Fingertips brushed his skin just beneath his left ear. He smelled the warm, spicy scent of the bathing crystals and felt lips replace the fingers. A hot tongue dipped out and sent shivers through his body. Rodney sighed softly and leaned back against John. Two arms wrapped around him, a hand drew pictures over his heart. Rodney was anchored there. It was more real than any other moment in his life, just as it always was when John held him, kissed him.
They moved back together to find the bed pallet piled high with soft blankets their hosts had provided for them. They were underground in a room with natural rock walls and a large wading pool in the corner.
Rodney had spent the first 10 minutes insisting he was going to come down with pneumonia if they stayed there and could they please have a room that wasn't so caveman chic.
John had merely smirked at him and said, "You know, the guide earlier said the minerals in the water have natural skin softening and lubricating features."
"Wait, you actually listened to the lecture?" Rodney asked.
John raised an eyebrow.
"What? I was taking readings at the time. It's not like I missed any-" Rodney stopped, rewound what John had said and promptly stopped complaining. Ten minutes later their clothes were in a pile next to the bed and they were in the water enjoying the benefits of space pools.
In bed, they wound around each other, hot, still damp skin pressed together. Rodney found John's lips. He licked the soft skin till they parted and allowed him entry. His hands drifted down and caressed John's arms and back.
He fingers traced scars, tiny imperfections on such beautiful skin. They made John real, a reminder he was actually there and not the fantasy he had been for so long. Rodney cherished the nicks and lines.
They moved slowly, both of them sleepy from the long day spent negotiating and touring the underground city.
Bodies, slick from the minerals, moved together in the dark. Rodney gasped and arched as John pressed down against him. The pleasure was a delicious fire that licked at his middle and traveled across his body in waves. Lips traveled down his jaw to his neck and nipped and sucked at his throat. His breath hitched and his fingers dug into John's back, pulled him down, closer. John whimpered and quickened his thrusts until they both shuddered and added their own warm wetness to damp skin.
Rodney relaxed his grip and went back to drawing symbols on John's back with his fingers. He felt John kiss his neck and breathe deeper, slower. In the dark, Rodney drew lines to connect the scars, wrote the words love, mine and real.