( closed )

[imaginate]

Characters: Kyle & various.
Date: Catch-all log for July.
Location: All around.
Situation: Various.
Warnings/Rating: War horrors, child abuse, mention of torture, physical and psychological.
Notes: [Action] or prose are all good. Ping me if you'd like a specific setup/threadstarter.

Comments

[imaginate]

Has the storm passed? Kyle's not sure, but he grins back.

'No promises, James.' A pause, and then, compeletely straight-faced, he adds, 'Mu ha ha ha ha ha.'

[jirk]

Jim gives him the actual flattest look, and then he just shoves him off the couch. "That was the worst maniacal villain laugh I've ever heard! Good luck getting laid sometime this century, Angel, because you just lost all the sexy points your ankles won for you."

[imaginate]

He tumbles off, but it's all play, and he's all smiles, genuine and earnest. He flattens his arms on the floor and looks up at Jim.

'Not even going to bother telling me how to earn it back?'

[jirk]

"Oh, I imagine you'll think of something." Jim reaches out with his good foot and drops it down across Kyle's abdomen, gently. It feels good to play, and hey, it's a huge improvement over sitting in the dark, thinking about everything he's going to have to say to the people he failed when (if) he gets back.

[imaginate]

He closes his eyes, enjoying the sensation.

'Dinner, and maybe one or two drinks? How's that for getting in your good books?'

[jirk]

"Sounds a little more like you're straight-up trying to seduce me." Jim grins, leans against the couch's armrest. "Careful, Angel, don't lead me on."

[imaginate]

Kyle grins, wickedly, and then it fades into a calm, neutral expression. Contentment.

'Never,' he says, simply. 'Walk beside me.'

[jirk]

"I like flying, personally." It's a flippant statement, mirroring that calm neutrality. But he thinks it means more to Kyle, and he doesn't want to examine that too closely right now. He's not going to dig into things looking for alternate meanings, he's just going to. Go with it. Take everything as it is.

[imaginate]

'Christ, you did not just hand me an opening to use "You've never flown with me".'

He goes with it and laughs, light, clear. 'Did you?'

[jirk]

"Just go with it." Jim's grinning now, but not laughing yet, even if he's close to it. He takes another swig of his beer and some of the tension's gone, he's not having to remind himself to ratchet his shoulders back down to their usual position. He's not as loose and boneless as he likes to be (not enough alcohol to even approach that casual threshold) but he's better. Brighter.

"When're you gonna take me, anyway?" He's actually being serious about it, but a new thought occurs to him after he's spoken. "If you felt like letting me use your ring I could show you the Enterprise." Jim isn't even remotely concerned with whether or not he could use the ring, he just knows he can. Everything he puts his mind to, he does.

[imaginate]

Kyle lifts a very accusing finger, tempered by his bright, playful expression. 'Then you're in for a real treat. You've never flown with anyone like me.'

The arm falls back and he tilts his head, to the side. 'Whenever you want to go.' A pause, as he considers the next bit, biting his lip. He doesn't doubt Jim could use his ring, it's just like, handing a backup that much power without them being trained to use it. Honestly, if he thought about it carefully, Jim was a better short-term choice than Spock, if one only factored in raw power. Overall Spock had better control, and he understood having to restrain part of its use in order to be safe, and remain that way.

'I don't mind,' he says, 'but you might want to practice a bit first to get a feel for it before you go all the way there, yeah?'

His ship means a lot to Jim, and Kyle wants him to get it right all at once.

[jirk]

"Sulu would object to that, and rightfully so. He's the best damn pilot in the universe." Jim nudges his foot against Kyle's side, half-trying to tickle him and half just continuing the sense of play.

"Hey." That's edging back into serious, and Jim tilts his head. "Never met a challenge I didn't like, remember? I bet I could do it on my first go."

[imaginate]

'Lantern Jordan would disagree with that. Vehemently.'

In a rare show of passivity, he lets himself be touched, giving it several moments before he reaches out a hand to tickle the sole of Jim's foot. Before, Jim playing with him would have warranted Kyle muting himself, but it's easier now. He feels better, and safer, and so he can give the response he wants.

The challenge being accepted, when the earlier one had been rejected, helps too.

'Getting a little ahead of yourself,' he teases, but yes, let's do it is written across the rest of him.

[jirk]

"He's more than welcome to try." There's an element of Jim's natural competitive nature there, because Sulu is the best and no one can tell him differently, but it's not as vehement or as... out-to-prove as usual. Different universes. He doesn't need to contrast and compare. Jim has faith in his crew - he's got all the faith in every possible universe in his crew, and that's enough.

And then Kyle touches his foot and Jim flexes his toes and laughs. "Not ticklish, try again. And I'm not even a little ahead of myself. I know I can do it."

[imaginate]

'Oh he will,' Kyle pauses, testing the atmosphere, and then grins again. Still playing. He doesn't really need to compete with anybody, his people are the best, brightest stars in his sky and no one can hold a candle to them.

'I know,' he says. Faith, pure and simple. He tickles Jim's foot again, just in case. 'Hm, you're really not ticklish. What am I supposed to do now? Just kiss you?'

[jirk]

There's a part of him that'd rather be with Una, or Wichita (despite her escapades in stealing his phaser) or Carol Danvers, but Kyle's not so bad himself. He'd never really flirted with intent regarding Kyle, not in the beginning, because although Jim could find some men attractive his preference had always been pretty clear.

But this is... exploration of intent, and that's throwing him off a bit. He never thinks about sex this much, he just jumps right into it. Kyle'd asked for space, and time, and Jim likes him just enough that he's willing to wait, which is uncharacteristic enough of his own preferences that it's got him suspicious and vaguely irritated about the whole process. There's a reason he doesn't usually sleep with people he considers friends. Things get murky, and there's always that chance--

(He thinks about Gaila, and shunts that aside)

"Well, I won't say I'm not open to the suggestion." He holds out a hand, to pull Kyle up if he takes it.

[imaginate]

What's that. Awkwardness? This is probably why he doesn't do flings.. or anything, anymore, really. He dreams of Jenny dying, a lot, getting ripped from his fingers and disappearing into green dust, and the full force of Ion bonding with him, white-hot, and intense. When Guy tries to get him to relax, he usually ends up just talking to the girl in question or wandering around outside, feeling like he's cheating a really fun game.

But he never rejects anything new, or bold. He just gets used to it being there, and goes on. If it's the pieces of the sky, he picks them up, and moves on from that, too.

So Kyle takes Jim's hand, lets him pull him up.

[jirk]

Jim promptly tugs Kyle into his lap, and leans up to kiss him. One thing he hadn't considered: height problems. Having girls on his lap usually puts them at roughly the right height for kissing, but Kyle's taller than just about any woman he's ever been with (excepting maybe some of the aliens) so he has to tilt his chin up to get the proper angle, which actually amuses him more than anything.

Probably should have thought this through a little bit better, but oh well. He throws caution into the wind (and probably through a turbine engine in the process) and kisses him.

[imaginate]

He adjusts so he's not putting weight on Jim's bad leg, and tries not to frown at it. But it's nice, this is all nice, and Jim'd said no strings anyway so Kyle doesn't feel weird at all. There's no pressure to act a certain way or do certain things, he can just be himself.

He lifts a hand to catch at the back of Jim's neck, steadies himself, and kisses back.

[jirk]

Jim smirks against the kiss, a little. He always enjoys the conquest and triumph part of chasing people down, probably a little more than he should, but this is new and fun and exciting, just one more to boldly go and Jim's never turned down the exploration of anything.

He drops one hand against Kyle's hip, thumb skimming against the curve of the bone, fingers flexed just slightly as he drops his attention to Kyle's throat and presses his lips there, too.

[imaginate]

Oddly enough, Kyle doesn't make a move to respond, he sits quietly and lets Jim touch him. It's a tiny fuck you to that holding cell, where they kept him still and tried to put fear into him. He's making it mean something different, putting all the force of his considerable will into it. He's the river and he's washing all of the horrors downstream, entering the rapids and dashing them against the rocks.

(And Jim won't let him face it alone.)

[jirk]

Jim knows him, can guess at what he's doing, and so he continues with his progress. Determined, resolute. Not particularly gentle, because neither of them need gentleness, but he's still careful. Firm, not the slightest echo of cruelty or violence in his touch. He kisses Kyle's neck and the junction of his shoulder before the shirt gets in the way. He wants it off, he decides, so with one hand he presses his fingers against the back of Kyle's neck and pulls him down for another kiss, and slides the one against his hip up under his shirt, resting against his stomach. Asking permission.

[imaginate]

Kyle lets him continue. Waiting, and watching, with caution, as he usually does. He's a little tense, and worried, but he trusts Jim, completely and implicitly, the way he would trust someone from the Corps and the caution seems excessive. Sometimes, it's just better to leap without looking, to take that leap of faith.

He hadn't had much in way of faith or hope (or fun), but that didn't mean he couldn't recognise it or accept it when it was offered to him.

He puts a hand on Jim's arm: hm?, and presses it lightly, letting it remain there as he figures out what to do.

'Something I can do for you, Captain?'

[jirk]

He's hardly a stranger to people wanting to put on the brakes, and Jim eases up without question or comment. He moves fast, always has, but he's never had a problem respecting other people's boundaries, either. Usually he just picks people who don't have any - like him - and everything works out for all parties involved. He drags the pads of his fingers inward a tiny bit, lifting his palm from against Kyle's skin, hand loosely curled into more of a resting position than an exploratory one.

"You could always lose the shirt." He tilts his head to one side, curious. Even his tone isn't terribly pressing.

[imaginate]

That's still surprising to him, on some level, considering they've been tearing into each other from day one. Maybe a little of that's over, now.

He shifts his hand from where it is on Jim's arm, to his waist, playing with the hem of his shirt, exploring, pushing, a little.

'Yours too?'