Ice
VOY, P/K, (P/T) NC-17
There's wishing, and there's wish fulfillment. Hey, can I just borrow that camera? And, oh, I dunno, I guess you two guys will do. Yeah you in the red and you in the yellow. No! Not you! The C/Tu is for later, sit down. Sheesh, some people, no patience. The other two. That's better. Sure you want to film this. It's the twentieth century. We don't have petty phobias. Roll it!
------------
| RESET |
------------
Please use Reset button before proceeding. Prior convictions are not an advantage.
<grovel>Paramount</grovel>
Temaris
"Tom! Watch what you're doing!"
"I just can't believe she dumped me!" Tom jumped onto the next ledge without so much as a downward glance. Harry couldn't tear his eyes from the cloud formations beneath their feet as he gingerly stepped across the narrow crevasse.
"I mean, what has _Bristow_ got that I haven't?" He went on, not pausing for his friend to catch up. "I'm fun, I'm good looking, I can get a girl anything she desires with the replicator rations I win, I programme a mean leisure holo, I'm great in bed."
"And so modest about it too." Harry called dryly up the slope after him.
The rope went slack enough to touch the ground as Tom stopped dead. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean," Harry lifted the rope until Tom started moving again, "that she'd probably not have been so unhappy about it if you hadn't kept telling people what a great time the two of you were having in bed."
"So I made a couple of remarks. Come on Har, takes two - you were the one asking me for details."
"I wasn't the one you told about the up-against-the-wall sex. Or the volcano program. Or the Klin home world holosim."
Tom had the grace to look a little shamefaced. "I guess I was ticked off with Megan for having a good time without me."
"Tom! You were supposed to be dating B'Elanna, not worrying about who one of your ex's is dating."
He shrugged. "I know, I just get a little possessive. And I was so proud of myself for catching Torres, I wanted to rub Meg's nose in it."
Harry closed his eyes in mock despair and slipped on a patch of ice.
"Woah! Har, don't move!" Harry was sprawled over the edge of the steep path, legs dangling into thin air, the heavy pieces of mineral rich rock in his back pack dragging him downwards.
"Perhaps you could talk to the local gravitational field about that." He dug in with his ice axe, the angular head biting in not two inches from Tom's foot. "Could you get a move on?"
"Quit whining. Okay, I've got you."
"You wish."
"What was that Har?" Tom hadn't quite caught the muttered remark.
"Oh, nothing. Thanks."
Harry cautiously sat up, then stood. "Nothing broken." They moved on, Harry favouring his aching hip where he'd almost slid over. He suspected that not even the warm padded trousers he was wearing had prevented a bad bruise.
"Tom?"
"Yeah?"
"You tell me something? Why are you so dead set against me having anything with Seven? I mean, I'm on my own out here, and you're in - you were in a relationship. It wasn't even liked we'd seen a lot of each other since you and B'Ela got together. I thought you'd've been happy I was out from under your feet. "
"What kind of a guy do you think I am? No, don't tell me." he said with a grin before Harry could say more than "Well. . ."
"Harry, you couldn't ever be underfoot - I missed having you around back then. I never seemed to see you. Why'dya want to know anyway?"
"You're dodging."
"I know." Tom grinned cheerfully, and adjusted the shoulder straps of his own pack where they were digging in.
"Did you want her yourself, was that it?" Harry persisted. "I mean, were you planning on moving in on her or something when you were dating B'Ela?"
"Would you have given up your plans on her if I said yes?" Tom asked curiously. He hazarded a quick glance back at his friend to meet the steady appraisal he was being given, then had to look forward almost immediately to concentrate on his footing. The teeth of his boots kicked up slightly more ice than usual as he scuffed his feet uneasily. When Harry didn't answer he hesitated, then went on. "No, I didn't want her for myself. I don't think she's ready for a serious relationship with anyone. Especially with someone like you."
"Oh thank you." Harry started laughing.
"I didn't mean it that way." Tom said mildly. "She doesn't have the emotional background to understand or appreciate love. I just didn't want you to get hurt. She's not really human even yet."
"I can't believe I'm hearing this! That's just..." he struggled for a word, and could only come up with "...racist. And what business is it of yours?" Harry abruptly sounded genuinely annoyed, an unusual enough occurrence that Tom took his eyes off the path for a second backwards glance. Before he could try to mend the damage Harry went on, "Don't you think she might want to find out for herself? And don't you think that that's a decision we should make for ourselves?" <Can you say 'misdirection' Harry Kim?> he thought ruefully. "Look, it's my risk - our risk to take, Tom; it's no different to starting any other relationship. She might have more to learn, but you can't ever be sure what the other person wants and expects if you don't try to find out. That's the fun of it."
"Fun? Harry, you are so weird sometimes." Tom shook his head.
"You should try it sometime, Paris. Maybe you'd have a relationship last more than a month that way." Harry smiled wryly at the pilot's back.
"Maybe I don't want a relationship that lasts longer than a month," Tom countered with a laugh. "What do you see in her then? Apart from the obvious?" he added with a smirk.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Apart from the obvious, she's alone, and lonely. And I can understand that," he added feelingly.
"Har--" Tom swallowed slightly at the sheer loneliness in that matter of fact statement. Harry went on without a break.
"She needs a friend, even though she doesn't even know what one is - especially because she doesn't know what one is, actually. So, yeah, maybe she doesn't have the emotional background to understand or appreciate love, but she's going to learn, along with everything else. I'd love to know the original person she once was. I think there's an amazing woman under all the Borg facade."
Tom snorted.
"And yes, she has a body to stop traffic." Harry never missed a beat. "What's not to want? Maybe I can teach her about being human. She can teach me about the Borg. And if we get laid as well, to use your phrase, so much the better."
"If I said that it'd just be a line, but you're serious, aren't you?" Tom said slowly, glancing over his shoulder again. This time Harry stopped walking and met his eyes.
"Yes, actually, I am."
"Oh." Tom whispered, moving off again. Then loud enough for Harry to hear, and if truth be known, rather hopefully, "I thought you were still hung up on getting home?"
"I may not want Jenny Delaney, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stay a monk for the next sixty years. I'd implode."
"Or something." They both started laughing, their breath freezing almost before it left their throats.
***********************
"Just a little further." Tom hammered another piton into the ice face. They both looked up the sheer wall. "This way'll save us that scree slope you nearly broke something on on the way down," he added. "Trust me, it's a short cut. It's only about twenty metres. Should be easy enough."
Harry looked dubious. "That's what you think. You're the rock climbing genius here, not me, I just know enough to get me out of the Academy."
"Literally or metaphorically?" Tom teased.
"Take your pick," Harry grinned back.
"As you wish." Tom hefted the ice axe.
"Oh ha ha ha."
"You want to wait here? Then I can belay you up."
"S'okay. I'll manage."
"You sure? When was the last time you did something like this for real? No second chances here." They both looked up the jagged wall of ice. Tom met Harry's eyes seriously and waited.
Harry put up his hands in resignation. "Okay, okay, you go first."
Tom smiled quickly at him. "Good boy," and dodged as Harry punched him lightly in the ribs.
***********************
"Harry?"
"Now's really not a good time, Tom."
"Can I ask you something?"
"If this is about Seven again I'll kill you when I get to the top."
"No, not really. Do you really think I'm the sort of lightweight goodtime boy that no one will ever want a serious relationship with?"
Harry flattened one hand against the mountain face, gloved fingers scrabbling for a hold as he swung an axe into the ice. "Could we have this conversation after you've finished getting me up the ice?"
"No." Tom tied off the rope securely. "I want to know what you think."
Harry groaned loudly. "Okay. But when I get hold of you Paris. . ." When there was no reply he started up again, carefully working his way up the ice face using just the axes and crampons, trying to keep the increasing length of free rope from tangling around himself.
"If you really want to know - do you? You might not like it."
"Do your worst," floated down, and Harry grinned. What an opportunity. Still...
"I think the problem isn't other people's view of you, it's you. . . I think you think you don't want or don't deserve commitment. So you're afraid of it, and you sabotage your own relationships so you don't have to worry about getting rejected."
"I arrange to get dumped because I don't want to get dumped? Har, even I can spot that doesn't make sense."
"You said it. I think you think, somewhere in that warped sludge you occasionally use for a brain, that it'll be better to leave a relationship early, before anyone cares enough to get really hurt and they go and leave you anyway. You give up the moment it starts being more than just sex, don't you? I mean, when did you ever just watch someone from across a room just because you like looking at them, not to catch their eye, or because you're thinking about having sex with them, but because it makes you happy to fill your eyes with their face. Or felt like there was something wrong until you spotted them? Or looked after someone when they needed it, for no reason except that you enjoy being with them and you want to be there in any way they'll let you? Relationships aren't about sex--"
"You're weirder than I thought!"
"Okay, not just about sex. Your probl--"
"Harry, what the hell are you doing?" Tom had just tried the rope, and pulled up a great length of slack.
"Climbing, what do you think I'm doing?"
"You're crazy. You're supposed to tell me when you do that so I can put you back on belay again. Let me take up the rope before it strangles you." He carefully began adjusting the cable.
"You don't want to let people get close. But you forget that that's the -- oops."
"Harry?!" Tom's hands were agony as the slack he'd pulled up zipped through his bare hands before he had time to let go.
"Harry!" The rope jerked and held, Tom still hanging onto the far end just in case something gave. <Why isn't he saying anything? Oh god. . .> The rope began swaying steadily.
"HARRY!" He leaned out over the cliff, face tight and pale with fear of what he might see.
"I really always was," a voice said quite nearby, "a lot better at climbing ropes than climbing walls."
He was dangling from the rope, pulling himself steadily upward, already only a couple of yards away from the cliff edge and travelling at speed. <I'll kill him.> Tom leaned out a little further and grabbed the back of his pants, hauling him up onto the summit. They lay sprawled on the ground, Tom lying half across Harry's back, breathing hard, the icy air sheering through his lungs like a knife.
"Oops?" he said incredulously.
"Sorry. Next time I'll try to be more creative."
Tom shook his head. "Don't bother. There won't be a next time. As soon as I get my breath back I'm killing you."
"Thanks. Tom?"
"Yeah?"
"Why are you lying on top of me?"
Tom said the first thing that came into his head. "Because I want to make sure you're here."
Harry's face, still turned away from Tom, flashed into an enormous grin. "Yeah, but I can't breathe," was all he said.
"Sorry." Tom sat, and helped Harry up, leaving his arm casually draped over his shoulders, loath to let go after his fright.
"That's quite a view," Harry said after a moment, as they sat on the edge, facing out across the bright landscape. His friend didn't notice that Harry's eyes flicker towards him, rather than the jagged vista of rock and ice laid out before them. "Tom?"
"Yeah?"
"Case in point. The only person you've let get really close these last three years is the one you've never tried to make a move on sexually."
Tom slowly turned scarlet, till even his fingers were burning with embarrassment and he carefully removed his arm. "You mean you?"
"Mmhmm. Now why is that?" Harry stared out across the scenery, his face unreadable. "Now, if it were anyone else, I'd assume it was because you weren't interested in me that way."
<Are you implying I'll fuck anything that walks - oh - okay, maybe I won't call him on that.> "Oh?" was all he said.
"But then, there's this whole business of you not letting people get close. I got to thinking, that if it was just closeness that worried you, you should have tried to sabotage our friendship. So maybe you didn't care about sex really, even though you were so noisy about it. Noisy in the boasting to anyone in a fifteen light year radius sense, not the screaming in ecstasy sense. I wouldn't know about that." he added meticulously.
"Oh." Non-committal.
"Yet." Tom's head snapped round fast enough to give himself whiplash. Harry ignored him, and went on."Perhaps it was all camouflage, diversionary tactics. Maybe for the really important relationships, you get frightened of introducing sex into the equation, in case it ends up like all the rest, just a roll in the hay, and thanks Tom, goodbye. You've separated sex and love until you don't even realise you're doing it. Maybe even to the point where you've thought that any relationship that is really close isn't sexual."
"Oh." Disappointed, Tom rubbed at the back of his neck.
"Tom?"
"Yeah," he replied, sounding small and tired.
"You're wrong." And Harry pounced.
His lips were cold and rough where the wind had chapped them, and they latched onto Tom's like he'd die without that touch. For all Harry knew, he might. Tom's mouth was slack with surprise, and then joined in enthusiastically, licking along the roughened skin, soothing the dryness with his tongue, slipping a little deeper to taste the warmth inside Harry's mouth. He was flat on his back, Harry's body pressing warmly across his chest. He lifted his arms to wrap around the bulky coat, and sighed happily into Harry's mouth. Harry shivered as warm breath drifted across his tongue.
"You cold?" Tom asked anxiously, pulling back a little.
"Wrong again." And they were kissing again. Tom sliding his hands between them, tugging Harry's coat open until the flaps were around them both, and his hands could reach under Harry's clothes.
"Eep!" Harry protested as cold hands caressed his warm skin. A little while later he moaned as the hands, warmer now, trailed fire across his torso.
Tom pulled his mouth away for air. He smiled up at Harry, who was panting, his eyes full of desire and something else, that Tom didn't want to question just yet. "You know Harry, for an intelligent guy, you can be very wrong."
Harry's hands were busy too, one under Tom's sweater, the other running through the springy dark blond hair. Harry let the hand inside Tom's clothes slip lower, resting over Tom's groin, feeling the bulge of Tom's arousal. Tom pushed up eagerly into Harry's hand, until his lower body lifted away from the ground, letting out little cries of pleasure.
Harry cupped him more firmly, squeezing and releasing through his shorts till Tom's hips were rolling rhythmically under his touch. "What?" he asked distractedly, then leaned down to drink in the sounds Tom was making. Harry's lips were sweet and warm on Tom's, and Tom wondered how his friend could think this wasn't sexual. He only realised he had been speaking into Harry's mouth when the lips pulled back fractionally, and moved against his, saying, "If you're still talking, I'm not doing it right..."
Tom felt the grin, and then a tongue was dancing small patterns across his lips and teeth, tantalising his own with brief, almost accidental-seeming touches. He kissed him back for all he was worth, gripping Harry tightly around the waist with one arm under the coat, pulling him closer. The other hand slid south under Harry's waistband, down skin over his ass and further, between his legs. Harry's thighs spread as Tom's hand pressed insistently against his cleft, his cold index finger lying intimately along the hot juncture of flesh between his cheeks. It was Harry's turn to arch, aching for more, and he lifted his head to stare passionately down at Tom, and groaned, his breath white clouds in the cold mountain air.
"More. . ." he managed to get out.
"We'll die of cold," Tom warned half-heartedly. He moved his finger a little till the nail was against the small entrance, and ran it across. Harry wailed, shoving his body back harder into the tormenting hand.
"I don't care!"
"Are you quite sure this I don't think this is sexual, Kim?" Tom smirked. Harry looked at him incredulously. <I'll straighten his logic out later,> he thought. <Much later.>
"So I was wrong. Please, Tom, prove how wrong I was," he gasped desperately. Their eyes locked. Tom was acutely aware of the stones poking his back, the warmer, but no less uncomfortable hardnesses between them. Harry's breathing was coming in short, rapid gasps, his chest jerking under Tom's encircling arm.
Tom reached up slowly for Harry's face, pulled him down close, turning his face away a little, and touched it lightly with his cheek, rubbing gently with it against the soft gold skin, then stilling, holding Harry's head pressed close against his, then rubbing again, feeling the faint grain of burgeoning stubble. It was a touch of pure affection at first. Then Tom's lips parted and he bit sharply at Harry's ear lobe, then licked lightly over the mark, and blew, sending shudders through and through him.
"Now get here before I die of frostbite."
Harry grabbed Tom's wrist and pulled it out of his pants. Quickly he leaned over Tom, "You might be going to die of some kind of bite, but believe me, it's going to be mine," he said in a rough voice, and turned around on his knees, straddling Tom's torso. He opened the fastening of Tom's pants and yanked his shorts down, letting him lie with only the bottom of his coat to protect his ass from the stones and frozen earth underneath them. Tom's erection sprang free, and his eyes widened as the sub zero temperatures hit his bare skin, withering his arousal. Harry grinned back over his shoulder at Tom briefly, then pulled his hood up over his head and warmed Tom back into hardness with his mouth, fondling the soft sacs behind the shaft with his hands, protecting them from the icy air.
Tom sighed, letting his head fall back, his eyes shut, thrusting gently into the hot mouth surrounding him. His eyes opened again, and he took in the buttocks swaying in front of his face and smiled as an idea arrived full fledged. Harry's hips thrust downwards towards him, even as he was reaching up, more as a suggestion than a command, but Tom was more than happy to oblige. He tugged Harry's hips closer, opening up the trousers until he could see that Harry was wearing extremely skimpy briefs underneath.
"Nice," he murmured, then pushed them out of the way. "Nicer," he added, and pulled on Harry's pelvis till he was lying on Tom, his belly high on Tom's chest. Carefully he guided Harry's erection into his own mouth and licked all along it. Tom felt the moan Harry gave vibrate through his own cock, and he thrust harder upwards with his hips towards the mouth that was driving him crazy with every movement of lips and tongue, cupping his hands around Harry's cloth covered cheeks to rub and mould firmly.
He lifted his face slightly, feeling Harry holding back, and pushed his face deeper in the heat of Harry's crotch, taking his penis in deeper, swallowing around it to create suction, massaging the head with his throat. He swiped his tongue as hard as he could against the thick, heavy shaft in his mouth, using teeth and lips till Harry was fucking as strongly as he dared, hips moving in time with Tom's. Tom's eyes were closed, and he was lost in sensation, unable to distinguish who was doing what to whom, until finally his cock buried itself deep in Harry's throat, as Harry's semen spurted down his own throat, filling his mouth, and there was wetness between his legs where some of his come had spilled from Harry's eager lips, and they were moaning and pushing frantically against each other.
When it was over, Tom lay with his nose still buried in the rough black hair between Harry's legs, wondering how they'd manage to rearrange themselves without freezing their cocks off. Harry, it seemed, had ideas about this. Keeping each other warm looked like a very good option, Tom thought hazily as Harry's tongue licked along his penis. Then the warmth vanished, and Tom jerked as the icy air hit his wet shaft, warmth surrounded it again for a moment, and then cold. Tom was shivering, but couldn't decide if it was from the heat or the chill. Either way, he didn't want it to stop. He suddenly realised he was responding to the stimulation by sucking mindlessly, steadily at Harry. The soft flesh twitched and filled his mouth again, and he continued slowly, drawing it out as best he could when half out his mind from what Harry's hands were doing to him.
Saliva and semen were dribbling down his crotch, he could feel it tickling in a slow sticky trail till it reached the tight bud of his asshole. It paused there, and Harry must have been watching, because a finger dipped into the mess and swirled, spreading it in sensuous circles first over and then just inside his anus. Tom bucked upwards as the icy cold finger slid inside him, and he ran his own hands down from Harry's waist to his behind, slipping his hands under the clothing, pushing it away. He nearly laughed when he heard Harry's squeak of protest as his nether regions were exposed to the cold. In sweet revenge Harry plunged a second finger into Tom's ass.
Tom moaned, arching his back, and pulled Harry's cheeks apart, letting the wind cool his hole. He pushed Harry upwards, removing his mouth from the engorged cock, much to Harry's disappointment, then pulled him down, closer, till Harry's asshole was in tonguing distance. He pulled the end of his friend's coat further down, partially covering both Harry's ass and his own head, keeping them from freezing together, he thought with a grin. A quick swipe elicited a moan, so Tom carried on, brushing over the exquisitely sensitive area repeatedly, then pushing inside, till Harry came, pumping his hips into Tom's neck and chest. Harry twisted his fingers inside Tom seeking, and finding, his hot spot, tormenting him until Tom came again.
Carefully Tom tugged Harry's clothes back over his body, sliding an intimate hand over his friend's chilled bottom before closing the fasteners. Harry was still buried face down in Tom's lap, licking him clean. Eventually, satisfied he'd got everything, he rearranged Tom's clothing closed, and sat up, pulling Tom upright after him into a hug.
"Wow," Tom managed, after a long moment. He shook his head, trying to clear it, still surprised - delighted, but surprised.
"Mmm." Harry was licking his lips.
Tom grinned sleepily at him. "Here, let me do that," he said, kissing him warmly, licking away the pale flecks in and around Harry's mouth. When he lifted his head Harry was sat straddled across his lap, and they were both breathing heavily. They had wrapped their arms around each other tightly, and stayed like that for a long while, Harry's head on Tom's shoulder, Tom's cheek resting on Harry's soft hair, savouring the closeness.
"Maybe we should go somewhere warmer?" Tom suggested eventually.
"What? Not hot enough for you?" Harry smiled, rubbing his ass over Tom's thighs, provoking a moan and a swat on his backside.
"I'd like to discuss it in more detail, but I refuse to die of cold just for sex."
"And there I was thinking you loved me!" Harry was teasing, but Tom's face went thoughtful. One hand left its grip on Harry's coat and cupped the side of his face.
"What if I did?"
Harry's stomach gave a little lurch. "What if you did what?"
"Fell in love with you?"
"Hypothetically?"
"If you like."
"Well, hypothetically of course, I'd have to think about it." He jumped up off Tom's lap after a quick kiss and crossed the twenty yards to the shuttle waiting on the plateau where they had left it two days previously.
"Harry!" he started to protest, but gave up as his friend grinned at him, then slowly licked his lips, holding out one hand to Tom. There was always tomorrow.
"You know, we could've just gone inside the shuttle for all that." Tom observed in mock indignation, rubbing warmth back into his hands, and easing himself to his feet.
"What? And lose the spontaneity?" Harry laughed merrily watching Tom trying to mop semen from his ruined shirt. It looked like being a good day after all.
"Coming?" he called.
"Probably. . ."
© Temaris 1998
Page last updated 18/09/2004.