WHERE: war hq WHEN: late night of february 2nd CLOSED for @edensadik​
Nico doesn't swim, he thrashes around, overpowered by the cold that seeps under his skin. And then he doesn't move himself, he is mostly carried, driven over to headquarters. He doesn't remember walking when he gets there, his vision blurred, hands pushing him this way and that. He tries to speak, but his tongue is so heavy, and he's so, so tired. He's exhausted. He'd just like to take a nap, if these hands would stop pulling him around.
It feels counterproductive when he feels his clothes being pulled off his body, but then he's pushed into the maddening burn of a hot shower. He can't remember anything concrete, a mind floating without a body; he remembers the hands, the scalding water against his skin, the way he felt so tired and hurt. A pain that wasn't anything he could pinpoint.
When consciousness starts trickling back to him, they've dressed him in dry clothes and he's sitting on something comfortable, covered and wrapped in a dozen different things. He knows this because he notices he can barely move his arms without disrupting the cocoon of blankets, and jackets, and one of those things that look like a giant piece of tinfoil wrap. He can't feel his feet yet. His scalp feels frozen solid, hair still damp from the river and the shower. He barely has it in him to blink and open his eyes fully, fighting against the darkening spots on the edges of his vision.
The sounds he hears, he realises then, are his teeth chattering, his chin trembling in a way he can't control. The pain that he couldn't place before is more palpable now that he's more aware of his own body again -- he's painfully cold. The blankets help, and he assumes he's warming up because previously he couldn't even think straight, but well, shit. This still sucks.
Looking up and around him, he sees a familiar face, blinks at her a couple times before he can connect name and person, his brain struggling to catch up. "Eden," his voice comes out hoarse, the greeting scratching on its way out his throat. "Can I-- some water? Please?"
