Work Text:
Of Innocent and Empathic: More in the World
by Frogg
"Spencer." Derek leaned in the doorway, one hand braced on the opposite side of the frame. "Come to bed."
The sound of typing didn't stop, didn't even slow down. "I-I'll be there in a--"
"It's two in the morning. When's the last time you had a full night's sleep?" Derek nodded to himself as the typing paused. "That's what I thought. Come to bed." There was steel in his voice.
Spencer swallowed hard, muscles going tense as he closed out a few programs and put the laptop into hibernation.
"What the heck are you doing, anyways?"
Pain flickered across Spencer's face. "Talking with a friend of mine. He's a surgeon," he added unnecessarily.
Something was wrong, Derek could hear it in Spencer's voice. Something besides the standstill their relationship was in, from the aftereffects of what Henkel had done to Spencer, and the string of stressful cases they'd had since Spencer had been approved for fieldwork. "Something bothering you?"
Spencer froze momentarily, halfway across the room. He shook his head. "N-nothing you can help with."
That stung. "Why don't you tell me about it then?" The gentle question was little more than a politely given order.
And Spencer knew it. "O-okay," Spencer whispered, refusing to meet Derek's eyes as he slid past his lover in the doorway and shuffled down the hall to Derek's bedroom. Their bedroom.
Derek followed, growing more and more concerned, trying to figure out why his lover could possibly need to talk to a surgeon. Once safely in their bedroom, he closed the door behind them. "Is this about that skin condition...?"
Spencer's flinch and ghostly white face was answer enough.
Derek waited patiently for him to explain.
"I...I had an ac, accident," Spencer finally said.
Derek blinked.
"Um, not that kind of accident," Spencer clarified, blushing.
Frowning, Derek nodded slowly, trying to listen and understand. "What kind of accident?"
"B-back when I was in college, I, uh, really l-liked my biology teacher, so I, um. I volunteered t-to h-help in the lab with one of her experiments. There was, ah, um. A m-mishap with one of the vials, and I g-got cut on the sh-shards," Spencer explained, the words tumbling out faster the further he went.
"And this has to do with that skin condition how?"
Spencer swallowed, sitting down gingerly on the edge of the bed, fingering the quilted comforter nervously. "Sh-she was s-studying cepha, cephalopods. And, and limb regrowth. And um..." His hands went to the bottom of his t-shirt, stretching the hem out of shape.
No direct questions, Derek told himself. "Would it be easier just to show me?"
Spencer nodded rapidly, shaking hands pulling at his loose t-shirt. It landed on the floor in a pool of dark blue wrinkles as he stood, shucking his jeans with the same careless disregard, and sat back on the mattress.
"Commando, Spencer? I wouldn't have--" Derek cut himself off at the withering glare he received.
Visibly trying to force himself into some sense of relaxation, Spencer reached for the end of the white gauze tucked into the swathe of bandages at his waist. He unwound it slowly, rolling the strip of cotton up as he went, pulling out two long pads of cloth before they could fall out. Once he was done, he set the roll of gauze and the pads on the nightstand and waited, unable to look at Derek.
It didn't seem so bad, Derek thought, Spencer's discomfort and embarrassment killing any thought of arousal, then took another look. His feet carried him closer as if of their own accord.
There were six of them, in a shallow V near Spencer's groin, just above the crease of hip and thigh. Six crescent moons of blue-white scales, wrinkled pink skin on the upper side where the scales thinned. Each covered a gentle, circular swelling, and muscles beneath the skin - muscles no human should have - flowed beneath, making the scales ripple.
Scales?
"Spencer? What happened?" Derek risked a glance up, caught the tiny gulps of air, the nervous flicker of Spencer's tongue over his upper lip.
"I, I haven't been hurt, I mean, seriously hurt, since th-that accident, and, and what, what..." Spencer's jaw clenched; he still had problems talking about what Henkel had done to him. "It probably t-triggered this."
Derek nodded, suddenly deciding Spencer needed a little normality at the moment, a small escape from the incredibly surreal strangeness of what was happening to him, and the abnormality their jobs threw at them. Turning away, he stripped his own t-shirt, tossing it vaguely in the direction of the hamper, then pulled his belt through their loops with a sharp leather hiss and laid it atop the dresser with his keys and wallet. His shoes were toed off, left in a heap with his jeans and socks.
Spencer's anxiety level slowly diminished, Derek's acceptance reassuring.
Finished undressing, Derek turned, forcing himself to look at Spencer's face and his curious expression of hope and fear, and not the short, twitching...somethings at his waist.
Lips parting, Spencer looked up wide-eyed as Derek sat next to him, knees touching, shoulder to shoulder.
Derek leaned in, cradling Spencer's head in his hands, kissing Spencer softly.
Spencer let out a strangled sob of relief, abandoning himself to Derek's mouth, clinging with hands.
And...extra appendages.
All too aware of his body, of Spencer's, Derek felt Spencer's arms wind around him, the scales - no, suckers - like tiny kisses against his skin with every shift of position. Caught up in sensation, awakening arousal, he forgot to breathe and pulled back gasping.
The arms vanished, suckers pulling off Derek's skin with a sound like ripping velcro. Misunderstanding Derek's reaction, Spencer pulled away, hunching over in mortification.
"Spence."
Spencer whimpered, curling further in on himself.
Frustrated and angry with himself, with Spencer's fear, Derek grabbed Spencer by the - human - arm and pulled him back around, closer. "I liked it, Spencer. I forgot to breathe, that's all," he explained, free hand carefully, delicately tracing spirals across the retracted arms. Sucker-disk edges caught on his blunt nails.
Spencer shuddered, eyes rolling back in his head. A low moan escaped him, and his body uncurled.
"That's it, love," Derek murmured, gathering Spencer to him, helping him turn, lifting a leg over his own until Spencer knelt astride him. Spencer's arms wound around Derek's neck, face buried in curve of neck and shoulder. Derek could feel the ticklish brush of eyelashes against his skin. "I love you, Spence, whatever form you have." He ran a soothing hand down Spencer's back, feeling the muscles quivering in fear and anticipation. Suckered arms nudged the hand Derek had trapped between their bodies and he smiled, stroking the appendages gently.
Spencer gasped. His lower arms wrapped themselves around Derek's wrist, two of them stretching further and plastering themselves to a broad back lined in ink. The fear died in the wave of arousal overtaking him, in the love and encouragement whispered in his ear, making him moan and push into Derek's hands.
Sensing Spencer's surrender, hearing it in the throaty sounds of pleasure rolling from the slender body wrapped around him, Derek had to fight to keep himself in check, keep the release of stress and fear and guilt gentle. Not when he wanted to roll Spencer beneath him and claim his lover, assure himself he had as much knowledge, as much power, over these new features as he did the rest of Spencer.
"Please, please, please," Spencer chanted, each word a sobbing whimper. He rocked into Derek's body, his erection trapped between his own belly and Derek's wrist, still wrapped in sucker-lined arms.
Derek felt Spencer flinch, felt the pleasure-pain as Spencer bit his shoulder, come sticky and warm on his chest. It was too much; Derek let go of Spencer's arms, not wanting to hurt his lover, and followed, keening his own pleasure into Spencer's hair.
Spencer huffed, nose rubbing Derek's throat, lower arms moving aimlessly between their bodies. Suckers released with a pop! that seemed loud in the silence.
"Spence." Derek's voice rumbled deep and insistent.
"Hmm?"
"You're not getting those removed. Don't even think about it."
~~~the end~~~