Date 3: Warm Days, Cold Nights
Posted on Thu Mar 30th, 2023 @ 7:03pm by Daniel Martinez & Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver
2,269 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Good Will Tour: Mountain Home [Part Two]
Location: Triton Colony: Hart Stables
Timeline: MD15: 2000 hours
Max and Dani had ridden the horses out to Hart, the younger’s, son had built a tree house out on the edge of the property, but still inside the fence line.
The adventuresome duo were prepared to climb the old wooden stairs until they crumbled to dust under their grip. Max had put enough weight on that he nearly hit the ground, instead landing back into Dani’s prepared arms.
Max laughed as the wood continued to waste away in his gloves. “How were you prepared to catch me?” he asked.
“The way today has been going, I expected a broken leg and for me to drag your useless ass up over Zapp’s back so that Lela and I could ride back to the house with you.”
Max had tied a small sack to his saddle pommel and a beeping sound came from it. Dani stared daggers at him. “You must be kidding after all the shit you put us through to avoid detection from anyone and you’ve got a Starfleet communicator in your bag?”
Dani moved toward Max as he pulled out the old communicator. “If you can even guess how old this is, I’ll give you something special,” Max teased.
“That is 2260’s,” Dani answered confidently. Max moved his face closer to Dani’s ready to kiss him, but instead Max put his hand up between them.
“I didn’t say I would give you something special right now, mi amor. Tendrás que esperar hasta más tarde.”
Dani gave Max his doubtful eyes and biting tongue. “I can wait for later, Maxwell, can you?”
Max grabbed just a small fistfull his hair, tugging it back but not too roughly, still Dani hissed and pretended to struggle. before Max’s lips were at the nape of his neck to Dani’s jawline before settling just over Dani’s open mouth. Max punctuated every word that followed with a passionate kiss. If they were in public, the Romulans would definitely not approve. “It’s. Time. For. Dinner.” With that proclamation, Max slapped Dani’s rear end.
Dani climbed up on Lela and gave her a gentle rub at her shoulder. He looked directly at Max and raised a brow. “Well then, cowboy. You should saddle up, hmm?” Dani asked before riding back to the Hart’s stables.
Max grabbed his pommel of Zapp’s saddle and the entire saddle came with it. Max turned a surprised look in Dani’s direction as he was already riding some distance away.
“Now you will just have to wait longer for your surprise,” Max shouted. “Little smart ass,” he muttered as he resaddled his horse.
After dinner had been cooked and eaten, Max cleared the table. Daniel stood up and lit a cigarette as Dani watched in sheer surprise. “Mister Hart, those are terrible for your health.”
The elder Daniel answered, “Telling a host that cigarettes are bad for their health is almost as bad as watching another guest doin’ the washin’ up without helping’. I think you’ll find your room goes from the warm mattress inside to a cold of the hammock out here. Right ‘tween them trees, friend.”
“Hey Max,” Dani said, more to the orange glow than the man whose face disappeared when the glow of the cigarette did. “I’m on the way in. I heard you need a hand!”
Dani walked in and found Max doing the dishes in a sink with a sponge and dish soap. There was a small radio, maybe replicated or original and updated from somewhere in the 1900’s. It played some soft music, certainly not old Earth country music. “What is this?”
Max smiled. “Dishes aren’t drying themselves, Prince Martinez. If you don’t mind washing your hands and then drying the dishes, hmm?”
Max paused as Dani washed his hands and grabbed a towel to dry. “So is this the life of a retired Starfleet captain? A nice, little cottage away from everything?”
Max smiled. “You think this is away from everything? I want my own planet away from anything,” Max joked.
“How would that work for an android like you?” Dani asked, his question finally landing on one of the things owed to him, an answer.
“Nice guess, but not right.”
Dani rubbed another plate clean. And them a third. “Okay then, an El-Aurian might be able to live a long time alone, but you’re young for an El-Aurian, so you might be looking at two millennia alone.”
“That is a long time alone for someone like me,” Max admitted.
“So I keep getting older by the day while you get older as long as you feel like you want to keep going on, is that right?” Dani asked.
“It’s close to that.” Max answered as he put away some of the dried dishes. Dani handed the forks to Max, who deftly put them away, then the knives and spoons. “It’s harder to describe than that, and it isn’t quite that instant. Still, when we decide to die, it can take another thousand years. Sometimes longer sometimes much shorter. I guess it depends on how hard your will is broken.”
From outside, a shout filled the kitchen. “I hear a lot of jaws yappin’ not a lot of dishes washed.”
“We only have glasses to wash, Dan,” Max shouted back. “Besides the replicator’s got a recycler, so why do you have us in here washing dishes?”
“Didn’t want you to feel too bad for taking advantage of my hospitality.” Dan stepped into the kitchen and put his cigarette out on the door stop before tossing it into a garbage bag. “Come on, Dan. Put it out on your boot like a gentleman. You old mule.”
“Well this old mule has put in a day, so I’m goin’ to bed. You wanna have a fire, I suggest you get to it. Otherwise, it’s bound to get cold tonight. Might want an extra blanket, one for each of y’all.”
Max nodded. “All right, Dan. You get yourself off to bed. We’ll be out here for just a bit, but not too late,” Max answered.
“Still got them glasses to wash, Maxwell,” Dan answered, pointing at the water still in the sink.
“Yep,” Max answered as he turned and placed them in the replicator that resorbed the molecules. Max looked at Dan with a smirk. “My shirt and pants are wet now, Dan.”
The elder Hart smiled. “Don’t worry, this nice, Spanish boy’s been looking to get you out of both since you showed up like a pair of wrestlin’ octopuses at my gates.”
Dan moved out of the kitchen with a heavy, wheezing laugh.
Max gave his own hearty laugh while Dani turned beet red. Max doubled over on the counter, tears rolling down his cheeks. Dani pulled Max up, very uncomfortable now. “I don’t think we can sleep in the same bedroom in HIS house now, estúpido.” Max’s heavy laugh died down into a manageable chuckle.
“He said we should grab extra blankets to stay warm. He’s not stupid,” Max said quietly.
“Not deaf either, boys. I raised basically three boys. My brother’s middle boy, Colton, was gay. Now he used to use the hay loft, thinkin’ if his stupid, older brother could get away with it there, so could he.
“Now, Joshy, he was…is? Hell who knows, let’s say “was” since he’s on wife number two. Well, he was smart enough to ask permission so he didn’t have his boys and girls sleepin’ or mostly not sleepin’ in the bay. It’s a helluva lot more comfortable in a bed, niño.”
“Now, Maxwell Culver. I expect the rest of them dishes go in the recycler. You boys get out of them clothes. I still got pajamas upstairs for the boys, so you’ll have to find somethin’ that fits, but that’s your problem. Y’all want it any warmer up there, you’ll need to turn on the gas stove, Maxwell, now you know how to do that.”
“Yes sir,” Max replied like a cadet at the Academy. “Now stop your worrying, I’ll make sure all is taken care of, Mister Hart. Get yourself into bed.”
Dan mocked a salute. “Yes’sir.”
Max hugged the older man. “Of you go, you damn, old fool.”
“If it’s all the same, I’m gonna stay just as long as I can, son. Like to see Josh, Isabelle, Matty and that bouncing’ baby girl, Selena a few more times. No, I’m gonna stay quite a while longer.”
Max smiled and nodded quietly. “Well, it is your house, so I believe you can stay as long as you want.”
Dani smiled, finally understanding about the cigarette. Mister Hart was dying. He didn’t want any pity, so Max didn’t give him any. Neither would Dani.
Max took Dani’s drying rag. “Now, why don’t you go find those pajamas and run them through the nearest clothes fresher. Just off the mud porch,” Max stupidly realized was behind him. Dani went to find the pajamas while Max placed the other dishes in the recycler before drying the counter. He heard the sound of a door close and turned down the radio.
Dan came to the door. “You can leave that radio on, son. I usually have it on to compliment the grasshoppers at night. It shuts itself off when the solar battery runs dry.”
Dani came back through the kitchen and dropped the pajamas on the fresher. Max tossed the towels on the fresher and hit the cycle. With a big smile, Max pushed Dani back against the wall behind him and pulled off his shirt. “What are you doing?” Dani asked with shock and surprise in his quiet voice.
“Helping you undress so we can throw our clothes in the fresher for tomorrow,” Max answered as he fiddled with Dani’s button on his jeans.
“Stop it, Maxwell,” Dani argued, trying to get Max to take his hands off. “I can take my own clothes off.”
“Gods, you’re impossible when your dad has lost you on his tracker,” Max answered. “Also, never call me Maxwell again.” Max pulled off his own shirt and tossed it on the fresher.
Once he was out of his own shirt, Max could see Dani had finished with his jean buttons. He moved close again and put his hands down either side of the younger man’s pants and slid down Dani’s jeans, pulling them off around his ankles and then his socks on each side.
When Max stood up, he handed Dani his pajama pants and pulled down a towel. “The bathroom is at the bottom of the stairs. You’ll have to turn the water valves to start it. This house was built in the old fashion, knobs and drains. With the exception of the toilets, the fresher and the replicator, everything else came from his own house on Earth, which I suppose is mine until I give it to his son or his grandson.”
Dani wrapped the towel around his waist and made to find the bathroom, just into the kitchen, he stopped. “You understand I’m not comfortable…” he looked around.
“I know,” Max answered. “To be honest, I’m not comfortable either, but I’m also not sleeping on the couch, kiddo. I’m middle-aged for your species, think of what that would do to my back.”
Dani finally felt comfortable enough to laugh and Max snickered quietly with him. “Now go on! It’s already cold enough without my shirt on…oh! And leave the water running!”
“Max?” Dani asked, leaning against the old wooden timber that separated the rooms. “Why do you do these things?”
“What things?” Max asked, undressing himself as he talked.
“Things like buy this man’s home on Earth and hold it for his son or his grandson? Set him up here, on a small farm that’s still manageable. Give him a sense of family while his own is running around the Alpha Quadrant?”
“People need to be cared for, more than things. When the day comes that a man has nothing left to his life, he still has things that he would like to give. Remembrances. More than remembrances, people need to be remembered, Dani. Now,” Max finally pulled his leg free from his pants. “Now you’ll be thinking about your dad and how he’s just trying to remember you. But, it’s just a justification for poor choices. If he cared about you, he would be here helping you, not expecting you to fail.”
By now, Max had wrapped his own towel around his waist. “You’ve waited so long, I’ll be frozen by the time you’re out of the shower.”
“That was kind of the point, Max. I am comfortable in the shower with you, just not…you know.” Dani smiled coyly.
“Well, off to the shower, Mister Martinez,” Max announced quietly as he snatched up his own pajamas and followed his boyfriend through the house.
“It’s time to start putting your degrees to good use, unless he paid for your grades too,” Max commented smartly.
“I earned all of my grades, and many of them were not easy, Capitán Culver.” Dani gave Max a smug look while Max secretly loved the way Dani pronounced “Cool-ver”.