Moonshine made me blind to this pyramid scheme (BL)

For a long time now, Yax struggled with maintaining his mood. Ever since his original task to lead an army of 10 000 strong to fight for survival of his civilization got scrapped. Without any explanation why. Or any follow up task he could focus on.

All right, he knew from the start that there was no real army, just bunch of naturals skilled in manual work. And it was just to maintain steady supply from one of many energy producing factories, nothing so overly important as saving the world.

And yet, that was supposed to be his main objective. His life mission. Ever since he got selected among all the others in his batch to play the role of Royal Prince, he was training and learning in preparation to do just that. To assume his royal heir position, build up his prestige as competent warrior, and then lead the faithfuls into expedition to prepare new location for an entire factory to move to.

At least, there is expected to be some fighting once they finally step outside. Yax smiled while strapping his gear on top of his protective clothing. World outside was left to its own devices for almost 50 cycles. First because they had to stay indoors due to conditions outside being deadly poisonous and radioactive. And later they just kept ignoring it out of habit.

There should be entire new biomes out there now. Who knows what uncontrolled mutations and survival of the fittest did to wildlife that managed to cling to life. There could be giant lizards out there. Or ferocious carnivorous beasts, like wolves or even bears. He never saw a normal lizard or beast, so he could only imagine them based on video records and pictures in manuals.

He suddenly felt his fingers trembling. He was not drunk. He quit on holy potions the same second his mission was given back to him. He was not afraid. Like he even knew the meaning of that word. He realized that he was happy. He felt waves of joy bubbling inside of him as his adrenaline levels started to shoot up in anticipation. Soon, he will walk under uncovered sky. There will be wind on his skin. Pure sunshine, not artificial lights he grew up under.

Slap on his shoulder brought him back to now. Cid was looking at him with that always serious face, but Yax noticed shine in his eyes and grinned "C'mon, you are also looking forward to this."

"Yes I do, but that silly expression on your face.. Remember, you should give others a sense of security." Cid was oldest in their group, at 30 cycles he was experienced enough to keep himself in check in any given situation. Twins should also be all right. Echo and Floreo arrived 5 cycles before Yax to lay groundwork, prepare logistics of their planned mission. They were supposed to train naturals, select best people and pose as group leaders, later enticing faith in Yax's ability to lead them all. How they ended up being assistant gardeners was a mystery.

Ivory was his batch mate, so Yax had full confidence in his abilities. He paused on that thought. Since all high level technology was banned from reaching the surface, to ensure adequate access to information and records, memory chips were used in all personnel within intelligence department.

Older ones, as Kane and Ler, had limited functions and were specialized for either book keeping or database management. Perfect for storage management. The chips crammed into Ivory's skull were different story all together. He was a walking data bank, able to access his different databases at the same time, perform data comparison and deduction based on previous records and also update his data pool through his own observations.

Sounded perfect until side effects appeared. Emotional detachment and tendency to get stuck in a loop if observed reality did not coincide with established ideas. Though, with Ivory, it was more like emotional instability with tendency to shoot laser beams when riled up. Which was kinda cute. So when Yax lost his purpose, he turned to Ivory for distraction and support.. But now.. he started to get lost in thought again, and got slapped on the shoulder again.

"Hey Cid" he started while rubbing his shoulder "do you think Ivory is gonna misunderstand why he gets to share a tent with me?"

Cid looked at him askew "What's there to misunderstand, lover-boy? Let's go, everyone else is ready and waiting."

"No, that's really not it" Yax started, but Cid just kept walking ahead. Sure, Yax thought, I will definitely have to clear that up.

When they got to the exit chamber, his whole team was assembled and ready. Echo and Floreo eagerly standing with their backpacks already strapped on, Jone securing Ivory's shin guards, and Blaze helping that kid to put on his helmet.

Yax looked with amusement how the helmet kept sliding left and right while kid tried to squirm away. So that was Mani. Somehow he managed to miss meeting him all through preparations and packing. He noticed that kid is actually quite tall, almost same height as Blaze. With long limbs, just seemingly missing three quarters of muscle mass so looking gangly and lanky and..

Sparkling eyes that were shooting silent daggers at Blaze suddenly pierced Yax's heart. Those scrunched eyebrows. Pouting lips. That restrained flailing which appeared to be attempt to remove helmet without touching Blaze's hands. Lub Lub-dub Did his heart just miss a beat?

Cid turned to Yax to ask him if there's anything else to take, and hence got first row seat to witnessing blooming of love. He hurriedly reached to slap that out of Yax before it's too late, but Yax caught his hand in the air, squeezed it with all his might, and hissed at him. "That. Dude. Is. Super. Cute."

Too late.

***

High above, on the terrace of top level, Ah Kin sunbathed and enjoyed his daily holy potion. Strawberry flavored. He squinted at clouds and birds, pondering passage of time.

Once, this secret hideout of his was a landing pad where shuttle would actually do a touchdown, leave new personnel, then take samples and materials for research back up to orbital station. Then shuttle got replaced with disposable capsules which landed to never get up again. Before Mani came, they were already aware that even capsules will not come anymore. Only due persistent nagging did they got a replacement for Mone.

After that, Ah Kin took liberties to permanently repurpose the place. Even though he started to hide up here and commune with naked nature since long before. He liked to feel the sun on his skin.

"There you are" he heard Xul from behind curtains and then saw him, approaching with his usual measured gait. Not too slow, not too fast, just right. He smiled at him, and then got hit on the middle of his chest by something. He quickly caught round container that Xul threw at him.

"What's this?" He asked "A gift?" He tried to remember if he forgot about some anniversary or birthday, but Xul calmly said "It's a sunblock cream. Hama made a lot for excursion tour team, at least to last them until their skin gets used to the sun."

Ah Kin raised his eyebrows in confusion "Well thanks, but why.." before he finished his question, Xul sat down on the edge of his recliner and lightly slid fingertips over his crow's feet and frowning lines "You are 5 cycles younger than me, but those make you look 50 cycles older."

He increased the force of his touch, smoothing out the lines a bit. "We are not going to give up and die. You are going to stay by my side for a long, long time. And I want to see your true face again." Ah Kin grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard. "Or what? You plan to ditch me for a younger one?"

Xul pulled his hand free "Well at least someone wrinkle free and obedient." Ah Kin jerked his body up and used the motion to push Xul down on recliner and pin him there. Xul made no attempt to resist, just looked at him with clear eyes that told Ah Kin he is a step away from a doghouse. Right, compromise.

"I do not mind using it if you do not mind slathering it for me." He was always open for new things, anyway.

"Deal." Xul said and pulled him down so they can seal it with a kiss.

Really.. Ah Kin thought to himself while closing his eyes. Sacrifices one has to make to bed his king.