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Entry tags:
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CHARACTERS: Eva Aldana Gutiérrez and Eli McLeod
WHAT: Eli helps Eva back to her room
WHEN: February 4th after this
WHERE: The Ship
WARNINGS: Nah
WHAT: Eli helps Eva back to her room
WHEN: February 4th after this
WHERE: The Ship
WARNINGS: Nah
"This is ridiculous."
It was a bit hard to sound stern when she was currently draped over the back of a man she barely tolerated as though she were an overgrown child, but somehow Eva managed it. Any passerby would soon bear witness to the most awkward, stiff piggyback ride ever taken, but thanks to the frankly obscene amount of medication still working through her system, the brunette couldn't find it in her to care.
Much, at least.
She sighed wearily, hands curling into his shoulders as she glared at the walls they passed instead of giving in to temptation and looking at her currently braced ankle.
"I have crutches."
Eli’s lips twitched as if they weren’t sure if they should curve up into a smile or down into a frown — something he was glad the woman on his back couldn’t see. They both were aware that he shouldn’t be here, that there were other people abroad more qualified or liked to help her back to the room she shared with Jiah, yet here he was.
He didn’t want to peel that back and examine it right now when his forearms were hooked behind her knees.
This could be his nice deed of the year, and he wouldn’t have to test if Aldana would make good on his threat to airlock him.
“I’m aware,” he finally settled on, “consider it a service to the crews’ shins.”
It took her a beat to register what he said, that it was a little funny, and she hid her laugh in what could have passed for a cough or perhaps the sound that one made before they threw up.
His shoulders stiffened at the noise, eyes pressed tightly closed as he made sure she wasn’t about to hurl.
“They won’t be able to evade me forever, cangrejo,” she reminded once she was sufficiently satisfied he was on edge from the noise she made. “Papá will bring them to me if you don’t go back for them.”
He grunted in agreement, gently adjusting his hold on her so she sat higher up on his back, and made a mental note to go back and get the crutches so her father didn’t see it as an oversight and come up with another threat.
But —
“I’ll bring them tomorrow.”
Bold brows crinkled as she shook her head, the slight motion making her vision blur. She sagged against him, chin coming to rest on his shoulder as she shut her eyes tightly to make the world stop spinning.
“How does that make sense?” she managed, words sliding into one another. “I don't want to wake up Jiah in the middle of the night.”
She had barely been able to make herself ask her roommate to bring her a blanket.
“Keeps you resting in bed.”
Eli stopped, head turning slightly as he clocked her slurred words and slumped posture. It was one thing to barely stand each other, but it was another thing to barely stand.
“You okay, jelly bean?” he prodded, his elbow lightly squeezing her thigh.
“Yes,” she said promptly, her whole body groaning in protest when she straightened. Imagining her spine stacking one vertebrae over another made her feel dizzy, but breathing in the scent of something clean that she knew clung to her temporary ride’s skin somehow made the wooziness worse. “I was only thinking of how strange your gait is.”
Eli snorted at the ridiculous comment, but he gave her a moment to pull back before he began walking again.
“Says the woman with a broken ankle,” he pointed out, ignoring the way the recycled air swirled around the spot she had vacated, “that’s not an invitation to show me, by the way.”
“I wouldn’t even if you wanted to see it,” she huffed back, glancing down just long enough to make sure her foot was still secure in its makeshift brace. “I already made my opinion of you beholding my ankle very clear.”
“I meant an invitation for you to walk,” he corrected, voice dry as he paused at an intersection of hallways to make sure no one was barreling towards them before crossing.
“You have left me no choice,” she pointed out. “If I have to use the bathroom overnight, I’m going to have to hop there.”
“I’ve seen enough broken bones to know what a broken ankle looks like.”
“Dios mio,” she muttered under her breath. “Yes, you’re very tough,” she said with a roll of her eyes, utterly exasperated. “I am sure no one has broken bones so thoroughly as those you have already witnessed.”
“Jesus Christ,” he grumbled, resisting the urge to rub at his temples because he didn’t want the base — or Eva — yelling at him for dropping her, “do you want me to find you a gold star for having the most broken ankle?”
She resisted the urge to make the same, almost-sick sound again, hands meeting at the center of his chest when he began walking again. “I didn’t say that —” she pointed out in a huff against his neck.
“You didn’t have to,” Eli observed dryly, his lips twitching as he began to count the doors once they stepped foot in A5.
“—but it is very broken.”
His thumb tapped her thigh in silent consolation as they stopped in front of her room.
“Key?”
“You couldn’t think about that before?” she asked, wincing as she extracted her key from her sweater pocket and handed it over. “It’s almost like you’ve never helped a crippled woman before.”
“It’s like you’ve never been helped before,” he volleyed back as she pressed the key into his hand.
“I ask for help when I want it. I didn't want your help to begin with,” she pointed out. “You insisted.”
The door was swiftly unlocked and shouldered open, the starkness of the halls a thing of the past as they stepped into her room. His head tilted in silent question as to which bed was hers, briefly resting against her bicep as he waited.
She had already regretted being pressured into accepting his offer, but it multiplied tenfold as the air seemed to vacate her bedroom. The relative quiet of the ship was now deafening silence, and she was very eager to break it as she pointed to the far bed and said: “that one.”
He nodded, easily traversing the space that seemed too small now that they were both in it. He was hyper aware of the soft puff of her exhale against his neck and the way she shifted, no doubt eager to get away from him, and his good humor from earlier felt like it was rapidly deteriorating as the silence stretched between them.
“I’ll get your crutches to Jiah,” he said, turning so she could slide off his back and onto the bed. He had no idea where he’d find the scientist, but the problem was for later.
She was glad she wasn’t looking at him as she balanced on her good foot, clumsily yanking the sheet and blankets down and plopping a pillow for her bad one to rest on. “You could bring them,” she noted while she worked. “Take my k—” Her directive was cut off with a yelp as her socked foot slipped against the floor and she scrambled for something to hold onto.
He grunted as her hand curled around his belt, tugging him back and down as he went with her, their momentum pitching them both sideways.
“Hey—”
“Stop—”
His reaction was pure instinct, long frame twisting to catch her forearm while the other braced against the bed so she didn’t hit the ground. The movement sent a jolt of pain through his shoulder as his palm sank into her mattress, but it was drowned out by the voice in his head telling him don’t drop her as startled green eyes met brown.
It didn’t hurt, which was the most surprising part of it. One second she was upright and the next her shoulder was meeting the hard wall of Eli as she tumbled after him onto the bed.
It was disorienting.
More than a little awkward.
But not painful.
And so, at what was the worst timing possible, Eva let out a dazed laugh as she tried to roll to her side, stopped by the tangle their legs were in.
“Stop moving.”
“I’m not,” Eli wheezed, glancing between them so her ankle wasn’t accidentally jostled in their haste to untangle themselves. It wasn’t until then that he noticed how close they were, her hand pressed in the center of his chest as she pitched forward despite the grasp he still had on her arm.
“Stop before the bed sues for damages,” he managed, his hold loosening as he worked on trying to figure out the best way to get her back onto the bed before she rolled off or figured out he was in it.
It only made her laugh harder, leaning all her weight into the hand that wasn’t pinning him to the b—
to the—
to her bed.
“Mierda,” she breathed, sobering so quickly it felt like whiplash. “Don’t just lay there. Didn’t you want to prove you’re helpful?”
Eli’s eyes lifted skyward as reality hit them both, holding in a breath as he reminded himself that she was hurt, that she was drugged up, that she didn’t like him, and he truly didn’t need to know what her bed felt like.
“Can you put your hand literally anywhere else so I can move?” he asked, tone astonishingly patient as he waited on her to unpin him.
“Si. That would help.” She glanced down at her hand, vaguely registering his rapid heartbeat beneath it, sliding her palm to press into the space above his shoulder.
“I can do it,” she insisted, knee pressing into the mattress and lifting herself off of him now that she was better balanced. “You should move now.”
He slid from under her now that there was a decent gap, managing to keep his no shit to himself. It was by no means dignified, but he managed to contort himself so her injured leg wasn’t jostled too much by the time he was crouched beside her bed.
His movements were brisk, almost clipped as he tugged the dislodged pillow back into place so she could rest her ankle back on it, but as gentle as she had warned him to be so as to avoid either of them tipping from some unforeseen breeze or slippery surface.
“Okay,” he murmured more to himself than to her as he scanned her for any other ways she could injure them both and failing to spot any, “there. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“You sound like you’re about to kill me.” Her brown eyes were warm as she looked up at him from her spot against the pillows, turning onto her side to face him. “But you aren’t scary.”
He cut off his brain before it could automatically calculate the distance between them, a sharp reminder given to himself that she wasn’t a target or a hostile. She was simply an injured coworker who wasn’t his obligation and had a tendency of injuring him.
“That’s it,” he said after a beat, fingers curling at the edge of the bed so he didn’t reach for the blankets or she saw the glimmer of amusement in his eyes, “you’re officially grounded, agent.”
“You aren’t in charge of me,” she attempted to say crossly; a failure when she promptly yawned and buried her face in her pillow. “Get my blanket.”
He promptly reached for the blanket, tucking it loosely around her so she didn’t have to fight the material if she needed to get up in the middle of the night.
“Stay,” he said, palm hovering over her shoulder as he gave her a stern look and ignored her first comment.
“I’m not a dog,” she insisted, another unhelpfully timed giggle bubbling over.
“I’ll bring your crutches by later.”
Her fingertips brushed his as they curled around her blanket. “Bien,” she relented, her smile beginning to fade as exhaustion set in. “You didn’t drop me.”
Eli nodded, giving her an unreadable look as he pushed himself up to his feet now that she was safely tucked in and fading fast.
“I told you I wouldn’t,” he pointed out, pocketing the key that was still pressed into his palm as he took a step back — and kindly didn’t point out that she had dropped him.
He’d learned to pick his battles, and this wasn’t one of them.
“And yes, you win, jelly bean,” he reminded her as he walked towards the door, the soft sound of snores following him out, “we’ll settle that later when you can fully boss me around.”
It was a bit hard to sound stern when she was currently draped over the back of a man she barely tolerated as though she were an overgrown child, but somehow Eva managed it. Any passerby would soon bear witness to the most awkward, stiff piggyback ride ever taken, but thanks to the frankly obscene amount of medication still working through her system, the brunette couldn't find it in her to care.
Much, at least.
She sighed wearily, hands curling into his shoulders as she glared at the walls they passed instead of giving in to temptation and looking at her currently braced ankle.
"I have crutches."
Eli’s lips twitched as if they weren’t sure if they should curve up into a smile or down into a frown — something he was glad the woman on his back couldn’t see. They both were aware that he shouldn’t be here, that there were other people abroad more qualified or liked to help her back to the room she shared with Jiah, yet here he was.
He didn’t want to peel that back and examine it right now when his forearms were hooked behind her knees.
This could be his nice deed of the year, and he wouldn’t have to test if Aldana would make good on his threat to airlock him.
“I’m aware,” he finally settled on, “consider it a service to the crews’ shins.”
It took her a beat to register what he said, that it was a little funny, and she hid her laugh in what could have passed for a cough or perhaps the sound that one made before they threw up.
His shoulders stiffened at the noise, eyes pressed tightly closed as he made sure she wasn’t about to hurl.
“They won’t be able to evade me forever, cangrejo,” she reminded once she was sufficiently satisfied he was on edge from the noise she made. “Papá will bring them to me if you don’t go back for them.”
He grunted in agreement, gently adjusting his hold on her so she sat higher up on his back, and made a mental note to go back and get the crutches so her father didn’t see it as an oversight and come up with another threat.
But —
“I’ll bring them tomorrow.”
Bold brows crinkled as she shook her head, the slight motion making her vision blur. She sagged against him, chin coming to rest on his shoulder as she shut her eyes tightly to make the world stop spinning.
“How does that make sense?” she managed, words sliding into one another. “I don't want to wake up Jiah in the middle of the night.”
She had barely been able to make herself ask her roommate to bring her a blanket.
“Keeps you resting in bed.”
Eli stopped, head turning slightly as he clocked her slurred words and slumped posture. It was one thing to barely stand each other, but it was another thing to barely stand.
“You okay, jelly bean?” he prodded, his elbow lightly squeezing her thigh.
“Yes,” she said promptly, her whole body groaning in protest when she straightened. Imagining her spine stacking one vertebrae over another made her feel dizzy, but breathing in the scent of something clean that she knew clung to her temporary ride’s skin somehow made the wooziness worse. “I was only thinking of how strange your gait is.”
Eli snorted at the ridiculous comment, but he gave her a moment to pull back before he began walking again.
“Says the woman with a broken ankle,” he pointed out, ignoring the way the recycled air swirled around the spot she had vacated, “that’s not an invitation to show me, by the way.”
“I wouldn’t even if you wanted to see it,” she huffed back, glancing down just long enough to make sure her foot was still secure in its makeshift brace. “I already made my opinion of you beholding my ankle very clear.”
“I meant an invitation for you to walk,” he corrected, voice dry as he paused at an intersection of hallways to make sure no one was barreling towards them before crossing.
“You have left me no choice,” she pointed out. “If I have to use the bathroom overnight, I’m going to have to hop there.”
“I’ve seen enough broken bones to know what a broken ankle looks like.”
“Dios mio,” she muttered under her breath. “Yes, you’re very tough,” she said with a roll of her eyes, utterly exasperated. “I am sure no one has broken bones so thoroughly as those you have already witnessed.”
“Jesus Christ,” he grumbled, resisting the urge to rub at his temples because he didn’t want the base — or Eva — yelling at him for dropping her, “do you want me to find you a gold star for having the most broken ankle?”
She resisted the urge to make the same, almost-sick sound again, hands meeting at the center of his chest when he began walking again. “I didn’t say that —” she pointed out in a huff against his neck.
“You didn’t have to,” Eli observed dryly, his lips twitching as he began to count the doors once they stepped foot in A5.
“—but it is very broken.”
His thumb tapped her thigh in silent consolation as they stopped in front of her room.
“Key?”
“You couldn’t think about that before?” she asked, wincing as she extracted her key from her sweater pocket and handed it over. “It’s almost like you’ve never helped a crippled woman before.”
“It’s like you’ve never been helped before,” he volleyed back as she pressed the key into his hand.
“I ask for help when I want it. I didn't want your help to begin with,” she pointed out. “You insisted.”
The door was swiftly unlocked and shouldered open, the starkness of the halls a thing of the past as they stepped into her room. His head tilted in silent question as to which bed was hers, briefly resting against her bicep as he waited.
She had already regretted being pressured into accepting his offer, but it multiplied tenfold as the air seemed to vacate her bedroom. The relative quiet of the ship was now deafening silence, and she was very eager to break it as she pointed to the far bed and said: “that one.”
He nodded, easily traversing the space that seemed too small now that they were both in it. He was hyper aware of the soft puff of her exhale against his neck and the way she shifted, no doubt eager to get away from him, and his good humor from earlier felt like it was rapidly deteriorating as the silence stretched between them.
“I’ll get your crutches to Jiah,” he said, turning so she could slide off his back and onto the bed. He had no idea where he’d find the scientist, but the problem was for later.
She was glad she wasn’t looking at him as she balanced on her good foot, clumsily yanking the sheet and blankets down and plopping a pillow for her bad one to rest on. “You could bring them,” she noted while she worked. “Take my k—” Her directive was cut off with a yelp as her socked foot slipped against the floor and she scrambled for something to hold onto.
He grunted as her hand curled around his belt, tugging him back and down as he went with her, their momentum pitching them both sideways.
“Hey—”
“Stop—”
His reaction was pure instinct, long frame twisting to catch her forearm while the other braced against the bed so she didn’t hit the ground. The movement sent a jolt of pain through his shoulder as his palm sank into her mattress, but it was drowned out by the voice in his head telling him don’t drop her as startled green eyes met brown.
It didn’t hurt, which was the most surprising part of it. One second she was upright and the next her shoulder was meeting the hard wall of Eli as she tumbled after him onto the bed.
It was disorienting.
More than a little awkward.
But not painful.
And so, at what was the worst timing possible, Eva let out a dazed laugh as she tried to roll to her side, stopped by the tangle their legs were in.
“Stop moving.”
“I’m not,” Eli wheezed, glancing between them so her ankle wasn’t accidentally jostled in their haste to untangle themselves. It wasn’t until then that he noticed how close they were, her hand pressed in the center of his chest as she pitched forward despite the grasp he still had on her arm.
“Stop before the bed sues for damages,” he managed, his hold loosening as he worked on trying to figure out the best way to get her back onto the bed before she rolled off or figured out he was in it.
It only made her laugh harder, leaning all her weight into the hand that wasn’t pinning him to the b—
to the—
to her bed.
“Mierda,” she breathed, sobering so quickly it felt like whiplash. “Don’t just lay there. Didn’t you want to prove you’re helpful?”
Eli’s eyes lifted skyward as reality hit them both, holding in a breath as he reminded himself that she was hurt, that she was drugged up, that she didn’t like him, and he truly didn’t need to know what her bed felt like.
“Can you put your hand literally anywhere else so I can move?” he asked, tone astonishingly patient as he waited on her to unpin him.
“Si. That would help.” She glanced down at her hand, vaguely registering his rapid heartbeat beneath it, sliding her palm to press into the space above his shoulder.
“I can do it,” she insisted, knee pressing into the mattress and lifting herself off of him now that she was better balanced. “You should move now.”
He slid from under her now that there was a decent gap, managing to keep his no shit to himself. It was by no means dignified, but he managed to contort himself so her injured leg wasn’t jostled too much by the time he was crouched beside her bed.
His movements were brisk, almost clipped as he tugged the dislodged pillow back into place so she could rest her ankle back on it, but as gentle as she had warned him to be so as to avoid either of them tipping from some unforeseen breeze or slippery surface.
“Okay,” he murmured more to himself than to her as he scanned her for any other ways she could injure them both and failing to spot any, “there. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“You sound like you’re about to kill me.” Her brown eyes were warm as she looked up at him from her spot against the pillows, turning onto her side to face him. “But you aren’t scary.”
He cut off his brain before it could automatically calculate the distance between them, a sharp reminder given to himself that she wasn’t a target or a hostile. She was simply an injured coworker who wasn’t his obligation and had a tendency of injuring him.
“That’s it,” he said after a beat, fingers curling at the edge of the bed so he didn’t reach for the blankets or she saw the glimmer of amusement in his eyes, “you’re officially grounded, agent.”
“You aren’t in charge of me,” she attempted to say crossly; a failure when she promptly yawned and buried her face in her pillow. “Get my blanket.”
He promptly reached for the blanket, tucking it loosely around her so she didn’t have to fight the material if she needed to get up in the middle of the night.
“Stay,” he said, palm hovering over her shoulder as he gave her a stern look and ignored her first comment.
“I’m not a dog,” she insisted, another unhelpfully timed giggle bubbling over.
“I’ll bring your crutches by later.”
Her fingertips brushed his as they curled around her blanket. “Bien,” she relented, her smile beginning to fade as exhaustion set in. “You didn’t drop me.”
Eli nodded, giving her an unreadable look as he pushed himself up to his feet now that she was safely tucked in and fading fast.
“I told you I wouldn’t,” he pointed out, pocketing the key that was still pressed into his palm as he took a step back — and kindly didn’t point out that she had dropped him.
He’d learned to pick his battles, and this wasn’t one of them.
“And yes, you win, jelly bean,” he reminded her as he walked towards the door, the soft sound of snores following him out, “we’ll settle that later when you can fully boss me around.”