Losing Game

16 December 2019

3255 words

Rated E for sexual content

Comment or leave kudos at AO3

Felix has decided his romantic life will take a turn for the better and set his sights on his handsome redheaded captain, but Max keeps ruining his plans and Felix can't figure out why.

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Never in his life so far had Felix experienced love. Like real romance. The stuff serials were made of. Something deeper than a flirt at a bar or a casual fuck with whoever.

That was about to change. Felix was going places. He had a career. He knew people and not just some outlaws and unemployed good-for-nothings like he had back on Groundbreaker. No, these were people who worked for their dreams. Or, at least most were. That vicar guy pissed Felix off.

From what Felix had gathered during his past two weeks as a member of the crew, Parvati already had a thing with Junlei. Neither Nyoka nor Ellie seemed to have anything going on, but they clearly had some unresolved issues that made them hard to approach on any deeper level. Besides, as much as Felix looked up to Nyoka, she frankly frightened him.

But that was all cool. Felix was more interested in the Captain, anyway.

The Captain was a striking woman. She was a head taller than Felix and had the posture of a statue. Her fiery red hair was braided and tied up. Felix often fantasized untying that hair and seeing it flow freely in all its flaming glory.

Felix was fairly certain he’d never heard the Captain’s real name. She sometimes introduced herself as Hawthorne, but most of the time just avoided the question altogether. No one else seemed to know her name either—but never brought it up. So Felix followed the suit.

Felix was also fairly certain he had a fair chance on her. Yes, she was way above him in so many ways, but he felt there was something between them. Sure, they didn’t talk much, but if you looked close enough, there were clear hints in her body language and the words she chose. Sure, one could say Felix was reading way too much into her every word, but maybe the Captain just had to be careful not to flirt too openly on account of the others. And sure, one could wonder why she never talked to him in private, but hey, that’s exactly what Felix was about to change right now.

Felix took an exaggeratedly deep breath. Parvati was still outside doing repairs to whatever it was, and Max had his nose in his stuffy books again. He wouldn’t take a break anytime soon.

The door clanked open. Swift footsteps approached the staircase. Felix counted the steps and hopped the stairs down as if casually.

“Oh, hi Boss,” he said as he not-so-accidentally bumped into the Captain at the foot of the stairs.

“Felix,” the Captain greeted him with a smile and was about to step past him as he jumped in front of her, barely maintaining the air of spontaneity.

“So, you seen any good serials lately?” Felix asked.

“No, I’m not much of a… serial watcher.” She crossed her arms and turned towards Felix, resting her weight on one side. Good, Felix thought. She didn’t look too busy. Last thing Felix wanted was to make her uncomfortable.

“Hey, you’re missing out. Maybe, uh, we could—”

“Captain.”

Max’s voice came out of nowhere and with it a sinking feeling that washed over Felix.

“Vic, we’re kind of busy here—” Felix started.

“Grownups are talking. Captain, I need to ask you something.” Max turned his cold eyes to Felix. “In private.” Felix’s entire face flushed with anger.

“Sure. I’ve got time,” the Captain replied and passed Felix. He shot a nasty look at Max, who still stared at him. No reaction.

No way this was an accident. Felix wanted to kick something but settled for tapping his foot aggressively. He couldn’t afford to make a fool of himself, and he knew frustratingly well he had nothing on Max’s authority and air of importance.

Max’s sabotage of his brilliant plan dampened Felix’s spirits for a while. Luckily enough, the Captain had picked up a job which was just the thing to snap Felix out of his dreariness.

Felix wasn’t sure of the details, as he had once again been mesmerized by a strand of red hair dangling in front of the Captain’s intense eyes as she briefed the mission details. The gist of it was that four of them would board some ship. Parvati and the Captain would crawl through a series of maintenance tunnels and air ducts and mess with some machinery, while Felix stayed behind with Max to reboot this computer in case of a power failure. Which apparently happened a lot on the piece of junk they were about to break into.

They boarded the ship easily. No alarms, no guards waiting for them as they walked into an empty hallway. Parvati led them around the corner to a storage room with a terminal and a hatch.

“Okay, we’re ready to go. Max, Felix, you stay here and keep that machine running. Do not shoot if you see someone. Hide if you need to. We can’t let anyone know we’re here.” The Captain gave them a stern look. “You two troublemakers need to understand that all our lives depend on going unnoticed. There’s around fifty people armed to the teeth on the lower deck and we sure as hell can’t take them on.”

Being grouped with Felix as a “troublemaker” clearly didn’t sit well with Max. Seeing his eyes narrow like that gave Felix an almost irresistible urge to mock him, but he didn’t want to look bad in front of the Captain so he shut up.

The Captain opened a hatch and crawled into a small maintenance tunnel with Parvati.

“This should take a couple of hours, three at tops. Assume the worst if we won’t be back in six,” the Captain said and disappeared into the tunnel. Without saying a word, Max left Felix’s side to sit in front of the terminal.

Not fifteen minutes had passed when they heard approaching noises. Felix instinctively reached for his tossball stick, but Max rushed in to drag him into a small, empty closet and pulled the door shut behind them.

The closet would have been small for one person alone; having two grown men cram in was a nightmare. Their bodies were pushed together so tightly Felix could feel Max’s heartbeat uncomfortably clear. But the sounds outside were so close already Felix had no choice but to stay put and hope whoever it was out there would leave soon.

With the door closed, the inside of the closet was pitch dark. Maybe because he couldn’t see a thing, all of Felix’s other senses heightened. Max’s controlled breathing soon became obnoxiously loud in his ears, and he sensed every slightest movement, every unconscious shift and involuntary twitch Max made.

Outside, Felix heard at least three people talking. Judging by the sounds, they were wearing heavy armor. The Captain was right, taking them down would alert the whole ship.

Felix noticed Max’s heartbeat getting louder and faster. He ignored it, trying to focus on listening to the enemies outside. Hopefully, the computer wouldn’t power down while they were stuck hiding.

Max moved his arms. The sudden movement made Felix jump in surprise. To an even bigger surprise, he felt Max gently yet firmly put his palms on his sides, slowly slide them down and rest them on his hips. And fuck his warm touch felt good like it never should have.

A flurry of confusion, anger, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, arousal hit Felix and paralyzed him. Not that there was any room to move, anyway. He tried to swallow, but his body had seemingly forgotten how any of that worked. Max, meanwhile, hadn’t moved a muscle, just kept his hands still on his hipbones.

There had to be an explanation to this. Felix peeked up but couldn’t see Max’s face in the dark. Under less dire circumstances Felix would have guessed this was some stupid joke—still, not something he expected from Max of all people. Was he pulling him in closer?

Felix tried to ignore the pair of big hands on his hips, but every time his skin was getting numb to the touch, Max made the smallest gesture with his fingers to remind Felix’s body that yes, he was still touching him. Felix wondered if it was purely on accident or if Max just knew the perfect timing to keep him on edge.

To his relief, Felix heard the people outside were finally leaving. The air inside the closet was stale and hot like Groundbreaker on worse days, and Felix wasn’t ready to feel nostalgic over those times quite yet.

Max lowered his head slightly and brushed the side of Felix’s head with his nose.

“Let’s wait another couple of minutes,” Felix barely heard Max whisper, lips almost touching his ear. The sensation sent shivers down Felix’s spine. “In case they come back,” Max added. Yeah, why else? Felix thought and nodded, assuming Max would be able to feel the gesture in the dark.

Felix had no idea how long they’d been in that closet, but the last “couple of minutes” seemed like a couple of hours to Felix. Max still hadn’t let go of him, the air was definitely not getting any easier to breathe, and to top it off Max was still holding his face way too close to Felix’s head. Felix blamed the lack of fresh air for his delirium, but being this close to someone was actually… Nice.

And just when Felix was about to succumb to the pleasantness, the time was up. Max took his hands off of Felix and opened the door, letting in cool air that now felt invasive and downright violent on the places where their bodies had touched.

“The system is still up. Good,” Max said after checking the terminal.

“Uh. Huh,” was all Felix managed to get out of his mouth. Did he really expect this asshole to explain himself? Felix shook his head and took in a deep breath of fresh air.

There were no more closet incidents before the Captain finally appeared from behind the hatch.

“Thanks for keeping the system up, Max. But we’ve got another problem at our hands,” the Captain said, much to Felix’s disappointment. Was he invisible to her? But he didn’t have time to dwell on it, as Parvati was getting out of the hatch, followed by an injured man.

“We found him on the control room. I think they have kidnapped him. We need to get him to Ellie,” Parvati explained.

Felix ran to help Parvati get the man out of the hatch. He wasn’t bleeding, but he was badly beaten and couldn’t stand on his own.

“Let’s get going, fast. Parvati set this ship to go into complete lockdown in… Ten minutes? Next time maybe allow us a bit more extra time, Parvati.” The Captain gave Parvati a motherly scolding look, and they all hurried back aboard The Unreliable.

“Captain,” Felix heard behind him as he carried the injured man with Parvati.

“What is it, Max?”

“Our passenger needs a proper bed to heal. I’m sure Mr. Millstone won’t mind lending his—he can stay in my room until then.”

You got to be kidding me.

“Thanks, Max. I can always count on you.”

Felix picked up the dirty laundry and empty bottles from his floor. He had no idea what game Max was playing, but he did know Max was winning. There was no question who would have been the bad guy, had Felix protested Max’s generous and selfless offer.

“Hey Max, I was thinking. Maybe I should just sleep in the kitchen. I can fit on the couch,” Felix suggested in desperation as he carried his toothbrush, soap and a set of relatively clean clothes into Max’s cabin. “In fetal position, anyway,” he muttered.

The lack of mattress on the floor struck him.

“Max, you could at least get me a mattress or something,” Felix complained. Max raised his brow and looked at him mockingly.

“And where exactly do you think the Captain keeps her extra mattresses? This isn’t a slumber party, Felix,” he smirked.

“Guess I’ll have to do without, then,” Felix muttered sourly and threw his pillow on the floor.

“Surely we are mature enough to sleep in the same bed without it being… uncomfortable.” The unexpected proposition came like a punch in Felix’s gut. After a full minute of not being able to collect himself he muttered something incomprehensible and tottered to the kitchen.

A couple of beers and several candy bars later Felix was about ready to hit the bed—even if it meant sharing it with the last person on the ship he wanted to do so with. He sneaked back and climbed onto the bed, where Max had graciously left room for him. Lying next to Max, in all honesty, wasn’t that bad. But Felix could do without the smug commentary he’d no doubt receive if he had to wake Max up to move over.

The next three nights were surprisingly easy. Felix didn’t go to bed before Max had fallen asleep, and Max in turn was always up before Felix. It saved Felix a lot of awkward moments, although he did wonder how Max managed to climb over Felix in the mornings without waking him up in the process.

On the third morning, as usual, Felix got up from the bed, pulled on his clothes and walked over to the kitchen, only to come to a halt as he saw Max talking to the Captain, whose expression was abnormally serious.

“I’m partly to blame, too. I invited Felix to stay in my room without considering this possibility,” Max said in a totally fake apologetic tone.

“No, it’s… Oh, Felix.” The Captain had just noticed him in the doorway. She motioned Felix to come over.

Max gave Felix that look. That arrogant, expressionless expression which was which was invisible to anyone else in the room, but screamed “I’m winning another round” to Felix.

Felix clenched his fists and summoned all his willpower not to go and punch the Vicar in the face. He should have known there was a punchline coming, and the Captain was eating it up.

“What is it, boss,” Felix muttered, staring Max under his brow. Max looked back victoriously.

“Where the fuck do I begin… Okay, Felix. I understand you’re young and when you live and work with the same people around the clock, you sometimes… develop feelings,” she began. Felix did not like the direction of this talk one bit.

“And it’s okay, it happens to all of us at some point,” she reassured. “But uh, you know…” The Captain was scratching her head, struggling to keep up her good leader character. She finally threw her arms on her sides and shook her head. “For fuck’s sake Felix, you shouldn’t harass your crewmates if they’re not interested is what I’m trying to say here.”

A sickly feeling twirled around his stomach and his face fell numb. That was it for the promising love story of young Felix Millstone and his gorgeous red-headed captain.

“Sure,” Felix uttered and turned away.

“Felix, if you ever need to talk, well… You can still come to me,” he heard the Captain call after him. He ignored her.

Later that day they arrived at Monarch where they were to drop off their passenger, who was finally back on his feet. The Captain took Max and Nyoka with her to escort him to Amber Heights. Felix would have normally asked to come with them, but things were too awkward between him and the Captain, and he wasn’t sure if he could resist shoving Max into the nearest sulfur pit on the way. Besides, it was getting late, and he finally had a bed all to himself.

A good meal and a hot shower cleared Felix’s head. By the time he fell into his bed, he was already over the Captain. Dating your own boss was probably a bad idea, anyway. He closed his eyes and fell asleep instantaneously.

Felix didn’t know what the time was when he was abruptly woken up by someone stomping through his door.

“Get up,” he heard Max hiss next to him. He was agitated and his voice hoarse.

“What—Max?” Felix rubbed his face. “This is… my bed, right?” He glanced around, finding the familiar posters and tossball stick mounted on the wall.

“Get up. Take off your clothes,” Max commanded, again, louder this time. He reeked of sulfur and blood, and his clothes were dirty and tattered.

“Fuck off. Did you get hit on the head?” Felix protested. There was an inexplainable yet unmistakable tingling in his nether regions, but mostly Max’s outburst confused the hell out of him.

“Will you do this or not?” Max asked urgently. Shit, I guess I am. The thought echoed in Felix’s head while he sat up and pulled off his shirt and underwear.

“Open your mouth,” Max ordered. Felix complied without thinking. “Good,” Max breathed and pushed his hard cock in his mouth with a loud grunt of relief. He grabbed the back of Felix’s head and thrust frantically for what couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes before coming in his throat and collapsing over Felix.

Felix was still woozy and almost choking on cum, and could barely support Max’s weight.

“Are you… all right?” Felix panted. Max said nothing and pulled him down on the floor, trapping Felix under his body. Felix was getting uncomfortably hard. Hopefully Max planned on doing him next, but Felix doubted. He tried to reach his dick himself, but he couldn’t move with Max lying on top of him.

“You were jealous… of me, not Boss,” Felix suddenly realized. Max said nothing.

“And you got some sort of kink with the thrill of life-threatening situations and violence,” Felix pondered.

“Shut your mouth or I’ll get out and you’ll have to finish yourself.”

Felix gulped as Max grabbed his erection and decided questions would come later.

As days passed, Felix didn’t pay much attention to the Captain’s bright red hair anymore. Much more often he caught himself stealing glances at the Vicar who was still such a pain in the ass but didn’t piss Felix off nearly as often as he used to.

He’d also started noticing the gleam in Max’s eyes as he finished their enemies with his shotgun. Fighting alongside him was becoming increasingly dangerous, in more ways than one, as he regularly got lost in his fantasies in the middle of combat.

“Felix! Focus!” Yelled the Captain when Felix was once again about to get bitten in half by a raptidon. She blasted the creature in smithereens and walked to Felix, now covered in nasty raptidon blood and pieces. “No daydreaming on a battlefield. Got it?”

“Sure, boss.” Felix gave her an enthusiastic nod as she left to collect various creature parts. Felix looked at Max timidly. Max tried to ignore his stare but caved in and walked to him, rolling his eyes.

“I thought the Captain already made it clear you shouldn’t try to make unwelcome advances on other crewmembers,” Max said.

“Yeah, and I’ve been sticking to that rule religiously ever since. So, how about making out with me behind that abandoned house while the others are busy cutting up those carcasses?” Felix smirked.

The corner of Max’s mouth curled up. He checked over his shoulder no one was looking and pulled Felix away.

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