[FIN] Time Well Spent.

[caffeinecraving]

Kailee had stopped in to see everyone that day that she had stopped to see Aulus. Tam and Hayes hadnt woken up so she just sat with them for a bit, Leaving their cookies on the bed table after offering some to the surrounding pokemon. She had gotten to speak to Lex though... And she discovered that she was glad he hadnt died in the explosion. He was fun to talk to. So she had started there today. She had left him more cookies, well his pokemon. She peeked on Tam leaving her Crobat a pile of cookies and then peeked in on Hayes. She moved toward the last area.

He didnt like talking to her. He didnt like her company. She hesitated and contemplated just leaving. But she steeled herself and peeked around. If he was sound asleep she would just leave the cookies for Tortie and then head back to the lab. They were bound to make a breakthrough soon...

 

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus was awake this time.

He was sitting up supported by the raised back of the bed and by pillows, looking blankly at the opposite wall. Tortie was up on the bed with him, lying with her head in his lap. She glanced up as Kailee peeked through the curtains but after a moment she dropped her head again, listless and quiet.

Aulus was quiet too; his skin was deathly pale but his eyes were reddened as though he had been crying.

Possibly more notable than any of this however was the fact that his right arm ended about half way from his shoulder to his elbow. Clean white bandages covered the stump, and the fingers of Aulus left hand - only hand - were knotted in the clean white sheets of the bed.  

[caffeinecraving]

Kailee saw the man was awake and so she couldnt turn back. She saw Tortie had seen her so there was nothing she could do about it. She snuck in and gently called. "Knock Knock."

She offered a smile. But it felt out of place when she saw his face and tortie's. His arm had gone unnoticed since she looked to his face before anything else. She frowned and looked him over though. Something was wrong. She frowned more. What... oh! Her eyes were drawn to his nub. Her own eyes started to well with tears and what ever she had thought to say was taken away.

She ripped her eyes away from his arm and looked back to his face. "I thought maybe you would like company today..." She smiled a little... not as bright as before but she wasnt going to make him talk about it... "I brought cookies... For tortie... and i thought... you would like something to do while you are all laid up here...You just need to promise that you will be careful it took a lot of convincing to let me borrow this..." She moved in like she had every right to be there and set the cookies on the night stand. Reaching in her bag she produced a tablet. "I told them i wanted something to take notes on... and i needed one to organize my experiments... " She smiled. "Hayes showed me before our trip the general things... and there is a game on here a pokemon can operate... So i def think i can... And if i can you can." She moved to pull up the chair. "I don't know if you like it... but there is also Angry Birds and a Mario simulator... as well as a like painting thing... i thought it would amuse you a little... " He wouldn't have been able to use his arm anyway to play. So she had thought to make sure it all could be played 1 handed.

 

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus only looked over when Kailee started speaking. As she kept speaking he kept looking, his face more or less expressionless. She looked like she was going to cry for a minute and the fact vaguely surprised him in as much as he had the capacity for feeling much of anything at the present moment....

She'd brought games for him, and she came and sat right next to him as though she had some kind of place in his personal life.

He didn't know what to make of any of that either.

She was babbling, but what the hell else was she supposed to do? The elephant in the room wasn't exactly something you just talked about it- It still didn't feel real, it felt like it must have happened to somebody else and yet... yet....

When Kailee finally trailed off Aulus tried to find something to say himself but his mind was blank, his throat felt tight, and he didn't entirely trust himself not to start crying again if he dared open his mouth.

"You are persistent, aren't you?" he said eventually, his voice quiet and empty of the strong emotions it was usually imbued with. "Tortie'll have some cookies.... Never actually played Angry Birds. Kept meaning to but there never seemed to be time. You can stay if you want, not like you're interrupting anything." Everything he was saying felt disjointed, like the sentences he was placing after one another were pieces of a puzzle but all out of order. "You cut your face." He hadn't noticed that last time, or maybe he had? He didn't remember her visit well, only that she'd been here and left because of something he said.  

[caffeinecraving]

She noticed that he was watching her talk. She really didnt know if he was listening or not. She couldnt imagine losing a limb. His life would change so drastically... She mentally shook herself. She wouldnt be strong enough to get on with out her limb.

Well maybe she was being forward, but how better to get into someones friendship circle then to assert yourself into their personal life. She smiled up to him as she spoke. Not aware of what he was thinking about her.

She had contemplated poking said elephant... but then she figured it didnt matter... Aulus would still be aulus... and he would still be just as terrifying down an arm... He would still be just as determined to keep her out.

She wouldnt judge him if her cried... She cried when her potted flower had died... Crying wasnt anything to be ashamed of... and the only reason she refused to cry in front of people was because she didnt trust them not to make fun of her...So she could understand his reluctance.

"Persistent, sir?" She frowned not sure if that was a complement or an annoyed statement. She smiled at the Absol. "I brought extra because i knew she liked them." She reached and handed a, this time not burnt, cookie to Tortie.

She smiled. "Its addictive but dreadfully simple to do..." She pushed a button and laid the tablet on his lap. She slid the screen and smiled as the load screen popped up. "So what you are trying to do is knock out all the piggies" She pointed to the green pigs"... and you throw birds at them to do it."

Edited: She glanced up as he mentioned her face and she touched it gently. It was slightly bruised in that it was healing. She nodded slightly about to say its nothing. But then she thought better of it. Of course it was nothing... her face was scratched....His arm was gone. She smiled. "Yeah... well... you tried to catch all the shrapnel... but i caught one too... So what... 1 to... 73 or something?" And there... brushed off. "Here look you just run your finger across here..." She showed him how to launch the bird.

 

[TawnyAngel]

"I know the premise, just haven't done it before," Aulus said, now looking down at the screen as Kailee demonstrated. "There was that cake somebody made that actually worked, well, once. An angry birds cake I mean. I think it was a cake anyway but that could be the drugs talking I guess."

As her human friend talked Tortie sniffed at the cookie, considered it for a moment and then took it in her teeth. Setting it down on her paws she nibble half-hardheartedly at it, now looking back up at Aulus again with big sad puppy-like brown eyes. Aulus got hurt, and then he got better. That was how it happened, she'd got used to that. She didn't know what to do about this.

Aulus blinked at the screen, struggling a little to focus on it, and gave it a poke with his index finger. "Not really meant to look at screen much but I don't know what else they think I'm going to do," he said as the annoyed avian flopped pathetically to the ground. "I guess I didn't pull that back far enough." He was sitting here playing Angry Birds. Why was he playing Angry Birds? It was surreal, it didn't feel right, but he didn't really know what he felt like he should be doing either. He took another shot at the pig in the house, succeeding in knocking the structure over.

"It's good you didn't get too much. Would be a bit harsh on your first mission. My dex blew up, that was uncomfortable but nothing more really. Scars are nearly gone now too." There were now more pigs, up on... kind of little tower things. "Haunted mine, good times." He wasn't sure why he was talking so much when he'd initially struggled to get even a single word out. Weird. He fired another bird.  

[caffeinecraving]

She nodded. "Well fine then." She grinned though and her tone was soft. Man hadnt lost his pride that was for damn sure. "A cake?" She raised an eyebrow. "Ok... Ill take your word on that.."

She glanced to Tortie a moment and contemplated offering a pet, but she decided the absol wouldnt like that much. So she looked back to Aulus. Well she had screwed up. She didnt know he wasnt allowed a screen... and she hadnt checked a nurse. "Well... just dont... hurt yourself... or stay up all night or something... Ill get in trouble..." Not that she cared if she got in trouble for making Aulus happy.

She laughed softly and shook her head as his poor bird flopped. "Looks like a magikarp!"

She nodded remembering the last time she had told him about the team. "Dont move too much and hurt yourself more... But Lex got hurt pretty bad too... I was just there and he seems to be on the mend... so that is good though..." At least from what she could tell... Afterall she wasnt a doctor... She blinked. "On your first mission?! Oh thats awful." She could have kicked herself for saying that... It wasnt nearly as bad as losing an arm....she was supposed to be trying to be sympathetic.... She watched him play the game and when he fired the little yellow bird she leaned in gently leaning over his arm to tap the screen and make it speed up to crash through and bring the tower down. She smiled leaning back.

 

[TawnyAngel]

When Kaliee lent in close Aulus startled slightly and lent away from her. Why was she doing this? What did she want from him? There had to be ulterior motives there somewhere, he just had to dig out what they might be and... stuff. He didn't know. Maybe he really was just a stupid paranoid misfit.

"Wasn't that bad," he said after a rather long pause, now trying to pretend that his flinch hadn't happened. "It was in my pocket, just burned my leg a bit. Probably one of the easiest missions I've been on in that respect.... Yeah, definitely in fact. Close second to that would be the one where I fell off a collapsing platform into a chasm of certain death but then Char decided to evolve and rescued me.... He seems to do that a lot." Sudden death, doors with corpses behind them, doors with chairs behind them.... "Can always count on Char." He missed Char, and the others, and even though he understood that they couldn't all come in here he wished they could.

"...Oh, Lex? Right. You should spend some more time with him when he gets out, maybe you can give him some advice on getting his Fennekin out of a harness and listening to him better." He hadn't cared for the guy himself when he'd been trapped in a car with him to Camphoreon and back but that didn't mean he was happy to hear he'd been badly injured too. They were his team after all and you didn't have to like somebody to care. Kind of care. Well he knew he should care anyway and maybe at a later date he would but right now he was just sort of.... "I wonder if anyone ever made a joke about this game, about flipping the bird. It would be a missed opportunity if not, it-"

Aulus stopped abruptly, closed his eyes moment and swallowed hard; misery threatening to overcome him again without warning. It wasn't- it wasn't real. He'd wake up soon, probably. Probably this was just the drugs, just a horrible vivid dream. They'd pinned his arm back together, done all sorts of things to it, it should have been alright!  

[caffeinecraving]

She felt him startle and pull away and she retreated. "Sorry." Her face burnt red and she kept her eyes on the screen. She knew it wasnt that she smelt bad. She smelled like Vanilla from the cookies and something a little fruity and coconut, which was her perfume. No ulterior motive. She was just going to be his friend. Both his good friends were hurt... he needed someone that would bring him cookies and screens that he wasnt supposed to have.

She nodded. "Char is a sweet heart... " She made a note to somehow smuggle the pokemon into the hospital. That or smuggle Aulus out to see him... That... would take some doing though. She would have to think about this... Concealing a pokemon would definitely be the easier option to get past the check in nurse. She could get all of them together for a picture though... She would have to contemplate that more...

She nodded and then kinda gave him an as if look. "Me... give advice on training a pokemon to listen?" She laughed. "Right... I should use Sissy as my example pokemon too..." She had moved back so he wouldnt feel the need to move away from her. So at the change back to the game she smiled. "Aul-Agent,Sir... Its not funny if you have to explain-" She frowned.

Gently, so very gently, she rest her hand on the bed. She was scared to touch him. Afraid he would send her away, when all she wanted was to help. "Try again... Tell me the joke..." Her eyes glittered encouragingly. Even if it wasnt funny she told her self she had to laugh.

 

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus cleared his throat hard and rubbed his eyes briefly with the heel of his hand. Fine, just... Just be fine, he was not going to cry in front of Kailee. Anyway, what was the fuss for? They could make him a perfectly good replacement with all kinds of cool features probably. Sure it would take time, a lot of time, but he had no excuse for being so pathetic.

He cleared his throat again and looked back at Kailee, his eyelashes slightly damp. "It's a pun, not a joke really," he replied tightly with a stiff shrug that made him wince slightly. "You know, flipping the bird?" he raised his middle finger at Kailee. "Or is that not a phrase you have here?"  

[caffeinecraving]

She let him collect himself. She wouldnt make him uncomfortable by drawing attention to it. She gave him a smile when he looked at her. Yep... this was hard. And she knew she would get back to her room tonight and bawl her eyes out... Crying for the hand he lost, wonder why he had lost so much while she got away with a cut on her face.

She raised her eyebrow. "You are still explaining things...." It was a soft bit of teasing. She looked at that finger and then laughed softly. "You have just been waiting for this chance haven't you... To flip the bird at me?" She grinned softly trying anything to entice a small glimmer of amusement or just any emotion aside from the mask and sadness. He didnt trust her enough to share that sadness with her.... So maybe she could get him to something he did trust her with... "We can try Mario if you want... Youve played Mario before right?"

 

[TawnyAngel]

"Of course I've played Mario, multiple versions thereof," Aulus replied with a faint ghost of a scowl. "I've not lived under a rock completely you know, I was probably playing Mario on the gameboy when you weren't out of nappies. What version have you got on here then? I don't see how you can play Mario one handed." Or much really. Mobile games, yeah, but... but he wasn't going to be able to play co-op with Alex. It was just a stupid pastime but it was something they'd shared and enjoyed, a way to wind down after a long day and now... now....

"And I never wait for the chance to flip people off; when I'm pissed off people know about it on the spot, I don't do all that bottling it up and playing nice bullshit," Aulus added, physically shaking his head a little as he tried to break free of the spiral of depressing thoughts. "And if you didn't know what flipping the bird was it wouldn't have been funny to you anyway."  

[caffeinecraving]

She raised her hands in surrender. "Well hey... i may believe that you havent flipped the bird before." She wrinkled her nose. "Nope... cant do that pun with you... Anyway... Because you havent played angry birds i had to just make sure that you have played it... This is the original version." She nodded. And then she rolled her eyes. "Im not that young you old man you... " She was gonna be coming up on 20... He wasnt Terribly that much older then her.

She had thought about that though... She took the tablet a moment, so she wouldnt have to lean in again. She kept it turned so he could see how she went from one screen to the next. The mario music played and she gently turned down the volume. "See... all the keys are really close together..." She handed it back. "If i can do it, you can, right... And i checked to make sure you would be able to do it while your arm was out of commission... so...It may be awkward at first... but like any controls you should be able to get it..."

She grinned. "Oh...riiiight." He didnt bottle things up. Yep... he was a liar. "Then im surprised i am still standing... Ive given you enough trouble that i should have at least been flipped off before now... Should i be offended that i havent?" She was picking on him by picking on herself.

 

[TawnyAngel]

"I usually use my words rather than physical gestures. It's only a small step from flipping the bird to throwing people over my shoulder then kicking them between the legs and that tends to be frowned upon." He was exaggerating but he had to say something in reply to her. Out of commission. Well, yeah. ...She'd already been planning to bring this. After she'd scurried off after whatever he'd said she'd thought of something nice to do for him. He wasn't sure what to make of that. Aulus listened to the 8-bit music for a while before tapping the command to start.

"I'm pretty sure I was playing Super Mario Land when I was... six? Seven? And I'm twenty five now...." Wait, was he? Frowning deeply Aulus hit pause on the game and flicked back to the home screen, seeking out the date/time information. It was the second. So... yeah. Twenty five for today. "Twenty six soon though," he concluded after a few moments, returning to the game screen.  

[caffeinecraving]

She smiled. "Probably a good plan... Though... there are people that words tend to go right over their heads... and well... Thats when you need to rough them up a bit..." She put up her fists in surprisingly accurate form. Although it didnt change that hearing those words come from her perfectly lip gloss coated lips would come across sounding weird.

She grinned though. "I thought it was against the man code for other men to kick for the nuts...." Well wasnt she getting an education today. She rolled her eyes. "Okok... so you are an old man... " It was obvious she was picking on him not meaning what she was saying. She watched as he switched to the home screen. "OK So you were 6 and i was in nappies... When are you turning 26?" She leaned back to let him play the game and she would be comfortable to talk to him.