Chapter Two

"Shax?"

Ness was calling from some distant planetary system.

"Please wake up, love. Ms. Ivana? Can we get a vitals check on the Captain?"

"He's all right, cutie. His blood pressure took a sudden dip. Probably because he puked his guts up. His heart's back to its normal pitter-pat now."

Nothing like having your would-be lover and your ship's computer talking around you. "'M all right." Shax blinked the room into focus, getting a good view of his bathroom from the floor and a worried angel's face. "Hey, sweetie."

"Oh, thank heavens." Ness crushed him close and Shax wondered if he might pass out again. At least it would be more pleasant with his face smushed against Ness's naked chest. "I thought you were dead."

He pushed back a few inches to breathe. "Absolutely not. I would never die on the bathroom floor. How undignified."

"We were having such a nice morning and then this sudden relapse. I should take you back to sickbay, I suppose."

"No!" Shax pulled himself up using Ness's shoulder. "I've had quite enough of sickbay, thank you very much. I just…it was a bit of a shock."

"It was the dark matter generator, wasn't it? I'm so sorry. The gentleman did say it sounds scarier than it is, though it is packed well and—"

"No, no." Shax put a finger over those luscious, full lips to stop the flow of words. "The dark matter thingy's fine. It's the more-than-infernal frogs, those mucous covered, slimy, revolting, nasty frogs."

"The frogs." Ness blinked several times. "You're upset about the frogs?"

"Yes, damn it! The fucking frogs!"

Ness heaved a long sigh and slid his arms under Shax to pick him up. He would have protested if he hadn't been shaking so hard. "They frighten you."

"No! Of course not! You must be joking! Maybe." Shax buried his face against Ness's throat. "Yes."

"I'm so sorry. I wish I'd known. We're probably a bit far along to take them back, though." Ness set him down on the bed and knelt to unbuckle his boots.

Normally, the position would have given Shax all sorts of wicked thoughts. Right then, all he wanted was for Ness to hurry up and finish so he could dive back into the protection of an angelic embrace.

"It's all right. Really. It's a good job and…" Shax's voice broke and he lost his train of thought in a swarm of revolting frogs.

"Sh. Let's get you warm again. Don't think about it now." Ness's mouth was set in a thin, hard line as he tugged off Shax's jacket.

Upset. He's upset and angry. I'm not the brave, badass demon he thought I was. "It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I'd been well."

"Of course not. A shock to your system right now just isn't good for you." Ness gently pushed him onto his back and covered him with the blankets. He stroked a stray lock of hair back from Shax's forehead, and he saw to his horror that there were tears in his angel's eyes.

"Ness…I'm sorry." He searched frantically in his rattled brain for the right thing to say. "It won't happen again. I'm just not myself yet."

"Oh, Shax." Ness put his head down on the mattress with a choked breath. "You think I'm angry with you?"

"Yes? Disappointed, maybe?"

Ness turned away with his breath still hitching. Shax was certain he'd made some irretrievable mistake, but no, his angel was just yanking off his own boots so he could climb onto the bed. Perfectly comfortable in the chill ship atmosphere, Ness usually went bare-chested. Shax was grateful on several levels that he could slide under the covers half-naked without further delay.

Wrapped snugly in Ness's arms with a shoulder for a pillow, Shax's brain started to thaw from its frozen mire of shock. He wiped the tears from Ness's cheeks. "You're not angry with me."

"Sometimes you're a very silly demon."

"Only when I've had a really terrible day."

"No, I'm not angry. I feel dreadful that I brought something on your ship that upset you so badly."

"And now you see what a coward I really am."

Ness seized his face in both hands and forced his head up. "Shax, stop! A coward would have run when he saw the archangel's shuttle land. A coward would never have stepped between arresting heavenly authorities and me. My brave Shax, who held his head high and declared that the archangel was out of his jurisdiction."

"But—"

"Everyone's afraid of something."

"It's usually not something so…absurd."

Ness stroked Shax's cheek with his thumb. "I'll admit it's a little unexpected. But it's not absurd. You can't help what frightens you."

"Temporary. It's temporary. Just until we get to Sol system."

Odd. By now, Ness's hands would have stilled, holding him close but not too close. His virginal angel was a snuggler but had yet to progress past a bit of kissing and light petting. Shax stilled as Ness trailed a hand down his chest to caress his stomach. His internal vow to let Ness come to him was getting harder and harder to keep even as his impatient cock grew harder, too. He could almost hear that not-terribly patient appendage screaming at him.

Oy, idiot! When are we getting some action? He's right there practically rubbing off on you!

Maybe a little encouragement wouldn't hurt. Nothing overly aggressive, he would just coax. Shax slid a hand into Ness's hair, pulling him in for a soft kiss. He didn't mean for it to be more than a tender meeting of lips, just a taste of Ness's sweet mouth, but Ness transformed suddenly from sweet, caring angel into hungry octopus. He yanked up on Shax's sweater, his hand roaming over Shax's chest and back as if he would never get enough skin-to-skin contact. He devoured Shax's mouth in hard, desperate forays, tongue plunging in when he had never done more than tease in the most tentative ways with his kisses before. His knee nudged Shax's thighs apart even as Ness's hand drifted down to undo Shax's fly.

My poor angel had to wait too long for me while I was recovering. I suppose several millennia of repressed need have to find an outlet sometime.

"Slowly," Shax whispered against those carnivorous lips. "Gently. I'm here. I'm all yours. No need to rush." 

Ness pulled the sweater off over Shax's head and hurled it across the room. His voice was tight and shaking in obvious frustration as he said, "I don't know what to do. I want. It feels like my brain is boiling. I want so badly and I don't even know what I want."

"Sh, cupcake. Come here." Shax wrapped him close, kissing his throat gently. "You do what feels good."

"Tell me. Show me. Please."

"I know it feels like you're going to die of frustration. Trust me. You won't. Take your pants off, beautiful. That would be a good start."

"Do I have to be naked? Couldn't I stay partly dressed?"

Caught between snickering at how cute Ness was and wanting to bang his head against the wall, Shax cleared his throat several times. "You could. But it's definitely more fun without. The end result with pants is a bit on the icky side."

After some frantic wriggling, Ness's pants sailed across the cabin to smack into the far wall. Wide-eyed, wings trembling, Ness reached for Shax again, mashing himself up against Shax's body before he could get his own pants past his knees. 

Oh, well. Good enough.

"I'd tell you to relax, but I don't think that's happening right now." 

He tried to get an arm around Ness and ran into an elbow and wing edge, Ness suddenly all knees, elbows, and feathers. He had always known, of course, that his angel's complete lack of experience might be a challenge, but this wasn't how he had pictured Ness's first time. Ness should've been spread out for him, drinking in the sensual feast Shax offered. He grunted when he got an elbow in the ribs as Ness grabbed for his hip and finally he seized Ness's biceps with a low growl.

"Just stop a second. Breathe."

Ness bit his lower lip, whimpering, but the assault of ever-multiplying limbs stopped.

"This first time, you let me pilot, okay? It'll probably be over faster than it should be, but then maybe you'll calm down a little. You with me?"

"Mmm." Ness managed a nod, though his over-dilated pupils made him look slightly crazed.

"Good enough for me. Spread your wings so you can lie on your back. Attaboy. Arms up over your head." Shax rewarded him with kisses peppered along Ness's throat with every act of compliance. "Keep them there, please, since you seem to have forgotten how to use them in a responsible manner."

Ness whimpered again and arched up, instinctively trying for more contact.

"Sh. That's my lovely, sweet Ness." Shax smiled down at him, running a gentle hand down his ribs. "You look so beautiful like that. So innocent and so dirty."

"Is this part of it?" Ness asked in a strained voice. "Being looked at? Being told these things?"

"Oh yes. This is so much part of it. Admiring your lover, telling him how sexy he is, how much you want him. This is called foreplay."

"I've heard of that."

"Good to know." Shax leaned in to kiss Ness's shoulder, gentling him with long, soothing strokes over his hard-packed torso. "And you are beautiful. I love your wings." He reached out to stroke the soft primaries as Ness gasped and arched his neck back, eyes squeezed shut as he obviously fought to stay still. "Someday I want these wrapped around me as you drive into me, rough and fierce. Someday you'll be taking charge and I'll be on my back letting you have your badass fallen angel way with me."

"Oh, Shax, please," Ness moaned. "How much of this is there?"

"Or on my knees or on my stomach or on my side…impatient, are we?"

"Yes!"

Shax chuckled as he moved down Ness's chest with soft kisses, stopping briefly to flick his tongue over a hardened pink nipple. Ness twitched and let out a lovely moan at that. Shax filed the reaction away for future reference.

While it would have been fun to engage in sensual torture for an hour or so, he had to be practical. His energy levels weren't what they needed to be yet. Too much effort expended would result in an embarrassing showing. The other half of the equation? Ness was absurdly strong. Too much torture and he might go berserk and break Shax in half. Accidentally, of course. 

So, on to the main course.

Shax kicked his pants off the rest of the way and nudged Ness's thighs apart so he could settle between those long, sculpted legs. "Here's where it gets interesting, sweetie. Keep your hands where they are, please, and just feel. This might be a little strange the first time, but you're not breaking inside, all right?"

"All right," Ness managed in a small, breathy voice. "Shax?"

"Hmm?" Shax pulled in a deep breath, reveling in Ness's clean, spicy scent. Hells depths, angel balls smell good.

"I trust you."

What? Oh. "Thank you. Always a helpful thing for sex."

He nuzzled at the crook of Ness's thigh while keeping his gaze on Ness's reactions. Angelic biceps strained as he clutched the end of the bunk. His long dark hair got wilder with each thrash of his head.

Too delicious, too wonderful. There was sweet victory in having an angel lying under him, practically at the take-me-now screaming point. But the willing surrender, the unquestioning trust tugged at Shax's black little heart. He placed tender kisses along the inside of Ness's thigh as he tried to corral this sudden, sharp yearning, this feeling that his heart was expanding and glowing.

He nuzzled at Ness's balls, then lifted his head to draw his tongue up the underside of Ness's shaft.

"Shax!" Ness cried out as he bucked and thumped back to the mattress.

"Easy, easy. Too much? Here, give me one of your hands."

"But you said—"

"Just one, cupcake. You told me you've never even touched yourself. Might be a little less overwhelming if you helped this first time."

"Oh." Breathing hard, Ness lowered his right arm and offered his hand, palm up.

"That's it." Shax took the offered hand gently and coaxed it toward Ness's straining cock. "You just wrap your fingers around. Mm-hmm. Just like that. Doesn't that feel nice?"

Ness's only answer was his accelerated breathing.

"Perfect." Shax coaxed Ness's grip up and down his shaft. "You could make yourself come, see? Do you feel it? Feel that fire growing in your belly, that hot ball of tightening want in your balls?"

"Oh…Shax," Ness whispered. "Yes…yes…"

"You just keep doing that, hon. You're doing so well."

Shax leaned over and licked at the tip of Ness's head peeking out of its hood. Carefully, he used his lips to roll back the foreskin and took the crown into his mouth, suckling on it gently.

Ness arched up with a shout, driving himself deeper into Shax's mouth. He yelled out nonsense in several languages, his thighs shaking as he came hard. The first spurt of come hit Shax's tongue, and he moaned at the wonderful taste. Of course it tasted heavenly. Why wouldn't it? Sweet and spicy, it had a flavor reminiscent of hot cinnamon candy, a bit of luscious burn to the sweet. Shax held on with lips and hands, wanting every drop of angel come he could get.

His lover's thrashing and the come spurting down his throat had Shax writhing in need as well. He reached between his own legs and beat off hard, not willing to wait another second, groaning as he climaxed with Ness's hard shaft practically shoved down his throat.

Ness's cries softened into moans and little whimpers as Shax pulled back and made sure to lick him clean. After a few moments, the continued non-verbal sounds started to worry Shax.

"You all right there?" Shax snagged a towel from his cubby over the bed and cleaned himself up while keeping a close eye on the angel sprawled boneless on his bunk. Our bunk.

"Dizzy," Ness whispered. "Spinning."

"That's what happens when you forget to breathe, cupcake." Shax stroked his shoulder, trying to hide a smile. "Was that nice?"

Ness drew in a deep breath through his nose, obviously trying to take the advice. "That was glorious." He drew Shax's hand to his lips and kissed his fingers reverently. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome. Any time. Really." Shax chuckled as he prodded Ness onto his side so he could lie down with him. "Now we take a short nap and when we wake up we can try some—"

"Hey, Captain Hot Stuff." Ivana's voice came through the comm, sounding unusually serious.

"Yes?"

"I hate to interrupt, but you might want to check out the cargo hold."

Shax shuddered. "Been there, thank you. Not going back until those things are gone."

"Suit yourself, but I'm getting really high readings on motion scanners and an increase in biological activity."

"Oh, fuck. You mean some of those nasty frogs got out?"

"Looks that way to me. I'd take care of it for you if I could, cutie, but I don't have hands."

Shax patted Ness's chest and rolled out of bed to grope after his scattered clothes with one hand while he hit the comm pad with the other. "Ver? Ms. Ivana says we got a cargo situation brewing. I'm not handling this one alone."

"Fuck. What kind of situation?"

"Won't know until I get there, but it sounds like some of your damn slimies have gotten out. I do not want those things getting into the air ducts and the engine room."

Grumbled curses came through the intercom, but Verin was evidently on his way. Ness was yanking on his work pants as well, stumbling in his haste.

"You don't need—"

"Yes, I do. The frogs are my fault and I'm crew. Haven't you said so? The ship is my responsibility, too, Captain."

And I'm not afraid of them was the sentence Ness was kind enough not to utter.

"Very good, then, Ensign Angel." Shax stomped into his most battered work boots. He wasn't risking one of his favorite pairs in a possible frog slime encounter. "To battle."

They met Verin back at the door to the cargo hold. Through all his cussing and steaming up the corridor, Ver had thought to grab some old feedbags from their cow transport run for catching frogs attempting a prison break.

"You ready, bonehead? Or you gonna faint on us like a little girl?"

Shax shot him what he hoped was a withering glare. "Just open the damn door, bud. It can't be that bad."

This was perhaps one of the ten worst ill-timed statements in all of demon history. Right up there with, Hey, so we tell the big guy we don't agree with him. What's he gonna do? Kick us out? and That dude Solomon has a magic ring? Big deal.

Verin opened the door and they stepped into chaos. Frogs filled the floor of the hold, scrambling over each other with maniacal abandon. This wasn't a case of the seal failing on a single container. Shax gazed down into the hold with his hand on his wildly pounding heart and saw that nearly every container had failed.

"Fuck. And more fuck," he wheezed.

Ness leaned out over the railing, head cocked to one side. "Why are they gathering in clumps like that?"

Verin joined him at the rail and snorted a laugh. "Seriously, Twinkles? You're really asking?"

"Yes. It doesn't look safe. I think they're trampling each other. Why would they do that?"

Shax leaned into Ness, not entirely ashamed of using him as a barrier between him and the frogs, and forced himself to look. Yes, the frogs were clustering in piles, as Ness had observed. The frantic scramble to get to the center of each pile was purposeful and relentless…

"Sweetie," he said in a faint murmur as his post-sexual bliss dissolved into abject revulsion. "They're mating. They're having a mating orgy and they don't care if they hurt each other."

"Yeah, no fucking kidding." Verin pointed to a group at the foot of the stairs. "That female looks dead but the guy on top of her's still trying to boink her."

"Oh, mother of demons…that's so disgusting." Shax clutched the rail, swallowing hard against the rising bile.

"Shax? Maybe you should, ah, go back to bed?" Ness tucked him under his arm, turning Shax away from the horror show.

"No, damn it. My ship!" Shax took a few deep breaths of Ness-scent, hoping the wooziness would recede. "Why the hell did every single tank break? Did they send us with some cheap, faulty shipping material?"

"Guy said it was all high-tech stuff." Verin snorted sparks. "Said we wouldn't have to worry about anything."

"Did you do anything to the tanks?"

"Besides load them all while you were in a fucking coma, one pain in the ass tank at a time? No."

Shax rubbed circles on both temples, trying to stave off a headache. "I don't suppose the cargo came with specs? Instructions?"

"Well…yeah."

"Did you read them?"

"Fuck, no."

"The gentleman seemed to think everything was self-explanatory," Ness offered. The blush would have been fetching at any other time. Right then Shax found it distressing.

"You didn't read the specs either."

"No," Ness whispered.

Another demon prince might have thrown a major hissy. The Demon Prince of Thieves was more civilized and knew a waste of energy when he saw one. "All right. Spilled milk at this point. Ness, go back to stores. Have Ms. Ivana help you cobble together something suitable in which to cage frogs. Ver, you're with me."

"With you for what?"

Shax pointed to the crate off to the side. "To rescue the dark matter generator. There's a hell of a lot of frogs massing atop that crate."

"They can't hurt it," Verin grumbled.

"A single frog? No. The weight of a slimy, necrophiliac frog orgy of doom? I won't take that bet." Shax hesitated at the top of the stairs, feedbag clutched to his chest.

"Maybe it would be better if you went back to stores?" Ness offered, his bright blue eyes huge with worry.

"Mutiny. That's what this is. Kiss me for luck, hon, and then go do as I told you."

Ness obliged, his lips trembling as he planted a tender kiss on Shax's cheek before he dashed off down the corridor.

"What?" Shax glowered at his chuckling partner.

"Must be a real fireball in the sack," Verin choked out past a laugh.

"Shut up. Not helping your case here, you know."

Verin snorted a few sparks but obligingly shut up. Even he knew when he'd pushed too far. Careful of where he placed his feet, Shax descended the stairs with his feedbag clutched to his chest. He wasn't about to try to scoop up slimies on the way but he was going to rescue that expensive, potentially dangerous piece of cargo, damn it.

He eased the pile of frogs at the bottom of the steps out of the way with the side of his boot, shivering in revulsion. If someone asked him a question, that person would just have to wait awhile. His jaw was clamped too tight to answer.

This is awful. Hells depths, this is fucking awful. For Ness. This is for my Ness. I want him to look at me like a hero again, not a failure. Like he used to. Like when I showed him his first card tricks.

Fine. Most sentient beings wouldn't consider card tricks heroic, but Ness had laughed, the misery had faded from his expression, and his eyes had shone with outright worship. Worship was so much better for the ego than all the tender angel concern in the galaxy.

Another few feet forward, another pile of shagging frogs moved out of the way. Shax whimpered and drew in a shuddering breath when a frog hopped over the toe of his boot and onto the buckle before leaping away.

On his right, Verin had no problems kicking frogs away with his clawed, scaled feet. Maybe when you had feet that doubled as weapons, you tended to be less anxious about slimy things on the floor.

"Doing all right?"

"Yeah. Mostly. Enough." Shax gulped hard and squeezed his eyes shut as he sidled past another of the necrophiliac frogs violating a dead female. I always thought Auntie Lamashtu was the universe's most evil thing and she eats babies. These things would make even her cringe. "Sort of."

"Almost there."

Even Ver was worried about him. He had to pull up his big-boy panties and stop being such a frog sissy. Another careful step, move another pile of frogs without looking too closely. Pull in a shuddering breath, another step. Almost there. The damn frogs had created a huge dog pile, er, frog pile atop the packing crate, as if they were attracted to the damn thing. He would just wrap the feedbag around his hand and use it to shove them off the plascrete.

A horrible crack echoed through the hold. He froze in horror as the top of the crate bowed under the weight of repulsive amphibians. Another plasma-shot crack and the whole disgusting pile of fucking frogs fell into the crate, presumably on top of the dark matter generator. Please, please let there be internal packing.

"Ver? What's that sound?"

"What? The stupid frog sounds?"

"No, that humming. Listen."

Verin tipped his head to the side, listening as they both leaned over the broken top of the crate. The low-register hum vibrated under Shax's boots and he swallowed hard as he closed his eyes, reopened one carefully, and forced himself to look. His horror increased several thousand-fold when he did. There was no internal packing, not even a vapor barrier. The insulated crate apparently had been molded to the shape of the generator. With the top caved in, the frogs now crawled, hopped, and fucked directly atop what appeared to be the controls.

"Don't blow a gasket, genius," Verin grumbled as he reached in to start scooping out frogs. "We get these assholes out and move the crate. Breathe."

Amber lights flashed atop the generator. The hum increased in pitch by slow degrees. Shax watched in repulsed fascination as Verin cleared frogs but left the deposited eggs behind. Someone can get those later, I suppose.

The hum rose to a level that made his sensitive ears itch. Amber lights switched one by one to red.

"Ver, I think we need to back away," Shax blurted out as he grabbed Verin's arm to pull him away.

"Leave off. I've almost got all of the little suckers," Verin growled.

The explosion, while not without warning, boomed from the generator in a strange, heavy wave. A hard wall of force wrapped around Shax and lifted him off his feet. He flew through the hold but at an excruciatingly slow pace, more of an awkward marionette dance through the air rather than being flung by a detonation.

His last horrified thought was that the bits and pieces flying with him, toward him, splatting onto him were the remains of exploded frogs.