Work Text:
It had all seemed perfectly reasonable at the time, Julian thought ruefully. He had simply been trying to help a friend. Now he was enduring his colleagues' amused glances as a sleepy lizard curled around him and wouldn't let him go. While Jadzia and Miles did their best to get the environmental controls back online, he was playing "hot water bottle", as the Commander had put it, to a cold-blooded Cardassian who was in danger of becoming hypothermic.
When the latest station-wide malfunction had started, Garak had once again broken into Ops to help out, but had quickly become incapacitated as the station's heat had leached out into space. All Julian had done was sit next to him and rub his arm to try and warm him up and the next thing he knew the barely-conscious Cardassian had pulled him into his arms in a vice-like grip.
The reptile's cool breath on the doctor's neck made him shiver, and he picked up his tricorder to take his mind off it. If a mammal had been this sleepy from cold he would have been more worried, but as far as he knew this was a normal response from a Cardassian. The tricorder agreed with his assessment, but if the station got much colder they'd be in trouble.
Julian shifted, trying to ease legs made uncomfortable by staying in one position for too long, and felt the reptile's arms tighten about him reflexively. He sighed and resigned himself to his fate. His earlier attempt to disentangle himself had earned him a warning bite on the shoulder; besides, it was far too cold to abandon Garak now.
Luckily, it wasn't long before Miles and Jadzia had found the problem, and though it was a little longer before they had the rest of the glitches fixed, in the meantime the station at least warmed up enough for Garak to become active again.
As the Cardassian released him, Julian felt an almost painful shock at the lack of contact. If the former spy had been embarrassed by his unconscious behaviour he didn't show it, and simply graciously thanked Julian for his assistance. It was all Julian could do to try and match his nonchalance, and the doctor had a sinking feeling that he had not altogether succeeded.