scavenger.

18 - bulking up

"Captain, you're ranked pretty high up, is that right?"

For some reason, every day for the past two weeks, Jace was always coming to visit her. Anri never even had to move her head to know right where he was. Of course, she always had a pretty good sense of her surroundings—like omnipotence or something—but of all the people she could sense, she could sense him the most. If that made sense.

Right now, he was in the doorway, holding a tray of food, apparently used to this. "Yes, why?"

"So you outrank the doctors."

"Theoretically." He came closer and pulled up a chair, sitting next to her.

Anri rolled her head to face him, narrowing her eyes. "Then you can tell them to shove their 'bedrest' talk up their ass."

Jace laughed. "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to agree with them."

"But you get to be up and about, and we had the same wound and everything!" Anri hated whining, but sometimes it couldn't be helped.

"Maybe you shouldn't've done such a good job healing me." He waited for her to sit up and held out the tray.

Anri took it, but she didn't feel like eating.

He was sad, she knew.

Iye, he was sad.

On Jakku, she would have wet dreams of a meal like this, but now—how could she possibly stomach any kind of food when the air hung so heavy all around them?

"You're not hungry?" Jace asked, knitting his brows.

Anri looked at him and forced out a convincing grin, handing back the tray. She was good at those. "Nah, cap. I'm on hunger strike."

"What for?"

"I'm not eating until I'm allowed to walk around like you."

Good thinking, Anri.

Jace took the tray. "Anri, look at you. You're bone thin. Now," he held up a roll, "if you eat this 100% free food you're being given, you'll bulk up quicker—and just think about how strong you'd be on a full stomach, yeah?" Oh, he was good. He'd learnt to tap into her way of thinking. "And then you'll heal faster, and you can wander to your heart's content. The universe will be yours for the taking. But you have to eat first."

Anri wasn't moved. First of all—she didn't like being taken care of like this. She didn't like laying in bed while this man who had once been at her mercy was trying to coax her into eating. It felt wrong.

She started to pull herself up.

Jace set down the food. "Anri—"

"I've got bed sores all over my ass, captain, and you can kiss each one of them if you try and hinder me one more fucking time!" Her torso burned, but she didn't care.

"At least let me get you a change of clothes," Jace insisted. "You're in a hospital gown."

"What the hell did they do with my clothes?"

"I don't think it'd be wise to wear those, either."

"Why the hell not?"

"Right now you're only warm because I cranked the temperature. Your body hasn't adjusted to this climate. You'll be freezing out there, and you'll get sick, and then you'll be laid up again."