The Harmony of the Spheres

Arc 1:6

The day Nicholas was discharged, his mission progress dropped to 65%. Looking at the stairs leading into the multi-level house he wondered if the decrease was due to the sudden risk of breaking his neck while falling down stairs.

When Louisa said they'd renovated to accommodate a wheelchair, she'd only been half right. There was no ramp access into the house so Gabe had to carry Nicholas up the stairs where he gently placed him on the couch before returning for the wheelchair. It also meant Nicholas couldn't leave without going the same route.

Fortunately, he had no need to go upstairs.

The downstairs guest room had hand rails and a shower chair installed in the ensuite, while all furniture had been removed from the bedroom and the bed pushed to the side against the wall. There was enough room for Nicholas to manoeuvre his wheelchair around the room and he could even go to the toilet by himself. Which was more of a relief than he'd ever have though possible— by the time he was being discharged from the hospital, Gabe had taken to sending the nurses away and helping Nicholas with the daily routines of bathing... and toileting. It was one thing to let a nurse manhandle him, that was their job after all, but letting the male lead see him naked and vulnerable was something completely different.

Especially when the male lead was surprisingly enthusiastic about making sure Nicholas was clean all over.

He was also extremely hands on with Nicholas' physio and daily exercises.

"You don't have to do this. I know you've got work to get back to... I can do this by myself." Nicholas didn't know where to look. If he looked straight up then his eyes made contact with Gabe's and he would instantly freeze with the memory of how cruel the other could be. If he let his eyes roam around then it was impossible to ignore their current position on his bedroom floor. Nicholas was lying on his back while Gabe was on one knee beside him, helping him stretch his leg back towards his chest. The position was slightly incongruous save for the fact they were both fully dressed.

"If I don't help you, who will?" Gabe slowly lowered Nicholas' leg and his hands slipped along skin exposed by the loose shorts, riding higher up Nicholas thigh before retreating as if nothing untoward had happened. He tapped the opposite leg and Nicholas struggled to raise it high enough for Gabe to lift it the rest of the way. "Just rely on me, Nicky."

And that was the problem; Nicholas had to rely on him. Louisa had returned to work and Gabe had refused to hire a nurse, claiming that they couldn't trust anyone from an external company. Aside from his appointments with the physio in charge of his case, Nicholas rarely saw anyone other than Gabe and Louisa. Even his hydrotherapy appointments had been cancelled once he was discharged because the pair had installed rails in their private pool to help him exercise 'at home'.

When he complained of boredom, Gabe gave him more work. As the months of recuperation passed, Nicholas became more and more familiar with the inner workings of the two Families.

<Mission Progress: 61%>

"I wish I had a photographic memory like the protagonists in transmigration novels. Then I could make a copy of everything, just in case." Shame the novels had gotten so much wrong— the poor soul sucked into the system wasn't a genius and the freaking useless system didn't talk and all those handy cheats? Non-existent.

<You have selected Copy. Select from the following:

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Nicholas took back every nasty thing he'd ever thought about the system.