It Rarely Hurts to Stop Working and Start Relaxing a Little Early
—
Pax was very dutiful and meticulous, and always did all the jobs assigned to him as well as he could, which was to say exceptionally well, better than most people, pretty much no matter what it was. Pax happened to be good at most things, and the things he wasn’t good at were things that didn’t matter, like turning into animals or interior design.
He could probably turn into a cat if he wanted to.
Anyway, Pax was really good at a lot of things, and one of those things was watch duty in the crow’s nest. He kept a really good eye on the ocean to make sure it wasn’t up to anything. But the thing was, it got really boring when nothing happened for hours, and when it was still pouring rain, Pax mostly just ended up huddled up under a cloak, watching the ocean for a long time while he couldn’t see anything and nothing happened and it was extremely boring.
At least when it rained there were no birds.
Pax sighed, turning to look at the other side of the ocean, which was similarly boring, but now right and left were reversed. He’d seen what had looked like the shape of another ship a while back, but it had disappeared and not come back, so it was probably nothing. He’d gone down to report it, though, just for something to do.
He had another hour left in his shift up here. Pax could have wiggled out of this, probably, but he would have owed someone major for dropping this on them in this weather, and Pax didn’t want that on his conscience or his purse, and he definitely didn’t want it on his schedule.
One more hour and then he could go down and go to the cabin and cuddle with Nate to warm up. He couldn’t wait.
Because he was so focused on watching the sky try to drown the ocean, Pax didn’t notice that he was technically not alone in the crow’s nest until Nate’s leg was swinging over the basket behind him. “Hello, Nate,” Pax said, smiling over his shoulder. Nate wasn’t wearing anything but one of those stupid see-through white shirts and some stupid not see-through pants that clung to him rather impressively in the rain. “You’re right on time.”
“Am I?” Nate asked, coming to lean beside Pax. “I was expecting you to tell me off for being late.”
Pax scoffed. Nate hadn’t even realized he wasn’t late. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Funny, I was just thinking about you too.”
“The difference being that I didn’t abandon my post to come find you,” Pax added, side-eyeing Nate for a second. “Just kidding, I know you’re off-duty.”
“I’m here to give you a break,” Nate told him.
“I have an hour left.”
“An hour-long break, then.”
Pax chuckled. “You being here will make it seem like half that,” he said, meaning it even though it sounded corny.
“Yeah, but the rain makes every minute feel like three,” Nate snorted.
“Time is a lie.”
“So your hour is up then?”
“It’s a lie the captain believes in,” Pax said with a sigh. She was so limited in her insistence on existing in a continuum of events.
“I’m pretty sure earthly authority is a lie too,” Nate pointed out, turning a little to look at Pax now.
“Yes, but deaths by drowning aren’t, and that’s the punishment for not pretending that earthly authority is real when it comes to the matter of listening to your mom when she tells us to do something.”
“Fair enough,” Nate muttered. “She wouldn’t drown us.”
“No, she’d make us work opposite shifts all the time.” Which was worse.
“We make the schedules.”
Pax made the schedules and Nate watched, but that was fine. “Mutiny is bad for the complexion, Nate. Just suck it up and we can cuddle in an hour when I’m done keeping an eye out for krakens and evil jewelry.”
He was pretty concerned about the latter, but they’d seen no sign of it since the other day, and Pig and Jade both seemed normal, so everything was probably fine, no matter how much Pax refused to believe that everything was fine.
Nate made a frustrated noise, and then he looked at Pax, a smile on his lips. “Is that what you were thinking about doing with me? Cuddling?”
“Of course,” Pax said, keeping his voice admirably even. Nate had better be admiring how even he was keeping his voice. “We are dating, you know, and have been for quite a while now, it’s a normal thing to expect. Though of course if you don’t want to we don’t have to, I mean we’re together but we’re different people and it’s not like I own your body or get to dictate what you do with it.”
“Maybe I like being dictated to,” Nate teased.
Pax looked at him for a minute. Then he looked at him for a minute longer. “You came up here because you’re horny, didn’t you?”
“I came up here because I wanted to see you,” Nate said, affecting affront. “I’m scandalized that you would think I had less than noble intentions when all I wanted was to put an end to the loathsome time alone from the love of my life.”
“You shouldn’t babble,” Pax grumped, edging closer to Nate. “You sound silly.”
“Do I?”
“If that was a poke at me we’re not having sex until it stops raining.”
“It wasn’t,” Nate promised, wide eyed. It totally had been.
“Fine,” Pax said, because he wasn’t about to inflict that punishment on himself for no good reason. He leaned in and kissed Nate, turning to he could press his body against Nate’s, pulling Nate towards him to deepen the kiss.
Nate kissed him back, tongue and all, hands moving under Pax’s cloak and around his back, pressing back until they were tight against each other, sitting down so they weren’t in danger of falling, then half-laying in the limited space with Pax mostly on top of Nate. “I really don’t like what the rain does to your pants,” Pax murmured against Nate’s lips, hands moving down a bit. “They’re not see-through enough for me.”
“Me either,” Nate agreed, hands finding the waistband of Pax’s pants. “None of your clothes are see-through enough for me.”
“Obviously we’re both falling short in the clothes department,” Pax started tugging at Nate’s pants as well. “Let’s alleviate that a bit.”
“Not to mention a serious constriction problem.”
“That too,” Pax agreed.
Between the two of them, they managed to get two pairs of pants down at least to thigh height, and Pax got distracted grabbing Nate’s now free erection and didn’t bother taking them down any farther. Nate followed suit, and they started kissing again, Pax’s cloak fanning out above them, the rain pattering all down Pax’s back as they kissed, stroking each other.
“Here…” Nate said between kisses, pulling Pax closer, shifting his grip so that his hand was around both of them.
Pax made a low noise, and he did the same so their hands were nearly clasped, dicks pressed together as they both stroked, rubbed, pressed, thrust. Kissed, swam.
Flew. Pax held Nate tight in his free arm as he took off, crying out as he splattered Nate’s hand and belly, moving his hips on instinct as he sought more, more and more and got it all, got everything from Nate. He was finished before Nate tensed under him, gave a deeper moan, and went flying as well, adding his own warmth to the mess.
They collapsed, Pax on top of Nate, breathing onto each other for a while, the rain surrounding them. Pax enjoyed the closeness, enjoyed Nate. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Pax was quiet for a second longer. “I’m going to move now so the rain cleans you off. You’re going to have a mess on your shirt.”
“I can fix that by taking my shirt off,” Nate told him, pulling Pax closer, not fixing either of their pants. “Let’s cuddle.”
“Fine.”
“You put up surprisingly little resistance.”
“I’m weak to cuddles,” Pax muttered, resting his head on Nate’s shoulder. “Nothing had better hit the ship while we’re doing this or I’ll get in trouble.”
“I’ll take the blame if it does.”
“Of course you will. I’m not sure that will be a comfort when we’re decorating the bottom of the ocean.”
“Is that a colourful metaphor or are you planning to live there?”
Pax wasn’t sure. “If mermaids can do it, why can’t we?”
“Because we don’t have gills.”
“Well, that’s racist.”
“We’ll tell God that if we ever meet him, okay?”
“Works for me.” Pax took in a deep breath. “I’m glad you came up here.”
“So am I, Pax.”
Pax was so good at lookout duty he could do it without even looking out. Made cuddling with his favourite person a whole lot easier.
—
How Best to Use a Sword 