Rich would assume his complete bewilderment at his good fortune might be off-putting, but either Liam is kind enough not to mention it or he's too distracted by Rich's dick to notice, because he's still grinning at it in anticipation. He tears his eyes away a moment later to scoot away and rummage in his bag, burrowing down into its depths. There are a few worrying clanks and rustles before he fishes out a few packets of lube and scoots back over again, settling between Rich's spread thighs and regarding his dick with unmitigated delight.

"I'm gonna need some feedback, hon," he says absently, and grips Rich's dick for the first time, slick and firm and good. "You just tell me, harder-faster, softer-slower, we'll figure it out together."

"Got it," Rich says, doing his best not to squirm up into that grip. "Will do."

"So good," Liam says warmly, and leans forward on one elbow to start stroking steady and firm. His fingers are slick and small and clever and it's—thoroughly distracting from any attempt to form coherent words. Rich moans and shudders and does his best to focus, but it feels so good, it's been so long since anybody he actually trusted laid a hand on his dick, let alone someone he liked, and it's basically all he can do now to hold still and make appreciative noises.

Liam's not teasing this time, either, and he doesn't slow down when Rich starts shifting restlessly enough to lift Liam up off the mattress. Just holds on, looking increasingly smug, and keeps on working Rich over until he's swearing low and breathless and incoherent, and he'd try to hold on except that's the opposite of the point this time. Rich makes a vague attempt to get across that he's so close, please, and then lets it happen, lets the wave of pleasure swell up and crash over him.

Liam is delighted by the entire thing, if the way he scrambles up Rich's body as soon as Rich is done coming and kisses Rich all over his face is any indication. "—Fucking beautiful," Rich is distantly aware of him saying, and petting Rich's hair over and over again. "That was amazing, you looked amazing, that was so good…"

There's something on his face, though Liam doesn't seem to have noticed, and it takes a minute for Rich to realize with a wrenching twist in his gut that he came on Liam's cheek. Rich is starting to jerk upright, dread lancing through him, when Liam reaches up to brush his hair back, blinks at his sticky hand, swipes a wrist past the smear on his cheek and goes directly back to kissing Rich's face. Like it was…no big deal, like he didn't care or mind. Like it wasn't humiliating or infuriating, and he's not gonna make Rich pay for it.

He's gonna kiss Rich a lot instead. Rich is completely okay with that, he's just going to lie here and breathe, trying to come down again from that nasty spike of panic directly after orgasm. Fuck, okay, it's okay.

"Mm?" says Liam, and draws back, eyes flicking over Rich's face. "You okay? Wasn't too much, or anything?" and then, like he can't help himself, another kiss on Rich's jaw, warm and soft. "Didn't put my knees somewhere by accident, did I?" He glances down, rearranges his weight, grins at Rich wryly. "While I climbed all over you like a piece of rigging, y'know."

Rich snorts, and his heart eases back down to a better speed. "No, man, you're fine. You're, that was really fucking good, you're great, you're amazing! Thanks, god." He strokes a hand down Liam's back, grateful and appreciative.

"Aww," says Liam, and kisses the tip of his nose, smiling. "Well, good." He strokes one thumb past the shell of one of Rich's ears again, smile widening when that makes Rich's breath hitch, and then pushes himself up and tumbles to one side, sprawling across the futon and stretching as luxuriously as any cat.

"Do you know how fingering works? I can give you a refresher course, I'm a very helpful teacher." He arches his hips, reaches down and palms at his dick, which is hard again, and gives Rich a hopeful little smile. He's so hot like this, naked and slim and small and perfect, laid out on the futon, blinking those big grey eyes up at Rich...Big, expectant eyes, Rich realizes.

He takes a second to remember there was a question. "Right, uh, I—refresher course, yeah, that'd…be good. Thank you?"

"Oh, babe, you're so cute," Liam sighs, and doubles forward to grab Rich's face and kiss him again. "Alright, alright, okay, we were doing something, c'mere," he gasps, when he finally has to pull away to breathe—drops back onto the mattress again and slaps out a hand until he finds the packets of lube spilling out of his bag. "Here, hand, gimme. I'm still prepped to go from earlier, you're just gonna have to open me back up, it won't take much."

Rich holds out a hand obediently. He…thinks he knows basically how this goes, but basically is about it. Liam empties a packet of lube onto his fingers and drops back on the futon, hitching one leg up helpfully.

"Probably start with one finger for most people," he says, and lays his head back, taking a slow breath. Some of the eager, vibrating tension goes out of his body as he breathes out, muscles loosening, eyes falling half-shut. "But I'm not most people, so, get two fingers in there. Palm up, go nice and steady." He darts a bright grin down at Rich. "Don't worry about hurting me. I'm gonna be fine."

"Gotcha," Rich says, swallowing. Liam wouldn't want him to do this if it was gonna hurt, so it must be okay. He's still cautious when he presses two fingertips up against Liam's entrance and nudges in, but Liam shows no sign of pain. He just sighs out another slow breath and tips his head back, like he's savoring the feeling.

"You're not gonna break me, babe," he murmurs, but not like he really minds how slow Rich is going, more like he's being reassuring. His hips twitch, pushing back onto Rich's hand, lean muscle flexing in his thighs and belly, light glinting off the stud in his navel, and Rich has left a bite-mark on one of his hip bones, and he's gorgeous like this. "...Can gimme three, fast's you like, c'mon..."

Rich still pushes the first two fingers in farther before pulling back, then pushing back in with three, even slower and more cautious this time, but Liam continues to look like he's enjoying himself and this isn't bad in any way. So, cool, okay. Three fingers in, that's good. That's a lot. This little guy can take it, that's amazing, Rich's free hand looks enormous when he pets along the narrow span of one of Liam's thighs, he can't believe three of his fingers even fit inside him.

...Is he supposed to keep them there for awhile, or what?

"Good," says Liam, and gropes vaguely down until he finds the hand that's not fingering him, patting it a few times before slumping back. "Now, if you—hh. Move, out a little, and up, you'll find, you'll feel—" and then, as Rich tentatively follows directions, "Ah, good. Now, okay, so—ffh. Doesn't work on every guy, but, but some guys—are lucky, and it feels...very good, like that, that's good, and just…"

He moves his fingers in the air, and Rich studies his hand and then imitates the motion. Liam responds with a satisfying series of sharp, sweet little noises and fragments of compliments and encouragement. He's so hard and ready he's actually dripping now, precome trickling in shining beads down the ruddy span of his shaft and he's shifting restlessly on the futon, shamelessly hungry.

Rich still can hardly believe he wants this, wants Rich to fuck him, not the other way around. He isn't scared of letting Rich do that. Obviously they both know Liam's calling the shots here, but still. Most guys are way too intimidated to so much as consider getting their mouth on Rich's dick, like he might shove in and collapse a lung or something, and Liam's like half a foot shorter than the average guy and gleefully getting himself ready to take Rich's dick up his gorgeous little ass. And Liam knows what he's doing, so probably he's gotten more practice than a lot of the guys Rich has been around, but like...still.

Rich keeps moving his fingers as his own dick twitches and rises and starts getting impatient, and tries not to think too much about how all that tight, slick, clenching heat wrapped around his fingers is going to feel around his dick. This is going to be amazing, he just hopes he can keep control of himself enough to make it good.

Liam lets him keep on moving his fingers slow and gentle and careful, back and forth and back again, even though the stimulation's obviously getting to him and he's starting to get even more beautifully flushed and breathless, swearing softly every few breaths. Every so often he'll unwind a hand from the futon to demonstrate something different Rich could be doing with his fingers, and then when Rich does he arches up and make a lot of rough, encouraging noises, like Rich is driving him crazy with pleasure. It's so amazing to watch, Rich feels like he could do it forever, or at least for as long as Liam will let him.

But finally: "Okay," Liam says, sharp and gasping, like he's been holding it in and he can't anymore. "Good, okay—" he waves his hand at Rich, a commanding knock it off gesture, and Rich hastily takes his fingers back. Liam lies there for a second, lip pinned in his teeth, and then breathes out explosively and pushes himself up.

He grabs the tackle box full of condoms, and Rich watches, startled, as Liam sorts through the little foil packets and turns back to Rich holding one.

"Here, I use this size for some of my biggest toys, when I don't want to bother with too much cleanup, but it should work for you fine," he says, holding it out.

"Oh, I, but I'm—I'm clean," Rich says, confused. "We all got fixed up during Reassessment."

"And I'd be a terrible host if I didn't keep you that way, sweetheart," Liam says, and his bright smile goes steely around the edges. Rich obediently takes the packet, opens it carefully, and then tries to remember how Liam got his on.

"...You've never worn one before," Liam says, after a moment, like he's just realized this.

"Where the hell would I have gotten one that fit?" Rich asks helplessly. Wow, it's so much more slippery than he'd thought. He gives Liam a plaintive, hopeful look.

Liam laughs at him, but kindly.

"Here, okay, hon, I got you. Hold still."

In a few quick, professional moves, he's got the condom unrolled down the length of Rich's dick, and then Rich has to sit there and take deep, careful breaths, because: wow. The polymer is…clear but somehow shiny, gleaming, and it makes his dick look startlingly different without changing much. The flushed head of his dick seems deeper, redder, the faint blue tracery of his veins more saturated, maybe, and all of it just…shiny. Glistening.

"Well, look at you," Liam says, low and appreciative, and pumps his hand up and down Rich's shaft a few times, obviously admiring his own work. Rich shudders at the slight, strange difference of sensation: it doesn't exactly feel less sensitive now, even with the barrier between his skin and Liam's. The material's too slick and filmy for that to be an issue. Instead it's…different, somehow. Slicker, smoother. Something. He loses himself for a long moment, watching Liam's hand go back and forth on the gleaming-slick length of his shaft, tracing his fingertips up and down, rubbing his thumb in circles over the head. Rich sits there and pants and stares like an idiot who got unbelievably lucky.

Liam finally looks back up at his face, and whatever he sees there has him grinning like he's the guy who somehow landed himself in an incredible sex fantasy situation. The little guy leans up on his knees, presses a quick kiss to Rich's jaw, then shoves him flat on his back on the mattress again. Rich goes over gladly, heart racing and dick throbbing in anticipation.

Liam murmurs, "I need you to hold still until I say it's okay, okay?" He swings up over Rich's stomach, settling down on top of him. "And then I promise you'll get to move."

"Okay," Rich says, licking his lips. He presses his hands against the futon to keep from grabbing Liam, touching him wherever he can, and concentrates on being still when he's practically vibrating with anticipation. Liam gives him a soft, small smile, distracted but fond, and then grabs a packet of lube and gets Rich's dick dripping-slick before edging back and just—he just—

Rich makes a noise about like the one he made when he got hit by the stun baton, and Liam makes a breathless noise above him, half-laughing, and pets his stomach jerkily. "Good," he's murmuring, and he sinks slowly down, even and controlled, taking long, slow breaths. "Good, like that, Rich, that's perfect, fuck. Ahh, that's nice…"

"Fuck," Rich moans, hips shivering with the desire to thrust, feeling like he's going to go crazy with pleasure and need. His hands scrabble at the futon, barely holding back from clawing holes in it. "God, Liam, you're so, that's so good, please, I, whatever you want, please just…" He shouldn't be asking for anything, he knows, but god.

"I know, babe, I gotcha, I know," Liam murmurs, and shudders and Rich can feel him, muscles tensing and shivering and relaxing again. "Okay. Nnh, okay, here…"

Everything feels even better, when Liam starts moving—slow at first, eyes closed and brow furrowed like he's focusing intently on every second. "Good," he gets out, and leans back as he sinks down—tenses again in a shuddering wave, eyes snapping open again. "Hha—! Fuck! Good, you can—move, god, c'mere—"

Rich rocks up into him, grateful and frantic, starting up a quick rhythm. His hands rise toward Liam's hips before he catches himself and holds them there, not touching.

"Can I, 's it okay to—?"

"Yes," gasps Liam, sharp and loud and intense, "give it to me, hon, fuck yes."

Rich grabs him and lifts him just enough to let Rich's hips snap up into him, and goes for it. Liam wants it and Rich can do this, this is not a problem, it's so good.

The hardest part is holding on and not just coming, despite getting off beforehand. This is completely different from a handjob or the couple of rare times someone's blown Rich, it's hot and tight and incredible, and more than that, it's a ridiculously hot guy who's very much into Rich's dick being in him, which is some kind of bizarre sex miracle, Rich is pretty sure.

Even more surprisingly, it keeps on not being too much for the beautiful little guy. Liam just doesn't stop: he works with Rich, eager and triumphant, he rides Rich's dick as fast and hard as he said he would and doesn't seem to have any intention of slowing down even when Rich's grip on his legs is probably tight enough to leave fingerprint bruises. The strength in his legs seems to give out after a few endless minutes, but that's okay because Rich can lift him easily, and Liam lets himself be moved like it's everything he could possibly want. He gets a hand on one of his piercings again instead, and makes a gorgeous amount of absolutely filthy noise.

Rich is physically trembling with the effort of not coming by the time Liam jerks a hand up to his mouth, licks his palm slick and reaches down to touch himself desperately. He strokes hard and fast for all of a minute and then clenches down so hard it almost hurts and curses delightedly as he comes.

He slumps in Rich's grip afterward, muscles fluttering around his dick, and then twitches as Rich starts to lift him, clinging to the last scraps of his control. Can't keep going, can't just—this isn't for Rich, it's for Liam, and he's had his already, Rich can't take liberties here.

Liam lifts his head and shakes his wild hair out of his eyes, panting. "Nnuh," he says. "Come on. Want you t'come, babe, lemme see. Don't stop now."

"Fuck," Rich says, tight and strangled, and slams up into Liam a handful of times before he comes apart. Even as he shudders with it, he tries to loosen his grip so Liam won't bruise, but he has a sneaking suspicion he doesn't succeed.

Liam gets himself off Rich's dick in the end, making soft noises in his throat as he works his way back up and then slumps forward across Rich's chest with a soft sigh.

"Thanks," he murmurs, and nuzzles under Rich's chin, settling in without any awareness of the bewildered shock taking over Rich's brain. "...'M gonna cool down for a—hhn, a second, that was—ahh. Very very good, babe, that was fantastic."

No, you, is Rich's first impulse to respond, mind spinning in confusion. Liam is thanking him, what even—Rich has paid him back thoroughly and well, apparently, but he didn't have to do any of this, let Rich come or thank him afterwards.

"It really fucking was," he says fervently. "You don't—thank you."

"Mmhm," Liam mumbles, and slides a hand up to stroke absently up and down Rich's neck, past his jaw, finds his mouth and traces along the line of his lips, apparently just...enjoying how he feels. "Good. Two minutes. Mmf."

Cool. Okay, Rich doesn't have any mental map or guideline for this situation, but he can absolutely follow instructions. He manages to strip the condom off all on his own, and even clumsily tie it off and toss it aside. Then he goes still and lets Liam enjoy the afterglow, running his hand gently back and forth across his slim back, and waits for a decent period of time before licking his lips.

"So, uh, did you say something about sharing some fruit?" He can't get more blocks, probably, it can't have been more than an hour or two since Liam got those forms completed. But even if it doesn't do much to soothe the hunger gnawing at his bones, he's not going to turn down some fresh—anything, really. A long hard shift and then two rounds of sex? He'll take anything.

"Mm?" says Liam, and then "Oh! Yeah, 'course, mmh." He pushes himself up, stretches like a cat against Rich's chest and then sits up, twisting to grab a bunch of fat, golden grapes from the nearest trellis.

"How do you feel about doing a little science for me, hon?" he asks. "I'm absolutely sick of taste-testing our grape cultivars, so if you want, you can eat as much as you like—"

"I do in fact want that," Rich puts in, dryly, and earns himself a bright little laugh from Liam.

"—You just have to rate them," Liam says, and transfers the rating matrix form to Rich's comm system. "For preliminary analysis."

Rich raises a screen to look at it without sitting up—it would dislodge Liam—then solemnly nods at the man.

"I am ready and willing to do my duty for the Fleet," he says gravely.

"You're an inspiration to us all, babe," Liam says, and pops a grape in his mouth.

After Rich is fed fistfuls of every kind and color of grape in easy reach of the mattress and rates everything 5/5 from sheer unscientific happiness, Liam starts venturing off into the crazy garden to fetch back more samples of even weirder cultivars, and then, "Just for fun!" starts coming back with non-grape items that Rich doesn't even have to rate.

Liam wasn't kidding earlier when he said he had every kind of berry Rich could possibly want. The blackberries, when Liam goes and locates some for him, are huge, at least twice as big as Rich remembers blackberries being, and on seeing whatever Rich's face does at getting to eat them, he sits right down on the mattress, gets Rich's head in his lap, and proceeds to feed them to him by hand, petting his hair and looking out at the lake as Rich takes the fruit from his fingers.

Rich, for his part, licks and sucks filthily on Liam's fingers whenever he's out of fruit, for the added enjoyment of watching the man go flushed and flattered and indulgent. Liam obviously knows he's pretty, never seemed to doubt Rich was into him, but he still looks briefly startled and then pleased every time Rich chases a sugary fingertip with his tongue or kisses the pad of his thumb in passing.

Rich isn't sure how long he lies there. Occasionally Liam pops one fruit or another into his own mouth, but mostly he enjoys playing with Rich's hair, and sneaking teasing touches against Rich's lips as he feeds him fruit, tempting him to get a little more bold and filthy every time he does take a fingertip between his lips, run his tongue along the pad of an index finger or thumb. Rich hums happily at every sweet mouthful, sighs at the hand in his hair, the gentle, friendly touching, the fingers that never push in further than he invites. It's weird to be naked and this close to someone he only met today and not feel at all threatened, weirder to be so comfortable and pleased, but he's got two orgasms under his belt and a gorgeous guy feeding him delicious fruits and starting to squirm for him all over again. It's impossible to be unhappy about any of this situation.

"Shit, man," he sighs eventually. "This is awesome. You're awesome. And I seriously appreciate the help, I'm gonna owe you for a while for this."

"Pff," says Liam, and bops him gently on the forehead before pressing a big slice of something orange and tangy into his mouth. "You don't owe me anything, hon, come on. I'm glad you're having fun."

Rich blinks up at him, frowning slightly as he chews. "Man, no," he says when he's swallowed the—orange segment? Yeah, it's an orange, except gigantic. "Are you kidding, I'd never have figured out all that paperwork on my own, let alone get it expedited like you did for me. I owe you whatever you want, whenever you want it, just lemme know."

Liam doesn't answer for a long second. The hand on Rich's hair has paused, too, which is less than ideal. That was such an open-ended offer, though, maybe it was too much? It's not like he could ask for anything Rich doesn't wholeheartedly want to give him, though, Rich is damn confident about that. So Rich cocks his head encouragingly, but Liam's hand only shifts in place, and doesn't go back to petting him. Liam is staring somewhere in the direction of his face, but...unfocused, brow furrowed, eyes fixed somewhere far away.

"Whatever I want," he repeats, and shakes his head, focuses on Rich's face. Takes a deliberate breath and then says, mildly, "...Just checking, ah...why, exactly, did you come back to my boat to have sex with me?"

Rich opens his mouth and pauses, frowning again. It sounds like a trick question, but he's not sure what the trick is. "Because you asked me to? And you're fucking hot, and you're getting my meal allotment adjusted, and I was just gonna blow you a couple times, but—shit, man, no one ever liked my dick before! And you wanted it like that, I mean, fuck! That was incredible! So I—you liked it, right? You did ask, right, it was okay?" He wouldn't be sitting here feeding Rich if it had hurt him, he has to be okay, Rich thinks, but he's starting to get nervous at the look on Liam's face.

He can't lie here in the guy's lap when something's wrong. Rich shifts and Liam doesn't try to stop him from pulling away and sitting up.

"...Yes," says Liam, a second late, and blinks again, meets Rich's eyes, runs a hand through his blue curls. "No, babe, that was amazing, you did a wonderful job. But…"

There it is. Somehow despite everything, despite wanting to make it good and get it right, Rich still screwed this up. He bites his lip and waits for the rest.

"Oh—hon, no, don't look at me like that," Liam groans, and takes Rich's shoulders—slides his grip down to his hands instead, threading delicate fingers through Rich's huge, clumsy ones and squeezing. "You really did do a great job, I just—thought we were doing this…because you liked me. And you wanted to. I didn't help you out so you'd pay me back with sex, Rich, and anybody who tried to make you do that was wrong, they shouldn't have made you do that."

Rich sits there frowning at him. That—almost none of that makes sense at all.

He answers the one part that does. "I do like you! You're really fucking nice, like crazy nice, seriously, and this was awesome, like I said! I did want to, it was great!"

"But you weren't doing it because of that," Liam says, like he's trying to read something in a foreign language, interpreting as he goes. "Because you thought it would be fun. You were doing it…because I gave a shit whether you were starving or not. Because I processed some paperwork for you." His faint frown twitches, his eyes widen. "That's why you were so surprised when I wanted to get to your dick," he says, like this is a startling new realization instead of common sense.

Rich has to shrug agreement, but adds, "Yeah, like I said, you're crazy fucking nice! This wasn't a chore for me, man, please don't think I wasn't having a great time."

"But you'd still have done it even if it was a chore," Liam says, and there's something imploring in the way he's looking at Rich, who doesn't know what to do besides nod tentatively.

"You did me a huge favor," he says, trying not to sound too hurt or confused. "I wouldn't just…not pay you back, not when you asked. I'm not a freeloader. And it was awesome, it went great, I had a great time?"

Liam looks even more upset now, which is typical for Rich's life these days, great.

Liam says, urgently, "Rich, I wanted to fix your food allotment because it was the right thing to do and I wanted to ride your dick because I thought it'd be a good time for both of us! This wasn't meant to be a transaction—hon, that's not what sex is about."

Rich wants to reassure him, but he's distracted because…in his experience, that's basically all sex is about. He's vaguely aware that married people have sex just because they like each other, but as far as normal people go, finding someone you can trade handjobs with is the best you'll usually get, and that's still a transaction, one orgasm for another. No one ever gets something for nothing, that's not how the world works.

Liam looks so distressed about it, though, like that's not how it is for him. And it took him so totally by surprise, he hadn't even considered trading sex as a possibility until Rich said something, when Liam's obviously a smart guy and has had plenty of sex himself…

Rich's own dismay is beginning to mix with a sneaking unease.

It's not like he had much or any experience before the Sympatico. He hadn't thought about it before, but—what if it's not just the way people act and talk to each other that's different on the rest of the Fleet? What if the way sex worked on the Sympatico was as violently dysfunctional as everything else they did there?

It's a weird thought to consider, but this whole encounter has been like no sex Rich has ever had before, with Liam wanting Rich to have just as good a time as he does. And he thought it was just Liam being a nice guy, but even if the time with Basil was closer to normal, Basil was still way nicer than Rich is used to and let Rich get away with a lot. Liam and Basil both being like that could be a coincidence, but Liam's shock suggests it's a trend.

In which case—

"Oh fuck," Rich says blankly. "Man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—fuck everything up, no wonder Basil didn't want anything to do with me afterwards, I just—I thought it was—I didn't know." No wonder Basil freaked out when he picked up on what Rich was doing, if Rich really is the outlier here and his whole understanding of sex is toxic Sympatico bullshit he's dragging his crewmates into. He's getting them involved in something gross and shameful they'd never have chosen if they knew beforehand what Rich was up to.

And not just his crewmates now: other guys, too.

Rich looks up at Liam, face burning and chest all crumpled up inside with shame. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to—"

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"You didn't fuck up!" Liam says urgently, but his shoulders slump in obvious relief at the same time; his tense, anxious expression softens. "No, hon, that's not what I mean, I know you were just trying to pay me back, you're a good guy, if you thought I wanted to be paid back of course you would—it's whoever taught you you had to do that who fucked up."

He squeezes Rich's hands again, lifts them and presses his forehead against Rich's knuckles. "Basil wouldn't expect you to do that for him either," he says, after a long second. "But I bet he didn't help, much. Didn't help you understand, I mean. He's a sweet kid, but he's not good at talking about things."

"I thought—shit," Rich mutters, his face heating as he remembers that whole mess, what he assumed, what Basil obviously meant instead. Basil was probably so hurt, when he thought Rich was treating him like he was Atkins or White or Galveston, the scumbag predators who'd try to con a blowjob or a fuck out of every new guy that came through, who'd track every debt like hungry lampreys, who'd get someone on their knees and make it hurt before they were through. God, Rich has done a great job screwing things up there. He only hopes he'll be able to fix it.

...Especially when he can't suck Basil's dick as an apology without making things worse. Because apparently you're only supposed to have sex for a really obscurely narrow set of reasons, and that's probably not one of the right ones.

"Fuck," he groans. "Okay, well, so I fucked up but—it's, this was okay, right? You're not—should I leave? I can leave."

Liam looks devastated.

"Rich," he says, and dives forward, wraps his arms around Rich's shoulders and buries his face in Rich's neck. Rich can't make out much of what he's saying, with Liam muffled like that, but he gets bits and pieces of 'no no no' and 'baby, it's okay' and 'you did so good,' punctuated every so often with a chaste, frantic kiss on the side of his neck.

Rich rests his hands on Liam's back and slowly starts to relax again. The shame and embarrassment at messing up so thoroughly is going to take a while to get over, but Liam is willing to forgive him, which is a good start.

More than willing, if the gentle kisses Liam is still peppering up and down his neck are any indication. He's still got a hand in Rich's hair and he's sort of...rocking them back and forth, like he's trying to be comforting, like he thinks Rich needs to be comforted, even though Liam's way more dramatically upset than Rich is. God, he looked so hurt about it.

Almost the instant that thought crosses Rich's mind, Liam goes abruptly still.

"Burton," he says sharply, and pulls away, eyes darting over Rich's face. "He was from your old ship, he went after you as soon as you got here, did he ever—did he make you…?"

Rich frowns uneasily. He isn't sure what this is about, but it's not necessarily a good topic, especially with how upset Liam got over what was just a misunderstanding. Going, 'Hey, I blew half the guys on that ship for one reason or another' isn't going to help anything, either, so Rich puts a hand on the back of Liam's neck and tries to draw him in for a kiss. Liam doesn't let himself be pulled though; his tiny frame is going tense again, eyes blazing.

"Rich," he says, "did anybody on that ship make you—do things you didn't want, did anybody make you—"

"Man, it's over," Rich says, exasperated. "What does it matter, it's past and done! I'm on the Reliant now, I'm never gonna have to do anything for any of them ever again, so you can chill!" He represses the urge to flinch as soon as he says that, because it's okay, he's apparently not in debt to Liam, the guy's probably not going to hold any missteps or lack of respect against him.

"I'm not gonna chill!" Liam says, and Rich can hear the same unreasoning fury in his tone as when he faced down Burton and his stun baton in the loading bay. "I'm gonna go track down some fucking scumbags and I'm gonna—"

"No!" Rich snaps, alarm sweeping through him, and grabs Liam's shoulders. He recognizes the look in Liam's eye, has seen it right before someone started hitting someone else and didn't stop, and Security really doesn't like guys like that. Rich doesn't want to see Liam getting slammed with a stun baton and carted away who knows where.

"You're not going anywhere until you calm down," he says firmly. "Anyway, who would you track down? It's the way it worked, Liam, the list is like twenty guys long, and you're not gonna go fight all of them, there's no way that's happening. Security would be real fucking unhappy, and no one wants that."

"If Security didn't fix this then who gives a fuck what they want?!" Liam says, and tries to jerk away from Rich's grip on him—bares his teeth when he can't. "I don't care how many of them there are, they can't do that to people and get away with it, I'm gonna—" he jerks again, struggling—gets nowhere, in Rich's grip. Spits out a few more incoherent curses, threats to nobody, but Rich keeps a hold on his arms and slowly, Liam runs out of steam, struggles weakening. Slowly, he goes still.

"Fuck," he says finally, small and tight, and drops his head forward, breathing hard. Gets a hand up and scrubs it across his face, then sniffs hard. "Fuck."

"Sorry," Rich says quietly, tugging a little in hopes of giving Liam a hug, since he seems to need it. This time Liam goes along with it, lets Rich pull him close and wrap careful arms around him, and Rich holds him and sways them back and forth, since that's what Liam did before. Pats Liam's fluffy curls, and doesn't say a word.

Even if he felt like saying anything right now, he doesn't know what he'd say. He can't think of anything helpful. Pointing out it wasn't a big deal, his mouth was just the only thing Rich had to offer in exchange for everything he had no other way of getting, probably isn't going to help Liam get over it. With Rich's apparent talent for screwing everything up as soon as he opens his big stupid mouth, he'll probably just make Liam more upset.

"It shouldn't be like that," Liam says, quiet and sad, and his arms wrap around Rich in return, holding on tight. "It's supposed to be—good, and fun, it's supposed to be something you do with people you like. Just, make each other feel good, it's not…" he takes a slow breath through his nose, and it shudders slightly on the way out. "...An obligation," he finishes, very quietly, and squeezes Rich hard.

"I liked it," Rich volunteers, squeezing Liam gently back. "With you, I mean, it was good, it was amazing, and I mean, you're hot as fuck, okay? I didn't even know someone could take my dick like that, or want to! You're fun. This was fun."

Liam huffs against his neck, but he also relaxes a little in Rich's arms. "Good," he says, and nuzzles up against Rich's neck again, kisses feather-light behind one ear. "I mean I...I try." He slumps against Rich for another minute, then sighs and pushes himself up, combing his hair back and over so it's out of his eyes.

"I think that's enough talking about hard stuff for today, huh," he says wanly, and smiles crookedly at Rich. "Let's talk about...hard stuff." And he gives a hopeful little wiggle of his eyebrows, and settles himself more firmly in Rich's lap.

Eyes widening, Rich is suddenly aware all over again that both of them are completely naked, and if neither of them has a boner right now that's more to do with emotional distress and less about lack of interest.

"Oh! Yeah?" he says, and then catches himself up short before he can ask what Liam wants. He doesn't owe the guy. Liam doesn't want this to be all about him. So…

"What, uh, were you thinking?" he asks, carefully, instead.

"Hmm," says Liam, and smiles again, brighter and clearer this time. Rich can almost see all the anger and hurt locking away again, buried under that wide, sweet smile.

"I'm thinking I want to make sure you know you're here to enjoy yourself!" says Liam, and traces his hands down Rich's sides and back up again to his chest, braced against his collarbones. "So. What do you like?"

"Uh." Rich licks his lips, excited and intimidated in equal measure. "I like…kissing you? And that thing you did with my ears. And, uh, my dick getting touched."

"I bet you do," Liam murmurs, and leans up to kiss him gently, fingertips tracing softly around the shells of both ears so Rich twitches and shivers. "Very good. What about apart from that?" Another kiss. "You liked having me on top? Or would you like it better if you got to bend me over and fuck me? I'm very fuckable. And bendy."

Rich can't help moaning. "That…shit, Liam, I, fuck! I, yeah, I'd—seriously, you'd let me do that? I dunno how good it'd be for you…"

"Believe me, hon, it would be very good for me," Liam says, with absolute certainty, and nibbles on Rich's jaw, then buries a hand in his hair to hold him still as the tip of Liam's tongue teases along his earlobe. Liam laughs against his ear at his shudder and strangled sigh, strokes his scalp and then takes a gentle handful of his hair and guides his head back and to one side, sucking a mark into the thin skin where his ear meets his jaw.

"I know you don't like being hurt," he says quietly, and loosens his grip on Rich's hair again, holding him there with the lightest possible pressure. "Do you like getting told what to do? Letting other people be in charge? Or would you like it if I let you pin me down, if you were in charge? That's okay to want, too."

Rich huffs like he's been punched, staring at Liam wildly. "You—you wouldn't like that, though, would you? If I…held you down, that'd be—that wouldn't be fun for you, would it? I could hurt you!"

"Rich," says Liam, quiet and firm, and squeezes his arm. "I wouldn't say it if I wasn't okay with it." He nips one earlobe, then sits back, meets Rich's eyes with no trace of hesitation. "It can be fun, if you trust the person holding you down," he says, and cocks his head on one side, eyes narrowing slightly on Rich's face. "...It can be fun, being in control of somebody who trusts you. Playing around, teasing them, maybe, or rewarding them when they're good—some people are into that. It can be a lot of fun."

Rich shivers at the thought of holding Basil down and having him like it, and quickly pushes that away. Who knows if he'll ever get the chance to find out if it'd work, and better not to torment himself wondering when Liam is right here.

"Yeah," he says, "sounds like it. So, uh." He licks his lips. "So…can I fuck you again? It might take longer, this time, we already went pretty hard..."

"You certainly can," Liam says, and he doesn't look like he thinks it's an imposition, he looks smug and pleased. He pats Rich's soft dick, as if to encourage it. "You can play with me while you're getting ready—believe me, I know myself well, and it will not take me long." He folds his arms behind his back, arching his spine so his piercings catch the light. "Push me around, pin me down…I look good tied to a bed, I've been told. And I'm much harder to break than I look."

"Uh!" Rich says, mildly alarmed. "How, uh, did you find that out?"

"Well," says Liam, with the tone of somebody about to start into a story he's been excited to tell. "The scene is my birthday party. Two years ago. I get this huge remote-control vibrator for my birthday and Eric from the Intrepid and Mark from the Fortitude are helping me test it out, except Mark only has one good arm to work with because his is in the shop, so he pulls his belt off—"

Rich's mouth dropped open somewhere around 'remote-control vibrator'. Liam hasn't noticed—he's got his hands up over his head, wrists crossed, apparently demonstrating how he was tied up, and not even remotely distressed by the memory.

"—Might as well go the whole way if we're going, so they untied me from the top of the bed and tied my hands behind my back instead, and then they took the vibe out and we started doing some science."

"Science," repeats Rich hungrily. He loves how deliciously filthy Liam can make that word.

"Yes!" says Liam. "Sex science. And that's how I found out I can take two dicks at once. Questions?"

"Holy shit," Rich says, which seems like the only possible response to most of this. He blinks at Liam, shakes his head, and elaborates, "Holy fuck. Okay. So. Right." Nope, his brain still isn't rebooting. "Goddamn, man. Um, okay, so. How do we, what—wait, so, I get to be in charge?"

"You do get to be!" Liam says. "If you want to." He sits up and leans forward all in one graceful motion, eyes half-lidded and dark, until his nose is almost brushing Rich's. "...Do you wanna be in charge of me, babe?"

That sounds like a trick question, but Liam said he wouldn't suggest anything he wasn't into.

"Yes?" Rich hazards.

"Sounds like fun," Liam says, and darts the last bit forward to plant a brief kiss on Rich's cheek. "Do you want to tie me up? Hold me down? Just tell me what to do? I'm flexible." He grins, spreading his arms out showily. "Literally, I'm very flexible."

Rich chews on his lip and then stops to think about what he actually wants. "I want," he says carefully, "to hold you down and tease you until you're begging for it, and then I'm gonna fuck you through the deck."

It feels all wrong, saying it out loud, like Liam's going to sneer and storm off—but he groans softly instead, smile widening, and slides a hand up one of Rich's thighs, stroking a few fingertips along his dick as it starts to wake back up again—gentle and teasing and almost too much, still. He meets Rich's eyes and tips his head on one side, and Rich has seen that challenging look before, even if it was never like this. 'Well? What are you gonna do about it?'

He's not sure what he should do, for a minute, but Liam likes being moved around, likes how strong Rich is, so after a breathless hesitation Rich picks him up and lays him down flat on his back, spreading himself out between Liam's legs and pinning him down with Rich's hands on his ribs. Then he puts his mouth on one of Liam's pierced nipples, because if Liam likes those being played with, he probably likes them being sucked on, too.

He's correct about that. Liam convulses under his hands, pressing back up into his grip, and lets out a pornographic moan, both hands flying up to wind through Rich's hair again. His hips twitch, but under the weight of Rich's chest he can barely move them, and that makes him moan too, briefer and rougher.

"Oh, fuck yes," he murmurs, "exactly like that, you got it, this sounds like...so much fun, hell yes."

"Hmm," Rich hums against Liam's skin, and flicks his tongue over that nipple before lifting his head to say, "Good!" Then he goes and plays with the other one, experimenting with sucking versus nudging and licking versus grazing it with his teeth. Liam strokes his hair and plays with his ears and makes a lot of satisfied noise, moaning and groaning and sighing and twitching his hips up against Rich in more helpless little thrusts.

Once Rich is eventually satisfied with that—the rough edge of Liam's breathing, the deep rosy flush of his chest against the silver of his piercings—he scatters little marks all over Liam's chest and throat, and then lays a trail of kisses down to Liam's now extremely interested dick. Liam gets grabby again at that point, less intentionally and a lot more eagerly, bucking his hips up and tugging hopefully at the back of Rich's neck until Rich settles his weight to pin Liam's hips firmly to the futon and looks up to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Who's in charge again?"

"I don't know!" Liam says, with a really bad attempt at casual thoughtfulness. "I seem to have nnf, forgotten. I can still do this…" he jackknifes up off the bed, holding Rich's head in place with both hands, and catches an earlobe in his teeth, sucking and nibbling.

"...So who's to say?" he finishes, smug against that ear, and then gives a sharp yelp that turns into a hitching laugh as Rich shoves him flat against the futon, one hand in the middle of his chest, and glares breathlessly.

"Well how about I remind you?" Rich growls, not very menacingly when he's this out of breath. It makes Liam shiver happily, not even scared in the least, so apparently it's good, it's fine. "If you're gonna be a disobedient little brat, I can always keep you still the hard way." He grabs one slender wrist and then the other, reminded all over again how lightly-built and small Liam is, how fragile. For a second he falters, unsure if this is right, if it's okay, with even the pretense of pinning Liam like this setting up a nervous churn in his gut.

...Except he only has a millisecond to worry, before Liam gives a delighted little hitching moan and squirms under his grip, hips bucking. Rich relaxes and gives half a laugh.

"You like that, huh?" he murmurs low in his chest, and Liam moans again, more sharply, and nods shamelessly. Rich grins and pins both wrists carefully against Liam's chest with one hand, then starts nipping and sucking at Liam's stomach, leaving another scattering of marks.

"You weren't wanting anything, were you?" he asks, and sucks a spot close enough to the head of Liam's eager dick that it rubs against his cheek. "Anything at all?" Another mark, moving along toward that hip bone.

"Me?" Liam says, and makes a hitching noise, muscles working fruitlessly in his slim arms as Rich keeps him firmly pinned. "Hnn—hha, wh-what could I possibly want? I t—ah, I take, what I'm given, l-like a good boy! Fuck. Ha, haha, oh—fuck, hon, condoms, we need—"

Oh, right. Rich was just gonna get his mouth on him without even thinking, but that's a good idea too. He leans back, and Liam squirms out from under him just enough to drag the tackle box back over. This time there's no coy, graceful sorting through options: Liam grabs one apparently at random and rolls it onto his dick in a flash. This one's clear, like Rich's was, with a thick spiral of iridescent glitter suspended in the material somehow. It kind of makes him look like a fairy, sparkly and delicate and inhumanly pretty.

"Nice," Rich breathes, and runs his fingers over the slick, filmy texture, enjoying both the novel sensation and the way Liam immediately loses all focus in favor of writhing and squirming beneath his touch.

Rich doesn't mean to laugh, but he can't help it. "So you're gonna be a good boy, huh? Totally just gonna let me do whatever I want to you?" He ducks his head and flicks the tip of his tongue over the head of Liam's dick before Liam can answer. It's not sweet like the other condom was; it's a little plasticky, with a faint aftertaste of mint, but it's not bad. And Liam makes that intensely cute, breathless, half-giggling noise again and hitches his hips up, then subsides back down as Rich pulls his mouth away again.

"Are you saying I've been bad?" Liam says hoarsely, and squirms one hand around to press it flat to his chest, the picture of wounded pride. "I am the epitome of good. Which is why…" he fumbles in the tackle box again, holds up a second condom. "...You should gimme your dick already. Please?"

Rich laughs a lot louder at that, and puts on a deeply skeptical look. "I dunno, man, good boys know how to beg. That was just a straightforward demand, I don't call that begging." He drops a row of little flicking licks down Liam's dick, then licks a solid line up it, and Liam moans for him, long and unabashed, pressing up after his tongue.

"Oh if hnn if that's what you want," he gets out, gasping. "Please, I need your dick so bad, Rich, I need you to fuck me until I scream, please—"

The sound Rich makes might be categorized as a whine, rough-edged and breathless, and his dick twitches hard and demanding against his thigh.

"Fuck," he gasps, scrambling upright, "where's the fucking lube?!"

"Ohh, please, it's in the bag, oh," Liam moans, because he, Rich is quickly coming to realize, is a little shit. Even knowing Liam is messing with him, it doesn't make it any easier to ignore when Liam goes on, breathy and cracked, "Baby I'm so empty, fuck, please, don't make me wait…"

"Oh my fucking god," Rich says, half turned on and half exasperated by how obvious Liam is about finding a button and hitting it until it breaks. He paws through the bag—"Ah, in the pocket, ohh—" rolls his eyes and searches the pocket as instructed, coming back with plenty of lube.

"I think you can beg better than that," he says, and slicks his fingers. He gets Liam's wrists again, squeezes to hear Liam's breath hitch and watch him squirm, then slides two fingers gently into Liam's entrance and shivers at the noise that earns him.

Liam begs a lot better when Rich is fingering him open, especially when he moves so much slower and softer than Liam wants him to. Rich figures out where his prostate is, exactly, and then enjoys himself rubbing back and forth over it lightly and steadily, no matter how much Liam whines and squirms and tries to fuck himself faster.

It's still intoxicating to have someone fall apart for him like this, to really take his time and possess a guy so completely he cries and moans and calls Rich's name as often as he curses. Rich works Liam back open one too-slow, too-soft thrust at a time, bending down now and then to suck on his flushed nipples or bite at his slim throat, while his own well-used dick twitches and rises once more to the occasion.

When Liam's barely doing anything but incoherent moaning and Rich's dick is starting to ache with impatience, Rich figures it's about time to call things good. He grabs the condom Liam had been waving at him earlier, briefly regrets getting the guy all worked up because he just lies there and pants while Rich fumbles the damn packet open and clumsily unrolls a condom in glossy, metallic blue polymer down his shaft. It's definitely not as neat a job as Liam did earlier, and Rich has to stroke himself a couple times, gingerly, before the material stops feeling so weird and cold and clingy and settles itself properly onto his dick.

"You look so good," Liam contributes, sounding breathlessly sincere, "hon, fuck, c'mon, can you get in me already?"

"Yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm good," Rich says, stroking himself another couple times, just getting used to the sensation. The inside of the condom is still unmistakably cool and faintly tingly, a menthol sensation that Rich is hoping doesn't get any stronger. Feeling just a little apprehensive, he slicks his shiny blue dick with more lube, grabs Liam's legs and bends them up to his chest, and carefully starts to push in.

It's a whole lot easier than it was the first time: not as breathlessly tight, all of Liam falling open for him, begging and ready and so absurdly goddamn hot for him. Rich loses himself sliding in and pulling out again, thrusting slow and smooth and dreamy, echoing the rhythm he'd set up with his fingers, feeling the tingling coolness around his dick warm up stroke by steady stroke into something deliciously intense. Liam gives a long, shaking sigh, and he endeavors to pull his legs up even further, crossing his wrists cooperatively over his head and letting Rich rock into him.

"Yeah," he moans, and there's no more artifice to his breathless, noisy neediness. "Yeah, babe, please, just like that. God."

Rich groans and keeps going slow as long as he can stand, tormenting both of them with the slowest possible build, drawing it out. He holds Liam's legs bent up with his hands on the underside of his thighs, keeping Liam basically folded in half, and thrusts long and steady until sweat breaks out between his shoulder blades. Liam has long since lost all of his smug control and is entirely out of his head with pleasure, eyes distant, a deep red flush showing through his tan, sweat slipping under Rich's hands; his hair sticks to his forehead, bright blue curls going dark aquamarine. He gets quieter as Rich keeps fucking him, not so frustrated, but his noises keep getting more and more desperate; long, breathy moans and murmured endearments, curses whispered like prayers, Rich's name on the back of hitching breaths.

It's enough, or too much, whatever, Rich can't take it anymore and speeds up, starts pounding Liam hard and nearly frantic, barely remembering to hold himself in check so he won't leave bruises anywhere unfortunate.

"Fuck, Liam," he gasps, "you feel so good, wanna make it good for you, make you come…"

"Well you're," Liam mumbles, and sucks in a breath between his teeth, eyelashes fluttering. "Hhannh, you're going about—you're doing the right—nnh, more, of that, yes, please, you are, I will, just don't stop, please, fuck me, just fuck me, more—"

Rich gives a breathless laugh and keeps going until he can feel the tremor of Liam's thighs under his hands, and then he pushes his hands under Liam's back and just picks him up, sets him in Rich's lap and bounces him on Rich's dick, holding him tight. Liam gives a startled squeak, and then a couple of choice curses, and then clings to whatever parts of Rich he can reach and gives a breathless moan or huff every time Rich drives up into him.

He comes first again, with a wordless noise that's almost a whimper, nails digging into Rich's shoulders hard enough to sting. Didn't even get a hand on his own dick this time, just went off on the force of getting his brains fucked out, god. Rich hangs on for roughly two breaths longer before he follows, gasping Liam's name like a prayer as Liam's muscles flutter and tighten and wring the most intense orgasm of Rich's life out of him, wave after wave of helpless pleasure that leaves him wrecked in the aftermath.

For several long, senseless minutes he holds Liam close, cheek resting against sweaty blue curls, arms wrapped around that slender frame. Finally he shudders, oversensitive, and shifts around, looking for the wipes.

"Mmf," says Liam, face squished against Rich's chest. "Over there..."

Rich attempts to do a long reach across the mattress without dislodging Liam and mostly manages. They have to separate to clean up and peel their respective condoms off, but then Rich can pull Liam back against him in his lap and lean down for a kiss. Liam kisses him back easily, eagerly, gives a breathless little laugh against his lips. Then he wriggles around sideways in Rich's lap, reaches over to the nearest grape vine, and pulls loose a cluster of huge, ruby-bright grapes.

"Fucking superb, sweetheart," he sighs, nuzzling his face against Rich's arm, and proceeds to feed exactly half of the grapes to Rich, alternating between popping them in Rich's mouth and then his own with an adorable, conspiratorial little smile.

When they're all gone Rich licks Liam's fingers clean. Even with all the fruit he's gotten, he's still hungry, if at a slightly less desperate level than he might otherwise be after all of today's strenuous activity.

"How long before I get my meals adjusted, do you know?" he asks, trying to sound casual.

"I mean normally? Probably two or three days, max," Liam says, and waves a hand vaguely in the air. "When I want it done? Fucking—tomorrow. Don't worry about it. 'S under control." He starts to go back to his lazy, self-satisfied lounging, and then perks up.

"Oh!" he says. "But I do have something to tide you over until then!"

Rich isn't sure how he's still got any energy left after everything that's happened today, but apparently Liam's incapable of running out of energy as long as he has something to do, because he springs up and starts sorting out their clothes and tossing Rich's in his direction. By the time Rich has hauled himself upright, Liam is pulling his shirt on over his head and finger-combing his hair back into order.

"Alexis!" he says into his comm. "I'm heading off-ship again! Come back and watch our babies."

Rich drags his clothes on, helps get the futon compressed and stored away again, and follows Liam, not without a pang at leaving the beautiful grove of plants and shade and fresh air. The Reliant's sundeck is nice, all right, but it's not paradise like this place is.

Liam leads the way back down to the lower deck, and then into the tiny galley again, where he heads straight for the back corner of the storage cabinets and unearths a large, heavy box from behind a bag of what look like they might be onions. He dusts it off with ceremony, and then makes an attempt to move it and looks personally offended when it doesn't move.

"Rich," he sighs, and beckons. "Here. You need these more than we do."

Rich opens the box uncertainly and then stares. "Holy shit! Why do you have a box of food blocks? Wait—is this the boat's meal supply? Man, I can't—is it even legal for you to give me this?!"

"I'm redistributing some nonessential resources," says Liam, and picks some imaginary speck of dust out from under his nails, flicking it away instead of looking at Rich. "Maximizing the efficient use of deck space around here is an essential and ongoing responsibility of the resident crew, you know. Really, you'd be doing me a favor by carrying that box off for me."

Rich swallows, but if Liam thinks it's okay—and if he's being this glib with his phrasing, he's probably gonna make it okay—it probably won't get Rich in massive amounts of trouble, and if it isn't he's ready to risk it anyway. But—they obviously don't eat the blocks much, given how dusty the box was—hell, on this boat, they probably live on fresh blackberries and mutant squash. Liam's pretty lean, but he's sure not going hungry. So it's okay, Rich can take these. And he does, wolfing down a block and a half before he can think about anything else, ravenous and greedy and disbelieving that he'll get to keep it all but he can, Liam said so.

Then he abruptly remembers his manners, and, even if Liam's not gonna ask for more sex—though it'd be great if he did, but maybe not right now, Rich should still say—

"Thanks," he mumbles, and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand before leaning down to kiss Liam's cheek.

"You're welcome!" says Liam, warm and unmistakably fond, and leans up after him to give him a cheek-kiss back. "Least I can do, sweetheart. Now…" he hooks an arm on Rich's. "...Let's get you back to your crewmates. They'll be worrying about you. ...Well, Basil definitely will, and I think Ben's much more of a softie than he likes people to know, especially about you and Basil, precious little babies that you are."

Rich gives Liam a dubious look for that, but doesn't bother to protest, on the theory that Liam could probably talk circles around him right now. Rich isn't at his best post-orgasm, and post this many orgasms he's lucky if his clothes are all on right-side-out. If he's ever had this much sex in his life, he can't remember it. So he just follows Liam where he's led, finishing off his second block and then treating himself to a third.

They end up going off to the hoverbike they came in on. Alexis is dismounting from the deck-hopper, looking freshly-showered and mostly resigned—they give Rich and Liam a brief look somewhere between annoyance and amusement, then shake their head and wander down the passage, yawning.

It turns out Basil is hanging around chatting with one of the orchard maintenance guys while Ben oversees the mechanics crating up busted forklifts for transferral to the Reliant. Basil snaps upright when he notices Rich and Liam landing across the deck from them, and Ben looks over and gives a sigh of relief that's visible from halfway across the ship, then scowls at Rich a second later, crossing his arms intimidatingly. Basil comes half-sprinting across the deck, wide-eyed and worried, and comes to a skidding halt full of knees and elbows and obvious panic a few feet from them, looking Rich over like he's counting every limb.

"Are you okay?!" he says, and then before Rich can even answer that, "Where did you go?" and then "What's that box?" and then, more slowly, "...Liam."

"Mmhm?" says Liam, very smugly. Rich is aware, in slow sequence, that Liam has at least three or four hickies visible even over the rakishly popped collar of his white engineer's coat, and then that Rich probably also has a couple on his neck, considering how attentive Liam was about his throat and ears. By Basil's expression, this has not escaped his notice.

"Liam treated me to dinner," Rich says, hoisting the box in an attempt at distraction, because he's not entirely sure how this looks to Basil, considering their misunderstanding, but he's certain it's not good. Hopefully this doesn't reinforce his opinion that Rich is a jerk who thinks Basil is a jerk. "You were right, he's a cool guy, we got along great."

Basil's eyes go really wide.

"Liam," he says tightly, "can I…talk to you over here for a second?"

"Sure!" says Liam brightly, and pats Rich on the arm. "You don't have to hold that thing like it's contraband, hon, you're fine. Go put it on your deck-hopper, I'm gonna talk to Basil."

Oh, it is legal, okay. Filled with relief mingled with anxiety, Rich nods and goes to do that. Then he stands there, chewing on his lip, and eyes Basil and Liam in their intense conference. Basil is waving his arms around, looking worried and also noticeably flushed. Liam keeps shaking his head and smiling and patting at Basil's arm, which Basil isn't taking kindly to.

"Okay, kid, heads up," Ben says tightly, and Rich jerks and looks down to see Ben scowling back up at him. "I get that you didn't exactly have much of a professional work environment going on at your last posting, but in the future when you've just gone through a traumatic event that involves Security and Medical, and you wanna sneak off to go get a little TLC afterwards, you close out your work shift first. You let your supervisor know what's going on with you. You don't just fucking bounce for an hour or two. Got it?"

Rich swallows, stomach dropping and face flaming with sudden, acute humiliation and shame. "Sorry," he says uselessly. 'Don't just wander off on shift' is the kind of thing you have to tell interns on their first fucking day. Ben probably thinks he's a horny, thoughtless moron, and Ben is right. God, that was so irresponsible, when Rich has been trying to impress Ben with how he's not delinquent dead weight.

Staring miserably at his feet, he offers, "I wasn't really, uh. Thinking, but, sorry, I'm sorry, I should've messaged, yeah. I mean, I should have, I shouldn't have even gone, right? Liam offered to share some fruit with me, and, and I just—I should have taken him up on it later. I'm really sorry."

Ben sighs loudly, and pats his elbow with a rough hand. "Alright, alright, you don't have to grovel. You're not the first steelhead Liam's reeled in on my watch and you're probably not gonna be the last. You have a good time, at least? The fruit go alright?"

If Rich's face gets any hotter it's going to boil right off his skull. "I haven't had blackberries in like, four years," he mumbles. "They were really good."

"I bet they were," Ben snorts, and shakes his head, giving Rich a final once-over. "Well, glad you had a good time, kid. Go on and get on the hopper." He turns to the edge of the orchard, where Basil and Liam are half-hidden by trees. "Basil! Quit fighting and get over here, we're leaving!"

Rich starts to do as he's told, except Liam and Basil don't stop fighting, and also they're coming his direction and barely bothering to keep their voices down. Basil's cheeks are a dark ruddy brown now, and Liam looks tenser and less cheerfully condescending than he did before, like he's taking Basil seriously now, although there's still no sign of that startling fury Rich saw earlier.

"—Doesn't mean he can't, just that there are some boundaries—"

"No, okay!" Basil hisses, and slows down, like he's trying not to let Rich hear—Rich turns away, loudly thumping his box of food blocks around like he's trying to make it fit better, but he can still hear every word. "No, just because you wanted—"

"We're not talking about what I wanted!" Liam says, quiet and fierce. "You're acting like he can't—"

"Like it's not always about what you want!" Basil snaps, which sounds nasty even if Rich isn't sure exactly what he means. "And who you want, whenever you want, which is all the time!"

Rich winces. Basil goes quiet, breathing hard, and Liam doesn't answer. When Rich dares to half-turn, glancing back, Liam's standing very still, breathing slowly, eyes locked on Basil with a sharp, furious hurt behind them.

"Alright, kids," Ben says, pressing fingers into his temples. "That's enough! You can sort yourselves out later, when I don't have to listen to it. Basil, c'mon." He jerks his head at the hopper and gets into the driver's seat. Rich climbs into the second seat, as before.

"Liam, listen," says Basil, and Liam turns on his heel and walks away across the deck, ducking into the trees and vanishing from sight. Basil stares after him, then groans and mutters a couple of curses under his breath. Climbs onto the back of the hopper, avoiding everybody else's eyes.

The ride back feels way longer than the ride out, and nobody says a word.

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