The BLTS Archive- Threesomes:
#1: In Triplicate
by Nyani-Iisha F. Martin (nfmartin@fas.harvard.edu)

---

Disclaimers:  First of all, all of these characters (except Ensign
Tolbert), the good ship Voyager, and the entire Star Trek universe
belong to Paramount, who would never dare do this with their
characters. That's what fanfic is for.  However, what I've done  with
them belongs to me, COPYRIGHT  1996   Nyani-Iisha F. Martin; I  have
absolutely no intention of making any money from this story,  and I
ask that nobody else do so either. Please ask me before  reprinting
this story, etc.

Secondly, this is an NC-17 story. If you are under 18 or offended/
disturbed by fairly openminded sex involving two men and a woman in
various assortments, please find that 'n' key and press it now, and
save everyone gobs of trouble.  That said, here's the story.

---

"Ooof".  That was the only sound Ensign Kim found himself able to make
as his back slammed into the turbolift wall and Chief Engineer
Torres's teeth dug deliciously into the side of his throat. God, it
hurt. He was worried she might be drawing blood, all but sure that she
had gone into some kind of Klingon mating frenzy, and a little afraid
that she'd rip his throat out with her teeth alone. And, to his utter
amazement, the pain and fear only made his throbbing penis even
harder.

B'Elanna, her face still buried in Harry's neck, her hands clenched
around his upper arms, ran her tongue over the bite marks she'd made
and  breathed hotly on them, and Harry felt his knees go weak and his
eyes glaze with reciprocal lust. Desperately, he tried to think, to
remember the moment that now seemed so distant, when he'd said a
casual "hi" to her in the turbolift, and she'd suddenly called,
"halt!" and given him   one split-second of a predatory grin before
she sprang at him.

Reaching further back he tried to remember where he was going and what
he was to do there; desperately, Harry tried to think of anything to
keep his conscious mind from vanishing into a haze of lust, his arms
from wrapping around B'Elanna, and himself from having sex with her in
this very turbolift this very moment.

Harry tried to open his mouth, to say a half a dozen things, from "I
really ought to go to lunch" to "what took you so long?", but all that
emerged was a strangled moan.

B'Elanna pulled her lips and teeth away from Harry's throbbing neck to
smile into his face, and Harry's world shrank to her deep, glittering
eyes and the fullness of her curved lips; he was the one who raised
his head to kiss her, fire curling in his stomach. His knees very
nearly did give way this time, and he grabbed at B'Elanna's arms for
support; she pulled him up against the turbolift wall, inadvertently
slamming him against it again.

"I knew you'd like that, Starfleet", she said with a grin, and kissed
Harry  again, her full lips parting over his.

Harry gave up and melted into her arms, letting his knees give way;
B'Elanna went to her knees with him, his arms wrapping around her
waist and her hands travelling up his shoulders to twist in his thick
hair. B'Elanna pulled his head back to kiss her way across his face,
to nip gently at his cheek and to bite the other side of his throat,
while Harry, still overwhelmed by her, held her as close as he could
with two Starfleet uniforms between them, feeling her breasts and
stomach against his chest and abdomen, his thigh between hers and the
heat pressing down on it...

"Tuvok to Torres and Kim". B'Elanna and Harry flew apart like charged
particles, so hastily that Harry hit the turbolift wall a third time.
As they stared at each other, breathlessly panting, Tuvok's
disembodied voice continued from their communicators.

"The turbolift has been still for some time. Has it stalled? Do you
require assistance?"

"N-no," stammered B'Elanna, as Harry dazedly shook his head, putting a
hand to his throbbing, purple throat, surprised he didn't feel blood.
"Thanks, Tuvok. Lift, continue." As the lift powered up, B'Elanna
crawled over to Harry. "I have 45 minutes for lunch" she said, that
predatory look fading into a more human lust, but most definitely
still there.

Harry stared up at her, his dark eyes wide. "I--I have a report to
write---"

"What, do you have to fill everything out in triplicate?" B'Elanna
kissed him once more, hard, then rose and pulled him to his feet.
"Tonight, 1900 hours?"

Harry nodded, his head still reeling, just as the turbolift stopped at
the mess hall; B'Elanna sauntered out, leaving Harry in the lift with
a raging hard-on, a huge purple hickey, and a spinning head. He hadn't
felt better in a long time.

---

Harry looked up at B'Elanna, this time from the vantage point of her
bed. She had pulled him into her quarters and laid him on the bed,
commanding him not to move; obediently, he lay still, watching her
shimmy out of her uniform until she wore nothing but her smile and the
desire in her eyes. She sat on the bed beside him, and he reached for
her, but she gently pushed his hands back down to his sides.

"I said, lie still, Harry", she gently admonished. "Trust me."

He bit his lip with frustration, wanting badly to clutch her to him,
but did as she said. B'Elanna leaned over him, and, as he fought the
urge to reach up to her and kiss her, began to undress him with
maddeningly meticulous care, folding each piece of his uniform and
putting it on a bedside shelf.

Harry watched her as she moved over him, her body sleek and firm, soft
curves thinly stretched over  tough muscles. _She's *so* beautiful_,
he thought, looking at her with all his eyes and all his heart. Her
face was highlighted by a little yellow-lit lamp she had by the bed,
her cheekbones seemingly higher and her lips even fuller as she worked
over him, deliberately touching him as little as possible so that each
light touch burned like fire. Her long arms shone, sleekly muscled and
lightly  freckled up and over one shoulder, as if marking places to
kiss. Her high,rounded breasts, golden in the low light, were tipped
with burnt-honey-brown nipples and tiny, wavy-margined dark areolae.

Harry was rather afraid to crane his head so he could see more of her;
B'Elanna *had* told him to stay still. So, he contented himself with
the view he had, and a wonderful view she was. Harry was
concentrating so hard on not moving that he was only half hard when
B'Elanna got his underpants off. She frowned slightly; watching her
face, Harry was distressed at her displeasure and, following her eyes
to what she was looking at, blushed red.

"It's hard holding still, isn't it?" she said gently. Harry nodded,
and asked, willing his voice not to crack, "why did you ask me to,
then?"

"For the same reason I undressed you so carefully," B'Elanna replied,
with a sudden smile, planting her hands on each side of Harry's face
and leaning---no, diving---down into him to kiss him. "To give me time
to control myself, so I don't Klingon-fuck you into pieces." The S of
"pieces" blew across his lips just before she kissed him.

Harry clutched B'Elanna for all he was worth, feeling her length
against his, her soft lips over his, her tongue tangling with his.he
felt himself go completely hard, but was entirely too awash in
B'Elanna, in  her silky hair and her warm mouth and her slenderly
curving body, her  hot skin against his arms, to be shy or embarrassed
by the erection now pressing against her thigh as she knelt over him.
She ran her fingernails over the bite from lunchtime, which he had
been too romantic (and too embarrassed)to have fixed, and the
pleasurable pain made him tense and moan into her mouth. Her hand ran
up into his hair, warm against his scalp---

And she yanked his head back. Harry blinked, dazed, as B'Elanna's face
swam into focus, her eyes as glazed as he knew his must be.
"Starfleet", she said, showing all her delicate, sharp, white teeth,
"you can move    now," and then kissed him hard, swallowing his
answering laugh.

---

"B'Elanna, where are you going?" Harry asked her, with what felt like
his last ounce of strength, when she came out of her bathroom. He felt
like the goddess of pleasure had taken him and bashed him flat, and he
had thoroughly enjoyed every picosecond of it. "Off to Sandrine's",
she replied, sitting on the bed and pulling her underpants back on,
her smooth back with its extra-ridged spine curving across Harry's
view.

"To *Sandrine's*?" he repeated incredulously. "We just---"_made love?_
--- "had sex two times! I don't have the energy to walk!"

"Sex always makes me feel like I can do anything *except* lie in bed,"
she said, with a teasing contempt, pulling on her pants, but she
stopped dressing when Harry put one hand in the small of her back.

B'Elanna turned to Harry, prepared to argue. When she did, however,
instead of pleading or even commenting, Harry was looking at her, with
large, wide, deep eyes. Just looking. With all of his soul. Giving up
the fight, she sighed and pulled off her pants again. "I'm not much of
a cuddler," she said, but she molded her body to his side, laying her
head on his shoulder, and Harry wrapped his arms around her as if he
might   never let go. "When did you---"

"When did I what?" B'Elanna jumped, realizing that she and Harry had
been lying together, snuggled warmly against each other, for some
time, and that she had been dozing in comfort against the young man
she held in her arms, carefreely thinking of nothing for the first
time since--- since she didn't know when.

"When did you decide to...to seduce me?" Harry asked, stroking her
thick hair with one hand.

B'Elanna laughed at the question. "When I first saw you in those silly
white hospital scrubs on the Ocampa Homeworld." Then she grew more
serious. "I don't know. I do know that when I saw you---the other
Harry Kim---fall out of the hull breach I was extremely sorry I never
had tried. We might die any day, and I didn't want you to not know, I
didn't want to not even ask." She was silent for a second, pulling him
closer,   then added, "I was a little surprised you took me up on my
offer. What with Libby---"

"I think she...I think they all think we're dead," said Harry softly.
"When I was thrown into that alternate timeline, Libby mentioned a
memorial service."

B'Elanna thought of the Maquis, and wondered what memorial service her
renegade comrades could have given her, Chakotay, and the others on
his ship. A chill swept through her, and she pulled Harry against her
as tightly as she could, then warmed as he rolled over in her arms to
face her, his smiling face bare inches from hers. "Besides, I was
hoping you would ask. Really hoping."

B'Elanna smiled back, and pulled Harry in for a kiss. As he started to
trail kisses across her shoulders and arms, she murmured, "When do you
have to be back on duty?"

"Umm..nine hours from now," came the reply, slightly muffled by her
freckled arm.

"Then, let's stay here for awhile. We can go to Sandrine's tomorrow
night. Together?"

Harry raised his head to beam up at her, looking so young and happy
her breath caught in her throat. "Together," he replied, but his face
said so much more, just before he went back to his pleasant task.

---

Meanwhile, Tom Paris was dreaming, again. He was on the bridge of
Voyager, but *not* in the pilot's seat. Someone had tied his hands
over his head to the railing, with rough old-fashioned rope, the same
someone who *was* now sitting in the pilot's seat, facing the blank
viewscreen. Tom was tied up, but not hurt or frightened; there was no
pain, no memory in this dream, only future and longing and wondering
just who the hell was in his chair. "Please..." Tom begged, not
knowing what it was he asked for. The person in the seat spun around,
and Tom's breath caught in his throat. It was Harry Kim. Harry got out
of the pilot's seat and sauntered cheerfully over to Tom, wearing a
small sleek smile that was very unlike Harry... and very much like
B'Elanna Torres, whom he morphed into, the thick hair growing longer,
the slender body more curvaceous. Trembling with not-quite-fear and
with a growing desire, Tom watched her walk up to him until her face
filled his eyes, until she closed hers and kissed him so warmly his
eyes closed in pleasure... but it was a man's scent he smelled, a
man's mouth on his, and Harry Kim's broad shoulders he put his
suddenly-free hands on to find the jumpsuit clasps. But the warm body
revealed when the jumpsuit fell was a slender woman's with high,
golden breasts... The person in Tom's arms kept changing throughout
the dream, from Harry to B'Elanna and back again, but they always were
warm and alive, and they kept loving him and never hurt him, and
smiled back as he repeated   three words over and over and over. Tom
smiled in his sleep, his arms around a phantom lover, whispering
aloud, "I love you."

---

"That bite you gave me itched all day", complained Harry, as he walked
with B'Elanna towards the holodeck. "It was all I could do not to
scratch my neck under Tuvok's watchful eye."

"I'm glad you didn't have it healed," said B'Elanna, adding
mischievously, "I think it looks good on you."

"Of course you would," replied Harry. "Besides, how would I explain it
to the Doc? Um, you don't mind that I have my collar covering it, do
you?"

"Oh, no. I don't want you looking like you've been in a fight with an
angry Klingon." They grinned at each other. "But, I do like
knowing.you have a souvenir I gave you."

Harry laughed. "You're more sentimental than I am, Torres."

"Not a chance, Kim." But B'Elanna laughed with him, just as they
reached the holodeck doors.


As the doors opened, Tom Paris took a moment before he looked up from
his red wine. Despite his jaded, rakehell reputation, his dreams
puzzled him; he still hadn't figured them out, though he had been
having them for weeks now. While he was glad that he was having erotic
dreams about *somebody* ---it was about time he recovered to this
point, he thought ruefully at himself---the complexity of his
feelings startled and confused him. He had never been given to
introspection until he arrived on Voyager and his mental health
demanded that he look at himself; being new to self-analysis, Tom
thought of all the possibilities except the most obvious one --- Until
he looked up and saw Harry and B'Elanna standing hand in hand in the
holodeck doorarch, as everyone turned and smiled at the new pair.
Looked up, as his stomach plummeted with bitter disappointment, and
realized just *what* those dreams had meant. _And now I have no chance
with either_, Tom thought, indulging in a moment of self-pity before
he pulled up a brave face. Tossing back the rest of his wine, and
thinking,   _Don't be selfish, Tom. They're both your friends_, he got
out of his seat to go and welcome Voyager's newest couple.

---

"I'm worried about Paris," said Harry, out of nowhere. B'Elanna had
noticed Harry tended to a lot of pillow talk, and he was slowly
getting her into that habit as well, but she had thought tonight that
he was asleep. After what she'd done to him, she thought Harry
probably *should* be asleep.

However, she was also worried about Tom, who seemed like a flat bottle
of Earth champagne; he had even stopped cracking his awful jokes
lately. "Why?" she asked, propping her head up on one hand.

"He let me win at paresis squares yesterday."

B'Elanna incredulously stared at Harry for a moment, then threw her
head back and laughed. "Harry Kim, I love you. You're so---
purehearted. Any   other guy would simply be glad to have won, but
you're so good you worry about your friend. What are you doing with
misfits like me and Paris?"

Harry smiled back. "You aren't a misfit, o' Chief of Engineering. At
least," he added more daringly, "I seem to fit you pretty well---"

B'Elanna mock-growled and jumped on him, kissing him hard enough so
that he'd forget that she said she loved him. She didn't let it show,
but she was rather shocked at herself for saying that. Did she really?
She stopped bothering to think about it as Harry kissed her back
eagerly, for quite a long and breathless moment. Then he let go of her
mouth, but kept his arms around her.

"You are so beautiful," he said suddenly, sounding nearly as young
and appreciative of life as Kes.

"Me?" B'Elanna was shocked, now. She knew that she had a nice body,
but she could never look at her face without seeing that high forehead
with its rows of ridges. Ridges that were flat and featureless to
Klingons, that were bumpy and deformed to humans. "Harry, are you
running a fever?" she joked to forget old memories. "Let me see---"

He caught her hand on its way to his forehead and kissed it, then
kissed her forehead. Kissed her ridges. "No, I'm fine. Maybe missing a
little skin," he added teasingly. "And you are beautiful."

B'Elanna was torn between pleasure and embarrassment. Embarrassment
won. You were telling me about Tom?" she said. Changing the topic
wasn't usually her style, but she didn't want to simply tell Harry
that his judgement was clouded by youth and infatuation. That would be
too brusque to say to Harry, who meant well, but it was the only way
she could think of to say it. Besides, a part of her---a *small* part,
she sternly told herself---wanted to believe him.

Harry looked at her searchingly for a moment, then understood what she
was doing and laid his head back down on the pillow. "Yes, I was
talking about him. He's been down for the last couple of weeks. Not
angry or upset, just constantly *down*. The.sparkle is missing. Have
you seen this, too?"

"Yeah. Have you noticed, he's stopped telling his awful jokes? I don't
think I've heard one since that night we first went to Sandrine's
together."

"Maybe...I think he's missing someone to love," said Harry, after a
moment's thought. "He certainly deserves someone. He may put on that
pig exterior, but Tom's a pretty good guy at heart."

B'Elanna nodded, remembering Tom's help in the Vidiian salt mines, and
unconsciously touched her brow to assure herself it wasn't smooth, as
Harry went on.

"I almost feel bad to be here with you," he said, smiling at her to
emphasize the 'almost'. "Tom looked so upset that night at Sandrine's,
before he donned the Tom Paris devil-may-care mask. I think he loves
you."

"Me?" said B'Elanna, shocked for the third time that night. "I thought
it was you he was looking at with regret."

Harry opened his mouth, then looked at B'Elanna; she could swear she
saw the circuits flashing behind his eyes, even as she thought her way
to the same answer.and they smiled at each other. "We would have to be
careful," she finally said. "He's been hurt a lot..."

"I know; he told me, about prison, and about---" _the rape_, Harry
finished inside his head, not wanting to say such an ugly word aloud.

B'Elanna nodded, understanding him. "And we have to make sure he knows
we will be," he continued. "When Tom told me, he told me that he
flirts so much because nobody takes flirts seriously. Everyone leaves
them alone."

Harry's eyes narrowed as he considered the challenge ahead, knowing
B'Elanna was thinking similar thoughts. _It won't be easy, but... "I
think, in the end, we three might--can work," he finally said, and
then smiled and chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Eighteen months ago I wouldn't have known what a threesome is, and
now I'm considering one."

"Planning one", amended B'Elanna, by way of telling Harry that *she*
had made up *her* mind already.

He grinned again. "All right, then. Planning one. Speaking of plans,
when are you going to go talk to him?"

"I'm not." At Harry's puzzled look, she added, "You are."

Harry looked so amusingly shocked B'Elanna nearly laughed. "Me? But
I've never even kissed a man! Of the two of us you're the daring one."

"That's why *you* should go ask him," said B'Elanna with devilish
cheer. She did care for Harry, but teasing him was so much fun
sometimes...

Harry floundered desperately, trying to convince B'Elanna that she was
the one who should invite Tom. "But you're the engineer. You know how
things work." _Gods, that was weak_.

B'Elanna simply smiled cunningly, and he knew he was defeated. "And
I'm also the Chief, so I know how to delegate." Sitting up, she traced
a line down Harry's chest and stomach with her fingernails; he  closed
his eyes and stopped looking quite so frightened, to say the  least.
"Not all of you is so upset about the idea," she noted  archly,
wrapping her hand around Harry's erection; his answering  blush spread
scarlet clear down to his nipples, and she nearly  laughed. "Think of
it as a learning experience," she finished lightly,  as she brought
her lips down to his.

---

"Harry, is something wrong? Besides the cooking, that is."

Harry looked up from his dinner---blue and brown today, God help us---
to Tom, smiling a little. The jokes were slowly returning. "Shhhh,"
Harry said. "Do you want to hurt Neelix's feelings?"

Tom merely shook his head instead of coming up with one of his usual
witticisms, and Harry's heart fell again. "You look nervous, and you
aren't eating *any* of this glop," Tom continued with concern. "Is
anything up?"

Harry shook his head, mentally berating himself for being as "opaque
as water", as his mother had often said. He *was* nervous. He hadn't
been this nervous since he'd taken the Academy Entrance Exam, and that
was saying something. Ensign Harry Kim had faced the Academy War
Games, formidable Captain Kathryn Janeway, a not-so-slow illness and
death, marauding Vidiians, and fierce Kazon, yet right now the thought
of propositioning his best friend had his stomach tied in tighter
knots than any of these.

It was rather funny, he thought, and smiled slightly. "I'm just not
hungry," he said with a larger smile. "If you're done, too---" Tom had
tucked his plate into the nearest reclamator before Harry could finish
the sentence---"can we go see those newest additions to Sandrine's you
were telling me about?"

"It's still early, but some of the new people  should be there,"
started Tom, blue eyes glowing. Talking about his pet holoprogram
always animated him. Harry watched Tom more than he listened to him,
glad to see his friend returning to normal but sorry to see how long
it was taking. Tom was very practiced at putting on a seamless mask,
but Harry still occasionally caught Tom displaying wistful looks at
B'Elanna, or, twice already, at him. _At least he didn't shut us out_,
thought Harry   gratefully as he and Tom entered the turbolift.

Harry looked at Tom and thought he would die of nervousness, as his
stomach twisted itself tighter. He took a deep breath and reminded
himself, _you planned for now._ "Tom, I wanted to ask you something,"
he finally managed to choke out.

"Yeah, Harry, what is it?"

All of Harry's carefully prepared speeches drained out of his mind as
he looked into Tom's puzzled face. Focusing carefully on the floor, he
simply asked, "You're my friend, right?"

Later, Harry never knew how he thought to do what he did. As Tom
started to say, "Of course I am", Harry reached out and took one of
Tom's hands in his own. When the other man didn't flinch away, Harry
looked at the long-fingered, aristocratic hand in his own, with its
light fuzz of blonde hair, for a long moment, then gently turned it
over and pressed a kiss into Tom's palm.

The two men stood there silently for a moment, neither able to speak,
before Harry dared to look up at Tom's face. Tom was staring at him in
openmouthed astonishment... that blossomed into the happiest look
Harry could have ever imagined. Tom beamed at Harry, joy shining  out
of his face as he clutched his friend's hand, and Harry's heart
simultaneously leaped and caught in his throat as he looked at his
transformed friend.

Then, Tom said something that nearly made Harry laugh. "I though you'd
never ask," he whispered hoarsely, but before Harry *could* think to
laugh Tom was pulling him closer, putting a trembling hand on his
cheek. Harry put his free hand over Tom's, happily drowning in blue
eyes for a very long moment before Tom kissed him.

Tom kissed Harry desperately, like a starving man finding a banquet,
wrapping his arms tightly around his friend. Harry kissed him back as
best he could, again overwhelmed, feeling Tom trembling and the pulse
in his throat where one of Harry's hands stroked him, feeling the
slender, whipcord body his other arm held tightly around the waist,
the difference and the sameness---Harry certainly felt the sameness as
Tom's sudden erection bumped into his thigh, and his jumped in
response. Tom continued kissing him eagerly, running one hand down
Harry's back as he started to rain kisses on Harry's face, on his
closed eyes and his cheeks and his chin and his lips. He was too far
gone to feel the turbolift stop. So was Harry, softly moaning,
feeling his friend's male, rough cheek slide over his, burying his
hand in soft, blonde hair, until, as Tom began kissing his jaw and
throat, pulling down the turtleneck, he opened his eyes---

---to see Ensign Tolbert staring at them, wide-eyed.

Harry choked, blushed, and pulled away from Tom all at once; startled,
Tom looked up to see her raise her hand to her mouth and run around
the corner, already screaming with laughter.

Sheepishly, the two men let go of each other. "I forgot to halt the
darn   thing," said Harry, getting redder with each passing moment.

So was Tom, until they looked at each other and laughed. "Do you
really want to go see Sandrine's right now?"

"No," Harry admitted, and pulled Tom back into the turbolift as he
requested a new destination. He turned back to Tom, but, instead of
resuming his earlier loving assault, Tom blushed even more deeply.

"Harry, I'm sorry for eating you up like that. I should go slower."

"Hey, I just took it as a yes," said Harry, and laughed. Tom laughed,
with him, wrapping his arm around Harry's waist and, moving behind
him, kissing the back of his neck. "Your job is to look out for   when
the lift opens again," he whispered into Harry's hair.

"And what's yours?" Harry breathed as Tom pressed one hand flat
against his chest; his skin burned as if the two layers of cloth
between it and Tom's hand didn't exist.

"To distract you," murmured Tom, as he started kissing Harry's neck
again. It took all of Harry's willpower to keep his eyes open as Tom
pressed himself against his back and gently bit at his neck. He bit
his lip to   keep from moaning and turning around as Tom squeezed him
in muscled arms, running his fingers over his skin as if he were
nude.His hands behind him, arms wrapped around Tom's body, Harry could
feel Tom's legs against his legs, his erection pressing into his
backside, his hard, flat chest hot against his back; he could smell
Tom's spicy male scent, feel his warm breath, hear the lust- roughened
timber in his voice as Tom nibbled his ear and sighed  lovingly into
it.

Now Harry was the one trembling, held up by Tom's strong arms,
willing his eyes to stay open and his body not to melt in the heat
surging through him.

Finally, too soon, the turbolift doors opened and they had to let go
of each other, but at least the hallway was mercifully empty. Harry
and Tom walked together to Harry's nearer quarters, so close to each
other they could almost feel each other's hairs prickling the skin.
They walked in silence, Harry far too happy to idly chat... and Tom
dragging thought from the jaws of lust. _What would B'Elanna think  of
this?_

Tom was torn between stopping Harry and asking him just that, asking
him if there was a problem between him and B'Elanna and if he was
doing this to get back at her, and continuing to walk down to
Harry's rooms with him, to throw himself into bed with his handsome
young friend without another word, to *not* risk this chance with
Harry by asking him anything except where he wanted to be kissed.
Conscience warred with desire as Tom walked as quickly as he could
down the hallway.

Finally, when they reached Harry's quarters, Conscience won, narrowly.
"Harry," Tom began, "What would---does this have anything to do with
B'Elanna?"

Harry opened his door before turning to reply, but when he did he
found he didn't have to. Tom was staring over Harry's shoulder, his
mouth open in astonishment and his eyes wide with happiness;
mystified, Harry turned back around to see what Tom saw.

B'Elanna was standing there, hands on her hips, completely naked and
gloriously beautiful. Even after having spent three weeks sleeping
with her Harry was still stunned at just how lovely she really was.

"You didn't think I would let you have all the fun, Harry?" she asked
teasingly.

_So *that's* what B'Elanna thinks of this_, Tom thought with wonder,
amazement, and a bit of admiration for Harry's newfound
adventurousness, as she took his hand and Harry's and pulled them both
inside the front room.

---

A trail of clothes, torn around the clasps, the fastenings wrenched,
led from the front door to Harry's bedroom, punctuated by the heap by
the door where B'Elanna had rapidly shimmied out of hers just before
the men got there. Tom found himself thinking, _We certainly aren't
wasting time_, although his mouth was rather too occupied for him to
smile.

And, it could certainly be said that they weren't wasting any. Harry
was sitting on the edge of his bed, leaning back on his hands;
B'Elanna was astraddle him, her back against his chest; and Tom was
kneeling in front of her, kissing her for all he was worth with his
hands full of her wonderful breasts. Harry, using his hands to support
himself, was stroking into B'Elanna, who was gripping Tom's shoulders
tightly as the wildness overtook her. He ran his thumb over her nipple
and was rewarded with a growl as she pulled him closer; with one eye,
Tom could see, over her shoulder, Harry's flushed face and his
beatific smile as he concentrated on thrusting as hard as he could.

B'Elanna raked her fingernails down Tom's sides, making him moan and
shake, but she would have had to lean too far forward to reach her
goal. Instead, she growled, "faster, Harry" and started pushing
herself back against him, gripping Tom's shoulders again for support
as she started biting his cheek as gently as she could manage, under
the circumstances. Tom rolled his head back so she could reach his
neck and closed his eyes; although he didn't like being bitten as
much as Harry did, there was something in B'Elanna's frank wildness
that aroused him so much he could barely think. He planted one hand
beside Harry's hips and found B'Elanna's clit with the other; growling
with approval, B'Elanna leaned forward against him, her nipples poking
his chest, and wrapped one arm around Tom as she clutched the edge of
the bed with her other hand. Fiercely now she drove herself down onto
Harry, simultaneously holding Tom tightly and pushing against him.

Tom opened his eyes in time to see Harry turn purple, cry out, and
fall flat on the bed, just before B'Elanna's teeth closed on Tom's
shoulder   and he clenched his eyes shut and cried out himself, in
triumph and in pain, as she came. Any sound she might have made was
muffled by his shoulder, but he could feel her vibrate like the string
of a harp for a moment that lasted centuries, before she all but went
limp in his arms. B'Elanna pried her teeth out of Tom's shoulder and
smiled, glassy-eyed, at him before she kissed him; he idly thought
that something in her mouth tasted warm and metallic as he helped  her
raise herself off of the prone Harry and sat her on the bed. As  soon
as he clambered onto it himself, clinging to her arms for  support,
they both fell flat, and the three of them lay there.

"Whew," said Harry, otherwise still motionless.

Tom chuckled. He felt great, which rather surprised him, as he would
have thought he was supposed to feel terrible, with an aching erection
outmatched only by his throbbing shoulder--- Which, Tom noted, turning
his head to look, now had a perfect set of bitemarks, slowly welling
blood.

B'Elanna followed his gaze, and gasped. "Oops. Tom, I'm sorry..."

"Got carried away?" said Tom, with a sideways smile.

Recovering quickly, B'Elanna levered herself onto one elbow to inspect
the damage. "I guess so," she said, with a smile of her own. "I'll get
the first aid kit; there's a regenerator in there." She started to get
up, then suddenly leaned over Tom like a hawk stooping and ran her
tongue over the bite marks, lapping up his blood. Tom trembled and
sighed despite himself, then--well, twitched, as she ran her
fingertips over the head of his penis as she got up.

"Hey, Tom," said Harry, rolling over to face his friend. "Nice bite."

Tom rolled his eyes and laughed. "It's what I get for sleeping with
beautiful half-Klingons."

"Who said anything about sleep?" Harry took Tom's hand, as B'Elanna
came back. Sitting behind the two men on the bed, she quickly
disinfected the bitemarks; Tom and Harry both watched her face, with
that beautiful, intent expression on it, as she concentrated on
carefully running the tissue regenerator over Tom's shoulder until the
cuts closed over to leave purple marks.

"There, that'll hold you till they finish healing. Tom, I am sorry---"

Tom took her hand and squeezed it. "Hey, no harm done. Besides, it's
not the first time a beautiful woman took a chunk out of me, just the
best time."

B'Elanna grinned back at him and leaned down to kiss him; then, after
kissing Harry also, she got up to put the kit away and vanished into
the bathroom.

"All better now?" said Harry.

"Well, not quite," Tom flirted back.

"What's wrong?"

Pointing to the obvious place, Tom continued "I have this swollen
spot---"

Harry didn't let him finish, kissing him with vigor as he wrapped his
hand around Tom's erection. Tom buried his hands in Harry's thick hair
to hold him as he kissed him back, moaning into his mouth as Harry ran
a fingertip around the ridge of the glans and pulled on him a few
times. By the time Harry pulled his head back to look at Tom, dark
eyes sparkling, Tom was trying to remind himself to breathe.

"Do you want me to kiss it and make it feel better?"

When Tom nodded, too breathless to speak, Harry rolled entirely atop
him, kissing his bitemarks gently, kissing his neck and shoulders,
running his fingers along the surprisingly delicate collarbones as he
sucked one of Tom's nipples into hardness; Tom moaned at that, then
tried to pull Harry up towards his mouth, but Harry patted his hands
down. "No, just lie still and let me do this. It's what I wanted to do
the night before you left for that trader." _It's what I wanted to do
for a long time._ Tom smiled at that, then gasped again as Harry
rolled his other nipple between his teeth.

B'Elanna curled up in the desk chair, watching the men with amusement.
She'd half expected to find them still lying there, or to find Tom
doing this to Harry, not the other way around. But, it would seem
that young and innocent-faced Harry Kim was full of surprises, and
potential.

Harry ran his hand over Tom's fair-skinned chest, marveling at the
blond curls. When they had first torn each other's clothes off,
B'Elanna had been the one to say, "blond all the way down!" with a bit
of surprise, as if she hadn't quite expected it. Harry just blushed,
thinking it again. Running his hand over Tom's rather-too-prominent
ribs and down the smooth skin of his side, Harry kissed a trail,
following the arrow of blonde hair that went straight down Tom's
stomach, noticing the taut muscles underneath unpadded,
almost-too-thin skin.

Tom, meanwhile, lay trembling under Harry's ministrations, clutching
the bedcovers so he wouldn't grab his friend's hair and possibly  hurt
him by tugging on it; his skin hot and hypersensitive with  arousal,
Tom felt every kiss burn, every hot touch, every time Harry's  hair
brushed his chest and stomach like burning silk, and more than
halfways wanted to weep for joy. No one had explored him like this,
this carefully and caringly, for a very long time.

B'Elanna got tired of watching, and cleared her throat. Harry looked
up like a cat caught in a cream dish. Well, a very apologetic cat. "Uh
---"

"This looks like too much fun to just watch," said B'Elanna, as she
curled herself around Tom's head and shoulders; Harry, as usual,
blushed, but Tom, already at ease, smiled up at her as she kissed him.
Harry smiled at both of them and went back to what he was doing.

Still kissing Tom, B'Elanna knelt beside him, running her hands over
those fascinatingly pale shoulders and the chest with its sprinkling
of blond curls. Blondes were relatively rare outside of human-settled
planets; there had been none in B'Elanna's home colony, so Tom was an
exotic to her. Not wanting to be rough with Harry, Tom caught hold of
B'Elanna's arms, the tightness of his fingers telling her how close to
losing control of himself he was as he moaned when she pinched his
nipple. She pulled back from his kiss to look at him, and look at her
golden hands on his fair skin, and smiled at what she saw.

"Enjoying yourself, Paris?" B'Elanna teased, and Tom opened his eyes
to grin back, then pulled her down for another kiss. She felt him gasp
in her mouth and lifted her head away just as Harry bumped his chin on
Tom's penis and also gasped, turning red.

"You OK, Harry?" Tom asked, voice cracking.

"Yeah. I just--realized what I was doing." Embarrassed, Harry smiled
up at Tom, who smiled encouragingly back. "Tell me--if I don't do it
right, OK?"

"You're doing great so far." Encouraged, Harry put out his tongue and
gave Tom a few licks that, tenative as they were,made Tom close his
eyes with pleasure; then, as if getting up his courage, Harry plunged
his mouth down onto Tom, swallowing him as far as he could.      Tom
tensed like a bowstring, his entire body arching for a moment as he
nearly screamed,"God, Harry, yes!"

B'Elanna grinned at that. So he was a screamer, huh? Good pair with
Harry the moaner, she thought, and went back to work on Tom, kissing
his neck and shoulders, especially where the bites still showed
purple. She rather wanted to taste his blood again, but held herself
in check; she'd already noticed that Tom didn't like being bitten as
much as Harry did.

Tom was immersed in sensation. If he had been able to think, he would
have been surprised that, rather than being distracted by one from the
other, he was having even more fun with two people working on him.
But, he was a young man with two beautiful friends making love to him,
so he really wasn't able to do more than hang on to B'Elanna's arms
and moan as Harry sucked away, surprisingly adeptly. He not only
thought to but managed to keep his teeth out of the way, most of the
time, and when he faltered B'Elanna *was* distracting Tom, running her
fingernails across his skin or nibbling at his ears, tracing his
collarbone with her tongue or sucking his nipples. Tom held onto her
arms and thought that he might die of pleasure, and that he really
wouldn't mind if he did.

Then, he groaned, as Harry lifted his head. "Don't stop! Please!"

Harry laughed, tracing Tom's veins with a finger, and watching his
friend quiver in response."I guess I don't have to ask." Replacing his
finger with his tongue, Harry chuckled to hear Tom sigh in relief, and
quiver as he felt Harry's chuckle.

Then, suddenly, Tom threw his head up, blue eyes flying open in alarm
as he clutched B'Elanna's arms for all he was worth. "Harry! I'm--
going to-   -"

If he could have, Harry would have grinned. Instead, he sucked harder,
and, thinking quickly, gently wrapped one hand around Tom's balls,
rubbing them with a finger; Tom, still trying to warn Harry, lost the
battle as his words rose up into an incoherent cry of pleasure.
Turning nearly purple, Tom bucked on the bed, clutching B'Elanna's
arms as she gripped his shoulders to steady him, and came so hard he
saw stars.

As Tom lay gasping like a landed fish, coming back to himself, Harry
sat back and made a face, then got up and trotted to the bathroom.
B'Elanna considered teasing him, then decided against it; instead she
gently patted Tom's cheek until he opened his eyes again.

"Oh, God," he groaned softly. "I haven't come that hard since I was
fifteen."

Harry, returning, heard that and grinned. "So I was good?"

"Sensational." Tom held onto B'Elanna's hand with one hand and held
out the other arm to Harry, who put one arm around B'Elanna's  waist
and one over Tom's chest, wrapping himself in the proffered  arm.
"Thank you, Harry. And, thank you, B'Elanna. Thank both of you  for
inviting me into your relationship." This was a major speech for  Tom,
and both Harry and B'Elanna knew it; they both simply kissed him,  and
the three of them lay there awhile, both men's heads in B'Elanna's
lap as she curled herself around them.

"Harry?" said Tom dimly.

"Mmm-hmmh?"

"How'd an ensign get such a large bed?"

Harry blushed once more and laughed.

---

Surprisingly, it was Harry who fell asleep first, his cheek pillowed
on Tom's back. Tom lay on his stomach, and Harry had an arm thrown
over him; Tom's arm was similarly over B'Elanna's waist where she lay
beside him, and she had laid her hand on his arm and her other arm
above their heads, the only place to put it. She was warm and
quiescent but not really very sleepy as she regarded her two lovers,
Tom's face looking boyish in sleep, Harry's already boyish features
looking nearly angelic. Two handsome young men...

B'Elanna was quite shocked with herself to wake up, not remembering
that she'd fallen asleep. Harry had rolled onto his other side, away
from her and Tom, but Tom was still asleep in the same spot, and she'd
woken up because he'd pulled her closer, saying something in his
sleep. It sounded  vaguely like her name. B'Elanna wriggled closer,
trying to not wake Tom up, and realized he was murmuring "Bella".

She didn't realize she'd growled at the nickname till Tom woke up,
half jumping out of his skin to find her beside him. "B'Elanna?" he
whispered carefully, with so much trepidation she nearly started
laughing.

"You..."

"Growled. You were calling me Bella in your sleep." She rolled over on
her side to face him. "Klingons do not take nicknames," she deadpanned
in her best frightening Klingon-woman voice, then burst into laughter
at Paris's sincere fright, keeping the volume down only with
difficulty.

"But humans do, and this woman might," she added gently, feeling
surprisingly tender towards him. Without his cocky mask, he looked so
open, and, really, so young. Instead of it being hard to believe he
was as young as twenty-seven, it became hard to believe anyone so
vulnerable had lived through so much.

Relieved, Tom snuggled closer to B'Elanna; she hadn't figured him for
a cuddler. But, then, she hadn't figured herself for one, either.
"Bella means "beautiful" in Italian. That's a non-standard language
from Earth that my uncle taught me." Tom tucked his head under her
chin, and B'Elaana hesitantly put her arms around him, suddenly
worried that she might do something which would damage him.

_What a great time to start thinking of that_, she thought at herself,
_after you've taken a chunk out of his shoulder with your teeth._

Tom's voice called her back from her thoughts. "I guess I thought of
it because you are beautiful."

B'Elanna rolled her eyes. First Harry, then Tom. "Does every man think
a woman is beautiful just because she fucks him silly?"

"No," said Tom softly, raising his head to look into her eyes. "And I
don't. I think you're beautiful because you are."

When she tried to turn away impatiently, he reflexively tightened  his
arms around her, as if he could hold her still and make her  listen to
him. Impressed that he would try, B'Elanna stopped  wriggling. "I saw
you as a Klingon, I saw you as a human, I first  met you as a rawboned
rebel girl of twenty-two and I see you every  day as our Chief of
Engineering, dressed in the Starfleet uniform I  once saw you tear to
bits. B'Elanna, you're beautiful. Trust me; I'm  the experienced rake.
I should know Beauty when I see Her, and I see  Her when I see you."

B'Elanna looked at him for a long moment, and Tom steadily looked
back, falling into those fathomless dark eyes. Then, suddenly and
roughly, she kissed him, squeezing him so hard his ribs ached. Just as
suddenly she let go and smiled. " Nice speech, Paris." Then, as if to
emphasize that *that* conversation was over, she added, even more
directly than usual, "Tom, would you like to make this permanent?"

"This?"

"Would you like to start dating us, me and Harry? We talked it over;
we both want you to."

Tom's first reaction was a rush of joy."I'd love to! But..." Then,
his second reaction kicked in, and all of his old self-doubts
fountained up in his mind. He was no good with people, those who loved
him inevitably ended up hating him, he caused disasters that
destroyed those around him. And then, after what had happened to him
in prison... he had had fun this night, but could he really love
again?

"....but I don't know if I should..."

Seeing the blue eyes cloud over, B'Elanna grabbed his chin. "Stop
that!" she hissed fiercely, pulling his face towards hers. "I know
what you're doing to yourself. Stop it. We wouldn't have asked you  if
we thought you would be bad for either of us... or we would be bad
for you. We *care* about you. Harry was devastated when he thought you
were leaving the ship, and he nearly ran to Sickbay when we got you
back." B'Elanna neglected to mention her reaction to Paris'
departure, which involved trying to kick holes in the walls in her
quarters."Paris, he loves you."

"What about you, B'Elanna?" said Harry, sleepily but clearly.

Surprised, Tom turned over and B'Elanna raised herself on her arm to
look over his shoulder at Harry. "You ran right behind me to
Sickbay."

B'Elanna opened her mouth, then closed it again as two pairs of eyes,
one blue, one dark, looked steadily at her. Neither Tom nor Harry had
ever seen B'Elanna blush, but she did now; the golden skin  slowly
suffused with red until she was the color of a dark peach, with
purple blooms on her cheeks, the red under her golden skin shading
down to her nipples. The two pairs of eyes both widened; she was
stunning, amazing, absolutely gorgeous that color. And she was
embarrassed. They hadn't thought *anything* could embarrass  B'Elanna.

B'Elanna watched them stare at her, and felt her cheeks burn. Harry
was right. However, the fact that he was staring at her as if he
wanted to eat her for dinner, as if he had never eaten in his life,
didn't help her say that. And Tom's expression was even worse, or was
it better?

For one of the first times in her life since she was a small child,
B'Elanna felt shy, and had to drop her gaze. "Harry, you're right,"
she said with closed eyes. "Harry, you're right. Tom, I---"B'Elanna
began, turning crimson.

B'Elanna's blush was enough for Tom. She didn't open her eyes when
Tom---she could tell by his scent and the shape of his mouth---kissed
her, hard and joyfully. Wrapping his arms around her, Tom pulled her
atop him, kissing her soundly, and rolled to the other side so she was
between the two men; when he let go of her mouth she did look up to
see his eyes shining and wet with happy tears, as Harry warmly pressed
himself against her from behind.

"B'Elanna," he said rapturously, looking at her face. "Harry,"  he
continued, looking up at his friend and reaching out a hand to him,
which Harry squeezed. "You two... Thank you. I love you guys." Tom
blushed at how the words came out; before he could say anything else,
B'Elanna reached up and ran her fingers over his cheekbones, then
brought his face down to kiss the tears away. Harry lifted her hair
from the back of her neck to kiss it, and started kissing the nape of
her neck and her shoulders, wrapping his arms around her so he could
put his hands on Tom's.

Tom started kissing his way down her face and neck, then buried his
face between her beautiful breasts as he wrapped his arms around both
her and Harry, his hands in the small of Harry's back. Beginning to go
hot again as Tom started to suck on one nipple, B'Elanna arched her
back and moaned, which pressed her even more firmly against Harry;
feeling her friends pressed against her, one in front and one in
back, she breathlessly chuckled, which made both of them look up.

"Are we going to do this again?"

"Well, we have all night," said Harry helpfully, to which Tom added,
"and neither of us has enough bites."

"Oh, I can fix *that*," B'Elanna replied, pulling Tom up to face her
again as she reached back to wrap an arm around Harry.

---

This time they all fell asleep in a heap, having quickly, wildly, and
quite thoroughly exhausted each other. Tom was the first to wake up
again, because his hand had gone dead; B'Elanna, her back to him, was
pillowing her head on it as she pressed her behind against his hip.
Harry was pillowed on his chest, his hand over Tom's heart. Gently
wiggling his hand out from under the side of her face, Tom wondered if
getting thrown 70,000 lightyears away from home was too high a price
to pay for falling in love with not one, but two wonderful people. At
this moment, with both of them asleep beside him, he didn't really
think it was.

B'Elanna stirred at the loss of her pillow and rolled over towards
Tom, leaning on his shoulder, as he slid his arm back around her
shoulders and looked at her sleeping face, at the golden skin and the
high cheekbones, the symmetrical ridges and the full lips hiding white
teeth-   --his neck, (and his shoulder, and his cheek, and...) ached
deliciously as he thought about *them*. How could she ever doubt that
she was beautiful? He felt a sudden wave of anger at the people who
had convinced her she was not, whoever they were.

And then there was Harry, the angelic golden boy who had turned out to
have such a sassy disposition beneath the quiet exterior. Tom turned
his head to look at him, his thick dark hair, usually immaculately
groomed, now tousled and splayed beneath his cheek, glowing black
against Tom's pale chest, his large, dark eyes now closed, his full
mouth gently curved into a smile as he slept. That mouth....

Tom's smile became a grin, as he remembered what tunes Harry could
play. He'd have to tease Harry about being a musician till the mere
mention of clarinets made him turn distinctly pink.

_You have some luck, Tommy_, he thought at himself as he pulled his
friends a little closer, feeling them warm and alive against him and
knowing that this was reality, not his recurring dream. Tom Paris
didn't know who or what had changed his luck from as bad as it had
been to as good as it was now, but as he stroked B'Elanna's hair from
her forehead and wrapped his arm tighter around Harry, he thanked
them with all his heart.

---

"Computer, what time is it?" B'Elanna whispered, so as to not disturb
her sleeping companions.

"314 hours" was the reply as she sat up, swung her legs out of the
bed, and sighed. Although she usually woke early, she hadn't woken up
this early for a long time. But, then, she reminded herself, she
hadn't gone to bed this early since the first night with Harry. Her
stomach growled at her, giving her yet another reason to be up.

Replicating a cup of hot soup, B'Elanna sat down cross-legged in the
chair by the bed, watching Tom and Harry sleep and feeling the usual
tug of warring desires. Half of her wanted to take a quick shower and
run down to Engineering, where a half-dozen problems awaited her, or
to the holodeck, to run an exercise program, or to do anything else
that would be *active*. The other half wanted to snuggle back into bed
with her friends and just enjoy a rare five hours of doing nothing but
lying still and resting with two lovely young men to keep her warm.
Ah, the familiar fighting between B'Elanna and herself.

She smiled wistfully at her familiar conflict, so much a part of  her;
she had always had a tendency to distrust what was too easy,  what
seemed to actually work the first time.

_Which is why I'm in this chair,_ she realized, _instead of in bed
with Harry and Tom_. It had only been one night, but they fit. The
three of them fit together. But it was only one night. What would they
say and do in the morning? But, how could they forget or disregard
what they had said, and done, and felt, this night?

B'Elanna bit her lip and resisted the urge to fling the mug against
the wall, then finished her soup. She hated to think in circles, and
would almost rather think of nothing. "Computer, the time?"

"331 hours."

"I could have told you that," said Harry softly, as he stretched and
gently rolled away from Tom. "What are you eating? It smells good." As
Harry rubbed the sleep from his eyes, his stomach gurgled as if to
emphasize his words, making him blush and B'Elanna smile.

"Chicken broth," she said. "Chakotay didn't like it when I drank it
before trying to trance---he said I would frighten my animal guide
away. Seska always laughed at him for that."

"Well, you did try to kill your animal guide. If I were it I'd find
that quite a bit more frightening than your drinking chicken soup."
Harry picked up a pair of shorts and then discarded them, ordering his
own mug of soup instead, and adding buckwheat noodles. A few moments
later, when he'd finished inhaling it, he saw B'Elanna's face over the
edge of the mug, one eyebrow raised in amused questioning. _Nice
Vulcan imitation_,   he thought, then explained, "Well, between the
blue-and-brown entree and the fact that you made me proposition Tom,
I couldn't eat a thing at dinner."

Getting another mugful, Harry added,"Truth be told, I'm glad you made
me. I wouldn't have on my own." Looking over at Tom, who  appeared
serenely asleep, Harry finished, softly,"I would have missed a lot."

"So would I," said B'Elanna simply, leaning forward to take Harry's
hand. He squeezed it back, and they sat there together with their soup
for a little while, not noticing Tom's eyelids flutter open, then shut
again, and his sleeping smile widen. Then Harry added more archly,
"besides, having two of us will keep you from tearing either of us
into pieces," and B'Elanna laughed with him.

"I think---Harry, where did you   get a black eye from?"

"Someone poked me with an elbow. I have a black eye?"

"Well, only the beginnings of one. But, we have to get up early to get
you to Sickbay. I don't want to use the tissue regenerator around a
delicate organ like an eye." B'Elanna reached out and tilted his head
with her hand, looking under his jaw. "Humans are so *fragile*" she
said in mock-disgust, making Harry smile. "I can't bite you *anywhere*
without it showing. And if you look bruised, Tom, with that fair skin,
must look---"

"Like someone fucked me silly and bit me all over in the process?" Tom
yawned, stretched and winced, and sat up behind Harry, rubbing his
eyes. "God, I'm hungry. Harry made me so nervous at dinner, worrying
about something *unimportant*---"

Harry stuck out his tongue at Tom, who reciprocated

---"that I couldn't swallow much of that blue-and-brown goop,
either." Tom scooted down to their end of the bed, behind Harry, who
leaned back slightly to touch him with his shoulder; Tom leaned
forward into him in response. "Replicator, tomato soup. Plain and hot.
Account---"

"Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres", said B'Elanna. "Save your credits
for your morning coffee," she said to Tom as she passed him the soup.

"Thank you!" Tom beamed at her with happiness and gratitude out of
proportion to the soup, and she smiled back."That was nice of you."

"I'll just win the credits back from you at pool, anyway," said
B'Elanna with a grin.

"Not a chance," Tom laughed, and he started in on his soup, as Harry
began finishing his; for a few moments the three of them sat there
silently, except for the soft sounds of drinking. Harry finished his
soup, and went off to the bathroom and came back; so did Tom. The
silence began to lengthen. Harry went and threw all of their uniforms
in the fresher and returned, as Tom and B'Elanna looked at anything
but each other, trying to figure out how to say it. Finally, Tom
stopped trying.

"OK, what the hell did we *do* tonight?"

"Had sex in interesting and varied ways," said B'Elanna.

"Told each other we care about each other," said Harry.

"And did it all completely sober and not while stuck in a cave
somewhere," finished Tom, and the three of them smiled. "And we
started something I hope lasts."

"So you want to make this permanent?" asked Harry, smiling, despite
the restraint he knew he should be exercising, as he took Tom's hand.

"Yeah," said Tom, smiling at him and then B'Elanna, who had taken
Tom's other hand in hers, two pairs of large dark eyes wide with
gladness and, though he didn't know it, some relief.

_Oh, Goddess, they  want me,_ Tom thought, and the idea that these two
wonderful people could want *him* made his eyes prickle with tears, so
that he had to drop his head.

"I---you two know what I've been through. What I've done. What I'm
like. I'm not---perfect. Not close. But", he added, raising his head,
his aristocratic features fine-edged with shadows in the low light, "I
have a second chance, and reasons to live, and people to---to care
about, and I'm going to work hard on this."

"I know, Tom," said B'Elanna, squeezing his hand. "But," she added
slowly, surprising even herself,"I know I was the one who asked you,
but I don't think.we should get too serious too fast." As she took his
hand and squeezed it to forestall comment, Harry looked slightly
disappointed to hear this; so did Tom, but there was a touch of relief
in his face, as well. B'Elanna inwardly smiled at seeing that, and
went on.

"I had to say this to you, also, Harry. Seeing you both is fun---"
B'Elanna shook her head, disagreeing with herself. "No, it's more
than, deeper than that. But, I don't want any of us locked into
something we'll want to break, or need to break." Harry nodded in
agreement only reluctantly, so, not wanting to depress them further,
she added,"You two don't want to have to deal with a trapped Klingon,
do you?"

"No," agreed Tom, laughing along with Harry. "I certainly wouldn't
want *that*. But, I don't want to lose you, either. Nor you, Harry. I
don't intend to lose either of you, come hell or high water."

"Or the Delaney sisters," added B'Elanna teasingly, suddenly feeling
not just relieved but not at all tired; she felt her blood begin to
rise and warm.

"I think he'll have to deal with more of the first two than the last
two," replied Harry, and Tom pretended to try to hit him; Harry
grabbed his hand again and leaned over to kiss him warmly. "I can't
disagree with you two. Still, don't you think there should be
something special to say at a time like this?" Harry asked.

"We could recite the Klingon marriage oath," B'Elanna said
sarcastically.

Tom snorted and Harry stared incredulously at her; she grinned and
tilted her head at him, making them both smile back. "I didn't  think
so. Well, I think everything's settled between the three of  us."
Squeezing their hands to belie her casual tone, she finished, "so
now I'm going back to bed."

Harry ended up in the middle this time, not entirely by accident, as
Tom and B'Elanna wrapped their arms around him and each other. Harry
closed his eyes, remembering that he was on duty in less than six
hours, but trying to sleep was utterly futile, with B'Elanna warm
behind him, her strong arms wrapped around his shoulders, her body so
closely pressed against his that his back was as sensitive as his
fingertips, her rich scent derailing his thoughts. As if she wasn't
distracting enough, Tom lay in front of him, his breath stirring
Harry's hair and his warm chest's fuzz tickling Harry's chest, his
thin and muscled arms around his waist, leg pressed to leg and thigh
to thigh. Harry felt himself going hard again and was busily willing
the erection to depart so he could sleep when Tom's blue eyes snapped
open as he said, "you're poking me"; with a wicked grin Tom wrapped
his hand around it so that poor Harry groaned aloud.

"I thought we were sleeping?" he asked, in a very hoarse voice.

"Who said anything about sleeping?" replied B'Elanna, tightening her
hold on Harry's shoulders and beginning to slowly bite his neck as Tom
pulled him forward to kiss him again, finding Harry's nipple with his
free hand.

---

Harry was still between B'Elanna and Tom an entire six hours later,
asleep on his stomach, the Chief Engineer's shoulder beneath his head
and his upper back beneath the pilot's. The neglected chronometer,
having not been set, failed to ring, but Harry's internal clock told
him exactly what time it was... and exactly how late they all were.

"Shit!" said Harry, alarm catapulting him out of sleep, as he tried to
flip over and sit up at the same time, and merely managed to wake
everyone else in the bed with his convulsing.

"Harry?" asked B'Elanna, instantly awake, as Tom groggily mumbled an
indistinct complaint.

"We're late. It's 8:05", he replied, sitting up. "We were supposed to
be on the bridge five minutes ago..."

Tom cursed under his breath, much more distinctly now. "Computer, the
time?"

"8:06", came the artificial voice, as the three of them leaped out of
bed, B'Elanna combing her hair with her fingers and yawning.

"Can we all    fit in your shower?"asked Tom, rubbing his eyes.

"It'll be tight," said Harry, at the door of the bathroom; then he
blushed in spite of himself, so deeply Tom thought a joke would be
superfluous.

"Hey, do you have any extra hairbrushes---what the hell happened to
your face?" Harry's black eye had blossomed tremendously, streaking
nearly a quarter of his face with purple and black.

"What happened to yours?" replied Harry, pointing out the large red
bruise on Tom's cheek.

"I did," said B'Elanna sheepishly, climbing into the shower; when
Harry climbed in with her she looked at his face and grimly swore in
Klingon. "You both look like hell," she added, as Tom squeezed in.

"Well, it can't be helped," replied Harry, turning on the shower. "At
least our uniforms are clean."

Six minutes later, three very-slightly-damp Starfleet officers stood
in Harry's front room; only someone who knew Harry or B'Elanna well
could see the slight dishevelment of their hair and the wrenched snaps
in their uniforms. Unfortunately, Tom was a bit more disorganized, so
he and Harry had just fastened his clothes while B'Elanna brushed his
hair.

"There," said B'Elanna, throwing down the brush. "Guys, I'm sorry --"

"Hey, it was worth it." Looking at her with deep sapphire eyes, Tom
took her hand and squeezed it, as he took Harry's in his other;
B'Elanna took Harry's hand also and the three of them stood together
for a moment, not needing words. Then they let go of each other and
ran for their respective posts.

---

Captain Janeway glared at her two tardy officers as they flew onto
the    bridge, her eyes widening as she took in their state. "Ensign
Kim, Lt.     Paris, to my ready room, *now*." All the other eyes on
the bridge, all    the other stares, paled in comparison with her
crackling blue eyes as  the two men trudged towards her and the open
door.

Standing rigidly at attention beside his friend, Tom wished he dared
look at Harry, even out of the corner of his eye, but the angry
captain in front of him demanded all his attention. "Gentlemen, can
you give me   *any* explanation for why you have arrived on my bridge
twelve minutes late, apparently after you were fighting?"

_*Fighting?*_ thought Paris, and nearly laughed at the irony; despite
himself, his lip twitched, and he prayed Janeway didn't notice it.

_Fighting it is, then,_ he thought, preparing to run with that
interpretation, but before he could construct the scaffolding of a
story Harry took a breath and stepped forward.

"Captain, we weren't fighting,"   he said, and promptly told Janeway
the reason why they were late and bruised.

Tom turned purple. Harry had turned red, and Janeway was distinctly
pink, but Tom became a rich livid purple as Harry's words sank in. _I
can't believe he said that_, he thought, biting his inner lip so that
he wouldn't say that aloud. _I can't believe he told the *Captain*
that_.

Neither did she.

"Mr. Kim," began Janeway slowly, laugh lines crinkling around her
eyes, "I... ah... appreciate your honesty..." She choked back what
might have been a giggle from anyone else and went on. "At ease.  You
also, Mr. Paris," she added, her eyes positively twinkling at his
discomfiture;

Tom had the sense that she was forcibly restraining a smart remark
about his expression and his blush.

"I'm pleased for you three, but please tell Lieutenant Torres to be a
bit gentler next time..." She looked down at her desk, ostensibly
searching for something, though Tom thought he saw her mouth twitch.
"Here's a tissue regenerator.", she finished, handing it to Harry as
she looked up again. "I don't think you can do   anything about that
eye until later, but you have five minutes to clean each other up."

Janeway walked to the door, then turned back to her two officers.
"This does not mean you are allowed to be late for duty," she added,
but the stern tone of her voice and set of her mouth were belied by
those laugh-lines and dancing eyes.

Then she left them to tend each other. "I can't.believe.you  told.the
Captain!" spluttered Tom, still deep red as he slumped onto her desk.

"And go on report, or worse, for fighting with you?" asked Harry
mildly, standing in front of Tom and lifting the regenerator to his
bruised cheek. "Hold still," he added, laying his hand against the
other side of Tom's face to steady his head.

Tom felt Harry's hand warm against his cheek and put his hand over
it, and Harry smiled at him with large dark eyes. "And I thought I
was the stud," he said, rather more softly.

"I've been taking lessons from the best", replied Harry gently,
leaning down to kiss him.

A sudden blow rocked the ship and sent the two men crashing into the
far wall. "So much for my cheek," sighed Tom, pulling Harry to his
feet.

"Back to work," Harry agreed, tossing the regenerator down on the
Captain's desk as he trotted after Tom out of the ready room. But, as
he swung up into his station, already analyzing the readings going
across the console screens, he allowed himself one small smile.

---

The End