whenshewasnice | Toronto, Not Brazil Nor Space, Tuesday

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Toronto, Not Brazil Nor Space, Tuesday

This felt surreal. After the... several months Natalie had just had, taking a day or two to actually be away from Brazil and the Hegemony and Peter was just surreal. Knowing she was going to get to actually see Jim for the first time in over three months? Yeah, weird.

Since they were not very into the idea of meeting in either Ribeirao Preto or Iowa, Natalie had picked a place almost at random from the first selection of package deals Portalocity had happened to offer her. So now she was standing in the Drake Hotel lobby in Toronto, with her bag slung over her shoulder and check-in already dealt with, just waiting for Jim to arrive.

[ooc: NFB, for the boy!]

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"Up to you," Jim answered, shrugging. "If you want the massage now, we can do back to front. You can drink and relax or you can sit face to face with me and do whatever."

Natalie weighed her options for a second. Ultimately, the choice was obvious.

"I haven't made a purely selfish decision in months," she said. "So I'm making one now. I'm getting my massage."

"Fine," he laughed, holding out the bottle. "You get to take that then since I'm gonna need my hands free."

Jim glanced at the tub.

"Guess I should get in first, then."

"You should," she said, as she took the bottle from him. "So you can make it all inviting for me."

Jim set his glass down and resisted the urge to just full on splash into the tub. No, he was mature about it and slid in carefully, settling back against the tub before stretching out.

He got his arms positioned and once he was done, he sighed and looked up at her.

"All good."

Ever sensible, Natalie set the bottle down before moving to get into the tub. She settled down between his legs with her back to him, carefully.

She splashed at the bubbles a little bit, but in a restrained way.

"You comfortable?" Jim asked, brushing his fingers back and forth over her shoulders. "Have enough room?"

"All the room I need," Natalie sighed. She reached out for her glass, and the bottle. This called for drinking, clearly. "I'd say the setting is about optimal for relaxation."

"Then, I guess it's time for your massage," he said, turning the light touch of his fingers into something firmer. His fingers dug into her shoulders and started kneading easily.

That felt really nice. She held back on obvious reactions while she was pouring herself some wine, but once the bottle was safely set down again, she sighed and leaned back into his hands just a littl bit.

"Mmm."

"I'm actually surprised you guys didn't have massage therapists available," he murmured, pressing down harder with this thumbs and fingers and digging into various knots and muscles he could find.

"Who says we didn't, and I just didn't let strangers touch me?"

Because she was pretty particular about her boundaries.

"Was that actually the case?" he asked curiously. "I'm sure they would have washed their hands and sanitized and everything."

"It's not a question of hygiene, Jim," Natalie sighed. "It's a question of not wanting unfamiliar hands on me."

"All right, all right," Jim conceded, rubbing her shoulders and nodding. "I've just had a massage before from unfamiliar hands. They're not terrible but to each his own."

"Different levels of comfort," she agreed quietly. "I don't like strangers touching me in other contexts, either, so that makes it hard to relax. This works much better for me."

Much better. She took a sip of wine.

"Well, I'm glad to give you a massage tonight," Jim told her, rubbing his thumbs up and down her neck before digging them harder into her shoulders and shoulder blades.

Natalie responded with another content sigh as some tension eased. She had a lot of it to spare, but every little bit helped.

"Can't believe I'm actually here with you."

"It does seem pretty strange," Jim agreed with a nod. "I was pretty sure that I wouldn't get to do much but talk on the phone with you for awhile longer."

"I used to dream about you when we were in space," Natalie shared, her eyes closed. "My subconscious was probably trying to combat some of the stress."

Because she'd been under a lot of it, just being up there.

"Aww. I was born in space," he said, sliding his hands against her neck again. "It can get kind of boring after awhile if you're just stuck on a ship. Same walls everyday? Not fun."

"We were on a space station that used to be the Battle School. It wasn't a very nice place." Ugh, military things. "Of course, that had about as much to do with the way we ended up there, too. Hard to feel happy and interested in being away from Earth when the reason you're there is that Earth isn't safe for you."

"But, it's safe now?" Jim checked. "You can go where you want without worrying?"

"Achilles was the biggest threat," Natalie told him. "Because he was a serial murdering psychopath." This was not an exaggeration. "Others will come for Peter because of his political position, especially if he regains more of the power the Hegemon used to have. But, no one specific, and most attacks will come through political undermining rather than direct threat of assassination. So, I'd say it's safe. It feels safe."

"And how much longer are you going to be his right hand woman?" Jim wondered. "Is it permanent?"

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