syd barrett (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} shesarainbow) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} chances_rpg,@ 2024-11-25 08:44:00 |
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| Entry tags: | marvel: sydney barrett (legion), the expanse: james holden, ~!game plot: dreamwalking |
SYDNEY & HOLDEN
WHEN: First day of the dream walking plot | WHERE: Here!
⚠
NSFW, there's some 🌶️ content
Sydney wasn’t used to having vivid dreams. Usually they were fleeting jumbles of nonsense that she could never remember the next morning. This one already felt different, though. Was she actually asleep? Well, she had gone to bed, but where she found herself now was certainly not her bedroom – at least not the one she was currently occupying.
For one, the space overlooked a snowy mountain range through a series of large bay windows, providing a view from the bed that she was not at all familiar with. And then there was the fact that the bathroom was up a set of stairs. Sydney looked around, moving from the edge of the bed to around the corner where the door was. She crossed to it and pulled on the handle – which didn’t budge. “Fan-fucking-tastic.”
A sigh pushed past her lips and she walked back around to where the bed was, stepping toward one of the windows and spotting her own reflection, which immediately made her eyebrows shoot up. She glanced down at herself then, realizing that for whatever reason, she was dressed in nothing but a barely-long-enough-to-cover-anything emerald green, lacy and very sheer robe, tied neatly shut at the front. To what avail? She wasn’t sure.
“I’m not sure this get up was wholly necessary,” she mumbled to herself, head tilting a little as she looked back at her reflection. “View’s nice, though.”
James Holden usually managed to deal with most things. Dreams? Pieces of cake. Nightmares? Sure, bring them on. Nothing felt out of the ordinary except he didn't recognize the view and wasn't that abnormal? And then he was rounding a corner just in time to catch a blonde commenting on the view. Holden grinned to himself like this was perfectly normal because why fight dreams?
"Yeah it is," he rumbled in agreement as he came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle nosing into her hair so his mouth could find her neck. "Or did you mean outside. Eh. It's okay." There was a vague familiarity about the face he glimpsed in the reflection the window tossed back but something, something science about people in dreams being faces they'd seen. He was a man who kept to himself: got up, probably greeted his roommate, caffeinated, left for work... and caffeinated throughout the day. Home again, more of the same though in opposite order from the morning.
Instinct kicked in almost too quickly when she felt an arm around her middle and a rumble of his voice in her ear. Don’t touch, don’t touch, don’t touch. Her heart (for whatever it was in this scenario) would have leapt into her throat, alarm bells going off in a frenzy as she tried to process the moment. And then just as quickly, everything slowed, her body frozen just long enough to keep her from stepping away from whoever it was behind her.
And then she felt lips on her neck and oh. They were… warm? She couldn’t recall feeling something so similar except for when David had–
Wait.
Things calmed slowly as her mind caught up to the realization that this was no different than being in the white room, her body having gone ridged against him, now relaxing as she looked out at the darkening horizon, their reflections becoming a little more visible in the glass.
However, natural instinct slipped in as her head fell to the side enough to expose more of her neck to him. “I definitely meant outside,” she responded with a soft laugh in her words. “I haven’t seen mountains like this before,” she said quietly, one (ungloved) hand slipping over his arm, nails dragging softly over his skin. “What view were you referring to?”
"Which one do you think?" he asked without any real thought behind it. He'd felt her go rigid in his arms and even in a dream state, he would have never forced anyone to do anything intimate. Holden had quite a number of boundaries and that one was high on the list. But the woman had relaxed and he smiled against her throat.
The hand that was on the side of the alluring tilt of her head came up to lightly tangle his fingers into her hair as he encouraged that tilt just a little further. His other only slid upward to cup along her rib cage, holding her in place against him. The motion rucked up the hem of the sheer robe but he was content to explore the expanse of the neck she'd presented. "Not sure which mountains those are," Holden murmured, as though it was important. "Could be Montana. Never seen 'em from this angle." Did he need words? No. Not when he could tease that delectable spot just beneath her ear with a hint of tongue and teeth.
The sleep pants he wore weren't the usual sweatpants but something softer and did even less to hide a growing arousal. God, he loved these dreams. "You want to keep looking at the sunset?" he asked, voice soft and the tone so-low in her ear.
Sydney felt the fabric of the robe move up and suddenly realized just how badly she wanted this. Her hand followed where his moved, as he braced the curve of her rib, and she gently guided it up further to cup her small breast over the lace. A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, eyes now half-lidded as she watched him kiss her neck.
Pulling her lower lip between her teeth, she arched her lower back just enough to press her rear end right against his crotch, teasing his arousal in kind. “Just for another minute,” she murmured in response to his question.
She gave it a few beats before she turned herself around in his arms, finally able to see his face properly. Gosh, he was cute. “You know, I don’t– do things like this very often. I normally can’t touch people,” she added, slipping one of her hands between their bodies, a fingertip pulling playfully at the waistband of his sleep pants. “So it’s nice that I can right now… I feel like I should really take advantage of it, you know?”
Which she did almost immediately, that same hand slipping lower to brush her fingers against his arousal over the softness of fabric containing it.
Holden really, really liked these dreams. They were relaxing. Fun. And he didn't have to overthink anything. They didn't usually last but that was okay, too. The hand that was encouraged to cup her breast gave a squeeze and he groaned against her skin, grinning as she pressed both into his hand and against his groin.
I normally can't touch people was a new one but he didn't get a chance to think too hard about it when her fingers were taking advantage. "Well," he hummed, walking her backward just a little until her back hit the glass of the scenic window, "I'm not going to complain about being taken advantage of." His fingers deftly untied the robe and Holden wasted no time in kissing the blonde, hands finding skin and one dipping low. Dreams never needed too much preamble but he liked taking his time when given the opportunity; his subconscious didn't really deviate from that. "Gonna make you feel good," Holden promised with a wicked smile.
That mischievous look flickered across her features when the front of the robe was loosened, falling open to expose every soft and naked inch of her. Sydney arched against the glass, chin tilting up just a little with that grin on her lips until it was kissed away with a quiet noise of surprise. She wrapped a hand around the back of his neck to keep him close as his hands moved over her body and between her thighs.
A moan almost instantly sounded in her throat and she nodded, nipping at his lower lip while his hands did what they liked. Her own free hand moved to the front of his pants, pushing at the waistband to inch it down off of his hips until she could wrap her own fingers around his length.
“Please,” she breathed against his lips, a hint of pleading in the word as she kissed him again and hitched a thigh against his leg. And then: “I haven’t been fucked in so long.”
"So let's fix that," Holden groaned as his hand caught her thigh and then hoisted her up against the glass, guiding her legs around him. He could fix that really well.
As sex dreams went, Holden had no regrets. Well, okay, maybe a small regret because he hadn't woken up like that since he was a teenager. He was covered in sweat and he'd made a mess of his boxers and his bedsheets. "Jesus," he muttered, gingerly sitting up as he tried to not make things worse. The remnants of the dream clung to him in vivid detail and he glared down at himself. He wasn't exactly a young man with the stamina to match but clearly that wasn't something he could explain to his body.
Holden prayed his roommate wasn't awake. He also prayed that he'd not been making any noises while he'd fucked some dream woman senseless. Against the window, in the bed, in the bed again... Holden groaned quietly and wrapped a hand around himself. He needed a shower anyway and apparently he needed it cold. Focusing on his breathing and trying to distract himself, he went about grabbing the dirtied sheets and decided to chuck them and the blanket and pillow cases to the floor before getting out of his boxers and grabbing a towel. Shower. Get laundry going. "Fuck," he breathed as he stepped out of his room, unable to wipe the grin off his face. Hey, he could appreciate a good dream just as much as the next guy.
On the other hand, and several floors above, Sydney awoke with a distinct throbbing between her legs. Like the events of the dream had manifested and carried over into something tangible, a reminder of just how… satisfied her dream counterpart had been left. She smiled and stretched, groaning a little as she shifted to feel the cooling dampness on her underwear that accompanied it.
That woke her up more fully and she reached a hand under the blanket, realizing that things certainly had physically manifested while her dream self had been getting her brains well and truly fucked right out.
She also couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a dream like that, let alone one so vivid and real and that went through to the very, very welcome end. “Jesus Christ,” she murmured, thankful that she didn’t have a roommate to contend with as she moved from her bed. A quick strip of the mattress led to starting a load of laundry, which led to a shower, and something far more refreshing.
And yet she couldn’t stop thinking about the cute, dark haired guy from her dream. Nor could she quite shake the feeling that she knew him from somewhere, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
A little more coffee was needed that morning; sleep deprivation was hardly a new thing but Holden had a physically taxing day ahead at the current job site. It was easy to lose himself in the mundane tasks that felt so much like the ice hauling days. Back when he hadn't accidentally made himself the face of a rebellion. Back when he hadn't ended up in a three-sided war that he was way too involved in.
He was definitely not thinking too hard as he stepped into the elevator that had stopped at his floor with a single occupant already in it. Polite, he inclined his chin and then froze as the doors closed behind him. It was her. Holden cleared his throat, said a polite Good Morning, and glanced toward the panel of buttons to confirm, yes, the button he needed was lit up. He pivoted slowly on his heel, work boots quiet on the floor, and he settled against the wall of the elevator. A thumb hooked into the pocket of his jeans while he lifted his travel mug to his lips to sip at the too-hot fresh coffee he'd poured himself just before leaving. He was oddly glad that his high-vis vest was in the beat up truck he'd acquired and there was nothing telling about his jeans and long-sleeved shirt look. Holden couldn't help but steal a glance just as the elevator dinged on a lower floor and let someone in. Holden shifted closer to the woman next to him in an effort to give the newcomer a little more room; Holden wasn't exactly a small guy, considering he had a good nine inches on the blonde alone.
Before venturing from her apartment for the day to go see what work needed to be done at the consulting firm (or so she’d been told that was how they explained the job), Sydney had dressed in her usual sort of attire – a black turtleneck, black skirt that came to just above her knees, tall black boots, and her hair up in a ponytail. Black gloves finished the look and were her one staple, to keep from accidentally making skin to skin contact with anyone. All of it form fitting.
She gathered her jacket and bag and made her way to the elevator, taking advantage of the new earbuds she’d purchased recently to listen to some music on her commute. Everything was normal, even if she couldn’t get her dream out of her mind; it had the potential to make for a very long, distracting day.
When the elevator slowed to a stop to let someone in at the eighth floor, Sydney didn’t think much of it, until she looked up. Her phone nearly slipped from her grip and she felt her face grow warm almost immediately when she saw him. Well, that explained why he’d seemed at least vaguely familiar. But it was just eight floors, this was– fine. Until he moved closer when the elevator stopped again and her breath hitched somewhere in her throat.
Sydney shifted her jacket and bag to her other arm away from him, and when the elevator slowed to another top the next floor down, she risked a glance over and up to him just as the newest addition to the elevator squeezed in closer to her other side, pressing her a little closer to him.
Holden was all too aware of the woman next to him and was trying desperately to give her room but it was apparently a popular time to be leaving for the day. When he got jostled just a little, Holden glanced back down and gave a tight smile. "Sorry," he said and then looked resolutely at the back of the head of the person in front of him. The elevator slid to a stop again and it was only one stop away from the lobby.
There was a moment where he looked like he was going to say something but Holden gave a minute shake of his head, talking himself out of it. Right up until the doors opened to the lobby and people started to file out. It was habit to let the others exit first and he took up the rear, free hand automatically moving to a protective position near the woman's lower back though he didn't touch. He heard the doors close behind them and then he reached out to catch the blonde lightly by the elbow. "Hey, sorry. One sec?" Holden asked, immediately releasing her once he'd gotten her attention. "Recently moved in, right?" he asked cautiously. "From the Station?" The best way of making sure they were in the same, chaotic situation. "James Holden. I don't... always pay attention too closely to our network."
If it weren’t for the fact that she was stuck so high up in the tower now, Syd would have normally taken the stairs – the elevator being so crowded this morning was the main reason for that. So it wasn’t lost on her that in some weird, divine intervention or whatever you wanted to call it way, she was crammed in said elevator with the man from her dream (it was a dream, right?). And it had her brain going a mile a minute as she waited for the lift to come to a stop, while also having her unfocused and lost in her own less-than-PG-rated thoughts.
Habit had her filing out behind everyone once they reached the main floor, and it also had her turning perhaps a little too quickly when he touched her elbow, pulling herself up short just before she bumped into him. Sydney’s cheeks warmed again and she looked up at him, and then off to the side, and then back to his face. “Um, yeah. Like… just before we all had to move here. I don’t blame you for not really noticing, though. I’m not on the network much.” She fussed with her sleeves, tugging at the hems around her wrists to make sure her arms were still fully covered. “I’m Sydney.”
Holden didn't miss the way the woman pulled up short and his free hand spread in the air in a harmless gesture, a few fingers coming off his coffee cup to do the same. She didn't seem freaked out, at least, which was promising.
How did you explain to a complete stranger that you had an incredibly erotic dream about them?
You didn't. Holden cleared his throat and glanced toward where the lobby was situated beyond the elevators. "It's nice to meet you, Sydney. Sorry to keep you," he said, looking down at Sydney again though it was at least with the hint of a smile. He didn't give out much of those these days. "Mondays, am I right?" Holden added with an awkward laugh. He caught himself staring a little too long and he made a frustrated sound before turning and gesturing for her to go ahead. "Off to work, then?" he asked.
“Sorry,” she said when he held up his hands. “It’s, um, fine– I can’t. Touch people without it getting weird.” Which she recalled vaguely telling him in her dream, but how could he know that? It was just a bout of eerily timed deja vu, in a way. “Which is a me problem, not you.”
Sydney shook it off and adjusted her bag strap, offering him a small smile in return. “Yeah, unfortunately. Kind of feels like when there’s a major holiday coming up, the whole week should be off or something, right?” She shrugged a little, her gaze inadvertently lowering to give him a quick glance over, before she caught herself and pulled her attention forward with another flush of her cheeks. “Um, we’re all going to be too– distracted to do any work, anyways.”
Though her distraction was certainly far less food oriented than most people’s would be.
“You?”
He couldn't argue that point and his head-tip was a nod of concession. "My job probably should slow down but we're finishing up a project that needs to be done by end-of-day Wednesday. So," Holden said with a shrug.
And he didn't miss the way Sydney gave him the once-over. Which was fine because he was absolutely doing the same, wondering if his mind had been accurate. But she couldn't touch, she had said. The dream hadn't been an issue and... had he known she couldn't touch? Holden reminded himself to go back over the network later; she'd arrived before they had all moved so that gave him a timeline.
"I work in construction," he said. "I don't have to sit still for too long and I get to work with my hands. It feels a little more like home even if I'm starting over at the bottom of the hierarchy. Definitely not itching for a foreman job any time soon. I like not having the responsibility on my shoulders." A thought struck him and at least he had enough sense to not voice it though he had to clear his throat again and hid half of his expression behind taking a swallow of still too-hot coffee.
Well, if the dream she’d had about this man she couldn’t even recall seeing before today was anything to go by, he was… very, very good at working with his hands and she had to bite her tongue from saying so out loud. Instead, she leaned into the conversation.
“Is construction work something you did back in your home world? I’m not exactly doing what I did at home, but I can’t say it’s too far off, either? Except instead of working for a division of the government, I’m working for a private company. Office admin is the official job title, but it’s a lot more than just sitting at a desk and doing paperwork. Which, you know, I… uh, like to work with my hands, too. Keeps me busy, which is nice. Plus my bosses are cool and I’ve been told my schedule can be pretty… flexible if I need it to be.”
"I was an ice hauler for a while. Then I accidentally ended up in the middle of a war between Earth and Mars," Holden said with a shrug. No wonder his roommate thought he was fucking with him half the time. "Ended up as a captain of a Mars ship doing our own thing. Gotta say, didn't see my life going that way. Or this way."
He huffed out an amused noise and gave a half-grin. Oh, he was aware of flexible though she said it in relation to her schedule. "As long as it doesn't make you want to dig your brain out of your skull with a rusty spoon, I'd say you're doing pretty well for yourself," Holden remarked. "Anyway. I won't keep you. I need to go catch a bus."
And be alone with his thoughts around a bunch of strangers? Awesome plan.
“Mars? That’s… unexpected,” she said with a soft laugh, which came out almost as a scoff. “So did you end up going back in time when you wound up here? Or is space travel just kind of normal for your universe in 2026?” Not that she was entirely unfamiliar with it herself, but then again, the government had a lot of equipment that had been beyond her imagination when she started working for Division 3.
Sydney shook her head and smiled at him again. “No, it doesn’t make me want to do that, thank god.” And then a brief feeling of disappointment settled in her chest when he said he had a bus to go catch. Because, right, of course. They were both on their way to work.
“I hope you have a nice day.” Another smile and then she extended a gloved hand, which was a rare occurrence for her. “Um, and I don’t know if you’d like to grab a drink or something later this week…?”
"I'm a little over three hundred years in the past. I was born in twenty-three-twenty," Holden grinned, unable to help it.
His gaze dropped down to her offered hand and once more considered the glove for just a second. Holden took it with a gentle shake that somehow landed on just the right side of non-patronizing. "I'd like that. If you're thinking of coffee, Friday morning would be great. If you're thinking more along the alcoholic lines, I'd probably kill for that on Wednesday after work. I'll leave it up to you," Holden said and offered another smile before releasing her.
If he didn't go find his bus, he was going to end up staring awkwardly and trying to decide just how accurate his dream had been. God, had he been this bad as a teenager? Don't answer that he immediately thought, as though any one of his mothers or fathers could hear him.
Three hundred years definitely caught her by surprise and both of her eyebrows shot up, disappearing behind her bangs, though she said nothing about it. Instead, she allowed herself to actually appreciate the feeling of his hand and the firm hold behind it – something she vividly remembered from her dream.
“I mean… I wouldn’t say no to both? Let’s start with the drink Wednesday night,” she said, withdrawing her hand to loosely cross her arms over her chest instead. “And then maybe we can see about Friday morning, if you’re still interested.” That came with another smile and something a little flirtatious in the glance she gave him. “Go catch your bus. I’ll– see you around.”
She lifted a hand to give a little wiggle of her fingers in farewell and after a moment’s pause, turned to head out of the building, toward the rest of her Monday.
For one, the space overlooked a snowy mountain range through a series of large bay windows, providing a view from the bed that she was not at all familiar with. And then there was the fact that the bathroom was up a set of stairs. Sydney looked around, moving from the edge of the bed to around the corner where the door was. She crossed to it and pulled on the handle – which didn’t budge. “Fan-fucking-tastic.”
A sigh pushed past her lips and she walked back around to where the bed was, stepping toward one of the windows and spotting her own reflection, which immediately made her eyebrows shoot up. She glanced down at herself then, realizing that for whatever reason, she was dressed in nothing but a barely-long-enough-to-cover-anything emerald green, lacy and very sheer robe, tied neatly shut at the front. To what avail? She wasn’t sure.
“I’m not sure this get up was wholly necessary,” she mumbled to herself, head tilting a little as she looked back at her reflection. “View’s nice, though.”
James Holden usually managed to deal with most things. Dreams? Pieces of cake. Nightmares? Sure, bring them on. Nothing felt out of the ordinary except he didn't recognize the view and wasn't that abnormal? And then he was rounding a corner just in time to catch a blonde commenting on the view. Holden grinned to himself like this was perfectly normal because why fight dreams?
"Yeah it is," he rumbled in agreement as he came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle nosing into her hair so his mouth could find her neck. "Or did you mean outside. Eh. It's okay." There was a vague familiarity about the face he glimpsed in the reflection the window tossed back but something, something science about people in dreams being faces they'd seen. He was a man who kept to himself: got up, probably greeted his roommate, caffeinated, left for work... and caffeinated throughout the day. Home again, more of the same though in opposite order from the morning.
Instinct kicked in almost too quickly when she felt an arm around her middle and a rumble of his voice in her ear. Don’t touch, don’t touch, don’t touch. Her heart (for whatever it was in this scenario) would have leapt into her throat, alarm bells going off in a frenzy as she tried to process the moment. And then just as quickly, everything slowed, her body frozen just long enough to keep her from stepping away from whoever it was behind her.
And then she felt lips on her neck and oh. They were… warm? She couldn’t recall feeling something so similar except for when David had–
Wait.
Things calmed slowly as her mind caught up to the realization that this was no different than being in the white room, her body having gone ridged against him, now relaxing as she looked out at the darkening horizon, their reflections becoming a little more visible in the glass.
However, natural instinct slipped in as her head fell to the side enough to expose more of her neck to him. “I definitely meant outside,” she responded with a soft laugh in her words. “I haven’t seen mountains like this before,” she said quietly, one (ungloved) hand slipping over his arm, nails dragging softly over his skin. “What view were you referring to?”
"Which one do you think?" he asked without any real thought behind it. He'd felt her go rigid in his arms and even in a dream state, he would have never forced anyone to do anything intimate. Holden had quite a number of boundaries and that one was high on the list. But the woman had relaxed and he smiled against her throat.
The hand that was on the side of the alluring tilt of her head came up to lightly tangle his fingers into her hair as he encouraged that tilt just a little further. His other only slid upward to cup along her rib cage, holding her in place against him. The motion rucked up the hem of the sheer robe but he was content to explore the expanse of the neck she'd presented. "Not sure which mountains those are," Holden murmured, as though it was important. "Could be Montana. Never seen 'em from this angle." Did he need words? No. Not when he could tease that delectable spot just beneath her ear with a hint of tongue and teeth.
The sleep pants he wore weren't the usual sweatpants but something softer and did even less to hide a growing arousal. God, he loved these dreams. "You want to keep looking at the sunset?" he asked, voice soft and the tone so-low in her ear.
Sydney felt the fabric of the robe move up and suddenly realized just how badly she wanted this. Her hand followed where his moved, as he braced the curve of her rib, and she gently guided it up further to cup her small breast over the lace. A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, eyes now half-lidded as she watched him kiss her neck.
Pulling her lower lip between her teeth, she arched her lower back just enough to press her rear end right against his crotch, teasing his arousal in kind. “Just for another minute,” she murmured in response to his question.
She gave it a few beats before she turned herself around in his arms, finally able to see his face properly. Gosh, he was cute. “You know, I don’t– do things like this very often. I normally can’t touch people,” she added, slipping one of her hands between their bodies, a fingertip pulling playfully at the waistband of his sleep pants. “So it’s nice that I can right now… I feel like I should really take advantage of it, you know?”
Which she did almost immediately, that same hand slipping lower to brush her fingers against his arousal over the softness of fabric containing it.
Holden really, really liked these dreams. They were relaxing. Fun. And he didn't have to overthink anything. They didn't usually last but that was okay, too. The hand that was encouraged to cup her breast gave a squeeze and he groaned against her skin, grinning as she pressed both into his hand and against his groin.
I normally can't touch people was a new one but he didn't get a chance to think too hard about it when her fingers were taking advantage. "Well," he hummed, walking her backward just a little until her back hit the glass of the scenic window, "I'm not going to complain about being taken advantage of." His fingers deftly untied the robe and Holden wasted no time in kissing the blonde, hands finding skin and one dipping low. Dreams never needed too much preamble but he liked taking his time when given the opportunity; his subconscious didn't really deviate from that. "Gonna make you feel good," Holden promised with a wicked smile.
That mischievous look flickered across her features when the front of the robe was loosened, falling open to expose every soft and naked inch of her. Sydney arched against the glass, chin tilting up just a little with that grin on her lips until it was kissed away with a quiet noise of surprise. She wrapped a hand around the back of his neck to keep him close as his hands moved over her body and between her thighs.
A moan almost instantly sounded in her throat and she nodded, nipping at his lower lip while his hands did what they liked. Her own free hand moved to the front of his pants, pushing at the waistband to inch it down off of his hips until she could wrap her own fingers around his length.
“Please,” she breathed against his lips, a hint of pleading in the word as she kissed him again and hitched a thigh against his leg. And then: “I haven’t been fucked in so long.”
"So let's fix that," Holden groaned as his hand caught her thigh and then hoisted her up against the glass, guiding her legs around him. He could fix that really well.
As sex dreams went, Holden had no regrets. Well, okay, maybe a small regret because he hadn't woken up like that since he was a teenager. He was covered in sweat and he'd made a mess of his boxers and his bedsheets. "Jesus," he muttered, gingerly sitting up as he tried to not make things worse. The remnants of the dream clung to him in vivid detail and he glared down at himself. He wasn't exactly a young man with the stamina to match but clearly that wasn't something he could explain to his body.
Holden prayed his roommate wasn't awake. He also prayed that he'd not been making any noises while he'd fucked some dream woman senseless. Against the window, in the bed, in the bed again... Holden groaned quietly and wrapped a hand around himself. He needed a shower anyway and apparently he needed it cold. Focusing on his breathing and trying to distract himself, he went about grabbing the dirtied sheets and decided to chuck them and the blanket and pillow cases to the floor before getting out of his boxers and grabbing a towel. Shower. Get laundry going. "Fuck," he breathed as he stepped out of his room, unable to wipe the grin off his face. Hey, he could appreciate a good dream just as much as the next guy.
On the other hand, and several floors above, Sydney awoke with a distinct throbbing between her legs. Like the events of the dream had manifested and carried over into something tangible, a reminder of just how… satisfied her dream counterpart had been left. She smiled and stretched, groaning a little as she shifted to feel the cooling dampness on her underwear that accompanied it.
That woke her up more fully and she reached a hand under the blanket, realizing that things certainly had physically manifested while her dream self had been getting her brains well and truly fucked right out.
She also couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a dream like that, let alone one so vivid and real and that went through to the very, very welcome end. “Jesus Christ,” she murmured, thankful that she didn’t have a roommate to contend with as she moved from her bed. A quick strip of the mattress led to starting a load of laundry, which led to a shower, and something far more refreshing.
And yet she couldn’t stop thinking about the cute, dark haired guy from her dream. Nor could she quite shake the feeling that she knew him from somewhere, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
A little more coffee was needed that morning; sleep deprivation was hardly a new thing but Holden had a physically taxing day ahead at the current job site. It was easy to lose himself in the mundane tasks that felt so much like the ice hauling days. Back when he hadn't accidentally made himself the face of a rebellion. Back when he hadn't ended up in a three-sided war that he was way too involved in.
He was definitely not thinking too hard as he stepped into the elevator that had stopped at his floor with a single occupant already in it. Polite, he inclined his chin and then froze as the doors closed behind him. It was her. Holden cleared his throat, said a polite Good Morning, and glanced toward the panel of buttons to confirm, yes, the button he needed was lit up. He pivoted slowly on his heel, work boots quiet on the floor, and he settled against the wall of the elevator. A thumb hooked into the pocket of his jeans while he lifted his travel mug to his lips to sip at the too-hot fresh coffee he'd poured himself just before leaving. He was oddly glad that his high-vis vest was in the beat up truck he'd acquired and there was nothing telling about his jeans and long-sleeved shirt look. Holden couldn't help but steal a glance just as the elevator dinged on a lower floor and let someone in. Holden shifted closer to the woman next to him in an effort to give the newcomer a little more room; Holden wasn't exactly a small guy, considering he had a good nine inches on the blonde alone.
Before venturing from her apartment for the day to go see what work needed to be done at the consulting firm (or so she’d been told that was how they explained the job), Sydney had dressed in her usual sort of attire – a black turtleneck, black skirt that came to just above her knees, tall black boots, and her hair up in a ponytail. Black gloves finished the look and were her one staple, to keep from accidentally making skin to skin contact with anyone. All of it form fitting.
She gathered her jacket and bag and made her way to the elevator, taking advantage of the new earbuds she’d purchased recently to listen to some music on her commute. Everything was normal, even if she couldn’t get her dream out of her mind; it had the potential to make for a very long, distracting day.
When the elevator slowed to a stop to let someone in at the eighth floor, Sydney didn’t think much of it, until she looked up. Her phone nearly slipped from her grip and she felt her face grow warm almost immediately when she saw him. Well, that explained why he’d seemed at least vaguely familiar. But it was just eight floors, this was– fine. Until he moved closer when the elevator stopped again and her breath hitched somewhere in her throat.
Sydney shifted her jacket and bag to her other arm away from him, and when the elevator slowed to another top the next floor down, she risked a glance over and up to him just as the newest addition to the elevator squeezed in closer to her other side, pressing her a little closer to him.
Holden was all too aware of the woman next to him and was trying desperately to give her room but it was apparently a popular time to be leaving for the day. When he got jostled just a little, Holden glanced back down and gave a tight smile. "Sorry," he said and then looked resolutely at the back of the head of the person in front of him. The elevator slid to a stop again and it was only one stop away from the lobby.
There was a moment where he looked like he was going to say something but Holden gave a minute shake of his head, talking himself out of it. Right up until the doors opened to the lobby and people started to file out. It was habit to let the others exit first and he took up the rear, free hand automatically moving to a protective position near the woman's lower back though he didn't touch. He heard the doors close behind them and then he reached out to catch the blonde lightly by the elbow. "Hey, sorry. One sec?" Holden asked, immediately releasing her once he'd gotten her attention. "Recently moved in, right?" he asked cautiously. "From the Station?" The best way of making sure they were in the same, chaotic situation. "James Holden. I don't... always pay attention too closely to our network."
If it weren’t for the fact that she was stuck so high up in the tower now, Syd would have normally taken the stairs – the elevator being so crowded this morning was the main reason for that. So it wasn’t lost on her that in some weird, divine intervention or whatever you wanted to call it way, she was crammed in said elevator with the man from her dream (it was a dream, right?). And it had her brain going a mile a minute as she waited for the lift to come to a stop, while also having her unfocused and lost in her own less-than-PG-rated thoughts.
Habit had her filing out behind everyone once they reached the main floor, and it also had her turning perhaps a little too quickly when he touched her elbow, pulling herself up short just before she bumped into him. Sydney’s cheeks warmed again and she looked up at him, and then off to the side, and then back to his face. “Um, yeah. Like… just before we all had to move here. I don’t blame you for not really noticing, though. I’m not on the network much.” She fussed with her sleeves, tugging at the hems around her wrists to make sure her arms were still fully covered. “I’m Sydney.”
Holden didn't miss the way the woman pulled up short and his free hand spread in the air in a harmless gesture, a few fingers coming off his coffee cup to do the same. She didn't seem freaked out, at least, which was promising.
How did you explain to a complete stranger that you had an incredibly erotic dream about them?
You didn't. Holden cleared his throat and glanced toward where the lobby was situated beyond the elevators. "It's nice to meet you, Sydney. Sorry to keep you," he said, looking down at Sydney again though it was at least with the hint of a smile. He didn't give out much of those these days. "Mondays, am I right?" Holden added with an awkward laugh. He caught himself staring a little too long and he made a frustrated sound before turning and gesturing for her to go ahead. "Off to work, then?" he asked.
“Sorry,” she said when he held up his hands. “It’s, um, fine– I can’t. Touch people without it getting weird.” Which she recalled vaguely telling him in her dream, but how could he know that? It was just a bout of eerily timed deja vu, in a way. “Which is a me problem, not you.”
Sydney shook it off and adjusted her bag strap, offering him a small smile in return. “Yeah, unfortunately. Kind of feels like when there’s a major holiday coming up, the whole week should be off or something, right?” She shrugged a little, her gaze inadvertently lowering to give him a quick glance over, before she caught herself and pulled her attention forward with another flush of her cheeks. “Um, we’re all going to be too– distracted to do any work, anyways.”
Though her distraction was certainly far less food oriented than most people’s would be.
“You?”
He couldn't argue that point and his head-tip was a nod of concession. "My job probably should slow down but we're finishing up a project that needs to be done by end-of-day Wednesday. So," Holden said with a shrug.
And he didn't miss the way Sydney gave him the once-over. Which was fine because he was absolutely doing the same, wondering if his mind had been accurate. But she couldn't touch, she had said. The dream hadn't been an issue and... had he known she couldn't touch? Holden reminded himself to go back over the network later; she'd arrived before they had all moved so that gave him a timeline.
"I work in construction," he said. "I don't have to sit still for too long and I get to work with my hands. It feels a little more like home even if I'm starting over at the bottom of the hierarchy. Definitely not itching for a foreman job any time soon. I like not having the responsibility on my shoulders." A thought struck him and at least he had enough sense to not voice it though he had to clear his throat again and hid half of his expression behind taking a swallow of still too-hot coffee.
Well, if the dream she’d had about this man she couldn’t even recall seeing before today was anything to go by, he was… very, very good at working with his hands and she had to bite her tongue from saying so out loud. Instead, she leaned into the conversation.
“Is construction work something you did back in your home world? I’m not exactly doing what I did at home, but I can’t say it’s too far off, either? Except instead of working for a division of the government, I’m working for a private company. Office admin is the official job title, but it’s a lot more than just sitting at a desk and doing paperwork. Which, you know, I… uh, like to work with my hands, too. Keeps me busy, which is nice. Plus my bosses are cool and I’ve been told my schedule can be pretty… flexible if I need it to be.”
"I was an ice hauler for a while. Then I accidentally ended up in the middle of a war between Earth and Mars," Holden said with a shrug. No wonder his roommate thought he was fucking with him half the time. "Ended up as a captain of a Mars ship doing our own thing. Gotta say, didn't see my life going that way. Or this way."
He huffed out an amused noise and gave a half-grin. Oh, he was aware of flexible though she said it in relation to her schedule. "As long as it doesn't make you want to dig your brain out of your skull with a rusty spoon, I'd say you're doing pretty well for yourself," Holden remarked. "Anyway. I won't keep you. I need to go catch a bus."
And be alone with his thoughts around a bunch of strangers? Awesome plan.
“Mars? That’s… unexpected,” she said with a soft laugh, which came out almost as a scoff. “So did you end up going back in time when you wound up here? Or is space travel just kind of normal for your universe in 2026?” Not that she was entirely unfamiliar with it herself, but then again, the government had a lot of equipment that had been beyond her imagination when she started working for Division 3.
Sydney shook her head and smiled at him again. “No, it doesn’t make me want to do that, thank god.” And then a brief feeling of disappointment settled in her chest when he said he had a bus to go catch. Because, right, of course. They were both on their way to work.
“I hope you have a nice day.” Another smile and then she extended a gloved hand, which was a rare occurrence for her. “Um, and I don’t know if you’d like to grab a drink or something later this week…?”
"I'm a little over three hundred years in the past. I was born in twenty-three-twenty," Holden grinned, unable to help it.
His gaze dropped down to her offered hand and once more considered the glove for just a second. Holden took it with a gentle shake that somehow landed on just the right side of non-patronizing. "I'd like that. If you're thinking of coffee, Friday morning would be great. If you're thinking more along the alcoholic lines, I'd probably kill for that on Wednesday after work. I'll leave it up to you," Holden said and offered another smile before releasing her.
If he didn't go find his bus, he was going to end up staring awkwardly and trying to decide just how accurate his dream had been. God, had he been this bad as a teenager? Don't answer that he immediately thought, as though any one of his mothers or fathers could hear him.
Three hundred years definitely caught her by surprise and both of her eyebrows shot up, disappearing behind her bangs, though she said nothing about it. Instead, she allowed herself to actually appreciate the feeling of his hand and the firm hold behind it – something she vividly remembered from her dream.
“I mean… I wouldn’t say no to both? Let’s start with the drink Wednesday night,” she said, withdrawing her hand to loosely cross her arms over her chest instead. “And then maybe we can see about Friday morning, if you’re still interested.” That came with another smile and something a little flirtatious in the glance she gave him. “Go catch your bus. I’ll– see you around.”
She lifted a hand to give a little wiggle of her fingers in farewell and after a moment’s pause, turned to head out of the building, toward the rest of her Monday.