A Drink JP

Posted on 14 Jan 2013 @ 11:44pm by Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Aria Rice
Edited on on 22 Jan 2013 @ 12:22am

1,506 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 04 - 0016 hours

[ON]

While the crew-members working gamma shift were getting settled into their duties for the day, Andreus Kohl was dragging a stool towards the serving counter in the Mess Hall. The servery was closed at this hour --and probably would be until the gamma shift meal break-- and so Kohl used it as a make-shift bar. Sitting alone at a table might project an image of solitary contemplation, and Kohl never came to a place like this to be alone. After passing by the replicator, in need of a make-shift bar-tender, Kohl returned to his stool at the bar.

"Hey! Kohl..." Aria smiled as she moved over to him, smiling as she sat down with warm eyes. "Don't mind me joining you, do you?" she met his eyes, her own warm. After everything, it was good to see him again...and have a chance to talk. Without impending doom or anything like that.

Turning to face her, Kohl replied, "I would be thrilled to have you join me." His whole face changed when he smiled at Aria, and his words were fueled by genuine warmth. Kohl raised his tumbler of synthehol whiskey to Aria, making the gesture of a toast to celebrate her arrival. "Pola loaned me to Vega Colony's Central Hospital for a couple of days," Kohl said, not as a complaint, but as preamble to his real complaint: "and I feel like I keep missing you when I come back to the ship."

She chuckled at that and shook her head. "Dude, I've been trying to keep up to date with everything going on," she said and shook her head, sighing softly as she sipped her drink. "And of course, been shadowing the Vorta too..." she watched him before nudging him. "I'm so glad you are okay. I did get worried, you know. Especially when I heard that sickbay didn't do well in our landing."

"Oh, I took care of myself during the landing," Kohl said with a fine twist of pride and self-mockery. He patted his chest twice for emphasis. "I climbed into bed with a patient, slipped my hands into the straps with him, and bound us together beneath a forcefield," Kohl said triumphantly. "I wasn't about to be thrown head first into no bulkhead."

"Good man!" she said and smiled warmly, watching him. "I just gripped tight to the nearest body and prayed like a little girl on Christmas..." she winked and sat back, taking a breath. "Rough ride though."

Kohl let out a sudden, boisterous, "Ha!" of a laugh. He shook his head slightly, and then he sheepishly shared the joke. He sound, "That sounds exactly like a few dates I've been on."

"We must have dated the same guys," she said, smiling as she leant closer. "It's been really busy lately. I mean...between everything that has happened, I have barely slept."

Kohl put a hand on Aria's shoulder. "You've got to take time for sleep," Kohl said, but it was closer to pleading than lecturing. His gooey nurse practitioner insides were showing, figuratively speaking. He took his hand back to raise his whiskey glass to his lips. When he put the glass down, his sincerity was all covered up again with annoyed flippancy. "Speaking of dating," he said, "I did it. I asked Luca out. I was direct and I asked him out for dinner for two. It's been busy, but we all have to eat, and we all have to relieve stress, and he's a scientist. I asked him out and he said yes. And then the bastard stood me up at the last minute."

She watched him, her eyes gentle before she swore. "Shit...I am so sorry," she said as she covered his hand with her own. She held it firmly, frowning. "He just...stood you up? Where is he now?" she demanded to know. "I'll break his legs."

"If you do..." Kohl said conspiratorially. He leaned close to Aria for long enough to lower his voice and say, "I'll erase any evidence of the fracture while he's unconscious from the pain."

She smiled at that, her eyes shining as she touched his cheek. "You can do better. You know you can..." she whispered softly and leant to quickly kiss his cheek.

Grinning, Kohl slowly nodded his head in agreement. "Lucky me," Kohl said playfully, "I have all of Vega Colony to choose from. ...Not to mention our boatload of undoubtedly sexually-frustrated crewmen. Klingons are murder on the libido."

She giggled and nodded, watching him before letting out a breath. "Yeah...I found myself having to..." she blushed and looked down. "I had to be the 'gentleman' in a situation. Someone I respect was...lonely. Hurt. And I think she wanted comfort from me...she kissed me. And I...turned her down. Because I couldn't deal with all the emotional...turmoil she was going through. Is. Is going through."

"I didn't drunkenly show up at Luca's quarters at oh-three-hundred-hours looking for sex after he stood me up," Kohl said, as if it were a similar situation. He slung an arm around Aria's shoulder and gently pressed his head to hers. "We're growing up!"

She laughed warmly and shook her head. "Now that is a miserable thought..." she winked as she kissed his cheek, taking a breath. "But we will be okay, you know. We will be okay."

Kohl gave Aria another squeeze, he straightened up in his chair. "Are you going to try again with Blake?" Kohl asked, expressing his mistaken assumption about the identity of the woman in Aria's story. "Once she makes it through her turmoil?"

Aria looked at him with shock, tears coming to her eyes as she laughed softly. "Oh God...you thought it was Scarlet...no...it was..." she looked down, taking a shaky breath. "It was our CO."

Utterly confused, Kohl studied Aria's eyes as if she had just said outer space was filled with oxygen. He breathed in and he looked up at the ceiling in contemplation. When he looked at Aria again, he took a long slug of his whiskey, finishing it off. He breathed in again, and he tentatively asked, "Are you okay?"

She chuckled softly and bit her lip. "Yeah. I mean, I can't say I don't feel something for her. I just...it's a bit big, you know? On the ship, and then 'by the way, I am going to shag the CO'. I got kicked off a ship for calling my former CO 'dude', how would sticking my tongue down her throat work?" she sat back before laughing, but there was an almost hysterical note in it.

Given the late hour, Kohl found himself joining in on that uncontrollable, hysterical laughter. Kohl approximated Aria's accent when he said, "Captain, permission to speak freely: I'd do you."

Aria giggled, nodding as she watched him. "Oh my God, I so would say that after a few. I mean, what the hell is wrong with me? I need some serious me-time to work that attraction out of my system before she kicks me off the ship!"

"S'good thing we have a handful of displaced new arrivals, a ship-full of lonely junior officers and a whole planet of strangers," Kohl said suggestively. Moving off his stool, Kohl found his footing and started the short walk over to the replicator. "At least me-time isn't your only option."

"Yeah? You suggest I make a break for it?" she asked and smiled, looking at him as she took a breath. "Sometimes, I wish I was a guy. You men seem to have an easier time with all of this."

"Being raised on a planet of hedonists will make it easier too," Kohl said, and he smiled a bit wanly. Turning away from Aria, Kohl recycled his glass and ordered another synthehol whiskey from the replicator. As he returned, he said, "I'm sorry, I forget you were raised with different values than mine sometimes. Feel free to ignore me, when necessary." And he grinned, as he slid onto his stool by the bar.

She chuckled as she watched him, shaking her head. "I find it refreshing, so I won't ignore you anytime soon," she admitted, watching his face. "You give good advice."

"Oh, I just recommend whatever I would do," Kohl said dismissively, and he took a pull from his tumbler, "in a relatively similar situation."

She nodded as she watched him, before leaning closer. "You're one of the best men I have ever met, you know that?"

"Be careful," Kohl teased, "After my promotion to Assistant Chief, my ego is already astronomical." He wet his lips with another sip of whiskey. "You're very disarming, did you know? Easy to talk to."

"As are you..." Aria said, her eyes warm before she sighed. This, somehow, made everything seem easier to her. And thereby, better.

[OFF]

--

LTJG Aria Rice
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Andreus Kohl
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo
(Departed Crew)

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