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In which Sara Lépine takes her partner home*
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Tim and Sara were awakened from their recovery by an urgent request.  It's Arrakis, and it's bad.  It managed to break containment with multiple sandworms and is currently ravaging Toronto.

Sara is desperately wanted as a geospecialist sensor, while Tim is generally useful as a healer and a brick.

So they're on a jet, trying to rest a bit longer before they have to do search and rescue.  Tim was optimistic about his ability to sleep anywhere, but a combination of nerves from the Confluence and his first flight are keeping him awake.  He fidgets a few times.  Sighs.  He looks over at his partner of the last few weeks.  He murmers at baseline-human volume to her.  "You still awake, Sara?"  Quiet enough that she won't wake up if she's asleep, but loud enough that an esper can hear over the roar of the private jet.

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Sara, curled up next to him on a couch-length seat, opens one eye to look at him. She isn't really all that tired right now, but knows she'll be glad for the extra rest later on. Still, she can stay awake a while to talk. 

"Mhm? Need something?" 

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"Believe it or not, I can't sleep."  He taps his fingers together, then puts his phone down.  "I could backlash myself to sleep, but.  That would be dumb, with what we're walking into.  Flying into."

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"Yes," she pats his arm. "That would be very silly. Did you want to talk? Or, I think we could scare up some paper, if you want to go over everything that happened? I know it isn't what you must be used to in your office, but we haven't been back all weekend now." 

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"Um.  I...actually did want to ask you something."  He looks down at his phone.  "Um.  I hadn't - planned on this?  But it just sort of happened, between our little camping trip and that stupid crab dungeon.  But we keep on, uh.  Sleeping together.  Just sleeping."  Tim, she's not interested in sex most of the time, whatever that means, and also SHE WAS THERE WHEN YOU TWO DIDN'T HAVE SEX.  WHY ARE YOU ALLOWED TO THINK.  He stops talking and hides his head in his hands.

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...she continues patting his arm? More rubbing, really. Poor Tim. 

"I know. It doesn't bother me, but I know you didn't want to get too intimate with another person so soon, yes? If it makes you uncomfortable we can stop. I'm sure whoever is running Esper accomodations in Toronto could get us separate rooms." 

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“No, um.  I.”  For a second, Tim’s irrationally annoyed with Sara for being so…understanding?  So respectful of his boundaries??? What the actual shit are you even doing, Tim.  He huffs.  “It’s not - you haven’t done anything wrong, and honestly we were exhausted.  Just.  We’ve been doing it accidentally?  Not purposefully.” Isn’t this a joke, you’re accidentally sleeping with your new partner?  There’s a punchline here, somewhere.

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She pauses the rubbing.

"-and... You want it to be a deliberate choice we make, if it continues?" 

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"Y-yeah.  Um.  I mean, it was the right move?  You uh, you were pretty backlashed the first time, and then after that the crabs just wiped us out, it wasn't - a mistake.  But it also wasn't - deliberate, either."

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"Yes..." 

She thinks about it. Tim is... Very respectful. She isn't afraid he will do anything she doesn't want him to. Even his backlash doesn't worry her on that account, given what it actually is. 

With that set aside, there isn't really anything frightening about co-sleeping. Family and friends sleep together all the time. She and- she had shared a bed often as a child. So. 

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"I don't mind it. It's convenient, for guiding, and comfortable, for sleeping. Though, you do move a lot," she teases. 

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"Okay.  Good.  That's settled.  We can cosleep, sometimes.  If we want to."  He feels a bit like a man who's all his strength to open what he thought was a sticky door, only to have it swing open with the slightest touch.  Why did this take so much psyching up to talk about, but actually turn out to be so easy?  "And not always!  Just sometimes, I get warm or cold at night."

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She covers a grin, "Are you sure? That first morning in your healing silo, you moved to an entire other pillow while I was having a shower." 

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"Well.  Maybe my pillow got too warm?"  It's a weak excuse, and he knows it.  And when you woke up, you thought it was her.

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She giggles, "I guess it must have! Maybe we need to get you some of those cooling pillows?" 

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"Maybe...like a heatsink, and I change them out whenever they get too warm?  But then when I get too cold, I'd need to get a warming pillow."

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"Hm, and that might lead to you stealing someone else's pillow," she agrees ponderingly. 

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"You think I'm some kind of pillow thief?"  He affects a hurt expression, but it's not very convincing.

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"Hmmmmmm... One incident doesn't make a pattern," she nods. "I'll need more evidence before making that kind of accusation." 

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"That pillow was abandoned at the side of the road.  That was pillow adoption."

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"It was pillowsitting! I was only gone for twenty minutes, and I trusted you to look after it!" 

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"Well, it was perfectly fine under my care.  And you used it later on, too!  Just.  When it was a different temperature."  Okay, he can't even pretend to be stressed anymore.

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She laughs, "You're lucky I like to be warm, mister." 

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Well, if that isn't an invite, I doesn't know what an invite is.  You really don't know what an invite is just shut UP.  He hops to his feet, then wriggles into Sara's personal space until she's spooning him.  "Here, how's this?  Warm enough yet?"

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She snorts, wrapping her arms around him. "That was not an invite." She squeezes him, though, and doesn't let him loose. 

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"Oh."  Well.  I guess it worked out.  "I guess I'm also lucky you're so easygoing."

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