xp_logs | Kevin & Cammie | Very early Monday morning

Kevin wakes up from yet another nightmare about his father and chooses to relocate for the rest of the night.

It was the same dream it always was. It was the only dream that mattered. Kevin woke up screaming when he'd screamed in the dream, right when the ashes his father had withered to fell through his fingers. Waking, he could still feel that soft ash on his skin. He could taste it in the air. And he could still hear his dad's voice trying to tell him it'd be okay, that they'd figure out what was going on but that Kevin needed to calm down.

Calming down would have been great right about now. The Southerner could feel his heart pound against his chest, throb against his temple. It felt like the inside of his body pulsated outward with every beat of his heart and his bones could just barely hold him together. Jean-Paul had spent the night in New York so Kevin's suite was empty when he came out of his bedroom pulling on another hooded shirt and gloves.

He padded down the hall in socked feet without even thinking where he was going. Part of him knew but didn't acknowledge his destination. He hated being alone after those dreams. He wouldn't sleep if he was alone, there was no hope of that. So he punched the code into the keypad he'd seen used by one of the occupants of the suite before and slipped inside silently. No one was awake. Kevin made sure the hoods of both shirts were pulled up over his head securely and crept soundlessly into a bedroom. He wrapped the sleeping girl in a sheet that was Kevin-proof and slid into bed next to her without so much as bothering to wake her up first. In a very strange way, Cammie was his safe place. Even if he'd be nauseous in the morning.

Cammie was a light sleeper. She blamed the years on the street where she had taught herself to rouse at just about anything. Sometimes you had to. She opened her eyes slightly when Kevin got into bed with her, "One of your nights, huh?" she muttered, letting him get comfortable and adjusting for the extra person.

She didn't mind the company.

Kevin nodded. He adjusted the sheet he'd wrapped her in so it went up over her head like a hood, and buried his face into the back of her neck. "Yeah, one of those nights," he whispered aloud, voice thick and scratchy with sleep. It was easier to relax here, oddly. She could accidentally kill him in his sleep but Kevin felt relaxed. He wasn't sure what all that really said about him or their friendship, but he wouldn't have been up for the psychoanalyzing even if he'd been more awake.

"Then I won't even charge by the hour," she yawned, the humor was bad, but all her humor was bad. It was a great way to deal with things, "That's how much I like you."

The bad joke made Kevin smile and whisper, "That's good, 'cause Ah dunno if Ah got enough cash to cover that and you said you don't take checks or cards last time."

"Never take checks from students," Cammie agreed, "But you're getting all this comfort for free. So try to get some sleep. Nightmares suck ass, after all."

"And here Ah was hopin' Ah could just whisper dirty things in your ear all night." The small grin on his lips could almost be heard in Kevin's whispered words.

"Ooooh, sexy," Cammie said happily, "I'll have to break out the leather."

"S'not nearly as fun as breakin' you out of it," he teased back. Mindless innuendo and flirting was practically a soothing experience between them. Kevin reflected that he and Cammie had a very odd friendship, but he was cool with that.

"Then I tie you down," Cammie returned, "With the special ropes."

Kevin was clearly so bad at dirty talk because that reply had him blinking into the sheet he'd put over her. She will totally keep going if encouraged, he thought all of three and a half seconds before asking, "And once you got me there?" He was half curious what she'd come out with and half just curious to see if she'd say anything at all.

"Oh now, now, a lady never blows and tells," Cammie joked, "Luckily, I'm not a lady. Or unluckily, depending on who you are I guess."

That heavy, lingering feeling from his nightmare had lifted completely now that he was laughing. "Ah prefer showers more'n tellers. Another reason we'll never work out."

"Hey, we find a way to make it work, I'll show ya all night long, Kevy," Cammie promised tiredly.

"Ah'll hold you to that," he promised. Kevin wouldn't, of course. Cammie didn't do commitment and he didn't do non-commitment. That and he was in a fully monogamous and committed relationship for the foreseeable future anyhow. Nuzzling into the back of her neck again, Kevin whispered, "You should go back to sleep."

"I have a cute guy in my bed and he wants us to sleep," Cammie said, yawning, "Fine. But in the morning? Nothing but sex and waffles. You hear me? Sex and waffles. All. Morning. Long."

"Mmhmm." Kevin's hand slid down her thigh suggestively, but he kept his hand in designated safe zones. Even if he skirted the perimeter for effect. "Sex and waffles. You got it."

"Keep that up and we'll have to get to the sex part now," Cammie said, chuckling. It wouldn't ever go there, but they could joke about it all they wanted to. It was part of what made this so fun, and why they got along the way they did.