Cut and Run 3 - Fish and Chips

nerves.
    He brought his attention to ground level, where Ty stood next to him, trying to stay still as a short and rather stout staff member named Manny checked over his harness. Their turn on the rock wall had been by appointment, another demand of their itineraries. The line was lengthy, and it wound around the platform and down the ramp passengers had to climb to get up to this point. The deck level made the lofty rock wall, perched near the stern of the large cruise ship, seem just that much higher.
    Zane was now doubting his decision to eat a hearty breakfast. It wasn’t that he was scared , per se. He knew he could climb the damn wall and that he’d be fine, especially in a harness strung on a thick, anchored nylon rope. He wasn’t afraid of heights. It was just the whole falling thing that sort of scared him shitless.
    Jingling caught his attention, and Zane watched Ty shake his shoulders out as he tried to buckle the strap of his helmet under his chin. He had fallen victim to one of the Santa hats and was wearing it over his helmet. Zane snorted and reached over to pluck it off and toss it to the side.
    “Ready to go?” Zane asked gamely. He was glad he’d lost the rock-paper-scissors game for who would climb first.
    “You look a little green,” Ty responded wryly, although the teasing of his voice lost something with the fake accent. His chin was lifted as he messed with the strap, and he was looking down his nose at Zane with a smile. With the helmet covering his platinum-blond hair, he looked like himself again, even if he didn’t sound like it.
    Zane wrinkled his nose and stepped close enough to push Ty’s hands away from the buckle, flipping over the twisted strap on one side so it buckled easily. “We’ll be hooked up to something. I can deal. I’m sure it’s a hell of a view from forty feet up.”
    “Yeah,” Ty said with a laugh. His voice was full of sadistic glee. “You don’t get seasick, do you? Even on a ship this size, I’m pretty sure you’ll feel the roll up there.”
    “I have no idea,” Zane said honestly, setting his hands on his hips. “I guess we’ll find out.”
    Even though they’d been settling into their roles on board quite comfortably for the last two days, it was still a slight surprise when Ty stepped closer and gave him a quick, chaste kiss on the lips before turning toward the gray wall covered with red, yellow, green, and black handholds, marking the varying degrees of climbing difficulty.
    Zane stood there smiling like an idiot as Manny made certain the belay device attached to Zane’s harness was operating properly, telling Zane that he was Ty’s counterweight and instructing him how to use the simple device the rope passed through. It could be easily secured in case of a fall, using Zane’s weight to counter Ty’s if he slipped. Zane looked up the length of the rope to the anchor at the top of the wall and figured he’d need to keep the rope close to taut, just in case. Knowing Ty, he’d fall and swing free like an acrobat just to make Zane’s harness abuse his fun parts.
    “Okay, Extreme Sports Ken, go for it,” Zane said after resettling his sunglasses.
    Ty looked back at him in exasperation, one hand on a notch in the rock wall. “Here’s where I ask, ‘on belay?’, and if you’re prepared to catch me if and when I fall to my possible doom, you reply, ‘belay on’,” Ty told him.
    “Belay on,” Zane reported dutifully, a few of his academy memories filtering back. He’d had a short course in rappelling way back when, but it hadn’t stuck with him, and it wasn’t quite the same as rock climbing. The commands sounded familiar, though.
    Ty cleared his throat against a laugh and said, “Climbing,” before hefting himself up onto the wall. Manny leaned over and murmured to Zane, and Zane obediently announced, “Climb on,” as he watched Ty’s every move.
    Ty wore a pair of green athletic shorts and a navy blue sleeveless shirt this morning, both relatively tight to avoid loose clothing getting caught in the ropes or snagging on the wall, and it was easy to see his defined muscles flexing as he deftly moved from one grip to the next. It was obvious he had done this before, and not just on the odd weekend excursion. Force Recon probably got pretty familiar with this kind of thing.
    Ty climbed with efficiency and precision of movement, making decisions about which handhold or foothold he would move to quickly and scaling the wall