Off Base (Out of Uniform 1)

This even more than the talk hammered home that things were changing. Shifting. A seismic rift had opened up in the landscape of his world, and he wasn’t ever putting the pieces back together, wasn’t going to be able to repair it by recanting those words he’d admitted out in the hallway. Pike turned on the shower and held a hand out to Zack.

“Dude. Seriously. I wasn’t joking. You’ve got spunk in your hair and on your face. Now come in here and let me scrub you clean.” Pike leered at him, eyes dropping as Zack pushed off his pants. “Oh yeah. I am so washing you.”

“Shove over.” Zack stepped under the scalding spray—and the awesome water pressure and temperature weren’t the only things different from showering on base. He wasn’t ever going to get used to the kind of shower where apparently you could look at the other guy’s junk and touch and joke.

Like right then, Pike was all pressed up behind him, rubbing Zack’s shoulders and shit, even pausing to drop a kiss on the back of Zack’s neck before he grabbed the soap and started washing him. Like seriously, who got to live in a world where you could just do that to another guy?

Pike, obviously.

And for the first time, maybe Zack wanted a tiny piece of property on that island. Especially if it came with this much warm water—

Oh fuck. He was supposed to be sharing, right?

“Here,” he said, pushing Pike in front of him. “Don’t want you getting cold.”

“Yeah. This thing could use dual heads,” Pike said absently.

Zack knew such things existed, but no one he knew would ever put them in, especially in a main bath. Announce to the world that you sometimes didn’t shower alone? Never. And in a household with two guys? No, no way no how was anyone getting any extra head action going. “Nope. Not on the repair list.”

“Spoilsport.” Pike started washing Zack again, chest this time. Zack didn’t know why he enjoyed Pike’s hands all over him so much, but he liked how Pike had stroked his back in the hall, liked these simple touches now. Maybe even a bit too much.

“You don’t have to do that,” he mumbled.

“This is called a thinly veiled excuse to run my hands all over you, Muscles. And I haven’t even gotten to the good parts yet.” Pike’s gaze dropped to Zack’s cock again. Which predictably gave a jump, blood rushing south as Pike licked his surprisingly full lips.

Zack didn’t care for being the passive one, so he plucked the soap from Pike’s hand and spun him so his back was to Zack’s front. He didn’t need the distraction of Pike’s dick, which like his own was half-hard again already. But he could do the washing thing, soaping Pike’s slim shoulders, then running his hands down Pike’s side. His dick brushed the top of Pike’s rounded ass, and hello, fully hard dick now. Pike was right, running his hands everywhere was pretty much bliss.

“You do get that I’m not the girl in this...thing, right?” Pike groused, and Zack couldn’t tell how much real ire was in his voice.

“Uh...” Hadn’t they just established that Zack didn’t want a girl? He wanted a guy. He wanted Pike—all his hard angles and freckles and husky moans and tight grip.

“I mean you don’t have to always do the whole protective big bad SEAL thing with me. You don’t have to always be the one in control.”

“Yeah, I kind of do.” Zack laughed, because despite his uncertainty of the past hour or so, he didn’t really know any other way to be. Not being in control left him with that same helpless feeling he got around Danny or Cobb, and no way did he want to feel that way around Pike.

Pike huffed. “Well, I like control too. I like doing things for you too. And I don’t want you slotting me into some role.”

Zack’s face scrunched up as he tried to make sense of this. What was that term Josiah had called Ryan in what was clearly a private joke? A word that had made Zack blush from across the room. “You saying you’re...toppy?”

Pike’s laugh cut through the drone of the water, a warm, unrestrained sound. His head fell back on Zack’s shoulder. “I bet you’re not even entirely sure what that means.”

Zack grunted because Pike wasn’t wrong. He put his energy toward washing Pike’s nearly smooth chest instead of making a denial though.

“No. I’m not a top. I switch. And if you’re very good—” he bumped his ass back against Zack’s now rock-hard dick “—I might tell you what that means.”

Zack could read unfamiliar terrain perfectly well, thank you very much. It most likely meant Pike liked to be fucked and to fuck, something that made Zack’s stomach flutter. “I...uh...might not be ready for switching yet.”