strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-in Day

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[GP/EP] Check-in Day

It was a musical day at the Madonna Inn, both inside and out. Curnen had taken her usual place up on the roof and was singing charms to the sky to keep any wanderers from getting lost (though that part of it was not immediately obvious). Unrelated to that, Sunny was on the dance floor in the bar, summoning songs of her own with her knife to keep her moving before she went to do her shift at the library later. It was one of those days where if she thought about it too hard she’d start thinking about that empty bed in her shitty room and the person she most wanted to be there.

This of course eventually seeped into her magic. She knew better. Maybe she’d even wanted that to happen.

Because just once, between different pop hits and dance beats came a rather unexpected French love song. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but the exasperation didn’t last. Before the lyrics started up she was waltzing. By herself and not caring how it might have looked. And for those three and a half minutes, she dared let herself hope for the slimmest chance that Orlu might come through that door.

She didn’t let herself hope too hard, though. There was admitting to feeling things and there was setting yourself up for certain disappointment. She’d lived too long with disappointment to do that to herself.

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She felt a little silly having to be lifted to her room. She was fine. Maybe a little under the weather, but that happened from time to time to everyone, right? Still, it would be a lie that a small part of her thought it was nice how easily it seemed to be for Peter to carry her. Like she was meant to be there.

Liz rest her head against his shoulder. He normally felt warm, but this time he felt cooler to the touch. "I think I might have a fever." The words came out soft like a murmur.

"Yeah, it feels like it," he says. He wishes that there were doctors here. He wasn't sure if the healers could really do anything except magically heal wounds. He'd managed to get through the last nine months with little more than a single cold, so he never had to ask anyone else for help.

"You think you're okay to stand for a minute?" he asks, gently settling Liz down. He lets her lean against him for support while he fishes out the key for Liz's room. His hand find it soon enough, and he slips the key inside with a single hand and turns it. The door opens, and Peter immediately lifts her up again and carries her to her bed.

"I'll go grab some ice," he tells her, and he looks around for her ice bucket. Where was it?

"Do superheroes get sick?" She knew aliens didn't which was when Michael got sick from whatever River Dog did to him, everyone had freaked out. Max had never even sneezed.

Things were feeling a little less dizzy, but her head still felt hot. It was like she was in a weird sort of haze - that's usually how Liz described fevers to her mom in the past. A haze.

She felt the urge to pull of her t-shirt because the room felt hot, but stopped herself. Liz settled for lifting the Hem of her shirt exposing her abdomen. It seemed to provide temporary relief while she waited for Peter.

"Yeah," Peter says, though he can't be sure if it's the same for everyone else. "All the time."

Well, maybe not all the time for him, but...

"I'll be back in a few," he tells her once he finds the ice bucket. He tucks it beneath his arm, heads out the door, and returns a few minutes later.

He sets the ice down on the nightstand and heads to the bathroom to fetch a washcloth. Once he has one, he reaches into the ice bucket and sets some cubes on top of it, then folds the washcloth up.

Peter sets it down on her forehead.

"It helping any?"

Somewhere between Peter leaving and him coming back, Liz started to feel better. Things were less of a haze, though it still lingers.

When he placed the ice on her head, she nodded. The coolness of the cloth was nice. Still, Liz squeezed her eyes close for a moment. "This is so embarrassing."

"What's embarrassing?" he asks, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Nothing embarrassing about getting sick."

After a moment Liz sat up a little so she could look at him better, holding onto the cloth on her head. Sitting up didn't seem so bad anymore, or at least at the moment.

"Just lately with everything."

"Why embarrassed?" Peter's hand finds hers and he gives it a gentle squeeze.

"I normally feel like I have a good handle on things, you know? But then lately..." Her eyes met Peters and there was a hesitation there, Corbie's words still ringing in her ear despite everything. Still...

"First the thing with Emma -" It was easier to say it that way rather than 'with Max' - "and then the thing with you and Xavin. And then I've spent like two days on this chemistry assignment and I'm not getting anywhere and then I force you to carry me up the stairs."

Liz felt a little dizzy again and a rush of nausea hit her. She lay back down slowly and looked up at the ceiling. "...Maybe I'm just stressed out."

"You didn't force me to do anything," Peter says. "I wanted to carry you."

It's true. And besides that, it didn't put him out at all. Not with his powers and abilities.

"If you think you're feeling stressed, you should take a break. Chemistry will still be waiting for you tomorrow, or next week." The one thing they had in surplus was time.

Liz knew he as right. She knew it wasn't like home where there were strict deadlines and consequences for missing it. She paused to think about why she might have done it.

"I guess I just thought if I could figure out the chemistry problem, I'd feel like I have more control?" Liz was still looking up at the ceiling as she admitted what she did. Admitting it, though, seemed to help with the nausea. It ebbed.

"Yeah, but it's okay not to have control sometimes," Peter says. "Especially if you're not feeling good. When you're feeling better, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out. I know when I'm sick, I can't really do anything. Especially chemistry."

And if Liz needed help with it even after she was better... well, he'd help with that.

After another moment, Liz sat back up a little. She sat back on her elbows and looked at Peter. At first it looked as if maybe she was going to say something, but she didn't. Then she just continued to look at him with a soft, searching expression as if having a conversation in her head. The only thing that didn't change and would be familiar was the look she always had when she looked at him - warmth and love.

Peter smiles back at her. Even though she's not actually saying anything, he knows exactly what she's saying. Maybe it's a little like Curnen and her music.

"Want me to get that orange juice for you?"

Edited (CURNEN NOT CORBY) 2018-05-16 20:55 (UTC)

His smile warmed her expression. "Sure." She almost told him she had a surprise, but maybe she would just have it ready for him when he came back. She really did feel like she was getting better.

"I'll go get you some juice, then."

He gives her hand one final squeeze, then lets go, then disappears to retrieve some juice.

--

Peter returns about ten minutes later with a pitcher of juice. He doubts Liz is going to be able to drink it all, but he'd rather have too much than not enough. He's going to have some too, anyway.

He sets it down on her table and pours two cups -- one for her, and one for him, then offers one to Liz.

"Is the ice helping?"

When Peter returned, Liz was sitting up. She actually felt a lot better, though she was still a little pale.

"Yeah. I think the fever might be almost gone, actually." She reached behind her back and produced a square item wrapped in tissue paper from the boutique. "I spotted something new yesterday." Liz held out the item to Peter. It was a copy of Blade Runner on VHS.

Peter sets his juice down on the nightstand and takes the gift. He frowns down at it before carefully unwrapping it. But once he sees the top of the VHS his eyes light up with recognition.

And Peter tears through the rest of the wrapping.

"Are you serious? I love Blade Runner!"

His head swivels from the VHS over to Liz. "Have you seen it? I have Roy Batty's monologue completely memorized. It's amazing. Did you know he improvised that?"

Peter Parker ios clearly fanboying.

His excitement brightened Liz and somehow it seemed to make her feel even better. Colour seemed to slowly find its way back into her once pale face.

"I saw it and thought you'd be excited. I actually haven't seen it, even though Alex talks about it a lot. He says it's one of his favourite." And clearly it made an impression on Peter.

"Will you say the monologue for me?"

"It's a spoiler," Peter says. "Are you sure you want me to?"

She tilted her head to the side as if considering, then scooted back on the bed. "Unless you'd like to watch it now?" Her TV was across from her bed so the bed was the most comfortable place to sit when you watched it. Not that her room was much bigger for anything else anyways.

"Yeah!" Peter exclaims. "If you want, I'll do it for you afterwards."

Peter immediately pulls the VHS tape out of the sleeve and begins pressing buttons on the VHS. He slips the tape inside and it whirs up. He presses a finger against one of the TV's buttons and it powers on.

Peter sits down beside Liz on the bed. Then looks over at her, and smiles.

The advertisements begin to play and Peter wonders how anyone from the past managed to sit through these every time they watched a movie. Every time he seemed to fast-forward, he ended up just fast-forwarding into the movie. It was almost easier to just sit through it.

One of the things that Liz really liked about watching movies with Peter, was his excitement. It was almost palpable in the air and it always made her smile. As the movie began, she found herself leaning against Peter more and more until her head rested on his shoulder while they watched. Soon, the sickness she had felt seemed to go away completely.

The movie continues, and Peter only interrupts a few times to tell her things about the movie. When they finally hit the point where Roy gives his big monologue, Peter gestures to the screen --

"This is it, this is it," he whispers hurriedly to Liz.

And then when he speaks it, Peter mouths the entire thing perfectly, as if he has seen the movie a million times.

It's not long before the movie is over, and Peter turns to look at Liz.

"What did you think?"

Liz liked it, but if she were being honest, she liked having Peter's excitement beside her more. "I liked it a lot. I thought, um. Harrison Ford was really good in it too." She smiled. "And you're right, that monologue was really good."

A little sheepish expression crossed her face as she drew up her knees. "Will you still say it for me?"

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