DISCLAIMER: Cowboy Bebop is a series originally created by Nobumoto Keiko and Watanabe Shinichirou. This is a work of fan fiction. No copyright infringement was intended.

Mars was packed with such insignificant places.

Places that huddled there like a litter of spooked rabbits, usually crammed together on the waterfront, those clubs and bars and taverns with insignificant names, and they existed only because of the insignificant people who were just passing by or who had ended up there - more or less permanently - for some insignificant reasons.

And like rabbits, those places attracted hunters and predators, and it was because of the hunters and predators that these insignificant people could sometimes suddenly become very significant indeed.

He had no particular reason to be there. He knew that the bounty had probably left the planet already and was well on his way towards the outer solar system. But he had found a good spot to park the Bebop, it was a perfect night to have a drink or two, and - well, he'd always felt at home in Mars anyway.

Jet sipped his beer and leaned on the counter, hardly bothering to look around in the noisy bar that was getting more and more crowded by the minute. Saturday night fever, mind you.

"Feeling lonely?"

Jet's gaze never swiveled from the glass. "Nope, not really."

"You look lonely."

Someone climbed onto the chair right next to his, and from the corner of his eye Jet could catch the outlines of a boy with a short, golden hair and an annoyingly wide smile.

"Sometimes being lonely is fine."

"Says a man who never gets laid."

Jet frowned and turned his head. Yes, it was a boy alright, dressed in white and cute like a lost kitten with green eyes and an attitude. "How old are you?"

"It's not important." The boy remained undeterred. Jet could tell he was hardly more than sixteen, which meant he was definitely too young for his tastes, too young and probably too expensive as well: he was bound to be a prostitute.

His suspicions were soon confirmed when the boy reached up to whisper in his ear.

"Just 1000 woolongs for you."

"I'm not interested. And you're still just a kid."

"You don't like kids?" The boy pouted and let his hand slide on Jet's thigh. "What do you want, then? An old, bald man with a saggy butt and hangy balls?"

"A kid and foul-mouthed, too."

The boy grinned, and Jet's eyes narrowed. "You look familiar."

"You don't." The boy tilted his head. "But I like you. I like your body. I even like that crude arm of yours. It's sooo farouche."

Jet raised his eyebrows and burst out in husky laughter. "I bet you've no idea what that fancy word actually means."

"But I do!" The boy blushed. "My mom was French. No kidding."

"She was, eh?" Jet's voice was softer now. "Look, I don't do hookers. But you can come to my ship, and I'll make you something to eat. One doesn't need to be a doctor to tell that you're malnourished."

The boy raised his hands, disappointed. "Alright. Forget it. But it was nice talking to you anyway."

He was about to jump off his seat when Jet's fingers locked around his arm and pulled him closer. "Give it some thought. I'm going to stay here for a while."

This time the boy sounded hesitant. "I'll keep that in mind."

Jet watched him go before gesturing to the bartender to get him another beer. "Does that kid come here often?"

The man shook his head. "Seen him a couple of times. Seems picky, that one."

Picky, eh?

The night lurched on, the crowd got noisier, and he didn't meet the boy again until he left the counter and moved over to the main entrance, lit a cigarette and pondered whether it was time to return to the ship.

"Leaving already, old man?"

Jet looked back over his shoulder. The boy he'd been talking to earlier was standing behind him, hands in his pockets, casual.

"So, what's on the menu tonight?"

The boy devoured his portion like a starved wolf, hardly paying any attention to what Jet had scooped onto his plate.

"You seem to like Chinese." Jet observed the boy who stabbed his fork into the last remaining piece of chicken and marveled it for a second before sticking it into his mouth, looking satiated.

"Yeah. It's good."

"Want some more?"

"No, I'm stuffed. Thanks." The boy pushed back his chair, relaxed. "Decent ship you've got here."

"It's an old piece of junk. But it works."

"I used to dream about having a ship of my own, too. Like all boys at that age, I guess."

"And now you sound too old for your years." Jet collected the plates and left them in the galley sink while the boy stood up and walked around the table, curious.

"Will you show me the cockpit, too?"

"Sure. Here, follow me, and mind your head at the hatch."

Once upstairs, the boy leaned against the large windows, genuinely fascinated by both the ship and the city lights outside. It surprised Jet to see such an honest expression of emotions, and out of sheer whim he reached for the controls and disconnected the cables that had kept them docked to the pier.

"How about a ride?"

"I don't think we should - " the boy started when Jet turned on the engines, and the Bebop began to back up before turning around slowly.

"Just a little cruise up in the orbit. We'll be back by dawn."

The boy looked suspicious but took a seat and fastened his seatbelt as they speeded up on the lake and then took off, soaring heavily through the air and eventually out of the dome and into the space. The ship gained height rapidly, rotating majestically in Jet's experienced hands, and the boy gasped involuntarily when the G-forces pressed his body into the seat.

"I hope you're not feeling sick," Jet said and grimaced. "Hold on, thirty more seconds or so."

Gravity returned to the ship as it settled in the orbit, and the boy unbuckled his seatbelt cautiously, standing up and walking back to the windows, and Jet followed him a moment later. They watched the planet curve beneath them: a swelling, red landscape of sand and dust and then the colonies of various sizes like blisters, upsetting the otherwise harmonious surface around the equator. In the distance, the horizon was broken by the 24-kilometer-high Olympus Mons, and the steep, scarry canyons of Valles Marineris just added to the personality of the rusty piece of rock floating in the star-speckled darkness.

"This isn't your home, is it?" Jet stepped closer to the boy who shook his head. "Why did you come here?"

"Opportunities. Fame. Fortune. What do you think?" The boy leaned back against Jet and peered up at the man who did not answer.

"You still look lonely, by the way." The boy's hand snaked onto his crotch, kneading lightly. "Want to stick this into my ass?"

"You don't have to be so coarse."

"But that's what it is all about. No need to talk fancy now." The boy turned around, pulled down the suspenders and the top of Jet's overalls and caressed his pectorals and abs through his shirt with his fingertips before yanking the hem out and sneaking his hands under it.

"You're amazing, old man. What did you do to get these..."

Jet glanced down at the kid whose enthusiasm was beginning to seem unexpectedly real. "I told you, I'm not going to pay you for this."

"Let's say it's a payback for the meal, then." The boy rubbed his velvety cheek against Jet's stomach. "Just be nice to me; I don't like anything too kinky."

"Neither do I. Come."

Jet's cabin was barren, but the bed was large and comfortable and the lights could be dimmed to create a suitable atmosphere. He struggled with the latches of the boy's fake leather jacket - cursing the current fashion - but the view that awaited him beneath was more rewarding than what he'd imagined: ivory skin with more than a hint of Asian tone to it, long limbs, and then some fair pubic hair and a pair of tight, tiny buttocks as he stripped his companion from his pants as well.

Jet felt the boy who was standing on his knees on the bed now. He was small, perhaps even smaller than an average male of the same age, but that was just a petty flaw in the otherwise perfect entity.

"You're really skinny," Jet muttered and leaned over to let his tongue circle deliberately at the boy's hardened nipple. The organ in his hand twitched, and the boy crouched above him, moaning.

"… Is that bad?"

"No. It reminds me of someone I used to know."

The boy placed his hands on Jet's broad shoulders, pushing him down decisively, and the man complied, kissing the boy's abdomen and then giving his arousal a tentative, questioning lick.

"Y-es… That feels good - "

He made sure the boy didn't get a chance to come quite yet, and to the kid's disappointment, he soon pulled back to get rid of his own clothes before producing a tube of lubricant and tossing it onto the bed. "Do you want me to prepare you somehow?"

The boy gave Jet's erection a wary glance. "I guess that would make it easier."

"Then turn around and relax."

The boy preferred to be taken from behind, and as he was eventually positioning himself in his lap, Jet wrapped his prosthetic arm around his waist to help him keep his balance. "It's alright. It's alright, don't try too hard. I'm not in a hurry."

"It's cold - " the boy blurted and tried to push the arm away feebly before stiffening at the first stretching sensation that ripped through his spine.

"Sorry." Jet loosened his grip, and the boy bit on his lip as he continued his descent, rocking himself and looking rather pained until the older man was fully sheathed.

"Don't - don't move just yet."

Jet didn't reply; instead, he kissed the boy's marble neck and paid some special attention to his temporarily weakened arousal, persuading it back to life patiently, and when the boy finally stirred and inhaled with a soft hiss, Jet knew that his companion was getting back in the mood again.

"How do you like it? Tell me," Jet grunted, and the boy bent forward.

"Just pick your pace."

It was hard to tell what the boy was feeling, not seeing his face, but Jet wrenched his thighs wider apart, pulled out and rammed back in, groaning. This time the boy let out a small whine and his hips began to roll up and against Jet whose artificial fingers now delved deep into his side, forcing him forward again for another mind-blowing thrust.

"Oh Jesus you're tight - "

The boy clutched onto the bedsheets, his back arching as Jet drove in harder, and his cries grew more intense as his body gave in gradually and the thrusts became slick and easier to control. Jet could feel the boy's lean muscles contract over and over again, and then he shifted his angle abruptly, plunging in as deep as he dared, and the boy's breath hitched when he suddenly tripped over the edge.

The climax clearly took the kid by surprise, and Jet could make out a faint 'No!' right before the boy's hips began to jerk, causing Jet to falter as well, and against his better intentions he was not able to pull out but emptied himself into the now flaccid body in his arms, the orgasm sending tremors through his frame like a direct hit from a lightning, and for a second or two his mind was most pleasurably blank.

When Jet's grip finally loosened, the boy fell forward weakly but startled and rolled over almost immediately, running his fingers across his sticky abdomen. "I... made a mess."

"Don't worry about that." Jet braced himself on the bed, looming over the boy who just lay there, eyes half-lidded and lips parted, still panting.

"For a moment I could've sworn you'd tear me in two."

Jet sank down into the mattress next to his angelic companion who kept his gaze at the ceiling. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." The boy shivered, and Jet fondled his hair before pulling him against his chest and feeling him curl up on his side.

"Are you sure?"

"Don't fret over me, old man, just let me get some sleep before we have to go back."

Jet ignored the boy's slightly irritated retort, and after a while he pushed himself up again. "I have to take care of something first. But I'll come and wake you up later."

"Mmkay."

He slipped out of the bed, put on a pair of pants and a t-shirt and left the cabin, closing the door behind him quietly. In the galley he found the dishes he'd left in the sink earlier lying around on the floor, but he did not bother to pick them up; instead, he opened a can of cola and stared into distance, thinking.

Then he walked over to the messroom, reached for the computer terminal, lit a cigarette and began to type.

"Do you know what time it is? It's past noon! I should've been back ages ago, goddammit!"

"Calm down."

The boy was searching for his clothes from under the bed, flushed and furious, his white skin dotted with Jet's faint blue and violet fingerprints and his lithe chest heaving as he carried on. "They'll kick my ass for sure - "

"Who's gonna kick your ass? I thought you were working for yourself."

The boy looked up. "Yeah, right. Now, take me back to the surface. I mean it."

He discovered his pants, squirmed into them with a grumble and bolted in front of Jet who was barring the doorway with his prosthetic arm, his expression mildly amused.

"I'm not joking!" The boy would have dived out of the cabin if Jet hadn't caught him by his waist.

"Hey hey, easy there. We need to talk."

"Let me go!"

"There's nowhere you can go at the moment, not here at least."

"Not here... What are you saying?" The boy stared at him with his mouth open before the true nature of the situation dawned on him. "Oh shit - we're not anywhere near Mars right now, are we?"

"Nope."

"This is a kidnapping!"

"Really?"

"Take me back. Right away. This isn't fun anymore."

"But it was still fun eight hours ago, wasn't it?"

"Sure, it was nice fucking you, no hard feelings. But - "

"You're not a random hooker. I know you."

The boy frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Your father used to work in the same district as I did. What went wrong after he died? How did you end up messing around with the syndicate?"

"You're dreaming, old man. Just take me back. Please." The boy was nearly out of his breath now. "I'm serious. They'll come after us and they'll kill you and - "

Jet shook his head. "They won't be coming. You see, I paid them already."

"What?!"

Jet took the boy by his shoulders and backed him to the bed, forcing him to sit down. "Look, I took care of your debts. It wasn't that much anyway, and I just happened to have some savings put aside at the moment. I know you were left alone after your father died last year, I heard about it from an old friend of mine. But I didn't think you'd get involved with a syndicate. Or become a prostitute. How many men have you done so far?"

The boy looked pale as if he was feeling sick to his stomach. "Only two all the way before I met you."

"So that's why you were so tight. I see."

"You..." The boy's lips were quivering. "If you had already decided to help me, then why the hell did you have sex with me? You're a perv like the rest of them - !"

"I wanted you." Jet's whisper was smooth, and he brought his face close to the boy who flinched. "You're probably the prettiest kid I've ever seen. And I made you come, too, didn't I? It couldn't have been that bad."

The boy swallowed. "Alright. It was all good. And now what?"

"I could take you back to Ganymede."

"There's nothing for me there anymore. I had to sell our house to cover most of that debt dad left behind."

"Why don't you stay here, then?"

"With a pervert like you?"

"I need someone to keep the place organized. Someone to help me with the bounties. Someone to keep me... company. No sex required."

The boy crossed his arms. "Geez..."

Jet turned the boy's face up gently. "May I kiss you?"

"Pervert."

"May I?"

"Alright."

He pulled the boy close and brushed his lips across his, then coaxed him into a tighter embrace, his tongue laving at that hesitant mouth until it opened up and let him in.

Jet held the boy long after their lips had parted, feeling the Bebop pulse beneath his feet and the boy shudder in the grasp of some unspoken emotion. Then he tasted him one more time before making him stand up and shooing him a bit roughly out of the cabin, through the corridors and into the cockpit. "Any requests?"

The boy rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and flashed Jet a smile. "Anywhere is good for me now."

"In that case, we're off to Venus." He glanced at the boy and leaned back in his seat. "The planet of love, right?"

The kid stuck his tongue out at him, and Jet chuckled. "Sit down, we'll be switching gates in a minute."

And Bebop purred like a contented kitten.