Complacency

Ananias stood in the water, exulting in the feeling, if just for a little while longer. Soon enough, he'd have to get out and face reality, and reality was something he'd like to hold off.

The hot water ran out before his fortitude returned, but he hated cold more than he wanted to avoid Adolphus. And Adolphus was not going anywhere any time soon.

He stepped out of the battered tub, running the rough towel over his body. He only vaguely appreciated his own majesty, aware that he was beautiful in the most remote of ways. Beauty got him nowhere, in fact, he normally hid it. And now, he had even more to hide...

He pulled on a pair of lounge pants out of habit more than anything, usually Adolphus traveled with a female companion...and she tended to look at him in ways he'd really prefer that she did not, but she wasn't here. None of the usual crew that they traveled with were. They were alone, again. Ananias wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not, on one hand, he enjoyed being the only one that Adolphus truly trusted, on the other hand, he liked having people to hide behind. He felt so very remote out here now. Once solitude had been a blessing, a gift, but now he just felt disjointed from it. He'd gotten so used to being Ananias, Lord Kallig... perhaps

too

used to it. In spite of the muscles gripping and relaxing under his red skin, had he grown

soft

? Complacency was a death sentence to a lord of the Sith, there was always someone out to prove themselves by destroying one.

He sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. Passion, strength, the glory of his innate superiority...why was that so suddenly difficult to grasp?

"You worry too much, Nye." Adolphus's voice was raspy, but bitterly amused, and Ananias glared at the door closed between them. Perhaps his complacency problem was not what he thought. They'd been together for so long...too long? Adolphus had always been able to read right through him, doors, training, distance all be damned. It didn't matter how finely inscrutable he managed, so stoic that Darths missed the undercurrent of his thoughts, all Adolphus had to do was glance at him, focus on him, and it was open. And he was supposed to be the Sith

sorcerer

of the pair?

"Eh." Was all he deigned to reply, pushing the door open and leaning against the jamb. Nothing changed. He would worry, Adolphus would tease him for it... comfortable, timeless.

I want to go to Korriban.

He half expected Adolphus to catch the thought before he reined it in and tamped it down, but he was the sorcerer, and Adolphus was not. The man really didn't read his mind that well at all. Usually he had to be terribly distracted, or broadcasting, and he was currently neither. "You do." Adolphus muttered, staring out of the slit of a window that cast a sliver of fading light across the filthy floor.

"Why would I worry?" Ananias did not bother to bleed away the sarcastic edge of this voice, and as expected, Adolphus gave a slight nod and a chuckle. Why, indeed? Exile had never, ever been one of Ananias's dreams or hopes, but here he was, in the rectum of the galaxy.

"My fault, my friend."

Well, yes...but no. "Do you lie to me?" Ananias demanded harshly, and he knew the answer the very second that Adolphus's simmering orange eyes landed on him. No, no lie. And as long as he was out here on the weight of a truth and a bond, he could manage it.

"Lie to you?" Adolphus sounded nearly stunned at the idea. "

You

?"

"Me."

"I'd lie to anybody but you, any day. You, never."

"Then, if you are truly called to be the Emperor's Wrath, his anger and retribution, I'd be a poor servant of the Empire if I turned my back on that, and a poor..." A poor what, exactly? Friend? Ally? There was too much time here if he was wondering those questions again.

Or maybe that's why I'm here. Adolphus called, once again, I came. He's not my master. Not my better. And he's been a piss poor friend lately, then this...

No, Ananias was too assured to be threatened by a woman. But not too assured to be more than slightly put out that his answer to a desperate call had ended him up

here

. Here stank. Here was beneath him. He was a lord of the Sith...

Spoiled. Arrogant. Weak. Whiny.

And Adolphus was staring at him, not bothering to hide that he was trying to gauge Ananias's responses. "What, Nye? You're thinking too much."

That's my job.

"Where's Jaesa?"

"Someone has to come get us, unless you like it here so much that you want to stay forever. You can't tell me you don't want to go back to Drumond Kaas."

"Korriban." Ananias finally admitted, and that earned him all of Adolphus's attention. "I feel...not myself lately." He stated under the weight of that stare. "Disjointed. Off balance. I feel anger, but there's no target."

"You are Sith." There was an undercurrent of question below the syllables, and Ananias frowned. Yes, he was Sith, twice over, more Sith than Adolphus could ever be, supposedly. He was Sith by birthright, a pure-blood, and Sith by earned right, a graduate of the Academy on Korriban. "Anger is passion..."

Ananias dubiously pulled on one of his chin spurs, squinting as the sun finally hit the horizon. "But not commonly one of yours, Nye." Adolphus finally finished. "Are you angry at me?"

Yes. No. Maybe.

"I've asked too much." Adolphus sighed, sitting in the only chair in the dingy room, but Ananias didn't protest. Even if he wanted it, it didn't look as if it would hold him. "But you're the only one..."

"Jaesa?" He hadn't really just asked that, had he?

"Will never replace you, Ananias." Adolphus used his whole given name, in public. It was a rarity to even hear it these days, he was either Nye in private, or Lord Kallig in public. "Although I do miss her." There was a wicked edge to his smile, and Ananias glared back.

"I'll bet."

"You could have kept the Jedi."

Even though Ananias was all too aware of just how young and terribly not poised and stoic he looked when he did it, he screwed up his face in blatant disgust. "I have standards." He proclaimed, stalking into the room.

"You were too soft with her. The back of your hand, or a good ride on your cock would have taught her a very good lesson, my friend."

"She was unfit." In pretty much every way. Unfit for his bed, unfit to be his apprentice, unfit to be Sith, unfit to be Jedi. Just...unfit. Let the Jedi wear themselves out trying to fix his wayward ex apprentice. He was done with her, he had better things to do with his time. Or, he had. Now, not so much. He was a Sith lord, in a hovel, hiding in exile...

He moved to the window, staring out. Lie low, for awhile. Let Baras drop his guard, and try again. They'd been too above board the last time...

Adolphus's hand landed on his shoulder, and he glanced down at the smaller man. Once, he'd had green eyes, Ananias could remember them from Korriban. When had they been replaced by orange? Unlike Ananias, who walked a balance, Adolphus edged towards darkness. Maybe that was why he was better at this.

"I will repay you, Ananias."

No, you probably won't.

There was a hope that his expression didn't give it away, that his demeanor hid it, but he doubted. And when he saw Adolphus's eyes, he knew he hadn't hidden it nearly well enough. Twelve years together was both a bond and a tool to be used against him. "Of course not." The other Sith hissed. "All this time, and you still will not let me know what you want from me. All I do is owe, Nye. I owe you. Every moment of every single damned day. When this came, you were the only one to call. And now, this. Even if...no,

when...

we break Baras, you will not take anything I try to offer you. I think you get off on me..."

Although Ananias was larger, heavier than Adolphus, he could still move with a startling speed when he put his mind to it. He grasped Adolphus by his shoulders, and before sanity could remind him of its presence, pushed the smaller man into the wall and leaned over to kiss him. "You think I get off on you?" He breathed, "That's the first part of this you've gotten right in a very long time, my friend."

It was not every day that Ananias got the unmitigated joy of seeing another Sith discombobulated, even if it happened to be Adolphus. But the man was blind, deaf, dumb and completely clueless. The one thing he should have realized was the only thing he hadn't...

"Really? Or are you just fucking with me?"

It was an easy way out. A gift, if only Ananias could reach out and take it. But he couldn't. He was tired. He'd finally done it, and he wasn't about to take it back now. There was no sliding back into that hole. "Really." He sighed, sitting on the bed. When had he gotten so damned tired? Why hadn't he noticed it before? Of course, he'd gotten his teeth rattled down to his toes in the first attempt to kill Baras, maybe that was it... there was a reason why lords had apprentices to do their more dangerous jobs for them...

There was the trail of a touch down his back, lingering at the point where his dorsal folds faded into his spine. "I..."

"Don't say it." Adolphus had Jaesa for his bed, and even if he didn't, his eyes had never paused on another man before. After all of this time, through all of this shit, he deserved the truth.

"Don't tell me what I can or can't say now that you've finally bothered to tell me what the hell is going on."

Ah, the old Adolphus, grouchy, prickly and assertive. Ananias was wondering where he'd gotten to, but then, he'd not only gotten the shit beaten out of him, he'd had the added disgrace of being the one to instigate a losing fight against a Darth...against his very own Master, and he'd fled from it. Ananias had only been supporting cast, the healer who hadn't managed to hold the tide against harsh odds.

So, what now, Adolphus?

It was odd for Adolphus to be the one doing the contemplating, the measuring, the weighing, considering... but he was. Ananias could almost smell the smoke from it, the man was no scholar, no more than the usual class of Academy survivors...

Adolphus was the smaller, but he was also the warrior, and he snatched the arm that Ananias had been using to support his weight right out from underneath him, dropping him down onto the bed. "If that's what you want from me..."

"Oh, do me no

favors

." Ananias mocked, annoyed. He still had enough pride to walk away from this. It would be damaging, but their relationship had survived worse.

He expected a snappish answer in response, Adolphus had never been one to keep his mouth shut, that was Ananias's leaning. But this was a silent, measuring Adolphus, deep, and suddenly Ananias wished he really could take the words back. He just wanted to go take another shower, rub one off, and get some sleep. "Odd for you to be talking too much." Adolphus finally said, "It's time to do."

Do. Do...what?

Adolphus shrugged out of his shirt. It was nothing new, Ananias could not even begin to count how many times he'd seen him in much less, in absolute nothing, before. Twelve years of a casual intimacy, but it was casual no more. He paused, his gaze fixed at nothing before him, before he nodded, and slid from his pants.

He was more erect than Ananias had dared hope, his fear was that this was just payment for services rendered, a business transaction, something to endure, and that was nothing he would tolerate. He loved this man... truly, with a deep and grave passion. Hadn't he always been there? How many times had Adolphus lived because of him?

"I must admit..." Adolphus murmured, tracing a finger down Ananias's chest, "I have never done this before. But, I'm fairly certain I can manage." He straddled Ananias's belly, his cock hard and insistent against the warmth of muscles. His lips were greedy against Ananias's, his teeth sharp. There was no hesitancy, no doubt, as if he was talking himself into it. Like everything, once he had committed, he hit the challenge head on, or in this case, tongue in. He caught Ananias's nipples between the length of his fingers, plucking, and the pure-blood hissed in response. If that was good, it was better when Adolphus pushed back slightly, resting his weight on Ananias's groin, trapping him cock to cock, the only thing between them a suddenly very thin piece of cloth, and leaned over to suck hard on first one nipple, and then the other.

"Let me see what we have....here." He slid further back to sit between Ananias's knees, lacing his fingers in Ananias's waistband and pulling down slowly, holding his cock down to his thigh until it caught on the rise of the head and Ananias gasped, feeling the first drop of warmth emerge.

Not so soon. No.

It would be beyond tragic if he finally got to this point and became overwhelmed like a teenaged boy who couldn't keep it in.

"Not fair." Adolphus teased, wrapping fingers around his width and his own, holding them together. "Are you going to watch?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Ananias rasped truthfully, sitting up and maneuvering Adolphus's thighs over his, so that they sat face to face, touching down the entire length of each other's cock.

"Good." The warrior reached down and grasped them both together, pulling up in a single graceful movement, then retreating down. He started slowly, savoring his strokes, his eyes never leaving Ananias's face. And all Ananias could do was watch, marvel at the contrast between them, Adolphus's smooth, pale length held against his ruddy, ridged thickness.

He reached out, stroking Adolphus's hair. Once, it had been a vibrant brown, much the same as his own, but his friend's consort with the dark side had irrevocably changed him, physically. Even if Ananias was to go that route, he would not change, he would remain as he was, but humans such as Adolphus wore their souls on their faces.

"I know." Adolphus muttered, "At least I still

have

hair."

For now.

It was a disturbing thought, and he already had way too many disturbing thoughts trying to press in on him... which he was not going to give into. Not now, when it seemed that he was finally going to get what he wanted. He slid his hands onto Adolphus's ass, pulling him closer and using his superior weight to overbalance him onto his side. No, he was not going to think. He was, as Adolphus suggested, only going to do...exactly what he often dreamed of. He was going to know what Adolphus smelled like, felt like, tasted like...

"Guh." Adolphus managed when he slid down, resting the palms of his hands against Adolphus's groin, his cock growing like a pale tree from red soil. Just...do. The smaller man arched beneath him when he took his length into his mouth, groaning, his fingers tangling in Ananias's thick, dark hair. "You have got to be fucking me..." Adolphus murmured, and in spite of everything, Ananias had to let him go and laugh in response.

"That is what this is, yes." He breathed, "I'm fucking you. You'll fuck me." At least, Ananias prayed that he would. Just how far was Adolphus willing to go with this? He was in no mood to be teased.

"What do you actually want, Nye? From this? I wish I knew, but this is new to me..."

And Ananias knew exactly what he was afraid of, but would never admit. Adolphus had always been the aggressive one, the dominant one, in spite of his size. "You're too little for that. I'd break you." He teased, and in spite of Adolphus's raised brow and sneer, he knew the warrior too damned well to not see relief in his eyes. "I want

you...

" He planted a kiss on the head of the warrior's cock, tasting salt and the first traces of more. "To fuck

me

. It's different for me, Adolphus. I'm not human."

He was the healer, it had been his calling, his course of study, to understand exactly how other races' bodies functioned, how they were the same as his, how they were different. He'd been appalled to realize just what Adolphus lacked, but selfishly, he was pleased as well. If the warrior was put off by being the receiver, that was just fine in his book...more for him.

"As long as that's the case... shut up and suck."

"Demanding, aren't we?" Ananias chuckled, but did as ordered. It was so good to finally do this, really, not as a daydream...some way to pass the time. To feel Adolphus shake and buck under him, to taste his cum... just a faint tinge at the beginning, barely enough to notice and then a mouthful, all his, to be greedily sucked and swallowed. He loved the gasping groans, the fingernails dug deeply into his shoulders, even the domination of holding Adolphus in place with his weight, an open hand on the human's chest.

And then, silence as the smaller man relaxed, spent for the moment. It seemed an interminable wait, Adolphus was sated, but Ananias was still rock hard, jutting forwards in an undeniable reminder that

he

was not even remotely sated. It felt so good when Adolphus regained enough of himself to sit up, and take a strong grip on Ananias's ridged, swollen cock, stroking almost roughly.

"Hang on." He said, rolling away, and Ananias growled. What the hell else was he going to do but 'hang on'? He watched the warrior head into the bathroom, and return, warming a bottle in his hands. "On your knees." He breathed, and Ananias complied, allowing him to push him forward, first onto his hands, and then down, onto his chest, his knees tucked wide spread under his belly.

The oil was chilled, shudderingly cold as Adolphus emptied the small bottle at the top of the crack of his ass, flowing down the split to his balls. That was where Adolphus captured the stream, reaching between his thighs and coating his cock with a long, wet pull. "At least a reach around?" He joked, and Ananias nearly replied, but was stopped by a tentative touch higher up. He froze in response, waiting. "Nye, are you certain?"

"Yessssssssssssss...."

And that was all the welcome that the warrior needed, sliding in, penetrating deeply, catching gently along each of the folds within Ananias. It was, as always, the most erotic, fulfilling sensation that Ananias knew. He'd had women, but nothing ever quite eclipsed this. He was lucky enough to be from a race built for this pleasure. And now, he was finally lucky enough to have the partner he'd wanted for years.

Every muscle in his body clenched, but there was no denying the orgasm that flared into being. He came enough to hear it hitting the bed below him, an audible stream of cum. He was derailed, stunned, and completely and fully sated, turning to jelly under the warrior's grasp. It was all he could do to hold his own weight while Adolphus finished himself off and rolled off. "That was...amazing."

Yes, yes it was, indeed. Ananias collapsed next to him, his breathing raspy and his heart pounding. Suddenly, being in exile didn't seem like such a bad prospect, after all.