A Better Wake Up Than Last Time

Posted on Tue Aug 11th, 2020 @ 8:22pm by Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Lieutenant JG Mattias Constantine

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Deck E - Lexi's Quarters
Timeline: Day 41, Month 2, 0630
3608 words - 7.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Lexi was barely aware of things enjoying the warmth and nice feelings in her body for a few moments before she opened her eyes, blinking hard in the semi-darkness of her bedroom. She was on the Atlantis and someone was holding her closer than she had been held in years.

But the moment could not last as the need to use the bathroom made it impossible to just savour the moment and she found herself nimbly climbing over her disappearing to the bathroom. Taking care of what she needed to she came back over to the bed and sat on the edge trying to work out what the time was on the chronometer.

In the darkness, Mattias lingered in the purgatory that exists between wakefulness and unconsciousness. He sensed that the source of warmth he had been snuggled up against had disappeared, so he sleepily rolled himself up in the remainder of the blanket, turned himself into an extra-large burrito, and promptly fell back asleep. Dead to the world, he sighed and emitted a neutral grumble as his only response to the weight shift of Lexi sitting on the edge of the bed.

Lexi grinned as she saw that Mattias effectively now had the whole bed and the whole blanket. She slowly as silently as she could climbed across his legs up into the small space between him and the wall. “Mattias?” She whispered figuring he might want actual time to get ready for his shift. “It’s zero six fifty.” She said trying to alert him to his duty watch at eight am.

One eye opened, then the other as Matt groggily forced himself awake. He strained against the blanket, stretching out with a sizable yawn as Lexi's blurry features sharpened into view. "Good morning sunshine," he smiled brightly at her as he spoke in a low, gravelly morning voice. "I appreciate that you've managed to find the smallest possible space into which to cram yourself. Must've been a cat in a previous life or something." Another yawn. This time, he slowly began the process of unwrapping himself, knowing that he would have to get ready for his shift.

"Did you sleep well?" Matt asked.

"Well I only just came back to bed. You left me with such little choice to squidge into this space," She admitted running a finger along his nose making sure she was careful. "I did sleep where. Make's a difference when it is your own bed and space," She admitted allowing him to unwrap himself enough to snuggle under the covers him pressing close. "You fell asleep in your uniform." She found it amusing with how thick they were that he still wrapped himself up.

"Ah, so I did," Matt looked down at the expanse of blue fabric he was clothed in. It struck a sharp contrast with the bright pink of Lexi's blanket, which meant any loose fibers that had transferred onto his uniform stood out. He picked a strand off of the sleeve of his uniform before turning his full attention back to the woman who had wedged herself in between him and the wall. Though he leaned forward for a kiss, Matt restrained from any extra movement in order to keep from inadvertently putting too much pressure on Lexi's injured shoulder.

"Mmpf, well, as much as I would love to lay here with you all day, that is a luxury that we cannot afford at the moment," Matt groaned, stealing another kiss before he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "Do you mind if I use your shower?"

Lexi appreciated the kiss and the fact he did not move. She was feeling delicate more than she had with the medicine wearing off. She smiled at the stolen kiss wishing that she could be less useless at the moment. "You cannot but I certainly can," Lexi said to prove her point moving under the covers more and curled up in the warm spot he had created. She knew she really should get up to eat breakfast to keep her strength up. "Not at all." She assured quickly.

"Awesome, thanks," Constantine finally got out of bed and made his way towards the bathroom, unzipping himself out of his uniform as he disappeared around the corner. Thankfully, their water situation was one of the few problems that they had solved. Much to the benefit of everyone's olfactory systems, the days of the crew surviving purely on deodorant and body spray were over. Matt was convinced that it must have driven the Vulcans insane, even if they denied any outward expression of emotion.

Drops of water pattered against the floor of the shower stall. A few moments passed as the shower came up to temperature before he stepped in.

"Yikes! Holy shit that's hot!" He stifled most of his exclamation. Whatever temperature setting Lexi was using was near-torturous, so he quickly tapped the temperature control down to a more suitable level. Taking a big sigh of relief, Matt lathered up his hair with shampoo and slowly began to whistle a tune as the steam helped to clear his sinuses. His whistling eventually turned into singing as he used a bar of soap to finish cleaning himself before rinsing the suds down the drain. He shut off the water supply and toweled off, stepping back out into the main room with his briefs on.

"I smell like you now," Matt put his nose to his shoulder, sitting on the edge of the bed as he wriggled back into his uniform. "Oh, and I put your shower temperature back where you had it. Good gracious woman, we have to talk about that. Why? How?"

Lexi just laid there, snuggled up in the pink blanket and just listened to the familiar sounds of the ship and the very unfamiliar sounds of the occupant in her bathroom. She grinned as the song reached the end and silence fell. He had a good voice and she could imagine that any other time would be okay but her neighbours would really know about it all now. She smiled at the thought and felt happy about it all.

It was a strange sensation in her stomach that hit her as the man appeared in just his briefs that made her sit up in surprise. That was unexpected but showed just how comfortable he at least was with the changes that seemed to be happening between them. “Could be worse smells I guess." She mused with a giggle as she heard his comment about her shower temperature. "What?" She asked.

"Well, I thought I liked hot showers, but I guess I'm just in the minor leagues," he smiled at her before he pulled the zipper up on the front of his uniform.

"I just like knowing I am clean." The woman just said with a small shrug at him and a blush on her face. She liked knowing her skin was clean by the burning sensation.

"Are you feeling up for breakfast? I hear it's an especially nice vintage of algae that's on the menu today,' Matt blew a raspberry, closing his eyes as he tried to remember what a real, proper breakfast tasted like. The thought of crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast made his mouth water, but he pushed the thought out of his head quickly knowing that the culinary experience awaiting him would be no match. "Or, I suppose I could be convinced to bring two trays back here. Your call."

"I really should get up and have breakfast. Get the blood pumping and my muscles doing something other than just lying there looking pretty." The woman knew she also had the exercise that she needed to do to make sure she got back to full usage of the arm.

"Hey, at least you're good at the whole 'lying there looking pretty' thing,. Much better at it than me," Constantine winked as he stood up from his seat on the edge of her bed. He reached for the lighting controls, but his hand found nothing but the smooth, cold paneling of the wall. Sheepishly, he realized that the control panel was in a different place than it was in his quarters, so he looked around and found the button he was looking for and brightened the lights in the room.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something familiar to him, even though this had been the first time he had been to Lexi's quarters. With a smug grin, he turned and faced her, pointing towards the garment that currently adorned the back of her chair.

"Oy, so that's where that went. Thief!" Matt walked over and playfully picked up the hooded sweater before holding it up to the light. "This is all a farce. Secretly, I think it's adorable that you took my hoodie, but publicly, how dare you woman! It must be quite a sight. It's gotta be twice your size," his eyes danced mirthfully as his laughter filled the room.

"it's called gym chic I believe. And you left it in the communication center." The woman shrugged her good shoulder and slowly started to unwrap herself from the duvet and stretch just a little to try and work her muscles to life properly. It would not be a fast process especially as she had been stitched but she would have a killer scar. "It went from taking your clothes off hot, to bundle up weather." She grinned having no shame in borrowing it at all as she stood up and grabbed it back,

"Oh no," Matt's hand moved to cover his face almost immediately. "Please stop reminding me about that. The memory of being half naked in front of your commanding officer is bad enough, but the funny part about that is I ended up getting promoted afterwards. I'm not sure what sort of behavior that is reinforcing," he smirked as he extended a hand to help her to her feet.

"You are going to get me in trouble with all this laughing. We will be caught." She grinned as she shook her head at him and kissed him once before disappearing with some clothes. He might be okay with walking around in his briefs but she needed a little more life to get that comfortable.

"Let them catch us, half of the ship had already put us in a relationship anyway," Constantine shrugged to himself. He politely averted his eyes until she was out of sight, even though he knew he didn't have to. At certain angles, the thin t-shirt she had worn to bed silhouetted her curves in a way that would have broken both necks and jaws had she chosen to wear it beyond the privacy of her own quarters. With a resolute look on his face, Matt realized that the fact that a private person like Lexi had even allowed him into a space like her quarters spoke volumes about how much she trusted him. He refused to break that trust.

"Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would like to be your boyfriend, and I don't care if you mention it in public is all," he took a deep breath. "No pressure, by the way. It's a standing offer. I just want to be clear about how I feel."

Lexi listened to him from the bathroom as she carefully put on something other than shorts and her academy T-shirt. She smiled, the world had gotten so much smaller suddenly for everyone but now she felt it had grown for her, became something bigger and better. Pulling her hair into a ponytail she knew that she did not mind herself at all. She did not mind but she did not want to rub it in people’s faces. Coming back out she stopped and just watched him as he was distracted looking around her room.

“I have no issue. I just worry as your are my direct supervisor and not everyone is as lucky to have found someone out here that makes them feel something constantly.” Sure people found someone to make them feel something for a few minutes but this was not that she was sure.

"Well, that's just more motivation for me to behave myself," Matt replied, walking to her and stooping over to kiss the top of her head. "But, you're right Lexi, we have to be really cognisant of fraternization. It could definitely get us both in trouble and ruin one or both of our careers, assuming we make it back to have a career," he shrugged, offering his arm to her as he motioned towards the door.

It was a huge a motivation to keep it more secret but it was hard when everyone already assumed it. It was hard to not show it when it had been building for so long. “If we make it make we would be sent to different ships.” She reminded squeezing his arm as she grabbed her own hoodie before remember she would not be able to pull it on and left it behind. Seeing this, Constantine let go of Lexi's good arm and looped back to pick up the garment that she had casually draped on her bed. Picking it up, he quickly pulled the sleeves through and flipped entire thing inside out before he turned his attention back to her.

"Hey, I know you're chilly, come here," he motioned for her to put her arms into the sleeves. His movements were slow and gentle, knowing that her shoulder still ached. "Put your arms through first, and then we can loop the rest of it up over your head. No sense in walking around being cold all day."

Lexi wanted to protest that she did not need the help but she shivered a little making it impossible to not accept the arms. “This is so embarrassing. Bet you did not expect to have to help your… girlfriend to do this soon.” Was she his girlfriend? It was the only word she could think of to cover what they were. They weren’t friends, they weren't lovers yet so it was easy to label it as that despite trying to keep it on the low. "Thank you." She whispered blushing wildly.

"You're welcome," Constantine helped her pull the sweater over her head and wrapped her up in an embrace. Squeezing carefully, he wished there were some better way to transfer warmth as he reflected on the term that she had used to describe herself to him. Smiling from the safety of being out of her line of sight, Matt silently mouthed three little words that carried the true depth of his emotions before kissing her on the cheek and letting her go.

"Well, if you're happy and sufficiently warmed up, I think it's time for breakfast. Shall we?" For the second time, Constantine motioned towards the door.

"Yes. We better get you fed before your bridge shift." The woman assured and quickly headed out of the room. It did not take long to get to the mess hall and get a bowl of algae that she really did not want at all. She needed the energy to heal which was obvious as she sat down weakly and yawned. The mess hall was quiet the morning rush not having started yet but it would only be a matter of time.

So they sat and ate in silence - a comfortable silence that was as natural to them as any of their conversations had been - as the mess hall began to fill with the early morning crowd. A few conversations popped up here and there, but mostly, everyone seemed to be checking a box on their to-do list or completing a chore that was necessary but not looked forward to. Matt finished his bowl and quietly put his fork down, shaking his head as he observed more gaunt faces than he did smiling ones.

"This isn't right, you know," he spoke after looking around the room. "Food is supposed to bring people together. The mess hall should be lively and a social hub. I think we really need to get those resequencers going. Then," he grinned as he leaned more of his body weight into Lexi's side, "somebody else needs to learn how to ferment this stuff. Now that'd be something."

Lexi could not help but agree with the man when she glanced around herself. It was so quiet compared to two months ago. “If I had known what I had known that morning when we went into those radiation shelters I’d have taken more stuff with me.” She pushed barely having eaten her half the bowl. She would eventually but she had time to kill unlike him. “Isn’t your wingman on it?” She wondered thinking that with so few engineers it was likely down to him to try and attempt to fix. “Not sure is be able to stomach this fermented.” She twirled her fork again before picking up the pepper pot and adding more to it.

"Yeah, actually, you're right," Constantine scrunched his nose as he sat back up. "It's bad enough as it is, I'd hate to know what it's like when it's left to rot. But speaking of Duncan, I bet he'd be game to give it a try. Poor guy, I wish I knew more about wrenching on things so I could help him out, but I have been taking lessons from Doctor Avira and Doctor Bell to try and branch out a little bit. I think we're all going to have to wear multiple hats soon."

“Though if they can make vodka out of potatoes maybe their is some hope. Will just have to see what happens Maybe with some flavouring Mmmm rhubarb flavoured would be amazing.” Lexi offered up thoughtfully. She was not a big drinker but the thought of having that as an option was tempting especially if it was rhubarb. “Maybe I will see if I can help in engineering but I’ve been helping in hydroponics if you did not know already.” She teased. She might had seen it as just helping but it was definitely spreading her wings and learning new stuff. If it was helping Finn out all the better.

"Well then, I'll have to tell your work boyfriend to plant some rhubarb for you," Matt teased, though he did make a mental note of the way his girlfriend salivated over the mention of the vegetable. "Speaking of - Finn is doing better, if you happen to see him today. We went and had dinner together after his shift, I can't remember if I told you this story yet or not. We went to the sweet spot and we got into some zero G shenanigans - I got him to open up and talk a little, which was nice. Poor guy's been through hell."

Lexi just laughed at his use of work boyfriend. It was what happened when you upgraded the previous one to full blown boyfriend. “He has to be fair. He is a good man who just needs a hug and some counselling and neither seem to be an option at the moment for him. Hopefully the Vrav leave us alone for a bit and we can reflect ” She would have felt jealous of the fact he went to the sweet spot if she could actually do anything like that anytime soon. She was still on watch to make sure she did not get an infection or anything, zero g would just make stitching delicate. For all the emotions she felt she was glad that Finn was better, she had been worried enough to mention it to Seong that she thought him a suicide risk.

"Couldn't agree more. I think it means a lot to him that you check in on him and talk to him. I'm going to start doing the same. That's a real difference we can make - that's how we're going to make it through this as a group."

"Only thing we can do at the moment." Lexi sighed softly eating another mouthful uninterested about the food. "Might have a wander down there if I feel well enough and say hello." She was trying to learn her new limits so it might not happen but she would give it a go.

"Yeah, if you're feeling up to it, I think that'd be nice," Constantine nodded in return before checking the chronometer mounted high on the mess hall wall. Scowling in disapproval, he bemoaned the fact that he couldn't reallocate time away from the boring parts of the day and stay in the moments he wanted to for longer. But time was impartial. It had always been, and it would always be.

"I'd better get to the bridge," Matt leaned over for a quick peck on the cheek. "Rest up, ensign, that's an order. Oh, and don't get in too much trouble without me, okay?"

The woman was surprised by his quick peck to her cheek and the fact was not missed by a few people who just grinned. "Sneaky," Lexi said with a small grin resisting the urge to yawn. "I will try not to. Try not to get into trouble yourself hmm. Just leave the bowl. I will clean up when I am finished." She assured shooing him away to do what he was there to do. Matt simply smiled, stood up, and disappeared through the doors into the corridor to start his day.