Opposites Retract (II)

Subject 0

Used tissues, empty bowls of soup, and lukewarm ice packs were the only things she could see upon inspecting the room. The moment Soap entered his room, the dreaded loathsome feeling crawled up her skin. Even with a surgical mask and two layers of disposable nitrile gloves, she already felt like she needed to take a steaming hot shower.

Walking through the dimmed room with only her eyes, limited light only coming from the crack of his room, she was surprised to see her ill teammate was no longer in his designated bed. For a moment, she got a bit uneasy thinking of someone as ill as him contaminating the entire hotel. But, the noises of hurling coming from the bathroom eased her down.

Grabbing her laundry basket, the sound of the toilet flushing and the bathroom door came into play. Small steps strode past her. Her former teammate, short in stature yet high in sarcasm, now since converted into a sickly quiet husk of his former self. The only dignified remainder was one of the robes O.J. gave to every room, which mostly dragged across the floor due to the fact Nickel was one of the shorter ones.

"Evening," Soap stated in a mild tone, already busy stripping the sheets, blankets, and pillowcases from Nickel's bed. She didn't even eye him as he stumbled to the small accent chair in the corner, an expression of nauseous engraved on his face.

"I thre-threw up..a-again..." Nickel shivered. "Thi-this is s-so great... with a sore throat, it can't ge-get any be-better.." Even while sick, his sarcasm was managing to stay afloat whenever he spoke.

"Mmh..." Soap replied, unfolding the newer sheets and blankets for his bed after disinfecting the bed for any possible germs. "You've been keeping up with fluids, right?"

Nickel nodded, but it could've been confused for his shivering frail body. "It's the o-only thing I c-can keep do-down,"

Soap strapped on a new set of gloves after applying hand sanitizer and throwing the old gloves away in a concealed bag. "Lay down. There's some green tea and broth with crackers on the cart to eat. Don't get up, I'll be in the bathroom."

As she strapped on a clean respirator mask, she picked up her cleaning equipment and marched onwards to his bathroom.

Tentatively, Nickel wobbled back on over to his bed, his bedsheets and blankets welcoming him with a new-founded sense of warmth. With a shaky sigh, he slowly sat up and drank a bit of the green tea whilst reflecting on how he even got in this position: where he was so sick, someone had to change his sheets every twelve hours, feed him, and disinfect everything in a miles radius if he ever dared to step out of reach.

He hadn't felt this sick since he was little, and it was rarely common to see him even slightly ill. So years of narrowly avoiding being sick plus the added benefit didn't help him feel under the weather.

Slurping a bit of the stew, he licked his lips at the savory flavor, a tired half-smile forming. "N-Not bad, Paper...a little less salt next time,"

||||||||||||||

Nearly half an hour passed and Nickel had now since lied back, flipping through the hotel's channels whilst finishing the remainder of his green tea.

Just as he was starting to drift away into dreamland, the loud BANG of the bathroom door shook him awake. Thankfully, only a small amount of tea was left in his cup so no big spill stained his sheets.

Soap casually strolled out of his bathroom, taking off her mask with a fresh sigh of relief. "Ahh, nothing like a good scrubbing to ease my nerves!"

Nickel coughed, waving one of his feet at the strong scent of cleaning chemicals coming from his bathroom. "You trying to make mustard gas in there?"