33. Go for it

"When was the last time it rained?" Mani asked, sprawled next to Yak.

Yak stopped his movements, and Mani nudged him so he started fanning them both with crudely made fan again.

"I think it did not rain ever since we crossed the river." He had one hand under his head, other waving a fan, while both of his legs were spread wide apart to maximise surface for heat emission.

It was still too hot.

Mani sat up and dipped the cloth he held in a bowl of water. Then he started to wipe Yak with it. Chest, hands, legs. Then he sprawled down next to him again.

As water started to evaporate, Yax felt better. He had a feeling of living on the edge of heatstroke every day. Well, at least lumber will dry out faster.

"When we make that bedframe, we should raise it above ground enough to be able to cool you from all sides." Mani was sincerely worried about his Yak. In this heat, he felt just fine, but Yax was oozing sweat and had to constantly drink water to make up for it.

Yax smiled and looked at his Mani. This guy was a constant source of wild ideas and unpredictable proposals.

At first, Yax was convinced that only reason Mani agreed to be in a relationship was to use him as a whole body heating pad. Even if he was, it would be fine. He had more than enough of heat to share.

When he proposed additional activities that could raise Mani's body temperature as well, he got a rather lengthy explanation of Mani's reasons for temporarily postponing those. He did not understood it at first, Mani used some rather complicated words.

But, as they shared their sleeping bags for almost two months now, within that time he got the picture. Mani was hurting. Badly. By what, he never said, but it would came out almost every night.

Sometimes, he was shaking and trembling all over. Other times, he would cry. Then there were nightmares, where he would twitch like trying to run from something. But he never remembered anything of that in the morning. Claimed he never had any dreams.

Yax was positive that nothing horrible happend to Mani after he came to them, down at station. Whatever haunted him, happened before, up in orbit. Which was concerning on a whole new level.

Yax was originally a soldier type, and as such, went through rigorous training to develop his physical potential and combat skills to the maximum. Now, thinking about it, that was a bit of an overkill, as by his creation, there was no one at ground level who could rival his strength even if he had no training at all.

Then he was chosen to play the role of Royal Prince, so he additionally went through extensive education in leadership skills, tactic and strategy courses. And something called 'alpha male key traits' training camp. That last one confused him greatly at the time.

But nothing in those courses and trainings was abusive towards him personally. Sure, he was now aware that there was a morbid level of brutality in teaching a bunch of ten years old how to kill another human in most efficient way.

Even now, he could use just his fingers to end a life at a whim. But then, they were just kids conditioned to accept all their orders, no questions asked, so he never thought of it as something traumatic.

Later, he met Xul, and that old guy had no tolerance of his easygoing kill-first-ask-later attitude. So he got 'fixed', as Ah Kin put it. He never killed anyone after that.

He was also aware of brutality of surgeries Ivory went through. But his issues were largely due to his hardware's fickle connectivity with his brain's neural network.

What kind of training Mani went through that would leave nightmares as sequelae? Calculations were taught, not installed.

It made him wish he could go up and see what new training methods were introduced that messed up Mani, and those three that arrived before him, who were even worse. Mani was at least great at calculating, while they were completely useless on posts they were assigned to.

Yet, it does not really matter as it was impossible for him to go up. And down here, no one and nothing could hurt Mani again. Not now, when he got Yax by his side. It was just something that would have to be left to time to heal.

By his side, Mani was looking at him, his head so close that his hair tickled Yax. "Break time will soon be over." He whispered seriously. "Indeed." Yax responded with a smile.

"Shall we train a bit before that?" Mani asked, his eyes glued to Yax's smiling lips. "Indeed we shall." He responded while raising up and leaning on his elbow. He loved their training.

Mani did not move, just looked at Yax leaning over him, then he closed his eyes as their lips touched. Gently and softly, affirming their mutual affections. Then Yax licked him and Mani decisively parted his lips and let Yax kiss him properly.

His heartbeat became irregular as he felt tongue that was not his own invade and explore his mouth. He raised his hands and pressed his palms on Yax's hot skin, then slowly slid his arms around those wide shoulders. By the time kiss ended, he was all wrapped around Yax, with both his arms and legs.

Yax licked him once again and waited for Mani to unwrap himself. "How you feelin' my dear?"

"Good." Mani replied, then rolled from under Yax and got up. "Let's go, sun is going down, we should continue with work." And then he just ran away. Skittish tease. That training was Mani's suggested solution for his intimacy issues. Like, let's raise the bar little by little.. Yax looked down at his own bar. Patience is a virtue.

By the time Yax collected himself enough to go after him, Mani was already in full swing. He and Floreo propped up the wooden frame Blaze made for them and were weaving those ivy stems that were soaked in water earlier. Their goal is to make a net strong enough to carry their weight, so they wouldn't need to sleep on ground.

Yax joined Cid and Blaze, and they went down to continue with their logging activities. Echo, Jone and Ivory went with them to search for acorns and mushrooms, and to keep them company.

Left alone to play with their 'invention', Floreo looked at Mani and snickered. "Been kissing in the middle of the day? Your lips are all swollen. How can you stand the heat? Night is a much better time for doing it."

"We do it at night as well." Mani answered unconcerned.

Floreo was full of admiration "Great endurance! I couldn't walk straight if Cid and I were doing it both day and night." If he was not careful, he could not walk after single night. Cid had that stoic air about him, that made Floreo think he required some provocation to engage in proper action. Nope, not at all.

Mani had no intentions to explain his issues to anyone except Yax, but it didn't mean that he had no questions. "How can kissing make you unable to walk?"

Floreo was confused at first, but then he suddenly remembered how young Mani was. Did Yax felt like he could not go all the way with him? Did he just stepped into others personal intimate space? Crap, me and my loose mouth.

Mani was now looking at him, so Floreo tried to think of a way to backpedal "Well, it greatly varies from person to person. Physical endurance and such, you know.."

Now Mani snickered at him "You should see your face, Flower."

Floreo felt relieved "Don't do that to me! I thought Yax was keeping things between you two pure due how young you are, and I just ruined it."

"What me being young has anything with it," Mani asked while starting to weave next section of their future bed. "Yax is not all that much older." 10 cycles are nothing to be overly concerned about.

"Well, yeah, but.." Floreo almost blurted that Yax was already introduced to the Game Room, while Mani would have to wait 5 cycles to be deemed old enough to join in playing there. Better to leave that part to Yax to explain.

He was weaving his part of the bed so he didn't notice the way Mani now looked at him with tilted head. "It is unwritten rule that everyone younger than 5 cycles is a minor, thus for Yax and you to start a relationship.." he realised now that there could be problems once they reconnect with the rest of he crew again.

"Oh, did not know that." Mani said and relaxed. Now he understood why Yax accept his boundaries so easily. They thought he is still in his first cycle as others who came down from orbit.

Should he tell Yax that he is in fact in his 6th cycle already? Or would that be a bad idea so early in their relationship? Should he wait until their feelings develop fully?

"Thank you for letting me know that, Flower." Mani was indeed grateful. "This first bed will go to you and Cid, so you have less walking issues later."

Floreo stared at him "You just want us to test it's endurance."

Mani snickered again and gave no further comments.