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Time had passed since the incident on Isla Nublar. The public had heard, and they wanted to hear firsthand accounts of it. And, though some of those involved wanted to simply return to their work and forget about that horrifying chapter in their lives, the people wanted to hear it anyway. So Ian often found himself travelling from place to place, college to college, panel to panel, talking about exactly what had occurred in the Jurassic Park debacle. Oftentimes, this meant that he found himself travelling with Ellie and Grant, the only two other people willing to tell the story.
Which was how they found themselves, the odd trio, standing in the single hotel room that had been booked for them in a college town in California. They had been hired to speak at a small science college. But of course, the reservation had gotten screwed up, and there were conveniently no rooms left. There was only a double bed. No couch to speak of, nor even a chair.
“Cozy.” Grant muttered, standing beside Ian. Grand always had this sort of smell about him, one that said that he had been digging in the dirt for so many years that there was practically dust ingrained in his skin. It wasn’t a bad smell, though. In fact, Ian quite liked it. Nature’s own cologne.
“Ah, it’s not so bad. Plus, it’s only for the night.” Ian decided that the best way to handle this situation would be to immediately flop onto the bed. “Tomorrow we have our speech, and then you’ll be back to digging up bones in the dust.”
“Good.” Ellie said. “So who gets to take the floor?”
“We can all fit. It’s a big bed. Really too big for such a small room, but hey, I’ll take it.”
Grant snorted. “Right. I’ll take the floor.”
“Nah, nah, you shouldn’t have to. Plus, I think I saw a cockroach scutter into the corner. Floor might not be the cleanest place to sleep.”
“We work in the desert.”
Ian smiled. “Fair point. But you both shouldn’t have to sleep on the floor, and I’m not risking it with those cockroaches.”
“Why, worried they’ll dirty your reputation?”
“You know I don’t give a damn about my reputation.” He crossed his legs and his arms. “I just don’t like bugs. And I don’t want to wake up to a cockroach on my face.”
“That can still happen on the bed.”
“Yes, but there’s less a chance of it if there are people on each side of me. Deters the little bastards.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Enough bickering, gentlemen. Ian makes a point. No one wants to be woken up by bugs.” She dropped her bag on the foot of the bed and laid down on Ian’s left side. “And besides, there’s barely enough room to walk, much less to sleep down there.”
Grant sighed dejectedly. He knew he wasn’t going to win. “Fine.”
“Don’t worry, Doc, it won’t make you any less manly sleeping beside me.” Ian said playfully. In truth, he couldn’t say he hadn’t thought about sleeping with Grant or Ellie. In their time travelling as a trio, he had found himself growing quite fond of the pair, and as a whole they had grown quite comfortable with each other. But the idea of bringing it up? Of actually telling them that hey, he was kind of nursing a crush on the both of them? That was something that even he couldn’t figure out how to do. Brain the size of a planet, and he couldn’t tell two people that he liked them.
Now, these two people were laying in bed on either side of him. It was a bit of a squeeze, but hopefully none of them were active sleepers. With the lights out and the night quiet, Ian found himself falling asleep and dreaming of a romantic future.
——————
Alan awoke in the dark. He always seemed to wake up when he was travelling somewhere new. Must have been something to do with an unfamiliar bed or something like that.
He lifted his arm and checked his watch. 4:30 AM. Thank god he still had a few hours to sleep. That was the one good thing about travelling, he always got to sleep later.
Alan nestled deeper into the pillow that he had awoken clutching. Suddenly, he realized that the pillow was, in fact, breathing, and not, in fact, a pillow. His arm was across Malcolm’s torso and… oh, god. Malcolm’s arm was around his shoulder.
Should he try to move? Perhaps not. He didn’t want to risk awakening the other two. Plus, if he was being completely honest, it was quite comfortable, cuddling snugly like that. The soft rise and fall of Ian’s chest was almost reassuring, though what he was reassuring he couldn’t tell.
Ian wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, Alan rather liked him. The problem was, he was often right about many different situations, and that gave him several personality traits. One, that he was arrogant. Not so much anymore, but when they had first met, the man walked around like he owned the world. Two, that he was stubborn. He had his idea, and he stuck to it, whether it was good or not. And three, he liked to explain himself at length. This produced long monologues, in which the person or persons whom he decides to monologue to has little to no chance at getting a word in edgewise.
But beyond that, he was a good man. His sense of humor was much appreciated, especially in times of trouble. He was smart, too, and he often understood things on the first try that other people might take ages to learn. Math was absolutely the perfect field for him, but if he ever decided to branch out into a scientific field, he could do it with incredible ease.
So yes, Alan liked Ian. Enough to decide not to move, anyway. Though it might be hard to explain in the morning.
——————
Ellie was the only one of them who seemed to have real trouble getting to sleep. She never really had problems in the past, but ever since the incident, sleep didn’t come easily to her. Most of the time, she played music or ocean sounds in the background, and that helped. But on the road, there wasn’t much she could do.
She decided to focus on the sounds of the two men breathing. It was hard to differentiate between the two, but after a bit, she could distinguish the differences between the sounds the both of them made in their sleep.
It was funny. Though they would both deny the fact, Alan and Ian were not so different. They were both smart, sarcastic, and cool in a crisis. And yet, they had two completely contrasting personalities. Alan was the cowboy, the scientist who likes to get down on his knees in the dirt and dig for answers. Ian, meanwhile, wore the same dark clothes every day, and prefered to do his work behind a computer.
There was another similarity the two of them shared, though only one of them knew about it. And it was that Ellie quite loved the both of them. Alan knew she loved him, but Ian had spent most of his time as their third wheel. For all she knew, he might be bitter about it. But that didn’t seem like him. Plus, he flirted constantly. When she had first met him, she thought it was just that he had a flirtatious personality, but no, it now seemed as though he carried a genuine interest in the two of them.
She knew that Alan also harbored some level of interest towards the man, though he would deny it if she asked. But Ellie could always see right through Alan’s facade. He always claimed that he didn’t care, but always cared more than anyone else.
As she drifted off to sleep some time around one, she decided that she could get quite used to this. The three of them, all snuggled up together. It was comfortable. Though, it might become impractical in the summer, when temperatures in the Badlands could get incredibly warm. But in any other season, it would work nicely.
——————
Ian awoke to the sun glaring through the thin shades. The bed hadn’t exactly been comfortable, but he was a heavy sleeper, so it didn’t really matter.
It then occurred to him that he was the center of a pile of snuggles. Ellie was sound asleep on Ian’s left shoulder, and Alan was much the same on the opposite side. He must’ve subconsciously put his arms around them in his sleep, because now, his arms were all tingly and numb from such a position. He didn’t mind. He was willing to make that sacrifice.
He was surprised that he was the first one awake. Alan and Ellie always seemed like early risers. But if they woke up, they would probably move, so Ian did his best to stay as still as he could.
Unfortunately, Alan awoke soon after. Apparently not realizing that Ian was awake, he checked his watch before returning his arm to its spot across Ian’s stomach. Ian found himself smiling. Clearly, Alan was comfortable enough with the situation not to move. And that meant things were moving in the right direction.
“What time is it?” Ian asked tentatively. He had hoped that revealing he was awake wouldn’t shock Alan into moving, but unfortunately, he had been wrong.
Alan tensed, before slowly peeling away. There wasn’t enough room on the bed for him to go far, though. They were still shoulder to shoulder. “Uh, it’s 6:30.”
“Great. Plenty of time to sleep, then.”
“If you want. I might get up.” Alan sat up. “Maybe check out the town or something.”
“Alan, lay back down. We don’t have anywhere to be for hours.” Ellie said sleepily. Ian hadn’t even noticed she was awake.
Alan began to blush. It was a different look for him. Normally, he was good at hiding all emotions besides sarcasm and paleontology (surprisingly, yes, that seemed to be an emotion), but now he seemed positively bashful. A different look, but not a bad one. Ian might have even called it cute.
“Well, I’m certainly not moving.” Ian added.
After a moment of hesitation, Alan laid back down. His head was noticibly on a pillow and not on Ian’s other shoulder. He would have to rectify that.
“You know, we can continue cuddling if you want.”
———————
Cuddling. As nice as the idea sounded, and as much as he really wanted to do it, a side of his conscience was telling him to decline. The side that told him that maybe this whole thing was a bad idea.
He also knew that, if this were turning into… something, they would have to talk about it. They couldn’t just lay like this and not address the fact that this was probably becoming something more. They would have to address the fact that Ian was no longer the surprisingly close third wheel. And they would have to set up ground rules for things like public displays of affection, and…
But Ellie hadn’t moved, and she was clearly awake. Alan usually trusted her judgement more than his own conscience. So he decided to say screw it, to throw away the remaining rationality in his mind and return to his spot on Ian’s shoulder. It was surprisingly more comfortable than the pillow. Better neck support. A nice type of warmth, too.
“We’re going to have to talk about this.” Alan said, after a moment. “About what this is going to turn into.”
“Well, yes. Do you want it to turn into something?” There was a certain sort of hopefulness in Ian’s voice.
“We can address it in the morning, guys.” Ellie muttered. “For now, just go back to sleep.”
Alan smiled. Ellie was definitely the most rational out of the three of them. Much better at making decisions. And he wasn’t going to protest the rational argument of more sleep.
——————
Yes, they would have to talk about it in the morning. They would have to talk about the future, and how exactly this would all work, and what would happen if people started asking questions. They couldn’t just keep saying that oh, yes, that’s our good friend Ian, whom neither of us are romantically involved with.
But that was something they would have to talk about after Ellie had gotten more sleep. Five hours is not enough. Plus, she wasn’t in the mood to move from this incredibly comfortable position. She knew that neither of them really wanted to, either. Even though Alan did usually like to get up and start work at ungodly hours.
But they weren’t working. They didn’t have to give their lectures for hours. So why not sleep in a little longer?
Ellie smiled to herself. Yes, she could get quite used to this. And she knew that they could too.