Dreaming about stuff

Archer wanted to stay neutral but his bond with Ava was making it very difficult for him to do so. He was dependent on her, needy like he'd never been in his life. It wasn't even a romantic connection but he was afraid of it turning into one.

A psy-sentinel bonding didn't automatically lead to a romantic connection between the two but it was known to open up channels and doors in a situation where the other prerequisites for attraction existed. If Ava had been a man, Archer wouldn't have had to worry because he was a heterosexual man. In such a case, his sentinel would be a close friend and nothing more.

"Archer, teach me to read astrogation maps."

Ava was only in her first year but the girl studied like she was preparing for the S.W.I.F.T. exams. He couldn't help but appreciate how hard-working she was.

"Are you stupid? That's like asking me to teach you algebra when you haven't even learnt the number system."

After their last incident, Archer had suffered another attack that caused Ava so much pain she had been unable to walk out of her room. They'd both gone through hell till a nurse had arrived and put an end to their misery. Now Ava, not wanting a repeat of the incident, spent all her time sitting next to Archer's hospital bed.

She watched him come and go as they did tests on him morning and evening. Three days had passed since the manifestation and he was progressing as well as was expected. The only complication in his case arose from having synced so early on with a sentinel who wasn't going to form a permanent connection with him.

"It's starting," Archer warned the sentinel when he began seeing strange shapes and lights. He immediately felt a hand slip into his and then the feeling of cold fog settling over his mind chased away the fingers of pain that came for him.

"Better?" Ji-ho asked. When he gave her an early warning, it was easier for her to begin the process of calming him down.

"Yeah."

The psychic sighed as he lost himself in the fog of calm that washed over his mind. Only four more days and Ava would leave him. He tried not to dwell on it but the mere thought of another sentinel in his mind made him feel sick. He had to purge away the notion that Ava would change her mind about it because from what he had seen of her in these few days, he understood that she was a determined and stubborn girl who had a definite plan for her future.

"Robinson, why do you study so hard?"

Ji-ho was wracking her brain trying to see which step she had fucked up. The physics problem that she was trying to solve had a two-page mathematical derivation, the end result of which baffled her completely.

"Huh? I have to become a navigator on an Angel class starship."

It was too embarrassing to admit that she specifically wanted Draconus. Ji-ho would have sounded like a choosing beggar then. If she couldn't even pass the Academy exams, forget Draconus, not even an auxiliary ship would take her.

"You're very ambitious," he responded. But so was he. Archer was aiming to command a battle fleet of his own. Angel Class was still too crazy of a dream for him when his own uncle, being a genius of another calibre, hadn't been promoted to Captain yet.

"That's why I'm telling you! Show me how to read an astrogation map! I have to be ahead of the curve."

"Fine," he huffed. If Ava wanted to suffer then he would put her through the wringer.

_______

Day four arrived and Ji-ho woke up from a dream that made no sense to her. The young woman had fallen asleep beside Archer's bed, their hands tied at the wrists by a chord of rope. It had been her brilliant way of coping with the multiple waves of attacks that kept her and Archer up at night. Holding hands was a conscious effort that required them to stay awake and she had no energy left for it.

"Say, Archer... what did you dream about?" She asked the young man who immediately looked embarrassed.

Ji-ho had been right. She had inadvertently visited his dreams and saw some things that should have stayed private.

"I'm a twenty-two-year-old man," he said with some embarrassment when he realised what had happened. He hadn't had any time to himself and that frustration was showing up in his dreams. He thanked the heavens that the girl in his dream hadn't been Ava. Now that would have been seriously awkward. The woman had blonde hair and though her face hadn't been exposed in the dream, Archer was pretty sure that it wasn't his fiance.

"Does this mean you might enter my dreams?" Ji-ho turned to ask him.

"No. It's usually the sentinel that gets access, not the other way round."

Ji-ho breathed a sigh of relief. As a twenty-one year old in the body of a twenty-year-old, there was no saying what weird dreams even she might get. But she could count on one hand the number of times she'd had those kinds of dreams. Maybe there was nothing to worry about.

"There's no need to be embarrassed," she told him with the smugness that came from not having to be the unlucky person in such a circumstance. "It's normal for a growing man-"

"Ava, stop."

"Ahahahaha!"

Archer was in deep shit. He was starting to grow fond of Ava.