captivity

[full_of_wrath]

Kirk gets called in. Mostly because Khan has made two duty officers guarding his cell ask to be relieved, one of them in tears.

He creates a lot of wear and tear, in general.

Comments

[kobayashiwhatnow]

It's like seeing a figure through mist and a bad lens. He can kind of get the gist of what this must mean to Khan, but he can't fit it into a perspective he knows.

He does know that this feels really good, though--and not just the hands on him through his boots.

"I'm guessing this was always a one-on-one thing." Because bootblacking with this level of devotion would mean the work would never get done.

[full_of_wrath]

"Sometimes it would be done in crowds- but the crowds understood the devotion inherent in the act."

Explaining, quietly.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"How else did people show their devotion?"

He should be watching his boots, but he's not, he can't look away from Khan.

[full_of_wrath]

He dips gracefully forwards, and touchings his tongue to the leather, just the tip, head turned so Kirk can see.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

Oh, hell. Kirk is abruptly shifting in his seat, but he doesn't move that foot.

[full_of_wrath]

He nuzzles, just softly, and straightens back up with the smallest smear of black on the bridge of his nose, reverent and dazed.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

Kirk is speechless, breathless, every bit as dazed as Khan looks. He reaches out and gently rubs the smudge off of Khan's skin. He has no idea what this is, or how it happened, but he rubs the side of his boot slowly along Khan's thigh, meaning it to be silent praise.

[full_of_wrath]

He leans in and rests his cheek on Kirk's knee, accepting that quietly.

"I've got to get back to work, if you understand a little better now."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"Yeah."

His voice is quiet, far away, and he rests his hand on Khan's shoulder.

"Keep up the good work."

[full_of_wrath]

He arches up into the touch, quite perceptibly. No one but Kirk has put their hands on him in anything other than violence in a very long time.

"I'm glad I could show you. Read more, and I'll answer any questions you have."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"Tell me where to look next."

Something Khan would have known as intimately as he seems to know bootblacking.

[full_of_wrath]

He shivers, and decides;

"Impact play."

Since they've done that too, in their own way."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"Impact play?"

He's not sure he heard that right, at first.

"Okay. Okay, you finish the boots, I need to..."

[full_of_wrath]

"Your duties."

He agrees, setting back to work.

Just eight hours to go, after all.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

He wrenches himself off the chair, and steps over Khan's supplies. The first thing he does when he goes back to his cabin is start his research.

[full_of_wrath]

Kneeling at someone's feet and having your face hit? Also apparently has some context to it. Perhaps it makes it more understandable why Khan's mind has gone there.

Welcome to BDSM, Kirk, there's a lot to learn. He finishes his tasks with a few hours to spare, and waits where he's been left, kneeling patiently.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

When Kirk comes back he has more questions than before. He's dressed in his off-duty clothes, which are all black and comfortable.

"So...tell me something."

But he pauses when he sees Khan is kneeling.

[full_of_wrath]

He realizes the mistake, when he sees him, and slips immediately to his feet.

"Captain?"

[kobayashiwhatnow]

There's a little pang of regret when Khan gets up. Kirk chalks it up to having read too many stories.

"When you just held your hands behind your back and let me hit you...was that- was that impact play?"

[full_of_wrath]

"No. Because you weren't aware of it. I'll confess, however, I was using certain... tools, I'd earned in that position before to overcome the desire to flee or flinch."

Explaining, helpfully.

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"Like what?"

Right now, Kirk doesn't know what to think of himself, of what he had done. He doesn't regret it, but the undertones are a new dimension.

[full_of_wrath]

"Patience. Stoicism."

He admits, and then.

"Recontextualization. It's easy, now, to do something terrible for another cause."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

"I don't think I'm hearing this right, impact play taught you to recontextualize everything else?"

[full_of_wrath]

"No. Yes."

He says, then rubs a hand over his eyes.

"I'd like to rest before we discuss this."

[kobayashiwhatnow]

Kirk nods, and steps aside, inviting Khan to walk with him.

"You've been up since yesterday?"