ways_infirmary | (no subject)

(no subject)

Nita sleeps hard, through the night and most of the following morning (in spite of the other activity in the Infirmary). If she dreams, she doesn't remember it.

Eventually, though, other feelings start to intrude -- especially the fact that she's completely sore -- and she shifts position with a small waking-up noise, headed for wakefulness.

. . . Eventually headed there, anyway.

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"63. Um." She considers. "Delinquent away. I'm gonna lie here and think about sitting up."

"No weird wards? Not gonna get turned into something embarrassing, am I?" He grins at Nita over one shoulder and trots towards the main bar.

"Nah, just Peach," she calls after him. "Maybe."

With Duo gone, she can take all the time she needs to get herself up into a sitting position, wincing at the pull on her sore stomach.

A few minutes later Duo returns, carrying a stack of clothes, and a few other items. He glances at the flash of red feathers he spots at the entrance of the infirmary, but doesn't stop to chat.

"Here you go!" The stack includes a sweatshirt and warm socks. He knows it's always easy to get cold when you've lost a lot of blood.

"And when you're done, you should drink this." He waves a bottle of alarmingly blue sports drink at her. "You need to get hydrated, and electrolytes and sugar won't hurt you either."

"Yes--" She stops to stifle a yawn. "Yes sir, Duo sir."

She grabs the sweatshirt first thing and pulls it on, then takes the bottle and eyes.

"The last time I saw anything this color was at the Crossings. Thanks."

"The bar, she delivers. And if you want, I'll help you sit so I can fix your hair."

He brandishes Nita's hairbrush, as well as an elastic.

"I know the pains of having your hair everywhere, no matter how hard that is to believe."

She makes a face in his direction, but says, "That'd be great. Thanks."

Being an invalid -- even for a day -- is annoying.

He laughs. It's probably not at her.

"I promise I'll fuck off and let you sleep, after that. And see how good I'm being? I'm not even asking you what happened. I'll just assume you won, 'cause you're alive and mostly healed."

Duo gathers some pillows and carefully braces Nita with them, moving her into a semi-upright position.

She helps, wincing, and makes another face at him, amused this time.

"You can go ahead and ask now. I'll probably suck at telling the story, though."

She cracks open the energy drink as she talks and takes a sip.

"Okay. Gimme the short version, then." He puts the elastic around his wrist and gathers Nita's hair up in one hand.

He starts at the bottom, and is very careful not to pull.

"Make it small words if it's any magical theory."

"Okay. I -- had a Power That Is sharing my head for a while there. And it turned out She was here to help us deal with the Lone Power screwing around with the Book of Night With Moon."

"The book of what with who? Sounds like someone was on the good stuff when they named that one. It's important?"

Duo frowns at a snarl.

"The Book of Night With Moon -- it's got the whole Universe described in it, in the Speech. It keeps everything -- ow -- real."

She winces, and takes a sip of her drink.

"They were databasing it, and the Lone Power was screwing with the data. So we were gonna take the Book into another dimension so It couldn't get at it. And then It showed up and, um, I kind of got killed for a little while."

"Sorry," he says, paying more attention to the hair, now.

Which is why he misses it, at first.

...wait for it.

"-hang on, what?"

"I got better?"

Duo manfully restrains himself from whapping her on the head with the hairbrush.

"I...oi." He shakes his head. "The only reason I'm not yelling at you is because you probably have a headache." He points the brush at her.

"Remember how generous I am being. And as soon as you get cleared for all physical activity, guess what we're going to be doing?"

"If you yelled at me for it right now, I'd probably cry, and then you'd feel bad," she tells him Very Seriously.

". . . Yelling at each other?"

"That's blackmail," he scowls, setting the brush down and making a neat, loose braid.

"And no. We're going to be starting those self-defense lessons." Duo tosses the braid over her shoulder so she doesn't have to lay on it.

She adjusts the braid and looks over her shoulder at him.

"Okay. Would they be any good against horses? With claws?"

"You can still punch a horse with claws in the face. I wouldn't recommend it. But you can."

He leans back in the uncomfortable hospital chair™. "But I can teach you a few things that would mess up even freaky Agents of the Dark. I mean, they still had eyes, right?"

"If they're humanoid, sure."

"There you go, then. Humanish things have trouble operating without eyes." Duo shakes his head.

"But hey, we'll get more into depth later. You wanna try and sleep again, or should I read to you or something?"

She shakes her head, amused.

"I think I'll probably manage."

She smiles up at him and adds quietly, "Thanks, Duo."

"Nothin' doin'. Get better, okay?" He gives Nita a little tug on her new braid and heads out with a wave.

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