[ whatever reassurance tseng derives from the confirmation that rufus is okay is immediately destabilized by the magnitude of that admission. it takes a second for him to put it together, his mind moving at what feels like a snail's pace; at first, tseng thinks rufus must mean that something happened to him from which he's only just now recovered, but then his brain catches up to the rest of him and understands what rufus really means: that until tseng was awake, he wasn't okay. he's okay now, because tseng is awake.
the thought of it shakes tseng to the core. the thought that any part of rufus might be less than fine because tseng himself is less than fine—he can hardly breathe around the implication.
fortunately, there's water to think about. under any other circumstance, the idea of letting rufus feed him ice ships would be intolerable, but tseng has discovered that his limbs are not especially cooperative right now, and he's genuinely not sure he'd be able to manage it himself. so it's with some small amount of chagrin that he says, ] ...Please.
[ he tries to push himself up a little, to scoot up onto the pillows so that he's at least at a better angle for it, but the mere act of engaging the muscles of his core sends a lance of pain through him that makes him grunt quietly and drop back down to the mattress. which, to be fair, is not a far distance to drop, since he really only lifted himself by about an inch. ]
Do you...
[ ...no. he'd thought to ask rufus if he needed to call someone, the medical staff, a nurse of some kind to assist. and if rufus decides to do so, tseng won't stop him. but at least for right now, selfishly, he would like a few more moments to keep rufus to himself, just in case he is dreaming and he'll never experience this again. ]
no subject
the thought of it shakes tseng to the core. the thought that any part of rufus might be less than fine because tseng himself is less than fine—he can hardly breathe around the implication.
fortunately, there's water to think about. under any other circumstance, the idea of letting rufus feed him ice ships would be intolerable, but tseng has discovered that his limbs are not especially cooperative right now, and he's genuinely not sure he'd be able to manage it himself. so it's with some small amount of chagrin that he says, ] ...Please.
[ he tries to push himself up a little, to scoot up onto the pillows so that he's at least at a better angle for it, but the mere act of engaging the muscles of his core sends a lance of pain through him that makes him grunt quietly and drop back down to the mattress. which, to be fair, is not a far distance to drop, since he really only lifted himself by about an inch. ]
Do you...
[ ...no. he'd thought to ask rufus if he needed to call someone, the medical staff, a nurse of some kind to assist. and if rufus decides to do so, tseng won't stop him. but at least for right now, selfishly, he would like a few more moments to keep rufus to himself, just in case he is dreaming and he'll never experience this again. ]