Ship Olympics: Event 2: Team Kikipups
Title: One Fine Day
Creator(s): sail_aweigh
Universe: AOS
Word Count: ~2760
Rating: PG-13 for swears
Summary: Jim really doesn't think about Kicker when he's not around, much. Hikaru begs to differ.
Disclaimer: Not mine, I just like to play with other people's toys. I try not to break them.
The alarm on Jim's chronometer was the most annoying thing ever, he decided. He knew he never should have left Hikaru alone in his quarters while he took a quick jog down to engineering to get the poker chips from Scotty last night. Now his alarm was blaring some 21st century pop song at him extorting him to "put a ring on it." Dumbass.
Stretching out long and lean under his blankets, Jim debated on whether he wanted to take a quick wank in the warm comfort of his bed or in the shower, where the water would take care of cleaning everything up at the same time. Hmmm, shower would kill two birds with one stone, maximizing efficiency and contributing to morale. Well, his own personal morale, at least, and it was for the betterment of everybody, really, if the captain was sated and happy.
Really, real sex would be even better, but he hadn't had a date since that disaster with Ensign Patel on Starbase 7 three months ago. He really didn't remember calling him "Kicker" when he came, but that's what the dude had sworn. And sworn a lot of other stuff at him, too. Jim honestly didn't know where that had come from, he was the only one who used that name for Hikaru and he'd never thought of him that way before, much. Why then?
Scratching at his stomach as he walked into the bathroom, Jim leaned into the shower stall and turned on the water. While he waited for the water to warm up, he stripped off his pyjama bottoms, then got into his stance in front of the toilet to relieve himself. Bones would be proud of him, all that bitching at the academy to quit pissing in the shower had finally sunk in. Fuck, he was a starship captain, responsibility had to catch up to him sometime. Even though pissing through a dick that was already half hard was not easy and that's why he saved relieving himself for the shower, dammit. With a sigh, he shook the last couple drops off and flushed the toilet before disappearing into the shower. And he was not going to think about the long golden legs and shapely shoulders of his pilot while he leisurely rubbed one out, because that would be just weird and wrong.
oOoOo
Once showered and suitably pumped--ha, pumped; he cracked himself up--Jim had brushed his teeth, foregone shaving and had gotten dressed in board shorts and a faded tee. Breakfast could wait until Hikaru got there. Once fed, they could leave for their planned underwater adventure. In the meantime, he would make sure the choops were fed and watered enough for the whole day. Jim headed for the dresser where the hamster cage rested.
Cage top flung back for easy access, Jim had just picked up the empty food bowl inside to refill it when his door chime sounded.
"Enter." Jim opened the bag of feed and poured it into the bowl. Tibbie and Horatio snuffled at the side of the cage, waiting eagerly for the bowl to be returned.
"Hey, what up?" Hikaru slouched his way into the living area and plopped himself down onto the sofa, legs akimbo, arms flung across the back.
"Just feeding the choops before we leave. You get all the gear together?" Jim and Hikaru had decided to try something new on this shore leave. There was an underwater grotto at the resort on Regulus V that was supposed to have some outstanding sea life and natural rock formations that were unlike anything seen. They had signed up for lessons from a dive shop earlier in the week and gotten their basic certification on the local equipment out of the way. Now they wanted to check out the promised goodies before the end of shore leave tomorrow.
"Yeah, man. Everything is ready to go, waiting for us at the dive shop. We have blast off whenever you're ready." Hikaru rolled off the sofa and loped over to the cage, sticking his finger between a couple of the bars and stroking Tibbie on the nose. The hamster sniffed at his finger for a second and then stuck its nose into the food bowl that Jim had just replaced.
"Ha, cupboard love at its purest." Jim closed the top of the cage and made chucking sounds at the hamsters. "Later, choops."
Throwing one arm over Hikaru's shoulders, he turned him back toward the door. "C'mon, Kicker. Let's blow this joint before Bones comes to tell us all the dangers of deep sea diving and the perils of nitrogen narcosis. He'll probably recycle his favorite homily about danger and death, wrapped in darkness and silence or whatever the hell it is. At least he won't be around to throw up on me this time." Or to tease him about the way he watched Kicker out of the corner of his eye at every opportunity. Jim gave an internal scoff. Bones didn't know what he was talking about.
Pushing Hikaru through the door, Jim called for lights out and let the door close behind them. Shore leave was looking good and he was starving.
oOoOo
A bright iridescent purple flash caught Jim's attention out of the corner of one eye. Looking over to where Hikaru was examining a flowery form that resembled a sea anemone, he waved one hand at him and pointed down. A kick of his fins propelled him closer to his target until he was able to see that the purple was the meaty interior of a bivalve of some kind.
As he approached the life form, the purple fringe waving in the water currents changed color rapidly through blues and greens to pinks and oranges before pulling itself into the safety of its shell and closing up shop. It was a stunning visual display, one of many they'd seen so far that morning. Only minorly disappointed that the creature didn't seem interested in opening back up when he just sat there for a few moments as still as he could, Jim moved on to the next underwater formation that boasted more colorful sea creatures in fantastic configurations.
Mindful of dive protocol, he kept one eye on Hikaru as he moved, never letting him get more than one good fin kick away from him. While they'd been told there was an energy barrier set to repel predatory creatures from the waters in which they were diving, they were still both new enough to the antiquated equipment used on Regulus V that they weren't willing to push the boundaries of their knowledge and ability in any way.
The hardest thing to get used to was the mouth regulator that controlled air flow instead of the breathing gills they were used to using when diving on Earth. The hard rubber of the mouthpiece was intrusive and the "on demand" aspect of the regulator had not come naturally. It led to a slight panicky feeling when he'd first started to learn the technique, feeling like he was going to suffocate until he remembered he had to do something to make the air flow. Then the tendency was to breathe too frequently for fear of it being shut off, which resulted in dizziness from too much oxygen. That's why they were keeping this dive simple, in fairly shallow waters. Plus, he'd never live it down if something happened on such a simple dive and Bones was able to say "I told you so." With added hypospray action.
Seeing Hikaru drifting farther away in the current, Jim gave a couple strong kicks with his fins to draw closer to his dive buddy, admiring the way the muscles in Hikaru's legs flexed as he swam. He had to admit the rules of buddy diving was a great excuse to watch his friend closely as much as he wanted to.
As he drew closer, it looked like Hikaru had spotted a cave opening up ahead, camouflaged by the coral-like structures around it. When Jim caught up to him, Hikaru was shining a dive-light into its depths. The opening looked like it was more than wide enough to accommodate them and their equipment without fouling, so Jim cocked his head and made a "go ahead" gesture at him and received a nod in return.
He watched as Hikaru entered the cave and, keeping far enough back not to run into the ends of his fins, followed him into the darkened interior. As Jim watched from behind, Hikaru swung the powerful light around the interior of the cave. It wasn't very large. Big enough for both of them to enter at once without bumping into each other and look around, but not much more. Jim was actually disappointed by what he saw. The sides of the cave were relatively free of plant or animal life. He wondered if it was the lack of light that discouraged growth or if there was some other factor at work.
Jim didn't have to wait long to find out. Turning to exit through the mouth of the cave, a segmented leg pierced down from the roof and yanked at his face mask. Before Jim had time to realize what was happening, the mask was gone and floating to the floor of the cave. His eyes stung at the onrush of seawater into them and he squinted them shut a couple of times, trying to adjust to the increased salinity. Raising his hands to his eyes, he realized it wouldn't help much to try and wipe them clean, but that instinct was what kept the next leg from possibly piercing one of his eyes.
Before he knew it, Jim found himself grappling with multiple legs that swarmed across his face and chest. Concerned for his eyes, he was too late to prevent the pincher-claw that came in and ripped his mouth-piece right out from between his teeth. His lips and jaws stung from the force of the pull and he saw the mouthpiece separate from the supply hose and go floating off toward the sea bottom along with his mask. He watched as a raft of bubbles streamed up in front of his face from the bare tube hooked to the shoulder of his BC vest. Shit. This was not good.
Distracted by fending off the legs that kept coming back in to attack his face, he was surprised when a slim, curved piece of metal sliced through the water and speared into the attacking creature. The legs immediately withdrew, giving Jim the chance to vacate the mouth of the cave, which he did in a flurry of leg kicks. Unfortunately, lack of air was quickly becoming an issue, since the air coming out of the hose was at too high a pressure for him to try to breathe comfortably.
Jim felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Hikaru pointing up with his thumb toward the surface. He nodded his head. They were in relatively shallow water--no decompression stop would be necessary--but they still had to time their ascent carefully to accommodate the depth they were at in order to minimize the risk of nitrogen narcosis. Jim looked at his dive computer and could see they needed to make their ascent last a minimum of two minutes to avoid problems. At least the hose to his BC vest was still attached and he started to inflate the vest to help with the ascent.
Once he'd done that, he looked at Hikaru and put his closed hand over his chest indicating that he was out of air. Jim watched as Hikaru took a long breath through his mouthpiece and then passed it to him, linking their arms together so they didn't become separated during the ascent. The on-demand regulator wouldn't allow the nitrox in the tank to bubble out into the water, or water into the supply hose, so there was no urgency in his actions--just deliberation.
As they continued to swap the mouthpiece back and forth, the black rubber retained only the barest warmth from Hikaru's mouth as it traversed the waters between them. Despite the urgency of the situation, Jim imagined that it was Hikaru's lips touching his, not just the rubber of the mouthpiece. Damn, when did he get so interested in his pilot?
The need to share the air supply kept them in close proximity during the rest of the ascent. It gave Jim way too much time (two minutes!) to carefully note the shape of Hikaru's lips, the way his eyes--even through the mask--looked at him with such concern, the feel of his hard muscles under his hands, the way their legs brushed together as they alternately kicked and floated their way to the surface. Two minutes, which should not have been that much time all told, but felt like eternity to Jim because he was so close to Hikaru, but didn't have a single damn clue as to what was going through his mind during that time while he--he was burning up from the inside out.
Breaking through to the surface was anti-climactic, with the dive boat waiting for them just off to their left. Taking a moment to get his bearings, Jim reluctantly uncoupled so they could swim to its side. Once there, it was just a matter of heaving themselves back into the boat. Jim found himself sitting on the bottom of the boat, with his arms thrown over his upraised knees, head between them, pulling in deep gulps of air. There really was no reason to feel so out of breath--sharing with Hikaru had kept him well-supplied--but there was still a shit ton of adrenaline coursing through his system and it had him dizzy. He felt the outboard motor start up and the boat start moving as he collected his thoughts. Kicker must have told the skipper to take them back to the dock.
It was, therefore, a complete surprise when he found himself being hauled up onto the bench seat that ran along the side of the boat and being pulled into the arms of his pilot. He had barely opened his mouth to ask what the fuck, man, when he found his mouth and tongue completely occupied by Kicker's.
Well, now, this was a horse of a different color. And one he definitely wanted to ride on. Jim got with the program and started kissing back. Still geared up in their dive harnesses, it was uncomfortable as hell to try and wrap his arms around Kicker, so he started unbuckling every strap he could reach on Hikaru's dive harness. The action seemed to spur his assailant on and Jim found his harness being stripped from him in return, all while their mouths remained sealed to each other desperately.
Breaking for air at last, Jim pulled back just far enough to look Hikaru in the eyes. "How did you...how long...is this?" Damn, he'd totally lost his words and all he could do was mouth indistinct syllables.
"Think I haven't seen you watching me, Jim? I watch, too. And today, I watched you run into trouble that scared me spitless. And I figured, what the hell, what have I got to lose besides you?" Kicker leaned in and pressed small kisses along his jaw, licking off drops of sea water. Jim arched his neck to give him better access, clutching him close and stroking his hands over the wet skin of his back.
"Oh, thank god, I thought it was just me. I can quit pretending and ogle you at will now." Jim tugged on Hikaru's hair to bring his head back up and grinned at him. "We've got the rest of the day to enjoy shore leave. Why don't we go find the biggest, widest bed the resort can offer and test its compression ratio under maximum kinetic weight load?"
Hikaru groaned. "I love it when you talk sexy to me." The arms around Jim's waist tightened, pulling him even closer to that muscled, golden chest--an action that Jim had absolutely no objection to and even encouraged. As the boat drew closer to the dock, Jim thought that this shore leave had been just what the doctor ordered.
~fin~
Creator(s): sail_aweigh
Universe: AOS
Word Count: ~2760
Rating: PG-13 for swears
Summary: Jim really doesn't think about Kicker when he's not around, much. Hikaru begs to differ.
Disclaimer: Not mine, I just like to play with other people's toys. I try not to break them.
The alarm on Jim's chronometer was the most annoying thing ever, he decided. He knew he never should have left Hikaru alone in his quarters while he took a quick jog down to engineering to get the poker chips from Scotty last night. Now his alarm was blaring some 21st century pop song at him extorting him to "put a ring on it." Dumbass.
Stretching out long and lean under his blankets, Jim debated on whether he wanted to take a quick wank in the warm comfort of his bed or in the shower, where the water would take care of cleaning everything up at the same time. Hmmm, shower would kill two birds with one stone, maximizing efficiency and contributing to morale. Well, his own personal morale, at least, and it was for the betterment of everybody, really, if the captain was sated and happy.
Really, real sex would be even better, but he hadn't had a date since that disaster with Ensign Patel on Starbase 7 three months ago. He really didn't remember calling him "Kicker" when he came, but that's what the dude had sworn. And sworn a lot of other stuff at him, too. Jim honestly didn't know where that had come from, he was the only one who used that name for Hikaru and he'd never thought of him that way before, much. Why then?
Scratching at his stomach as he walked into the bathroom, Jim leaned into the shower stall and turned on the water. While he waited for the water to warm up, he stripped off his pyjama bottoms, then got into his stance in front of the toilet to relieve himself. Bones would be proud of him, all that bitching at the academy to quit pissing in the shower had finally sunk in. Fuck, he was a starship captain, responsibility had to catch up to him sometime. Even though pissing through a dick that was already half hard was not easy and that's why he saved relieving himself for the shower, dammit. With a sigh, he shook the last couple drops off and flushed the toilet before disappearing into the shower. And he was not going to think about the long golden legs and shapely shoulders of his pilot while he leisurely rubbed one out, because that would be just weird and wrong.
oOoOo
Once showered and suitably pumped--ha, pumped; he cracked himself up--Jim had brushed his teeth, foregone shaving and had gotten dressed in board shorts and a faded tee. Breakfast could wait until Hikaru got there. Once fed, they could leave for their planned underwater adventure. In the meantime, he would make sure the choops were fed and watered enough for the whole day. Jim headed for the dresser where the hamster cage rested.
Cage top flung back for easy access, Jim had just picked up the empty food bowl inside to refill it when his door chime sounded.
"Enter." Jim opened the bag of feed and poured it into the bowl. Tibbie and Horatio snuffled at the side of the cage, waiting eagerly for the bowl to be returned.
"Hey, what up?" Hikaru slouched his way into the living area and plopped himself down onto the sofa, legs akimbo, arms flung across the back.
"Just feeding the choops before we leave. You get all the gear together?" Jim and Hikaru had decided to try something new on this shore leave. There was an underwater grotto at the resort on Regulus V that was supposed to have some outstanding sea life and natural rock formations that were unlike anything seen. They had signed up for lessons from a dive shop earlier in the week and gotten their basic certification on the local equipment out of the way. Now they wanted to check out the promised goodies before the end of shore leave tomorrow.
"Yeah, man. Everything is ready to go, waiting for us at the dive shop. We have blast off whenever you're ready." Hikaru rolled off the sofa and loped over to the cage, sticking his finger between a couple of the bars and stroking Tibbie on the nose. The hamster sniffed at his finger for a second and then stuck its nose into the food bowl that Jim had just replaced.
"Ha, cupboard love at its purest." Jim closed the top of the cage and made chucking sounds at the hamsters. "Later, choops."
Throwing one arm over Hikaru's shoulders, he turned him back toward the door. "C'mon, Kicker. Let's blow this joint before Bones comes to tell us all the dangers of deep sea diving and the perils of nitrogen narcosis. He'll probably recycle his favorite homily about danger and death, wrapped in darkness and silence or whatever the hell it is. At least he won't be around to throw up on me this time." Or to tease him about the way he watched Kicker out of the corner of his eye at every opportunity. Jim gave an internal scoff. Bones didn't know what he was talking about.
Pushing Hikaru through the door, Jim called for lights out and let the door close behind them. Shore leave was looking good and he was starving.
oOoOo
A bright iridescent purple flash caught Jim's attention out of the corner of one eye. Looking over to where Hikaru was examining a flowery form that resembled a sea anemone, he waved one hand at him and pointed down. A kick of his fins propelled him closer to his target until he was able to see that the purple was the meaty interior of a bivalve of some kind.
As he approached the life form, the purple fringe waving in the water currents changed color rapidly through blues and greens to pinks and oranges before pulling itself into the safety of its shell and closing up shop. It was a stunning visual display, one of many they'd seen so far that morning. Only minorly disappointed that the creature didn't seem interested in opening back up when he just sat there for a few moments as still as he could, Jim moved on to the next underwater formation that boasted more colorful sea creatures in fantastic configurations.
Mindful of dive protocol, he kept one eye on Hikaru as he moved, never letting him get more than one good fin kick away from him. While they'd been told there was an energy barrier set to repel predatory creatures from the waters in which they were diving, they were still both new enough to the antiquated equipment used on Regulus V that they weren't willing to push the boundaries of their knowledge and ability in any way.
The hardest thing to get used to was the mouth regulator that controlled air flow instead of the breathing gills they were used to using when diving on Earth. The hard rubber of the mouthpiece was intrusive and the "on demand" aspect of the regulator had not come naturally. It led to a slight panicky feeling when he'd first started to learn the technique, feeling like he was going to suffocate until he remembered he had to do something to make the air flow. Then the tendency was to breathe too frequently for fear of it being shut off, which resulted in dizziness from too much oxygen. That's why they were keeping this dive simple, in fairly shallow waters. Plus, he'd never live it down if something happened on such a simple dive and Bones was able to say "I told you so." With added hypospray action.
Seeing Hikaru drifting farther away in the current, Jim gave a couple strong kicks with his fins to draw closer to his dive buddy, admiring the way the muscles in Hikaru's legs flexed as he swam. He had to admit the rules of buddy diving was a great excuse to watch his friend closely as much as he wanted to.
As he drew closer, it looked like Hikaru had spotted a cave opening up ahead, camouflaged by the coral-like structures around it. When Jim caught up to him, Hikaru was shining a dive-light into its depths. The opening looked like it was more than wide enough to accommodate them and their equipment without fouling, so Jim cocked his head and made a "go ahead" gesture at him and received a nod in return.
He watched as Hikaru entered the cave and, keeping far enough back not to run into the ends of his fins, followed him into the darkened interior. As Jim watched from behind, Hikaru swung the powerful light around the interior of the cave. It wasn't very large. Big enough for both of them to enter at once without bumping into each other and look around, but not much more. Jim was actually disappointed by what he saw. The sides of the cave were relatively free of plant or animal life. He wondered if it was the lack of light that discouraged growth or if there was some other factor at work.
Jim didn't have to wait long to find out. Turning to exit through the mouth of the cave, a segmented leg pierced down from the roof and yanked at his face mask. Before Jim had time to realize what was happening, the mask was gone and floating to the floor of the cave. His eyes stung at the onrush of seawater into them and he squinted them shut a couple of times, trying to adjust to the increased salinity. Raising his hands to his eyes, he realized it wouldn't help much to try and wipe them clean, but that instinct was what kept the next leg from possibly piercing one of his eyes.
Before he knew it, Jim found himself grappling with multiple legs that swarmed across his face and chest. Concerned for his eyes, he was too late to prevent the pincher-claw that came in and ripped his mouth-piece right out from between his teeth. His lips and jaws stung from the force of the pull and he saw the mouthpiece separate from the supply hose and go floating off toward the sea bottom along with his mask. He watched as a raft of bubbles streamed up in front of his face from the bare tube hooked to the shoulder of his BC vest. Shit. This was not good.
Distracted by fending off the legs that kept coming back in to attack his face, he was surprised when a slim, curved piece of metal sliced through the water and speared into the attacking creature. The legs immediately withdrew, giving Jim the chance to vacate the mouth of the cave, which he did in a flurry of leg kicks. Unfortunately, lack of air was quickly becoming an issue, since the air coming out of the hose was at too high a pressure for him to try to breathe comfortably.
Jim felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Hikaru pointing up with his thumb toward the surface. He nodded his head. They were in relatively shallow water--no decompression stop would be necessary--but they still had to time their ascent carefully to accommodate the depth they were at in order to minimize the risk of nitrogen narcosis. Jim looked at his dive computer and could see they needed to make their ascent last a minimum of two minutes to avoid problems. At least the hose to his BC vest was still attached and he started to inflate the vest to help with the ascent.
Once he'd done that, he looked at Hikaru and put his closed hand over his chest indicating that he was out of air. Jim watched as Hikaru took a long breath through his mouthpiece and then passed it to him, linking their arms together so they didn't become separated during the ascent. The on-demand regulator wouldn't allow the nitrox in the tank to bubble out into the water, or water into the supply hose, so there was no urgency in his actions--just deliberation.
As they continued to swap the mouthpiece back and forth, the black rubber retained only the barest warmth from Hikaru's mouth as it traversed the waters between them. Despite the urgency of the situation, Jim imagined that it was Hikaru's lips touching his, not just the rubber of the mouthpiece. Damn, when did he get so interested in his pilot?
The need to share the air supply kept them in close proximity during the rest of the ascent. It gave Jim way too much time (two minutes!) to carefully note the shape of Hikaru's lips, the way his eyes--even through the mask--looked at him with such concern, the feel of his hard muscles under his hands, the way their legs brushed together as they alternately kicked and floated their way to the surface. Two minutes, which should not have been that much time all told, but felt like eternity to Jim because he was so close to Hikaru, but didn't have a single damn clue as to what was going through his mind during that time while he--he was burning up from the inside out.
Breaking through to the surface was anti-climactic, with the dive boat waiting for them just off to their left. Taking a moment to get his bearings, Jim reluctantly uncoupled so they could swim to its side. Once there, it was just a matter of heaving themselves back into the boat. Jim found himself sitting on the bottom of the boat, with his arms thrown over his upraised knees, head between them, pulling in deep gulps of air. There really was no reason to feel so out of breath--sharing with Hikaru had kept him well-supplied--but there was still a shit ton of adrenaline coursing through his system and it had him dizzy. He felt the outboard motor start up and the boat start moving as he collected his thoughts. Kicker must have told the skipper to take them back to the dock.
It was, therefore, a complete surprise when he found himself being hauled up onto the bench seat that ran along the side of the boat and being pulled into the arms of his pilot. He had barely opened his mouth to ask what the fuck, man, when he found his mouth and tongue completely occupied by Kicker's.
Well, now, this was a horse of a different color. And one he definitely wanted to ride on. Jim got with the program and started kissing back. Still geared up in their dive harnesses, it was uncomfortable as hell to try and wrap his arms around Kicker, so he started unbuckling every strap he could reach on Hikaru's dive harness. The action seemed to spur his assailant on and Jim found his harness being stripped from him in return, all while their mouths remained sealed to each other desperately.
Breaking for air at last, Jim pulled back just far enough to look Hikaru in the eyes. "How did you...how long...is this?" Damn, he'd totally lost his words and all he could do was mouth indistinct syllables.
"Think I haven't seen you watching me, Jim? I watch, too. And today, I watched you run into trouble that scared me spitless. And I figured, what the hell, what have I got to lose besides you?" Kicker leaned in and pressed small kisses along his jaw, licking off drops of sea water. Jim arched his neck to give him better access, clutching him close and stroking his hands over the wet skin of his back.
"Oh, thank god, I thought it was just me. I can quit pretending and ogle you at will now." Jim tugged on Hikaru's hair to bring his head back up and grinned at him. "We've got the rest of the day to enjoy shore leave. Why don't we go find the biggest, widest bed the resort can offer and test its compression ratio under maximum kinetic weight load?"
Hikaru groaned. "I love it when you talk sexy to me." The arms around Jim's waist tightened, pulling him even closer to that muscled, golden chest--an action that Jim had absolutely no objection to and even encouraged. As the boat drew closer to the dock, Jim thought that this shore leave had been just what the doctor ordered.
~fin~