Title: Shore Leave
Pairing: Ed/Ted
Rating: PG-13
Notes: title comes from ep.17 of ST:TOS (ironically, this is the episode where a giant bunny rabbit almost kills McCoy, sigh I miss TOS)
Note2: For packmentality, who's you're girlfriend...SEXY? and for LCBeachgirl for her kind words and inspiration
Notes3: Remember that one scene in The Boxer with Ed and Ted and that photo at the beach? Well then you knew some one was going to write this
Summary:Sunblock?check.Camera?check.Insulin?doublecheck
Shore Leave
It hadn't been Ted's idea to come to the beach but he had to admit that he wished it was. He and Ed almost never got to see the ocean and just being here made him feel... free. Like everything in his life was far, far away, well, everything but Ed and he never wanted him to go away, so that worked out fine. Not only were they getting to spend the entire day here, they got to do it alone. Apparently the were 'old enough' to take the bus here and back without being attacked by killer, bus-riding zombies. Ted had to shake his head at that, parents could be so... odd. And where was Ed? It didn't take this long to put on a pair of swim trunks and fold up your clothes, so what was taking...
"Hey Ted," Ed called from where he'd just emerged from the cabana, "Ted? What's the matter?" But Ted doesn't hear him, he's to busy staring at Ed. Ed and... skin. Dark olive skin laid bare before him. Knees and thighs and the beautiful jut of pelvic bone right there and Ted isn't sure what Ed was thinking when he bought this, but he hopes no one else was around to see him in it. Because this, this is skin only Ted gets to see, these are body parts that should only be uncovered for Ted to lick and nibble and stroke and suddenly Ted's swim trunks are much tighter than they had been.
"What do you think you're doing Edward?" Ted finally asks when he's capable of words again. He can't take his eyes off the bit of skin right below Ed's stomach that's exposed. He has vivid memories of sucking that skin right before he'd gone...
"What are you talking about, Theodore?" Ed spits back, bewildered. He looks into Ted's eyes, sees the lust that's only there when they're both naked and... of course. Ed smiles a little once he figures out what's bothering Ted. "What's the matter Ted? Don't you like it?" he asks and does a little spin. At the furtive looks Ted does (side to side, making sure no one could see him) he laughs out loud. "Ted," he softly states, reaching out his hand to brush over Ted's arm, "it's okay. No one is going to be looking at me."
"What...?" Ted looks around even more, frightened now, "Ed don't. Some one might see."
"Who cares," Ed replies, "we don't know any of them and chances are we're never going to see them again after today. Who cares if they see?" And Ted looks stricken at first and then his face lights up like blaster fire. So Ed leans forward and up, and kisses him, long and slow, their first ever public kiss.
Once he's pulled away, Ted looks down at him, eyes so wide and trusting and full of love and he leans back down and pulls Ed's mouth to his. He pulls Ed against him, one hand gripping Ed's short hair, the other pulling Ed's hip against his own. It isn't sweet like the first kiss and it isn't passionate like the ones they share in the privacy of their own Empire Strikes Back bedsheeets. This kiss is different, it isn't really like any they've ever shared, he can feel the strength in Ted's arms where he's holding him, not to mention the heat. Pressed this close, Ted's heat is like a brand, marking him.... Of course that's what this is about. Ed belongs to Ted, belongs with Ted, just like Ted belongs to and with him. Ed laughs through the kiss and considers asking Ted if he plans to piss on his leg next. But he doesn't and when Ted finally lets him up for air, he's too happy to let the proprietary nature of the kiss bother him.
Ted lets Ed go and steps away. "Race you!" he calls, running towards the waves. Ed just laughs and runs after him. Ted wins of course and Ed has to rub on Ted's sunblock for losing, surprisingly Ed isn't very broken up about the loss.
"My, my Theodore, do you think you packed enough sunscreen?" Ed asks, while laughing, "SPF 45, didn't they make an SPF 2,000,000?" He isn't expecting Ted to respond, so when he quickly turns over, grabs Ed and rolls them until he's lying on top of him, Ed's a little surprised. Surprised but not angry and he can only laugh when Ted leans down to tickle him.
"We can't all be lucky enough to have as high a melanin content as you are Ed," Ted says fingers dancing over Ed's chest. And it's true, Ted has the pale, pale skin one usually associates with red heads, complete with the myriad of freckles. Ed spent over 3 hours tracing patterns out of all those freckles. Connect-the-Ted-dots, and he found an X-wing, a Klingon Bird of Prey and Aquaman riding a Killer Whale on Ted's back alone that night. He's pulled out of his reverie by the 'click' and 'whir' of a camera and he looks up, at a little girl with a Polaroid.
"Hello," Ed says, more than a little flustered at being caught in such an intimate moment. The little girl (she can't be more than 5 or 6) takes the picture out of the slot and hands it to them, positively beaming throughout. Ted looks down at it and is overwhelmed by the desire to capture their 'out' day on film. One short trip to the beachside souvenir shop later, Ted has a disposable, waterproof camera, he points it at Ed, snaps the picture and runs towards the water.
They use the whole roll, taking turns snapping pictures of each other and occasionally getting some one to take pictures of them together. There are pictures of Ed leaping in the waves, Namor style, and ones of Ted recreating the moisture farms of Tatooine in the sand, the ones of them together are the best. They try and keep them vague enough to show their parents, but they can't help taking a few pictures of the two of them kissing, of them holding hands, of them being the real Ed and Ted for once.
So they hold hands when they walk on the beach and they don't try to keep the love out of their eyes... and no one notices. Before they leave, they watch the sunset from an eddy that juts from the beach. Ted's standing behind Ed, with his arms around his waist.
"This is just like the final scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, only, you know, you're not dead," he tells Ed, lips so close against his ear it's like a kiss.
"Yeah it is Ted," Ed replies while Ted kisses his neck and nuzzles at his earlobe. So they stand there and have their Hollywood ending, before getting back on the bus towards Roscoe.