ɑgɛɳt ɱѳɓiuร (jetskiing) wrote in noexits, @ 2022-04-10 17:21:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread/narrative, marvel (tv/movies): sharon carter, ₴ inactive: mobius m. mobius 2, → week 034 (dino island) |
dino island - day 3
It seemed tranquil here, in the southern region of their home-away-from campus, but Mobius wasn’t about to get too complacent. The beaches were sandy, however, and pretty much everything he would expect out of a beach anyway - nothing so rocky, where slate gray pebbles were washed smooth during their tremulous journey down the coast, creating a soft whisper of a rustle as they were lapped at by the tide. This was a beach that would, in theory, allow Mobius to go barefoot on the sand that was soft - but he didn’t plan to. He’d crafted clothes and went fishing, also had gathered plenty of berries and dodo eggs - combining those resources with others, at Sharon’s ‘professionally’ built hut, meant that they would be doing pretty okay. In theory. But a lot of measuring around here was ‘in theory’ - with Derleth, you just couldn’t be too sure sometimes. He’d just returned from doing a sweep to patrol really quick - they were splitting those duties, handling them in shifts, and while he had his pruning baton he planned to utilize the weapons he’d found or crafted if necessary, in order to save the juice for a big potential emergency. On the way to the southern shores he’d picked up some decent-looking flowers from bushes around the edges of swampy areas; they were blue, and a nice spot of color in their very what the hell circumstances. So now was as good of a time as any - he brought those flowers to Sharon at her house, stepping inside. And was glad that they didn’t have to evacuate due to a giant t-rex stomping along to squash the fruits of their labor. “I’m baaack,” he called, not too loudly. Idly he wondered what time it was - but. What was time anyway? The sound of Mobius' voice meant a smile, even if it was small, because Sharon wasn't used to showy and demonstrative emotions, and she'd spent most of the first part of this week trying to keep busy so shecould avoid thinking about all of that had happened the previous week. It was easier to craft tools and put together a structure and try to collect a small group of them in one place where they could work together to create (hopefully) something a little bit safer for all of them, than it was to think about the fact that she and Mobius had shared brain space the following week. Something more solid for non-magical types and children to sleep safely in was important too, in a way that she couldn't classify her own emotions. Maybe it was true that she wasn't prone to heroics for heroics sake, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to help those on Delerth that didn't have the background that she had, or the super strength that someone like Bucky might have, or the magic that Strange had. Of course, the distraction hadn't kept her stomach from flipping with relief when she'd seen Mobius and Loki walking up, and it didn't keep the whisper of a flutter away at the sound of Mobius at her doorway. A whisper that blossomed into a full on dance when she lifted her head and saw the flowers. She smiled, opening her mouth to say something and then closing it again. They'd flirted on the network some, the undercurrent of it unavoidable, but she really didn't know where they were going, but flowers felt like… something. The warmth of the smile she gave Mobius as she tilted her head and stood up challenged the practicality of the words she said aloud: "Are those edible?" “Are you really hurting for something to chew on?” Mobius asked teasingly, handing over the couple of stems with blue petals - the colors were all summer skies and the eggs of a robin, and he didn’t think there was anything particularly tasty about them but, yes, practicality tended to win out in these survival types of scenarios (and Mobius hadn’t died once - he planned to keep it that way). “I wouldn’t eat them - but apparently they can be used to craft other things, if you want to make some dinosaur kibble.” Thanks, useful gemstone embedded in his wrist without permission - but honestly, he’d been not himself so many times that bodily autonomy was actually kind of a rare bird in Derleth these days. He stepped closer, and there was probably a bunch of stuff they needed to talk about - best to go on and do that, most likely, if others weren’t around. The house was small, reminding him of a stone cabin in the middle of nowhere, but it had a fireplace and was actually sort of cozy - plus Sharon had her own room. No luxury bedding, but pelts would do - and there was enough natural light. “Anyone else you’re expecting back or is it just us for now?” Sharon laughed, and reached over to admire the flowers he'd brought her. They might not be practical. She didn't really intend to make dinosaur kibble -- although who knew. Even so, they were beautiful. "I always liked blue," she told him, sticking her nose in one of them to see if they smelled good at all. The verdict: not roses or jasmine, but there was a pleasant smell to them, and they were pretty anyway. "Thank you," she offered, and nodded him further into the hut. The gem had been helpful in building things quickly, and the house was one part of that. She’d put all the restless energy into trying to get something that was unlikely to be bothered by any of the creatures she had skirted, and occasionally fended off with one of her pistols. “It’s just us for now. I’ve got some people out on patrol, but come in. Welcome to,” she looked around as if considering the space for the first time. Stone, fireplace, small but private. It could be a lot worse, and they didn’t have electric lights in their dorms at Delerth these days either, so on that front it wasn’t any worse than Butler Hall. “Well, Prehistoric Delerth I guess? It’s like if our girls' night went back a few centuries or ten. Sadly I can offer no fun music, no good make-up, no wine, and very little in the way of fun treats, but there is a hearth and a reasonably comfortable soft fur we could pull over if we wanted…?” The last lilted up into a question. She could assume that maybe Mobius and Loki had talked, the flirting on the network had implied there was interest when he arrived, and flowers… particularly flowers that were only practical for dino kibble, seemed like a statement that suggested maybe. But she didn’t want to assume either. Prehistoric Derleth. That sounded about right. It wasn’t admittedly Mobius’s cup of tea, but he’d get through it - just for the sake of returning to their campus and finally having enough data, enough resources, and enough gumption to try something Really Big in regards to breaking the reset loop. Had to keep his eye on the prize, that was all. Couldn’t lose focus now. Or maybe lose focus a little, because Sharon was beautiful and he was very, very into her - but for a little while, that was okay. Even the biggest brains needed a break occasionally. “Yeah, let’s pull up a patch of fur and sit by the hearth,” he nodded. “I’m...sure we need to talk anyway? About - not eye makeup, exactly. We can be more direct this time.” There was a ghost of a smirk on his face as he said that - no need to dance around things. For example? “I had a chat with Loki too, on the way here.” And it went well, as Mobius thought it would - if anything, he’d been afraid that he’d screw it up by saying something wrong, but honesty worked despite how it was fumbling honesty. Mobius had existed for awhile yet on the flip side he hadn’t existed for himself that whole time - and was currently experiencing the privilege of learning a lot of new things. Sharon gave him a quick side glance, and a smile played on her lips: "I'll put away the makeup metaphors, then." She slipped the flowers into a small basket she'd crafted earlier to carry food in, but which was currently empty, and she gathered up a couple of the pelts to pull them over in front of the hearth. She would say it wasn't the most romantic location in the world, but if you could completely discard the dinosaurs that might kill everyone, it actually was a little romantic. In that Outlander sort of way, where you had absolutely no modern niceties, but the attractive man in the room with you mostly made up for it. Mobius was here, he'd brought flowers, he was talking about talking more directly, and Sharon could assume that meant things went well with Loki, but Loki was a bit of a wild-card. No, that was diplomatic. Loki was a wild card, and the very sensible part of her pointed out that if she and Mobius pursued this attraction she had a connection to someone for whom Drama was probably their middle name. But attraction wasn't exactly sensible, and Sharon considered Mobius worth it. And at any rate, she wasn't interested in assuming things currently. Not in this particular situation. "What did he say?" She slipped her shoes off and stepped onto one of the pelts which she sank down cross legged on and nodded for Mobius to join her. Shoes off on his end too, Mobius sat next to Sharon and made himself comfortable. “He told me awhile ago that he was a person who didn’t necessarily envision himself only being with one person, forever - that even if he sought out the company of others, it wouldn’t change how he felt about the person he fell in love with,” Mobius attempted to explain. Sharon was, honestly, likely to be more caught up on polyamory and what all of that entailed - she hadn’t been hunkered down and stuck in the cogs of a time-space defying organization with no sun, no moon, someplace that wasn’t even a planet (that sort of thing made you fall gloriously behind the times). “So I wasn’t trying to change that about him - I just didn’t really understand it well at first, but now I sort of do,” he continued. “Because I told him about you and he was supportive. He said whatever makes me happy - and I am happy. With him, and I like you. I do. I’d also like to see where it goes - if that’s also what you want?” It would probably be a separate entanglement from what he had with Loki, but Mobius also wasn’t giving up on him - he loved Loki, and made that clear. So if Sharon was open to figuring things out with Mobius, keeping all of that in mind, well - he’d consider himself pretty lucky. Sharon understood polyamory on an intellectual level but she'd never really considered it beyond that. Granted, she'd never really spent a lot of her life focused on relationships. There'd been a brief moment when she'd thought about Steve that way - it was sort of difficult not to. He was Steve after all, but a superhero and a spy were perhaps not an ideal romantic combination. She wished she did have that wine though, it would make this conversation feel easier, even if it might be better to have it clear headed. She maybe hadn't expected Loki to be so practical about it? She'd thought before that she probably didn't have a clear picture of Loki, because it was obvious how Mobius felt about him, but this pushed that thought back up again. Well. "As last week made rather obvious, I do like you a great deal. I haven't really given much thought to what type of relationship I might have because I think either it was the assumed default in a vague and undefined sense, or I assumed that my life made a significant relationship of any consistency impractical." She shrugged lightly. "I'm not sure that Delerth and its madness makes that any less true," she glanced around the room, ending her gaze on Mobius' face with a smirk on her lips. This week was proof positive of that. They'd all ended up on all corners of who knew where, and having someone to worry about was perhaps not ideal. That said, this week was also proof positive that Sharon would worry regardless of anything else. There had been a significant amount of relief when Mobius and Loki had shown up - like a weight had lifted off her shoulders, even though they weren't through the week, and dinosaurs could still harm any of them at any moment. "But maybe a little impracticality does a girl some good?" “It’s hard to be practical here anyway,” Mobius offered, reaching up to brush the backs of his fingers over Sharon’s cheek. “Overall, we might have to just - go with what works best for us, regardless of if it fits any standard definition or previous expectation.” Did he ever think that he would be in this situation? Definitely not. But here he was, figuring it out - maybe stumbling a little along the way, like anyone did, but he wasn’t about to be told what was best for him anymore. Or that he was supposed to be happy with his lot in life, that he had no greater purpose than to serve some time dictator he couldn’t even see - to hell with that. Maybe he wanted a house with a white picket fence. Maybe he just wanted a week where something didn’t go wrong - where they didn’t have to claw and scrape for a little bit of joy, pulling it desperately from whatever hidden nook and cranny they could grab it from. He’d take it. “I don’t know what will happen or if Derleth will decide I’ll disappear tomorrow, but - I think we make a pretty good team and we always have. Even from the beginning.” He had to admit that there were these sparks from that point too - acupuncture needles, connecting two energy-filled highways in the body and he didn’t want to ignore that. Couldn’t. Sharon’s breath caught at the brush of his fingers. It was impossible to deny that energy that sparked from his touch. She shifted her weight, slipping onto her knees so that she could kneel and really enjoy the freedom to not just gaze longer when he wasn’t looking or offer a furtive glance when he might turn her direction, but rather to allow her look to linger on blue eyes, and the lines of his jaw and that slightly crooked nose. She wouldn’t have necessarily thought he was her type, but maybe types were ridiculous notions anyway. They focused so much on superficial things never considering the myriad of ways souls could touch. “We make a damn good team,” she told him. “Which means that I think we’ll figure out exactly what this looks like. We’re neither one of us afraid to ask questions or dig at something.” She reached over to slip her hand into his, palm to palm, their fingers threaded together. “I see what you and Loki have,” she added. Because when it came to not being afraid to say something there was that too. “And I don’t want to ever be in the way of that for you. He’s happy and you are too. But I like the idea of a space for us.” A different space. She didn’t think she would ever be anything other than independent, and even the idea of shifting to consider someone else in her choices was a bit strange to think about. And had it not already been happening without her intending for it to be the whole prospect would have made her more nervous. As it was? This felt natural. Maybe even Mobius having someone else didn’t feel strange to her. She leaned forward, a heartbeat’s distance from closing in to brush her lips against his, but it felt incredibly important to clarify everything in this situation - that underlying need to know he wanted something was the only thing that kept her from closing the distance: “So what do you want now?” Mobius liked the idea of having a space for the two of them as well - it worked for him. It seemed to work for Sharon too, and he would never try to change how independent she was. It was wired into her, given everything she'd been through and had to build on her own, after years spent constructing her empire. "Well, I still don't want you to be by yourself," he murmured, fingers stroking over hers - he wouldn't hone in on her independence, but she could also count on him. It was something that meant she wouldn't have to rely completely on herself - she could rely on him too. "So I kind of want to stay here with you now," he added, adrenaline skyrocketing - just having her this close meant that he'd be going into redlined overdrive any second now, temperature of his blood shooting up, up, up too and any resistance rapidly eroding; he didn't have much to begin with. "And...I just want you." He wanted to kiss her - get at the taste of her and push it back like a care package, because it was good enough to share. Or Mobius would take it all for himself - who was to say? But she beckoned and he didn't resist; he did kiss her, feeling that riotous electrical outpouring which sizzled up from toes to fingertips. He assumed that would be the case, and he was glad to know he wasn't wrong. Sharon was okay with that. She didn't hate the idea of having someone that she could reach out to when she needed someone to, well, be a good team with. Whatever that meant. Maybe not so very different from what they'd had up until now. But this? the way she could feel his breath on her cheek? This was different, and it pushed her heart rate up. It felt just a little bit forbidden, because wasn't something like this with a co-worker just a little bit risky? And co-worker might have been a good definition for her and Mobius were, insofar as Delerth had those things. "Good," was all she murmured in response before she leaned in to meet him. Her free hand slid up into his hair, as she brought herself fully into his sphere - what personal space? There was this space that was theirs for the moment, defined by two pelts and some sturdy, if perhaps not entirely conventional stone walls. For the moment everything else was outside of that, and Sharon could lean into the feel of his skin under her touch and the way his lips were warm against hers. That flutter of want promised it could be ignited, and Sharon moved into that promise, fully returning the kiss that he'd offered. She wanted him too, and maybe she hadn't said so in precisely those words, but the intentional way her lips met his, exploring and lingering in the heat of his mouth, there could be no confusion about what Sharon needed. The anticipation of this moment had not over-sold it, if anything it was more than she'd expected it would be. And it had been a while: seventeen sexless Delerth weeks, and more time than she'd like to admit to before that. She dropped the hand she'd been holding, to lift fingers to his collar, playing with the fabric there. "You should have what you want," she told him. Why bother with clothes at all? That was the perfectly logical question Mobius had in mind now, along with the sensation of a buzz rattling around his skull, something that left nothing but white noise in there. “So should you,” Mobius insisted - the crafted clothes were simple; shirt and pants, gloves and boots. Whatever worked for the terrain, whatever trek they happened to be on. But it would also be simple to remove - and he took Sharon’s hint. The shirt he wore was pulled up and tossed away and he started on hers next, close enough to share breath because he didn’t exactly want to pull away even though he knew it would facilitate what they both wanted quicker. Still, his hands worked efficiently despite the lack of space - and he got some more kisses in too. Nose to nose, mouths touching for smaller kisses, ones he took his time to appreciate before they reached the line of tearing the remaining clothes off and complete nudity. “And whatever you want, I’ll give it to you,” he added, nudging her on her back so he could move up over her and in between her thighs. Likely she could flip him whenever she wanted, but it was the illusion of control for the time being. Plus, to no one’s surprise, he also wouldn’t complain about being flipped either. Who would? [ELEVATOR MUSIC - PLESE HOLD] A hot, sweaty mess - that was literally what he was. Though it occurred to him that he also didn't really care - because turning into a hot, sweaty mess as a result of a good fuck was worlds better than becoming one due to the fact that you were outrunning a carnivore that was chasing you, wanting to make you a meal. This week was awful (yet made so much better just now). "Hopefully you got what you wanted too," he laughed breathlessly, as he came down from that post-explosive high. Sharon rode the whole thing out, happily wrapped up in him, and she didn't bother to move off of him, instead she just slipped down on top of him, still connected, and although any movement threatened to be too much she stayed, coming down so that she could kiss him breathlessly, once, and then stay. It felt safe. Although nothing else this week did. And she wasn't going to dig into the underlying tendency to try to overthink all of it. Right now that wasn't necessary and it was literally miles away from what she wanted. "Oh, you were very accommodating," she laughed breathlessly against his cheek, and she slipped her arms down on either side of his face and rested there propped up so that she could look down at him. He was… really amazing. And she found an emotion catching in her chest at just how attentive he'd been. She'd let it sit there. "This was definitely the most enjoyable physical exertion I've had all week." They were both sweaty but there was a certain desire to be close - due to hormones, yes, he knew all about the science of ‘afterglow.’ But it was also just other feelings too, and he fell into them gladly. He wrapped his arms around Sharon and kept her near - with room to rest on his chest if she wanted, and lie on the rise and fall of it. His fingers stroked her hair as she propped up above him a bit and he wanted to succumb to sleep this way, fingers still moving until he was out entirely. But he'd wait and see - he also wasn't sure if anyone was going to come back or not, and finding the two of them passed out and naked might not be a good look. Also if a dinosaur stomped by and crushed the house - yeah, Mobius would want to vacate before that happened. However, now? They were snugly locked together and he was exhausted, unwilling to surrender her to the cold and cruel world that was beyond this quickly-constructed little house. "Agreed about the physical exertion," he smirked. "Much more fun than chopping a tree with an ax or something. Give me a minute and I'll keep watch though, if you want to sleep." Sharon would likely reach for some clothing before they got to the point where they fell asleep. Keeping watch or not, she had ended up the point person for this particular spot - perhaps by choice on her part - but it did mean that she felt a certain responsibility to be aware and awake and easily able to move out and assist should the need require. And the need had been there several times already this week. But for the moment she allowed herself to rest, maybe not her full weight, but enough of it. It was closer than she usually allowed herself to stay in an afterglow, but it felt less natural to move off than it did to stay, and so she stayed, her lips turning up in a smile at his offer. “I’ve slept some,” she told him. Maybe not a lot but some. “Good,” Mobius sighed, hand gliding down Sharon’s side and back up again - he traced the shape of her and definitely wouldn’t forget anytime soon. She was incredibly beautiful and he was glad that they’d moved into the literal instead of the metaphorical, dancing past the ‘do we actually like each other?’ type of thing. Yep. He really liked her - that was probably evident. “Next week will be better.” He didn’t know that for sure but it had to be - of course, he’d been hoping for that since the week where Michael arrived and used gossip, thinly-veiled insults, and everyone’s favorite foods as weapons. And it hadn’t really happened yet, but. He’d still try to make the best of things and also go for at least a little bit of romance - neither of them needed showy gestures, yet subtle ways of showing you cared didn’t exactly go unappreciated. At least not on Mobius’s end. “I’m going to hold you to that,” she raised an eyebrow with an amused look on her face. But there was possibly some truth to that too. So long as Mobius didn’t disappear Delerth style or something, a thought that she couldn't spend much time thinking about, it seemed almost certain that it would be better. After all, there was the possibility of more of this, and the probability that there wouldn’t be any dinosaurs trying to eat them. And those two things were definitely a potential move in the week’s favorite. “If you could have any week you wanted,” she started, curiously. “You could pick the week next week. Where would we be? Where would you want to be with me? Or with Loki?” Because it occurred to her that she didn’t really know. She knew a lot of things about Mobius. That he could be counted on, that he was damn smart, that he could see patterns in data and events, and that he was generous with his friends, and unsurprisingly, also his lovers. But there were things that hadn’t come up in the attempts to survive whatever Delerth had thrown at them, things that they’d never talked about while gathering data. Things that she supposed she ought to maybe know if this was a thing they were going to be doing. And maybe they didn’t need to, maybe it wasn’t that kind of a relationship, still — she was curious. Mobius chuckled a little. “I think Loki just wants to take a nap,” he quipped, but it probably wasn’t wrong. Mobius knew how tired he was - they all were, yes, but Loki had also been caught in the loop for awhile. He’d died and come back, he’d lost people he had started to care about, he tried to move forward and grow and found it to be like struggling to free himself from quicksand - damn near impossible, and it surged at him from all directions which was even worse. “But for us, well - “ He twisted some of Sharon’s hair around his fingers, watching her fondly with a pale, powder blue gaze. “I wouldn’t say no to a beach. A real one - like where the waters aren’t infested with sharks and we can soak up some sun without worrying about predators. I could show you how to jet ski, if I remember. I’m not sure I do.” His touch drifted to her face, gliding softly along her cheek as he considered. “But I read plenty of the magazines, at least.” That was all he had at the TVA - the only bright spot, on his only down time. Jet ski magazines, and maybe a soda when he really wanted to get crazy. “What about you? What would you want - with me?” Sharon couldn’t help a laugh at that. She knew Loki had been here even longer than she had, and that he probably was more tired than she was. Some weeks were worse than others. Some of her earlier ones felt as if they’d been really tiring, this one, also, as it turned out, was pretty exhausting. “What I’m hearing,” she moved her fingers to slip against Mobius' hairline. “Is definitely a five star hotel on a shore. We need incredibly soft beds, room service with a Michelin star chef, a bar that stays open until at least 3 or 4 in the morning, a beach, and probably some jet ski rentals. Am I missing anything?” She considered the question in return. It had been a while since she’d had anything resembling a vacation. Madripoor had been one of the few places she knew she could easily stay and so she had, but she didn’t miss it so much. “Add a city with some museums and professional theatre to the above and we’d probably both be covered. It’s been a while since I’ve wandered through art just to enjoy it.” That sounded like paradise. Mobius practically groaned out of frustration about the fact that he couldn’t have it. At least not right now. “Yeah, I think you covered it all and now I want it,” he said, planting a kiss on Sharon before he stretched to reach for his pants - he wasn’t one of those throw clothes back on as soon as he was done types (because that was rude) but at the very least, pants. He could do pants - and also snuggle (Mobius was a big cuddler, no shame there). “You should be able to have all the art too - all that culture. I could probably use some. Being stuck out of space and time for a millennia kind of puts a damper on getting out to experience the nightlife.” There wasn’t much to experience - he didn’t go into the field a lot, and TVA headquarters were sort of floating there with glimpses of a futuristic cityscape just outside the windows; yet he had never seen it. Never felt much of a need. He was supposed to be content where he was, a creation of the Timekeepers meant for protecting what they were assigned. The frustration was real, and Sharon matched the groan with a smile that somehow managed to be both bemused and sympathetic. After all she got it. It wasn’t that there weren’t some moments that were nice. She had gotten a few days in Hawaii when they had been in the 80s after all. But getting eaten by dinosaurs seemed to be as likely as anything else in Delerth. She slipped off of him, and reached for her own shirt, slipping it on over her shoulders. It felt easier than pants, and she stretched, before settling back in on the pelts. “Surely you got to see plenty of art on the Timeline though,” she pointed out. “I’ve only seen it sitting in museums.” “Some - lots of historical events seen live and in person, which were neat,” Mobius said, settling when Sharon did - it was just a recalibration, so to speak, and eventually he’d put all of his clothes on. Baby steps. “Though I didn’t go out in the field as much as I may have wanted to - I was the desk guy, cracking the tough cases from there and providing the coordinates to the Minutemen. Or interrogating the variants when they were brought in.” It shifted and changed sometimes, of course - with that much time, Mobius wasn’t just doing one thing. And the TVA functioned like a well-oiled machine. “They made sure I knew every language there was to know, however, for when I did go out in the field,” he added. “The ability to go anywhere in space and time, anywhere I wanted, just open a Timedoor - yeah, I used to feel so privileged.” His mustache twitched, smile a bit sad. “I’m sure they wanted me to feel that way.” Sharon watched him, and as he settled back in, she shifted back in so that she was nearer, so that she could run fingers against the still bare skin on his chest. What she knew about the TVA was limited. She knew some of how it worked, and of course she was enough of an analyst of her own to have filled in a number of the blanks around what they did and why. And the part of her that could appreciate the need for some order in the world might have been a little sympathetic, but she couldn't help but wonder about her variants - what lives might they have led? "Probably," she agreed. "But I suppose they didn't send you out for a night on the town most of the time," she added with a sympathetic smile. Even when he used the timedoor, it was likely for one of those cases, not just to enjoy the art. He had the ability to do something, without the agency to do it and that wasn't exactly a privilege. She considered the likelihood of there being anything nice the next week. It seemed unlikely, really. "Do you think it'll work? Like, gut level feeling, where are you at?" “Hmmm,” Mobius made a contemplative humming sound, taking Sharon in his arms again. It was a snug hold - and he hoped it provided some modicum of feeling safe. Because he felt pretty safe right now, and that was what you generally needed in a situation like this - most everyone wanted and needed to feel that way, anyway. They craved it, deep in their marrow and the most remote chambers of their hearts or whatever masqueraded as one. “I think it’ll work,” he said. He wouldn’t lie about it, or say things he didn’t mean - if there was also anytime to be honest, it was now. “My gut feeling says it’ll be soon - we’ve been making progress, especially in each ‘world’ we’re in where we’re able to pick up new things that could help us and make it all work for us.” Like the Book of Time - or those parts scavenged from Hoth. Just pieces here and there, all put together and forged with some patience and perseverance. Plus it probably helped that this was a group effort and it wasn’t one person hunkering down and hoarding all of the research - big brains, big minds, big results. “If we’re on campus next week and we have a chance to really focus - that’s where it’s going to be. On you too, of course,” he grinned, playing with her hair a little. “We can get in some research teamwork.” It was possible the teamwork wouldn’t be entirely research-related, but oh well. Breaks were important. Sharon hummed back in return, and for that particular moment maybe she did believe it. She knew she could be a bit cynical at times, and unwilling to be optimistic about anything, but also Mobius was right about what they'd picked up. They kept making progress, and finding things here and there and learning more. "If we don't happen to be running from whatever metaphorical dinosaurs Delerth might throw at us next week, I think that's a very good plan. You know how I feel about research teamwork." Sharon didn't let herself relax often. In fact during the entire stay at Delerth there had really been only two weeks where she'd been relaxed at all, and one had been when they'd been in the 1950s and she hadn't really been 'herself', and one had been when she'd been on that island with the animals. And prior to that, well, she'd been on the run for so long she didn't know when she had last relaxed. Which perhaps made it all the more notable that as Mobius slipped his arms around her, she did. Just a hair. Perhaps because it was just so impossible to not feel safe with Mobius. "Did you mean that about keeping watch while I slept?" She asked, letting herself curl in against him. He rested his chin on the top of Sharon's head, just breathing her in - and the aroma of their surroundings, which always seemed to smell like burning wood and smoke and ash, those chemical compounds of fire. And the salt of the sea, since it was right nearby - overall might be a pleasant environment if it were not, well, everything else. "I meant it," Mobius assured quietly. "Sleep, sweetheart." Not for too long, and he'd wake her up if he needed to, if anything that could be filed under 'emergency' occurred - but for a little while, at least. And he just breathed, waiting for her to drift off if she chose to - it took a lot of trust to fall asleep in someone's arms like this too, he was aware of that. But he felt as if they were there. What happened next, they'd both see - yet they had to have some good things in Derleth, and this certainly counted as one of them. |