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Oliver smiled, the thought of his hard-won junk food was almost pleasant enough to forget about the pain and fatigue. "How did Finn do, by the way? I know he wanted practice, but I wasn't, um, sure how much practice he really needed, you know? I kinda want to look, but I shouldn't touch the bandages yet..."

Finally arriving at his room, the kid happily wandered in to flop onto the bed. Pain rippled through his body at the heavy landing.

"Owww... Um, I suppose I should have been a bit more careful, ouch..." He smiled despite the groan in his voice. His own room, as spartan as it was, felt like a cosy little den compared to the infirmary.

"I'm okay," Oliver said again, but this time his answer of choice seemed truthful. "You really don't have to worry so much about me."

With Arorangi's help he found a more comfortable place on the bed, stuffing his pillow and the large dinosaur plush toy behind his back so he could sit up without too much effort. Apparently he wasn't going to take to good rest without putting up a fight.

No sooner had he leaned back, Oliver's expression brightened and he sat up straight again, one hand over his injury to ward off the pain. "Ah, there it is!" He chirped, pointing towards a large plastic grocery bag sitting on his paper-strewn desk. "I think I saw some cheetos in there earlier, the jalapeno kind!"

Oliver rubbed his hair as though it had been messed up by the gentle bop. In reality he just made it appear a little more unruly, it was not straight enough to fall gracefully back into place. "I know... but it can be dangerous, and- Oh, I like this kind!"

Serious conversation was once again put on hold as the chips came out. Either Oliver was really easy to distract with junk food, or he was doing it on purpose.

The young trainee caught the bag of Doritos and immediately pulled it open, taking one beautifully unbroken chip and shoving it in his mouth, and then held out the bag to Arorangi. He seemed to find the offering a satisfactory method of communication until he swallowed and was able to talk again. "They are kinda spicy, but they don't have any weird flavours or anything."

Whatever Oliver muttered next was made completely unintelligible by the chips in his mouth. Despite the recent injury, he seemed more contented than ever just sitting there eating junk food, the only thing that would have made that moment better was a good video game.

Unfortunately the trainee's room was not equipped for anything other than reading, writing, and sleeping. Perhaps he would treat himself to a game console once he could afford to have it outfitted with the proper runic technology. If he even survived that long... And would he have any time to play? There was no way he could get up early to go jogging with Finn if he stayed up late playing games.

When Arorangi broke the silence Oliver nodded. "Isn't that what this is? I can just sit and finish compiling my notes, and it will be good enough for rest, eh?"

Oliver's bag of chips came up empty, and was discarded. Anyone who had seen him pick at his food and push it around his plate in the cafeteria would not have believed how voraciously those Doritos had been devoured. Even more surprising was the hopeful look in the large grocery bag's direction, perhaps desiring to give a bag of jalapeno Cheetos the same treatment.

"Oh..." The kid's eyes briefly shifted to glance at Arorangi before going back to the bag of loot. "Are you sure, um... a little reading is too much? I thought I just spent almost a day sleeping already."

Oliver frowned back, a stubborn protesting look on his freckled face. "I'm fine now, it couldn't have been that bad." His glance drifted back to the bag of junk food but his stomach was finally catching up to his mouth and reminding him he didn't need two bags of chips. Even with all the denial in the world his body was starting to feel heavy.

"I'm not going to go jogging or anything, please, you don't have to worry," he reassured his friend, and slowly slid down into a more comfortable slouched position against the pillow. Reaching behind his back to adjust the dinosaur was accompanied by a sharp pain. "Ow... I might, uh... maybe close my eyes for a minute or something, and then I'll read. Just for a minute, I'm still listening!"

Oliver had no argument for that. "So it was bad..." he finally muttered. Now things were clicking into place in a slightly different manner, the time he was out, the general weakness in his limbs, even Arorangi's strong concern. Suddenly he felt very small.

"Um, can you..." He paused. "C-can you... uh... stay just a little longer?" Oliver couldn't look up while asking such a thing. It was embarrassing, but right then he didn't want to think about sitting in his room alone, and where his mind might wander.

Oliver slid down further, letting out a pained little sound as he tried to pull the dinosaur out from under him so as to lie down properly. He gave up. Why did every little movement seem to involve those core body muscles?

"Thanks..." he said, sheepishly, and gratefully. "Um... I-I think, if you want, there is something on the desk?" It had been years, Oliver had completely forgotten what sort of material was appropriate for such a bedtime story. The papers on his desk looked something like this. One of the drawers on one side was cracked open slightly, with what looked like hand-written notes inside.