Del had had no particular song in mind when he started playing. He let his fingers wander over riffs and patterns aimlessly, following the flow and ebb of the soft blue ocean within him. He was aware of Sulu moving across the small room, his presence like ripples in the waves surrounding Del’s emotions; clear, but too small a disturbance to take notice of. But as the movements continued and grew in intensity, they became more and more attractive; still not unsettling, just – compelling. It was like small flickers of life in the vast, azure stillness. Not the peace that had been the shrimp minds of the Gulf – more like the iridescent glow of jellyfish, or bright streaks of coral. Del was drawn to them, fascinated. He wanted to put mental fingers in the water and stir up the flashes of emotional fire, to play with them and see what patterns he could make. But the sapphire left him too lazy, too languid to exert that much mental energy. So he simply let it wash over him, filling his music with an undertone of decadence and passion. His fingering settled into a steady blues beat, driving but not hard, sensual and dark but with an eerie, somehow lethargic urgency.

As hard as he tried, Sulu found it impossible to concentrate on repetitive martial arts moves, or even standard Fleet exercise regimens. The music from Del’s guitar was pulling at him, making his already heightened hungers more acute. His treacherous brain insisted on calculating just how many months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds he’d been away from Jilla. Tension began knotting the muscles of his neck and shoulders, the same tension he had to exercise away nearly every night. His heart hammered against his chest, the slight stirring in his genitals that never went completely away gaining sudden, unwelcome strength. Finally he gave up on following any routine altogether, and instead let himself fall into the rhythm of the music, letting his body move to the emotion that was seething inside him.

Ensign Dylan Paine had almost given up looking for Del when his trained senses caught a slight sense of incipient danger, a pull that was faint but growing – and definitely blue. He stopped walking through the corridors of the Drake, closing his eyes, letting the call of need and desire guide his steps. He found himself in front of the gym, the door opening as he approached it. The music washed over him, hitting him with an intensity that nearly made him gasp. Del wasn’t singing, but his voice echoed in Dylan’s mind nonetheless:

Click here to hear the song

When you came in the air went out.
And every shadow filled up with doubt.
I don't know who you think you are,
But before the night is through,
I wanna do bad things with you.

Dylan opened his eyes, taking in the visual rather than the emotional. Del sat with his back to the bulkhead, not looking at his hands as they played the haunting melody. Instead, the dark eyes were fastened, heavy lidded and smoldering, on the captain. Sulu was several feet away from him, his own eyes closed, his half-naked body undulating in erotic beauty in time with the music. It wasn’t any kind of classical style, his hips gyrating in a simulation of sexual decadence. The bronze skin was glistening with sweat, the loose pants resting on his hipbones, almost willing themselves to slide slowly farther and farther down. Of course, Dylan noted with ironic dispassion, the jutting erection would have prevented that.

I'm the kind to sit up in his room.
Heart sick an' eyes filled up with blue.
I don't know what you've done to me,
But I know this much is true:
I wanna do bad things with you.

“Del,” Dylan whispered, unable to make his voice any louder. “Del, stop.”

A cold wind welled up within Sulu’s soul. He welcomed the chill, his flesh on fire, his hunger clouding his senses and eroding his judgment. He was aware of Dylan Paine’s presence, not questioning how he was aware of it, and a smile played over his lips. The words Cajun was crooning in his thoughts swirled around him like dark clouds of depravity, and he gathered them around him. After all, if one compressed clouds enough, the friction would build and produce a very nice, very powerful thunderstorm.

When you came in the air went out.
And all those shadows there are filled up with doubt.
I don't know who you think you are,
But before the night is through,
I wanna do bad things with you.
I wanna do real bad things with you.

The rumble of thunder brought Del out of the spell of the emotional fire. He felt the hurricane rising up around him, intent on destroying the peaceful blue, churning it to mud and ashes and loss. He blinked just as Sulu’s hand rose, his fingers curing in a sensual beckoning. His own fingers dropped from the guitar strings, his body unconsciously scrabbling sideways, away from the cruel temptation. Then he felt other fingers, ones that moved through his hair, and he jerked, standing up, knocking the bottle of bourbon over as he turned.

“Damn it, boy, how many times I tell you stop touchin’ my fuckin’ hair!” he shouted as the sapphire seemed to drain from his body.

Dylan Paine only smiled at him. “About a thousand,” he said.

“Dylan, he doesn’t want you,” Sulu breathed in a voice that was lasciviousness personified.

Del swallowed. “I not want you neither, Kam,” he managed, though he didn’t dare look at his captain. “An’ li’l Jilla not want it more.”

“Jilla…” came from Sulu’s lips almost as though he wasn’t aware he was speaking, then he shuddered. “Del… get out of here,” he croaked.

“Come on,” Dylan said. He bent, picking up the fallen bottle, and Sulu chuckled. Hurriedly, Del felt the ensign pushing him towards the door. Fury touched him and he snarled – then felt the cold breeze reaching for him.

He was out of the gym fast enough to do a needle credit.

Kam screeched in frustrated anger as Sulu blanched and forced his mind to reform the shoji boxes that has been melted away by the fire in Del’s mind – fire that the engineer had picked up from him, but shouldn’t have been able to because he was grounded.

Do you think sapphire can stop me? Kam sneered. Do you think the petit chiot can stop me?

Jilla can! Sulu snarled back and focused all his mental energy on his task. It wasn’t easy, for many, many reasons, not the least of which was because he wanted, needed release, and he knew beyond any shadow of doubt that Kam could have given it to him…

Shadow of a doubt…

When you came in the air went out.
And all those shadows there filled up with doubt…

Dylan followed Del back to his cabin. Del was too damned scared to object.

I don't know what you've done to me,
But I know this much is true:
I wanna do bad things with you.
I wanna do real bad things with you.

Maintenance was more than surprised when they responded to the call from the gym just before First Watch. One of the vaulting horses had been splintered into a thousand pieces. There was never any official explanation given, and Security just told them to just clean it up – but the captain seemed calmer than he had in weeks.