Falling Falling Stars

65 - Imperfect

Note: I'm excited honestly for the next run of chapters that we have coming, even though I haven't written them yet and I have no idea how good they'll be, lmao. Once again, thanks for all the love you show to this fic! You're all so great.

*

The appointment with Dr Hope on Wednesday morning went surprisingly well. She looked over Efnisien's hand, told him she didn't think it was broken judging by the pattern of recovery, and seemed pleased that he'd stopped typing for a few days and given the hand a break.

'I wasn't certain you would,' she said. Efnisien almost said he could've been lying, and she didn't really know if he was telling the truth, and no way should she take him at his word. 'But that's helped a great deal. I'm satisfied with the fact that the pain is receding, and you can already see some yellow in the bruising, which is great.'

Efnisien looked at the back of his hand and nodded. He knew that was bilirubin, the haemoglobin further breaking down, a sign that things were healing how they should. He felt ashamed that he knew things like that, because he used to research anatomy, because Crielle wanted him to know what bodies did when they were injured, wounded, even killed.

After that, Dr Hope asked if she could see him again in a couple of months to touch base and talk about other health matters. She didn't ask if she could see his scars again, and simply said it would be a good idea if he had 'continuity of care' with a regular physician. That was a lot easier to accept when she didn't even mention his stomach, and she seemed...nicer this time. Maybe she was nicer before and he didn't notice.

He was still stressed as fuck when he left, but he was relieved to have the green light on his hand. He didn't realise how worried he'd been until she'd told him it was healing well.

Now it was Wednesday night, and Efnisien and Arden sat in Arden's car, overlooking the lights of the city. They were a little way up Winterpond Peak, near Weyher. Crielle travelled to Weyher sometimes when she was younger, because it was an affluent little holiday town and her parents used to like it. There was a little café strip where Arden ducked into a fancy-looking place and ordered takeout for them both, and then he'd driven them to a carpark lookout a few minutes away, now surrounded by nature instead of houses and restaurants.

Dinner turned out to be ham, cheese and salad baguettes, and a side of hot chips with some sweet chilli dipping sauce. Efnisien didn't have too much of the sauce because he was worried about his stomach, but the baguette was good, and he enjoyed sitting in the car with Arden and looking at the twinkling lights in the city below. It was weird to think that Gwyn's house was in there somewhere, and Dr Gary's, but not Efnisien's apartment because he never kept any lights on when he left.

'Um, first thing,' Arden said, after he'd swallowed a mouthful of baguette. 'I can't see you this weekend. I thought I could swing it, but my schedule has been a madhouse and just...yeah. I'll try and be in touch though. I'm so sorry.'

Efnisien felt a painful twinge, like maybe this was the beginning of Arden wanting to leave him, but instead he shook his head. 'You're super busy, this was going to happen eventually.'

'...Yeah,' Arden said, and then he sighed. 'Yeah. I've been enjoying our Sundays so much. But I used to do like, six to fifteen different things on my weekends and paring down has made me realise how overcommitted I am. To like, everything.'

'Including me?'

'Not including you,' Arden said, reaching out and squeezing Efnisien's knee clumsily, getting a couple of crumbs on his black jeans. Efnisien reached out and dusted them off absently as Arden kept eating. 'Something's gotta give at some point, but right now I'm playing the juggling game. I wasn't ever someone who took days off, you know, so you coming into my life kind of squeezed everything else a bit more. I might have to cut back how much I go to the dojo.'