He smiled, amused, but also not particularly bothered, clearly thinking of other plans. He put his hands on her waist, peering over her shoulder (probably for a way out, she kept telling herself, willing her face to calm the fuck down with that rising heat). Satisfied that there was nothing there, he looked up, and down, and behind just to be sure.

“If it calms you down, you should keep talking, Pathfinder. I don’t doubt your team is fast at work releasing us, and it seems all other options are… Well. Null and void. So we might as well pass the time.”

“Until we die of asphyxiation,” what a fucking thing to say, Dot.

He laughed, and his nose did a little crinkly thing that he tried to quickly hide by turning his head. As if he hadn’t meant to think it was that funny. A little burst of electricity shot through her, head to toe at the thought. Cool, he thinks I’m funny.

Or he’s embarrassed, and trying to not let you be afraid, SAM unhelpfully provided. He shut up after that thought.

“I don’t think it will come to that, no,” he said, looking back at her a moment. He wasn’t very tall, but Dot was a short person, and she had to look up at him. He really was quite beautiful, pretty soft lips, and it looked like he’d done a bit of eye makeup today to emphasize their shape, their bright brown color, and she must have been in the first stages of asphyxiation because her mouth was dry. It felt like her heart had started thumping right inside of it.

He coughed though, and a light appeared above them. Small, but full of profound relief when accompanied by Liam shouting down, “Damn, Ryder, you really got stuck. We’ll have you out in a jiff.”

“O-okay, take your time, Liam!” she said, trying to find her voice, and only realizing when Reyes winked at her what she had said.

She realized too that he was blushing, now that she could see from the light.

Huh.

But Reyes was not good with silence, and when her voice trailed off, they were left to just stare. She swallowed. It wrinkled her nose in such a way that put him to mind of a small mouse, and he wanted to laugh again, but didn’t. All he could feel was how close they were, the heat share between them against the biting cold of the stone around them, how comforting it would be to lean into the closeness and just be held…

Instead he took the opportunity to look behind her, having to awkwardly grasp at her waist to be able to lean over to get a good look at the stone behind her. Nothing. Now the question was would she be offended if he took his hands off her or kept them? He was thinking too long about it, and just kept up the charade of looking for any opening—there was none, he knew that already, but he’d already started this, and he was starting to feel a bit light headed.

Air, it was about air. And he was starting to feel its lack. Or perhaps he was getting nervous. He looked back to her, shyly, “If it calms you down, you should keep talking, Pathfinder. I don’t doubt your team is fast at work releasing us, and it seems all other options are… Well. Null and void. So we might as well pass the time.”

“Until we die of asphyxiation,” what a fucking thing to say, Dot.

He couldn’t help it. He laughed out loud. One he hadn’t in quite some time—he could feel the heat rise in his face as his nose crinkled and he quickly hid. His brothers had said something to the effect that he always looked like he was about to sneeze or that he’d sucked on something sour whenever he laughed, and so he avoided letting himself get so comfortable. But that was how Dot was. She made you comfortable. So of course he hid, and tried to bring them back down when he could, ““I don’t think it will come to that, no.”

But he got caught in that stare again. She smiled, and he couldn’t help but think he hadn’t seen that particular one before. Usually she smiled completely, with every inch of her face, bright and shining, completely loose with her self and her expressions. This… Was small. Mostly in her eyes.

Some dust hit him in the face, and he realized he was staring. So he coughed, and looked up, and lo and behold, there was a hole, and there was her team.

“Damn, Ryder, you really got stuck. We’ll have you out in a jiff.”

“O-okay, take your time, Liam!” she squeaked, and the full reality of their situation hit Reyes swiftly. His hands were still on her. He pulled them back as best he could, trying to lean away, and to top it all off, he winked, to put her back at ease when she glanced at him.