[ OPEN ] Hot Springs Episode!

[shri]

CHARACTERS: EVERYONE
WHERE: The Second Flight
WHEN: DAY :022
SUMMARY: The Sauna!
WARNINGS: Nekkid times.

[ A few hours after the murder, she hasn't blown the ship up, and here they are. Another knock knock on everyone's brain: ]

( For those of you that are interested - I have secured us a place at the Sauna. Free for us to be use without interruption from outsiders.

You are to be clean before you come in. )

[ Maybe you're here because she bullied you, maybe you want to soak - maybe you're the poor bastard that is standing guard at the door. Either way, welcome to the Suana, have fun. Or don't. ]

Comments

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ And it's so like Shiro to want to protect them from that. Sam doesn't necessarily agree that either of them would want Shiro to protect them from that, to not share because he didn't want to lean on them - but he gets it. And he's grateful that, even if he has to remind him sometimes, Shiro will lean on him.

He doesn't say anything, because it was a joke, and Sam knows it. And he's much more interested then bringing Shiro out of his head and giving him some space to relax than anything else.

Which means he might not be planning anything above PG-13, but he's not gonna stop it, either.

There's a soft, fond chuckle at Shiro's reaction, and he puts a little pressure on his shoulders - a gentle but insistent instruction to sit.

Then he gets back to work, focusing on Shiro's neck and shoulders - slow, methodical, working out every knot and lingering over his scars, pressing in and firm strokes mixed with soft touches and barely there grades of fingertips.

His palms rest flat on Shiro's shoulder blades before he starts to move down his back, mind curling around his in a wordless check in. ]

[shiro2hero]

[No, they wouldn't want that. But he isn't going to think along those lines. It's almost not possible -- almost. If they came out and told him, it'd be different.]

[But right now? Right now, there's not a whole lot of room in his head for anything but how those hands feel. For how Sam's hands feel. Sam could instruct him to turn around on one foot and he'd do it. Just to keep feeling like this. So yes, he sits.]

[More like sags, really.]

[Honestly, he'd forgotten what something like this feels like. What feeling relaxed was like. Everything has been wound too tense for so long, it would be again, and again. What did relaxation even feel like?]

[The check in is met with wordless appreciation. It's almost half-asleep. Incredibly enough.]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Sam can feel the way Shiro's mind starts to clear, as his focus blurs and it almost feels like Shiro's floating, and he lets himself have a moment to just enjoy that before he continues. ]

(That's it, just let go. ) [ Sam knows Shiro's boundaries and he won't push them, not right now - and he makes the impression clear as he presses a kiss to the back of Shiro's neck. ] ( You're so good, sweetheart, let me have this. )

[ When he’s finally finished working out the knots in Shiro’s back, Sam wraps one arm around Shiro's chest and gets the other hand in his hair, pulling him in and guiding him to rest his head back on Sam's shoulder, until Sam's chest is pressed flush against his back. ]

( Get some rest, Shiro. I got you. )

[shiro2hero]

[He might really be floating, for all he feels connected to reality right now. Floating in the pool, floating in zero gravity. Surrounded by stars or liquid, he can't tell. Doesn't want to tell.]

[In all honesty, it's hard to remember the last time he felt this way. Maybe... maybe the first time it was clear they'd made it. They were free of the atmosphere. They'd done it, at last.]

[Drifting.]

[Sam's voice pulls him in. Pulls him back out of a distant memory. Enough to where he can press his face to his neck.]

[He loves this.]

(You're ... really going to sit there? If I crash?)

[You're really going to catch me if I crash. Aren't you.]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ There’s a soft hum over their connection - intentional this time, not the usual faint hum of the symbiote. An echo of him humming out loud, some soothing, absent tune that probably belongs to a song, although Sam couldn’t have said which one.

When Shiro shifts back into focus, just a little, Sam smiles at the way he presses his face into his neck. ]

( Of course I am. )

[ I’ll always catch you.

His fingers card through Shiro’s wet hair, gentle, as he settles his arm securely over Shiro’s stomach. ] ( Go to sleep, love. )

[shiro2hero]

[Well that just does him in. Not as if it were hard. It's been way too long since he crashed into sleep like this. Too many days -- running ragged for the purpose of not thinking. Not dwelling, when his brain wanted nothing more than to replay those images over and over again.]

[But all that feels far away.]

[It feels completely secondary to warm water and security. To the sensation of weightlessness, and memories of countless stars slowly turning.]

[He exhales. Slow. Steady.]

(Done.)