Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

28. Lazarus

The first thing she noticed when they awoke was the faint beeping of machines.

The second thing she noticed was that once again, the movement of their left arm was restrained somehow. Null opened their eyes and realized that they were still in the hospital. It was nighttime by now and the lights were dimmed. She looked down, but to her surprise she did not find their arm bound to one of those life support sleeves. Instead she found that the reason for their immobility was Cyril, who had fallen asleep holding their hand. His head rested on his crossed arms on the edge of the hospital bed that she was lying in.

What is he doing here? she asked, baffled.

Looks like he fell asleep watching over us, Lars noted. How cute.

Cute? Seriously?

It wasn't the word that had come to her mind.

Too close, that was what she thought as she stared down at him, and a little bit... creepy.

And yet she found herself unable to pull back their hand from underneath his. She watched him closely as he shifted in his sleep, still without letting go. In the dim light of the room, his hair looked darker than usual. Between the disheveled strands, she noticed a thin, silver line that ran across his temple, cutting through his eye brow.

I thought he never had any augments... How come I never noticed that? she thought at the sight of the scar.

It's because you're usually too busy staring at his eyes, Lars remarked.

Oh, shut up, she growled internally, while Lars seemed to giggle.

Cyril moved again, and his eyes fluttered open. He lifted his head and seemed confused and disoriented for a second. Then he turned to look at them. Null cocked their head to the side, meeting his gaze with a raised eyebrow. The sight startled him so much that he almost cried out in surprise as he jolted back and let go of their hand as if it was a hot piece of coal.

"Oh, I'm... I'm sorry... I was just-" he stuttered, running a hand through his messed up hair. Even under the dim light, she could clearly see that he was blushing underneath his freckles.

"Why didn't you go home to catch some sleep?" Null asked, her sight still fixed on his scar as he combed his hair over it in a gesture that looked like an old habit.

So that's why I never noticed, she thought.

"Uh... I was... worried for you," he mumbled. He cleared his throat. "The anesthesia should have worn off hours ago. We gave you the antagonist, but you just didn't wake up..."

"I guess you were right. I just really needed some rest," she said with a shrug.

He looked at her with a dismayed expression. "I thought I had accidentally drugged you into a coma."

"I'm just a heavy sleeper," she said with a crooked smile. "Besides... it would take a bit more to weed out the likes of me. Believe me."

Now that he had let go of their hand, she brought it closer to their face to get a look at his work. As usual, Cyril had done an excellent job at hiding the wires and fused the tissue diligently without leaving any traces of cuts. She could still see where the old wires had burned through, the skin was red and raw in those places, but of the surgery itself there was no visible trace. As she carefully ran a finger along the back of their hand, she could feel that the new wires had been placed slightly differently this time.

"I had to avoid the inflamed regions," he explained, as if he had been reading her thoughts, "Ideally, I should have taken out the old ones and waited for at least a week before putting in the new ones, but-"