Slippery When Wet - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

Ever notice how slippery slopes are only ever negative??

There's def a few slippery slopes I'd like to slide down (yes this is a sex thing)

The water ran cold.

Time became meaningless as shivers overtook her body.

Shivers became convulsions.

There was a sound echoing in the room, echoing in her ears.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Her awareness dwindled to a pinprick as the pounding on the door turned into a voice shouting her name.

There was only the water, pouring in icy rivulets down over her scalp, over her face, over her nude form. Her teeth chattered. Her legs dropped her painfully onto her ass in the inches of standing water in the tub.

The drain was clogged again. It had been merely annoying when it was warm water swirling around her toes. But now the water pooled in the tub - and still accumulating - was chilling her exposed skin and so she continued to quake.

Hardly the first time this had happened.

Jet did his best to keep the ship in working order but keeping the hot water heater pumping out tolerable temps was pretty low on his list of priorities. Adequate air circulation, shields to prevent space debris from destroying the hull, maintaining the engines so they could venture from planet to asteroid to moon to wherever... obviously these came first.

Faye would never get used to this.

Waking up in a tank as it drained of fluids. Hazy recollection of coming to consciousness while still trapped in a frigid liquid tube. These were her earliest concrete memories and they were debilitating.

How many times had she splashed into a stream or river or - uck - sewer while running from the mob or the collectors or whoever? How many times had she gotten caught in the cold in a cheap hotel bathroom when the hot water ran out? How many times had she frozen up in a sudden deluge from the clouds?

There'd never been witnesses to her plight. Not that she'd noticed at least. Here on the Bebop it was no different. They passed in and out of each other's orbits as casually and indifferently as satellites circling the earth.

Water continued to pour into the tub from the showerhead as she rolled to her side and slipped numbly into a fetal position within the porcelain confines. The water level was too deep already though - her mouth and nose dipped sideways under the water as her head came to rest on her right temple on the bottom of the tub.

It was so cold. Could it get any colder? Would she just freeze here like she had frozen before? Water was getting into her mouth because her teeth hadn't stopped chattering. Was that an effect of her body striving to retain warmth? Were her shivers the struggle of a body trying to generate energy to survive?

Without warning strong hands grabbed hold of her left arm still out of the water. She was yanked suddenly upright, up and out of the tub entirely, sprawling in a shaky wet pile atop a familiar blue suit and yellow shirt.

That was all she had time to notice before her mouth opened fully in an alternating series of coughs and retching. Had she been choking on the water in the tub? It was so hard to remember anything other than the bone-chilling temperature as the water tumbled over her and sent her mind sloshing back and forth between the past and present.

With bleary eyes and no control over her own movements - would she ever stop shaking? - Faye observed as if from a distance as Spike pushed her off his own body so he could scramble into a sitting position and drape her over his lap. His left arm slung beneath her tits, holding her facedown as water dribbling from blue lips, Spike whacked his right hand repeatedly against her bare back.

After some time - seconds? Minutes? Longer? - she began to make mewling noises of discomfort. It was the strangest out of body experience she could remember. Spike must have decided she'd spit up as much water as she was going to because he stopped smacking her and instead groped blindly for a towel. Finding the one she'd left in a pile on the floor when she climbed into the shower, he wrapped it awkwardly around her upper body and began rubbing circles against the cotton in an attempt to circulate heat through her core.

"Fuck, Faye," He muttered. She wasn't sure if he was actually addressing her or talking to himself. She wasn't prepared to respond. Her legs were beginning to tingle as blood moved through them and life returned painfully to her limbs. There was water in her ears that kept her from being able to really hear anything Spike may have been saying but his arm under her chest remained in place, heat exuding through his sleeve to her rib cage, and his other hand was achieving some success at bringing warmth to her back as well.

With a shuddering gasp she turned in his odd embrace, burying her face in his sodden shirt. Automatically he adjusted his hold on her so his arms wrapped around her shoulders. She wasn't sure how long he let her lay slumped there against him, snot and saliva and bathwater drenching his clothes indiscriminately. As her ears cleared of water she became aware of him moving and, faint yet becoming more clear, the sound of his voice as he spoke to her.

"This isn't working."

With impressive strength he surged to his feet, dragging her along with until she was standing barefoot beside him. Huddling against his body heat, she shivered violently. Cursing under his breath, Spike wrapped an arm around her midriff and began to walk her unsteadily from the bathroom.

The stairs were a hassle but there weren't many leading up to the main living area, yet he didn't bring her to the couch. Shuffling away from the den - vacant of their shipmates - he led her down the hallway to the bedrooms.

Faye was still dazed, only partially paying attention to the rambling coming from the lanky man at her side. Something about Jet doing laundry. Something about Ed giving Ein a bath - or rather, trying and failing to do so. No wonder the bathroom had been in such a disarray when she had gone in for her shower. She blinked, befuddled, as they passed the first bedroom - Jet's - while Spike admitted to banging on the door in an attempt to warn her about the likelihood of the hot water being drained.

"Could've shot you," She mumbled as they reached the next room - his - and Spike shouldered the door open to tug her in with him.

His grip on her didn't exactly lessen but she could almost feel a sigh of relief go through him after she spoke.

"You haven't brought your Glock into the shower in months, Faye."

Her thoughts were scattered but she tried her best to hang onto one at least.

"Why... were you trying to warn me...about the water?" She asked as they arrived at the bed and Spike half-pushed, half-laid her onto the mattress. A small part of her mind was momentarily puzzled by the presence of a clean, dry sheet atop the mattress. For some reason Spike had always seemed to her as the type to just doze off under a blanket, no sheet necessary. Discovering otherwise gave him a unexpected layer of domesticity.

He grabbed a blanket from the foot of the bed and yanked it over her before taking back the towel he'd wrapped around her earlier. Then he began to undress, explaining as he discarded damp items.

"You tremble when you're cold." His tone was calm, soothing. "You got weird back on Earth when we got caught in that downpour while chasing that last bounty there. Thought I was gonna have to carry you both to the jail when you just stood there getting soaked." His voice was muffled briefly as he tugged his button down shirt over his head. She wondered why he didn't bother undoing the buttons instead but chalked it up as an idiosyncrasy of the man she just hadn't been aware of. He kept talking despite her momentary distraction. "You always leave the shower room steamed up like you shower in the hottest water possible. Not sure how you don't scald that delicate skin to be honest."

And then he was climbing into the bed with her, drawing her into his arms again. He pressed as much of his body against her as possible, tangling their legs together.

Exhaustion and confusion fought one another in her head, her heart, and her body. The heat he radiated was impressive. She could feel herself thawing within his embrace. She opened her mouth - to do what? She wasn't sure what to say or ask or think or feel. He must have sensed her need for some type of response despite her lack of query.

"You were in that ice water for a while, Faye. You're lucky you aren't hypothermic. Jet's probably gonna give me a hard time about busting that lock but I figure he'd rather fix that than dispose of a water bloated corpse."

Faye shuddered and not from the cold that time. "Jeez, Spike,"

He remained silent for a moment and then began stroking his left hand up and down her back.

"You freaked me out." He said then. "Didn't peg you as the lay down and die type."

She huffed, closing her eyes and leaning her forehead against his collar bone. She could feel the rhythmic thump-thump of his heart beating.

"Wasn't my intent." Sighing, she felt herself sinking towards slumber. "You're right. Don't do cold well. Not wet cold anyway. Cryo nightmares."

She felt as he took in a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. His hand continued to rub along her back.

"Well. Gonna have to sort that out eventually. Hot water's too janky on this ship for you to just... I mean if Ed... " He sighed. "Whatever. You're fine now. Warm up, rest. We'll tackle your issue later."

The idea of someone knowing this weakness of hers was uncomfortable, but she wasn't exactly surprised Spike had taken note - although she didn't remember the bounty hunt in the rain. The depth of his concern was startling though. How much had she unintentionally given away since boarding the ship? How many little things had he slotted away in his memory to turn over and over until he unlocked the mystery of this or that or some other thing?

At the same time, it was... comforting. Not just this - the sharing of body heat, the rescue from accidental drowning - but having someone out there pay attention to the ins and outs of you as a person. Having someone aware of her insecurities - loathe as she was to admit to any.

Ultimately, this skewed the balance between them. She owed him one now. On top of that, he now knew a truth about her she'd endeavored to keep hidden. She wasn't sure how to rectify this...how to put things back on an even keel. She wasn't sure of anything at all... But cradled in his arms, shielded from the cool air of the ship and from the world at large, she felt safe enough to drop into a troubled yet restorative sleep.

Figuring things out from here could wait.