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Ryland’s head was spinning. He had started to slowly lower his rations before Simon boarded. Now he was having to do it faster.
Rocky had been asleep for a while. Not long enough to be concerning, but a while. So long that he’s probably almost ready to wake up. Almost.
Simon had been watching Rocky sleep and thinking about who knows what while Ryland worked. Then a hiss hit Simon’s ears. He turned to look at the source of the noise, Ryland.
Ryland didn’t notice that Simon was staring at him until Simon broke the silence. “You okay there, Ryland?” Ryland didn’t look at him, the room was still spinning a bit too much. Instead settling for a painful and frustrated groan and opening his eyes again.
Alright, now what? Ryland had neglected sleep often, but they had both slept recent enough. Was he sick? Simon was unsure how to proceed.
Simon stood up and walked to Ryland, every step causing pain to his temples. Luckily there weren’t many. Ryland closed his eyes again, scrunching them.
“You alright? Do you need to go back to bed?” Simon asked cautiously, noticing over Ryland’s shoulder that his hands were shaking as he gripped the table loosely.
Ryland shook his head, causing the world to swim. He nearly fell over as he caught his head in his hands. Had he not been sitting, he probably would have fallen. “Woah, hey! What’s going on?” Simon asked, maybe a little louder than he should have.
“Too loud.” Ryland mumbled, head still in his hands. Simon dropped his voice to a whisper. “How can I help?” Ryland took a moment to steady himself mentally. Or more accurately, waited for his head to stop throbbing so hard. Eyes still scrunched. “Water, maybe?” “Armando water.” Simon commanded as soon as Ryland finished speaking, but as quiet as the machinery would still respond to.
The machine promptly brought water and Simon handed it to Ryland. Ryland opened his eyes, briefly straining at the lights. He looked at Simon and then at the water, moving his head as little as possible.
“Hey, Ryland? When was the last time you had something to eat?” Simon asked as Ryland shakily brought the water away from his mouth. “I don’t know.” Ryland mumbled, casually.
I don’t know was too long for Simon’s liking. “Let’s get you something to eat.” Simon offered. Ryland closed his eyes tight, turning a pale shade of green.
Maybe he was sick? Simon thought. But he had to have something. He was shaking horribly and most likely had a migraine. “Armando, juice.” Simon commanded, still as quiet as possible.
As soon as the juice was brought, Simon reached over to turn the light directly over them off. They could still see, but it was hopefully less taxing on Ryland. Speaking of Ryland, he was putting his empty water container on the desk beside him. So Simon held out the juice to him.
Ryland took it, still shaking the same, if not more, than he was. He began to sip on it. Simon waited, quietly observing. Ryland looked better within a matter of minutes. His color went back to his face, he could open his eyes wider again, and he was feeling a bit more talkative.
So talk they did. For the remainder of the juice. Unfortunately though, Simon noticed Ryland hadn’t stopped shaking. It wasn’t just that anymore either, he was shivering too. It made speaking progressively harder for him as his teeth began to chatter.
The juice was more than a simple box. It was closer in amount to a water bottle. Ryland drank it in about 10 minutes after having nothing to eat for who knows how long.
By now their volumes had increased again. They were able to speak normally now that the headache had subsided. But Ryland was slowly closing in on himself. His stomach had begun to hurt and, worse still, he was freezing.
Simon looked up to check on Rocky, he still hadn’t woken up. Simon knew it wouldn’t be long, but Ryland should probably be lying down now. “Hold on.” He said, knowing Ryland would never allow them to leave Rocky alone this close to him waking up.
Simon slowly drug his mattress into the room, blankets and pillows carefully piled in the middle. When it was next to Ryland’s chair, he stopped and began laying everything out.
Ryland felt like he was going to cry. Between Simon’s kindness and how cruddy he felt, he was feeling very emotional. Then he felt something else.
Ryland put a hand to his stomach and a hand to his mouth. Simon noticed he no longer heard the chattered breathing and looked up. Panic overcame both of them. Simon quickly rushed for the trash can next to Ryland’s desk and tucked in underneath his chin. Ryland grabbed it with his stomach hand.
Tears began to well in Ryland’s eyes as he suppressed the urge to vomit as much as possible. They didn’t have the food, or anything else, to go around. Simon went around to his back and placed his hand on it, rubbing gently. “It’s fine, it’s just a juice. We’ll make do.” He comforted.
Ryland began to gag for a split second before vomiting up the entire juice, water, and some bile through his fingers and into the trash can. As soon as it started to spill out, Ryland moved hands hand to grip the trash can.
In between each gag and successful retch, he would try to apologize. Simon just kept rubbing his back.
When Ryland was sure he was done, Simon carefully took the trash and handed Ryland the tissues from his desk to clean his hand and mouth. Simon placed the trashcan outside the room and closed the door. That was a problem for later.
As Simon was grabbing a replacement trash can from the corner of the room and placing it on Ryland’s side of the mattress, Ryland continued to clean his hand to the best of his ability. Then he used some of the hand sanitizer, also on his desk.
“Sorry…” he apologized shyly to Simon. “No big deal, you saved me from an ocean of blood. This is nothing.” Simon replied casually.
Ryland continued shivering and shaking and trembling and basically everything to indicate he was still cold and unwell. “Armando, juice and water.” Simon commanded. Ryland shook his head. “We are not wasting anything else on me.” He said quickly.
“It’s alright, I’ll put some of the juice in the water and we’ll see if you can hold that down. You still need something in your system.” Simon stated, worriedly.
Ryland eventually nodded slowly.
Simon finished the mixture and left the remaining juice on the table. Maybe Ryland could drink it once he felt better or maybe he would, that was once again, a problem for later.
Simon sat on the bed in front of Ryland, but still on the other side of the mattress and patted the open side for Ryland.
Ryland attempted to get off the chair while shaking. Eventually Simon decided it was better to help out. He place his arm under Ryland’s hands and waited for him to grab it. “Here.” He said as they slowly glided to both sitting on the mattress.
Ryland felt so silly. He was red in the face and trying to not laugh out of embarrassment as he sat. “I’m so sorry.” He finally partially giggled, partially cried out. Simon shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry for.” He said low, giving Ryland the warmest blanket.
Ryland took a while to finish the diluted juice, trying his best to avoid throwing up again. Simon talked to him the entire time, trying to take his mind off things.
When he was finally done, Ryland laid down still being assisted by Simon and still shivering. Simon scooted off the mattress. Only one of them could go to sleep. They still had to watch Rocky.
After maybe 20 minutes, Ryland had slowly shimmied himself closer and closer to Simon, trying to stay warm subconsciously. Simon noticed, placing his arm over Ryland and continuing to stare partially at Rocky and partially into space.
Rocky began to shuffle. He was waking up. Simon was so tired by the time he had, he’d nearly fallen asleep.
“Grace shaking. Body temperature low. Statement.” He said. Simon jolted, taking in the sentence. “Yeah, he didn’t eat for too long and his body began to run out of energy.” Simon explained. “Stupid Grace. Statement.” Rocky remarked. “Hey. Not nice.” Simon reprimanded. Rocky chuckled as Simon yawned, trying to stretch his nonexistent arm. “Simon tired. Rocky watch. Simon, Grace sleep. Statement.” Rocky said, scuttling off somewhere.
I thought he was going to watch? Simon thought. Moments later, Rocky arrived next to him in his ball. “Warmth for Grace, Statement.” He said, rolling onto the thin mattress and onto the part of the bed that Ryland had abandoned.
Ryland eventually made his way to Rocky, turning over for the warmth. Enough at least that Simon could crawl into bed.
Simon had been on the ship long enough that they had all become quite comfortable with each other. Maybe not this comfortable though. Simon stayed facing away from Ryland.
Until he fell asleep.