Bernice whispered in her sleep and hummed quietly before her eyes finally opened. Turning in the soft, almost overly comfortable bed, she saw him, sleeping there peacefully. And smiled, despite not quite knowing what was going on. She started waking up and the fog of sleep began to fade from her mind.
"Hmm..." Benny sighed, blinking to be sure it was real, and not just part of another wistful dream. "Huh? ...Brax? Oh- right. Same bed." She yawned. "Morning."
He stirred too, but not very much. She could tell his sleep was light, Braxiatel already seemed to be laying on his back and staring at the ceiling, twiddling his thumbs when he himself woke up fully. "Good morning, Benny. Did you sleep well?"
She nodded and stretched after another long yawn, "Yes, it was... rather wonderful, actually."
The man to her right leaned up and looked at her with satisfaction. "Good, I'm glad."
Bernice pushed the covers away and sat up before stretching like a cat one last time and standing up, slipping down and resting her feet on the plush, carpeted floor. Her pyjamas were an old pair, faded lavender bottoms covered in big cheesy teddy bears, and a baggy black t-shirt that said 'Don't touch my trowel' on it in big, bold letters.
Brax did much the same, but in a slightly stiffer, less casual manner. At night he wore a smooth cool-white suit made of silk- tie and all. While she understood that back on Gallifrey anything short of three layers was practically nude, when Benny found out about it there were a good few minutes of disturbingly loud and ugly squawking laughter that had undoubtedly woken somebody up. Looking at it now still made her softly huff in amusement.
It took a lot of thinking, about this. But after all the panicking had done for her, she still liked it. This was just... a test run. There was personal space in this hotel, there was room to breathe because of the professional nature of the trip. A potential date could just be a friendly distraction. If things went badly, they'd just finish it all up and call it a day. That was her logic behind all of it.
So enjoying herself wasn't seeming like such a bad thing, for once. Even though nothing was guaranteed.
There was one tidbit Bernice wondered a bit about though. "I know your lot don't sleep as much, so how long were you just lying awake?"
He answered her question politely and simply, crossing his arms and inspecting the room with fresh eyes for any flaws that wouldn't have been caught when they were tired, something for the review later. "A few hours. Not that long, all things considered."
Benny's thoughts drifted and she said one of them out loud. "It is new..." before putting that bit away, and asking him a different question, looking over to the kitchenette and seeing something to contribute. "...Want me to make us some crappy hotel coffee?"
Brax caught on to her comment with eyebrows raised, but seemed happy about one thing. "Good new? And, oh yes. Coffee would be nice."
She gave a weary smile and nodded her head, not positive, but thinking it worth saying. "Good new." Then Bernice turned around and walked into the kitchen, reaching for the coffee maker. "And- alright. I'll put the cup thingies in." They were fiddly and small, Benny really had no idea why these single-cup machines were so popular. She supposed it could be since hotel rooms weren't always occupied by more than one, but the kind of suite they got...
Braxiatel, however, thought of something himself. "We could also order better coffee from room service. And breakfast," he suggested, shrugging indifferently.
"Right, you can get proper room service." While it wouldn't be something she'd mind at all, there was a drop of doubt when he seemingly shot down even the simplest contribution. "I just... usually just go down in time for free breakfast."
"Also a good option," he affirmed, taking heed of her idea, at least.
Looking over from the coffee maker all the way to the complementary alarm clock, she made a disappointed scowl and rubbed the bridge of her nose at what it said. "Wow... we slept- late. It ended at 10:30, didn't it?" On the upside, at least she slept well. That was something that couldn't be said for most of the previous week, what with all the hidden mental breakdowns. "Was just too nice for me, I suppose. I admit, hadn't really gotten a good night's sleep in a while before that."
"Then I'll call room service. What would you like? My treat, of course," he offered, slightly excitedly.
She knew Braxiatel had every intention of spoiling her rotten, didn't he? While that... wasn't exactly her thing, Benny resigned herself to it. After a sigh, she thought of one of her favourite foods. "Bacon croissant? I don't care that much honestly, I'm not picky."
Brax raised an eyebrow, not quite approving for some reason. He commented. "A bacon croissant? Just a bacon croissant? I'm fairly sure that's missing some important food groups that humans need."
Oh. So it was more than that. He wasn't just going to give her whatever she wanted, he was doting. Irving Braxiatel was doting on someone. Seemed rather preposterous, really. But the care and consideration of her health did warm Bernice up a bit.
Screwing up her face to think of something more nutritious, Benny just threw whatever she could conjure up at the wall. "Orange juice? I dunno, a green omelette? Usually, I just pick up whatever." She shrugged, pretty ambivalent to what actually ended up getting served to her.
He approved. "A green omelette seems acceptable. The full English then?"
Benny agreed to their little compromise. "Yes, that seems fine enough."
He pressed a few buttons on the room service datapad and looked up with a simple, welcoming grin. "Wonderful, that should be along in just a few minutes."
She sighed, a tiny bit of relief unwinding the ball of stress in her chest. Her previous partners, she got in fights with over the stupidest things. It was by no means a remotely high bar, but just agreeing to something that simple calmed her nerves a little. She shook herself off and forced a grin. "Great. ...What do you want to do in the meantime?" Benny fidgeted, sitting back down on the bed.
His expression fell to confused pondering. "Erm... I don't know... what do most people do first thing in the morning while waiting for room service?"
She took a second to consider the options, with slight yearning, but still scepticism in her words. "Get washed up. Right. -Or ...cuddle? Depends on the people," then paused, sniffing herself and grimacing, not sure. "...Maybe you should judge. You were with me all night. Do I smell?"
Braxiatel seemed largely indifferent, and shrugged with one shoulder. "I think you smell fine."
That pushed things in one direction. A direction Bernice was perfectly happy with, for the moment. "Alright, then- let's cuddle."
He smiled a little bit, but still looked mildly puzzled. "Okay, cuddling sounds good. How do we uh... start that?"
Benny laid back down, and patted the spot he'd rested on before, only far closer. She pulled the comforter up over herself as he crawled back in, following her lead. "Just get back into the bed, and put one arm over mine like this..."
Brax laid next to her and did so as she pulled up the covers on him too. Getting closer, She wrapped one of his arms around herself, and he complied. It was awkward at first, but he seemed to like it.
"...And then lean over me a bit- yeah, like that. If you want, you can rest your head on my shoulder."
He took the suggestion and crooked his head between Bernice's own and her shoulder. She shivered as he sent cold breaths down her neck and shirt with the closeness, adding, "Some people go farther than that in... a few ways, but let's keep it simple, hmm?"
Slowly, Braxiatel seemed to relax into it, making a quiet, vibrating sigh. "Hmmm... Farther?" he asked.
Not that he could see, but her cheeks tinted pink. "Nope! This is fine."
"I meant... further in what way?" He seemed inquisitive.
Then she remembered Brax was a touch-telepath. And he was in very close proximity to her head, too. So, making a strong effort to think cleaner thoughts and avoid leaking what she wondered about how close this could reasonably get, or if they really had to have all of their clothes on, Benny tried to come up with an answer. "...In an overly gross, kissy, personal sort of way? -Very personal."
"Ah..." It still took him a few seconds, but she could feel his face get subtly warmer from the point of contact on her neck. "Oh, I see."
She groaned, he knew because her words had betrayed her. "Even a blunt instrument strikes twice. And this had to be one of those times..."
"Well, that's- not exactly something my mind would automatically jump to..." Brax muttered, warming further. She secretly liked flustering him just a little, but knew that this wasn't the time, and that it was really a much better idea to stop because it was getting uncomfortable.
Bernice pursed her lips. "I know. But I... did not intend this. Sorry, sorry."
He let out another cool breath on her neck, making her hairs stand on end. "-We can just stick to cuddling for now."
Benny nodded subtly and held his arms closer to her own. "Yeah. I'd prefer that."
"Me too," Brax hummed.
"Good. " She gave a sigh of relief and comfort. This was a genuinely nice position to be in. It was making her anxiety fall away and her tensed muscles relax.
Braxiatel relaxed further as well, cheek slowly leaning over onto the top of her head to softly rest in her hair. This was good. Really good. "Blimey. When you're not stressed you're a natural at this-" Benny chuckled.
"I am? Well, good." That boosted his confidence a tad, not that it'd be needed at the moment.
At that, they only fell into each other more. It was going to be more of a pile than a cuddle at this rate. At the moment, it was still a good one though. After a long breath, Benny glanced up. She could just barely see Brax's nose within her peripheral vision.
"Irving?" Her voice was soft and sweet. But she didn't usually call him that anymore, unless it was important. That drew his attention.
"Yes- are you quite alright, Bernice?" he asked, mildly concerned now.
"Oh, yes. But- I said I had a dream while I was sick with the Krynoid thing, said it was a nightmare- I... lied to you. It wasn't one of those at all."
That made him curious. "Oh? What was it then?"
Benny finished. "I- actually dreamed you gave me a rose, kissed me on the cheek."
Braxiatel finally put it together. Something that he'd been wondering about for ages. "Oh, is that why your face was all red afterwards?"
She laughed a little. "And waking up you holding my hand. That contributed. Touching my face after didn't help though. -It was what happened... afterwards, that was scary to me." She tried to put it in the politest way possible.
"And what do you mean by that?" Braxiatel was having a bit of trouble understanding what she implied.
"Well- I said I was optimistic about this, about us. I've actually been panicking about it sometimes. But... I've told you, and here I am, safe, actually with you. It's really not so bad." She smiled, having finally taken a good deal of weight off her chest with just those few words. Bernice thought about it further, then added, "Bottling things up, ey? Had to pop the cork a bit too literally there."
"Bernice- I was very worried about you. I thought you were dying for a minute there," he confirmed.
She really shouldn't have laughed. "Well- lucky you got Benny Summerfield, survivor of the stupid. But me almost dying and not wanting you to worry really blew the lid on the whole thing didn't it?" Then she grimaced, actually thinking about it. "...Goddess I hope that isn't how we have to make each bit of progression."
Brax reassured her in the best way that could be done, and added his own thoughts to the mix.. "I don't think it will have to come to that. For one thing, I'd rather you didn't almost die that frequently."
If it weren't for who she was speaking with about it, Bernice would've laughed. Nearly dying but escaping the toughest of scrapes just in the nick of time was sort of her whole thing, after all. But, he wasn't wrong. "I can agree with you on that one. I'm just... glad we can talk to each other now. And, uh thank you. For saving my life and our friendship not collapsing, I mean. And you know, tolerating all my BS."
"I'm quite fond of your BS actually. I find it rather amusing most of the time. And I'm glad our friendship didn't collapse too," he murmured. In fact, he was probably one of the only people fond of it. Most... considered her 'shenanigans' worse than just a flaw.
But Benny found it quite sweet. "Aww..." She was about to say something, but got interrupted.
There was a firm knocking on the door. Faintly through it, the muffled words "Room service! " made it to them.
Bernice bit her lip and pushed the covers away, breaking their embrace. "Food. Right."
They both got out of the bed and Benny looked over Brax, eyeing him up and down at his bizarre idea of what night clothes should be. If it were more comfortable and less impolite she bet he probably would've worn shoes to bed too. Raising an eyebrow, she sarcastically remarked. "Is a silk suit sufficiently decent for you? Or do you need to get dressed even more before anyone sees us?"
Braxiatel rolled his eyes, then looked down at himself too. There was another loud thump on the door, and he decided, rolling his eyes. "...I can live with being seen in the silk suit."
Benny stretched out and strode over to the door, unlocking it and swinging it open to see the food cart- and a face that more than startled her. Near-white hair, exaggerated features, bushy eyebrows and stern blue eyes- it was the Doctor.
"Hello, Bernice."
"DOCTOR?! Fuuuuck..." she swore, mouth agape and staring, not sure at all what to think, other than whatever it could be, it was most definitely negative.
After Braxiatel heard her shout and saw who was at the door, he swore too. "Oh for the love of Rassilon, what are you doing here?!" ...He already regretted not being in his real clothes, she could tell.
The Doctor rolled the food cart in and explained in a way that didn't seem to suggest he even knew he'd just dramatically violated their privacy. "Checking up on Professor Summerfield. What're you doing here?"
"None of your business," Brax told sternly. There were the shadows on his face again.
And meanwhile, Bernice- still processing what was going on, what bubbled to the surface was shock and fury. "DID YOU JUST TRACK ME AND BREAK INTO MY HOTEL?!"
"Of course not- at least probably not in the way you're assuming. But I did bring you breakfast..." he tried to cool the situation down, whatever it was.
"Oh Goddess..." she swore, tired, mad and frustrated. Crossing her arms, all Benny thought was that she wanted to curl up back in bed. Not that it was a remotely good idea, they'd already definitely be late for the first full day of her leading the excavation.
"I've lost my appetite..." Braxiatel muttered coldly.
Benny shooed at the Doctor, perfectly ready to grab yesterday's newspaper from the table and smack him with it if the need arose. "Get the hell out of here!"
Getting pushed out, the Doctor held his hands out defensively and gave in. "Alright, alright. Farewell, for now, I suppose."
Brax glared. "Goodbye," was all he said, before violently slamming the door shut on their interloper. Wiping his hands off like they had just been dirtied, he glanced over at Bernice, and then the food tray.
Benny grabbed the meal order to check everything that was there, studied it, looked back and forth, and then stared. "...This is exactly what we ordered too, what?" In her staring, she noticed a thing sticking out on the cart. "And look- there's a note. 'I'm worried about you, are you 'in' with Braxiatel?' Oh, you've got to be bloody kidding me."
"In with me? What does that mean?" He picked the card off of her, flipping it around to see both sides, not getting it at all.
She scowled, grumbling. "I think he's trying to say the same thing you were before, just less directly? Either way, I certainly don't like it. Hell- I don't know if tracking us to our hotel in itself was exactly 'indirect' though. ...Bollocks,"
His eyes widened at that. "You think he's trying to say that he... likes you?"
But Bernice shook her head as she picked at the food in the cart, looking for what she wanted to start with. "I doubt that. He rarely even calls me anything other than 'Professor Summerfield.' I think this is the- uhh... sleeping with question." After a short period of pondering on it, she made a rather bold declaration. "You know what? I'm through with him. The only reason he's worried about me is that I'm his anchor to this reality. He doesn't seriously care about me- not enough at any rate."
The thing was, even in this idiotic, very wrong way, she knew he did. The Doctor probably had a slight idea of what might be going on, remembered some things about Braxiatel, and was trying to pull her out of the situation before it was too late and they were codependent. A particularly pessimistic view on things, but unfortunately a possible, if not unlikely one that his appearance only brought back up.
As she started work on the omelette, Braxiatel voiced his own complaints. "Oh... well, it's none of his bloody business what we get up to."
Bernice was angrily chewing on her omelette as she was forced into thinking about it again. "Our first night in the same bed together and he bloody ruins it!"
He was spreading some jam on a Yorkshire pudding, not particularly paying much attention to it though. "Well, at least the actual night was peaceful," Brax remarked, trying to look on the bright side of things.
Benny sighed, slowing down on the aggressiveness to her meal and taking a gulp of orange juice. "You're probably right. Rant the whole time and I won't be able to appreciate it."
He placed the Yorkshire pudding back down on a plate and took a fruit cup up from the cart instead, picking at it absentmindedly. "He's not really much like my brother at all, is he?"
"Sort of? I've had three very different experiences with the original, but I wouldn't say he's done anything like this." She paused. If someone else saw the potential for issues so easily, there was most definitely already a problem. "This is... worrying." Not that she let on to the double meaning.
Spooning a small bite of pineapple into his mouth, Braxiatel added. "He seems a bit cold..."
"You could say that!" she snapped.
He looked down. Clearly conflating this 'Doctor' with his actual brother left him beyond conflicted. "It's... a bit strange to see."
One of the... less depressing differences was something Bernice thought it would be amusing to point out was this, "The first thing that was different is that he actually likes museums. That's got to be a hint."
Brax huffed, poking at the fruit again. "Mmm... Yes, that is a bit troubling. Museums are supposed to be my thing."
She took a bit of the bacon sandwich he still mercifully ordered and scrunched up her eyebrows. "Do you actually know what he did in the Collection? He did walk off from Joseph."
"Joseph was with him the entire time, I thought."
"Really, I recall him being completely and utterly lost. Only found my room after I sent a message he could track. And then telling me I was the lost one," she grumbled.
Not sure whether to chuckle or roll his eyes in annoyance, the combination of both from him looked a bit odd. "Well, at least that about him is normal."
She crossed her arms, unfortunately realizing a bit too late that it was spreading bacon grease on her shirt. "He's cranky, that's what he is. I don't usually condone this kind of thing but I think what he needs is a good regeneration." She commented. "I wonder if he's been eating ginger lately or something..."
"Perhaps he should be eating ginger. Might help him relax a little." He suggested. If anyone was going to suggest getting drunk or high, it might as well be the friend of a drunk.
That was the confusing bit though. She thought about it once in a while, the possible changes between one universe to the next. "I wonder if ginger even affects him. He's different enough..."
"He's still Gallifreyan, isn't he?" Braxiatel raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know what Gallifrey must've been like in his place. Could've been run by monkeys for all I know," Benny snarked, waving her hands in the air.
"Now, that would be interesting," he pointed out.
Bernice gave a tired smile, but her face fell again shortly after. "It would, rather. But... even if we could cross universes, his is... very dead. So we'll never know, will we?"
The Time Lord raised an eyebrow. There was one thing he never quite got. It got mentioned once or twice before, but there were definitely more pressing matters at hand. "...What happened to it? Did he say?"
She nodded. "Think so- it was a Time War sort of thing, but way more parties and a whole lot worse? The Master finished it off." Benny looked down at the croissant in her hand however, nodding in approval. "This sandwich is pretty good though. Might pull his points out of the negatives."
"I'm sorry- Parties?"
"Uh, no. Parties involved. The last library and shopping centre did have parties of sorts, if you consider the last scraps of civilized life fighting for the knowledge and supplies left over, all in addition to casual sacrifice and a hostile takeover to be a party."
He cringed, trying to keep a relaxed expression, but utterly failing in that regard. "Sounds... charming. "
"To him? Maybe. To anyone with sanity? Probably not." She thought about what had actually just happened though, with the positives and many, many negatives. "Thank the goddess he didn't materialize in the room though. I don't know if making breakfast in the kitchen is better or worse, but at least we were ready for someone to come in, and we got a full night's sleep."
"I can't imagine what he'd have had to say if we were still cuddled up in bed." Brax shuddered, poking at the air with a fork.
Benny bobbed her head back and forth in a 'so-so' sort of gesture. "He didn't see the room itself. Hopefully he didn't know it wasn't a two-room suite? Fat chance though. I really don't know whether I should've told him we were together already or if that would've made it worse."
"I don't think it's any of his business, and his opinion of our relationship hardly matters." The affirmation definitely improved her mood though, she gave him that. Everything the Doctor did was stirring up her anxieties, while his words cooled the pot.
"It isn't, but I suppose living with him erased his boundaries. Very fond of the status quo when it's safe and he can have it, another major difference there." With that, her bacon sandwich was gone.
"Well, perhaps I should have a word with him. Reestablish some boundaries, as it were." The way he said it was significantly less ominous than normal. Staying civil after that?
"That would be lovely. I really don't want to deal with him right now. I'm going to get ready and head to the dig site. You can follow me or track him down and catch up later." She took the last bite of her omelette, then went for her suitcase to grab her dungarees.
"Probably best to have a word now before his behaviour gets even more inappropriate," Braxiatel nodded.
"See you around then, Brax," she waved.
"Farewell for now, Benny."
The door gently shut behind him as he went off searching for the pest in the kitchen.
