New Fic: Beautiful Impossibility

[jackwabbit]

Beautiful Impossibility

Fandom: Star Trek Discovery
Rated: PG
Category: Triple Drabble. Culmets. Fluff. Domestic Bliss.
Season: Three.
Spoilers: General Series Knowledge Only – through season three.
Summary: Time is the greatest gift any of us can give or receive. And Hugh and Paul are the luckiest men in the universe.
Note: Happy New Year, Readers. We made it through 2020! I know that’s not a magic bullet to cure our ills, but it’s not nothing. It counts. Hang in there. Cheers and here’s hoping 2021 is happy and healthy. Also, I must credit Aphelyon for this fic. He said, “we have time, and that in itself is a beautiful and impossible thing” in his story, “Million Reasons.” I read it today and here we are.

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They’d never really paid it any mind.

After all, on a starship, in the far reaches of space, it had little meaning. And even before, it hadn’t mattered – Paul had been on Deneva and Hugh had been all over the place, so such things didn’t sync up.

But since Discovery’s crew was mostly human, and many of them were from Earth (or at least had spent significant time there), and since Hugh was always looking for a chance to help improve morale in this hell of a future, this year was different.

So different, in fact, that they were having a party in one of the cargo bays.

But not so different that Paul wanted to go.

“Can’t we just stay in?” he whined.

“Paul, come on, you promised,” said Hugh.

The pathetic pout Paul sent Hugh’s way in response nearly undid the doctor’s determination.

But not quite.

“You promised Adira,” he said, batting his eyes.

Paul’s melodramatic sigh was accompanied by his getting off the couch and stomping into the bathroom like a stroppy teen, and Hugh grinned.

Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way, Paul tugging at his collar but not-so-secretly enjoying Hugh’s appreciation of his formalwear.

They kissed three hours later, as the simulated clock struck twelve.

And shortly thereafter, they went home. Some of the younger crew continued to dance, but Hugh and Paul were tired.

Tired enough that they pulled off their suits when they got home, but that was it.

They were asleep an hour into the new year. And while they’d both entertained notions of more earlier in the night, they didn’t mind the change in plans dictated by their bodies.

Because there’d be another time.

That was as beautiful as it was impossible, but it was nonetheless true.

They had time.