Gigi Sinclair

Settling Scores

Dr. McKay was a great deal like Athos, Kolya thought. They were both scientists, both appeared weak at first glance, and both had turned complaining into an art form. They were also much tougher and a lot more courageous than anyone would expect from looking at them. It was why Kolya had bonded with Athos, and why he'd spared McKay's life. Repeatedly.

Why Sheppard had spared Kolya's life, though, was more of a mystery, and Kolya was resolved to ask him about it the next time they met. Right before he refrained from making the same mistake.

Kolya spent the evening thinking about it, planning the confrontation in his mind as he usually did. Athos wasn't interested in talking about the Atlanteans, and he showed it by sitting in the main room of their home, silently reading reports on his data screen until Kolya stood, his heavy boots stomping on the wooden floor. He put his gun cleaning paraphernalia in the cupboard and said: "I'm going to bed."

Athos looked up from his screen, his eyes tired as they had been since the death of his son Idos. He wasn't a young man, only a few years younger than Kolya, but in the months since Idos had been killed, Athos had aged more rapidly than in all the time Kolya had known him before. "How's your shoulder?"

"It's fine." The latest grappling with Sheppard and his friends had aggravated the injury and it was sore, but Kolya wasn't going to admit that.

"You don't look fine." Athos leaned back in his hand-carved wooden chair. The entire house was done in the falsely low-tech style that the Genii favoured, because they thought subterfuge was the way to vanquish their enemies, particularly the Wraith. "You're obsessed with the Atlanteans, Acastus."

"They killed Idos." And Sora, both of whom were his children according to Genii law and both of whom had been Kolya's responsibility, as a father and as a commander.

"And they killed Tyrus." Athos added, without any particular emphasis.

"Tyrus died because he was a fool." That was the story the Atlanteans had given Sora, when she'd asked about her father, and Kolya could believe it. Tyrus acted before he thought and always had; it was what had led, eventually, to him dissolving his union with Kolya.

Athos, on the other hand, never did anything without thinking it through, repeatedly and in the greatest of detail. "You think that by killing Sheppard you can avenge everyone who died," he said, looking Kolya in the eye. "It's not true."

"We've lost dozens of soldiers to them." More than a hundred now, counting those who died on the last mission.

"And if you kill Sheppard," Athos replied, running a hand through his greying hair, "They'll still be dead."

"You're Genii. You should be seeking revenge yourself." The Genii had made a virtue of vengeance, and Athos had never been an exception. He'd dedicated his life to developing the weapons that would one day obliterate the Wraith.

Athos shrugged. "I've already lost my son. I'd rather not lose you as well."

"It won't happen." Sheppard had already given up the only chance he was going to get to have Kolya in his gun sights.

Athos raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I would imagine Sheppard's saying the same thing to his friends."

Tyrus had been irritating and moody and often difficult to live with, but he'd never been quite as exasperating as Athos.

"Good night," Kolya growled, because he had nothing else to say.

The bedroom was at the back of the house, with a view of the fields behind the village. There was a wooden-framed bed piled with woven blankets and a painting Kolya had always hated on one of the walls. In the eight years he'd been bonded to Athos, he'd spent more nights away, in the underground research facilities and on training missions and fighting enemies like the Atlanteans, than he had here. As he washed his face in the bowl of cool water on the sideboard, Kolya felt like a guest. He folded the small towel and put it beside the bowl, then pulled off his clothes and slid into bed in his undershorts, careful to lie on his uninjured shoulder.

Kolya was on the edge of sleep, his mind still consumed by thoughts of Sheppard, when the mattress shifted and Athos climbed in beside him. He lay there for a moment, then Kolya felt a twinge as Athos pressed his lips against the fresh scar.

Kolya inched away, towards the edge of the down-filled mattress, but Athos's hand came up to Kolya's other shoulder, running down his side and resting on Kolya's hip, next to another, older scar. "Athos," Kolya tried, but Athos kissed the back of Kolya's neck.

"Acastus," he replied, in a tone that easily conveyed that, while Athos understood what Kolya meant, he wasn't going to stop. Instead, he moved his tongue to Kolya's ear and murmured: "What would you like?"

Sheppard's head on a plate, Kolya thought automatically, but he didn't say it. They hadn't had sex in months, since Idos died, and Kolya suspected this had nothing to do with what he wanted. "You are very skilled at a great many things." From nuclear physics to oral sex, Athos was a brilliant man, and, when he was a brilliant soldier, Kolya had never questioned why Athos might want to be with him. But that was before Kolya caused the death of Athos's only son.

Kolya rolled onto his back, ignoring the protests of his shoulder. Athos was looking down at him. He'd left the lamp on, and the light shone off the grey in Athos's hair.

Kolya wasn't a young man, and even three hours of training every day couldn't keep the weight off anymore, but Athos didn't seem to care. He never had. He slid his hand up Kolya's chest, resting it on Kolya's shoulder, and leaned in to kiss him.

The good thing about going so long without sex was that doing it again almost seemed like a first time. At Kolya's age, that was something remarkable. Athos was as good as ever, kissing his way down Kolya's ageing, scarred body. He took Kolya's dick into his mouth with the same skill he'd used before they were bonded, when they were younger and Kolya was less scarred. Inside and out.

Afterwards, as they lay together, Kolya's arm raised enough to rest it over Athos's shoulders. "The Atlanteans aren't our enemies, Acastus. We need to work together if we're going to defeat the Wraith."

Kolya knew that, and he knew it wasn't going to happen until someone had paid for Idos, Sora and Tyrus. Someone like Sheppard. Then, while they still wouldn't be equal, it would be close enough for Kolya to be able to get on with what was important. Kolya looked forward to it.

And he looked forward to Athos meeting McKay. He had the feeling they would get along surprisingly well.