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 Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:40 pm
Julian was keenly aware of the way Riker’s fingers curled into his arm, and the way his breath got a little heavier and a little faster.
“Only if you want some time alone with them,” Julian promised. “Elliot and Atticus came over to drop a few things off. Elliot brought over some video games for us to borrow.” Julian hadn’t grown up with video games so Elliot had to help him set everything up.
“I don’t know when they’ll come by. They helped me take notes and get your homework together so you wouldn’t miss anything.”
The chair was waiting for Riker at the bottom of the steps, though it looked like it might have been more of a leisure device than a functioning one. The chair was low enough to the ground that it would have been no effort to sit in it, so Julian guided him there and waited for him to take a seat. There were armrests, and leg rests, and a plush cushion to sit on and rest your back against. On the left arm there were an array of buttons.
Julian was quick to explain, “If you press the star the game starts. There’s a little blaster right there,” he said, nodding to the retro-futuristic style gun holstered to the outside of the chair. It only takes a minute to play, but you can stretch your legs out when you sit down. I’ll come up the stairs with you. If you press the red button, the seats warm up. I don’t know why they added that but um, Soleiyu said it was so it would be warm if anyone needed to use this in winter. But I also saw him taking a nap with it on so I think that might have been for him. If you need to hurry, you can press the button that looks like a paw.”
He was patient as he stood, supporting Riker and giving him as much time as he needed to move on his own. “The phone button will send a notification to his phone for if something goes wrong. But if you hold the phone button you can also call people. Um–sorry, none of those things are important right now! When you press the star, the seat will lift up some. But it’s really smooth, and a nice, quiet ride.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:41 pm
Of course Elliot and Atticus would have come over. He hoped they would go check on Énna, too. Guilt ate at him. There were so many things they could have worked out if they hadn’t had that Captain show up. Maybe he could have convinced Énna to forgive him…
Carefully, Riker lowered himself into the chair as Julian explained everything to him. He looked over the buttons as they were pointed out, and he only winced once as he adjusted himself.
And then, of course, because Julian said he would go up the stairs with him, Riker held out his arms to coax Julian to sit on his lap.
“There’s nothing wrong with my legs,” he promised. “Show me how to do it while you ride with me.”
He couldn’t stop himself from grinning a little. It was silly, he knew. And he wouldn’t blame Julian for refusing. But he thought it could be more fun that way. And they deserved a bit of fun after everything.
“Thanks for getting my homework together. I guess that was nice of them, although Elliot broke my ribs so he kind of owes me.”
Okay, so Elliot also kept his heart beating while doing that… but he didn’t have to tell Julian that. Not yet, if he didn’t already know.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:50 pm
There was a brief second where Julian looked like he was about to protest, like he was afraid Riker would push himself too hard and hurt, but–
How could he say no? Riker knew his limits, and if his legs were okay then Julian was going to trust him. He didn’t want to be too far anyway, and it’s not like Soleiyu did say it would be impossible to break.
“Did he really?” Julian asked. He was used to falling for tricks, he was gullible and everyone knew it. Riker just didn’t seem like he was fibbing.
Carefully, Julian sat in Riker’s lap. He watched his face intently, looking for any fraction of discomfort. Despite his gaze solely locked onto Riker, he stretched his arm around the chair so he could pull out the little blaster. He pressed it into Riker’s hand and carefully molded his fingers around the grip, sliding his finger into the trigger spot.
“I bet he feels awful. Which ones?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:16 pm
Julian was too light to cause any discomfort from his weight. Riker knew it was because he was shorter, but he was also super skinny. Hopefully living with Evan would change that.
He did everything he could not to react to Julian sitting in his lap. There was some discomfort, but it wasn’t like he was pressing on any of his injuries. To make sure Julian wouldn’t fall off, Riker put his free arm around him just to be safe. But with his other hand he held the blaster the way Julian guided him.
“It feels like all of them,” Riker sighed dramatically, which he immediately regretted because ow... Okay, no straining his lungs…
“I’m not actually sure if they’re broken since I haven’t had any x-rays, but Mr. Gallo said to not be surprised if they were broken, but they’d definitely be bruised,” he admitted. He wasn’t trying to trick Julian. He was just exaggerating where he could.
Riker eyed Julian curiously, and a bit guiltily. “How much did they tell you about what happened?” he asked, but shook the blaster to indicate he was ready to try the game out. His hands were just otherwise preoccupied so he couldn’t start it himself.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:22 pm
“Um,” Julian contemplated his answer for only a few seconds. “Well, they told me you got hurt really badly. I think they didn’t want to scare me. They said a Negaverse agent attacked you and Yvoire. That you got stabbed. But I know it was bad.”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek, debating on if he should say more. That was the most of it, though. He pressed the button on the chair and immediately low saturation LED lights appeared on the other side of the wall.
The chair hummed to life, rising against the wall nearly half a foot. It began to slowly follow the track up the stairs, just in time for the stylized stars to begin shooting across the wall in front of them.
A little bullseye appeared on the wall, directly where the blaster was pointed; a score of zero appeared across from the chair at the highest point on the wall and moved with them.
Julian did his best to distribute his weight in a way that wouldn’t crush Riker but he stayed close at all times and was never at risk of falling off.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:24 pm
Did he want to talk about it? He wasn’t sure. With Julian he felt like he could talk to him about anything, but he didn’t want to worry him unnecessarily. But he was right there and perfectly okay, so that was something, right?
For a few moments, he was silent as he focused his attention on the little stars. He pointed the blaster at them and did his best to aim and shoot. He rubbed his other hand against Julian’s back and side to give him a little gesture of reassurance.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you about it, I just don’t know where to start or what to talk about. I guess if it comes up… you’d be okay with me talking about that stuff? I’m okay. It hurts a lot when the medicine wears off, but I can just take more. And Effie did such a good job with his magic.”
Not that he knew much about how healing magic worked, but the wound was significantly smaller now, and he was pretty sure whatever Effie did, it patched him up inside, which he figured was probably the most important part.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:26 pm
As they rode up, Julian stayed still and did his best to be out of the way. Riker was already doing better than his high score. It was easy to focus on what he was doing, just to stay in the moment as well as to give Riker a bit of privacy while he sorted through his feelings.
“You can talk about anything with me,” Julian promised. He kept his eyes on the stars until he couldn’t anymore. Even if he was afraid of crowding Riker while he felt vulnerable, he also wanted him to know that he was serious and not just saying what he thought Riker wanted to hear.
“Mr. Gallo made sure we got the right medicine for you. We’ve got a chart for the earliest you can take it upstairs, and on the fridge. I hurt my ribs once, I don’t think they were broken. But I did find a way to lay that helped, so I can fluff up the pillows for you anytime you need it. Um, but if you do want to talk about it and just don’t know where to start, I could ask questions. And you could only answer the ones you wanted, when you wanted to?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:26 pm
He knew he missed a few of the stars. He was distracted by thinking about what Julian said. Distracted with being out of breath. Distracted by the pain that seemed to flare up every so often when he moved the wrong way.
But it was an entertaining way to pass the time while waiting to ride up the stairs. It made him feel a little less like a senior citizen at least. And it was more enjoyable with Julian riding with him.
If he were being honest, he really didn’t want to be alone. But he also didn’t want to seem too clingy.
Julian was so gentle with him. Not just physically, but emotionally, too. He always seemed to know the right things to say to ease Riker into a sense of calm. He appreciated it more than words could express, so he just rubbed Julian’s back again as he waited to see what score he got.
“Only if you ask questions you want to know the answers to,” he frowned with a bit of worry. He didn’t want to upset Julian, but he also didn’t want to lie to him.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:27 pm
For Riker’s first try, he got 674 points. At the top of the stairs, once the chair finished following the rail, it lowered so that his feet were almost touching the flat surface of the ground. A pixelated LED Soleiyu floated around in space, bouncing off of stars and planets that fluctuated in size and looked like they were dancing across the screen. A keyboard with large, hard to miss letters also appeared and flashed.
There were three high scores listed; at the top, ZAC: 808. Then, JUL at 370, and JUL again at 324. Julian carefully crawled out of Riker’s lap and waited for him to put in his name. “Riker, you did really good! You’re going to get to a thousand in no time! I’ve still got some work to do. But I’m getting better,” he said eagerly.
As he waited, he rocked on his heels but he kept his hand out and ready to help Riker up.
“I’ll make sure I think about my questions,” he promised. It wasn’t just for him, it was for Riker, too. He didn’t want to ask something that hurt him or stressed him out. “I guess one of the most important questions is if there’s anything I can do to help you feel better faster?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:28 pm
The entire time he was riding up the stairs, Riker didn’t think he would care what score he got. It was just a game to pass the time.
That was until he saw the score Zac got. Riker clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth and almost reluctantly typed RIK into the scoreboard. Then it was just a matter of getting up.
Julian was already holding a hand out for him, so he took it and used the chair to help push himself up. It was more painful than he’d expected it would be. Maybe a combination of the angle he stood up and the pressure on his shoulder? It didn’t matter, but he did feel momentarily dizzy.
“Just stay with me when you can, please,” he requested, voice weaker than he would have liked. He was holding both too tightly and not tight enough to Julian’s hand, but with his other hand on the wall now, he wasn’t going to pass out at least.
“But we’ll have to work on you getting a higher score. I think if the stairwell was darker it would be easier, so we can turn off all the lights next time.”
He was mostly just talking to fill the space he needed to breathe. But he eventually offered Julian a smile and small squeeze of his hand.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:29 pm
“Oh, that’s a good idea. I’ll practice some more soon, I just didn’t have a lot of time. But I am excited to get better at it.” Julian wasn’t often particularly chatty but he was good at watching people and picking up on little cues. He could tell that Riker wasn’t at his best, but moving up and down when you had an injury to the gut and broken ribs (maybe) didn’t sound like an easy or enjoyable experience.
Riker was trying to hide that he was in pain and breathless, but Julian was there to help support him so he couldn’t walk away or pretend to be busy.
He squeezed Riker’s hand gently. “I hope you won’t get tired of spending time with me. I stay in my room a lot but if you ever need some time for yourself, I can go downstairs. Or if you need a change of scenery we can go hang out downstairs, or outside. We’ll figure it out. Sorry, I know I’m all over the place. But I’m looking forward to hanging out. Zac picked out some movies for us, and Elliot got some two player games for us, too. And I have some books. I don’t want you to get bored so everyone tried to get a little bit of everything.”
Julian could have stood around for as long as Riker needed, but he was just as ready to help guide him into the bedroom.
There had been a few obvious updates since the last time Riker was here: more pillows on the bed, including a firm, wedge-shaped one, a mini-fridge, a bedside table with a touch lamp, and a handwritten sheet of paper with times, and medicine already laid out. A heated blanket was at the foot of the bed, and there was a new folding laptop tray resting next to the bed.
An array of nonperishable snacks had been set atop the minifridge, organized in a neat basket.
Some of the furniture had been moved around to make sure there was plenty of open space, and on the desk was a bouquet of flowers and a stack of get-well cards.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:29 pm
How could he ever get tired of spending time with Julian? He had fun when they were together. And sometimes it was nice to just sit in silence without having to be judged.
He would have said that if he had the strength to do more than just try to remain standing. He was glad they were at the top of the stairs, and was curious about what Julian had done to the room.
It was difficult not to notice all the little changes. The addition of the minifridge and snacks, the extra pillows, the extra blankets, the way things had been moved around.
Riker paused as he caught sight of the flowers and stack of cards. “Who sent you flowers?” he wondered out loud. It wasn’t Julian’s birthday. And it was only after crossing off all of the other possibilities on his mental list that he arrived at the possibility that they weren’t for Julian at all.
“Why?” he sputtered, only when enough time had passed that it was obvious he wasn’t asking why would someone send Julian flowers.
His ears burned, and he felt faint. Maybe they weren’t for him and he was just going to embarrass himself by being egotistical and thinking they were.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:31 pm
“Oh, no one,” Julian said quickly. “Those are for you. I had some help picking them out but um, you know, flowers are nice when you don’t feel good, right? And I thought it might freshen up the room some. And they smell nice. I’ll bring them over when you get settled in bed. I’ll bring the cards over, too. You don’t have to read them right away but they’re there when you want them. Lots of people wanted to wish you well and root for you to get better quickly.”
And maybe one card wasn’t enough to say everything they needed to say. Both Julian and Evan had spent a few hours writing extra cards because Riker was going to be cooped up for a while, and though neither would say it to the other they both knew what it was like to be hurting and desperate for reassurance.
Julian guided him to the bed with no urgency but when he was close enough he peeled back the blankets so it was ready for Riker.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:31 pm
Of course Julian would have gotten him flowers. It was incredibly sweet and absolutely made sense. Maybe he just still wasn’t used to any of this. He knew Evan and Julian would be okay with him staying there while he recovered, but he didn’t expect there to be more than the basics. He didn’t expect a Mauvian made chair to get up the stairs, or a buffet of food for when he got there, or flowers. Or cards.
Appreciatively, he let Julian help him to the bed, and he did his best not to make any noise of discomfort as he eased himself to sit. Although he did grip tighter to Julian’s hand than he normally would have.
“I don’t know what to say, Jules,” he said quietly once he’d sat on the edge of the bed, and then looked up at Julian a bit helplessly. “Sorry, I might… uh… need help.”
He felt pathetic. He wanted to be able to lift his legs up on his own, but he was so tired and sore and if he moved the wrong way…
“Just, um… I don’t know.” He could probably lay back, but doubted he’d be able to get back up.
“Thank you for the flowers. And cards. Really? Uh… thanks.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:32 pm
“Don’t be sorry,” Julian said quickly. His brows had furrowed again, less from worry and more because he knew that this must be hard for Riker. He spent so much time trying to prove that he didn’t need help, or that he could take care of himself.
If he tried hard enough now he probably could have, but Julian thought it was so much more effort than he needed to be putting into things.
Julian expressed no discomfort when Riker squeezed his hand and he was patient while he moved on his own.
“You came here to heal, Riker. I know you’re not at your best right now. I also know, um, that you’re trying to hide how much it hurts. But you don’t have to. You got stabbed.” His voice had softened, like maybe he thought he was being too bold. He didn’t want to get Riker worked up. He just didn’t want him to spend all this energy if he didn’t have to.
“You’re my friend, you’re really important to me. I want to do anything I can to help and I mean it. It could be big or small, anything. You just have to tell me what I can do to make any of this any easier for you.”
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