Page 29 of Under His Skin

“Was I fighting with her?”

“Yeah, like… for that stress relief stuff. Maybe Anna should get a bondservant so she has someone to take shit out on.” Alex stood up, and only then seemed to realize that Vasilis was in the room with them. “Oh. Uh, hi, Vasilis.”

Vasilis gave Tracht another disapproving look before he stood. “I’m heading to bed. Think about what I said, Johannes.”

Once he was gone, Alex bumped his shoulder against Tracht’s. “What did he say?”

“Nothing important.”

Tracht glanced at his tablet to check the time, but despite the late hour, he decided he didn’t actually want to go to turn in yet. He wanted to do something to distract himself, because if he thought too much about everything with Anna and Vasilis and Franziska, he was going to hurt somebody in ways that would be dangerous for everybody.

So he stood up and extended his hand for Alex. “Let’s go out.”

Alex looked at him, puzzled, but took Tracht’s hand and allowed himself to be helped up. “Out? Now?”

“Yes. I’m in the mood to go watch a movie.” Tracht pulled up movie listings, and found one that sounded up Alex’s alley. It listed two men as the leads, and they weren’t unattractive either, so Tracht hoped that would limit the amount of female nudity.

“Oh, yeah! Let’s do that!” Alex smiled and got close enough to look at Tracht’s tablet screen. “Yeah, I want to see that one. Nadia and I saw trailers for it back on Atalanta. That actor’s really hot.”

Seeing Alex so enthusiastic made Tracht almost call it all off, but that really would just be cutting off his nose to spite his face. He wanted to have a nice night out, so he would have it.

“Come on then. Let’s get changed and enjoy a peaceful nice out.”

===

Alex couldn’t believe his luck. He’d have to brag to Nadia about getting to see the movie before she did—actually, he decided he might as well do it now, while he waited for Tracht to buy snacks for himself. A part of him hoped some of those snacks would be for him, but he wasn’t going to believe that he’d be that lucky.

He opened his inbox and scowled when he saw another one of those spam mails he’d been getting so many of lately. He deleted it again, then opened Nadia’s newest message, sent just that morning. Instead of porn, the mail asked Alex how he was doing, if he and Tracht were all right, what all this nonsense was, etc. Alex ignored it and sent her a pic of the theater, with the ad for the movie front and center.

Me and Tracht are seeing this tonight!

Then he hit send, since he couldn’t think of anything else to say. Besides, he spotted Tracht walking back with a small box of popcorn in hand.

“What flavor did you get?” Alex asked, reaching his hand out casually. Tracht slapped his hand away. Ah well, it was worth a try.

“Curry. I got a bit nostalgic… I used to eat a lot of curry on Pylos. Maybe I should ask our cook to make curry for the Sigrun sometime.” Tracht pointedly ate some of the popcorn. “Come on. I’m eager to get seated.”

Alex didn’t bother telling Tracht that the ads ran for at least half an hour before the movie started. He and Nadia liked watching the ads, but he didn’t think Tracht would be that interested. Tracht’s taste in movies was usually historical or, even worse, documentaries. Did anybody really care about the history of some war two solar systems over? And not like an action war movie, but something where a narrator discussed strategy and economic reasons and blah blah blah.

This was the first time Alex had gone out for a movie with Tracht though. Usually they watched movies on the Sigrun, and it was kind of weird to actually be sitting upright next to Tracht while they watched. Alex was so used to either sitting at Tracht’s feet or lying with his head in Tracht’s lap that he almost slipped into that pose. He caught himself last minute, his knees already bending, and he saw Tracht’s amused smile.

“I’d tell you to go ahead, but I don’t trust the floors to be clean, no matter how often they run the cleaning bots,” Tracht said. He patted the seat next to him. “Here is fine.”

Tracht had splurged for one of the more private seating areas, with a loveseat and slight walls on either side of them to give an illusion of privacy. Alex cautiously set his arm behind Tracht on the loveseat, and despite Tracht’s raised eyebrows, Tracht didn’t tell him to put his hand down. So that was nice.

The ads started playing, this time showing some new movie that had apparently already garnered stellar reviews on Pylos but wouldn’t be shown on Cadmus or Atalanta for another few months. The ad went all out with the 3D explosions and sexy scenes; there was even a hint of a threesome, which looked like something Nadia would get a kick out of.

He startled when he felt Tracht’s hands on his fly. “Uh… Tracht?”

“Don’t mind me,” Tracht said quietly. “I’m just going to remove this.”

This being the cock cage, which Tracht removed with a very practiced hand. He left Alex’s limp cock hanging outside of his trousers. Alex looked around frantically, and he was glad for the extra privacy and the fact that Tracht had picked a seat near the back.

Alex braced himself for Tracht’s hand to start stroking or fondling, but Tracht just let go and sat back in his seat. He even started munching on the popcorn.

“Tracht?” Alex whined. “Can I tuck myself in?”

“Hmm? No, I might need that soon. Now pay attention, I think the movie is starting.”

---