[for Rogue]

[dreaming_cowboy]

A space station falls from the sky, and then Faye Valentine falls back into his life. If she can be qualified as being in it now; Spike, frankly, has no idea where to place her in whatever loose mental schema he applies to his life, with no Bebop. They're still stuck in the same place, he supposes, it's just a little bigger, and it's a different

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[un_gloved]

She'd been looking for him with the intention of finding him, which was just about the opposite of what had been true for longer than she probably realized. Didn't make her feel good to realize it, but there it was, and it didn't serve anyone to ignore it.

It wasn't exactly the picture she'd had in her head, once she actually found him, though.

"Do cowboys make good sailors?" she asked as she approached, stopping a few meters from where he stood, behind him, kicking one foot behind the ankle of the other and hitching her thumbs into the belt loops of her cutoffs.

She'd consciously reintroduced herself to the sun and, now that she had a schedule, and even though McCoy wasn't necessarily sure the exertion was good, had started running and doing yoga again. The fact that she could look in the mirror every day and see herself, and be reasonably sure of who that was, meant that the cumulative months of not knowing, and not sleeping, and just curling up in quiet places hoping to stay lucid and in control had become glaringly apparent in

[dreaming_cowboy]

Spike, by contrast, feels more grounded. He can close his eyes, exist in the present. It's a good feeling. He holds onto it, and her, slipping one arm around her waist, leaving the other behind her neck, under her hair.

[un_gloved]

Rogue sighed into his mouth and leaned into him. After a few very long moments, she dropped her head to rest her cheek against his shoulder and spend some time listening to, and feeling, his breathing.

[dreaming_cowboy]

"Thanks," he says, after a while of holding on to her. "This is more interesting than that damned boat."

[un_gloved]

She laughed a little, barely a hiccup of one, and looped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest.

"Mah pleasure."

[dreaming_cowboy]

"Well," Spike allows, letting his arms sit loosely around her, "a little bit of mine, too."

[un_gloved]

She stayed burrowed in his arms, holding on and pressing close. The familiar smell, the feel of his arms- it might have been a placebo, but it felt like her head was clearer. She reached up and pulled his head down to kiss him again, slowly at first.