Eliza never thought she'd have so much murderous intent in the morning.
But as her alarm clock blared out and cut through her dreams, loudly informing her of the headache she was harboring, all she could think was that she wanted to grab the damn thing and chuck it across the room. Of course, she knew she'd be fucked if that didn't actually shut it up, but at that point it would at least be farther away from her. She opened her eyes, glaring at her nightstand.
She was then pleasantly surprised as someone reached over and silenced it. That was nice of them. Maybe she could get back to sleep. Hopefully a little rest would kill this headache.
... wait a second.
Eliza blinked a few times. The details of last night caught up with her as her sleepiness rapidly evacuated from her mind. She got drunk, she vented to Mordenna—in itself, not bad—cried against him, he carried her to her room, and then she...
She looked down and groaned. Yep. Shirt and panties. What the fuck was drunk her thinking. The perspective there also confirmed that it was Mordenna behind her, and his arm around her waist. In spite of her headache and however the hell she was going to explain this if it ever got out, this was... pretty nice. Eliza was sure her state would be ten times worse if she got sleep paralysis and a hangover. Mordenna's body heat was damn pleasant—it was like she had a weighted, heated blanket against her back. Plus, well... If there was a chance in hell he'd be attracted to her, waking up to someone like him would be nice. But, didn't he say he physically couldn't sleep? Did drunk her just impound him to stay in one spot the whole night?
Her and Mordenna spoke at the same time but all she heard was her "sorry." After a second, she weakly motioned for him to speak, and he did. "Nothing to be sorry about, Commander. You alright?"
"As alright as a hangover gets," she muttered back. "And I say I'm sorry because I essentially forced you to babysit me for a whole night with nothing else to do."
"'Forced' would imply I wasn't up to it, and frankly, that's a dirty lie." Mordenna patted her stomach. "If I can make sure you're feeling alright enough to sleep, fine by me. Now—stay put. You're going to sleep in."
"Hell no," she immediately rebutted, but Mordenna was already leaving the bed, her back swiftly growing cold without his presence. She sat up and immediately hated herself for doing it, groaning again as she massaged her forehead. "If—If I don't go out there... if you come out of my quarters..."
"Eh, scandals are fun." Eliza watched as Mordenna grabbed everything he'd shed last night. She was already internally mourning him leaving the bed. "Besides, might be worse having to explain a headache out of the blue in the morning to Bradford."
"I could claim menopause..." Eliza dejectedly sighed, knowing that was a piss-poor lie. Despite being well over fifty, she hadn't hit that yet. Maybe her body, too, thought she was still thirty.
"Just stay in bed, Lizzie." Mordenna started putting his feet into his boots. "I'll pop by Tygan and ask for some headache meds, and tell Bradford you're laid up with nausea. If either of them cross-reference each other, I'll say 'puking is a very valid way to get a headache.' Bad food, stomach bug, whatever the hell. Just... take it easy for a bit, alright? No need to work yourself to death."
That was true. Thinking about it, Eliza knew she'd be making herself extremely miserable, trying to work with a headache. At the very least, she wanted to eat some pills before getting back to work. She blew a breath out of her nose. "Damn you and your caring nature."
"Hey, that's my line." Mordenna clipped on her vest, smiling at her. "Take care of yourself, alright? I'll be back with some pills for you and I'll get Bradford off of you. Worst comes to worst, he'll have to make good on all of his harping on about you taking a break. I'll help him out before I leave for my mission, don't worry."
Right. Mordenna and Schro had that operation to perform once they got close enough. She nodded. "Gotcha. I'll... I'll just feel a little stir-crazy, being by myself and in bed for so long."
"Oh, I got you on that one. I'll send Jax your way. He can be trusted knowing why you're laid up, right?"
"Yeah." It was a second later that she realized Mordenna was basically complaining about being in bed with her the whole night. She looked down, conscious of her attire again. "... I'm sorry."
"Whatcha apologizing about, Liz?" Mordenna threw out his hands. "Everyone's gotta take a break eventually. Ain't fair that you gotta miss out."
"No, I mean..." She sighed. "Again. Keeping you in bed for so long. Getting you stir-crazy."
Mordenna's eyes flickered around for a second as he thought, and his smile petered out. "Liz, I... wasn't complaining about being in bed with you. I just..."
The silence that followed was suffocating. His lack of followup just told her that she really had confined him for the whole night. Moving so she could crawl under the blankets, she essentially buried herself under them. There was shuffling as Mordenna got his things together. "... I'll come back with some water and whatever pain meds Tygs has got," she heard him say through the blankets. "Hang tight." With that, the sound of him walking out of the room reverberated in her ears, leaving her alone in her quarters.
Well. There it was. Mordenna got uncomfortable over sharing a bed with her. If Eliza was waiting for her indirect rejection, she got it. Eliza further curled up, the heat underneath the sheets a poor imitation of the warmth Mordenna had brought to them. So. Here she was, fifty seven and feeling like garbage at the first sign of romantic rejection. It wasn't like she should've gotten her hopes up, anyways. Wasn't any way he could be attracted to her in the first place. She just needed to be an adult about it and move on.
... at least, she would like to, but the pinpricks at her eyes told a different story. "Liz," she barely whispered, "don't cry. Don't... don't cry over something you should've known." Yet, she was anyway, her chest hollowing out. Her hands sought out one of her pillows and she clutched it, tensed as she held back sobs. Even if she was successful, the force of doing so was just aggravating her headache.
Eliza had to be honest with herself—it wasn't just Mordenna. There was no way she could be with anyone who had caught her fancy. The Chosen didn't love her like that, her staff couldn't with her as Commander, the faction leaders had their own business, and she didn't even know the Alien Rulers enough. She was a hopeless loose end. As good as pining after all of them was, there were always moments like this, where she collapsed in on herself and realized just what kind of a desperate fool she was. No, Eliza didn't think her end goal in life was to be in a relationship, unlike every message she got growing up. She just... fell in love with people, and it hurt acknowledging the fact that they wouldn't return her feelings. Not that it was selfish of them—they had the right to not return them.
As the Commander wrestled with her sorrow, she latched onto that last point. They had every right to reject her. Not just romantically—Jax had assured her of her psionics not swaying them, but she was waiting for the moment they all realized just who she was, or found out just what she had done in her past. Sure, they might need her now. But the minute the Elders were gone, the minute there might be a better alternative? She knew she was as good as dead—and that was for the best. She was just a temporary measure. One day they'd all see that.
Realizing the direction her thoughts were heading in, Eliza forced herself to take in a deep breath. Then she let it go, though she couldn't stop her breath hitching. Wiping at her eyes, she gingerly crawled out of bed. Before she made her way to the bathroom, she stopped by her dresser to at least put on a pair of sleep pants. That done, she stumbled into the next room, bracing herself on the sink for a moment as she let her eyes rest on the sink. Then, slowly, she brought them upwards.
Her hair was almost entirely white nowadays—it took a while of looking just to see the faint brown sheen in a few spots. Redness tinged her light, saturated blue eyes, and she wondered how apparent it would be when Mordenna came back in. Quite frankly, she looked like a mess, but she wasn't here to pour over her appearance. She took in a deep breath. "Eliza. Here we are again, as we always end up. You get to this line of thought so often I could sing along, if we weren't deathly afraid of doing that nowadays. About how we're an inadequate Commander and people are only following us because there's no other choice. Don't know if you know this but they had another choice in Bradford. Sure, they were quick to put you on a pedestal, but they had every option of smacking you back down and going back to him. And yet, they didn't. If you want to say it's because he's worse than you, well... putting the fact that we'd be insulting him aside, that means that you aren't the worst. They had their other option and they chose you."
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "And that whole love business... honestly, we shouldn't even be thinking about that when there's a war to be fought. There's much more pressing matters at hand than trying to get into someone's pants. Maybe after the war and we're in the stage of trying to rebuild society—because at least then we won't have the looming threat of the Elders over our heads. Who knows? Maybe we could be wrong about there being no chance that anybody likes us back. Outside of the Alien Rulers, of course... maybe that's who we'll end up with after this war, yeah?" Eliza found a moment to chuckle tiredly. "All caught up in mourning over our romantic situation when the rulers are there, just waiting to get to know you. Don't miss the forest for the trees, alright?"
When she stopped speaking, Eliza dropped her gaze. At least now she wasn't feeling nearly as bad. Pep talks to herself like this usually worked—she appreciated talking to herself in private. Gave her one thing to focus on when her mind could be in a million places at once. Picking up her hair brush from where it lay on the sink, she looked back up at herself again as she set her hair into order. Maybe she wasn't going to be about her day immediately, but at least she could square her hair away. Always provided her a little comfort to have some control over that.
Eventually, there came a point where Eliza's hair was as straight as it was going to get, but she just... kept brushing it. This was a very bad habit of hers, she knew, but she couldn't help it. When stuck with nothing else to do, best to make her hair as silky as possible—even if it ended up with more of it on the brush than on her head, pretty much.
Her over brushing was interrupted as she heard footsteps coming up to the bathroom door. She froze where she was. Hopefully that was Mordenna. She didn't know what she'd say to Bradford if he came in here and she had to hide her headache.
Thankfully, it was just Mordenna. "Hey, Liz. You in there?"
She set the brush back down on the sink quietly. "Yeah." That whole business with trapping him for a night... she wanted to apologize again, but figured she'd already gotten the message across. It almost made her wonder about her night with Fal-Mai—but Fal-Mai asked for her to stay at that point. At least the Assassin got some sleep in.
"You, uh, decent? I want to talk."
Hm. Hopefully that wasn't about anything from last night. Eliza... really didn't feel like going over any of that. It took her getting drunk to even approach the subject. Still, Mordenna cared about her, it seemed. "Come in. I'm decent."
Through the mirror, she watched as Mordenna came in behind her, ducking under the door and meeting her gaze through her reflection. His eyes quickly went elsewhere, and he rubbed at his mouth. "I dropped your meds and a glass of water over at your nightstand. Saw your bed was empty and figured I'd check here before going to see if you'd tried to go command. I also... wanna..." His hand moved to his forehead and he sighed. "I want to clear something up."
Well, here it came. Despite her pep talk, Eliza's heart seized. He was going to make the rejection official. When she didn't say anything, Mordenna tentatively began. "I want to make it very clear—you did not put me out whatsoever, asking me to stay with you last night. If you don't remember—and I don't blame you, you were pretty damn sleepy—I was the one who offered to get closer to you so you might sleep better. I could've lounged in that bed apart from you and just rolled you over if you landed on your back. But... I figured you might feel better just having someone there for you. Y'know. Since stuffed animals are apparently for kids." He dropped his hand, looking at Eliza again. "My sarcasm aside, I was perfectly fine staying with you. I... I care about you a lot, Liz. Hurts me to see you hurt. So I'm fine doing what I can to make you feel better, alright?"
Oh. Not the response she was prepared for at all. Even if it was unexpected, it was... pleasant, knowing that she'd been entirely wrong in some aspects. Her body relaxed and she nodded shallowly. Knowing that Mordenna cared about her that much... well, it didn't help her romantic feelings, but it felt good otherwise. "—alright. I... really took your comment out of context, because I don't think I could imagine just lying somewhere, not sleeping for eight hours."
Mordenna shrugged. "I got a lot of thinking done, and it's not like it was unpleasant. Been a while since I've actually relaxed on something soft. Just want you to be alright."
The sentiment made Eliza smile, and she crossed her arms. "... thank you, Mordenna. For being there for me. Bit of a bummer for me to take it all the wrong way, but I just..."
"What, think you're unlikeable? That I wouldn't go out of my way to make you comfy?" Mordenna gently patted her head. "Perish the thought. Liz, you've saved my life twice now. Suffice to say I'm in for the long haul, though I don't think we're ever going to get to burning that bridge at the end of the war anymore, considering I've found a calling or two."
The memory of one of their first talks together on the Avenger came back to her and she chuckled, even if the act of laughing made her headache worse for a second. "I'm glad you've found something to keep you going, Mords."
Mordenna's smile was genuine. "Someone."
Oh, Eliza's heart. It was practically melting out of her chest. Sitting on the sink for extra height, she hugged Mordenna around his middle—though he quickly repositioned to make it more proper. "I'm glad to be there for you," she murmured as they were close.
"Same here, Liz. Not just you, either." He eased out of the hug. "My siblings, too, though I can still pin that whole miracle on you. Don't think we would've made up otherwise, even if we somehow did escape the Elders without you."
"Hey. It was you who carried through with it when I talked about it."
"Still put the idea in my head and nurtured the space to make it happen. You've got the garden, the Elders had scorched earth. Y'think we'd be able to grow in that?"
Eliza chuckled again, though this time she winced a bit as her headache loudly complained. When she opened her eyes, Mordenna was giving her a concerned look. "Seems that hangover's hitting you hard. I love us some talks but I think you should hit the bed and take your meds. I hear Jax has some good techniques for headaches."
"Probably does," she muttered, sliding off the sink, "considering he probably has a tendency towards psionic headaches."
"Psionic migraines if he pushes himself enough." He followed Eliza out as she left the bathroom. "I'd know. Get echoes of 'em every time he gets them."
"Ouch." Eliza made it over to her bed, sitting down on it. Sure enough, Mordenna had brought the whole bottle of medicine with a glass of water. She popped the pills and took a swig. Now she could only wait and hope they took the edge off. Her sluggishness, she'd just have to deal with on her own.
Perhaps Mordenna caught the tiredness in her face. "Honestly? I think you should take the whole day off. When's the last time you did that?"
"When I was hanging out in the Stasis Suit," she bitterly replied. "It just isn't me to lay around all day."
"Well, Bradford thinks you're sick, Tygan expressed concerns, and I bet you my left eye that word will spread and the whole ship is gonna throw a riot if they see you out of your room. Take a day off for god's sake, Lizzie. World ain't gonna end and worst comes to worst you can just rush out in your PJ's and command like that. Ain't nobody gonna care when you're humanity's best hope against the Elders."
Even if she wanted to say Mordenna didn't have some fair points, she didn't think she'd be making it out of this room if he was so determined to keep her in here. She sighed, taking another sip of her water. "... I guess. Been forever since I just layed about. Just feels weird taking a break."
"And your soldiers don't? Only reason anybody doesn't take breaks when they can is expectations. No rules, Liz, pretty sure you didn't say nobody can take breaks, including you." Mordenna crossed his arms. "I'll chuck Jax in here before I go. Hell, if you're comfy enough with the idea of them seeing you in your sleep attire, his whole congregation could come in here and hang out."
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Sure that's a good idea when people think I have a stomach bug?" Actually, that led her to another line of thought. "... including Jax, at least until you tell him the deal?"
"Well, maybe 'no' to inviting the whole rodeo. But even if you were sick and contagious, not like it'd matter to him. Or me or Fal-Mai. Elders did something right—our immune systems are beasts. Don't think I've heard a lick of any of us getting sick."
"No getting drunk, no getting sick, were the Elders making superhumans?"
"Probably."
She blankly considered her water for a moment. "... if this is what you guys were like off of a year of preparation in Jax's case, I can't imagine what the Avatars will be like if they're finished. If you guys weren't good enough for them to make bodies after..."
"Yeah." Mordenna shoved his hands in his pockets. "Luckily for us, we're busy fucking up that whole process until we can take things to them, yeah?"
Eliza nodded. "Yeah."
There was a quiet moment they shared as Eliza put her water back on her nightstand, thinking of the day she had in store for her if she was just going to be taking it easy in her room. With Jax, at that, so at least she'd have someone handsome to talk to. Not that Mordenna didn't qualify, of course, but he had his own business to be on about.
Speaking of that business. "Alright. You keep yourself parked there, missy. I'll have Jax in here before you know it and let Bradford know he's taking over for a day." Mordenna turned to leave. "Anything else you might need outta me?"
She shook her head. "Nothing I can think of. Thanks again, Mords. I... I really do appreciate the effort you put in for me."
Mordenna gave her a casual salute. "All for the good ol' Commander. Any day, any time. Catch some rest, Liz. I'll have that slimy fucker ready for interrogation before you know it." With that, Mordenna ambled towards the door, and he was out of sight.
That left Eliza to herself in her room. Well, she didn't have much else to do, and her headache wasn't doing her any favors. Perhaps she could catch up on a nap. Eliza snuggled back under her covers, taking a deep breath in and out as she relaxed.
The next time she woke up, it wasn't to an alarm clock, at least. Eliza blearily opened her eyes as the sound of her door opening roused her from her light nap. Jax entered, looking around as he did. He... had a few things in a psionic box at his side that Eliza couldn't really see at her distance. Jax noticed Eliza looking at him and composed himself. "Commander. Apologies if I disturbed your rest."
"Mm, don't worry about it." As she got up in bed, she did confirm her headache had gone down a little. Seemed the painkillers had started to kick in. "What did Mordenna tell you?"
"That you are suffering from a hangover and could use my expertise in easing it." Jax descended into the space surrounding Eliza's bed, allowing her to get a better look at the items he was toting. Huh. An incense tray with a box of sticks next to it, a lighter, and some bottled water—probably pilfered from the fridge. "May I sit down?"
"Of course." Eliza drew her legs closer to her and Jax came to rest on the side of the bed. "Brought a whole kit with you?"
Jax nodded, resting the box on the bed before he dismissed his psionics. Eliza grabbed the water bottle as he picked up the incense tray, setting it on her night stand. As he did, he must've finally seen her glass. "Ah. My apologies—I hadn't known you'd gotten a glass."
"Eh, Mordenna brought that in here. I'll just use the water you brought me to refill it without getting up, so it's still nice to have. Thank you." She set the bottle next to the glass and watched Jax work. With delicateness she didn't expect him to have with clawed gauntlets, he picked out a thin stick of incense, clutching it daintily between his "talons." He put it into the hole in the tray and then lit the stick with the lighter. As he let it burn for a second and then waved out the flame, a rather pleasant scent filled the room. It was earthy, but with a sweet backing, maybe the smell of a flower she didn't know in there. Maybe some cinnamon? It was nice, to put it concisely. "Huh. What scent is that?"
"'Platinum Palace,'" he answered, then setting the box next to the stand. "I will leave the rest of the box to you—I still have a few of these personal favorites to spare."
"You're... giving me some of your favorites?"
"Of course. I find this scent always calms myself when I am suffering from any particularly gruesome migraines. I supposed it if helped ease my suffering, it might make yours trivial. Now." He turned to her. "I notice your hair has grown in length, on top of its pigment change."
Oh, yeah. Her hair had started growing more than it used to. It was starting to get to her back when she usually kept it around her shoulders. "Yeah. Suppose it's gonna grow like crazy like Clint's does now."
"As it will. I've noted a duality in the side effects of psionics—the hair on your head either ceases its growth entirely... or, in my case, grows exponentially faster, linked to how much you put your psionics to use. With your case being the latter, I feel compelled to assist you, considering I am your mentor in your powers and thus, you are my charge in the matter." Jax further sat on the bed, crossing his legs. "If you would like, I may braid your hair to keep it from flying in your face, should you ever channel your powers."
Honestly, Eliza was quite tempted by the offer. Not just for the fact that she didn't know how to braid to save her life, but... the chance to have Jax working his fingers through her hair wasn't one she wanted to miss. Swayed by that, she crawled over to him and sat down in front of him, her back to him. "Sure, so long as you'll take the gauntlets off."
"I assure you I will. I may be confident in my braiding but only do so with my gauntlets on if I am fixing my own braid." Behind her, there was some mechanical clicking, like the sound of his armor contacting itself, and—wow. Eliza had gotten used to Jax's fully-enforced signature after he'd been given his horns back, but now she was experiencing it without his limiters. It felt like his passive psionics filled the room as much as the smell of the incense did, encompassing her budding signature. It was almost something she could see without looking at him, like gazing at him with phantom eyes. As if he could see the expression on her face, Jax spoke up. "... my apologies if things have gotten overwhelming."
"Oh, nah, it's fine," she said, somewhat breathless. Goodness. Jax was a powerful, powerful man. "Would rather have this than my hair getting pinched between your gauntlets. No offence."
"None taken." Jax's fingers entered her vision as they gathered her hair, and she did her best to suppress a shiver as they brushed against her neck. With her hair behind her shoulders, she felt his fingers run through her hair, gathering portions of it. "I suppose I could also share some of my hair care tips. I can imagine there is little worse than having tangled, bedraggled hair and also having it fly about as you conduct your strength. Judging by the quality of yours, I will not have to teach you much."
"Thank you." She was kind of wondering what Jax did to keep his hair so criminally soft. There had to be some special product he was using, but she'd never heard him ask to get it. Still, a thought struck her. "... for all your talk of keeping your hair out of your face, I've only seen you do a braid once or twice."
"Make use of your psionics for as long as I have," he explained, "and you learn some minor techniques for use in whatever ways you require them. I myself learned a way to keep my hair largely behind me as I fight. It is... admittedly something you must feel rather than have explained to you. Should you keep your hair down and let it grow longer, I will see about teaching you." He paused in his braiding. "I have also been trying to see if I cannot adjust that 'flow' to braid my own hair hands-free, but the process has been rather... trial and error."
She smiled, imagining how it might mess up. "Tied your hair into knots a few times?"
"Hmph. You couldn't imagine the half of it." He continued to braid her hair, never forcefully tugging on her scalp. "We can also begin more training at your leisure—though, obviously, not at the moment. I had my own time to think over your psionics during the night and I believe I have a few ways of training them. The only psionic contact I would allow you to perform at the moment would be sharing of your headache, to ease your pain."
She blinked a few times. "You can do that?"
"Yes. Mind melding allows for a variety of possibilities, one of them being the sharing of pain. If you were of the unscrupulous sort, you could force someone to feel the entirety of your pain, so long as you maintained the link with them. However, what I speak of is pain splitting. It allows you to let someone take some, if not all of the burden of your pain as long as the two of you are connected."
Psionics sure were weird. What was even weirder was that it seemed as if Jax was offering to help her with her hangover by experiencing it himself. She sat there for a moment, contemplating that. "... and you'd be willing to do that?"
"Of course, Eliza. If it helps to ease your mind, then I am more than happy to do so." Again with this willingness to, at the very least, minorly inconvenience themselves to assist her. Did the Chosen just care that much about her? Kind of expected, given how much care you've put into them. If that was the case, she'd have to remember what Jax was talking about for later. Maybe she could return the favor, should he ever come down with a migraine again.
Eliza let out a gentle breath. "—after you're done braiding my hair. And thanks in advance. Means a lot to me that you'd be willing to contract my headache." She sighed. "But I feel like I should only limit you to taking half of it."
"Nonsense, Eliza." She could feel him threading her hair. "I suffer far worse headaches when I exhaust my powers. Yours will be nothing to me." He stopped braiding. "... you wouldn't happen to have any hair ties in your room?"
"Ah, yeah." She pointed to her other nightstand. "First drawer, got a few of them." She supposed she really couldn't stop Jax if he wanted to take the whole burden on himself. He seemed so much stronger than her. Psionically, at least, but she also didn't doubt that he could take her in a fight. She'd never seen him physically brawl before but even if he was untrained, he could probably easily overpower her. Not that she'd mind being overpowered by him. Eliza! Alright, thought process ended.
She instead watched as a claw made of Jax's psionics extended out to her nightstand, tugging on the first drawer and rooting around. It came up with a bundle of her hair ties, then adjusted its grip to only hold one. Closing the drawer, it brought it back to Jax behind her. "Huh. Claws, hm?"
"If it is a construct," he replied, messing with her hair again, "then it is of my domain. Admittedly, I had not done much branching out during my time at ADVENT. I found a few powers that were of use to me, and I continued to stick with them without much experimentation. Within my time with XCOM, I have had more time to see what else I can do." A few more motions, then he eased her hair back against her head. "Done. Rather simple, but I did not want the time I spent touching your hair to go to an unwanted degree."
Curious, Eliza drug around the braid that Jax had done the best she could. It was simple indeed—rather typical of the braids she'd seen on girls in high school, but it was still pulled neatly with very few hairs out of place. Simple, but Jax had done a fantastic job. "May be simple, but you did great. And, don't worry about touching my hair too much."
She twisted to look up and back at Jax, who was smiling gently at the praise. "If you say it is not a bother, perhaps next time I should try my hand at a more aesthetically pleasing braid."
"Not at all—and I guess that means I should stop bothering March to cut my hair as much so you've got more to work with."
"Is she the ship's hairdresser?"
"Very much so. She's the one in charge of making sure that everyone doesn't have to wear ponytails."
Jax chuckled, the low roll of his baritone lifting Eliza's heart. "Her presence must be an invaluable one, then, and I suppose I will have to talk to her. One of my Mystics has been handling my hair, but I can always reach out further to the residents of this ship. But, I digress." He rested a hand on her shoulder. With his gauntlets off, his palm warmed her. "I believe we should be getting around to that headache, hm?"
"Right." Eliza half-turned herself around. "Should I be holding your hands again?"
Some part of that statement made him clear his throat. "I only required that then so I could siphon your psionics with little stress to yourself. So long as we remain at a relatively close distance, we can manage a mind meld however you wish to position yourself."
"... including laying down, taking a nap?" Still, she realized she'd be confining yet another Chosen to the area of her bed, and she rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "Or, whatever's good for you."
"Of course. You wouldn't happen to have your datapad around here somewhere? Wiki has been uploading digital versions of the books she manages to scan and save and I have been browsing the library she is building."
Ah, yeah. He could read while she slept. Actually, come to think of it, if Wiki was saving books... "Yeah, it's right here." She opened her nightstand drawer, pulling it out. "You wouldn't think Wiki is saving movies, would you?"
Jax rubbed his chin. "Perhaps so. I wouldn't be averse to watching them myself, but there is the issue of noise... unless I am to take that as a suggestion that we watch one together?"
"Well, depending on Wiki's got, yes. If you feel like it after eating my whole headache, of course."
"We shall see, I suppose." Jax took in a deep breath. "Do you remember how to open yourself to my approach?"
She certainly did. Scooting a bit closer to Jax, she closed her eyes and imagined herself as open, passive, inviting. She reached for her signature and tried to picture a door opening in her mind. Sure enough, that low thunder of Jax's psionics properly approached her, and she welcomed him in. In the stage of her mind, it was almost as if Jax was approaching her pain, observing it. There was a bit of... not quite a tug, but a gentle pull, with quite the weird sensation happening to her headache. To help him, she tried... not pushing, but offering her pain, maybe herself as well to make it easier. With that, it was quite the spot of nirvana to have her headache lift entirely all at once. It was damn compassionate of Jax to just take her pain like that. Still, she hoped he was ok. Gently, she opened her eyes.
Eliza must've tuned out of the real world for a second, because she was leaning against him now, her head against his chestplate. Jax had kept his hand on her shoulder and it was keeping her steady. Looking up at him, Jax's eyes were still closed, and he looked just a tiny bit tense. Hardly a change at all. Even as her eyes were open, the link still felt active, and she watched as his hair gently animated behind him. Jax was...
... ah, right, their thoughts might still be linked. She wasn't getting anything out of Jax at the moment, so she imagined retreating to her own "room" in her mind to think. Jax was drop-dead gorgeous. Maybe it was the incredible power, maybe it was his physique, maybe it was the voice. Probably a combination of all of it. He was magnificent.
Jax opened his eyes and looked to her. "Feeling better?"
"Loads. How about yourself?"
"As I guessed before—your headache is nothing to me. Perhaps I also have higher pain tolerance, in that regard."
"So, watching a movie or two isn't out the window?"
He gave a single chuckle. "I suppose not. Now, how would you like to be about this?"
Eliza considered the question for a second, then realized what Jax was on about. What kind of position would she swing to watch a movie with him? She considered it for a second before blowing a breath out of her nose. Her first thought was "lying down together" as to be easy on him if he was lying about how much the headache was bothering him and maybe allow her to pass out at any given time. But goodness, she'd already scammed Mordenna into her bed and shared a night with Fal-Mai. Did she need to hit for the whole home run? Well, best to give Jax what she wouldn't work with. "So long as I'm not sitting up with no back support or having to jerk my head at an angle to watch, I'm good."
"Mm. Give me a second to think." True enough, Eliza allowed Jax some silence to mull it over. After a bit, he seemed to have his answer, and took his hand off of Eliza's shoulder. "Permission to relocate you, Commander?"
She chuckled at the wording of it, but nodded. "Granted."
With her permission gained, Jax ever so gently slotted his hands underneath her arms. The warmth of his hands easily seeped into her skin beyond the fabric of her shirt and she quickly made sure her thoughts were private so that Jax didn't "hear" her mild thrill at it. He moved to sit at her headboard, watching as his psionics relocated her pillows. He then placed Eliza on one of his legs, gently taking the datapad with a psionic claw and holding it in front of them. "You protested to no back support," he explained, "and I supposed laying down would make you have to angle your head. Is this satisfactory?"
Well, it was a far sight better than getting into bed with another Chosen and all of the weirdness that came with that. She sat back, noting that Jax was sitting at a bit of an angle, like a recliner. "This is good, I'd say."
"Glad to hear it, Commander." He paused for a second. "... my chestplate is not in the way or uncomfortable, is it?"
Oh, lord. Yeah it was kinda jutting into her back but she didn't know if she could handle a nearly-shirtless Jax. She presumed he had an undersuit on, at least. Still, she thought about sitting like that for however long they'd be watching movies, and her back ached thinking of it. Sheepishly, she twiddled her thumbs. "—if you'd be ok taking it off..."
"Of course, Eliza. I'd hardly wish to cause you discomfort." If only he knew. Well, it wasn't discomfort really, but the sentiment was there. "Sit up for a second?" When she did, there was the sound of clasps and the like being undone behind her—she was at least going to offer Jax some privacy in that aspect. Soon enough, she saw him place the whole thing on the other side of her bed, and a hand on her shoulder guided her into laying back. God, it was far more comfortable, but she was very consciously aware that she was up against his muscles. Jax was built like a statue. At least the warmth at her back was relaxing.
She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, telling herself to ease up. Jax was just making sure she was comfortable. There was nothing more to read into. "Thanks, Jax. Any idea of what you might wanna see?"
"Hmm..." He reached forward and began tapping through the options on the datapad, heading over to Wiki's archives. "I cannot say I am much of a movie fan..."
"Eh, that's fair. I have a few in mind, but... I don't really care what we watch. Just don't put any rom coms on and I'll be good."
"Feel free to inform me if I pick one." Eliza watched, and sure enough, Wiki had a section in her archives labelled "Movies." Jax tapped it and scrolled on though, stopping on one of them. "The Day the Earth Stood Still?"
"Oh! That one. I've seen it before and I really liked it. Was pretty good for the time." She squinted at the entry. "... I don't think it was released in 2008, though. I wonder if they made a remake I didn't know about."
"It sounds like a scientific horror story."
"Eh..." Eliza did that "so-so" gesture she'd seen her soldiers use a lot. "The one I saw had a different feel to it. Something, something, warning against the terrors of nuclear warfare. Dunno what this one's on about, though—it looks like it fits that description." The cover art Wiki had managed to salvage conveyed that.
"Only one way to find out, hm?"
Eliza chuckled, relaxing against Jax. "I suppose so. Put it on."
With that, Jax tapped the entry and the movie began to play. As it did, Eliza contemplated her situation. She'd gotten strangely close with all of the Chosen during the past few days or so. Here she was, laying against Jax's nearly-bare chest and watching a movie with him. What was it between her and them?
As she slightly tuned in the movie—and remembered to keep her thoughts private—she supposed there were a few answers. All of the Chosen probably never had much physical contact outside of fighting each other. Maybe they were latching onto her like they were because she had shown herself completely willing to hug them and stay close to them. If that was the case, she was entirely fine with platonic affection. Goodness knows she'd spent twenty years not touching anyone, either. Was that why she was so willing to not say anything about it?
Well, if it was a case of mutually making up for lost time, she supposed she wouldn't make much of it. If they needed it, and she needed it too, there didn't seem to be much of a problem in indulging. Smiling gently regardless of the movie, she slightly thumped her head back on Jax's chest. In response, he wrapped an arm around her waist. Nothing wrong about it.
Before she settled in to watch movies and hang with Jax for the rest of her day, she idly wondered how Mordenna was doing at his mission...
