ArchivedLogs:Comforting Company

Comforting Company
Dramatis Personae Aloke, Mallory	2013-11-04 Concern, checking in, and risk taking. (Part of Infected TP.)
Location <XS> - Aloke's Room - FL3
This is standard teacher’s suite at Xavier’s, in form at least. A little more expansive than the shared student dorms a floor below, this suite includes a small sitting room, a small bedroom, and a small private bathroom. The sitting room has been made into a fairly cozy space. Just inside the door is a small side table set by itself in a relatively prominent position in the room, where one could easily visit either on the way in, or out. A skilled, hand-painted, 8x10 image of Lakshmi sits on the table, leaning against the wall. Just in front of the painting is a shallow, silver bowl of water with brightly colored flower petals floating on the surface. The bowl is flanked by a pair of white candles. Also in the room is a small, square, dark wood table with two upholstered, antique style chairs. In the other corner is a loveseat, a recliner chair, and a small ottoman that looks like it can probably store things inside. The sitting area is placed on a large round rug, done in blues and oranges to resemble a star sand mandala. A rolled up blue foam yoga mat is trying to hide behind the loveseat as well. The room is otherwise unadorned. It looks like the flower petals in the shrine by the door have not been changed in a while. The ones floating in the water are shriveled and dark. In fact the entire front room looks pretty neglected. Clothes are draped over the loveseat, leftover dishes are on the table, at least two days old. All of this is highly unusual for the tidy artist. In the back room, Aloke is in bed, sleeping fitfully. Sweaty clothes have been shed recently and lay in a pile by the bed, and he's currently just half in the covers, struggling against some demon of sleep. The knock on the door is a formality at best, as Mallory tries the door knob at the same time her knuckles rap against the old wooden door to Aloke’s room. Finding the door unlocked, she slowly pushes against it, peeking into the room cautiously as the door swings open on quiet hinges. Dismay passes over her features as she sees the state of the room, the untended altar getting a concerned glance as she finishes entering the dormitory. Carefully, she shuts the door behind her, trying to keep it from making too much sound, continuing to survey the state of the room confusedly at the uncharacteristically messy state. “Aloke?” she questions quietly, a hint of worry in her voice as she carefully navigates the front room. For it being a school day, Mallory is dressed relatively casually, in dark gray yoga pants and a scoop neck black tunic top that exposes most of her shoulders to the air. “Is everything o…” her voice trails off as she finally glances into the bedroom, “Oh no.” The sound of hoof falls approaching the bed is muffled by the carpeting, but there is a hurried pace to her steps as she heads towards him, hesitating briefly at the threshold between rooms, waiting to see if her calling out has roused him from his fitful sleep. Aloke moans, fighting his way back to consciousness. Suddenly, when Mallory is in the door to his sleeping area, he succeeds and sits bolt upright in bed with a tiny shout. "Whu!" He pants, trying to catch his breath, looking wildly around the room. As soon as he sees Mallory, he actually calms some, and blinks. His skin is wet, and he slumps back in a sitting position against his pillows, pulling the sheet up to his waist. The comforter was kicked off long ago and lays in a pile at the foot of the bed. He reaches for the glass of water next to his bed and drinks the last of it before croaking out, "Sorry, don't get too close…" He tries a weak chuckle, but it turns into a cough. He certainly can't stop her from approaching. He grunts and says, "Damn, this came on fast. What about you? Managed to dodge it so far, I hope? I wouldn't wish this on anyone, especially not you." Mallory jumps when Aloke suddenly wakes and sits up, stumbling back a step in surprise at his exclamation. “And... that is why I hadn’t come closer before,” she says quietly, a bemused smirk on her lips, as she steadies herself against the door frame, “I apologize if I startled you, I wanted to make sure you were doing ok, and…” Her voice trails off and she blatantly ignores his warning, neatly picking her way around the discarded comforter to move to his bedside, “Which, now I can see that you’re not.” She sighs softly, perching daintily on the edge of the bed, more leaning than actually sitting. “Yes, but… honestly, I don’t get sick that easily, or often anymore. And I would still be checking in on you, regardless,” she says quietly, looking him over with her dark eyes, concern telegraphed on her features. “Do you need me to get you anything? Anything I can do to help?” Mallory questions, her voice catching slightly as she speaks. Aloke looks like he's about to deny her offer of help, but then a coughing spasm takes over. He grabs a fistul of sheet and holds it up to his mouth. Once it passes, he slumps back against the pillows, gulping lungfuls of air. Finally he sighs and nods at his empty water glass. "Would you mind?" He swallows hard and it looks like the action is slightly painful. He adjusts to sit up a little more, and then finally notices his phone on the bedside table. He picks it up to look at the blinking alert only faculty get, and by the time Mallory returns with the full glass, his expression is one of despair. "Holy god… did you see this?" He holds the phone up, showing the alert that went out about Daiki and Arjun. As the coughing fit takes over, Mallory just watches, a helpless look on her features while she waits for it to pass. “Sure,” she says in response to the request, gracefully rising from where she had been perched to take the water glass in one hand, leaning over to press a gentle kiss against Aloke’s forehead. She looks at him with a worried expression, and heads for the bathroom to refill the water. When he is looking at his phone when she returns, her gaze immediately drops to the foot of the bed, her shoulders slumping. “Y… yes,” she sighs, approaching with the water held in both hands, condensation forming on the outside of the glass already as she sets it down on his night stand. Mallory sets herself down on the edge of the bed again, unable to look Aloke in the eyes, her voice somber as she speaks, “Announcement went out earlier in the day.” The water glass is forgotten when Mallory returns. Aloke doesn't even look at it. "I mean… is this for /real/? I… No, no it's a dream, right?" Aloke turns his brown eyes on Mallory. His expression is slowly turning from shock and sadness to realization and fear. He looks like he'd be full-on panicking, and running around the room if he wasn't completely exhausted. His breathing gets a little faster and he lets the phone drop at his side on the bed. He looks up at Mallory and licks his lips. "I- I don't wanna die, Mallory…" His eyes widen a little and he scoots away from her on the bed. "You have to stay away!" Mallory meets Aloke’s gaze with her entirely black eyes, her lower lip quivering faintly at his initial questions. There’s a shuddering intake of breath from the librarian, when she sees the panic that starts to become evident in Aloke’s actions, her eyes going wide when he speaks. “No, no no, it’s ok, it’s ok,” she says quietly, sliding further onto the bed when Aloke scoots away. Arms reach out to wrap him in a tight hug, pulling him close to her, although her body betrays her nervousness with a slight tremble. “You’re not going to die, Aloke,” she says, determinedly, fiercely holding him tight to her with surprisingly strong arms, a possessive edge to the words that come out in a whisper, “And I’m not going anywhere.” Aloke makes a feeble attempt at distancing himself from his girlfriend, and then finally gives up and slumps against her. He puts his arms around her and hugs back weakly. He rests his head on her shoulder and after a long moment sudden shivers wrack his body, and fresh sweat appears all over him. He pants slightly, and then tries to pull back. "I'm sorry… so warm…" he says. He leans over to pick up the glass she brought him. It looks heavy in his hands. He takes another deep breath, drinks a little, and says, "Honestly, I'm glad you're here." When he stops trying to distance himself, Mallory gently rubs his back, saying with a soft sigh of breath, “It’ll be ok. We’ll get through this.” She doesn’t try to hold him when he pulls back, a somewhat sad smile on her lips at the reasoning, “It’s ok. I’m warm on a good day, probably miserably hot to a sick person.” A hand raises to gently brush a stray hair from Aloke’s face, as Mallory smiles warmly, “I wouldn’t just let you sit here and suffer alone.” A momentary look of realization crosses Mallory’s features, and she glances back towards the door, and then back to Aloke. “Have you eaten anything yet today? I… I had made an attempt at cooking, and, well,” a blush colors her cheeks, and she smiles shyly, “I had been coming to see if you wanted to have lunch with me, really.” Now that any sense that she is going to abandon him is banished, she leans forward and kisses his temple, “I can go get it, and bring it over, if you’d like?” Aloke leans his head briefly into Mallory's hand. Whereas most people probably feel cool from her point of view, Aloke feels closer to 'normal' against her palm, which is much hotter than he should be. "I really /am/ glad you're here, but I hope you don't catch it. Maybe you…" Aloke takes a deep breath and another sip of water. "Maybe you can't?" He perks up visibly when she mentions the food, and his stomach rumbles. "Oh… I haven't eaten anything since last night." It's late afternoon now, which means he's been in bed for almost eighteen hours, and hasn't had anything to eat. "Not to uh… I mean, I don't wanna be too gross, but yeah. I haven't been able to keep anything down yet." He manages a sheepish smile and lifts a corner of the sheet to dab at the sweat on his face. The heat from his temple brings another concerned frown to Mallory’s face, and she lets her hand drop to her lap, following it with her gaze, “I honestly don’t know what I can or can’t catch. I’d prefer not to get sick, but, we’ll see.” She smiles, chuckling lightly, “Alright. That’s… not good. You need to eat almost as much as Thomas does - that long without food is… not a good thing.” She looks concernedly at him, perhaps debating if she should just carry his sick self down to sick bay right now. “At the very least, you might be able to keep this down. I’m British - we didn’t get the stereotype about bland food for nothing.” A gentle squeeze to his hand, and Mallory stands carefully, “I’ll be right back. Okay?” Mallory heads out towards her room, the door clicking shut lightly behind her. After several long moments, the door to the dorm opens again, and then shuts behind her as Mallory returns with the mentioned lunch. On what looks like a lacquered tray, with a pale inlay of contrasting wood around the outer edge, Mallory has stacked with carefully balanced plates and bowls, an impressive array of food. “It’s an aubergine and almond soup, and some fresh bread - I didn’t make the bread, I’m kind of rubbish at making bread. I start cooking it too early as I knead it,” she explains, a hint of consternation in her voice, though she smiles brightly at Aloke. The tray is carefully set down on the bed within Aloke’s reach with a small flourish, “Ok. I offer no promises - but, well, if nothing else, I might have made something bland enough for you to keep it down.” She does start to dishes out a small amount of soup into a bowl for Aloke, holding it out to him carefully. “I also have tea. And, um, cake,” she says with a nod and a somewhat sheepish, lopsided grin. Aloke actually manages a weak laugh at the mention of British food. "I thought Brits just ate Indian food," he says, but then the laugh turns into a wet-sounding cough which he muffles with a wad of sheet. At least it looks like there isn't any blood. He had nodded off by the time Mallory came back, but his head bobs up when she appears. He blinks, a little confused at first, and then he smiles again at everything Mallory brought. He takes the soup gingerly, taking in a deep whiff, and then he sips at the soup without using the spoon. Something else catches and he tilts his head, remembering. "Wait, did you say you made a /cake/? I didn't know you bake." “Hey, we did actually have our own cuisine at one point. We just, well, liked everyone else’s because it didn’t consist of stewed fruits and boiled meats,” Mallory says with a chuckle, though that fades when Aloke starts coughing again. She pauses, and reaches into a pocket on her yoga pants, fishing out a small stack of white cotton handkerchiefs, offering them to Aloke without comment - just a concerned look. She takes a moment to dish out a bowl of soup for herself, carefully sipping at it while watching Aloke for signs of her cooking potentially doing more harm than good. Her gaze drops, however, at the question about cake, and she blushes, “Um. It’s…. it looks like a cake. I think it’s still classified as cake. I hope.” There’s a moment where she seems to hide her face behind the soup bowl. “It was supposed to be German Chocolate, but I sort of, well, I sort of burned the icing,” she grimaces, glancing up at Aloke, “So it’s just chocolate with a cream cheese icing and some pecans I didn’t manage to ruin in the icing fail process.” A sheepish grin, and a glance into her soup bowl, “Was supposed to be a belated birthday cake for you. Wasn’t really expecting flu season to hit so soundly at the same time, too.” Aloke sips at his soup some more, just giving up and deciding to use it like a big cup. Spoons are too complicated today. He takes a deep breath and sighs it back out. "Oh god… I really /did/ need to eat something." He winces a little, and with no shirt on, it's pretty easy too see his stomach muscles tightening against some inner pain. It only lasts a moment though, before he opens his eyes again. He nods to himself and takes another sip of soup. He cocks an eyebrow at Mallory then, saying, "Oh damn, I'm such a mess. Sorry… you have to see me like this." He stretches to set his soup on the table, which is a little too far away. "Must be a shirt around here somewhere…" Mallory smiles at the reaction to the soup, though her eyes still clearly telegraph her worry at Aloke’s condition. “I’ve got quite a bit of soup still, and it keeps, thankfully, if you’re hungry for more later. Or now. Especially if it doesn’t disagree too much,” she offers quietly, setting her empty soup bowl back onto the laquered tray. The apology gets a smirk, a faint twitch at the corners of her lips, “It’s alright. I’m the one who came barging in on you while you were trying to sleep. And besides - I want you to get well,” the phrase is said with a warm, caring smile, “I don’t expect you to do anything but focus on getting better, alright? Don’t worry about being a mess, really.” Mallory reaches out to squeeze his hand, smiling reassuringly, “It’s ok.” His search for a shirt, however, gets a nod from Mallory, and she reaches down to the seemingly most recent pile of clothes, picking the shirt out of it to hold up to offer to him, a faint grin on her lips, “This one ok? Or would you rather I get you a clean one?” "Thanks," Aloke says at Mallory's reassurance. He still not really 'smiley' but he definitely seems appreciative of her presence. He runs his fingers through sweaty hair, and accepts the shirt when Mallory holds it out. "Oh hey," he says, regarding the gray and black design. "My Buzzcocks shirt. I've been looking for that." He struggles to get it on, and then leans back again, exhausted from the ordeal. "Yeah, I texted Hank last night. He came up and took a look, but basically told me to just quarantine myse- Oh. Shit." Aloke blinks and looks over at Mallory, the implications suddenly dawning on him. "Crap, I'm sorry. I totally forgot..." A faint smirk turns up the corner of Mallory’s mouth when he mentions the band emblazoned on the shirt, waiting quietly as he works through the activity of putting the shirt on. As he talks, she picks up the water glass from the nightstand and passes it to him, a silent reminder to keep hydrated, remaining quiet for a long moment when he says he was supposed to be quarantined. “I’m the one that broke your quarantine, Aloke. Not you. If I get sick, it’s my own damn fault,” she finally says, in a quiet, determined tone, her gaze focused on his chest, vaguely tracing the design of the logo with her eyes. “But I wanted to make sure you were ok. I was… am… worried about you,” Mallory continues, her voice catching slightly as she speaks, finally chancing a look up at Aloke’s face, her large, dark eyes perhaps a touch more damp looking than normal. Aloke takes the glass gratefully, in both hands again, and sips. Setting it down, he scoots over on the bed to be next to Mallory, and rests his head on her shoulder, overheated or no. "Well either way, I'm glad you came. I can't think of anyone I'd rather be with right now. But maybe we should call Hank anyway, just to check in." Aloke is so tired, his weight just melts against Mallory 's side. He sighs, as contented as can be given the circumstances.