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“This isn’t weird if you don’t make it weird, Wash.”
“Who said I’m making it weird?”
“Oh, just the ten layers of overthinking I can see on your face right now.”
Carolina laughed when the pillow was snatched from under her head, just so he could dump it on her face instead. She grabbed it and swung it out at him, laughing louder at the shocked squawk he made as it somehow nearly knocked him off balance−though to be fair, he was standing on one leg whilst he undid his boots.
“Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it. I thought you’d learned that lesson?” She teased, rolling over onto her side so she could look at him without craning her neck.
“I’m notoriously stubborn, I thought you’d learned that lesson?” Wash retorted, as he set his boots down neatly at the foot of the bed. Leaning on the edge of the mattress with one knee, he nudged her. “Come on, budge over.”
She shuffled backwards, until her back was only a couple of inches from the wall. Wash sat himself on the bed, fidgeting and fussing for a while until Carolina rolled her eyes and tugged at his shirt.
“Wash.”
“I’m getting comfortable!”
“You’re not even laid down yet!”
Wash huffed; Carolina laughed. Finally he flopped back, wriggled a little and then rolled over onto his side so that they were face to face. A brief moment of eye contact−one of the best signs of trust either of them could give−and both of their faces split with grins. Wash was the one to start the playful nudges, kicking her lightly in the shin and getting a knee in the thigh in return. Over and over they kicked, kneed, nudged at each other without a word but with faint laughter under their breaths, until Wash escalated the play-fighting with a joking punch in the arm and Carolina shook her head.
“Oh− just come here.”
The mock salute almost made her push him off the bed. “Yes, boss.”
With an arm thrown over his side, Carolina tugged him closer. Wash didn’t resist, he draped an arm of his own across her hip and shuffled over. Their legs tangled clumsily together, their arms wrapped properly around each other’s backs. Closer together like that, their chests nearly touching and their faces half a foot away from each other, it should have felt more awkward−but instead, they both relaxed.
The physical contact was… nice.
Carolina nudged his leg. “See, nothing weird about it.”
“I never said it was going to be weird! I used to cuddle up with Connie all the time, and she was one of my best friends too!” Wash said, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. “It’s just− new. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Lina, but it’s kinda been a while since I had time to just cuddle people. Shocking, I know.”
“Hey, watch the sarcasm.” But she was smiling, amused. “It’s hardly been any different for me.”
“Yeah, I know.” He ran the material of her shirt back and forth between his fingers, enjoyed the texture of it against his skin. He could already feel her doing similar, fidgeting with the tag in the back of his shirt. “Guess it’s been a while for both of us.”
“Yeah. Guess it has.” There was a moment of comfortable silence, before Carolina reached up and ruffled Wash’s hair. His faced scrunched. “Sorry I can’t quite squish you like Maine used to.”
“I don’t think anyone could squish me like Maine used to. Except maybe Caboose? And that’s only a maybe. Still a big size difference,” Wash said, shrugging a little. “Maine was− well, Maine, y’know? Never known anyone else quite like them. Never become so close to anyone else so quickly.” There was a note of sadness in his voice, and for a moment Carolina worried that she’d overstepped by bringing Maine up at all, but then he laughed softly. “D’you know I could practically curl my whole body up on just their chest?”
“Seriously?” Carolina said, raising a brow.
“Seriously.”
“I didn’t think you were that small.”
“I’m not! Now Connie, she was small enough to pull that off even easier than I did,” Wash said with a chuckle, absent-mindedly reaching to tuck a strand of Carolina’s hair behind her ear. She’d long since settled her hand in his hair, fingers laced into the roots and rubbing lazily at his scalp. It was familiar, comfortable, even if Carolina herself had never been the one doing it before. “And hey, not like I can give you massages the way York used to. We’re about even here.”
“Actually, I distinctly remember you giving rather good pressure massages when York wasn’t available,” Carolina said. At the same time, she ran her fingers through his hair and resettled her hand so that she could rub at a particular spot that made him all but melt, that distinctive purring sound she’d heard Maine and Connie draw from him slipping out. She grinned at that. “But… I guess the old lock pick did have a certain gift with his hands.”
“Exactly!”
Another long beat of comfortable silence fell over them, and for a while they just lay there and enjoyed each other’s presence. Eventually Wash’s eyes slid shut; he was purring quietly, Carolina’s fingers still laced into his hair and the pleasant warmth of their contact equally as calming. A smile settled on Carolina’s face; whilst her eyes didn’t close, she was content there. Warm, companionable−it was nice. More than nice, really, but she’d never been any good at putting words to things.
“I miss them, Charlotte,” Wash said, after the silence had lasted so long that they had no idea how much time had passed. He opened his eyes, and there was another fleeting moment of eye contact before Carolina sighed softly and pulled him closer. Let his head rest forward against her shoulder, let hers rest against the top of his.
Her words were muffled in his hair, “I know, Seo-Jun. I− I miss them too.”
Wash slipped his free arm under her, wrapped both around her so that he was truly hugging her and exhaled. With his arms around her, her hand laced into his hair and arm looped around his waist, their legs entangled−they couldn’t be much closer. And for once there was no awkwardness, no slight hesitance behind their shows of affection; for once they allowed themselves a moment of vulnerability.
If they couldn’t trust each other now, then who could they ever trust? Vulnerability didn’t feel like vulnerability around someone you knew wouldn’t exploit it.
“At least we’re not alone?” Wash offered. “Last two standing. Sticking together. Well, trying to.”
Carolina smiled, “We got there, eventually. Turns out friendship takes work, who’d have known, huh?” It was less sarcastic, more amused and self-deprecating. With anyone else Wash wouldn’t have picked it up, but it was always easier to understand someone who dealt with the same. They tended to make it clearer.
“Yeah, who’d have known.”
“When is your next meeting with Kimball?”
“Our next meeting,” Wash said. Sighing, he nestled closer, rather than pulling away to grab his data-pad. “1300 hours. What time is it now?”
“1100.” She smoothed his hair down, chuckled at the way the waves popped back up when she let go. She ran her fingers over them instead. “We have time.”
“Good. Because I’m not moving.” A beat. “Unless you want me to.”
“Don’t worry Wash, I’m not going anywhere either.”