Mercury's Orbit

by Lia Black

  His muscles were starting to ache as he continued to hold onto Mercury. He had to speed this up, get Mercury to come, and pray that his theory was correct. He drew his tongue up Mercury’s earlobe, and he shivered in response, his muscles starting to relax. Good sign.

  With his hand still working below, he began kissing and tonguing Mercury’s pale throat, occasionally rasping his teeth against the vibrating artery in his neck. Mercury’s cock was fully erect now and beginning to bead with precome. Sean smeared it around the head with his thumb. Mercury’s struggling became more like writhing as he moaned deep in his chest.

  Sean was torn between finding this very erotic and finding it incredibly wrong. It seemed to be working. It seemed to be necessary, and yet, Sean didn’t like the fact that this was being used as a measure of control. Yes, Mercury needed to be controlled; but making sex part of that control was just asking for all kinds of trouble.

  He was not normally the kind of guy who could have any kind of sex-only relationship, or have sex one time with someone whom he’d be spending a lot of time with, without getting more intimately involved. It’s why he refused to date co-workers. Too many layers of complication. With Tim back on Luna, the only reason he’d taken him up on his offer was because he knew he’d probably never see the guy again. He was going to be stuck with Mercury until they were rescued, until they reached a port, or one of them was dead.

  Assuming they both survived this, to have sex with him then go on with business as if nothing had changed just wasn’t something he could do. He’d do this for him out of necessity, but there was no way he was going to go all the way then ship him away in handcuffs as if it hadn’t meant a thing. Maybe the undercover agent Craig, whom Mercury had called Princess, could fuck him while fucking him over, but Sean refused.

  Still, he couldn’t deny that he was getting turned on, especially with the way that Mercury was now pushing back against him; he could feel Mercury’s ass grinding against his crotch, as he came closer to orgasm. Mercury’s skin tasted a little salty when Sean licked it, a little bitter, but clean like some kind of citrus. He even had a smell about him that seemed somehow familiar and arousing, but the fragrance was impossible to identify as anything specific. It smelled like Mercury Fie.

  “Come on...come for me...” Sean breathed in Mercury’s ear, his own heart beating blood to his loins.

  A moment later, he felt Mercury’s cock expand as he arched his body, pushing back hard into Sean’s crotch. Mercury made a strangled cry and thrust forward into Sean’s fist, shooting out ribbons of purple-tinted come. The organ flexed in Sean’s hand with every pump and Mercury’s body sagged and shuddered from the after-shocks.

  “T-thank you. Pretty...I nnneeded that...” Mercury slurred as his cock slipped from Sean’s grasp. He slumped lower, until he wasn’t moving at all.

  Sean let out the breath he’d been holding when Mercury had started to climax. He raised his shaking hand, looking at the thick, milky substance he’d drawn from Mercury’s body, trying to put this situation back into perspective. Wiping the come on Mercury’s shirt, he slowly disentangled his legs and got up. His muscles ached like they did after working out too hard and he palmed his crotch, his cock stiff and sensitive. Mercury was lying on the ground, his hair and face a mess of blood, and Sean couldn’t tell if he was even conscious. His chest was still heaving as he breathed, so at least that confirmed he was still alive. But his eyes were partially open and glazed, and they didn’t follow Sean when he moved.

  Well, that killed any arousal.

  “Shit, Mercury...” Sean murmured, retrieving the first aid kit that had been shoved in the duffel bag. He crouched down and began gently cleaning the wounds. They were deep, and Sean was amazed that Mercury hadn’t cracked his skull. He wasn’t so certain, however, that something might not have rattled loose in his brain. They had to find an outpost or settlement soon. Supplies were starting to run low—especially the sugary pudding in their MREs. As much as Sean despised the idea, he could probably pick up some drugs there as well....and they certainly wouldn’t be baby aspirin. But first they had to get the hell out of this freighter, and it was impossible while the storms raged outside.

  He hated to admit that he was starting to feel a little sympathy towards Mercury, and again he blamed Pearl’s influence. Mercury had been a messed-up kid. It didn’t make his acts forgivable, but maybe a little more understandable. Unfortunately, at the Tribunal, Mercury wouldn’t even get off with an insanity plea. That hadn’t been an admissible defense for over a hundred years. If someone were so bat-shit crazy that they couldn’t function in society without killing someone, then they had no business being alive themselves. Sean used to believe in that line of logic. Now he wasn’t so certain that it was quite that black and white. If what Mercury had told him was true, and right now, he had no reason to believe that it wasn’t, then he really was a victim of so-called science and progress. Nature and nurture had conspired to make a very emotionally damaged being. What was worse, Mercury probably had a cocktail of alien and contrived DNA flooding his system. Every species had different temperaments, different instincts to develop or overcome. It was anybody’s guess what would happen by mixing them all up together. He doubted if Mercury even knew all of the parts that went into making him.

  Sean finished cleaning Mercury’s wounds and applied a dermal glue that would seal the flesh closed better than old-fashioned sutures. Then he gently affixed bandages to the area to try and keep the wounds clean. While it might have been kinder to let Mercury die in the forest, Sean wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for walking away from an injured man. Now he was forced to deal with the consequences of that decision. They likely had a few more days until the storms passed and the ground discharged. He’d have to do his best to keep Mercury alive because being stuck in an enclosed space with a dead man was not his idea of time well spent.

  18

  It seemed the only sleep that Mercury got was when he was unconscious, and right now, keeping him awake was exactly what Sean had to do. He had to assume that Mercury had suffered a serious concussion. He obviously had a hard skull to leave dents like that in the metal walls, but the brains inside were delicate, and usually didn’t appreciate getting sloshed around so much. While he knew the idea of keeping a person awake after a head injury was not medically sound advice, it assumed a level of medical attention that they didn’t have access to right now. Until they could get out of here, keeping Mercury conscious was the best monitoring of his condition that they had.

  Sean picked Mercury up under the arms and set him on his feet.

  “We going someplace?” Mercury mumbled, swaying in Sean’s arms.

  “Soon. I need you to stay conscious for a little while. I want to make sure you’re going to be all right.”

  “Oh,” Mercury said. “How thoughtful.”

  Sean wasn’t certain if he was being genuine or facetious. But he was being typically Mercury, and that seemed like a good sign.

  It was awkward to try and hold Mercury up and keep him balanced, so Sean did something he figured he’d regret.

  “Okay, come here; lean up against these crates,” he said, guiding Mercury to the stack of crates he’d been sitting on earlier. He took out the handcuff key and popped the lock, then he tucked them all back into his pocket and began unwrapping the wires.

  “Aren’t you worried that I’ll hurt you?” Mercury asked after watching him for a long span of silence.

  “I’m pretty much convinced that you’ll try,” Sean said, working out a knot. He’d been craving cigarettes again so he’d gone back to chewing on the strip of plastic.

  “I like you, Pretty. I like you very much…” Mercury raised his partially bound hands to Sean’s cheek, and gave him a very light caress.

  “For the moment, you mean.” He brought Mercury’s hands down and finished taking off the rest of the wires.

  “…Very, very much.” Mercury smiled and leaned in close. Sean didn’t reac
t until he felt warm breath on his lips, then he took a step back. Shit—what was that? He’d nearly let Mercury kiss him.

  “C’mon, let’s get you walking a little,” he said, trying to shake off the odd sensation of being caught off-guard yet again.

  He guided one of Mercury’s arms over his shoulders and helped him walk around a small circular track. He wasn’t certain if Mercury was aware of what had happened to him, and what had been done to bring him out of it, but Sean didn’t think it was a good idea to mention it right now—or ever, for that matter. Drugs seemed like the best option to keep Mercury stable, but even if they reached a settlement or space port, the likelihood of finding drugs not laced with toxins or watered down was probably remote. Besides, regardless of how scruffy he looked, there was no way Sean would pass for a junkie, especially not wearing a CSD uniform. He was praying that they’d find a candy-store on Terra Huygen. Right, or maybe a goddamn sugar mine. Big Rock-Candy Mountain.

  “You’re doing it again, Pretty,” Mercury said at the end of their third lap.

  “Doing what?”

  “You hate me, yet you keep me alive...Am I worth such a large reward?”

  “I told you,” Sean grumbled. “It has nothing to do with money.” But he wasn’t so certain it had anything to do with justice anymore, either. “Let’s say that someday you are successful and you kill your father. Then what?”

  “I...that’s all there is. I intend to blow up the lab and take all of the research—all of it—with it.” Mercury stopped walking. He was staring at the dirt, his face contorted by concentration.

  “You’re part of that research. So you’re going to kill yourself too?”

  “I will have no purpose after he is dead.” Mercury’s features began to look troubled. He raised his head, turning his face towards Sean, “Will you ever think of me, Pretty? Fondly?”

  Sean couldn’t look at him. “You’re kind of asking for a lot.”

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mercury offer a rueful smile. “You did say you would never lie to me.”

  Sean wanted to change the subject as his mind started spinning through too many things; things that were beginning to produce feelings beyond hatred and duty. Maybe it was okay to pity Mercury a little. Pity was never something that led to more for him. Evan had been different. He’d fall in love with every sick puppy or three-legged cat. That’s probably how he’d ended up with Sean in the first place.

  Mercury shifted against him, bringing his mind back to the matter at hand.

  “I need to sit down,” Mercury said. “Just for a moment.”

  Sean helped him back to the crates and helped Mercury sit down before he released him. “Are you all right?”

  Mercury gave him those sick puppy eyes. “So kind of you to ask me.” He looked back down at his hands. “I will be. I just need to rest a while.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot...” Sean reached over and snatched a foil packet from the top of the crate where the light-stick glowed. “I found butterscotch.”

  What was this sensation? Mercury winced. It was suddenly difficult to breathe and his heart gave a little hiccup. Something like a rock stuck in his chest from the inside. What was this?

  He took the packet from Sean, his hands trembling; he wanted to say words that refused to form. Perhaps the damage he suffered this time was much worse than the previous times.

  “T-thank you, Pretty,” he finally managed to croak. Sean simply nodded and walked away.

  The butterscotch pudding made his head feel a little better, but it still ached.

  Mercury frowned down at a crusty stain on his shirt. It looked like his own ejaculate, but he couldn’t remember doing anything to produce it. Had he done that before when his brain shut off? He’d obviously hurt himself, and in the past he’d hurt others. Had he tried to hurt Sean? The thought made his eyes burn and he had a hard time swallowing the soft pudding around the lump in this throat. No. Sean was different. Mercury didn’t want to hurt him, though he realized he may have to. They each had a mission, and unfortunately their mission goals conflicted.

  “Will you leave me behind?” Mercury asked softly, more to himself than to Sean. But Sean apparently heard him.

  “You mean for Sol Lab’s soldiers? No. I have one job: to get you to the tribunal. After that, you’re no longer my concern.” Mercury thought that Sean looked at him for a little too long to be completely unconcerned.

  “But...I don’t want to go to the tribunal,” he sighed.

  “Should have thought of that before you tried to blow up a ballroom full of people,” Sean said. He stared at Mercury hard, making him squirm and look away. “You know that even if you managed to escape, you would be hunted down by someone. In the short time you have been alive, you have single-handedly managed to piss of half the known galaxy.”

  “Aren’t you impressed?” Mercury asked, forcing a smile that felt too tight. This was what was expected from him, by Sean, by the tribunal, by everyone. His part had been written for him from birth, so how could anyone expect anything less?

  Sean’s face remained like stone, and Mercury hated it when he couldn’t affect his expression. It made him feel... inconsequential. That was a hard thing when all he’d ever been was consequence.

  “You are a fucked-up, spoiled brat,” Sean said. He looked angry, but more than that, Mercury thought he detected a note of disappointment.

  “Yes,” he agreed, regardless. Everyone knew that. Everyone knew that he was deranged; that his thinking was narcissistic, his motivations arrogant and insane. Sadly, he’d hoped that Sean might know more by now. Maybe it was for the best. It was all ready going to be hard to leave him behind. He didn’t want to kill him or break him beyond repair. It was all making him feel ill and ready to cry when he thought of it, so he tried to think about something else. What would the Flutterby Fairies do? They somehow always managed to escape the Witch Blackheart’s evil clutches, though Blackheart was a fool to fall for their contrived distractions again and again. Mercury sighed. It wasn’t real-life, even though he often wished it were. He used to have fantasies of being a Flutterby Fairy—the only boy, of course. He would be called Whisper-White Flutterby and his wings would be made of ice. He would be the most special of all of the special creatures in the Fairy Forest. His fantasy, however, was always ruined when he thought about finally destroying Blackheart. It was the logical thing to do to free the forest from her darkness. To stop someone from hurting others you had to hurt them worse. But then there was blood on his winter white clothes, and everything in the forest sucked up the red. Everyone was afraid of him, of what he’d done, and he was alone—stuck in Blackheart’s bloody tower. Mercury felt something go cold and wet on his arm and stared at the watery lavender dot. He realized he had tears running down his face and quickly wiped them away.

  If Sean had noticed, then he was pretending he hadn’t. He seemed too lost in his own thoughts.

  There had been times, not many, but a few, when Mercury felt about as rotten as he felt right now. Once was when he’d been shot. He’d been resting in his room after surgery to remove the bullets, and heard the sound of someone rifling through his belongings. When he’d opened his eyes, his current lover was standing over him. In one hand he clutched all of Mercury’s favorite sparklies, in the other, he had a knife. Without hesitating, Mercury had pulled his gun from under his pillow and shot his lover in the face, then rolled over and closed his eyes. All he’d thought about at that time was that the longer he left the man bleeding all over his jewelry, the harder it would be to get the blood out of the nooks and crannies. But deeper, and in retrospect, there had been something else. It had been the disappointment of yet another betrayal. “I’m….sorry,” Mercury said, just to see if Sean was listening—or so he told himself. When he didn’t look at him, he continued. “You are right about everything.” Sean finally glanced over. It was enough encouragement for him to know when to be quiet. If he went on, he’d either start lying or he’d tell t
he truth, which would only make things worse. He didn’t want Sean to hate him. Right now he was his only friend. Later. Sean could hate him later, after he’d escaped, killed his father, and gone out like a supernova.

  19

  Without any indication of day or night, time began to feel both trivial and vitally important. Supplies were running low. Sean had foregone a few meals, ignoring hunger pangs because he had no idea when the last time that he ate was, or when he’d eat again. He figured they’d been stuck in this wreck for four, maybe five days now, and just when it seemed like the storms might end, they began anew. The air was cool, but the humidity made everything damp, which only served to make it feel colder.

  Mercury had gone quiet except for an occasional whisper of soft singing. Between the pattering of rain on the metal roof and the roll of thunder, despite the few innocent words he caught—no doubt a song from one of his cartoons—it came out sounding eerie. They had been rationing the sweeter foods too, and Sean had discovered some packets of sugar in one of the boxes Mercury had gathered from their downed shuttle. It seemed like it was enough to keep Mercury calm for now, but he wondered if it would last.

  He woke to darkness, and the heat of a body beside him.

  “Mercury?”

  There came a stammering breath, and then, “Cold, Pretty.” Almost apologetic.

  His first thought was that it was Mercury apologizing for something outrageous he was about to do, but when he felt Mercury shivering, he understood the words were a soft plea. Sean grabbed hold of the blanket he’d been wearing and drew it around himself like a shawl, then he pulled Mercury against his body, sharing the warmth.