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The hotel room they could afford while negotiating for Dr. Mensah’s release was small. The bed was cramped for three people, but it wasn’t really a problem as they had developed rather varied sleep schedules. Pin-Lee typically worked for eighteen to twenty-two hours at a time and then slept for ten, regardless of what the rest of TranRollinHyfa was doing. Ratthi had always been a morning person, and Gurathin was an inveterate night owl.
”Gosh it’s nice to see a different two walls for a while!” Pin-Lee said when she surfaced from her latest research to join Gurathin and Ratthi for an InstiPak meal in the opposite corner of the room from her workstation.
“Isn’t it, though?” Ratthi played along. “I think the light over here gives the beige a slightly drabber cast. Exquisite, really. Didn’t think it could be achieved.”
Pin-Lee huffed a sarcastic noise and peeled open her InstiPak.
“I’m going to take a bath this evening,” Gurathin said.
“Ok, can I sneak in a shower before?” Ratthi asked. Gurathin nodded.
Pin-Lee glared. “Have you been skipping meals again to save up the credits?”
“I’m eating right now, in front of you,” Gurathin said and waved his noodles around for emphasis.
“That’s not what I asked.”
“You’re one to talk,” Gurathin grumbled. "How many meals have you worked through this week?"
“It’s not like anyone has had a great appetite lately,” Ratthi said before Pin-Lee started swearing. “So what if the credits go to bath upgrades instead?”
“Don’t encourage him,” Pin-Lee said, pointing her chopsticks at Ratthi. “It can’t be healthy.”
“Hasn’t killed me yet,” Gurathin said.
“Yet,” Pin-Lee emphasized. “You’ll boil yourself alive one of these times, and then what am I supposed to tell Dr. Mensah?”
Ratthi forcibly changed the subject to the new fashions he had seen on his daily outing to the hotel gardens and recreation level, and the meal ended soon after.
Dr. Gurathin did realize that relying on old coping mechanisms was probably not great. (“Definitely not,” the voice of his first Preservation therapist said in his head.) But being stuck back in the Corporation Rim was overall not great, to put it extremely mildly, and seeking out old comforts felt natural. It wasn’t like it interfered with what little he had to occupy himself with while they waited. And he really was trying to eat more.
’And if we all might die tomorrow, why not indulge tonight,’ he mused as he authorized the exchange of credits for therms. The steaming water filled the tub and he remembered his class-sib who had taught him this trick. They both had augment contracts that forbade the use of relaxant or stimulant substances – but this was pure physiology, and they couldn’t regulate that.
He winced as he eased himself into the nearly scalding water, and eventually settled himself with the water lapping at his collarbones. He leaned his head back and let his mind go blank, thoughts overridden by pure sensation.
Eventually the heat-haze in his head began to sparkle with bursts of blackness, and he heaved a leg to knock the drain open with tingling toes. He levered himself up to sit on the edge of the tub and waited until the steamy room stopped spinning quite so badly. When he could stand, he leaned on the wall while wrapping himself in a robe, then staggered the short distance out to the bed and collapsed onto it.
Ratthi came to gently fuss and coax him to lay on his side. He tucked pillows here and there, and then tucked himself in as the little spoon up against Gurathin’s furnace-hot chest. Barely conscious, Gurathin murmured a question which Ratthi answered by grabbing Gurathin’s free arm and wrapping himself into a tight hug with it.
“You two don’t have to make it look that cozy,” Pin-Lee griped.
“It’s not my fault if you’re jealous,” Ratthi jabbed. “Besides, there’s plenty of room.” She snorted. “Ok, there’s adequate room. Your research can wait, can’t it?”
“Not really.”
“Well, you can read in bed then. He really does make the best hot water bottle.”
A few minutes later Pin-Lee draped a thin coverlet over her dozing colleagues/friends. Then she joined them, lying back to back with Gurathin who radiated heat and comfort into a universe often devoid of both. She read in the feed until she, too, fell asleep.
The bed was cramped for three people, but it wasn’t really a problem.