Day after day, Odo asked Quark if he had reconsidered moving in together, but Quark was adamant about his decision. "One of these days I'll love to live with you, Odo, but not yet," Quark told him. "Neither of us is ready for that kind of commitment yet, and you know it!"
Maybe that was true. Odo didn't necessarily think so, but as Quark would readily point out given the opportunity, Odo's knowledge of social situations was limited. How two people could be in love with each other— and they were most certainly in love with each other; either that or Quark was even more of a devious liar than Odo thought— but not want to spend as much of their time as possible together was beyond him. He even pointed out to Quark that moving in with him would maximize their time spent together each day, and Quark replied by screwing up his face and muttering, "That's kind of what I'm worried about."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Odo pressed. "You do like spending time with me, don't you?"
"Surprisingly, yes," Quark said. "But if you were to become the first and last thing I see every day, I'm not sure the sight of you would be so appealing— which it already isn't, mind you," he went on. Odo snorted and rolled his eyes; Quark snickered briefly but then let out a sigh and became serious again. "Truth be told, Odo, I'm not sure how much more of you I can take."
When he slowed down and really gave it some thought, Odo realized with a pang of unease that he felt the same way. As much as he and Quark loved to tease each other, some of their gripes with each other were genuine. They had to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could make their relationship work in the long term before they made any hasty decisions.
One way or another, though, Odo did feel like advancing their relationship. He was ready to do something new. Something big. Something he knew Quark wanted far more than he did, but something Odo had always wanted to try just to see why solids prioritized it so highly.
While Odo was investigating Quark that day, he brought his hand up to the Ferengi's ear and traced the outer edge with his thumb and forefinger. A tremor swept through Quark's body and a tiny gasp of pleasure escaped his lips. Encouraged by the result, Odo grabbed Quark's other ear as well and began rubbing them both. Quark's breath hitched; he backed into the shelf of bottles behind him and sent several of the brightly coloured glass containers falling. Odo formed extra appendages to catch the falling bottles without taking his eyes or hands off of Quark— or without letting up on his interrogation.
Soon he had coaxed a confession out of Quark, along with many other confessions, some of them for things he knew Quark hadn't done. This satisfied Odo much more than what he was doing with his fingers, but of course for Quark it was the exact opposite. It was the sort of clumsy, up-against-a-wall experience that Odo had never thought happened in real life when he read about them in Bajoran romance novels. Apparently he'd just been proven wrong yet again.
After a few minutes, Quark jerked away, face flushed and breathing heavily. "Let's go... back to my place?" he panted.
"That sounds like a satisfactory arrangement." Odo swept Quark up into what his human friends called a bridal carry and pulled him into a kiss, which Quark returned with vigour. Odo would have been perfectly happy to carry Quark to his quarters in this manner, but Quark hopped down out of his arms, grabbed him by the wrist, and ran all the way to his quarters pulling Odo along behind him.
Once they got inside, Quark fell back onto his bed, short of breath from running. Odo held back a scathing comment about Quark's low stamina— he thought such a taunt might ruin the mood— and instead climbed on top of him and started kissing him again. He let Quark instruct him on how to give good oo-mox, although he knew his hands were still clumsier than the sort Quark must have been used to. Still, Quark didn't complain. He even tried to return the favour, and although Odo didn't get much out of it since he wasn't a Ferengi, he tried to shift his ears a bit bigger and better formed so that Quark wouldn't have an excuse to comment on Odo's minimalistic features.
It didn't go any further down than the ears, but for a Ferengi, it didn't need to go any further down. Once Quark was finished off, he lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, panting. Odo still had a lot more energy left in him, but he lay down beside Quark nonetheless. It hadn't felt as good as Odo had hoped, but obviously Quark had gotten a lot more out of it. And at the end of the day, Odo was happy as long as Quark was happy.
The morning after, Odo walked with Quark to the bar before splitting off and heading to his office. He stopped to give his boyfriend a quick kiss and a nose nuzzle after checking to make sure nobody was watching.
"I love you," Odo murmured fondly, his voice a gravelly whisper just in case they were being listened in on for some reason. "Now stay out of trouble, you hear?"
"No promises," Quark purred, adding, "I love you, too," before heading into his bar to start the day.
