Title: To Bring Home the Light
Author:
katmarajadeWritten for:
rubynyePairing: Sulu/Chekov/Gaila
Rating: R
Word Count: 567
Prompt: naked, happy, together
Summary: Hikaru's his light. Gaila's his warmth. It's Pavel's job to make sure they come home.
Notes: Only for you, bb, would I try my hand at a threesome. *blows kisses* It's a touch angsty to start, but it's happy, I swear!
The light after a period of darkness always seems brightest. It's relative, of course. But that's how it is for Pavel every time they go away.
A year and a half ago, Pavel punched a local and got himself banned from non-essential away missions. But Hikaru is Kirk's go-to man for back-up on planetside excursions, has been since that space dive all those years ago.
And Gaila has become a regular engineering consult on away missions, because she's not only brilliant and capable but also savvy and better skilled than most engineers at hand-to-hand combat and hand-held weapons.
Pavel has to watch them leave, and he can feel them go. Hikaru's his light. Gaila's his warmth. And he works diligently in the dark and the cold to make sure they come home to him.
It's the moments after they return. The nights when they're curled up like a litter of kittens, drawing in each other's warmth, memorizing every new scar, every old curve.
Pavel loves these nights, slow and quiet. Gaila hums songs into their skin. Hikaru plays with her hair. Pavel sinks into her warmth, and when he looks up to see Hikaru gazing at him, slow, strong, solid, there … Pavel can never hold himself in. It's freeing and grounding and better, more real, more visceral, than he ever imagined something like this could be.
He needs them-Hikaru's calm reassurances, his strong, comforting presence; Gaila's warm touches and kisses that send currents of prickling heat into his soul and remind him of exactly who he is. And they need him too, which they tell him over and over, not with words but with looks and touches. There's truth in a kiss, and Pavel can't help but pour his own truth into their mouths, letting his worries dissolve in the warmth of their breath.
He's not perfect; neither are they. Maybe that's why they work so well together. Pavel's bossy and short-tempered, but his furious refusal to fail has brought both of them (and others, like the Captain) home to him when it seemed impossible. He's the youngest of the three; he's occasionally blinded by youthful optimism or bouts of immaturity; he's impassioned, inflamed, in love; and he's sometimes reckless. He pushes Hikaru, who sometimes over-thinks. He grounds Gaila, tethering her to the here and now when she's lost in heady world of emotion and mathematics. He craves Hikaru's approval, envies his strength and stability. He worships Gaila's genius, her mechanical prowess and ability to see answers and patterns incomprehensible to the human mind.
He doesn't know what sight he enjoys most: Hikaru's tongue twisting with Gaila's, her green legs wrapped tight around his waist, or the way Hikaru's eyes somehow soften and darken when he meet's Pavel's gaze. Perhaps it's the combination of all of it. Perhaps just one factor by itself wouldn't have the power of the whole.
It's one equation that Pavel has never quite figured out. He tries to balance it, give it symbols and tangibility. But some things can't be quantified, can't be explained. Maybe something so complex and beautiful should be taken at its worth, not over-analyzed.
Perhaps. But Pavel wouldn't be Pavel if he stopped trying. For now, though, he's content to close his eyes, feel Hikaru's strong heartbeat, and Gaila's soft skin. For tonight, he's all right with not knowing how it works. Just that it does.