Kira walked with Julian
to the infirmary. He was moving more slowly than usual, obviously
in pain. When she remembered how Garak had sauntered away without
a trace of discomfort, it made her blood boil.
A minute after they
reached the infirmary, an emergency case came in. An engineer had
been working on a conduit when a plasma discharge had badly burned his
arm and shoulder. Knowing there was nothing she could do to help,
Nerys slipped away to her quarters. Calling an orderly out of bed
to assist him, Julian set to work immediately removing bits of charred
uniform from the wounds, and before he finished it was the middle of the
night.
Leaving the orderly to finish healing the burns,
he stumbled to Nerys's quarters. As he rang the chime, he wondered
momentarily if she would let him in.
"Come in, Julian,"
she said seriously. "Sit down." Nerys wore a long, simple shift
of some rust-colored fabric that matched her hair. Even in his exhausted
state, Julian admired it.
"I can't," he said
in frustration. "I was too embarrassed to let the orderly heal me,
and I can't do it myself." He held out a medical kit to her.
She took it silently and watched as he
stripped and lay down on her bed. Following
his instructions, she ran the medilyzer over each wound and then showed
him the readout so he could set the tissue regenerator for the proper
depth. Working that way, she had healed
the major welts and cuts in about an hour. Julian still lay with
his face buried in the sheets.
"Thank you, Nerys,"
he sighed. "I feel much better now."
"Good," she said briefly.
"Then we can talk."
"What about sleep?"
he groaned. "I have a feeling I have to be back at work in a few
hours."
"Tomorrow's your day
off. Did you forget?"
He raised his head.
"You know, I had. Did you manage to get the day off, too?"
She nodded. "I
thought we might go to Risa."
"But Risa's--you mean
in a holosuite?"
"That's right."
"I'm not sure I want
to go to that Risa again." He shuddered.
"But you haven't been
to my Risa yet," she insisted. "Actually, I've never been to Risa,
so this will be a Risa completely from my imagination." She traced
with a finger the angry red scars that still crossed his buttocks, thighs,
and back. "How long will these take to heal?" she asked idly.
"They ought to fade
in a few months," he said. "Then there will be white scars for quite
a while. Garak will get his wish: I won't forget this beating
for some time."
Fascinated in spite
of herself, Kira traced another line that went diagonally across his cleft.
"Julian," she said.
"What?" he replied,
enjoying the feel of her hand, but ashamed to know what she was looking
at. Remembering the shame of being beaten while he begged for mercy
sent a warm blush coursing through his face and neck. As Kira continued
to trace the scars of the lash, the warmth didn't fade. He realized
that he was beginning to get aroused. He was glad to be lying on
his stomach so that Kira couldn't tell. The whipping he had endured
had been far from exciting, so why was the thought of the marks it had
left on his body suddenly turning him on?
"Julian," Kira said
again, "I have to tell you something."
"What?" he repeated.
"This is embarrassing,"
she began. "When I was healing you, I just wanted to help you.
I didn't feel at all excited by those bloody welts. But now, looking
at these scars..." She trailed
off, her voice faltering slightly. Without
answering, Julian abruptly rolled over. For a second, she thought
he was furious at her revelation, but then she saw his erection.
He was smiling
at her devilishly.
"I don't understand
this, either," he said, "but I don't see why we shouldn't take advantage
of it." He pulled her on top of him.
As Kira's lips met
his voraciously, her hands found his arms and started stroking them as
she urged them up above his head. He complied with her gestures,
wondering what she would do. She reached between their bodies to
untie the sash from around her waist. It was a long, multi-colored
scarf.
"You won't break out
of this so easily," she said in a throaty voice.
A burst of arousal
lit Julian's groin as Nerys tied his hands firmly to the headboard.
He tried his bonds and they held. Nerys inspected the knots critically
and then went back to kissing him, scratching his sides and chest lightly
with her nails. He trembled in response, and she ran the nails of
both hands lightly around his aureoles, approaching his nipples in concentric
circles. When her nails hit his sensitive nipples, he flinched and
gasped, but he didn't ask her to stop. She watched his face.
"Too hard?" she asked
with concern.
"Yes," he managed to
say.
"You should have told
me." She ran her nails down his belly and grabbed his erection.
He realized he had fallen into the slave mentality that Garak had tried
to trap him in. Irrationally feeling that if he asked her to stop
he would have been rebuffed, he had tried to suffer in silence. But
Nerys wasn't out to torture him as Garak had been; she didn't want to
hurt him, but she liked being in control.
For some reason he liked giving up control. There it was. He
relaxed and let his mind clear as her mouth engulfed his penis and her
hands rubbed
his balls. One hand pushed between his
buttocks and touched his sensitive opening. He pulled involuntarily
against his bonds, and, finding himself securely bound, nearly came.
"Nerys," he whispered.
"I know," she answered.
"Let yourself go."
When her mouth resumed
its skillful stimulation of his cock, her finger started to penetrate him
from behind and her other hand gently squeezed his balls. His wrists
twisted against the
scarf, but it didn't give. He could no
longer stop himself from exploding into orgasm, groaning and tugging against
the scarf.
When Julian's throbbing
had stopped, Nerys untied the scarf and put her arms around him, easing
herself against his side. "Don't you want me to lick you?" he asked,
surprised.
"I want you to do whatever
you want," she replied, holding up the scarf. She pulled the shift
off over her head and lay on her back.
Suddenly feeling energized
again, Julian knelt over her and tied her hands where his had just been.
"Too tight?" he asked in concern.
"No." She watched
him expectantly, and he watched himself as well. He surveyed her
body, unsure of what to do first. Finally he realized that Nerys
was excited by the anticipation.
Placing his fingertips on her shoulders, he
ran them lightly down her body, brushing her nipples and open labia on
the way. She shook with pleasure at his touch. He made circles
on her skin with his long fingers, touching everywhere equally, not dwelling
on her most sensitive areas, but making her wait for his fingers to find
them. He watched her eyes to gauge her responses.
Normally not a patient
person, Nerys suddenly enjoyed giving up responsibility for what happened
next. Letting go of her desire to guide her own satisfaction, she
gave herself up to the rhythm of his hands. She trusted those hands;
she knew that they would give her everything she wanted.
Julian increased the
pressure of his fingers now, making the swirling touch almost a light massage.
When he swept over her nipples or through her labia he started to dwell
on them, picking up her moisture on his hands and rubbing it on her breasts.
He bent to taste them, aroused by her excited scent. After thoroughly
kissing and nibbling her breasts, he moved to her face. His lips
sipped at her neck, biting a trail from her ear to her collarbone, then
up her throat to her chin, finally to her hot mouth. She sucked at
his tongue as if she wanted to drink
him, straining and twisting hard against the
scarf. Like him, she didn't want to get away, but just to feel the
resistance against her wrists of the material that bound her to Julian's
pleasure.
Without warning, without
removing his mouth from hers, he slipped inside her forcefully, nearly
lifting her off the bed with his erection. She gasped into his mouth
and then redoubled
her attentions to his tongue and lips, nipping
at them in her excitement. Julian thrust against her, swiveling his
hips to rub her from every angle. Arching her body and pressing the
back of
her head hard into the sheets, Nerys came in
a great burst that only trailed off minutes later. As she throbbed
down from the first orgasm, a second one hit like a wave, throwing her
back
into a sea of delight. A third was less
intense, but still staggering, and a fourth left her floating calmly at
the surface as Julian cried out her name and pulsed deep inside her.
He untied her hands,
and they lay together quietly. When Julian nestled against her side
with his mouth at her shoulder, she pulled the blankets over them both.
They slept peacefully
until morning.
They rose late, got
coffee and rolls from the replicator, and went back to bed. Julian
felt almost euphoric. He had survived Garak's mistreatment of him
the previous day; at night
his lovemaking with Nerys had been amazingly
intense. Although he still didn't understand their new attraction
to bondage games, he was starting to accept it. But the fact that
Garak had first made the idea exciting to them both disturbed him.
Someday he would work out the balance of attraction and repulsion in that
relationship, if it was still a relationship. He put those thoughts
aside for the moment.
"Only one thing worries
me right now, Nerys," he said.
"I know," she said
simply. "Odo."
"He's furious at me,
isn't he?"
Nerys spoke through
a mouthful of roll. "That's putting it mildly. But he's willing
to talk to you."
"He is?"
"That's why we're going
to Risa today."
Julian stopped with
his coffee halfway to his lips. "Odo's going to a holosuite?
Never!"
"He's going to sneak
in through the wall. Quark will never know because I've disabled
his recording link."
Julian took a large
sip of coffee and made a face as the hot liquid coursed down his throat.
"Why can't we just meet here? It would be easier for everyone."
Nerys threw him a strange
look. "But not as much fun."
"Uh-oh," Julian said,
feeling a spark of annoyance, "don't tell me there's going to be a surprise
for me there. Why is everyone on the station bent on teaching me
a lesson?"
Nerys's eyes twinkled.
"Maybe you need one," she said.
"I haven't learned
anything so far," he joked.
Bashir made a quick
stop in his quarters to change into civilian clothes. He wore tight
black pants with a loose silk shirt in watery blue. Kira wore her
shift of the night before.
Julian felt strange strolling through the Promenade
in the morning dressed so conspicuously.
As the door to the
holosuite shushed closed behind them, Julian realized that Kira had indeed
taken great liberties with Risa. The room resembled one of the resort
rooms he had
replicated for his scene with Garak, but of
a slightly different layout. The sun at the windows was brighter,
and there were striking artifacts placed here and there around the room
that
looked like Bajoran art works and weaving.
Even the cover on the large bed was Bajoran. He turned to Kira, who
was waiting for his reaction.
"Looks like home,"
he said, sitting down on the bed and gesturing for her to sit near him.
She nodded, smiling.
Her eyes were drawn to the translucent curtains that divided off part of
the room. "We have a guest," she said quietly.
Julian rose and turned,
expecting to see Odo. The bulky shape he saw coming through the drapes
made him take two steps back.
"Garak," he breathed,
"how did you get in here?"
"I go where I please
on this station," Garak said calmly. "My, my, doctor, you do look
a little pale. Too much excitement lately?"
Bashir glanced over
at Kira. Her face revealed nothing, but he thought her silence did.
"Odo?" he asked tentatively.
"It must be you."
Garak laughed.
"How would you know?"
"I'll figure it out,"
Julian said simply. "I know you."
"Do you mean you'll
know Odo by his manner? His touch? But what if Odo was angry
at you, very angry? What if Odo looked exactly like me? Couldn't
his touch be as painful as mine? And perhaps as exciting?"
The Cardassian took a step towards him.
"Nerys," Julian said,
appealing to her, "did you know about this?"
"No," she said, looking
a bit pale herself, "I didn't know what shape he'd take, but I promised
not to interfere."
"But what if it's Garak?
What if he broke in here to get at me again?" He thought a moment,
and concluded that Garak just couldn't be here. "Listen to me, Odo,"
he began reasonably.
The Cardassian bristled
visibly. "Stop thinking I'm Odo," he hissed. "I knew Major
Kira had a reservation for this suite, and I came in here to talk to you."
"I have nothing to
say to you, Garak. But I have a lot to say to Odo." Julian
observed him closely, trying to see if anything about the man looked wrong,
but everything looked like
Garak. He shuddered involuntarily--whether
with disgust or arousal he couldn't have said--at the memory of kissing
that hard mouth with the softness inside. "Where's Odo?" he asked
angrily. "He's the one I want to see, not you."
"Here I am," said a
voice, and another figure appeared through the diaphanous curtains.
Julian groaned in exasperation.
"One of you must be a holo simulation," he said angrily. "Now which
one is it?" He walked around them. Garak turned with him, while
Odo remained where he was, rolling his eyes and wearing a long-suffering
expression. Well, they're both in character, Julian thought,
trying to find a method of telling them apart. He decided to throw
it back to them--him?
"So?" he said, trying
to seem nonchalant when he really was terribly angry. "Now what do
we do?"
"Now we fuck you,"
Garak said, "and you guess who is who."
Julian laughed sincerely
and walked towards the door. "No," he said firmly, "that's not going
to happen."
"Julian," said Nerys
from the corner, "you can't get out."
"And you won't let
me out?" He turned on her in anger.
"I'm sorry, I promised
Odo."
"Is Odo even here?"
he snapped.
"Oh, he's here," said
Odo.
"Definitely," said
Garak.
Julian walked up to
face them--first Garak and then the shape shifter. "You've lied to
me before, Garak," he said, "and you, Odo, might be a simulation."
His instincts told him that
they couldn't both be here threatening him like
this--Odo just wouldn't collaborate with Garak against him. One of
them had to be a fake.
"On the other hand,"
remarked Garak, "he's never lied to you--but there's always a first time--and
I might be a simulation. Now where does that get you?"
Exactly nowhere,
Julian thought glumly. "The method you describe won't get me anywhere,
either," he said aloud. "You couldn't tell the difference between
fucking me and a simulation,
now could you?" he asked Garak.
"No, not at first,
but once I thought about it..."
Julian snorted derisively.
"Once I told you, you thought I had been a simulation, too, and that proves
my point. Thank you, Garak."
Garak looked seriously
irritated. "You're quite welcome, doctor. I'm always willing
to provide you with a laugh at my expense. But now it's time for
our experiment." He took a step
towards Julian, who backed up to the wall, looking
around for possible weapons.
"Wait," said Kira,
looking worried, "I didn't think you were going to hurt him, or I never
would have agreed to this. You said you were going to talk to him."
The way she looked back and forth between them made Julian understand suddenly
that she really had no idea who they were, either.
"And so we are," said
Odo. "Talking to him, I mean." Garak stalked over to Julian,
who lashed out with his foot. The Cardassian took a step backwards.
"That's enough," barked
Kira. "Computer, end program."
Nothing happened.
Kira hit her comm badge, which turned out to be dead.
Kira and Bashir stood
looking at each other in horror. "Who did that?" Kira whispered.
Odo and Garak exchanged
a quick glance. "I put in a manual override before you entered,"
Garak explained. "Since I used my Cardassian security codes, yours
didn't have a chance."
"I thought O'Brien
had deactivated all the old security codes," Bashir snapped.
"You'd have to do a
root canal on the computer to accomplish that," Odo said evenly.
"Until then, Garak has access to all sorts of things he shouldn't."
The two glared at each
other in silence for a moment. Through his apprehension, Julian admired
the verisimilitude of the simulation--simulations? Two such unlikely
allies wouldn't
see eye to eye for very long in real life, either.
"Now, what was I doing
when I was distracted?" Garak asked rhetorically as he lunged at Bashir.
The struggle would
have been longer if Julian hadn't made the fatal mistake of trying to punch
Garak in the jaw, nearly breaking his hand in the process. Immobilized
by the pain in his knuckles, he allowed Garak to drag him to the bed and
throw him down on it. He lay cradling his hand for a few minutes
while Garak watched him.
"Julian, are you all
right?" said Kira's anxious voice.
He sat up and saw her
sitting in the same chair she had occupied moments before, only this time
her hands and feet were bound. "Odo!" he said angrily, looking from
one to the other.
"How could you?" Both continued to look
at him impassively. "So, what happens now?" he asked, too furious
to feel his fear, as waves of adrenaline poured through him. "You'll
strip me, cuff me to the bed, take turns with me? Maybe use a torture
device or two? Or a whip? Can't you even wait until the scars
from my last beating fade out?"
"Your... last beating?"
Odo asked hesitantly, sending a fiery glance towards Garak.
"Yesterday," Garak
said calmly. "Didn't I mention it? Just a few blows, really,
and then Major Kira gave me back more than my share."
For whatever reason,
the simulated or real figures were radiating aggravation with each other.
Instinctively, Julian took advantage. "Look, Odo," he said quickly,
pulling up his
shirt. "They reach all the way down to
the backs of my legs." The red stripes stood out plainly against
his caramel skin.
"You never mentioned
that," Odo said, aghast. "You said you only wanted to give him a
little scare, not that you'd already given him real cause to be frightened."
As Garak turned angrily
to answer Odo, Julian got up cautiously and went over to Kira. Garak
followed him with his eyes, but didn't move to stop him. "Nerys,"
Julian whispered,
"did you tell Odo about the whipping?"
"Yes," she breathed,
"but I made him promise not to go after Garak."
"So it's Garak who's
real, then, not Odo," Julian realized with a stab of fear. "What
happened to Odo?"
She shrugged.
"Maybe he didn't come. He didn't want to, but he said he'd think
about it."
Julian hit his comm
badge. Nothing happened. As Odo continued to harangue him,
Garak laughed and stopped watching Julian. Immediately, the doctor
started trying to undo the cuffs
that bound Kira's hands behind her. "We
have to get out of this," he said, "or he's going to rape me again."
"I thought..." she
said hesitantly.
"You thought I liked
it?" Julian said, blushing. "I explained that the other night.
It arouses me in spite of myself. He arouses me. If he'd given
me the choice, I'd willingly have gone with him. But until he stops
hurting me and playing these stupid games, I'm not going near him anymore.
In fact, if he succeeds in raping me this time," he continued wearily,
"I'll go with you to Sisko, whether Garak has the data chip or not, and
whether he gets sent back to Cardassia or not. I'm tired of being
his toy."
"Do you miss Odo?"
Kira asked without warning.
Julian looked up in
surprise. "Yes. Yes, of course, I do. But I'm sure he'll
never understand why I let this go so far. Damn these cuffs."
He paused, concentrating.
Kira glanced at him
over her shoulder. "Why did you let it go so far?" she asked
quietly.
"Because I think that
Garak is just carrying on a Cardassian courtship."
"A courtship!" Kira
said, outraged.
"I thought I explained
this to you already," Julian said with a puzzled look. "On Cardassia,
none of what he did to me would be considered especially abusive; it might
even be
considered pleasurable. And I must admit,"
he said, wincing as he tore a nail on the tough catch of the cuffs, "I
did enjoy some of it, but I thought I could get him to see that he needed
to
restrain himself with me. Then we might
have been able to find some common ground and each get part of what we
wanted. I thought he was adaptable enough to grasp what I meant and
try to meet me there. But he isn't. He can't let go of his
desire to have total power over me."
Kira made a sound of
assent in her throat and nodded. "Hmmm. I still don't understand
why you thought he was worth it."
Julian glanced at her
sharply with irritation showing in his eyes. She seemed much more
interested in this conversation than in being released from the cuffs.
"You sound like Odo," he
remarked caustically. "I thought you agreed
to stop arguing with me about it."
"Odo worries about
you," she replied with a catch in her voice.
"I know I've alienated
him, and I'm sorry. I should have kept talking to him. And
I should have told him..."
"What?" asked Kira,
twisting around to look at him and nearly pulling the cuffs out of his
hands.
Julian blushed again.
A thin film of sweat made his skin glow like honey. "I should have
told him that the first time Garak trapped me in the seven gates of hell,
the only way I
finally made myself come was by thinking of
him." Kira turned away before Julian could see her expression.
He wondered what she thought, but filed the question away for later.
"Anyway, this isn't the time to talk about it. We have to..."
He trailed off as he heard Garak's voice rise over Odo's.
"I've had enough of
this! Computer, end Odo simulation." Odo faded out in mid-sentence
as if he had never been there. Silence reigned in the room.
"Ah, that's better,"
Garak said contentedly. "I wanted to maintain the illusion for a
little while longer, doctor, but I made the mistake of programming him
to be too contentious."
Spurred by panic, Julian
finally got Kira's hands free, but Garak was upon them in a few broad strides.
Throwing Julian easily aside, he forced Kira down on her face and reattached
the cuffs. Julian leapt on Garak's back, trying to throw him off
balance. Staggering slightly, Garak reached around and twisted Julian's
arm. As he yelled in pain, the doctor dug the fingers of his other
hand into the sensitive pressure points around Garak's jaw. The Cardassian
lost his grip and Bashir sprang free.
"Now what, doctor?"
Garak said grimly. "Why don't you accept the inevitable? You
always have before. After all, you asked for this. You should
have learned by now that I am very
hard to dissuade from my desires."
"I asked for it?" Julian
exclaimed in disbelief. "You're deluding yourself, Garak. Why,
after all this time, don't you understand that I have no desire to be your
slave?" he shouted
fiercely.
"You can't deny your
attraction to me," Garak countered in a dangerous tone.
"I'm not trying to
deny it," Julian snapped.
"Then I don't understand
why you fight me. If you don't want to be hurt, don't fight me."
Garak moved slowly towards him. Julian edged away.
"If you don't understand,
it's because you don't listen. I've..."
That was as far as
Julian got before Garak pounced, knocking him to the floor and falling
on him, pinning him face down with sheer weight. He raised Julian's
shirt.
"I want to look at
these stripes while I take you," he said with satisfaction.
"No, Garak!" Julian
yelled furiously. "I don't want you this way, don't you understand?
I don't want to be overpowered again!" He struggled with all his
strength, and Garak had all he
could do to hold Julian's arms behind him.
"I'd hate to break
something, doctor. I'd advise you to stop resisting." He squeezed
Julian's wrists together painfully, making him fight even harder for release.
"That's as far as you're
going, Garak," said Kira warningly.
He laughed, not even
bothering to look at her as he worked to subdue Julian's struggling body.
But, lying with his left cheek pressed into the rug and his arms stretched
painfully
behind him, Julian saw her dissolve into a golden,
gelatinous mass. The cuffs fell to the floor with a soft plop.
Odo literally sucked
Garak off Julian's body, depositing him on the bed with his hands cuffed
behind him. The shape shifter resumed his usual form. "He's
all yours, doctor," he said dryly.
"Thanks, Odo, but I
don't want him," Bashir said sadly. "Garak, you promised just yesterday
that you'd leave me alone."
"Ah, but then my sources
informed me that you were meeting with Kira and a holosuite simulation
of me. I don't take kindly to that, doctor. I decided that
if you craved me, then you ought to have me," he concluded. "I wasn't
aware that Odo was invited."
"How did you get into
Kira's program file?" Odo asked angrily.
Garak laughed.
"I have ways."
Bashir turned to Odo.
"What did you program the Garak simulation to do to me?" he asked in annoyance.
"Just to talk.
To say almost exactly the kinds of things he said, but he wasn't supposed
to assault you. I wanted to show you how brutal he is." He
paused, looking away from Julian's
eyes. "I wanted to see what you'd do."
"He's already shown
me his brutality himself," Julian said vehemently. "This is partly
your fault, Odo. You shouldn't have done it. And you should
at least have stopped things as soon as you realized it was really Garak.
Let him go."
"What?" Odo asked indignantly.
Julian didn't answer,
but squatted down to face Garak. "None of this was my idea.
I expect you to keep the promise you made yesterday," he said firmly.
"I don't care if you have that
data chip of me or not--if you bother me again,
I'll tell Sisko everything and let him deport you."
"It will be more embarrassing
for you than me, doctor."
"That may be.
But it will be worth it to get you to stop harassing me. Besides,
I'm not sure you'll enjoy your warm welcome on Cardassia. Will you
stop?"
Garak looked pained
and angry. "Yes, but..."
"No buts." Julian
rose and walked to the far corner of the room, standing with his back to
Garak. "Don't speak to me again, don't touch me," he said, biting
off the words. "Just go."
None too gently, Odo
rolled Garak over and removed the cuffs. Garak spoke only to deactivate
the security seal and walked straight out the door.
Julian turned as the
door slid closed. "Where's Kira?"
"She's supposed to
meet us here. When you went back to your quarters to get dressed,
I switched places with her," Odo explained.
Julian was quiet for
a moment. "Odo, why did you do this to me?"
"I needed to know how
you felt."
"Ask me," Julian said
plaintively. "You didn't need to frighten me like that. Or
to give Garak what he saw as an excuse to get at me again."
"I was afraid that
you really liked these holosuite scenes with Garak. After all, you
designed one yourself so that he could have you without knowing it."
"And it blew up in
my face. I got what I wanted, and I paid much more than I had planned.
I'll never put myself into his hands again." Julian suddenly felt
discouraged looking at Odo's
impassive face. "Did you know about the
beating?"
"Yes," Odo said.
"Kira told me. I was horrified. But I wondered if you liked
it. I wondered if you were going to start playing that kind of game
with him."
"I hated it," Julian
said, "which is what you'd have found out if you'd asked me. But,
wait--your simulation didn't know." He rubbed his forehead and laughed
softly. "I'm confused. This is you, isn't it?"
"It's me," Odo said
reassuringly. "End program."
Everything faded out,
leaving Odo and Julian in the black and yellow holosuite grid.
"Resume program," Odo
said. The room reappeared.
"That's a relief,"
said Julian sincerely. He turned towards Odo and reached for his
hands. Slowly, Odo proffered them. "Odo," Julian said with
the air of not knowing what he would say
next, "I've made quite a few mistakes lately,
but there's one I won't make again. I won't let you get so far away
from me. If you think I'm going wrong, then talk to me instead of
retreating.
We need each other."
Odo melted closer to
him without even appearing to use muscles and bone. Julian pulled
him close, and Odo's body gave as if it were made of rubber. Just
as Julian had begun to caress
the shapeshifter's pliant substance, the holosuite
door slid open. Julian flinched in surprise.
"Did everything work
out all right?" Kira asked doubtfully, seeing them together.
"Close the door," Julian
replied.
She walked over to
them and looked at Julian's face.
"Uh-oh," she said uneasily.
"What happened?"
"Garak and Odo threatened
to rape me," he explained, "and you turned into Odo."
"Odo," she said with
irritation, "you didn't say you were going to threaten him."
"I didn't," he said
in a blurry voice as he melted in Julian's arms. "Garak was really
here. We convinced him to leave." He massed on Julian's lap
and chest, pushing under his
shirt. Kira knelt and joined him in removing
the doctor's clothing. When Julian was naked, he reached for Kira's
shirt, but Odo had already pushed under it, raising it over her breasts.
She lifted her arms and let them remove it together.
Odo formed himself
into a large ball that shoved them across the floor towards the bed.
Taking the hint, they ran to the bed and fell together with their arms
already around each other. Odo pushed insistently between them, moving
restlessly over their bodies. When his substance swelled, it pushed
them apart. Odo reformed between them, facing both of them, holding
each with a pair of arms, and kissing each with a passionate mouth.
There
were limbs and genitals enough to go around.
Kira felt that Odo had formed a vulva, and she eagerly turned and slipped
her mouth against it as he lapped at her own. She felt a pang when
she thought of Dax, who hadn't had a thought for anyone but Sisko in quite
some time. She enjoyed immersing herself in Odo's substance, licking
his clit and making him slippery inside. She slid her fingers into
his vagina as he slid a firm tendril into hers.
Julian sucked Odo's
cock eagerly as it changed and moved inside his mouth, happy to have the
shape shifter back. Odo enveloped Julian's organ into folds of warm
liquid that also
touched his back and backside soothingly, caressing
each of the stripes from his recent beating. When Julian was close
to coming, Odo slipped out of the middle and surrounded them, pushing their
bodies together. Nerys mounted Julian and came almost immediately,
while Odo clung all over her like a second skin, transmitting and receiving
her pleasure.
Julian moved his arms
up and down through Odo, feeling him shudder in delight. He kneaded
Odo's mass around on Kira's back, and she responded to the shape shifter's
excitement with small sighs as he stimulated the nerve endings through
her skin. Odo
rolled them over and pushed hard into Julian's
cleft, propelling him towards orgasm. As Julian warmed and thrust
deeper and deeper into Nerys, she came again, floating on a cushion of
rapture that sprang directly out of Odo's substance
as he absorbed their pleasure into himself and enhanced it.
The three of them lay
together for a long while, playing and touching often, talking occasionally.
The holosuite was occupied all day, and Quark was frustrated and confused
when he discovered that his recording link suddenly wouldn't function at
all.
Unaccountably, O'Brien
was too busy to fix it.
Months later, Julian
walked briskly across the Promenade, thinking about work and heading for
the replimat to have a quick lunch. A large person fell into step
beside him. He turned his
head and walked a little faster.
"Garak," he nodded
formally.
"Doctor, what a pleasure
to see you," Garak said.
Julian wasn't sure
what to say. "How have you been?" was what he finally settled on.
"Well enough, thank
you, doctor, considering that I haven't been able to see you," Garak answered
strangely.
Julian stopped and
threw him a sharp glance. "Please spare me the recriminations," he
said, wishing he had been able to restrain himself. "Spare me the
'I've missed you' part, anyway."
"No recriminations,
doctor. You did what you had to do. But I have missed you."
"Have you?" Julian
said, emphasizing the first word sarcastically.
"I have," Garak replied
solemnly. "Much more than I would have thought possible."
"Wonderful."
Julian walked as fast as he could, wondering if he should just circle back
to the infirmary and skip lunch.
"I've not only missed
you, but..." Garak stopped while Julian plowed ahead. "I'm
sorry," he said loudly, as several people on the Promenade turned to stare.
Julian stopped about
three meters ahead of him and turned. "You're sorry?" he asked, ignoring
the glances he drew from passers-by. "You're actually apologizing
to me?"
Garak slowly caught
up with him. "I do apologize," he said, "sincerely. I misinterpreted
your desires. I did only what I wanted to do. I hurt you when
you didn't want to be hurt."
"You did," Julian agreed.
"Can you forgive me?"
Garak smiled, and Julian still wondered about his sincerity.
"I want to ask you
one question, Garak," he said, feeling confused, "why did you beat me after
you promised not to? After that I felt as if I could never trust
you again."
Garak sighed.
"I know. It was a mistake. I needed to prove to myself that
I wasn't getting soft. You see, it started to make a difference to
me what you thought, what you felt. I
found myself wondering what you wanted when
I should have just taken what I wanted. I know, I know," he
interrupted Julian's protest, "that's not the way you humans do it.
But I didn't want to believe it. You responded to me so strongly
that I thought I could make you my slave. I couldn't. But I
still... I hoped..." Suddenly Garak seemed to have trouble
finding words.
"I think I understand,"
Julian said quietly, entering the replimat and sitting at a table.
"It must have seemed as if I kept coming back for more. But the reason
I kept trying so hard
with you--the reason I gave you so many chances
to understand me--was that I thought you'd finally see that I didn't want
to be your slave."
"But you wanted some
of what I gave you," Garak put in.
Julian blushed.
"Some of it," he agreed grudgingly, "but not all the pain and humiliation.
Mainly, I wanted to meet you as an equal and a lover instead of as an adversary.
But that
never happened."
"It didn't," Garak
acknowledged. There was a long silence between them. "This
is for you," he said quietly, pushing a data chip across the table.
Julian picked it up. "Now can we meet as
equals?" Garak asked.
Julian smiled and reached
across the table to tap his hand. "Maybe," he said. "Let's start
with lunch."
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