The BLTS Archive - Repose
fourth in the The Four Rs series
by ShoSen (shosen@totallykawaii.com)

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Disclaimer: All stories not found in the Originals section are works
of fanfiction. The characters are not the property of the fanfiction
author, and belong to their respective copyright holders. No money is
being made from the production of these stories.

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Trip woke slowly, coming awake with the vague knowledge that he had
been dreaming, and that those dreams had been quite good, but he
couldn't remember what they had been about. Given the events of the
last two nights, however, he was willing to bet that a certain Armoury
officer had played a rather prominent role.

Which reminded him...

He opened his eyes and discovered that, yes, he was still being used
as a pillow. Malcolm apparently wasn't awake yet, and his head was
resting on Trip's chest, his arms loosely wrapped around the
engineer's waist. Few a brief moments, Trip almost regretted the fact
that they would all be out of the Catwalk in few days, but only for a
few. Then he was back to wondering just what Malcolm was going to
think when he woke up this morning, sane and sober, and remembered
snuggling his superior officer like a teddy bear. Not that the teddy
bear in question minded at all, but as Hoshi had pointed out, Malcolm
was particular about things like that.

It seemed that he was about to get his answer. Malcolm's eyelids began
to flutter, and he nuzzled against Trip's chest, his grip tightening
as he woke. Trip sighed and forced himself not to move, not to react,
but damn that was feeling pretty good, and if Malcolm didn't wake up
soon, he was going have a pretty obvious indication that Trip was more
than happy to stay like this for a while longer. With a light murmur,
Malcolm's eyes opened, he blinked with confusion a few times, and then
sat bolt upright, pulling away as far from Trip as the tiny sleeping
space would allow.

"C-c-commander?"

"Mornin' Malcolm. You feelin' better now?"

"I– yes. I, what am I doing here?"

"Don't get too stressed out," Trip sighed at the less than encouraging
conversation. "You were pretty out of it last night when Hoshi helped
you to bed."

"Hoshi? Oh no," his face went pale, and Trip figured his memory of
last night wasn't completely impaired after all.

"It's not that bad Malcolm."

"Not that bad? I snuggled your chest and called you my pillow."

Trip watched the embarrassment flooding Malcolm's face, the paleness
replaced by a bright red flush, and for some reason, he decided that
maybe now would be a good time to go for broke. "Yeah, well, I kinda
liked bein' your pillow."

"That's beside the poin– you what?"

"I liked it." Now that the statement was out there, he held his breath
and waited to see what sort of reception it would get.

Trip liked it. Malcolm's brain seemed frozen on the statement. He had
spent the night cuddled up to the other man, snuggling his friend,
lying half on top of him. And Trip had liked it. As the shock began to
wear off, he finally realised that the blonde was watching him with
uncertainty. He had to say something. "Oh." He probably could have
chosen something better. Especially given the look of disappointment
that flooded Trip's face at the weak response. This wasn't going well,
he wasn't handling it properly, and, well, just how the hell was he
suppose to be handling it anyway?

"Look, Malcolm, you don't have to worry about this if it makes you
uncomfortable."

Uncomfortable? That wasn't exactly the word he would have used.
Stunned, shocked, scared, any of those would do, but definitely not
uncomfortable.

"I'll understand if you just want to forget about it."

"I don't think I can." He discovered that it was possible to talk
without thinking first, and really hoped his mouth knew what it was
saying since his brain obviously didn't.

The disappointment on Trip's face was rapidly turning into outright
panic.

"And I don't think I want to."

And the panic shifted into confusion, before seeming to settle of
tentative joy. "You don't?"

"No, I don't." The second he said it, his mind seemed to come out of
its shock and begin to agree. He took a deep breath, looking right
into Trip's eyes, seeing his own growing sense of wonder reflected
back at him. "I liked it too."

That earned him a gorgeous smile, and Trip reached out, pulling him
back into the blankets that were serving as a bed. "Good," he murmured
as they settled back against one another again, "because I think this
arrangement could work out just fine."

"Arrangement?"

"You don't remember?"

"If you're referring to anything you said last night, then no, the
drugs kind of took care of most of that, thankfully."

Trip chuckled, "Darn, you look pretty cute when you're embarrassed."

"Is this arrangement going to keep me in that state?"

"Depends on how you like being a blanket."

He could feel himself turning red again, and turned his head towards
Trip's chest to try and hide it. The engineer's chuckle told him he
hadn't been successful.

"You're not gonna welch on the deal now, are you?" Trip asked, one of
his hands running through his hair.

"Of course not," Malcolm answered, settling his arms more comfortably
around Trip's waist. "That wouldn't be honourable."

"Good," Trip answered as they started to drift off again, warm and
comfortable in each other's embrace, and more than comfortable with
their new arrangement.

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End -- Four Rs series