“Oh.  Um.  Well.  It…tore?”

"Oh. That's okay, a crab got it when we were picking him up, so it was a loss anyway. It's annoying, trying to juggle protection and guiding access," she huffs. "I don't want to go unprotected, but if I cover up too much then it's hard to get at enough skin in an emergency." 

“Tell me about it.  It’s why I like these vests so much, you get pockets and protection but they’re comfy.  But, er.  I actually meant.  Touching your skin.  Um.  Through your.  Hole.  Shirthole.”

Tim is at esper volume for the second half of that sentence.

Slowblink? 

"As in, through the... Torn open hole? Or through the neck, more generally? Or, um..." No, she is confused. He's gonna have to actually ask his question. 

“Er.  Yeah.”  Look if he knew what he was asking he wouldn’t have to think about it!!!  His partner asked, so he’s answering to the best of his frankly terrible ability.  He doesn’t need to look at his partner, does he?  He can check on the crabs?

Still crabby!  Still hojillions of crabs out there!

There sure are crabs. There are also, however, awkward conversations that need going over, at least briefly. 

"You are... Allowed to touch my shoulders if they are bared and we are in a dungeon? Hm." She hms properly, thinking.

"We need to actually discuss this, but. For now, for this dungeon? Please do not touch my breasts on purpose, but otherwise you may touch anything above the waist for guiding purposes. Below the waist, anything that would not be covered by a modest bikini, you may touch. So, I am not bothered by you reaching for the skin inside my shirt, and you may do so through the neck of my shirt, as well, if you need to.

"I would appreciate a heads up if you do so, however." 

A strangled “okay” barely escapes his lips.  He hates, hates haaaaaaaates having principles.  But one of them is that if someone reaches out to you, you take the hand.

”Er.  I’m fine with anything.  Not above mid-thigh.  Or below my hips.  Touches, I mean.  Um.”

I would rather fight that crab for my life than have this conversation.

She nods, "Okay. We can stick to that, until we can talk about it somewhere not in a dungeon when we are backlashed."

She- hesitates. It's awkward, but- well, the confluence could come any day, if nothing else, and it is better to have said it now than leave him not knowing her preferences if something happens- 

"My only exception there is, if I am in danger of dying from backlash, you may, if you are comfortable doing so, go- as far as needed. Or, if you can call Evelyn, she can have Luc contacted urgently, and he has similar permissions." 

Srgtthyrdchkpkfsqevhiyfbudcbjyy

Tim.exe is no longer responding.

After a few seconds of reboot procedure, Tim recovers his ability to speak.  “Um.  That’s.  Yes.  Same.  Don’t let me.  Um.”

Poor Tim. She hadn't known he could get that red.

She nods, "I won't let you die. I won't go further than necessary, though. If we have enough time that just skin contact will do it then that is all I will do."

She's not going to break his trust, when he had said he wasn't ready for anything like that. 

“Thanks.”  His power has informed him that he is not bursting a blood vessel in his face.  So.  That’s good.

”Um.” Tim literally anything else. “How’s your backlash doing?”

Yes they should absolutely change the subject! 

She considers the question, "I think- well, better? I think I could go back to it, if you can keep up buffing me? You?" 

“Maybe twenty minutes more?  Um.  I want to zero out before we start again, I think.  Since this is an endurance event.  Normally it’d be fine, but…”. Vague gesture at their patient.

"Yes, that seems like a good idea to me too. I could definitely be closer to zero." Especially if he will be distracted keeping the victim from dying. 

Therefore: more snuggling? 

Yeah.  Tim swallows a few times.  “Um.  May I.  Um.” Great um to words ratio, Tim. “Hands?”  He pats the small of Sara’s back, near her waist?

"Yes," she pats his chest, "Thank you for asking; anywhere I said is fine you can touch, right now." 

In that case, Sara will find an arm wrapping around her waist and pinning her against Tim’s side.  By default, her head will probably land above Tim’s shoulder, so that he doesn’t have to think about her looking at him.

She will press her face into the junction of his neck and shoulder, so she definitely isn't looking at him now! She's just breathing and enjoying the guiding and ignoring the sound of scuttling outside.

Cool, great.  Everyone knows that the best partnerships are the ones where you never look at each other.  You’ve got this, Tim.  Shut up she’s literally - no do NOT think about it right now, you will think about it badly.  Do it in the office later.

The guiding is really nice, it’s like Carol again.

Tim’s thoughts chase each other in circles for the next little while, until - 

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty, you think you can chip in a bit?  They’re getting pretty close and we want to do a shift change.  You can come if you want too, Menhir.”  The DRT operative is grinning like she gets chased by crabs for vacation.

Menhir laughs quietly into Tim's shoulder.

"I'm okay," she pushes herself up a bit. "Tim?" 

Tim gives a huge, exaggerated yawn.  “Five more minutes, Ma!”  Then he scoops Menhir up in a bridal carry and squiggles out of the rickshaw.  “Are we there yet?”  An esper with skin-to-skin contact may notice that he’s only cheating the barest bit by picking her up.

Well yes, he's well built and she's not that big!

She's still laughing as he carries her out of the rickshaw, "Unless 'there' is 'more crabs', I don't think so!"