Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Eleven, Part Two

 Notes: The slow beginning of a slow recovery, woot. Also, they're starting to get along better...let's see how long it lasts!

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Eleven, Part Two

***

Chapter Eleven, Part Two

 

Being stuck in the Regen tank for another full day was embarrassing, but getting out of it was even worse. It was one thing to hear that Regen had done all it could for you and that the only thing left for it was nature and time—it was another to feel his arms tremble as he tried to push himself upright in the fluid. Tremble. Tremble. Kieron had never felt so weak in all his life, not even when he was a child. And now, a fully grown man capable of surviving incredible feats, he was on the verge of collapse just from sitting upright? Ridiculous.

“—might think about adding some handholds in parts of your room, and—whoa!” Elanus stopped his idle chatter as he looked at the readouts on the side of the machine when Kieron, determined to get out of this fucking tank by himself, heaved his upper body over the side and basically slopped himself down onto the floor. “What are you even doing? I’m here, ask me for help, don’t throw yourself overboard like you’re living out your illicit pirate fantasies, good fucking grief.” He had his arm around Kieron and was helping him upright again in an instant, completely unmindful of the Regen fluid staining his fancy clothes, or Kieron’s nudity.

Ah. Right. Kieron was naked, because that’s how you had to be in a Regen tank, and now he was naked and gooey and cold and on the floor, and his ass hurt, and he was quivering with fatigue that had no place in his body, no place but he couldn’t stop himself, and it didn’t hurt but it seemed like it should hurt. Kieron realized a second later that he was hyperventilating. He tried to slow his breaths down, but he couldn’t—the shock of being helpless was too strong, the discomfort of his situation too present. Was he ever going to get back to normal? Was this what he had to look forward to for the rest of his life?

“You’re going to be fine,” Elanus assured him. Kieron wasn’t sure whether he said it because Kieron had spoken his thoughts out loud, or if it was just that easy to read them off his face. He could barely feel his own body, could barely feel anything at all beyond panic. “Kieron, I’m not lying to you, I swear. I had plenty of time to research your condition while you were under, and this has happened to other people before. Not an exact replica of your conditions, but close enough. The survivors usually make very good recoveries, but it takes a lot longer than we’re used to. More like how a normal would heal, instead of someone who can use Regen.”

He shrugged. “Your body hit its limits. Regen is a miracle cure, but it can’t replace muscle memory. You’re going to have to learn how to do some things again, but I think in a few months you’ll be right as rain.”

“Months?” Kieron was barely audible, having to force his throat to cooperate with the rest of his body was preoccupied with shivering and shaking.

“Months, yeah. But you’ll be better by the time Cloverleaf opens up again, I promise. And in the meantime?” Elanus smiled, and this close Kieron could see the edges of his teeth, see how the lines along the side of his mouth changed the shape of his sculpted beard, making the flow of the lines go from smooth to jagged in an instant. It was an arresting expression, hard to look away from. Kieron focused on it desperately—he didn’t want to look at himself right now. “In the meantime, there’s no better person around to help you handle a slow recovery than me. Now, c’mon. We need to get you cleaned up.”

The clinic had a shower, which Kieron made grateful use of as he sat on a chair that pulled out from the wall. He should have been watching the water meter—he wasn’t going to get a fresh infusion from a supply run for a long time, so he couldn’t afford to use too much of it. But it just felt so good to sit and let the warm water pummel his brand-new skin, washing away the sticky Regen remnants and leaving him fresh and clean. Not better, but it felt so good to be clean.

He made himself stand up to dry off, but couldn’t stay upright long enough to step into the soft sweatpants that Elanus brought him. Very soft, and rolled up at the bottom.

“These are your clothes.”

“You’re a sharp one, Sparky,” Elanus said, already maneuvering Kieron’s arms into a long-sleeved shirt. That was too big as well—at least, it was too long. The shoulders were honestly a little tight. “I believe in indulging in the little luxuries in life, and that includes comfortable fabrics. Whereas you.” He grimaced. “I felt up the stuff in your closet. Do you wear that cheap, scratchy shit because it’s the closest you can come to a genuine hair shirt, or do you do it because you really can’t tell the difference between the good fabric and that garbage?”

“Firecloth never wears out,” Kieron defended his choice even as he exhaustedly watched Elanus shove socks on his feet. “And it doesn’t stain, you can’t rip it, and it’s burn-resistant.”

“Get set on fire a lot in this job?”

“You’d be surprised.” He’d born the brunt of more than one gout of flames, once in a kitchen malfunction and again when a fight broke out and someone pulled a mini flamethrower. That individual had been kicked off Cloverleaf as a result, and Kieron had spent an evening in the Regen tank having half of his scalp regrown. Getting your hair set on fire was not fun.

“Well damn, I should up your pay. There.” Elanus set down Kieron’s foot, stepped around the corner, and brought in a…chair? It was more like a miniature throne, complete with an individual antigrav unit that let it float an inch off the floor, but with a magnetic system that would hold it in place if needed. Kieron knew he was staring, but he couldn’t help it.

“Where did you get that?” Kieron asked, awe-struck and suspicious at the same time. “There was nothing like that on either of your ships.” Was there? Had he missed something on Catalina? Speaking of Catalina… “Is Moritz dead?”

“You’re going to give me whiplash the way you keep jerking me from subject to subject,” Elanus complained. “No, he’s not dead, he’s…call it resting. I’ll show you later. And this, no, it’s not an original part on either of my ships—the Lizzie is still out there, bless her, but I couldn’t risk leaving you alone and Catalina’s not ready for another spaceflight yet anyway—but—what was I saying? Oh, right.” He shook his head. “Don’t mind me, I’m tired. Anyway, this isn’t an original part, but it is a Catalina construction. I gave her the general specs for what you’d need for a while and she did the rest.” He looked at the chair proudly. “I think she did a great job.”

“She made this…for me?” Kieron wondered why his heartbeat suddenly picked up.

“I did mention the crush, didn’t I?” Elanus scooted the chair closer. “Speaking of, she’d love to see you, so if you don’t mind taking a detour to the hangar before heading back to yours for a nap, I know it would mean a lot to her.”

Kieron couldn’t quite believe he was saying this, but… “Yeah. Okay, I’d love to.”