Room 121 [Monday Morning]

[bridge_carson]

Bridge tosses restlessly in his sleep. Falling asleep without the gloves on may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but he was finding out that it really was not.


They're dancing together, to a slow song. Bridge is leading.

"You're not here when this happens," Bridge says, looking Xander in the eye. Strange. Xander used to be taller than him.

"I know," Xander says. "I'm just visiting."

"No." Bridge says. "You *can't* be here."

"Well, that's a nice thing to say to someone you love."

"It's true, though," Bridge says softly. "See?" They're dancing in the middle of a crater. "Also, there's a parrot on your shoulder."

"What?"

"Polly wants a crayon," contributes the yellow parrot, before taking flight to chase after a fruit-bat.

"Well, the frog wouldn't stay on my shoulder."

Bridge gives Xander a "bitch, please" look. "It's been six years. Of course he wouldn't."

He moves to do the spinny thing again.

"Dude," a girl's voice says from the shadows. "You have to let him go. Don't worry, I'll catch him."

"I do worry, though." Bridge says, but he releases Xander's hand.

Bridge wakes with an unhappy whimper, his hands instinctively reaching out to grab Xander, to bring him *back*...

Comments

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander's hands catch Bridge's, bare palms touching, and he sleepily opens his eyes. "Whaaa?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge stares at their hands. But doesn't actually move away.

"Um. Oops?"

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander blinks and looks down, then blinks a little more, into wakefulness. "Oops what?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge wiggles the fingers of his right hand.

"I fell asleep. Without my gloves on."

[soldtoarmenians]

"Oh." Xander thinks about this for a second, then shrugs. "So?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"So... dreams! Your dreams and my dreams and them getting all mixed up in a dream kinda way..." Bridge flails a little.

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander yawns and tilts his head, trying to remember if he'd been having dirty dreams or not. Also, trying to decide why he would care, since once somebody's read your mind during the actual dirty, everything else seems a bit. Um. Anti-climactic.

He doesn't remember dirty, though. Not after he fell asleep, anyway. "Were there penguins?" he asks. "In handcuffs?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Um. No?" Bridge says. "There was a parrot, though. Chasing a fruit-bat."

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander, to his credit, doesn't stare. Because that's any wackier than the penguins?

"Nooope. Not my dream. Not that I remember, anyhow."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

And that's when things start to click. If it wasn't Xander's dream, then it was a dream *about* Xander, and... not the fun kind either.

"Oh," he says, very quietly.

[soldtoarmenians]

"What oh?" Xander absently tightens his grip on Bridge's hands. "More no-touchy stuff?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Bridge says, because that much is true even if it's not in the same sense that it had been in the other dream.

[soldtoarmenians]

"Weird; you're not usually much for the freaky nightmares, and now two in a row?" Xander pulls him closer.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Hate it," Bridge mumbles. "This part's nice, though. Like this part."

[soldtoarmenians]

"Love this part," Xander murmurs, dropping his head to lean against Bridge's. "Bad dreams completely not necessary, though," he adds almost like he's scolding. Mostly it's just because Bridge upset shakes him up, and he has to joke. "You totally get this part anyway."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Good," Bridge says, smiling slightly. "Thank you," he adds, after a moment of just quietly enjoying being where he is.

[soldtoarmenians]

"Anytime," Xander says, tightening his arms around Bridge.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

And the smile wavers, then, because Bridge *knows* that's not true, no matter how much he wants it to be. On the other hand, he's *not* going to let it stop him from enjoying what time they do have. "And because I don't think I've mentioned it yet today... love you."

[soldtoarmenians]

He doesn't know exactly what Bridge is thinking - unlike, Xander assumes, the other way round - but he hasn't forgotten how quickly time is sliding along. "Love you too. Don't plan on stopping."