Epilogue: Departure / In Tunisia / Retreat (3 ficlets, Coffee Fix 'verse)
Title: Departure / In Tunisia / Retreat
Author: therumjournals
Fandom: Star Trek RPF
Pairing: Chris/Zach
Rating: R
Word Count: 2,110
Description: Chris brings the family on location. An epilogue in the Coffee Fix ‘verse.
A/N: I know absolutely nothing about Tunisia.
Departure
“….and my dad’s gonna be my teacher, and we’re going to ride on camels!”
Zach leaned on the doorframe, keeping out of sight as he listened to Jesse finish his goodbye speech to the class. When he heard the teacher thanking Jesse, he stepped inside.
“Dad!” Jesse beamed at him, and he smiled back proudly.
“Hey buddy. You ready to go?”
“Yeah!” Zach took Jesse’s backpack from him as Mrs. Gautier put a hand on his shoulder.
“Mr. Quinto, you picked up the curriculum for the rest of the semester, right?”
“Yep, I’ve got it all packed up. Even the math,” he said, giving Jesse a mock-glare. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Gautier, I’ll make sure he keeps up to speed with everything.”
“I know you will. Okay, class, say bye to Jesse!”
“BYE JESSE!” replied a chorus of fifth graders. Jesse grinned and skipped out of the classroom into the hall.
“Dad, you don’t have to hold my hand,” Jesse grumbled, as they exited the school into the parking lot.
“Oh yeah?” said Zach, letting go. “Well what am I supposed to do then, hold your ear?” He tweaked Jesse’s ear playfully and stuck his tongue out when Jesse ducked away. “Alright, I won’t hold your hand. But if you get run over by a car, don’t come limping to me. And if you lose a leg, don’t come hopping to me, either.”
“Daaaad,” Jesse groaned, but he walked a little closer to Zach until they got to the car.
**
“Papa, what does ‘voluptuous’ mean?”
Chris raised an eyebrow and looked over Jesse’s head at Zach. “Zach, what is he reading?”
“Um, I think it’s Clive Cussler. What, it’s about adventures and intrigue!” he said defensively. “He said he wanted to read a grown-up book. It’s not like it’s a Harlequin romance.”
“What’s a Harlequin romance?”
Chris chuckled. “Hey Zach, maybe you should do that thing where you stop talking.”
“I think you’re right,” Zach muttered, before turning to Jesse. “Voluptuous means curvy and full-figured.”
Jesse made a disgusted face and turned back to the book.
“How much longer, Papa?” Gavin piped up from across the aisle.
“Gavin, what did I tell you about this flight?”
“That it’s going to last forever.”
“Exactly. So when forever is over, you can ask me again. Until then, you might as well make yourself at home.” Gavin nodded intently and shut his mouth. Chris leaned across the aisle and poked him.
“Hey. You wanna see if Dad’ll break out the fruit snacks?”
Gavin nodded eagerly.
“Ask him.”
“Daaaaad,” Gavin said. Zach looked over and gave Chris a look like he knew who was instigating this.
“Daaaad,” whined Chris, with a wink in Zach’s direction. “We want fruit snacks.”
“Yeah, Dad, we want fruit snacks!” said Gavin.
Jesse looked up from his book. “Did you bring the good ones?”
“All three of you are huge pains in my butt, I just want you to know that," Zach grumbled as he reached for his bag.
“More like pains in your huge butt,” Chris said, grinning as the boys laughed hysterically.
“No fruit snacks for you, mister,” Zach said, handing one to Jesse and tossing one across the aisle to Gavin.
“Please,” Chris said, batting his eyelashes and reaching over Jesse’s head to grab the bag out of Zach’s hand. Zach grabbed his wrist and tugged him closer and they kissed chastely over Jesse’s head.
“Ew!” Jesse said, ducking. Chris and Zach looked at each other and leaned down simultaneously to kiss Jesse on the cheeks as he shrieked and batted at them.
Across the aisle, Gavin watched the spectacle as he munched on his fruit snacks, amused. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to sit over here.”
In Tunisia
“It’s too FUCKIN- it’s too fucking hot for this, Zach,” Chris said, dropping his voice to a whisper as Zach gestured frantically to the thin walls of their apartment. “Sorry.”
“Fine. Let’s just go to sleep then, and we can talk about it later.”
Chris sat on the edge of the bed and rested his head in his hands. “I fucking hate this, Zach. Why are we fighting again? I thought we had this all figured out.” He kept his voice low and his back to Zach.
“I don’t know,” Zach said, and he didn’t. It wasn’t like any of this was unexpected - Chris had long hours, the boys missed home, Zach had exhausted what he’d thought was an extensive list of “ways to make homeschooling fun”, and they were all on edge. And hot. So very, very hot. So hot that Chris and Zach had spent every night lying in the bed trying not to touch each other - and that was before they’d even started fighting.
Chris lay down on the bed, exhausted. His arm bumped against Zach’s, damp with sweat, and they both flinched away.
**
Joe climbed out of the cab and just managed to pay the driver and set his bag down before he was tackled by two very enthusiastic and very dusty children.
“Ooof! Hey guys!”
“Hi, Uncle Joe,” they said, and Joe looked over their heads at Chris and Zach, chuckling at the desperation that he saw there.
“Hi guys,” he said, a grin playing at his lips. “Am I right in thinking that I’m not really here to spend quality time with the two of you?”
Zach stepped in to grab him a bear hug, turned his head to say in a low voice, “Just hang out with them for the weekend, Joe, please. We need this.”
Joe shook his head but laughed and slapped Zach on the back. “Of course, bro. Of course. You guys take a few days, okay? Go somewhere.”
Zach’s shoulders dropped as he smiled in relief and he caught Chris’s eye and matching smile. “We’ve already got a place booked,” he confessed.
“It has air conditioning,” Chris said in awe, stepping closer to give Joe a hug.
“The boys can show me around, I assume? Teach me the local customs?”
“Yeah, they can. This neighborhood, at least. They run around like little street rats. Zach has no control over them whatsoever.”
“Shut up,” Zach said, punching Chris lightly in the shoulder. “It’s called cultural immersion. It’s the best way to learn.”
“I’ll take your word for it, Professor.”
**
Gavin and Jesse entered their room as Chris and Zach were zipping up their suitcases. The boys looked serious.
“What’s up, guys?” Chris asked. Zach straightened up and they both gave the boys their full attention.
“Well,” Gavin started, “we’re the watchmen, right?”
“Yeah…” Chris said. Why did he have a feeling he knew where they were going with this?
“We think that, um-“ Gavin glanced at Jesse for reassurance, which he got in the form of an approving nod, “that you need to communicate more, okay? And don’t fight anymore.”
Zach nodded and sat down on the bed, resting his elbows on his knees. “Thank you, Gavin. We know we haven’t been doing the best job communicating lately and…that’s why Papa and I are going away for the weekend. We’re going to talk and figure out how we can stop fighting.”
“Okay,” Gavin said, nodding. “And you won’t leave, right Dad?”
Zach reached for Gavin’s hand and pulled him into a hug. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Was there something else, Jess?” Chris asked.
“Noooo…” Jesse said, biting his lip.
Gavin pulled away from Zach and said “Yes there was!”
“Fine, you tell them.”
“No way! Jesse, you said!”
“Fine. Um, um…we also think you guys should kiss more.”
Zach’s jaw dropped and he didn’t look at Chris, too afraid he’d burst out laughing. Chris didn’t even bother hiding his astonishment. “What?!”
“Just, you’re always happy when you kiss. And you haven’t been happy, I think, so I just think…you should kiss more. But not TOO, too much,” Jesse added, just in case they got carried away.
Chris put a hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “Alright, watchmen. We’ll take your advice. While we’re away this weekend, we’ll talk and kiss, and when we come back, we’ll try not to fight, okay? We promise to try our best,” he said, and he was looking at Zach when he said it. Zach stood and Chris took a step closer, and they pulled Gavin and Jesse in for a family hug.
They looked up in surprise as they felt another set of beefy arms wrapping around them, and Zach rolled his eyes.
“We’re kind of in the middle of something here, Joe.”
“I know. I felt left out.”
They stayed that way for a long moment, until Gavin’s high voice piped up from the middle. “You guys, I’m really hot in here. And Uncle Joe smells.”
Retreat
When Chris and Zach arrived in their hotel room, the first thing they did was turn up the air conditioning. The second thing they did was fuck. And it was fucking, not making love, because it was hard and needy and it hurt a little and it left them both hot and reeling and too spent to fight, and it was exactly what they needed.
Zach climbed out of the bed and took a long hot shower, then he pulled on the fluffy terrycloth robe provided by the five-star establishment and lay on the bed for a while, watching Chris sleep.
Finally, he felt compelled to rouse him, pushing a few stray hairs from his forehead and saying “Chris, baby, wake up.” Chris opened his eyes and smiled at Zach and Zach felt a wave of happiness wash over him, and his first thought was to thank god that feeling was still there. “Take a shower. You’ll feel refreshed. And these robes are like fluffy clouds of joy.”
Chris stretched, smirked, and said, “I always knew you secretly wanted to be a Care Bear.” He didn’t even mind Zach smacking him on the ass as headed toward the bathroom.
**
“When I get home at the end of the day, I feel like…like I’m walking in on your life, like I’m interrupting something,” Chris was saying.
“Great, now you know what I felt like for the last three years.” Despite the air conditioning, Chris could feel the heat coming back, creeping up his cheeks and into Zach’s voice.
“I hate it. I don’t want to be the one out all day, coming home exhausted and cranky and not knowing what the fuck you guys are talking about half the time. I want to be there.”
“Is it that you want to be there, or that you don’t want me to be the one that’s there instead of you?”
Chris shook his head wearily. “No, I’m glad you’re here, Zach. I am.”
“What can I do, Chris? What can I do to make it better?”
“Let me quit.”
“Fuck no,” Zach said with a half-smile. “You have to make the money so you can buy us stuff, remember?”
Chris smiled ruefully. “Fine. Then just, hold me, and tell me that this is what you wanted. Remind me that my sons still love me even though I’m cranky and pissy and gone for fourteen hours a day. And tell me you’re going to stay.”
Zach stepped forward and pulled Chris into his arms, running his hands over the plush softness of the robe he’d refused to change out of all day. “Oh Chris,” Zach murmured, “you have no idea how much I want this. I am the one who should be worried. You let me back in, and sometimes I wonder if I pushed too hard, too soon. It just all feels so fragile and I don’t want this to break again.”
“I can’t,” Chris said, and it was a broken sob into Zach’s robe. “I can’t do that again, Zach, I swear, I can’t do this without you. I need you.”
“I need you too, Chris,” Zach said, and he held him tighter even though it was impossible.
**
“So, what are we going to tell the watchmen?” Chris asked. They lay side by side on the bed, hands resting lazily on bare skin, a pleasant buzz still running through them both. That had been making love.
“Let’s tell them that if they can put up with your cranky ass for six more weeks, when we get home, we’re going to get that puppy.”
“They’ll flip.”
“Yeah, they will.”
“God, six more weeks. Why does that sound like fucking forever?”
“I don’t know,” said Zach, touching his fingers to Chris’s cheek and kissing him softly on the lips. “But forever doesn’t sound so bad to me.”
Continue: Scenes
Author: therumjournals
Fandom: Star Trek RPF
Pairing: Chris/Zach
Rating: R
Word Count: 2,110
Description: Chris brings the family on location. An epilogue in the Coffee Fix ‘verse.
A/N: I know absolutely nothing about Tunisia.
Departure
“….and my dad’s gonna be my teacher, and we’re going to ride on camels!”
Zach leaned on the doorframe, keeping out of sight as he listened to Jesse finish his goodbye speech to the class. When he heard the teacher thanking Jesse, he stepped inside.
“Dad!” Jesse beamed at him, and he smiled back proudly.
“Hey buddy. You ready to go?”
“Yeah!” Zach took Jesse’s backpack from him as Mrs. Gautier put a hand on his shoulder.
“Mr. Quinto, you picked up the curriculum for the rest of the semester, right?”
“Yep, I’ve got it all packed up. Even the math,” he said, giving Jesse a mock-glare. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Gautier, I’ll make sure he keeps up to speed with everything.”
“I know you will. Okay, class, say bye to Jesse!”
“BYE JESSE!” replied a chorus of fifth graders. Jesse grinned and skipped out of the classroom into the hall.
“Dad, you don’t have to hold my hand,” Jesse grumbled, as they exited the school into the parking lot.
“Oh yeah?” said Zach, letting go. “Well what am I supposed to do then, hold your ear?” He tweaked Jesse’s ear playfully and stuck his tongue out when Jesse ducked away. “Alright, I won’t hold your hand. But if you get run over by a car, don’t come limping to me. And if you lose a leg, don’t come hopping to me, either.”
“Daaaad,” Jesse groaned, but he walked a little closer to Zach until they got to the car.
**
“Papa, what does ‘voluptuous’ mean?”
Chris raised an eyebrow and looked over Jesse’s head at Zach. “Zach, what is he reading?”
“Um, I think it’s Clive Cussler. What, it’s about adventures and intrigue!” he said defensively. “He said he wanted to read a grown-up book. It’s not like it’s a Harlequin romance.”
“What’s a Harlequin romance?”
Chris chuckled. “Hey Zach, maybe you should do that thing where you stop talking.”
“I think you’re right,” Zach muttered, before turning to Jesse. “Voluptuous means curvy and full-figured.”
Jesse made a disgusted face and turned back to the book.
“How much longer, Papa?” Gavin piped up from across the aisle.
“Gavin, what did I tell you about this flight?”
“That it’s going to last forever.”
“Exactly. So when forever is over, you can ask me again. Until then, you might as well make yourself at home.” Gavin nodded intently and shut his mouth. Chris leaned across the aisle and poked him.
“Hey. You wanna see if Dad’ll break out the fruit snacks?”
Gavin nodded eagerly.
“Ask him.”
“Daaaaad,” Gavin said. Zach looked over and gave Chris a look like he knew who was instigating this.
“Daaaad,” whined Chris, with a wink in Zach’s direction. “We want fruit snacks.”
“Yeah, Dad, we want fruit snacks!” said Gavin.
Jesse looked up from his book. “Did you bring the good ones?”
“All three of you are huge pains in my butt, I just want you to know that," Zach grumbled as he reached for his bag.
“More like pains in your huge butt,” Chris said, grinning as the boys laughed hysterically.
“No fruit snacks for you, mister,” Zach said, handing one to Jesse and tossing one across the aisle to Gavin.
“Please,” Chris said, batting his eyelashes and reaching over Jesse’s head to grab the bag out of Zach’s hand. Zach grabbed his wrist and tugged him closer and they kissed chastely over Jesse’s head.
“Ew!” Jesse said, ducking. Chris and Zach looked at each other and leaned down simultaneously to kiss Jesse on the cheeks as he shrieked and batted at them.
Across the aisle, Gavin watched the spectacle as he munched on his fruit snacks, amused. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to sit over here.”
In Tunisia
“It’s too FUCKIN- it’s too fucking hot for this, Zach,” Chris said, dropping his voice to a whisper as Zach gestured frantically to the thin walls of their apartment. “Sorry.”
“Fine. Let’s just go to sleep then, and we can talk about it later.”
Chris sat on the edge of the bed and rested his head in his hands. “I fucking hate this, Zach. Why are we fighting again? I thought we had this all figured out.” He kept his voice low and his back to Zach.
“I don’t know,” Zach said, and he didn’t. It wasn’t like any of this was unexpected - Chris had long hours, the boys missed home, Zach had exhausted what he’d thought was an extensive list of “ways to make homeschooling fun”, and they were all on edge. And hot. So very, very hot. So hot that Chris and Zach had spent every night lying in the bed trying not to touch each other - and that was before they’d even started fighting.
Chris lay down on the bed, exhausted. His arm bumped against Zach’s, damp with sweat, and they both flinched away.
**
Joe climbed out of the cab and just managed to pay the driver and set his bag down before he was tackled by two very enthusiastic and very dusty children.
“Ooof! Hey guys!”
“Hi, Uncle Joe,” they said, and Joe looked over their heads at Chris and Zach, chuckling at the desperation that he saw there.
“Hi guys,” he said, a grin playing at his lips. “Am I right in thinking that I’m not really here to spend quality time with the two of you?”
Zach stepped in to grab him a bear hug, turned his head to say in a low voice, “Just hang out with them for the weekend, Joe, please. We need this.”
Joe shook his head but laughed and slapped Zach on the back. “Of course, bro. Of course. You guys take a few days, okay? Go somewhere.”
Zach’s shoulders dropped as he smiled in relief and he caught Chris’s eye and matching smile. “We’ve already got a place booked,” he confessed.
“It has air conditioning,” Chris said in awe, stepping closer to give Joe a hug.
“The boys can show me around, I assume? Teach me the local customs?”
“Yeah, they can. This neighborhood, at least. They run around like little street rats. Zach has no control over them whatsoever.”
“Shut up,” Zach said, punching Chris lightly in the shoulder. “It’s called cultural immersion. It’s the best way to learn.”
“I’ll take your word for it, Professor.”
**
Gavin and Jesse entered their room as Chris and Zach were zipping up their suitcases. The boys looked serious.
“What’s up, guys?” Chris asked. Zach straightened up and they both gave the boys their full attention.
“Well,” Gavin started, “we’re the watchmen, right?”
“Yeah…” Chris said. Why did he have a feeling he knew where they were going with this?
“We think that, um-“ Gavin glanced at Jesse for reassurance, which he got in the form of an approving nod, “that you need to communicate more, okay? And don’t fight anymore.”
Zach nodded and sat down on the bed, resting his elbows on his knees. “Thank you, Gavin. We know we haven’t been doing the best job communicating lately and…that’s why Papa and I are going away for the weekend. We’re going to talk and figure out how we can stop fighting.”
“Okay,” Gavin said, nodding. “And you won’t leave, right Dad?”
Zach reached for Gavin’s hand and pulled him into a hug. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Was there something else, Jess?” Chris asked.
“Noooo…” Jesse said, biting his lip.
Gavin pulled away from Zach and said “Yes there was!”
“Fine, you tell them.”
“No way! Jesse, you said!”
“Fine. Um, um…we also think you guys should kiss more.”
Zach’s jaw dropped and he didn’t look at Chris, too afraid he’d burst out laughing. Chris didn’t even bother hiding his astonishment. “What?!”
“Just, you’re always happy when you kiss. And you haven’t been happy, I think, so I just think…you should kiss more. But not TOO, too much,” Jesse added, just in case they got carried away.
Chris put a hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “Alright, watchmen. We’ll take your advice. While we’re away this weekend, we’ll talk and kiss, and when we come back, we’ll try not to fight, okay? We promise to try our best,” he said, and he was looking at Zach when he said it. Zach stood and Chris took a step closer, and they pulled Gavin and Jesse in for a family hug.
They looked up in surprise as they felt another set of beefy arms wrapping around them, and Zach rolled his eyes.
“We’re kind of in the middle of something here, Joe.”
“I know. I felt left out.”
They stayed that way for a long moment, until Gavin’s high voice piped up from the middle. “You guys, I’m really hot in here. And Uncle Joe smells.”
Retreat
When Chris and Zach arrived in their hotel room, the first thing they did was turn up the air conditioning. The second thing they did was fuck. And it was fucking, not making love, because it was hard and needy and it hurt a little and it left them both hot and reeling and too spent to fight, and it was exactly what they needed.
Zach climbed out of the bed and took a long hot shower, then he pulled on the fluffy terrycloth robe provided by the five-star establishment and lay on the bed for a while, watching Chris sleep.
Finally, he felt compelled to rouse him, pushing a few stray hairs from his forehead and saying “Chris, baby, wake up.” Chris opened his eyes and smiled at Zach and Zach felt a wave of happiness wash over him, and his first thought was to thank god that feeling was still there. “Take a shower. You’ll feel refreshed. And these robes are like fluffy clouds of joy.”
Chris stretched, smirked, and said, “I always knew you secretly wanted to be a Care Bear.” He didn’t even mind Zach smacking him on the ass as headed toward the bathroom.
**
“When I get home at the end of the day, I feel like…like I’m walking in on your life, like I’m interrupting something,” Chris was saying.
“Great, now you know what I felt like for the last three years.” Despite the air conditioning, Chris could feel the heat coming back, creeping up his cheeks and into Zach’s voice.
“I hate it. I don’t want to be the one out all day, coming home exhausted and cranky and not knowing what the fuck you guys are talking about half the time. I want to be there.”
“Is it that you want to be there, or that you don’t want me to be the one that’s there instead of you?”
Chris shook his head wearily. “No, I’m glad you’re here, Zach. I am.”
“What can I do, Chris? What can I do to make it better?”
“Let me quit.”
“Fuck no,” Zach said with a half-smile. “You have to make the money so you can buy us stuff, remember?”
Chris smiled ruefully. “Fine. Then just, hold me, and tell me that this is what you wanted. Remind me that my sons still love me even though I’m cranky and pissy and gone for fourteen hours a day. And tell me you’re going to stay.”
Zach stepped forward and pulled Chris into his arms, running his hands over the plush softness of the robe he’d refused to change out of all day. “Oh Chris,” Zach murmured, “you have no idea how much I want this. I am the one who should be worried. You let me back in, and sometimes I wonder if I pushed too hard, too soon. It just all feels so fragile and I don’t want this to break again.”
“I can’t,” Chris said, and it was a broken sob into Zach’s robe. “I can’t do that again, Zach, I swear, I can’t do this without you. I need you.”
“I need you too, Chris,” Zach said, and he held him tighter even though it was impossible.
**
“So, what are we going to tell the watchmen?” Chris asked. They lay side by side on the bed, hands resting lazily on bare skin, a pleasant buzz still running through them both. That had been making love.
“Let’s tell them that if they can put up with your cranky ass for six more weeks, when we get home, we’re going to get that puppy.”
“They’ll flip.”
“Yeah, they will.”
“God, six more weeks. Why does that sound like fucking forever?”
“I don’t know,” said Zach, touching his fingers to Chris’s cheek and kissing him softly on the lips. “But forever doesn’t sound so bad to me.”
Continue: Scenes