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Your eyes opened to the familiar fuchsia walls of the cocoon. As you stirred and stretched, you found that the nasty tickle you’d felt in your throat yesterday, had evolved into something awful overnight. Your head pounded, your breathing was all raspy, and raw.
Any thought you’d had of leaving bed, to crawl into your uniform for another day’s work quickly drained. Nope. You may have dragged yourself through yesterday, but today was not happening. You coughed to clear your throat.
“Whoa,” your roommate commented. “That was wicked. You sound like death.” He was already in his uniform for the day, wings and all. He was like that, always up early, doing push-ups or situps. He took his workouts, and this job, very seriously.
Things had been a little tense between you when they first assigned you this room. You knew the story, that he’d lost his last roommate, very dramatically, and hadn’t been the same since. You’d given him his space to assure him you weren’t trying to replace his friend, and now he seemed to be coming around. Maybe even enjoying having the companionship again.
“Sorry,” you apologized for the gross noise, “Don’t come near me, you don’t want this trust me.”
“Meh, probably too late for that already,” Gary responded as he pulled open a drawer to get something. “We’ve been breathing in the same room all night. Here--” he handed you a packet of tissues.
“Thanks,” you say as you unfold one.
“Ah man, that wont last you 5 minutes.” Gary commented. “Let me go find you some more.”
Gary returned in minutes, with a full bounty of supplies, that he began assembling on the table beside you. A glass of water, full sized box of tissue, cold medicines, headache medicines--He’d raided the infirmity apparently-- and an orange, that tried to immediately roll off the table. He caught it and attempted to settle it in place a few times before succeeding. Then looked at it.
You watched him leave, a little surprised he was going on a little fetch quest for you that you hadn’t even asked for.
“Uh, yeah, maybe that one wasn’t the best idea. I don’t know how you’re going to eat it without making a mess on your blankets and all…”
“Oh!” Gary said, noticing the problem. He crossed the room to grab a small trash bin from under his desk for you.
You took the glass of water, suddenly realizing how much you needed it. You still held the bundle of used tissues in your hand, having no where to put them.
You stretched, intending to get up, but only briefly. You did plan to spend the day in bed, but you hadn’t been to the bathroom yet that morning, and nature called. You pulled yourself up to sitting, to slide off the bed.
You had expected, at most, he would throw you some tissues and head off to work. All this attention surprised you. After setting the bin where you could reach it, he stood awhile, watching you knock back the little shot of cough suppressant and finish the water. You looked up at him and he realized he’s been staring.
“Uh, you got everything you need?” He said to break the awkward silence.
“Uh, yeah thanks. I really appreciate it.” You meant something a bit deeper than that, but weren’t sure how to say it yet.
You smiled back at him from the doorway and threw a little salute, mocking his seriousness. He smiled a little at your response, before recomposing his very no-nonsense, ‘General 21’ attitude.
“Uh, you’re not getting up are you? You’d better not drag yourself to a control panel today.”
“Relax, I’ll be right back, just need to use the bathroom.”
“Right, ok, good,” he said as you passed him. “Because I don’t want you infecting the rest of the crew. No working today. That’s an order.”
--
When you returned, he’d gone off to do his work for the day. You meandered back to your bed to find an additional folded blanket resting there, waiting for you. You smiled at this little gift from him, as you snuggled back into your nest.
He came to visit you a few times through the day, bringing you lunch and eventually dinner. He seemed to be enjoying the roll of protector and care taker. Bringing you all the things you needed seemed to comfort him as well as you.
As the night settled in, he came back from the showers in his sweats and a t-shirt. “How’re you doing?” he asked, as he brushed at a tangle in his still damp hair. He seemed so different without his uniform. All the intimidation factor he had in his “Two Ton Twenty-One” persona, drained away when you saw him brushing his hair in his jammies.
“Well,” you say with a yawn, “you’ll have to show me where the infirmary is when I’m feeling better. So I can take care of you next time.”
“Yeah, thanks, again.” you croaked weakly. “I wouldn't have had the energy to go get all this stuff.”
He gave you this soft look you’d never seen from him before, this little smile. Maybe he was proud that he’d done well. Maybe he just thought you looked cute all snuggled up like that.
“Hmm...Yeah.” Gary smiled sheepishly, realizing he might have just started a little something with his new roommate.