Authors Note: This is a Treasure Planet fanfic. I have aged up JIM so that he is one year older, 18, just to make him legal. If you have issues with large age differences or LGBT romances, then this is not the story for you friend. If you enjoy please leave a review! 3
"I'm hoping it is Jimbo, I most certainly am."
Silver slipped his hat down over his eyes as he rested his back against the side of the longboat, his organic arm stretched out behind Jims head. Jim smiled and leaned his head back on the arm, feeling the tight muscle underneath the thick canvas of his coat. He smells good. Jim thought drowsily as he took in a deep breath. Pipe tobacco, sweat, and engine-oil. It had to be one of the most, if not THE most, masculine smells Jim had ever known. He thought back to his father, the man who left without so much of a word, and tried to remember how his father had smelled. I remember alcohol and wood polish… Jim thought sadly as he felt himself start to drift off. The memory was not a pleasant one anymore, he didn't want to think about his father. His father was far away and absent, Silver was here.
A soft grunt and a heavy hand on his shoulder brought Jim back to consciousness as he felt himself get pulled against a large frame. He opened his eyes to see Silver's hand holding him against his side, making Jim feel small against his enormous bulk. The old cook was breathing slow and deep, his eyes hidden by his hat, his mechanical arm resting behind his own head. Is he asleep? Jim wandered as he turned into the figure that had come to be a sign of safety to him. His head rested on Silver's shoulder as one hand slowly, cautiously, rested against Silver's belly, as he closed his eyes again. The smell was stronger now, as Jim was closer, and he couldn't ignore how the smell caused a heat to rise in his stomach. A heat he had only ever felt once or twice at school, when he had caught a glimpse of a girl's thigh, or had seen one of the other boys shirtless in the locker room.
Stop it Jim. He's old enough to be your grandfather. He reminded himself as the arm tightened around his back even more. He could feel his heart start to race. It was true, the fifty-year old Ursine was significantly older than him, a mere eighteen year old human. But was that really such a bad thing? He knew there were those in relationships with large age gaps...but even then this one was quite a big one. Over thirty years difference was a huge gap in maturity and experience. Even so, Jim couldn't help but be drawn to the man. His charismatic smile, his terrifying temper, and his massive, imposing size were all fascinating to him.
"You okay there Jimbo?" The voice spoke from above him and Jim felt his face flush red. His body felt hot as his eyes glanced up at the old cyborg, his blue eyes large and nervous. Silver had tilted his hat up slightly, exposing his brown, organic eye, that now looked down at him with an expression mixed with curiosity and concern. When Jim met that eye, he saw the concern take over.
"Ey Lad, you're as red as a Morturian cherry. You feelin okay?" The man leaned forward, taking his hand off of Jim's back to press it against his forehead, checking for a fever. Jim flushed more and bit his lip, shoving the hand away and clumsily moving to the opposite end of the boat.
"I'm fine." He hissed, his embarrassment causing him to lash out at the man's concern. He turned his back on Silver, folding his arms stubbornly as he clenched his knees to his chest, trying to subdue the hardening member between his legs. He felt the boat shift as Silver moved, and he heard the hard thump of the prosthetic leg moving onto the walkway of the hull.
"If yeh aint feelin well, Jimbo, you should go see your friend the Doc. Aint no shame in askin fer help when you need it." Silver's voice was cold and hard, and Jim could imagine the closed off expression he would have on his face, the same expression that always took over when something happened to cause him anger or discomfort. JIm cursed himself silently. Damn it! He was worried about you, you idiot! Don't be such a brat!
"I..I'm sorry." Jim peaked over his shoulder to see Silver standing above him, his hands resting on his broad hips. "I didn't mean to...I'm just embarrassed is all…"
Silver sighed and squatted down to look at Jim more in the eye, and Jim had to resist the urge to shrink away, that one red eye was looking at him with such a bright precision, the light reflected off of his skin. The cyborgs expression softened slightly into a small, weird smile.
"Just talk to me Lad. What's wrong?" His voice was light and gentle, coaxing even. The sound of that voice sent a chill up Jim's spine and he shivered.
"I...I can't." He mumbled, looking away and burying his face in his arms. He felt the hot breath on the back of his neck when Silver let out a hefty sigh.
"And why not?" He asked, not moving.
"B...because it's embarrassing!" Jim practically whined, curling up tighter. He heard a soft chuckle behind him and the creak of wood.
"If yer all worked up about that little hardon you got, you aint got to worry about it Jimbo."
Jim thought his heart was going to stop. He KNEW. Jim carefully turned to look at Silver, who had a rather amused smirk on his face.
"It's perfectly natural for a young man like you to get em! You ain't got to feel embarrassed boyo, it's just a sign of being a healthy young buck coming into his prime. Ain't nothin to feel ashamed of."
"H...how did you-" Jim stopped as Silver quirked an eyebrow.
"You were snuggled up awfully close to me for a while there, Jim. Kinda hard not to notice it when it's pressed against me leg." SIlver chuckled.
Oh gods...kill me now. Jim thought as he buried his face in his hands. This was so humiliating! He had thought Silver had maybe seen it, with his keen eye, or just recognised the embarrassment from his younger days, but no, it was worse, he had FELT it.
The boat rocked slightly as Silver stepped back in and put a gentle hand on Jim's back, a comforting motion that immediately made Jim's shoulders relax as he glanced up bashfully. The Ursine was looking at him, a strange, serious look on his face. Something about it gave Jim a dark sense of foreboding.
"Listen Lad. Yer safe here with me, yeah? But you had best be careful about lettin anyone else know about those sorts of things? Some of em may use it against you, or take it as an invitation."
Jim felt his stomach tighten at the warning and found himself nodding as he chewed on his lip.
"Y..you don't mean-"
"Not all of the folk on this ship are good." Silver said, a knowing glint in his eye. "Some of em will take any excuse to hurt you, or shame ya, just for fun."
Jim felt the heat, that had been so intense, drain from his face as he looked down at his hands, clenching them as a shiver of fear went down his spine.
"I...I'll be careful." He muttered softly and he felt that hand on his shoulder again as Silver pulled him into a sort of half-hug.
"Good. Ye need to be." Silver gave a small smile that melted away some of Jim's fear and caused him to smile back before leaning in to the hug. Silver froze for a moment, as if surprised, before holding him tightly.
"Thanks Silver…" Jim mumbled softly, with a heavy sigh. Even if nothing can really happen, I'll be happy to have this.
There was a moment of silence between the two of them, where they simply sat there listening to the gentle hum of the ships engines. That is, until a sudden, intense blast of heat burst through the hull of the ship, sending the two of them falling, hard, on to the bottom of the longboat. Jim winced as his head hit the hardwood, the feeling of burning hot debris falling on to his face. He felt dazed, as he moved to sit up.
"What in the-"
"Jimbo! Look out!"
A heavy weight pushed Jim back down, striking his head against the floor for the second time. He gasped for air as the weight pushed down on his sternum and he blinked his eyes open. Silver was on top of him, the older face wrinkled in an ungly grimace of pain and struggle as he worked to push the heavy chunk of metal debris off of his back.
"Silver!" Jim gasped as he tried to sit up, to help in some way, but he couldn't move. Silver was just too big, and the combined weight of him and the debris was too much, despite the fact that Silver had saved him from most of it.
"It's alright Jimbo, I got ya." Silver grunted out, trying to turn his body so as to cause the chunk of hot metal to fall off, but he stopped and looked up as the smell of burning, and the sound of snapping caught both their attention. The ropes that held the longboat above the open gate were burning.
"Oh Shite!" Silver cursed as the first rope snapped, causing the nose of the boat to swing downwards. The good news was that the debris that had fallen on them now fell out of the airlock door. The bad news was that Jim and Silver had to dig into the seats of the longboat to avoid falling out themselves.
"Shit! What's happening!?" Jim asked as he clung to the seat, his nails digging into the wood painfully as he struggled to hold on. Silver was struggling even more than Jim, his mechanical arm was making horrible noises, sparks occasionally spouting out of the shoulder, a large dent in the metal from where the initial impact had hit him. Silver looked to be in great pain as more sizzling caught Jim's attention.
Snap
The second rope broke, and they were falling. The rush of falling out into space was terrifying as Jim held on to the small boat for dear life, Silver had made his way over to him and put an arm around his shoulders, using his greater weight and strength to keep them both in the boat, rather than falling out into the deadly vacuum.
"Get to the controls, Lad!" Silver called out over the rush of fire that surrounded them. The light out here was so bright he couldn't see a thing. But he knew what he had to do. He started to crawl, Silver moving with him as a sort of Ursian shield, as Jim laid his hands on the boat's controls.
"I gotta sit up!" He called out and Silver nodded, easing up slightly and using his organic arm to guide Jim up into the seat, holding him there as Jim started to fiddle with the controls. When the sale furled open and the boat returned to a horizontal position Jim had to breathe a sigh of relief, feeling the heavy shake as Silver gained a sturdier position.
"What's going on?!" Jim had to call out over the horrible sound of heat and fire whipping their boat about. Silver clambered over to Jim and took a seat next to him, his head turning.
"The bleeding star went Super Nova!" Silver called, holding his hat to his head. "I cannot see the ship anywhere, we've been blown away from it!"
"What the hell do we do!?" Jim asked, putting all his strength into the boats controls to keep it upright as another wave of blinding energy hit them.
"Get us out of range of the star! Once we're safe we can try to rendezvous with the ship using the gps!" Silver turned back to Jim and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Right!" Jim nodded and turned the controls so their nose was facing away from the light, and pushing down to get all the speed he could out of it. The boat burst forward, the bright light causing the solar sails to shimmer with energy as the boat continued to move faster.
The boat shook with strain at the speed they were moving, a heavy jolt occasionally hitting them as a chunk of rock hit the hull. Silver had his eyes turned towards the explosion, using his optics to try and gauge the debris to help Jim dodge them. So far it was working well, but when Silver noticed a rather large chunk of rock coming towards them, he clamped his hand onto Jim's shoulder.
"Big one coming Jimbo! Go down! Down!" Jim nodded and pointed the boat downwards, but it wasn't fast enough.
The chunk of space rock hit their sail with devastating force, shattering it and sending them spinning out of control.
"Shit! Shit shit shit!" Jim cursed as he pulled on the controls, trying to gain some sense of direction as they spiraled down into darkness, away from the exploding star. Silver grunted and used his organic hand to aid in Jim's attempt, pulling the control with him to fight against the spin. Jim could hear the whirring of his eye as he looked about, but Jim couldn't see a thing as he clenched his eyes tight against the strain.
"Good news Jimbo! We're out of range of the star!" Silver called over the horrendous beeping of the machinery. "Bad news is, we're planet bound! We got pulled into a gravitational field!"
"What!?" Jim opened his eyes and looked ahead of them as the dark green, foresty planet loomed in front of them. How far did we go!? I remember seeing this planet from a distance but…
"Head down Jimbo!" Silver pushed Jim down as the field around the boat started to flare up with heat and light as they entered the planet's atmosphere, causing the interior to heat up. Jim squinted his eyes close and pressed against Silver, who wrapped his arms around him.
"Hold on till we're done flaring! Then we gotta get our nose up and try to land this thing without goin splat!"
"Damn it!" Jim clenched on to Silver, burying his face in the broad chest as the boat shook so violently, he was certain it would shatter. Suddenly the heat and shaking was gone, and there was a gust of cold wind blowing into his hair.
"Pull up Jim! Pull up!"
Jim nodded and pulled away from the Ursine, despite his whole being wanting to keep holding on, and grabbed the controls again, pulling back to get the nose up. He looked out beneath him to see a large, pine-like forest below them, dusted in snow, quickly approaching.
"This is gonna hurt!" He called out as the bottom of the boat scrapped across the top of a tree, causing the boat to jostle.
"Aye!" Silver nodded, his face serious as he scanned ahead. "Try to thread between the trees if you can, Jimbo! Then once we see the ground, brace for impact!"
"Right!" Jim nodded and leaned in to the turn as he managed to swerve between two, massive trees and into the thick of the wood.
Avoiding the trees entirely was impossible, but Jim was able to turn just enough to make it so that they only grazed, causing awful jolts, but also managing to slow their descent. JIm had to squint as needles and snow fell on him, obscuring his vision as they quickly approached the heavily covered forest floor.
"Jim! Brace for impact!" The voice spoke out as a large arm pulled Jim down into the boat and away from the controls, and a strong vice encircled him. He clenched his eyes and clasped on to the thick coat as they hit the floor.
The landing was hard and turbulent. The boat slammed onto the ground and bounced twice, before the nose hit something in the way, causing it to spin out and flip, sending the two spacers sprawling out of it. Jim felt the jostle, and the tumble before finally he stopped moving, his back getting soaked from the snow as he lost all the air in his body, Silvers full weight on him as he landed, still holding on to him.
They lay there in silence for a moment, Jim breathing hard as he tried to suck air into his lungs, but eventually had to push at Silver's chest.
"Silver. Thanks but you can get off now. Please, I can't breathe." He grunted as he shoved the large man over, and with a dull thud, Silver fell into the snow without a sound.
"Silver?" Jim sat up, wincing at the pain in his ribs as he turned to put a hand on Silver's shoulder, pushing him over onto his back. Silver's eyes were closed and he was unmoving. Red was starting to stain the snow around them.