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Someone was knocking on his door. No one knocked on his door… Not that he wasn’t expecting, anyways, and he certainly wasn’t expecting anyone today.
Especially not when he’d put the do not disturb sign up.
Gurathin stumbled to his feet, shaky at best as he made his way down the hallway. Not stopping even as he heard the door slide open and then shut, pounding behind his eyes. He was going to lose another day to this goddamn migraine. A hand shot out to steady himself on the wall as his visual augments briefly failed.
Pain could do that to him. Make things fail. Make his body fail despite how many times he’d been ‘upgraded’. Make his joints hurt in way they hadn’t in years and his temples throb with each heartbeat.
His hand clenched against the wall as he tried to listen for footsteps, eyes closed. The little home was completely, blessedly silent except for the fact that he could hear the kitchen tap turn on despite the fact that he hadn’t heard whoever entered the place move. How long had he been down? Mensah or Ratthi only ever came by if it was more than a day…
Losing more than a day to this kind of shit was cause for concern. Not that it stopped him from being angry about losing any days, but most of these things had a time frame on it. A well established time frame that that others all knew about by now.
He was pretty sure it wasn’t even six yet. It was still within a normal time before anyone would consider checking on him. Plus, he was pretty sure he didn’t have any messages waiting.
He wasn’t checking the feed. That would be like a blinding light in his face.
A hand rested on his shoulder, a familiar hand even as Gurathin tried to jerk back, wincing at the way the sudden movement jolted pain through him, made him stumble as his eyes cracked open, wincing at the light that blinded him anyways.
“Back to bed,” SecUnit’s voice commanded calmly, steering him back towards his bedroom despite the fact that the other had never been in his home. Maybe it was obvious, maybe the bastard had downloaded the floor plan after hacking the local system. Maybe both. It was an asshole like that, and more paranoid than him.
Admittedly, Gurathin had been incredibly paranoid when he’d first arrived to Preservation. The migraines that had followed coming down off of working in the Corporation Rim hadn’t helped.
Being incapacitated for days at a time as he waited for the other shoe to drop… The panic had been unreal. It was threatening at the edges of his consciousness now with someone in his home who hadn’t specifically been given entry. With someone that had walked in like he hadn’t set up multiple alarms, that he updated over the years, mind you, without tripping a single one.
He wasn’t even in a place right now that he could check if they were still operational.
Losing more time to these goddamn migraines. It made him want to cry even as he was steered back towards the bedroom with as little touch as possible even while his heart rate picked up and-
Gurathin stumbled. Over what, he couldn’t have told you.
His home was just as clean as ever.
That same hand wrapped around his arm now to haul him up before he could hit the floor, jerking him more than he wanted it to only to-
Yanking away, Gurathin turned sharply on instinct into the one bathroom the little home held. He barely made it to the toilet before he was hurling everything in his system up from the sudden movement world blurred even behind closed eyes, hands shaking against the toilet bowl.
Retching over the toilet bowl made each breath hurt worse until he could finally lean heavily against the tub, fairly certain he was done for the moment. Let his eyes crack open to see a familiar figure had followed him silently into the bathroom. Of course it had.
“What the fuck are you doing in my house, SecUnit?” His voice was raspy and soft, not bothering for niceties in the moment. The manners that he kept because he liked the life he had built for himself and his friends that accepted, even appreciated, his odd behavior deserved for him to be nice to them. SecUnit, on the other hand, had definitely hacked his house to get in here. Making his heart pick up speed at the thought.
It held the water out to him calmly. “We had a meeting today. You didn’t show up. I came to check on you,” it retorted, waiting for him to take the glass. “Since you didn’t answer my follow up pings.”
Ah. Fuck. He’d forgotten about that. That was a stupidly good reason.
Gurathin took the water, forcing a sip down. Hating the way it settled uncomfortably in his stomach, immediately threatening to come right back up. “I was busy trying not to fall out of bed,” he muttered, setting the glass of water aside. Trying not to press it.
His hands shook traitorously, and he didn’t want to see the glass move. Didn’t want to watch his body continue to try to betray him for reasons he had yet to figure out. He didn’t know what had triggered this one, and he couldn’t prevent it from happening again. Not now, not in a month when he was stuck in bed, wishing for anything to gouge out the space behind his eyes that threatened to turn his brain into mush.
“Clearly,” SecUnit deadpanned.
Like it didn’t know that it breaking in here made this worse. Like it didn’t understand how much he valued his privacy. His security. It had to know at least the second one…
Forcing a breath, Gurathin closed his eyes, trying to keep his heartbeat calm even as his body shook. Whether from pain or because of the temperature, he couldn’t be sure. “If you’re going to sit in my house and invade my space while I’m suffering from a migraine, the least you can do not be a smartass about it,” he shot back, voice weak.
He hated this.
“You need more water.”
“If I drink more water, I’m going to throw it up on your shoes.”
The only good part of the whole day was watching as SecUnit tried not to pull a face at such a statement. It was also the only thing that seemed to calm his nervous system even a little was watching as the construct processed just how true that threat was. Something that Gurathin absolutely refused to unpack right now.
It was that moment that the first bit of water decided to make a reappearance, driving home that threat. Even as he leaned over, trying to cough up whatever was left, he could finally feel the pain start to ebb behind his eyes.
The throbbing slowly pulled back until he finally slumped over back towards the tub, breath coming faster than he wanted it to.
He hadn’t realized that was what he needed this time.
“If you’re going to sit there and stare, help me up and back to bed,” he muttered, hand fumbling to flush the toilet. The last thing he wanted was to finally feel better in a few hours after some sleep and see whatever he’d managed to bring back up.
“Not if you’re going to regurgitate on me,” SecUnit snapped. Like it hadn’t had far worse than whatever might be left in his stomach on it.
None of which was stopping Gurathin from forcing himself to his feet, one hand on the tub as his legs threatened to give out underneath him. “Trust me, I won’t,” he grumbled. He knew the line, and this was the other side of the migraine. The other side of the pain.
Thank whatever gods may be out there and the stars too. He’d already lost his entire morning to this monstrosity. He was going to lose the rest of the day, but not as much as usual.
He didn’t bother to try to grab the water as he stumbled past SecUnit, shoulder checking it by accident and thankful that he hadn’t bothered to turn any of the lights on today. The throbbing behind his eyes wasn’t far enough gone to brave even his dimmer than normal lights. Something he’d had specially installed after he’d finally accepted that he would live on Preservation long term.
He felt more than saw SecUnit fall into step beside him. No hand returned to his shoulder though, leaving him to stumble along through the halls he now knew by heart. The hall that felt safe and homey when it had once been a strange place in a strange land.
Only briefly did he remember to grab his pillow and the blanket that one of Mensah’s spouses had made for him when he entered the room, finally able to faceplant into his bed in exhaustion.
His body was already warning him that he couldn’t control his temperature. Even without the alerts from his augments, he knew what was coming. He’d had enough migraines in his life to know what came next, and the hangover was a different kind of bad.
Glass was quietly set down next to his bed. The water. Right.
“Is there a reason you were sleeping on the floor?” SecUnit asked instead, apparently taking his promise not to throw up again as a correct assessment that he felt at least briefly well enough to talk. Astute enough to not offer him pain medicine, thankfully.
Gurathin couldn’t help the quiet huff that escaped him even if he didn’t want to deal with the way the lack of breath made his head spin. “I feel better closer to the ground when I’m sick. Less space to fall,” he grumbled. Something about a migraine made him feel like he was going to fall even when he was already laying down. He’d never been able to explain it properly. There certainly wasn’t a scientific way to get it across to someone who probably had never had a migraine.
Lucky bastard.
SecUnit nodded briefly in what little area Gurathin could be bothered to see, tracking its movement across his room. Watching the way its eyes swept the area like it did everything else.
Few people ever came in here besides him. He usually went to one of the others homes if they wanted to hang out or work together. That was easier. Here was just… for him. It was bare, compared to many homes on Preservation, but it was his. Nail polish bottles on the desk, a handful of blankets that had been presents. Clothes laid out that he’d never gotten to today because he was in too much pain to move. Neatly organized shoes and his oversized sweatshirt hanging by the door. Notes stacked on his desk.
Things SecUnit was unlikely ever to bring up but clearly was taking stock of as it looked around before its gaze slid somewhere over top of Gurathin. Not looking at him like it always did. Never one for eye contact.
At least Gurathin knew there were not cameras in here, so it couldn’t watch him without looking at him. Served it right for breaking into his home.
“I’m not thanking you for making me throw up while I have a migraine, but it’s probably more effective than pain medicine,” Gurathin muttered filling the silence, feeling an emptiness where the pain had been developing behind his eyes.
“I’ll make note of that for the future,” SecUnit deadpanned from where it had taken a seat in the only available chair in his room. At his desk.
Bastard.
“If you break into my home again, I’m sending you bad code,” Gurathin also warned as he pulled his blankets up more tightly around his shoulders. He could feel shivers trying to push, ruining any threat that he could come up with. Bad code. Like that was a problem.
SecUnit snorted softly, unimpressed. “Go to sleep, Dr. Gurathin.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” Even as his eyes were already winning the fight to stay open. Blissful darkness waited for him on the other side...