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“Our final order of business is this week’s rankings. “ It was another briefing for the Navigators, and Abel, like usual, was toward the front of the group. He didn’t like to think he was sucking up to the commander, but if he was going to maintain his place at the top of the rankings he had to pay the utmost attention to every detail. It didn’t seem that difficult to do such a thing, except when Phobos was making an inappropriate gesture with his hand, mouth and tongue, which didn’t go unnoticed. Just like usual Abel ignored his so called comrade, and opened up his ears to the commander as he began listing off the rankings in increasing order.
“In fourth place, Reliant.” Wait. What? The rest went unheard as the just announced
information sunk into Abel’s head.
‘Fourth place? How is that possible? We’re always at the top of the rankings. This can’t be right!’ Abel began to panic as he tried to recall any major mistakes that he and Cain might have made during simulations and scouting missions. There was that one time that they let a practice replica get behind them during a training run, but that wasn’t such a big deal that it would drop them 4 ranks.
“Abel” Shaken out of his thoughts, Abel turned his attention back to Commander Cook.
“I expect you and your fighter to make up for what you lost by next week. This is unacceptable for a navigator of your ability.”
Abel looked down at his feet in embarrassment as a quiet murmur spread throughout the briefing room. The entire time he had been paired with Cain they had never dropped beyond 2nd place. Now he could imagine the other navigators gossiping about how he was losing his touch because his mind was on his fighter instead of his job. Which wasn’t completely true! As much as he tried to keep their relationship discrete, he would let himself take a small glance at Cain’s ass every now and then. Maybe he wasn’t as discrete as he thought.
“Alright. Dismissed.” The navigators gave the commander a final salute before he left the room. The other navigators being to file out while Abel stood still in hopes of being the last one to leave.
‘Oh boy. I’m about to-‘ Abel didn’t get to finish his thoughts before he noticed Phobos walking directly towards him with a snarky smirk on his face. He wasn’t alone of course. God forbid Phobos go anywhere without Porthos silently following him.
“ Poor Abel. What happened? Oh wait. You found that that it’s NOT possible to navigate while jacking off to your fighter didn’t you?” Phobos sneered. Porthos let out a small chuckle behind him.
“I don’t know why you’re over here talking to me, Phobos. So we slipped up. I could crash our starfighter into the Sleipnir and my ranking would still be higher than yours.” Abel snapped back. He was getting really tired of Phobos riding on his butt for every little thing that he did. Standing up to him wasn’t a problem, but the fact that Phobos relished the attention he got from starting these little romps with Abel was unbelievable.
“Then do the rest of us a favor and do so! At least it would put you out of commission for a while.” Phobos said before turning to leave. “Come on, Porthos. I’m hungry.” With a turn of his nose he and his lackey left Abel alone in the room.
By the time Cain returned to their room later that evening, Abel had already showered and was working on engine configurations on his tablet. He was hoping that he would be able to get some reading done, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“Fucking Encke. He didn’t have to throw me so fucking hard. Goddamn my back is killing me.” Cain complained as he rolled his shoulder in hopes to somewhat relieve the pain he was feeling from P.T that day. “Hey princess, how about a massage and a happy ending after I take a quick shower?” He gave Abel a dirty smirk which quickly turned into a scowl when he noticed the obvious worry that stained his pretty navigator’s face.
“What’s got your panties in a bunch this time?” He asked as he sat down at the end of the bed to pull off his boots. Boots on the floor, he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and lit one. “You’re pretty easy to read, princess. Whatever it might be I’m sure you’re blowing it out of proportion. Again.” He drew out as he took a long drag of his smoke.
“Cain, we dropped in rankings. You tell me if that’s worth worrying about!” Abel exclaimed as he tossed his tablet beside him on the bed. “I tried to think about the possible mistakes we could have made, but I couldn’t think of anything. Whatever it might have been, it was big enough to drop us to fourth place.”
“Calm down, princess. Getting the rankings back up won’t be a problem. You’re paired with the best fighter remember?” Cain bragged as he took another drag. “None of the other fighters have said anything yet to question that so not a problem. If they do I’ll kick their motherfucking asses.”
“Cain! Take this seriously.” Abel huffed crossing his arms over his chest.
“ What the fuck do you want me to do, Abel? I don’t know what the hell I did to screw up our rankings. If anything it was probably your navigating that slipped up.” Cain growled as he stubbed out the finally used up cigarette. He opened the pack to start his second smoke.
He wouldn’t admit it to Abel, but it probably was his fault their rankings dropped. It really wasn’t Abel’s fault at all. For the past week the fact that Encke was probably taking out his sexual frustration on Cain was affecting Cain’s performance out in the field. Tossing Cain around as hard as he could without sending him to medical day after day for a week straight.
‘Why the hell does he have to take it out on me? Not like it’s my fault Keeler is probably staring at my ass when Encke happens to be around.” Cain smirked to himself. ‘Fucker deserves it.’ He finished his second cigarette then rose to take a shower.
“I’m still asking for that massage and happy ending by the way,” Cain said as he stripped to his boxers. Slipping over to Abel, he leaned down to plant a sloppy kiss on Abel’s lips, which the other complied with right away. He pulled away slightly to get a good look at his navigator’s face that was flushed at that point.
“You need to chill the fuck out, sweetheart.” He murmured against the blond’s lips.
“Bu-“ Abel began.
“Not hearing it, Abel.” Cain cut him off as he stood up to head into the bathroom.
Abel relaxed as he heard the shower start to run, and the shower door shut close.
Maybe his fighter was right.
By the time Cain finished his shower, Abel had fallen into a light sleep on their bed. Cain walked toward the sleeping navigator in nothing but a towel in hopes of receiving what he had asked for, but after his shower even he was feeling the exhaustion finally hit him.
Slipping the damp towel off his body, he moved to lift the sheets and blankets so that both he and Abel could get to sleep.
“Hey, princess. You need to get up unless you want to freeze your ass off.” Cain stated as he shook the blond awake. “Hey!” Abel’s response was a mumble and turning onto his side.
“If you don’t move, I’m going to turn you over and fuck you in your sleep. “ It wasn’t much of a threat, but it would probably go unappreciated on Abel’s part. Cain’s attempts finally bore fruit when Abel got up to slip under the sheets and comforter, but not without giving Cain a slight glare.
“You try that and see what happens,” he retorted.
“You say no now, but I’m sure your cock would say otherwise,” Cain said as he slid into bed next to the sleepy navigator. He turned so that his body was facing Abel’s with his arm draped over the skinny blond’s waist and leg placed in between Abel’s.
“You should be more concerned with our rankings than you should with how you’re going to do me next time,” Abel retorted as he turned so that he and Cain were now facing each other. The tone he was using indicated he was slightly annoyed, but Cain could see a soft smile in the dark. It was that smile that made his heart melt just a little, but again this was something he would never admit to anyone.
Abel wrapped his arm left around Cain so that he could softly stroke the back of his neck. Up and down. Up and Down. Cain was about to fall asleep when Abel shifted to look directly into his eyes.
“Well at least I know why that little bitch Phobos was giving me such a dirty look today. Little bastard bumped into me in the mess hall. Would’ve said something to the fucker, but Lead asshole was standing right there. Don’t think I need to tell you what would have happened if he weren’t though.” Cain mumbled. “As if that little shit has any chance of outranking us anyway. Myshonok deserves better.”
“You know I’m proud of you right?” Abel murmured.
Well that was random.
“What?” Cain snapped out of his sleepy daze.
“I said I’m proud of you,” Abel repeated.
“ Where the fuck did that come from, baby?” Cain was confused. Hadn’t Abel been scolding him about their rankings earlier? Why the hell was he suddenly saying that he was fucking proud of him now? His confusion must have showed on his face because Abel’s smile grew.
“It has to be hard being one of the top fighters, right? I mean those bruises you come back with sometime aren’t all from training. All navigators have to worry about when it comes to being the top is snarky remarks from the other navigators. We never have to worry about turning around and receiving a punch to the face or a broken rib. It’s obvious that fighters aren’t treated the best. Look at how Phobos treats Deimos.”
Cain had to agree with him there. Sure he knew he was good at what he did, but never had anyone told him that they were proud of him for what he did. He had only been told what to do, and how to do it. It was expected of him. He knew better than to expect a reward for doing his fucking job yet here this man in front of him was appreciating him. He didn’t know how to react to such words so he responded the only way he knew how.
“Tch. Right.” He snorted. “ I haven’t done shit for you to be proud of me, princess.”
“ Will you just just up and accept the compliment? Why do you have to be so complicated?” Abel questioned. His face showed wide-eyed expression that he wore more often than not.
His answer was another snort, and Cain pulling him closer. So close that he could feel Cain’s every breath on his ear.
Abel was on the brink of sleep when he heard it. It was so quiet that he questioned if it was actually said or not, but he was pretty sure he heard it.
“Thank you.”
The next morning both were getting ready to head out to their designated duties when Abel sauntered over to Cain and wrapped his arms around Cain’s waist. One hand barely dipped into the front of the fighter’s pants while the other gripped the front of his shirt. The lithe blond leaned up to gently nibble his lover’s ear before whispering, “Hey, if you can get our rankings back up to number one I’ll show you something nice.”
‘Damn, doing your job well pays off in more ways than one.’