Fun In The Sun

Posted on Sun May 26th, 2013 @ 6:56am by Lieutenant Nick Marcinko & Lieutenant Commander Leto

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Starbase 900 -- Holodeck 7
Timeline: Current

* * Holodeck 7 * *

It had been more than a week since Nick and Leto had tried, in earnest, to resurrect their relationship. He had begun being more open with Leto, not hiding his emotions. They began talking more like they had before ‘the incident’, as Nick called it, but it was obvious that their relationship had started toward a new level. It wasn’t merely conversations about kicking ass, old missions and who could fight better than the other. Instead, their conversation topics had broadened significantly from things such as the political climate of certain planets or ideas on training better intelligence officers to things such as art, cuisine and a brief conversation on whether or not they should try their hand at brewing their own beer or wine.

Many of these topics had been broached by Nick in an effort to downplay his knuckle-dragger persona to Leto. After speaking to Robin once more during that week, he’d decided that he needed to grow as a person with hopes that in doing so his relationship with Leto might blossom even more. It was difficult, to be honest, but he’d put quite a bit of effort into it by staying up late looking through FNN news reports on some of the more well known planets in the Alpha/Beta Quadrants, poring over the FITREPs¹ from each person in intelligence and anything else that he thought she might want to discuss. And, after a while, he found that it wasn’t really that bad thinking about something other than drinking, fighting and fucking--of course it should be noted those three things were never far from his mind.

As far as their physical relationship, Nick was still uncomfortable with the thought of actual intercourse with Leto, or kissing for that matter, but he had gotten past some of the other hang-ups and they would spend time holding hands or nestling close to each other on the couch. He had apologized to her numerous times, to the point where she was likely sick of hearing it, but he just didn’t understand why he couldn’t move past it. His mind screamed “Kiss her, you fool!” but his body would freeze up each time. It was to the point where he was afraid that she would leave him because of it and he didn’t know what to do.

Now in the holodeck on a recreation of a beach on Fiji, Earth, he was in awe of the beautiful woman next to him. She lay stretched out on the lounge chair beside him, one hand draped over the side and her fingertips just touching the sand. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be in a light doze, soaking in the warmth of the ‘sun’ overhead, completely at ease. Her slow breath made her chest rise and fall, drawing Nick’s eyes upward to her chest, barely covered by the bikini top. The sound of the waves crashing on the beach, the warm sun kissing their skin and the salty smell in the air was enough to relax anyone.

Lying in his own lounge chair with nothing but a pair of dark swim trunk on, his muscular chest soaking up the rays and showing off his tattoos, he couldn’t lie still due to constant head turning in Leto’s direction. It was the same body he continually lusted over, and a new, beautiful face to top it off, but his eyes were continually drawn to her body. He swallowed hard as he resisted any lewd comments, but his mind was racing and desiring to be with her. Once again, however, his body was locked and unwilling to move. Finally, he decided to say something.

“You look,” he paused as he looked for the right word, “breathtakingly stunning,” he finally said. He turned to look at her again and let his fingers loosely take hold of hers...and his eyes bouncing back and forth from her face to her heaving breasts.

“Thanks, honey,” she answered, not opening her eyes. A slow smile appeared, turning up the corners of her mouth. “I don’t even have to see you to know the look on your face.” Her fingers tightened around his. “I’ve seen it plenty of times.”

And that answer was probably why he loved her so much. She knew him. Not like “hey, we grew up together and had drinks off and on” knew him. No, she knew him. Even without him sharing things with her before, like he was now, she had figured out exactly who Nick Marcinko was, and the fact that she didn’t run away screaming in terror was enough for him to follow her to the ends of the universe. Add to that the fact that they had been intimate, and would be again, he knew that he had to do whatever it took to keep this one.

They’d been lying here, not saying much, for over an hour. It was good to just be with her but he wanted to do something other than just lie there. “So, do you want to swim? Or there’s food, I brought the lunch,” he added. Once he’d said it, however, he realized it was like he was trying way too hard.

“I”m okay. Its just...good to be here and be us, you know? Kicking back, no tension, no awkwardness.” She turned her head and now opened her eyes to look at him. “At least not much. You’re still getting tied in knots over one thing, and I know you want it. You want to know a little secret Nick?”

“Sure,” he replied, his fingers still lingering with hers. “Lay it on me.”

“I never asked you when you actually fell in love with me but I can tell you this - I’ve loved you since Chile and that was what? Ten years ago? Despite all the circumstances and in spite of all the women.” She fell silent, leaving that to soak in.

It was as if she had sunk a blade into his chest, all the way to the hilt. He now felt lower than low over their most recent issue. “Why did you never say anything? We’ve only been together about six years or so, and we could have been together longer?” He briefly wondered if their lives would have been different if their relationship had had a full ten years to blossom or if they would still be right here, on a holodeck beach in the Delta Quadrant.

“Leto, I--if I had known how you felt about me back then...” His voice trailed off.

“It wasn’t the right time, Nick. You know that as well as I do.” She brushed her hair back, then reached for the bottle of water at her side. “Distractions then were life and death issues. It was a fact of life and keeping on top of that is what kept us and Li alive.”
“We would have made it work,” he said quietly. “But I’m flattered and it makes me love you now even more.” He sat silent for a moment, then rose from his lounge chair and scooted it right next to hers. Lying back down, he scooted himself close to her, so they could be shoulder to shoulder. “If I had known, Leto, I wouldn’t have been so, uh, accommodating with other women. It kinda’ makes me feel like a fool now, after all of this. I mean, we weren’t in a committed relationship then, but still...”

Leto shrugged slightly. “It’s how you were, how things were. It didn’t really matter you know? You were still you.” She took a sip from the bottle of water, then set it aside, her expression thoughtful. It was true, she realized. In the end it was Nick himself that had drew her, despite his wild ways. What a reversal. The two of them.....truly did defy description. That thought made her laugh softly and shake her head.

“Did I say something dumb?” he asked, wondering what the laugh was about. “Eh, wouldn’t be the first time.” Without thinking about it, and just as quick as a wink, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. His head reeled back, realizing what he’d done. “Hey! Wow...I guess it’s coming back to me.” He smiled.

“I was just thinking about us and how no one can ever understand or figure us out. Well, aside from Li and Jackson. We do sorta’ defy description.” She gently touched his cheek and without another word pressed her lips to his.

As her lips touched his, a nano-second of panic ran through him but was quickly diminished as a sudden euphoria washed over him. Like a flood, emotions and memories of his life with her, in all of her forms, came back and removed any apprehension he had of fully regaining their relationship as it had been. He kissed her back, gently, and eventually pulled back with a silly smile on his face.

Shaking his head he said, “So, the old fairy tales are true. True love’s kiss saves the day.” He pulled her to him, hugging her.

“When one’s heart is true,” she whispered back.

“I wish I had done that sooner. It seems an eternity has passed since our last kiss.” But now that they had come this far, would he be able to continue? Not wanting to press the issue, he simply held her. If she wanted to go further, well, he’d just have to wait and see what happened.

“We do what we have to do Nick. I won’t say it wasn’t frustrating and didn’t piss me off but I did my best to try and understand and then? Had a little faith in us. That’s all.” She reached up and traced the outline of his lips with her fingertip. “You’ve never done well with being rushed.”

A brief flare of anger rose and quickly subsided in him. It pissed her off? He wasn’t the one who had welcomed someone else ‘twixt his nether-regions. Closing his eyes for a moment he pushed all of that out of his mind and focused on Leto and what they’d just accomplished together. He hadn’t been able to get very close to her, much less kiss her, since he’d found out what had happened. Now that he’d been kissed, and kissed back, he wasn’t going to lose that foothold he had.

“I don’t want to lose this,” he said finally. “It’s been like an insurmountable wall between us for so long and I’ve finally found a way through it.” He leaned in and kissed her gently. “I’m not saying we need to tear our clothes off and go at it right now--I mean, unless you’re feeling so inclined, but I just don’t want to lose any ground that I’ve finally been able to regain. The mental hurdles I’ve had to jump over, things I’ve tried to forget and block out...I just want us to be us again, no matter what.”

“So do I.” She leaned close and kissed him yet again, letting it linger. Deep down, she knew what a big step this was for him. He would never truly accept it, she was certain, and she knew that a small part of her would always be angry over all of it, but they were learning to put it aside and focus on what was important - each other. She also knew that moving too fast now would be a mistake. He needed to get comfortable with this stage and have a little fun. Her smile returned and she pushed him back just a little. He was right, it was time for them to get back to being ‘them’. And them wasn’t always this serious for this long. They were used to having fun. She slipped off the lounge chair and stood, hands on her hips in a challenge. “Come on Nick, up with you. First one to the water wins.”

It took him a second, but when he realized what was happening, and saw her turning to run, he pounced up from the chair and started after her. It was a very short trip, however, as his left foot fell between the straps in the chair and he wound up with a face full of sand. He scrambled to loose the chair and finally managed to get on his feet. It was a lost cause he knew, but it was still a good feeling to be having fun with her again. Leto was already waist-deep in the water by the time he got there so he launched himself into the air and did a big belly flop right next to her.

Rising from the water like an excited, wet mongrel, he laughed as he saw the look on her face and the hair matted to her head.

”Oh you are so gonna pay for that one, Nicky....” The grin she gave him was pure evil. It lasted only a second before she dove beneath the water.


(¹FITREPs = Fitness Reports, a type of evaluation used to describe someone’s duty performance, character, abilities, etc. and used for consideration of promotion or special assignment.)
--------------------------------------

Lt. Leto
Stirring Things Up

&

Lt. Nick Marcinko
Regaining His Footing...sorta’