Coral smiled, and then folded her arms and went quiet. Eric sat back. Usually, when she went like this, it was thinking time for her. “I think,” she said slowly, “that if you decide to break up with Nathan, then you can’t do it now. A supervillain sees his face and suddenly his boyfriend breaks up with him? Even if he doesn’t trace it back to you, he might decide that Couronne threatened you in some way, meaning it could trigger a hunt on us.”

“Yeah. Makes sense.” At least he didn’t have to decide immediately.

“And regardless of what you decide, we need to cover ourselves. Make it impossible for us to be Echo and Couronne.”

“There’s an obvious problem with that,” Eric said.

“Right. And we also need to make sure that if you do break up with Nathan, he’s very unlikely to think that Couronne had something to do with it. So we need a pretty big alibi.” She grabbed her phone and tapped on it for a few moments. “How do you feel about Spain? Or maybe France?”

Eric considered it. An overseas trip was definitely in their budget. It wasn’t the first time they’d suddenly gone on a vacation, either. Moreover, having an excuse to spend time away from Nathan… that sounded very attractive right now. With all his feelings for Nathan and all his feelings for Enmachina crashing together, his head felt like a mess. “I take it you have a plan?” Eric asked.

Coral gave him a wicked grin. “Oh, I do.”

***

Eric fidgeted in the elevator. “Nervous?” Coral asked.

“Yeah, kinda,” Eric said. Not only was this the first time he was going to see Nathan since the incident, but his boyfriend also happened to be in the hospital. And then there was the whole matter of the plan and not being sure if Nathan would stay his boyfriend…

Coral held out their hand. Eric took it, squeezed it, and smiled at them. At least, no matter what happened, he’d have them on his side. He couldn’t imagine dealing with this in a monogamous relationship with Nathan.

The doors opened and they stepped out. Nathan’s room wasn’t too far away. Coral navigated them there pretty quickly. Had they worked in this hospital? Eric couldn’t remember if they’d ever mentioned it. Something to ask later, he supposed.

They rounded the corner into Nathan’s room. He was lying in bed, alone in the room, a tube in his hand, watching TV. Eric swallowed. That face was his boyfriend’s face, and also the face he’d last seen peering out of a wrecked helmet. He couldn’t speak.

“Well, you look like crap,” Coral said cheerfully, leading the way into the room.

“Thanks, you too,” Nathan said dryly. He held out a hand. “Eric. Glad you’re here.”

Eric found his voice. “Hey,” he said, stepping forward and taking Nathan’s hand. “So. You all right after…?”

“Pacemaker broke,” Nathan said. “Luckily, I was just about to get a replacement, so the new one should arrive soon. Still, hit me like a truck when it failed.”

Eric nodded. Nathan could just lie there and lie to him without even a twitch. It was… more upsetting than he thought it would be. Except he had to say something. What would he normally say? He felt like he needed acting lessons to act like himself. “And it was just one week from retirement, too,” he finally said. “So, Raph here?”

Nathan shook his head. “Had to get to work. He’s coming back later.”

“We can’t stay that long, either,” Coral said. “I have work.”

“That’s fine. Just glad you’re here.” Nathan squeezed Eric’s hand.

Eric sat down in the visitor’s chair right by him and Coral took the one on the other side. “So, um, how long are you going to be in here?” Eric asked. His voice sounded weird.

“Hopefully, the day after the implantation. Normally, it would be an outpatient procedure, but because of what happened to the last one, they want to keep me an extra day.”

Eric wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Were the doctors actually worried about the pacemaker, or was it something about the fact that he’d been captured? The conversation went silent. He searched for something to say. Oh, right. “We have some news,” he said.

“What is it?” Nathan asked. “Are you pregnant?” he said to Coral.

“No. I better not be yet.” They wrinkled their nose. “Actually, both of us have vacation time that’s about to expire. In a couple weeks, we’re headed to Europe.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Nathan said, turning to Eric. “Where in Europe?”

“Madrid,” Eric said. “At least at first. Probably going to roam around a little.”

“Why Spain?” Nathan asked.

“Because we both speak enough Spanish to get by,” Coral said. “I mean, it’s Latin American Spanish, but still Spanish. Can’t say the same for France. We also considered Hong Kong, but that’s just a little too far away.”

“Maybe we could visit Hong Kong one day,” Eric said. “My mom could come along.”

“That sounds nice,” Coral said. “As long as she’s on the opposite side of the hotel. Like, all the way on the other side.”

“We’re not that loud,” Eric said.

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Coral said.

Nathan groaned. “I think we’re at the point of too much information.”

“You know way more about me than that,” Eric said.

“Well, yeah, but I don’t want to think about Coral’s sex life. They’re not a guy. Or even masculine.”

Coral huffed. “Fine, then. If I’m not enough of a guy for you, then I’ll go off to the ladies room!” They left.

Nathan frowned. “I didn’t offend them, did I?”

“Nah. They just had a lot of coffee.” Nathan didn’t say anything back, leaving them with another silence. “So. Um.” Eric gestured to the TV. “Anything good on?”

“Is this bothering you?” Nathan asked quietly.