Entry tags:

!complete, mike lane, samantha harris

Who: Sam inatowel & Mike mikelane
What: Dreams Again
When: Late August
Where: Mike's Apartment
Rating: Audience Discretion is Advised
Warnings: Discussion of horror game events & flirtatious material of the adult kind.
Status: Complete Upon Posting

~*~


The dreams had finally ended, or Sam thought they had. She had dreamed about the lodge, of standing still to avoid becoming the next Wendigo snack and they'd survived. All of them. Well, except for Josh. They couldn't find him after the helicopters had come to rescue them, and she knew deep down that he was still alive out there.

What had happened to him she had no idea, and she felt bad that he'd been left behind.

Still she had expected the dreams to stop, but they hadn't. She dreamt that Mike was attacked by Hannah. She couldn't blame Hannah for it either, and she'd honestly thought that he would've been the first one to go if she was being honest. The dream ended with the house still going up in flames, Mike being left behind with most of them standing outside.

Sam woke up freezing again, as she often did when she had dreams, and she rolled over in the bed toward her Mike's warmth. "Sorry, I know I'm cold." She murmured against him, "Dreams again." She figured that was the only explanation that she needed at this point.

~*~

Wrapping his arms around her, Mike pulled her close to him as if she were as pliable as a pillow, her cool body similar to the cool side of a pillow in the dark. She was small enough he could literally fit her entire body under his own. Mike enjoyed it when she burrowed against his hot flesh seeking his warmth while offering her own cool relief in return. He didn't mind her sharp edges -elbows and knees, toes and fingers- any more than he minded her soft curves, breasts and ass, shoulders and hips- because Sam was his comfort in the dark as much as he was hers.

"I still haven't had any. I can't help thinking that's a good thing. One of us needs to stay warm to keep the other one comfortable."

He kissed her hair, breathing in her shampoo. Sam always smelled clean to him. They were together enough to have her toiletries in his bathroom so he knew what she used to bathe in. It wasn't about what she put on her body so much as it was her body. Mike wondered if she would have to hold him some night soon because his nights were disturbed by Dreams he couldn't fully explain to anyone else because no one else saw them the way he did. Would she comfort him the way he comforted her?

"You want to talk about it?"

~*~

The warmth from Mike's body felt like Heaven against Sam's cold skin. One would think that considering she'd just been standing in front of a burning lodge that she'd be warm, but no, every time she dreamed she woke up freezing down to her bones. It was strange, and awful especially when she wasn't spending the night with Mike.

She nuzzled into him, letting out a long breath as the goosebumps that had broken out across her flesh slowly started to fade. "You know," she cleared her throat slightly, "I thought they'd ended. We were rescued, well most of us, but apparently not." She closed her eyes, thinking back to the last dream she'd had prior to this one for a few moments.

"I think you're one of the lucky ones too at this point." A light smile tugged up the corners of her lips while she just enjoyed the feeling of him wrapped around her.

"It started back at the lodge, prior to it blowing up. I uh, moved and the Wendigo spotted me since they're like T-Rexes from Jurassic Park. They sense movement. It was coming after me when Mike in my dreams stepped in, and caught its attention." She let out a sigh, leave it to him to step in and play the hero. "Most of the others had gotten out, but he was hurt pretty badly. I ran to switch the light switch on right before the Wendigo killed him." At least her ears weren't hurting from the explosion. That had happened the last time she'd had that particular dream. "I got him killed. I swear, I feel like sometimes I fuck up to the extreme in my dreams."

~*~

Wendigo were supposed to be used in scary stories to frighten kids around campfires during the summers. They weren't meant to be a real experience a person had, but they were a real experience in Sam's Dreams. Mike didn't have the answers to any of the questions she woke up with when she had a new Dream. None of the things which went bump in her nights showed up for him on his side of the bed, of what felt as if it was the Great Divide some nights, so Mike tried to take it as it came.

"You can't help the way things go down in the Dreams. They're," Mike sighed as he looked for words, "They're more like memories than moments you're living as far as I can tell. That means your Mike? He was dead already, Sam. You just remembered it happening tonight. That's all. We can't change the past. We can only move forward into our future."

He rocked her slightly, his foot tapping out the beat to a song he loved against the footboard of the bed as they moved together. Mike knew one day he could be the one looking for comfort; this was the best he had to offer Sam for the present. There was something soothing about the rocking motion. If he were a doctor or a psychiatrist or something, Mike imagined he'd have clinical words to describe it relating back to early childhood development.

As things were, Mike only knew it made him feel better so it might make Sam feel better, too.

"Besides, look at it this way: I fuck up out here in the real world every day. Nobody's perfect. At least your fuck-ups have already happened, mine? I'm living the dream, making the mistakes every day, all day, sometimes so I know the feeling."

~*~

Maybe Mike was right. At this point Sam didn't know, all she knew was that she was tired of waking up cold, and on the worst nights, scared. "Maybe you're right. I don't fucking know at this point. I just want the dreams to end. Maybe that'll be my last one." Sam had a sick feeling that it wouldn't be the last one, and she didn't want to know what the worst case scenario would be.

The rocking motion was enough to cause her to smile, and it was comforting.

Her skin started to warm pressed up against him, and the cold had slowly started to dissipate. She would never, not ever, complain about the heat. "Remind me if I ever complain about the heat to shut up." Reaching up, Sam scratched at her cheek before wrapping her arm back around Mike.

With a light laugh, Sam pulled back enough to look up at Mike. "That is a little perspective, but I doubt that your fuck-ups are costing people their lives." She let out another long breath that was nearly a sigh. Sam got what he was saying though, everyone made mistakes, but Sam honestly felt as if hers had started a massive chain of events in her dreams that she had no control over.

What had Chris said? Butterfly effect.

"But we all do fuck up. It's part of life, so I get what you're saying." She offered him a soft smile before she snuggled back down into him. "I just feel guilty I guess? These dreams don't help, and well, Josh is going through some stuff that makes me wonder if Hannah will have any issues too. I just worry. A lot."

~*~

"I know I don't have the same kind of Dreams to pull from for experience. I'm not trying to minimize how you feel. Honestly. I just---I want to make you feel better and I don't know anything else to say."

Mike was the kind of guy who liked to fix things. He worked with his hands. As a craftsman, the instinct was always there to get down into the nitty-gritty of a problem, tear it apart, clean it up, replace the old and broken with new and pristine. He loved found materials to give his pieces character, but there was a difference between showcasing the beauty of something at its core and trying to pass a lemon off as an orange by painting its peeling.

He stroked his hand down Sam's back with a smile.

"I'll trade my heat for your cold any night. We'll even each other out."

Lately, Mike had started to wonder more and more about his potential other life. Everyone who was on Valarnet seemed to eventually start to Dream about some other version of themselves. What would he do if he found out he was a terrible guy in his Dreams? What would happen if he started waking up from nightmares where he'd murdered people? What if he was some kind of monster like the Wendigo from Sam's Dreams? Would she still want to be with him if he wasn't the same man in his Dreams as the man she was sharing a bed with in that moment?

"What happens if I'm a monster in my Dreams? That's what I worry about. What happens if I'm not this guy in my Dreams? Will you stay? Will it change this? What we have? That's what I worry about. A lot."

~*~

"I know you're not." Sam replied with a soft smile, "And I know you're only trying to make me feel better. I just yeah, that whole guilty thing." Sam lifted a shoulder, and then took in a deep breath. Perhaps there would be a time when she didn't feel guilty about how things had gone down in her dreams so far, but right now, all Sam could think of was how she'd fucked up and continued to do so.

A light smile played on the edges of her lips, "Well, I do like your warmth." As if to prove that fact, she snuggled down into him closer, and took in a deep breath once again. It was nice to feel cared for, and she knew that Mike would be there for her no matter what happened.

Honestly Sam hadn't given much thought to what Mike's dreams might entail, and what sort of man he might be in them. She didn't think that he wouldn't be the same guy there that he was here, or that his dreams would change him in any way.

"I don't think that your dreams will change you, even if you happen to not be the same guy here." She spoke softly, shifting to draw one leg over his. "Regardless of what happens in your dreams, whatever sort of man you happen to be in them, I'll be here for you. I won't go anywhere, Mike. You don't have to worry about that." She leaned up to press a soft kiss to the underside of his jaw, "Unless you turn into a total asshole here, then well, I'd have some issues but I don't think that you have to worry about that. You're a great guy, Mike. In all aspects."

~*~

Rolling onto his back, Mike took advantage of Sam's move to have her straddling him, lying across his body in the dark. They fit together, sure, but sometimes? It was nice to feel as if he were a mountain of a man beside a pixie of a woman. Sam could do a lot for any guy's ego with her smile alone much less her amazing body. For such a petite person, Sam was all woman in all the right places.

"I figure your Dreams haven't changed you here. You wake up a little shaken. You have the guilt complex which I have decided is my personal challenge in life to erase. If I'm some kind of monster or mass murderer in my other life? Well, you can just remind me how great you think I am---however you think you should do that."

He let his voice drift off as if he were proposing something perfectly innocent.

They were adults who shared a bed in the dark.

Sometimes?

The best way to get rid of bad dreams was to try to play out some fantasies and if Sam wasn't up for it? Mike was the kind of guy who'd take no for an answer, but he'd at least hope to have gotten a laugh out of her. She needed him to take her mind off the horrors of watching her friends die. Death was something which haunted her Dreams. Mike wanted her to remember when she was with him? They were doing nothing more than living their lives.

~*~

Sam didn't protest as he rolled over onto his back, instead she chuckled softly and moved to place her hand underneath her chin so she could look up at him. She didn't mind when he moved her where he wanted her, it wasn't hard to do after all. He was much taller than she was, and well, there were definite perks to dating a very well muscled man.

With a laugh, Sam shifted slightly, lifting her head a bit more. "Oh have you? Well, I'll accept any help you're willing to give me on the whole guilt complex." Really, Sam would appreciate any help that he could give her since she didn't know exactly what to do about it herself.

"Anyway that I see fit, huh?" She raised a brow before she shifted up a little higher on his body, and then she sat up. "I'm sure that I can figure out plenty of ways to remind you of how great you are. Over and over again." A teasing smile tugged up the corners of her lips, and she did her best to push the dreams to the back of her mind.

That was easier said than done, however, it became a little easier as she lowered herself to press her lips against Mike's. Yeah, that was definitely making things better, easier to deal with and she was grateful to have him in her life.

~*~

"I'm going to hold you to that," Mike warned, grinning, "If I start having flashbacks of being Jack the Ripper? You're absolutely going to have to soothe my soul over and over again."

He would take that comfort in the form of anything Sam wanted to give him. Sex wasn't the most important part of their relationship though Mike imagined they had more of it than most people who'd been together as long as they had. It was easier for Mike to express himself physically so he tended to lean on a physical expression instead of a verbal one to let Sam know how much he cared about her.

One of these days he might be able to pull off the smooth talker thing without it sounding completely fake.

Mike wasn't taking any chances on that or placing any bets on it either. The OC had a way of getting under someone's skin. People changed the longer they lived there. Sometimes he thought Brooke had left because she'd changed from the place more than he had and she'd gotten tired of waiting on him to catch up with her. Sam didn't seem to care he wasn't Dreaming. She seemed to care he was there for her when she woke up.

That was the important part to him: the waking part.

"I just want to put it on the record I hope I have you around when I wake up from whatever I start Dreaming about if I ever do. Waking up alone? That's not something I want to try out. It's not something I like thinking about you doing either. Just putting it out there. Now let's maybe talk about putting something else out there. Get your mind off things?"

Mike curled up, his abdomen growing tight, hard with the flex of his muscles as he raised up on the bed to capture Sam's lips in a kiss.

Sometimes there really wasn't anything else left to say.