Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: New Normal

(snip)

Rand happened to glance up from her bowl and catch the smile that crossed his face. That playful one that he’d had all evening. Rand almost groaned, thankfully she didn’t. But almost in anticipation of whatever antics were about to come her way to make her flustered again. She had almost gotten over why she was so flustered. Then he was talking about being cold. Another bite of ice cream, it was cold, if she ate it fast enough could she give herself a brain freeze to stop from blushing? Rand was simply not that lucky. It was bad enough she was aware of the fact he’d thrown his shirt away, did he have to remind her about it? Apparently he did, and suddenly she realized how much he was enjoying reminding her about it.

“You know…I…I could suggest you put…a shirt on, and then you wouldn’t be so cold, but…” she shouldn’t be looking at him. She couldn’t decide if she was breathless or teasing him, “you’d probably drop food on that one and have to take it off, too.” She grinned at him, actually that was probably a good idea. Wait…what? Get a grip! “But if you’re really cold I could get you a blanket.”

Rand

Roman looked at the table, he was out of shepherd’s pie and out of knickerbocker, too. No more food to drop on shirts. He shook his head. “No, no need for a blanket. Unless we’re both under it.” He slipped the last part in quickly. He wasn’t actually sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his birthday. He knew there was the nebula, they could see that. Or they could watch a movie, maybe. But he was enjoying teasing her, so first… might as well have a little fun.

~ Roman

Rand turned pink, really quickly, her stomach doing little flips, not really sure why. It wasn’t like she hadn’t fallen asleep next to him every night since they’d returned. She smiled at him and stood up and slowly started stacking the dishes back to the tray. She seemed to be building up her nerve, or maybe she was trying to find her voice, or maybe drawing it out just to tease him back. She shrugged delicately, as if it didn’t matter to her what he decided to do. “It’s your birthday, it’s up to you what you want to do.” But for the very first time, her acting skills failed her. Rand absolutely was not convincing; she very much had an opinion about his suggestion. She thought it was an amazing idea, if she had the nerve to say so.

Rand

Rand turned pink, smiled at him, and then started stacking the dishes away. Then she shrugged, and it was a very unconvincing action. Her words were equally telling. His smile grew and turned more playful. He got up and went to the closet, grabbing the extra blanket from there. Then he sat on the bed and patted next to him. “You can’t resist, I can tell,” He said, still grinning widely. He held the now unfolded blanket up as if waiting for her to come and sit with him.

~ Roman

Roman got up and went to the other side of his quarters. With her back to him, Rand wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing as she stacked the tray up to return later. She turned around about the time he patted the space on the bed next to him, and the held the blanket out. Resist? Oh she had better never, ever play poker with Roman. Then she’d be the one who lost her shirt. Lord’s help her if Randy ever found out about this, he would never let Rand live it down. He’d be telling all the children in the clan about it, when they were old. Why would she want to?

His comment helped though. Assuring her it was okay. They were dating, it was okay to want to sit with him, be close to him. But the comment was keeping her flustered at the same time. She stood there for a moment, flushed, and then…Pipkin decided the invitation was for her. She hopped from the floor to the stool to the bed, and then her nose appeared around from Roman’s back. Rand laughed, and that seemed to propel her over. She sat down next to him, scooping the rabbit out of the way and to safe spot. She was looking down at Pipkin as she moved her, then she looked back up at Roman and smiled.

Rand