DOOM SAGA I - I'll be home tomorrow

Day 168

The Fortress

As the hot water engulfed her body she did not react. He had quickly rinsed his own body in the shower and jumped into a clean pair of pants before tending to her. His hands cautiously washed every inch of her skin, rubbed off the layer of dust and what adhered like concrete. He did not ever want her to feel uncomfortable from his touch, especially when she was unconscious. It took a while to get the finer fragments of the stone out of her thinning hair. When he had gathered the lost brown strands from his fingers he swiftly got rid of the bunch, she did not need to see how much it still was, as her body gradually awakened.
When he was all done he knelt at the end of the stone tub, resting his chin on his arm. He stuck his hand into the water and wiggled one toe after the other to tease her a little. She grumbled, her head shifted and she finally opened her eyes. He greeted her with a timid smile. Her head rolled from side to side to look around, and her body moved and stretched feebly like she was waking in the morning. She sighed and he watched the frown on her face, her eyes looking into the distance before she turned back to him. She sat up, struggling a little, but he knew she could do it by herself. She pulled her knees tight, her arms around them and just sat there for a moment. Her face twitched and her lips quivered. He raised his fingers to her chin, she only flinched a little bit this time. He picked some wet bundles of hair out off her face and behind her ear, and she seemed to come out of her battle within as the winner. She looked at him outright, he knew about her feelings anyway, before she softly chuckled. He lifted his eyebrows. Her arms raised and her hands furrowed through his hair, pulling out some sticky bits of cement before showing them to him. He huffed. Her eyes asked him silently and he willingly leaned his chest against the rim, his arms resting on top to each side and his head stretched forward. She let humble loads of water run from her palms and little by little cleaned him. As her hands pushed on his chin from below to lift his gaze he could not help but wish this would never end. Her unnatural gentleness for him made him feel forgotten wounds, yet he felt no pain. She could never truly hurt him, nor could anyone else, even if they tried. But she touched him like fragile porcelain. He watched her blue eyes keenly find every spot of dirt. They looked like an eclipse, a golden corona like the sun would create shining from behind the shadow of the moon on a bright blue sky. He purred from deep in his chest as he enjoyed her nails softly running through his bestubbled skin. He felt like an old dog that was petted for the first time since being a puppy. Or ever.
She was everything but evil, everything but a threat to any form of life. She came from a time he still remembered, might it not be his realm after all. How could something like her persist in that world, mankind suffocating in money-driven self-love and every unpleasant information is simply being ignored. Yet there she was, right in front of his nose, smiling at him tiredly.

"Uh...!", she murmured as her head darted up from her pillow, her light-sensitive eyes searching for the numbers on the screen of the tablet. It was late at night, but still today.
"Oh, no...", she whispered dragging her heavy body around in the bed. He was sitting on the desk, his back to her as he was fumbling with some tech. But as she made noise climbing over the bed towards him he immediately stopped and looked over his shoulder. She waved at him anxiously to get her.
"We...W-We need t-to..!"
She fidgeted and let him gladly pick her up, looking at her with a cocked head. She was no longer burning from the inside, he sighed. For a second he turned towards the bathroom but she pulled on him with all her weight.
"No...! Ngh! C-c-command room...", she stuttered nervously, tugging on him like a rider on its horse. Confused but without resistance they walked through the Fortress all the way to the command room, and the closer they got the more she fidgeted, her eyes watching him excitedly.
As they had arrived she bent down in his grasp to push a button, SODIA greeting them.
Hello, Slayer. Hello, Io. It is time for your project, isn't it, Io?
He let her stand on her own and leaned against the panels when she stumbled over and covered his eyes with her small hands. A shallow smile drew on his face and he obeyed her command and closed them. She couldn't help but giggle at the reveal of her surprise.
"Yes!", she shouted, her voice squeaked and SODIA activated the holographic scene she had worked on for days.
He waited a moment before peeking.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!", she hollered confidently and threw her hands in the air. His wide eyes stared at the shining Christmas tree in front of him and the multiple garlands and candles that were scattered in the air of the room, floating in the air like it was Hogwarts. Her expression changed as she realised that she had said the wrong thing without noticing.
"Uh... err... Hap- no... Birth... mm... me-rr...", she had to focus hard to bring her mouth to say the right words but her mind couldn't figure it out. Suddenly she was swooped off the ground and tight in his arms, squeaking as she was thrown into the air a little. An honest smile adored his rough and angular face.
"Happy...?!", she asked, still confused about her words.
He nodded and gave her a soft headbutt. The longer blue looked into green the closer she felt to him until she began to chuckle delightedly. For once she could give something back to him. She moved them and hung in his arms to enter the most obvious code ever and opened the little build-in cabinet of the panel. There was the little package that she laid aside and grabbed a small mp3-Player and the cabled headphones. She started it and looked at the bittersweet number in the corner. Five percent. She had kept it for a special moment, just like now. Waiting for his response she held the plugs in front of them, the player lying in her lap that was pressed against him. He hesitated but muttered intrigued, turning his head for her to put one in his right and one in her own left ear.
As soon as the first tones sounded he felt like a portal to another dimension had opened, one far away from his reality, overwriting everything around them. He closed his eyes and felt her head snuggle to the crook of his neck and her arms slung around, while he started to move them through the room, swaying and spinning, gingerly at first, to the rhythm of the music.
So much time had already passed since she had left her home. Nobody would ever believe her if she told them about it. And for sure she hoped that nobody ever saw them like that. People would fall into a coma seeing the Great Slayer dancing around an artificial Christmas tree. She knew it wouldn't be like this forever, and things would have to change soon. But she prayed for just one thing tonight - that what was between them would never break apart. He might be the only one to understand her situation in this universe. And she wished she would learn from him to succeed as he did.
The song was slowly coming to its familiar end but stopped abruptly, the humble shine of the display coming from below went dark. She muttered saddened, yet sighed and let a shy smile show. He let her down and she put the player back next to the little brown package that was waiting for them. She picked it up, it was small even in her hands, hesitating as she looked at it. She turned around and offered it to him. As he reached for it she carefully placed it in his hands, it seemed fragile. He opened the bow of the cord that decorated the gift pure and simple as it was. The sides of the crinkly paper folded open and he froze in place.