Technology Sucks (Open)

[somerandomhippie1]

The wink had seemed like a harder hit to the head than when he was trying to knock some common sense into himself a few minutes earlier. It caught him entirely off-guard-- sweet, funny little Kiri, suddenly winking, like he might actually have a chance with her? Premonition was definitely not one of his skills. His common sense currently on the floor, he trailed after her, like a small puppy dog, and hopped up on the desk. Planting his feet on the office chair, he plopped his head on his hands, trying to get in level with Kiri. Just in case she winked at him again.
She smiled up at him again, though, which was just as good, maybe even better. "Well, then, I'll be tossing correct pronunciation out the window," he informed her, unable to keep himself from studying her eyes. They seemed to get darker the farther in you went, from a dusty brown on the edges to a deep chocolate near the center. Could eyes really do that? He snapped out of it. "It's a beautiful name," he continued-- not too late, he hoped. "It fits you well."

[kiri]

Whatever spark of insanity had prompted her to wink at him had fled. The only thing keeping her from utter embarrassment was the fact that Penn didn't seem to mind. If anything, it had made his eyes light up in a way she found simply captivating. She smiled faintly at his comment, but found herself just as lost in his eyes as he was in hers. They were such a brilliant blue-green, so bright as to be almost unnatural. Sea-green, she'd be tempted to call it, except no ocean she'd ever seen had come close to that depth of color. They almost seemed to sparkle as they met hers... although maybe that was just her imagination.

She blinked when he spoke again, realizing that there had been a lengthening silence in the room for the past several moments. "Thanks..." she replied shyly. "I... I like Penn. Sounds like... penny, or penitent, or pensive..." She wasn't entirely sure the words tumbling out of her mouth made any sense, but she was also not entirely sure she cared.

[somerandomhippie1]

Penn smiled at her observation. "So, you'd put me down as a regretful, thoughtful, poor man?" he smiled at her, if the muscles in his face were focused enough to do so. "You must be psychic." She was-- that was actually a fairly accurate representation of him, not that he'd want anyone else to know. Kiri seemed trustworthy, though. She was smart, and kind, and quite pretty, though he didn't know if that had anything to do with being trustworthy. Enough for him to lose himself, though.
There was something in her, an energy, dare he call it, that seemed to drag him in. Was he leaning closer to her than he should be? His mind was too focused on her to care-- she was open, yet elusive, and he couldn't pinpoint anything about her. Except for whatever seemed to hypnotizing him. His personal bubble had burst, and something in him dared to go beyond hers, laying a hand on her arm. The boldness shocked him, but only enough to make him pause. He surprised himself at the funniest moments.

[kiri]

Kiri arched an eyebrow. "OK, the poor I get. You did just lose five to me, and the paychecks here aren't exactly millions. Thoughtful can be a good thing, just not too often. But... regretful?" Kiri would be the first to admit, she'd done some things in her life she wasn't too proud of. But somewhere back in grad school she'd made the conscious decision that regret was useless. Right up there with guilt, on the scale of pointless, unpleasant emotions. You couldn't change the past, no matter how hard you tried, so wishing you could wouldn't change anything. It wasn't easy to let go of - regret was addictive - but it was far more productive to simply vow to change things in the future.

The light, warm touch of his hand on her arm jarred her from her thoughts, and she ventured a shy smile up at him. She'd prepared for a lot before coming onboard the Venia - disaster, death, injury, horrors beyond description. But this? She'd expected the crew to be full of fussy, uptight military types. Never in her wildest imaginings had she guessed that one of her fellow medics would be young, gorgeous, and - wonder of wonders - apparently interested in her.

[somerandomhippie1]

Penn shrugged. "I'm not the smartest man in the world, nor do I learn from my mistakes quickly. I try, but..." He shrugged again. It wasn't really one of those things you could really explain easily-- it was just a series of cause and effect, and how he reacted to it. 'Could've', 'would've', and 'should've' popped up in his thoughts, he would admit, but he tried to focus on the present. It was when the past directly influenced the future that threw him for a loop.
"Regret isn't the best way to put it," he tried to explain. "It's more like... Frustration, I guess, would work. Anxiety, maybe, that I'll screw up, and the bad feeling that if I do, I won't be able to fix it, much less prevent it happening again." Screwing up seemed to be a habit of his, and this all was too important to screw up. Much too important.
He shook his head. "Sorry 'bout that," he insisted. "No need to talk about horrible topics like that-- or me, for that matter."

[kiri]

Kiri listened quietly, eyes never leaving Penn's face as he spoke. She didn't know why he was opening up to her like this, and normally such open, almost intimate conversation would have unnerved her, but she found that all she wanted to do was comfort him. Make him smile again. The way his eyes lit up when he smiled, the way his whole face seemed to brighten... it was not a sight that should stay hidden.

So she turned her arm - the one his hand still rested on - so it faced palm-up, and slowly slid it away from him until her hand could grasp his gently. "It's okay, I really don't mind. Honestly, you sound far more interesting than I do." Perhaps it was simply the fact that it was her own, but her life never seemed particularly vibrant or colorful. She never had stories to tell like others did, no clever anecdotes to apply to any situation. In what seemed like stark contrast to her, Penn's life seemed fascinating.

[somerandomhippie1]

Penn had gotten a little worried when she had started sliding her arm away. Was she going to leave? Did he offend her, or bore her, or...
But she instead gently nestled her hand in his, and he relaxed-- more than he had in the longest time. Something like a smile twitched on the corner of his mouth, and he gently ran his thumb over hers. Her skin was cool, but refreshingly so, and his thumb glided smoothly over it, almost to her wrist.
"How so?" he asked. "Many things are more interesting than a simple man like me." His eyes were locked to her face again. He wondered whether if she felt the same on her thumb and on her cheek... He took his other hand and gently brushed some of her wayward hair behind her ear, and managed to brush his hand gently on her cheek as he receded. "Your elastic isn't working to well, by the way."

[kiri]

Kiri watched his thumb slide over the skin of her hand, moving slowly and gently, leaving a shiver of sensation along its path. Her skin seemed to come alive under his touch, every nerve tuned to him, responding to even the slightest contact. She raised her eyes to meet his with an effort, noticing as she did that he had apparently never stopped looking at her, gazing at her as if she were the only thing ever worth looking at.

She saw his hand lift as if in slow motion, brushing a stray strand of hair back behind her ear with a gentleness that took her breath away. Her lips parted in a soft sigh, her head turning slightly into his touch, eyes closing for just a moment. But he had said something... so she managed to herd her scattered, floating thoughts together enough to reply. "G-Guess not... My hair is always like that, never stays back..." Her eyes flicked upward to his hair, wondering absently if it was as soft as it looked. "Guess you don't really have that problem."

[somerandomhippie1]

She was like the breath of life, he thought. When her eyes closed, and her lips parted just so... It was like she was sleeping, that blissful place where the world was right, and you could fall... His spine seemed to give out. Blissfully under her peaceful spell, his muscles relaxed, and he tilted forward, closing the gap between them. She was even more beautiful up close. He wondered faintly if she would mind if he ki-- her eyes snapped open.
He rocketed backwards, into his chair, feeling thoroughly dismal at himself. Of course she would mind, idiot, he told himself angrily. That's reserved for who's special to her, and you probably just blew all chances there. He ran fingers through his hair, trying to pick up what she had said.
Oh. His hair. No one usually asked him about that. "Um... Not really, I guess..." he admitted, using the topic to keep his hand ruffling it, and not doing other things. "Don't ever knock on my door right after I wake up, though, or you might be proven wrong."

[kiri]

Kiri felt her lips try to curve in to a disappointed pout when he pulled away, some invisible wall sliding back into place around him. She'd forgotten how much work it was getting to know someone from scratch, especially someone you could easily consider more than a friend if given enough time and half a chance. Still... Penn was worth it. Somehow, in the short time she'd known him, she had grown certain of that. He was worth whatever effort it might take to lower that wall between them for good.

She lifted her free hand slowly and pushed his hand aside, making room for her fingers to slide gently through his hair. Beyond the slight feel of whatever product he used, his hair was indeed as soft as she thought it would be. His words had her mind spinning in all the wrong directions, picturing how his hair would look first-thing in the morning... but not from the other side of a doorframe. Realizing the silence had stretched for a long moment between them, she smiled and laughed softly, not letting her hand leave his hair. "I don't doubt it... few people look good with bedhead."

[somerandomhippie1]

He felt a twinge as she moved his hand away, and buried hers near the back of his neck. Why so far away? Did she simply feel the need to stretch her arm so far out, or was this an invitation to make it a little easier for her? He watched the crook in her elbow deepen as he slowly leaned closer, his chair protesting, then relenting and scooting across the floor. He kept a hand on her armrest for balance, but decided he should probably keep it there-- just in case his chair got funny ideas again. Or he did. She didn't seem to be protesting, though. In fact, there was something in her gaze, the way her eyes washed over him, and her hand tightened every once and a while, that seemed almost inviting... Daring him to get closer.
Her soft laugh jolted him out of his interpretation, as it filled his ears. He would remember that laugh, just so it wouldn't ever leave again. Her soft, enticing words were a close contender, though. He needed to do something. He settled for taking his hands and taking out her less-than-helpful elastic, running his hands through her mane of hair, winding it though his fingers, mussing it and tangling it to his heart's content.
"I have a feeling you could pull it off," he mused, trying to figure out what her ear looked like from the back-- was it just as cute as the front? Her hair flopped over her face, though, and he couldn't help but laugh."Sorry," he told her, gently extracting his hands from his mess, and sweeping it off of her face. The sight of her made his breath hitch, and his muscles clench. Not quite enough, though-- he only registered his thumb tracing the bottom line of her lip by the time the deed was done. Worried, he watched her intensely, for any sign of displeasure. Was he being too bold? He hoped not. Having to back away now would certainly ruin his day.

[kiri]

Kiri sighed softly, happily, as his hands found their way into her hair, the band slipping easily off to let it fall free. The feel of his fingers combing through the strands, toying with her ear, mussing her hair and simply indulging themselves in exploring the entire mass of her soft, slightly tangled mane, sent delightful little shivers dancing across her scalp and down her spine. It made her feel like a teenager again, blushing and sighing over her first crush, stuttering over her words and afraid to make eye contact. With Penn, though, she couldn't resist. Her eyes roamed over the planes of his face, but always found their way back to be captured by his perfectly blue eyes.

She knew she was leaning closer as well, but couldn't help it. It was like magnetism, like gravity. Impossible to resist, even if you wanted to. Her eyes flicked down to his lips, the thought crossing her mind as to how soft they would feel. How they would fit with hers. She'd never wanted to kiss someone so much in her entire life, but she hesitated.

At that very moment, as she was building the courage to lean in the last few inches, the console behind her started beeping wildly and flashing, a dull computer voice speaking into the soft silence between them. "Urgent message. Urgent message for medical bay. Urgent message."[/i]

Kiri closed her eyes with a groan and a sigh, then looked back at him with a wry smile. "Talk about rotten timing," she said, her voice still breathy and soft.

[somerandomhippie1]

Her lips had been inches from his. He had hesitated, the nervous coward. Why had he hesitated? Being a gentleman wasn't about to get him snogged at this rate, he berated himself. Even though jumping on the opportunity might have seemed a little forward, at least it would have happened before the answering machine went off.
He raised an eyebrow. "I'd use stronger words, if I hadn't a lady in my presence," he thought aloud, his cynicalness trying to make up for disappointment. He coughed rather embarrassedly-- his voice was low, maybe even rather husky. Not the best way to talk after a hit-and-miss. He pressed a button on the console, probably harder than necessary.
"Medical bay reporting in," he replied, attempting to sound professional. "What's the urgency?" If it was something stupid, like one of his pet poodles sneezing, he might use stronger words.

[kiri]

((Hokay... playing with the timeline a bit here. ))

The voice of one of the officers on the bridge came through the computer, clear but tinny. "The Venia is about to dock with the liner Oceanic, requesting presence of medical officers on the bridge to ensure proper protocol."

Kiri rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, lips still tingling from their almost-kiss. They'd been so close. So close she could feel his breath on her skin. So close she could have counted his eyelashes if she'd wanted to. But she'd hesitated. Maybe he had to, she couldn't tell. But either way, the tension and magic of the moment were quickly evaporating. Yes, it was protocol to have at least one medical officer overseeing any docking procedure, in the rare case of an accident, but really... did it have to be now? Ship life stops for no one, she supposed.

[somerandomhippie1]

((Timeline fiddling is always fun ))
Penn managed to suppress a groan as a little voice told him of the docking. Really? Protocol, now? From the few dockings he had seen, there was no need for either of them to be up there at all, unless they just enjoyed having them clutter up the room. Still, no time to antagonize superior officers, lest they get suspicious.
He leaned forward, and pressed the button a little gentler than last time. "Gwyther reporting in, be on the bridge in five. Over and out." He cut the connection. Government regulations sure knew how to spoil a guy's day.
He turned to Kiri. "No use both of us standing around like idiots," he told her. "I'll take this one." He hesitated. He didn't want everything to end on a sour note... He took her shoulder gently, and let his lips brush against her cheek. She was delightfully warm, but he managed to keep a check on himself.
"See you around, Kiri Brooks," he told her with a grin. He stuffed the soccer ball back in the cabinet, and wondered why the hallway outside was so cold. Oh, right. Jacket. Still, being a little chilly did nothing to compare with a day like that. This might turn out to be a fun job. He shook out his shoulders, and dove into the den called the bridge, a new spring in his step.