Chapter Text
Just as soon as she waved him goodbye and her back was now on his watch, thoughts that had been wandering about on his mind managed to find a way out.
“Wait a moment, Red Blood Cell,” he said abruptly while reaching out with his gloved hand. She stopped pushing her cart and turned around to face him. At her curious look, the neutrophil tapped on the brim of his cap, covering his lone eye.
“I was… I’ve been thinking about how much of a coincidence all of our meetings are. I seem to find my way to you everywhere I go,” the man started in a calm tone, although his gaze averted her completely. “Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely cherish your company. Hence my fear of not being able to find you as often as I do now.”
“White Blood Cell…” the redhead muttered, her eyes widening. The neutrophil finally managed to look up, holding her gaze. The young red blood cell had never seen her friend as agitated as he was in that moment.
“So I came up with something. You know, Red Blood Cell, every immune cell owns a two-way radio in order to receive orders and communicate with our colleagues.” The man paused, making sure the other cell was listening. He studied her puzzled face until he received a quick nod as a response. He pointed at her belt bag with a finger.
“Do you have that notepad of yours?” The young woman nodded repeatedly once more and took the notes out of her bag, only to inevitably have more gadgets fall off. She giggled nervously while picking everything up, then handed the notebook and a pen to a soft-looking neutrophil. A corner of his mouth lifted while snorting lightly.
The young man flipped through the written pages, crammed with directions, tips, and doodles on the margins. He stopped when he found a blank page. His eye flashed at her before returning to the page, finding a face expressing nothing but anticipation.
With neat and cursive handwriting, he wrote a letter and a four-digit number on the paper. Her eyes brightened when she got her notepad back, glancing at the ink. U-1146.
“That’s my code. I belong to the U neutrophil division,” he explained while pointing at the code plate on his cap. He had already given up on trying to hide his bashfulness. Some colour had started to rise to his cheeks, highly contrasted with his usual dead-pale skin. Only to make things worse, the erythrocyte looked up at him.
“U-1146,” she repeated, completely absorbed. The neutrophil nodded.
“What I’m trying to say is… Whenever you feel lost, alone, or… Or just want to grab a cup of tea and you haven’t heard from me in a while… You can come up to any immune cell and ask them to contact me through my code. I’ll be pleased to meet you.”
A sincere and warm smile appeared on his lips, a face the erythrocyte would have loved to treasure forever. Despite lacking a nucleus, she felt something fluttering inside her. The taller cell noticed her gaping, flustered expression. He immediately tensed up.
“I-I’m so sorry, did I seem too forward? I didn’t mean to disturb you,” he said, stepping closer to her.
“No, no! Not at all…” she brought the notepad to her chest. “I’m just really happy that you could think of something like that…” her eyes went from his concerned expression to her shoelaces. She smiled. “I... I also appreciate our bond, White Blood Cell. I’d be so sad if I could never see you again, out of the blue…”
As a lightbulb went off inside her head, she quickly scribbled something on another piece of paper, only to rip it out afterwards. The neutrophil took the page, her own code written in round and big numbers. “We never shared our codes, didn’t we?” she wondered, beaming. “I know you aren’t as forgetful as I can be, but you can also have my code just in case,” she added, playing with a lock of red hair.
The neutrophil held back the urge to caress that plain piece of paper. Instead, he folded it carefully and stuck it into his chest pocket. Having her code written wasn’t anything new for him, he had known it a long time before. He remained silent for a second and smiled under his cap.
“Does that mean I have to call you AE-3803 from now on?” the taller cell suggested with an amused tone.
“Oh… Hmm, I don’t know, doesn't it sound weird? Should I call you by your code?” the erythrocyte scratched the side of her neck, feeling her cheeks heating up. The man shook his head.
“Well… I like how you address me as White Blood Cell, although it may be a bit unspecific. Nevertheless, I also call you Red Blood Cell, and though there may be billions of red blood cells around the body, I know these words belong only to you.” He saw her blush deepen, but didn’t address it. If anything, he felt relieved he wasn’t the only one feeling flustered, but he also felt quite guilty for embarrassing her.
“Then it’s settled! I promise I will contact you if I need to,” she said in the most relaxed tone she could muster.
“Not only if you need to. Also if you feel like it.” While her obliviousness could seem unbearable to some cells, it was, in fact, one of the aspects he liked the most about her. That implied he had to be more explicit about his intentions, though.
“Alright, alright! You’re too kind to me, you know. I’d love to thank you properly…”
“No need to,” you already do - echoed inside his head.
“You’re a stubborn one, White Blood Cell,” she giggled. “But I'd better get on my way, I have to get rid of this!” The woman patted the cardboard box on her cart, containing CO2.
He hummed, then asked, “Do you know where to go?”
“Oh please, White Blood Cell! The doubt offends!” the redhead chirped, dismissing his comment with a motion of her hand. He arched an incredulous eyebrow.
“For real?”
“No worries!”
“Hm.” The white-haired man grimaced, not believing her word.
“OKAY! I know I have to get first to the heart and I know we are in the capillary net of the right foot so I have to go all the way up to the chest through the cava, and maybe I will lose track of the road but if I made it once I’ll make it again! And don’t look at me that way, White Blood Cell, I will do it on my own,” she said as she pointed at him with an accusing index finger. The taller cell chuckled, lifting his hands in a surrendering gesture.
She babbled him goodbye while opening her map and pushing the cart. However, the white dressed cell got in her way once again, picking the top of the map with his index and thumb and pushing it down so he could see her frowning face.
“Just… Take care out there,” he muttered low enough so only she could hear, although there wasn't anybody around. Her expression softened as she nodded. One of his hands reached and gently cupped her face. As soon as the erythrocyte noticed, the hand was already gone.
The neutrophil swiftly turned away, adjusting his cap with one hand and waving her goodbye with the other. The redhaired mumbled goodbye as she watched him walk away.
U-1146 reminded himself of his shy nature and felt guilty for acting like a fool. He couldn’t just do these things and play it cool afterwards, so he hid his crimson face under his hat while clutching his chest pocket with the paper inside.