Author's Notes: Dedicated to myst_fujiwara who naively demands sequels; which, really, just gives me validation I need to post more of my self indulgent smut. Face it, Mystie, you've brought this on yourself! >:D

Lockon was having a pretty bad week. The repairs to Dynames had been delayed, not once, but twice. The water and electricity had been cut off to Meister's wing of the house because of an accident during a training session. Sumeragi had gotten her hands on some moonshine, God knows where. To top it all off, someone had introduced Setsuna to popsicles.

Lockon was starting to suspect Allelujah. He was pretty sure that guy had a mean streak.

The worse part was, the kid ate them when ever he had a free moment. This wasn't unusual in and of itself. Setsuna tended to eat a lot during his free time. Which was fine with Lockon, the kid was growing and needed to make up for quite a few lost meals. It's just that there was something disconcerting to Lockon about looking up from his crossword puzzle to find Setsuna standing over him doing practically pornographic things to a piece of dyed ice with this benignly happy look on his face.

The kid's lips were constantly swollen from cold, damp from ice and painted some outrageous color like purple or green.

Yesterday afternoon, at the lunch table while Setsuna was contentedly sucking on yet another popsicle, Allelujah blithely told Lockon that green was Setsuna's favorite flavor. The kid had nodded his head in agreement, causing the damn popsicle to bob in and out of his wet mouth.

Lockon had to suppress the urge to take the popsicle and shove it up Allelujah's nose.

That would be unprofessional. And messy. And probably a little gross. And it might upset Setsuna enough to put him off popsicles and Lockon was starting to wonder if that was really something he wanted.

Lockon had never really thought of Setsuna in a sexual way until one night when, in a fit of confusion, worry and turmoil, he jerked the kid off.

It was nothing glorious, nothing that a romance novelist would ever write about it. They hadn't been madly in love or carried away on a torrent of lust.

It had just happened. It was quick and it was dirty and it was really fucking hot.

Lockon found himself thinking, usually at most inappropriate times, about how the kid's spindly little fingers clutched at his arms in frustrated arousal. Or about how his firm ass felt against Lockon's hard cock.

It was... probably not something he should think about too often.

Neither of them had mentioned what had happened since that night, but Lockon occasionally caught Setsuna looking at him with this oddly contemplative expression on his face. Lockon was almost too terrified to consider what was going behind those calm eyes.

By the time the weekend rolled around tension was high and he as pretty sure that none of his fellow pilots were particularly interested in dealing with Sumeragi while she had a killer hangover. He suggested that the four of them borrow a car and head to the nearest mall.

Everyone seemed pretty keen on the idea. Setsuna had grown out of his shoes again, Allelujah had mentioned wanting to get a new book, and though Tieria didn't mention why he was interested in tagging along, the look of utter relief in his eyes at the suggestion they cut out for the day spoke volumes.

Sumeragi was brutal when she had a hang over, and yesterday, during the wrap up of a strategy session, she told poor Tieria the yellow of his button down was hurting her eyes and asked bitterly why he couldn't wear neutral colors like the rest of them. Everyone had gone utterly still for a moment before Setsuna rolled his eyes and walked out of the room, probably intent on another damn popsicle. Everyone followed in kind, but Tieria looked a little shell shocked as they made their way out from under Sumeragi's feet.

Poor guy had been avoiding her ever since.

The car ride over to the mall went without incident. He and Allelujah talked about the latest book he'd been reading while Setsuna and Tieria sat quietly in the back staring out the window. Tieria, he knew, was probably brooding about yesterday, so his silence was no great surprise. Setsuna's silence was no surprise either, but that's because he was usually pretty quiet.

Lockon always felt vaguely uncomfortably around people who preferred to keep quiet. When most people went quiet you could always sort of guess what they were thinking. Like, Tieria was pretty talkative and only went silent when he was sulking about something. Allelujah was the same way, only he was usually quiet when he was angry. So it was pretty easy to see that their silence meant unhappiness and internal debate, respectively.

With Setsuna, it could mean anything.

He was quiet when he was happy, quiet when he was angry, quiet when he was sad, quiet when he was hungry, quiet when he was nervous, quiet when he was worried. He was quiet all the damn time and Lockon felt bad because he never knew what the kid needed.

It wasn't Setsuna that had told Lockon that his shoes didn't fit anymore. It had been Tieria, who had noticed that Setsuna had started to go barefoot around the house and then, subsequently, the blisters on the kid's feet. Lockon and Tieria had scolded Setsuna, telling him that he needed to let them know when he needed new shoes or clothes. He had just silently listened to their tirade and nodded, then walked off to get a popsicle. Of course.

Setsuna seemed to have a hard time grasping what was a reasonable expectation and what wasn't. After Setsuna had gone to bed last night, Lockon had voiced these contemplations to the other two. Allelujah immediately chimed in that Setsuna might never learn those things. That he had clearly outwardly adapted, but the internal adaptation was a great deal more difficult. While he had to learn to act normally in public so he could live, he never had to learn to think normally because no one was in his head and he really never spoke much.

Tieria had nodded in agreement and Lockon spent the rest of the night trying to come up with ways to help Setsuna adapt mentally to his new situation.

It wasn't that he was not mentally adapting at all. The first time Lockon had taken the kid to the mall the terror and worry was clear in from the tension that ran all though the kid's body. He had been jumpy the entire time and when they finally returned home that evening he skipped dinner and hid in his bedroom the rest of the weekend.

It wasn't like that anymore, and the progress he was making was pretty clear. When they walked into the mall today, instead of shying away from everything, Setsuna's eyes locked onto the ice cream stand with laser precision. Allelujah caught this out of the corner of his eye as well and tried to hide a smile. Lockon was pretty sure Allelujah would claim he was hungry for some just before they had to leave.

Lockon wasn't the only one who liked to baby Setsuna a little.

Allelujah and Tieria set off for the book store while Lockon and Setsuna made their way to the sneaker place. They agreed to meet in front of the ice cream stand in an hour and a half and then find a place to go for lunch. Setsuna had perked up at that and there was more of a bounce to his step - or at least as much bounce as he could manage with shoes a size too small - as he and Lockon started off towards the shoe store.

Half an hour later Lockon discovered that Setsuna's shoes were actually two sizes two small, that his arches were unusually high and Setsuna's last pair had probably made his heels hurt because of it. Setsuna had listened to the store's clerk rather blithely and gave a complacent nod when Lockon asked if what the clerk said was true. Lockon resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall and told Setsuna to pick out sneakers he liked as Lockon and the store clerk went to find insoles for the kid.

Forty five minutes later, when they checked out with Setsuna's new shoes and a set of insoles, the clerk was looking at Lockon like he was devil and Setsuna was eyeing the new gray sneakers on his feet. They had small lime green stripes down the side and Lockon couldn't help but wonder if Setsuna had gotten them because they reminded him of his favorite flavor popsicle.

They found Tieria and Allelujah waiting for them on a bench near the appointed meeting place chatting contentedly. When they walked over Allelujah made sure to compliment the green stripes on Setsuna's shoes. Setsuna looked pleased, or at least as pleased as he ever looked, and nodded at Allelujah, his eyes slightly more soft than usual.

Then Allelujah suggested they have some ice cream and Setsuna was a tightly contained ball of energy as they made their way over to the stand. Allelujah got chocolate, Tieria ordered strawberry, in a dish of course, Lockon asked for rocky road and Setsuna requested peach.

Allelujah made an off hand comment to Tieria about how his ice cream matched his sweater, and Setsuna must have looked over to check because the next thing Lockon knew Setsuna and a man around Lockon's own age bumped shoulders roughly. The mall had been steadily filling up the closer it got to midday and maneuvering around all the people was getting to be tricky.

Setsuna was looking up at the other man with wide eyes as he backed towards Lockon. The guy was pretty tall and his hair was dyed bright red, he had the meanest expression on his face that Lockon had ever seen. Setsuna mumbled something that was probably an apology as he came to stand next to Lockon, his ice cream forgotten.

"Blow me." The other man spat.

The red head's friend, standing behind him, leered down at Setsuna and commented in a disgustingly sing songy voice that, judging by the way he'd been eating his ice cream, he was probably pretty good at it. The red haired man's eyes turned cruel and he smiled down at Setsuna sharply.

"That true, short stuff?" He asked crudely.

Lockon saw Tieria step up out of the corner of his eye. There was no love lost between Setsuna and Tieria. So long as Setsuna did his job right, Tieria didn't care what else the kid did, and Setsuna didn't care what Tieria did in general. They had this unspoken understanding that they would just calmly tolerate each other.

However, Tieria had a keen sense of propriety and these goons were stomping all over it.

"He's a child--" Tieria began hotly, glaring up at the large man.

"Nice sweater, grandma." The other man snickered and Tieria just stood there stunned. Usually, Tieria gave off enough of a 'Don't fuck with me' vibe that most people left him alone, especially when he was in the middle of a tirade. But this was twice in one week that someone had picked on his wardrobe. Lockon was pretty sure Tieria's mind was blown. The poor guy was either going to start a fight or just outright murder the guy where he stood.

Lockon decided to take matters into his own hands before bloodshed ensued. He stepped forward and it seemed like Allelujah was thinking the same thing at the same time because he stepped up in tandem with Lockon.

The man eyed Lockon and Allelujah, who were standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the stunned Tieria and Setsuna. He smirked nastily at the two of them.

"Let me guess, it was you and your boyfriend here who taught him how to do it."

That...struck an unpleasant cord with Lockon, guilt flooded his gut so he was distracted and didn't notice right away how Allelujah had grabbed the unpleasant man's pinky and twisting it cruelly.

The guy grimaced and Allelujah calmly dealt with the problem.

"What me and my boyfriend do, and with whom, is none of your business. Fuck off."

The guy and his friend took off after that and Lockon turned to see how Setsuna was taking what had happened. He was staring after the men as the ice cream melted down his cone and over his fingers. His brow was furrowed with thought and Lockon would have given anything to be a mind reader at that moment.

Setsuna snapped back to himself when Tieria handed him a few napkins and scolded him for getting the sleeve of his shirt messy. He let Tieria mother hen him without comment as they made their way out to the parking lot.

As Lockon keyed open the door to the car, Allelujah gave him a looked that pretty much summed up everything.

'Some trip to the mall, huh?'

Several hours of food, driving and intense contemplation of his moral attitudes and subsequent place in Setsuna's life later, Lockon stepped into the bathroom they'd all been sharing only to find it already full of steam and naked Setsuna. The kid was still slightly damp from his shower and his mouth was dyed bright red from the popsicle he had no doubt consumed just before stepping into the shower. Shit.

Setsuna was staring at him with bemused surprise and then, while a sense of deep foreboding slid deep in Lockon's gut, Setsuna's expression changed to one of sharp consideration.

"Should we see if he's right?" Setsuna asked, voice confident and challenging.

"R-right?" The kid was getting all aggressive on him again.

"About me knowing how to do it already?"

"Ah, no. We don't need--"

"He was teasing us." The kid said flatly. "And what he said made you feel bad about... what happened."

"Setsuna, kid," Lockon pitched his voice low and gentle, trying to sooth the kid. "It doesn't really matter. That guy was just--" He was going to say 'trying to get a rise out of me and Allelujah' but Setsuna cut him off.

"Yes, it does." Setsuna's eyes were sharp and determined. He walked over to Lockon and looked him straight in the eye. "I don't like it when people tease you." He spat.

Lockon, completely shocked by Setsuna's little revelation, was a little too slow on the uptake; so when Setsuna dropped to his knees in front of Lockon, and pulled down his jeans, he was caught off guard.

"S-Setsuna!" Lockon began, but was immediately interrupted.

"I don't like it when people tease you about him." Setsuna's face was filled with dark focus and before Lockon could figure out who he was, Setsuna had Lockon's dick out of his boxers and in his mouth and Jesus Christ that horrible man had been right.

Fuck, had he been right.

The kid's mouth was hot and soft and so goddamned wet. Lockon was hard as a rock in two seconds flat and when Setsuna began to gently suck he moaned long and loud. The nerve endings in Lockon's skin blazed to life and it felt like he was hit with a flash flood only the water was boiling hot.

His head felt foggy and his knees felt weak, and he was having a lot of trouble thinking anything more than 'hot, more, now, God!'

The ridges on the hard roof of Setsuna's mouth were pressed up against the top of Lockon's cock and the bottom of it was cushioned by the intense softness of Setsuna's tongue. The kid's teeth scraped lightly against his shaft and his lips were firm and perfect.

Lockon found himself slipping his fingers into the long bangs that always fell across Setsuna's forehead. He leaned back against the bathroom counter, pulling slightly out of Setsuna's mouth before pushing back in, slowly, shallowly, carefully. Again and again and again.

He had that electric feeling running down his stomach and his breathing got low and ragged.

Setsuna started to catch on, picking up the motion with a skill that could have only been born of seven days worth of practice on green fucking popsicles. His lips, his mouth, his teeth, his tongue all moved over Lockon with a surety of movement that drove him wild.

Setsuna looked up at him with those same contemplative, fucking mystifying, eyes that had frustrated Lockon that morning. Lockon had one near hysterical moment when he thought 'the kid has my dick in his mouth and I still don't fucking know what he's thinking, or what he wants, or fucking anything.'

Then he felt Setsuna's fingers frantically pressing into the skin on the backs of his thighs and he felt Setsuna breathing harshly though his nose as his narrow chest heaved; and Lockon finally knew precisely what Setsuna was thinking and exactly what he wanted.

Setsuna was thinking sex and Setsuna wanted to come.

In that minute of comprehension, in that one moment of absolute understanding of Setsuna's needs and desires this whole thing seemed perfectly ok. The guilt that had been gnawing at Lockon's gut since the day he first wrapped his hands around the kid's cock melted away as concept of Setsuna wanting this, wanting him sunk in and stuck. Setsuna wasn't confused or naive or unaware of what he was doing. He knew, and he was doing it for a reason.

Lockon threaded his fingers tighter in Setsuna's hair and he felt the kid's mouth vibrate around him as Setsuna made a small, inaudible, pleased sound. Everything about this moment was perfect from the thick, steamy air to slick wetness of Setsuna's mouth and Lockon just tilted his head back and felt until every single one of his hedonistic nerve endings overloaded and came hard in Setsuna's mouth.

The kid was clearly surprised when it happened because he pulled back and most of Lockon's come ended up running down his chin and bare chest.

Lockon stared down at Setsuna knowing he probably had the most lazy, contented smirk on his face in the history of the world, but not really caring. He was pretty sure that there was no better image in the world than the one Setsuna's slightly stunned and helplessly aroused face made as Lockon's come slid down his chest and belly.

"I think we need to get you cleaned up again..." Lockon murmured, voice low and deliberately laced with sex as he stripped off his clothes.

Setsuna was transfixed and flush faced as he watched Lockon. His breathing was ragged and he kept blinking and hands kept fluttering over his own thighs as if trying to find purchase somewhere.

Lockon internally smirked at the sight of those hands. A tell, such a perfect tell.

He ignored the low, wordless whine Setsuna seemed unable to suppress as Lockon picked him up and put him back into the shower stall. Setsuna was panting and his whole body was slick with sweat. Lockon flipped the water on and the minute the warm spray hit Setsuna's over sensitive skin he gasped.

Setsuna was pretty aggressive when it came to initiating sex. He demanded he get what he wanted no matter what Lockon tried to say to him. That was true, up until a point.

And that point, that perfect fucking point, that point that Lockon was starting to love and knew he would have dreams about until the day he died, was the point where Setsuna became so mindless aroused, so perfectly pliant, completely malleably and utterly submissive that whatever Lockon wanted to happen, happened.

Lockon pressed Setsuna's bony back up against the rear wall of the shower. He leaned forward, pressing his mouth against Setsuna's and the kiss was wet and perfect and possibly the sexiest kiss Lockon could remember ever having, though his high brain functions weren't exactly at peek working order right now. The kid's mouth was slack with arousal and he tasted like Lockon's come. Lockon breathed a laugh against Setsuna's lips and whispered to him.

"We have to clean you off a little..." He slid his hand down Setsuna's belly and sticky diluted mess of his come and Setsuna's sweat covered his hand. The kid's cock was a familiar dark red tinged slightly with purple that Lockon remembered vividly from his own adolescence.

It meant painful arousal and the desperate need to come.

Lockon was getting better at figuring Setsuna out by the minute, thought with a deep sense of something that was close to sheer glee.

He cupped Setsuna's right hip with one hand and slid a leg between Setsuna's thighs, using his grip on the kid's hip to slide Setsuna up towards Lockon, he let the kid's weight become completely supported by Lockon's leg, enabling Setsuna sit on his thigh.

The kid was clutching Lockon's shoulders for balance, fingers slipping across his wet skin as they scrabbled for a place to hold on.

"Shhhh shhh shhh." He made soothing sounds into Setsuna's ear, nuzzling the damp the hair. "Just relax, I've got you."

Setsuna let out a low whine and leaned forward to bury his face in Lockon's neck.

Lockon wrapped his hand around Setsuna's cock and the kid moaned so loudly Lockon could feel the vibrations from it in his hands. Setsuna's fingers were getting more panicky now and he was rubbing his face against Lockon's neck, breathing hard and hotly. His hips were twitching and Lockon could tell, even with the less tactile nerve ending on his thigh, that Setsuna's balls were drawn up tight.

Setsuna was making these sobbing noises as Lockon moved a hand over him and his fingers had found their way into Lockon's hair and were weakly pulling at the strands.

His chest was heaving and he was practically sobbing as all the muscles in his body went ridged and his fingers clenched in Lockon's hair and with a wordless shout Setsuna's come splattered across Lockon's thigh and abdomen, hotter than the water spraying down over them.

The kid was a shivery, shaky mess after that. He trembled and shuddered and was pretty much completely boneless as Lockon used a wash rag to get them clean. By the time Lockon had gotten them out of the shower and onto dry land, Setsuna was a little calmer if a bit weak around the knees.

He had gotten quiet again, but Lockon suspected it was a nervous kind of quiet. Setsuna's movements, as he dried himself were quick and twitchy. Either the kid needed a popsicle fix or there was something in the air he needed cleared up.

Lockon was having a hard time believing that Setsuna felt guilty about what just happened. The kid had made what he wanted pretty clear. Then Lockon remembered what Setsuna said when he was making what he wanted clear.

"So who's 'he'?" He asked casually, eyeing Setsuna in the mirror. The kid was standing behind him, bending over to rub at his legs. When Lockon spoke he looked up sharply, eyes deeply focused again.

The one thing about Setsuna that always completely floored Lockon was his ability snap into focus like he did. He mentioned it to Allelujah once who had offhandedly replied that it was likely a skill born of years fighting for his life nonstop. Where Setsuna came from, if you weren't perfectly awake and focused at the snap of a finger - or more to the point the sound of gun fire - then chances are, you died.

"Allelujah." Setsuna replied, with an accusatory tone. "Is he really your boyfriend?"

Lockon was taken aback; he turned sharply to face the kid. "What? No! Why would you--"

"He said he was. Was he lying?" Setsuna's voice was harsh. On the attack.

"He was joking." Lockon was feeling a little overwhelmed here. The kid had knocked him off his feet.

"Do you want him to be? You look at him a lot, on ship when we're in the shower. You look at him when he's naked. Do you want to have sex with him?"

Jesus, but the kid when right for the throat.

"Setsuna, listen--" The kid was glaring at him now, with eyes that were hard and suspicious.

There was his tell. The eyes. Setsuna didn't want to know if Lockon wanted to have sex with Allelujah. Setsuna wanted to be reassured that Lockon wanted to have sex with him.

Lockon decided to try another tract. He reached over and grabbed Setsuna by the wrist, he pulled the kid against his chest and wrapped his arms around him. He was so damn slender and felt small in Lockon's arms. He had to remind himself that Setsuna was still growing.

He buried his nose in the clean smelling hair on the side of Setsuna's head and tried to reassure the kid and himself.

"I'm not really sure of what you're worried about here. Are you scared I'm going to sleep with Allelujah?"

"It's not...just...that." Setsuna finished lamely, as if it wasn't quite what he wanted to say but couldn't think of how to phrase it better.

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's just that you... pay a lot of attention to him. You're always talking about something. Usually things I don't know about." Setsuna's voice was low and sullen.

"You're worried I'm going pay more attention to him and less to you?"

"Yes."

"Well, it doesn't really work that way?" Lockon tried to explain.

Setsuna looked up sharply.

"I spend time with you and with him."

Setsuna's eyes got sharp again. "No. You do things for me and you do things with him."

The distinction was clearly important but Lockon was having a hard time figuring out what it meant.

"Was this..." Lockon gestured to the steamy bathroom somewhat lamely. "Was this for you or with you."

"With." Setsuna hissed at him, as if he was still missing the point. Which, Lockon guessed, he was.

"How can we make this better, then?" Lockon asked, referring to the tenuous something they seemed to have started.

"We do more things with each other." He paused for a moment to consider something. "We can even do things with each other with Allelujah." He added generously.

"So, what is it you want to do then?" Lockon asked, still feeling as if he wasn't quite getting it.

Setsuna shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"So long as it's with?" Lockon asked.

"So long as it's with." Setsuna confirmed and took off to find a popsicle.

Probably green.