In Heaven and Earth (16 page)

“
So was I, in
places,” Reuben said and accepted the cup with a smile. Vairya was
wearing another loose and flimsy robe, and he laughed, “Costume for
a play, you claimed? I think you just like the style.”

Vairya shrugged but
blushed a little. “It’s comfortable, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t
horrified when they told me I was going to have to act in something
that looked like my nightwear.”

“
Poor shy
thing, aren’t you?”

“
Stop mocking
me and drink your tea,” Vairya said tartly and sat down on the bed
beside Reuben, curling his legs up. “The garden has taken the whole
city back, and everything is still growing.”

“
City net back
up?”

“
Not here,”
Vairya said and gave him a bemused smile. “The police have been
driving through to check for structural problems, and they gave me
an update. Most people are gathering back where we started things,
but there are plans to get the main hospital open today and start
setting up more local disaster centres in some of the
schools.”

“
Back to
normal, just like that.”

Vairya drained his cup
and put it on the bedside table before dropping his hand to
Reuben’s bare belly. His fingers were still warm from the mug, and
Reuben relaxed a little more. Vairya smiled at him again, and said,
“It seems quite mad, doesn’t it, but life must go on.”

“
I still don’t
understand what happened,” Reuben said, tasting his tea. It was a
little sweeter and weaker than he liked, but nothing about it
tasted too strange.

“
If you don’t,
nobody does,” Vairya said, rubbing idle circles on Reuben’s belly,
his smooth hand catching on the line of hair there with a soft
tug.

“
I know what I
did,” Reuben said. “I just don’t know why it worked. That tiny
little vial of nanojuice in our blood shouldn’t have been enough to
overwhelm a whole city’s worth.” Vairya’s touch was sending a
trickle of pleasure through him, the sort that made him want to
sink back against the pillows and purr.

“
I think it was
a combination of factors,” Vairya said. “Firstly, their number was
less than you might think. Once each transformation was complete,
remember, the nanites would move on to change the next set of
molecules they were in contact with. It was a leading edge, not
exponential growth. Beyond that, the original command that was
given to them back on Earth was not given to this generation. They
must have replaced themselves over the centuries, which meant there
could have been flaws in their command code. Finally, you told our
nanites to grow, and then to heal, which meant they were
replicating faster, and had a recent and open-ended command with
which to overwrite the old code.” He paused, looking sheepish. “I
mean, I’m not an expert, but I do have all the records of what
happened the first time. We were lucky we didn’t end up replacing
diamonds with grey sludge.”

Reuben shuddered. “Scary
things.”

“‘
With great
power comes great responsibility,’” Vairya said, with the grin that
said he was waiting for Reuben to recognise it.

“
Sorry,” Reuben
said. “Some of us haven’t read everything. Yet.”

Vairya laughed, a gurgle
of delight that was so ridiculous it made Reuben’s mouth curl up as
well. “I’ll forgive you, but only because you saved my
city.”

“
You did as
much. I couldn’t have brought the people back.” He was getting
hard, his body waking to the touch of Vairya’s hand.

“
Don’t play it
down,” Vairya said, sliding his hand down to stroke Reuben’s belly.
“I wouldn’t have realised that I needed to remember. Your talents
are being wasted, you know.”

“
In dealing
with unpredictable medical situations with limited resources?
Medical exploration is challenging enough for anyone.”

Vairya
paused, clearly
th
inking
about it. “Fair point. I just thought it would be nice to see
you doing something where you got more recognition.”

“
I’m recognised
too often,” Reuben said and put his mug down in a hurry when Vairya
started undoing his trousers.

“
I can
understand that,” Vairya murmured. “Lift your hips.”

“
Anyone would
think you had nefarious intentions,” Reuben drawled but did as he
was told.

“
Well,” Vairya
said brightly, “if you won’t seek glory, I should find a more
private way to express my appreciation, shouldn’t I? The honour of
the city demands it.”

“
Oh, well, if
it’s for the honour of the city,” Reuben said and kicked his
trousers and underwear off the rest of the way. Vairya was already
pulling off his flimsy robe, and Reuben groaned in relief as his
cock sprang out.

“
Well, then,”
Vairya said, “what would be an appropriate tribute? We could erect
a very nice monument.” He slid his hand down Reuben’s cock to
cradle his balls. “Hang a medal around your neck? No, I think a
pillar would be best. A nice thick pillar of hard
stone.”

“
All of human
history,” Reuben gasped, reaching out to pull him closer, getting
his own hands onto Vairya’s thighs, “and that’s the best innuendo
you can manage?”

“
You’re right,”
Vairya said, working Reuben’s cock steadily. “Pillars are a
terrible idea. People are always too tempted to climb up them and
then slide down them, nice and slowly. You wouldn’t want me to do
that, would you?”

“
What kind of
memorials do you have round here?” Reuben demanded. “Oh, god, don’t
stop!”

“
I wasn’t
planning to,” Vairya said, shifting enough that Reuben could easily
reach his cock too. “See, I even brought you a monument of my own
to try out for size.”

Reuben couldn’t help
laughing, though it tangled with the rush of desire rolling through
him to come out as a snort. “Stop that. It’s terrible.”

“
I thought you
didn’t want me to stop?”

Reuben groaned. “Vairya,
for the love of everything sacred, stop making terrible puns, and
kiss me.”

“
I can do
that,” Vairya said
—
and did.

It was as good as their
first kisses, making Reuben’s whole body shiver, but it lacked the
terrible desperation. Without that, everything was so much sweeter
that Reuben didn’t think he could bear it, was afraid he would just
dissolve into nothing and go floating off into space in a rush of
dust and silver nanites.

“
I will never
get bored of this,” Vairya murmured, trailing kisses up Reuben’s
jaw. He was warm and heavy against Reuben, their bodies sliding
together easily.

Reuben opened
his hand and tugged Vairya down close enough that he could get a
grip on both their cocks at once. It felt ridiculously good, and he
still didn’t have the faintest idea whether this was nanites, the
bliss of being alive, or just Vairya, but he wasn’t going to
object. Trying desperately to marshal his skidding thoughts, he
managed to say, “Well, that’s a relief. I thought I was going to
have to keep saving humanity to keep your attent…
oh
, fuck.”

Vairya smiled against his
throat, and then kissed his neck again, hand still playing behind
Reuben’s balls.

“
Fuck me,” he
murmured, rocking forwards against Reuben. “I want to feel
it.”

“
Lube?” Reuben
asked, shivering as Vairya nuzzled that sensitive spot on his neck
again.

Vairya rolled off him
with a sigh, and leaned to rummage in the drawer beside the bed. It
presented Reuben with the long line of his back, and he remembered
seeing metal through torn skin and shuddered. To force the memory
out before it killed his lust completely, he leaned forwards and
kissed Vairya’s shoulder softly, and then the top of his spine, his
hip, those places where new skin now covered what had once been
exposed metal. He missed it a little, and wondered if they could
restore Vairya’s old appearance, if Vairya would want him to. He
could still feel the soft pulse of the pistons below the skin, and
he let his mouth linger there, his body growing hotter.

“
It occurs to
me,” Vairya said, a little hesitantly, “that this was probably
diamond yesterday too. There may still be nanites in
it.”

“
Damn,” Reuben
groaned and squeezed Vairya’s thigh. “I really want to—”

“
It’s probably
safe,” Vairya said hopefully. “The tea didn’t kill us, nor the
sheets, and on reflection my arse didn’t exist yesterday, either,
not in its current form.” He rolled over to frown down at Reuben.
“That’s a really disconcerting thought.”

“
I’ll take the
risk,” Reuben said, and because Vairya was too beautiful not to
touch, ran his hands up Vairya’s thighs, green dappled from the
light through the window, and sucked the top of Vairya’s cock.
Vairya tasted real enough, like sweat and come and the faintest
hint of metal.

“
You make a
compelling argument,” Vairya said, his voice hitching. “Go ahead
and deflower me.”

Reuben pulled back,
shuddering at the thought, and snatched the lube from Vairya.
“Deflower is for virgins.”

“
Well,
technically,” Vairya said, pressing close again, his arms around
Reuben’s neck, “if this body is newly made, I am a
virgin.”

“
You are
not
a virgin,” Reuben
said firmly and kissed him before he could come out with any more
nonsense. Vairya laughed against his mouth and then wriggled
closer, his cock pressing against Reuben’s stomach. Reuben rolled
them over, so he could press Vairya back against the pillows long
enough to slick up his cock, and then slid down again to suck
Vairya’s cock back into his mouth.

“
Oh, Sir
Reuben—” Vairya gasped, with a hitched giggle “—what wicked things
are you doing to my poor virgin dick? How debauched of— oh,
yes!
”

Reuben let Vairya’s cock
fall out of his mouth, although he left his fingers exactly where
he had just pressed them, barely inside Vairya. “Do you ever shut
up?”

“
Not when I’m
happy, Sir Grumpy.” Vairya grinned and wriggled, pushing against
Reuben’s fingers. “At least not until you fuck me so hard I’m just
screaming.”

“
You are the
worse virgin in history,” Reuben told him, pressing more kisses to
Vairya’s thighs, his balls, his flushed cock.

“
I did—
oh—
tell you to
deflower—”

By the time Reuben did
press into Vairya, he was caught between desire, delight, and
irritation. They were both laughing and clumsy, their bodies
sliding against each other as Reuben fucked into his merry garden
knight, his breath coming fast, and joy shivering down his
spine.

Then Vairya flung his
head back with a cry, his hands clamping onto Reuben’s shoulders,
and suddenly they were both too breathless for laughter, every
thrust and shudder pulling another noise from Vairya until Reuben
was shivering at every bitten off gasp and soft groan, his whole
body alive with it.

When he came, it was with
Vairya gasping in his ear and suddenly spurting against his belly,
and then Vairya’s arms around him, clutching him so tightly that
Reuben wasn’t sure which of them was shaking harder.

Afterwards, lying in a
sated drowsy tangle, Vairya said sleepily, “You’re very prejudiced
against virgins, aren’t you? That’s a terrible flaw.”

“
I’ve been
accused of worse,” Reuben pointed out.

“
Ah,” Vairya
said, tapping him on the nose, “but those weren’t true. You
shouldn’t be mean about virgins, Reuben. You were one
once.”

“
You
were
not
a virgin,
and I don’t care.”

“
Why
not?”

“
Because I
really don’t give a fuck about anyone’s sexual experience unless
I’m sleeping with them, and even then I don’t care much, if it’s
not relevant to the situation.”

“
Well,” Vairya
began.

“
I’m sleeping
with you. You are not a virgin. I don’t give a fuck about anyone
else.”

Vairya’s voice went fond.
“And I was starting to worry you’d gone soft on me.”

“
Vairya. Shut
up.”

He got a warm kiss
brushed against his cheek, and Vairya threw his arm loosely over
his waist, pressing against his back. “Go back to sleep. We’ve got
time now. The world isn’t about to end.”

“‘
If we had
worlds enough and time,’” Reuben murmured, and sank back into a
warm and pleasant doze as Vairya whispered the rest of the poem
against his back, his lips soft against Reuben’s skin.

Chapter Twelve

IT WAS only a brief
respite. The transformation of Caelestia had destroyed everything
from infrastructure to food and clothing, and the new gardens
springing up everywhere had created new problems. Everyone in the
city had lost loved ones and the toll of grief and shock was
beginning to rise.