Scientific Progress goes 'Boink'

[smartass_captain]

There's a message stuck to a door, last door on the left of a certain apartment complex in a certain New York. It's replicated paper, definitely a different sort of feel to it than one would expect in 2013.

Paper isn't the preferred message delivery device in the 2250s. Replicated paper and replicated ink.

Clint

Head to my place when you get this. Bring Ver.

Bones knows you're coming, he'll get you where you need to go. Don't bring your bow, we're not leaving home.

See you soon hopefully,

Jim


((Feel free to post without me until you guys actually get through the door to the Enterprise. I'm stuck in training/meetings and won't have another solid break for 2.5/3 hours from now. Will post actively after that time.))

Comments

[brave_heart_verity]

Yeah, but how often does he use it when he's not in his quarters? Because he might be coming back from his shifts to surprise cake or something, you never know with a troublemaker like Verity. (She's pretty sure she can bribe Keenser to not tell anyone he saw her.)

That's good because her poker face is pretty much nonexistent. She's half listening to the conversation while she takes off her shoes, and then he's out of the room and she's reading.

Hey Clint, feel free to come get in on this horrible horrible discovery.

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint's seen faces like that before. Quietly, gently, he asks, "Verity? What is it?"

We're all Trekkies we already know.

[brave_heart_verity]

She glances toward the door Jim left through before turning the PADD to Clint.

"Remember when he freaked out so bad about the food he might have eaten at your place? He begged me not to make him talk about this." He can read for himself what happened. "You cannot bring this up with him. Clint. Seriously. We have to be careful with this."

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint reads, expression growing grim as he puts it together. "...yeah. Yeah, okay. Reed's gettin' a smack, though, so if I'm banged up next time you see me, Susan Richards kicked my ass."

Nobody knows except everybody knows.

[smartass_captain]

How in the hell was he going to deal with this? He wasn't hopped up on pain meds, and he sure as hell isn't drunk. Jim groans with a sigh as he pulls his briefs and regulation pants back on. Not gonna put a shirt on, but pants are definitely happening if he's sharing a bed.

He can either not go to sleep, or hope everything is okay. He'd managed to keep his night terrors to himself while at Clint's place, startling awake and shaking quietly in the chair by the window or on the couch. Barney gave him an odd look once or twice, but Jim refused to talk about it.

He'd been up for over two days. He should totally be able to sleep. But if they found out....the shame is a snake uncoiling in his guts, coursing through him like poison. Jim just got a family again. He doesn't want them to see how broken he really is.

Jim kicks the door open with a foot and scrubs a hand through his hair as he wanders back in. He's just going to have to deal with it and make sure he doesn't wake up screaming. Luckily he's noisy enough for concerned people to not be huddled together making worried faces when he gets out.

"You guys figure out who's crashin' where yet? Bathroom's free t'clean up with."

The First Rule about Cuddle Club is: you don't talk about Cuddle Club

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity turns the PADD off when Jim comes in and gives him a faint smile. "Clint's sleeping on the couch. Last thing he needs is to be sharing a bed with another woman while he's trying to fix things with his girlfriend. Or anyone, really." He could be an equal-opportunity girlfriend-offender, she doesn't know.

"I'm going to brush my teeth. No plotting while I'm gone." If she comes back to some kind of sexy guy pillow fight...

...she's just going to be really confused.

The Second Rule of Cuddle Club is: you don't wear anything sharp or chafing.

[aw_hawkguy]

"Yeah, the couch is definitely me. Besides, I wanna know what space-future couches are like!" He flashes a grin.

Once Verity's gone, Clint observes, "you look pretty wiped, man."

Jim's idea of a pillow fight is to put a pillow on someone and then punching them

[smartass_captain]

Jim is wiped.

He seems to brighten even more once Verity is off into the bathroom. It's like he knows that no one can tell him he's full of shit now. If only Jim knew how wrong he was.

"I worked two alpha shifts in between the work I had Scotty and Chekov helping me with on that drive. That's a hell of a lot of coffee. None of it good." Jim snorts and flops down onto his bed, throwing an arm over his eyes.

"Lights, 25%." And the lights dim. Shiny. Ohhhh man. Not-sleeping may not be an option. His bed is really nice, you have no idea. So is the couch, Clint. Starfleet knows its crews tend to run long loooong shifts. "I know it's two years out, but...I wanted to give you as much time as possible." Pause.

"And I was hoping I'd be able to magically save verity's world, too."

That's 50% less fun and 72% less sexy.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's only brushing her teeth. She left the door open. She heard all of that.

If he didn't want her around to call him out on this stuff he shouldn't have adopted her.

Wait, so smothering and punches still has some room on the fun and sexy scales?

[aw_hawkguy]

Having done his share of long shifts, Clint can guess at which ballpark Jim is on the brink of passing out in. He's been there, has a season pass even.

"Yeah," Clint admits with a sigh, "yeah, so was I. Thanks for tryin', man, and I'm not gonna give up 'til it's over, but... yeah."

Everything is sexy if you do it right.

[smartass_captain]

They should make forever passes for people like them. People that haven't had a good night sleep since they were kids unless they were drugged out or knocked out.

"Thought I was gonna be sick when it dawned on me there was just no way." Jim's voice has gone quiet, a murmur of guilt he knows isn't his fault. He still feels that way though.

"FYI, if you hear an annoying sort of whistle from my terminal, I'm getting a comm and you should wake me the fuck up right away. I usually catch it pretty quick, but.."

People have some weird kinks.

[brave_heart_verity]

"That's why I didn't want to tell you." Look who's back, back again. She's leaning in the doorway, watching the two of them and rubbing her thumb hard into her palm. "That's why I freaked out when you were pushing. I didn't want to burden either of you with this."

She is so tiny to try and carry such a burden. "You two are big damn heroes. You feel like you have to fix things or die trying."

Fair enough. Who am I to judge?

[aw_hawkguy]

"Hey." Clint greets her return with a wave. "I'm glad you did. An' I don't mean for me. Anything's harder, doin' it alone. You got no idea how strong you are, Verity."

[smartass_captain]

"...Well, We pushed because we worry about ya. And care." It's the truth. Jim makes no remark on the hero comment. He can't deny she's right because she'd know.

Sometimes that power of hers throws Jim off. Not being able to lie to the people he cares about most because he cares about them makes dealing with things hard.

"...An I got mad because you're right." Mumble mumble, he smiles as Clint takes his turn in the bathroom. "Want one of my non-reg shirts for pajamas?"

[brave_heart_verity]

She steps aside so Clint can go in, giving him a little head shake. She's not strong. Strong wouldn't have ended up freaking out in the middle of the forum. Strong wouldn't have walked away from her bae when he needed her.

"Your answer would probably let me sleep at night," she admits. "Yeah, something to change into would be nice. Thanks." Nooobody's going to get the wrong idea about this, not at all. Although it's probably not the strangest way Spock's ever found Jim. "If we're doing this on the regular I'll bring some of my jammies next time."

[aw_hawkguy]

Is future toothpaste awesome? Clint's gonna find out. And he'd love to have the whether-Verity's-strong-or-not argument, but it seems to be all happening in narrative, so there's not much to say.

[smartass_captain]

She's doing it in narrative because her newly adopted brothers would tackle her to the bed and tickle her until she admitted she was strong. Or punched them. either or.

Future toothpaste is disappointingly recognizable. Everything tingles a little more though. It's better at its job. Verity gets tossed one of Jim's civvy long sleeve shirts. If anybody does walk in it WILL be the strangest thing Spock/Bones has ever seen. Jim's clothed, there's a girl--clothed. And another guy--clothed--on the couch. They'll think he's gone crazy.

Luckily people just don't walk into the Captain's quarters. Usually. Spock knows his captain's override code though. how the pointy eared bastard found out Jim will never know. If Bones gets it too he's switching numbers. Nattering hens.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's doing it in the narrative because they're supposed to be getting Jim to rest, not starting another fight. It can wait until everyone's had some sleep.

"Thanks." She gives Jim a pointed look until he turns around before she changes. Sure, she could do the locker room change where layers and wriggling mean nobody really sees anything, but she'd rather not risk it. It's a good thing Jim's tall and his shirts are long enough to cover everything.

Once she's changed she sits on the bed next to Jim, reaching out to stroke his hair like it's the most natural thing in the world. "Hey there. Where do you want me?"

[aw_hawkguy]

Oooh, tingly! It's like there's a party in his mouth, and someone spilled soda on the floor.

Clint gets back just in time to hear that question, and manages through the practice of working with the Black Widow for years to keep a straight face and not snicker at the accidental innuendo. For his part, he'll settle in on the couch and try not to make much noise.

[smartass_captain]

The only thing faster than Jim's mouth are his eyebrows rocketing toward his hairline.

"However I can get you, obviously." He is not very bright in this regard. Or able to defend himself all flopped back on his bed like he is.

You don't get to be quiet, Clint. Either Jim's antics or squawks of pain are cause for much amusement.

"S'weird seeing someone else in my shirt." And a first, actually. Awkward mornings after aren't a thing he does. "C'mon, make yerself comfy. For all the crap you give Clint I'm really not sure how the good officer would react if he saw this."

[brave_heart_verity]

She doesn't get it. Give her a minute...

There we go. Huff. Whap. "You really do have a one-track mind, don't you?" But he's not getting rid of her that easy. She'll lay down beside him and try to figure out how to do this with someone who isn't Loki-shaped. Her head on his shoulder and an arm across his chest? She's used to being the little spoon. This is weird.

"None of your legions of lovers ever tried on your clothes? I thought wearing home someone else's shirt was a badge of honor. Maybe it was just those sorority girls at college..."

[aw_hawkguy]

"Gotta admit," Clint puts in, having had a good laugh at Jim's self-wrought misfortune, "there's really somethin' about seein' someone special walk around in your shirt and not much else."

It's good to be out of Verity's smacking radius.

[smartass_captain]

Ah, That explains it then.

"Never had someone special." And holy shit that's true. In fact, Jim seems a bit unsure of where to put his hands or anything else for that matter, so he just lets Verity situate them however she likes.

"You guys want me t'leave the lights on dim like this or shut em off? If you gotta get up you can always just tell the computer to put them back on. Like this. Lights, 10%."

And it's almost all dark.

"We good here? Having our first family sleepover?"

[brave_heart_verity]

"You'd better be talking about Jessica." He's not out of sass range. Nobody ever really is.

She's quiet while she arranges Jim's arms so they'll be cozy but not too close to anything sensitive. Fortunately, she has an expanse of back that's safe territory. "You will when you're ready." She's such an expert on these things, they should always listen to her about this stuff.

And then she's making this quiet little humming sound. There's no melody or anything, it's just happy. "This is nice. Family is nice."

[aw_hawkguy]

"I could be talking about Bobbi," he points out. "We only got divorced back on... uh, Valentine's Day."

"She's right," Clint adds. "Like the song says. Y'can't hurry love."

Settling back on the couch, he gives a contented sigh. "Dark's nice. Better'n streetlights comin' in."