Work Text:
Riley rubbed her eye with the hand that wasn’t carrying her newly topped off cup of coffee as she returned to the lab. She almost knocked her glasses off her face with the back of her hand, and had to reach back up to steady them. Her brows furrowed in thought as she considered all the work that she had done so far, and how much she had to go.
The techs from the big city were always terrible with evidence, so Riley had taken to analyzing it herself. Everything was getting done more thoroughly, yet more slowly. When she made it back to the lab, she looked over the giant piles of evidence spread out over the autopsy table. She needed to finish cataloging it by morning so Verda could use his table to do his job.
A short while later, Riley stood up stretching for a minute, realized she was hungry and started to head in the direction of the kitchen. Instead of walking out the lab, however, she walked straight into the doorframe. Riley wrinkled her nose and took a step back before shifting left a bit, stepping forward again, expecting to clear the doorway this time. Instead she ran into a mass almost as sturdy as the door frame, and flinched when it wrapped around her waist.
“You know there’s a door there right?”
“Felix?” Riley asked, pushing away enough to see his face, catching his amber gaze, but not enough to break his hold. “What are you doing here?”
“We were gonna get lunch. Don’t tell me you forgot?” Though he was smiling, Riley could tell he was concerned.
“That’s tomorrow,” she answered, pulling away from him. “I’m busy right now.”
“Uhh, no I’m pretty sure it's today.” Felix gave her another grin, knowing for certain that he had the right day. The part he hadn’t told her was that he had told the rest of Unit Bravo what they were doing immediately after getting to agree to having lunch with him, and then proceeded to bring it up several times afterwards.
“It's not even lunch time, it's the middle of the night,” she protested, trying to figure out how to get upstairs with him blocking the doorway.
“Riley, it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon,” he told her, stepping out the way, so she could pass.
“It is not!”
“Do you even have a clock in here?” He asked, exaggerating the motion of looking around.
“Don’t need one,” she answered as he followed her in the kitchen.
Riley frowned when she noticed the coffee pot was empty again. She started rifling through the cupboards, only to be interrupted by Felix.
“If you're hungry you could just come get food with me? Ya know, like we already agreed.”
“It’s tomorrow,” She insisted again, following it with a yawn, and trying to refill her cup of coffee with the empty pot.
“Have you seen yourself today?”
“No. Why?
“You look like a zombie or some other living dead thing. I mean you’re still cute, but still,”
“Huh?”
Felix tugged on her arm, and pulled her into the bathroom, so she could look at herself in the mirror. Having seen herself for the first time she had to acknowledge that he was right, she did look like a zombie. Her eyes had giant bags under them, and just looked exhausted. Her hair was falling out of its bun, and her clothes were a bit rumpled.
“Yikes. Unfortunately there’s nothing for it. I still need to finish my project. Although it is a bit concerning how ragged one can look after only a few hours.”
“I don’t think you’re listening. It’s been more than a few hours.”
“I think you're making things up,” she accused, having returned to the kitchen and tried pouring coffee from the empty pot into her cup again. “If it's the next day, why is no one here?”
“Because it’s Sunday,” he told her taking the pot out of her hand. “How much of this have you had?”
“Just the one pot!” She defended, until she followed his gaze to the trashcan which had three different used coffee filters full of grounds. “Or maybe three?”
“Riley, how many fingers am I holding up?”
“Four,” she answered, sneering as she tried to make her way back to the lab.
“Two,” Felix corrected.
She scrunched her nose. “That can’t be right.”
“I think you should get some sleep.”
“I don’t need sleep, I need to finish what I’m working on.”
“Riley.”
Riley ignores him, and started heading back towards her lab. When she got to the staircase, her vision started to blur. She stumbled, and started falling. She was kept upright by Felix wrapping his arms around her waist again.
“Willing to take my advice now?” He asked jokingly, but his eyes were full of worry.
“Fine,” she huffed. She really needed to get back to work, but she figured if she went back downstairs he would hover, trying to help and just make things worse. Not to mention be a huge distraction, like always.
Riley started walking in the direction of her car, and knocked into another door frame. This time Felix scooped her completely in his arms. Surprised by the motion, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, earning her another of his incredibly distracting smiles. She really must be exhausted, if she wasn’t even protesting this.
“If you can’t walk straight you can’t drive. Lucky for you, I happen to be extremely fast.” He winked, and before Riley had completely processed the meaning of his comment, she was back home.
He continued to carry her up to her apartment, only setting her down so she could pull her keys out of her pocket. It took her a couple tries to get the key into the lock, and she grew vaguely amused at how most of her behavior could be perceived as a hangover. When she finally got he open she was surprised by Felix following her inside.
“You don’t have to stay,” she told him.
“If I leave now, you’re just going to get out your laptop and try working from home.”
He would normally be right, except she was having trouble moving her limbs at the moment. She didn’t even register that he was helping her remove her coat until it was halfway down her arms, and she could feel his breath on her neck. She swayed back a bit, and felt his arms around her waist again. Riley didn’t even realize she had sighed until she heard his chuckle. She was definitely sleep deprived.
Somehow she made it all the way to her bedroom, ended up in pajamas, and curled up in bed. She may or may not have eaten something somewhere in there. She wasn’t sure of much at this point as she was barely coherent, but Riley was sure of one thing. Felix stayed until she fell asleep.