Third floor common room, Sunday evening

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Half-empty cartons of Chinese takeaway sat beside the couch and some costume drama, period piece was on the television. Jim, to be honest, wasn't paying much attention to it. That could have something to do with the fact that Lana was currently snuggled into his side, of course.

[[Open!]]

Comments

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana's eyes looked faraway for a moment. "Those are beautiful," she said. "Um... worst nightmare?"

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

"That list of people on my door," he replied promptly. "You?"

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"Being buried alive." She couldn't stop the shudder. "Happened once and now it haunts my dreams sometimes."

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Jim squeezed her tightly and pressed another kiss to her forehead. "I can't imagine something that," he said quietly.

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"I'm surprised I'm not more clautrophobic than I am," she said quietly. "Okay, your question."

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Jim made a note to hold all dates and makeout sessions in open spaces. "My question. Uh . . ." He thought of all the questions he wanted to ask and discarded them all. "One country you want to visit."

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"France," she said dreamily. "I've always wanted to go to Paris."

She looked at him curiously. "That wasn't what you were going to ask though. What was it?"

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Jim looked sheepish, caught in the act. "Oh, nothing."

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"What?" She looked curious. "You can ask me anything you want."

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Jim hesitated a moment before blurting it out. "Last boyfriend?"

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana flushed, but nodded. "His name was Shep. John Sheppard. He left in March. I saw him twice over the summer when he was... back in the country. He's stationed really far away, may not be back for years, so we decided friends was the better option."

There was no way she was about to tell him about the friends with benefits decision, but since that only held if neither of them was involved it was a moot point anyway.

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Jim nodded. March. So at least he was't the rebound guy. He hoped.

"Good guy?" Lana had mentioned that she didn't have the best track record with guys.

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"Really good," she said quietly. "It killed me when he left. Took me a long time to be ready to move on."

She wrapped her arms around him tightly. "This will sound crazy, but I'm so glad you didn't come earlier. I wouldn't have been ready to really be with anyone. Not for anything more than just a rebound sort of thing."

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't sound crazy at all," Jim said, shaking his head and pulling her closer. He stroked his thumb over her cheek before tilting her chin up to look at him, smiling. "I'm glad I came when I did then."

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"Me too," she whispered and stretched up enough to be able to kiss him.

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Jim obligingly leaned down - he was starting to like dating a much shorter girl, despite the incipent back problems - to kiss her back.

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

She made herself pull away again after a few minutes and curled up in his arms again, trying to let her heart rate calm down. "So... I think we're at either country you want to visit or... last girlfriend... for you. If you want."

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

"I wanted to visit Japan," Jim said after a moment to recover, not even noticing his use of the past tense. "And my last girlfriend . . ." He let out a small laugh. "Was more than a year ago. Caitlin Campbell. We went out for exactly three weeks before she dumped me for the captain of the golf team, of all things."

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"Japan," Lana said dreamily. "I'd go there."

"The captain of the golf team?" Lana asked disbelievingly. "Crazy girl."

"Well," she said innocently. "You don't have to worry about that here. No golf team." She grinned mischievously.

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

Jim laughed at her dreamy expression and then laughed again at her innocent tone.

"Now I knew there was a reason I was starting to get to like this place."

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"Mmmm... My turn, um... favorite class in school - past or present."

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

"Gym," he replied promptly. "You?"

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"Forensics," she said just as quickly. And grinned at him.

[sensitivejim.livejournal.com]

"Forensics?" Jim repeated, his eyebrows shooting up.

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"It's fascinating," Lana said. "Last semester we had a professor who'd been a forensic specialist back in Las Vegas. It was great to be able to learn about all that stuff."