Chapter 23: Vice Dads

They both woke up at about the same time, neither really remembering they'd fallen asleep in the bowels of the ship. Gary drew a deep breath, realizing he was clutching the end of Avocato's tail and feeling stiffness in every joint and muscle. He stirred and stretched all limbs before curling right back up against Avocato, unwilling to part with the Ventrexian's warmth quite yet. The general blinked yellow eyes and sat up straight, noticing the lack of kitten and the grip on his tail.

"You know, that's considered to be a remarkably familiar gesture," he said, nodding to Gary's hand with open bemusement. "Borderline intimate when adults are involved."

"Tail holding? Oh. You never mentioned it. And I did that a lot. Like, nightly. Ten years from now, I mean. Should I let go?"

"Only if you want."

Pffft. As if.

"Nope. Don't want." His eyes narrowed. "Is it me, or is your tail not as long as bounty hunter Avocato's?"

That actually elicited a small laugh. "It's not you. Normally a Ventrexian's tail stops growing when they do, in our early twenties or so. In my very extensive family tree, there's a genetic anomaly a few of us have that causes our tails to keep growing well into adulthood. So, yes, in ten years my tail will be longer. It's a trait that runs in the royal family, so it's considered very chic to have in Ventrexian society." He shook his head. "I was on the receiving end of every recessive gene in the Cato line. The color, the blaze, the height, the tail, no whiskers – I got all the hereditary backwash both sides of my family had to offer. My brothers used to tease me and say I was lucky I didn't have antennae, too. I'm just grateful my boy takes after his mother."

"Little Cato doesn't have whiskers."

"Rub it in, Goodspeed." Avocato shook his head, amused for another moment before getting down to business. "So, what had him upset before?"

Gary sighed, unconsciously twisting Avocato's tail.

"Ow."

"Sorry." He loosened his hold, petting the offended tail gently. "There, there, Tail. So, you know Little Cato wasn't raised on Ventrexia and he hasn't had as much exposure to Ventrexian culture as most kids his age."

"Yes," was the deadpan answer.

"Okay, yeah, you definitely would have noticed that. Sooo, he doesn't pick up on the non-verbal cues all the time. A lot of the time, yeah, buuuut not so much when it comes to some of the messages you send him." He finished with a grimace, knowing Avocato would be confused and hurt.

"Could you be a little less vague?"

Gary bit the bullet. "He's never heard you say you love him. And when I was asking what happened before over waffles, for the first time he realized you've been saying you love him all along, just not out loud."

"Ow."

"Yeah, ow."

"No. My tail, Gary. It doesn't bend that way."

"Oh. Oh. Sorry."

"He thinks I don't love him?"

"Oh, he knows you love him, Cato. He knows. You gave us the dimensional key. He saw you defy the Lord Commander and try to kill him. He saw you die protecting him. He knows you love him. He just . . . kinda needs to hear it."

Avocato looked stricken. "There's a reason I can't say it aloud," he said softly. "I am watched. Constantly. Everything I do and say, everywhere I go and everyone I speak to is monitored by the Lord Commander and his spies. There's no escape. Even in my own home, I have no expectation of privacy. I can't and won't endanger him by letting on how much he means to me. Don't you see? I can't say it out loud. I don't dare. The Lord Commander has got enough weapons to use against me. I won't give him another one. I won't give him my son."

"But . . ."

"Little Cato isn't the only one paying a price for this decision, Gary," was the tight reply. He closed his eyes, bowing his head.

"I know." He extended his free hand and gently turned Avocato's head to face him, leaving his hand resting on that soft cheek. "But you're not on Tera Con Prime now, Avocato."

Yellow eyes met hazel across the few inches separating them. Reaching up, Avocato covered Gary's hand with his own. "I know," he echoed.

"He's a lot like you," Gary said, determined to crack on even though he suddenly honed in on how close Avocato was to him right now. "He comes down really hard on himself if he thinks he's messed up. Too hard. He gets some scary dark moods, too, and he can swap modes like flipping a switch. All those years alone in the time shard left a lot of scars. Sometimes he's his own worst enemy because for sixty years, he had to deal with everything on his own. He doesn't really reach out when he needs a hand."

"He has you."

"And you. At least until your ride gets here. You have to tell him, Cato. Give him a little time and space to cool off right now, but let him know, in no uncertain terms, how much he means to you."

"I will. Today. I promise you, I will," said Avocato, then gently reminded, "Ow."

"Sorry, sorry." Gary sheepishly smiled as he opened his fingers to keep from clutching that oh-so-appealing tail too tightly. "You're going to take it back, I know. I just . . . got in the habit on the Galaxy 1."

"You're my husband," Avocato stated simply, not pulling his tail free. "You're allowed."

Oh.

Heck Chicklets.

He'd said it. Husband. Said it without choking or looking astonished or lost in the sauce afterwards. He hadn't just said it, he meant it. At point-blank range, no less. That lead to the logical-in-Garyland conclusion that Avocato had finally managed to wrap his brain around the fact that he was married to the humanoid trash. He was so close to Gary right now. So close and so warm. Open. More vulnerable than Gary had ever seen him before. Gary was seized by an overwhelming desire to kiss Avocato. Here. Now. Should he? Dare he? He'd wanted to kiss Avocato for . . . ever. Since, like, five minutes after meeting him. In light of all the other universe-sent crap they had to deal with at this exact moment, would that be selfish? Did Avocato feel what he was feeling? Not that what he was feeling made a lot of sense right now, but it sure as hell felt good. They were so close and Avocato was pressing his hand and looking at him with those big, yellow eyes and he had that totally-not-fair uniform on and everything about him shrieked tenderness at the top of its lungs and then Avocato threaded his fingers between Gary's and in that instant he was completely overthrown.

"Wouuuuld you mind if I tried something right now?"

Wait. That was his voice. He could talk? That was a thing? Impressive. How he managed a coherent sentence at this moment was beyond Gary's ken. He was so hopelessly focused on the Ventrexian beside him that the whole world just seemed to melt away. Avocato merely looked interested to find out what the grand experiment was.

"No."

This was it. His moment. His chance. The open invitation had been issued. He couldn't blow this. Well, he could blow it, but he really didn't want to. Now what? Slow? Chaste? French? Could you French kiss a Ventrexian without cutting your tongue on those canines? Challenge accepted, but . . . did they even kiss on Ventrexia? What could Avocato handle? What could he handle? Would his friend/husband think he was nuts or unsanitary or – the hell with it. He was going in. Meet you on the other side, Goodspeed.

He leaned in and kissed his husband, slow and gentle, giving Avocato every chance to evade or pull away if he chose. Gary closed his eyes because he was afraid to see and tried to pour all the love and appreciation and desire he felt for this man into the contact. To his surprise and delight, Avocato responded in kind, pressing forward into the caress. Gary wanted to celebrate the fact that Avocato seemed to want this as much as he did. Well, if not wanted, at least welcomed.

It had been ages since Gary had kissed anyone. Not since Quinn when the earth was dying. He had realized then that kissing someone you loved could be different from just kissing someone, but kissing Avocato was totally different from kissing Quinn. Why that caught him off guard, he had no idea. Maybe it was because he wasn't about to be put to bed with a shovel like he'd been when he kissed Quinn and had time to actually enjoy the caress. Maybe it was because Avocato was a furry dream come true with soft hair all the way to the edge of his mouth that made him adorably fuzzy to kiss. Avocato tasted wild and salty versus Quinn's hint of whisky and spice. It was too much to think about. Besides, it was no fair and no fun comparing one to the other. Each was sizzling hot and kissed amazingly for their own reasons. All Gary knew was that there was a hot, sweet mouth locked against his and he was stupid in love with its owner. That, and he never wanted to stop.

His heart was racing and Gary felt a rush of heat through his veins, warm and tingling all at once. He sensed that this was somehow dangerous or forbidden, but Avocato was temptation and sin given form and Gary wanted to drink deeply. Somewhere in his brain alarms were blaring that this was the second-most powerful individual in the galaxy, a warlord, killer, a xenocide time and again, so what the hell did Gary think he was doing kissing General Avocato here on the deck outside engineering? The rest of his brain rallied long enough to tell the alarms to go to hell because this was his husband of almost a year and it was high stinkin' time they kissed. Besides, Avocato had said he was allowed.

Temptation won. Take that, brain.

Something instinctive made Gary drop it down a gear to let Avocato get comfortable with the contact. Let it be slow and gentle, let him explore and get used to the idea of being more than comrades-in-arms (as it were) and friends. Or not. Gary realized that he could go on from here as they had been. Just so long as they were together . . . someday. It didn't even have to be romantic or intimate, just . . . together. Because they were both so much more in every way when they had each other, and he would take whatever Avocato was willing to give him.

And now he knew what it was like to kiss Avocato.

It was . . . pretty freaking wonderful.

Eventually, slowly, they pulled apart, but not away. Gary dared to open his eyes, only to find Avocato looking at him and slowly blinking in surprise. All that vulnerability was still there, just below the surface as he processed what had just passed between them.

"You okay?" pressed Gary, suddenly afraid he may have just ruined everything.

Avocato nodded. "Yes."

"Because you look a little dazed and I don't want to have blown whatever progress we've made as far as us being a thing if that's even a possibility and -"

Just as Gary had done to him the night before, Avocato reached out and silenced Gary's rambling with a finger to his lips.

"You are my husband," reminded Avocato firmly, "and I am yours." For Avocato, at least, that was all the explanation needed. He leaned back, a faint smile on his face as he continued to gaze at Gary. "And you are very easy to fall in love with, Captain Goodspeed."