The BLTS Archive - Risala of Risa
by Nyani-Iisha Martin (nfmartin@fas.harvard.edu)

---

Disclaimer: O great Paramount, I acknowledge your creative juices and
copyright lawyers. Julian Bashir and Elim Garak, the planets Risa and
Betazed, and Luna City, and indeed all the Startrek Universe are your
creations and property and yours alone, and you have deigned to allow
me to play with them a little while as long as I don't get a cent or
more for it. My highest praise for this.

(However, Risala and the story itself are mine, sprung from my
depraved little mind. And, this story is NC-17, so if you are under 18
or do not like vanilla sex with your stories, don't read it, please.
And if you are a Congresscritter, go away; you shouldn't be reading
what you have banned, and I'm voting against you next election.)

Hi. This is the first time I'm posting a story here, so be gentle. :)

This story of mine is basically NC-17 brain candy starring one of our
favorite four Startrek doctors, Julian Bashir, and set on Risa. I
tried to put as much of my mind, heart,and knowledge into it as I
could, so it would ring true without being callous. Tell me what you
think. (I actually would prefer to get comments in email. Seeing my
story publically flamed would break my heart. Yes, I'm a soft little
thing.)

The heroine is Black with blue eyes. Yes, you read that correctly. I
happen to be Black myself (Jamaican-American, to be precise and wordy)
and I have *met* Black people with blue and green eyes, so flames on
that score will be soundly laughed at.

On with the story!

---

Julian Bashir was probably the unhappiest vacationer on Risa.

He'd gone to Risa for a break, and to clear his head and think about
his life, and his Dabo-girl girlfriend, and Garak. His friend Garak,
the "simple tailor", whom he sat across a tiny table from at lunch,
day after day, and felt his blood sing with happiness at their
nearness and boil with frustration as he wanted him so badly it hurt.
Garak, who had done more than Julian would in ten lifetimes, seen more
than he would in twenty, and would probably simply laugh at the offer
of a young, naive human's body and soul. Nissa was simply fun and
games,and would, like as not, forget about him an hour after he left,
but Garak....

Julian bit his lip.

He rounded a corner, still too lost in his melancholy thoughts to
notice the sights and sounds of the gorgeous bazzar around him, his
mind's eye full of the dark crevices of a space station weeks away,
and the grey, reptilian curves of a particular, blue-eyed face.

"Doctor!"

Julian's head lifted. What....

"Doctor! Someone, call a doctor! Help, please!"

He trotted back the way he'd come, fishing out the few medical
supplies he kept on his person, as he saw three Risan women, two
bending over one prone on the trodden ground. As Julian got closer, he
saw that the one on the ground was barely more than a child, perhaps
seventeen or eighteen, a plump, short little thing, dressed in
battered, faded, but clean clothes that accentuated her curvy figure.
As he reached her, she started to shake her head and try to rise, and
the women bending over her shushed her and pressed her back down.

"I'm a doctor," he responded, to the question in their eyes. "What
happened?" he asked as he pulled out his tricorder.

"She just fell down--" started one. The other filled in, "She was
talking to me, and she suddenly said, "I don't feel well", and turned
away, and fell down, fainted."

Julian scanned the girl as he nodded, listening to the women, and
trying not to look at her too hard; she was darkly pretty, with large
eyes, a button nose, a plump, small, red mouth, and deeply brown skin.
Her black hair, wavy and long, spilled out around her head like a
crown. She reminded Julian of a chocolate confection, a very
old-fashioned kind from Earth called a truffle, that were round and
sweet.

_Get a grip on your hormones, Doctor_, he told himself. _She's a
child._

"Acute hypoglycemia", pronounced Julian. The two women looked
worriedly at him, and the girl's eyelids flew up, exposing startlingly
blue-green eyes with golden rings in them. They reminded him of the
Mediterranean Sea on Earth, sunlit and blue.... "That means her blood
sugar is low. She needs to eat." He helped the girl to sit up, feeling
her soft back under her dress. "When was the last time you ate
anything?"

"Two days ago, when my money ran out", she said cheerfully, in a soft,
high voice.

"Then," said Julian mock-sternly, "I prescribe that you have lunch
with me." The girl smiled brightly at him as he helped her to stand,
her teeth small and white, and, cheered up despite himself, he smiled
back.

---

Her name was Risala, and for someone who hadn't eaten in two days she
talked a lot as she ate. She was eighteen---Julian sighed with relief,
feeling less pedophilic and, therefore, less guilty---and cheerful as
a ray of sunshine. She wouldn't tell him who she was there with. When
he asked pointedly, she merely smiled at him, in that, "wouldn't you
like to know" way Julian knew so well from Garak's face.

"So, Risala, where are you staying?" Julian asked, watching her as she
ate her Lician egg pudding as if it were the best thing in the world,
closing her glorious eyes and enjoying the feel of it in her mouth.
How he wanted to put his lips on those...

Julian sighed and scolded himself.

"Nowhere, today. I ran out of money, and all I have are these clothes
and the ones in my purse."

"What are you going to do, then? Where are you going to stay?"

"I don't know. I was going to sell these clothes." She said all this
as cheerfully as if she were saying how nice the weather is. Julian
marveled at her unworriedness. "Well, right now it's the heat of the
day. Do you want to come back to where I'm staying and lie down?"

She beamed at him, and he felt his blood surge in response, and
mentally thwacked himself again. "Thank you, Julian."

---

Julian sat in the chair his hotel room had, an overstuffed
extravaganza that felt plush and luxurious after the hard DS9 benches,
and watched Risala sleep. They'd talked some more, about his life as a
Starfleet Medical Officer; she wanted to be a medic herself, and
startled him by understanding some of his less layman-friendly
explanations.

"If you want to be a doctor you should know what hypoglycemia is",
he'd scolded. "And that you should eat."

Risala had shrugged lightly. "I don't have any more money, and I'm not
hungry enough to be a prostitute, even though I *did* get a
contraceptive implant", she said cheerfully, as if she'd solved the
only problem with whoring for her living. "When I get to---" she put
her hand to her mouth, stopping herself, her blue-green eyes flaring
with alarm.

"When you get to *where*?" Julian had asked gently. Regaining her
composure, she smiled at him again, but now he knew that
devil-may-care cheerfulness was a front. "Where I'm going" she
replied, and closed those glowing eyes.

Now he sat in the chair, watching her and wanting her. It seemed as if
everything she did sent a thrill through him, even softly sleeping.
Julian had eclectic taste in women; though his ex-fiance had been a
dancer, and his painful crush on the slender Dax was not yet *quite*
dead, Julian also liked curves on women, and this little plump
creature was full of them, from her moon-shaped face to her large,
heavy-looking breasts, from the wide hips to the softly rounded swell
of her stomach...

Julian caught himself before he could work himself up any more. After
all, he couldn't *do* anything about it, of course. At best she was a
young girl who needed help and thought him kind for giving it, and
honorable men and Starfleet officers did not abuse kindness and trust.
At worst, she was some kind of thief and this was her scam, which was
why he had stayed awake.

Risala frowned and opened her eyes. "I'm not a thief," she said. "Or
whatever else you were thinking when you thought so distrustfully of
me."

Julian's mouth fell open and his blush rose. _How did she know--_ "You
are----"

"---Half Betazoid, yes. I forgot to tell you." She smiled again. "You
were trusting me until that moment. You were thinking I'm pretty." She
laughed as he turned crimson. "I think you're pretty, too." Risala sat
up and put her hand on Julian's own, and his skin felt as if it
scorched under her soft palm. He wanted her. He liked her so much, and
she *was* very pretty...

He caught himself leaning towards those full red lips and pulled back.
"I won't take advantage of you." _Or be taken advantage of_, he
thought, before he remembered that she could see his emotions.

Risala laughed. "I told you, I'm not a prostitute. I like you." With
that, she sat up fully, and kissed his cheek, and he felt his cheek
grow even hotter under her lingering lips.  "I'm glad I met you." She
looked up at his face, smiling into his eyes.

Blue-green eyes looked into dark ones for a long time before Julian
leaned forward to catch those full lips with his own.

---

For the longest time Julian simply kissed her, holding her close,
delighting in her warmth and her sweet mouth. She drew him into the
bed and held onto him, kissing him back, occasionally kissing his face
and his neck but mostly his mouth, those glowing blue-green eyes
raptly closed as she felt him with her other senses, felt his warm
skin under her hands and smelled his male scent.  Julian looked at
her, eyes closed, looking so pleased and happy and young.

Suddenly he wasn't sure he should be doing this.

Risala opened her eyes and smiled at him, rolling them over so he was
under her as she found the clasp for his shirt and unfastened it. "I
*have* done this before," she teased as she drew the shirt off over
his head and ran one hand over the caramel-covered chest, the skin
nearly as smooth and delicate as hers; then, as if to prove that she
had, she did something Julian wasn't expecting at all.

She dropped her head to one nipple and began to suck.

Julian knew, as a doctor, that there were nerve endings in male
nipples. But he'd never known it as thoroughly as he did now, with
Risala's tongue circling his nipple. Nobody had done this to him
before, not even---

Risala gently brought her teeth down around it, and Julian's entire
body tensed as he moaned, all thoughts driven from his mind. Not
lifting her head, though she smiled, she worked feverishly on his
pants with both hands, and then his underpants. As if his soul had
caught fire, Julian helped her as best he could, trying to make
himself do something besides tremble as the very young woman in his
arms ran her fingernails down his side and over his belly to wrap her
small hand around him.

"Risala, please", Julian begged, and now she did lift her head to
smile, before climbing atop him and kissing him for all she was worth
and putting his hands on her hips. Taking that as permission, he
dragged off her pants, trying to concentrate well enough to not rip
them;  afraid of the more complex shirt, he slid his hand beneath it
to unhook her halter and fill his hands with her warm, soft, heavy
breasts. Risala moaned into his mouth as he ran his thumbs over her
nipples; then she kissed down the side of his face to his neck, and
gently bit him.

Julian *loved* to be bitten. With a groan, he tumbled them both over
so he was atop her, and, clutching her around her waist, plunged
himself deep into her.

He'd forgotten how small she really was. She was tight, very tight,
and tensed in his arms. "Oh, Risala, I'm sorry---"

Risala gently but firmly pulled Julian's head to hers, drowning the
rest of his apology in a kiss as she wrapped her other arm around his
waist and began bucking against him. Reassured, Julian pulled her as
closely as he could and began matching her stroke for stroke till she
clenched around him and he unexpectedly came so hard he saw stars.

Julian came back to himself still atop her, her plump legs intertwined
with his and her arms around his shoulders, his face in her neck. With
a groan, he raised himself on his arms to look into her face, angry
with himself and worried for her, even though all he saw in her face
was pleasure and serenity. "Did I hurt you?"

"No---well, a little," she amended, at his stern look. "Only a little.
I don't mind." Julian didn't look as if he believed her, so she added,
"did you mind being bitten?"

Julian blushed. "No."

"I didn't mind, the same way." She raised her head to kiss his cheek
again. "I like how you feel, how you fill me. But, you didn't wait for
me," she added teasingly, and Julian turned an even darker red under
the brown. Before he could apologize for *that* Risala laughed. "That
just means we have more to do," she said, unbuttoning her top.

"More, so soon?" asked Julian, cheering up and pulling off the top and
undertop. "I don't know if..."

"He does," said Risala, reaching down to run her fingertip over the
end of Julian's penis, already erect again. Julian turned vermillion
as Risala giggled, then kissed him again so warmly he forgot his
embarassment.

---

Julian lay behind Risala, his arm around her waist, her arms folded
over his. She was soft and warm, and he dozed happily, his chin
resting on the top of her head, his face pillowed on her wavy, dark
hair. In front of him, she smiled, a truer smile than her usual
cheerful ones, and snuggled into his arms. She hadn't *quite* lied;
she wasn't a prostitute. But she had been considering becoming one
when she met him. She was good at sex, and liked pleasing people. But,
apparently, so was Julian, and so did he; she was very glad she had
met him first.

Risala snuggled tighter into his embrace, feeling the slender body
against her own plush one. Julian was only staying a few more days, he
had told her, but a few days were enough to get her strength back and
to figure out how to get off the planet. She felt him dreaming of
love, and thought maybe he'd take her with him.

Julian dreamed. In his dreams, the warm, soft body in his arms became
a hard, male, leathery one, the skin fading from deep brown to steel
grey, the eyes morphing from blue-green to ice-blue.  "Garak," he
murmured, and Risala was faintly disappointed. No, he wasn't going to
fall in love with her and take her off-world. He was already in love.
Still, he was very pretty, and they had what they had now. And she
knew he'd help her as far as he thought he should, which would be far.

Risala carefully turned over, looking at the warm caramel body, soft
skin stretched over bone, in her arms, comparing his skin to her soft,
dark, deeply padded own. Soon, she rose up on one elbow beside him,
stroking him softly with her other hand, trying not to wake him up. He
*was* very pretty. In fact, he was beautiful. Risala was slightly
sorry she couldn't stay with him; he suited her as well as anyone ever
had since her first, her Jacel, and he was so *beautiful*.

She was so engrossed with looking at him that she forgot to check his
thoughts for when he woke up, and when her inspection reached his face
she found him looking at her, amused, his dark eyes looking larger
than ever and truly happy. "Do you like what you see?" he asked.

"Yes, very much" she grinned, then kissed him again, putting her arms
around him. "Who's Garak?" she asked, as frank as a child.

"Garak?" repeated Julian, blushing again. Risala loved to watch paler
people blush. Among all the different humanoid species, it was nearly
a constant. She kissed him on his cheek. "You were dreaming of love,
and you said his name. It sounds like a male name, anyway. Is he your
lover?"

"No..." said Julian, his face falling. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For dreaming about someone else."

"Why?" Risala was puzzled, but she abandoned her puzzlement when
Julian cheered up and smiled in return. "You love him; it makes
perfect sense to dream of him." Snuggling into his embrace, she
added,"Why isn't he your lover? Does he love someone else?" She pulled
him tighter to assauge the jolt of pain that thought caused.

_I hope not_. "I don't think so. I---I haven't asked."

"I think you should," she said, determined to give Julian something
back for his kindness, and glad to have found the appropriate gift.
"You deserve to be loved. You're too beautiful of a man to be alone."

Julian jerked out of her embrace and sat up, suddenly agitated,
leaving Risala slightly annoyyed with herself. "I *can't*", he
stressed. "You don't understand. You're so beautiful and young and
open---" Risala had to try hard not to beam at him"---I'm sure no
one---I'm sure you haven't---"

"Been refused?" Risala patted Julian's thigh. "Everyone has. Why do
you think he would refuse you? Does his race have prohibitions against
men loving men?"

"No, they don't. I just...I don't want to lose him."

"Why would you? It seems to me that at worst he can be complimented
and turn you down. Or is he too hurt to love? Have you ever fought?
What happened?"

Julian thought back to his silly spy holonovel, and the day that the
rest of the DS9 staff appeared in it, caught in transporter lock, as
it were. The damaged computer couldn't add the safeties,*and* he
couldn't kill any of them for fear the computer would delete them; he
simply had to continue playing this dangerous game, over Garak's
objections, to the point of having to shoot his friend to stop him
from ending the program. His heart nearly stopped as he remembered
Garak looking at his bloodstained hand, and the wound on his neck.

Garak had looked, well, positively _pleased_ with him, and ever since
there had been a new respect for Julian in the ice-blue eyes.

"How was it?" asked Risala, politely not letting herself read the
answer.

"He---respected me more," said Julian, beginning to feel foolish that
a girl ten years his junior had shown him what he hadn't let himself
see.

"Then, I doubt you'll lose him." Risala sat up to put her arms around
Julian again, pressing her warm, soft body against his. She was young,
and was beginning to want again for him to use his mouth for other
things than arguing. She was pleased to see that pretty much all of
him except his conscious mind noticed. "I think you should try; you
can't help but feel better for asking. Besides, if he's in his right
mind, he'll jump at the chance to have a beautiful lover like you."

She grinned at the happiness she felt surge through Julian, just
before he tilted her face up, his huge eyes glowing at her, and kissed
her warmly and deeply, lowering her onto her back.

---

Julian was back in his chair the next morning after having taken a
bath, reading the local news on his personal padd and eating a sweet
bun. Risala was still asleep; in gratitude, he had set out to exhaust
her with pleasure. He thought he'd done pretty well; he was surprised
both that his ears weren't still ringing with her shouts and that she
hadn't actually pulled out his hair.  Julian spared himself a grin of
testosterone-laced pride before going back to his reading.

The next article nearly made him drop the padd. He looked from the
photograph to the girl before him and back again. The hair was wavier
than the straight black of the picture, and she'd obviously tinted her
skin subtly, so it was just as dark but had a different color balance,
but those glowing eyes and those rounded cheeks...

He looked at her, thinking. She'd run far, but couldn't outrun the
news. So *that* was her little secret.

Risala woke up and stretched and smiled as Julian's eyes played over
her, his gaze stroking her full, rounded breasts and stomach like a
hand.  "Are you hungry?" he asked her, and she nodded; he got the tray
of fruit and pastries from the table, but instead of handing it to
her, he picked up a piece and patted her hand down; divining his
intent, she lay still as he fed her. Her delicate tongue rolled around
his fingers as those glowing blue-green eyes gleamed up at him. After
the fourth piece, she caught his hand. "Why don't you get back into
bed?" she asked. "And bring the tray with you." Julian laughed.


It was two hours later, nearly midmorning, before Julian remembered
what he'd read on the padd. He stroked Risala's hair once more as it
lay over his chest, and she hugged him tighter around the waist in
return. "Risala?"

"Yes, Julian?" He slid his arms around her, preparing to restrain her
if necessary; thinking it an embrace, she hardly noticed.

"Why didn't you tell me you're really called Ellna?"

It was Risala's turn to be surprised. "*What*?"

"You're Ellna Naryn, from Luna City. Your family is worried sick about
you---"

"My family is worried about how much fun I might be having without
them," she said bitterly. "How did you find out?"

"Good old-fashioned journalism. They wrote an article about you."
Julian patted her hair reassuringly. "What happened?"

"I ran away. We went on holiday to Betazed, and on the way back I
slipped off the ship at Risa."

"Why?"

"My parents don't want me to be a doctor. They want me to teach at my
father's school and marry his partner's son. They don't want me to do
things like this; as a future teacher I have to " set a good example".
My mother thinks I'll make a good teacher, being half Betazed. She's
the most docile Betazed you ever met. My father rules her. He rules
all of us. They wouldn't even let me take biochemistry in school." She
was shaking, and Julian softened his grip, wrapping his arms around
her to comfort her; she felt warm and soft and horribly young. "I
figured, if I got to Deep Space 8 or Deep Space 9, they need willing
helpers around there, especially on Bajor, and I could get the
background I need to come back and go to some kind of medical school."

"But, you got stuck on Risa."

"I didn't plan ahead well enough." Risala/Ellna turned her face up to
smile wanly at him, looking as if she had finally reached the end of
her rope. "So, now you know who I really am. What happens now?"

"You have to go home, Risa--Ellna. You don't have any money. I *work*
on DS9; Bajor's far rougher than you might have heard."

Risala/Ellna contemplated her fate for a moment. "I don't want to,"
she said, in a tiny, childlike voice. "He might beat me. I don't want
to go home."

Julian pulled her as close as he could, sucking in a deep breath. "I
understand," he said. "My father---was hard to deal with, too. But,
running away doesn't help, and you can't go any further anyway."

"But you're going to DS9---"

"And I won't take you with me." _Oh, beautiful girl, please don't
tempt me_, thought Julian, suddenly surprised at how much he would
like to do just that. Steeling himself, he continued. "It's not where
you belong. You belong at home, finishing your education."

Risala/Ellna bit her lip, looking angry; then she abruptly turned her
face into his chest, clutching Julian as if for her life, and, for
once, was silent. For a long time, they lay there with each other,
listening to their hearts beat. Then she sighed, and Julian tilted his
face to look down at her.She looked so crushed; even knowing how
melodramatic teenagers were, he knew she was telling the truth, and he
felt awful for her. "Is there anything I can do?"

"This," she said, as she placed his hand on her breast. Julian
blinked. "Are you sure? You don't have to--"

"I want to. My parents--don't like it if I see people at home. I have
to sneak. After this, they'll watch me more than ever." She kissed him
again. "Please. I want you." Then she smiled more broadly. "Besides, I
might never see you again; I want as much of you as I can have-ohh..."

Her last word dissolved into a moan of pleasure as Julian stroked that
nipple with his hand and bit her on her neck with measured
ungentleness. She trembled in his arms, and he kissed his way down her
throat and her shoulders to replace his thumb with his mouth, stroking
the exposed surface of her breast with his fingers before encircling
her waist with one arm and running his other hand down over the soft
curve of her belly to her mound, his fingers stroking her open. She
tried to pull him up and kiss him so she could pleasure him, too, but
he put her arm around his neck and went back to what he was doing.

Risala/Ellna clutched Julian's head to her breast, arching her back
and moaning more loudly as he duplicated her trick with her teeth and
his nipple, then kissed the valley between her breasts and went on to
the other one.  His other hand was splayed over her, one finger
rubbing circles around her clit and another two inside her.  "Please,
Julian!" she sobbed, trembling harder and harder in his arms until he
pulled her up tight against his body and thrust his two fingers in as
deeply as he could, sliding his other hand over her round behind and
pushing in one finger there.

She came, hard, and Julian lay there, his face against her heaving
stomach, wondering why he'd never tried _that_ before and if she would
break his fingers as she clenched around them. Suddenly, Risala
stopped making any noise, which frightened him; scrambling up, he saw
that she'd run out of air to scream with as she collapsed back into
herself and took a deep, shuddering breath. Eyes glazed, she smiled
sweetly and raised her hand to his face. "Julian," she murmured in an
exhausted woman's voice, as he caught her hand before it went limp,
and closed her eyes, fainting or falling asleep *really* fast.

Julian curled up around her, hoping that his erection would go away,
as he certainly couldn't do anything with an unconscious partner, and,
his head against hers on the pillow, indulged in a bit more pride in
his prowess before he dozed off too.

---

Julian woke up alone in the bed. For a long and coldly terrible
moment, he wondered if Risala/Ellna had fled again, intending to keep
running, until he heard a splash in the bathroom. After a few more
minutes, she emerged, naked and towelling herself. When she saw him
awake, she smiled at him. "Julian, thank you for taking me in, and for
last night, and today." She began to giggle.

"Well, thank you for improving my vacation immensely. How can a woman
from such a rigid family be so uninhibited?" Julian caught her hand
and kissed it, and she giggled some more and shrugged cheerfully.
"What time is it?"

"Late afternoon," she replied, sitting beside him. He put his arm
across her lap and tried to smile reassuringly at her. She smiled back
for a moment, but sobered quickly. She looked like a serious child;
Julian was struck by a sudden desire to protect her. Risala/Ellna
smiled again, feeling that, and patted his cheek. "I doubt my father
will actually beat me", she said. "I am a bit old for that, and so is
he, differently." She giggled again, despite herself.

"So, you *will* go back."

"On one condition." Risala lay down across Julian, soft and warm and
heavy, and looked much less like a child as she brought her face to
his. "You ask your friend---Garat? Garak. You ask him to be your
lover." At Julian's flare of distress, she smiled reassuringly, and
said, "I don't see why he'd say no."

Julian hugged her to him. "I will."

"Then so will I." She hugged him back, and then kissed him; feeling
her intent as she straddled him,sitting on his legs just below his
groin, he laughed. "Again? You're exhausting me."

The blue-green eyes twinkled at him. "I want to have my fill of fun
before I go home."Julian tried to protest, but what she did with her
hips as she kissed him again, sliding up his body, made him think that
perhaps he *could* manage once more. And what she did after that made
him collapse with happiness.

---

Four weeks later, Julian recieved a data chip, parcel post. Curious,
he hurried back to his quarters to view it. Slipping it into the
viewer, he wondered just who it could be from. His father's annual
brandy-and-lecture was still three months away, and there was no
bottle of real liquor in the package. Then he saw the face on the
viewer, and beamed.

"Risala", he breathed, smiling. He'd forgotten that she'd said she'd
write him.

"Julian!" she said cheerfully. "How are you? Send me a note and tell
me. I'm fine." With her usual talkativeness, she began to describe her
homecoming, and the fact that her parents were so awed by her
independence and so afraid of losing her that they not only had not
given her more than a token punishment, but had begun to relax their
grip. "And they were so *impressed* with a letter from a prominent
Starfleet doctor, saying that *I* had helped *him*"---Julian had
written a letter describing how she had helped him treat a patient,
not mentioning that the patient was Risala. It was mostly fanciful,
but it seemed to have done its work---" that they are letting me take
biochemistry and anatomy! I'll have almost too much work next term to
think about men, let alone women." Her smile changed, and she looked
far less childlike. Julian shivered with delight, remembering that
duality in the child-woman. "*Almost*."

Garak came around the doorway into Julian's sitting room, planning to
surprise him, and very glad Julian had given him his door codes. He
bit his lip when he saw his young doctor fascinatedly watching a
letter-vid of a plump and glowingly pretty young human woman who was
now saying in the petulant tones of a child that her parents, "still
want me to be a teacher. Ah, well, no one can have everything. Rome
wasn't built in a day." She laughed again, and Julian laughed with
her. "That sounds so *archaic*, doesn't it?"

Garak nearly laughed himself, but more bitterly, when he realized how
jealous he felt of the child on the vidscreen.  _Easy, Elim_, he
chided himself. _You can't be his only friend, for his sake and
yours._

Julian heard Garak sigh and, halting playback, turned around, his
already happy face glowing. "Garak!" Greatly cheered by his reception,
Garak caught Julian's raised arms in his hands and kissed the young
doctor before Julian could even rise from his seat.

Julian was breathless when Garak let go of his mouth. "Um--"

"Hello, Doctor," said Garak, amused. It still delighted him to
surprise Julian, and how the young doctor glowed when caught unaware
by happiness. Ah, those huge and beautiful eyes..."Who is your
attractive young acquaintance?"

"Oh, that's Risala--Ellna. The girl I met on Risa." Garak nodded,
remembering. After telling him about her, Julian had told him of her
advice, and nervously taken it. "Isn't she a lovely young woman? Not
older than Ziyal, though. She made me feel like a cradle-robber."

Garak hugged Julian to his chest, feeling rather the same way. "She is
wise, for someone so young," he said, feeling an uncharacteristic wave
of gratitude towards her. "Go ahead and watch the rest of her letter;
I can come back a little later."

"No, that's alright." Julian tightened his arms around Garak's waist.
"The letter will still be here. I spent too much time wanting you and
doing nothing about it to let you out of my arms now." And, with a
grin, the young doctor undid the fastening of Garak's pants with his
teeth.  His laughter at Garak's gasp of happiness was muffled by the
first baculate ridge, which Julian never *could* get his lips over on
the first try without opening his mouth further than his dignity would
allow. But, Garak really didn't mind.

On the screen, and far away on Luna City, Risala smiled.

---

The End