The Space Between
2,500 words, NC-17

Summary: Every move he makes to pull them closer only pushes them further apart.

Notes: Inspired by Vanna Bonta's 2suit flight suit design for facilitating physical intimacy in microgravity. Beta by cinaea.



As soon as the last tourist had disembarked, the captain opened the comms and granted all non-essential staff their shore leave.

Adam and the other entertainment staff crowded forward, getting a head start on the cooks, waiters, cruise-camp coordinators, and aerobics instructors. The group of them jostled and bumped in their hurry to get off the Nebula Princess, feet kicking shins and hands pushing off shoulders for leverage. Adam caught a conveyor loop in the main entry cabin and let it pull him through the boarding hatch and into the wide, sunlit expanse of the New Cozumel station's receiving hall.

Bel-Celestia Cruise Line greeters were ushering a few straggling tourists out of the hall and through to the guest relaxation lounges. Murals of the Milky Way glittered on the walls, and interactive displays listed the departure bays for the next Earth-bound shuttles. Outside a long bay of windows, the Atlantic Ocean shone between gleaming-white cloud formations, infinitely more beautiful than the rings of Saturn or the dark storms of Neptune.

Adam ignored it all.

He let go of the conveyor, caught a chrome-plated railing, and angled his body toward a dark grey hatch labeled Employees Only. He missed his mark by half a meter, and the iridescent, plastic shell on the neighboring bulkhead caved a few centimeters under his impact, before snapping back with a low thock as he pulled himself through to the employees' living quarters.

The back passages of the New Cozumel low-orbital station were a twisting maze of cramped compartments and narrow hatches, of steel and Kevlar and titanium. 21 meters in, Adam twisted to the right and followed the blue arrows to the staff quarters, mindful not to bruise his hips or knees as he bumped between one cool, unyielding surface and the next. 16 meters along, he took a sharp downward turn, flipping his legs up to kick against a bulkhead and propel himself the last 9 meters to a shallow hatchway.

Adam held his breath, hand unaccountably trembling as he pressed his palm in for the bio scan.

The scanner beeped, the door slid open, and Adam sucked in a breath that burned like two weeks of recirculated air, blinking back the sting in his eyes.

Kris smiled over his shoulder, South America blinking green and red on the launch display behind him.

"Hi," Kris said. He kept his eyes locked on Adam's. His fingers fumbled as he tried to unclip his harness without looking.

Adam pulled himself through the hatch, engaged Kris's privacy settings, and pushed himself toward his lover, already reaching out to catch and hold.

Kris met him halfway, pulling him in with a grip on his shoulder even as their hips collided and bounced apart, their bodies spinning. Adam groaned and kissed him, his hands sliding over Kris's hot skin, around his neck and into his hair. The short strands slipped through his fingers, thick and so soft. Kris's lips opened against his, moist breath and warmth drawing him in, and Adam tried to hold their bodies together even as their efforts to draw closer pushed them further apart.

"Adam," Kris panted, squirming and torqueing his body to get a leg hooked behind Adam's knee, to secure their lower halves. "Come on, a little help here."

Adam nodded, but paused to steal one more kiss, his tongue tangling with Kris's until the taste of him was all he knew. Kris grumbled another impatient demand for cooperation and pinched him. The exhilarating sting of fingernails against the skin of his neck got Adam's full attention.

Kris ripped open the Velcro-lined panel on the front of Adam's flight suit. Adam pulled the cotton panel aside, baring his chest from sternum to hips. He nuzzled at Kris's forehead as Kris opened his own panel, two hands working quickly to pull the material in the opposite direction. In sync, Adam pressed his panel to the Velcro strip on Kris's suit, Kris anchored his Velcro to Adam's, and when their bodies drifted apart, the motion was arrested by the joined suits. Adam wrapped his arms around Kris's waist, dragging him in to feel hot skin against his chest, to feel his cock swelling against the crisp hairs on Kris's stomach, to feel Kris's heartbeat stuttering against his own.

Their movements gradually slowed, becoming smaller, cautious, each of them hesitant to break their tenuous equilibrium—chests pressed together, legs entwined, cocooned in warmth. Kris moaned softly and licked along Adam's jaw. He rubbed his stubbled cheek against Adam's smooth one, prickling his skin into sharp alertness. Kris forced his fingers into the architecture of Adam's sculpted hair. As his fingers broke the strands apart, Adam whimpered at the thousands of minute sensations electrifying his scalp, the concentrated pleasure almost overloading his senses.

Kris's body harness rubbed over Adam's nipple, and he jolted at the unexpected drag of nylon, rough after the press of Kris's soft skin. His cock hardened in response, and Adam groaned and squeezed Kris tighter to him. He leaned up and brought his mouth to Kris's, open and desperate. Their lips tried to hold together, saliva leaving them too slippery to cling, only able to press and press and press.

Kris moaned again, his whole body shuddering. His hips rocked forcefully against Adam's, breaking his hold on Adam's leg. Their knees knocked, their feet kicked to regain their closeness, and Adam's head bumped into the thick aluminum silicate of the window.

Kris stilled. "Sorry," he murmured.

Adam gently nudged them away from the window, back into the open space of Kris's living compartment. He shook his head, a clump of hair—freed by Kris's interference—drifting across his vision. "I'm gonna go crazy if I can't have you soon," Adam said. He glanced toward the launch display. "Do you have time—"

"I handed off the next twenty launches to Dave. Got hours before my next shift," he said. Sweat had broken out on Kris's chest where it was pressed to Adam's, and his breaths were soft pants against Adam's cheek.

Adam leaned in carefully and kissed him again, licking into his sweet mouth until Kris smiled wide and laughed with overwhelming joy. Adam finished the kiss with a peck, and Kris followed him for another quick kiss before letting go of Adam to separate their suits. Adam kept his fingers braceleted around Kris's wrists as Kris pulled the Velcro panels apart, his pulse beating beneath fragile skin.

When they were free, Kris tugged Adam's hand up so he could kiss the tattoo on Adam's wrist, beside his own pulse point.

"Kris," Adam said, startled by the caress.

Kris smiled at him, squeezed his hand, and launched himself backward toward the padded wall. The movement launched Adam in the opposite direction, and Kris snickered as Adam flailed into a cartwheel to catch himself with his hands against the display glass.

"Cute, Kristopher," Adam said, keeping his voice light so Kris wouldn't hear the sudden need that clawed at his lungs.

Kris's grin faded as though he felt it, too. "Come here," he said, and turned to position himself against the cushions.

Adam pushed off the display frame and joined him, catching him about the waist and pressing along his back.

In only a handful of seconds, Kris attached his harness at shoulders and hips to the clips built into the wall. Adam wrapped his legs around Kris's thighs to anchor himself and opened the back panel of Kris's suit, exposing his shoulder blades, the dip of his spine, that gorgeous ass. Adam's hands slid greedily inside Kris's suit, stroking over Kris's sides and pulling him close again, their sweat-cooled skin warming with the sweet, hot slide of their bodies.

Adam fitted his cock to the length of Kris's crack. Kris moaned and shivered, his fingers digging into the padded cushions, his face pressed against vinyl. "Don't tease. I need you," he pleaded.

"I know, baby," Adam said, and indulged himself for one moment longer, savoring all of Kris's body under his fingers, solid, yielding muscles under smooth, soft skin, unlike anything else in the solar system.

Kris reached out and flipped open the bedside cabinet. Adam fished out the stretching plug and condom cap, and then knocked the sleep mask back into the cabinet when it floated free. Kris took the cap and squirmed a hand between his stomach and the wall. He worked the cap over the head of his cock. When he was finished, he spread his legs in invitation.

Adam kissed his way down Kris's back, holding onto his hip with one hand and readying the plug with the other. He brought the silicone bulb up to Kris's hole, gave it a firm squeeze to release viscous gel from the tip, and smeared it thoroughly over Kris's entrance.

When he started pushing in, twisting to spread the lube around the plug as it entered, Kris let out a jagged moan. Kris's hips bucked instinctively into the padding, and Adam's fingers tightened harshly on Kris's hip to hang on. "Hold still, love," he reminded Kris. "I'm not hooked in yet."

Kris took a few deep breaths and nodded, and Adam tried to hurry the rest of their prep. He mouthed kisses across Kris's hip as he pumped out more lubricant and rocked the plug, until Kris's hole was loose, the device sliding easily.

"You're teasing," Kris panted, his forehead damp and voice strained with the effort of holding still. "Come on, already."

Adam kissed Kris's spine and slid back up to shut the plug in the cabinet. He tugged at Kris's harness, finding the loops at his waist and upper thighs. He clipped his own straps to Kris's harness in a loose formation, decimeters of slack in the nylon.

"Permission to commence docking maneuvers, Launch Director?" he breathed in Kris's ear.

Kris laughed and elbowed him in the ribs. "I really hate you sometimes. Get your cock on board, Star Diva."

Adam grinned and lined his cock up with Kris's wet hole with one hand, the other locking around Kris's waist in the tight space between body and wall. He pulled forward, dragging his hips in toward Kris's, his arm shaking with the effort. Kris's body opened slowly under him. Adam had to pause to adjust his grip, tightening the slack to avoid losing ground.

Kris's legs trembled, but he didn't move, only gasped encouragements, begging him not to stop, never to stop.

Adam drew in a deep breath and pulled again, forcing their bodies to come together until his cock was buried inside Kris.

Kris shivered then, his fingers releasing their death-grip on the wall and stroking mindlessly over the slick fabric, as though the wall were Adam. "Love you," Kris murmured.

Adam's breath caught, and he closed his eyes. When he finally echoed him, his voice was rough.

Adam tightened the straps another few centimeters, hardly any give between their bodies now, before he laid his forehead against Kris's shoulder and pushed back. Their hips separated, silken friction on his cock at the drag out, and then they came together again, the rebound from the straps aiding his arms. Raw pleasure drawing him in like gravity. Adam bit his lip and did it again, sweet tug on his cock and a moan forced out of Kris's body as Adam pushed him into the cushions, the harness digging into the backs of Adam's thighs and the small of his back.

Kris finally let himself go, the rigid tension leaving his body as he allowed himself to buck into Adam's rhythm, tight circles of his hips urging Adam away and in again, faster, harder. Kris groaned and pushed a hand between himself and the cushions. His rhythm faltered, hips jerking erratically as he thrust into his hand.

"Fuck," Adam said, and reached wide, finding the recessed handles above Kris's head, a seam in the cushions where he could brace his feet. "Hold on, babe," Adam warned him, and ground his cock into Kris's heat with a hard thrust.

Kris threw his head back and gasped, arching like 5,000 volts coursing through him. "God, that's so good…."

Adam pulled back, braced his arms and legs again, and thrust with his legs, driving deep into Kris's body before rolling his hips in a few short thrusts that made Kris whimper.

"Please, Adam, please. Again."

Adam obeyed, thrusting and rocking into Kris, his skin sliding against Kris's bare back, his teeth nipping at Kris's nape when he paused for breath. He kept going until his quadriceps burned and his back ached, until Kris's breaths were harsh pants. And then Kris thrashed and wailed, his hips pumping furiously to their own rhythm as he came.

Adam gave up on aerobic thrusting and wrapped his arms around Kris's chest. He rolled his hips, in and around and out, settling into a slow rhythm with Kris shivery and hot in his arms, pinned to the wall against him.

"Oh, Adam," Kris whispered, over and over.

Adam tried to draw it out, to make it last, but too soon, Kris clenched determinedly around Adam's cock. Kris's hand reached back, cupping Adam's cheek, fingers gentle against his skin. And Adam moaned as his own orgasm finally hit, leaving him light-headed and shaking.

"I love you," he whispered again, nuzzling Kris's temple, kissing Kris's stubbled cheek until his lips felt raw. Adam's pulse was still racing, Kris's already coming down, and Adam stroked from Kris's shoulder to his waist before reluctantly bracing his palm to push them apart.

"Don't," Kris begged, his hand finding Adam's and stopping him. "Stay. For now. I need you to stay with me."

The tension crashed back into them, the timer in the backs of their minds always counting down, and Adam squeezed his eyes shut. Two days, only ever two. And then another cruise, another two weeks, another four billion kilometers coming between them. Two days until all Adam had would be video calls, Kris's face so real and his voice so near that Adam almost died with the longing to reach out.

Adam swallowed and nodded, his cheek rubbing across Kris's soft hair. He moved his hands slowly to the straps anchoring them together, finding them by touch and cinching each nylon strap tighter, snugging their hips and thighs closer, closer, impossibly close, until no space remained between them.

His softening cock was trapped inside Kris. Adam shuddered at the sweet pressure, the pulsing warmth around him. He snuggled against Kris's back and breathed in his smell, there in the curve behind Kris's ear—sweat and desire and the grass-scented lotion he wore under the flight suit.

When Adam opened his eyes and looked out the window, the Gulf of Mexico was rotating into view, sunlight sparkling off the water and reflecting back into the heavens.

Anchored to the cushions, to Kris, Adam closed his eyes and let the solar system spin away around them.