Malcolm Reed walked down the corridor to his quarters, feeling pleased with himself. Two days back on duty had finally filled the boredom he had suffered through in the last days. After their encounter with the Orca, well, his encounter, he had been down for the count for a while. The migraine had abated right after the alien whales had stopped talking to him, but his body had suffered nevertheless. He had burned up all his reserves and had been running on empty too long. Phlox had given him intravenous feeds, he had been told to eat more, and after a week he had been allowed to return to his training schedule, but duty had been cut down to a minimum.

Turning a corner he was just about to key in the code for his quarters, looking forward to some reading and relaxation before going for dinner, when he heard someone calling his name.

"Malcolm!"

Recognizing his lover's voice, Reed stopped and waited for Trip to catch up. He was still walking with a slight limp due to his broken leg, but he was back on the duty roaster as well. Tomorrow would be his first day after two weeks of downtime.

"Hey," he greeted the taller man and was surprised and when his arm was grabbed and he was unceremoniously pulled away from his quarters. "Uh, Trip…?"

"Got somethin' for ya!" the engineer told him, eyes sparkling with excitement.

Malcolm knew that sparkle. It meant something was up. Tucker had planned something.

Uh-oh, he thought.

Trip led him to his own quarters, opened the door, and made a flourishing gesture. Malcolm walked past him, expecting the worst. He quickly darted a wary look around the familiar room, but there was nothing wrong. Everything looked just like always, down to the eye-watering Hawaiian print shirt hanging over one of the chairs. Try as he might, Reed had yet to convince his lover of three years that the shirts were hideous. Trip loved them.

The door closed after them and Malcolm felt his wariness grow in leaps as Trip walked over to the wardrobe, opened it, and…got out a silver plate covered by a lid.

"Trip?"

"I realized I hadn't made good on my promise," the blond told him, smiling widely.

"Promise? What promise?"

"The one I had made just before leavin' for that ice planet." Malcolm raked his brain for what exactly Trip was talking about. Just before he had left? They had made love that day, had joked around, and…and what had Trip promised?

"Uh…"

Trip's brows dipped. "You forgot?" He looked almost comical with the small pout forming on his features.

"I…yes." Malcolm gave him an apologetic smile.

"Simply for that Ah shouldn't give it to ya," came the muttered retour, the blue eyes twinkling mischievously nevertheless. Trip wouldn't be able to keep the surprise to himself. "But Ah'm a generous man an' Ah promised. Ah always make good on mah promises."

The drawl became more pronounced and Trip grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Trip…"

"Voila!"

He lifted the lid with a flourishing gesture and Malcolm looked at the object on the platter with a dumbfound expression. "Uhm…it's…ice."

Tucker gave the object a critical look. "Actually, I have you know it's a snowball," he corrected.

Malcolm approached the platter with the irregular ball of frozen water on it. "If that's a snow ball…I'm Chinese."

"Malcolm Hop Sing?"

"Oh shut up."

The so-called snowball was really just ice with a light frosting of snow. Wherever Trip had gotten it from, it must have been in deep-freeze, which meant probably somewhere in the galley.

"Did you raid chef's freezer?"

"Nope, this is a Tucker original. Made with my own two hands. Perfectly engineered."

Malcolm almost laughed out loud. The chunk was hardly round, barely even snow, and looked like it was hard enough to seriously dent Enterprise's hull.

"Don't tell me you somehow got snow from that ice planet back here?"

"Nah. Would have loved to, but by the time I was mobile enough, we were already three days away from it." Trip shrugged. "Had to make due with what I found here."

"Engineered snowball, hm?" Only you, Trip, Malcolm thought fondly. Then his eyes fell on the plastic-wrapped second object. He gingerly reached out and picked it up. "And that is?"

Trip's grin grew impossibly wide. "As I said, your wish is my command. It's a firecracker."

Reed's eyes snapped up and he gaped. "A firecracker?!" he exclaimed with disbelief coloring his voice.

"Yep. Promised ya."

He stared at his lover as if Trip had completely lost it now. And he probably had. "Let me get this straight. You're giving me a firecracker and a lump of ice?"

"Yup."

"And I'm supposed to do what with it?"

Trip chuckled. "Hell, if I recall correctly, you said you wanted to blow it up."

Malcolm continued staring. "Blow up an ice ball," he echoed.

"Yup. Your words, love."

He looked at the firecracker and at the chunk of ice that had by now started to melt at the edges. A tiny puddle was forming on the platter. Malcolm wordlessly raised an eye brow.

Trip smiled. "You're the armory officer, Mal. Your specialty."

Reed contemplated the two items, feeling strangely touched by the weird surprise. After all the pain and suffering, Trip had still remembered their banter and had made up this little something.

"As much as I love to blow stuff up," he finally said, "there's something else to do with it."

"Oh?"

Malcolm took the plate from his lover's hand and placed it onto the table, then pulled the other man close and kissed him. What started out as a simple kiss grew into a hot, deep expression of love. Trip's arms came around him and he sighed softly when they separated.

"Hasn't changed much," he murmured, stealing a look at the chunk of ice out of the corners of his eyes.

"Then we didn't do it right," Malcolm answered softly.

"Shall we try again?"

"Most definitely."

And with it, Malcolm pulled him close again, losing himself in the taste, feel and sheer presence of Trip.

It had been hot. Very hot. There was no other word for it. Even with the ice, it had been a steamy encounter that had left both men breathless and extremely pleased.

"Din't know you could do so much with a simple chunk ice," Trip murmured, lazily moving to answer his lover's kiss as Malcolm leaned over him.

"Hm-mh. Too bad it's all melted," Reed mumbled against the lips.

"Yeah."

"Oh well…we still have that fire cracker," he remarked casually, looking into the sated, blue eyes—

—which now widened almost comically.

"What?!" Trip exclaimed.

Malcolm only grinned devilishly.

"Mal-colm! No…wait a sec…don't you even think about touchin'…Now, hold on…keep that thing away from me! Mal!"