Room 324, Sunday Evening

[vanillajello]

Kate felt weird. As if she... was supposed to feel kind of dizzy, but everything was completely clear instead. With a vague buzzing, somewhere in the background. It was probably shock.

She was just going to run with it, for as long as it lasted. Then collapse. Maybe cry. She wasn't thinking about any of that right now. Someone else was her priority.

And that someone was Bod, who'd been using her as a walking aid on their way up from the lobby.

"So, what do you need?" she asked when they'd made it to her room.

[ooc: For the poor, poor boyfriend.]

Comments

[vanillajello]

Plenty of time for all that curling up and crying stuff later. How else were they supposed to spend their time if they happened to both be too freaked out to sleep before passing out from exhaustion?

"Mm, grey and red," she said dryly, if quietly. More focused on being quick and careful with his feet. "Delightful."

[therewaslife]

"C-careful," he stammered, unable to keep it to himself. He knew she was doing careful, he could feel the care she was taking but having time to suddenly recover had made it clear how much damage he'd done to his feet.

[vanillajello]

"I'm being as careful as I can," she said gently, stopping and peering up. "Think it would be too much to do anything to the soles? I mean, I got some antiseptic stuff and bandages if you'd rather just use those."

[therewaslife]

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to -- " He stopped and shook his head. "I haven't looked at the bottoms of either foot yet. I don't know how bad they look. It just hurts."

[vanillajello]

"I know, Bod, I know." She'd had soap in tiny scrapes, and that had stung. She could guess how bad this must be. "So do you wanna look?"

[therewaslife]

"I suppose," he said, moving to sit on the edge of the tub so he could carefully lift one foot up. The good news was that the water had pretty much washed away the blood.

Still, the bottoms of his feet were pretty much covered in cuts (some that still looked like they had ash or small rocks embedded), bruises and cracked skin.

"Oh." That was the only reaction he had to that sight.

[vanillajello]

And since he'd pretty much stolen her intial reaction, she just stared for a moment before saying anything.

"... Yeeeah, we're so not putting soapy water on that."

[therewaslife]

Bod pushed some wet hair out of his eyes and winced. "There were no floors there, where I was. It was dirt, ground or charred out buildings. And after awhile, I didn't feel anything anymore. I think my feet were numb."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah I bet," Kate replied, raising her eyebrows and still staring a bit, resisting the urge to poke at his feet. She suspected there would be a time to do that later.

She looked at him again. "I'm so forbidding you from going to classes tomorrow."

[therewaslife]

"I won't argue with you," he said. Considering he tended to argue with her about small things (as she did him), he figured that was a testament to how he really felt.

[vanillajello]

"Good," she said, pushing herself up to standing carefully, because slipping and falling was not something that needed to happen to her right now. "So I won't have to take any desperate measures to keep you from being dumb."

She said it kind of fondly, but she was tired, and probably would have balled up all her stress into an angry attack of bitchiness, had he decided to argue with her.

[therewaslife]

And having that sort of aggression thrown at him probably would have spurred his own anger. He didn't use it often but it was there. Instead, he smiled a little at her and decided to stay seated.

"I don't want to see anyone but you for awhile," he said, bowing his head again and centering himself. His thoughts were ragged, his head hurt and he couldn't really do with more people right now.

[vanillajello]

Kate sighed. "I'm gonna be here." Well, except if she decided to go to her own class, and possibly to make excuses to his teachers. And buy some food. But for the most part. "Not like I want to let you out of my sight too soon."

She washed the sponge under the shower and applied some more soap so she could scrub herself clean, too.

[therewaslife]

"I won't go anywhere," he told her, trying to sound believable even if he'd broken one of his promises and left last Thursday. It hadn't been his fault but, technically, he'd broken it.

"I hope you don't get tired of me," he added, half joking and half serious. He had no idea what his moods would be like.

[vanillajello]

It wasn't a promise she'd ever put too much weight on, anyway. Too cynical. Not that that had protected her from anything this weekend.

"Likewise," Kate said as she rinsed her skin. She remembered how she'd been after the last time she'd been helpless and waiting because of Fandom's little life threatening quirks. It hadn't been easy.

[therewaslife]

"I won't," he said, just watching her now, waiting patiently since he'd pretty much exhausted his pain tolerance in standing up for any lengthy amount of time.

"Tomorrow, if I can, I'd like to go back to my cabin," he told her. "I have to get your picture."

[vanillajello]

"You're not walking to the cabins," she replied, gentle but determined. "All my shit's still back there too. I can go get it. Are we done here?"

She might have asked that only to have some sane reason to stand in the shower for just a little bit longer, even though her legs were pretty much screaming at her for having run around the island like that when she was clearly not a runner.

[therewaslife]

"If you're done, we're done," he replied, nodding. "Don't cut your shower short because of me, though. I'm fine where I am."

He wasn't standing so he was doing all right for the moment. He didn't argue about the cabins either. Walking was not fun to think about right now.

[vanillajello]

"My legs hurt," she replied, turning the shower off, as much as it pained her to do it. She reached for the towels, handed one of them to him.

"Mostly 'cause I already went to the cabins once today."

[therewaslife]

Bod took the towel and ran it over his hair and shoulders while he moved to slowly pull himself off the edge of the tub. It hurt, of course, but he was starting to get used to that.

"If your legs hurt, we probably shouldn't waste time in getting you off them," he said, still trying to sound authoritative.

[vanillajello]

He got an amused glance in return. Or a vaguely amused one, anyway. It was all Kate could muster.

"Pushy," she murmured, drying her hair some before just wrapping the towel around herself.

[therewaslife]

"Observant," he corrected, using the walls and door frames to aide his walk back out into her room. The bandage around his knee was pretty much falling off so he draped the towel loosely around it.

Being clean was a marked improvement on how he'd felt though. It was nice not to feel covered in a fine layer of ash and dirt.

[vanillajello]

Kate felt a little better too. But she thought it was more because he was here with her than because she'd finally taken a shower.

She slipped out of the bathroom behind him, crossing straight over to her dresser to dig out her first aid kit, and some clean clothes to go with her clean skin.

[Sleep calls to me, night!]

[therewaslife]

Bod moved towards her bed, sitting on the edge of it and keeping the towel over his knees. Her bed felt...amazing. He'd slept on floors (if sleeping twenty minutes counted) for three days so this was blissful.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked, trying to be helpful.

[And me as well! Night!]

[vanillajello]

Kate was... pretty glad he couldn't see her face when he asked that. It was so very him to ask that. And right now that was pushing her so close to just cracking.

She didn't strictly speaking answer his question, but she did toss the first aid kit on the bed next to him. "There's bandages and stuff," she muttered, finally finding her Four Winds Landscaping t-shirt and a pair of shorts, clutching them to her chest as she straightened up.