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"God, why does space travel have to be so tiring." Elan complained as he collapsed onto the hotel bed. As he had been living on Earth for a few years at this point, the feeling of zero and artificial gravity just felt like an assault to his sensitive body. He was sure the return trip was going to be just as grueling. Maybe it was ironic that a former Gundam pilot got motion sickness, but in his defense, his nervous system was almost an accessory at this point.
"Get off the bed and help unpack." Norea chided him as she set her luggage down. She began to snoop around the hotel room, probably looking for anything out of place. High-strung as always. Whenever the two went anywhere, she was always sizing up the area and people around her, as if she needed to launch into attack mode at any minute. Any time Elan told her to relax she would spit venom at him and continue being paranoid. She'll probably end up dying at age 30 of high-blood pressure at this rate.
"There's no need, We're only staying for the night." He stated as he rolled around on the bed, still fully dressed and with shoes on.
"Do all Spacians have as bad of manners as you?" Norea said as she shined a light around the room, looking for any hidden cameras.
"Nope, I'm one of a kind. And this special man needs his beauty sleep." Elan laughed as he kicked off his shoes and dove under the covers. His eyelids were already starting to droop, and he needed proper rest for tomorrow. President Miorine had "kindly" invited him to a soiree that GUND-Arm would be attending. While he attempted to blow it off, a strongly worded email arrived in his inbox and he deemed it safer to just go to the damn party then get on her bad side.
"You're a fucking asshole." Norea cursed as Elan fell deep into sleep.
A rhythmic beat continued to resound throughout the small room.
"Pulse is within acceptable range. We can go for another dose."
"Brainwaves are starting to become irregular. We should stop after it."
"Ready the defibrillator just in case. The muscles are starting to spasm."
"I'm making an incision into the axillary vein."
A sharp pain shot through his arm, but he had difficulty caring when his brain was such a mess. He wasn't administered any anesthesia or morphine, apparently because it would affect his brain in a way that interfered with the injected Permet. Well, a simple cut couldn't compare with the mineral flowing through his veins, which felt much like liquid fire.
The doctors looked down on him with cold eyes, as if he were just a slab of meat. They had strapped him onto an operating table and plugged several machines into him. He'd probably have died three times over by now, but in his eyes, all these machines were doing were prolonging his suffering. Normally, an animal's greatest instinct is to survive, but when damaged beyond belief, it would cry to be put out of its misery.
"The heart rate has spiked. Let's stop for today."
As the doctors were starting to wrap up, all Number 5 could think of was the oncoming pain his recovery would put him through for the next week. He probably wouldn't be able to move. These doctors were starting to get too presumptuous with their experiments now that they had a batch of children who didn't keel over in the first few surgeries. They talked about how they were making the children resistant to Permet influx, but that was in exchange for dozens of other health issues. Number 5 even overheard once that him and the other Enhanced Persons wouldn't live to see 25. He could only hope that was a error on their part.
A blur of activity wrapped him up and eventually he was strapped to a wheelchair and being taken back to his room. He was taken down sterile white halls which were lined with multiple doors, each one housing another test subject like him. He was soon after dumped onto the bed in his room and left in the dark, having to cope with the pain all on his own. The bed was only a single sheet draped over a mattress. As Number 5 writhed on the bed, he felt gravity pulling him downwards. The Permet flowing through his body, torturing his nerves, kept shocking him awake. All he was aware of was the pain in his body and the artificial gravity holding him down.
A sharp pain spread throughout his left cheek and he felt himself stumble. Once more he felt the pain resound through him. Opening his eyes through the pain, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
"Wake up, Elan Ceres!" a voice shouted at him and he felt another stinging pain shoot through him. As he looked up at the person looming above him, he was startled by their eyes.
"...Number...4..." He weakly muttered. Those bright green eyes that never changed, even after the reconstructive surgery. Those eyes that held no will to live in them, they looked softer now. He wanted to reach up and touch him, but as his eyes refocused, a smaller figure came into view. "Norea...?"
"Finally. You were groaning a whole lot in your sleep. It was fucking creepy." Norea complained. She was straddling his body and looked panicked. Elan didn't talk or move around in his sleep normally, so it must've been shocking to hear such noises come from him, especially since Norea was such a light sleeper. "You weren't breathing."
Oh.
"That's...weird..." was all Elan could say. Stopped breathing? How could he have stopped breathing? Did the stress of traveling mess with his body more than he thought or...
"Was it a nightmare?" Norea asked. A nightmare, huh? He never had any nightmares before. Why now? As he pondered this, he felt the artificial gravity of the space station pull him down, settling into his bones and nerves.
"It's probably just cause my body isn't used to space anymore." Elan smiled, even though he wasn't in a happy mood. He was used to putting on a smiling face even through those horrible experiments. Seeing this, Norea's expression became angry and she grabbed his collar.
"Don't just lay there and smile! I thought you were dead!" As she yelled at him, tears pricked the corner of her eyes. "You normally don't respond, but since you weren't breathing I-I..."
Tears streamed down her cheeks and she ducked her head into his chest to hide them. Elan wasn't used to seeing her worry over others, much less him. The last he remembered was when he finally woke up after going to Permet 4 in the Pharact. She was draped over his sleeping body, looking as if she hadn't showered or rested in days. Despite having done nothing wrong, Elan felt the urge to apologize. However, Norea would probably hate that more, so instead he wrapped his arms around her.
"My heart is still beating and I'm breathing right now, aren't I? You don't need to worry." Elan said.
"That doesn't matter! I-I don't want you to get hurt anymore. I don't want you to die." She sobbed.
"Says the woman who spent the first month we knew each other trying to drive a pencil into my eye socket." He commented. Norea delivered another slap, this one much softer, to show her disapproval of his joke.
"Please...just be honest with me..." Norea cried. Elan let out a sigh and started combing through her hair.
"It was an experiment. I could feel it. The pain, the way they cut me open, how they injected me with Permet... It hurt. I-I still can't think straight, but...I don't want to feel like that again. It hurts to remember." Elan commented. His body and reflection were already reminders of the pain he went through. If he thought any more about the trauma he experienced, he doubted whether he could continue living. He always focused on living a better life instead of mulling over his unfortunate present. "I couldn't fall asleep due to the pain. It was always constant. The way the gravity tugged on my body, it felt like I wouldn't ever be able to move again."
Norea pulled away, her tear stained face accompanied by a grumpy expression.
"Why don't you ever tell me these things?" She asked him, and Elan didn't have a good answer. "Do you really think I wouldn't care?"
"...No." He said. The two's relationship was vague, even to them. They lived in the same house, slept in the same bed, and occasionally participated in an act only lovers should, but they weren't comfortable enough to label themselves girlfriend and boyfriend. They were partners who took care of one another, but both of them were too nervous to push the boundary. They both lost someone precious to them before. Being vulnerable again would just cause trouble, especially since Elan didn't know how long he would actually live for.
"I'll only say this once." Norea took a deep breath, gathering the courage to admit her true feelings. "I want to stay with you. So please...don't leave me..."
Elan let out another sigh and pulled her in for an embrace. Were human bodies always this warm and comforting? He wanted to stay with her as well.
"I won't. So don't cry. You're natural face is much prettier." As he said this she pulled back and gave him a scowl. "Yeah, like that."
As Elan continued to laugh, Norea held onto him tightly. The two still hadn't let go of each other. The thing holding themselves down wasn't gravity, but each other.