There are days when you don't want to get up, and others where you literally can't. Not for lack of trying, of course. Post-SRIV!

"Hey." V blew a puff of air out of her mouth, and it barely moved Johnny's hair. "Hey, you."

Nothing. Only a small shift that had his hair tickling her chin, and she swore under her breath.

Sometime during the night he'd chosen to switch from his pillow to her, and before she'd been cool with it. Now, however, she needed to get up. To be productive around the ship, or at least try for it, but he wasn't helping at all.

Resting by her like this made any motivation want to take a hike, but the amount of heat he was putting off was starting to go from divine to a few notches above comfortable. Any longer and she'd have to kick the blankets off, and part of them were wedged under his body. Which was draped over her. An odd dilemma if she ever had one, but she couldn't stay in bed with Gat all the time. Even as much as she wanted to, and as much as he made it oh-so-easy to consider.

She watched him take in slow breaths as she ran her fingers through his hair, and shook her head. "I know you're awake."

Johnny made a low sound, but stayed right where he was. The muscles in his throat flexed, though, and she traced a finger over the tattoos lining his neck. The corner of his mouth twitched, but he didn't open his eyes. Only curled the arm resting over her tighter as he tugged her close.

It was almost too perfect of a picture to disturb, and the bastard had to know it.

V let out a long sigh. "Dammit. Can you quit it?"

"Quit what?" he murmured, his voice muffled by her skin.

"I need to get up. We need to get up, and get some shit done. I'm not holding out any hope for you motivating yourself out of here, but I figure I can give it a shot. Try to lug you up and off of me since I can't run a gang from here, you know."

He propped his chin up, and her fingers slipped back into his hair again. "Could try. They can fucking deal."

"Oh?"

"Here, there. It all works."

"Right. Because I'd do a great job of directing people while naked under a sheet."

"Don't know. You ain't half-bad at tossing out orders. Clothed and otherwise." She flicked his arm and he chuckled, the low sound running through her as well. "More practice won't hurt."

V's eyebrows went up, but when he raised his head to lean in she ducked away. "I don't know. Meetings do get heated from time to time."

"Sometimes," he said, lifting himself up as he traced his eyes over her.

"And I can be pretty fucking flexible when it comes to finding a compromise, but you've got some ways of making your point, Gat. Ways that I'm not too sure the others need to actually catch in action."

He brushed against her thigh, and she spread her legs so he could move between them. Lowering himself down, he pressed a kiss to the base of her throat, and ran his tongue along her collarbone. "Worried I'd bend you over mid-argument, boss?"

"Worried? After the last few I thought that was guaranteed?" she teased, and tried to move her hips with him. "Though there was that one time-"

He caught her mouth, and she grinned as he pressed her into the bed. Her short breaths barely made it past her lips, each one lost in the sounds coming out of him, and when his tongue went deep she dug her nails into his arms. Felt his hand slip into her hair as more of his weight shifted onto her, and she angled her head to tug at his bottom lip before he stole her breath again.

Her jaw was locked tightly against his when her brain remembered one important fact, however. Oxygen was pretty key, and right now she wasn't getting much of it, judging by the burning in her lungs.

"Gat." He kissed her firmly, and she had to shake herself out of it partway through it, when not even his tongue could detract from the fact that she needed more air. "Holy hell, just put all of that on pause for a few seconds, okay?"

He broke away and gave her a heavy-lidded look that had her pulse running. "What?"

"Babe, I need air." He gave her a look, but shifted enough so she could take in a long, deep breath. "Oh, that's good. Now if you could just pop yourself on over to the other side of the bed for five to ten, that'd be super."

"For real?"

"You're like twenty tons of bricks. Not exactly the lightest thing I've ever had on me. Jesus." She tried to move herself, but was so wrapped around him it was impossible. "And I'm supposed to be rejoining society, here. Stop luring me back in, and acting like a giant paperweight."

Her lips were still tingling, and she tried to avoid chewing on them as Johnny took more weight off of her.

"Better," she said, her eyes on his.

"But not good enough yet?"

His tongue wet his bottom lip, and her fingers itched to yank him down to her mouth again. "Not quite."

"Come on," he replied, less than an inch away as he leaned down. "This ain't nothing."

Against her better judgment she met him, and caught his lip between her teeth. Her hips rose soon after, and he took in a quick breath. "Nothing, eh? You want to show me something then?"

His tongue dipped into her mouth, and she let out a small noise when he withdrew. "Sure thing, boss."

And he dropped onto her, only at such a slow rate that she had no idea what was happening until it was too late. Her little yelp did nothing to help as she tried to hold him up, but their position left her arms wobbling in their struggle to support his weight.

"You good?" Gat asked, flicking his eyebrows up.

Holding her breath, V pursed her lips and said nothing as she held on, and hoped like hell that her elbows wouldn't buckle. After an eternity, he clucked his tongue and lifted himself up. The relief that swept over her was incredible as her arms fell, and she let herself breathe deeply for a few minutes until she caught the smug expression gracing his face. "Motherfucker," she huffed, scowling.

He winked. "Better get on those weights, V. You're slipping."

The swipe didn't even come close to hitting him as he rolled off of her, and threw on his suit in no time flat. She nearly tripped on hers as she scrambled to get it on, but the minute she did she ran off after him, staying on his heels all the way to the showers.