Forty Years of This [Monster Hunter World]

Chapter 11

His sleep came in fits mingled with nightmares and sweat broken by pain. Dreams of crushing jaws and gnashing teeth kept him trapped until the waking world offered him brief respite. Often the room was dark, and he could barely make out what was around him, but he felt the Quartermaster's hand in his. Though he hurt, his pride and consideration prevented him from asking the sleeping man for help.

In one such fit, he woke to the room bathed in moonlight. Sweat clung to his back and his leg ached, but there was a surreal peace around him. He turned his head, his hand still in the Quartermaster's hand, to look at the man and out the window behind him. The moon was wide and low in the sky casting its light over the man like a faint blanket of snow. The man was the sort of pale that no amount of sun could leave a lasting trace-- in the heat he turned pink then red but never darkened in its light. Since coming to the new world, he was pink more often than not, but in the cool night and in the silver light, he looked almost inhuman.

The Quartermaster cast stark shadows in the moonlight-- his sharp cheeks and pointed features looked less like a man's face and more like an avian beast. Cold, steely, and pale. His chin tucked against his shoulder. Thin, lithe, and bird-like, he struck the Commander very much like a legiana.

It was with that thought he fell asleep and didn't wake until the sun had risen and dawn began to creep over the horizon.

He woke with a start when the door opened and the Doctor stepped in. He didn't need to hear her to feel her glare and disapproval upon seeing his nighttime visitor still sleeping by his side, but the Quartermaster continued to sleep despite the overwhelming pressure of the Doctor's presence. As for the Commander, he felt like he'd been caught in bed with a lover. But he had done no such thing, and once his initial surprise of waking up to the Doctor's glare, he met her look with his own determined glower.

"I see you're awake then." She stared down at his guest. "And I see the Quartermaster doesn't ask for permission himself."

The man woke slowly to the Commander squeezing the hell out of his hand and the woman's voice. He stopped, winced, rubbed his neck, and ever so slowly lifted his head. "Good morning, Doctor."

She sighed, then her expression softened. "Good morning. Commander, I have something for the pain, something a little experimental, if you would like to try it."

"Yes."

"Very well." She pulled a thin bottle out of her pocket and knocked a pill into her hand. "A few hunters have already vouched for this, but it's one pill at noon, one in the morning, and one when you sleep. I'll be keeping an eye on them, Commander. If any start to disappear when they shouldn't be..." She set the pill down on a cloth next to his water. "Though most say it makes them miserably delirious or knocks them out, it should be less powerful than what you were on. That said," she looked between the men. "If you want to be lucid, wait before you take it."

The Doctor held the Quartermaster's sharp gaze, and whatever went between them was beyond the Commander. It seemed to him that the Quartermaster was challenging her, but the Doctor gave a curt nod and a thin smile. "I'll leave you two to it then. Commander, I'll send someone to check on you after he leaves. Unless you're hungry."

"No. Thank you." He couldn't imagine eating anything with the pain in his leg, or at least not yet. When she left, he turned to the Quartermaster. Hand still in hand. "I didn't expect you to stay all night."

"Why not?"

"Well," the Commander shifted and stuffed the pillows behind his back better. "Why would you? What use is there in keeping a sleeping man company, and don't you have a bed to sleep in? I'm not sure I would have slept in that chair myself." He grinned, trying to chase off the seemingly self deprecating undertones of what he meant to be a sincere question.

"I told you I would stay." Sharp. Avian. Cold like a mountain spring in the heat of summer. The Quartermaster looked down at him in confusion.

"I... Wasn't going to hold you to it so literally." It was then he realized the Quartermaster had never let go of his hand. He'd been aware of it, but he'd not really noticed it until then, and the weight of it suddenly became too much. He pulled his hand away, and though the Quartermaster did not resist or cling, the Commander felt a heat in his cheeks.

"Five years, Commander, and yet you continue to prove how little you know me." He shook his head with a slight smile. "If I say I am going to do something, then I will do it. Very rarely do I speak intention through figurative language."

"So you would follow me?" His voice grew low. "If I left here, would you leave too?"

"Yes."

The Commander felt as though a weight had settled on his chest. "If I stay here, even in spite of this, will you stay too?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you are my friend." The Quartermaster stared down at the Commander with an expression he could have easily mistaken for quiet fury. It was intense and fearsome, but his voice was soft and gentle. "I don't think you've quite caught on how fond I am of you, ████. I don't know how else to express it-- I don't know how to express it. But if you leave, this place holds nothing for me. I could find work anywhere, but I want to work with you. I will follow you anywhere, if you let me."

The Commander found himself caught between affection and the horrible realization that he was, in fact, irreplaceable and an integral part in the Commission's success. There was the devotion of the man beside him, a devotion he'd not known of before, and the intangible chains that held him to Astera.

"That settles it then." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. "The Admiral was right." When he looked back at the Quartermaster, he recognized a yearning in his resting glower. A yearning he returned with a weak smile. "It seems the two of us may be permanent residents of the new world. If you'd stay with me that long."

His heart pounded as he waited for an answer. It was a mere moment; the Quartermaster glanced downward before looking up bashfully with a faint smile.

"So long as you need me. So long as you want me."