The Custodes

Chapter 6 - Date Night

Nexus awoke with a start, gasping for breath as his eyes darted around rapidly, taking in his surroundings while he tried to figure out exactly where he was. The first thing he realised was that he was in a bed, in a very plain looking apartment room, as well as the fact he was wearing a strange, pale blue coloured hospital gown. The bed he was in was just big enough for one person and had simple purple sheets that he had been laid on top of, but he didn't recognise a single part of the room. The bed was up against the wall, with a window directly beside it which looked out onto a few other buildings and a street down below it, one that Nexus recognised as being near the centre of the city. Nothing about the rest of the room struck Nexus as particularly interesting, since there was only a closet, a set of drawers, a desk with a mirror in front of it, and a shelf along the top of the wall. He sat up in the bed and rubbed his eyes with his fists, trying to get rid of the slight aching in his head. His thoughts were fuzzy as he tried to remember what had happened to him, and the rest of his body felt extremely stiff and tired. The last thing he remembered was being on a rooftop, after his encounter with...Zuro. His eyes snapped wide open and his head shot up as memories came flooding back into him like all the water in a dam rushing out simultaneously. Zuro had beaten him half to death, he vividly remembered numerous of his bones being broken as well as feeling indescribable pain. But now, he seemed to be perfectly fine. He looked down at his right arm, thinking back to how Zuro had snapped it so effortlessly and the awkward angle it had bent at, whereas now there was only a very faint mark where his elbow had been bent inwards. He stood up from the bed and lifted up his gown to look at his leg, finding nothing more than a dark purple bruise on the side of his knee. He wanted to check his ribcage too, but the strange gown he was wearing was making it increasingly difficult to do so, leading to him irritatedly pulling it over his head and throwing it to the ground, leaving him standing in nothing more than his underwear. He moved over to the mirror in the room and examined himself, finding a few more injuries over his body but nothing too serious, the most noticeable being a dark nasty looking bruise on his jaw right where it had been broken. He'd been trying to figure out what had happened to him, and how he had ended up where he was, before he suddenly realised he hadn't remained on the roof that night. His final thoughts were of being in someone's living room, and hearing a scream and the sound of something smashing. Quinn. The name entered his mind as clear as day, and immediately he knew where he was. In the early stages of their friendship, Nexus had ended up walking to her apartment with her one day. He hadn't meant to, but their conversation had been a fairly interesting one and before he knew it he was stood right outside her door exchanging goodbyes. For reasons still unknown to him he'd never quite managed to forget where she lived, which turned out to actually be a good thing. She was the first thing his thoughts drifted to whilst bleeding out on that rooftop, and in a last ditch effort to save his life he'd teleported to her apartment in hopes that she'd be able to help him. And by the look of things, that's exactly what she'd done. He had to find her, and find out exactly what had happened and how long he'd been out, but as he turned to move towards the door of the room it slowly swung open and Quinn herself hurried inside. She already had her mouth open to say something as her eyes locked on Nexus, but before any words came out, a small squeal of surprise escaped her as she realised how little apparel he was actually wearing. For a fleeting second a look of embarrassment made its way onto her face, but she quickly composed herself and inhaled, a relieved expression replacing her embarrassed one "You're awake." She said, closing the door behind her and stepping into the room as she blatantly checked out all of his badly wounded areas. "Am I? Difficult to tell with this bloody headache." He said as he placed a hand against his forehead, letting out a deep breath. "It's a side effect of the spells. And probably from being beaten unconscious, too." She said as she moved towards him, with him staying perfectly still as he let her approach. "How long has it been exactly?" He asked her, looking down at her as she examined his face. "Well it was the middle of the night when I found your mangled body on the floor of my living room. I healed as much of you as I could, then didn't waste any time getting you to a hospital." Nexus looked at her with extreme displeasure, not too happy about hearing that. Hospital's were far too public for his liking, and the whole patient documentation system was less than appealing for a man like him. She caught his look and gave him a stern slap on the shoulder with the back of her hand, then crossed her arms "Don't give me that look, you're the one who had the audacity to come here just expecting to be helped. Plus, I made up a story and gave them a fake name cause I knew you wouldn't be happy if I didn't." Nexus let out a small sigh, giving her a grateful look "Thank you, then. What did you tell them?" "That you were my boyfriend and I found you beaten within an inch of your life just outside of my apartment. Presumably by thugs." Quinn said, fairly amused by her own story. "You make me sound weak." He said half teasingly, merely trying to poke fun at her story. "Never satisfied, are you?" She said, though she was far from bothered by his quip as she reached a hand up towards his jaw, gently tapping her fingers against his bruise. He winced as she did so and she let out a small sigh as she retracted her hand "Not fully healed, but I'm sure it will with time." Nexus gave a small nod, then began thinking about what she'd told him "If you took me to a hospital, why am I here?" "Well, that's actually a...fairly interesting story. It was only a few hours after I'd brought you there that our good friend Zuro decided to lay waste to the entire building. God knows what his motives were, but he killed a good few people, then destroyed any way we planned to leave. I was with you the whole time, and it actually ended up being that black haired kid who originally took on Zuro that came and saved the day. The place was evacuated and after that I decided you'd be better off just staying here. Hospital staff were pretty fucking useless anyway." Nexus tried not to let the curiosity about what had happened with Neo show on his face, instead just nodding as he took in everything Quinn was telling him "How long have I been here?" "Two days. I'm sure it would've been a whole lot longer if it hadn't been for the healing. Your body seemed like it had shut down completely, I had no clue when you were going to wake up." She told him, flashing a small smile to openly show that she was pleased to see him conscious again. "Two days huh. Have you spoken to Daigo at all? God knows what could've happened in that amount of time." Nexus said to her as she gave a small nod "He called one of the phones you had on you. I picked up and explained things to him, he seemed pretty okay with me keeping you here and him taking charge while you were out." Nexus gave another small nod to this, then glanced down at himself and suddenly felt a tad bit exposed "Do you um...have my clothes?" He asked Quinn, who gave an apologetic shake of her head "I'm afraid I didn't think to grab them during the evacuation. Luckily, though, I'm also a genius and bought some new stuff for you while I was out yesterday just in case. I would've taken some from your place but I don't exactly have a key." Yet another smile crossed her face as she moved over to the closet and drawers, pulling out the clothes she had bought for him and moving to hand them to him "If you don't like them...too fucking bad. It's this or the gown." She said half jokingly, which actually managed to put a tiny smile on Nexus' face. He took them gratefully, then set them down on the bed as he began to put them on. "Feels a tad bit strange me getting dressed in front of you, don't you think?" For a second Nexus felt his comment might come across as a bit hostile, but Quinn merely chuckled "Better than you getting undressed, isn't it?" She quipped, as Nexus smiled with his back to her so she couldn't quite see it. He pulled the trousers on, somewhat baggy dark blue jeans, then slipped his arms into the shirt and pulled that on too. It was a plain mossy green colour, with a single pocket on the left side and a collar that thankfully wasn't too tight around Nexus' neck. He quickly did up all the buttons before turning to face Quinn, watching her expression as she looked at him. "You have very simple tastes." He told her, which she narrowed her eyes at despite smiling very slightly "It's better than risking picking something inadequate by your standards." She chimed, as he gave a small snort of laughter before sitting down on the bed. "Thank you Quinn. I don't know anyone else who-" "Stop right there. You're not allowed to get sentimental on me. I'm not letting you say your peace then leave to go on with your life." She said as she sat down beside him on the bed, causing a somewhat puzzled look to cross his face. "Take it easy for a bit will you? Please?" She asked him, looking at him with a pleading expression. "What'd you mean?" He replied with a skeptical look, meeting her gaze. "I mean Daigo is in control of everything, the authorities hardly even know who you are, and although you still haven't told me the deal with Zuro, I'm gonna assume for now that he's not an issue. So take some time off. Don't go rushing back into this life you live, just chill out and spend some time with those who care about you. Meaning me." Quinn said, sounding serious and determined as she watched his expression "One day. Go out with me tonight, come back here and relax, then you can go and do what you like. It's all I'm asking for." Nexus looked at her for a good while, then let out a small sigh "I hate when you back me into a corner like this. I suppose you're right about not being at risk so...fine, I'll spend the day with you." Quinn's face filled with happiness for a second, but she quickly hid it again just like she had when she got embarrassed. She really didn't like expressing serious emotions. "Something tells me you already have a good idea where you want to go?" Nexus said to her, which she grinned and nodded at "Indeed I do. It's pretty much evening already so you're taking me to dinner. And you're not gonna find out where until we get there." "Great. Who doesn't love a good surprise?" He said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes, despite doing his best to hide a smile "Can I at least get washed up before we go? Being in a coma does not do well for your personal hygiene." "Be my guest. It's out this door, down the hall, first on the right. Should have some towels in it already." Quinn told him as he nodded in understanding, stood up, and started to head for the door. "Alright, thank you." "Anytime. While you're doing that I'm gonna get ready so just wait for me in the living room." "Get ready? You're already dressed." Nexus said, glancing back at the clothes she was wearing, which looked fairly adequate to him. "Jesus, you really don't know a thing about females. Just go for fuck sake, I'll get you out there." She said with a hint of irritation at his obliviousness. He looked at her with puzzlement for a second, then simply shook his head and walked out of the room, making his way to the bathroom.