Back in Black

Day (?) twenty-three after he'd rescued the kid had seen Kenren back out in the black, alone and staring a new problem right in the face. Well, 'new' was pushing it a little bit, since it had been a good two weeks of information-gathering and otherwise ignoring it while he got to where he was going. That hadn't stopped it growing exponentially in urgency day by day during that time, though, and it had taken a flurry of proper activity once the kid (whose grasp of the language was outside of Kenren's ability to properly gauge, particularly if he decided to hide it) was out of his hands to get squared away so his former superior officer didn't wind up a smear on some shady station floor.

At first it had seemed like a situation that would resolve itself sooner than later, and Kenren had asked that Goujun be protected as far as possible without compromising anything important. Naturally, the guy would get tired of looking in all the wrong places, and he would go back home before his career wound up in the toilet. That was the logical end point of the uncharacteristic actions of a professional military man, after all. It sucked, and Kenren fucking hated having to leave Goujun hanging like that, but he didn't really have any choice. Every new comm about his ex-commander's refusal to be logical and reasonable, to just let Kenren go and return to his post, stuck another needle into Kenren's gut and left him thinking too much.

That could make a body crazy, out in the dark solitary confinement of space, and he had been there for three months, now.

The first reports had come through even before Kenren and his cargo had reached their destination: some super-pale guy was asking around about him. Something about an old gambling debt or something. The terrible cover didn't matter except in that it made him even more more conspicuous, and in a way that meant he might just pick up attention from some seriously wrong people who may or may not want to Send Messages at Kenren. As if Goujun wasn't noticeable enough with looks like that.

He wondered if it was too uncharitable to imagine that he might be that obvious on purpose in hopes that Kenren would come rescue him out of sheer annoyance or fear for his safety? Possibly. Probably, if he was being fair. It put Kenren at too high a risk, and it had been a long time since he had stopped expecting Goujun to hang him out to dry. The guy had been willing to go to the wall for fraternising with a subordinate in order to keep him safe, after all. Even before there was any real fraternising going on, and even if Kenren's reputation would have mostly protected him.

It was the second night of Kenren's 'leave' (he was doing this whole thing backwards, after all, so coming to what could vaguely be described as his home was, in fact, leaving), so he wasn't at all surprised to look up to find Goujun standing at the end of his booth. Nearly a dozen times in, it had become something of a ritual. As had full salary deposits, so he wasn't complaining - about that, or, frankly, about the company. Other nights, he might be looking for something else, but second nights were reserved for his uniquely pretty superior. He wasn't complaining about that, either, for all its propriety.

"I thought I thought I'd come by and keep you from terrible life choices again," Goujun said as he slipped into the other side of the booth, more for the sake of tradition than enlightenment. He didn't ask, and he didn't need to. Kenren was right about finished with chasing himself around his own head, anyway. It was getting time to make a decision regarding a few lines, his neck, and the proximity of the latter to the former.

He leaned back, slouching comfortably with his beer because like fuck he was going to go saluting anyone in this dive, and favoured his commander with a smirk. "Only terrible choice I see is you keeping on coming back here."

Goujun gave a theatrically small sigh. "The decor is deplorable."

"So's the company, I hear."

A little smile hovered at the corners of Goujun's mouth as he replied, "Entirely. Terribly unruly men."

Kenren clicked his tongue and took a swig of his beer. "So, just what you're looking for, then." Well. He probably shouldn't have done that. He could always blame the beer, as long as Goujun didn't know exactly how long he'd been here. Which he probably did. Anyway, Goujun was flushing a little bit, so he figured it was probably okay.

"Well," Goujun started, "I."

Now that was an interesting reaction. Kenren's body perked up at it regardless of his better instincts, because it tended not to consult him on the intelligence of any given attraction. He chuckled, low and warm, and waved to the server. "Let me buy you a drink."

"I see you're putting your latest - undiminished - salary to good use," Goujun said, obviously pleased.

"Got to thank the guy responsible for my first full pays in…" he paused to think about that, "...probably since I joined up, actually."

"How do you manage that?" Goujun asked, utter bewilderment in his expression. "Even you don't get into that many fights."

Kenren shrugged at that, not wanting to get into the punitive edge on most of that stuff because of personal grudges. Goujun didn't need to know that, and Kenren wasn't real interested in listening to himself whine, in any case. "Sometimes shit gets really comprehensive," he offered, hoping to leave it at that.

"You're not that difficult to handle," Goujun pressed, and Kenren sighed, giving him a 'what can you do' kind of look.

"Anyway, it's good to be able to breathe a little bit," he offered, switching tacks. "I even got some debts dealt with."

"Debts? I didn't take you for the gambling sort."

Kenren gave him a long look for that, because of course Goujun would assume gambling. People from his tier of life rarely got into real debt without it or something equally disruptive, like drugs. Quietly, with an edge, he answered, "I'm not."

There was a brief but intense struggle in Goujun's expression that probably meant he had heard the discouraging intent, and was trying to apply it to his curiosity. Discretion won out. "No. I didn't think you made that sort of bad decision."

He couldn't help the smirk, a thousand voices in his head reminding him of ten thousand rebukes over his lack of self-control in other areas. "Nope. Not that kind."

That seemed to amuse Goujun, pulling a smile from him. "Just other kinds?" Kenren didn't bother answering that one, just holding Goujun's gaze steadily while he took a drink. "Incorrigible," Goujun muttered.

"Yeah, heard that before." In that moment, Kenren made his decision. He couldn't keep what he knew to himself, especially given his mission. Someone needed to know in case anything happened to him, and to the best of his knowledge Goujun was good. He had been looking over the past couple of years, and found nothing to tell him otherwise. Of course, that didn't make the dingiest bar on the station a good place to talk about it. Neither was Goujun's office; Kenren couldn't tell how deep this ran, and he couldn't control that space.

Fuck knew he didn't have anyone else.

A sort of quiet settled on the moment as Goujun watched Kenren watching him. "But not," Goujun said softly, "actually undisciplined." It was the first time Kenren could remember someone not Tenpou ever making that distinction at him.

Also quietly, the words more teasing than the tone, he said, "You take that back."

A crease appeared between Goujun's brows, uncertainty in his voice "Would you prefer if I did?"

Ah, Goujun, flattener of jokes. Not that that one had had a lot of topography in the first place, but still. Kenren made another decision, leaning in to say, "Maybe we should talk about that somewhere else."

"Excuse me?"That little flush reappeared in Goujun's cheeks, his skin just too pale to hide it even little bit, oddly pleasing if utterly misplaced in the moment.

"I think," Kenren answered, "we need to have a talk. Somewhere private."

The blush intensified, Goujun dropping his gaze, looking embarrassed. "All right." Goujun stood, placing a few credits on the table and turning away a little bit. "Now, then?"

Kenren felt like an ass. All this time he'd been waiting for the guy to pick up on the flirt, and now he had, and Kenren was headed for something else entirely. Fuck. Well, he could fix that, probably, but the mission had to come first. He drained his glass and stood, too, nodding. "Yeah. Come on, let's go."

Goujun frowned all over again. "Where were you thinking?" He had a point, without knowing what they needed to discuss, and Kenren's shoulders crept upward.

"...My quarters."

That got him one very wide, very intense blink before Goujun got whatever that thought was under control. He managed to sound impressively even when he answered, "I see."

Nodding for that, Kenren started out, leading the way. He wasn't sure what to do about that moment back there. It obviously had to take a backseat, but it wasn't exactly like Kenren hadn't been signalling interest in his intriguingly pretty boss for a long while, now. He just hadn't ever - and still didn't, really - expected reciprocation.

For the sake of completeness, Kenren took them a roundabout route to his quarters, using less-travelled corridors to get there. He opened the door and stepped inside, then turned to motion Goujun to silence while he pulled a small device from his pocket to check for bugs. It wasn't perfect, but neither was the military, so he figured it balanced out in the end. Once he got the all clear, he tucked it back into his pocket and said, "This is the only place I know is safe."

There was another quick exchange of expressions as Goujun settled on a way to take the fact that Kenren had just slighted Goujun's own office for probably very real intrusions. After a moment he nodded tightly, accepting it with reluctant grace. "All right," he said, slipping into work mode, "Report."

Relieved by the shift in gears, Kenren nodded and gestured Goujun to sit in one of the two small chairs at the equally small table that made up a third of the furnishings in Kenren's quarters. He took the other for himself, starting right in because he needed to get it settled. "All right," he began, leaning on the table, "I've been sitting on some information for a while, because I didn't have any actual proof of it, but I can't really get closer at this point. And I need backup, obviously. I can't seem to find the end of the smuggling, because a) it's definitely got support on the inside, and b) they want to escalate the war. We know they're looking to create weapons, but this is...bigger. I've heard that they've found a...a pilot of some kind. You know that "structure" they're always going on about? The one they keep finding buried under the cervical spine?"

Steady as he usually was, Goujun was never slow on the uptake. "They found a pilot. There actually are pilots in the aliens, then."

Kenren made a little equivocating gesture with his head. "Remember, I got no real proof of this, except that suddenly an entire sector got quarantined over at the Hyperion, right after the battle in Forty-Three, and a special platoon landed there to patrol it. Then eighteen hours later everyone was gone like nothing happened. What I heard was this thing turned out to be humanoid, or something like, but all fucked up. Alive, but just barely, and basically vegetative."

Goujun's breath caught hard as he listened, and Kenren could see him chasing down the possibilities and making the extrapolations. Kenren had already been down that road. If there was a pilot, conclusively, then that meant there was a possibility of better bioweapons. or even a hostage exchange. Not that the other side had been very interested in taking prisoners, but there were other things to trade for, potentially. Quietly, Goujun asked, "I know you don't have proof, but how certain are you?"

"Pretty fucking certain. I've been told that the thing's kind of...melted. Like it was being digested or something."

Goujun shuddered for the description, and Kenren couldn't blame him. "Well," he sighed, "that's...still useful. Any idea whose hands it's in, now?"

Kenren shook his head. "Not yet, no. It was too soon before I left to come back here. I'll have to look into it more when I go back," he paused, looking Goujun in the eye, "but you're the only person I trust with this."

Goujun returned the gaze evenly, steadily, and Kenren took that as agreement. "It's best not to spread it around just yet, yes. I'll make a note of it in case this station is attacked, but this goes no farther than myself for the moment." It was his turn to pause, offering awkwardly, "Thank you for your trust in me." Which, since Kenren was technically required to report everything to Goujun as his superior officer, acknowledged the trust that Kenren placed in him, and the deliberation with which he did it.

He nodded. "You've earned it. Don't make me regret it." Kenren straightened up and looked around. "We'll have to meet here when I'm back. It's the only place small enough that I can keep it safe."

Goujun looked around the place, too, and Kenren wondered what he was thinking as his gaze fell on one and then another place in the carefully spartan room. "Yes. I apologise. I know you're a private person."

"Nothing here you can't see," Kenren shrugged. "Someone's bound to notice eventually, though."

There was a slightly uncomfortable kind of sound from Goujun. "I'll do my best to be discreet."

Kenren heard that, and he grinned. "If anyone asks, you can just tell them we're fucking. That should end it."

The blush this time was both instantaneous and intense. "I- I beg your par- ...you're not serious."

Still grinning, Kenren teased, "Sure, why not? I mean, you're pretty. I wouldn't mind."

Instantly and evidently intensely offended, Goujun snapped back, "I am not pretty."

"All right," Kenren held up his hands, chuckling, "all right, I take it back. You're absolutely a troll."

Goujun huffed. "That wasn't what I..." He sighed. "I see you're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"...being...you."

Kenren nodded, not even trying not to let his amusement show. "Yeah, that's pretty much my jam."

"You take an inordinate delight in flustering people."

"Hey, it's not my fault you get offended at being called hot."

Goujun frowned. "I wasn't offended." Seemed to consider that for a second, then added, "At the...sentiment, that is."

Oh, Kenren had him, then, he could feel it. At the very least, he'd entered the realm of the haveable. "Sounded like it to me," he said, and smirked.

"It was the choice of words," Goujun defended himself, stiffly.

"Ah, okay, I got it. Not chest-thump enough, huh?"

"I've never thumped my chest in my life."

"Until now." Fuck, Kenren couldn't remember when he'd last had this much fun.

Trying to cover what looked an awful lot like amusement, Goujun cleared his throat. "I don't recall any such gorilla-esque behaviour."

Arching an eyebrow, Kenren pointed out, "Sure got pissed when I used a word you think of as feminine."

Goujun opened his mouth to protest, and Kenren just stared sharply at him until he closed it a little and admitted, "...you may have a point."

Kenren couldn't help grinning again. "It ain't less hot."

He actively watched Goujun break down in the face of that, smiling back at Kenren and shaking his head. "Utterly unruly."