Breaking Through Limits (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 21

"So I heard that you two are number two in the ratings now. Still just number two." Landrews smirked at them, his strange yellow eyes narrowed into slits.

For about the hundredth time, Harry wished they didn't have to come to the lounge. He and Tomlinson had been flying together for months now but even though Burns and his group were long gone, his tall, dark partner still insisted that they spend at least one evening a week in the company of the other Needlers.

I'm not like them, Harry thought for what seemed like the millionth time, staring around at the other couples talking around them. I'm not really... that way. Gay or queer or whatever you want to call it. I only want one guy —Tomlinson. And even with him I don't go all the way. I could still pick up my life back home if I wanted to and no one would ever know what I've done here to get along.

He didn't want to admit to himself that getting along wasn't the only reason he did what he did every night with his partner. Nor was the excuse of deepening their connection quite enough. He wanted Tomlinson —needed the scarred Needle pilot like he needed his next breath. But they were destined to part soon. After their final exam, Tomlinson was due to graduate, while Harry still had two more years to go at the Academy. So he kept the emotion buried —tucked away so deep inside himself he could barely acknowledge its presence. In the meantime he felt secretly smug every time he and Tomlinson went to the lounge. Smug until they met up with Landrews and Sanderson, that was.

Despite Harry's refusal to take the last step and let his partner make love to him, he and Tomlinson had risen steadily in the rankings and had been hovering at the number two spot for weeks. But no matter how hard they worked or how many hours they spent at the simulator, they couldn't take the number one slot away from Landrews and Sanderson. A fact that Landrews never failed to remind them of when they came to the Needler's lounge.

"So, number two," he said again, elbowing Sanderson, who stood as a solid wall of muscle behind him, looking bored.

"Ah, leave them alone, Landrews," one of the other Needlers, a short, stout pilot named Christenson, said. "Tomlinson has been number one before and I bet it's just a matter of time before he and Styles are number one again."

"Oh I think it might be a while before that happens." Landrews smirked at them, making Harry itch to wipe the smug expression of the effeminate gunner's face with his fist. "Not as long as lady Styles still clings to her virtue."

"That's enough, Landrews." Tomlinson voice was flat. Harry's continued refusal to take their relationship to the next level was an unspoken point of tension between them, one he never mentioned anymore, even in the privacy of their quarters. Harry felt ashamed about that but he was secretly relieved as well. Deep down he was afraid that he actually did want to take that last step and he knew that if Tomlinson had tried to  persuade him to do it, he might not have been able to hold out. So it was easier and safer to simply not talk about it. Unless they were in the lounge, of course, where Landrews always found a way to bring it up.

"Don't get touchy with me, Louis." Landrews' slim white hand fluttered over his narrow chest. "After all, it's not my fault your gunner is saving his cherry for somebody else. Tell me, Styles," he asked sweetly, looking at Harry. "Do you have a boyfriend back home? Somebody with a bigger dick than the Falcon here? Somebody you're saving your sweet ass for?"