Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

No one had ever said that Gaius Baltar didn’t like a challenge.

Unfortunately for Lieutenant Gaeta, or unfortunate at least in Gaius’s mind, that meant when something seemed altogether too easy, it bored him. There was something to be said for a willing, easy partner, of course, but it was really not in the same class of encounter as a great hunt, a lingering seduction. Someone practically offering him a way in, as he imagined the Lieutenant had with all of his eagerness, his flattery, was almost a turn off.

Then again, Gaius thought as he looked over to catch the Lieutenant reading his own notes with an adorable little pout, there was certainly something to be said for the eagerness to please that was, in his experience, practically trademark to interns. He let his eyes drift over his mouth, which was lovely. He imagined that in better light, the man might actually be attractive, at the very least, worth his time. To score himself a few points, just in case, he allowed Mr. Gaeta to catch him looking for a second and then looked back at his own papers.

He felt Gaeta’s eyes on himself for a moment, lingering, and imagined the lips querulous, before he felt them drop from him and heard him go back to his reading. No, this was too easy. He was certain if he crossed the room and took the Lieutenant’s face in his hand, kissed him, he’d have full access. However, a little easy fun would be a nice diversion from the tedious lab work…

There was a strange tension in the air, the sort that meant he was going to have a phantom visitor if he kept thinking along this line, so he decided, almost to spite his inconstant companion, to act. He dropped his notes onto the desk in mock-frustration, favoring the Lieutenant with what he deemed to be an intense, needy look. He knew he hadn’t quite done the prep work for this line of seduction, he hadn’t been looking enough, forcing lingering touches on paperwork that passed between them, holding him tight when the other man made excuses to hug him… but he was hedging his bets that the adoration and the lack of other eligible men on the Battlestar were going to do the work for him.

The Lieutenant again looked up, but by then Gaius had crossed the room to kneel beside him, reaching to catch his cheek in his hand, turning his face lightly so he was forced to meet his eyes. He held him for a beat, just staring and then murmured, “I couldn’t take it anymore,” and closed in for a kiss, gentle but undercut with need. As he felt the other man’s lips respond, Gaius took a moment to congratulate himself on his acting skills, as he released a small moan that to him said, I needed this, don’t deny me now. Gaeta’s lips were soft against his, and parted permissively, and Gaius felt what he’d hoped for, the intensity of desire, laced with promise…

And then it was cut short. Gaeta pulled back away from him, staring for a moment and then looking down, away. “Dr. Baltar, that’s... inappropriate.” It was a weak protest, and “Its against protocol,” didn’t help. The rejection made Gaius pout, just faintly, and the glimpse he caught of Gaeta’s tongue flick out to ghost over his lips spiked his desire.

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant, I wasn’t aware-“
“No, I’m sure you were.” Gaeta stood up to pace out of the room, leaving Gaius on his knees beside an empty chair.

Terribly self-satisfied, Six slipped around from behind Gaius to sit down in the chair before him, pulling his face up to give him the second kiss that Gaeta had denied him, a kiss that he found altogether too pleasant, too secure. Her lips were too familiar to his, and she made sure of it… and held Gaius’s face in her hands as she pulled away from him.

“Mm, Gaius, he just gets more interesting, doesn’t he?”

“But... I had it. He wanted me. What happened?” As little as he’d put into the seduction, it left him with a rather bitter taste, as failure had never pleased him... and failing at something that should have been so easy…

“It’s subtle, the art of seduction… you can’t just startle someone like that. Though maybe, on second thought, that was just what he needed…”

Gaius stood up and paced away, restless. “I suppose you’re the expert on seducing men, or rather, how I’m supposed to go about it.”

“I am, as a matter of fact.”

Gaius went back to reading over his research.

It wouldn’t be until later that day when Gaius would see the Lieutenant again, this time over a pickup game of cards. The meeting wasn’t long, really just a few seconds of eye contact as Mr. Gaeta dropped in to check, and paused when he saw the doctor, ready to turn around and leave. One of the viper pilots, whose name he was sure he hadn’t bothered with, suggested to the Lieutenant, “Felix, have a seat. 15 to play,” but Gaeta shook his head, “No, I…” and checked his watch rather obviously, “Have to report back to CIC.”

Felix, as he was apparently called, rather intentionally didn’t look at Gaius again as he left, and was pointedly being difficult to read. Gaius laid his cards on the table, and of course he collected the winnings.

The next day in the laboratory, Gaius was faced with the same tedious work as the previous day, and every day since he’d finished the infernal machine. They had been moving through the blood samples primarily from CIC, after testing the President, her aide, and the prominent viper pilots. Currently, the sample in the machine was from Lieutenant Dualla, who Gaius found attractive and not terribly interesting, and it had been churning away in the cylon detector for at least two hours and had failed to produce anything of note.

He found himself musing over the next sample in the stands, the one marked with Lieutenant Gaeta’s name. All the samples looked the same, of course, the labels penned mostly in doctor’s scrawl, but some in a much neater print that Gaius recognized to be Gaeta’s from his pages and pages of notes to be found around the lab. He recalled the Lieutenant having helped the doctor take the samples from the military, while other doctors had collected vials from the civilians, but what was terribly interesting was that Mr. Gaeta’s sample was labeled in his own handwriting.

Not that he suspected foul play, of course. His own sample had been rather painfully drawn from his arm by Doctor Cottle, and he had to imagine that Felix had a much gentler touch, though as he thought about it, his mind bent a little, imagining the young man drawing blood from his own arm. No, it was much more likely that he’d labeled the sample himself, before or after the doctor had taken it. Still, it did make him curious… if Gaeta had cheated on his test, if he’d mislabeled someone else’s sample as his own, whose blood had he selected? If Felix Gaeta was a cylon, who had he condemned, and if he wasn’t, why would he risk exchanging his sample for someone whose blood he couldn’t vouch for?

A perfectly manicured hand closed around his, tightening his own fingers around the vial, holding his hand in the air. He kept his eyes locked on the name printed on the sample as the laboratory door grated open, and kept his eyes focused until he heard the rotating lock in place again. When he glanced up finally, the Lieutenant was frowning at him.

“Is something wrong, Doctor?”

“Oh, of course not, it was just- I was just looking at which sample was next in line.”

Gaeta was still unconvinced, but nodded, “Of course,” and bent down to check his notes from the previous day. As he found his place, he asked, “Was there a problem?”

Gaius paused, considering. He certainly wasn’t in the business of exposing cylons, despite his current job description, and telling Gaeta that he had his suspicions could be quite dangerous, especially if he really was a cylon, or had suspicions that he could be a sleeper agent like poor Boomer. And as Six had said, she might have been dangerous with that revelation…

“Mm, I think you should accuse him. Let him know he’s not as sneaky as he thought…” the little voice in his head purred against his ear.

“Hm, why’s that?”

Gaeta favored him with a strange look. “You were… I just thought that meant something was wrong.” As if Gaius had implied there was a problem, and it had been natural to ask about it.

“I promise, you’ll like the result.” Her voice was laced with a little smirk, the sort of advice he knew he should ignore, but often took anyway.

“No, I was just surprised to see that you’d labeled your own sample, Lieutenant.”

The implications weren’t lost on Gaeta, and he went wide-eyed for a second in surprise, but then his expression stormed over. “Is there a problem with that, Doctor?”

“Of course not. I had just found it… interesting.” Gaius frowned a little, as that wasn’t as interesting as any reaction he’d been expecting. He’d certainly been hoping to be gifted a small revelation into Gaeta’s character, with that accusation… but once he’d looked away, back to the monitor, he saw the Lieutenant just settle a little restlessly into the note-taking he’d been doing the previous day.

They were quiet for a while, almost awkwardly so, as the Lieutenant found himself things to do, creating busy work to keep himself from having to interact with the Doctor, but eventually he had to rise from his chair to pace around the small laboratory, restless.

“Doctor, are you trying to blackmail me?” The question was simple, like Gaeta had been considering it for some time and had finally gotten together the courage to ask it, though the tone in his voice was edged with something Gaius wasn’t used to hearing…

“No, I hadn’t-“

“Because I’m certain you are not going to like the results.”

The growl in the Lieutenant’s voice intrigued Gaius in ways he hadn’t expected. He stood, preparing to turn and face Gaeta, to discuss things more rationally, but didn’t have the time, as Gaeta pushed him roughly down against the table, a hand between his shoulderblades to keep him down. His free hand tugged Gaius’s fitted jacket just low enough to restrict his ability to use his arms, the armholes pinning his upper arms to his sides, and leaned in to bite his neck sharply, which made Gaius gasp in pain.

“Unless, of course, this is what you wanted me to do…” Gaeta held him down with one hand as he reached underneath him to unfasten his pants, letting them fall to around his ankles and pushed up his jacket so he could see his bare ass, leaving Gaius vulnerable and exposed. He tensed up underneath him, pushing his hands down on the table for leverage to struggle, but the Lieutenant pushed him down again, not about to let him go so easily.

Gaius decided it might be unwise to struggle, so he gave in for the moment, allowing his captor to suck at the now-tender skin of his neck. His eyes went wide as he felt a hand sliding around from his hip to tease along his length, a delicate touch that drew a soft whimper from his throat. He couldn’t help himself, arching back against Gaeta’s body, moving his ass against him, eager to get closer to him, the line between pleasure and panic blurring into oblivion.

“Oh, no, it’s not going to be that easy,” Gaeta smirked against his neck, his fingers still light and teasing over him, pulling away every time Gaius tried to press into them, though after a moment he took the hand back to undo his own pants, just to free himself enough to rub against Gaius’s bare skin, moaning a little satisfied noise against his ear.

Gaeta’s evident pleasure made Gaius weak beneath him. There was something about the denial, the almost demeaning and yet tantalizing feeling as the Lieutenant teased the head of his cock against his entrance, the feather-light touches of fingers over his length that made him anxious for more. He whimpered as the fingers were removed, though in a few seconds they were up by his mouth, toying roughly with his lower lip.

“I want you to beg for it, Gaius. Beg for what you want.”

Gaius was no stranger to having to beg, but he’d never been about to do so for what he wanted now… which was what made this situation difficult. When he’d considered seducing Gaeta, it certainly hadn’t been that he wanted him to dominate him, and he just wasn’t ready to admit that this was something he wanted even more than a tame and easy seduction. He breathed against his fingers for a moment as Gaeta nibbled on his earlobe, purring against it, “I know you want it. You won’t be admitting anything I don’t know… so you’d be helping yourself if you just asked.”

Gaius was so needy, just anxious against him that he tried, “Felix, please…” as a quiet little plea against his fingers, licking over his fingertips, and he was rewarded a little as those fingers returned to stroking him, though it wasn’t any more satisfying than before.. and the wet touch left his skin even more sensitive to the lack of contact he was receiving, the draft in the air making him shiver.

“Please, what?”

“Please, Felix, I want-“ Gaius’s voice failed him for a second, the intensity of his need overtaking his pride, “I want you to frakk me.”

Felix purred against his neck, “That’s much better…” and removed his hand again to fumble with something Gaius couldn’t see, restoring his view of the sea of blood samples on the desk, and after what seemed like a minute of waiting he felt a slick finger against his entrance, and cried out softly as it pushed into him, followed rather quickly by another… Gaius was torn by discomfort and desire to rub demandingly back against his fingers.

Gaius whimpered softly when Gaeta withdrew his fingers, though more in anticipation of the pleasure he was finally about to receive instead of from frustration… and cried out sharply when Gaeta pushed into him, hard, demanding. It wasn’t so much that the sensation was altogether pleasant, but his appreciation of it was beyond the physical means of the situation. He knew that this was good because Gaeta had made him need it, though as Gaeta moved into him more regularly he felt him rub against his prostate, something more pleasurable than what he’d expected it to be…

He caught himself arching his hips up to contact Gaeta, to encourage him in deeper and guide him how he liked, he was rewarded with a hand returning to his cock, giving him all of the pleasure he’d denied him earlier, the mouth on his neck gentle now. The way he was being touched now, the way Gaeta was pushing inside him as he stroked down his length, his hand drawing back to tease the head as he teased himself against his entrance was a level of skill that Gaius had in no way expected… he hadn’t expected to be so lost to it.

Gaeta purred against his neck, “Mm, Gaius… come for me…” a soft little request that made Gaius aware again of how subordinate he was underneath him, having begged for him, but he let himself go to the pleasure, crying out his name as he finished into his hand, feeling himself tighten around Felix.

His eyes closed in pleasure as he felt Gaeta pull himself out, and felt him stand up away from him. He twisted around a little to see what the other man was doing, and wasn’t sure whether to be aroused or offended as he watched him stroke himself to completion, as he felt the warm fluid on his ass go cold after a second.

When he and the Lieutenant finally made eye contact, Felix was sort of awkwardly doing up his pants, a slightly flustered expression on his face.

“I’m sorry, Doctor, I don’t know what came over me…”

He seemingly decided to make his escape about then, leaving Gaius bent-over and prone, deciding what to do now. The first order of business was clearly to get his arms out of his jacket, so he could go about cleaning himself up, and once he’d accomplished that and gotten his pants fixed, he settled in his chair to figure out, exactly, what had happened.

“I told you, Gaius, that you’d enjoy that.”

Six dug a fingernail into a bruise that Felix had made down by his teeshirt collar, making Gaius wince.

“And how did you know he was about to do that?” Gaius mused, staring at the door in his assistant’s absence.

“Oh Gaius… whatever I say, you know it's just you talking to yourself.”