My Pleasure, Darling

36: Ooh, a Volunteer, Aren't I Popular?

I am warm. Very warm. Maybe a smidge too warm. On account of being under a small mountain of blankets. Metran Isle runs a little cooler than Lamyra, on account of being an island, so it makes sense that their layers run thicker. They're heavy and it takes a moment to get used to it, but the heaviness quickly becomes comforting.

The room isn't as spartan as you would expect. For half a moment I figure maybe I'm back in the Metran Palace. But the door has a little window in it, and there is still a needle in my arm. When I follow it up with my eyes, it's attached to a bag of saline hanging over me. So I must still be in a medical setting. Some institution. An institution with rugs at the doors, and some really nice chairs.

One of them, a lounger, is occupied. He's deeply amused, holding his head in one hand, watching me wake up. You can tell by the way his lips are pursed together that he is desperately trying to hold in a laugh. His free hand is clasped over his mouth for extra protection.

Part of me wonders if I should feel a little weird, even violated, that Felix is watching me wake up like this. But then, this is not the first time we have woken in each other's presence, and in the end I don't know if anybody else's presence would be more comforting than his. No matter what, I figure as long as Felix is here, I can't be in any real danger.

"You look satisfied," I mutter at him. It's clear my mouth isn't entirely working yet. It feels cottony in there, like my mouth has been stuffed full of something and only recently vacated. My head, too. The mist and haze are there, clearing, slowly but surely. At least my words are still understandable.

Felix works hard to curb the mirth. "Good to see you awake."

"How long was I out?"

"Fourteen hour surgery, thirty hours medically induced coma, and about twenty after that of just you catching up on sleep yourself."

"Felt like it was about twenty minutes."

"I can guarantee you it was not." He rubs his face and runs a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes. He's clean shaven again, rather than that stubble he was sporting through nomad country. "But don't feel too bad. I've only been here a few hours."

"I'm surprised they let you come in to see the plague princess over here." My fingers fumble next to me, and they find a cool bar. It's a remote control. I tap a button experimentally, and the back of my bed starts to lift upright, shifting my body into a sitting position, letting me see the world.

The cotton in my head is disintegrating. Maybe it was more like candy floss, disappearing in water. I am coming to surprisingly quickly.

Felix looks a little guilty. I wonder why. It starts to trickle through the remnants of my brain. "Felix, why would they let you in to see me?"

There's a black bag by the door. His personal bag. It's filled to the brim, bulging, clearly. My heart begins to beat, hard. Felix is leaving. He's going somewhere. He's only here to say goodbye and then he'll be gone. Where is he doing?

A beeping sound starts up, and he pops out of his seat to get closer to me, leaning on the railing of my bed, sitting on it.

That can't be comfortable.

"Alright, alright Lois. Just calm down."

Calm down?!

"They let me in to see you because I was the only one who volunteered."

That doesn't make any sense. I nod at the bag. "You're going. Where?"

"I'm not going anywhere. It's my bag so I can stay here with you."