The couch was a surprisingly comfortable place to stretch out. It wasn't as stuffy as Carter's room, and it had the added bonus of a coffee table. So what if it didn't have coffee on it? His glass or orange juice looked just as comfortable on it as a mug of joe would with the added benefit of having ice cubes.

Actually, hold that thought. Ice cubes? He used his left hand to slowly flex and unflex his right hand one finger at a time, not yet trusting it to do that job itself. Ice cubes brought back the memory of the Ice Princess who still lingered his his dreams, laughing as he and many others attempted to damage her. He could still picture the punch he threw, her aura of cold great enough to turn his ocean wave into a block of ice, trapping his arm in it. But it wasn't her hand that grabbed him to throw him away. He could have sworn Kaguya had blue arms. This one was black – no, a mess of gray muscle and mottled flesh that poked and prodded him awake with a start.

“Hey!” Carter's ten-year-old brother Mike said again, prodding Carter in his side. “Are you awake yet?”

“I am now,” he groaned.

“Good! Get up, 'cause I wanna play a game and you're taking up the couch.”

“Yeeeah how about no,” Carter replied, flopping an arm over his eyes dramatically and preparing to doze off again.

“Aw, c'mon bro! Please?”

“Hmm.”

“Pleeeeease?”

“Alright, alright.” Carter pushed himself up onto his elbows and sat up, settling into a seated position. It wasn't until Mike joined him on the couch and shoved something into his hands that Carter began to regret his decision. “Uh, Mike? What is this?”

“It's a controller, duh. You're going to play too!”

“I am?”

“Yeah!”

He stared at the controller as if it would bite him. Video games were a foreign thing to him. Why have a character run around an imaginary world when there was a real one outside? Granted, a skateboarding game got him into actually skateboarding, but you can't do the same things in the game as with a skateboard. The last time he attached fireworks to his skateboard ended with him suffering a few burns, scrapes, and being grounded for three months. Stupid jet-skateboard upgrade that doesn't exist.

More pressing matters for him, however, was his hand. You needed two working hands to use a controller, right? And one of his wasn't exactly working as well as it did thanks to getting stuck in ice. He couldn't let that go. It was one thing to hear that the senshi of hail could do that on command, but was Castor's attack seriously as cold as Kaguya turned his attack into? He wondered how the eternal senshi dealt with it, then had his answer. Castor was an Eternal. Was that a perk, he wondered? Being able to handle an icy punch? Or was that what happened? If everyone got to punch things at Eternal mode, did that make him the odd duck out? It was bad enough to read that the Pleiades used to be all sisters. Was he doing the senshi business wrong?

“Well?”

Carter glanced over at his little brother and stuck his tongue out. “Yeah, yeah, I'll play.”

“'course you would!”

“But if I win, you get more orange juice.”

“Your glass is full!”

He leaned forward and grabbed it with his left hand, chugging the juice down. “Ahhh! Not anymore!”

“You cheated!”

“No I didn't!”

“Yes you did!”

“You still have to get me more if I win.”

“Well fine! If I win, you'll get me a soda!”

“You're not supposed to have a soda.”

“You're not supposed to drink orange juice.”

“Yes I am. I'm sick.”

“No you're not!”

“Are too!”

“Then why are you up? Aren't you supposed to be coughing and making mom panic?”

“I did that already.”

“Oh. Can I have a soda anyway?”

“No.”

“Aww.”

Carter reached over to ruffle his younger brother's hair, laughing as he the younger boy shoved back. “Pick your character, you jerk!” The boy shouted, proceeding to continue poking and shoving his older brother as he tried to select his character.

With that complete, they had their match. Carter lost the first and the second. Then the third.

“Are you even trying?” Mike asked, poking his brother in the side. “Don't go easy on me just 'cause I'm a kid!”

“Hey!” Carter replied, swatting his brother back. “C'mon! Start it up again! Best to five!”

“Nuh-uh! I won!”

“Never said how many I had to win!”

“Well now I am! I beat you three times!”

“Aw c'mon, that's not fair!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too is too!”

“Not not nooooot!”

“Is too! Can I have a soda?”

Carter stared at his brother, rolling his eyes. “You reeeeally want that soda, huh?”

“YES!”

“Then no.”

“Aww! Jerk!”

“I might change my mind in another round?”

“Okay!”

It wouldn't be until after three more consecutive losses that Carter had his first win. Then his second. Then his brother got bored and wandered off to go do something else. Carter stood up from the couch and stretched, grabbing his glass to go refill it. He nearly dropped the glass when he noticed he was using his right hand. Was it really as bad and as stiff as he thought it was? It... wasn't. The glass was cold, yes. While it was a bit slow to flex still, it wasn't as bad as it was before.

Armed with orange juice, Carter sat back down on the couch, grabbing his brother's controller. Well, if he wasn't going to play... Why not? It beat sitting around doing nothing while waiting for his fever to go down.