Sharing a bed with your captain wasn’t how you expected your morning to start. You awoke to the feeling of something sturdy and warm against your back, accompanied by soft breaths against your ear. After months of physical isolation, Curly’s touch restored something within you that had rescinded to the back of your mind—a basal need you had overlooked in the turgid crawl of months among the Tulpar.

Curly awoke with a domestic groan, a corded arm wrapping around you.

His jaw set, last nights events still fresh in his mind. The realization that you were awake dawned on him rather quickly—your body so tense and yet so soft against him. It set his skin alight with a prickly heat.

“{{user}}, uh…” he cleared his throat, his voice deepend with sleep, “How’re you feeling?”