Stellar Salutations
Title : Stellar Salutations
Pairing: girlEli/male cast member
Rating: PG13
When Eli was fifteen, the courts had decided for about 8 months that her mother, as a carrier of the HIV virus, was not an acceptable guardian. Watching the Kino, Eli remembered that terrifying time in her life.
She’d been fostered in a home with another teen. He was a few months short of being kicked out of the foster system, and had just been released from juvenile detention. Eli had never spoken of the eight months of terror in the bedroom that she’d shared with him to her mother, and she had never intended on speaking of them to anyone. Watching herself die first, gathered into a friend's arms, she wondered if it was worth it to watch until the end.
This could be now her worst memories, Eli thought, moving into the light the stars shone through the windows of her quarters.
It was in the in-between times: too late for even the most dedicated night owl, and too early for the early birds. Those still up were either on duty or as reclusive in their activities as Eli was on this night.
She had lain down for bed in the nude, her preference for sleep having changed to the absence of clothes in deference to the lack of ease in their cleansing aboard ship. This awakening, full of nightmares of the recording from the night before and other memories, older memories having woken her an hour after she’d gone to sleep, him having left for his shift not ten minutes before that.
They shared quarters now, his rather than the ones that had been assigned to her in the wake of their arrival on the Destiny. Shared showers. Shared blankets. Mom, Eli remembered, had once told her that to share blankets; to sleep together was the true strength of the relationship. Both he and she had woken the other in the night with the strength of their nightmares, and soothed the other back to sleep, but tonight, with her bedmate, perhaps heart mate, outside of their quarters, on duty, there had been precious little rest for her.
Eli had recorded a short message to her mother on the Kino, then a short message to those higher up. Could they alter the ring transports in such a way that inanimate materials could be sent? After that had been work on some calculations for Dr. Rush, a short nap, dozing off into the padd before her, before waking, shaking yet again with nightmares thirty minutes later. No, the memories of watching herself die on that planet, unable to touch her lover, unable to truly cry after watching him die, they kept her from sleep this night, she thought, sinking onto a meditation pad in front of the window.
Legs at half lotus, her hands went to center and stabilize her body in preparation for the meditation that she and her lover both preferred. Eli had taken yoga classes as an elective in the kinesiology department while at MIT, and once she’d dropped out, if there had been extra money, she’d diverted it to taking more classes. Her lover had never explained to her from whence he learned his yoga, though Eli had not been surprised that he favored a far more athletic form of yoga than she did. Her personal preference was for hatha yoga, and they were slowly attempting partnered yoga.
Eli changed the positions of her hands, moving her hips forward and her hands behind her as she eased into Corpse pose. Staying still for Eli was hard, and she made a point of practicing this during her few individual sessions. She had been lying still in bed, once. Lying still, still and cold and dead, all were words that seemed synonymous as she tried to stay still. Keep on moving, if you’re moving, you’re alive, you aren’t pinned, and nothing is hurting you. Eli began to gasp for breath, almost feeling hands grasping at her arms, holding her still, and then she let go. From Corpse pose and into Cobra. She would start the sun salutations.
She’d died on that planet. At least it had been on ground rather than in space, and she hadn’t died truly alone, the last person in her world dying. No, that had felt like it to her lover, and she was glad that he had left the observation room before he’d found that out. She loved him, but she did not want him to know that he’d died alone, at the side of a man whom he could never decide if he hated or liked. And he had died alone. She was quite happy that he hadn’t seen that, he had nightmares about dying alone enough, and Eli worried that if he’d seen it, his reaction would have been worse, even than what he’d already had.
No, Eli though, relaxing back into half lotus in preparation for the last bits of her solo yoga practice, she did not want him to suffer the memories awoken by the Kino recording. Not like the memories that woke her at night now. Up, up, up her arms stretched as she elongated her torso and held the position, tears running down her face. Behind her she heard the door whisper open, and her lover pad across the floor, clothes discarded next to hers as he sunk down onto the meditation pad, and pressed his lips to her neck.
“Elizabeth.” She let the tears fall.
“Ron.” He’d died, there, alone. Eli never wanted her beloved to die in such a way, never. “Hold me?”
Her soldier wrapped his arms around her, pressing close against her body, easing them off the pad and back into the bed.
“I’ll call you in sick.” He whispered, wiping away the salt of her tears. “Let me hold you until you fall asleep?”
“Hold me forever.” Eli whispered, pressing kisses to him.
“Forever, and I’ll hold you thus.”
Pairing: girlEli/male cast member
Rating: PG13
When Eli was fifteen, the courts had decided for about 8 months that her mother, as a carrier of the HIV virus, was not an acceptable guardian. Watching the Kino, Eli remembered that terrifying time in her life.
She’d been fostered in a home with another teen. He was a few months short of being kicked out of the foster system, and had just been released from juvenile detention. Eli had never spoken of the eight months of terror in the bedroom that she’d shared with him to her mother, and she had never intended on speaking of them to anyone. Watching herself die first, gathered into a friend's arms, she wondered if it was worth it to watch until the end.
This could be now her worst memories, Eli thought, moving into the light the stars shone through the windows of her quarters.
It was in the in-between times: too late for even the most dedicated night owl, and too early for the early birds. Those still up were either on duty or as reclusive in their activities as Eli was on this night.
She had lain down for bed in the nude, her preference for sleep having changed to the absence of clothes in deference to the lack of ease in their cleansing aboard ship. This awakening, full of nightmares of the recording from the night before and other memories, older memories having woken her an hour after she’d gone to sleep, him having left for his shift not ten minutes before that.
They shared quarters now, his rather than the ones that had been assigned to her in the wake of their arrival on the Destiny. Shared showers. Shared blankets. Mom, Eli remembered, had once told her that to share blankets; to sleep together was the true strength of the relationship. Both he and she had woken the other in the night with the strength of their nightmares, and soothed the other back to sleep, but tonight, with her bedmate, perhaps heart mate, outside of their quarters, on duty, there had been precious little rest for her.
Eli had recorded a short message to her mother on the Kino, then a short message to those higher up. Could they alter the ring transports in such a way that inanimate materials could be sent? After that had been work on some calculations for Dr. Rush, a short nap, dozing off into the padd before her, before waking, shaking yet again with nightmares thirty minutes later. No, the memories of watching herself die on that planet, unable to touch her lover, unable to truly cry after watching him die, they kept her from sleep this night, she thought, sinking onto a meditation pad in front of the window.
Legs at half lotus, her hands went to center and stabilize her body in preparation for the meditation that she and her lover both preferred. Eli had taken yoga classes as an elective in the kinesiology department while at MIT, and once she’d dropped out, if there had been extra money, she’d diverted it to taking more classes. Her lover had never explained to her from whence he learned his yoga, though Eli had not been surprised that he favored a far more athletic form of yoga than she did. Her personal preference was for hatha yoga, and they were slowly attempting partnered yoga.
Eli changed the positions of her hands, moving her hips forward and her hands behind her as she eased into Corpse pose. Staying still for Eli was hard, and she made a point of practicing this during her few individual sessions. She had been lying still in bed, once. Lying still, still and cold and dead, all were words that seemed synonymous as she tried to stay still. Keep on moving, if you’re moving, you’re alive, you aren’t pinned, and nothing is hurting you. Eli began to gasp for breath, almost feeling hands grasping at her arms, holding her still, and then she let go. From Corpse pose and into Cobra. She would start the sun salutations.
She’d died on that planet. At least it had been on ground rather than in space, and she hadn’t died truly alone, the last person in her world dying. No, that had felt like it to her lover, and she was glad that he had left the observation room before he’d found that out. She loved him, but she did not want him to know that he’d died alone, at the side of a man whom he could never decide if he hated or liked. And he had died alone. She was quite happy that he hadn’t seen that, he had nightmares about dying alone enough, and Eli worried that if he’d seen it, his reaction would have been worse, even than what he’d already had.
No, Eli though, relaxing back into half lotus in preparation for the last bits of her solo yoga practice, she did not want him to suffer the memories awoken by the Kino recording. Not like the memories that woke her at night now. Up, up, up her arms stretched as she elongated her torso and held the position, tears running down her face. Behind her she heard the door whisper open, and her lover pad across the floor, clothes discarded next to hers as he sunk down onto the meditation pad, and pressed his lips to her neck.
“Elizabeth.” She let the tears fall.
“Ron.” He’d died, there, alone. Eli never wanted her beloved to die in such a way, never. “Hold me?”
Her soldier wrapped his arms around her, pressing close against her body, easing them off the pad and back into the bed.
“I’ll call you in sick.” He whispered, wiping away the salt of her tears. “Let me hold you until you fall asleep?”
“Hold me forever.” Eli whispered, pressing kisses to him.
“Forever, and I’ll hold you thus.”