About Time - Part 2/2

Posted on 31 Jan 2024 @ 3:33pm by Petty Officer 2nd Class Leon Inaros

2,059 words; about a 10 minute read

Flashback

Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Regula I - Level 17, Bar/Lounge
MD 18, 1805 hrs

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Leon watched him, studying his face for a long moment. He took the newly arrived bottle, opening it and refilling their glasses. "What about Laeon's mother?" he asked, having had enough to drink to be curious and ask the question.

Alexis arched an eyebrow at the question, taking a sharp intake of breath as he considered where to start. "Taresa. The smartest woman I have ever met. Smart enough not to marry me when she became pregnant with Laeon. We'd been seeing each other for a little while, but...it wasn't serious. I...was a...I think libertine is the word I have heard. I never wanted to be a doctor, so I cared nothing for my work. All I wanted to do was drink and inhale and gamble my father's fortune away," despite the disparaging description, there was a slight nostalgic smile on his lips.

Leon smiled at that, watching him with awe. "Enjoying the debauchery of old money and freedom..." he whispered, taking his drink to sip. "To spend your free time as you wished." He wanted to ask about Taresa, what happened to her. But decided against it. He wasn't that drunk yet.

"It's *all* I wanted to do," Alexion admitted, taking a deeper drink from his glass, letting out a long breath as his whole body started to relax. "We didn't have a choice in the career we were given. Doctor was as far from what I wanted to be as I could imagine. I was happy in my smoke filled paradise. But when Laeon came along...I knew I needed to be more, for him."

"He's pretty amazing," Leon said, his voice soft as he watched him. He studied the other man with a small smile. "You're a good father. Brilliant, in fact, because he's brilliant."

"No, I make plenty of mistakes," Alexion assured with a soft sigh, looking into his glass. "Especially now. He's growing up. And my reaction is always to say no, even if he has to start learning."

"You're a Dad, that's sort of your job. Just as it is his job to rebel a bit..." Leon said with a smile, shaking his head. "You know what I did to rebel?" he laughed, remembering it for a moment. "I set up an underground gambling ring in the shuttlebay. But we dealt strictly in non-replicated items."

Alexion laughed at that, sitting back as he rubbed his face with a slightly slower than usual hand. "That sounds just about perfect. We should start that up, I think I would enjoy taking everyone's luxuries..."

Leon watched the movement, his eyes following it because he couldn't help himself. "You like the luxurious sides of life. Can't blame you, you...seem very cultured."

"Cultured..." Alexion chuckled softly, letting his hand drop as he looked to him with glinting violet blue eyes. "I prefer that word to 'over-indulgent'."

"Cultured, sophisish...sophisticated..." Leon said, biting her lip as he suppressed a giggle at stumbling over his words. "Intelligent, cynical, sarcastic, handsome..." he gestured at Alexion, shaking his head. "A dangerous and heady combo, because it's...fascinating."

Alexion laughed gruffly at the stream of slightly slurred words, leaning forward on the table as he watched him with a grin. "Fascinating? Isn't that what humans would call a...a...specimen? Or a deadly creature?"

Leon watched him, studying him for a long moment. "Enthralling then," he said, his voice soft. "Although I suspect you could be deadly if you wanted to." He had seen him move, there was something there.

Alexion settled his arms on the table, leaning on them as he watched him intently. He let out a soft breath, his body warm and close to relaxed. As close as it tended to get. "Would that bother you?" he asked him bluntly.

Leon smiled as he took his glass, lifting it to take a sip. He searched his eyes before he shook his head. "No," he said softly. "It wouldn't bother me at all, Alexion."

Alexion reached out, placing his hand over his wrist, able to feel the honesty through the touch. "All heirs to the High-Pralors were trained how to use their Talents to fight. We were expected to use them to defend our home and our people. And I did."

Leon's breath caught at the touch, not expecting it. He smiled as he watched him, giving a small nod. "You did," he said, the words echoing, but truthful. He believed him. And he believed he was more than capable. "If your Talent hadn't mattered, what would you have wanted to do in your life?" he suddenly asked, his hand gently taking his hand so he couldn't pull away from him. Or from the question.

"As little as possible," Alexion said softly before chuckling gently, making no move to pull back from him or look away. "I would have indulged in every sense. Enjoyed decades of selfish hedonism..." he trailed off, looking down to his drink, contemplating the dark ripples for a moment. "I'd like to say I would have eventually joined the guard or the priesthood or started a business, but I doubt it."

Leon watched him before he reached out, to touch his chin. "I don't know, violet eyes..." he whispered, making him look at him. "Maybe in your own time, you'd have found your calling. It's when we give up on...an idea of how we think our lives should have been, that what was impossible becomes achievable."

"Is that how you see becoming a nurse? Finding your calling after the marines?" Alexion asked, leaning casually on the table to be close to him, keeping his voice low. "I can't give up medicine...it's the only chance of a career I have to provide for Laeon."

"But once Laeon is old enough not to rely on you...then you can find your new calling," Leon said firmly as he held his eyes, searching them with meaning. "It is not your life forever, Alexion. You can one day have whatever you need here. It might not be all you want, all you wished for once...but it can be a new thing, a new passion."

Alexion tilted his head, just watching him as he considered the words. His expression made it clear that he hadn't thought that far ahead. "What would you do?" he asked quietly.

Leon let out a breath as he thought about it. "I'm not sure," he admitted softly. "I'm...not you. I've been in Starfleet my whole life. I was born into it. I've never stretched my wings past it. Maybe..." he paused and looked down. "Maybe I'd settle somewhere. Be in one place on a planet long enough to see if I could find something and someone to love."

Alexion studied him with narrowed eyes for a long moment, his fingertips brushing against the edge of his hand to catch a feel of his mind. He leant in close to him, a playful grin appearing as he shook his head and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Nah, I don't think you mean that."

"What gave it away?" Leon asked as he met his eyes, his eyes dark as he smiled back to him. "I think I did a good display of the Starfleet man considering retirement somewhere quiet as an option."

"If that's what you wanted, you would have retired after leaving the marines," Alexion pointed out, before a fleeting playful smile came to his lips as he lifted his hand. "And I may have cheated a little."

"Cheated..." his eyes drifted to Alexion's fingers before he reached out, quickly, taking his hand. He studied it as if going to read his palm before he moved his hand to brush his fingertips over Alexion's. "Your Talent." He met his eyes, holding them with fascination. "You used your Talent to sense me?"

"Well...that depends on whether you're going to start throwing bottles at me if I say yes," Alexion grinned to him all the same, his violet eyes shining with a mixture of alcohol, warmth and good company.

"No bottles...waste of alcohol," Leon said with a smile, studying the hand with awe before he brought it to his cheek with a drunken chuckle. "Is it just skin or skin, or does placement matter?"

"Any skin to skin," Alexion shrugged softly with a small smile, letting his fingertips trace the line of his jaw. "I...transfer," he tried to explain his Talent to him. "Energy...feelings...thoughts..."

"And feel what I am feeling?" Leon asked, leaning into the touch as he watched his eyes. The fingers were warm, flushed with alcohol he suspected. Leon certainly felt warm from it, that boneless relaxation that you got after one too many, the buzz in your head and chest. The carelessness. "Your hands are warm."

"Warmer than you, just a touch, at least," Alexion said softly with a small smile, leaning into him. "Our bodies run a little warmer than humans, but it means we're more...sensitive."

"You feel the cold more?" Leon asked, letting his hand slide to his wrist, feeling the pulse. Smiling at the differences between a human and a Vaeron. Was it inappropriate, flirting this much? Leon was too drunk to care, he had years of practice as a Marine flirting. Hell, if he had been on shoreleave a few years ago, he was decently sure he could have tried to seduce the other man. He couldn't guarantee he would have been successful, but half the fun back then had been the chase. The dance.

"Both hot and cold, we like it...just right," Alexion chuckled softly, with an ease of spirit that wasn't often around him, fuelled by the alcohol and the warm company. "But that's not what you want to ask or say. You have unspoken words behind your eyes."

Leon swallowed at that, a small smile on his lips. "I was contemplating that if I was still a Marine, I'd have gotten you to my bunk by now," he said with a charming grin, reaching for the bottle to top their drinks up.

Amusement glinted in Alexion's eyes as he reached for the glass, knocking it back. As he set the glass down heavily on the table, he leant in closer, but this time, didn't stop until his lips were close enough to his ear to whisper. "So what's stopping you as a Nurse?"

Leon smiled, leaning into it a little. "I am sure many reasons," he said softly, closing his eyes. He was blushing, able to feel his breath on his skin. "Can't think of a single one right now..." he turned his head, to brush a kiss to his cheek.

Alexion tilted his head, turning it to capture his lips with his, kissing him warmly...briefly, but warmly...his fingertips sliding over his hand to feel him.

Leon sucked in a breath of surprise, returning the brief kiss. He smiled, turning his hand to have their palms together, his heart racing as he opened his eyes to watch him. "Alexion..." he whispered, smiling. He felt relaxed, warm and...happy. He felt happy in that moment.

Alexion chuckled softly against his lips, closing his eyes as he felt the emotion rolling through the other man. He basked in it for a moment before transferring his own emotion back to him through the skin to skin contact.

Leon watched him with surprise, awed at feeling it. And just underneath, something else. Something strong under the surface, that he didn't let him see. He leant close and kissed him, enjoying the intimacy of the shared feelings.

Alexion closed his eyes for a moment as he pulled back, letting out a soft breath. "Well...you didn't run out of the door," he opened his eyes to watch him with a mirth filled smile. "And it only took a bottle of whiskey to achieve."

Leon would keep the memory of that evening on Regula I close to his heart, even when things around him became stranger and stranger. For a moment, he had felt something new, seen something in someone else that made him feel special. Maybe it was enough to hold on, when the universe crumbled around him.

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