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Cool air rolled over your face from the morning breeze, the sky grey and bright, you could see the light through your closed eyes. You daydreamt of water, pools of it, oceans, rolling waves that carried you to a sun. Warm, and dry. All around you though, you felt the wet chill of last nights rain, moss beneath you and a hard rock by your head.
Still, you dreamed. Until the light was suddenly dark and you heard the low growl of the man's voice above you.
“Looks like… you're dead,” his voice drones on,”No chance to fight back, no time to warn the others, just dead. And so’s the entire camp,” Skeen grumbled into your ear, his matter of fact tone as present as ever.
He held his blaster to your temple, hand on your shoulder as you held your hands behind your head.
“This may work on Nemik, but it’s not gonna work on me,” you smiled, eyes still closed as the heat from his face radiated onto yours.
He shifted the blaster, and squeezed your shoulder a bit tighter.
“Oh yeah? And you not hearing me coming, that's not a problem? Sleeping on watch is a dangerous gamble,” you could hear the judgment on his lips, and you finally opened your eyes.
He was dangerously close, closer than he knew you would have normally allowed.
“I wasn’t sleeping, and I knew you were coming. Just needed my last bit of beauty sleep, before you deprived me of it,”.
“Beauty sleep, huh?” he questioned, amused.
“Mhm, you could use some. You look fucked up,” you uttered, looking him up and down, though he really didn’t give you much room to do so.
His chest hovered over yours, his fist still firmly on your shoulder. Surprisingly, he didn’t tire from the position.
He hummed, then titled his head,“I actually work around here,” he sneered pointedly, his eyes staring deeply into yours.
He looked like pure shadow, surrounded by the light of the sky, his features dark with something that looked like a mix of anger and lust.
“Indeed you do. You… clean my hammock, serve me food, and clean my clothes,” you chimed, barely twitching a smile.
His face looked red, and his mouth twisted.
“You’re such a fuckin bitch,” he let a downturned smile spread across his face.
Something hinted to you that he might have enjoyed this.
Your eyes darted and scanned his face. You tried to remain calm, opting to ignore the convenient placement of his hips and waist by your propped up knee.
“You can get off me now,” you sighed, almost wishing you hadn’t said it. But you were too open right now, in view of the camp. You liked privacy, you hoped he did too.
He sighed, then removed the blaster from your head, shaking it in front of you.
“You’re lucky I don’t pull this trigger,” he held your gaze, still propped on top of you, too comfortable than he should have been.
You sniffed and scrunched your nose, watching his face and waiting for him to get off.
Finally, he rose, grunting as he removed his hand from your shoulder.
You got up after him, brushing off your legs and right shoulder. You looked over to Skeen, whose face only read irritation.
“Oh come on, it's just rest, Skeen. We all need it. You might as well let me enjoy my time on this beautiful planet,” you mused. It was pretty, but not really what you wanted.
He didn’t look so convinced, “We've been here for months,” he placed a hand on his hip, blaster still in the other, you wondered if he’d ever put it away around you.
“And still you’ve done nothing to make that time any more enjoyable,” you sighed, arms crossed to shield you from the cool wind that blew past you.
“For you or for me?” he titled his head again, taking a single step forward. The wind whipped the collar of his vest, and you caught sight of his neck.
You accidentally let your eyes flit down to his waist. He was tall and lean and pretty. Pretty, like this planet, but not light. He was dark, and rough, and not nearly the ocean wave you dreamed of. Maybe he could see that, in your eyes. Or maybe he just saw pure dumb desire.
You didn’t answer. For once, his proximity was hard to talk around.
“You’re awfully leisurely all of the sudden,” he noted, and you could feel his eyes piercing you.
“I was bored,” you forced your eyes to only look at his face.
“How bored?” he tilted his head down, eyeing you like prey, and you couldn’t help but look at his lips.
“Bored,” you stated, stiff but wary to pretend to be comfortable around him, as he seemed to sway in your direction.
He looked at you and smiled. And for a second, you were terrified.
You heard nothing but the beating of your own heart and the wind, until suddenly, his blaster clicked, the safety turned off.
“Turn around,” he grimaced, his tone gritty and angry.
Your heart grew loud in your chest. You swore by every star you might faint from the blood that filled your head.
You turned, slowly but calmly, your eyes locked with his until he was out of view. What kind of sick joke was this? Arvel had his games but this was different, it was aggressive, personal.
The blaster pushed hard into your spine, and a chill ran down your back, warmth leaving your face.
“Move,” he commanded, mouth close to your ear.
You walked. Away from the camp and past the pile of rocks and moss, as his gun guided you.
You were maybe one hundred feet away now, far from the view of the others. A convenient place to die.
“Here,” he said in almost a whisper, you barely heard it over the sound of your own footsteps.
You halted, face stricken with fear and utter confusion, Shoulders tense and body cold. You missed your place on the rocks.
“Get on your knees, y/n,” he sounded like stone, unmoved and emotionless. He said your name for the first time in months. For a time, all you heard was a mumbled “fuckin cunt” or your last name like it was curse.
You lowered, and the blaster followed. Knees on the wet dirt, your hands resting on your lower thighs, you breathed in deep, keeping your head up.
You prayed to the stars he was just going to teach you a lesson, hold the blaster to your head and scold you for the lazy piece of dirt you assumed he considered you to be. You feared your teasing had gone too far.
Maybe he just really wanted to stay on top of you.
You looked at the sky for a moment, still grey and light. You imagined that place again, but all you could see was a wave that swallowed you, and Skeen, dragging you to the bottom. His arms wrapped around you, fingers pulling your hair. And his eyes, like the clearest parts of the sea.
You couldn’t see him, you couldn’t hear him, and you could no longer feel him around you. His blaster left your neck, and you heard the safety click off.
Your heart picked up again, as you forced yourself to stare forward. Skeens' footsteps rounded on the grass, and before you knew it he stood in front of you.
The shadow was all around you, light abandoned and stolen, you expected death, but met a grey confusion.
You furrowed your brows, as he lowered to his knees just inches from you.
His bright blue eyes were like fire, and the darkness around you was relinquished by an inhuman heat. He looked at you like you were the drink of water in a desert he couldn’t escape, and by stars he actually bit his lip. You by no means saw his teeth, but it was like the opposite of frustrated concentration.
You blinked, “This is an odd way to kill someone,” you heard your own voice shake. You thought about hearing him again, and you wondered what he would sound like, as he was so close, looking at you like that.
“Quiet,” it was barely a whisper, and soothing, something you could dream of. You noticed he was staring at your lips.
“I am quiet,” you replied, your voice even lower, eyes searching his face for an answer to your doubt.
You saw the last bit of thought leave his face, his mouth agape. You wondered just how he tasted, and it made your mouth water.
Skeen brought a hand to hold your neck, his blaster lying on the ground. His fingers were warmer than you imagined, but still moist from the air.
In an instant, he brought his lips to yours, breathing in to kiss you. His chest pressed against yours as he wrapped an arm around your waist. You wrangled up your arms to push him, your fingers gripping his vest.
You held him out a few inches, staring at his mouth, red, darker than the pink that filled his face. You jolted him forward, your hand on his neck now, clawing at his face and kissing him with an eager fervor. You slowed at his mouth, and breathed against his cheek when he went to hold your sides, fingers sliding up your jacket and skimming under your shirt.
You wanted to taste him for real, so you let your tongue reach out to meet his, devouring the kiss like the light and heat that escaped you in the cold.
His lips were salt and dirt, but his tongue was like bloody coal and steaming rocks. You finally found that warmth.
You reached to hold his lower back, and pulled his pelvis into yours, a low moan escaped his lips, but was muffled by your mouth on his.
You held him tighter, fingers reaching for under his jacket and shirt. When you met his skin he seemed to shiver, and you let your hands crawl up his sides, mimicking the way he had reached for you.
“Ha- shit,” he huffed, a smile spreading across his face. He tilted his head back to breath, and with a single glance of his neck you attacked it, kissing and nipping at his veins.
“Think I’m late for watch,” he breathed, holding onto your neck and shoulder.
“Mhm,” you hummed on the warm skin under his jaw.
“Is this payback for making you think I was gonna kill you?”
“Mhm,” you hummed, more than pleased to take control for a moment. You looked him in the eyes as you let your mouth leave his collarbone. Your lips were wet and hot, his eyes widened.
“Fuck,” he sighed.
“You made me get in the dirt, I’m fuckin’ keeping you here,” you sneered, turning him towards the incline of the hill behind you, still on your knees.
You pushed him down, and he lay there with his vest open and shirt loose. You almost missed the feeling of the pressure of his hand on your shoulder, his body looming over yours, but this was better. Him on his back and sensitive to your touch.
You straddled his waist, your hands feeling around the rim of his pants, poking under to touch the skin just below his stomach and above his crotch. It was warm beneath his layers, a little bit hairy and soft. You stared at his tan skin for a moment, and saw something beyond the darkness of his tired face. His eyes were dilated and sparkling all the same.
You lowered yourself onto him, pressure on his hips and a hand still playing at his side. He hummed, holding back what you expected might be a whimper.
You sank down on top of him, holding his face, his neck, his arms, holding every part of him and indulging in it all the same as you made his lips pliable beneath yours.
He was breathing out his words, and at once he whispered your name, as your lips parted for a moment.
“Quiet,” you murmured, teasing but your face entirely serious. It seemed to make him dazed, the way you held him down and looked into his eyes when you said it.
You settled into him, letting his hands hold your hips as you grinded slowly on top of him.
“I want you,” he uttered.
Without a second thought you were pulling at his shirt, lifting it to reveal his heaving chest, and the tattoo that marked it. You were reminded of the one on your forearm, and the memories attached to it. You weren’t even sure if he’d seen yours yet. As your mind wandered, so did your fingers over his tattoo, the marking of the pain and suffering he had endured. You traced it lightly, as his eyes met sheepishly with your own.
“You’ve seen me,” he rasped, watching your hands move across his skin.
“Feels different,” you said absently, and a puzzled look filled his face.
He helped to remove your tunic, and sure enough, there was a tattoo similar to his, on your right bicep. He reached to hold your arm, drawing it, and you, closer to him. Your bare chest on his, you began to feel feverish in the heat between the two of you.
Skeen held your gaze as he lowered his lips to kiss your arm, tenderly and slow. He kissed again, and again, slowly moving upwards and past your shoulder, holding your back as he went along your collarbone, and fervently upon your neck.
He held himself under your jaw, marking the skin with pulled blood. That wouldn’t be going away anytime soon.
You dipped down to let your lips rest on the tattoo on his chest, kissing just as slowly, and as tenderly as he had. You engaged in the strange ritual, but found it familiar. The tentativeness between you, you had felt it before. When he checked up on you at watch, when he gave you extra food at supper, when he threatened you so sweetly with the prospect of death by his own hands. And when he saw you for the first time, that recognition. Every conversation since then, he’d wanted something. More.
“Skeen!?” A voice cried out, from beyond the hill and where you imagined the rocks to be. It was Vel.
The two of you scrambled, pulling shirts over each other's bodies, and buttoning garments. Not much faster than you’ve needed to before, being in the presence of enemies, but with far more fear.
You were on the last button of your jacket when Skeen grabbed you by the collar and pulled you to his lips, kissing you hungrily, but quickly. He let you go, and you pulled away puzzled, but unapologetically pleased.
You smiled slightly, until he grabbed your collar again, and shot up from the ground, dragging you with him.
Vel was just coming into view when you finally got to your feet, leaning forward by the hand that pulled you along. Skeen sauntered towards her, his blaster at his side again. The disguise was up.
“Found this one playing in the dirt,” he called out, and flung you forward, letting go of your jacket and sending you tripping over your own feet.
You stayed a foot, straightening yourself up and looking back at him, a disgruntled scowl upon your face. You hoped he enjoyed that.
“Did you?” Vel questioned, a look of disappointment complimented her words.
“Looks like they’re more of a dreamer than we anticipated,” Skeen commented,
Vel just looked at you, as you breathed in and sighed, you didn’t argue. This was punishment for earlier, the real daydreaming, and you knew that.
“You know the rules,” Vel commanded, and you nodded your head.
A pile of laundry and chores awaited you.
You rubbed your neck, and for a moment, Vel caught a glance of you, she really looked for the first time. Your hair, your skin, you saw her eyes flit across your face, and you felt pale.
“New shirt?” she blurted.
You looked down, noticing the bagginess of the sleeves, and the low cut of the neck. Your eyes flitted back up immediately.
You were wearing his.
You hesitated, eyes wide and mouth agape, what was there to say? Vel gave you a lifted brow and you threw out a “No,” instantly feeling stupid.
You knew if you had said yes, she would ask where you got it and then you’d be in an even bigger hole. So, you resorted to the vague truth.
She locked eyes with you, your anxiety and embarrassment apparent, and she shook her head.
You looked back at Skeen, he was shaking his head as well, covering the smile that creased his eyes.
So much for the disguise.
“Come on,” she ordered, and you followed. Trailing behind in a defeated slump.
She suddenly stopped and turned around, looking past you. You followed her gaze to rest on Skeen, already on his way towards the rocks.
“And Skeen, keep watch,”.
“My pleasure,” he tilted his chin up, his voice calling back like it was an echo from your dream. And for a moment, his eyes left Vel and landed on you.