#and i am always in awe of your vast collection 🥰🥰🥰

[orchidtreks]

Here’s my QCard holiday exchange for @garbage-smell !!!!! I tried to keep the angst light 🥰✨🪐🌌

“Your matter has to go somewhere, you know.” Q is sitting on the very edge of a spectacular planetary ring; it is a sparkling mix of white, pink, gold, and yellow, similar in form to a very expansive custom granite countertop, but translucent enough that I can see the stars beneath us.

He is dressed in his formal robes, gold and black this time, legs crossed, staring out at the remnants of a collapsed spatial anomaly. He adjusts his hat, then flicks at his right eyelash gently with a gloved finger. I am standing, looking at the intricate patterns on the top of his hat, a bit too awed by the cosmic display before me to sit down and casually swing my legs off the gleaming surface into open space.

I know what he’s asking me by not asking me. It’s this again, this continued request of his that I join him. My mouth has gone dry. All I can offer is an awkward shrug, and I know this infinite creature deserves so much more.

“You’ll join me either way, Jean-Luc,” he sighs, pulling on the tops of his gloves, “that’s what I’ve been trying to explain to you for quite some time now. All your matter will end up out here eventually. It’s a certainty. Whether it’s now, or in a few million years when your little planet goes-“ he mimes an explosion with his hands; I don’t know if he’s referring to the moment when my solar system’s sun will expand and swallow my Earth, other natural cosmic phenomena, or some intergalactic violence that might occur at some point in the distant future, “-you’ll end up out here. It is simply a certainty.”

“I understand that, Q-“

“No, you don’t. But it’s fine. I know you listen to me, at least.”

I’m stumbling over what little words I do have, “It’s not just - you must understand that for my species, it’s quite a-“ He holds up a hand.

“I’m just saying it would be infinitely more fun for both of us if you chose to keep all your atoms integrated before your matter changes states.”

“Right.”

“And less work for me.” He chuckles. “I won’t have to fling myself all over this place collecting every last molecule of you.”

He is so skilled at hiding his emotions. It makes sense; he’s had a couple of billion years to learn how to do it. An image of Q scouring the vast universe searching for little bits of my stardust fills my mind. I feel lightheaded, and I catch my knees going a bit soft.

“Well. When you put it like that…” My Q has a point. He’s not always right, but he does always have a point.

“Just think about it.” He looks up at me, offers me a beautiful, slightly sad smile. “That’s all I ask.”

It’s so, so quiet. All I can hear is the sound of my own heart, improbably pounding through me at a nearly unbearable volume. I slowly lower myself to sit next to him. He looks at me, blinks slowly, the curve of his eyelashes allowing the twinkle of a distant star to cut in and out. Part of his robe has started to blend into space. I take his hand, slip a finger under the top of one of his gorgeous golden gloves.

“Can I take this off?”

He gives me a confused look and then a curt nod. I slowly roll down the glove and do my best to delicately peel it off his hand. It doesn’t work; he huffs and quickly whips it off.

“If you wanted to hold my hand, you could have just asked.” He is so damned pretty when he’s annoyed.

I can’t help but laugh. “Fine.” My intention was just to kiss the back of his hand, but once I get started, I find I can’t stop. Every place my lips land, the inside of his wrist, the tips of his fingers, little stars spring to life against his gorgeously rendered skin. He is so wondrous. I am not yet sold on immortality - or what did he call it exactly? An ‘extended longevity lifespan’? “It’s not like any of us can escape the eventual heat death of the universe, Jean-Luc,” he’d quipped offhandedly. I think about a couple million years spent just like this, exploring all that exists with an incredible being who looks rather delightful in formal wear. It really doesn’t sound so bad.

“I do think about it,” I say before tilting his chin down.

#qcard #qcard nation #qcard fanfic #qcard holiday gift exchange #gift #general audiences #not too much angst #happy holidays