Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: New Normal

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

(snip)

Roman looked up once again with a triumphant grin. They were like, ten kisses behind by now, Roman wasn’t sure just watching out the corner of his eye. “I’m quite certain that was a ‘Randy go away’.” He said, mimicking Rand’s accent for the three words she’d whispered into his chest. Except, when he said it, it was at his normal volume of speaking.

~ Roman

Alden had this triumphant grin on his face, like he’d just won a battle he’d never expected to lose. Randy wasn’t quite ready to concede yet. “Ha! My sister would never tell me to go away. More like, ‘Randy take me away’.” Rand’s hands tightened in Roman’s shirt. She had no intention of leaving with Randy. If they wanted to continue to go back and forth they could do it when she wasn’t around. “Stop…”

Roman could tell she was getting anxious, and he kept up rubbing her back, his arms around her, trying to keep her calm. But he couldn’t help but fire off one last retort as her hands tightened on his shirt, “Nope, it was definitely ‘go away’, she doesn’t feel like she wants to go anywhere.”

Randy didn’t miss the telltale shudder though, even from across the room. Or the softly uttered word, Rand had hit her limit. The smile didn’t leave his face but it was time to stop. She’d survived. “In truth Cmdr I’m here to get your medical equipment. When you didn’t answer I thought you’d appreciate it being gone when you returned.” And that was the truth. Randy might give him a hard time, but he knew how much these last weeks had been on Alden. He was a good man, honorable, hard working, and didn’t deserve to live with the trauma he did. So since Roman was cleared for full duty, he thought he would come remove the offensive reminders.

Roman’s smile faded slightly and he tensed slightly as he swept his hand across the room, pointing to the other side. “There’s the crutches, might be a hypo or two somewhere. And the ice packs are in that drawer.” He pointed to each. Then he put his arm back around Rand.

The rhythmic motion of his hand on her back, and his arms around her was warm and comforting. It gave her something to focus on other than the insane and embarrassing conversation going on around her. She wished she could just not care, like Roman and Randy, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t. And that made her feel worse. Then the motion of his hand drew her attention again. There was a soft sigh when Roman told Randy she wasn’t going anywhere, not that she thought Randy would make her leave, and some of the tension left her. Then she felt Roman stiffen. He was holding her tight enough there was no way she wouldn’t notice. One of his arms let go, but he seemed to be holding her tighter with the other. Ohh…Randy didn’t mean to upset Roman, he was trying to help. Where her hands were holding onto his shirt, she let go and she rubbed his back a little. Normally she would take his hand, squeezing it slightly, but that wasn’t possible at the moment.

Roman was still a little more tense than he had been but his smile returned with the little bit of movement over his back. He knew Randy was only trying to help and for that he was happy, he would have been glad if Randy had removed that equipment while he was out. Up until now, he’d simply been ignoring it, stashing it somewhere out of the way and preferably out of sight after he stopped needing it. But calling his attention to it did upset him, just a little, and he wished it wouldn’t.

Randy grabbed the crutches, the hypo and the few ice packs and such lying around and headed for the door. Before it closed he tossed back, “Oh, and no more snogging.” He laughed all the way down the corridor.

Rand

Roman grinned as he left, shaking his head. “I think we’ll not listen to him. We have, what, ten kisses to catch up on? Fourteen, by now?” He said, looking down at Rand. “Or we could just make it one, really long one.” Randy’s intrusion had offset their plans, but it didn’t have to put a stop to them.

~ Roman

Rand was pretty sure she was still bright red from the whole situation, and as much as she would like to resume their plans she wasn’t sure she could get her face out of where she’d hidden it against his chest. After a moment she did though, turning her head to the side to rest on his shoulder. “I was enjoying it.” and then she groaned. She could just imagine Roman and his ‘Robin Hood’ look, staring at her at that comment. Why did she keep blurting stuff like that out around him?

Rand

The way Roman looked at her wasn’t quite his ‘Robin Hood’ look. It was something… more than that. Playful and teasing and confident but loving too. “So was I.” Then he glanced at the movie, they’d missed a few more kisses. “We’ll have to make it a really long one,” he said, giving her another playful look.

~ Roman