A Catch Up Like No Other

Posted on Sat Aug 3rd, 2024 @ 8:29pm by Warrant Officer Iryna Voznyuk & Staff Sergeant Nathanial "Nate" Cusack

Mission: Remnant
Location: Iryna’s quarters
Timeline: Backpost
3279 words - 6.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Nobody would ever have called Nate a gracious loser. More inclined to argue than admit fault, the arrogant veneer he'd plastered over ingrained insecurity over the years was perhaps his least attractive quality and yet it was stubborn, a persistent relic despite being a whole year out of having anyone to prove anything to who was actually keeping count. To say that he was improving seemed almost optimistic some days but victory often had to be content with tiny, incremental steps. Rome might have taken a while to build but it had also taken its sweet time collapsing, if you wanted to be technical about it.

He'd been sullen in Sickbay, for instance, rather than outright belligerent, and hadn't argued about the need for treatment even though it was downright humiliating to be covered in red splotches like some crimson variant of a jersey cow. What he wasn't likely to do any time soon, at least not in public, was admit that as soon as his apparent allergic reaction to space pollen had been halted by a healthy dose of anti-histamine and a soak in a topical concoction, most of his other symptoms had also eased. The headache was much better, the hint of nausea had abated and the sensation of wanting to actually murder a salad had receded to more-or-less normal impulse. Hughes had insisted on observation for a few hours lest the reaction progress further and so it was dinner time when the marine-cum-medic finally stepped back into self-determination and he was wise enough, if graciousness was too much to ask, to know where he needed to go first.

He sucked at apologising. Things had been easier when she'd just found an excuse to kick him in the balls during training.

This time, rather than barge in under the guise of trying not to disturb, Nate paused outside Iryna's quarters and idly scratched at a lingering spot of rash nestled amongst his stubble. Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against the door in defeat and hit the door-chime.

Iryna looked up from where she had been doing yoga in the limited space and called out 'Come in' as there was no way she could move there and then from the floor. She was knelt on the mat with her knees hip-width apart, and her arched back with her hands towards her heels, lifting her chest and letting the head gently drop back. "Slightly busy right this second so um... oh hey." She relaxed when she glanced over as the door opened and saw Nate standing there. She had left him in sickbay once Hughes had taken charge and she knew that he was in no danger of dying despite the look on his face making it look like he would have rathered that.

Only Nate Cusack had figured out how to lounge in a doorway. One hand gripped the upper lip, allowing him to stand in a way that exuded casual indifference, and when he coupled it with a certain twinkle in his eye that didn't require a smirk to convey flirtatious mischief, he pulled off the dashing charm of a swaggering buckaroo. He wasn't managing it right now, slumped as if defeated by fatigue. If anything, holding onto the doorframe seemed pivotal to him being able to stay standing, though as with anything in Nate's case, it was likely exaggerated.

"Room for another?" As with most of his conciliatory acts, Nate went the humourous route. He was rubbish at yoga at the best of times, though she occasionally managed to convince him to try.

Iryna found herself smiling as she looked up at him upside down for a moment as she returned her body to finishing up her routine so she did not injure herself. She was fully aware of the dos and don'ts with her body and that was one of them - you did not move fast doing yoga even after many years of her doing it. "Not you when you have been in sickbay today." She answered as she slowly moved to sit up properly and turned a little to look at him. "Are you hanging in the doorway or coming in?" She wondered.

Whether a witty retort eluded him or Nate simply chose not to deliver one for once, he lingered only a moment more before pushing off with his weight and slipping through so the doors could close behind him. "You had any dinner yet?" It wasn't a perfect invitation but navigating the need to apologise when you had very little experience with it was complicated.

The woman smiled a little up at him as he finally ventured into her quarters. “Not yet but I cannot exactly go like this.” She mumbled looking down at her vest and shorts. She used her bed to pull herself up to her feet.

"I was going to offer to go get it while you finished up." It hadn't been that long ago he'd been fetching food whilst her arm recovered. Judging by the look of her now, Iryna was either pushing her limits or excelled at healing just like everything else she touched. "If you're up for eating in, that is."

She could see his gaze on her and watched him back noticing the blotchy skin but he looked better than she had left him hours ago. “Seems to be your role in this relationship.” She said teasing. “But it sounds great. I’ll be ready by the time you get back.”

The lack of retort was telling, though there was some sort of grace to be found in Nate simply propelling himself away from the door with a half-hearted yet playful salute and wandering off without saying a word. By now, his method of apology was to avoid apologising but minimise the reason to require additional contriteness and that usually involved keeping his mouth shut.

He took, in total, nearly half an hour. This was an excessive amount of time to gather food, even with the increase of choice they'd enjoyed recently, but stopping to explain several times why he looked like a dalmatian had reached a point where the only thing that had stopped Nate from emptying his dinner on top of someone's head was the fact that it was also Iryna's share for the evening. He arrived back at the quarters a little more spirited for the experience, though committed enough to making amends that his grouchiness was tucked away behind an impassively sullen expression.

"Burgers tonight," he announced, failing to sound inspired. "And the latest attempt to turn the wrong vegetable into fries."

Iryna was drying her hair awkwardly when he returned and she quickly tied it up in the towel and grinned at him. She was wearing a large t-shirt and shorts and look comfortable if not ready for bed. "I do not mind the attempts, it is something different and not at all bland like we used to have despite chefs' best efforts." It was a welcome change to her and she took one of the trays first then the other putting them down. "Feel better for the wander?" She wondered.

The flicker of an eyebrow stood in for a shrug, which was a non-committal way of saying 'not really' without actually speaking the words. For all his faults, Nate wasn't one to directly complain about his physical health, being more of less the product of the toxic mentality that complaining about injury or illness was tantamount to weakness. That didn't rescue him from being an absolute treasure to be around when he was healing but it didn't at least guarantee that his biggest problem was going to be pushing himself too quickly rather than languishing around feeling sorry for himself.

In yet another gesture of contrition, Nate moved to collect plates and glasses and served up the food. It was only once he was handing over her portion that he finally made proper eye contact and, though it was clear there was still a lot of frustration he needed to work through, it was now being actively kept at bay by an effort to be better company. He even offered her a familiar crooked half-smile. "Your feast, madam."

Iryna stayed quiet as he moved around. He wanted the silence so she gave it to him but smiled relieved when he finally spoke. “Thank you.” She took the plate thinking on how she was going to talk to him about what happened with sickbay. “This looks good. But Thank you.”

Carrying his own food, Nate ignored the fact that he was technically the least fit of the pair of them for the moment and took up his usual spot on the floor. The burger he'd built for himself had an astonishing amount of salad greens compared to his usual preference, but Nate had decided the universe needed reminding about who did the eating around here. Plants were bottom of his food chain, not the top of it.

Iryna started to eat slowly savouring the hamburger and the strange sweet potato fries for a moment. “You know something, Nate. We are quite a pair visiting sickbay. When you were over the base. I had to go back to sickbay.” She started.

Immaculate as always with her timing, (Nate had grown to suspect it was entirely intentional at this point), Iryna's comment had landed right as he'd taken an impolitely-large bite of his food. He paused with the burger still mushed against his face, teeth working their way through the layers, and then had to pull off his best chipmunk impression to chew enough to speak around the mouthful. "Arm problems?" It wasn't everything he wanted to ask but it was all the syllables he could afford without losing coherency.

"Well, that is where things got interesting," Iryna said quickly carrying on while he was eating. "I was called there because they thought I was pregnant. I am not but they might have swapped my result from last blood test with someone else." The woman quickly explained before he got the wrong idea.

For the second time in not enough days, Nate found himself battling against his salad greens, this time as a choked cough to avoid inhaling the remains of his last bite. He spluttered a moment, managed to gulp down half of his juice, and then sat blinking back the sudden moisture in his eyes as he poured every last ounce of his determination into not coughing again.

It didn't work.

Iryna could not help but laugh at the man and leant over with her good arm to slam him on the back several times to help. "You good?" She checked hoping she was not going to have to perform the Heimlich maneuver and take him to sickbay for the second time in a day. No one would be impressed at all with it.

"I would be...if these...fucking plants...would stop trying to kill...me."

The rest of the juice disappeared, by which point Nate had just about wrestled back his composure. He fixed Iryna with a partial-grimace, dubious beneath the knit of his brows, and tried instead to focus on her recount.

"Who the hell'd risk a pregnancy at this point?"

It wasn't, as so many knee-jerk reactions from Nate weren't, a very sensitive reaction but it wasn't without some sense of accuracy. It was likely his incredulity wasn't intending to be judgemental, it just so happened that he had a remarkable gift for straying in that direction anyway.

Iryna smiled softly and moved her hand from smacking him on the back to squeezing his shoulder. "Not me but I won't be telling anyone who until they are ready to tell." Iryna had made that choice when she had seen how pale the captain had gone and could understand that Nate's reactions were going to be similar to several other people.

"Just when you think shit can't get any weirder." At the very least, the topic had loosened Nate's tongue, enough that the grudging need to make amends wasn't rendering him mute in an effort to entirely avoid making a mess of it again. He shook his head as he refilled his glass, having set aside what remained of his burger to take a break from the constant need to defend himself.

“Slightly out of her control.” Iryna said having a lot of sympathy for the Captain. She had been terrified in her boots for a few short moments so was in not position to comment on any of it. “But time will tell how much weirder it gets.” She said going back to eating her burger now her conscious was slightly clearer.

As far as speculation went, this wasn't a topic Nate was particularly inclined to linger on. Fatherhood in general was not a simple concept, he'd certainly not arrived at any firm decision regarding his desire to having children other than a somewhat perpetual sense of 'not the right time'. Even a fleeting possibility was enough to be alarming, with enough already stacked against the odds of raising a happy, healthy child in their current predicament without adding to it all his personal beliefs about his own capacity as a parent. Whoever this mystery person was, (and he knew better than to press for an identity), Nate felt a degree of cynical sympathy, for the kid as much as the parents. This wasn't exactly a child's playground.

"Swapping blood tests doesn't sound like something that ought to happen," he veered into the more practical elements of her experience, one that directly impacted his new workspace. It was also his way of just double-verifying that there had been a mistake. "Did they say why or how?"

Iryna nodded. "Human error from a crew that are very tired sometimes. Remember what I did when I was tired." She rolled her shoulder and winced at the movement strain it created with her shoulder. "I won't be doing anything adventurous for awhile." She said sadly with a roll of her eyes.

Having opened the last remains of his burger to pick at the meat-substitute, Nate chewed thoughtfully as he watched the woman who had once busted his balls for fun quietly finish her meal. As much as it would probably take a few more smacks around the head to get him to confess it, he had missed her, finding that it only added to his frustration with their situation to have been forced to remain at a distance without a decent opportunity to talk. It didn't quite make the criteria for raising kids in space together but it was the closest thing to an attachment he'd felt outside marine loyalty for a long time. A half-smile added a layer of doubt to his response. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"Excuse me?" The woman said turning to look at him. "If I was being adventurous you'd be either in bed having fun or sparing in the gym for the grey hairs you've given me last 3 days." She pointed out with a grin before turning back to her food. Neither felt like a good idea when she had put a little pressure on herself whilst waiting to see if they were going to be boarding the ship or not.

"Why not both?" The bold challenge, with its waggled eyebrows and intentional leer, didn't aim to be taken seriously but was delivered with exactly the kind of tone that guaranteed Nate wouldn't actually back down if she pushed the matter. He left himself far too open in that capacity but that had become part of the fun of it, never really knowing when she was going to call his bluff.

"Maybe when we are both feeling better." She said smiling leaning out to caress his cheek before returning to the silence of eating. She was in a good place mentally she just needed to get her physical shape back and she would be back to her best. It was a frustrating place to be when the mind was willing but the body not so much.

It was a subtle reminder of his own situation though Nate wasn't a huge fan of the necessity to allow himself recuperation time, not when it threatened his personal life. Still, that was twice in as many breaths that Iryna had brought it up, and the remark about newly-acquired grey hairs hadn't gone unnoticed. Had it occurred to him that she'd be worried? Perhaps; now that he considered it, Nate at least recognised it as a reasonable assumption but wasn't sure if he'd really dwelled on it whilst stuck in the middle of a snapdragon's digestive system. Of course, there hadn't been a lot of time between finding out the extent of the danger and being extracted from it so he couldn't even say for sure there had been a point where he'd been specifically worried. Annoyed, yes, but that was hardly reliant on danger. He supposed, from an impotent-to-act point of view, Iryna had the greater claim to concern.

For him. She'd been worried for him.

Setting aside his plate, Nate scooted across to take up seat beside her on the sofa that was optimistically built for two. It was a squish but her injured arm was on the outside and an ample excuse to dig his chin into her shoulder whilst staring up at her was easy justification. He watched her continue to eat, aware that she was doing her best to ignore him, and tempted fate by slowly poking his bottom lip into a pout. The clock was ticking now on how long it would take for her to capitulate and kiss him, with the flare of boyish ridiculousness being a far more natural approach to an apology than actually saying the words.

Iryna finished her burger ignoring the pressure on her shoulder and leant over getting her drink and took several sips before she turned to gaze at him. She narrowed her eyes as she took in the pout that he had on his face. "Yes, Staff Sergeant?" She wondered running her thumb along his lip.

"You know I'm probably indigestible, right?" Making no effort to move, Nate continued effort to perfect a hang-dog expression whilst simultaneously seeking to reassure. "It would have spat me out eventually." The underlying subtext was an effort to convince her not to worry so much, that he'd made it this far not ending up part of a balanced diet.

Iryna sighed softly. "I am not willing to risk any part of you." She said wishing that she could take back what she had said when she knew how it changed things between them slightly. She pressed a kiss to lips wishing to savour the moment before he said something in response to what she said.

It was an embrace Nate only briefly entertained, mostly because it had already been determined that neither of them were up for where natural resolution always took them. Instead, he pulled back and pressed his forehead to hers, indulging in a moment of tenderness to trace the backs of his fingers along the curve of her jawline.

"I'll stay out of McGregor's farm next time, I swear."

The woman raised an eyebrow at what was McGregor’s farm but she did not want to ruin the moment when it was so tender between them. “Good. Please don’t die. I would miss you.” She whispered.

"Cross my heart, next time I get into a pickle," Nate promised, winking playfully at his own terrible humour, "I'll get straight back out again."