Who's That Sleeping in my Bed?! (Tally)

[shinigamikitsune]

Trance had become better at sleeping by himself at nights since becoming a pilot, but there were times when it still got to him. Nights when he felt utterly alone in his dreams, when even Pandy wasn't enough. Nights when he needed the comfort of a warm body next to him, or even just able to listen to another person close at hand. He was usually half asleep when he went in search for another bed to crawl into. Euphoric usually did a good job in guiding him away from the beds that held people who would hurt or take advantage of Trance during those times. Gabriel's room had become a favorite destination. Though it was on the couch and not the bed, since it was nights when his need for human contact wasn't so bad.

However tonight a couch wasn't going to cut it for him. So half asleep, and still groggy, he crawled out of his bed. Trance was dressed in his pj's of light blue with little duckies all over them. Making sure that Pandy, the panda stuffie, was secure in his arms, he slipped out of his room.

He wasn't sure where he was going, but he trusted his dragon to guide him someplace safe. Poor Trance was almost falling asleep as he continued walking around, changing directions when Euphoric nudged him to. After a while he found an open door and slipped into the room. He was hit by the scent of dark chocolate and sandalwood, and it was inviting to his senses.

It didn't take long for him to find the bedroom, and crawl into the bed. He didn't know who it was, just that it was a warm body to curl up to. A sense of security wrapped around him as he inhaled deeply of the source of the scents, unable to stop the contented purr coming from him.

[Tally]

A flicker of presence lighted upon Roman's sleeping mind.  Enough to entice him upward toward consciousness.  Enough to alert him before the shuffle of feet on carpet reached his ears and brought him the rest of the way out of sleep.  The sentient spark that met his inquiry belonged to a Pilot, and he recognized the mind.

I'll kill him.

First Gabriel, now Trance.  Was this going to become a pattern now, Pilots stealing into his room at night?  No.  No, it wasn't.  Hell no.

Roman cracked one eye open as the bed creaked with Trance's weight and the other Pilot climbed on in.  Oh sure, just make yourself at home.  Not like I was sleeping or anything.  No sunlight filtered in through the curtains.  It wasn't even remotely close to dawn.

"Temper," Scher said.  Her voice in his head was faint, as though she were at the outer limits of her range.

"Shut up," he shot back, and received ripples of amusement from her in return.  "You could have just, y'know, not let him through my door."

"Yes, I could have."  But she never would have.  The ease or difficulty in which Roman lived his life was in direct proportion to Scheherazade's mood swings.

As soon as Trance curled up at Roman's side, he reached over to the end table and opened up the top drawer.  In the pitch black he had to rummage around blind in there, but his hand soon found the unloaded gun he kept there, just in case.  He was all about security after all.  Had to be prepared for when your subordinates started crawling into your damn bed uninvited.

"You have until I find the clip to get out of here without any bullet holes in you," he mumbled.  Where was that clip?  Should have been in the drawer with the gun.  Crap.  He felt around in the darkness for it, then tried another drawer.

[shinigamikitsune]

On a normal day, he would have been up and out of there so quickly, while offering an apology. Then again, on a normal day he wouldn't have wondered into somebody else's bed half asleep and depending on Euphoric to guide him some place safe. So since this wasn't a normal day, and whatever had been bothering him had been going on long enough to push his subconcious to look for a safe bed to crawl into, the first thing he did after hearing the threat was whimper.

A rather sad sounding whimper at that, one that screamed "Please don't hit me or make me leave." It made him wince a little to hear that particular sound come out of him, sounding as though he was just some pathetic child. He hated this part of him that emerged now and then. It wasn't as though he didn't do anything about it. In fact he'd been trying so hard to deal with it all, and for the most part he was successful. But there were still the rare occassions that for whatever reason, things became too much for him and then the night wandering would start.

So now here he was, in this person's bed whom smelled like dark chocolate and sandalwood, where he had felt safe for a moment. Though now he was being threatened to be shot, his pilot mind have taken some sort of vacation while the scared little child in him curled up in a whimper, trying so hard not to just start crying.

[Tally]

Roman's hand closed on the clip at last—a cool, textured column of aluminum alloy—but there it froze.  He couldn't be hearing what he was hearing, because if he was then that meant there was a Pilot in his bed, sniveling like a little kid, and the thought of seeing a Pilot so completely lose his dignity like that was just embarrassing.

What was this, some kind of breakdown?  Roman's forehead dropped to the pillow and he sighed.  This was a job for a councilor, but there was no councilor here, and Trance was making a fool of himself and having a crisis or something.

So suck it up and deal, Rosales.  It's in your bed, it's your problem.

Roman propped himself up on his elbows and slid the clip into the gun even though he'd settled on not shooting Trance just then.  Yet.  He'd see how it went.  He rubbed his eyes and squinted over at Trance through the darkness.

"Get ahold of yourself.  What's your malfunction, Pilot?"

[shinigamikitsune]

Trance was having a bad night as it was, and now the person whose bed that Euphoric as guided him to, was pulling a gun on him. He whined to his dragon that he was trying to get him killed. However, Euphoric assured him that he wasn’t, and to just try and calm himself. That was easier said than done, when a grumpy pilot was pointing a gun at you.

He knew he had to start talking, or end up being shot, and punished for this. “I... I’m s-so-sorry... I just... just... I just c-can’t b-b-be-be... a-a-al-l-lone... right... right now,” he managed to stutter out. His ears laid back against his head in shame. He hated the way he acted when he got like this. As though he was afraid of his own shadow, and how badly he stuttered. It seemed that the longer the time between his episodes, the worse he was when the utter loneliness hit him. This time was one of the worse times, since it had been so long since he actually needed the comfort of another person right next to him.

[Tally]

Roman set the gun on the end table and felt around for his pack of cigarettes.  "Where is that damn lighter."  In feeling around for it he managed to knock it on the floor and cursed again as he had to lean out of bed and find it on the floor.

If Trance didn't like him smoking around him, he better not say anything.  Or he could just remove his happy ass from Roman's apartment.  The fire from the lighter bloomed up and left a dancing afterimage in the middle of his vision after it had gone.

"Trance," he said, exhaling smoke, "shouldn't you be talking to a counselor about this?  That's what they're here for.  To catch shitfits like this."

[shinigamikitsune]

If he had a problem with Roman smoking, he didn't say anything about it.

"There's only so much they can do..." he said in a soft voice. With the gun set down, it seemed to calm the stuttering. Though the kitten pulled his legs up to his chest in order to curl into himself, and his tail wrapped around his feet.

"It doesn't happen as often as it use to do, when I first became a candidate... and rarely this badly anymore... most of the time I don't even realize where I am until after Euphoric has guided me somewhere. During times like this, I wake in the middle of the night, and the loneliness is so overwhelming that the only thing I even halfway register is him guiding me somewhere that I assume is safe..." Trance was rather ashamed that he still acted like this from time to time, and worse because he couldn't seem to get it completely under control.

[Tally]

"Well they can do a hell of a lot more than I can!  Like prescribe pills."  They had a galaxy's worth of terrestrial and imported drugs available for officers that needed them. (And, if you knew where to go, for those that didn't.) He didn't know what good Trance expected him to do, and he was halfway tempted to call up Sabela's candidate, that empath.  It'd be good practice for him, dealing with a Pilot's neurosis.

"Loneliness?  Really.  Loneliness is what keeps you up at night.  For fuck's sake."  Roman took one long drag on the cigarette and tried to formulate something to say to that beyond a string of curses.  "You're not a little kid.  You need to get with one of the counselors and work this shit out because it's ridiculous.  Maybe you should try...getting a pet or something."

[shinigamikitsune]

"I was on pills for a while, but it took such high doses in order for them to actually do anything that the side effects had a much worse impact on me then what they were treating... and that's if they didn't make me sick..." he said softly, the tip of his tail twitching... though it was hard to say if it was out of annoyance or nervous agitation.

"I have been working with a counselor for a while now... and this is as far as they've been able to get..." he sighed as his ears laid back against his head and he seemed to shrink in on himself. "Loneliness is a big factor for me... before coming here, I lived in an orphanage that had at least double the amount of kids as it's maximum capacity... and I was use to sleeping in a room crowded with 30 kids all huddling to try and keep warm at night..." he trailed off. The memories of that place only made things worse, and he tried not to think about it when he was in this state.

[Tally]

"Uh huh."  Roman settled back down and dropped the cigarette in the ashtray.  Trance was putting him to sleep again with this talk, but he kept awake enough to give some wordless encouragement, making positive sounds, mmhms and uh huhs to make it sound like he was listening.  He sort of was, but it was the middle of the night and little to no idea what to do with this kid.  Trance didn't seem to need someone to talk at him.  He had the counselors for that, and they were doing fuck all good so far.  Maybe he just needed someone to be there and listen for awhile.

"Like I said," he muttered, half asleep now, "Pet.  Or a hooker."  Something to lay in a bed with him and make him feel another presence when he needed it.

[shinigamikitsune]

Trance's ears laid back against his head again, this time not in meek nervousness, but more in slight annoyance. Coupled with the dead panned look on his face, his entire body gave off the vibe 'Really... a pet or a hooker... you weren't even paying that much attention were you.'

"A pet won't cut it... and there's no way that I'd pay for a hooker every single night just to lay next to me..." That would be kind of awkward and expensive after a while.

Noticing that Roman was starting to fall asleep again, he settled his mood a bit. "Would... it be alright if I spent the rest of the night here?" he asked softly. Trance really hoped that since Roman had calmed down and was about to fall asleep again that he'd say yes. Of course the kitten would be gone hopefully before the man woke up in the morning.

[Tally]

"Why don't you get a roommate?"  He rolled over onto his back.  Half asleep was as far as he'd get.  He couldn't sleep with anyone else in the room and now his mind was buzzing and busy anyway.  He'd lay here awhile longer then get up.

"I guess.  I'll be up soon anyway."  He opened his eyes in the darkness.  He could get ahead on some of the stage two evaluations.  He'd have a few hours before the rest of the Citadel woke up.

[shinigamikitsune]

"If there was somebody out there that would accept to be my roommate, I doubt that I'd be 'bed-hopping' like this," he said with a sigh. "Though I'll try to find somebody to give it a try..." which was really the best he could do.

When Roman accepted, he smiled and moved to snuggle up with him, purring in the way that cats normally do. Trance really was a kitten at heart, deep down inside.

[Tally]

Blank must have heard the purring, because the black cat bounded up on the bed, ears perked up, and walked about on top of Trance before curling up in a circle upon his hips.

"Don't get too comfortable," Roman said.  "I won't be in bed much longer."

He could not stand to be idle, couldn't stand to sit still and do nothing for any amount of time.  If he was awake he had to be busy.

[shinigamikitsune]

Roman's response didn't deter him any. His purring only deepened when Blank curled up on him. Trance freed up a hand in order to pet the black cat for a couple moments in appreciation.

Then he snuggled against Roman more and closed his eyes. Within minutes he was asleep, and radiating a comfortable warmth and soothing emotions.

[Tally]

Ah, a way out.  Blank would be his decoy while he slipped away.  He pulled the cat over and placed her in between himself and Trance as he slipped out of the other Pilot's arms and out of bed.

He'd go into the office or something, and Trance could just have the bed until morning.