Page 48 of Under Control

He went through the familiar motions, worshiping every centimeter of Tracht’s body. He kissed the arches of Tracht’s feet, the palms of his hands. He massaged the soap into Tracht’s skin and peppered it with kisses where he could. He wanted desperately to massage Tracht’s shoulders, and seeing the bandages that prevented him from doing that pissed him off all over again.

At least he could still shampoo Tracht’s hair, and he did that with great care, running his hands over Tracht’s scalp and making sure every last strand was covered. The gray roots were staring to show, which meant Tracht would likely drag them both to a hair salon before they left Atalanta. Alex almost hoped that didn’t happen, because he thought Tracht looked good with the gray in his hair. He liked the salt-and-pepper look.

“I’m gonna rinse your hair now,” Alex said. “Uh—hold on.” He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Tracht’s shoulders to protect the bandages. “Okay, now. Lean forward a bit?”

Tracht gave him a strange smile and did as asked. Alex slowly poured water over Tracht’s head and tried to make sure as little of it as possible ended up on Tracht’s shoulders. The splash of the water back into the tub echoed in the bathroom, and Alex was almost afraid to breathe wrong.

When he was done—running his fingers through Tracht’s hair one last time for good measure—Alex sat back, at a loss of what to do next.

“Alex. Kiss me. I think you’ve earned that much, at least,” Tracht said, tilting his head in Alex’s direction.

“Yeah. Yes. Please,” Alex mumbled. He leaned forward, catching Tracht’s lips with his own. The stubble on Tracht’s face was unfamiliar and rough, scratching against Alex’s skin. Didn’t matter. He’d deal with it if it meant getting to be close to Tracht.

The position was uncomfortable though, with Alex’s knees starting to protest. He wanted to climb into the tub too, but he knew from experience that it wouldn’t be a good idea: any contact against those wounds would probably hurt a lot, even with the painkillers and bandages, and the last thing Alex wanted to do was cause Tracht pain. After their teeth bumped and Alex’s nose raked across Tracht’s unshaved cheeks, Alex sat back.

“That went better in my mind,” Tracht said, scowling at Alex. “Well? Anything to say?”

“Are you mad at me?” Alex asked, bewildered. “Sorry. My knees were hurting. But I could—uh. I dunno. I’ll suck you off if you want? In bed; you can just lie back.”

“No. I’m not in the mood.” Tracht looked away from Alex and sank further into the water, to the point that the towel around his neck started getting soaked.

That left Alex floundering again. For lack of anything better to do, he began packing away the soap. That’s when he spotted the shaving kit.

It was old-fashioned. Seriously old fashioned, from before humans ever took to space. Alex and Tracht normally used electric shavers, since they were easy and efficient. But Anna had gifted Alex with this shaving kit two visits to Cadmus ago, when it had apparently been Alex’s birthday. How she’d known, he had no idea, since he barely remembered his birthday himself. With all the station and system hopping that he and Nick had done, it was hard to keep track of specific days.

The kit came with shaving cream, brushes, and a sharp blade that you raked down your face. A straight razor, Tracht had called it, and proceeded to demonstrate its uses on Alex’s skin. That had been scary, but really hot, and kind of relaxing too.

Alex picked up the kit and walked back towards Tracht. “Hey. Can I shave you?”

Tracht’s glare could have frozen water. “Excuse me?”

“I mean. You were saying you wanted a shave. Can I shave you? We have all the stuff here.” He held up the kit and watched Tracht’s eyebrows shoot up.

“You want me to trust you to take a blade to my face? My regular razor is right there.”

Alex’s face heated up in embarrassment. “Yeah. But I thought… I dunno. This would be better. More fun.”

It looked like Tracht was going to refuse again, and Alex resigned himself to making the same offer with the electric razor, until Tracht sighed loudly. “Fine. It’s been a week of bad decisions, so I might as well indulge you in this one as well.”

“Oh. Great! Uh, um. Wait, I’ll help you out of the tub. Maybe you should sit on the couch? Uh, hold on, a robe—”

Alex ran out to grab the robe and was glad—though a bit surprised—to see that Tracht hadn’t moved an inch. Alex set the robe on the side of the tub and used a towel to dry Tracht off, careful of his wounds. He kissed him during this process too, avoiding the wounds and bruises but desperate to make Tracht feel better somehow.

When he was done, he helped Tracht into the robe, then led him to sit on the couch. He had to let go of Tracht to get all the supplies: hot, moist towel, the shaving kit, and another cup to rinse everything in. Tracht eyed him strangely when he set everything on the coffee table.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Tracht asked. “It isn’t a matter of simply scraping the blade down my face.”

“No, I know. I’ve done it before,” Alex said, gloating internally at Tracht’s look of surprise. “It was my present, right? And after you used it on me, I thought, uh. Anyway, I watched some vids, shaved myself a few times. It’s not that hard.”

Tracht snorted in amusement. “By all means. Although I’ll expect perfection, Alex. No nicks, no patches left behind. Every cut and every missed hair will be tallied towards a punishment. Yes. I like that idea.”

That Tracht was talking about punishments was probably a good sign, given the mood he’d been in earlier. Alex shrugged and decided it didn’t matter. He’d just do everything right. Nothing to worry about.

He bent to lay the hot towel on Tracht’s face but stopped to kiss him first. A real, proper kiss, Tracht’s stubble still rasping against him but at a better angle now. Tracht nipped at his bottom lip, but he made no move to actually touch Alex with his hands. Probably because moving his arms would jostle his wounds. Right.

“Nice. Now get on with it,” Tracht said as he pulled away. “That towel is going to be ice cold soon.”

Alex placed the towel on Tracht’s face and pressed down, liking the way Tracht’s eyes fluttered and closed. He wanted to kiss Tracht again, but he had a job to do.

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