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Dick felt a smile curling on his lips as he recognized the footsteps approaching his office. He immediately tried to quell it though, when the door got violently pushed open and Nix barged in. He looked slightly disheveled; collard popped open and hair a mess as if he had run all the way here:
“I’ll take the dinner with your parents didn’t go so well.”
Lew threw him a glare before collapsing in one of the armchairs that Dick kept for this purpose. He pulled out his flask from his inside pocket and took a sip.
“My father wants to fucking marry me.”
Oh! Dick though, but tried to not let his surprise show.
The Nixon’s family show was familiar to him as Lew always told him everything. First, there was the fact that he was disowned for a while after he joined the Aerial corps, instead of something more sensible like the Navy. Nixon’s heir engaging to fly on the dragons had caused quite the scandal. But after a while, his family had grudgingly accepted that Lew was not going to leave the Corps. They probably had hoped that he could become Captain. But of course Lew had refused the post when he was proposed one.
He wanted to keep serving on Ethel with Dick and had never considered the possibility of having his own dragon. It was unusual, many would kill for the proposition, for the chance of having their own dragon and yet, Lew had refused it.
However, it caused more scandal in his family that it did among the men. Mostly because by that point everyone knew that where Dick was Lew was sure to follow and everyone had just rolled with it.
The Nixon family, however, was outraged by Lew’s refusal and they almost cut all ties with him, rejected him as he disgraced their good names. He was accepted in the family again when his sister was known to have exchanged… heavy-with-intent letters with one of the female Captain, and they needed something else for the gossips of London.
So now Lew was once again the Heir of the Nixon family which implied many dinners with the Beau-monde and Lew always came back in a foul mood. He had never fit in there and clearly this wedding idea was not going to smooth things out.
“And what does your mother or your sister thinks of it?”
“My mother thinks it would be wonderful and that it is time for me to start my own family.” He scowled “My sister, at least, is on my side and thinks it’s a rubbish idea.” He took another sip from his flask.
He then, put it in the table next to the chair and let his head fall back.
“Christ, Dick, he already had names of well-established ladies prepared.”
“Any that catches your interest?”
“Well depend,” he said, looking straight at Dick again “Did you magically transform into a woman of Noble descent while I wasn’t there?”
Dick felt his cheek color but answered as dryly as possible “No, I’m sorry.”
“Eh. Not your fault.”
He tilted his head and with a smile and the hint of teasing that Dick knew and liked so much “I like you as you are, so it’s fine.”
“Glad to know I didn’t disappoint you.”
“You could never disappoint me, Dick.” He got up and Dick stopped pretending he was even trying to read the report. Lew was coming closer and he lifted his head to let himself be kissed.
It was chaste, the kind of kisses they had exchanged a hundred times, and the kind of kisses Dick would never get tired of.
“ Never .”
Dick let himself lean back on his chair and dragged Lew toward him.
He wished he could say he wasn’t worried, but he also knew that every time Lew had been rejected by his family it had hurt him, and Dick didn’t want to see him broken once more.
But neither could he accept the idea of Lew married to some unknown woman and playing happy family with someone that wasn’t Dick.
Not like we could play the family part.
But they got the happy thing down at least.
Lew chuckled and followed him until he was sitting on Dick’s laps.
They let their forehead rest against each other and stayed like that for a while.
“Maybe…” Dick started, and licked his lips nervously, he saw Lew tracking the movement but kept talking knowing that otherwise Lew would distract him with more kisses and his words would get swallowed whole. “Maybe you could reconsider the Captain-y thing.”
“You want to get rid of me?”
“No.” Never “But I absolutely don’t want you married to someone else. If you, becoming a captain, could soothe their anger and made them forget for a while the whole marriage thing, it would leave us more time to find a more permanent solution.”
“Sure,” Lew said, “on one condition: Ethel has to agree on me leaving the crew.”
Dick groaned “Lew, you know that is impossible. She would throw a fit if she ever heard a rumor about you leaving.”
Which was probably what Lew counted on. Ethel was too damn fond of the man and considered him as precious as Dick. Of course, like all dragons, she considered her crew members like belonging to her and she hated the idea of letting them go to other dragons, but she could be reasoned with. However, she would never let Lew go. That Dick knew it deep down. (It was probably Dick’s fault though. Ethel was still in her egg when he got promoted, he was an old-school captain, and he talked to the egg relentlessly about Nixon, about how he hoped Nixon would be happy to be his first lieutenant. How he hoped he would make him proud. No wonder she was possessive of the man. Dick had made it so.)
“I could use that thought” Lew mused and Dick blinked, lost in his own though and not following what his first lieutenant was saying.
“Like, clearly, if I were to marry, it would mean less time here, with you, with the crew, with Ethel . Maybe I could use the argument that our dragon would go feral if I were to marry. Surely the threat of a carnivorous, flying, mad-rage creature is enough to dissuade anyone of the notion.”
Dick couldn’t help the soft fondness on the “our dragon” part but let his perplexity for the rest of the plan be know: “You want to use Ethel as a deterrent?”
“I mean, we both know she is one of the loveliest dragons ever and that she wouldn’t hurt a fly if she could help it, but she is the same size as my parent’s house, at least, surely telling them that she would be angry should make them drop the subject?”
“It would, but I’m not sure it would help with your family’s relationship.”
Nixon looked lost in thought, seemingly down.
“I missed our cadets’ day. When we were young and reckless. And not bothered by marriage proposal.”
“First of all, you’re the only one who is having wedding issues. And second: are you telling me you miss serving under Sobel ?”
At that Lew laughed. “Oh! But Sobel was nice enough to me. Or at least wasn’t hell-bent on destroying my career. After all, he couldn’t afford to be mean to Mama Nixon’s baby boy.”
Dick just answered with a grimace and muttered almost to himself. “You weren’t necessarily in your family good favor back then…”
“Heh! It probably more had to do with the fact that he really hated you, while he only disliked me, and couldn’t spend the energy on the both of us. Easier to focus on only one target.”
Dick sighed, letting himself lean back on the chair and remembering those awful first years. He had been on Bennings with Nixon; Sink’s second Lieutenant, in charge of taking care of the new recruits, was a complete and utter asshole. And damn incompetent on some stuff. It always baffled Dick that Sobel’s flaws had escaped Admiral Sink up until that point. In truth, Sobel had been awfully good at training them physically and, even more at encouraging team spirit by inspiring common hatred toward Sobel himself between the men.
For reasons that even today escaped him, Sobel had on sight decided to make Dick his nemesis. He was relentless in his cause of finding flaws and fault to Dick’s everything. It had been torture having to keep quiet even though he knew that Sobel was in the wrong, simply because of the rank difference.
However, Sink had started seeing some potential in Dick and had started giving him more and more responsibility. Soon Dick was in charge of all of the riflemen and Sobel had started to realize that his own authority as a second Lieutenant was seriously being contested. The loyalty Dick’s men showed him was what made him proud. But it clearly didn’t make the second Lieutenant appreciating him more.
But when all men under direct Sobel’s command demanded to change their affectation, to change dragons, explaining that they were worried about their survival and winning chance in case of a real attack, Sink and the other Captains had been forced to take a look on the situation.
Sobel had since been confined to the ground as a training teacher to young recruits.
Dick had never wanted that to happen, could only imagine the growing bitterness and resentment Sobel must nourish toward him when he couldn’t even fly anymore. It was too harsh a punishment. But this had been out of his hand.
When he opened his eyes again, Lew was looking at him attentively.
“I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to disturb all those memories.”
“If you really regret those times, we really don’t remember the same thing, is all I wanted to say.”
Lew laughed. Dick adored this sound, especially now, when it wasn’t the drunk laugh, but his natural one.
“I mostly remember you being all dignified and enduring in silence. I always admired you. You were so strong.”
Dick snorted.
“I mostly just wanted to fly and no matter how bad Sobel was, he didn’t matter once we were in the air.”
“And now he is wingless and you are one of the most important Captains of the Force.”
Dick frowned but said nothing. They had had this debate often enough that he knew Lew would not let it down. Dick only though himself as another captain of the Corps, but Lew kept saying that Dick was probably going to be the next Admiral.
He just gripped Lew tighter and brought him closer. Lew passed his arms around Dick’s neck and they stayed that way for a while, soaking in each other presence.
After a while though, Dick knew that he had to get back to work at some point.
As if Lew was reading his mind he whispered to his ear:
“Come to bed. It’s late. You’ll work tomorrow.”
There was an edge of loneliness creeping in Lew’s voice and Dick knew now that after hearing that, after knowing that the dinner still rattled inside Lew’s brains he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on work.
They rose and together they walked back to Dick’s room. Their room really, as Lew hardly slept in his quarter. Not that anybody asked.
After all most of the men knew, where Captain Winter was First Lieutenant Nixon was sure to follow.
END