When his eyelids opened, he saw nothing but black, so he closed them again.
There was a burn in his shoulders, lacing up his arms, stopping at his wrists and hands which were numb with lack of blood. The tips of his boots barely swept the ground, and his head hung against his chest; his mouth was open, dry tongue whispering at the corner of his lips.
"You've been ignoring me," said Aeryn, and it took so much for him to open his eyes again. It was still dark, but he could make out faint blue light from the edge of the room, casting unflattering shadows against the planes of Aeryn's face.
"Wha?" was all he could mutter, unable to raise his head.
"You've been ignoring me," she repeating, rising smoothly to her feet, coming close enough that he could smell the sweat of her skin. His weak body strained forward for more. "You know how I dislike being ignored, John."
"Not--ignor'" John got out. "Jus' busy."
"Perhaps," she said, and moved out of his line of sight, circling him slowly and setting the fine hairs of his forearms up. "But it took me three days to bring you here, and that was three more than it should have. You know better than to keep yourself from me that long, John; I thought we'd made an agreement."
The room was starting to swim before his eyes, exhaustion and confusion winning out over rationality. It was true that he'd been busy, moving Talyn out of three consecutive near-deaths, wrangling them away from eager Peacekeepers and crazy natives on the few planets they'd dared to risk. They were running out of supplies, too, which meant currency, which meant some form of trade John had been struggling to come up with to keep everyone alive. Ish.
But he hadn't been ignoring Aeryn. He'd just been--distracted. He didn't think he deserved to be pursued across a desert, through a jungle, and then trussed up for three days until she decided to come say hi. Then again, this was kind of foreplay for them, so at least he knew what was coming next. Probably.
"Wat-" he mumbled, and he heard Aeryn sigh and put a tube in front of his face. He drank greedily. "You used to be more virile," she whispered in his ear. With the water, he could reuse his mouth, and whispered back, "You used to be able to catch me in a day."
He felt Aeryn smile against his neck; she set down the tube and pulled on the fastenings that bound John to the ceiling, sending him tumbling to the floor in a limp pile. He groaned and she hefted him up, stationing him in her arms until she could dump him down onto the bed a few feet away from where he was hanging.
"John Crichton, what am I supposed to do with you?" she said shaking her head, annoyance masking the amusement in her voice.
"I would have thought you'd have figured that out by now," he said hoarsely as she crawled up him to press her lips against him.
words © SA. characters, show, and people not mine. no infringement is intended.