Work Text:
Nights Like These
By NemKess
"You all right, D?"
Dylan just grunted in reply as he kicked off his boots and struggled wearily with his uniform.
Seamus sighed and got out of the bed, moving to help his exhausted lover out of his clothes. The bigger man was by no means weak or helpless, but there were some nights when the young human from Earth ached to relieve the burden that weighed down the brawny shoulders. Nights like these after a long day of heavy responsibilities, endless diplomacy, and harrowing danger seemed to cripple the older man.
Instead, all he could do was be a warm body to lean against, and gentle hands to ensure those shoulders could handle the load again tomorrow.
The rest of the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant would have been shocked if they could see the pair on nights like these.
Seamus Zelazany Harper sitting still against the bulkhead, his hands massaging deeply into his companion's tired muscles, his mouth- miracle of miracles- quiet except for the occasional crooning of soft comforting. Captain Dylan Hunt submitting to it, looking downtrodden and world-weary, his typical blind idealism completely absent.
During the day, with their lives in danger and his mind on other things- his cousin, Earth, the damned Magog- Seamus hated that blind idealism with a passion. He hated how it always got them in trouble, how it always kept them an inch away from their goals. He hated how Dylan almost got them killed for it on an alarmingly regular basis.
But at night, when he was looking at the defeated visage of the man he'd come to love- despite all odds and against all common sense- he wanted to find a way to give the idealism back. He wanted to promise Dylan that everything would get better, that as sure as there would be a sunrise on almost all the planets out there in the far flung universe, the Commonwealth would rise again and all would be well.
That, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the Commonwealth would shake off the chaos that the Nieztscheans had forced it into and come out on the other side better than ever.
That every planet they came across would welcome the reborn Commonwealth with open arms.
That the Magog would suddenly all become as benevolent as Rev Bem and turn their floating solar system into a giant monastery.
He wanted to promise those things.
But he couldn't, because Seamus Zelazany Harper didn't make promises he didn't at least think he could keep.
So, he'd promised what he could. He'd promised to help make nova bombs to combat the rising threat of ole Red Eyes. He'd promised to keep the warship running as best as possible.
He'd promised to be here when Dylan needed him, for as long as he humanly could.
And so, on a night like this one, once Seamus had soothed out all of the Vedran born man's tension, and eased the weary heart, the pair would lay there, awake but quiet and simply hold each other.
Praying that morning would come, and that with the birth of a new day, both would rise again to meet it.
(the song I was given)
Rise Again
As sung by The Rankin Family
Written by Leon Dubinsky
When the waves roll on over the waters
And the ocean cries
We look to our sons and daughters
To explain our lives
As if a child could tell us why
That as sure as the sunrise*
As sure as the sea
As sure as the wind in the trees
We rise again in the faces of our children
We rise again in the voices of our song
We rise again in the waves out on the ocean
And then we rise again*
When the light goes dark with the forces of creation
Across a stormy sky
We look to reincarnation to explain our lives
As if a child could tell us why
That as sure as the sunrise
As sure as the sea
As sure as the wind in the trees
We rise again in the faces of our children
We rise again in the voices of our song
We rise again in the waves out on the ocean
And then we rise again
We rise again in the faces of our children
We rise again in the voices of our song
We rise again in the waves out on the ocean
And then we rise again
And then we rise again
END