Chapter 2

TWO

B isilius minerals looked a lot like mud and the tiny little woman with the great big smile wanted to smear it all over his naked self.

"And then we'll wrap you in pompao leaves to seal it in," she said as she continued stirring her cauldron of brown slop.

Felix glanced up from the mesmerizing turn of the flattened spoon thing. "You want to wrap me in mud and leaves like…like droppings left on the forest floor."

"Droppings?" Zed's lips twitched.

"I was trying to be polite."

"Mmm-hmm."

"We do actually offer a Kontaran faeces wrap." The little woman smiled a little wider and it was scary. She had way too many teeth and her lips were all kinds of stretchy. Who had a mouth like that? Also, people actually paid to be wrapped in shit?

Felix touched the back of Zed's hand. Before he could even form a mental word to go along with the combination of uncertainty and mild disgust whirling through his head, reassurance flooded down the line from Zed. And a hint of a plea. Zed wanted to do this. Together. Hold hands while someone smeared mud over their bodies and wrapped them up like a filthy cigar. Apparently it would be soothing and bonding and their skin would be extra super touchable afterwards. They'd slide together with less friction—if they didn't simply get off on touching one another.

Damn, now he was half-hard.

Scary mouth, whose name was actually Daphne, was pointing toward a set of shelving tucked into an alcove. "You can leave your clothes in there. Lie face up and I'll see you gentleman in a few minutes."

As soon as the door closed, Zed turned to him and said, "I love you."

A surprised chuckle turned Felix's scowl into something else entirely and Zed's immediate grin made it difficult for him to reclaim any expression of intensity. Pulling a sigh up from his toes, Felix gave up. "Nothing says love like being willing to let someone wrap you up in mud."

Zed's grin lasted all the way through undressing, lying side by side on the two hovering treatment tables, and arranging the plastic-y SFT towel over their manly bits. He then reached over to grab Felix's hand.

Felix left off studying the ceiling—patterned with tiny lights representing the starscape as viewed from the drift's current location—and rolled his head toward Zed. "These table things are a lot more comfortable than hover stretchers."

"I thought you might freak out when you saw them," Zed said.

"I thought I might too, but this room couldn't look any less like a medical facility if it tried."

Zed squeezed his fingers.

"How about you?" Felix asked. If anyone had a store of medical nightmares, it would be Zed.

"I'm good."

Felix grinned. "Very good."

Daphne knocked, entered and grinned scarily. "Right, let's get you gentlemen wrapped!" Her gaze landed on Felix's crystalline arm. "Is that synthetic skin?"

"No. And I think we should leave it out of the mud cocoon." While the mud probably wouldn't harm the resonance substance, the idea of having his second most sensitive appendage wrapped in something other than SFT brought about a return of the uncertainty and disgust. Speaking of appendages… "Are you going to be smearing mud all over our, er..." He gestured toward his dick.

Daphne's eyebrows jumped upward. "I can if you like, but genital skin can be quite sensitive. I don't recommend it."

Next to him, he could hear Zed laughing.

"What?" Oh, he wasn't… "You know what, forget I asked and pay no attention to Zed. He's got a filthy mind."

Daphne gave her mud another stir. "Okay, who's first?"

Zed nodded toward Felix. "Him."

"Me?"

"First on, first off."

"Me."

The mud was warm. Rather than compare the warmth to unholy substances, Felix tried to lose himself in the constellations across the ceiling. Daphne began at his feet and worked her way upward, slathering the mud over his skin with firm, no nonsense strokes. When she reached his groin, she tucked the little cloth in around his junk and continued on up over his hips. While grateful she hadn't handled him, Felix did wonder if it was too late to ask if he could use the bathroom.

"We have a product that might soften these scars if skin resurfacing isn't an option for you," she noted as she began smearing mud across his torso.

A lot of scars crisscrossed Felix's skin. With space—or the ships and stations in space—being rigorously climate controlled, the story of his imprisonment was usually hidden beneath long sleeved SFTs, which saved him a lot of pointed looks and unasked questions. That Daphne hadn't offered sympathy, or wanted to know exactly why he had so many scars, or why he hadn't had them treated, raised his opinion of her. Daphne was cool. She could smile as widely as she wanted.

He opened his mouth to tell her the scars didn't matter, then wondered if maybe that'd been Zed's purpose in bringing him here. To have his scars treated, his skin softened. He glanced over at Zed and saw the answer to that in Zed's steady steel-blue gaze. No touch required. Zed's thoughts were as loud as if he'd shouted them. Felix was Felix, no matter what shape or form he took. Scars, no scars. Weird crystal arm; tendency to be irrational and dumb.

"I'm good," Felix said.

Another attendant came in to do the wrapping. At first sight, Felix forgot his full bladder. Why hadn't Jamal been doing the mud smearing? He was hot with a capital H. Tall, broad shouldered, skin a shade darker than Elias's and happy, happy eyes. Felix grinned just looking at them. Also, the man had amazing hands. Huge, warm and…huge and warm. Being smeared with mud of dubious origin suddenly seemed a small price to pay in order to be manhandled by such beauty.

Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately—Jamal wasn't gay. Not even a little bit. He did not flirt, he did not touch teasingly. He simply wrapped Felix's muddy self up with quiet efficiency—and it was restful, relaxing and really kinda nice. Maybe spa treatments weren't the evil waste of time Felix had assumed they might be—except he really could use a bathroom.

"Is there any, er, caffeine in this mix? Or something like it?" Zed asked.

Felix would turn to look at him, but Jamal had just started wrapping his face. Yes, he had mud caked around his nostrils and eye sockets and while it wasn't the most pleasant part of the job, he had his pores to think of.

"Hmm," Daphne answered. "Not that I'm aware of. Most of our product is from the tide pools on Bisilius. Oh, there is a bean in here, though. From Gao Four. It's meant to improve circulation."

"That might be it." Zed sounded a little strained.

"Are you experiencing a burning or itching?" Daphne asked.

"No."

"You didn't list any allergies on the intake form. Is there something we might have missed?"

"No."

"Well, let me know if you're uncomfortable at any time! We can get you into the shower right away."

"Okay."

Small, tight answers. Zed was concentrating on something. Thinking hard. Oh… Oh! Caffeine! Was he thinking not hard ?

Felix snickered.

"Shut up, Flick."

Jamal finished wrapping Zed and the attendants left the room with a reminder that they could be summoned at any time. Not only did the hover tables have embedded equipment to monitor their heart rate, but the door panel was voice activated.

"How's it hangin'?" Felix asked. The hardening mud around his mouth meant very word sounded short.

"Don't even," Zed returned.

"Jamal had amazing hands, didn't he?"

"Flick."

"Big. I really like big hands. Warm, too."

Zed answered with a low growl.

"I didn't get a look at Daphne's tits,"—he'd been too distracted by her sea monster smile—"but I did notice they hung kinda low when she was working on my shoulders. Did you get a good brush?"

Zed liked breasts.

"Can't say I noticed," he said, sounding a little breathless now.

"Was it hard to stay?—"

"Seriously. You need to stop."

"Just let it pop, Zed. Your dick isn't covered in mud. Just lie there with an antenna pointed toward heaven and enjoy the free--"

"I hate you."

"Love you too."

Felix might have been content to lie there and think about Zed's interesting reaction to caffeine for the half hour they were slated to be wrapped. But his bladder had other ideas. "I need to take a leak."

"You were supposed to go before they started."

"Yeah, well, I was all distracted by the mud and stuff."

"Can't you hold it?"

"Do you think the sheet I'm lying on is medical grade SFT?"

"You did not just ask me that."

"Okay, fine, I won't piss on the treatment table, but I really need to go." Felix used his free arm to lever himself upward. Sitting, or folding oneself while wrapped up tight, proved difficult. The mud pulled at his skin and some of the broad leaves crinkled and cracked.

"You're supposed to be relaxing."

"How relaxed are you?"

Trying not to pop wood was like the exact opposite of being relaxed.

"Point taken," Zed hissed.

"If I can just get my legs on the floor…" Felix pushed himself to the side of the table and tried to swing a leg over. His whole body followed and before he knew it, he was sliding toward the floor. "Oh shit."

His table was obviously wired with a ‘guest has left the surface' alarm. Either that or the floor had an impact sensor. After a brusque knock, Daphne pushed the door open and stuck her head in. "Is everything?—"

"I'm fine," Felix said from the floor.

Daphne tore her gaze away from Zed's table with visible effort and bent to help Felix up off the floor. The leaves wrapped around his muck-caked self crackled as he fought his way upright, progress hampered by the fact Daphne seemed to have trouble averting her eyes from table number two. Zed had obviously lost the battle with biology, chemistry, or whatever caused his body's unique reaction to caffeine. The SFT cover over his crotch swung like a flag from his upright pole.

Curious, Felix glanced up at the ceiling. Zed's dick pointed to a spot just left of Tau Centauri. Or the Hub—the center of the galaxy as defined by the Guardians. "Ah, Zed, I think the Guardians are calling."

"I swear to God, Felix, if you don't shut up..."

"I'm sure guys pop wood all the time in here. Right?" Felix turned to wink at Daphne, who gestured toward his own crotch. Looking down Felix noted he'd left his own wrap on the floor with a couple of leaves. He was swinging in the non-existent breeze. "Well, then." At least he wasn't hard. Any more time wasted and he might embarrass himself in a different manner, however. "Bathroom?"

The lovely Jamal did not return to help them peel off the leaves or wash off the mud. Daphne assisted with the former and left them to their own devices for the later after informing them they had half an hour until their hot stone massage.

Did she mean half an hour to deflate Zed's erection?

Probably.

"C'mon, you." Felix led Zed into the massive shower room and pushed him under the waterfall cascading from ceiling to floor at one end.

"Ow, ow…" Zed cupped his hands over his dick.

"You protect precious while I get the mud out of our crevices."

Armed with soap and an intimate knowledge of Zed's anatomy, Felix washed every centimeter of skin. Zed protested the caresses at first. "Not helping." "Jesus, I think I'm harder." "Fliiiick." Then he simply gave in and started moaning. Felix helped himself to a little more soap, got to his knees and washed Zed's galaxy-indicating tent pole again. Then he sucked it—long and hard, working another soapy finger into a favorite crevice.

Zed came twice. His dick barely wilted in between.

The hot stone massage was more fun than being smeared with mud and wrapped with alien leaves. Felix's masseuse even worked on his neck and jaw a little. Two blowjobs in twenty minutes left an ache.