Simulations of Home

When Rai had staggered over to the Holosuites, he was already teetering on the brink of unconsciousness. The station lurched slightly beneath his feet. It occurred to him briefly that it was unseemly for a Captain to appear so inebriated, but he also doubted many were actually watching.
"Computer, run Betazed Opal Sea, nighttime." He pressed his forehead against the door to steady himself. The scene materialized quickly, the cool overcast, the gentle breeze, the white sands that met the rainforest's edge. Night birds cooed to each other in the distance.
It was a decent semblance, but no real substitute. He plopped down in the sand gracelessly, as drunkards do.

Luckily for Rai, T'Pren was slightly less intoxicated than he was -- only slightly, but it was enough to walk along beside him and keep their pace something they could both handle without looking too too drunk. Besides, nobody was around. The bar was open and there were no cadets yet. This would be one of the last times the Captain could probably get so drunk outside of his quarters.

The lieutenant was on alert in case the Captain stumbled, prepared to touch him to steady him but otherwise carefully avoiding anything that looked more-than-professional. She also had the presence of mind to carefully set her book aside and take off her shoes. As the door closed behind them, she padded over-cautiously across the sand, digging her toes in with pleasure, to Rai.

Without a word, she knelt heavily in front of him and pulled off his shoes as well. And anything else that kept him from being barefoot.

"I miss this place," he said, slurring his speech. "The Dominion nearly ruined it. Cut swathes out of the forest. I'm sorry for killing people you know, but I'm not sorry for protecting it. Not at all." He picked up a fistful of sand and let it trickle out from between his fingers.
"This is the kind of thing I fight for," he said.

"You did what you had to," T'Pren promised softly, soothingly, as she dropped onto the sand beside him. She thought momentarily about stripping off their clothes, if only because the idea of being naked on the beach was terribly pleasant, but decided she didn't want him to feel any kind of pressure she didn't intend.

"You did what you had to so that the people who couldn't do it...so that you could protect them. Their lives and freedom, but also...protect them from having to do it." Her brows lifted at him. "Protected your sister."

He nodded assuredly. "It was the right thing to do, but my conscience, it still gets to me," he said. His eyelids went heavy. He laid back on his elbows and stared up at the sky.

T'Pren maneuvered herself around behind Rai and crossed her legs to make a little pillow for him. She guided his head into her lap and smoothed his hair back, putting a little pressure on his temples as she did so.

"I know," she murmured. "You showed me."

After a moment, she told the room, "Computer. A tall, cool glass of drinking water." One materialized on a large flat stone within arm's reach and she pressed it against the side of his face. "You should rehydrate."

"You should rehydrate," he said argumentatively. He quickly chugged the glass and rested his head back in her lap.
"This is a good view of your ears," he murmured drunkenly, and closed his eyes. It would appear that he passed out.

"I will," pacified the lieutenant, and when he mentioned her ears she smiled down at him and pressed her lips to his forehead. And then he passed out.

Who needed sleep? Not T'Pren. But Rai definitely did and so she let him. She loosened his shirt a little and quietly requested the computer give her a damp, cool cloth. And she sat, slowly sobering up and watching an ocean she had last visited with her fathers, petting and soothing the Captain. For hours.

Every so often, though, she'd have to pause to wipe her eyes.

Rai was slow to wake, in the soft pillow of Pren's lap. He squinted up at her through the searing headache that only Romulan Ale can provide. It was still a night scene on Betazed, and Pren had swollen eyes. He reached up to brush her cheek with his fingertips.
"How long was I out?" he asked.

When Rai awoke, T'Pren had been watching a computerized flock of Flanarian birds skimming across the water on the horizon, so his touch was the first sign to her that he was no longer sleeping. She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek into the touch, grateful for the contact.

"Not too long," she promised, leaning down to kiss Rai's forehead. "Four hours, give or take."

"Four hours?" he said, groaning and sitting up on his elbows. "Your legs must be asleep, I'm so sorry. Computer, sunrise."
This prompted the Betazed sun to peek over the horizon. He clamored to his feet, dusting himself off, and extended a hand to Pren.
"Let's go sleep this off in my quarters the way the gods intended," he said.

As Rai sat up, Pren brushed his hair back from his face one last time and grinned wearily up at him. "It was good practice. I could never sit still and meditate for very long without a really good reason."

The half-Vulcan accepted the Betazoid's hand and stood slowly but without any indication that her legs were numb. As the sun rose over the sea, the Flanarian flock was even more beautiful, flying two-by-two wherever holographic Flanarian birds go. Like a cloud going over the moon, T'Pren's face was momentarily shadowed with sadness. "Did you ever go to the Civic Center by the Opal Sea?"

"Of course I did, my home wasn't very far from it. Why do you ask?"

T'Pren's brow knit fiercely at that bit of information and her jaw tightened. She carefully looked out at the sea instead of at Rai. "Do you remember...there was a huge mural of a massive migration of Flanarian birds over the sea? And then in the bottom left corner, there was a little girl standing on her tip-toes with her arms up and you can't really tell if she's trying to catch them or trying to fly with them?"

"I always liked that mural, I saw it whenever my mother and father took me to a concert," he said, and smiled sweetly.

When T'Pren finally did look at Rai, it was with an almost desperate need. "Is it still there? Did it survive the war?"

"Yeah, it's still there. The Dominion actually left a lot of the buildings in tact, but that didn't stop them from rounding us up and putting us in camps," he said grimly.

The relief that rushed through Pren was probably palpable even to a non-empath. But Rai could probably also feel the wave of nausea. The half-Vulcan closed her eyes and carefully breathed in and out, standing there barefoot on the beach, coaxing herself out of throwing up and/or crying. When the feelings finally ebbed, she turned to look compassionately at the Captain. "I loved Betazed. I'm so sorry for your people. For your planet."

"We survived, didn't we? If you can call it that," he said flatly. "Was the mural your father's? Was that-- you?"

Rather than answer directly, T'Pren pressed her lips together and carefully regulated her breathing. She managed, barely, to still look the Captain in the eye. "That's why we were there. It was commissioned."

"I see," he said, letting the matter rest. Feeling a sudden urge of protectiveness, he slipped his arm around her shoulder, and drew her into his chest. Resting his chin on the top of her head again, he found that she fit there well. For a while he let the silence hang.
"Let's go to bed."

Touching was just the best, T'Pren decided with her cheek and lips resting lightly on Rai's collarbone. Well, touching people like Rai, anyway.

She folded softly against him, breathing in his scent and letting her heart flutter wildly with lingering emotion and with the closeness of his body. Her slim arms slid around his ribs.

"Together?" she asked in a thick whisper.

"For tonight," he said.

"I wouldn't ask for more than that," T'Pren promised, tightening her arms around Rai. "I just can't be alone tonight."