Author’s note: As far as I can tell I can’t put up any kind of specific screen for this material, so you should know that this chapter is 18+. Reader discretion is advised.
Chapter Eight
Nika's hand cradled Cole's head as they shifted. Cole drew his hands up to Nika's face to coax him down for another set of kisses. Nika obliged, a free hand running down the front of Cole's uniform, popping buttons in quick succession. It almost made Cole laugh to feel his jacket's pressure relieved so quickly. Uniforms at the Academy weren't very different, and apparently, Nika remembered. Laughter would have been bad, though, as it interrupts kissing.
Nika kissed like masters played instruments, never minding a sheet of music when he could lure from every note the sweetest sound. Each part was important, each minuscule movement enjoyed. Once introduced to the gesture, he had pursued it with a vengeance, the same as any other pursuit he enjoyed. Cole had always found it surprising that a kiss was the quickest way to Nika's attention.
Nika himself hardly thought; here their roles reversed. Maybe Cole could draw himself away once they had begun, view things as if he were standing outside, but Nika had never mastered the art. He felt the relief of Cole's chest underneath his, drawing a breath, and wanted to be closer to it, so he pressed in. This made him aware of Cole's hips, the shape of which he had never forgotten, so he brought his hand to the jut of the bone, the crease of a thigh, the rounding of flesh... all of which reminded him of the interference of clothes. This interference should go.
It was Cole's duty to slow him down, which he loved to do. Cole interrupted the kiss with a gentle grip on his jaw even as Nika's hands worked unheeding on the issue of clothing. Cole used his other hand to seize Nika's wrist, drawing it up under his shirt. Nika's hand ran over his stomach, feeling the light definition of working muscles beneath the skin. Distraction complete, Nika leaned in, only to find Cole's thighs had trapped his hips, keeping him half drawn over the body beneath him.
Cole watched the successive flashes of pleading, frustration and resignation pass over his face before he truly had Nika's attention again. It was almost disturbing to watch those eyes speak in silence again as he waited, asking him, 'what should I do if not this?'
Cole smiled, a devastating, confident smile. In battle it drove Nika crazy. In bed, it drove him to desperation. But he knew better than to move.
Propping himself up so he could remove his jacket, Cole then held himself up just long enough to remove his shirt, and plant a small kiss on Nika's lips. Cole felt him jerk forward, stopped again by his trapped hips, and finally let himself laugh at the strained little sigh that came out of his lover's mouth.
Nika frowned down at him. Cole took a second to savor the perspective. Nika frowned harder. Cole shrugged at him. Nika brought his hands up and stroked the underside of his thighs, eliciting a sigh of his own in return, and the release of his hips.
Going to work immediately, Nika crouched to trace his lips on the midline of Cole's stomach, hands now working on his freed inner thighs. Cole tried to keep his presence of mind while he felt the warm trace of breath over his chest, but failed at every gentle press of lips. Nika waited, with usual deadly patience, until he heard Cole's hands grip and press the rug beneath them. With sinuous grace he scooped Cole's leg up, pressing forward as Cole's hips raised just off of the ground. Slinging the leg over his shoulder, he popped the front buttons of Cole's trousers and used a hand under his lover's back to draw them down until his hip bones peeked over the top.
Mission completed, he eased Cole back down, tracing hands up and down his sides to signal his next goal. That, of course, could wait, as now he had something else to enjoy. Crouching again, he traced his lips on the newly exposed skin. Reaching the jut of one hip, he followed it carefully with his breath, then nipped lightly at the skin, pressing the other hip down with his palm. He slid down the join of leg and body with his hands, following the arc with his lips of the downward sweep of Cole's muscles until cloth stopped him.
Between the tickling of his sides and the tease of his hips and stomach, Cole had to focus on keeping his legs still. When Nika found his way blocked, Cole took the chance and reached down, calling his lover's eyes to his. Nika looked up, obedient to a fault. Cole used that moment of trapped attention to let some of his tension ease. He needed to remind himself that it was Nika he had always teased about being 'quick', not himself. It had been quite a while, though. He took a few deep breaths, and tried not to let his intentions be known.
His ploy worked, or Nika had become gullible, as he held still even as Cole sat up, getting a quick grip on Nika's tattered uniform. He couldn't do it with as much grace, but he worked his hands up quickly, unfastening, making a few more tears, and managed to loosen all the buttons. Nika gave him a glare that told him his plotting had been discovered, but to avail. It seemed as if clothes would just have to come off.
Cole slid forward, settling himself more comfortably over Nika's folded legs, working off the jacket. On a healthier day, he would have twisted it around, pinning Nika's arms, forcing him to be the one equally teased and attended for once. That could wait for another day; he wasn't sure either Nika's joints or his jacket could come out of that treatment unhurt.
Not that Nika would mind. He tended to take any injuries received as worth the conclusion. He was more forgiving of accidents than anyone Cole had ever heard of. 'Focused' didn't begin to cover it.
Still, if he couldn't pin, he could pause. He drew the jacket down to Nika's elbows, arms drawn almost tight behind him, and held there for a moment. He caught Nika's eye and leaned forward, planting a kiss on his neck, another under his jaw, another nosing his head back, tracing the jawline, up to back under his ear, where he lingered, listening to the catch of breath in Nika's throat, sliding back down under his chin as he swallowed. When Nika had waited long enough, closeness quickening his breath, Cole drew off his coat. Nika's arms went forward, and Cole was gratified to see them hesitate before they reached for him.
He was glad they paused, because it gave him time to get a quick grip on the bottom of Nika's shirt and pull it up over his eyes. Nika stopped. Annoyance and amusement fought over control of his voice. “Cole.”
Cole smiled, not that Nika could see it, and shifted the shirt around until he found his prize. Keeping Nika's eyes covered, he grabbed his neck, a thumb pushing his jaw up. Cole laid his lips on Nika's throat, feeling again the catch of his breath. Carefully he traced with kisses, hands on either side of his face, turning his lover's head to clear his way. He came down to the shoulders bunched by the restraint of the shirt, and traced a line with his tongue over his collarbone, disappearing with a kiss into the base of his neck. He paused and blew on it, watching Nika shiver.
While Nika might forgive him, Cole didn't like his lover leaving with additional injuries, so he didn't dwell too long. He wrapped one long arm around Nika's shoulders, squeezing so that they wouldn't fall too quickly, and eased the shirt away until he bunched it in one hand and threw it to the side. It took a glass off the table with it, but he wasn't paying any attention.
Nika, face so close to his, was staring at him wide eyes. Cole thought for the hundredth time about how often he could lose himself in them. How he would've wandered forever like a child in the wood, if he only could.
Nika, too, stared with shock, wondering... wondering how it was he could ever leave where he was right now. Wondering how whoever he used to be could have thought that were ever possible.
Cole moved in so that they could kiss again. Cole's arms fell until they rested over his knees, cast around Nika's waist. Nika pressed his hands to either side of Cole's face again, both a warning and a plea that he would not let go again.
They broke the kiss, but didn't part. Pressing forehead to forehead, cheek to cheek, they ran their features past one another as if lips didn't matter, only betrayed by seeking kiss after seeking kiss. Except for the urgency of their bodies, they would never have stopped.
Both of their hearts beating fast, breathing quick, they pulled apart, each caught again in the other's eyes.
They moved in unison, Cole leaning back down, and Nika forward, hands amazed, stroking and easing his lover's progress. Lying back again, Nika's hands traced down Cole's hips, urging off the last of his clothes. He leaned forward, planting a hand by Cole's head to support himself while Cole eased his clothes off, as well. They stared, mutual nakedness suddenly calling them back to themselves. Cole watched a bright flush spread over Nika's skin when his eyes fell on his lover's reaction. Hesitant as they had been the first time, Nika carefully ran a hand over his Cole's hip, and Cole drew a line with the backs of his fingers over Nika's stomach. Slowly, he reached, and turned up Nika's chin.
Cole's smile raised again. “It's alright, Nika. It will be alright.”
The corner of Nika's mouth twitched. “You always say that 'Ras. And look what happens? We get in a war.”
Cole thrilled at his lover's shy use of his nickname. He broadened his smile. “Well, who knew we would be getting into wars, going to military school?”
Nika laughed, and his laugh was so sweet, so gentle, and so unlike him. “I thought I would turn out a saint.”
“And I, a tailor.” Cole stroked his jaw.
Old jokes. The time for talking was over. They watched each other a moment longer, as if waiting for a sign. Whatever it was, the sign came.
Nika reached down again, cradling the bottom of Cole's thigh, but not lifting, yet. He snuck in a kiss or two, bringing his hips down as Cole's rocked upward, rubbing them together. If he had been checking to see if both were ready, he needn't have bothered; Cole's cock was already throbbing with the blood beating through it, and the tip of Nika's had gone slick.
Nika rested his free hand against the ground by Cole's head, while the other slipped down from his thigh to the base of his leg, from there to squeeze gently around Cole's balls. He massaged a moment, liking the confused noises it got him. Freeing a finger, he reached down to test his entrance. Cole's hands clutched harder at the rug, and, thankful that he had dismissed the guards, he opened his throat to moan.
Nika knew that willingness wasn't the problem. He cast his distinctly scattered thoughts about for moment, before sitting back again to massage both of their cocks while he tried to come up with a solution.
Cole gasped with the release of his balls, and abandonment of the probing finger, but the patient and easy strokes to his cock helped him recall the issue at hand. The subject of lubrication floated to the top of his distracted thoughts through the haze that controlling his speech caused. A part of him was amazed that it even bothered him, and an even larger part amazed that Nika remembered.
A raspy chuckle escaped him between breaths. “Nika...” he said.
Nika smiled at him. “It's your tent, Ras, it's up to you. All I see is brandy, and I'm not using that.”
Cole let out a groan as Nika stroked him with a frustratingly gentle hand. He knew he could get over his aversion to spit as a lubricant, having run into this problem before with Nika, but he didn't want to if he didn't have to. Nika was great with his mouth, but it wasn’t his favorite (giving or receiving), and frankly, Cole worried for his comfort with the beating his face had taken. Hands would work, but… well… they were only hands.
Very nice hands. Cole cast around, knowing that everything he could think of would mean telling Nika to let go to go look for it, which he was even more unwilling to do. Throwing an arm over his eyes to calm his frustration (it didn't work, his eyes weren't too involved unless staring at Nika counted), he rocked his hips into the pressure of Nika's hand, working up the words to tell him to go ahead.
Nika leaned over him, threateningly close to taking Cole as he was, but stopped short. Cole heard him rooting in the jacket by his head, something papery sliding out of the pocket. He looked up, and Nika had the comfrey packet in his teeth, pulling it open with one hand. He took the remainder onto his fingers with a swipe and spit the packet away. Cole almost laughed.
“Ingenuity is one of your greatest traits,” he said.
Nika argued back with his hand, running a thumb up the bottom of the shaft, before teasing at the head. Cole shut up.
Nika leaned over him again, leaving Cole's cock abandoned to the cold in order to help roll his hips up. Cole felt the pressure of a palm carefully rubbing his balls before the trace of fingers reached down again. Nika rubbed just a small amount of the paste over Cole's entrance, testing him again with a single finger. He was careful, he had always been careful, and stretched him gently. Between Cole's noises and his own growing frustration, they were satisfied. He used what was left to cover his cock, resisting the urge to linger any longer than was necessary.
He ran his hands again down Cole's thighs, feeling the muscles twitch under his attention, before he buckled down, throwing his arms under both and lifting Cole's hips. Giving an estimate of how long he could keep this up, he reckoned it was good Cole always teased him about being 'quick'.
Cole threw a hand out, knocking a small pile of plans from a shelf. His hands closed around what he wanted, a bedroll from his traveling kit, which he kept assembled by his things. Tearing it loose from his pack (and sending a few more things clattering to the ground, like his mess kit and telescopic lens), he shoved it under his lower back. Nika gave him a smile that would brook no further interference. Cole gripped him tighter.
He felt Nika's hands return, pressure on his arms relieved. He tested again, very careful, then stroked upward, renewing the plea of Cole's cock with a few strokes, growing gradually more firm. One hand returned to Cole's leg, running up his thigh and squeezing the thick of the muscle. He pushed himself until Cole could feel his cock waiting, pressed but not penetrating. He tightened his grip on Cole's cock, pulling a groan out of him that rumbled through his chest.
Nika pushed in. Tortuously slow for both of them, Cole felt each measure sink in, a cruelly patient test. Nika pushed until he heard Cole's breath catch with a gasp. He forced himself to stop, the hand on Cole's thigh tensed near to bruising.
“'Ras?”
Nika's voice was strained, need evident, if controlled. Cole waited until he felt he could find the proper words. “Please, Nika...” He dug his fingers into the ground, the rug bunching in his hand, and rocked forward.
Cole's movement sinking him deeper brought Nika down. Dropping Cole's leg, he leaned over his lover with a barely stifled groan. Careful self-control had a place, and Cole demanded that place be elsewhere. He brought his hands up and sank them into Nika's hair. Nika snuck his arm under, Cole's leg sliding over his shoulder, until he gripped Cole's hips. His free hand wrapped around Cole's cock.
Nika paused only a moment longer, to kiss the inside of Cole's leg, before he brought his hips forward, sinking himself deep into Cole. They both shuddered, and he drew out again, determined to move slowly while he could. He toyed with the idea of sliding his head out, while his hand teased Cole by mimicking the penetration, but he wasn't sure he could stand it. He tried to remind himself to go slower, for Cole's sake, but he couldn't hold the idea as he heard Cole suck in a breath, and breathe it out with his name.
He sank in again, getting another sharp gasp from Cole. The warmth was too much; he could feel Cole hold tight around him, tight as the grip in his hair, the fist clutching the ground. Nika rocked, in and out, pausing at each extreme as if just to draw Cole's insistent hips on again.
Cole pulled tighter as his lover built speed. His throat seemed closed, though gasps and sighs escaped where words couldn't. Had he any thoughts in his head, other than the feeling of Nika again inside him, again holding him as if nothing would make him let go, he would likely have laughed at himself.
Instead what came out of his throat was deeper groans, more desperate sighs, but they seemed to serve. He could feel Nika move with him, hips rocking together, warmth filling him like a long hunger satiated. The sweat on Nika's body slicked his fingers, his leg, as he grew closer, thrusting harder as his drive for Cole's enveloping heat became more urgent. Nika had to shut his eyes, both his hands moving to grasp desperately at Cole's hips as he felt his body building towards losing himself.
Cole clutched the ground, always the more verbal lover, a failed attempt at calling Nika's name coming out a growing moan. He didn't need to call it out, as Nika pressed against his thigh, thrusts growing so strong he hardly drew back. Determined and heedless, he sank his cock in as far as he felt it could go, hard grasp at Cole's hips holding them in place.
Finally, he seemed desperate, forced, all mask of determination gone in a pleading whisper, “Ras...”
Cole laid hold of him, rocking their hips together again as he felt the shaking of his lover's limbs. Cole pulled as close as he could as he felt the shuddering release, hands slipping over Nika's skin. Nika still pushed, heedless body determined to persist, forgetful that it had won, even as Cole's grip on him eased. Cole reached out for him. Slowly, Nika fell, bit by bit, into his waiting support, letting down tense legs, but unwilling to draw out his still beating cock.
Nika blinked, as if clearing his eyes, gathering himself slowly away from his own end, and paying attention to another. Cole's cock throbbed unattended by his belly. Nika gently, gently for both their sakes, eased himself to sitting, his lover over his hips. Throwing away the bedroll, he eased Cole down, laying his unfolded legs underneath and on either side of Cole's body. Nika pushed away Cole's hands, by slow caresses and determined care convincing his lover to lie still enough to let him work. He pressed his stomach against Cole's balls, bringing his hand down to massage them once again. He ran a hand up their overlaid thighs, gathering moisture, and wrapped it securely around Cole's cock.
Cole was hardly in a position to help. Inside him, pulse beginning to still, lay Nika, when he felt himself enveloped again by his lover's hand. He felt the softness of Nika's belly against his head, the warmth of Nika's singular attention focused on his ready cock. He didn't need much more.
Hands stroked up the shaft like they could undress it of its desire. He felt a palm shift under his balls, and begin to rub them. The pressure of what strength was left in Nika's cock pushed upward as Nika leaned forward, teasing the head of Cole's cock against his stomach as a warm hand wrapped around the shaft again.
Nika's thumb stroked up the underside, squeezing the head against him, then his hand pulled down again. As the strokes grew faster, the tip gently stroked more and more over his stomach, teasing out his reaction. Cole shuddered and Nika gave another sharp stroke, reminding him of the cock inside him while teasing his cock outside.
He kept the pattern, driving faster as Cole's legs grew tight around him, his breath spilled faster out of his lungs, and his hips worked over Nika's dying erection. A few swift repeats and Cole gasped, Nika's name spilling off of his lips with a string of nonsense half-syllables.
He shuddered in Nika's hand, seed spilling onto his stomach in swift bursts.
Nika waited until he had coaxed out the last few drops, hand swiftly cleaning the tip of Cole's cock. Cole was allowed to be as useless as he had been for a few moments, before he wincingly lifted Cole's hips to ease himself out.
Once his own cock fell free, they both were allowed to slump, letting their hearts catch up with their new state of contentedness. Nika reached over, digging through the pile at their side until he found a stray piece of cloth from Cole's mess kit. Carefully, he lifted Cole long enough to clean them both off (smugly he noticed the comfrey paste smell was still strong in spite of everything), then wiped clean his stomach and Cole's cock.
Cole twitched at being touched again. “Insatiable,” he muttered.
Nika's laugh was interrupted by his yawn. “Sleepier than insatiable.”
He started to ease himself out from under Cole, when Cole's sitting up nearly knocked him over. He reached past Nika's head, struggling to grab at something. A few more things crashed to the ground as he tried. It was hard to do with his eyes closed, kissing Nika, as their closeness demanded.
Finally he caught hold and sank back, dragging whatever it was beside him. One hand pushed down Nika's hip, holding him still, while he shifted over to sit next to him. He dragged Nika down in a bear hug, moving an arm up to pillow his head, as he dragged the retrieved blanket from his cot over them.
The blanket devastated what wakefulness remained. Curled into one another, they fell asleep without further comforts, contented with each other, and what bedding the ground provided.