Not A Scaredy-Cat

The Hospital Room

I stared up at the dull lights in the ceiling, not really finding a reason to close my eyes and pretend I wasn't in a hospital room for five minutes, despite my head throbbing uncontrollably now. The bed groaned loudly as I turned to one side to look at Keiji, sitting silently in the worn out chairs kept beside the bed.

The last time I'd been here, I'd just had to get an overdue tetanus shot.

"So, um, whatcha doing there?" I asked, ignoring the fact that I had called him a creep in front of his actual aunt, which may have led to him getting "the talk" and a lecture on responsibility and choice of words and other such stuff.

He did deserve it though.

"Sitting," he answered flatly, the corner of his mouth twitching with annoyance. "There's nothing else to do here. What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to ignore this headache," I winced as it began hurting even more. "Listen, I know you're mad I embarrassed you a little-"

"A little?"

"Okay, fine, a lot- woah-" I tried to sit up, but nearly fell back down. The room felt like it was spinning around in one of those fancy teacup rides.

He stood up, his expression changing from uninterested to concerned. "You okay?"

"No, I... my head is being a bitch," I breathed painfully. "Oh, oh God."

"Hey, hey, go lie down," he forced me back on the bed. "Don't be silly, we can talk about this later."

"But-"

Felix burst in through the door, whistling cheerfully. He had decided to change from the black catsuit into simple black t-shirt and ripped jeans, complete with a red cap.

"Hey, Zeta, I need your help- oh," he stopped as he saw Keiji leaning over me. "Uh, respectfully, what the fuck?"

"No, no, he was helping me!" I flailed my arms wildly, nearly hitting Keiji's face. "I have a really bad headache right now."

The headache seemed to subside, for some reason.

"Jesus, calm down," he muttered, and then said to Felix, "She's right, her head is pounding."

Felix narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Sure about that?"

"Oh my god, yes." he groaned, flopping down on one of the chairs. "Anyways, what do you want?"

"What do I want? I'm the one in charge here," he snorted. "And I want you doing no funny business. Got it? Else it's straight to your aunt-"

"It's Director Akanobi for you."

"Whatever, punk."

Keiji rolled his eyes and mouthed 'I'm a punk?' at me. I resisted the urge to giggle.

"Okay, but Zeta, you've lived as human, right?"

"Well, yeah?"

He nodded and rummaged around in his jean pockets, pulling out a fused light bulb. "How do you fix one of these?"

I stared at him. "Huh?"

"Like, I know what this is," he explained unhelpfully. "I've just never fixed it 'cuz you know, self lighting light bulbs? I'm surprised you humans haven't discovered it yet."

"Uh-huh..."

"But I need to know because they had this in one of the rooms... and the nurse over there, the prettiest thing actually, she, erm, insisted I fix it," he coughed a little. "You get what I mean, right?"

"Pathetic," said Keiji. "Are you seriously asking a sixteen year old girl to help you get some tonight?"

"No, wait- STOP TWISTING MY WORDS!" he spluttered. "Obviously, I'm gonna take her out to dinner. First."