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There is little to be said after Cassian passes out on the cot, the pain finally getting the better of him. K-2SO resigns himself to wait until his master wakes up to pick up his medical examination where he left it (he can still hear Cassian groan as he predicted the outcome of each one of his injuries).
He sits down in the right corner of the little room they've rented for the night, not caring that his encasing scrapes against the duracrete wall. His legs are so long that his feet rest against Cassian's cot - he does his best not to let them disturb him in his sleep, but there's only so much he can do without breaking in half. He settles for pressing them against his good side.
He keeps his orbs trained on his sleeping form, ready to pick up on any change in Cassian's condition. Against all odds, his breathing is steady, if somewhat erratic at times, but that is quite normal for someone who just sustained multiple blaster wounds and a severe concussion.
***
He hadn't expected him to survive that long, if he were being honest with himself. In fact, he had foreseen his death (along with his second reprogramming) the moment they'd been caught in an ambush orchestrated by pirates flanked by a few troopers.
He had not expected anything of the sort, either; Cassian had assured him that it'd be nothing but the usual humdrum reconnaissance mission before heading out of the ship, sporting an expression of pure confidence as he made his way toward the meeting point his superior had assigned him to check. Everything had seemed to go down perfectly fine - Cassian had even been in the process of striking up a deal with the leader of the pirates, a certain Hondo -, that is until their cover had been blown rather quickly thanks to his big mouth.
''Good job, K-2,'' Cassian had shouted at him as he was being kicked in the shin by their assailants. The troopers that had heard K-2's ill-timed confession of hatred for the Empire aimed their blasters at him, urging him to surrender. Cassian, as K-2 had counted on, did not surrender and instead fired a quick succession of shots from his own weapon, each one making contact with one of the troopers that surrounded him. He quickly got up from where he stood in a crouching position on the ground before the back-ups could react.
One of his knees had been hit by blasterfire, making him limp heavily, but he still managed to outpace the troopers who struggled to form any semblance of barrier: that allowed him to move toward the marketplace, where he hid among the throng. He silently thanked the Empire for relying on their numbers (and mass-killing planet-destroying superweapons) rather than their troopers' military skills.
He was then forced to come out when the troopers threatened to kill civilians if he didn't surrender himself to them. In the end, the ex-Imperial droid was all that was left to protect a limping and heavily bleeding Cassian from a band of ruthless blaster-armed troopers who would go to any lengths to roughen up a rebel for a subsequent interrogation session.
After the third time his master was hit by blasterfire (one time almost fatally), he'd been 91.32% sure of his demise. Still, somehow they had both made it out alive - although it had been a close call for Cassian -, which made him rethink his calculations entirely.
Of course, he had failed to take the possibility of the pirates being allies into account.
***
When Cassian comes to around dusk, K-2SO quickly rises from the floor and stalks over toward him. Cassian looks more exhausted than he's ever seen him: his eyes are only half-open, dark bruises blossoming around them already, his face is livid and the stiffness of his limbs is unusual, even for him.
''Water'' is the first thing he says in a small, cracking voice.
It's a good thing K-2SO is not human because he doesn't think he would've caught it if it hadn't been for his heightened hearing sense.
He comes back a few minutes later and empties a full basin of water on an unsuspecting Cassian, who instantly sits up and doubles over in pain.
''I wanted to drink that water,'' he says, the pain making him slur his words. He's too weak to be angry at him and besides, he knows K-2 only wanted to help.
''Sorry,'' K-2SO says in reply and just stands there awkwardly until Cassian's eyes begin to droop and he falls asleep (or, at least, so he thinks). He occasionally breaks the silence to inform Cassian of his latest prediction regarding his current state even though he knows it to be pointless - Cassian is sleeping and couldn't possibly register what he's saying. Cassian plays along: he pretends he doesn't hear him and fights hard to keep a smile from forming on his lips as K-2SO goes on about the probability of the medics having to amputate his bad leg.
He dutifully checks his temperature throughout the remainder of the night, pressing his cold appendages to Cassian's boiling hot skin if he has to, and makes sure that Cassian has enough water to drink when he wakes up.
He's relieved when he finally spots the nurse the innkeeper told him about standing on the doorstep next morning.