Sam and Domino, Saturday night

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

Sam, still wrestling with all kinds of accumulated doubts, winds up with some company when he goes out to blow off some steam. If you think you know how this ends, you're probably wrong.


Sam stared at the wall of his room and sighed. Why did he have such a hard time letting go of things? It had been weeks since the events at Rykers, but he still wanted to go track down Sabretooth and rip him apart barehanded. Not that it was his place to be so full of rage and a desire for vengeance. And on top of it, the arrival of baby Rachel had just reinforced things for Sam, and made him wonder what the hell was wrong with him. Late night flights hadn't been helping either. With a shrug, he got up from his bed and put on a flannel shirt. Maybe going down to Harry's and having a few drinks and playing some pool would help.

Domino had been spending a little more time at the mansion this week, with Nate studying for the bar exam and Moira beginning to get back to work. She made an excellent babysitter, if nothing else. Given that Bridge was running around like a lunatic getting arrangements made for what they'd be doing when they got back to Africa, there wasn't much for her to do with the Pack. She might as well be useful here.

But Nathan, Moira, and Rachel had retired for the evening - not a surprise, after the late night the previous day, with whatever the X-Men had been off doing. And Domino was feeling restless. Very, very restless. Maybe she'd go hunt up Amanda, see if they couldn't have that talk...

Sam rather doubted that going and drinking by himself was going to solve things, but at least it would get him out of the mansion. That was a start, at least. He wondered why he felt so stir-crazy so often, why he just couldn't seem to settle himself down at times like these. But standing around going in mental circles certainly wasn't going to help, so Sam wandered his way down the stairs toward the entryway.

Domino, coming up the stairs, blinked as she saw the look on Sam's face. That is not a happy camper, she thought, reflecting rather wistfully that he was a lot cuter when he was blushing at the sight of her in a towel. "Hey there," she said lightly.

"Domino!" Sam yelped slightly in surprise. He hadn't been trying to avoid her around the mansion since the late-night swimming incident, but Lord knew he'd been plenty embarassed just about every time they'd run across each other. And this time was no exception, and Sam blushed as he remembered the events of that night, and the fantasies he'd had since then.

... and there was the blush. It was even more attractive in proper lighting, Domino decided. "You headed out?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Ah'm just...feelin' a little stir-crazy, Ah s'pose," Sam replied, running a hand through his hair and trying to fight down the blush, as well as the mental pictures that had brought it on. "How about you?" he asked lamely, attempting to make conversation.

"I was..." Domino trailed off, then shook her head. "Running out of things to do around here and considering heading back into the city, actually." She tilted her head, a little smile playing on her lips. "You want some company? No fun to work off the stir-crazy feelings alone..."

Oh lord. Sam thought for a moment. He knew just how wicked and teasing Domino's sense of humor was. Lord knew he'd been subjected to it pretty much every time the pair had seen each other around the mansion since that night that he'd come across her swimming in the lake. And now he had to decide whether or not he wanted to be subjected to it for an entire evening. But, like she'd said, working off those stir-crazy feelings alone wasn't any fun. "Sure," he said, only a touch hesitantly, after a longish pause.

Too cute. Entirely too cute. "All right then," Domino said, turning to head back down the stairs. "Mind if I pick the place?" Although the flannel shirt sort of limited their options. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Although if you let me pick the place, you also need to change." What she had on would do, her sleeveless t-shirt and pants black and sufficiently form-hugging, but the flannel had to go.

"Ah was just plannin' on goin' down to Harry's and havin' a beer or two, and maybe playin' some pool," Sam replied, slightly taken aback at the whirlwind way Domino took control. But he supposed he shouldn't be _that_ startled by it, really. "But Ah guess that's fine. What'll Ah need to wear?"

"Why don't I come up and take a look at your closet?" Domino said brightly, sliding an arm through his. "We'll get you all sorted out..."

Oh dear. Sam wondered precisely what it was he'd gotten himself into as he let himself be dragged back up the stairs towards his room.

---

"Stop looking so intimidated, Sam," Domino said with a snicker, leaning against him as she took a sip of her... well, whatever the hell it was. It was blue and highly alcoholic, in any case, and she hadn't been able to hear the bartender over the music when he'd explained what it was.

"It's not my fault that you're so intimidatin'..." Sam replied, still a bit flustered. And she was. Stunningly gorgeous, witty and funny (when her sense of humor wasn't turned towards teasing one Samuel Guthrie, in any event), and much better company than Sam would have been to himself going to Harry's, but she was also quite intimidating, mostly because of all those same factors.

"Do you like your drink?" Domino asked innocently. She liked the little table-booth-things. Encouraged intimacy of seating. And for all that Sam was still blushing, she was getting the definite impression that he was not minding the close physical contact. At all.

He'd been trying to nurse his...whatever it was he was drinking, but at a bit of needling from Dom had been speeding the pace a bit. "It's all right," he said, "but Ah s'pose Ah'm just a simple ol' country boy who'd rather be sippin' a longneck," he said self-deprecatingly.

"I bet there are some people who actually buy that," Domino said mischievously. She raised an eyebrow at him. They had found him a perfectly acceptable set of black jeans and a nicely snug black t-shirt - and damn, had she had to dig through mounds of flannel to find both - and it worked. It really did. "Your eyes are very, very blue, you know," she mused aloud.

"Buy what?" Sam asked a touch confusedly at Dom's mischievous tone. He shifted, just a touch uncomfortable at the way Domino's violet eyes gazed intently into his. "And yes, my eyes are blue."

"A nice blue. Not like... whatever the hell these are," Domino said, looking away and picking up her drink. "And the simple country boy line. That's what I bet some people buy. Except that I doubt you'd be doing what you're doing if you were a simple country boy." She looked up at him, her eyes narrowing a little. "And you are doing what I think you're doing, aren't you? Nate's not much on giving out too many specific details about... um, the leather-wearing faction, but don't think I wasn't looking at you when you were trying on the shortlisted shirts." And he wasn't just fit, he had the unmistakable look of someone who did serious training.

Pausing for a moment, Sam ran his finger through the condensation on his glass, trying to figure out just what to say. "What exactly has Nathan told you?" he asked quietly, just barely audible above the ambient noise and music of the club.

Domino pondered. "Well, without getting into complicated explanations we shouldn't be having in public... were you at Youra?" That should both answer the question of roughly how much she knew and whether or not he was indeed one of the 'leather-wearing faction'.

Sam sighed inaudibly in relief. At least she recognized that this wasn't exactly a conversation to be having in a crowded club. "Yes, Ah was at Youra," he replied, eyes unfocusing a bit as he drifted back through memories.

"I wish I'd been at Youra," Domino said a bit wistfully, and sipped at her drink. "Hate having Nate running off doing shit like that without any of us there to watch his back." She stopped, coloring just a little, perhaps, as she looked up at Sam. "That wasn't a criticism. He seems... uh, perfectly content with the sort of back-up he has these days. And I know the Greek island adventure was kind of... exceptional? That would definitely be the word," she muttered, terribly amused at herself suddenly.

"Exceptional isn't the word I'd use," Sam replied, a frown stealing across his face. There were still nights that he woke up in a cold sweat, every detail of the events in the bunker at Youra engraved on his brain. The blood trickling down from Konstantakis' nose, water sluicing throughout the bunker, and the single hoarsely yelled word 'go'. He shook his head, trying to brush away the memories.

"Hey." Domino leaned in a little closer, violet eyes very serious as she looked up at him. She laid a hand gently on his chest. "You guys did a good thing. Try and keep that in mind, too, when you think about it?"

The gentle touch of Domino's hand helped bring him back to the present. Granted, it was also playing merry hell with his libido, but that wasn't something Sam was really worried about at the moment. "Her name was Melina Konstantakis," Sam said softly after a very long pause. If anyone would understand, he had a hunch Domino would. "She was a limited precog. Ten-second limit. And Ah left her to die." His eyes closed and his head bowed as Sam felt anew the shame that had lurked in the corners of his soul ever since Youra.

"Konstantakis.... one of the first-gens," Domino said very quietly. "Mel. Ian talked about her once." Her and the other members of the team from Canada. And he'd broken down crying after telling her about the weeks they'd spent trying to hide that their conditioning was broken, before the assault on Youra. It had been during the few first weeks in Tunis, and Domino wasn't sure why he'd picked her to talk to, but she hadn't been about to turn him away.

Sam tried to say something, but all of the jumbled-up feelings stuck in his throat. Konstantakis, the brutality Sabretooth had inflicted upon Alison, all of it was crashing in on Sam, and so he simply stared mutely at his glass before taking a long pull from it. The bottom line was, he'd lost his faith in himself somewhere along the line, and he wasn't sure how to get it back.

Domino stared up at him for a long moment. She might not be a telepath, but she'd been raised by one, and she read people well. Expression, body language. All the things that were said without words. She left her hand where it was and laid her head against his shoulder.

"Can't change what's past," she said. "But you can do better... do more in the future. That's what Nate's always telling me, at least. It's what I've been trying to do..." She trailed off, wondering if he knew about her role in Chad or not. Ah, well. Complicated explanations were not precisely necessary at the moment.

"Ah know Ah can't, but..." Sam trailed off helplessly. "It doesn't stop..." The nightmares. The guilt. The loneliness. "...any of it," he finished with a sigh.

"No, it doesn't," Domino said with far too much weary experience behind the words for her twenty-three years. "But you can learn to turn it off for a while." She took the glass out of his hand, then slid out of the booth. "Come dance with me," she invited.

With a slightly defeated shrug, Sam allowed himself to be pulled toward the dance floor by Domino's firm grip. He wasn't sure if he could turn it off like Domino was saying, but it was at least worth a try.

---

"... and I did not flash cleavage at the security guard to get us up here," Domino said mock-huffily, stepping out onto the roof and breathing deeply of the cool night air. "I just asked nicely. Where his eyes happened to go is none of my concern." She glanced back at Sam over her shoulder as he followed her out onto the room, breathing heavily from the dancing still. And he was one hell of a dancer when he put his mind to it, Domino thought appreciatively.

"Ah'm sure," Sam replied with a derogatory snort. "Ah'm sure that ya just 'happened' to wipe that bit of sweat off your chest just as we were walkin' up. And Ah'm sure ya just felt like stretchin' so that your top would move like that when you noticed him starin'. Sure." He chuckled dryly.

"You," Domino said mock-severely, turning as she walked, "get a little mouthy when you get some alcohol in you, don't you? What happened to those perfect Southern manners?" She backed up against the edge of the roof. Nice little ledge, she thought, sitting down. The traffic noise from behind her and below - they were four stories up - was constant, even at this hour.

"Who, li'l ol' me?" Sam asked with a airy flip of his hand. "You're entirely to blame," he continued a bit more cheerfully than he'd been earlier. The dancing and drinking and talking hadn't driven the demons completely away, but at least far enough that he could smile and joke a bit. "Corruptin' me with alcohol and all this lewd behavior and such. What would my momma say?"

"This is what you call lewd behavior?" Domino leaned back a little, ignoring the whole four stories of empty air thing, grinning at the cloudy night sky. "Oh, Guthrie. You really need to get out more."

"Ah suppose Ah do," Sam replied a bit more pensively. He blushed just slightly, hoping it wouldn't show in the night. Aside from one brief relationship which hadn't gone further than a few kisses...Sam frowned as his brain went blissfully right back to where he'd been trying not to go all evening. Alison. He shoved his hands in his pockets a bit moodily and stared off at the twinkling lights of buildings and traffic that surrounded them.

"Okay, I know that face. That's an 'I'm pining after someone, watch me brood' face," Domino said, keeping her voice light. "Someone back at the mansion?"

"Everyone at the mansion has a 'watch me brood' face," Sam replied. "Some people are better at it than others, though. Like Scott. Broody McBroodpants, as some of the kids might say."

"You didn't answer my question," Domino said in a soft, singsong voice. He was standing there at the edge of the roof, close enough to be noticeable, yet just out of easy reach. "On the other hand, maybe you did."

"Ah'm good at that. Answerin' the question without actually answerin' the question." Sam leaned his arms against the railing and stared out at the city with a smile that lacked any humor behind it.

"Hey, don't you ruin an otherwise good night by starting to sulk," Domino warned him, a very specific glint in her eyes that Nathan or GW would have seen and recognized for the Bad Thing it was immediately. "I might just have to kick your ass if you do."

"Ah suppose so," Sam said with a shrug. "Seein' as how ya got like a post-graduate degree in ass-kickin'. Whereas Ah'm just an amateur." He grinned, a bit more naturally this time, though there was still a bit of a shadow in his eyes.

"Mmm. So who is it?" Domino asked, getting up and moving closer, half-wanting to see his reaction. Not that they hadn't been dancing pretty much as close as you could get downstairs, but now that his mind was elsewhere, he might be a little more standoffish. "Back at the mansion, I mean..."

"Can we maybe not talk about it?" Sam asked a touch plaintively. "Ah mean, Ah know that confession is good for the soul, and all those other old saws, but it's somethin' Ah just need to get over, as much trouble as Ah'm havin' with it, and Ah'd just rather not analyze my idiocy in-depth." He stepped back from Dom, his hands spread.

"Someone you can't have, huh? Don't I know about that sort of thing," Domino murmured, half-turning away and staring back out at the city. "Sorry. Didn't mean to be nosey."

With a sigh, Sam turned back to stare in the same direction as Domino. "Sorry. Ah didn't mean to be defensive. It's just...Ah need to get over it, is the bottom line. Nothin's gonna change, so Ah need to just get my ass up and stop feelin' sorry for myself."

"Oh, fuck it," Domino muttered. "I didn't drag you out here so that we could both get drunk and morose." She turned back towards him, her eyes glittering dangerously, and poked him in the chest. "Hey, at least you're a good-looking ex-wholesome country boy who's engaged in socially respectable behavior."

"Well, except for the mutant part. And the 'leather brigade' part," he said with a wry grin, looking around to make sure nobody else was there to hear them. "And Ah'm sorry again," he continued, stepping a bit closer with a sincere look of apology on his face. "Didn't mean to dump all my crap on you."

Oh God. The apologetic look could stop traffic. "Um," Domino said, a bit flustered. "Crap is... for dumping? No, really, I'm good..."

Part of Sam's charm was that he was completely unaware of the effect his earnest politeness tended to have on women. Not that Sam was entirely aware he had charm in the first place. So he was a bit befuddled by the fact that the seemingly unflappable Domino was suddenly...flapped. "Okay," he said slowly.

"I need another one of those blue things," Domino muttered, a helpless smile playing on her lips as she looked away. "Clearly, I am not drunk enough."

Sam was definitely confused by Domino's behavior. But he'd been resigned to being confused by Domino ever since the infamous swimming incident. "If you're sure, then Ah suppose it's my duty as a mostly wholesome country boy to buy the lady another drink," he said, indicating the door to the downstairs with a smile.

Gallantry. Oh, crap.

---

Domino giggled softly, ignoring the raised eyebrows of the cab driver in the rearview mirror. "Too many blue things, I think," she confided to Sam, rather shamelessly shifting over and laying her head on his shoulder again. "Contrary to popular belief I don't have infinite alcohol tolerance..."

Maybe it was the alcohol (all right, it was certainly the alcohol), but for some reason Sam wasn't too sure of, his arm around Domino's shoulders just seemed to feel incredibly natural. Especially with the way her head was leaning on his shoulder.

"You're nice," Domino said a little fuzzily. It seemed to be important to point that out to Sam. "I don't know what to do with nice guys, you know? I mean, guys I know tend to be all... wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. Or too complicated. Or taken. Or prone to psychotic breaks..."

Sam used the arm around Domino's shoulder to hug her slightly. Even through the alcohol, he had a sense that this was Important Stuff Domino was saying. "Definitely not a 'wham, bam' kind of guy, not taken or prone to psychotic breaks...Ah'd say Ah'm a mite complicated, but Ah'm really not. Just needin' to get past a few things and learn how to trust myself again." He smiled down at Domino. "Ah feel like it's complicated, but Ah s'pose it really ain't."

Oh, damn. "Too nice," Domino muttered, staring up at him, a little wide-eyed. She raised a hand, her fingertips tracing his jawline almost hesitantly. "And your eyes are really too blue. Should be illegal."

Just when he thought he'd maybe gotten Domino figured out, she went sideways on him, Sam mused. This wide-eyed, hesitant, almost girlish Domino was not really someone Sam pictured existing inside that head of hers. He leaned into the touch, eyes looking down into Domino's suddenly serious violet ones.

"Also too tall," Domino muttered, then kissed him. Not that she was precisely sure why. It just seemed like a fairly good idea, right here and now, given the way he was looking at her, like he was wanting to ask a question but he wasn't sure what.

And just like that, the unspoken question was answered. Leaning down, Sam kissed her back. Gently and a touch hesitantly, like he wanted to make absolutely sure it was okay with her.

... okay then. Domino so didn't know what to make of this. What was she doing? Nice guys were not her cup of tea. She wasn't good for people like Sam. Well, she wasn't good for anyone, but especially not people who deserved to find nice ex-country girls and settle down and be happy, and damn it. She drew back, looking away, blinking rapidly.

Sam blinked as well, confused. He thought the kiss had been going rather well, and then Domino had suddenly pulled back. "Dom?" he asked quietly, looking concerned.

"Nothing." The sniffle put the lie to it. "Just don't be dumb, Sam. I'm glad if you had fun tonight but you don't want anything to do with me. I tend to drive men to do stupid, stupid things. Or, you know, do stupid things to them. Or just don't give them enough of a reason to..." She stopped, bit her lip, hugging herself.

"Hey, hey..." Sam whispered, pulling Domino's arms gently down. This was probably exactly what Domino meant by 'don't be dumb', but he smiled gently. "How about Ah be the judge of whether or not Ah want anythin' to do with ya, hm?" he said, using a finger to lift her face so that he could look at her eyes.

Domino gazed up at him, taken aback by the way he was smiling at her and not quite able to keep the sadness out of her eyes. Bad idea, her conscience was telling her. Very bad, bad idea...

The soft smile mixed with concern as Sam cocked his head slightly to take in the sad look. "What's wrong?" he asked simply. "Is there anythin' Ah can do?" he continued.

"Who was it that said the thing about 'let me help' being better words than 'I love you'?" Domino murmured. "Think I lied, you know. Earlier. When I said you could shut it off for a while..."

"Not entirely," Sam said gently. "Ya helped me shut it off for a little while earlier," he admitted. "And Ah'd been needin' that. The problem is when it all comes crashin' back again." He paused. "If Ah can...Ah mean, ya helped me earlier, it's only right if Ah can return the favor..."

Her sense of humor made an abrupt and somewhat perverse return. "You need to be careful, saying things like that. I might just take you up on it." Screw bad ideas. Domino leaned in and kissed him again, a bit more pointedly this time. The blue things had really had quite the kick, and maybe it was losing all that weight in Africa and then gaining some of it back but her alcohol tolerance was not quite what it should be, with a corresponding effect on her general level of contrariness, as GW had dryly put it.

Sam returned the kiss with interest, less tenatively. She tasted a bit of alcohol, naturally, and something slightly spicy that he couldn't put a word to. The combination of alcohol and Domino quickly had his head spinning, and he pulled back slightly, gasping for breath.

The cab driver was studiously ignoring them, so Domino returned the favor. "Ever get tired of dwelling on all the stuff that didn't work out the way you wanted to?" she asked, her voice soft and a bit breathless.

"Absolutely," Sam replied, utterly serious. "Matter of fact, Ah'm pretty tired of mopin' over stuff not workin' out the way Ah wanted to with A...the person we ain't talkin' about," he corrected himself at the last second.

"Moping is bad." The cab driver had probably seen stranger things going on in the back of his cab. "And you know what they say about the best way to get over someone..." Oh, what was she doing?

"Ah don't, but Ah'm thinkin' Ah can guess," Sam replied. He was playing with fire, a small analytical part of his mind noted. But at the moment, he really couldn't bring himself to care.

All right. Enough talking. As cute as the accent was. Domino much preferred the monosyllabic noises at times like this. Made her feel all accomplished.

---

It was possible that Sam had overtipped the driver. His fingers had been a little fumbly, and there might have been an extra twenty in the handful of bills he'd given to the cabbie. But he figured that the cabbie kinda deserved it for discreetly ignoring the fact that Sam and Dom had been pretty much necking like teenagers in the back of his cab. Sam stifled a giggle as they walked up the driveway toward the mansion together.

"Ah. Scandalizing cab drivers the world over," Domino snickered. Sam's arm was around her, and she was feeling... well, rather nice, on the whole. Something Nate had said to her about her being a touch junkie came back, but she shook it off. Now was not the time to be thinking of Nate. "You have lipstick in some odd places," Domino said helpfully, her eyes sparkling.

"How odd?" Sam asked, scrubbing at his lips and face with the hand that was not attached to the arm he had wrapped around Domino. "And Ah don't know that we were _that_ scandalous," he said with a grin.

"Well, no. By my standards, that was not at all scandalous. I have done much more scandalous things in the back of a cab," Domino said flippantly, then immediately wished she hadn't. She gave Sam a slightly rueful, slightly challenging smile. "I am not the type of girl that guys take home to meet their mothers."

Sam wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. Because, while yes, Domino's occupation wasn't the sort of thing one necessarily talked about in polite conversation, he rather thought that his mother wouldn't have all that much to complain about with Domino, once they got past Dom's tendency to try and shock people for the sake of shocking them. He shrugged noncommittally.

Domino leaned against him, her eyes twinkling up at him. "You really are entirely too tall."

Sam chuckled. "Is that so? It couldn't be that you're too short?" He smiled to take the edge off the jibe. "Ah rather think ya seem to be just the right height." He stopped her at the base of the stairs leading up to the front door and decided a demonstration was in order. Tipping her chin up, he leaned down to kiss her, gently but insistently. "See?" he said when they broke for breath.

"Mmm. I think this requires further proof," Domino said, her arms twining around his neck as she pulled him down for another kiss.

In the back of Sam's alcohol-fuzzed mind, he pondered that perhaps kissing Domino on the front steps of the mansion wasn't the best idea, in terms of people not finding out. But Domino was warm, and soft, and felt so right in his arms. So Sam went willingly into the kiss, his hands resting at Dom's waist.

"...shouldn't be doing this out here," Domino said a bit breathlessly once they came up for air again. "Public... displays of affection and all..."

Sam blinked for a moment, his brain struggling to reengage. "Y're prob'ly right," he drawled huskily. "Though Ah'd've thought ya wouldn't pay no never-mind to anyone seein' ya engagin' in public displays of affection..." He grinned.

"Well, this is a school, remember.... impressionable young minds... all that..."

"Ah...uh..." Sam paused. If he said what his body was telling him to say, the line would be crossed. He rubbed a hand at the back of his neck nervously. "Do ya...do ya wanna come up to mah room?" he asked shyly, almost inaudibly.

"I think," Domino said, very gravely, careful to enunciate each word - but spoiling the appearance of carefully considered decision-making with a high-pitched giggle, "that would be much preferable than the bushes. Or, you know, something like that."

Sam was very quiet as they carefully made their way to the front door, and then up to his room. He looked pensive, deep in thought. Finally, they reached his room, where the aftermath of Domino's attempts to find suitable clothing still lay strewn across his bed.

Domino wished she could figure out why her hands were shaking. Maybe... well, there was the whole swearing off men thing, but she'd broken that in Chad for a good cause, hadn't she? And Sam was such a nice guy, and what would it hurt, really? It wasn't as if she was waiting for anyone. Her, waiting for someone. That was a laugh.

And there they were. Suddenly, all the liquid courage that had gotten Sam to this point abandoned him completely. Trying to cover his bout of nerves, he started throwing the clothes from his bed in the vague direction of the closet.

"We left quite a mess, didn't we," Domino said, her eyes overly wide as she watched Sam.

Dom's voice caught Sam up short, and he stopped abruptly. "We sure did," he replied unsteadily, not quite sure what to do with his hands, and not quite able to look at Domino.

"Sam..." Domino trailed off. "Do you, um, want me to leave?"

The faint note of hurt in Domino's voice snapped Sam's head up. "What? No..." he trailed off. "Well...body says 'stay', brain ain't so sure," he admitted candidly.

"Which do you want to listen to?"

It struck Sam that he was occasionally too honest for his own good. He cast his eyes searchingly into Domino's, not really able to read her expression. "Ah _want_ to listen to mah body, an' tell mah brain to go take a hike," he said slowly, "but Ah ain't sure whether that'd be the right thing to do."

"Oh." Domino folded her arms across her chest, not defiantly but protectively. "All right," she said, and her voice did not wobble, damn it. Did not. "You should probably listen to your head, then. Always the best idea. I'll just go..."

Listening to neither his body nor his brain, Sam went with his heart. Before he even knew it, he was across the room, holding Domino in his arms, despite her protectively crossed arms. "Dom, no...it's just that Ah..." he struggled to find the words to explain exactly what it was he was feeling.

"You're confused, and upset about things, and I got you drunk, and this isn't particularly fair to you." She was very stiff in his arms, overcontrolled. "I'm sorry, Sam. I'm really supposed to be doing better than this, these days."

Sam blinked. "What ain't fair to me? As Ah recall, at no point did you twist my arm behind mah back to make me drink, or kiss you, or anythin' else that happened tonight." He rubbed a hand gently and reassuringly along Dom's spine.

"I'm a man-eating bitch," Domino muttered, shivering a little at Sam's touch. "Drive nice boys to suicide and bad boys into bad lifestyle choices..."

Sam placed a finger gently against Domino's lips to quiet her. "Ah don't believe you're any such thing," he replied seriously. "Ah'm also a firm believer in free will, so Ah'm not inclined to believe that ya drive anyone to anythin'."

Domino looked up at him through her eyelashes, for the first time in her life not really thinking about the impact it would have.

Sam did his best, trying not to revert to his 'poleaxed steer' mode at Domino's gaze. He moved his hand to cup her cheek gently, smiling down at her. He leaned down and kissed her forehead softly, using his hands to gently pry her arms from the way they wrapped defensively around her.

"Quit doing that," Domino muttered a bit feebly, leaning against him again without really realizing what she was doing. "Oh, this was such a bad idea..."

Sam went right on doing exactly what he was doing, settling Dom's arms gently at his waist, then returning to stroking her back gently, trying to ease away some of the tension he could feel there. "Why was this such a bad idea?" he asked quietly.

Domino laid her head on his shoulder, telling herself that it was equally bad to fall apart on Sam as it would be to have jumped him five minutes ago. "I don't know," she said, her voice muffled. "Just is. At least you won't have anything to regret in the morning..."

Sam winced slightly at the edge in Domino's voice. "Ah ain't gonna regret a single thing about tonight, no matter what happens," he said seriously, leaning his cheek against the top of Dom's head. "It's just that...havin' sex would have really complicated things for a lot of reasons," he continued.

"Right. Because sex is complicated," Domino said, no edge to her voice, not much tone at all except for a weary acceptance. "Plus," she said, striving for a bantering tone, "you don't know where I've been."

"Stop that," Sam said sharply. "If Ah ain't allowed to put myself down, then you ain't either." He leaned back to look down at her, serious but not angry. "Ah didn't say it to push you away, just to try and explain myself. Because..." he paused. "...Ah can tell you where Ah've been. Which is nowhere." He blushed slightly and ducked his head.

Dom told herself that jaw-hitting-floor was a bad reaction. "Oh," she said, her voice a little strangled. "Well... all right. So, definitely listen to your head." A bona fide virgin. Crap. Good thing he'd gotten cold feet. "You definitely don't want your first time to be with me. Yeah."

Sam frowned. She was still doing it. "Dom, please stop putting yourself down like that?" he asked softly. "It ain't that Ah didn't want my first time to be with you," he continued in that same soft voice. "Just that Ah wanted it ta mean more than just the both of us bein' drunk an' lonely." He steeled himself a bit. "An'...if you and Ah had sex, Ah'd be wantin' somethin' like a relationship, gettin' to know each other an' datin' an' such." He went on in an even softer whisper. "An' Ah don' know that ya want anythin' like that from me, so it wouldn't be fair to you."

"It's not that I don't want anything like that-" Okay, maybe a bad way to put it, "-it's just that I'm not made for that sort of thing." Domino tried to shrug. Hard to do, when you were still fairly securely wrapped in a pair of moderately strong arms. "Casual Sex Lass, here. Or Prostitute With A Point, at least."

"Dom," Sam said a bit more sternly, "Ah ain't gonna stand for you constantly puttin' yourself down like that. You're a good person, an' attractive, an' smart, an' funny, an' sexy..." he blushed a bit at the last, but continued on. "Ah just don' know why ya feel the need to constantly belittle yourself." Yes, he was entirely aware that he was the proverbial pot to Domino's kettle, but the point still held.

Domino looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. Time for a little cold, hard truth here. "The last time I had sex," she said with a tight smile, "I was trading it for information from a Chadian army colonel about that camp the X-Men hit last month. That is the sort of thing I've been known to do a little too often to be socially acceptable," she said, trying rather half-heartedly to squirm out of his arms. "So again, very good call on listening to your head, there..."

Sam's arms tightened in response. "Nuh-uh. Ah know you're tryin' ta shock me an' all, just push me away. Ah ain't budgin'." That's not to say Domino's clinical announcement of the things she'd done wasn't shocking, just that Sam was bound and determined not to react in the way Domino expected of him.

Oh, now he was just being stubborn. Domino pushed, again rather half-heartedly. "Did I mention I used to kill people for money?"

Sam frowned down at Domino slightly. His libido was cheerfully offering a dozen excellent ways to quiet Domino, but he didn't really think that was the best idea. "Dom, Ah'm well aware of your career choices," he said firmly. "Just because Ah ain't had sex don' mean Ah'm blind to the way the world works, and the fact that it's a damn cruel place out there. But Ah ain't gonna judge ya, and Ah ain't gonna let you shock me into pushin' ya away."

Damn it, this was too frustrating! Why wouldn't he react like he was supposed to react? She was suddenly and overwhelmingly reminded of Pete. That time in Hungary when he'd walked in on her preparing to do more or less the same thing she'd done with that Chadian colonel.

He hadn't been judgmental. Hadn't been angry. He'd just yanked her out of the room, ignoring her protests, and told her very steadily never to do that again. Better ways to get information, Dom...

Sam merely continued to hold Domino silently, allowing her to fight her own internal demons. Stroking her back gently, he watched her with a concerned look.

"You're too damned stubborn," Domino muttered. "I'm going to kick you in a minute." But the violent urge was a passing thing, and she was doing considerably more leaning on him than kicking. Okay, no kicking and a whole lot of leaning...

As she leaned further into him, Sam wrapped an arm around her shoulders and stroked her close-cropped hair. "Ya can do whatever ya like," he promised, "long as ya stop tryin' to shock me or put yourself down."

"You're not the only one who's pining for someone, you know," she said without thinking. But her head was getting a little foggier. Entirely too many of those blue things. "Look," she said, trying to pull away, "we're both a little on the drunk side. I should go totter back to Ye Olde Guest Room."

"Ah don't..." Sam halted, suddenly unsure of himself. "Would ya stay if Ah asked ya to?" he asked hesitantly. "Even if it weren't ta have sex?"

Domino gave him a completely uncomprehending look. "Um. Why? You don't want to play checkers, do you?" A slightly wild giggle escaped her and she slapped her hand over her mouth. "Sorry."

"Well, Ah do happen to have a checkerboard," Sam replied with a dry chuckle. "Just...Ah dunno. The whole gettin' ta know each other better thing, partly. An' partly that...Ah ain't too keen on bein' alone tonight," he admitted. "Even if there ain't sex involved. 'Course, that may be even more complicated, an' Ah wouldn't want ta push you into anythin'..." he shrugged nervously.

"Complicated." She was thoroughly confused now. Maybe she should have had a few more of those blue things after all. "You're not going to insist on sleeping on the couch or something if I stay, are you?"

"Ah dunno," Sam admitted. "What do you want?" Okay, maybe that was cheating by foisting it off on her, but with the way she kept putting herself down, Sam had a hunch that having a choice in the matter was important to Dom.

"What I can't have," Domino said a bit snippily, "just like you. If I'm staying, you don't get to be stupid about sleeping arrangements. If you insist on sleeping on the couch I'm going to think you do think I'm untouchable." She stepped away and grabbed one of his flannel shirts off the bed. "And I'm stealing a shirt to sleep in. Be right back." Domino flounced off into the bathroom.

Sam chuckled to himself slightly as he crossed to throw the rest of his clothes in the closet and find some pajamas for himself. That was more the Dom he'd come to know in that long, crazy rollercoaster evening. Whirlwind and take-charge. With practiced, economical motions he changed into his pajamas, then sat on the bed to wait for Dom to return.

"So are we having a slumber party?" Domino snarked as she came back out into the bedroom, wearing nothing but the flannel shirt. "Do I get to braid your hair?"

Sam swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry at the way Domino filled his flannel. He'd thought he'd known tempation earlier that evening, but that was nothing compared to the vision before him. "Ah, uh..." he stammered. "Ah don' think either of us has enough hair to braid."

Domino ran a hand through her short black hair. "Sad, but true." She flopped down on the bed, stretching out. Passing out was suddenly a not-entirely-unattractive proposition. She yawned, covering her mouth with a hand. "Don't know how Mina stands keeping hers long. Gets in the way so much..."

Laying down beside Domino, Sam pulled the sheets and comforter up over them both. "Ah like yours jus' the way it is," he replied around a prodigous yawn of his own. "It suits ya." His accent was almost incomprehensible from exhaustion.

"So much for checkers," Domino murmured and closed her eyes.

"There's always tomorrow," Sam replied softly, watching some of the stress and defensiveness smooth away from Domino's face before closing his own eyes.