A Fort-Night

Chapter 4

The sparsely furnished office lit up with the flick of a switch, the ceiling fan turning on a second after. My eyelids shuttered close at the sudden bright light as my hand flew to cover my eyes in reflex.

I let my eyes wander through the room, taking in the floor-to-ceiling overflowing bookshelves on my right, Josh's office desk right in front of it. The large bay window on the other side of the room grabbed my attention immediately as another flicker of lightning flashed in the dark gloomy sky. I took a step into the room and sighed contently – thunder and lightning may make me squeamish and scared, but this room made me feel safe. Josh may call this space his office, but really, it was my own personal library.

"Just a few minutes and we'll have the base for our fort." I heard his raspy voice from behind me. Turning on my heels, I watched as Josh carried in a box, a few blankets piled on top of it, reaching just under his chin.

"We can skip the fort." I shrugged in response, giving him a tiny smile in reassurance. The fort wasn't important. "Besides, I don't think we'll be able to adjust the projector right – the blankets will be in the way." I felt a little guilty even suggesting to build a fort when I knew he had to rest. The sudden energy he was currently running on would eventually run out.

Josh gave me a skeptical look in return, the tip of his nose red. "I'm sure we can get it to work, love," he promised, his voice low and raspy.

"The only place we'll be able to put the projector is on your desk and if we built a fort, the blankets will me much higher and it'll be in the way," I explained, a bit disappointed. But honestly, who cared? Josh was giving me a relaxing way to spend this gloomy night – cuddled up with him and watching a movie I probably won't even pay much attention to. Nothing could be better than this. "It's okay though, I don't mind."

He coughed into the crook of his elbow, roughly rubbing his nose with the back of his hand afterwards, "Oh shush, you." He rolled his eyes, giving me a pointed look as he dropped the box and blankets on the desk to then survey the office we spend almost every day in, "I can make it work, believe you me." He mumbled as his gaze stopped at the sight of the looming bookshelves, snapping his fingers and pointing his index finger to the ceiling, "I know!" He exclaimed excitedly, a spring in his step as he moseyed out of the room. Where was the grumpy grump from earlier, the one moaning and groaning as he complained and whined about wanting to be babied? Surely the idea of building a fort didn't just cure his fever? But who was I to complain – he was energetic and lively, and that was good, even if he had to sneeze and cough every few minutes.

Curious as ever, I followed him out into the kitchen, dimly lit up by the hallway lights, "So what are you doing?" I wondered, leaning my hip against the kitchen island with my arms crossed across my chest. Josh simply grinned at me as he passed me by, pecking a quick kiss on the tip of my nose as he made his way back to the office, two of the bar stools clutched under his arms, "If you don't tell me, I won't be able to help," I tried again, trying to guilt him. This was my idea, so ideally I would and should be in charge of actually building the damn thing. I had to try and not burst into a fit of laughter when he almost tripped over his comforter-cape. The goofball hadn't even put it aside before he decided to rearrange our furniture.

Josh turned on his heels as he was about to enter the office, standing halfway through the doorway, "Who said you needed to help?" he asked with amusement laced through his voice, his eyebrows raised at me and his head tilted slightly to the side. With that he walked right out of sight, his laughter echoing through the hall.

"Because you're the patient and I'm the doctor," I yelled after him, "You can't be lifting heavy stuff, doctor's orders." I crossed my arms over my chest, my voice uncharacteristically louder as I waited for Joshua to return.