memester (
memester) wrote in
bakerstreet2026-06-15 06:31 am
Entry tags:
There was only one bed... (internal screaming intensifies)
![]() It's cozy, warm and very, very narrow; you're stuck sleeping in a single bed with someone else and have to endure/enjoy the situation until morning. Snuggle-time? • COMMENT WITH CHARACTER/SERIES IN THE HEADER (add prefs in comments as needed) 01) FRIENDS you know the other person well. 02) LOVERS is this really such a bad place to 'sleep' together? 03) ENEMIES try not to stab each other in the night. 04) STRANGERS super awkward or getting along like a house on fire. 05) AUTHORITY higher/lower social status. 06) WILDCARD choose your own adventure. |


Dr. Rowan O'Cleary | OC | OTA
Henry of Skalitz | Kingdom Come Deliverance series | OTA
olruggio | witch hat atelier
alois trancy / kuroshitsuji ii
Rumi | KPop Demon Hunters | OTA
dr. mark watney | the martian | ota
for ryland grace/the_aroace_in_aerospace
Tonight - as if they have any real concept of night and day out here - sleep does not come to him. He turns, and turns again, tiredness clinging to him as the hours fall by. He tries listening to music for a while on an iPod, borrowed from an astronaut he'll never meet. He tries keeping his mind busy with what he'll do when they get home, what he should expect, but it's useless. It's a familiar anxiety keeping him alert and conscious. One that knows how bad his dreams have been lately and is trying its best to give him reprieve from them, though it hasn't thought of the cost.
By the time he hears Grace coming in, Mark's frustration is tempered only by the realisation of the only thing he hasn't tried. Grace assumes he's asleep, so he gets ready for bed as quietly as he can, climbs into his bunk and gets comfortable. Probably forgotten to take his glasses off again.
It's hard to not feel younger than his years as he gets up, gathering his blanket as he goes, and pads across the dorm to Grace's bunk. Keeps his voice quiet, as if there's a third person in the room they need to avoid waking. ]
...Hey, Ryland..? Can I sleep in with you..?
[ There's no embarrassment. Only hope emphasised by how tired he is. Since their night with David Attenborough, he knows Grace will likely say yes.
But he'll always check. He'll always ask. ]
no subject
Sometimes Mark just sits in the corner of the lab with an ebook while Grace runs tests on microbes from Adrian, or they chat to fill the silence while typing on their respective laptops. Grace always misses him when he's gone to bed, though he doesn't always notice the change, only knowing that he's not enjoying the work quite as much. Which doesn't prevent him from dialing in and working on a paper until way later than he should be up, like it does tonight.
It's not quite 1 am by the ship's clock by the time he throws in the towel and returns to the dormitory. The lights are off, except for the ambient glow from panels here and there around the room, but he knows his way around in the dark by now and quietly shuffles to his bunk.
He only has his eyes shut for a few moments before he can hear the soft whisper of movement, and he has just enough time to think aw beans, I woke him up before Mark's low, tired voice cuts through the quiet. Oh.]
Yeah. C'mere.
[He reaches out, guessing at where Mark's hands are to pull him closer. He has to scoot over a bit to make room, rolling back onto his right side to make space. The bunks are not made for this, but Mary has already been asked to do so many things out of her design spec. This is nothing.]
post-splashdown — and there was only one (hospital) bed
(He probably should have checked into the hotel then. Oh well.)
The building around them is quiet, the room dark and warm. Some nurse had drawn the shades to keep the lights from the parking lot from bleeding through and tugged a blanket up over Mark. It's thin and light and Jud's really not sure it's warm enough, even if the room feels comfortable to him. Mark is still so thin.
How long has he been awake for? Hard to say. Since before he got on the plane to get out here, certainly. For hours before that. But keeping vigil at a bedside isn't unfamiliar to him, and he uses the time to pray, and think, and wonder about the future. The night crawls slowly on, midnight bleeding into smaller hours, and Jud's chair is pulled so close to the bedside that his knees are pushed out to either side. He checks the blanket, again — it's thin under his fingers but Mark feels warm to the touch — and this time leaves his hand where it is, splayed on the edge of the thin mattress, fingertips just nudged against Mark's hip.
It can't be more than a few minutes that he dozes off, head pillowed on an arm he's resting at the edge of the mattress. His sleep is still light enough that any small movement from Mark drags him unceremoniously to the surface of consciousness, and now he blinks a little blearily at the frown tugging at Mark's brow, the hands clenching and flexing against the blanket. ]
Hey—
[ His own hand is bigger than Mark's, rawboned with too-large knuckles from years of throwing punches, but it's gentle when he rests it over the one Mark has worrying at the blanket. Jud leans close, elbow on the mattress, half on the narrow hospital bed himself. ]
Mark. It's okay. You're okay. You're dreaming.
no subject
He's not so stubborn as to fight something that's only for his own good. But Jud knows better than anyone how much he'd rather fast forward through it all, wake up tomorrow and be okay. He'd rather be on a flight out to New York. He wants to see the grounds of the church, the trees Jud's told him about. He wants to stay up all night talking with him so they can catch a sunrise. It's wouldn't be on Mars, but it'd be perfect.
It's all of this Mark wishes he'd dream about. But why would it be, when fear and stress are far more persuasive influences on a mind already pushed closer to the brink than he ever wanted to experience. He won't remember the start of the dream when he wakes, only the pervasive cold of open space, distant stars his only company as the husk of the MAV flies close to the Hermes, close enough to dock, but instead shoots clean past. This time, he doesn't see Lewis or Beck at the airlock, waiting to try and reach him. He's only spinning, spinning, spinning-
His hand turns, grabbing for the one resting over it before his eyes have opened at all. In the seconds that he comes round, he doesn't remember that Jud's right there- it takes him a very long few seconds to remember where he is at all. All he feels is cold, is his breath coming fast and hollow, all he sees is it's dark, but there's no stars-
The light's not coming from Sol. It's from the machines flanking the bedside, the soft light behind the bed to allow the nurses to see what they're doing while their patient sleeps. Mark blinks hard a couple of times, squeezing the hand in his before he realises it's attached to someone. ]
S-Sorry, sorry-
[ He apologises in a ragged voice, but doesn't let go for a minute, still getting his bearings from a dream so vivid it had edges, and the grogginess from sleep direly needed. If he lets go, this might turn out to not be real either. ]
-Fuck...
Elijah Moreau | OC | OTA
Aether | Genshin Impact | ota
Ryland Grace | Project Hail Mary
Husk | Hazbin Hotel | OTA
chu wanning | 2ha
Hanatarou Yamada // BLEACH // ota
shane hollander | heated rivalry
gladiolus amicitia / ffxv
Suzuki Iruma | Mairimashita! Iruma-kun
vigil moreau | original
OTA 18+ for smut; m/m 18+ for shipping; canon characters/OCs/AUs/whatever welcome; open to any prompt]
Ceder Bishop | OC | OTA (m/m)
zatanna zatara / dc / ota, m/f for shippy
qifrey | witch hat atelier
Ryu Zao 🩷 Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!
clark kent / superman || superman (2025) || ota
luigi lucheni | elisabeth - the musical | ota
Ravi Panikkar | 911 / 9-1-1 | OTA
open to cast, cross-canon, OCs, AUs. m/m, m/f, 21+ for shipping, OTA for gen. ]
alisaie leveilleur ✧ ffxiv
Ri!Kusuriuri | Mononoke (2007) | OTA 20+