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[The scene opens in Short Term Care.]
Elasia comes padding in quietly, her movements soft in deference to her
location. She's carrying a small bag tucked under one arm. Spotting her
destination, she heads Nikowards.
Niko has managed to purloin a few pillows from other beds, so that he may sit
reasonably upright without any effort on his part. He seems to be
half-dozing, but props his eyes open as you appear. "Ela," he murmurs, a
smile lighting his face. "Hi."
Elasia echoes your smile, although hers has something of a worried cast to it.
She pads over to your bed, reaching to cover your undamaged hand lightly with
her own. "Heya Niko, how're you feeling?"
Niko gestures vaguely with a small move of his casted hand. "Tired. Hurting. But I can talk in reasonably coherent sentences--I -am- making sense, right? I think they lowered the dosage on the drugs or something." And his voice -does- sound tired, but doesn't quite have that blurred, zoned, just-about-to-crash tone to it that it has in the past.
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Elasia pauses, as if considering this at great length. "I'm not certain," she
ventures at last, a twinkle of amusement in her expression. "You -seem- to be
making sense, but then with as much diplomatic doubletalk as I've heard
today..." She trails off, squeezing your hand gently. "You do sound a lot
better than you did before, that's for sure." There's a pause, and she
continues a hair softer, "It's a very good thing."
Niko's head bobs in a brief nod. "Very good," he echoes. "And Riley woke up earlier, too. Another very good thing. He sounded awful, but I guess that only makes sense, seeing how badly he was hurt and all."
Elasia glances briefly towards the other man, asleep in the adjacent bed, before turning back to you. "That's a good thing too, yes." Her thumb absently rubs at the back of your hand. "I'm just glad everything's going to be okay." She laughs softly, it's supposed to be a wry sound, but the worry bleeds through, "When I got that message, I couldn't figure out what had happened. Maybe you'd gotten into a duel with a plate of fudge or something." She's trying to be cheerful and flippant, but it's obvious she was terrified.
Niko shifts so that he's holding your hand, rather than having it rest atop
his. "Hey," he murmurs, his tone gentle. "Look, I was stupid and didn't duck
in time, but I'll be fine. They're taking really good care of me, here. And
once I'm more mobile, I'm going to go in the firing range or something until
I -can- duck, so this won't happen again."
"Sounds like a terribly good idea," And there's a pause before Elasia
continues, "Niko." She might have been about to call you something else, but
there wasn't so much as a sound to indicate what. Her internal censor may be
slow, but it's still on. "Ducking doesn't seem to be your strong suit. Still
though, the way I hear it, the situation didn't really allow for much
ducking, you did the best you could with a bad deal." She can't help but
grin, and this time the teasing holds warmth, "My knight, you could use some
shining armor maybe."
Niko chuckles at that--very quietly, in deference to his brother, who is
asleep, but still present in spirit. (Heh.) "I think," he decides, "That
that's a good idea. But there's really nothing that can stop -every- weapon,
after all, and plasma bolters are tricky." He mumbles something about banana
yellow and the smell of melting vinyl. It's probably best not to explore this
too closely.
There's no real need. Elasia gets the reference, as is evidenced by the rather
vague grin that forms beneath still worried eyes. "Ah yes," she notes
quietly, "A friend of yours sent me up some pictures of -that-." There's
another pause, "It was unique." Relauctantly reclaiming her hand she offers
the bag, "I didn't figure they'd be feeding you right in this place, brought
you a couple gyros."
Niko winces at the mention of the pictures, and mumbles some vague threat in the general direction of Security. It's most definitely addressed to Anya. Then, focusing on your words once more, he blinks. "Gyros? Really? Ela, you definitely deserve some form of sainthood or something. I mean, the food's not -bad- or anything, but it's definitely not gyros."
Elasia tugs up a chair to the edge of your bed, sinking into it lightly. Resting her crossed arms on the bed's edge she nods. "Yeah, I felt so awful because I couldn't be here all day, but they were having after me to be at this ridiculous meeting something fierce, so I tossed a couple together really fast while I changed clothes and all as a peace offering."
Niko shakes his head at that, a quick smile crossing his face. "Much as I appreciate it, it wasn't really necessary. I know you need to work and all. Besides... I did miss you, but how enthralling is it to watch me sleep? S'what I did today, mostly. We do what we have to do."
Elasia grins over at you, chuckling quietly. "I don't know, watching you sleep
is pretty entertaining, better than most meetings certainly." She looks a bit
sheepish, "I guess I just wanted to be here so that I'd know if you were all
right."
Niko fumbles for your hand once more. That, apparently, has priority over eating gyros. He looks vaguely abashed at the comment that he's entertaining when he sleeps. (Hey, he's got elbows, after all.) "I'm fine, though. Better, now, though. As nice as the nurses and all are, they're not you."
Elasia interlaces her fingers through yours gently. "Aww, what, not stealing
the hearts of them all?"
Niko says rather drolly, "Kramer's not my type, despite what Kath--" Oops, no, he wasn't going to tell Ela about that, now, was he?
One delicate eyebrow arches as Elasia's thumb resumes its careful pacing back and forth across your hand. "Dare I ask?" She chuckles softly.
Niko very slowly and gradually shades red. "See, when I found out about Riley
and me being brothers, we got to talking, so much so that we forgot about
duties we had to attend to, and ended up being late. We both came tearing
into Security pulling on uniforms, and folks, uh, drew a very wrong
conclusion about how close we are."
There's a pause, one of those that seems almost endless although of course it
isn't. And then very quietly, Ela puts her head down and begins laughing.
She's trying to stifle it in deference to other occupants of the room, but
she can't quite manage it. "Well," she manages after a long time, "They do
say incest is best?"
Niko makes a muffled squawk of surprise, thn dissolves into a short bout of his own quiet laughter. Hey, it's the best medicine. Ask Patch Adams. "I wouldn't know," he says, tone thick with mirth. "Riley's a wonderful man, but I just don't feel that way about him--or any other man, for that matter. Not that there's anything wrong with that," he hastens to add.
That of course sets Elasia off again, although she's relatively quiet. After a moment she trails off laughing to say, "You work with some very odd people."
Niko nods at that, settling a little more carefully against the pillows--though
he doesn't release your hand, not by any stretch of the imagination. "I most
definitely do. Good people, though, all of them." A pause. "Well, now, at
least."
Elasia doesn't look likely to give up your hand either, she maintains a gentle
grip on it, reassuring herself that you're still there. "There's a lot of
talk about the whole thing," she ventures softly, "About bounty hunters being
set on him and all."
Niko shakes his head slowly, brows lowering. He's silent for a moment, and when
he speaks, his words are slow and deliberate. "He'll be brought back," he
says, "Because that's what -has- to happen. I don't know -who- will bring him
back, or when, but it will happen."
Elasia looks rather abashed at having brought that up, shaking her head slightly, "That's no worry of yours at the moment though. You just need to concentrate on getting well and getting out of here and all that."
Niko, after a moment or two longer of brooding silence, seems content to change the subject. "I don't mind saying that it's getting a little old, being in here. Admittedly, I don't know that I'm ready to go back to work just yet, but I was thinking about bugging Clara to let me go back to my room. Won't even ask about rollerskates." He raps his casted hand lightly on the edge of the bed. "Might try to get rid of this, too. It's obnoxious."
Elasia offers almost hesitantly, "Hey, if you need any help? I can wrangle some
time off, or at least re-arrange my schedule some. I can shuttle you out of
here and up to my place, say. The bed's not one of those evil foldout things,
which'd probably be better considering the shape you're in. I could feed you
and keep an eye out and all."
Niko's response is equally hesitant. "Well... I don't want to impose or
anything," he says slowly. "And I'd not want to put you out of your bed."
Though, to be honest, even your couch is likely better than one of those
foldout beds. "Uh, why don't we see what happens? Clara might not even let me
go."
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Elasia shakes her head rather quickly, offering you a fond smile. "Niko, it
wouldn't be an imposition. I'd welcome the excuse to have you around the
place, captive company and all that. It'd give me an excuse to cook..." She
adds the next rather shyly, "Besides, I'd worry a lot less having you at
hand." There's another nod, "Waiting's good." Not pushing, not pushing is
good, scaring the guy off would be bad.
Niko gently squeezes your hand with his own. (What else would he use?
Vicegrips?) "Well, I wouldn't want you to worry," he says, with a quick
smile. "Though I think I'm far past the point where worrying is necessary."
He pauses a beat, then echoes, "Waiting. Yeah."
Elasia arches a brow, her expression vaguely wry. "Oh gee, just shot twice and with multiple broken bones, nothing to worry about at -all-..."
Niko shakes her head just a bit. "The broken bones don't count." No, he's honestly serious about this. "The getting shot... that's no fun, I'll admit that. I'm most definitely going to try to avoid it in the future. But it's nowhere really -vital-." Just his small intestine. "Not like the Chief."
There's a quiet hmph about the first part, Elasia obviously disagrees. She
doesn't push it however, at this point still having to work to be quite
careful. She's been head over heels over you for years, she can manage to be
patient a bit longer...or at least she can -try-. "He's going to be alright
though, right? You both are." This last is in a tone of decided confidence,
"It's required."
Niko's head bobs briefly, the quickest of grins crossing his face. "Oh, well if
it's -required-, then I'll be sure to tell Riley next time he's awake. Seeing
as how you say so, and all." He reclaims his hand just long enough to use it,
albeit awkwardly what with the bandages on that shoulder and all, to find his
water glass. Of course, his hand goes back to yours as soon as he's done
drinking the water. "And he'll be fine, I think. I mean, he was talking and
all earlier. Besides, Riley's tough. Has to be, after this long in this
place."
Elasia squeezes your hand gently as it's returned, weaving her fingers through yours carefully. "Y'all need to be more careful though. Bombs, being shot..." She all but winks, "You'd think you were in the military or something."
Niko can't help but laugh at that. "Yeah. And to think that I still remember a time when I thought that the military was an easy way to afford school." He shakes his head, then adds, rather wryly, "This isn't quite the way to show my parents that I don't need them to protect me any more."
Elasia pauses a moment, not entirely certain of the exact meaning of that last,
but she nods agreeably enough. "You surely look like you could use some
protecting, yes." And from the almost fierce edged determination in that
reply, she intends to be the one doing it.
Niko blinks once at your tone, then a slow smile crosses his face. "Well, yes,"
he murmurs. "I guess I do. Just don't tell anybody I -admitted- it, okay?
Knights are supposed to be fearless and valiant and... well, able to take
care of themselves and all."
Elasia shakes her head slightly, "No, see knights don't have to be fearless, and they don't always have to be right off the Knightly Cereal Box or whatever. Knights are people too, that's why we love the,."
Niko lifts his head off the pillow at -something- you said, eyes just a bit
wide, then slowly sinks back. We. She said we. And them. Okay. "Well," he
says slowly, voice very soft, "I'm most definitely people. Person. Singular.
Last I checked, I wasn't plural." Either the drugs are kicking in, or he's
starting to get tired.
"A very wonderful person," Elasia agrees quietly, resting her head on the crook
of the arm that's not holding your hand. She's getting tired too, it's been a
long and involved day. She doesn't appear likely to be moving anytime soon
however. "And that's why I love you."
Niko's eyes widen fractionally at that. For a moment, he can't say anything,
and when he does speak, it's in Hellenic. What is it about lapsing into one's
native language in times of emotion? "Ela," he says softly. "Ela, you're all
I ever wanted. I..." Oooh, is he going to say it? Is he? Drumroll, ladies
and... no, the pause isn't actually that long, just a few seconds. "I love
you, too."
Elasia's eyes widen rather significantly. She'd not been expecting -that-. In
fact, out of all of the responses you could have given, there probably isn't
another that could have floored her more. Her face lights up in stages,
starting with her eyes. The worry is still there, but there's delight
comingled with it. She replies at last in Hellenic as well, "I've heard a lot
of impressive orations in my line of work, and speeches and phrases in
several languages, but never have I ever heard anything so wonderful spoken
in all my life." She
Elasia's eyes widen rather significantly. She'd not been expecting -that-. In fact, out of all of the responses you could have given, there probably isn't another that could have floored her more. Her face lights up in stages, starting with her eyes. The worry is still there, but there's delight comingled with it. She replies at last in Hellenic as well, "I've heard a lot of impressive orations in my line of work, and speeches and phrases in several languages, but never have I ever heard anything so wonderful spoken in all my life." She's almost breathless in her response.
Niko's smile is most definitely tired. "I'm glad you liked it," he murmurs. "I'll have to repeat it, then--unless you think that it'd dull with repetition?" He's teasing. Maybe. It's starting to get difficult to tell.
Elasia all but stammers a moment, looking for words, "No, somehow I don't think
I could ever get tired of it." She unfolds herself to reach up with her
unoccupied hand to brush at your hair. "Speaking of tired though, I think you
could use some rest..."
Niko's hair is getting longer, as Anya the Scissors Nazi hasn't quite gotten to harassing him about it yet, so there's more to play with. "I... well... yes." He's reluctant to admit it, but, well, knights don't lie and all. "Silly that one should get so tired, being in bed all day. Will you--" He hesitates, then asks, "Will you stay a bit longer? I'll try to sleep, really, I will."
Elasia arranges the hair in need of scissors-Nazi back off your forehead,
pulling the hand at last back with a nod. "Sleep, I'll be here. I can't think
of anywhere I'd rather be than here with you."
Niko smiles at that. "No company I'd rather have," he murmurs. His eyes close,
and he mumbles something that could very well be "Love you", though it's not
quite clear.
Elasia doesn't reply, for fear that's not what you said. Instead she aqueezes
your hand gently. Quietly she offers, "Sleep well, and let the night hold no
shadows." With that she lowers her head back to her arm, content to watch
over your sleep.
It takes a few minutes, but Niko's breathing gradually slows, indicating sleep. His grip on your hand loosens enough that you may remove it, but not so much that his own falls away. Of course, his hand is likely on a bed or some other form of support, and since hands don't often spontaneously fly away (without the aid of ferrets), it likely wouldn't take much to keep it where it is.
Elasia is less than inclined to remove her hand, she simply maintains her
position and her vigil. Except she's not wearing any weird get up or praying
at candles or anything. Eventually, as time passes, her eyes sag shut and she
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