in which you're forced to do 14 day covid quarantine at a hotel while traveling for work. totally sucks, except WHO is this ridiculous specimen of a man who has the room/balcony next door?? (quarantine!Harry, lhh, longhair!Harry)
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A/N: just a quick disclaimer: obviously, this isn't intended to instigate against covid regulations in any shape or form! just for the sake of reiterating a point: both characters are fully vaccinated, tested, been super safe this whole pandemic, etc you name it and are just quarantining due to standard precautionary procedures when visiting an area where the number of cases has spiked up.
You couldn't believe your "luck". What were the odds that your company would prove to be this insanely idiotic. You were sent "on field" out to another state, and your business trip had been arranged weeks ahead. However, this respective state had fallen under a higher incidence of covid cases just before you had to leave, and you thought to yourself they'd cancel it. But, nope! They still sent you! Even if it meant having to spend 14 days quarantining there on arrival, and another 14 when you returned home.
Which was absolutely baffling to you, but hey. You got paid for those 4 weeks of lying around because it was work related, after all, and that was almost a whole month of getting paid for doing nothing.
However, you still had to quarantine, which meant self-isolating at a hotel and then at home, and at home at least you had a whole post-pandemic routine you'd worked out. The hotel however was another thing altogether.
You sighed, dropping your bags at the entrance. At least it was a nice suite. They'd showed some mercy in that regard, considering you'd have to be spending 14 excruciating days there. All you could hope for now was that they had decent room service. If not, you'd have to order in and that would complicate the whole thing since your company would be paying for that also- having it all on the hotel's bill was much easier.
But after 3 days you already felt poorly, to put it mildly. You felt imprisoned. The mere thought that you couldn't step out of the suite (using your room card-key would show up on their surveillance, and you were meant to be quarantining there by law) really took a toll on you. You'd not had to quarantine before, and during lock-down you'd still had the possibility to step outside for a bit of fresh air on the daily using those damned forms, this however was another thing entirely and knowing that even if you did try to sneak out just for a bit of a walk after midnight when not a living soul would be disturbed, it would show up on their surveillance, and it made you turn on Netflix and re-watch Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. And it definitely hadn't been the wisest decision you'd ever made.
On your 5th day, you finally caved in and ordered cigarettes up to your suite. You'd quit years ago, but this was a fucking emergency. You'd have lost your mind, otherwise, you were sure of it. You debated whether this "business trip" would turn you into a raging alcoholic by the end of it too.
You didn't even bother turning on the lights when you stepped outside at 2am onto the open balcony, the only way you could experience some fresh air. Sure, you went out there mainly to smoke, but still. You sighed as you sat on the sunbed and lit your cigarette, looking at the stars- it was a clear sky. Of course the weather had to be perfect while you were isolating, but just watch as it'd for sure take a turn for the worst the minute you stepped outside at the end of those two weeks.
