Author: Lady Starblade -- [email protected]
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: A/T
Category: Romance
Spoilers: None to be found
Warnings: Nope
Archive: Entslash; Anyone else, if ya want it, take it. Just let me know where.
Feedback: Yes, please. <Bambi eyes>
Disclaimer: I wish I may, I wish I might, but I don't own Enterprise or its denizens. And while I'm at it, I wish I got paid for this, but I don't.
Author's Note: An answer to the "13,000 Post" Challenge. Only managed to incorporate 2 elements of said challenge: Porthos falling in love with a member of Phlox's menagerie and Archer in drag. Hey, since I started the whole "drag" thread, figured I should do it....
Summary: A lovesick Trip confesses to a lovesick Porthos.
**
Porthos's head rested on his paws as he looked mournfully at a nearby cage. The foliage inside rustled, and Porthos began to softly whine.
Trip Tucker crouched down next to the beagle and followed the line of sight to the cage. He smiled as he scratched the dog behind the ear. "What's the matter, fella? Your girl givin' you the cold shoulder?" He glanced back at the moving vegetation and made a face. "I don't know if she has shoulders, though. I don't even know if she's really a she. I don't even think Phlox knows."
Trip had never gotten a clear look at the animal inside, but Phlox told him that it looked enough like a dog for Porthos to mistake it for one. Given that he hadn't seen another dog in almost two years, it wasn't surprising that the pup had reacted to...whatever it was. Shaking his head, he reached out to pick Porthos up. The dog let out a mournful howl that made Trip yelp and let go. Porthos landed on his feet, looked up at Trip with an almost indignant look, then settled back down to watch the cage.
"Come on, Porthos, your dad's waitin' for ya. Promised him I'd be quick." Porthos ignored the human and continued his vigil. In the face of this puppy passivity, Trip sighed and sat down cross-legged on the floor. "I guess a couple more minutes won't hurt." He propped his elbows on his knees, folded his hands, and stuck his chin on his hands. The two watched quietly for several moments before Trip began to speak.
"It's awful, isn't it? To be in love with someone so close, but they're far away at the same time. You can reach out and touch 'im, but you can't. In the same room, but they could be on the other side of the galaxy." He leaned forward, pressing his chin deeper into his hands. "I hate it." Snorting at himself, Trip continued, "And you have no clue what I'm talkin' about, do you? Talking about my love life to a dog...." His voice trailed off as he looked over.
Porthos's dark brown eyes were fixed on him, deep and fathomless. Trip got the oddest feeling that the beagle knew exactly what he meant. Trip tilted his head in puzzlement. Without thinking about it, he added, "I love Jon, you know. I'm in love with your dad."
Slowly, Porthos rose and climbed into Trip's lap. Trip grinned down at him and unfolded his hands to bury them in the fur. Scratching briskly, he kept on talking. "Between you, me, and your girlfriend, I first realized it the night after we laid the keel for Enterprise. We all went out drinkin' that night....he was buying, and I think we took him for everything he had." Trip began to laugh at the memory. "After about eight or nine beers, he climbed up on the bar and started singin'. He's got a nice voice. But he was so drunk, he fell off and almost landed on his head. I caught him, and he damn near took me down with him. But let me tell ya, holdin' him and looking into his eyes, so close....that's when I knew."
Porthos began to twist around, licking Trip's hand. Ruffling the floppy ears, he leaned over to say conspiratorially, "But he still doesn't know that it was me that talked everyone into puttin' him in that dress when we took him home. Just don't ask where I got the dress." Porthos licked Trip's nose. Trip laughed even harder. "Yeah, I hear it took him a few minutes to realize he had it on the next morning. He musta looked pretty funny."
Yipping, Porthos flipped over, leaving a swath of hairs across Trip's uniform. "Oh, look what you did." Trip swatted playfully at the dog now presenting his belly for rubbing. "I should go find Malcolm and hug him. Bet he'd love to get covered in dog hair. Whaddya think?" Porthos's tongue lolled out of his mouth in seeming agreement.
Trip scratched Porthos's belly, and the dog writhed happily until he fell out of Trip's lap and onto the floor with a solid thump. "You goofy mutt." Porthos got back to his feet with an air of purpose. "Uh nuh," Trip said, waving a hand. "You ain't fooling me. You didn't mean to do that." Porthos sat down and stared back, tail twitching.
Trip sighed again as some of his levity faded. "I wish I could tell him, though. It's been what, four, five years, since that night and I still can't tell him that I fell in love with him. And now he's the Captain and all...." He rubbed a hand over his face as he groaned. "Maybe someday. Maybe." Porthos barked once, and Trip narrowed his eyes. "I don't care if ya think I'm stupid, I'm not gonna tell him. Not now."
In a sudden movement, Porthos leapt forward. Trip tried to catch him, but he went flying by too quickly. Rolling over to his hands and knees, he made to push up to his own feet when his field of vision was filled by a pair of boots. Starfleet-issue boots, at that. And Trip had a sickening suspicion whose feet were in those boots. He let his eyes slowly trail upwards, past the boots, past the jumping dog, and all the way up to Jonathan Archer's face. Trip lifted a hand. "Hi, Cap'n."
"I was ready to send out a search party after the two of you." Jon smiled down at the crouching man.
"Yeah, well," Trip stood up, raking both hands nervously through his hair. When had Jon come into Sickbay? Why hadn't he heard the doors open? And most importantly, what had he heard? "Porthos was busy visitin' with his lady friend in the cage over there."
Jon looked back over his shoulder while crouching down to pick Porthos up. "Hmmm. Have any luck, boy?" Porthos responded by trying to lick as much of Jon's face as he could reach. The man rose his eyebrows at Trip.
"Nope, he struck out. Again."
"Too bad." Jon scratched the neck scruff. Directing his next words to the dog, he said, "It's okay. She doesn't know what she's missing. She'll learn."
Trip shifted from foot to foot as Jon's eyes returned to him. "And speaking of learning....so it was you who put me in the dress. I suspected, but I wasn't completely sure."
Trip felt every muscle in his body freeze. *Shit. He heard me.* He held his breath, anticipating and dreading Jon's next words.
Jon cocked his head to one side as a lazy smile started to spread across his face. "You look like someone's about to punch you."
Forcing the words up his throat, Trip asked, "Is someone going to?"
Jon slowly shook his head. "No. But I might get punched in a few seconds."
"Why?"
Porthos suddenly found himself squeezed between two men whose lips were making fierce contact right above his head. Not knowing what to do, he began to wriggle around, leaving quite a few hairs on the front of Jon's uniform. Jon suddenly broke away, and Porthos took the opportunity and leapt back down to the floor. Trip, a dazed expression plastered on his face, didn't even notice. Jon held Trip's gaze for several seconds before asking in a whisper, "Am I?"
"Are you what?" Trip's voice had gone husky.
"Going to get punched."
It took Trip a couple of tries to get his reponse out. "Uh nuh." Paralysis broken, Trip reached out and grabbed a handful of jumpsuit. Hauling the other man closer, he said, "I think you'll like what I'm thinkin' a whole lot more."
"I thought you weren't going to tell me right now...thought you'd tell me someday." Jon's breath slapped gently against Trip's cheek.
A low growl issued from deep in Trip's throat. "Forget someday."
After staring up at the humans for a moment, Porthos pointedly turned around, trotted back across the room, and lay back down with a sound suspiciously close to a happy sigh.
Then the foliage in the cage began to rustle, and Porthos whuffed.
Maybe someday....
END