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They keep giving Logan the chattiest officer possible.
It has to be some kind of joke he doesn’t get. Logan has seen the other doctors in this medbay laughing every time Remus was pointed to his table. He gets the information he needs through yes or no questions that Remus either nods or shakes his head to, and Logan patches up whatever new injury he’s gotten himself. As he does with any other patient.
Logan’s planet was “discovered” when he was young. Old enough to remember the rapid cultural changes that followed it, but young nonetheless. Young enough that he still gets weird looks from other species that have never seen one of his kind before every time the staff on this spaceship changes. We live in the uncanny valley, Janus had told him once. Some primal fear that humans have of what looks almost like them. Logan hardly thinks that two more sets of arms and skin pigmented with the various colors of the rainbow constitutes as almost human.
He had left his home planet to pursue knowledge, learn more about the rest of the universe that the forests of his home couldn’t show him. He was curious about how so many different species lived together and communicated. He did not expect the answer to be little devices surgically implanted into the ear which translated everything said in any language in the known universe. Logan had absolutely no interest in getting a translator put in.
Which brings us back to Remus. Every time he ends up on Logan’s table, he talks and talks and talks knowing full well Logan can’t understand a word of it. He has reminded Remus of this several times, as Remus’ translator allows him to understand Logan, but the human just didn’t seem to care.
“Do you understand the joke about always sending Remus to my table?” Logan asks Janus one day over a cup of tea. Janus works as a psychologist on the ship, so while he doesn’t work in the medbay he was there often enough to be familiar with the situation. Janus’s eyes narrow at Logan.
“Elaborate?”
“Every time Remus comes to the medbay, the other doctors send him to my table. I can see them laughing when they do it. And he talks the entire time, even if I can’t understand him. If there’s a joke being made at my expense, I’d at the very least like to understand it.”
“Oh honey, Remus does it just to mess with you. He is…” Janus pauses to take a sip of his tea, "Excentric. He likes to be off-putting. I think he enjoys the challenge you bring.”
“He’s trying to annoy me? He thinks eventually I’ll get sick of hearing him talk at me?”
“Most people do.”
“‘Most people’ being those who can understand him.”
“Yes, that is true, I suppose.” Janus says. Logan gives a contemplative hum, and takes a sip of his tea.
“Hey-o doc!” Remus says to the nurse at the front desk of the medbay. The nurse looks up from his computer and sighs at the sight before him. Remus, clutching a bandage to his arm that was already dripping blood.
“Remus, what did you do this time?” Patton asks with a weary sigh.
“I didn’t do anything! A sharp object just happened to fall on me.”
“Uh-huh. Sure.” Patton grinned at him like he was in on Remus’s secret, but Remus was being honest! How was he supposed to know that there would have been an old sword on top of his brother’s bookshelf when he rolled into it?
Logan gives Remus a similar reaction to Patton’s when Remus sits down at his table. In his lifetime, Remus has become familiar with the “not again” look from many species, but Logan’s was the most endearing. A brow raise and one blue hand coming to push up his glasses, which covers the sigh he breathes out through his nose.
“I know, I know,” Remus says first, “fancy seeing me again, huh? Don’t worry, tis’ but a scratch.” He knows Logan has no idea what he’s saying, but that’s half the fun of ending up in the medbay. Sometimes it’s nice to talk to someone who’s not going to interject with their own opinions or judgements, Roman. Sometimes, on the rare occasion such as today that he and Logan were the only ones in the room, Remus would say the filthiest things he could think of. The goriest stories he could come up with, the most deprived sexual fantasies he’a had. And Logan, none the wiser, gives him a polite smile and reminds him that he doesn’t understand.
“Patton says that a sword fell on you, is that correct?” Logan gently pulls the cloth away from the wound and begins cleaning it. Remus nods.
“Cap’ian said I need to learn to tuck and roll because apparently landing on hands and knees like a cat is not an acceptable way to navigate terrain.”
“She’s right. You can cause serious damage to yourself by landing on the ground that way.” Logan says. He leans in closer to look at Remus’s still bleeding wound, and so he misses the way Remus gapes at him.
“What the fuck?”
“It looks like you will need stitches,” Logan says, pulling his cart of medical supplies closer. Two hands press a cloth to the wound to slow the bleeding as two others begin preparing a local anesthetic. Logan stopped bothering to explain this process a long time ago, he’s had to give Remus stitches more times than he can count on his fingers. And he has thirty of them.
“Since when can you understand me?”
“Ah. I am wearing a temporary translator,” Logan says, tilting his head so that Remus could see the device hanging out of his ear, “I am still uncomfortable with the idea of a universal translator, but I found no reason I could have hurt to try a temporary one.”
“Yeah? And what do you think so far?”
“If I am being honest, I only put it on when I saw you approach Patton’s desk,” Logan says, focusing Remus’s arm so that Remus can’t see the heat on his cheeks.
“Why? Were you so desperate to know what I was saying?”
“I don’t believe I would phrase it quite like that, but yes. I did want to hear what you had to say.” Logan says, and Remus’s brain is just about one step away from short-circuiting. He thought the answer would be different, he thought Logan was just using him as a test dummy. For once, Remus was silent for longer than five seconds, and so Logan filled the silence himself, “What does learning to tuck and roll have to do with a sword dropping on you?”
Remus clears his throat, “I was doing it in my brother’s quarters. He is a nerd and so he collects things like old swords. I rolled into his shelf and it fell off.”
“I believe the ship has a gym with facilities that would be perfect for this type of training.”
“The walls and floors are all squishy and feel like rotting flesh.”
“Quite the visual,” Logan mutters, “The ‘squishy’ walls are there to keep you from injuring yourself. As happens, it is also significantly more unlikely that a sword is going to fall on you.”
“But what’s the fun in that? Don’t you know anything about the thrill of the risk?” Remus says. Logan spares him a glance with an amused smile on his face, but says nothing more.
“That’s so romantic,” Roman says, and Remus can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or serious. He’s laying on his back, head hanging off of Roman’s bed, where it is difficult to read Roman’s expression given the upside down angle and the fact that Roman’s back is to him. He glares at Roman’s back anyways, until the silence drags on long enough for Roman to turn around. “I know I say that sarcastically a lot, but I mean it this time. Doing something that makes him uncomfortable to connect with you? Totally romantic.”
“This isn’t an old Hallmark movie, dumbass.”
“Didn’t you tell me last week that you’ve been less careful to not get injured because he’s cute?”
“No,” Remus lies, “That implies I was careful to begin with.”
“Uh-huh, Speaking of…” Roman makes a ‘roll-over’ gesture with his finger. Remus sighs but rolls on to his stomach anyway, so that he doesn’t pass out from all the blood going to his head. Last time he let it happen, Roman had seriously threatened to disown him as his brother, and that was the one risk Remus was not willing to take.
“You’re not helping, Ro-bro. You were supposed to tell me that it means nothing and that he’s not into me so I can stop thinking about him!”
“It means nothing, he’s not into you, stop thinking about him,” Roman says so monotonously it could have come from an early twenty-first century AI.
“Don’t act like you don’t know how to lie. I know you can do it.” Remus says. Roman, the bastard, just smiles at him and turns back to his desk, where he’s trying to get some actual work done.
Despite his best efforts, now that he can actually talk to Logan he just can’t stay away from the medbay. That’s not to say he’s intentionally getting injured more often, as appealing as the thought sounds. But he’s going even when he’s not injured, just to talk to Logan. Logan doesn’t seem to mind, and no one’s telling him to stop, so he doesn’t.
Logan only puts his translator on to talk to Remus. He’s not shy in telling Remus that he doesn’t enjoy the sensation of it in his ear, the way it distorts audio in the process of translation, and the fact it only goes in one ear and how disorienting that is. Remus starts (when he’s going specifically to talk to Logan and not because of an injury) bringing a tablet with him, so he can write what he wants to say and the tablet will translate the text instead. It’s slower than just talking, which for Remus, whose brain already moves faster than his mouth, it feels like torture. But it seems to put Logan more at ease, and Remus would be lying if he said he wasn’t into torture.
Or Logan, for that matter.
when do you usually eat? Remus writes. i never see you in the dining hall or anywhere outside of the medbay tbh
Logan scrutinizes the tablet for a bit longer than normal, “Your last word doesn’t translate, I’m afraid.” Remus laughs and waves his hand dismissively. “Well, to answer your question, I usually take my food in my quarters. I’ve never found a time when the dining hall is quiet, given the different schedules of the many teams aboard this ship. It seems that there is always at least one team on a meal break at all times.”
would you like to take it in mine? Remus goes to turn the tablet towards Logan, but then he quickly adds, this is an invitation to hang out outside of here not because of the anxiety that shot through him at the idea of asking Logan on a date, absolutely not. It’s because he knows that Logan takes things very literally and he will think that Remus wants him to eat his meal in his room, whether Remus is there or not.
Logan smiles when the tablet is turned to him, and it’s one of the most beautiful things Remus has ever seen. They plan to have dinner in Remus’s room a week from now, after Remus returns from an expedition on the planet the ship was landing on in a couple of hours.
its just two friends hanging out. He texts Roman. its not a date.
It’s times like these Logan is extremely thankful for a team that knows how to communicate with him. It’s all hands on deck in the medbay when the expedition goes wrong, and the language barrier stops none of them.
To their knowledge, there was supposed to be no animals or sentient species on the planet. They were there to collect samples of the fauna and rocks for study. Instead, they found large cat-like animals that lived underground, and were very territorial.
Three of the twenty person team come in in critical condition. Remus sets one of them down on a table as Logan and two other doctors surround them. There’s blood on Remus’s clothes, but Logan assumes it's his comrade’s and he otherwise appears fine. Thank the stars. Although Logan immediately feels guilty for letting the thought cross his mind. Then he dismisses the thought entirely, focusing instead on cleaning and stitching up the large claw marks all over this person’s body.
Over the next two hours those in better condition but still need to be addressed sooner rather than later are brought in. Remus, as the person on the team who seems to be in the best shape and knows exactly what happened, is running around, giving each doctor all the information he can or helping to coordinate the traffic. Logan is grateful to hear him, it gives him an anchor in all the noise which keeps him from getting too overwhelmed.
Somewhere among all of this, Logan gets a break. He knows it won’t last long, eventually someone will need another set or three of hands to help, and he’ll be called over. Or the last person will be brought in, as according to their headcount there’s still one more person on the ground. But for now, Logan gets a little moment of peace and quiet.
…
Too quiet.
Remus hasn’t stopped talking since the day he first ended up on Logan’s table six months ago. How long ago did he stop talking? Logan looks around the room and quickly spots him. He’s leaning against a counter on the other side of the room, with his eyes squeezed shut. There’s more blood on his shirt than there was two hours ago.
Shit.
Logan can’t make it to Remus in time. Remus has put himself away from the medical tables, no one could get to him in time. And so, Logan can only watch as Remus collapses, body bouncing off of the counter and rolling on to the floor.
He feels wet. And hot. And pain. Pain everywhere. His muscles are sore from navigating terrain and fighting off those pussy looking things and trying to get everyone to the medbay as quickly as possible. His side hurts from the one time one of the cunts got its claw into him, and the back of his skull hurts from being knocked against a cave wall. And he feels a weight on his leg.
Remus opens his eyes. He’s in a private room in the medbay, which is how he knows that he’s in really bad shape. The lights are dimmed, which he appreciates, because even though the light’s barely there it feels much too bright still. He can hear his heart monitor, which seems a little fast but what does he know?
The weight on his leg is one of Logan’s hands. He’s sleeping in a chair next to Remus’s bed, his head laying on a set of folded arms . Remus doesn’t think about it, he puts his hand on Logan’s head, feeling the soft black hair beneath his finger tips. A clicking noise comes from Logan’s chest and his eyes open to look at Remus. But neither of them move, they simply enjoy a quiet moment together. Remus playing with Logan’s hair. Like platonic friends definitely do.
That train of thought is definitely trying to spiral into panicking about his relationship with Logan, but it hurts to think and so it stops right there. He simply enjoys the moment. Logan’s brown eyes on his green ones, his soft hair underneath his fingertips.
Logan is the first one to break the silence. “You’re an idiot.”
“Excuse me.” Remus sasses. He sees the corner of Logan’s mouth turn into a grin for just a moment, before he suppresses it.
“You’ve been asleep for 33 hours. You have a bad infection, probably because you were running around with an open wound on your side. Don’t even get me started on the blood loss and the concussion you didn’t mention to anyone.” Logan is scolding him, but it’s hard to take it too seriously when Logan’s tired eyes are looking at him with so much care.
“Thank you for being here.” He says softly. Logan shakes his hand off his head, and for a moment Remus worries that he’s done something wrong. Logan sits up straight and stretches out his back and arms.
“I don’t have my translator. I don’t know what you’re saying,” Logan says softly, and Remus breathes a sigh of relief. He makes a writing gesture with hands, and Logan shakes his head. “I don’t have a tablet either. I can send for your brother and he can bring one.” Remus nods his head eagerly, then grimaces at the pain the movement causes.
Logan has to stand to type into the medical console by Remus’s bed, and when he’s done Remus makes a ‘come hither’ gesture with his finger. Obviously Logan assumes the gesture to be for him, but Remus stops him and points to the console. Logan tits his head in confusion, which he shelves away to fawn over how adorable that is when it’s easier to focus. “Are you asking for the computer? You know I can’t give it to you, that would be a privacy violation.”
Remus makes a typing gesture, which Logan still shakes his head to. He will get his hands on that computer, pain be damned. If he has to climb out of this bed and push Logan out of the way to do it. Logan may have four more arms than he does but Remus has more muscle. He could take him. “Remus please lay back down, you need to take it easy. Roman will be here soon, you’ll just have to be patient.”
As if that was something Remus was capable of. Logan’s hands are gently trying to push him back down, but Remus does when Logan finally agrees to give him the computer. He opens a blank screen to Remus to type in and roles the console over to the bed so Remus can reach it.
are we still on for our date?
Logan smiles when he reads it, and it’s the most beautiful thing Remus has ever seen.