Ronin - S02E05 Interlude Aside - Conversations in the dark

[Ian Dugan]

Things had gone from sparring to play to south in a hurry.  He didn't think he had hit her that hard but you could never tell.  He dropped his guard and came forward, resting a hand on her shoulder as he bent over to look her in the eye.

"Are you ok?"

He blurted the question before actually foucsing on her eyes.  Was he saw was calculation, cunning and guile. 

He knew he was in trouble.

"Oh snap!"

He knew that there wasn't a ruttin thing he could do about it but tried anyway and started to move.  It was too late. 

This was gonna hurt.

Mommy.

[Abenette Kelker]

"Are you ok?"

She was shocked that Ian had actually fallen for the poor wounded girl act.  Was he getting soft?  Better not be.  Or was he truly concerned with her well being?  The latter felt kinda warm and fuzzy inside, but she wasn't going to pull any punches.

Once her bent down to her level and looked into her eyes, he realized his mistake.

"Oh snap!"

He tried to avoid what was coming, but she was fast and definitely employed some dirty tactics to further the negative impact on an opponent.  She drove a fist into his gut, pinned him down with her body weight straddling his hips and thrusted up with the palm of her hand, stopping a nearly microscopic distance in front of his nose.

"If this was a fight ya would have committed a grievous mistake and ya would have bone floatin' around in your brainpain," she told him as she grinned at him.  "My actin' prowess must be improving because ya fell for that like a military cadet."

She unconsciously rubbed at her chest though.  The contact he made did hurt a Hell of a lot.  Then she rotated her one shoulder; the one that she had injured when she first arrived at the Glory.

"Gorramnit...  This thing is still stiff.  Wonder if that will ever get back to normal," she mused before getting up off him and moving to sit on their bunk.  "This really helped calm my nerves.  I think I could actually sleep a little.  But before we do, do you think you can give my shoulder a little rub?  You have the best hands."

[Ian Dugan]

Ian smiled, sheepishly, as Abe went about how his life would have been over if that had been real.

"Touche, my dear, touche"

As she straddled his hips and rubbed her chest then rotated her shoulder, he felt the heat of her through his boxer briefs.  Luckily she got up before his body responded.  That would not have been good.  Not at that moment in time.  Maybe later, but not now.

She spoke as she sat on the bed.

"This really helped calm my nerves.  I think I could actually sleep a little.  But before we do, do you think you can give my shoulder a little rub?  You have the best hands."

He stood and moved over to the bed, sitting behind her.  He grunted once as his now sore stomach muscles protested, then rubbed his hands together in a fast, vigorous fashion.

"This is something I learned from my instructor back in War College."

He put his hands, now very warm, on Abe's shoulder and rubbed gently but firmly, transferring the heat he had generated into her sore muscles.

"You did good.  Better than good.  Keep in mind, that particular tactic would work best against someone who cares for you, or someone hired to just hurt you.  Someone trying to kill you wouldn't slow down. ... I, however, would have been deader than a door nail, what ever that is."

((OOC) the hand rubbing thing I got from the Karate Kid, actually.)

[Abenette Kelker]

Abe thought Ian seemed impressed.  She had come a long way in just a short time.  But as he rubbed her shoulder, he had some advice to give.

"You did good.  Better than good.  Keep in mind, that particular tactic would work best against someone who cares for you, or someone hired to just hurt you.  Someone trying to kill you wouldn't slow down. ... I, however, would have been deader than a door nail, what ever that is."

Abe snorted.

"Course I knew it wouldn't work on someone trying to kill me.  I pulled that tactic out because I knew you cared-"  She choked a little on her words.  She shouldn't assume that he cared for her.  She was technically his employee.  Well, maybe more than that.  After all, she did sleep with him.  Well, not in the carnal way, just an intimate way.  Two people enjoying their time together.  She thought she sounded weird in her internal explanation as well and wanted to get off the subject that seemed to get more complicated as time went by.  So she managed to catch her breath and finish, trying to sound normal.  "I knew that you valued my skills and would be drawn into my little web."

She hung her head down and enjoyed the shoulder rub he was giving her.

"Mmmm...  God that feels good..."

He did have some of the best hands ever.  At least for sore shoulders.

"Are you ready for bed?"

[Ian Dugan]

He smiled at her discomfiture at their relationship.  More than friends and less than lovers.  Thinking back, Caliope may well have been his last lover.  Within a year she died  He shrugged.

"Just about.  Lay down, you have so many knots, you'd swear we were still on the Blaze before you started sleepin with me."

He smiled at the though of someone listening to them and what they would think.

He slid over by the bulkhead and made room for Abe to stretch out.  When she laid down, he continued with his massage, getting the whole of her back, legs, arms and neck.  He played the proper gentleman all the while.

[Abenette Kelker]

Ian responded to the question about if he was ready for bed very quickly and one without any kind of suggestiveness.

"Just about.  Lay down, you have so many knots, you'd swear we were still on the Blaze before you started sleepin with me."

Abe couldn't help but to giggle at that one and she obeyed her Capt'n without hesitation either.  This bunk was 100 times bigger than the one on the Blaze so she was actually able to lay down on her stomach so he could carry on with his massage.

"You know how bad that sounds, don't you?" she said, a smile still her face before grimacing when he hit a knot while massaging her.  "If anyone was standin' outside and heard that they would think we were doing somethin' not quite as innocent as just sharing the same bed.  Isn't  that funny?"

Abe briefly wondered what would happen if they actually took the plunge and went horizontal in an even more intimate fashion.  She pushed that out of her mind quickly.  It wasn't going to happen, so why dwell on it?

It was hard not to have that little thought run through her head when he had his hands massaging just about every bit of skin on her body.  It had been a while for her.  Not since Syrus Reilly not long after she first boarded Glory.

"You could do this professionally, Capt'n," she told him as his hands worked at ridding her entire body of knots.  "I think companions do this kind of thing.  Ian Dugan, captain of Glory and companion extraordinaire...  Too funny."

Dear God...  She meant that statement too.  The massage was great and exactly what she needed; a good workout and a man at her side.  Not exactly what would be her personal preference which was a good rutt like with Syrus and then a massage, but a fierce fight would do as the physical component.

She felt her eyes droop just a little.  She was indeed getting sleepier.

[Ian Dugan]

Ian just chuckled at her statements as he worked over her body.  He realized that he was being both professional as well as a small bit intimate in the placement of his fingers and hands. 

She was so tense even as she relaxed and started drifting toward sleep.

He wondered what it would feel like if she wanted to be intimate with someone other than him

Jealous much, Ian? he berated himself.  She had become so much to him, Friend, Family, Confidante, Sibling ...

He wondered as sleep took her.  He covered her and crawled in next to her then he repeated what he had told her that first night they had shared the cot on the Blaze.

"Go to sleep, Abbey.  Tomorrow's another day.  We'll be dirtside soon with a whole lot more trouble for each of us.  Sleep now.  Rest."

He had only changed it slightly, as Abe didn't like to be reminded of her father.

It was a long time before sleep took him.