Title: Octopus
Author: Elaiel
Rating: PG13
Word count: 1843 words
Warnings: Slightly cracky
Characters: Young/Rush
Author's notes: Okay, I freely admit I'm now only writing these for my own shameless personal amusement. Sequel to It's Cold and Plausible Deniability. Sorry but the idea of them snuggling is just too cute. And I did say I'd write Rush's reaction.
Rush woke with the dawn. He could hear the sea shore creatures they had seen yesterday beginning to make the odd yammering noise they had made as the sun had gone down yesterday. He was warm and comfortable and relaxed in a kind of lazy way he hadn't been for a long time. Half asleep still, he was only vaguely registering the source of the warmth. He opened his eyes fully to see a curling shock of dark hair liberally sprinkled with grey directly in front of his nose.
Damn.
The man in his arms was breathing deeply and gently in sleep, body tucked up against Rush's chest, arm wrapped over Rush's arm which encircled him. Rush's other arm was pillowed under his own head, but Young had scooted down the bedding a little and his head was tucked into Rush's neck, almost completely under the covers and their legs were tangled.
The covers were tucked up tightly around them still, but when he lifted his head cautiously to look over Young's head towards the front of the cave he could see the back of Lieutenant Vanessa James, gun in hand, staring out into the faint gathering dawn. Which meant the shift had changed. Which meant someone had walked past them. Which meant that no doubt someone had seen him curled up in a blanket with Young.
Shit.
He tensed uncomfortably. He should never have offered this last night. This was a really stupid idea. He would have been better off just giving up on sleep entirely for the night. Young shifted in his arms, making a grumbling noise and tucking his head further into Rush's chest, arm flexing around Rush. He felt movement by his neck and realised Young's fingers were tangled in his hair by his collar.
Oh great.
There was going to be no way of getting out of this one without major embarrassment. There was something slightly childlike in Young's position, hiding himself under the covers, folded into Rush's chest and embrace. Rush could just see how Young was going to react to that one. He knew how he was reacting to that one himself.
Young moved slightly and muttered unhappily, Rush's arm tightened around him reflexively and he looked down, almost expecting to see Young looking at him, but he was talking in his sleep. Apparently the man was dreaming, though whatever it was it wasn't an entirely pleasant dream, as he seemed to be pleading with someone. It was hard to make out the words Young was mumbling into Rush's chest, but the pained tone was unmistakeable. Rush sighed and as he relaxed, the other man burrowed into his chest with a wounded noise.
This was just great. Young's legs flexed and Rush tried to extricate himself as the man shifted, but failed signally. The man twitched and muttered, begging someone in his dream again and Rush caught a word here and there, No, Please, Help, Don't.Pretty typical nightmare fodder. He felt the man twitch as if he was struggling in his sleep, his mumbles becoming louder.
Fuck.
If Young woke everyone else…Rush grimaced as Young's voice became clearer for a moment. Don't go!Rush's arm tensed around the man feeling fingers twisting in his hair, pressing into his neck. Tentatively he rubbed his hand up the man's back. Come on Young, shut up and stop dreaming. Fingers tensed in his shirt, mumbling and pleading. Rush rubbed up and down Young's back another couple of times. Young twitched, still mumbling, face pressed into Rush's collar.
Why the hell had Rush given into his own discomfort at the freezing cold and damp on this appalling planet and offered to get into bed with Young. It had been guaranteed to end up in a bad way. And it had.
He rubbed slow firm circles on the other man's back. It seemed to be working, Young had stopped talking in his sleep and seemed to be settling. Now all he had to do was find some way of extricating himself from the clinging octopus that was Colonel Everett Young.
At the front of the cave, Lieutenant James stood and turned to face the cave.
Fucking stupid fucking cold fucking embarrassing planet.
She looked over and, to his chagrin met his eyes. She shook her head ruefully, then put her finger to her lips, pointing down at the bundle of Colonel in the blankets in front of him and miming shaking him awake. Rush frowned. Vanessa turned her back deliberately.
He slid the arm from under his head, and tensing the arm round Young, slid the hand down carefully between them to cover Young's mouth. Still holding Young into his chest, he shook Young by the shoulder with the arm wrapped round his back.
Young tensed, and tried to speak through the hand over his mouth. Rush used the hand over Young's mouth to tilt his face back and their eyes met. Rush saw Young's dawning realisation of where he was. He took his hand away from Young's mouth.
"You're a fucking octopus in your sleep." He hissed at Young.
Their faces were inches apart.
"Me?" Young whispered in irritation. "You're the one with your arm round me."
Rush chose not to respond to that, the reverse was also true anyway.
"Lieutenant James wants us to wake up. I'm assuming she's trying to protect your reputation." Rush whispered back sourly. "We need to get out of here quietly and without waking anyone. Volker is about six inches behind you."
He straightened his legs, sliding his knee from between Young's thighs and they rolled apart but Rush kept hold of Young. Young gave him a funny look.
"If I let you go you'll land on Volker." Rush hissed. "The man sleeps like the dead, but not that much."
They both scooted away from Volker and slid arms out from the blankets. It was freezing out there and Rush shivered reflexively, his body shuddering momentarily against Young's. Young looked at him and grinned.
"Not so bad in here then." He muttered.
"The company could be better." Rush scowled.
"Face it; you'd never have slept in that cold."
"Would still have been preferable."
"Liar."
Rush reached out carefully for his jacket and pulled it into the blankets in between them to warm it up a moment, moving deliberately calmly and casually. After a few seconds he slid out of the blankets. He squatted at the head of the blankets, straightening his clothes. Young regarded him from the blankets a moment.
"You must have been even colder than me." He whispered. "There's nothing of you."
"Shut up." Rush pulled the jacket on.
"Is it so bad admitting you need things from other people too?"
"When it's you it is."
Young snorted.
"Who else would you ask?" He asked Rush, who was dragging his fingers though his hair, combing out the tangles at the back of his neck. "Eli."
Rush gave him a look of disdain.
"Greer?"
Disbelief.
"Volker?"
Disgust.
"I rest my case." Said Young. "At least you know I'll stay quiet about it."
"You're a fucking octopus, all hands and limbs, and you twitch and talk in your sleep."
"You were the one who woke me up in the middle of the night spooning." Young countered.
Rush gave him a disbelieving look.
"Hey, would I make up accidental nightmare fuel like that?" Young shamelessly stole Greer's phrase of earlier in the night.
Vanessa James leaned over them.
"Eli's waking up." She said quietly, face warm with amusement. "You better stop arguing. Just sleep at the back of the cave out of sight tonight, okay?"
They both glared at her. She grinned and walked back to the front of the cave to build the fire up for breakfast.
Rush finished his watch and woke Greer quietly, trying not to step on anyone in the night-dark cave.
"Your watch." He said.
"'Kay." Greer rubbed his eyes and slid out of his blankets, taking the gun from Rush.
Rush looked down and shivered, now he was not sitting with his back to the fire he was getting cold and stiff fast. A day of hard physical labour followed by four hours of immobility in the cold had left him bone weary, physically exhausted with deep penetrating muscle aches.
The fire had burned low at the front of the cave and in the faint light he could see sleeping bodies through the cave. Light reflected weakly on a pair of eyes watching him from the back of the cave. Rush sighed, stepped over Vanessa James and stood looking down at Young, in a double nest of blankets, his blankets as well as Young's own. Young lifted the edge of the blankets.
"Don't be goddamned stupid." Muttered Young at him. "I can see you shivering from here."
"Fucking shut up Young." Rush replied in a harsh whisper and slid into the blankets next to him. He almost collapsed into the warmth Young had already built up in the blankets. "And keep your hands to yourself."
He rolled stiffly to face away from Young, trying not to make a noise as tight muscles protested at the change of position. There was silence behind him. They were only inches apart and he lay there, trying to find a comfortable position where he wouldn't roll into Young accidentally, his muscles still complaining at the continued work. He felt Young pull the covers up and pull them in tight to close the gaps and keep out the cold, then flinched as a hand touched his back.
"Relax, I'm not…" There was a pause. "Damn….your back's practically gone into spasm."
"Fuck off."
Fingers started to work at the muscles across his shoulder blades. Rush tensed against the intrusion into his personal space then as the fingertips dug into a particularly painful patch, releasing a knot of muscle he groaned quietly and relaxed a little.
"Why are you doing this?" He demanded in a sharp hiss.
There was a brief change in the position of Young's hands, which Rush's mind interpreted as the feeling of a shrug, translated down Young's arms to his hands.
"Good deed for the day?" Muttered Young. "The fact that I can empathise with back pain and that must be really damn painful. The fact that you'll be tossing and turning for hours otherwise."
"Forgive me if having your hands on me doesn't fill me with confidence."
Young's fingers worked down the muscles either side of Rush's spine then back up again to work the muscles in his shoulders. The touch wasn't deliberately intrusive or sensual, but was deliberate and matter-of-fact. Despite his automatic reaction to Young touching him though, Rush found himself struggling not to curl into the touch as abused muscles warmed and relaxed under Young's fingers and some of the pain retreated.
The warmth, his exhaustion and the lack of pain began seduce him into sleep, Young's hands finished working his back and the last thing he was aware of was rolling over and pulling the covers over his head against the cold before sleep claimed him.