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Why was everything so… quiet? Wasn’t it usually loud?
She couldn’t really remember.
She felt so tired… Nothing was coming to her readily, and at times she wasn’t even sure who she was.
It felt like she was taking a nap in lava. The sheets draping over her form were heavy and hot, suffocating her under them. She didn’t have the strength to pull herself out, and could only moan pitifully at the realization, as though it would somehow help.
A far-off voice called for her, and she wished she hadn’t questioned the silence. It was, in its own way, a comfort, and now she had to deal with whatever this newcomer demanded of her.
Suddenly, there was a shadow looming over her, a figure staring down at her. She managed to open her eyes and look back for a moment, but the light was blinding, even with this figure in the way of the window. She squeezed her eyes shut, rolling her head away, and hoped this other person would go away and let her rest.
That voice spoke again, a harsh, loud sound, accompanied by something tapping against her cranium. She couldn’t figure out the words, but didn’t much care to try. Their voice hurt her ears, and their touch headache inducing. She curled inwards as though it would protect her from the assault, even though the barely functioning rational part of her mind knew it wouldn’t help. It soon became apparent to the primitive part of her brain that mostly had hold over her at the moment that moving wasn’t an option; hot pain stabbed at her chest, drawing a straggled cry from her lips and desperate gasps for air until the feeling subsided as she stilled.
The sheets were thrown off her body, and suddenly sleeping in a volcano sounded comforting. The sweat that evidently clung to her body from her time under those evil blankets turned to ice at the exposure to air, and the difference made her cry out again, this time in shock.
That voice came to her a third time, something very close to a mocking tone being clear to her despite everything else not registering at all. She tried to just ignore it. There wasn’t anything else she could do in this state.
The silence returned for a bit. She wasn’t sure how long it was; her sense of time was distorted beyond any rationale. But then the side of the bed dipped, and something equal parts far too cold and far too warm pressed against her forehead. She moaned and tried to squirm away, all the while aware that she did, in some respect, like the warmth it gave off as her body continued to freeze.
Her blankets, now cooled from their separation from her body, were laid back on her, and for just a brief moment in time, everything aligned. It was neither too hot or too cold, that comforting silence returned as the dip in the mattress disappeared, and she was at peace. Of course, this wasn’t to last, as soon the covers warmed beyond this fragile middle ground and she was left drowning in her own sweat again.
A gentle humming reached her ears some time later, and she struggled to figure out who or where it came from. There were noises to either side of her, but she couldn’t figure out what any of it was. She wasn’t willing to try and open her eyes, not now. It was hard enough to think as it was.
Something pressed against her forehead. It wasn’t like whatever had touched her previous, though. The texture was different; the first something was smooth, but this was much more rough. Besides that, though, this was, without a doubt, very, very cold, and her face scrunched up in dislike at the sudden shift.
A soft noise, a sort of cooing, came next, and she jerked at the feeling of something touching her tentacles, pulling at them and rubbing them to the point of irritation. Admittedly, it was a short trip to that, though, since she was proving far more sensitive to every kind of stimulation at the moment than in her day to day life. A new voice joined in, this one deeper and slow and naturally seeming to possess a soothing quality to it. The covers were again pulled away, although this time only halfway, leaving her lower half trapped under the sheets.
Legs uncomfortably warm, she tried to squirm them out from under the blankets, only to yelp as her shirt was grabbed and pulled roughly, forcing it up and off her head. A white hot pain exploded at her chest, and she grabbed at the area in a desperate attempt to get it to stop hurting.
Hands, they were distinctly hands from the numerous nimble digits working and weaving their way around, grabbed at her wrists, forcing her own fingers off of her chest. Unsure of why anyone would do this, she cried for them to take pity on her and let her go, but they held firm regardless as something thin slid across her skin, between her armpit and breast, cold as ice as it moved. Unsure as to the intentions of these other beings, she whimpered at the crisp sound of metal clanking together and the feeling of her very skin being peeled off.
Pinned to the bed upon which she lay, she could only beg as the two people looming over her worked and talked, their words and actions failing to make sense to her muddled brain. The pain continued to grow as the sensitive area that had just lost its precious outer protection was rubbed raw with what felt to be a million tiny dulled blades, and she screamed for the torture to end, for them to have mercy on her, for them to just kill her already instead of toying with her…!
She awoke with a start, feeling like she’d been run over a dozen times over. Ugh. Minor headache, sore throat (probably from crying out like a weak little newborn…), aching chest, general weakness… What a mess. And her cousin, not to mention Gramps, had to see her in such a pathetic state.
Her bed was soaked through in her sweat, and she could only grunt in disgust, all too aware that her limbs were too similar to mere jelly at the moment to successfully pull her body over to her sister’s room.
Sitting up was an effort, but she managed to get her upper half propped up against the headboard. A moment later, she’d found her glass of water and downed it all in seconds, discovering that at least part of why she felt like such shit was because she was dehydrated. Idly, she recalled brief flashes of moments from her time stuck in illness limbo, and couldn’t pick out any point where either of her two caretakers had managed to make her drink any sort of fluids. She was about ninety percent sure that she had been something of a stubborn mule the entire time she’d been out of commission. Yeah, that would do it. Clearly, they managed to get her to drink something, otherwise the infection that had taken over her wound probably would have killed, but…
Sighing softly to herself, she grasped for her phone, luckily having been placed on the nightstand, likely by her cousin. The two girls knew each other far too well after all these years, and both knew they would suffer a minor heart attack wondering what the crap happened to their cellular device after such an accident. Thusly, the other seemed to have been kind enough to provide access to it for when she managed to regain proper awareness. The light it produced was blinding, and it caused the headache that had been consistently but very dully knocking against her brain to explode out.
Clutching at her head as she tried to convince the pain to go away, her shaking fingers acted on muscle memory, managing to unlock the phone (after a few failed attempts of trembling digits hitting the wrong number for the code), and lowering the brightness to the minimum. It was still painful to look at with her sore eyes, but it was manageable now, so she shot a quick text to her partner and put the damned thing down to wait in peace.
She looked down at the bandages that covered her upper torso, involuntarily shuddering as she remembered what she had interpreted in her fevered state as her skin being peeled off. She had to remind herself that it hadn’t been her skin; it was bandages covered in infection that had been clinging to her wound. That didn’t help, really, but it was better than making her want to pull back the curtains on what hid under the current protective layer covering her chest.
It wasn’t long before her cousin came into the room, moving slowly and with wide eyes. Thankful for the distraction, she looked up, visibly brightening and making something of a ‘come here’ gesture.
“Feelin’ okay?”
She shook her head but tried to not look too tired, and reached for the glass of water that she had requested via text a minute earlier, which was handed over. The contents were soon gone, and she pushed her way back down to hide under the covers, grimacing at the feeling of warm sweat that clung to the sheets under her. Hopefully, she would start to feel the slightest bit better soon, now that she had a good amount of fluids in her.
“Sorry.”
She looked up to the other Squid Sister, gaze quizzical.
“I should have realized you were in trouble.”
That look of guilt… Geez, the poor girl looked so tired… probably spent a lot of time pacing about, waiting for any signs of improvement. She reached up a hand and grabbed feebly at anything of her cousin’s, managing to latch onto a thigh. A snicker reached her ears soon after, to which she gave her best grin in reply, genuinely feeling better at the sight of making her cousin feel less shitty about the situation they’d ended up in.
“You’re a real pain in the ass when you’re delusional, ya know?”
She nodded. That was clear from the dehydration and her vague recollections of not being able to realize who her caretakers were, or even that they were her caretakers. Luckily, it didn’t seem like she’d lashed out and hurt anyone, at least…
“But I suppose I rather you being an ass than completely unconscious… You’ve been in and out for three days…”
The poor girl rubbed at her arm self-consciously. It was hard to watch what was usually a confident star be reduced to a mess of worry and anxiety, and she gave a squeeze to the thigh she still held onto, as though to tell her cousin that no one was to blame for this. They’d been hurt before. But an infection like this, taking hold and squeezing the life out of either of them? No, that was just a stupid lack of luck, a mere occurrence that could not have been predicted.
“Give the word and I’ll do what I can to make it up to you…”
That felt like it would just be taking advantage of her sister’s guilt. Like hell she would do that. And yet, the other girl so clearly wanted to make her feel better. Well, she had to admit that she was pretty miserable at the moment… Deciding to take her sister up on the offer, she gave a joking whine, holding out her arms in a ‘carry me’ gesture. Well, she was only half joking. She was sitting in her own filth, and cleaned wound or not, she didn’t want another infection. The last thing she wanted or needed was to go through that again.
The other squid laughed a little and complied, scooping her up and cradling her tightly as she gasped when her wound threatened to tear open.
“You smell worse than a sewer.”
She forced out a pained chuckle and nodded.
“You’re lucky I love you enough to let you stink up my bed.”
With a loving squeeze, so gentle yet tight, the strong idol walked her down to another room and placed her down on the bed. She held onto the hand of her best friend, silently requesting company. There wasn’t even the thought of arguing in the other’s mind, and soon they were cuddled up together, the healthy curled around the wounded protectively.
“I promise I won’t let this happen again.”
She felt like she’d heard that before. As a matter of fact, those words had most definitely come from her own mouth a couple of times. They both said it, every time the other got hurt on a mission. Octoling warriors were dangerous, though, and shit happened time and time again. The Roller could not always be there to save the Charger in the event of an ambush, and the Charger could not always fire fast enough to spare the Roller pain in the event that there were too many coming in from too many angles. There was always guilt.
But they didn’t blame each other. They both tried their best, and they both knew it.
Humming her appreciation, she sank into the embrace and forgot about the world, the headache, the dull hurt in her chest… She was weak, but that was alright. For now, she was safe.