bakerstreet | Pillow Fort meme;

[Khan's smirk showed disdainful amusement and was also meant to hide exasperation.]

I don't bite humans. Augments are far more resilient, and human screaming is so shrill. It always kills the mood.

That is not an answer to my question, Khan.

_{[ Maybe because he was feeling bold and particularly cheeky he darted
in to nip at his lower lip, the one he had just so recently been caressing
with his thumb. A chastisement, perhaps? ]}

[The flash of anger in his eyes was followed very quickly by Khan yanking one of his arms forward. He stopped short of actually seizing a fistful of Kirk's hair.]

Don't do that.

[He lowered his arm far more gently than he had raised it.]

_{[ Kirk froze, watching the other like one would an irritated tiger,
waiting to see if it would calm or strike. When Khan relaxed so did he,
brushing his fingers over the place he had bit at in apology. ]}

So, not out of pleasure then?

[It took a slow breath, and then two more, before Khan focused his gaze back on Kirk, darker than usual and with a distinct sharp hungry edge to his smirk. The pink tinge to his face was much more obvious with his pale skin.]

Our neural structure was engineered to make us the most efficient weapons of mass destruction humanity has ever created. You cannot possibly imagine how much pleasure we feel from violence.

Is that why you don't want me biting you? Because it turns you on?

_{[ He leaned in again, smiling so that his teeth showed, biting his own
lip as his fingers dug into the other man's skin, angling them so his nails
bit ever so slightly. ]}

No.

[His smirk turned into a warning, narrow-eyed glare.]

A mosquito will bite to survive, but I've never seen a human hesitate to crush one out of existence for daring to do such a thing to them.

Human bites are insults.

And why is that?

_{[ He had learned to ignore Khan's jabs as humans, letting it roll off
him in favor of probing deeper into the others psyche. ]}

[Was Kirk trying to bait him? Khan could hardly imagine anyone being that clueless. Every primate on the Terran homeworld understood the phenomenon by pure instinct.]

Do you really need an explanation?

About why you find it insulting? Yes. Because frankly that reaction - it didn't seem like revulsion. It was to quick, to instinctual - like you were defending yourself.

_{[ He sits patiently in his lap, waiting. Khan could say all he wanted,
but Kirk wanted to KNOW why. He could make guesses from what little he
knew, but it would be better to hear it straight from
Khan. ]}

It's a display of dominance.

[Kirk certainly gave the impression of not understanding. Maybe he could be excused for his ignorance. He didn't grow up in a world that revolved around Khan's kind.]

From a creature who should know better.

_{[ It was what he had taken it for, but better to know for sure than to
assume - especially with someone like Khan. Assumptions were a very bad
thing with him, though to often he found himself having to rely on them. He
tilted his head at him and chuckled softly. ]}

I would think you should know better than to believe that I think you're a superior race.

Don't try my patience. I have killed for far less.

[As difficult as it might be to believe, Khan wasn't actually trying to make a threat. It was simple fact, and he wasn't exactly proud of it.]

But you won't.

_{[ It's said with simple surety, even so close like this, nestled in
his lap and bare inches from the others hands that could choke the life
from him. His blue eyes are calm as he gazed the other, unafraid. ]}

No, I won't kill you.

But I won't hesitate to break every bone in your body and throw what's left of you through the sickbay door if that's what it takes to curb my desire to kill you.

[Fear wan't what Khan was looking for, though it would be a much more acceptable alternative than blithe disregard. Kirk deigning to show a little discretion would be ideal, if he's even capable of it.]

You see, all that says to me is you need a healthier way of dealing with your anger management issues.

_{[ He rolled his eyes, because after awhile the threats stopped meaning something. He knew Khan was capable of them, had seen the things he was capable of. Was it dangerous to be so blithe? Perhaps. But in this moment he thought he could risk it. He wasn't exactly wrong either. After all, Khan's last attempts with violence had not worked out so well for him. ]}

But I'm touched you won't actually kill me.

[His "anger management issues?" It was very unlikely that Kirk realized that this sort of terminology had been invented in Khan's lifetime. The only thing more ridiculously absurd than the "Politically Correct" phrasing was that Kirk had spoken the words in complete sincerity. It wasn't the sort of sincerity his worried psychoanalysts used, either. It was a quip made by someone who had sought out the warmth of Khan's body without bothering with the ten foot pole.

He burst out laughing, the brooding tension fading quickly.]

_{[ He did not realize, and to be honest the laughter took him back more than any of the other man's threats ever had. It sounded foreign coming from his lips, the sound of a laugh, but it sounded... good, too. As many reasons as Kirk had to dislike the man, even hate him, he could not help but wish things had been different for Khan and his ilk. They had not deserved their fates.

He smiled and laughed with him, catching his breath. ]}

You should laugh more. It doesn't sound half bad coming from you.

[If Khan accepted that humans (Terrans, Khan was technically a Terran as well, he was even officially classified as a human subspecies by genetic criteria) were not a species of lower animal suitable only as pets or pests, he would also have to admit that he was no longer their god. He would have to concede that Kirk was not an ill-behaved dog to be put in his place, or failing that he would have to be aggressively culled from the genetic pool for the sake of ensuring good temperament in future generations. If that was true, then being nipped in the face by a creature who could do him no physical harm was not a justification to put him down immediately, or ever.

All of the ramifications of this novel philosophical viewpoint formed in Khan's mind with lightning speed, though it took him entire seconds to mull it over. The most important reason Khan was willing to consider this was not that he would have a much easier time navigating modern society if he adopted the prevailing attitudes, though that was definitely true. What finally convinced Khan to accept, on a provisional basis, what his rehabilitators had been pressing for all along was that he actually found James T. Kirk's irrepressibly irreverent behavior endearing. It certainly didn't hurt that the Captain was just as smugly arrogant and physically attractive as Khan's own kind, despite his hopelessly inferior pedigree.]

Keep up with this shameless impudence and you just might hear it again. You've committed a crime which would have earned you the death penalty three hundred years ago. What could you possibly do to top that?

[Yes, Khan had just issued Kirk a direct challenge. Who in their right mind would dare test their luck any further?]

_{[ Well, if Khan asked, Kirk would have told him in no uncertain terms that he hardly thought of Khan as a god. Was he genetically modified? Yes, and while that gave him certain advantages, it certainly did not make him a god or make him better. With that kind of thinking, every planet in the Federation would be set against each other, trying to rule. It was, he thought, precisely what the Klingons thought in some way. And he liked to think that Khan was better than the Klingon, that he still had the best parts of being human inside of him, even if the circumstances of his creation had buried them.

What did pedigree or blood matter? In the end, they were all different, living in a unique and beautiful universe. The differences between them did not make them better than the other - together they made them stronger.

He raised a brow at the challenge, for challenge it was, was it not? Though the charges laid against him were hardly anything new. He'd heard them more than once before from the mouths of the admiralty, who would no doubt be having a fit if they saw him in his current position. ]}

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm really pretty good at cheating death.

_{[ And what else was there to top this but the most brazen act of all? One he had asked about earlier and flirted with, but not yet dared.

He leaned in slowly, as if to give Khan time to turn him away, but if he did not his lips would press to the other man's, soft and inviting rather than demanding, fingers moving to press against his chest lightly as if to balance himself. ]}

[Khan wouldn't have asked. Kirk's puerile and inarticulate beliefs had been indoctrinated in kindergarten and had remained unexamined ever since. The instability of Klingon psychology and weaknesses in their military approach, however, might be a topic worth pursuing. As for the upper brass in Starfleet, their arguments had stopped mattering when Khan had been taken into Federation custody. Even a war criminal of Khan's caliber was entitled to compassionate confinement and earnest efforts at rehabilitation. Khan strongly suspected that this was at the adamant insistence of the Vulcan people, it certainly wasn't a natural inclination of Terrans. Khan would not have hesitated to order his own execution and he would have made sure it was carried out before the matter was brought to civilian awareness. All the admiralty could do now was gnash its teeth while Khan constructed pillow forts during therapeutic visitation.

Khan might have brought up how much expert help Kirk had required in order to defy death, but he had no desire to interrupt the current proceedings. Yes, Khan had kissed others before, but it had always been a symbolic gesture of his ownership. There was never any shortage of volunteers. By human standards Khan's kisses were forceful, devouring, unforgiving, rapacious, fulfilling their compelling sexual fantasies of being overpowered by something so overwhelmingly fierce and beautiful.

This was completely different.

Though completely willing, at first Khan responded only tentatively. The gentleness was so strange, not just a foreign sensation but a foreign concept altogether. There was a distinct pleasantness to it, both in terms of physical feel and the odd psychological peacefulness of the whisper-light touch. Khan would adapt, and quickly, to any attempts Kirk made to deepen or lighten the kiss.]

_{[ Kirk honestly had to wonder if Khan had ever done anything gently in
his life. Not because he was not capable of it, but because the
circumstances of his life had not allowed it. Had the man ever experience
anything tender with someone else, or was much of it a battle for dominance
on some private scale that was yet elevated?}

_{His fingers slid up to brush across the sharp arch of his cheek as he
pressed a little harder into the kiss. It was anything but domineering -
the gentle suck and the flick of his tongue across the bottom curve an
invitation rather than a demand. A slight intake of breath was the only
indication of his surprise at the passing taste he had gotten of the man,
something like iron, but sharper than that. It wasn't anything he had
tasted before and his experiences were rather numerous and varied.}

_{It made him curious, tongue darting out again to caress Khan's lips, a
touch of teasing in the gesture now. ]}

[Khan had mentally prepared himself for the likely possibility that some incidental part of this experience would trigger his misplaced aggressive instinct. It surprised him that this hadn't happened yet. With the sort of novel approach (novel to Khan) that Kirk was using, it might not even happen at all. Even biting might be within tolerable limits.

Now he was curious about what this experience was like for the the one who had initiated the kiss. It had to be strange on some level, even though their obvious metabolic differences might be undetectable to a human's dull senses. Were they? So many humans, thousands belonging to him and to numerous others of his kind, constantly surrounding him and tending to his practical needs and all of his whims on a daily basis, and Khan had never bothered to ask.

A smile parted Khan's lips, enough to serve as a definite invitation, at Kirk's interest in exploring further. There was no change in heart rate, no noticeable evidence that this was some sort of momentous threshold, but curiosity had a scent. Theirs was mingling where skin touched skin, but Kirk's had a flavor distinct from Khan's own. He had never encountered it before without the overwhelming smell of fear masking the all the subtle nuances.

Come, he thought, though his engineering had eliminated every trace of the residual psionic sensitivity that the natural human species possessed. Have a bigger taste. With that, he brushed his tongue with infinite delicacy against Kirk's.]

_{[ It was intriguing, to say the least, aware that even though he was touching human lips they were not quite human either. They were something different, unique in the universe even if their birth came from something to cruel to contemplate. At every moment he expected those lips to turn hard, for the animal in Khan to come out, yet those lips remained soft and giving beneath his. Slowly his arms wound around Khan's shoulders, bringing himself in closer so their chests touched and their hips were flush.

The touch of Khan's touch sent an electric shock through him, making his head fuzzy for a heartbeat. He drew back the barest millimeter before pushing back against his mouth, tongue following Khan's back between his lips. The taste of him was stronger here, a rush of hot iron and something bitter with a twist of sweet. It was a kaleidoscope of taste, the softest of moans rising up and thrumming between them. ]}

[Khan had ample practice handling Earth's living creatures in a humane fashion, including humans themselves, using a firm-but-gentle hold to minimize fear, pain, and injury. That was simply a matter of ethical responsibility. He was also quite proficient with manipulating inanimate objects which were sometimes far more fragile.

The closest frame of reference he had for this was his experience with such objects. Right now he was treating Kirk's body with the delicate touch he would use with an eggshell. The approach had so far been an unqualified success, and Khan lifted one hand so he could try running his fingers through the hair on the back of Kirk's head, with just enough light touch pressure that he wasn't even forcing their mouths together. It was strange, but very pleasant. Perhaps this galaxy-class rake pressed against his body actually did have something to teach him? Khan was definitely interested in finding out, and so he resisted the impulse to launch an aggressive attack to claim the inside of Kirk's mouth, instead inviting the other to experience his own mouth as deeply as he liked. As deeply as he could.

When human scientists had sought to distill the pure essence of the naturally occurring traits of their Caesars, their Napoleons, their Genghis Khans, they had been aiming to create effective generals who could be hunted down like evil robots if they went rogue. How ironic that by creating the human version of perfection, they had also created something humans instinctively found irresistibly charismatic, making them nearly immune to human control. They had inadvertently restored the vestigial, extinct human pheromone production, and to a level so unnaturally high that some humans were actually able to detect it with the handful of weak, mutated receptors that evolution had never bothered to do away with completely.]

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