A throbbing pulse shot from Kat’s foot to her skull, stirring her from sleep. Limbs leaden, she sat up, and a deep blue blanket slid from her shoulders to her waist. She regarded it distantly, not recognizing it or the king-sized bed beneath her.

Dark, wooden panel walls enclosed the bedroom. The only light came from a sliver where navy blue curtains didn’t quite meet across a large window over a built-in desk opposite the bed. A door to her right stood ajar, revealing bathroom tile. The smell of cedar hung thick in the air.

A deep feeling of unease struggled against the pacifying haze of medication. She clutched at the blanket with her good hand, wringing it. She didn’t know this place.

A door opened to her left, startling her. Darius stepped in, smiling gently.

“How are you feeling?” he inquired.

Seeing him snapped everything into place. Kat looked around the room again and realized where she must be.

“Am I in your bed?”

He nodded. “It’s more comfortable than the couch. So I thought it was best.”

“No, I shouldn’t be here. This isn’t right.” Kat’s cheeks burned crimson as emotions flooded through her. Why wasn’t she at her apartment?

“I don’t mind taking the couch, and I changed all the sheets and blankets for you,” Darius explained, sitting on the end of the bed. His eyes were soft, matching his voice. “You’ll need good sleep to recover well.”

“Not in your bed!” Kat buried her face in her good hand, mortified. Groggy and emotional, she knew she was overreacting and only partially lucid, but she couldn’t fight against it.

“Hey, you don’t need to be embarrassed; I’m the one who should be. I wasn’t thinking. If it makes you feel better, I haven’t slept in it much recently anyway.”

“I would prefer the couch,” Kat confessed. Before she could puzzle out how to get there, Darius leaned over, slid her to the edge of the bed, and then lifted her into his arms. She gasped and clutched Darius’s shoulder with her good hand.

“Wait—“ She protested, keenly aware of how much it would hurt if she fell.

“I’ve got you.”He reassured her.

 He carried her from the bedroom to the living room. On one end of the tall room, Kat saw a small kitchen and a table, and on the other end, a sitting area with a plaid couch, fireplace, and a flatscreen, surrounded by windows and dark wooden walls much like the ones in the bedroom. A few landscape paintings decorated the walls, and a sizable grandfather clock ticked near the bedroom door. Darius set her carefully onto the couch, where her pillow and blanket were already waiting for her.

 Darius helped her prop her foot on the coffee table with a pillow and handed her a water bottle. She stared at the familiar pawprint and animal stickers decorating its surface.

“It’s almost time for more medication. Is your pain bad?” Darius asked her.

“Yeah,” Kat admitted, somewhat breathlessly. Her thought process halted as a wave of nausea swept through her, and she turned an ashen gray.

“The doctor said you should try to eat something before you take m—ohh, you look like you’re about to be sick,” Darius said, breaking off.

“I need a bowl.” Kat groaned, fighting to keep her stomach under control.

Darius sprang into action. Two minutes later, Kat was hunched over on the couch, wrung out, and apologizing profusely. Vomiting sent nails pounding through her skull.

At least Darius had brought the bowl in time.

He rubbed her back reassuringly. “The doctor said that’s normal. No need to be embarrassed.”

To Kat’s shame, she started crying and couldn’t stop.

“This is so gross. I’m so sorry.”

A few minutes later, her color had come back, and she was well enough to drink some canned soup and nibble a few crackers, then take more pain pills and fall back into a medication-induced stupor. Darius stayed right beside her the entire time, handing her things and taking them away once she finished with them.

He offered to let her use his bed again, but Kat refused.

“No. That’d be weird. It’s your bed.”

“It’s bigger and comfier,” he insisted. “You’ll rest better.”

“I’m all wigged out on drugs anyway. I could probably sleep on...”

“A bed of nails?” Darius sighed from the arm of the couch, arms loosely folded as he regarded her.

“A nest of baby porcupines and a... thorny dragon....” She mumbled against the side of the couch, eyes closed.

He shook his head slowly. “If you’re sure.”

“Mmhm. When I get home... remind me to...”

Then she was gone, back into the darkness.

#

Over the next few days, Kat struggled to get her mind in working order, fighting haziness and sleepiness, which Darius and the doctor had explained were side effects both from the powerful medication and from the concussion. But even after she’d used up the last dose of prescription painkillers, Kat could tell she wasn’t thinking clearly, even if she was less exhausted all the time.

Her memory suffered the worst, sometimes, she got tongue-tied or said the wrong word and didn’t notice. Other times, she did and grew annoyed. Keeping control of her emotions became a battle all its own, yet another side effect of being concussed. The more she thought and worried, the worse it got.

Darius patiently bore her mood swings and sulking.

“No parkour until you’re completely healed. If you reinjure your head or your foot, they might never heal properly.” He reminded her.

Stretched out across the couch, Kat saluted lazily with her left hand. “There go my rock climbing plans this weekend.”

She paused, ticking through what she’d said, fighting not to zone out. “Darius? What day is it?”

“Thursday.” Darius tapped his index fingers against his leg. She’d noticed he tended to do that when he was agitated and wondered if she’d already asked the question.

“Thursday. Right. Did Cami...?”

“She still hasn’t called back. Want me to text her again?”

Kat nodded slowly. She dictated a brief message for him to send and watched his thumbs move across his phone screen with a twinge of envy. She straightened up and picked up her water bottle, then tucked it against her body to brace it while she used her good hand to unscrew the cap. Never again would she take two working arms and hands for granted.

As embarrassing as it was to admit, she understood now why Darius had brought her here instead of back to her apartment. Still, every time she needed help, from getting the most basic snack to being carried to the bathroom, she felt the weight of imposition pressing down onto her, heavier than her cast.

Darius didn’t complain at all. In fact, Kat barely had to request anything. He stayed on top of everything. Beside a packet of crackers on the coffee table sat the handheld gaming device he’d lent her. Using it hurt her head, but she found the gesture thoughtful.

“I brought your favorite movies. We could start going through them,” Darius said, tucking his phone away.

“Aliopex Fighters?” Kat brightened.

“Right.” He smiled at her and trotted up the stairs to the second floor, which stretched up and across half of the main level and had railings but was otherwise open to the first floor. Kat could see next to nothing of what was up there except for what looked like a desk against the railing. The stairs were only about eight feet away from the couch, but it may as well have been a mile. She could barely move beyond crawling. Darius came down a moment later, holding a familiar box set of Korean animated features.

Kat recognized the tape on the corner of the box and laughed in surprise. “Hey, that’s my set.”

“I borrowed your key while you were in the hospital so I could grab your clothes and stuff.I also grabbed a few of your books, figured you’d appreciate them. Hope that was alright?” He raised his eyebrows.

Kat nodded at him. Considering the fact that her pillow and blanket were here, she felt silly for not having realized that he must have picked them up. Another concussion oversight.

“Yeah, that’s fine, thank you. Have you ever seen them before?”

“Only the first one, I watched it when I was researching to make sure I got you the right model.”

“I’m still impressed that you managed to get that thing,” Kat told him. “Okay. So you still have five to get through. And the lost episode. And the Holiday special.”

“We’d better get started.” Darius sat on the couch beside her, displacing her legs briefly to sit. He then set them on his lap.

“Oh—” Kat said, flushing. Her hands closed tightly.

“Is this okay? I didn’t hurt your foot, did I?” He looked over, eyes wide.

“No, you didn’t. I just haven’t had a proper shower for days,“ she said, too flustered to explain. She awkwardly started moving away, goosebumps rising across her flesh.

“You don’t smell bad if that’s what you’re worried about,” Darius said kindly, not moving his arm from her calf. He started the movie playing, casting it from his laptop to the flat screen.

“False. I’m a dead badger.” Kat protested with some alarm, but Darius gently ran his fingers across her calf and...

Surprisingly, the sensation felt nice. The skin around the cast itched because of the swelling, and there was no pain that far from her foot. Kat stilled, confused, as she tried to sort through the mixture of feelings in her gut and head.

“That explains the honey part of the smell but not the vanilla part.” Darius winked.

Honey badgers. Kat cracked a smile before remembering she was not necessarily okay with what was happening.

“Old...no... olfactory hallucination.” She said, momentarily transfixed by the pleasantness of his touch, still perplexed why she wasn’t getting the typical cold, sick feeling she usually did when someone touched her skin. It was there, just muted. The medication?

The movie started playing, and a dramatic woman began explaining the history of the Aliopexverse. ‘In the first days, the spirits of law and order reigned supreme...’

“You don’t have to sit with me,” Kat said quietly during a pause in the voiceover. “You’re probably already behind on work stuff because of me.”

“I work mostly from home, remember? I do a lot of work early in the morning and late at night, anyway. I’ve still been getting things done.” He explained, still lightly running his fingers across her leg. “You’re no trouble at all.”

Kat hadn’t heard him working, though she thought his voice recording setup was just upstairs. With a pang of guilt, she realized all his vigilant caring for her must be extraordinarily wearing for him, even if he was downplaying it.

“Are you sure? These are painful movies unless you’re really into them, and I don’t need any pills for a while. You’re already doing a lot for me, so don’t feel like you—“

Darius looked at her earnestly. “Kat, I want to watch these with you. You worry about other people too much,” he chided. “It’s okay for you to need help. Let me take care of you, alright?”

Kat frowned uncertainly. “I really owe you one. Or ten. So... thank you. But promise me you won’t overdo it. We can always call Cami or maybe Jonas—”

“I can handle it. It’s... honestly nice to have someone else around. Usually, it’s just me and the geckos.”

“I still have to meet them,” Kat said, easily distracted. How could she remember their names—Hades, Persephone, Pluto—but have trouble remembering the day?

 “They’re upstairs. How about I bring one down after the movie?” He offered cheerfully.

“Yeah...” Kat smiled faintly and forced herself to relax, an easy task while she was dosed with medication. Darius’s careful fingers on her calf continued to feel soothing, and without consciously realizing it, Kat soon fell asleep.