Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: Valentine’s Day with Roman and Rand

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: Valentine’s Day with Roman and Rand

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: Valentine’s Day with Roman and Rand
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Rand nodded, that seemed to be the case. Of course those watching from the sidelines were too obstructed for Rand to pay attention to, and she was much too enthralled by Roman. “Yes, but I would hate to have tripped on my own feet and stumbled into someone.” Roman spun her out into a complicated set of moves, and twirled her clockwise the counter clockwise, spun her back in, out and back into standard position. Rand laughed, her face flushed. “Roman, do you have a competitive streak?” she teased.

Rand

“You’re far too graceful to worry about such things,” Roman said as he began to spin her out into the complicated moves. He glanced up briefly at Randy, but he was more focused on getting the spins right. Finally he spun her back to standard position. Beat that, Scotsman, he thought to himself, referring to Randy in his own head the same way Randy liked to call him ‘that English’. Rand’s laugh brought his attention back to her and he smiled a playful grin. “Haven’t I told you that before?”

~ Roman

“Merci mon amour,” Rand practically whispered. Opting for French so fewer people were likely to understand. To stay in their own little bubble. She was breathless after all that, but in a good way. “I do believe you might have mentioned that.” The song was coming to a close and Rand was disappointed, she could stay dancing with Roman all night.

Roman smiled. Before the song began to wind down, he led her into one more complicated move, a twirl he’d have to lift her for. When they’d returned again to the standard position, he grinned and stole a glance at Randy. The same phrase escaped him: “Beat that, Scotsman,” he murmured, before returning his attention to Rand, leading her through a few more simple steps to wind down with the song.

Lifts made Rand nervous. Not in her anxiety type of nerves, but she’d had more than one dance partner drop her. Roman let go of her right hand, but his left tightened against her waist as his other framed her waist on the other side. Both Rand’s hands now rested on his shoulders and she jumped slightly into the lift to help ease the feeling of dead weight on his arms. Her hands gripping his shoulders, just enough to catch herself if she should slip. Slipping was not a possibility. The benefit or distraction, of her hands on his shoulders allowed Rand to feel all that defined muscle ripple as he lifted her. When Roman set her down, she continued to dance, but he would recognize that look on her face and know exactly what she was thinking about.

His comment turned her from a pleasant distraction and she laughed softly. “Oh dear, is the battle for Scottish Independence about to renewed?”

Roman recognized the look on her face, it was similar to the one she had when he took his shirt off. He had to smile, he loved that look. Then he laughed too and said, “Randy started it, you know.”

Rand nodded, Oh yes she knew. Randy always started it.

There was a gasp from the other side of the room. Randy had attempted to copy Roman again, but he wasn’t quite as skilled as Roman, and Morgan was not Rand. Morgan mixed up her feet, causing Randy to have to catch her, and he turned it into a clumsy dip. Randy looked sheepish and led Morgan off the floor. Roman had won that round.

Rand

The song was coming to a close and as it did, Roman ended the dance. The gasp, though it was on the other side of the room, caused Roman to tighten his grip on Rand rather than letting her go, pulling her into a hug rather than their dance position. When he turned to look and saw that it was merely Randy’s failed attempt to match Roman and Rand on the dance floor, he loosened his grip again and smiled. At least Randy had caught her. On the bright side, that round was most certainly his.

~ Roman

When performing, an unexpected gasp from the crowd was never good. Rand’s glance snapped around, and she inhaled a sharp breath. Before she could see what had caused it, she was pressed up against Roman, turned away from whatever it was. It made her feel both safe at his reaction and scared that something had happened. Then he relaxed and Rand was able to see. It was just a literal misstep and a trip. She hoped Morgan was okay, but Randy had most certainly lost.

Rand

Roman smiled at her, he knew Randy had lost. And Rand had fulfilled her promise, danced with him at the dance. If she wanted to, he’d leave with her. He let her go and asked, “So what do you want to do?”

~ Roman

Immediately the first thing that came to mind was uttered, “Dance with you.” But they didn’t get to, not then. “Rand!” It wasn’t a shout, just meant to be heard over the noise. It was one of the crewman who had organized the dance. “We have a bit of a problem.” Oh right. She was here to work. She squeezed Roman’s arm. “Maybe a drink? I’ll be right back.” Rand stepped away. In the end it was a simple problem. More people had attended and the music was drowned out. Turning it up was making the speakers buzz. Rand told them to move the refreshments down the corridor to a couple of empty junior officers quarters and lower the temp a few degrees. It would help thin out the crowd some and provide a place to cool off from the dancing and crowd. Plus a quieter place to talk.

Almost immediately she responded she wanted to dance more, and he smiled. He loved dancing with her. But before he could respond, someone was calling her to go put out one of her behind the scenes fires. Roman looked disappointed, but nodded. “I’ll be over by the drinks.”

It only took a minute or so to take care of. Rand turned around looking for Roman but didn’t spot him right away in the crowd. She moved back toward where she had last seen him, only to get surrounded. Most thanking her for her work on the party or commenting on her dancing. All talking over each other and leaning in close to be heard over the noise but moving on quickly. Rand backed up two quick steps. She needed air, she couldn’t breath. It was too hot. “That was so romantic! You can’t tell me something isn’t going on there!” Scott blurted dashing up to her. “Who knew, Cmdr Alden could be like that. Has he kissed you yet?” Rand backed up again and she was back at that horrific party, recorders and flashes in her face. Tell us Rand, you and Marcel Hastings have such chemistry on set. Is there more than acting going on there? Ghastly laughter that mocked her at the innuendo. Rand shook her head and tried to move away from Scott.

Roman spent the time she was fixing the problem getting a drink. And then making polite conversation with some of the other officers. He didn’t really mind, but there was somewhere else he’d rather be: with Rand. He spotted her, surrounded by a group of junior officers. He spotted Scott, too, bombarding her with questions he couldn’t hear from this distance. Rand did not look happy, or comfortable. He moved towards her, but for the size of the ship, the crowd was difficult to make it through. He bumped into a couple of officers and had to stop to apologize to them.

A hand on her arm startled her into pausing. “Hi Rand. That was amazing. I didn’t know you could dance.” Rand blinked against the roaring in her ears and the dark dots on the edges of her vision. “En. Valos. Uh…thank you.” She started to move away. The noise was too loud. She had to leave. She didn’t feel well. “Ethan.” She looked at him funny. “Ethan. My name is Ethan. Would you dance with me?” He reached for her hand and she placed both hers behind her back. “No..no thank you.” He smiled looking disappointed but determined. “Look it was really nice of Cmdr Alden to dance with you but he was just being polite. Fraternization and all that. It makes sense. I certainly can’t dance like that, but I’m sure we’ll have fun. Just one dance.” No…oh no…was that why he kept trying to talk to her all the time? She backed up again and felt like her knees might give out. And then there were more people all talking to her. (Really they weren’t, it was a flashback). She swallowed hard. She didn’t feel good…

Rand

When he made his way through the crowd, Valos was talking to her. She looked really uncomfortable, more than before. Roman made it over to her and put his arm around her, pulling her in close with a meaningful look to Valos. “There are plenty of available dance partners. I believe I heard Rand say ‘no, thank you’. That should be enough, should it not?” The look he was giving was the sort that meant he wasn’t going to be tolerating excuses. Then he moved away with Rand without awaiting a response, trying to get her away from the crowd.

~ Roman