Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Sleepless Indulgence

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Sleepless Indulgence

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Sleepless Indulgence
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“I did. But he had a month long winning streak after that,” Roman answered her question. “When I was young, I was actually rather a small boy, and I didn’t get bigger until my teen years, so at that age, seven at the time, we were roughly the same size, and after I won the first match, he spent all week practicing so he could show me up.” He continued the story, telling her how he won their first match, and then how, the next week, he got his backside whooped in revenge, a humiliating defeat.

They were like siblings, the competition was always friendly, but it was fierce. They were always one-upping each other, challenging each other to be better. In jiu jitsu, yes, but also in academics, and in life in general. It was then Roman realized how much he missed that. The friendly competition, rather than the toxic rivalry he’d had with his actual, biological brother. But that part he kept to himself.

~ Roman

Rand found if she simply listened without thinking about all the things that might be connected to his story she could enjoy being there with him rather than letting her own thoughts spiral. Once in awhile her mind would spin but it wasn’t as much. She liked the sound of his voice and she wasn’t aware that her body was drifting off. She was just letting herself listen to him. “I bet the other competitors dreaded having to face either of you. Probably made it harder on them if they beat one of you and then had to fight the other.” She finished the tea, not having realized it was almost gone. She set the the cup on the desk, folding her hands into her lap. “How did you finally stop his month long streak?” Her voice sounded tired but without the tension this time.

Rand

“We were the top of our league, until we both passed the test to advance, and then we were the youngest in that league, so it took us longer to move up again.” The class they went through used the belt system, and the leagues were the belt colors. It was oddly soothing to tell the story once he got going, he didn’t know why. She sounded more relaxed, too, and that made Roman happy. “Hours of extra training and a little luck,” he replied, “And after that, we started challenging each other for fun, outside of competition days.” He laughed lightly, a short, nostalgic chuckle. “Injured each other a few times, too.” Or themselves, when they tried something new without knowing the proper form. Rand was starting to sound tired, and Roman figured from his own experience she’d probably be ready to fall asleep soon. He sipped his own tea, now half empty and growing cold, because while telling the story he seemed to have temporarily forgotten about it.

~ Roman

The chair wasn’t quite tall enough for her to lean her head against, but she would have. “Did you get in trouble with your teacher?” She was careful not to ask about his family. Even as tired as she was she was aware that Roman didn’t talk about his family, and he probably hadn’t meant to share what he had. Rand realized she was tired and close to dozing. She probably should leave, but she knew the problem would just start all over again. Every once in a while she could still feel her nerves jumping along her arms and down her legs - stress mixed with anxiety.

Rand

“There were a few safety lectures, here and there.” That was kind of a funny thought, looking back. Compared to who he was now, always giving the safety lectures. Rand looked like she was nearly ready to doze off, and Roman was thinking that chair couldn’t be a comfortable place to do it. But he figured if she wanted to move, she would. “We were his star students, he was generally quite happy to see us so invested in it. He would tell us often that part of it all was patience, and that we’d be doing ourselves a lot less harm if we stopped trying to overdo ourselves. …And as children rarely do, we never listened much.” As they grew older and more experienced, those instances happened less frequently.

~ Roman

Rand would have moved, the chair not being excessively comfortable, but she didn’t know where else to sit and she wasn’t ready to leave. She opened her eyes slightly and shook her head with a grin. “You got lectured on safety? I don’t believe it. And you didn’t listen when given instructions? Roman?” she looked at him more directly, her amusement tempered by her sleepiness, “Were you a rebel as a child?” She couldn’t help it, she was teasing him, and showed her amusement more fully than she would if she wasn’t tired and relaxed around him.

Rand

Rand was teasing, and Roman grinned as well. His behaviour then was a stark contrast to his behaviour now. “All seems a bit backwards to now, doesn’t it? Though, honestly, I wouldn’t say I was a rebel, exactly…” He said, though thinking about it, it was a little true, wasn’t it? He was here after all, in Starfleet, because he disobeyed his parents’ instructions. In his family he was quite known as the black sheep. The only place in the room to sit, besides his bed, was the chair, the quarters weren’t set up for two, really. But Roman didn’t want her to leave, either, he was as usual enjoying their chat.

~ Roman

Eyes closed again, she had at some point slid down in the chair slightly and now had one arm tucked against the high seat back and her head resting on her arm. “I bet, before Jay’s dad got you hooked on Star Fleet, you wanted to be a pirate captain.” Even with her eyes closed her face lit up with a grin, obviously enjoying the image. “One of those roguish pirates during the regency era, sailing away, just barely, before getting caught, breaking every rule, but loved by everyone.” Her voice was trailing off as she talked, and she was probably giving more away than she meant to.

Rand

The mental image of himself as a 16th century pirate made Roman laugh. “Loved by everyone, eh? Assuming I’d be Robin Hood of the seas there?” He asked, teasing her back. In reality, he didn’t think he’d decided what to do before he got hooked on Starfleet. He was pretty sure his plans were simply to do whatever his parents had lined up for him. Law, maybe. Or science on Earth, for a university. Or medicine, for some prestigious hospital. Something boring like that, he was sure. He hadn’t been much interested in his future before the Starfleet idea, as if he were simply along for the ride rather than the driving force. That was why after he got Starfleet stuck in his head, his grades went from Bs with the occasional C to straight As. It was something he actually wanted, looked forward to.

~ Roman

“Mmmhmmm. Bet you’d have a rapier instead of a bow and arrow, too.” She was quiet for awhile, not breaking the silence until suddenly, but very softly, “So how good are you at jiu jitsu?”

Rand

Roman thought about the question for a moment. “I’m considered what you’d call a ‘black belt’. I could likely still win competitions, though I’m no world champion or anything like that. After I moved to San Francisco for Academy, I stopped competing except for the rare occasion.” He took a quick, silent deep breath before continuing, “Jay and I weren’t assigned the same ship after that, we served separately for some time, almost two years. But when he did achieve a transfer to my ship, the first thing we did was challenge each other, like.. like old times.” That thought was a difficult one. If Jay hadn’t been reassigned, an assignment they’d been asking for, so they could work together on their project, he might still be here. Before the Ardent, Jay had served aboard a ship called the USS Jubilant, a ship recently decommissioned due to its age. Rand was nearly asleep, and if she noticed he’d managed to upset himself, he’d ruin that. So he tried hard to keep his voice level, normal. One more quick breath and he finished, “I guess I can’t say definitively or objectively how ‘good’ I am at it. I just like it.”

~ Roman

It registered, somewhere, in the back of Rand’s mind. Something that would occur to her later, for her to worry about him if it wasn’t list in the dreamscape. Her thoughts didn’t follow his, but if anything were to happen to Randy, Rand would feel just as responsible. Instead there was no response. Though the chair should not be comfortable, Rand was asleep, or nearly there. Evidenced by the slow deep rhythmic breaths and the easing of the stress lines around her eyes.

Rand

Carefully and quietly, Roman put a spare blanket over her. Then he went back to his own bed and lay down to try and get some sleep himself. He was far more relaxed than before Rand had come, but he wasn’t really tired yet, and he found himself picking back up the PaDD, reading with the screen turned away from her to keep from waking her up for about forty-five minutes before he finally fell asleep, leaving the PaDD on the little end table by his bed.

~ Roman

Rand stirred with a suppressed groan. Years of sharing a room kept her politely silent. Why was she curled up asleep at a desk chair instead of her bed? She sat up slowly, a hand against her neck to support it and ease the ache that had formed. The other hand keeping a blanket from falling to the floor. She blinked sleepily before she realized where she was. It was the blanket that first informed her. She had placed it over Roman many nights before she had left, when he had fallen asleep listening to her stories. She smiled softly, apparently it was her turn.

She stretched cramped and stuff legs down to the floor. It was slightly painful at first but the stretch felt good. She stood quietly, folded the blanket and put it back where it belonged. She wanted to leave him a note thanking him and telling him she’d gone back to her quarters, but that would require turning on a light. She figured he would know where she went. A glance at the chronometer told her she had been there awhile but still had a couple hours to sleep. Then came the iffy part. She moved to the door and listened quietly. Hearing no one moving around she stepped into the corridor and back to her room.

At 0430 she stepped into the corridor, still stiff from sleeping in a chair. She couldn’t run, but she could go to the gym to stretch.

Rand

As she stood and folded the blanket, he moved in his sleep, rolling from his back to his side. He might have been dreaming, but it was impossible to say. As she moved about the room and then exited, he did not move again, and he didn’t wake at all. When he did sleep, he slept fairly hard, unless his own mind decided to wake him.

A few hours of sleep were better than none, and by 0430 he was unfortunately awake. The first thing he noticed was that Rand was gone, the second was that the blanket was neatly folded and left. She must have gone back to her quarters for a while. He was glad, she’d probably sleep better there than in the chair. Waking that early had become routine, between his normal sleep trouble and running with Rand. But she wasn’t running anymore, after she broke her foot, and so he was surprised to hear footsteps in the corridor at this hour. Peeking out, he saw Rand, headed toward the lift. “I hope you slept well,” he said, still sounding somewhat groggy.

~ Roman