Chapter Text
Eve Kim was in a lot of pain. Not so much that she needed babying; she honestly just wanted to be left alone. And sleep. So much sleep. Convincing Seth of this was proving to be very difficult.
“I’m kinda fine. I’m going to be fine,” she grumbled from his front seat as they rolled into the parking structure under her condo building.
“At least let me get you upstairs.” He rushed out of his seat as soon as he slammed the car in park and bolted to her door before she could get out.
“I can walk on my own.” She shooed him away with the arm he tried to sling around his shoulders. Holding her ribs, she hobbled towards the elevator.
Seth shuffled along behind her. “I’m at least taking you up, bro. I mean, what would happen if you, like, fell down the elevator shaft or something? Then it’d be my fault and I’d feel all bad. I definitely couldn’t run the company. Oh, god, please don’t die.”
“What?” she said incredulously. “The elevator shaft? How would that even happen?” The door dinged and slid open smoothly to an empty car. The upside of 3:00am was the unlikely need to dart the confused stares of her neighbors at her present condition. “And you are absolutely not next in line for CEO.”
There were a few blissful moments of silence on the ride to the 12th floor. She rested her forehead against the cool glass wall with her eyes closed and just focused on her breathing. It still hurt. Apparently it would for another week or so. With a bit of a renewed direction, she was wary of losing momentum.
“The hole in the office won’t fix itself,” she reasoned.
“What? And you will?” Ok, Ajay had a little bit of a point.
She was finally feeling tired enough and sore enough to slow her steps and even just let Seth hover a little; it seemed to make him feel better. She’d tuned him out half way down the hall and stopped, turning to block his way, holding the hand not hugging her chest out for her keys.
“Seth. Please. I just want to shower and go to bed. You should probably do the same. I promise I’ll… text you by 10 to let you know I didn’t die in my sleep. Deal?”
He was wearing a smirk, the worry that had been etched into his forehead since she’d run out the office door slowly easing. His gaze shifted over her shoulder and he threw her keys. “Make sure she doesn’t just, like, schedule a message and then die anyways, ok? She’s all yours.”
“I’ll do my best.”
She turned around to see Ares standing from his seat on the floor next to her front door, keys in hand. His face was still covered in blood and grime and he looked as tired as she felt. He tried to smile reassuringly at Seth before turning to open Eve’s front door.
“You know where I live?” she asked, slightly limping her way over the threshold. Before he could say anything, “Of course you do. Something tells me you didn’t need to wait for a key to get in here, either.”
He closed the door softly behind them and watched her carefully as she moved to open the sliding door to the balcony for some fresh air and then flop softly onto an oversized chair.
“You’re right; picking a lock is far from a challenge,” he said. He didn’t move past the counter bar that separated her living room from the kitchen. Her keys clinked as he set them on the marble and folded his arms behind his back. “It didn’t seem appropriate to let myself in, however.”
She laid there with her eyes closed, just continuing to breathe.
“You can, you know,” she said to the ceiling. “Come in. You don’t have to just stand there.” She waved vaguely to where she knew the sofa was.
She felt like he was deliberately making his steps audible so she could track his movement through the room. He exhaled loudly as he sank into the soft cushions and let his muscles relax, an unfamiliar soreness creeping into this newly-organic body.
“I’m sure you could use a shower just as much as me. Lucky for you, I have two bathrooms.” Eve started to sit up and very quickly found some of her limitations. “Oh, oh ow.” A stabbing pain shot through the left side of her chest when she stretched in the wrong direction. The sudden expansion of her lungs with her hiss only made things worse.
Ares was up and supporting her side, helping to ease her to standing and catch her balance. She gripped his forearm tightly, fingertips gripping the edge of his bracer. “Thanks,” she said a little sheepishly and out of breath.
“Three rib contusions and a mild concussion, a few scrapes and bruises.” He rattled on like he was reading her medical chart. “You need rest.”
She started hobbling toward the hall to her bedroom. Ares followed carefully, but not too close; she had seemed put off by Seth’s over-crowding in the hall..
“What I need is to be clean. Then rest.” She pulled loose clothes from a dresser on the way to the en suite and turned around at the door, leaning against the jamb.
“Do you need further assistance?” he asked tentatively. “Your range of motion is limited.”
She snorted. “I’ll manage. The guest bathroom is down the other hall on the left. Towels in the cabinet across from it. I, uh, don’t think I really have anything that will actually fit you, but I have some spare lounge pants in that top drawer over there. It’s better than nothing.” With that, she closed the door; Ares waited patiently until could hear the water running.
Going through Eve’s dresser felt admittedly awkward. Yes, he knew some very personal information about her, but had tried to disregard it. None of that had been relevant to his goal. Without thinking too hard– style didn’t seem necessary, here– he plucked what looked to be the longest pair of pants and followed her directions to the other end of her condo.
It took some time to actually get all of the components of his suit off successfully; he couldn’t ever remember having to do this manually. Maybe he never did it at all. While it was the first thing to come off, it was the last to be considered. Ares took a moment to really look at his deactivated identity disc, turning it over in his hands and feeling the textures with bare fingertips. This one thing held all of his source coding, it was more him than this physical existence in so many ways. For all intents and purposes, it was his DNA. He set it aside with no small amount of reverence to fine tune the temperature of the water appropriate to bathing.
He placed a hand under the stream of hot water before stepping in. It reminded him of the rain. Being under the fall sent a warmth across his body that loosened the tension he felt along his upper back, down his spine. Ares closed his eyes and breathed deeply, allowing himself to feel the water trailing down from his crown. With his head tilted forward, rivulets rolled to drip from the tip of his nose, through his hair and across the tops of his shoulders. It was a uniquely comforting sensation and he began to rub gently at his skin with a rag he’d pulled from the cabinet, coating it generously with soap. Grime, dirt, and blood swirled down the drain; that last one was new.
Looking around after a few moments, he spotted the small bottles of shampoo and conditioner on a shelf. He found Eve to be quite the thoughtful host, even if he was tangentially aware that guests of this nature were not common occurrences. A pleased sigh slipped from him as he scrubbed gently at his scalp, savoring the sound of the soap sudsing and the feel of his fingers squeaking across the strands to tell him it was rinsed clean. Very quickly, he understood how washing oneself was treated as a kind of ritual for many people. Next time, he thought, he might try soaking in a bath.