► 002.

[culver]

[the video coming on is a complete accident. the hallway she's in is cast mostly in gloom, and only slightly more than her outline is visible. nill is clutching the comm in her hand, the camera aimed at her crooked. she's wearing one of her dresses from the most recent jump. her face is just out of the frame, but her wings aren't. they're standing straight out from her back, quivering. and from just that small movement, a feather falls.

and then nill darts from her hiding spot into the lit hall, and her wings are in full view. they look scraggly, a few thin patches visible. the sudden movement makes another feather come out, and then the video darkens again as she finds shelter in the next dark hallway. the feed cuts.]

think i am sick
heine where are you

[ooc; molting molting molting yeah]

Comments

action;

[chaineddog]

[Let him worry, Nill :<

He gives her a curt nod once she complies and it isn't soon before he rounds the corner to see her sitting there in the gloom of the hallway. He shuts off his communicator and is by her side in seconds. He relaxes visibly when he sees that she seems okay but the feathers littered around her body don't give him much comfort.]

You okay if I piggy back you back to the room?

permaction.

[culver]

[Well fine if he insists.

Nill stands when he comes around the corner, and tries to smile. She didn't want him to worry any more than he clearly already was. To be honest, she was panicking on the inside--but he didn't need to see that. And even though she presses her lips together at the question, she nods. It would make him feel better, and she didn't really mind all that much.]

[chaineddog]

[If she had insisted on walking he probably would have let her, but only if he had been allowed to hold onto her while she did. He's still figuring out what to do with her and what's wrong. Heine never went to school and was the farthest thing from a doctor as someone could get but it wasn't an issue that he normally had a problem with.

He stoops down, turning his back to her waiting for her to climb onto his back.]

[culver]

[She knew that he was likely the last person to figure out what was wrong. Heine didn't stay hurt for long; he didn't know how to care for wounds and sickness. But he was trying, and that was all she could ask for.

The blonde wraps her arms around his neck and hooks her legs over his arms. She does her best not to move her wings, worried that she'll just make things worse.]

[chaineddog]

[Once she's secure, he gets up and makes his way swiftly back towards their room. He's already kind of aware that he's going to have to call someone at some point (he vaguely remembers someone mentioning doctors on board) although as far as he knows he hasn't met a doctor yet and he never wanted to.]

We'll figure out what's wrong.

[culver]

[Nill holds on tight, more to keep herself from panicking more than because she's afraid of falling. She knew that Heine wouldn't let her fall. Her face is pressed into his shoulder, and she's trying to keep her breathing even. Don't panic, don't panic. Nill nods against his shoulder, letting him know that she'd heard him. They had to figure it out.]

[chaineddog]

[Worry is written all over Heine's face as he walks and the only reason he allows it to show is the fact that she can't see it.

The layout of the ship is no longer as confusing for him as it once had been and they're back in their room before long. He gently helps her off his back and into the bed, helping her to lie on her side. Once that was done though, he found himself at a loss at what to do. Maybe get a cold towel for her forehead? But wasn't that only for a fever?

Shit. He stoops down and presses his hand against her forehead just in case to check feeling ridiculous all the while.]

[culver]

[She lets him maneuver her, not putting up a fight but adjusting when necessary. One arm is tucked up under her head, the other draped down her side. And she just watches him, knowing that he has no idea what to do. Neither does she, to be honest. But she wasn't fevered, wasn't hurting except for the occasional ache in her wings.

His hand is slightly cooler than her forehead, but there was no fever there.]

[chaineddog]

[Needless to say, he's relieved that there isn't a fever there. He'd probably be freaking out more and he doesn't need anymore panic added to his already worried state - that and he doesn't want to worry her more. Even when he sees that it's not a fever, he keeps his hand there and smooths her hair back.

There's another beat before he gets up to go fetch some more blankets and to clear the already fallen feathers by her side.]

[culver]

[She isn't used to being taken care of, not like this. She was always the one sitting by Badou's bedside after he'd been shot, or waiting for Naoto to wake after her episode. Having someone extend the same courtesies to her was strange, foreign, and she didn't know how to deal with it. She should have been doing something, helping herself. She wants to sit up, wants to clean the feathers herself and hide them so nobody has to see them, but... no. Maybe Heine needed this, in some strange way. Maybe she should just let him do what he could before--before they had to call someone in to help.]

[chaineddog]

[He cleans the feathers first, acutely aware that their positions are reversed. His form of care (save for that first time with the jump) was running around and making sure that no one came after her. That she was safe. He wasn't a caretaker (at least not in that sense) and hadn't been created to become one. His entire purpose was to kill and destroy so this...this is a strange feeling for him.

And yet he takes his time cleaning the feathers away from the bed even though there will be more to replace them soon enough. Once the ones he has are cleared away, he grabs blankets from the dresser and places them gently around Nill to make sure she's comfortable.]

[culver]

[Nill is fidgeting, doing her best to stay on the bed while he moves around the room. This was so strange, though she couldn't say it was unpleasant. While it wasn't exactly being pampered, it was... something close. As close as anyone in the below ever got, she was sure. And he was doing a good job of it, as far as she was concerned.

Once the blanket is on she snuggles down into it, more for his benefit than because she was cold. But one hand pokes out and she reaches for his, just to hold. She was still scared, as much as she was trying to hide it.]

[chaineddog]

[When he's deposited the feathers into the waste basket, he goes back to sit by the bedside, extracting his communicator. He takes a hold of her hand though after a moment.

Heine realizes how scared she must be. This has never happened before to her and he doesn't know what's happening either so he doesn't have answers for her. He idly scrolls through the contacts (and more specifically the people that Nill knows) because he realizes that this is a problem he can't tackle by himself.]

[culver]

[It makes her feel just a little better to have him close, and swathed by the blankets, she can pretend that everything is okay. Until she sees him with the comm, and she knows that he's going to call for help. But who? They didn't know any doctors, as far as she knew. Any male doctors, ones he could handle but--she couldn't. Wow, this was basically the worst case scenario for this particular situation.

But maybe someone he had talked to? When she spies Betty's name, she reaches out to touch the screen.]

[chaineddog]

[He knows that there's a male doctor on board (some John Watson guy that had introduced himself over the network) but he didn't know him and had never spoken to him. He wasn't even sure that Nill knew him but he was male and that already was a negative for her.

So he had sucked it up and called the only doctor of the female gender that he knew. The sight of her hand on his communicator makes him pause and he gives her hand a slight squeeze. It's stupid that his fingers are already shaking at the thought of having to text Betty and he hates that he can't even deal with this simple task.]

[culver]

[She knows that this is going to be awful for him. She would have told him that it was okay for him to go back to his room, wait in the hall, go anywhere but this cramped space--but she knew he would just ignore her. Tell her that he'd be fine, that he wanted to be there (a lie, of course, on more than one level). She holds his hand tightly for a moment, and then releases so he can send whatever message he was planning to.]

[chaineddog]

[Even when she lets go, she'll notice how long it takes for him to even pull up a blank message. Eventually he tries calling her but ends up hanging up already feeling an itch that he can't get rid of. After several breaths he forces himself to finally type out a message and it isn't long after that he received a message back in return.

It's only after he finishes corresponding with Betty that he visibly relaxes.]

She'll be here soon.