Opposites Attract

Down On Earth

John lifted his head from the soft pillow to glance around the darkened room. Where was he? He panicked for a moment his body registering the extra weight on it, but then the weight moved and, as if sensing his thoughts which, let's be honest, wasn't out of the realms of possibility now, she turned her head and pressed a tiny kiss to his neck.

He instantly relaxed, remembering where he was and the reason he was there. His eyes shifting to stare down at the top of her dark head, still in slight disbelief. She was nestled close to his side, one arm across his middle, one leg flung over both of his and her head was pillowed on his chest. She was lying on his arm, which was wrapped around her. He was effectively trapped, but even though his arm had lost all feeling and his bladder had woken at the same time he had, he refused to move lest reality came crashing in and stole the moment away from him.

He smiled when she murmured in her sleep, her arm tightening further. Nope, he wasn't moving ever again. Closing his eyes he let his mind drift back to the night before and just how he'd come to end up in her bed.

For seven days he had managed to keep control of himself and not turn into some weird space living cyber stalker. He had stopped himself from calling her, he had stopped himself from tracing her location and he had…well he had almost stopped himself from using various satellite cameras to his advantage.

He told himself that he was just concerned for her and that he wanted to check on her, but he knew he was lying to himself, something that he had always promised he would never do. He just wanted to see her, wanted to see how she looked when her hair wasn't a dishevelled mess from hanging upside down for half an hour, when she wasn't weak and terrified.

She was just as he had imagined, striding confidently down the center of a shopping mall, a reusable coffee cup in her hand and her phone to her ear. He allowed himself just the quickest of glances before he shut off the feed and told himself firmly that a/he should stop being such a weirdo and b/that he needed to have some pride. If he wasn't going to call her, which he knew he would never do, then he had to stop thinking about her. Which was easier said than done.

He refused to acknowledge just how relieved he had been when she actually called, but that relief was short lived when he realised that he would actually have to leave the safety and solitude of his craft and return to earth and all its inhabitants.

Moving before he could change his mind or talk himself out of it, he had changed out of his uniform and into the one set of civvies he actually kept on board. It was just a simple jeans, shirt and jacket combo, but it felt almost alien. As did the fact that he was basically skipping duty, something he would never usually dream of, though Scott had assured him that he could handle remote monitoring for the night at least and that he should go, enjoy himself and have a complete break, so he had no excuses left.

He had the elevator drop him off a few miles from her town and called a cab. As with most times he had been in one it was annoying, stale smelling and too cramped for his long legs. Thankfully they took electronic payment as he hadn't carried real money in years.

There were so many people around, bustling here and there, shouting into phones and bumping into each other in an effort to get where they were going 0.5 seconds faster than everyone else and he hated it. Why had he let himself get talked into this?

"Well, look at the Space Man on earth." That was why.

His head snapped up, his eyes widening slightly as he took in the sight of her lounging casually against the outer doors of the movie theater. She too was dressed down, but then he'd only seen her in what he assumed had been her ritual clothes and then she had been in a rather undignified position at the time.