Because she asked so nicely in Discord, and because she’s a badass babe, here’s a bit of what I’m working on today - Atlas Molniya (from Lovestruck’s ‘Starship Promise’) smut for @jane-runs-fast. I write for stuff that isn’t SLBP I swear!
Atlas was in the pilot's seat as he often was on nights like this - feet propped on the console, a tumbler with a splash of amber hanging nonchalantly from his fingers catching the same faint light from gauges and the stars outside that illuminate his face. Stark and cool, it pulled shadows from the angles of his features and plucked silver strands from his hair. He didn't even so much as glance my way as I padded across the bridge, but I was sure he knew I was there.
I came to a shuffling stop at his shoulder, resting a hand on the well-worn leather of his chair. For a long moment, I just stared out the wide window in front of us as well, the blink of stars zipping past ticking off the seconds that silence stretched between us, until I couldn't stand it any longer. "Can't sleep?" I asked softly, at last. It was an inane question I knew - the answer was already written in the bruises beneath his eyes and the distance in his unfocused gaze.
His only reply was to lift the glass to his lips and take a sip, grunting noncommittally. He was clearly somewhere, sometime else.
I pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders, warding off the cold chill of space on the other side of tempered glass, and sighed. If he'd had another nightmare, there was little anyone other than Mr. Jack Daniel could do for him right now. Staying here any longer was probably just going to end up irritating him.
"You should try to get some rest," I offered, realizing how much of a platitude it sounded like, but I couldn't just walk away without saying something else. "Please, Atlas."
I turned to leave, trailing my hand along the back of his chair reluctantly but made it only half of a step before stumbling to an abrupt halt, something warm and firm clamped around my wrist. I blinked back in confusion only to see Atlas half-turned in his seat, his hand grasping me hard enough to almost bruise.
"Don't go." His gaze was dark, echoing the vastness of space bracketed behind him, but not dark enough to swallow the silhouette of something softer in its depths. A hint of the Atlas I'd seen that first night aboard - beneath the wizened exterior, that tiny kernel of something soft and vulnerable he curled so tightly around. Guarded so fiercely. "I..."
Words seemed to fail him, but the grip on my wrist softened and slid down. I felt frozen, trapped in that intense stare as his fingers gentled. His thumb brushed over the soft skin of my wrist, amost uncertaintly, until he pressed down on that throbbing point that betrayed just how my heart was hammering. "Stay. Please. I don't want to be alone right now."
And that rasping confession sent my already stumbling heart into a free fall, flipping dizzily in my chest until I had to reassure myself that the gravity was still running. Turning my hand in the loose circle of his fingers I wove mine between his and offered him a tremulous smile as I squeezed. "You're never alone, Atlas. You have the crew. And..." I swallowed, and gathered my scraps of courage into something resembling a whole moment of bravado. "You have me. If you want."
Something passed across his face, too quickly for me to read in the dim light of the bridge. His other hand threw back the last of his whiskey and slapped the glass down on the console, a sharp crack of sound that made me jerk in surprise. In a blink I was stumbling towards him as he tugged sharply on my arm, tumbling onto his lap in an ungainly tangle of legs and arms and blanket. Before I had a chance to even figure out where I ended and he began his fingers were in my hair, weaving into my loose ponytail and tipping my head back - and then the world narrowed down to the hard bruising press of his mouth against mine and the smoky, dangerous taste of whiskey riding his kiss.
