He Who Controls the Flame (001 fanfic)

Chapter Twelve- Shower Thoughts

"No, I'm not getting naked in front of you, Peter," I said, crossing my arms over my chest, or at least, I tried to, but the effort hurt more than I liked to admit. If I thought I was sore a couple days ago, I was completely wrong. This was sore. They had slowly waned me off of any medicine I had been on, and now I was forced to face the music one hundred percent on my own. And it fucking sucked.

I could barely move without my body screaming with pain. Everything was pounding in one agonizing rhythm. Even breathing hurt, but that was probably because of the bruised ribs.

"I'm not asking you to get naked in front of me," he said, "but you do need to shower."

"Are you saying I smell bad?" I asked. I picked up a piece of my hair and sniffed it. Okay, maybe it wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. It was more greasy than anything. But I could just barely detect my strawberry shampoo. God I missed that shampoo.

"No, but you are overdo." He leaned back on the wall, crossing his arms. "You missed it because you were sleeping."

"Oh was that the medically-induced coma I was put into after I was beaten half to death?" I asked, raising my brows, smiling sweetly at him.

"No, it was the other time you were beaten half to death and then put into a coma," he said, blinking at me. "You know, last Tuesday, was it?"

I groaned, wrapping my blankets around my shoulders. I knew I was acting like a petulant child, but I felt like a petulant child. All I wanted to do was lay down and have a pity party for myself, wallowing in all the pain ricocheting through my body.

"Can't somebody else do it?" I asked.

"Like who?"

I bit down on the inside of my cheek, thinking. It wasn't like I was awfully close to a lot of the superiors in the lab. It wasn't like I could ask Seven to come with me. He'd be the only one I'd be comfortable with.

"What about Rory?" I asked.

"He's on lunch," Peter said easily.

"Katrina?"

His brows raised. "You'd really take Katrina over me?"

"Well, Peter, Katrina didn't stab a blade into my back, so...yeah, I totally would take the she-demon over you."

Peter sighed heavily, rubbing at his temples. "Juliette..."

"What about Sebastian?"

His brows lowered and his eyes narrowed. His expression went from amused to about as warm and welcoming as a steel cut blade. "Sebastian?" he repeated.

"Yeah, he's a, um, a...doctor, I'm sure he's used to bodily anatomy." I shrugged before wincing. I forgot I couldn't do that either.

"No, Sebastian's not getting anywhere near you." He said it as if it was a common sense fact. Like he was merely stating that grass was green.

"Why?" I asked, raising a brow. "Don't want another man seeing me naked?"

"No, I just, I..." He sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "You're infuriating."

"That is what they call me." I chose not to shrug this time.

"Alright so who else would you like to take you to shower?" Peter asked, looking awfully innocent, like he was awaiting an answer he knew I didn't have. I gave him the finger and he rolled his eyes before rolling the wheelchair over to my bed and helping me get in. Fucking Peter.

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Fucking Peter swiped his keycard and the door before us opened. I watched him put the keycard back onto his belt. It was attached to some sort of string thing that could be pulled and released. Easy to burn through, I was sure.