203 Near Disasters

[cal_sitter]

Accidental Voice Post

[An alarm goes off, an event practically unheard of in Niko's domain. He doesn't need one, because he doesn't sleep in. Usually. This morning, he rolls up on his elbow and needs two tries before he manages to hit the buzzer and not the nightstand, his weary and clumsy effort audible over the feed.]I suppose I'll be keeping

Comments

private;

[winewomenand]

It's getting worse?

You had better be getting thyself to a hospital.

private;

[cal_sitter]

It's worse. Promise wanted me to call you.

private;

[winewomenand]

Promise wanted you to call me.

Is this watch this space bad, call off work bad, or panic and do something desperate with magic bad?

private;

[cal_sitter]

It's make sure I don't fall down the stairs on my way out of the building bad.

private;

[winewomenand]

Fine. I'm taking my lunch break and hauling your pert ass into the hospital. All of those vitamins and water bottles and designer smoothies and cruelty-free free-range high-omega fatty acid brown eggs and what do you get in the end, see? A lot of meals better spent frying things in butter.

Be ready to relocate in ten, alright?

private;

[cal_sitter]

You don't have-

I could ask-

Ten minutes. All right.

private;

[winewomenand]

Four if you happen to need help dressing.

You know, if we call an ambulance and pretend to be deeply emotionally distraught, they will probably let us skip triage and go straight to a regular room. You should see me cry on command.

private;

[cal_sitter]

No ambulances, and no helping me dress. Sorry, Robin. I can still pull a shirt over my head.

private, audio;

[winewomenand]

It's nice to see that even ill you pleasure in crushing my dreams with a cold willfulness, Niko.

I'll be there in a minute. Have you got your clean panties on?

private, audio;

[cal_sitter]

Take a raincheck on a clever retort, all right? I think I'll have a seat while I wait.

action!

[winewomenand]

If he is honest, Robin would admit that he is becoming very cranky with the situation for very selfish reasons. He sees things differently than Niko-- not as a matter of what to trust and what to abandon --and can comprehend but not sympathize with the troubles Niko and Promise were going through. Fortunately, he is rarely honest, especially with himself, and so he simply settles with a great deal of mental bitching about since when did he become the reliable one. It's bad for his image.

In any event, he unlocks the apartment door, carefully balancing his briefcase and two cups and enters, finding Niko's bedroom and lingering in the doorway before entering, more out of classical conditioning than anything.

"I think we should sue. You clearly picked something up at the hospital the last time. Here, I brought you tangerine juice. Drink it, baby your feeble human immune system."

action!

[cal_sitter]

Under different circumstances, Niko might point out to Robin that asking for Promise's help in the daytime would be problematic--for her. He might also have taken the initiative to find an alternative on his own. Unfortunately, he's spending less time thinking than he is lying on top of the covers with an arm over his eyes to block out the light.

"Go ahead," he tells the puck. "Sue. You can do anything you want as long as you don't insist I drink that." To make certain Robin gets the point, he pulls his arm away from his eyes enough to cast a nauseated glance in the direction of the juice bottle.

action!

[winewomenand]

"Is the light bothering you? I can fix that."

Robin drops his briefcase along the wall, setting the plastic cup of cold water down on Niko's bedside table, squinting down at the ill, green-gilled expression on the man's face and then down at his own loafers with a look of halfway affectionate resignment. Shaking his head, he sticks the straw of the neon orange juice in his own mouth with a waste-not-want-not shrug and walks back out the door.

Returning a few minutes later, he settles himself down on the edge of the bed with folded legs and holds out a black sleep mask with a slightly menthol smell leaking from it.

"Can you walk? Because I certainly don't mind carrying your weight around like a prize pig again, but I don't believe in things like dignity and propriety."

action!

[cal_sitter]

"If I asked, you'd claim you wrote the first comedy, wouldn't you?" Niko pushes away the sleep mask and rolls into a seated position in the same, slightly unsteady motion. "I'll walk. Sunglasses should be sufficient for the rest, much as it makes me feel guilty for chiding Cal when he needs them in the morning." He pinches the bridge of his nose, but it does nothing to relieve the pressure that's been building behind his eyes (not to mention everywhere else inside of his skull) since the night before.

"Can we go? I'd like to get this over with." It doesn't seem to occur to him that having no shoes on might present a problem.

action!

[winewomenand]

"As well the first tragedy. Anything less would wreck the symmetry." Robin rolls a pair of green eyes, dry and lacking a typical wet, darting intensity, the single outward sign of the stress the situation is causing.

Niko is human. Humans get sick.

With a clucking noise, Robin slides his own three-hundred dollar sunglasses over the bridge of Niko's nose, sliding one arm under one arm and behind the shoulders of the elder Leandros, not difficult given his height. In an excessively neutral voice, he continues.

"The Auphe are not diurnal by nature, of course. Can we please take the elevator just this once? Even if you vomit on my feet? I don't fancy hobbling down the stairwell with you one dangerous wobble at a time."

action!

[cal_sitter]

"Once," Niko agrees, "and only because I can't stomach the thought of what you'll say if we fall in a tangle on the landing." While he thinks he'd be steady enough with just a hand on his elbow, he doesn't protest the greater support Robin elects to offer.

They're halfway to the front door before he recalls something he should have said sooner. "Someone's supposed to be waiting for us at the hospital. Dr. Chase seemed concerned. You can't contract human diseases, can you?"