Fic: Xi Ji Ba Yuan (DS9/Firefly, Bashir/Simon)
Okay. This one needs a little explanation. READ THIS FIRST; the story will not make sense if you skip it. Seriously.
First of all, this is a birthday gift for the exceptionally fun and gifted sathinks. It's hard to believe it's been two years since we first met in person. Time moves fast. Happiest of birthdays, hon!
This story is set in a shared crossover universe that sathinks and I came up with two summers ago, when we were both in Chicago and therefore hanging out a lot, doing things like spending entire evenings brainstorming crossover porn. We had planned to make it a series, but we both got incredibly busy with real life, and the whole thing kind of fell apart as a story. The concept stayed alive, though, and the concept is this: several years post-Serenity, Simon Tam falls through a plot hole (it had something to do with the Prophets and River; I forget the details) and lands, injured and disoriented, in Julian Bashir's infirmary. It's the sixth season of DS9, and the Dominion War is in full swing; as a result, Simon's sudden appearance is cause for deep suspicion. In addition, Simon has changed a lot in his years on Serenity, undergoing a Wesley Wyndam-Pryce-esque character arc in which he settles into his outlaw life and deals with some deep and devastating moral ambiguity. As a result, this is a rougher and more world-weary Simon than we see on Firefly. If sathinks and I had gone through with posting this as a series, this story might have been the third or fourth story in that series. I hope it's enjoyable in its own right!
Title: Xi Ji Ba Yuan
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/Firefly crossover
Pairing: Julian Bashir/Simon Tam
Rating: NC-17 for being porn.
Spoilers/Continuity: Takes place during the seventh season of DS9 and a few years post-Serenity.
Summary: Simon teaches Julian to swear like a pirate.
Word count: about 2600
Disclaimers: Firefly and Serenity are the intellectual property of Mutant Enemy, and Star Trek: DS9 belongs to Paramount. This original work of fan fiction is Copyright 2006 Mosca. This story is a labor of love, not money, so it's protected in the USA by the fair use provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976. All rights reserved. All wrongs reversed. Space lube! For space gays!
Notes: Thanks to callmesandy for beta reading.
*
Julian's patient was doing better.
He knew Tam was doing better because that was what Tam kept telling him. He proved the adage that doctors made the worst patients. He wanted to be taken off IV fluids and given food and water by mouth. He wanted his catheter out. He wanted Julian to know that the rest of his injuries would heal perfectly well on an outpatient basis. "Most people recover fair enough if you leave them alone," he said. "Here, I'm just going to die of some aggressive alien bacterial infection."
"The beds generate sterile fields," Julian explained. He sounded patronizing, and it rather pleased him.
His patient rolled his eyes. All of Julian's scans revealed him to be the picture of health, odd immunity patterns and old scars aside. Julian imagined himself in Tam's situation, and he realized that this had little to do with fear of infection. Tam wished to have his privacy restored to him. "I'll see what I can do about getting you some private quarters," Julian said.
"Oh, you'll see what you can do?" Tam said. "That's promising."
"I have to clear it with my superior officers. It might take a day or two," Julian said.
Tam grumbled something that confounded the universal translator. He seemed to take refuge in the fact that his universe's colorful and extensive vocabulary of vulgarities was beyond the reach of Starfleet technology.
"Do you think I enjoy inconveniencing and occasionally endangering my patients while I cut through the military bureaucracy?" Julian said.
"Yes," Tam said. "I think you enjoy keeping me here. As long as I'm in your infirmary, I'm your little experiment, and you can poke at me as much as I want. If you let me out, who knows who might get hold of me and publish that journal article?"
Julian opened his mouth, but the brilliant counter-argument failed to spill out. "I'll speak to Captain Sisko," he said.
"When?" Tam said.
"Now. Right now." He gave some instructions to his nurses before he left. Naturally, a line had formed outside Sisko's office, although privilege of rank moved Julian to the front of it. "My patient needs quarters," he said as soon as the doors shut behind him.
"Our interdimensional tourist?" Sisko said. "The pirate?"
"He's never been accused or convicted of a crime in this universe, and we have no evidence that he's a criminal in his own," Julian said. "It's against Federation law to hold a man on the grounds that Odo thinks he might commit a crime in the future."
Sisko chuckled. "If we did, our jail would be full and the rest of the station would be empty." He got out a PADD, called up a quarters requisition, and authorized it. "Kira's off duty, but you can tell her I sent you. She'll know where it'll be best to put him."
"Thank you, sir," Julian said.
"You're not dismissed," Sisko said.
"I'm sorry, sir," Julian said.
"After you've discharged Dr. Tam from your care, you are to keep your distance," Sisko said. "Sometimes, your tendency to get attached to your patients is admirable, Doctor, but in this case, you run the risk of attaching yourself to a thief and con artist. We don't know that he is, but we don't know that he isn't. And this is a conflict of interest that I would rather not have to untangle."
"Yes, sir," Julian said. "I understand, sir." He didn't ask whether it was advice or an order, because he didn't want to be clear on the consequences of disobeying it. "Am I dismissed now?"
"You are," Sisko said.
Julian found Kira in the Replimat and wheedled her into assigning Tam a room. He practically skipped back to the infirmary. "Less than an hour," Tam said. "I really do have you by the [untranslatable]."
"The security detail will be here in a few minutes to escort you to your quarters," Julian said.
"You're not deigning to escort me yourself?" Tam said, putting on the horrible Starfleet-issue shoes that a nurse had replicated for him.
"It's against protocol," Julian said. "You're no longer my responsibility."
"You've been told to stay away from me, then." Tam laughed darkly. He sounded piratical. "How ironic."
"Why?" Julian said.
"Oh, I -- It's not something I can explain," Tam said. The security detail arrived, a pair of irritable Bajoran women. Tam walked out with his hands behind his back as if he were handcuffed. Julian realized, watching him, that he fully intended to deceive the security officers into thinking that he was under their control, when in reality he was well positioned to whisk their phasers from their unguarded hips. It didn't look like he was actually going to do it. He just had to know he could.
When Julian's shift was over, he decided to drop by Tam's quarters. He took a medkit with him so it would look like an official visit and not a social call, although he wasn't himself certain which it was. He pressed the door chime and received no answer. Tam was still on medical watch, so Julian could have overridden it if he'd wished, but that seemed a bit excessive. Julian chimed again, and he heard Tam say, "Oh, that's the door." Julian heard him stumble into something as he made his way over. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm -- I'm still learning how everything works." His eyes were downturned, and he was fidgeting with his hands in his pockets. It was this kind of moment that convinced Julian that if Tam was indeed a criminal, it was not by nature, but by necessity.
"It's voice-activated," Julian said, inviting himself in. "You can say 'enter' or 'come in,' and the door will unlock."
"I know," Tam said. "The security officer explained it." It sounded like the last clause of that sentence should have been, "Right before I killed her."
"Well, then," Julian said. "Is there anything else you're having trouble with?"
"Not really," Tam said. "I'm enjoying the replicator." He'd gotten rid of the unflattering gray Starfleet-issue jumpsuit and replicated a black high-collared shirt and a pair of brown slacks. Julian wondered if he had a weakness for well-dressed men, after all, or if it was a by-product of other traits.
"So you've eaten? You've made yourself comfortable?" Julian said.
"I'm not quite comfortable yet," Tam said. "But I've had dinner. It's been a long time since I've eaten that well." He looked over towards the replicator. "That technology's solved a lot of social problems, I'd wager."
"A few," Julian said. When Tam didn't respond, Julian said, "Er, it looks like you're settling in all right, so I'll... be on my way."
"I, um, there was one thing," Tam said. "There's a -- I assume that's a computer console of some kind over there, and I -- I figured out how to turn it on, but I can't get it to connect to anything."
"Oh, they take some initial setup," Julian said. He sat down at the console, which immediately threw up an administrative block and asked for level four security clearance. "Bastards," he said. "They locked you out of everything. It seems a bit drastic -- they could have at least given you access to the guest information and educational services. Here, you're in, just don't turn it off or log out."
"Thank you," Tam said. He was laughing to himself. At all times, it seemed that he communicated much more efficiently with himself than with others.
"What?" Julian ventured.
"Oh, it's -- it's nothing, just -- I was amused to hear that your -- your minders haven't whitewashed all the swear words out of your vocabulary."
"I'm off duty," Julian said. "I don't have to watch my tongue so much."
"So you've got a full arsenal you're just waiting to unleash?" Tam said.
"Nothing like yours, I don't think," Julian said.
"The funny thing is, when I first started out working in the black, my -- my crewmates used to make fun of me for using such proper language," Tam said. "But a few months out there, and -- and there were just no other words for what I saw." Julian knows just what he's talking about. When he's cleaning up after battles or taking in casualties, the propriety falls away. Every phaser wound comes courtesy of those Jem'Hadar cocksuckers, those Dominion motherfuckers.
"I'd love you to give me a lesson sometime," Julian said.
"I thought you had translation devices," Tam said.
"The UT tends to malfunction a bit when someone is making it blush."
"So your minders have whitewashed your vocabulary."
"There are ways around it," Julian said. "The entire Klingon language, for one."
"That's exactly why people where I come from started swearing in Chinese," Tam said. "To say what they couldn't say in English. And then someone noticed that Chinese is a great language for swearing in, and you have several hundred years of colonization-era linguistic history." He was getting excited. Intellectual matters seemed to do that, or perhaps the recognition that Julian was fascinated along with him.
"Like what?"
"Well, most of them are... you can just build things on endlessly. So, ji ba, that's... penis, only less polite. And then you, you attach the word to other things. Yuan means a man, a fellow, so a ji ba yuan is, um --"
"An individual demonstrating penis-like qualities?" Julian said.
"Exactly. Or you can stick a verb in, like xi, that's 'suck,' so you get --"
"Ji ba xi yuan?" Julian guessed.
"Xi ji ba yuan, actually. The verb goes first. And from there it just gets -- It's like you win points for being clever. So you can just pile on the vulgarity, like ta ma de xi ji ba yuan, that's a fucking cocksucker. Or you can go for silly and original, like, let's see." He snickered. "Xi ji bing de hou zi de ji ba yuan. Someone who sucks diseased monkey cock."
Julian's enhanced cognition was soaking all of this up. Not only had he memorized the words that Tam was repeating, but the first few terms were starting to become more than just translations. He was to the point where it really felt like Tam was saying "penis" over and over, which of course was exactly what he was doing. Julian couldn't be sure whether Tam was intentionally making him think of his penis, making Julian's eyes travel to it. Either way, those newly replicated trousers were terribly flattering and left relatively little to the imagination.
"Have I -- did I go too far?" Tam said. "Am I -- am I making you uncomfortable?"
"It's not the language," Julian said. "It's the, er, the subject matter."
"Diseased monkeys are a taboo topic?"
"Yes," Julian said. "That's it exactly."
"That's interesting," Tam said. "Because that's not the clause you were staring at."
"I wasn't --"
"All right. You weren't. Never mind." He was still looming over Julian, who was sitting in the chair at the computer console. "You also weren't dropping by my room to see me for no reason or giving me access to restricted information resources." He slammed his hands and his weight forward onto the back of the chair, almost startling Julian out of it. "I'm a suspicious man. I have to be. So maybe it's just my paranoia talking, but if you're not -- if you're not trying to get me to have sex with you, then what in [untranslatable] are you doing?"
Julian got up out of the chair and pivoted to face Tam. "I'm --"
"Then here's another one for your list of useful phrases. Nong ji ba yuan." He backed away from Julian, towards the wall, inadvertently cornering himself. It was the first time Julian had seen Tam let himself become vulnerable. So he was rattled, definitely, and aroused, possibly. The latter hinged somewhat on the meaning of nong.
Julian hazarded a guess. "Cocktease."
"You're right," Tam said.
"You're not," Julian said, and kissed him. As it turned out, pirates from alternate universes tasted very much like replicated Spicy Noodles with Pork. Julian had programmed that dish himself. He'd expected Tam to kiss aggressively, but his lips were gentle, his hands curious. Tam was only defensive when he was being attacked; when given the upper hand, he was methodical and shy. A peaceful man of intellect, adapted to live in a universe that had little room for such men. As they both were.
But Tam was also a man who might challenge Julian in a fair fight, through cunning and experience if not through brute strength. If this turned out to be some form of manipulation, Julian needed to be able to protect himself. He put his hands on Tam's chest and lunged forward, pushing Tam up against the wall. "I shouldn't have doubted you," Tam said. "It's just that I've -- I've gotten so used to doubting people." He put his hand between Julian's legs, caressing his erection. "But you seem trustworthy."
"I used to be," Julian said. "But there's a war on."
"So if I turn my back on you, you'll stab me in it?" Tam said.
"Something like that." Julian released his hold on Tam. When Tam had turned around, Julian realized that he was in need of supplies. He left Tam there to wait, facing the wall, while he paid a visit to the replicator and asked it for some lorotine gel.
"What's that?" Tam said.
"It's a mild anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial salve with no analgesic effects, and it smells nice," Julian said. "It's popular among medical students."
"I'll bet," Tam said. He was taking off his trousers, making Julian wish that he'd spent more time examining Tam's ass while he'd still had medical authority to do so. A small silver tube of lorotine had materialized in the replicator. Julian returned to Tam and kissed the back of his neck tenderly, feeling him relax into his arms. He pushed his uniform pants down into a pool around his feet, then squeezed a dollop of lorotine onto his fingers. He worked the salve into Tam's ass, making Tam gasp, "That feels -- Your medical... technology... is incredible."
Julian tried to enter him gently, but it was torture to hold himself back so much. Tam was tight but not resistant. He pressed his weight forward into the wall, bringing Julian with him, forcing him to push harder. There were no untranslatable curses, only the universal language of sighs and moans. He was enduring the force of Julian's enhanced strength; he was enjoying it. Julian closed his eyes and let instinct take over, fucking Tam hard into the wall. But it was the feeling of command and conquest, as much as the heat and friction, that brought him to ecstasy. The surrender of Tam's body under him as he reached orgasm.
He released Tam and put his trousers back on, not sure whether space pirates expected one to stay the night. Tam was still leaning against the wall, catching his breath. He looked more vulnerable now than he had when he'd been lying half-dead in Julian's infirmary. "Xi ji ba yuan," Tam said.
"Did I -- did I hurt you?"
"We use the phrase literally, too," Tam said. "To describe someone who --"
"Well, that's not exactly what we --"
"It's a more general term than that," Tam said.
"Then you wouldn't mind if I stayed for a few more language lessons?" Julian said. "Teach me to conjugate a few verbs?"
"No conjugations in Chinese," Tam said.
"But more vocabulary, surely?"
"We might be able to spend the whole night just on cao."
"To fuck?" Julian said.
"There's a lot you can do with it," Tam said.
First of all, this is a birthday gift for the exceptionally fun and gifted sathinks. It's hard to believe it's been two years since we first met in person. Time moves fast. Happiest of birthdays, hon!
This story is set in a shared crossover universe that sathinks and I came up with two summers ago, when we were both in Chicago and therefore hanging out a lot, doing things like spending entire evenings brainstorming crossover porn. We had planned to make it a series, but we both got incredibly busy with real life, and the whole thing kind of fell apart as a story. The concept stayed alive, though, and the concept is this: several years post-Serenity, Simon Tam falls through a plot hole (it had something to do with the Prophets and River; I forget the details) and lands, injured and disoriented, in Julian Bashir's infirmary. It's the sixth season of DS9, and the Dominion War is in full swing; as a result, Simon's sudden appearance is cause for deep suspicion. In addition, Simon has changed a lot in his years on Serenity, undergoing a Wesley Wyndam-Pryce-esque character arc in which he settles into his outlaw life and deals with some deep and devastating moral ambiguity. As a result, this is a rougher and more world-weary Simon than we see on Firefly. If sathinks and I had gone through with posting this as a series, this story might have been the third or fourth story in that series. I hope it's enjoyable in its own right!
Title: Xi Ji Ba Yuan
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/Firefly crossover
Pairing: Julian Bashir/Simon Tam
Rating: NC-17 for being porn.
Spoilers/Continuity: Takes place during the seventh season of DS9 and a few years post-Serenity.
Summary: Simon teaches Julian to swear like a pirate.
Word count: about 2600
Disclaimers: Firefly and Serenity are the intellectual property of Mutant Enemy, and Star Trek: DS9 belongs to Paramount. This original work of fan fiction is Copyright 2006 Mosca. This story is a labor of love, not money, so it's protected in the USA by the fair use provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976. All rights reserved. All wrongs reversed. Space lube! For space gays!
Notes: Thanks to callmesandy for beta reading.
*
Julian's patient was doing better.
He knew Tam was doing better because that was what Tam kept telling him. He proved the adage that doctors made the worst patients. He wanted to be taken off IV fluids and given food and water by mouth. He wanted his catheter out. He wanted Julian to know that the rest of his injuries would heal perfectly well on an outpatient basis. "Most people recover fair enough if you leave them alone," he said. "Here, I'm just going to die of some aggressive alien bacterial infection."
"The beds generate sterile fields," Julian explained. He sounded patronizing, and it rather pleased him.
His patient rolled his eyes. All of Julian's scans revealed him to be the picture of health, odd immunity patterns and old scars aside. Julian imagined himself in Tam's situation, and he realized that this had little to do with fear of infection. Tam wished to have his privacy restored to him. "I'll see what I can do about getting you some private quarters," Julian said.
"Oh, you'll see what you can do?" Tam said. "That's promising."
"I have to clear it with my superior officers. It might take a day or two," Julian said.
Tam grumbled something that confounded the universal translator. He seemed to take refuge in the fact that his universe's colorful and extensive vocabulary of vulgarities was beyond the reach of Starfleet technology.
"Do you think I enjoy inconveniencing and occasionally endangering my patients while I cut through the military bureaucracy?" Julian said.
"Yes," Tam said. "I think you enjoy keeping me here. As long as I'm in your infirmary, I'm your little experiment, and you can poke at me as much as I want. If you let me out, who knows who might get hold of me and publish that journal article?"
Julian opened his mouth, but the brilliant counter-argument failed to spill out. "I'll speak to Captain Sisko," he said.
"When?" Tam said.
"Now. Right now." He gave some instructions to his nurses before he left. Naturally, a line had formed outside Sisko's office, although privilege of rank moved Julian to the front of it. "My patient needs quarters," he said as soon as the doors shut behind him.
"Our interdimensional tourist?" Sisko said. "The pirate?"
"He's never been accused or convicted of a crime in this universe, and we have no evidence that he's a criminal in his own," Julian said. "It's against Federation law to hold a man on the grounds that Odo thinks he might commit a crime in the future."
Sisko chuckled. "If we did, our jail would be full and the rest of the station would be empty." He got out a PADD, called up a quarters requisition, and authorized it. "Kira's off duty, but you can tell her I sent you. She'll know where it'll be best to put him."
"Thank you, sir," Julian said.
"You're not dismissed," Sisko said.
"I'm sorry, sir," Julian said.
"After you've discharged Dr. Tam from your care, you are to keep your distance," Sisko said. "Sometimes, your tendency to get attached to your patients is admirable, Doctor, but in this case, you run the risk of attaching yourself to a thief and con artist. We don't know that he is, but we don't know that he isn't. And this is a conflict of interest that I would rather not have to untangle."
"Yes, sir," Julian said. "I understand, sir." He didn't ask whether it was advice or an order, because he didn't want to be clear on the consequences of disobeying it. "Am I dismissed now?"
"You are," Sisko said.
Julian found Kira in the Replimat and wheedled her into assigning Tam a room. He practically skipped back to the infirmary. "Less than an hour," Tam said. "I really do have you by the [untranslatable]."
"The security detail will be here in a few minutes to escort you to your quarters," Julian said.
"You're not deigning to escort me yourself?" Tam said, putting on the horrible Starfleet-issue shoes that a nurse had replicated for him.
"It's against protocol," Julian said. "You're no longer my responsibility."
"You've been told to stay away from me, then." Tam laughed darkly. He sounded piratical. "How ironic."
"Why?" Julian said.
"Oh, I -- It's not something I can explain," Tam said. The security detail arrived, a pair of irritable Bajoran women. Tam walked out with his hands behind his back as if he were handcuffed. Julian realized, watching him, that he fully intended to deceive the security officers into thinking that he was under their control, when in reality he was well positioned to whisk their phasers from their unguarded hips. It didn't look like he was actually going to do it. He just had to know he could.
When Julian's shift was over, he decided to drop by Tam's quarters. He took a medkit with him so it would look like an official visit and not a social call, although he wasn't himself certain which it was. He pressed the door chime and received no answer. Tam was still on medical watch, so Julian could have overridden it if he'd wished, but that seemed a bit excessive. Julian chimed again, and he heard Tam say, "Oh, that's the door." Julian heard him stumble into something as he made his way over. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm -- I'm still learning how everything works." His eyes were downturned, and he was fidgeting with his hands in his pockets. It was this kind of moment that convinced Julian that if Tam was indeed a criminal, it was not by nature, but by necessity.
"It's voice-activated," Julian said, inviting himself in. "You can say 'enter' or 'come in,' and the door will unlock."
"I know," Tam said. "The security officer explained it." It sounded like the last clause of that sentence should have been, "Right before I killed her."
"Well, then," Julian said. "Is there anything else you're having trouble with?"
"Not really," Tam said. "I'm enjoying the replicator." He'd gotten rid of the unflattering gray Starfleet-issue jumpsuit and replicated a black high-collared shirt and a pair of brown slacks. Julian wondered if he had a weakness for well-dressed men, after all, or if it was a by-product of other traits.
"So you've eaten? You've made yourself comfortable?" Julian said.
"I'm not quite comfortable yet," Tam said. "But I've had dinner. It's been a long time since I've eaten that well." He looked over towards the replicator. "That technology's solved a lot of social problems, I'd wager."
"A few," Julian said. When Tam didn't respond, Julian said, "Er, it looks like you're settling in all right, so I'll... be on my way."
"I, um, there was one thing," Tam said. "There's a -- I assume that's a computer console of some kind over there, and I -- I figured out how to turn it on, but I can't get it to connect to anything."
"Oh, they take some initial setup," Julian said. He sat down at the console, which immediately threw up an administrative block and asked for level four security clearance. "Bastards," he said. "They locked you out of everything. It seems a bit drastic -- they could have at least given you access to the guest information and educational services. Here, you're in, just don't turn it off or log out."
"Thank you," Tam said. He was laughing to himself. At all times, it seemed that he communicated much more efficiently with himself than with others.
"What?" Julian ventured.
"Oh, it's -- it's nothing, just -- I was amused to hear that your -- your minders haven't whitewashed all the swear words out of your vocabulary."
"I'm off duty," Julian said. "I don't have to watch my tongue so much."
"So you've got a full arsenal you're just waiting to unleash?" Tam said.
"Nothing like yours, I don't think," Julian said.
"The funny thing is, when I first started out working in the black, my -- my crewmates used to make fun of me for using such proper language," Tam said. "But a few months out there, and -- and there were just no other words for what I saw." Julian knows just what he's talking about. When he's cleaning up after battles or taking in casualties, the propriety falls away. Every phaser wound comes courtesy of those Jem'Hadar cocksuckers, those Dominion motherfuckers.
"I'd love you to give me a lesson sometime," Julian said.
"I thought you had translation devices," Tam said.
"The UT tends to malfunction a bit when someone is making it blush."
"So your minders have whitewashed your vocabulary."
"There are ways around it," Julian said. "The entire Klingon language, for one."
"That's exactly why people where I come from started swearing in Chinese," Tam said. "To say what they couldn't say in English. And then someone noticed that Chinese is a great language for swearing in, and you have several hundred years of colonization-era linguistic history." He was getting excited. Intellectual matters seemed to do that, or perhaps the recognition that Julian was fascinated along with him.
"Like what?"
"Well, most of them are... you can just build things on endlessly. So, ji ba, that's... penis, only less polite. And then you, you attach the word to other things. Yuan means a man, a fellow, so a ji ba yuan is, um --"
"An individual demonstrating penis-like qualities?" Julian said.
"Exactly. Or you can stick a verb in, like xi, that's 'suck,' so you get --"
"Ji ba xi yuan?" Julian guessed.
"Xi ji ba yuan, actually. The verb goes first. And from there it just gets -- It's like you win points for being clever. So you can just pile on the vulgarity, like ta ma de xi ji ba yuan, that's a fucking cocksucker. Or you can go for silly and original, like, let's see." He snickered. "Xi ji bing de hou zi de ji ba yuan. Someone who sucks diseased monkey cock."
Julian's enhanced cognition was soaking all of this up. Not only had he memorized the words that Tam was repeating, but the first few terms were starting to become more than just translations. He was to the point where it really felt like Tam was saying "penis" over and over, which of course was exactly what he was doing. Julian couldn't be sure whether Tam was intentionally making him think of his penis, making Julian's eyes travel to it. Either way, those newly replicated trousers were terribly flattering and left relatively little to the imagination.
"Have I -- did I go too far?" Tam said. "Am I -- am I making you uncomfortable?"
"It's not the language," Julian said. "It's the, er, the subject matter."
"Diseased monkeys are a taboo topic?"
"Yes," Julian said. "That's it exactly."
"That's interesting," Tam said. "Because that's not the clause you were staring at."
"I wasn't --"
"All right. You weren't. Never mind." He was still looming over Julian, who was sitting in the chair at the computer console. "You also weren't dropping by my room to see me for no reason or giving me access to restricted information resources." He slammed his hands and his weight forward onto the back of the chair, almost startling Julian out of it. "I'm a suspicious man. I have to be. So maybe it's just my paranoia talking, but if you're not -- if you're not trying to get me to have sex with you, then what in [untranslatable] are you doing?"
Julian got up out of the chair and pivoted to face Tam. "I'm --"
"Then here's another one for your list of useful phrases. Nong ji ba yuan." He backed away from Julian, towards the wall, inadvertently cornering himself. It was the first time Julian had seen Tam let himself become vulnerable. So he was rattled, definitely, and aroused, possibly. The latter hinged somewhat on the meaning of nong.
Julian hazarded a guess. "Cocktease."
"You're right," Tam said.
"You're not," Julian said, and kissed him. As it turned out, pirates from alternate universes tasted very much like replicated Spicy Noodles with Pork. Julian had programmed that dish himself. He'd expected Tam to kiss aggressively, but his lips were gentle, his hands curious. Tam was only defensive when he was being attacked; when given the upper hand, he was methodical and shy. A peaceful man of intellect, adapted to live in a universe that had little room for such men. As they both were.
But Tam was also a man who might challenge Julian in a fair fight, through cunning and experience if not through brute strength. If this turned out to be some form of manipulation, Julian needed to be able to protect himself. He put his hands on Tam's chest and lunged forward, pushing Tam up against the wall. "I shouldn't have doubted you," Tam said. "It's just that I've -- I've gotten so used to doubting people." He put his hand between Julian's legs, caressing his erection. "But you seem trustworthy."
"I used to be," Julian said. "But there's a war on."
"So if I turn my back on you, you'll stab me in it?" Tam said.
"Something like that." Julian released his hold on Tam. When Tam had turned around, Julian realized that he was in need of supplies. He left Tam there to wait, facing the wall, while he paid a visit to the replicator and asked it for some lorotine gel.
"What's that?" Tam said.
"It's a mild anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial salve with no analgesic effects, and it smells nice," Julian said. "It's popular among medical students."
"I'll bet," Tam said. He was taking off his trousers, making Julian wish that he'd spent more time examining Tam's ass while he'd still had medical authority to do so. A small silver tube of lorotine had materialized in the replicator. Julian returned to Tam and kissed the back of his neck tenderly, feeling him relax into his arms. He pushed his uniform pants down into a pool around his feet, then squeezed a dollop of lorotine onto his fingers. He worked the salve into Tam's ass, making Tam gasp, "That feels -- Your medical... technology... is incredible."
Julian tried to enter him gently, but it was torture to hold himself back so much. Tam was tight but not resistant. He pressed his weight forward into the wall, bringing Julian with him, forcing him to push harder. There were no untranslatable curses, only the universal language of sighs and moans. He was enduring the force of Julian's enhanced strength; he was enjoying it. Julian closed his eyes and let instinct take over, fucking Tam hard into the wall. But it was the feeling of command and conquest, as much as the heat and friction, that brought him to ecstasy. The surrender of Tam's body under him as he reached orgasm.
He released Tam and put his trousers back on, not sure whether space pirates expected one to stay the night. Tam was still leaning against the wall, catching his breath. He looked more vulnerable now than he had when he'd been lying half-dead in Julian's infirmary. "Xi ji ba yuan," Tam said.
"Did I -- did I hurt you?"
"We use the phrase literally, too," Tam said. "To describe someone who --"
"Well, that's not exactly what we --"
"It's a more general term than that," Tam said.
"Then you wouldn't mind if I stayed for a few more language lessons?" Julian said. "Teach me to conjugate a few verbs?"
"No conjugations in Chinese," Tam said.
"But more vocabulary, surely?"
"We might be able to spend the whole night just on cao."
"To fuck?" Julian said.
"There's a lot you can do with it," Tam said.