While more and more people found their way into the canteen, food was the last thing occupying Scott's thoughts. He didn't bother to open his eyes. Even though his eyesight was phenomenal, even in currently dim light of the room, he didn't need to use it. Everything he needed or wanted to think about was slumbering in his arms, pressed against him. Head resting on his one arm, backside practically glued to his body, bottom fitting snugly in the curve formed by his flat stomach and lean thighs. Even their legs were entangled together to allow maximum skin contact, Scott's kneecaps in the bend of his lover's knees.

Lancer was breathing slowly, steadily, in deep sleep. Scott snuggled his face into the long, soft hair, and breathed in the familiar scent, his topmost arm tightening a little around the slim body. Too slim. Scott frowned in disapproval, one hand ghosting along Lancer's skin. When they'd parted, there'd definitely been more flesh covering those bones. This was not good. Scott had missed his lover, missed more than he'd ever thought possible. And, as if that hadn't been enough, obviously he ought to have worried as well! Had Lancer perhaps been ill? But apart from being skinny, he seemed otherwise all right. And so beautiful, more beautiful than anybody else could ever be...

Getting aroused once more, Scott held the blond tighter and kissed his ear, fingers creeping to play gently with one nipple. Lancer sighed and wiggled slightly, whined a little in his sleep. Scott grinned to himself, wiry arm tightening once more around the waist. It was too narrow, but he ignored it. He was back to take care of his lover, was he not? And he was going to do exactly that.

A pink tongue darted to circle around Lancer's ear, Scott nibbled with his front teeth on the small stud pierced through the earlobe, then blew gently. That was a sure trick to jerk Lancer awake, and it worked as it always did.

"Scott..." Lancer murmured. "Scott, love..."

Scott kissed his ear once more and pulled long hair out of the way as Lancer turned his head to look into his eyes, mere millimeters away.

"My Lancer," the clone sighed. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you." Lancer ground his backside slowly against his lover's lean body, almost delirious with a lingering haziness of sleep, satisfaction, and growing desire. He moaned. "I thought I'd go crazy without you."

Scott nuzzled the back of his neck under all that hair, licked the pale skin and noticed a fresh bruise. He also noticed the sharp outline of a collarbone.

"You have not taken care of yourself," he said reproachfully, hand skimming along Lancer's ribcage. The blond groaned, pressing eagerly against the hardening cock.

"Don't you start too! Everybody else has already been giving me hell about it."

"But you have not done it," Scott insisted. "You are much too skinny. Is there something wrong with you?"

"No," Lancer mumbled. "Yes. Yes there was. You weren't here. But now everything is all right again. I'm all right again."

"Why have you not eaten enough, then?" Scott wanted to know. Lancer gave a resigned sigh.

"I wasn't hungry," he muttered. "Couldn't sleep without you, then felt sick and didn't feel like eating. But please, Scott, drop it now. I've been a good boy more recently. Honest."

Scott pouted a little, trying to decide whether or not he should believe that claim, but Lancer was done waiting. He wriggled around and pulled Scott in for a deep kiss, one leg finding its way between Scott's legs and the other climbing to rub the clone's hips.

"Scott," he purred. "Let's talk about that later. All right, I admit, I missed you so madly that I nearly made myself sick to start with. But I'm all right now, just didn't have enough time to fatten myself back. And I can feel that you still want to jump my bones..."

Scott confirmed the statement by kissing him voraciously. The kiss was soon transformed into a giggly wrestling match, the two young men rolling around on the bed in a tight tangle of legs and arms. Not to mention silver-blond hair, which finally proved its potency by forcing them to stop and spit away stray hairs that had got too intimately involved in their kiss.

"I want you," Lancer gasped to Scott who was straddling his thighs, rubbing their erections together so that they were both seeing stars. "Please, Scott..."

Scott shook his head firmly.

"I will not take you now," he panted. "You must be sore already."

"Scott, please!" Lancer pleaded. "I want you to do it!"

"No," Scott repeated, reaching for the lubricant. "I will not hurt you."

Lancer gave up – a wise and easy decision, considering that he was solidly pinned underneath his lover who was not only extremely stubborn but, even under normal circumstances, both heavier and considerably stronger than he. Not to mention the fact that he was indeed feeling somewhat sore, which he however chose to ignore as much as possible.

Scott kept kissing him breathless, but that did nothing to slow down their hands that knew exactly where and how to apply the cool, slick stuff. Lancer's cock was throbbing impatiently in Scott's squeezing hand, and the dark clone squirmed on top of his lover whose fingers were playing oh so knowingly inside him. Finally, when he couldn't keep teasing himself or Lancer any more, Scott pushed himself up and smiled dreamily at the blond, then positioned himself, feeling Lancer's guiding hand, and very slowly impaled himself.

Lancer couldn't breathe as he looked up at Scott's face. Dark blue eyes, half closed, under thick lashes. Dark eyebrows drawn into a concentrated frown. Lips, slightly swollen and very red, parted enough to show the tip of a tongue between them. Slim hands gripped Lancer's thighs as the blond thrust up into his lover, over and over again, sweat and tears mixing to sting in his eyes.

"Scott," he gasped, "Scott, I love you..."

Then his whole body arched up as he came, buried deep inside Scott, in his ecstasy feeling distantly how strong arms reached to grab him and pull him up. His arms wound instinctively around the lanky body as their chests and lips pressed together and Scott moaned into his mouth, freezing when he, too, climaxed with a shudder.

Lancer tried to drape himself completely around Scott, his Scott, who did the same to him, and together they sat on the bed, hugging each other close while their breathing slowed down again.

Lancer buried his face into the bend of Scott's neck. Goddamn crybaby, he thought in exasperation, blinking tears away.

"Lancer," Scott said in a sated, languid voice, nose rubbing some more tangles into Lancer's already sweat-matted hair. He swallowed. "My Lancer."

"Scott, my love," Lancer purred, then his eyebrows jumped into the hairline and he burst into laughter. "Ooh... now we have to get up! Right now! Otherwise I'm afraid you'll eat me."

"It was your stomach growling, not mine," Scott protested.

"Wasn't mine, it was yours." Lancer squeezed him tight. "But anyway, I think that's a good idea."

"We must shower first," Scott pointed out lazily without making the slightest gesture to follow his own suggestion.

"You really think so?" Lancer teased. "Why not just toss some clothes on and go to the canteen like this?"

Scott pulled back to look at him.

"I do not think so," he said gravely. "We do not look presentable, and we smell of sex. The others would not appreciate it."

"Damn right," Lancer nodded. "Okay, show the way, pilot. I'll be right behind you."

Scott reluctantly unwrapped his limbs from around the blonde and crawled out of bed. Lancer followed, making sure that Scott's back was turned before rolling on his back and allowing himself the luxury of a grimace. Oh fuck... me and my greediness. Never realized just how properly I've twisted my back.

"Are you coming, Lancer?" Scott peered from the bathroom, and Lancer flashed him a sunny smile.

"Sure I am. Just turn the water on already, will you?"

In the canteen, the leisurely breakfast had already turned into a brunch. Dean Blaine had joined the group and relentlessly prodded Osip to tell them about the Zodiac system mission, until the Pilot Commander had agreed to share with them some particularly memorable moments. Especially the mission that had led to the destruction of the Gemini base left the listeners gasping. Osip made no secret about the complexity of the situation, the impossible location of the base, or the dangers encountered by the group of clones who'd been involved. Supporting facts and details were eagerly supplied by a shiny-eyed Shaun.

"That stunt really took the Wolves' breath away," Osip chuckled. "I've seldom been as plain afraid as I was then, monitoring the action that day. But they performed superbly. Us ordinary humans couldn't have hoped to accomplish it – it takes SCs, bred and trained for the purpose, to fly together with that clockwork accuracy. And even though I've seen S-clones in action before, I was profoundly impressed. It was chillingly beautiful to watch."

Shaun beamed. "Scott drilled us very thoroughly before we flew out for the mission. We trained really hard first, all of us together."

"You sure did," Osip said. "Hard, even for SCs, and that's saying something."

He glanced around and looked smug. "But it looks like our pilot ace, our leading man, still hasn't managed to drag himself out of bed. Can't say that it would be early any more, either. Anybody seen Scott this morning?"

"Oh, get real, man!" Corinn waved a dismissive hand. "Do you really imagine that to happen, now that he and Lancer are finally together again? I guess you didn't see last night how they practically latched together! I'll be surprised if they appear at all today."

"I was merely hoping that they'd get hungry at some point," Osip winked. "You know, energy-consuming activity and so on..."

"I wouldn't count on it," Arria snorted, "at least when we're talking about Lancer. Recently it's looked like he's decided that food is not that vital for survival after all."

"Now, now," Corinn protested, "I'm not denying that he's been fretting a lot, but he hasn't been that bad really."

"Partner, you know he's been a real pain in the ass!" Vanya said. "Not sleeping, not eating, overworking himself, generally behaving like a ghost..."

"Hey, he's been much better since the attack!" Hal leaped to defend his friend, but was cut short by Osip who tried to drown himself into a mug of coffee. After struggling to clear his windpipe enough to breathe again, the tall pilot placed his mug very slowly on the table and turned to give Arria a round-eyed glare. Deep brown eyes looked unflinching back at him. Fonzo and Shaun got their voices back at the same moment as Osip.

"What attack?"

"Sorry for not telling you earlier," Arria said. "But it wasn't like the latest news, and besides we had some more – ah – pressing matters to deal with. Well, on the fifteenth of this month, Ziroshel Union attacked simultaneously seven primary targets on Jainah."

"And, since you didn't notice anything amiss here," Orwel continued, "you might be able to conclude that we won."

"Hands down," Dean added with grim satisfaction. "There was some material damage and we lost four SCs, but that was all. On the entire planet."

Osip looked at them all in silence, mouth opening and closing a few times, then shook his head and his fist banged on the table so that everything sitting on it jumped.

"The nerve!" he snarled. "The nerve those fucking bastards have!"

"Calm down", Arria advised him. "You'll hear all about it later. Maybe you could satisfy our curiosity first – you see, we were wondering if the attack might've been somehow triggered by something that happened on your mission?"

Osip was distracted enough from his seething to actually frown in thought.

"I'll have to cross-check the dates," he muttered. "But... fifteenth? Then it's possible that our little showdown on Taurus made them realize who they were up against. There just might be enough time between that mission and the attack here to explain it."

"Attack – here? What attack?"

Scott was standing next to the table, eyes the size of saucers. Shaun, sitting with his back to him, was about to whirl around with the unmistakable intention of hugging him, but for once Fonzo was quick enough and grabbed his arm firmly to keep the bouncy young clone in one place. Vanya whistled at seeing them and Lancer, who'd been following Scott with his own tray, blushed.

"Here are the lovebirds!" Corinn grinned. "Welcome back, Scottie!"

"Thank you," Scott said, "but what was the attack you were talking about? Osip?"

"I just heard that Jainah has been under attack some weeks ago," Osip said to him. "Interesting, isn't it?"

"Lancer!" Scott glared at the blonde. "You did not tell me anything about this!"

"It just slipped from my memory," Lancer muttered. "Good morning, everybody. Have you been here long?"

"A couple of hours by now," Dean chuckled. "Have you slept well, among other things?"

"You..." Lancer growled and settled cautiously into a chair. Haldor bit his lip as Corinn and Vanya exchanged a meaningful glance and grinned at each other. Scott took a seat as well, then looked seriously at the Pilot Commander.

"Osip," he said, "next time that we go on this kind of a mission, I want Lancer to come with us. I will not leave him behind any more."

"I won't be left behind any more," Lancer added quietly. "I don't know if I'll be any use there, but..."

Osip nodded. "Guys, I swear that if another mission like this should come up again –"

"When it happens again," Arria interrupted in a subdued voice, and the entire group fell silent for an uncomfortable moment. Osip took a deep breath.

"Anyway. I swear that if it happens, this base will have to do without one excellent AD gunner. And that's a promise."

Haldor looked wide-eyed at Lancer, who just nodded and sank his teeth into a sandwich.

"I'm sure everyone here agrees with that," Orwel grunted, "as much as we hate to think that we'd have to count Lancer out of the ranks. Besides, there are gunners on motherships, too, and cannons are cannons. If Lancer can use one, he'll have no trouble learning to use another kind, and we have people here to train for the task."

Arria glanced questioningly at his partner who smiled a little.

"It's a well-known fact that S-clones never complain about anything," Osip explained. "And yet, while we were out there, Scott told me twice that he misses Lancer. That means you, Scott, felt it was distracting you enough to warrant talking about it to your commanding officer. Am I right?"

"Yes," Scott confirmed. "I felt uncertain of whether or not it might affect my performance, and I wanted to let you know that it might."

"Well, rest assured that I didn't notice anything amiss with you." Osip smiled dryly. "But, as your commanding officer, I cannot allow such distractions, if there's anything I can do to prevent them."

Scott nodded in satisfaction, then smiled to the people sitting around him. "But please, everybody, tell me what you have been talking about. If you have been here for two hours already, we must have missed quite a few things, right?"

"Oh, you sure have!" Vanya grinned. "For one thing, you haven't met Haldor here."

Hal greeted the grave-eyed clone, surprised at the firm handshake and penetrating glance he got. Of course he'd seen Scott the previous night, but actually meeting the guy was another thing. Scott sure is impressive, he thought. Cool, composed, professional, smart. No wonder Lancer is so thoroughly smitten by him.

"And then there's the big news to tell," Arria said with a slight smile. "Me and Osip are going to get married soon."

"What?" Lancer nearly jumped up from his chair, and nobody missed the pained gasp following that careless attempt. "Married? When? Oh, that's marvelous! Congratulations!"

"Thank you," Osip sighed, looking as overwhelmingly happy as he sounded. "We don't know yet, but soon. The guys here have just convinced us that we'd better wait until everything's ready for the great big welcome party that you're going to give us, so that we could celebrate at the same time."

"A party... count me in!" Lancer nodded eagerly. "We'll give you something to remember! Just you wait until me and André get planning our show."

"We were sort of counting on you," Arria said. "We have all faith in you, O Queens."

"A wedding and welcome party!" Lancer chewed on his lip, a mischievous glint in his eyes, forgetting his meal until Scott and Haldor nudged him at almost the same time and then glanced in surprise at each other. "I'm eating, I'm eating... oh, it's going to be fantastic! Something groovy, and definitely something romantic too..."

"Which reminds me!" Juri prodded Orwel teasingly. "I was wondering, do you have a romantic bone in your body? Or is the whole family quota in your big brother?"

A sandwich slipped from Osip's suddenly limp fingers, luckily hitting a plate instead of the floor. Orwel tried to look casual, but the effect would've been much better if he hadn't also looked somewhat embarrassed.

"What're you staring at?" he asked.

"You," the elder Dahomey managed. "And Juri. Thinking about what he said, and how he said it. Is there something I should know?"

"We're together," Juri said matter-of-factly.

Osip's eyes nearly popped out and his jaw dropped. Finally he took a long breath and shook his head. "Well, I'll be damned... Orwel, please correct me if I'm wrong, but – as far as I remember, you're not gay."

"I'm not," Orwel agreed. "I'm not like you, big brother."

"Right." Osip digested the statement for a moment. "So, if this is how you're not gay, then it's good that Mac is not around any more."

"Mac?"

"Sure you remember Mac," Osip snorted. "One of my best pals, back in the Academy."

"Of course I remember Mac the self-proclaimed Magnificent! I just don't understand what he's got to do with anything!"

"Mac always thought you were the hottest piece of male flesh in existence. I swear I had to resort to near violence a few times, just to protect the virtue of my little absolutely not gay brother from his vile clutches..."

"I'm still not gay," Orwel protested. "I'm bisexual. In hindsight, Mac just really wasn't my type, whereas I'm not sure that something might not have happened with Rasheed at some point, if there hadn't been your constant warning example to make sure that I never faltered from my chosen path."

"Ah, poor Rasheed!" Osip chuckled, then sobered up. "Ahem. I'm quite falling into reverie here, it seems. Before even congratulating you, brother, for finally seeing the light, as Mac would've poetically put it."

Orwel snorted but smiled nevertheless, albeit a tad shyly, snaking an arm around Juri who burrowed closer.

"Thank you," he said. "I must say that I'm very happy with how things have turned out."

Osip sighed, still astonished but pleased. "Looks like I've got quite some catching up to do here."

"We all do," Arria assured him. "But I'm beginning to feel that we might so slowly start doing something again, instead of just whiling the day away."

"Workaholic," Orwel accused but straightened himself without letting go of Juri. "But you're right. We might start here, by deciding what to do first."

"The important things, of course," Vanya put in. "Such as deciding when the party will be."

"Or how about deciding what to do with the troops we currently have distributed in the different bases?" Arria countered.

"Important things, both," Orwel admitted. "And we mustn't forget to talk to Edmé about Vanya's operation, either."

"You're a bore, Base Commander," Vanya ground out sourly.

"So much for the smooth landing, then," Osip sighed. "But I insist on it. We'll sit here until everybody, even the most recently arrived ones, have had time to enjoy their breakfast. Agreed?"

"Agreed," came from several people.

Hal relaxed once more in his seat, feeling Scott's curious eyes upon himself. His head was practically reeling with all the new information that he'd heard or picked up that morning, and he knew he'd need quite some time to digest it all. He was looking forward to getting to know the people better, and he was definitely looking forward to the forthcoming party. It was sure to be like nothing he'd ever experienced before, and he almost chuckled when a funny thought popped up: everybody else, except for me and Troy and Sal, has already seen at least one. I guess that after that we can really say we're initiated into the place. Damn, I can hardly wait.