[PRP] Call Me, Beep Me (Chester & Preacher)

[Smerdle]

He was on his feet as soon as she turned to the wall for support, taking the ice cream and offering her his arm in a single motion.

"Please get back in bed. I want you to rest, okay?" Chester wasn't angry, he wasn't even irritated, he was just numb and overwhelmed all at the same time. He sighed.

"We need a safe word for this too. Something that means 'I can't get down the stairs' without using the word help."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher sighed, wrapped her hand around his arm, and leaned into him. Chester being taller at least meant that, at times like these, he made a pretty sturdy thing to lean against. Her lips twitched as she remembered the time she'd shifted on him and knocked him down. "Mmmkay, mom. I'll go." Slowly, they kind of hobbled back to the bed.

After she'd lowered herself, she looked up at him. "What, like 'circus punch'? Nah, safe words'r fer kinky sex, my valet, not for other stuff," she said matter-of-factly. Plus, if they just made a word mean 'help', eventually she'll feel just as shitty about the word. "I already owe ya too much."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Circus punch." He pictured running away from some malevolent othercreature in the middle of the night, screaming such silliness at the top of his lungs. He smiled. "I suppose you're right. And you never owe me anything. I'd be..." A shitty person. An a*****e. "... a jerk if I expected some sort of payback for helping you." Anyone else, he would consider such things, but not from her.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"It was all I could think of." She snorted. Admittedly, circus punch was a terrible safe-word. Preacher was thinking hard about the logistics of laying down. On her stomach would make her throat and shoulder ache. On her back would, well, make her back hurt. Hmm.

She glanced back up at him. "Owin' ain't about expectations - it's 'bout how ya keep helpin' me when ya don't gotta." Honestly, she had no idea why he did all this for her. She also had no idea how to repay him.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He thought about not saying anything at all. It would be easier than trying to explain that it hurt him to see her hurting without getting into other subjects that he didn't even fully comprehend. Instead he shrugged, looking away as he spoke.

"I can't just leave you alone. Not when I'm here and I can do something."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She was silent for a moment, watching the way he didn't watch her. Then, Preacher ran her hand through her hair, feeling embarrassed somehow. "Careful. Ya might end up with me stuck on ya like glue, guero." Encountering a tangle, she yanked it out.

"Ya jus' gotta get dunked on inna alley n' I'll take care of you. Then we'll be evens... wait." She huffed in a way that might have been a laugh if she'd put more force behind it. "Nah, don't think I could take it if ya got all banged up." If was one thing for her to get hurt, it was what Preachers did, but the thought of Chester being hurt, being burned, sitting in an alley in the rain because walking seemed like too much trouble and what if he never moved... nope. She didn't like that.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Chester smiled just a little at first, unable to imagine a situation in his depressingly 'home before dusk' existence where he would ever get dunked on, in an alley or otherwise. But when Preacher backed up, when she said she wouldn't be able to take it if he got hurt, something terrible and wonderful took root in him, too small to bother with now, but certain to strangle him before too long.

He gave her a shallow nod, searching for something meaningful to say and finding nothing. "I'll try not to then." As he swapped the ice cream to his opposite hand, a spatter of condensation dripped onto the floor, prompting a near-comedic wince. "I've got to put this away. Do you want me to get you anything else?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Better not," was all she acknowledged that with. Preacher watched the condensation drop. "Nah, I should prolly try ta sleep, y'know? N' 'less ya wanna be m'hot water bottle, I'm good." She smiled up at him, laying down on her side. Preacher thought that now was perhaps the time to say 'thanks' or acknowledge that Chester was a pretty good guy or say something poignant. But she wasn't good at poignant.

"M'glad I texted ya."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He chuckled, thankful that he was too drained by the events of the evening to reach more than a two out of ten on the human hot water bottle embarrassment scale. Chester waited for her to settle in, and once it didn't look like she was going to hurt herself anymore for a while, he started sliding for the door again, this time facing her as he did.

"I'm glad you did too. I'll leave my door open if you need me."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Or I'll text ya." She held up her phone. But the only text Chester would received was a couple pictures of Mink humped up over Preachers feet and one where the cat was attempting to become her hat.

smerdle