Welcome to Gaia! ::

Despite her broken arm, Sonia was in decidedly high spirits. Stitches had been taken out about a week ago and while she still had the 3-D printed cast on, the need for the sling was a bit more touch and go and that was reason enough to celebrate. So long as she took things easy at home, the damn thing could be banished to her bedroom

With both earbuds in, she danced in front of the fridge; well dance being a loose term for swaying and shifting her weight from one foot to the other with the rhythm of the music. Peering inside Sonia looked for something easy to make that didn't require trying to open a jar or fussing with the cans that didn't have a tab on the lid.



Pulled her phone out of her back pocket to check the time only to realize that it was unusually late for Reed to not be home already. Maybe he had decided some alone time was needed and went on patrol after work.

Wonder if I should call... Likely wouldn't appreciate her being a nag or would avoid answering thinking she wanted him to pick something up on the way home. Not that she'd abused that kindness of his but maybe he just needed a breather; space and time to clear his head.

Sonia pivoted on her heel and looked up and drew in a startled gasp. "Dios mío!" Jumped back and into the countertop beside the fridge; phone clamoring to the ground at her feet, yanking both earbuds out of her ears in its descent. Thankfully this one had a better screen protector and case on it and the buds were stupid cheap...

"Holy s**t-" Took a moment to calm her heartbeat before picking her things up and setting them on the counter before she dropped them again. "I had no idea you were home. I was just about to call."

"Are you ok?" Concern was evident in her expression as she looked him over.

WHO the ******** pissed in HIS cheerios?

Completely taken aback by his initial comment it took a hot moment for Sonia to stop blinking at him owlishly and compose herself again. Damn good thing she was by the fridge and not the sink, otherwise, she might have thrown a wet sponge across the room at him.

Thankfully Reed explained his foul mood, albeit reluctantly and quite bitterly in turn. Her shock gave way to reluctant forgiveness in the form of a deadpan stare and pursed lips. I’ll give you a pass this one time, Reed. I sure as hell know I didn’t deserve that.

Before he could retreat upstairs, she responded to his question. “My arm is ok. Still aches off and on but as long as I don’t aggravate it further I’ve been able to get away without having to take the prescription medicine…” Which is what she’d done earlier that day and was now deeply regretting her reaction to seeing him behind her. Definitely going to feel that come morning.

Honestly though, aside from his foul mood, Reed looked like s**t. More than just exhausted from a long day with parent-teacher conferences or assisting with a student that was struggling in class.

Concern pulled her brows together and without a second thought, Sonia abandoned her phone, for the time being, and walked over to him with long determined strides. Didn’t ask if he wanted help because she knew he’d tell her off again or scoff at her with an eye roll. Nor did she seek permission before touching her cool hands that had just been in the fridge to his forehead. “Normally I’d be a smart a** and offer you a Snickers” A small jab at not acting like himself. “But I almost wonder if I should take you to Urgent Care.” The new hospital should have one open, or so she assumed.

“Actually, I’m pretty certain I can.” If not by her own physical strength and determination then because it was not beneath her to go to the Sovereign that founded Ramono’s and inform him one of his teachers, and Captains, was ill and refusing help. Certainly he would see reason and make her reluctant roommate go to Urgent Care, if not the hospital, and that was one person Reed could not argue with or say no to.

“But…” Sonia held her hands up before he could argue back. “As long as you listen to my advice, and don’t get any worse, then I won’t make you go.” It wasn’t an offer that was up for negotiation. Rather it was the terms of the engagement he unknowingly agreed to when he brought her into his home.

Reed may be her Captian but he was equally her responsibility as she was his. Plus, she wasn’t raised to ignore when someone was sick and too proud to admit they wanted help.

Sonia took from him the bag he’d been holding and slung the strap over her head. “I will put this in your study. I don’t want you worrying about work when you need to be taking care of yourself.” Knowing him, he’d be sitting in bed trying to grade papers when he should instead be sleeping.

Ushering him towards the stairs, she continued on with her list of well… demands. “You go take a shower, or a bath if you’d prefer. Leave your clothes in a pile and I’ll wash them for you.” They were probably saturated with kid germs, students who refused to cough or sneeze into their elbow and got snot on their hands and either flicked the boogers in some unknown direction or touched things without first washing their hands. It was something she had to deal with at the studio but at least they had helmets which could be sanitized with disinfectant spray.

Once the sound of water could be heard, Sonia got to work stripping his bed of the comforter and sheets. Yeeting them onto the floor was an easy enough task, as was shaking each pillow from the case.

If he was sick today then he likely contracted whatever the bug was yesterday, or perhaps the day before. Cleaning himself off in the shower would be a mute point if he were to just crawl back into the bed with whatever he’d brought home from school.

She then searched the linen closet for a fresh fitted sheet and matching sheet. Affixing it to the bed proved to be significantly more difficult with only one arm but after getting one top corner snugly wrapped, Sonia set about getting the other three in place. Next was the sheet that went over it and while laying it across the bed was easy enough, tucking the end beneath the mattress proved to be a task much suited for two hands, or a second person if available.

Glancing at the clock she sighed with how long something as simple as making the bed was taking.

All this movement was starting to make her injured arm throb uncomfortably from the struggling motions. Tried to just grit her teeth and ignore it for now as she attempted to shove his pillows into the cases. A fruitless effort that almost made her snarl at the downed feathered lump as if it had greatly offended her. <******** it…” Sonia muttered to herself and retreated to her room and grabbed the memory foam cold pillow off her own bed. On the way back across the hall she picked out a few more full sized blankets, the same ones he had piled on her after bringing her home from the hospital a few weeks prior. Something to keep Reed warm while she washed his comforter.

It took a few extra minutes to get the bed fully made, which included managing to finally shove one of his pillows into the case so he had at least that to sleep on; how something so flat could give her so much trouble was beyond her. Floppy thing should have been replaced a while ago.

Phytoplankton? God it’s been a while since I’ve heard that word. Sonia’s expression twisted into one of pure confusion, a single brow raised as she looked at the door as if it had suddenly become a portal to Wonderland with the nonsense he was shouting from the shower. But his pointed statements didn’t end there and the next thing he said hit her like an icepick to the heart.

Not a serrated knife that tore and ripped away at flesh and gouged bone. But a sharp lethal point that hit with such finality that if it wasn’t for the fact he was sick she might have actually listened. There were broken down boxes under her bed for that exact reason. However, those were fevered words of an ornery man who was acting like a damned child.

Rather than getting upset at him telling her to leave, Sonia walked across the room and knocked on the door to let him know she definitely heard that. “I understand that asking for help, let alone accepting it against your will, is completely and utterly beneath you, Reed. But the water will run out eventually and you will be all the more miserable once it turns cold.” By her count it had been about fifteen minutes but she didn’t check the time when they got upstairs.

“I’ll leave once you start feeling better. But… until then. I’ve replaced the sheets on your bed and brought in more blankets from downstairs. I’m going to take your comforter and put it in the washing machine. In the meantime, please dry off, get some clothes on.” Wasn’t sure if he remembered to take anything in there with him but at least this would give Reed the opportunity to get his own things rather than her having to shuffle through drawers to find what he needed.

“I’ll bring up some water so you can take some medicine.” Aside from the obvious exhaustion and what sounded like chest congestion, she didn’t know what other symptoms he had; if they were more cold like or flu.

Downstairs fussing with the washing machine, trying to shove the comforter in the damned thing with one arm, struggling to measure out the detergent. The sound of roaring water filling up the metal basin muffled Reed’s voice as he called her name. Rather than feeling angry or hurt by his words, Sonia felt…

Empty

Tried not to dwell on it, to instead convince herself that she shouldn’t have been so surprised by it. Afterall, she did make uncompromising demands and threaten him. Somewhere in her mind she’d known that this wouldn’t last but in the weeks that spanned since she moved in, Sonia had grown comfortable enough with the situation to go as far as to push boundaries.

Seems to reason that rather than carefully poke at them she had instead pulled a Miley Cyrus and ♪♫Came In Like A Wrecking Ball ♫♪. Her tolerable presence was an unwanted shift in his routine and here she had the audacity to be so assertive with him. Seemed he got his Ahead of the Curve achievement by telling her to ******** off before she had done anything yet.

“We reap what we sow.”

At least this time her stepping up was to make things easier on him. Unfortunately it seemed that her attempt at being the mouse to remove the thorn from a lion's paw had instead become her being nothing more than a pebble in his shoe. An intolerable irritation that it was finally time to toss it out before it could cause irreparable damage.

To try and convince herself he hadn’t meant what was said was nothing shy of a fool's errand. Being sick didn’t make one say things that weren’t true. Rather it simply weakened the filter that kept those private thoughts from being said.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Sonia moved from the laundry room to the kitchen where she had left her sling on the dining room table. Took some finagling to finally get it on but with all the movement she’d been doing her arm was beginning to throb uncomfortably and it was unfortunately too soon to take any more medicine.

Before heading back she got a water bottle from one of the upper cabinets and filled it with cold refrigerator water. After tightening down the lid as best she could she meandered her way over to the bottom of the staircase then paused.

Reed sat at the top, damp disheveled hair clinging to his face, looking all the more like a cat that had slipped off the edge and dunked in a tub. He appeared so… so defeated which seemed to confuse her more than anything.

The boards groaned in protest with each step until she stopped before him; both height and gaze level with his own. Sonia regarded him for a long moment considering her next words with care. “I’m not your enemy, Reed. I know you’re not feeling well but that doesn’t make you weak. Asking for, or accepting, help doesn’t make you any less of a man. I don’t know how long you’ve had only yourself to depend on but when you assumed responsibility over me, I chose to do the same for you the day I moved in.”

“Sooner or later you’ll realize how pathetic I am as a senshi. But as I am, even with a broken arm, I’m not so useless. I am who I am, and I am not the kind of person who makes my roommate fend for himself when he should be resting.”

“Just as you brought me home to the hospital and took care of me those first few days. Will you just…” her breath hitched and it took a second to continue. “ Will you let me do this one last thing for you.” Sunset colored eyes looked at him imploringly as she tried to keep the hurt from seeping into her voice

“Please,” she added.

His voice sounded like he’d been dragged through gravel with one foot tied to the back of a horse set to gallop across the sunset hills into oblivion. Dry and raspy, as if the rope had then snapped and left him in dry desert sand wanting something to wet his cracked lips.

“Ok,” Sonia offered him the water bottle then shifted her weight against the banister. “What’s the favor?” Of all the things it could be, it couldn't be worse than telling her to be gone by morning.

Sonia considered his request while he downed most of the water she had given him. "I don't mind helping," she simply stated. "But is this thing you're looking for so important that it can't wait until you're feeling better?"

There was a distinct difference between a need and want. If it was work related then it could stay in his study and wait until later with his bag she had set in his chair. However, if not finding it would keep him from getting proper rest then she supposed it'd be better to put Reed's mind at ease rather than have him restlessly dwell on it.