Title: Soft Hands

Author: Chrysa

E-Mail: chrysa9@aol.com

Rating: G

Category: Romance

Codes: R/S

Summary: Malcolm, lotion, peace

Archive: Linguistics Database gets first dibs. Anyone else ask. Trust me, though, I usually say yes. ^_^

Author's Note: Okay. Found this place http://www.dymphna.net/challenge/challenge.html and modified one of their challenges to fit Enterprise. You get three things. A person, an emotion and an object and you write a fic around those objects.

I did this one: Malcolm, lotion, peace

It's short, and sappy. Started at 3am and finished at 5am. Damn muse would not let me sleep.

Thanks to Jessica for saying you liked it and to post it.

Geez I hope this doesn't suck.

Oh crap forgot the disclaimer. Fic belongs to me. Characters, Enteprise and usually most other things worthwhile do not. I make no money on this. But usually the best things in life are free anyway. ^_^

****

It had become a ritual for them.

Sun-ripened Raspberry, Lanolin and Aloe, Cherry and AlmondThe list was as endless as the various bottles lining their quarters.

The doors slowly opened and Hoshi stepped in smiling and Malcolm's breath caught just as it always did. She pulled her hair out of its customary ponytail, pulled her nightclothes out of the closet and headed into the bathroom. Malcolm's eyes followed her waiting, as always, for the door to slide shut before letting his eyes return to the padd in his hands.

How could they have been so stupid, he wondered, waiting as long as they had to be like this? All those years of tip toeing around each other. Standing and sitting close enough to touch but never crossing that paper thin boundary between friends and something more. Talks that lasted long into the night and ended awkwardly because of unspoken thoughts and desires. Chaste kisses on New Year's Eve and under that damn mistletoe Trip decorated the ship with around Christmas that could have/should have turned into more but didn't.

Afraid to take a chance.

Afraid to lose the friendship they already had.

He shook his head and smiled to himself. Idiots. Absolute idiots.

Her voice drifted through the door and he could vaguely make out the words to "Singin' in the Rain" over the water. He was half tempted to join her but refrained, knowing that they'd both had hard days and needed to rest and relax before doing anything else.

So, patiently, he waited and for the sixth time that night tried to read the first paragraph of a report on the new Type II phaser Starfleet was beginning to test.

Five minutes later he still had no idea what the report said.

When he lost interest in weaponry it was time to give up. Sighing, he shifted on the bed and lay down on his stomach idly wondering why it took Hoshi so long to take a shower when she stayed relatively clean on the Bridge while he, on the other hand, spent several days a week getting grimy in the Armory and could still shower in less than ten minutes.

Thoughts of a nude Hoshi just beyond that door danced through his mind as his eyes closed...

The scent of coconut - or was it cocoa butter? drifted towards his nose and reluctantly Malcolm moved back towards consciousness. The trip was well worth it, when he felt her hands slide over his bare back and down his side. Steel encased in silk, he thought lazily a proud and content smile kicking up the corners of his mouth. He knew how much damage those small, delicate looking hands could inflict. He'd trained them.

However, they were also capable of great gentleness and love.

Malcolm thanked whatever gods were out there for them and her. For her love, compassion and the ability to see through the mask he presented to the world of a reserved man who didn't need anyone.

But he did need. He just never learned how to ask, to let someone in.

She'd just slipped in, bypassed his walls just by being herself. Getting to know him, getting under his skin and soon he couldn't remember a time that she hadn't been a part of his life.

Was it two or three years ago now, he wondered. He'd have to look it up in the morning. The Enterprise had come under a surprise attack by a race called the Polari and he'd been down in the Armory instead of on the Bridge overseeing a training session when the world had gone insane and then faded to black.

When his eyes finally opened the first thing he'd noticed was Hoshi asleep in a chair next to his bed her once healthy face now pale, and drawn. His hand was cradled between hers in her lap. Then Phlox coming over and quietly telling him and explosion had thrown him across the room and he'd been buried underneath flaming debris. Burned but not too badly. He'd been in Sickbay for three days.

So had Hoshi.

A day later and he was well enough to go back to his quarters. Wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts, he winced in pain as the cloth brushed against each newly healed burn. With a jar of salve for his back, arms, and legs Hoshi made the pain filled walk with him. At his door she'd brushed over his objections that he was fine and didn't need any help by leaning against the doorjamb stubbornly until he gave up and let her in.

She was Hoshi. He wouldn't allow anyone else to see him like this.

She was different from the others. He was different around her.

He watched her as she knelt and gently rubbed the salve on his legs before helping him sit on his bed. Wincing with him as they gingerly lifted the tank top over his head. Watching her over his shoulder as tears slipped down her face at the sight of his ruined back before picking up the jar. Her teary eyes lifted and met his.

It finally hit him. He could be vulnerable with her. She wouldn't see it as something to exploit and ridicule. It didn't make him less than who he was to let her see him this injured and weak. She would take care of him; she would keep him safe.

She loved him as much as he loved her.

Malcolm Reed let his mask fall away and learned to ask for what he needed.

He needed her.

"Hey," Hoshi's soft hand brushed his cheek and drew him back to the present. "Are you asleep?"

He stirred and sat up. Gathering her in his arms so that her back was to his chest, he kissed her neck and took her left hand in his. "Your ring has lotion all over it."

Her long black hair brushed over his chest as she turned her head towards him. "So will yours." They sat silently for a while enjoying each other's presence and the quiet surrounding them. "Where were you just now?"

"Thinking about that night." He looked down and saw the smile that drifted over her face.

"I'm glad you asked me to stay."

"So am I."

"I love you."

"I love you very much. Lie down." He took the lotion bottle from her other hand and moved so she could lie on her stomach. Gently, he helped her take her shirt of and discard it on the floor before he poured lotion onto his hand.

Fin