean that Zan doesn’t feel like he’s neglecting him with almost all his focus having been on Vilandra.
So he shuts their door and backs Rath against a wall, it feels like ages since he’s had Rath pulled tight against him, mouth against his. Rath just holds him, hands pushing up under his shirt, nails digging into his skin. Zan shudders against him and he doesn’t know if he can articulate how much he wants Rath in their bed, warm bare skin against his, body and mind open beneath him.
How much he just wants.
Rath starts moving forward, forcing Zan to take steps back and he takes them, trusting that Rath won’t have them falling to the ground, he feels the bed against the back of his legs and he goes down willingly, Rath following him down.
Legs spread so Rath can settle between them and they can grind together, clothing still a barrier between them and Zan thinks it would be nothing to slide off his pants, to get his hands moving to push down Rath’s.
Rath does it instead, biting a kiss against his lips and then pushing himself away so he can stand at the edge at the edge of the bed, slowly pulling off his shirt and pants as Zan watches and breathes, then realizes he could be shedding his own clothing.
His movements are swift, eyes not leaving the slow motions of Rath undressing in front of him.
When he drops his shirt, he smirks at Zan, running long fingers over himself and Zan would likely be embarrassed and would never admit to the sound that escapes him if it were to have happened in public. He sits up in the bed and draws his hands up Rath’s legs, pressing his lips to the smooth skin of his stomach.
One of Rath’s hands settle on the back of his head, stroking through his hair gently as he kisses a meandering path to where Rath is still stroking himself gently. When Zan takes him into his mouth Rath makes a noise that is half gasp half moan, hand stilling on the back of his head, Zan drags his tongue up the underside of him, lets one of his hands travel between Rath’s thighs and presses fingers against him.
Rath swears at him, a curse in some language that Zan either doesn’t speak or Rath has never taught him the fun words for, and Zan would grin but instead he takes him back in his mouth.
“Zan,” Rath moans, and he winds his fingers in Zan’s hair pulling him back enough that he drops from Zan’s mouth. Zan looks up at him and he doesn’t know what picture he makes but Rath’s eyes are wide, pupils blown.
Zan bites his lip as Rath bends to kiss him, moves up the bed as Rath climbs onto it, straddling his legs and reaching across the bed to try and grab at the bottle of lube that Zan had left on the side table helpfully when he knew he meant to seduce Rath at some point during the day.
Zan holds onto his legs helpfully and doesn’t reach to touch or stroke him no matter how much he itches to have his fingers wrapped around him, after Rath growls at him to “just wait a minute” as he pours lube over his own fingers.
He would love to see the sight of Rath stretching himself open, instead he lays there, dragging restless hands over Rath’s thighs, maneuvering closer and closer to where one of his most favorite parts of Rath is hard and leaking against his belly.
It’s not nearly long enough, Zan would have taken longer, would have slowly worked his way up to four fingers and likely had Rath growling at him to “hurry the fuck up”, but Rath grips him in lube wet fingers and sinks down on him way faster then Zan is prepared for.
He’s barely stretched himself and Zan has to close his eyes and hold tight to Rath’s legs to try and keep him from moving; he’s going to come immediately which may have been Rath’s plan all along when he finally opens his eyes and sees Rath smirking down at him.
He doesn’t like this position, it leaves all the control up to Rath who doesn’t even have to brace his hands on the bed in order to start moving, he moves in waves and Zan just holds on as Rath takes his pleasure from his body and drags Zan along with him.
“Love you,” he gasps and Rath smiles at him, leans down, finally bracing his hands on either side of his head and kissing him sweetly. He rolls to the side onto his back, Zan slipping out of him as he moves and Zan doesn’t waste the time to think just rolls on top of him, driving back in and he can feel Rath’s legs hook around his.
“Love you,” Rath murmurs as Zan kisses him, their bodies moving together and as much as he loves Vilandra, loves having Vilandra back and safe, there is a part of him that misses the freedom of being able to roll over in bed and make love to Rath when the sky is still dark and the air is still.
He comes and Rath comes minutes later with both their hands wrapped around him. He curls up next to him, rubbing come into his skin and luxuriating in Rath pressing kisses to his temple.
“It’ll be okay,” Rath murmurs against his skin. “We’ll have stolen moments like this until she’s ready to talk about where we go from here.”
“It was easy with Mara,” Zan says, he knows he sounds petulant, like a child that is being held to a schedule that they don’t agree with.
“Mara knew what she was getting herself into,” Rath says. “She knew I was already bonded to you, you introduced us after all. And though we talked at the beginning if we were to ever be bonded if she would be amenable to opening our bed to you and she was; I don’t think she thought that would ever be a thing that would happen. She adored you, she thought you had a kind heart.”
Zan laughs, even to his ears it sounds sad.
“Vilandra and I had a conversation like that after we first bonded,” he thinks it was Vilandra having that conversation with him, he doesn’t think if Kivar had been in control of her then if that conversation would have gone as well as it had.
“See, we’ll be okay, she needs time, we need time,” Rath says. “When we’re home, on Antar, that will be soon enough to determine if Vilandra and I will be able to bond and if she will join us in our bed together or if your relationship with your wife will stay separate from ours.”
“You sound so sure,” Zan says and he lifts his head, so he can look directly at Rath. There is no hesitation, no doubt, nothing that would scream that his words are anything but the truth.
“Vilandra and I were friends once, without the shade’s interference maybe we will be able to be more now,” Rath says and he smiles gently at him, kisses him sweetly.
“I love you,” he murmurs, and he links their fingers together, closes his eyes.
“I love you, too.”
********************************
Their conversation on Alex’s new leg that morning had been comprised of a shrug and a comment of ‘illegal surgery’ and when Michael had kept pushing he finally got a ‘ask Ryder’ which are not answers no matter how much Alex seemed to think the topic was closed.
So Michael corners Bren because his dads had disappeared into their bedroom and he’s not interrupting them.
Alex has been dragged along behind him because Michael has Alex’s hand firmly gripped within his because he doesn’t trust Alex to hide with his new leg somewhere that Michael can’t find him.
“Healers,” he says, he’s slightly out of breath because Bren has been hard as hell to find even though the compound is really not that big, they find him on the ship, which logically should probably have been the first place that he looked since that seems to be where everyone is right now.
“Are you injured?” Bren asks and his eyes are wide and assessing, like if he looks hard enough he’ll figure out where he’s hurt and how bad the injury is.
“Alex’s leg,” Michael waves, “the prosthetic, they did something to it.”
Bren looks at Alex, looks down at his legs which are covered by pants and not visible and then back up at Alex who shrugs and continues to look unconcerned.
“Okay?” Bren looks between them and he looks slightly confused, like he’s not sure what the issue is. His expression matches Alex’s which Michael doesn’t find comforting at all.
“I have a healer in one of med rooms,” Bren says slowly, and he leads the way, down hallways that Michael barely remembers traversing with his dad and when they get to their destination Bren shoves past and into the room the healer must have been set up in.
No one stops them, and Michael tries to ignore the slight bows he gets when people see him, Alex is smirking next to him which he also ignores.
“You know we’re trying to set up a schedule,” the healer says, then he sees Michael and flushes a bright red. “Sorry your highness, didn’t see you.”
“This shouldn’t take long,” Bren says. “The… when they had Captain Manes they replaced his prosthetic with an artificial limb, Michael has some concerns that I’m hoping you can put to rest.”
The healer looks at Bren who just shrugs at him and takes a step back to take up position by the door, the healer looks between Michael and Alex.
“Okay,” he says. “My name is Baren the ninth, you may call me Baren or Healer Baren if you are more comfortable. Can I ask you to remove your pants or is that too presumptuous?”
Alex shrugs then looks down at where Michael is still gripping his hand. “You have to let go,” he murmurs, and Michael lets out a breath that likely sounds like a sigh and let Alex’s fingers go.
“If you are not comfortable having me examine your bonded your highness, I can call another Healer in?” Baren asks and Michael shakes his head while Alex removes his shoes and pushes his pants down, he’s wearing a pair of Michael’s boxers which he is not very successful in hiding the resulting grin at seeing.
Alex hands his pants off to Michael to clutch at and Baren indicates the high bed in the corner for him to sit on.
In the ships glaring bright lights his leg looks even more alien. But Baren looks as unconcerned as Alex when he presses against where the leg fits seamlessly up against where Michael remembers his stump ending.
Michael takes a step closer and sets Alex’s pants down on the bed behind him, touching Alex’s back. If there wasn’t so obvious a difference between the two Michael wouldn’t even be able to tell that wasn’t the leg that Alex was born with.
“There doesn’t seem to be any signs of rash or swelling,” Baren says. “Are you experiencing any discomfort?”
“No, it’s…” Alex bites his lip. “How do I take it off? You know, care for it? Every other prosthetic I’ve had there’s been limitations as to how long I can wear it and as the swelling went down there were new ones to try and…” he drawls off as Baren is staring at him in confusion.
“You don’t take it off?” Baren says slowly, “I’m not sure why you would want to? It looks like the surgery was a success, without running a complete diagnostic on it, visibly it looks as if the initial integrations with your nervous system are on track. If you want, we can do a scan and see if any surprises were left behind…”
“If you’re talking about the kill switch I disarmed that before we escaped,” Alex waves, “It would have been bad to have been in the process of escaping and have the leg stop working,” he says when he realizes that Michael and Bren both have mirrored expressions of horror on their faces.
“Then it should be fine, we’ll give it another few days, then we’ll re-evaluate and if it makes you more comfortable we can look at skin coverings so it’s not so obvious,” Baren shrugs.
“So he doesn’t need to do anything special with it?” Michael presses.
“If I had been involved in the surgery I would be monitoring his general health, check ins every month or so to evaluate the nervous system integration, possibly some sessions with a mind healer just for mental health checks.”
“Okay,” Michael nods and Alex rolls his eyes at him and hops off the bed, Michael still holds out his hands to help steady him. He doesn’t think that will be a habit that stops any time soon regardless of Alex’s shiny new leg. He hands his pants back and Alex pulls them on.
“Thank you,” Michael nods and Baren smiles at him, smiles even wider when Alex takes his hand back and leans slightly into him.
********************************
Isobel isn’t sure what she expected a mind healer to be like, probably more like the therapists that she’s been talking through her trauma with.
“You don’t need to participate if you don’t feel comfortable,” the older woman whose name is Karo says.
“Can I just watch for now?” Isobel asks and Karo smiles and nods and Vilandra squeezes her hand. They sit across from each other on mats on the floor, her mother periodically cries and Karo makes murmuring sounds of encouragement.
They never say a word out loud and the hours go quickly, quickly enough that Isobel hasn’t even realized that several hours have passed until her stomach growls at the missed lunch.
“I think that is enough for today,” Karo says and Vilandra lets out a smooth exhale and opens eyes that look much clearer to Isobel’s untrained eyes. “How do you feel my lady?”
Her mother sits there for a moment and then smiles, wiping at her eyes. “Better? More stable definitely.”
“Good, your bond is recovering nicely. You and Zan should meditate together, maybe convince Rath to join you if you do mean to attempt to bond at some point in the future,” Karo says.
Vilandra nods and they both smoothly come to their feet, Isobel touching her mother’s arm, letting her take her hand.
“Thank you, Healer Karo,” Vilandra says and her voice is so kind, so sweet.
Isobel aches for the mother they were kept from as children, she thinks this Vilandra would have been right behind her and Max and Michael when they got up to mischief and would likely have been hiding the evidence from their other parents with a smirk or disarming smile.
“What does it feel like?” she asks as they walk the short distance back to the house.
“It’s peaceful, it’s like having someone help you sort through things and events and then place them back into the order they should be, so you can process them. And smudge the events that will cause pain or discomfort while you’re trying to work through them,” Vilandra thinks for a moment.
“Next time,” Isobel decides, she’s let the memory of Noah dictate how she’s led her life for so long now. If anything can get her past it, will allow her to touch Rosa and not wonder if she’s doing it because that’s what Noah wanted or if that’s what she wants, she’s willing to do it.
Vilandra smiles at her and the front door opens as they reach it, Zan looks between them with an expectant look and Isobel smiles as Vilandra cups his face in one hand and presses a gentle kiss to his lips.
When Isobel looks past her parents kissing in the doorway into the house she can see her other father standing just the slightest distance away, grinning, looking happy and relaxed.
Zan wraps his arms around Vilandra and hugs her tightly, when he releases her so she can enter the house, she walks right into Rath’s arms.
She doesn’t kiss him, not the way she did with Zan, but she brushes her fingers across his lips and smiles at him, he cradles her head in his hands and presses his lips to her forehead.
Later she’ll tell Rosa how easy they were with each other, that she never thought she’d be able to see the way the bond lights up between any of them, but she swore she could see the one strung between Vilandra and Zan, and she could see the possibility of one dancing in the air between Vilandra and Rath.
********************************