It took FN-2187 a little more than a half hour to find them an accessible shelter: a low, reasonably dry cavern carpeted by rock and moss. This suited them especially well considering it had started to rain. Prior stats told FN-2187 it rained most evenings on this particular location of the Class-1 planet. Luckily for them, the temperature didn't fluctuate all that much, which meant they would be able to do without their body armor at night. FN-2187 had never enjoyed sleeping in his armor.
Oh-Three managed to make his way along the floor of the ravine to the cavern without passing out, though he did have to pause several times to lean on FN-2187 for support. FN-2187 knew this was a better decision than expecting Oh-Three to rely on the meds in his ground kit, but he offered them anyway.
Oh-Three shook his head. "They're going to knock me out."
FN-2187 lowered him onto the cavern floor. Oh-Three mopped his brow on the arm of his bodysuit and closed his eyes.
"Hurts?" FN-2187 asked with sympathy. Oh-Three nodded, his eyes still closed. FN-2187 watched his throat convulse as he swallowed. "There are four emergency bags of water in the ground pack, but I think the water in the stream out there might be potable if I put it through the filter."
"Better," Oh-Three said. "If you don't mind getting wet on the way."
FN-2187 didn't mind, but he wasn't sure how to explain why he didn't. He knew historically many humanoids spent a great deal of their time immersed in water, but it had never been something he or any of his fire-teammates had had an opportunity to do. It still seemed like a strange practice, but not an unpleasant one.
"It'll be dark soon," he said. "I'll take the filter and a storage bag and see what I can find. You want my blaster? It doesn't have much of a charge left."
Oh-Three unclipped his own and held it up. "Got a full charge."
FN-2187 stripped off his armor before leaving — it didn't care much for getting soaked — but left his bodysuit and boots on. Within minutes, water had collected in his cuffs and dripped down the neck of his shirt. He could have worn his helmet, but the opportunity to be without it, to breathe planetary air without Captain Phasma around to tell him to put it back on, was too precious to be ignored. He did check one final time for life forms before switching on his medisensor. It wouldn't detect water from far off, the way his visor would, but it clearly wasn't going to be a difficult search.
He stared up at the sky, shaking his head as the droplets landed on his forehead. As a last resort, I could just stand out here and hold the storage bag open for a few hours.
He didn't have to do anything of the sort. As a matter of fact, he bypassed several still ponds in favor of a running stream within a ten standard minute walk of the cavern. The rocky terrain channeled the stream from higher ground, but it drained quickly into the soil instead of collecting at his feet. He could hear the same creepy raptor-noises in the distance, and shuddered.
"That thing that knocked you off the cliff," he said to Oh-Three as he lugged the full storage bag into the cavern. He hadn't moved from where he'd sat down, but the color of his skin looked healthier.
Oh-Three nodded. "The bird."
"That was not a bird." FN-2187 held up his hands about an armspan apart. "Birds are this size."
"Apparently not. It took one look at us coming over the ridge and went right for us. I can't imagine Captain Phasma sent us to this world without knowing full well that these creatures were here."
FN-2187 attached the water filtration unit to the spout of the storage bag, then settled onto the ground beside Oh-Three, toweling off his head with a grim smile. "No, that was definitely deliberate. I knew I should have asked more questions about the size and the shape of the cargo package. How much do you want to bet it looks exactly like one of that creature's eggs?"
Oh-Three groaned. "That would be Command's dirtiest trick yet."
"No, it makes sense. They've probably sent dozens of missions into this ravine. We'll probably get docked points for killing that thing."
"At least you won't have to deal with it on the way out." Oh-Three's face sobered as he accepted the filtered bottle of water from FN-2187. "You think we can make it back up?"
"It seems likely. Tomorrow I'll see if I can find an easier way out of here. The ravine is steep, but there are lots of routes in for water, so it makes sense we can climb out. If I can climb back up to the ridge, I can extend the length of my retraction cable with Nines' and haul you out that way. We might have to wait a few days until your ankle is healed enough, though. Speaking of that…" He gestured at the swollen limb. "It doesn't look so good?"
"Looks worse than it feels," Oh-Three said bravely. FN-2187 couldn't help but smile.
"Hell of a slip. Well, I think you should take the pain meds anyway. Better for you to sleep and heal than to remain alert tonight. I can set up a sensor by the mouth of the cavern."
Oh-Three didn't protest any further, which said something about his state of discomfort. He let FN-2187 inject the meds into his calf, then took another drink of water before stretching out on the moss. He was asleep within minutes.
"Slip," said FN-2187 to himself, still smiling. "Yeah. I like that."
While it was inconvenient to be out of contact with their fire-troop, they weren't in any immediate danger. They had enough emergency rations in their ground pack to keep them fed for several days. Water seemed to be uncommonly plentiful on this world. FN-2187 was even able to bathe in the small pond. He carefully scanned it for life before entering, but aside from handfuls of tiny fish nibbling his legs when he stood still in the rocky pool, he was left alone. Other than Oh-Three's injury, the whole situation was remarkably peaceful.
Oh-Three (FN-2187 had started calling him Slip, and he hadn't yet objected) spent most of the first day sleeping. FN-2187 helped him out of the cavern to deal with nature's call, rather than depend on the filtration systems of his body armor. The weather was mild enough and the cavern quiet enough that FN-2187 didn't insist on either of them wearing it.
FN-2187 made brief trips out to map the terrain, but he tried not to be away from the cavern for too long. Without supplemental communication boosts, their helmets were not set up to maintain any kind of contact among the four of them. At least he could be sure Slip stayed safe and his health continued to improve. FN-2187 also located the cargo package, which was indeed egg-shaped, and brought it back to the cavern to await their eventual return.
On day two, he used pebbles and chunks of moss to create a map of the ravine and the surrounding paths, doing his best to approximate elevation with the materials at his disposal. FN-2187 helped Slip take a brief walk down to the pond, then the two of them discussed best exit scenarios over secondmeal.
It was Slip who brought up the supplements.
"They're in our rations," he said, digging texturized vegetable protein out of his teeth with a stimpick. "Each of us has a personalized dose, right? Depending on what kind of duty we're fulfilling, and our own body chemistry?"
"Yeah." FN-2187 nodded, watching him. "So?"
"So we haven't had our doses for over thirty hours now." Slip raised an eyebrow. "Noticed any effects?"
FN-2187 hadn't really thought about it, but over the rest of the evening, he began to pay closer attention. He had the contents of his own dose, of course, recorded in his health history. There was nothing surprising about anything on the list, and his and Slip's doses were similar, if not precisely identical. They looked their lists over together.
"Testosterone and syntheroids would improve our competitive edge," FN-2187 guessed. "And this is a stimulant, to keep us focused? Depilatories." He indicated Slip's facial hair, already beginning to fill in. His own was slower to develop. "And mood stabilizers; more for me than you."
Slip poked him, grinning. "No doubt."
"Shut up," he said, poking him back. "But the rest of the stuff on this list… I have no idea what it's for."
Judging by the noises Slip made in the middle of the night, at least some of them were for restful sleep. FN-2187 was accustomed to sleeping through the night without waking, but during training, most days he was exhausted by the time he went to bed.
By day three, both of them were restless, especially Slip. It was hard for FN-2187 to sit around and watch him be cooped up in the cavern all day.
"I'm going for a run," FN-2187 told him finally, after yet another meal of emergency rations. "I'll bring back more water."
The terrain was absolutely not ideal for running, but it was the kind of mind-numbing repetitive exercise he needed at the moment. It was startling to discover how alive he felt out here, although he guessed that was more about the stimulation of the environment and less about the supplements in his system. He'd already grown accustomed to navigating without the additional feedback from his helmet's computers, but his whole body felt different when he ran without body armor. It wasn't that the armor was confining, exactly, or that it held him back. It just made the world different. He was coming to notice how much he appreciated experiencing the world without the armor on.
Looping back around after about three kilometers, he picked up another bagful of water, then stopped at the pond to wash off the sweat. Rather than trying to get dressed over wet skin, he carried his clothes back with him to the cavern.
Returning without boots on apparently caused him to move quietly enough to conceal his approach. When he arrived at the mouth of the cavern, he could see Slip propped against the wall where he'd been sleeping the past two nights. He'd stripped off his bodysuit and undergarments and was sitting naked, his swollen ankle propped up on the cargo container.
His head was tipped back against the wall of the cavern, his eyes closed. FN-2187 drew to a halt and watched as Slip's hands slid over the muscles of his thighs, down to his knees and back up again, over and over. They kept returning to the space between his legs, running up and down the length of his erection.
That wasn't something that was entirely uncommon, to see another trooper sport an erection like that. FN-2187 saw other troopers naked on a regular basis, men and women, and every now and then one of the male troopers would develop one, but it would always subside on its own. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had one, himself, but standing there watching Slip touch his, he felt a tingling and tugging in his own gut, and all along the length of his body, between his legs, up to his throat. He swallowed.
Slip didn't notice him. His hands continued their journey across the terrain of his body, mapping its crevices with his fingers. FN-2187 had a sudden urge to put his own hands on Slip's body and do the same. He was absolutely certain he'd never had a desire to do that before, but he definitely was having one now. He placed his hand on his own erection, which had arisen more suddenly than he'd realized was possible, and squeezed.
The soft noise that came out of his mouth was apparently not enough to break Slip from his own reverie. FN-2187 watched Slip's hands grip himself, returning again and again to the center to stroke and touch and rub with the tips of his fingers.
When he did open his eyes at last, and focused on FN-2187 standing two meters away, he looked surprised, but not alarmed. He was also clearly frustrated.
"What's going on?" Slip asked, his voice dark and thick with feelings FN-2187 had never heard him express before. "What's happening to me?"
"Us," FN-2187 said. "Whatever's happening to you is happening to me, too."
Slip nodded. His pupils dilated as he gazed at FN-2187's erection.
"I used to get this sometimes when I was a kid," he said. "At night, mostly, or in the morning."
FN-2187 had vague memories of that happening to himself, too, but they were long enough ago that he couldn't quite recall details. "Did you do something about it?"
"Just this. The touching seems to help calm the restlessness, but it doesn't seem to be going away like it was yesterday."
"This was happening yesterday?" Now FN-2187 was even more worried. He gave up on being concerned about what Slip might think and came over to kneel beside him, checking his vitals with his fingers. He wasn't completely useless without technology.
Slip turned immediately into his touch, reaching for FN-2187's arms. Holding him seemed like the right thing to do, but neither of them were prepared for the reaction of their bodies at the sensation of skin brushing skin. Slip gasped, and FN-2187 clutched him tighter, feeling them both quiver all over.
"Oh," he said, "this is —" He stared up at FN-2187 leaning over him. When he reached up and stroked a hand over FN-2187's chest, they both let out a shaky breath. FN-2187 could feel his own erection trapped against Slip's thigh, and Slip's own, bobbing beneath his hand. He reached out with his fingers and touched it, watching Slip's face for any negative reaction, but Slip just looked overwhelmed.
"I'm not sure if it's better to leave it alone," FN-2187 said, his voice strained, "but the — the touching feels — good. Very good, to me."
"Yeah?" Slip pushed his hips forward, rubbing into FN-2187's palm, and nodded. "I'm having trouble focusing on anything else."
That was the truth. The sensations produced by the contact of their skin, everywhere, but especially on his fingers and other sensitive areas, was driving FN-2187 a little crazy.
On duty this would have been solved with work, he thought hazily, or possibly medication. Slip would have been given sedatives until he was healed. We never would have had this much time alone together to discover… this.
This, as he was learning, was turning out to be better than just about anything he'd ever experienced. He knelt in closer, straddling Slip's thigh, and applied a little pressure with his body. "Tell me if I'm hurting your ankle?"
"Not hurting," Slip gasped. "Feels better… better. You feel so good."
The buzz in his body was eclipsed, momentarily, by the burst of gladness in his chest. For a moment, he wondered if they'd been stricken with some illness. There was no way he could be feeling this good naturally.
Better was true, however, and with each rock of his body against Slip's thigh, the better increased, so much that he didn't want to stop. He focused on Slip's choppy breathing against his neck, and his own hands, running over Slip's skin, and chased the tension as it continued to intensify.
When his fingers found Slip's erection again and discovered he was starting to leak fluid from the tip, he paused and gave Slip an anxious glance. "Does this happen to you other times, too? It's not sickness, is it?"
"Just yesterday," Slip said, his voice tight. "I think it must be related to the lack of supplements. That's — what made me ask." Slip ran his fingers over the loose skin at the tip, his breath catching. "Sensation is increased. I can smell you."
Startled, FN-2187 took a deep breath in through his nose. "I just bathed."
"It's not a bad smell," Slip promised him. He leaned in closer, putting his nose against FN-2187's skin, and FN-2187 immediately had to contend with yet another dizzying rush of emotions. He wondered if he might pass out from them at some point.
When he thrust a little harder against Slip's leg, he noticed the slippery fluid seeping from his own erection, trailing moisture across Slip's abdomen. Slip's eyes were almost closed now, his fingers making a more focused rubbing motion along the entire length of himself. Each noise he made, every groan and gasp, inspired more intense sensations.
"I need," he whispered into FN-2187's ear, and suddenly gripped himself more firmly, stroking harder and with purpose. "I need — oh — "
It was somewhat distressing to witness Slip crying out and emitting pulse after pulse of fluid, covering the back of his hand and the mossy floor of the cavern, but from what FN-2187 could determine, he wasn't in any distress. Slip leaned into the shelter of FN-2187's arm and rested there for a long moment as his body gradually relaxed.
FN-2187, who was still buzzing with energy and tension of his own, paused in grinding against Slip's leg long enough to let him rest. Briefly, he inspected Slip's ankle, but it seemed to be all right.
"That was, um." He wasn't sure what to say. "Was that what you needed?"
Slip chuckled. "I think it must have been." He closed his eyes and exhaled, going very still. For a moment, FN-2187 wondered if Slip had fallen asleep. Then his hand stirred, tucking in between his leg and FN-2187's, making a loose channel of his fingers.
"Like this?" he asked, sounding suddenly uncertain.
Then FN-2187 thrust into it, and Slip squeezed a little tighter, and the sensation started all over again, more intense than before.
"Like that," FN-2187 urged, "yeah, that — tighter —"
The avid way Slip was watching him made it even better. His gaze leapt from FN-2187's mouth, back to his hand, to the movement of his hips.
"You look so good," Slip said, almost bewildered, and laughed, shaking his head as he leaned in for a better grip. "I don't get it, but I can't stop looking at you."
"I don't get any of this," FN-2187 panted. "Why didn't we know about this before?"
The question consumed him long after the sensation peaked and concluded in much the same way Slip's had. They peeled apart from one another, laughing a little. FN-2187 managed to help Slip to his feet and down the ravine to the pond to wash off. They swam in silence for a while.
"I wonder," Slip mused, paddling carefully to avoid the purple bank of crystal along the south shore. "I was thinking about the holovid series we watched with Nines."
"Dark Romance," FN-2187 said. He'd watched the classic Ch'been series with only mild interest, but many of the rest of their barracks had enjoyed it, or at least the parts the Imperial censors had deemed appropriate. "What about it?"
"The relationship between the speeder pilot and what's-her-name. Baby Ludi."
"Baby Ludi's cute boyfriend?" It had always seemed like a title to FN-2187, cute-boyfriend, the kind of thing one could aspire to if you had enough status and freedom and possibly money. Having none of those things himself made the question of whether or not he could have a cute boyfriend, or be a cute boyfriend, irrelevant.
Slip shook the water out of his hair, which was already longer than regulation. "The parts they cut out. I wonder if that's what they were doing? That — touching — that we were doing."
"Maybe? Do you suppose the rest of the Empire does those things all the time?"
Slip laughed. "Maybe they do."
FN-2187 had always thought Slip's laugh was a nice sound, one that made him feel warm inside. Then he thought about the way Slip had sounded at the climax of their touching, the most exciting part, and felt a renewal of sensation. He had an impulse to reach out, to touch him, and wondered if he should attempt to control it. Maybe Slip wouldn't want to do that again, or at least not so soon.
"You know," said Slip. He glanced up at FN-2187. "Baby Ludi kisses her cute boyfriend. On the holovid."
FN-2187 suddenly appreciated the absence of their helmets even more than before, because not only could he see Slip's hopeful expression when he said those words, but he could move right through the water and put his hand on Slip's cheek, and watch his eyes light up.
"I never really saw the point of kissing before," admitted FN-2187.
"Yeah, me neither. It always seemed kind of weird." Slip grinned, showing the gap between his teeth. FN-2187 remembered with sudden clarity when Slip was eleven and he'd had straighteners put on. He'd hated those straighteners. After he'd had them removed, by the time he reached his fifteenth birthday, the gap had reappeared. That gap was part of Slip that didn't show behind his helmet. It didn't make him more or less brave, or a more or less competent soldier. There was no purpose it served. In the Imperial scheme of things, it wasn't important.
Except now, FN-2187 wasn't sure if there wasn't a part of Slip that wasn't important. He let his eyes land on every part of his face, memorizing the whole thing.
"You, uh… still think it's weird?" he asked softly. "The kissing?"
Slip's smile widened. "I think if you'd asked me that yesterday, I might have said yes. But who can argue with new empirical data?"
The initial connection of their mouths was somewhat awkward. All FN-2187 had to go by was brief holovid images from Dark Romance. He tried desperately to remember how the kisses had gone, how long they'd lasted, and what kind of other things he should be doing while he was kissing.
Then he felt Slip's tongue parting his lips, and the slide of his wet hand around the back of FN-2187's neck, pulling him closer, and he forgot about being self-conscious. He also answered his earlier question about whether Slip might care to do all the stuff they'd done earlier again, because when their naked bodies connected beneath the water, Slip found a convenient spot on FN-2187's hip to grind against. Feeling Slip moan right into his mouth at the same time just made it all that much sweeter.
"Your ankle," he asked at one point, but Slip just shook his head and hung on around FN-2187's neck with both hands.
"Buoyancy," he whispered into FN-2187's ear, and placed his lips on the edge of his earlobe.
FN-2187 quickly added whispering and ear-kissing to the list of things that aroused his interest — a list that had Slip's name right at the top. Before they made it back to the cavern, he'd also added neck-biting, loud pleading and butt-grabbing. And then, once FN-2187 had him situated on the mossy floor again, it was Slip who suggested one he hadn't even considered.
"Let me try my mouth," he said.
FN-2187 wasn't absolutely certain he understood what he meant until Slip maneuvered himself between FN-2187's legs and made him cry out with the pressure of his lips and tongue. It took less than two minutes to reach a mind-blowing conclusion.
"That," he panted, "definitely reduced the length of time between arousal and climax."
"But did it feel better?" Slip wanted to know, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
With utmost care for his ankle, FN-2187 flipped Slip onto his back, then grinned down at him. "You'll have to let me know when I'm done."