Jainah sideTRACKs

A snippet of Scott & Lancer sweetness sometime after ch. 8 of "Mount Robillard". A 15-minute ficlet.

- Written in December 2005. Rating M (just to be extra cautious).

Figures of Speech

"What does that mean?"

Lancer stared at Scott. "What?"

"What does it mean, to laugh one's ass off?" Scott repeated patiently.

"It means, uh, that you laugh so hard that you can hardly stand up. Very hard. That you just can't stop laughing."

"I see." Scott thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "I will remember that from now on."

Lancer bit the insides of his cheeks to hold back the laughter that was irresistibly bubbling out. He had a feeling that he'd soon show Scott an example of what they'd just been talking about.

"You are smiling, Lancer," the clone observed. "Did I say something funny again?"

"Not really. I just keep being surprised at the way your brain works." Lancer pulled his knees up and hugged slim legs with equally slim arms, eyes twinkling under ash-blond hair. "Sometimes you're so quick to grasp even highly abstract ideas, and right after that we have a long conversation about the intricacies of speech - such as right now."

"But it is a very abstract thing," Scott argued. "It is not possible to laugh so hard that one's ass falls off."

"I'd rather call it absurd," Lancer grinned. "But it's a figure of speech, and that's the way they tend to be. We've talked about this before, haven't we? How there are certain phrases that, taken word by word, say something quite different from what the whole thing actually means?"

"Yes, and I find it most fascinating!" Scott said, sitting down on the bed next to Lancer. "There are so many of those, too. Such as 'to make love'."

Lancer flushed red. "Don't remind me of that," he groaned.

"Why not?" Scott inquired. "Are you not happy for what happened?"

"Of course I am..." Lancer closed his eyes for a moment when Scott's hand found its way underneath his hair and tickled him behind the ear. "I just still can't believe that I made such a blunder with the vids. It's so embarrassing!"

"Without that blunder, I think I still would not know what 'making love' means," Scott said softly. "And that would be a great pity."

He sidled closer and wrapped both wiry arms around Lancer, deep blue eyes grave and mischievous at the same time. Lancer snuggled against the clone and rubbed his chin on Scott's shoulder.

"Yeah, I agree," he sighed.