The tent flap fell behind Guy, and Cole stepped forward to find Nika standing in his way.
“What in Hell are you doing?” Nika asked, vehement but hushed.
“Oh, yes, your congratulations did always take peculiar forms,” Cole said, then paused. “Well, I suppose instigating an investigation into myself is a peculiar thing to do…”
“I’m not joking,” Nika asked, with a glare. He grabbed Cole’s shoulder, only to immediately give up his grip, anger relenting before concern. Throwing hands first up at the sky, then held between them, as if requesting the small rocks from a toddler’s mouth. “I won’t question you on it in front of Guy, who is not ready, but you… you just gave up… Executive powers are ridiculous – this is very serious! Executive officers… Executive officers are like angels, they are the workers of miracles – what are you doing?”
Fortunately, Cole knew what angels were, and what miracles they supposedly worked – he would have rather made the comparison to little gods, if he had to make one, but he supposed that was a bit too much blasphemy, even for Nika.
He put hands on Nika’s arms gently. “One could say… I have a plan.” He smiled. “You wouldn’t call it that, but I do.”
“Eha!” Nika’s outcry was somewhere between a curse, an insult, and a plea. “What is this? You don’t do this – you don’t hide your plans. You’re too proud of yourself to hide your plans. I don’t like it.”
“It’s not yours to like,” Cole replied, raising his eyebrows to respond to Nika’s furious glare – daring him to object to a secret plan because he disliked it.
Nika was not so hypocritical as to do that, but he was still deeply unhappy, as reflected by his launching into a short set of pacing steps, chewing his thumbnail.
“You have given up mounting your defense directly through the Council,” Nika said.
“I’m not on the Council – though I might be an honored guest – so it wouldn’t be direct anyway,” Cole replied. “And Ghent is there.”
“Ghent is a good man, and barely better liked than me,” Nika replied dismissively. “Even so, the investigation hampers even your powers as a Brigadier, and if they look into your record for wrongdoing, they’ll find wrongdoing. That is their specialty, it is what they do – and anyway there’s all of this,” he gestured at the… everything.
“They’ll be busy with other things for a while before that happens.”
“It’s still dangerous, Cole!” Nika said, rounding on him furiously. “You could lose your rank – you could lose the possibility of holding any rank – you could become un-promotable, even if you keep your rank!”
“Perhaps there are more important things than my rank at stake,” Cole said gently.
“Perhaps bullshit!” Nika suddenly narrowed his gaze, as if he could somehow spy Cole’s intentions like a sailor spying ships from the mast. “Your rank is all to you! It’s everything – you’ve put everything into it – into this,” he gestured at the tent, hands rising up as if raising it from the ground. “You fed your life to this beast. You cut off what little you had left outside of it. This army and this position is all you’ve ever worked for. I don’t believe you would give it up so easily.”
“It’s not easy,” Cole said., and this time, he rested his hands softly on either side of Nika’s jaw, “and it’s not everything.”
Nika’s skin burned under his hands, a flush rising on his face, and he pulled himself back, turning away.
Sighing, Cole reached out again, touching gently, first, at Nika’s shoulder, then his back – but wherever Cole touched, he tensed – then relaxed – then tensed again when the touch disappeared.
Nika knew what was coming, and he didn’t like it. He never liked it.
His influence was waning, things were moving beyond him – he would need to entrust others to carry things further.
“Your position was powerful,” Nika argued, over his own shoulder, refusing to respond to Cole’s touch.
“My position was protected,” Cole said. “Now, I’m free.”
“Free?” Nika turned to him, anger rising again. “You’re… bereft!”
“I have friends, too,” Cole replied, sliding his arms over Nika’s reluctant shoulders, to pull him closer. “More, I daresay, than you. And I hear one recently attained the rank of Executive General.”
With a groan, Nika threw his head back, but he didn’t pull away, or refuse to pulled further into Cole’s embrace. “You cannot joke at this…”
“There’s always a joke,” Cole said, noting the reluctant flash of recognition in Nika’s eyes for his own words. “It’s an old Midraeic saying.”
“I should have been strangled in my youth,” Nika said.
“Or perhaps told fewer jokes/” Cole offered, now close enough to kiss.
“No,” Nika replied. “They were all funny.”
But even as Cole leaned in to kiss him, Nika’s eyes caught his – close enough that Cole could see the slight flecks of green running through the brown that had first caught his attention years ago – and their steady, unflinching gaze was pained.
“There is no pardon for the friends of traitors,” Nika said, brows knitting. “Do you understand? Have you really considered it? Cole – do you know what they’ll do? What they’ll do to me, what they’ll do to you if they think you had anything to do with it? I’ll confess – I must confess, they must hear it – and there will be no way out for you, if you’re not careful. You must tell me that you’ll be careful.”
“I can’t,” Cole said, hating the dull ache it put in Nika’s eyes.
“You must. You’re in danger. You don’t need to follow me to the scaffold,” Nika growled. “It is a romantic, foolish impulse. You may act like the old heroes, but you were never so stupid as to be like them. This is not the time for gestures.”
“You can’t tell me what I must do – just as you can’t say what is everything to me.” Even with the depth of Nika’s pain, Cole couldn’t keep the anger from his voice. “You gave up your family – what was all, to you, at the time – for me. You don’t get to call this a gesture. You don’t get to set limits on what I choose to give for you.”
Nika’s gaze fell to the ground.
“I gave up nothing,” he whispered, then looked back up at Cole, anger matching anger, “I only lost. And I don’t want to lose you.”
Cole sighed, shutting his eyes, bringing Nika close to rest forehead to forehead. “You did everything you could – you always do. But you can’t stop me. And it’s time for me to take up, and you to let go.”
It seemed, at first, Nika would snap back at him, but, if he was being honest with himself – and he was always, painfully honest with himself – he knew this point would come. That it had come sooner than he wished? Well, that was almost inevitable. Any time, of the time they had left, was too precious to waste.
This moment, resting against one another, held close – they could breathe. Nika’s shoulders began to relax under the weight of Cole’s arms, and Cole laid a palm against the back of his neck, tracing fingers lightly against the skin. They breathed tougher, air between them warming as they pressed closer, before Nika tilted his chin up, pressing close, and the only natural thing to do was kiss, like shuddering in the cold.
One kiss turned to many, small and admiring brushes of lips and the deep, searching press of passion. Very little could come between them – certainly not when they were so close no matter how dire, no matter how final or frightening. It required no bravery, nor any consideration. That they kissed, even to them, was very little beyond 'that they kissed.' That was all.
True as that was, they could feel it – the outside world, grown hostile – worming in between them. For the same reasons, the moment was too dire for them to kiss, and too precious not to. As usual, and unfortunately, Nika was best able to separate himself from the lure of their passions.
“I’ll be in the dark,” Nika said, but there was no anger in his voice now. He pulled back enough to meet Cole’s gaze, his face blank but for the smallest shadow between his brows. “Once I am in the dungeons, I can’t move. I can’t see. I will…” he forced in a breath more shuddering than his careful mask could cover, “… I will be… hurt. I want to know you’re safe. I can’t protect you, then. I can’t… I can’t act. I want you to be safe while…”
This was… unnatural. The fear – Nika’s fear – held barely beneath the surface, twisted into Cole’s gut like a knife.
“I’ll win, Nika,” Cole said. He pulled Nika close again, gaze steady as granite. “If you can’t stop me, they stand no chance. I won't leave you to the scaffold. That is a foolish thing to think. They are foolish if they think so. You are doubly foolish if you think so. Even if I was only now learning of where you were, what was going on, I would be here to stop it – a hundred or thousand miles would make no difference.
You know me, Nika,” Cole caught his gaze, which had wandered to the ground, placing hands gently againstNika’s cheeks and feeling the heat it built under his palms, “you know I will fight for you. And I know I will win.”
Cole kissed Nika one more time before he let go, giving Nika the space to try to clear the heated flush from his face, the embarrassing look of hope in his eyes.
Nika didn't fight with hope. Nika fought with certainty. He was certain of what lay before him.
He looked back at Cole again, gaze calm. Nika swallowed before he spoke to clear an unsteady voice. Cole tried not to react at how it didn't work.
“I will ask for you,” Nika said. “You have to be careful, because I will ask for you – I have heard they honor final requests, even in the darkest dungeons, if they are certain… of the outcome. So I will ask you for you, and you must be careful, so that you can be there.” Nika's calm expression broke, but he quickly put it back with the authority of an order, “'Ras, I want you to be there, when I ask.”
Though it didn’t need to be said, Cole said it. “I will be.”
He leaned down and kissed the corner of Nika’s mouth, to soften the moment. “And I will do whatever you ask of me, then.”
Nika heaved in a breath. “Now, you will do whatever the Hell you please.”
“Yes,” Cole said into Nika’s ear, as he gently nibbled it.
After a moment’s enjoyment, Nika sighed again. “I don’t know how they caught me, ‘Ras. Be very careful about who you trust in there.”
Cole stopped his ministrations. ‘In there’ was the Capitol, obviously – ‘they’ were the Comids – but that Nika had altered his phrasing on joining the Comids and brought up trust now was…
Then, Nika was kissing Cole’s jaw. Internally, Cole was utterly at war about whether to interrupt the very pleasant kisses to pursue the very interesting change of phrasing. Why now? Only minutes ago, he had insisted again upon the confession, what made now the moment to change his story? It was true that Nika was a terrible liar, and it was also true that Cole could absolutely not focus when Nika was touching him like this.
The kisses had moved down his neck, and hands had moved to Cole’s hips, squeezing, then moving slowly around to pull his body closer…
“What’s this about trust?” Cole managed to ask, his hands not sure whether they were on Nika’s arms to push him away or encourage him. “You aren’t usually the one giving advice on how to deal with people.”
Nika ceased kissing to snort, and Cole regretted speaking. “True, but you trusted Hammerlyn. I was right about Hammerlyn.”
Cole groaned, as Nika punctuated his gloating with a gentle squeeze of Cole’s ass, pushing their hips together so they could feel one another’s interest growing. He seized the back of Nika’s neck to encourage more kisses, his other hand reaching down to offer his own encouragement to Nika’s cock.
And to give himself a break for moment – long enough to form at least one more coherent sentence, which he was pretty sure would be all that was necessary to really begin the next phase of this meeting. “I’ll admit it. You were right.”
To which Nika responded with a grin, and another kiss, and by pushing Cole backwards, towards the bed – but also by breaking off again to say, “Ah, but you were right, too.”
Cole arose from the fog enough to knit his brows.
Nika smiled at him, again, but slightly sadly. “You always said told me I should be careful in choosing my enemies – that it was stupid make enemies with rank. Many suffered because I didn’t listen to you, then. You were right.”
Cole smiled back – a little haltingly, but quickly returned their attention to each other by starting to suggest that, perhaps, their clothes were in the way. As they kissed, he popped just enough buttons from Nika’s pants to slide his hand inside, and start to offer more direct attention. But as Nika’s highly satisfied eyes met his again, Cole sighed, guilt getting the better of him.
“Wait until you see the enemies I’ve made.”
Guy was pretty sure he knew what was going on in the tent he had left, but decidedly unsure what – if any – the proper response was from an Executive General of the Ainjir Army. So he remained where he had planted himself – back at the Ring, with the camp swirling about him, somehow certain it was where he should be and dazedly realizing that nobody knew he was Executive General of the Ainjir Army yet. Had he a Guy, he would have made it Guy’s job to disseminate the information, but he couldn’t be his own Guy, and it was decidedly inappropriate for the Executive General of the Ainjir Army to disseminate the news of his own promotion in the fashion that Guy would have gone about it.
And, anyway, as he stood, the new and unrecognized center of this chaos, he squinted at a messenger approaching through gaps in the swirls. He squinted long, and hard, and the messenger’s leisurely approach and the slowly-becoming-distinguishable livery gave him plenty of time to realize that, however he did it, the news of his promotion needed to be disseminated now.
There wasn’t much time, but Cole could do wonders in very little time. He had moved his hands to Nika’s backside, grinding their bodies together. Nika – hands on Cole’s jawline, holding him still for kisses – began walking forward, forcing Cole back towards the bed.
A kiss, and a step, and kiss, and Nika said, “You are not gloating.”
Yes, normally, Cole would be gloating – Nika had admitted he was right, freely, of his own volition. Cole realized he was he in trouble – and realized he should be more concerned about it, but here was Nika, and there was a bed, and by the Four Sweet Cheeks of Peace, he had waited long enough…
And Nika knew that, and knew enough to keep kissing as he walked, so that Cole, mightily distracted, stepped backward, right into the low table. Cole’s ankle hit at just the right angle to send pain, like lightening, up his entire leg. Off-balance already, and now unsupported, he dropped like a rock onto the table (which, thankfully, he hadn’t had to time to put anything on – that wouldn’t have stopped Nika anyway). The bruising pain of landing directly on his butt was only somewhat assuaged by the fact that he hadn’t let go Nika, who nearly fell on top of him.
So, from inches away, bent half over Cole on the table, one knee the only thing that had kept him from totally collapsing into Cole, Nika asked, “What do you mean ‘the enemies you’ve made’?”
Really, quite short-sighted of him. Cole swept Nika’s standing leg, hands on Nika’s torso shoving him sideways into the gap between table and bed. The space wasn’t that big, so Nika’s shoulder bounced off the bed – causing a mighty creak from it and groan from Nika – on the way down. Cole rolled from the table, falling with knees on either side of Nika’s hips – a tight squeeze. Before Cole could pin his shoulders to the ground, Nika’s hands caught his, but that didn’t keep them from leaning towards one another to kiss.
Neither could gain the advantage in the contest of arms, and Cole could feel Nika push up into him as he rode Nika’s hips. Risking his overthrow, Cole directed Nika’s hands to the buttons of his coat, and let go. Nika responded with his usual speed, fingers having forgotten nothing about unbuttoning uniform jackets. Far sooner than could be hoped, his hands were shoving Cole’s jacket open, lifting his shirt free, moving under it to feel Cole’s body as it moved over him.
Cole, for his part, was prepared to do away with the niceties of disrobing and enticing, which he demonstrated by bending to kiss Nika, as he worked both their cocks free, holding them together with one hand so they rubbed against one another as he shifted his hips.
The problem was that, if nothing went wrong (and oh, was that unlikely), they had perhaps the rest of the day and through the night, provided they left enough time to get dressed in the morning…
Well, they could dress on the march. They had a bit of time to get to the gates that could be better spent than in walking. There were wagons, after all.
Still, it was not a great amount of time. Cole wasn't going to waste it telling too many stories. Nika, may he suffer for it, had the ability to do two things at once in such situations.
Lifting his head from the ground to watch, he pushed Cole’s hips down, and then up again, directing the way their cocks rubbed against one another. But then he looked up, catching Cole’s eye even as he fumbled one-handed at Nika’s few remaining coat buttons.
“The Palace – is this why you were talking about the Palace? Is it the Prince?”
Cole was terribly disinclined to answer, but Nika wasn’t giving it up. Loosening his grip, Cole shrugged and made a wobbling gesture with his head, indicating that in spite of what it sounded like – perhaps the very biggest of deals – it really wasn't that big of a deal. “The Prince is an idiot; you know this.”
Nika was scowling at him. But Nika was also scowling at Cole’s relaxed hand. “I'd like to know why you're fighting with idiots.”
“'Fought',” Nika could at least see the corner of Cole's grin before it disappeared into a kiss. He leaned closed to Nika’s ear, and whispered, “Don't remember your conjugations?”
That did it. Questions forgotten, Nika surprised Cole by returning the kiss with more pressure, slinging a forearm around Cole’s neck to pull them together. His other hand wrapped around the one Cole was using to hold their cocks together. Enjoying a few moments of their mutual grip, Nika then pulled Cole’s hand away, bundling it against his body. In Cole’s distraction, he had planted his foot against the edge of the table. He kicked the table aside to make room – launching the slight thing halfway across the tent – and rolled them over so he was on top again.
This time, however, Cole was prepared. He allowed the roll, but got his knees up – a perfect gesture, had they taken time to get undressed, alas – planted his heels on Nika’s hips and shoved him back. Nika didn’t have time to get a good enough grip with the arm slung around Cole’s neck, and Cole practically slid out from under him.
It wasn’t his goal to get away – just even the field, so Cole only pushed himself back towards the bed, sitting up to lean his back against it. Steady and bright as the still sun at noon, Nika’s gaze followed him, and he pounced the minute Cole came to rest. Coming over on his knees, Nika once again pressed Cole back with a deep and lingering kiss, his hands this time busy dispatching the buttons on Cole’s trousers. For his part, Cole gripped tight around the back of Nika’s neck, and lifted himself once the buttons had fallen, to make room for his pants to come down and Nika to slide in under him.
The bedframe creaked – and there was room, but apparently not enough. With the slightest of unhappy breaths, Nika wrapped arms around Cole’s waist and shoved him up onto the bed itself. As he kneeled, he ripped off one of Cole’s boots, clearing the obstruction of pants next, then pressed against Cole, throwing body against body, leaning down as Cole strained upward to kiss again.
Then the bedframe buckled.
But only the part Nika had kicked half to death earlier.
So to keep himself from sliding down the mattress to the foot of the bed, Cole wrapped legs around Nika – who fell back on his heels – and, sitting up, dragged himself into Nika’s lap, so they could continue.
There were details to work out – details about clothing, lubrication, the still-collapsing bed – details not important to that moment, when Nika’s hand closed over their cocks, so as Cole worked his hips they again met in his tight grip, Cole’s hands one again holding Nika’s jaw tilted up towards him so they could kiss…
“Sir!”
Cole was tongue-deep, listening to Nika's body with his own when the distant noise outside the tent came into his ears. It took a moment to pull his tongue back into his mouth and even longer to pull away from Nika.
“Uh...” he managed to get out, caught as he stared down and realized Nika's eyes were still hazed with wicked want. That ended any idea of focusing on something else.
He might've mumbled a consonant, too. He liked to think he did. At any rate, that response was enough that the guard walked in.
“Sir, Lieu– Capt– General Guy said you would want to…” the guard petered off, and Cole finally looked up at him. Nika decided to be unhelpful.
“Hello, Heary,” Nika said, using the hand a second ago warming Cole’s cock to wave, then putting it firmly back on Cole's hip.
Heary started to wave – froze – then finally seemed to start to life, like a bird shaking away rain.
“The messenger,” Heary said.
“Yes?” Cole prompted. There was a deeply uncomfortable throbbing making keeping his 'official voice' very difficult.
“Capt-eral Guy said you would want to know of the messenger immediately,” Heary said, in a very distant voice. His eyes wandered everywhere they weren’t, which meant he surveyed the upturned table, the discarded pants, the collapsed bed…
“Did he say why?” Cole asked. His hands were tight on Nika’s shoulders, and Nika’s soothing running of his thumbs against Cole’s hipbones weren’t helping to loosen that grip, if that’s what he meant them to be doing.
After a long pause, in which the thrown boot seemed to hold much of his attention, Heary stuttered. “P-palace. Palace messenger. Said to tell you, immediately.”
“Well, since you’ve executed your duty, you can go back and tell General Guy that he’s an asshole,” Cole said, which made Nika burst out into full-throated laughter.
The guard saluted, then seemed unsure of the gesture, then did it again anyway, and turned to leave.
“Heary,” Cole called, glaring directly at Nika, who only responded with an annoyingly superior grin.
Heary turned back. “Sir?”
Cole locked eyes with him over Nika’s shoulder. “Interrogation, Heary. This is a… very intense interrogation.”
Nika snorted in derision. “You don’t have the rank, right now.”
If any glance might sunder stone, or topple mountains, the one Cole gave him would have.
Fortunately, Nika was not stone or mountains. He gave Heary a cocky grin. “I do feel very cooperative, though.”
With barely a second’s pause, Heary suddenly grinned back. Cole couldn't tell, busy as he was with murderous thoughts, but he may have even winked. Questionable as everything was, if the soldiers of the Ainjir Army stood behind anything, they stood behind virility.
“Get out,” Cole ordered.
“Yes, Sir.” Heary snapped another salute and left.
Cole let himself fall face-first onto Nika’s shoulder, muffling his pained groan against Nika's chest.
“They knew by now, anyway,” Nika said. “Unlike before, now they’ll admire you for it. Seducer of the enemy.”
Nika just barely managed not to laugh. Cole could feel it in his chest.
Cole put his weight forward and leaned his head harder onto Nika. He didn't want to hear reason; he wanted to hear moaning. A large (if he did say so himself) part of him was still feverishly telling him that the plan for moaning was still viable, should be pursued only with more vigor. Sometimes, he wished that part of him, though still sizable, was a less significant player in his thoughts.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. He thumped his head against Nika's chest a few times.
“Poor 'Ras,” Nika said in a mock-soothing voice. “I know what will make you feel better,” he leaned in to Cole’s ear. “You were right about Guy. You’ve trained him well.”
Cole tried to suffocate himself against Nika’s chest, which Nika ruined by laughing.