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Romancing the... Mud? 
by Lianne Burwell
January 1998
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Voyager was orbiting an M-class planet, teeming with life (none of it 
intelligent) in an unclaimed system. Scans showed a plenitude of 
materials that the ship was short on, both mineral and organic, so the 
captain had decided that they would stop for a few days to replenish 
their supplies and have some much needed "down time".

The first officer, Commander Chakotay, was leader of one the first away 
teams and he had taken shameless advantage of his position to arrange 
that his lover, Tom Paris, was part of his team. In the ten months since 
they had become a couple they had not had the opportunity to take an 
actual vacation off of the ship, so Chakotay was taking the chance to 
walk on a planet's surface with his beloved by his side.

Chakotay's team was assigned to collect edibles, both harvesting ripe 
plants and collecting seeds and shoots from plants that could be adapted 
for the ship's make-shift hydroponics bay. In order to cover the greatest 
area possible, Chakotay had split the team into pairs had assigned each 
pair a different direction to move in.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who *Chakotay* was teamed with.

So Tom and Chakotay were wandering through an area rather reminiscent of 
tropical rainforests on Earth, scanning the local vegetation and tagging 
anything that looked interesting (and as *unlike* leola root as possible).

With frequent stops for necking

* * * * *

About two hours later, clouds began to gather in the pale lavender skies, 
and thunder could be heard rumbling in the distance. Chakotay's commbadge 
came to life with a crackle.

"Commander, the storm moving into your area is interfering with our 
scanners. It is also interfering with the transporters. The storm will 
take 1.2 hours to pass, so we recommend that your team take shelter to 
wait it out." Static made it difficult  to follow what Tuvok was saying.

"Acknowledged. Chakotay out." Chakotay watched the skies as Tom relayed 
the 'take cover' order to the other teams. The storm was moving in fast 
and the first drops of rain were already falling. The temperature was 
also falling as he used his tricorder to scan the area for shelter.

"Tom, the storm is interfering with my tricorder, but there appears to be 
a series of caves just to the north of us. That should be a good spot to 
ride out the storm." The blond pilot just nodded and indicated, with a 
smile, for Chakotay to lead the way.

They pushed on as quickly as possible as the rain picked up in intensity, 
chilling them both to the bone. Both hoped that the others on the team 
had been able to find shelter, but the storm had generated enough 
interference that both their commbadges and their tricorders were 
completely useless. Only Chakotay's sense of direction was keeping them 
heading in the right direction -- or at least what they *hoped* was the 
right direction.

Then, without warning, Chakotay disappeared from Tom's view. He rushed 
forward, with a gasp, to where the commander had been standing and found 
himself standing at the edge of an embankment. A path down the slope 
showed the passage of the other man who had obviously stepped on an 
unstable piece of ground. Tom stood there for a moment, considering what 
to do, when the saturated bit of ground *he* was standing on seemed to 
fall away beneath him and he found himself propelled down the slope, 
following the same path as the previous unfortunate.

Tom gave a startled shout as he slid down the slope, quickly gaining 
speed. The shout quickly transformed itself into a delighted whoop. Okay, 
so he had no idea what was going to happen at the bottom of the mud-
slide, he could end up breaking his neck or worse, but it was still a 
*fun* trip. He'd always loved water slides and roller-coasters as a kid 
and this seemed to combine the best elements of both. Even if the mud 
*was* getting itself everywhere, including *inside* his uniform. 

Suddenly he was in mid-air, doing a very graceful spin, before gravity 
reasserted itself and he splashed down in what had to be the biggest mud 
puddle he had ever encountered in his life. He lay there for a minute, 
laughing himself sick and trying to clear the mud from his face so he 
could see.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" a highly amused voice asked.

The pilot propped himself up on one elbow, still laughing, to find that 
he had landed face down across Chakotay's lap.

"Oh, very much, thank you," he replied with a self-satisfied smirk.

"Well, much as you are enjoying your regression to childhood, I suggest 
we get moving before the rest of that slope decides to collapse and bury 
us under a ton of mud."

Tom couldn't argue with that, so they pulled themselves out of the clingy 
substance and reoriented themselves. Chakotay made a best guess of which 
direction they needed to be going in and soon after they found the caves 
they had been aiming for.

Both were relieved to find a pool of relatively clean rainwater at the 
back of the cave they ended up in. Fun as the slide down the slope had 
been (and even Chakotay couldn't deny having enjoyed it) the mud had 
gotten everywhere and both of them wanted to clean up. Uniforms were 
quickly pulled off and rinsed off as best they could in the pool. After 
spreading them over some handy rocks, in the hopes that they might dry 
off a bit before the storm ended and they needed to get back into them, 
Tom and Chakotay stepped into the pool.

"Shit! Damn that's cold!" Chakotay grinned. For some reason it never 
failed to amuse him to hear his lover swearing. It just seemed so... 
appropriate for a man who looked equal parts angel and imp. Instead of 
responding, he just picked up his turtleneck, soaked it in the pool and 
started scrubbing at the other man's skin, laughing at the stream of 
invective that the blond was producing.

Once his love was reasonably clean he performed the same actions on 
himself and then re-rinsed the turtleneck and put it with the rest of 
their clothes to dry. He didn't really think that they would dry out much 
before the end of the storm, but staying nude would probably be healthier 
than sitting around in cold, wet clothes.

When he turned back to Tom, Chakotay found his lover sitting on the 
ground, hugging his knees to his chest, and shivering. Being of a heavier 
build, Chakotay was not usually bothered by cold temperatures, but the 
slender pilot obviously was.

"Tom, come here before you shiver yourself to pieces!"

Chakotay sat down and pulled the other man to him. Tom was now seated 
between his legs, back pressed to Chakotay's chest and Chakotay's legs 
tightly gripping Tom's thighs. The commander rubbed briskly at Tom's 
arms and chest, trying to generate friction warmth to go with the body 
heat he was sharing.

Gradually the shivering slowed, then stopped, and Tom melted into the 
warmth at his back. The friction had warmed him, and more. He could feel 
his nipples tightening up, and a new warmth was growing in his groin. He 
hummed in pleasure at the feeling and shifted his weight slightly to 
encourage Chakotay to move his hands lower. The response was a chuckle, 
sending delightful vibrations through him, and the hands moving down to 
rub at his stomach. Tom wriggled again, still humming a little in the 
back of his throat.

"Enjoying this, are you?" Chakotay chuckled in Tom's ear. The only 
response was a hummed affirmative.

Chakotay let one of his hands drift further downwards to grasp Tom's 
erection, causing a delightful gasp, while the other moved back up to rub 
and pinch at the nipples on the gold-furred chest. He pulled the other 
man closer to him again, until they were so tightly pressed against each 
other that they almost seemed to be sharing one skin. He licked at the 
salty skin below Tom's ear, smiling at the resulting moan, and rocked his 
own erection against the backside pressed tightly against it.

Tom arched into the hand holding him, then back against the heated shaft 
behind him and they quickly fell into a comfortable rhythm that brought 
them both to orgasm - first Tom, then Chakotay. The commander hugged his 
slightly trembling lover to his chest again and they fell into a light 
doze.

* * * * *

Sometime later Chakotay woke, slightly confused about where he was. He 
quickly remembered, then realized that he couldn't hear any rain falling. 
The storm had passed.

"Tom! Wake up!"

"jus a few more minutes, Cha..." Tom didn't even open his eyes.

"Tom! We need to get dressed. The storm has passed and Voyager could be 
beaming us up any second now." Chakotay pulled away from Tom and started 
grabbing and the still-wet pieces of their uniforms. Tom sat up, suddenly 
very awake.

"Shit! Where are my boxers?"

A couple minutes later both had the lower portions of their uniforms on 
and Chakotay was pulling on his turtleneck when the familiar - and in 
this case dreaded - feeling of the transporter grabbed them. When the 
world came back into focus they were standing on a transporter pad and 
Tom shuddered when he heard an all-too-familiar laugh behind him.

"Captain, I've got the last of them." Tom turned to see B'Elanna standing 
at the transporter controls, not even trying to hide the smirk on her 
face. He knew his face was beet-red (the problem with fair skin) and 
finished pulling on the rest of his uniform trying to pretend that she 
wasn't watching.

"So, boys. Did you enjoy your 'shore leave'?"

Chakotay laughed. Tom just sighed and went in search of a hot shower.

THE END

The boys will be returning in "Under The Influence".