Romancing the... Mud? by Lianne Burwell January 1998 Voyager was orbiting an M-class planet, teeming with life (none of it intelligent) in an unclaimed system. Scans showed a plenitude of materials that the ship was short on, both mineral and organic, so the captain had decided that they would stop for a few days to replenish their supplies and have some much needed "down time". The first officer, Commander Chakotay, was leader of one the first away teams and he had taken shameless advantage of his position to arrange that his lover, Tom Paris, was part of his team. In the ten months since they had become a couple they had not had the opportunity to take an actual vacation off of the ship, so Chakotay was taking the chance to walk on a planet‘s surface with his beloved by his side. Chakotay‘s team was assigned to collect edibles, both harvesting ripe plants and collecting seeds and shoots from plants that could be adapted for the ship‘s make-shift hydroponics bay. In order to cover the greatest area possible, Chakotay had split the team into pairs had assigned each pair a different direction to move in. It didn‘t take a genius to figure out who Chakotay was teamed with. So Tom and Chakotay were wandering through an area rather reminiscent of tropical rainforests on Earth, scanning the local vegetation and tagging anything that looked interesting (and as unlike leola root as possible). With frequent stops for necking * * * * * About two hours later, clouds began to gather in the pale lavender skies, and thunder could be heard rumbling in the distance. Chakotay‘s commbadge came to life with a crackle. "Commander, the storm moving into your area is interfering with our scanners. It is also interfering with the transporters. The storm will take 1.2 hours to pass, so we recommend that your team take shelter to wait it out." Static made it difficult to follow what Tuvok was saying. "Acknowledged. Chakotay out." Chakotay watched the skies as Tom relayed the ‚take cover‘ order to the other teams. The storm was moving in fast and the first drops of rain were already falling. The temperature was also falling as he used his tricorder to scan the area for shelter. "Tom, the storm is interfering with my tricorder, but there appears to be a series of caves just to the north of us. That should be a good spot to ride out the storm." The blond pilot just nodded and indicated, with a smile, for Chakotay to lead the way. They pushed on as quickly as possible as the rain picked up in intensity, chilling them both to the bone. Both hoped that the others on the team had been able to find shelter, but the storm had generated enough interference that both their commbadges and their tricorders were completely useless. Only Chakotay‘s sense of direction was keeping them heading in the right direction—or at least what they hoped was the right direction. Then, without warning, Chakotay disappeared from Tom‘s view. He rushed forward, with a gasp, to where the commander had been standing and found himself standing at the edge of an embankment. A path down the slope showed the passage of the other man who had obviously stepped on an unstable piece of ground. Tom stood there for a moment, considering what to do, when the saturated bit of ground he was standing on seemed to fall away beneath him and he found himself propelled down the slope, following the same path as the previous unfortunate. Tom gave a startled shout as he slid down the slope, quickly gaining speed. The shout quickly transformed itself into a delighted whoop. Okay, so he had no idea what was going to happen at the bottom of the mud-slide, he could end up breaking his neck or worse, but it was still a fun trip. He‘d always loved water slides and roller-coasters as a kid and this seemed to combine the best elements of both. Even if the mud was getting itself everywhere, including inside his uniform. Suddenly he was in mid-air, doing a very graceful spin, before gravity reasserted itself and he splashed down in what had to be the biggest mud puddle he had ever encountered in his life. He lay there for a minute, laughing himself sick and trying to clear the mud from his face so he could see. "Did you enjoy yourself?" a highly amused voice asked. The pilot propped himself up on one elbow, still laughing, to find that he had landed face down across Chakotay‘s lap. "Oh, very much, thank you," he replied with a self-satisfied smirk. "Well, much as you are enjoying your regression to childhood, I suggest we get moving before the rest of that slope decides to collapse and bury us under a ton of mud." Tom couldn‘t argue with that, so they pulled themselves out of the clingy substance and reoriented themselves. Chakotay made a best guess of which direction they needed to be going in and soon after they found the caves they had been aiming for. Both were relieved to find a pool of relatively clean rainwater at the back of the cave they ended up in. Fun as the slide down the slope had been (and even Chakotay couldn‘t deny having enjoyed it) the mud had gotten everywhere and both of them wanted to clean up. Uniforms were quickly pulled off and rinsed off as best they could in the pool. After spreading them over some handy rocks, in the hopes that they might dry off a bit before the storm ended and they needed to get back into them, Tom and Chakotay stepped into the pool. "Shit! Damn that‘s cold!" Chakotay grinned. For some reason it never failed to amuse him to hear his lover swearing. It just seemed so... appropriate for a man who looked equal parts angel and imp. Instead of responding, he just picked up his turtleneck, soaked it in the pool and started scrubbing at the other man‘s skin, laughing at the stream of invective that the blond was producing. Once his love was reasonably clean he performed the same actions on himself and then re-rinsed the turtleneck and put it with the rest of their clothes to dry. He didn‘t really think that they would dry out much before the end of the storm, but staying nude would probably be healthier than sitting around in cold, wet clothes. When he turned back to Tom, Chakotay found his lover sitting on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest, and shivering. Being of a heavier build, Chakotay was not usually bothered by cold temperatures, but the slender pilot obviously was. "Tom, come here before you shiver yourself to pieces!" Chakotay sat down and pulled the other man to him. Tom was now seated between his legs, back pressed to Chakotay‘s chest and Chakotay‘s legs tightly gripping Tom‘s thighs. The commander rubbed briskly at Tom‘s arms and chest, trying to generate friction warmth to go with the body heat he was sharing. Gradually the shivering slowed, then stopped, and Tom melted into the warmth at his back. The friction had warmed him, and more. He could feel his nipples tightening up, and a new warmth was growing in his groin. He hummed in pleasure at the feeling and shifted his weight slightly to encourage Chakotay to move his hands lower. The response was a chuckle, sending delightful vibrations through him, and the hands moving down to rub at his stomach. Tom wriggled again, still humming a little in the back of his throat. "Enjoying this, are you?" Chakotay chuckled in Tom‘s ear. The only response was a hummed affirmative. Chakotay let one of his hands drift further downwards to grasp Tom‘s erection, causing a delightful gasp, while the other moved back up to rub and pinch at the nipples on the gold-furred chest. He pulled the other man closer to him again, until they were so tightly pressed against each other that they almost seemed to be sharing one skin. He licked at the salty skin below Tom‘s ear, smiling at the resulting moan, and rocked his own erection against the backside pressed tightly against it. Tom arched into the hand holding him, then back against the heated shaft behind him and they quickly fell into a comfortable rhythm that brought them both to orgasm - first Tom, then Chakotay. The commander hugged his slightly trembling lover to his chest again and they fell into a light doze. * * * * * Sometime later Chakotay woke, slightly confused about where he was. He quickly remembered, then realized that he couldn‘t hear any rain falling. The storm had passed. "Tom! Wake up!" "jus a few more minutes, Cha..." Tom didn‘t even open his eyes. "Tom! We need to get dressed. The storm has passed and Voyager could be beaming us up any second now." Chakotay pulled away from Tom and started grabbing and the still-wet pieces of their uniforms. Tom sat up, suddenly very awake. "Shit! Where are my boxers?" A couple minutes later both had the lower portions of their uniforms on and Chakotay was pulling on his turtleneck when the familiar - and in this case dreaded - feeling of the transporter grabbed them. When the world came back into focus they were standing on a transporter pad and Tom shuddered when he heard an all-too-familiar laugh behind him. "Captain, I‘ve got the last of them." Tom turned to see B‘Elanna standing at the transporter controls, not even trying to hide the smirk on her face. He knew his face was beet-red (the problem with fair skin) and finished pulling on the rest of his uniform trying to pretend that she wasn‘t watching. "So, boys. Did you enjoy your ‚shore leave‘?" Chakotay laughed. Tom just sighed and went in search of a hot shower. THE END The boys will be returning in "Under The Influence".