—
She tried studying her blood sample. Her cells seemed to be… well, she couldn't tell much. She couldn't even tell which of the floating things were her red blood cells, white blood cells, and whatever. What else was there in blood, anyway?
"I see… a sample? I'm guessing it's nothing too remarkable, since I don't see anything moving weirdly, I guess."
Evonie huffed softly, expecting Reya's answer. She shook her head and pulled Reya away from the microscope.
"Well, actually, you're right. Nothing really special at first, your blood cells are looking normal, and they don't seem to be going crazy. I had a blood sample from a feral before, and the results looked drastically different."
Evonie then changed from staring at the microscope to looking directly at Reya.
"However, that's why I tried something else."
Reya looked at Evonie, noticing the slightly vague tone behind her voice.
"Like what?"
Evonie asked Reya to follow her, and so they ended up on another side of the lab. They stopped in front of an unfamiliar-looking… box? But it had transparent walls with some gloves attached on the sides.
Evonie noticed Reya's confused expression, finding it rather… endearing. But she pushed that idea aside. After a moment, she decided to explain the situation to her.
"You're looking at a laboratory glove box. It keeps an isolated space from any other contaminants for anything you put inside. Anyway, I've used it before to get a culture of whatever pathogens cause the feral infection, y'know. To put it simply, I'm doing the same method with a petri dish to see if you have those pathogens in your blood."
Reya nodded slowly, taking a minute to grasp the explanation. Evonie didn't wait for a proper reply, continuing to speak.
"Well… we'll know you're infected if they're present in your blood culture. It'll take a while, so we'll check on it in a day or 2."
Hearing that they'll only see the results in a few days, Reya cleared her confusion and set it aside. She nodded and crossed her arms.
"Alright, then. Do you have anything else to do here?"
Evonie glanced around, eventually making her way back to her main counter.
"Just a cleanup left to do."
She made her way to the microscope and took the slides, cleaning it with some other solutions. Reya had planned to help out as well, but she hadn't seen the flask on the edge of the counter that she passed by.
It had turned out that Evonie had also placed a bit of Reya's blood in a flask, so when it had been knocked over, the crimson liquid instantly made a mess on the pristine counter and onto the smooth floor.
The blood had spilled practically everywhere and flowed across some parts of the counter, eventually reaching Evonie, who was cleaning up on the same counter. A good chunk of the blood dripped onto the hem of the right sleeve of her lab coat, which then dripped onto her skin underneath.
Reya saw the red staining Evonie's lab coat, and she quickly made her way over to try and help out Evonie. However, she noticed Evonie was completely silent… and even a little frozen.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to knock over the… Ev?"
Evonie's fingers trembled minutely, and her head bent low, her expression out of sight from Reya. After a moment, Reya heard her speak stiffly.
"Just get a dry cloth..."
Reya swallowed thickly before nodding and walking away to get a cloth.
Once Reya had left, Evonie cursed softly. She had felt a bit strange when the blood initially made contact with her skin, but then an intense migraine rippled through her head.
She instantly felt like she couldn't even stand straight, let alone talk. Of course, she was familiar with what would happen next. She stumbled over to the closest drawer, a mess of words running through her mind.
Her filthy blood is soaking into your skin. Are you just going to let that happen? Don't you think she did that on purpose? She's so damn annoying.
Shut up.
You think about it too, don't you? How about you stop her from messing up ever again? Rip her limbs apart—or hell, why not slowly carve the flesh off her bones? Drain her blood, litter her skin with bloody scars. That ought to teach her.
Cold sweat began to run down her back. She tripped over her feet a few times as she walked.
That's ridiculous. All rambles from a stupid voice.
You, calling ME a stupid voice? Aren't you the fool for holding onto her for so long, even when you know she DETESTS you for what you did 3 years ago? You haven't even told her everything. Just give up, or else I'll eat at you until you feel like you're dead and rotting.
Finally, after scrambling to open the pill bottle and almost tearing it apart in the process, she downed a pill and felt herself settle down.
She eventually calmed down and stood up sluggishly.
...That was one of my worst flare-ups yet. What in the world was that about?
Evonie forced herself to close the drawer and make her way back to the counter. There, she saw Reya, who was carefully cleaning the blood off the counter.
With her mind now cleared, she noticed how it looked like a crime scene. There was blood all over the counter and floor. She also felt something dripping from her hand, so she glanced down and remembered that some blood had gotten on her sleeve.
When Reya had glanced at Evonie, she paused in her movements to blurt out a comment.
"You look a bit pale."
Evonie used her clean sleeve to wipe off the small bit of cold sweat on her head.
"The water was really cold when I washed my hands."
Reya stared for a few more seconds before clearing her throat, lowering her head to continue wiping up the counter.
"I'll go and clean this. You should wash your hands again, I don't think you cleaned your sleeve out thoroughly…"
Evonie nodded and walked off to a bathroom. She silently removed the coat and rinsed it with water. After getting most of the stain out, she also washed her hands with soap.
…The water really is cold.
—
Reya lazily kicked at the rocks in their path as they began walking back to their base. Evonie was holding a plastic bag that contained her lab coat inside.
"I got your coat dirty," she mumbled softly with her head lowered.
"It's fine, my coat was due for a wash anyway. But why are you so quiet?"
Evonie glanced at Reya, who seemed to be acting a bit more reserved than usual. Reya hesitated before replying.
"You seemed really mad earlier… like— really frozen with anger."
"When did I—Oh. That's not why I…"
But then Evonie sighed softly, shaking her head as she trailed off her words. So she wasn't able to completely conceal her emotions earlier, huh?
She eventually continued, although lying straight through her teeth.
"I was just worried if your blood would get into some wound of mine. We haven't ruled out whether you're infected or not, you know."
Reya finally felt some relief from the explanation. She nodded and let out the tension she didn't realize she had.
"Ah… that explains it. So—you're not mad?"
"Of course not."
—
The both of them had finally arrived at the base once more. Reya opened the door and entered, Evonie following from behind not long after.
Reya felt the warmth inside, and with some relief, she walked over to the living room and sunk down lazily into the couch.
Yeah… now this is where it's at.
A few moments had passed. As Reya made herself comfy on the couch cushion, she felt someone make their way over to sit beside her. She could tell from the scent of vanilla and some radiating warmth that it was none other than—of course, Evonie.
Reya looked at Evonie with half-lidded eyes, acknowledging the other's presence.
"...You still got something to say?"
"I drew quite a bit of blood from you earlier. You should drink and eat a bit more today, you'll need it."
"Mn."
Some silence enveloped the both of them. It wasn't awkward, however. A lack of words never meant anything bad between the two of them. Small talk just wasn't their thing, and fewer words fortunately meant a lesser chance of falling into an argument about their… eventful past.
However, the quiet moment was quite short-lived.
They heard the creaking of the floorboards, and they eventually saw a groggy Warner make their way over to them. It seemed he had just woken up, considering his barely tamed bed hair and wrinkly pajamas.
"Did the two of you head out?" he asked.
Evonie, raising her eyes from Reya to Warner, replied first.
"Just for a short while. Lab visit."
It clicked to Warner rather quickly that it was probably a follow-up checkup regarding Rey's condition from the last mission.
"So? How's she doing?"
Instead of Evonie replying, Reya decided to answer directly.
"Fine so far. We're waiting for a test to show whether I'm actually infected or not."
Evonie, finding her slight error, quickly corrected Reya.
"Actually, we're checking if you have the pathogens. You may or may not carry the infection, but you're probably not going to be a typical case. After all, if you really were infected, you would have some symptoms by now."
Reya stared at Evonie for a while before shrugging.
"...So in short, we're just waiting for more results. Got that, Arnie?"
Warner was still a little bit stuck on what type of results they were looking for, but he nonetheless tried his best to deduce what they meant from his own understanding.
"Got the gist of it, yeah…"
He cleared his throat, straightening himself now that he began feeling more awake.
"I'm going to wash up before the others wake up."
And so, Warner left. With no more reason to hold conversation, Reya finally shut her eyes. Evonie, noticing Reya beginning to fall asleep, tried to tap her back awake.
"Hey, are you seriously napping? You haven't even gotten your gear off yet."
"It's still so early, I need more sleep."
After a few more minutes, Evonie found herself trying to shake an unmovable Reya.
Damn. Not much I can do when you're trying so hard to stay asleep, Reya.
With a small sigh, Evonie decided to remove Reya's gear. She removed the holster and thigh scabbard carefully and got up to place the gear back in a safe area.
That safe area—of course, being the nightstand in their shared bedroom. To be fair, they aren't Evonie's gear, so she had no idea where the proper storage is.
With that much done, Evonie went back outside. She was wondering what to do, looking up at the clock.
6:54 AM
…
It really was quite early. So far, only she and Warner were awake. With nothing else to do, she decided she might as well cook some food for the other members. They usually wake up around 7:15, and they'll probably be hungry when they wake up.
When she got to the kitchen and glanced at the ingredients, she realized they only had some instant food.
Right. On the last mission, we sent Reya out to get some supplies. Now that I recall, it ended up a complete fail…
Well… in that case, they'll have to go on another mission for some food. Especially since they have a new mouth to feed.
—