He came in and fixed himself a quick sandwich, poured himself some berry juice and moved to the dining room table with a small grin on his face. Arroz had been, more or less successfully, training him to eat at the table as opposed to over the sink. Taking off his hard hat, he dropped it on the table … not all of his young roommates efforts had been easy.
As he sat he noticed a PADD sitting squarely in the middle of the table. Had to be Arroz’s, as of the two of them only Arroz was that compulsively neat. They were a study in contrasts.
Seeing his name on the screen, Nico picked up the PADD and began to read … and as he did, his day went from good to worse. It was a report … about the insurance dweeb that had tried to bribe him …..
Arroz stepped out of the shower, dried himself and slowly dressed in the clothes he had chosen to wear. It was certainly nice to be out of uniform. More comfortable. He tidied the room after himself, glancing out the window. Nothing to do. He smiled. No reports to write, no one to answer to but himself… and the absent parents. He’d slept hours. He heard a noise from downstairs, probably Nico coming home for lunch, and he was just getting up. He smiled…. then frowned slightly, reminding himself that if he left Starfleet he would have to be working just as hard if he wanted a successful business. He’d been sketching out some ideas for interior design for the houses he’d seen in various stages of construction on the site of the Beryl Village fire. He grabbed his sketchbook off the art table and ran lightly down the stairs. Nico was standing there, reading Arroz’s PADD. “Hey,” he said, grimacing slightly at the sight of a dirty hardhat on the dining table. “How was your morning?”
Nico glanced up from the report as he heard a sound. Most likely Arroz tidying up something. Then he turned his attention back to the report and read it again. When Arroz came happily down the stairs, he looked at him. “It was fine until I came home to find this.” he grumbled, dropping the pad on the table. “You don’t actually plan on FILING this, do you?” he demanded to know. “It was nothing, Arroz. Nothing!” the last word was punctuated by a flat handed slap on the dining table, causing a bit of the dried mud on the hard hat to flake off on the table.
His happy mood shattered, Arroz grinds to a halt. Breathing slightly faster due to his run down the stairs, he pauses. His mind takes a snapshot of the scene. Nico, dressed in what some might call work clothes, but appear like old gardening clothes to the younger man. Worn in the knees, rips unmended, Nico’s face is dark with anger, the sound of the hand hitting the table still reverberates around them. Behind his roommate, windows open to the sun, the ocean breeze moving the drapery he’d hung there, the floor he’d washed yesterday gleaming in the light. Through the window the sound of children playing on the beach, and even the smell of food from the small kiosk in the sand down the hill from the grand Caitian Embassy. Mixed with that, the faint order of sweat and mud from the man before him. He grinds his teeth slightly, replying, “I wouldn’t file anything without talking to you first. If I’d known you’d react like this I wouldn’t have taken the time. BUT if you want to actually LISTEN instead of jumping to conclusions, I can tell you that woman is trouble in more ways than one.” He moves over to the table, picking up the hardhat, “DON’T put your muddy CRAP on the furniture. Look at this!” He points to the mud that is on the surface now, then stomps away to the front door, where he tosses the hardhat with a hard bang, on a crate that sits outside the entrance. He turns back, his broad shoulders cutting out at least three quarters of the light.
Nico pauses at the first words out of his roommates mouth. The kid had a point … Nico knew him better than that now. He takes in a deep breath and is about to apologize when Arroz snaps at him about the hardhat. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he inwardly chides himself for his thoughts and his unneat habits, then follows Arroz to the front door, where he is momentarily taken by the silhouette. “I’m … sorry…” he ventures. “For the mud, and for thinking even for a second you’d do something like that.” he blows out a breath. He moves forward and past Arroz, the fit a bit tight. Arroz was shorter but larger, but Nico was taller and thin, but had decently broad shoulders. He picks up the hardhat and half turns back to Arroz. Then he realizes he may die if he tries to clean the thing off in the kitchen sink. “So tell me more about this witch.” he asks, casually, moving down the front stairs and to the water spigot that is placed for external use like watering the grass … or rinsing off muddy clothes. “And do you really think anyone will do anything about some bureaucrat trying to bribe me?” he emphasises me. “I’m Starfleet. Might be a tiny bit more … bad ….” he begins to wash off his hardhat.
Arroz is surprised at how angry he feels with Nico. It’s irritating that there’s mud on the table and that he’s accused of interfering. He struggles to calm himself.. He watches Nico go down the stairs to the tap at the side of the house to wash off his hardhat. The slim figure bending over the running water holds his gaze. “Opal has a reputation. She’s a lot like that girl Latte. A maneater. She didn’t just try to bribe you. She offered you sexual favours in return for information. She has half the men in the province wrapped around her little finger. If YOU don’t report it, she might. She might accuse YOU.” He pauses, feeling his emotions morph from anger to worry for his... friend. “She’s trouble. And I don’t think, given my junior position and current status, that I could do anything to help you. Except file an official report about a disturbance on your job site to my Chief of Security so that there is some record of what happened from your point of view, BEFORE anything is received from HER.” He goes in the house, grabs the PADD, and comes back down, moving down the stairs. Earnestly, his voice low, “If she says it first, anything you say will be suspect. Please let me send it right now, Nico.” His finger hovers over the PADD, ready to press ‘submit’. He’s tempted to do it anyway, he’s so sure he’s right, but he waits for an answer.
Nico washes the hardhat blindly. His eyes are on Arroz. When he mentions the sexual favors, he sighs deeply. “Yea ….” he whispers. that had crossed his mind, but he’d ignored it for many reasons. “And when I didn’t respond to her sexually, she offered me money ….” he shakes the water off of the hardhat. It’s a thousand times cleaner than it WAS, but it’s hardly in brand new condition. He straightens and moves back up the stairs, drying the hardhat on his dirty shirt without thinking. He pauses and leans into Arroz. “Send it. I need to find a towel ….” and he moves back into the house, towards the kitchen and one of the kitchen dishtowels to finish drying off his hardhat.
Arroz presses the screen, watching as the message flashes away and a confirmation of receipt is recorded. Then he goes back in the house, putting the PADD on the table by the door before crossing to the kitchen, where Nico is drying his hardhat with one of his newly hung kitchen towels. “Oh man,” he mutters, “you just are going to drive me crazy, aren’t you?” His voice is a low growl. He could say a lot of things but he just walks up to Nico and puts his hand out. He will take the hardhat, and the towel, if permitted. He’ll put them down on the counter - a sign that his mind is well on something else. He looks at Nico’s face, then away, his jaw working. “My life was as sterile as I could make it before you arrived in it. Now look at me. Mud on the table, dirt on the floor, lord knows how much bacteria you track in here every time you walk in the door. You use a brand new kitchen towel to wipe off your fucking dirty hat, you leave crumbs everywhere, your clothes are filthy, if you took them off I bet you’d be filthy too;” the litany of complaints is said in a throaty bass and… at the end he smiles wryly to Nico.
Nico allows the towel and hardhat to be taken from him. With each complaint, he grins a little wider, although he does try and suppress it. “Arroz.” he tries to keep the humor out of his voice. “I am working to rebuild a village. And I am a ‘hands on’ kinda site supervisor. So my hands get in the dirt, my knees get in the dirt. It’s a dirty job.” he shrugs. “I’m not as filthy as you make me sound. Hell …. you make me sound like Mary Malone, who was a filthy cow who wound up infecting a bunch of people on Earth a million years ago.” he tries to look insulted. “Yes, I drop my clothes in a pile before I get in the shower and sometimes … ok .. rarely … pick them up when I dry off. Then I drop my towel at the foot of my bed before I pick up and change into clean clothes. And I have seen you stare ….. I have a system. Clean clothes on top, dirty clothes on the floor.” he says this as if that should be obvious. “But …” he takes a step closer and leans in a bit. “If you want to make a bet, I’ll strip right now and you will see that the filth ends at collar and cuffs. My mother’s biggest complaint….” he is close enough to kiss Arroz, probably and probably would … if a knock didn’t sound at the front door …
Arroz swallows as Nico comes closer. The mingled scent of sweat, mud, and something else entirely manly hits him like a punch in the stomach. The muscles in his legs flex as he takes a step closer, his instincts telling him what Nico wanted. He reaches a muscled arm to touch Nico’s shoulder, unsure if it would be allowed, but wanting to touch. His Adam’s Apple bobs as he links his lips. The space between them is negligible. One small step further and he’d have Nico against the counter, hard. In that brief moment of time, when everything stands still while he decides, a sound is heard. Almost as though woken from a sleep, he blinks, and turns towards it, his arm falling away, moving to the door. A messenger is there, wearing the traditional Astra uniform of a page. From the Council? He speaks briefly to the boy and takes the missive, a piece of parchment made from fine Astra rice. Turning, he strides back to the kitchen counter, tearing off the ribbon that holds the cylinder together. Glancing at it, he realizes he is mistaken. “It’s for you,” he says to Nico, still reading.
=====ORDER=====
Beryl Station Officer IFR: Bues Yretta
Chief Superintendant APF: Tamor Seirots
Group Captain ADF: Sitruk Nevat
Head, Astra Civilian Authority: Mr Lazuli Pookara
LTjg Nico Caito, Civilian Engineer
Beryl Supervisor Girpoz Stleew
Colony Commander Poison Toocool
BERYL VILLAGE
Effective immediately all work on the site of Beryl Village shall cease by order of Magistrate Kcods Guma, Arbitrator of Iherzolite Province North. Nothing is to be removed from the area, including building materials and machinery. Additional security will be provided by APF in coordination with Starfleet Security. No one without proper authorization from this office is to enter the area until investigations by police, fire and insurance are concluded. So ordered this day 00h00m00.0000 Astra.
Signed:
Kcods Guma,
Provincial Magistrate
Iherzolite
=====END=====
Arroz looks up after reading the message text aloud in disbelief. Only a few minutes after he’d sent that note to his Chief, too.. “Fuck me,” he says.
Nico was all ready for this … he wanted this … he NEEDED this …. and then the knock comes and it is like a bucket of water, separating them ….. Arroz reads it aloud and his whole body goes cold. He moves to Arroz and takes the missive and reads it with his own eyes. “That ……” he begins and growls low in his throat. “Fuck!” he screams and, lucky for he and Arroz, throws he only thing he is holding …. the missive … which flutters to the ground at a whole quarter of a meter away from him. He trods over it, marching away and then back, and then away again. “I’m out of work!” he growls, more to himself than to Arroz. He marches around the couch and paces there before he turns towards the fireplace, growls at it and places his hands on the mantel, his head bowed in defeat, slowly moving back and forth.
Nico’s shout rings through the room and Arroz leans on the kitchen counter, bowled over by his emotions. The past few minutes have been a blur. He’d suspected Opal would get up to mischief, just because she could. He is also intrigued by the idea that someone is trying to hide evidence at the site of the fire. He looks at Nico’s back. He’s known the man since Nico’s friend Slate Talc was found dead. It’s not Nico, he was just doing what he was told. A host of names come through his mind. He wants to talk to Nico, find out who ordered him to work in the village, who said what and when. He moves towards him, but instead of asking him anything, he reaches out a hand. He wants to turn Nico to face him. He wants to hold him, and tell him it will be okay. His fingers will land gently on Nico, if allowed. After that… his mind goes blank. Half strong and secure, offering support. Half trembling on the edge of something new.
Arroz’s hand on him is felt .. gentle and tentative … Have I scared him? he wonders. At first he doesn’t move, just keeps shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Arroz.” his voice is gruff. “I know this sounds stupid, but .. I’ve been hiding in this job for a couple weeks now. Hiding .. trying to heal from my friends death and my blindness at not being able to know it was going to happen …” a rational part of him understands there was nothing he could have done, but another part … a more powerful part … had him feeling as guilty as if he’d poisoned the boy himself. “I LIKE being busy. LOVE working with my hands … so when the Counselor suggested I do this job I jumped at it. No matter what I tell anyone else but YOU.” he takes in a deep breath and takes one hand off the mantel. to put it on his shoulder over Arroz’s, if allowed. Taking it off his shoulder he turns now to face his roommate. Moving the hand from his shoulder to his own waist, he places it there and moves his own hand, as if to caress the younger mans face. “You’re saving my life, you know….” he whispers but stops short, not touching him. His hands are much cleaner after washing the hardhat, but .. with Arroz it was better to be safe than sorry …. but he leans in again, as he had before the missive that knocked him on his ass. This time, if he is allowed he will ‘complete the circuit’ and kiss the younger man.
Arroz starts as Nico’s hand lands on top of his. An electric shock runs through him as the man turns to face him. Nico reaches his fingers to touch Arroz’ cheek… the electric pulses are coursing now… nervous, jangling. His heart is beating loud. Despite his pentient for cleanliness and his dislike of germs (blame the required Science classes at Academy), he is also proud. He will take the first step. He leans into Nico, brushing the man’s lips with his own. He steps over the brink, but he is not falling. Someone is there to hold him.
=^=
