Kittehinfurs

happy last same year as it was yesterday 2024 tuesday

But you are young. You are young and weighed down with secrets and you meet a man who wears his deception like great gilded armor. You don't know what lies beneath, but you watch him stroll through the Promenade and you know as well as he does that he is untouchable.

You have lunch once or twice a week. You trade novels and sharp remarks and at some point you realize you know him better than anyone else on the station. You realize you don't know him at all.

You know he thinks he knows you. You know he doesn't know you're lying.

And then suddenly he's fading in front of you, maybe dying because of his secrets and you realize all at once that he was never wearing armor. He's like you, forced to tell lies since before they could fit properly into his mouth, and at some point someone took the loose ends and wove them into a cage.

There is a man in your life who is just like you and he is dying in your care. He tells you stories of his life and you know none of them are true, you know there are some secrets a man carries to his grave. He tells you stories and you can hear the truth in every word and you can't help but ask him why he's telling you all this.

He looks you straight in the eyes, the bastard, and the answer rolls off his tongue, smooth as honey, soaked in fear he dare not speak aloud, I need to know that someone forgives me.

You know this man better than anyone. You do not know him at all. He has bared his soul to you and he was lying through his teeth. You look at him and see yourself and you make a decision.

happy pride :) Here's a commission I made for @janetfraiser of an older Kira and Jadzia <3 tysm!

Various Bajorans on the station will watch Bashir's and Garak's little lunches, and they'll be like, "oh no. the poor naive doctor is Going to be taken advantage of". And then they look a little closer and they see that actually Garak is fully whipped for that twink.

Like, sure, he's a former spy. He could kill you. But he's a little busy trying desperately to seduce Bashir without letting on that he's sad and also pathetic. He's making skimpy clothing in his shop that is Very Clearly Bashir-sized. He's arguing shamelessly. He put his hands on Bashir's shoulders during their very first meeting, for Prophet's sake!

Bashir is, of course, oblivious to this and, to their embarrassment, the watching Bajorans actually find themselves feeling bad for Garak. Is he morally dubious? Certainly! Was he a spy in the Obsidian Order? That's the rumor! Has he killed in cold blood? They'd stake their bets on it! But when a guy is pining that pathetically over the shiniest most naive Starfleet twink imaginable...

Well.

It's a little hard to stay afraid of him.