Chapter Text
Two years after
Amos
Amos came back to their hotel room on Tycho with bags of food from Holden’s favorite restaurant and a... decorative gift bag.
It was Alex’s turn to “supervise” the work on the docks. (It was more watching than supervising when Alex or Holden did it as opposed to Naomi or Amos, but they were all four more comfortable with a trusted pair of eyes on the Rocinante’s repairs, anyway.) That left Holden, Amos, and Naomi alone to do some very sexy celebrating.
It was Holden’s thirty-seventh birthday, and it had become something of a tradition for the three of them to celebrate together.
Naomi was naked in Holden’s lap, giggling and snuggling in that warm, hazy, post-sex kind of way. The three of them (when it wasn’t the four of them) had fucked so many times in so many configurations since returning to the Roci a little over eighteen months before, the sight of Naomi’s naked body tangled up in Holden’s should be commonplace to Amos. Still, he felt privileged to get to behold them. He didn’t think that feeling would ever go away.
“Amos, my love,” his heart always swelled three sizes when Naomi called him that, “where the fuck did you find a gift bag covered in cartoon dicks?”
“And did you just carry it across the entire station like that?” Holden piled on.
“Sex shop. And yeah, was I supposed to hide it?”
“I mean, you’re kind of a public figure, dude,” Holden said.
“Nah, you’re a public figure. I’m just your boyfriend,” he said proudly. He’d gotten used to the idea of being somebody’s boyfriend. Or, more accurately, two somebodies’ boyfriend. It made him feel like he belonged in a way he’d never felt before. Part of a force for good bigger than himself.
“My boyfriend, who just walked across the station with a pink gift bag decorated with disturbingly detailed animated phalluses.”
“They’re so… diverse,” Naomi noted about the bag. The dicks were all of different colors and sizes, circumcised and not.
“All dicks are good dicks,” Amos said. Holden made a very heterosexual grimace, like someone who hadn’t chugged Amos’s load that morning while he got split open on Naomi’s strap-on.
“What’s in the bag?” Holden finally asked.
“Patience, birthday boy. Lunch first, then gifts.”
He was a little nervous about the contents of the bag. He didn’t have a lot of practice giving birthday presents, so he didn’t know he chose the right things. But these days, Holden told Amos he loved him all the time, and Amos needed a way to say it back without saying it back. He was more of a show-it than tell-it kind of guy. So he chose gifts that would maybe say all the words he couldn’t say out loud.
Sure, he spent way more money than he should’ve, but what’s the point in money if you can’t spoil the people you love with sex toys?
“Is it a tail? Tell me it’s not a tail,” Holden speculated. None of the presents were a tail, though Amos still had his suspicions that Holden would like that.
“No, it’s falafel,” Amos joked, taking the to-go containers out of the other bag and handing them out while the dick-bag laid neglected. Holden gave him a facetious annoyed look and took his lunch. Amos sat down next to Naomi, who had moved from Holden’s lap so they could more easily eat. “I figured, what’s my guy like in his mouth more than balls?”
“Pussy,” said Naomi, while Holden said “coffee.”
“Nice to come in third,” Amos said.
“What, like you prefer sucking my cock to eating Naomi’s pussy?” Holden challenged.
“Touche.” Naomi smiled and spread her legs, and she laughed as they played rock-paper-scissors over who got to make her come before lunch.
✧✧✧
They talked and joked merrily as they ate, and Amos didn’t doubt for a second that he was in love with the two of them. He didn’t know how he ever doubted it in the first place.
Holden
“Present time?” Holden said like a child when he finished eating. Amos handed him the large gift bag.
“Go for it,” he said. There were a couple of gifts inside, each individually and hastily wrapped in recycled materials.
He knew, from the decoration on the bag and from knowing Amos as well as he did, that the gifts would all be sex toys. So when he unwrapped the plug, the only thing surprising about it was its size.
“It’s so big,” Holden said dumbly.
“Don’t you like big?”
“I’m not complaining,” Holden said, “it’s just gonna take some doing to get this in me.”
“I got time.”
“Right.”
“Next thing,” Amos demanded.
“How many sex toys did you buy?” Naomi asked. He shushed her and winked.
The next thing was also a plug, much smaller this time, but special in its own right.
“A remote control?” asked Holden, incredulous. Amos just smiled and nodded.
“You’re going to give Amos total control of a vibrating toy in your ass?” Naomi asked.
“Maybe the remote’s for you, Boss,” said Amos. Naomi looked intrigued.
“I like that better,” Holden said. “She’s merciful.”
“I don’t have to be,” she teased. “Is there more in there?”
“Looks like.” Holden pulled out a third thing, unwrapped it, and looked at Amos. “Did you buy, like, everything we’ve ever talked about?”
“I’m not doing another year-and-a-half-long voyage without an arsenal of toys to use on you. Besides, I got more money than I ever knew what to do with, I’m saving a hell of a lot on sex since you put out for free, and I didn’t buy you anything for the last two birthdays.”
“You haven’t bought me anything for the last, like, ten birthdays.”
“I only started giving a shit recently. What, I owe you reparations?”
“No. This is already more than enough.”
“What even is that?” Naomi asked.
“A gag,” Holden explained. A ring gag, specifically. With a ring big enough for Amos to put his cock through it.
“Seems violent,” Naomi said.
“That’s the idea,” Amos said smugly.
The next thing came in a necklace box, and Holden had a pretty good idea of what it would be. What he didn’t anticipate was the quality.
“Is this real leather?”
“No, but it’s really good fake leather.”
“A dog collar?” asked Naomi in disbelief. Amos laughed, and Holden wondered how much of this gift was to turn Holden on and how much of it was to embarrass him in front of Naomi. Not that being embarrassed in front of Naomi didn’t turn him on, which explained the traitorous twitch of his hardening dick. He grew harder still as Amos tightened the dark leather strap around his neck and peppered kisses on his shoulder. The silver tag read ‘baby boy’ in a simple script. It was undoubtedly not a dog collar. It would probably be impossible to find a dog collar on Tycho, as there was no demand for a pet store in space. This was made for humans. Kinky, feral humans with animal urges like Holden and Amos, but humans nonetheless.
Wearing his collar like a badge of honor, Holden reached back into the seemingly-bottomless bag of exciting goodies, and pulled out what was unquestionably a bottle of booze. He unwrapped it to find it was some of the best whiskey Ganymede had to offer, distilled from real grains, and aged, at least for a little while. It was no real Earth-made Scotch, but it was just about as good as it got in the Belt. Holden had forgotten the taste of good Earther booze over the years, anyway. This was probably the most expensive liquor on the station.
“This is too much, Amos,” Holden insisted. “Really.” Amos shook his head and shushed him.
“Let me spoil you,” he said. Holden was moved by the sincerity in his eyes. Holden knew Amos loved him, though he never told him so. Maybe this was the way he said it.
There was one more gift at the bottom of the bag, but as Holden pulled it out, he couldn’t guess what it could be. He unwrapped it, and his eyes widened.
The book was a real hardcover copy, something that scarcely existed anymore. His parents had a lot of them at home, but it was an eccentricity of theirs, one they were very privileged to afford. Holden was the only one he knew of on the Roci crew that had ever even held a book. Not because the others weren’t well-read, but because they were more practical, and less romantic than he was. They read on screens like just about everyone else in the galaxy.
Holden took the novel out of the cover and traced his fingers over the title. Dune. It was a twenty-first century science fiction story that was still Earth’s best-selling novel of the genre. It was a commentary on hero worship, a warning against following a leader uncritically. It was very in line with Holden’s values. Holden wondered if Amos had read it and understood that, or if he chose the book based on its genre and popularity. Either way, it was beyond thoughtful. Amos gave him a book— a real solid, hardcover book from 20th century Earth. It was an understanding of who Holden was and what he liked outside of the bedroom.
If the book alone hadn’t been luxurious enough, it was cradled in a leather (or a good fake leather) cover, and belted with a braided tie-closure. The material was a cognac brown color, soft and thick like real cowhide. The gift was an extravagance, something incredibly unlike anything Amos would ever spend his money on, but exactly the kind of thing that appealed to Holden. It was engraved on the inside.
I like kissing you.
A
Tucked into the cover was the photo they took on their picnic two years before, printed on real paper in real ink.
Holden didn’t know he was crying until Naomi wiped the tear from his eye. He looked up at Amos, who looked confused at his reaction.
“Are you doing that weird thing where you cry ‘cause you’re happy?” Amos asked. Holden nodded because he couldn’t speak. “Cool. So you like it?” Holden nodded again, weeping. Amos looked at Naomi for assistance.
“It’s a good gift,” she said. “You did really good, Amos.”
Holden still said nothing, but he crawled into Amos’s lap and nuzzled against his chest as he cried. Amos supported his weight easily in his arms, rubbing and patting his back tentatively.
“What do I do about this?” Amos asked Naomi. Holden laughed at that. Amos didn’t know why he laughed, but laughing was better than crying.
“I’m okay,” Holden said. “I’m just… really fucking in love with you.”
“I mean, me too, but you don’t see me cryin’ about it,” Amos said. Me too. As in, I’m in love with you, too. Holden’s heart warmed. He looked at Naomi, whose smile was shining brighter than the stars, and his heart was a furnace inside his chest.
Naomi kissed Holden as Amos held him. There were no secrets, no lies, no jealousy, guilt, or regret. It was the three of them, three equidistant stars in a loving constellation.
It was home.