[ Open ] Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

[universal_charm]

WHO: Jim Kirk & You
WHAT: Jim left a written request, and now awaits replies
WHEN: From Kingway 9 and on for a couple days, can be morning or evening (or another time if pre-arranged)
WHERE: The Skyhold Gardens
NOTES: Possible cursing, possibly discussion of death

His stomach twisted as he paced the pathways of the gardens, turning the silver band on his wrist over and over. A nervous habit, the need to fidget, but he couldn't stop it. He kept looking down, expecting to see something else there - the sleeve of a uniform, or the brush of a soft leather jacket. He could still feel those things on him, the sleekness of the cloth, their familiar weight. He wanted to reach up and strip them off, but they weren't there and they had never been. Had they?

He bit his lip sharply, nearly drawing blood as the gravel crunched beneath his boots. He shouldn't think on it to much, he told himself. Not until he had spoken with someone else, someone who might no more. Perhaps it was just something brought on by recent events, by the stress of a child's torture and death, by the stress of being an outsider and not belonging. Maybe his mind had simply supplied him with wishful imaginings when he was most vulnerable. And yet... and yet...

No. Stop. Wait until you could speak to someone and sort it out then. Drawing conclusions before you had all the data was one of the worst mistakes he could make, and he wasn't about to start now.

He just had to hope someone had answers.

Comments

[el_tybs]

Honestly it was probably Kirk running into him for being a sausage thief that started it, but that night with fevers had sealed everything. He liked where they had ended up though there were nights where he laid awake wondering about when the rifts would take everyone back.

"Hm," he hums lightly, leaning in as well to support better. "Your drawings are pretty poor." Not that he has much skill himself, but really he's just teasing, trying lightly Kirk's spirits just a bit.

[universal_charm]

"I don't know, I thought my rendition of "Leonard in Repose" was quite masterful," he chuckled under his breath, shifting his grip on Sam's hand to lace their fingers.

He had gone home. He was sure of it - he had gone home, for three whole years and experienced all those things. He had gone home and he couldn't remember a single time speaking of Sam to anyone on the ship. Not Bones. Not Spock. And those two surely he would speak to of Sam, of the man he spent so much time with on this crazy world. And that scared him. It scared him to the marrow of his bones, because as painful as it would be to leave Sam, it seemed even more painful to forget him. To live with that empty whole inside of his heart and not know whom had once filled it.

"Next I'll have to try doing a few portraits of you."

[el_tybs]

"You did. I don't think Leonard thought much of it." He had literally just smelled it and indifferently laid over it, making sure he was the center of attention.

He doesn't look, but feeling their fingers lace has Sam smiling. "I'm sure I'd be a better paint subject - I can actually sit still. If you want a really nice one we can always get an artist to do it." He's sure your drawing will be lovely though, Kirk.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Church doesn't have any future time to remember. He knows better than that. He's sure got a hell of a lot of past to remember--things he'll never remember, though. He's almost, almost envious of Kirk for it. He spreads his hands helplessly. "Bro, I do not know what to tell you. If you didn't leave, then, I dunno, you fucking astral projected back to the right time and place, lived three years, hit pause, came back here, and downloaded all those memories. Which, to be honest, doesn't actually sound any crazier than some of the other shit we deal with on a near daily basis."

[universal_charm]

"I think that was actually a rave review from a cat," he snorted, remembering that particular experiment and simply accepting that of course a cat would not believe that a simple sketch of him would be worth of more attention than himself.

"Oh, I think I had best be the drawer. The sort of poses I have in mind are not for public consumption, shall we say?" he smirked, an attempt of his own to lighten the mood even as his fingers tightened on Sam's, thumb brushing across the back of his hand as it had been doing before, drawing small circles.

[el_tybs]

"Dear Maker-" he says softly with a huff, shaking his head slowly at the ground, all the while grinning. Kirk had some of the most wild ideas at times. "Exactly what kind of poses are you expecting me to hold while you draw?"

[youwonscience]

"That's trippy, dude," she says, frankly. "How are you holding up?"

[universal_charm]

Well, he couldn't argue with that could he? It was very trippy. He was tripping out as it were.

"I'll be all right," he said after a moment of thought. "I think I just need a bit more time to process it all. Some of these new memories - they're hard to swallow, to say the least."

[universal_charm]

"Not hold," he shook his head, looking down at their hands as he spoke, and despite the obvious display he did not pull away from it. He needed it right now, that particular contact, the real physicality of Sam's touch. "Something more candid. Like you tangled up in the sheets, or cuddled up with the cats."

[el_tybs]

"With the cats? You know they aren't going to stay still that long for you to draw unless you plan on getting that while we're all sleeping." He can see where Kirk is looking and Sam makes a point in not giving it too much attention. There was something about public displays that got to Kirk, so Sam just let him enjoy them quietly. "Tangled up? Do I have pants?"

[hattergonnahat]

For a moment, Jefferson simply stares at him, a little slack-jawed, eyes a little too wide.

Then he laughs. Wide, toothily smiling and laughter he can't keep back, shaking his head and lifting a hand to try and stem the rather unhinged sounding giggle that had just welled up.

Probably not the reaction Jim was expecting.

[universal_charm]

"It can happen. They're incredibly lazy when there's some place warm to curl up into," he pointed out, glancing out of the corner of his eye to Sam and smirking slightly. "No, of course not. You're in our bed. Why would you have pants there?"

[el_tybs]

Our bed. How long ago had it turned from 'your' or 'my' bed to that? It was certainly a phrase he enjoyed hearing.

The smirk certainly has him turning towards Kirk a bit more, brows raised in the way that showed pretend surprised curiosity. "Oh so it's that kind of drawing." He knew of course, but it was better having Kirk say it - and it certainly seemed to distract the captain. "Should I ask what side you'll be capturing?"

[youwonscience]

"You want to talk about it?" They haven't known each other long, but she likes Kirk; he seems like a good man. Besides, sometimes the 'someone to listen' is more important than who it is in particular.

[universal_charm]

Who really knew? He didn't much notice his word choice, and he could always rationalize it in the fact they did, indeed, share a bed. It saved on space, it was comfortable, and it was not as if he and Sam did not enjoy intimacy together. It brought him comfort, Sam's presence at his back or against his chest, his scent and the beat of his heart in his ear. Perhaps after nearly five months, possibly more, it was time to give up a battle and default to what the reality was - "ours".

"Hmm, well, any side will do since they're all your good side," he mused aloud. "Though, maybe your back? I do like your shoulders, and the bear skin doesn't have to cover every part of you, after all."

[el_tybs]

"That's you subtly - not subtly - saying you just want me laying on the pelt completely naked, showing off my ass-ets." Sam gives a soft snort at that, nudging Jim in the side as he speaks, brows raised in amusement.

"Are you going to draw me like one of your cat girls, Kirk?"

[universal_charm]

Laughter cracked out of Kirk's mouth, placing his free hand over it to muffle the noise as he bent slightly over, shoulders heaving. He couldn't say why he found that ridiculous pun so funny, but he did, and he could feel some of the tension leaking away because of it. Tears pricked the corner of his eyes as he sat up, panting and shaking his head as the sudden fit passed.

"You'll be the prettiest cat girl, I promise," he wheezed.

[universal_charm]

He sucked on his lip, clearly debating. It would be good to talk to someone about it all, just to even say it aloud and sort through it in his own head. The events, while at times pure insanity, we're disjointed or jumbled. They were in a chronological, logical order, which only added to his belief that they were, in fact, real.

"The last, really major thing I remember, was losing my ship," he said quietly, just speaking it aloud suddenly painful and making him wince, the images popping into his mind vivid and bright.

[el_tybs]

Well that was a bit more effective then he thought, brows raised high as he watches Kirk fall into a fit of laughter. Sam had expected maybe a grin and a rolling of eyes for it, so getting this reaction certainly brings a wide grin to his face.

"Cat girl?" Sam wrinkles his nose playfully at that. "Don't you mean cat boy? And are you honestly going to draw a tail on me?"

[universal_charm]

"I think you would look quite fetching with a tail," he insisted, wiping a stray tear from his eye. Laughter really was the best sort of medicine, wasn't it? "Maybe even the little ears too. Ah, I should stop by a shop and get a little collar with a cat bell too. You know I always say if you're going to do something, you should commit to it."

[universal_charm]

Despite himself, he had to laugh at that. He wanted to argue with the other, but could he really? Here they were, in a strange world, supposedly dropped through some space-time rift or other, fighting off dragons and working with elves and dwarves and magic was real. Was getting memories shoved in his head actually that unrealistic a thing to happen here, taking everything else into account?

"What's the craziest thing you've done then? Here or at home?" he asked.

[el_tybs]

"So you're saying that because you're going to do me that you aren't just going to simply draw on a bell collar, but rather get me one?" Sam sighs, shaking his head a bit as he traces his hand along his neck. "I don't think I can have a 'little' collar."

[universal_charm]

Well that... was not what he was expecting. At all. So he is going to stand there and cross his arms and let Jefferson get it all out of his system rather than begin sputtering crossly. If the laugh itself sounded unhinged, well, it wasn't any crazier than the memories jumping around in his head or half the shit he'd been through here already.

"Care to enlighten me?" he asked once it seemed like Jefferson was getting some control of himself.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Uhhhh. Wow. That...might be a list." Especially since he doesn't tend to talk about the crazier portions of his life. Because those usually sound demonic and will get him killed by natives. Kirk's a rifter, though, and one from Space The Final Frontier. He might get it. Still, he's not exactly gonna talk loudly about it. (For once.)

"I wanna say dying was the craziest, but it honestly isn't. Time travel? Maybe time travel, that was pretty crazy, and meeting a shitload of copies of myself. There was the comm-jumping, brain-taking-over angry AI. There was fighting a bunch of copies of an asshole super soldier. Tracking down another super soldier, with another super soldier, because of the possibility of finding yet another super soldier alive who I thought was dead. There was the alien baby, but that one wasn't me, so that one doesn't count. I could go on, man."

[universal_charm]

For a long moment all Kirk can really do is stare at the other, eyes not quite wide, but certainly a fraction bigger than they had been before. It was quite the list, to be sure, and for a moment he was appropriately stunned -

And then he laughed. It wasn't a mean laugh or a disbelieving one. It sounded more relieved than anything, or like he had heard a really good joke, the kind that makes you feel good for the rest of the day.

He began to count off on his fingers. "Let's see for me - Dying was definitely the strangest thing to happen to me. Unless you count the Romulan that came back in time and changed my personal history and destroyed a planet. Then there was the augmented human - basically a super soldier of a kind and my commander who tried to start an all out war with the Klingon. And then a few years after that was stopping a former captain who had gone mad out in space and wanted revenge on the Federation and was going to annihilate a colony along with other Federation planets with an ancient super weapon. Which is actually part of the memories I woke up with this morning."

He feels you, Church, he really does.