Sollux sat for a few minutes, rubbing his face. It wasn’t so hard to ask her to go the fucking doctors, was it?
2o you wanna go two the doctor2 wiith me tomorrow
Doctor’s? Rose stared at her phone for a moment, concern crawling up her spine - had he gotten hurt, was something wrong, was he more sick than she thought-
Oh. Right. The sleep doctor. She relaxed with a sigh.
I’d be more than happy to accompany you. What time shall I meet you?
Sollux sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing his head. Why the fuck couldn’t he sleep? It wasn’t that fucking hard for one boy to close his eyes and just…sleep. Sure, he had a chance to go to the doctors about that. Heck, he even had an appointment to go a few days ago. He skipped it. He skipped it because Rose was sick and that was more important than some shitty sleeping habits he had going on in his body. He groaned before flopping back over on his bed. A small vibration started on his desk, faintly hitting his ears as he grabbed up the object of said noise. In big, bright, letters, the screen displayed the word “DAD”. Ugh. Sollux lazily slid is finger over the Answer button and pressed the phone to his ear.
“Sollux Captor.” The voice at the other end said sternly
Inwardly cringing at the voice as he tried to make a small attempt to say something and explain himself. “Dad….I….”
“Don’t ‘Dad’ me now, you’re going to shut up and listen to me. You were supposed to go the damn doctor days ago. I didn’t have time to remind your computer hacking ass to go, nor should I have had to do that. Then I get a call informing me that you never showed up. What the hell is that about I wondered? Then I thought about what an irresponsible prick my son is! I was going to wait though, thinking maybe you had school work to do and just couldn’t go. But you didn’t call and explain to me about anything. So now, I made you a new appointment that you’re going to have to go to. If you don’t, you’re coming home so I can take you myself. You better be at the doctors by 12:00 tomorrow, I sent you doctor’s office address a while ago, now go the fuck to sleep.” The voice was stern the whole time, before the phone clicked off.
Sollux just listened the whole time, staring up at the ceiling. When the phone call ended, he just laid there for a few minutes. It was only 10:30 at night. With a small sigh, he flipped his phone around and sent out a text to Rose.
you awake
Rose was working on homework - when was she not, these days? - when her phone buzzed angrily at her. Frowning, she picked it up and checked the sender. Now, what is this about? Her fingers quickly tapped out an answer:
I am. With what may I assist you, Sollux?
She set it on her desk, watching for it to light up again.
Sollux sighed and crawled over to the part of the bed where he normally ended up sleeping. Wrapping himself in the blanket, he shoved his face into the pillow. Aw yes. He propped his head up, waiting for Rose to lay down. “Thee you can’t thay mad at me for long, that’th why….” He paused, not knowing what he should even say now. “That’th why we’re thuch good friendth.” Sollux finally said, yawning and shoving his face back into the pillow.
Rose burrowed into her pillow slightly, her back to Sollux. “Mfffph,” she responded. “Something like that.” She twisted around to look over her shoulder. “Go to sleep, Sollux.” Her voice is gentle and grumpy both; it’s an odd combination, to be sure. “You’re hardly making sense.” She poked him through her blanket with a toe. “There’s more than that why we’re such good friends.” Yawning widely, she faced the wall again and squirmed until she was comfortable. “Good night.”
“Rothe, if anybody can tell when thomeone needth thleep ith me.” Sollux said, falling onto the bed. He tried to curl up, he missed being under his blanket. God damn it was cold. “Jutht thleep…pleathe?” he looked up at her, yawning and shaking his head. Fuck this cold. Fuck having feelings. Fuck sleep. “If it maketh you happy I wont lay in bed with you like I alwayth do, Ill jutht thit on the chair.”
Rose scooted further onto her bed and shuffled around until she had acquired another blanket and two pillows. “Fine. I will. And we both know you don’t have the energy required to get across the room.” Rose shoved a pillow and the blanket at him before wrapping herself up more tightly in her own. “Go to sleep, Sollux, and I promise I’ll attempt to get some rest myself.”
“Fuck, Thith ith bullthit!” Sollux said, throwing his arms up and dropping the comforter. He was going to drain all his energy doing this, but fuck if he cared. Stepping closer to Rose, Sollux braced himself. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he picked her up. He was straining himself, it was obvious. People who were mostly bone and sick should not be picking up anybody. “I’m going to die.” He groaned, carrying her over the her bed and setting her on it. “Thleep now.”
The noise that came from Rose could be best described as a squall when Sollux lifted her from the ground. “Sollux Captor, you will put me down right now-“ For all that she was blustery, she wasn’t fighting against his hold. Either she didn’t want to hurt him or she was too tangled up in her blanket to be able to. She landed on her bed in an ungraceful pile of girl and blanket. Cold hands pulled her afghan up onto her head; lavender eyes glared out from underneath it, though the bags under her eyes lessened the effect of the baleful stare. “Don’t want to sleep,” she grumbled.
Sollux rolled his eye, about to roll out something that made no sense. Well then the door flung open and he was face to face with one angry Rose. Woah. “Rothe we both know that if you thend me to my room I will thend you a viruth tho bad you won’t even be able to turn the computer back on.” He snapped back. “Now I would thuggetht that you let me in tho I can thend you bed and get back to being my own kindth of thick.”
“And we both know if you carry out such a plan of action I will not only have my sister repair whatever you do to my computer but I’d also send her after you to teach you why you don’t sabotage her gifts.” Rose squinted at Sollux and gripped the doorpost. Did she just sway slightly on her feet? Of course not. She would never. She hitched her shoulders and tugged her afghan closer around her shoulders. “I would suggest you turn around and pull your nose out of my business before it gets taken off! I am perfectly capable of going to bed and taking care of myself, thank you very much!”
“Self destructive?” Aradia asks quietly, a hint of confusion in her voice. “He hasn’t been… hurting himself or anything has he?” The worry is displayed on her face now instead of just her eyes. “You don’t think it’s my fault do you? I-I didn’t drive him to anything like that right?”
“It happens,” was all Rose said to her first question. She knew very well how self-destructive tendencies worked: she’d grown up with Roxy and her alcoholism, after all. “No, he hasn’t been harming himself. Nothing so dramatic. I do have to keep on him about eating and sleeping properly.” A twinge of guilt ran through her about her negligence while they’d not been speaking. “You’re not the sole source of his behavior, nor even a large part of it. You may have some small influence over it, however.” It was the truth, though perhaps not a very welcome one.
“Well…” Aradia started as she took a seat in the chair, keeping her eyes on Rose. “You see… I haven’t much had a chance to talk to Sollux. I know you said you’d take care of him so I thought maybe I’d ask you how he was doing. I mean I would do it myself I’m just afraid to talk to him I guess.” She looks down at her lap. “I mean… You see I just, I don’t know how to talk to him without bringing up bad memories and stuff. I don’t know what might set him off.” Taking a deep breath she looks back up at Rose. “I mean, I may seem like I’ve gotten over it, but every time something reminds me it hurts a bit. And if it hurts me like this I can only worry what he’s gone through or what he may be going through now.”
“Well, of course it hurts.” She could probably stand to be more tactful than that; she hurried to add more to her statement. “You both were close. Hurting him the way you did probably gave you a fair amount of pain yourself.” Sighing into her mug, Rose took another long sip. “But I digress. He’s doing… well enough. Not wonderfully, though that’s more his own self-destructive tendencies than any of your influence.” She rubbed her temple. “Try sending him a message on Tumblr or something of the sort. Perhaps he’d be open to talking to you now that time has passed.”
“Rothe I will thtay h-” Sollux coughed into his blanket, shaking his head. “Here until you open the door!” he finished off. He was intent on even sitting outside her door until she answered. There was no way he was going to let her sit awake and work when she was sick, that just wouldn’t work. “I’m not thleeping until you thleep firtht.”
“Oh, for the love of all that’s sacred and holy!” Rose hunched herself further under her afghan. She wasn’t going to deal with this, Captor had brought this on himself-
Oh, for. She couldn’t just leave him to sit in the hall. She grumbled several less-than-ladylike words on her way to the door. When she got there, she whipped it open and outright glared at the hacker on the other side. “Go back to your room, Captor.” Someone was obviously cranky.
Sollux gathered himself together, dragging the comforter off his bed. Alright, time to make the journey to the girls rooms, upstairs. Christ. This would take up all his energy, but it was worth it. It was Rose and he was putting up with bullshit because he cared. His hair was a mess. His glasses didn’t even look like they belonged on his face in his current state. Marching his way upstairs, he stood in front of her door. Thumping his head on the door (his hands were busy keeping the blanket around him), he groaned. “Rothe open the door.”
“What on- Captor, go away!” Rose glared at the door on the other side of the room. She could not be bothered to deal with this. She had far too much to do. Forget that her head hurt and her chest hurt and her eyes hurt and her nose was raw from how many tissues she’d used. “I’m trying to work on my homework!” She sneezed into her elbow. “Go back to bed!”
Captor, don’t you dare.
“I’m sorry for bothering you Rose. And please, don’t call me Miss Megido, it’s way too formal for my taste.” Aradia said smiling gently at Rose as she watched her sniffle. “And I don’t mind colds, I’ve got a pretty good immune system, years in South America tends to help.” She says trying to lighten the stiff air before looking down the hall before looking back to Rose. “I was wondering if maybe I could talk to you, I would have done so sooner but I was- well I was a bit worried about bringing it up. I mean I wasn’t sure if it was allowed within a certain time period or- I’m probably confusing you.”
Rose held her door open for Aradia, waited for her to enter her room, and closed it after her when the other girl entered. “At least one of us has a decent immune system. I confess to a bit of envy,” Rose said. She pulled out her computer chair and offered it to Aradia. She herself grabbed her mug of tea and sat down on the small opening between her bookshelves around her bed. “Of course we can talk. About what matter do you wish to speak with me?” Somehow she doubted that this would be a pleasant conversation. The way Aradia was rambling was not promising. She took a long swig of her tea and prepared to listen. “What’s on your mind?”
I don’t need you to tell me when I do or do not need to sleep. You, of all people, don’t have the right to do so. “‘Pot!’ declared thine yonder kettle. ”Twould appear thy color ist darker than most!’”
Oh, I’m shaking in my slippers.
Master Captor, I have a fairly large amount of homework that needs completing. I neglected it over the weekend and now need to finish it before it’s due. My cold isn’t so bad that I need to rest when I have an assignment due shortly.
Watching from afar, something she normally did when she was bored, sitting in the classroom or in the library, trying to figure out what to do next. Tapping her pencil on her desk lightly she tried hard to ignore the fact that her class size was a bit large compared to the size of the room. Trying to keep her phobia under control and realizing the tapping on her book was beginning to drive herself insane she looked down to her book and began to doodle on the sides of her notebook. She needed to talk to Rose, she hadn’t in awhile and a lot was on her mind, about everything that happened a month ago- all that made her realize maybe she might have done something wrong. Sighing lightly she continued to doodle, her mind being distracted by the way the pencil moved on the sheet till she realized yet again it was annoying her. Look at those stick figures. Terrible.
Aradia took a deep breath as she tried to focus on something else, the lecture had been a bit boring, she had already learned about this particular one the night before. Looking over her classmates she realized maybe she should pay attention anyways, oh well, her gaze drifted to the outdoors once more. Ever since the hospital she hadn’t said much to Rose or Sollux, she wondered if they were doing alright- of course Rose was though, I mean she had a boyfriend, even if he seemed a bit… Rough. Well he was a bit more uptight than other people she knew but she had no right to judge. She hoped Sollux was doing alright, he had taken what she had said a bit hard, but she was worried about approaching him, so she stayed her distance and let Rose take care of him. I guess now was a good enough time to maybe approach him, but she would prefer to talk to Rose first.
She packed her things away as class ended, thankfully it was her last class of the day as she put her bag on her shoulder and left the room with a brisk pace. Hurrying through the halls she made her way to her room, dropping everything off as she tried to get her mind wrapped around her thoughts like the vines and the trees in the jungle. What if she was wrong? What if she had messed things up more than she had thought? What if he had been avoiding her because of what she had done? She tried hard to not focus too hard on it but it got the best of her as she splashed water on her face before leaving the room and locking it behind her. Strolling down the hall she apprached the door she needed to as she knocked lightly on it. Come on Rose, please be back from class, please.
Rose snuffled in misery. She’d suffered through classes on Friday with her head cold, endured her mother’s company and mocking concern over the weekend, and had kept a handkerchief at the ready all day today. Her sinuses were congested, her brain was blank and fuzzy, her bones ached, and she hadn’t been able to stop sneezing for days. All she wanted to do was sit down, drink her tea, take a nap, and avoid everyone for a while. She wasn’t fit for human interaction while being this sick.
So of course someone would knock on her door when she grabbed her mug of tea. She allowed herself a sigh of the long-suffering and a deep breath of the steam before she went to answer the door. She set the mug on her desk. Rose really didn’t want to deal with whatever was coming, but she owed a duty to those who knew her. She had offered to be a listening ear. Perhaps it was only Jade with a question or squiddle or-
No such luck. “Hello, Miss Megido,” she said. “What can I do for you this afternoon?” It was obvious in her body language: something was on Aradia’s mind. She held up a finger, sniffled into a handkerchief, and warned, “I have a head cold. I apologize for insisting that I keep my distance.”
I will be in my room should you need me.
Don’t need me.
My mother has requested my company this weekend. I will be absent until Monday. Text me if there’s something you should need.
((OOC: I’ll be back on Mondayish! <3 Luffs you guys!))
