xp_logs | Rahne and Nathan: Orange Juice

Rahne takes Nathan food. In other news, the sun rises in the east.

This seemed to keep happening, Rahne thought absently. She was getting very good at carrying trays -- even one, in this case, which had a giant sippy-cup containing nearly two quarts of orange juice in the center where she was least likely to topple it. It was pretty stable, though, really. Even if Nathan mostly controlled this odd virus telekinetically, she supposed that vitamin C wouldn't *hurt*. She reached his door, shifted the tray to one hand, and knocked carefully, listening for a reply.

Ensconced once more on the couch - he must be feeling better, to be restless, he reflected - Nathan heard the knock and Bella's subsequent growl from where she was perched on the back of the couch. "Be nice," he chided her gently in his cracked voice, then looked in the general direction of the door. "Come in?" he called, not trying for too much volume. He'd just wind up coughing again.

"'Tis Rahne," she said, opening the door to let herself in. "I brought food. And orange juice. ...Did Bella just growl at me?" She eyed the bird with some amusement. "Doona worry, lass, I'll get out of yuir territory before long."

"Sleeeeep," Bella growled, glaring at Nathan, who was of course entirely unaware of the fact that his bird was actually managing a credible glare at him. The warning in her voice was bad enough.

"She's a big bully," he said hoarsely, directing a tired smile in what he hoped was Rahne's general direction. "Food and orange juice, huh?"

"Lots of orange juice. In one of these -- I found giant sippy cups in one of the cabinets early on. It holds most of the carton of orange juice, so I'm not sure I'd want to try carrying it on a tray without the lid...." She set the tray down carefully on an end table. "Also sandwiches. And oatmeal bars."

Nathan pushed himself up on the pillows a bit gingerly, wheezing a little at the change in positions. "I can... smell the oatmeal bars," he said after a moment, concentrating on the smell. "And you just put that tray down on the end table, didn't you?"

"Aye. I thought that might be the easiest place -- I'll put it somewhere else if ye want."

"Maybe--" Nathan paused, calling up the image of the room in his mind. "On the coffee table instead? Easier to reach... although I have to be careful not to knock anything over. I did that with a water bottle this morning." He smiled again, a bit more steadily. "Moved a little too fast."

Rahne picked up the tray and set it down on the coffee table, a little less quietly than the first time. "The cup's supposed to be non-spill. First used it when I was half-expecting somebody to maybe kick it over when he came out the door," she said lightly. "Ye want that first?"

Nathan, who'd been listening very carefully to her movement, hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Please?" he asked. "Let's not test whether it is non-spill just yet."

"I should flip it over the sink sometime, just to see." She turned the spout toward him and put it into his extended hand. She had to use both of hers to hold it comfortably.

It was heavy. "Very big cup," he murmured, balancing it carefully and then taking a sip. The orange juice tasted just wonderful. "First day I've really had much appetite," he confessed to Rahne.

"With the fever, I'm not surprised. ...Do ye mind if I sit by ye?"

"Not at all." Bella growled again and Nathan sighed. "Yes, feathers, she's allowed. Would you stop that? You'll chase away all my visitors..."

"I'd growl back, but I think having scruples might put me at a disadvantage if she didna back down," Rahne said drily, taking a seat beside him on the couch.

Bella's growl turned into a coo. "Pretty red..."

"Fickle bird." Nathan sighed a little. "She's more settled when I'm actually in bed. Seems to dislike it when I move."

"There's more to getting him well than bed rest," Rahne informed Bella gravely. "Though mind, 'tis a good start."

"Pretty red. Pretty!"

Nathan smiled, taking another sip of the orange juice and leaning back against the pillows. "As cooperative as I was trying to be this time, it's still good to be out of medlab," he confessed. "Watch, I'll improve by leaps and bounds now that I'm up here."

"That bad, are we?" she asked teasingly. "No, we're glad to have ye well enough to go back here, ye ken that."

"I know. And one step at a time." He couldn't help a slight frown. "Not so sure how soon I'll be back out and about, though... even moving around the suite the little bit I have, I run into things."

"When ye do feel ready to try outside, warn me and I'll try to distract Catseye. Seems she went and pounced Forge right down the basement stairs the other day." Rahne shook her head, still rather baffled. Cats! She looked at Nathan thoughtfully. "Ye were tracking me pretty well by sound, I think, but that wouldna do ye much good with walls."

"No. There's something..." He trailed off, frustrated, and waved a hand. "It's like I can... feel, a little. Almost like that telekinetic sonar trick Moira had me practicing. But it's not there all the time. I suppose if it is that, it wouldn't be - I strained my powers but good."

"Well, they're back a bit, though, aye?" She paused thoughtfully, then shrugged. "If I come in and 'tis quite dark, I usually just trail close to one of the walls. Air feels a wee bit different, I think, but I may be mixing it up with something else."

"Interesting," Nathan murmured. "I wonder if it is TK, then, or something else..." He smiled a bit. "I've been listening really hard. Trying to sort things out by sound..."

"How's that going?" Rahne asked curiously. "I never paid that much attention to... how much I could learn from each sense, I suppose, until turning into a wolf made some of them a lot harder to ignore...."

"It's working... okay, at best. Sound clutter really throws me." He tilted his head. "Which senses do you have the strongest connection with, as a wolf?"

"Scent and hearing get a lot sharper, but I had to learn how to use them -- it took me a while to know what things meant. Vision goes... strange."

"Interesting..." Nathan said, then realized he'd repeated himself. "Wouldn't say smell is that much sharper, with me, but... hearing, touch, it all seems a little... heightened. Or that might just have been the fever. Although my temperature is pretty much down again, now..."

"Maybe ye pay more attention to them this way? Or arena distracted from them...."

"That too, I guess." He smiled a bit wanly. "Like I said, though, I'm running into stuff a lot. I don't think I'm going to be getting around very well until this wears off." Which it would.

"Bella would just scold you anyway. ...Give me yuir hand, and have an oatmeal bar before they quite cool off?" she suggested lightly, leaning forward to pick one up. "And... ye ken I wouldna mind playing guide dog sometime until it does, aye?"

Nathan extended a hand, then smiled warmly as she put an oatmeal bar in it. "I... really appreciate that, Rahne," he said softly. "I'll take you up on it, too. In terms of guides I know I can trust... well, you're right up there on the list."

Rahne swallowed. "Thanks," she said quietly. "...That means a lot." Not, she assumed, that there were too many people around who would actually let somebody they were guiding fall down the stairs or anything -- but still.

Nathan sampled the oatmeal bar. "Up to your usual standards," he said with a smile, then broke off a small piece and extended it tentatively in what he hoped was Bella's direction. He felt her take it, very delicately. "Good girl."

"Well, ye found *her* all right," Rahne observed. "Good aim."

"She's been making enough noise that I've got her location pretty much pinned down, I think." Nathan coughed, then held his breath for a moment before going on. "I think I'll give myself the rest of the day to lie around before I start contemplating too much moving around. I'm not all that eager to go experimenting."

"There's no rush," she murmured. "If ye feel like resting, 'tis probably what ye need." Actually, he quite likely could use more rest than he would really feel like getting, but there was no real reason to point that out.

"I'm not going to take any chances and push too hard," Nathan said, thinking about Moira and the baby. "Maybe I'm getting a little wiser in my old age. But this was a little close for comfort."

"Aye." Rahne looked over at him. "And I understand there wasna much other choice at the time, but fortunately there is now."

"I would have done the same thing again," Nathan said very quietly. "But I think I'm going to concentrate on being something approaching a sensible convalescent. I have lots of very good reasons..." He smiled, then took another bite of the oatmeal bar and chased it with a sip of the orange juice. "The orange juice really tastes better than it should. I think I must be craving vitamin C."

"It seemed like a wee bit of an immune booster couldna hurt."

"Very likely not," Nathan agreed. "My immune system's taken a hell of a beating over this. I need to stay away from people with colds for a while." He grinned crookedly.

"I'll try not to bring ye any germs." Rahne grinned back, even though he couldn't see it. "I always wash up if I've been out with the wee ones."

"Scrupulous," Nathan said. "That's the word. And a very, very good cook." He took another bite of the oatmeal bar, for emphasis.

"Thanks. Nothing fancy. But fun."

Nathan stopped for a minute, remembering something. "I never got the chance to give you your gift," he said suddenly. "The one I brought back from New Mexico."

Rahne blinked. "Oh...?"

Nathan bit his lip, trying to remember. "It's... in the study," he said slowly. "On top of the books on the lower shelf... a package wrapped in brown paper."

"All right...." Rahne went to find it, then circled back and came to sit down next to him again. "Thank ye very much." She unwrapped the paper carefully, out of habit, and found a figurine of what seemed to be a dancer dressed up as a wolf.

"It's a Hopi wolf kachina," Nathan said. "I saw it--" He paused for a moment, his lips twitching. Funny how frequently those words came up. "Saw it and thought of you."

Rahne paused over this. "Thank ye, but... 'tis a what, now?"

"A kachina. A piece of folk art... meant to embody the spirit of the wolf, I suppose you'd say."

"Aah." She looked at it thoughtfully, then up at him. "I'll put it next to the one ye made of Hrimhari." She still really liked that one. Though she had resisted the urge to put it under her pillow.

"I'll need to stop giving you wolf-related things," Nathan said with a faint chuckle. "I'm getting repetitive."

"I like them. Anyway, the mosaic wasna wolf-related."

"True." Nathan relaxed back against the pillows, feeling the fatigue creeping up on him again. "Wish I'd stop being so tired," he muttered.

"Sounds like I might better be letting ye lie down again before Bella decides to chase me out," Rahne murmured.

"Sleeeeep!" Bella chirped imperiously. "Good."

"Yeah, yeah..." Nathan reached out, trying to set the giant cup on the edge of the coffee table. There... right there. He couldn't help a smile. "I'll get the hang of this."

"Of course ye will." Possibly just in time not to need it anymore, but hey. Rahne stood up to let him swing his legs back onto the couch, then asked a little hesitantly, "Would ye mind a hug?"

"Absolutely not," he said very firmly.