#narassiwrites

“How’re you feeling?” Wash blinked. Carolina stood inhis doorway after quite literally barging into his room in the hospital. He raiseda brow when she folded her arms impatiently, but he reached for the dry eraseboard Dr. Grey had given him and propped himself up to sit against the pillows.

Fine? Hewrote. No different than when you werehere 3 hours ago.

Carolina huffed and rolled her eyes. “Wash, I’mserious. How. Are you. Feeling? Can you get out of bed?”

Wash narrowed his eyes. I’m not supposed to without Dr. Grey.

She paused. “Well that’s not quite what I asked, is it?”

I can walk. I gettired easy.

Carolina nodded and uncrossed her arms, finally movingfurther into the room. She dropped a bag on the visitor’s chair next to him. “Okaythen. I can work with that.” She walked past Wash to the window behind him, andcarefully slid it open and looked down. “Good thing they’ve got you on theground floor, huh?” She turned to grin at him.

Wash blinked. He blinked again. Carolina was…breakinghim out of the hospital? It stunned him speechless—so to speak. She had been aconstant at his side since he had woken up, and so far, all she had done wasfret over him. She typically walked him to the bathroom when he could manageit, and she was there each day to check on him when he woke up. Technically allof the Reds and Blues were there, but they tended to come in shifts and were alot more likely to sneak him contraband.

What??????

Carolinahuffed a laugh and said, “Wash, you’ve been complaining about being bored. I’vedecided to take pity on you.”

You’re gonna getme in trouble.

She sat down on the bed beside him. “It’s dinner.Everyone is in the mess hall. The training facility isn’t that far from here,and I’ve reserved a room for,” she made air quotes with her hand, “personaltraining. Tucker is covering for me. You and I are going to spar, justsomething light to get all the pent-up energy out of you. Okay?”

Wash heaved a sigh, more for dramatics than anything. Can you hold this and my pen? Shenodded. What about my hospital gown?

Carolina grabbed the bag from the chair and dumped thecontents in his lap. A T-shirt and sweatpants.

Turn around.

She complied, and Wash slowly and carefully changedinto the clothes. Thankfully he didn’t have anything to unplug himself from; hewas mostly still at the hospital because he couldn’t eat solid food and couldn’tbreathe easily at night, so he wasn’t connected to a million machines duringthe day. And besides, he was likely going to be discharged in the next week orso. A little exercise wouldn’t hurt.

When he was finished, he tapped her on the shoulder andhanded her his whiteboard and pen. She tucked them into her bag and slung itover her shoulder.

She grinned at him again. “Ready?” He nodded. “I’ll godown first and help you out.”

And with that, they were gone.

They snuck around the side of the hospital and out aside gate that led to an alley filled with dumpsters. Wash grinned as theyslunk around corners and kept to dimly-lit streets until they reached animposing-looking building that Wash guessed was the new training facility.Carolina pulled out a key and led him through a back door and into thefacility. They wound through the empty corridors and rooms until they reachedthe door to the room that Carolina had reserved.

She stopped and leaned against the door. “Rules.” Washrolled his eyes. Of course she hadrules set for him. It was silly of him to think she wasn’t worried anymore. “Noreal weapons. No real training exercises. Got it?” Wash nodded. “We are goingto stretch a teeny bit to get you going, and then we’re going to have a niceand easy spar. Understood?” Wash nodded again. “Okay.”

With that, she opened the door and walked inside. Washlooked around. It looked like a standard training room, but on a smaller scale,like it was meant for private lessons. A large section of the floor was padded,and there were a few benches against the wall with the door, one with waterbottles on it. On the padded section of the floor was…

 …Wait.

Wash stared at the floor. He heard Carolina stifle alaugh behind him. He snapped his head around to stare at her. She had her handslapped across her mouth, but he could tell from the crinkle in her eyes andthe shaking of her shoulders that she was laughing at him. He looked back atthe floor, back to her, and held his hand out demandingly until she handed himhis whiteboard.

Those are foamswords.

Carolina finally lost it. The laugh she had beenrestraining bubbled out and she leaned over and held her stomach with the forceof it.

Wash remained unimpressed. You want us to spar with foam swords.

When Carolina finally calmed the laughter down togiggles, she nodded and wiped at her eyes. “We are going to spar with foamswords.”

Wash continued to stare at her.

She shrugged. “You said you were bored?”

He sighed and nodded his head, finally smiling. They’re corrupting you.

Carolina laughed again. “Yeah, probably. C’mon. Let’snot waste any time.”

They made their way to the center of the room. Therereally was a pile of foam swords laying on the ground. Wash shook his headfondly and looked at her expectantly.

“Well, I guess pick one? I brought all that I couldfind, so there’s a bunch of different ones. There’s even, um,” she rootedthrough the pile at their feet, “a pair of daggers, if you want them.”

Wash knelt down and inspected a couple of them. One ofthem looked like a cartoon villain’s sword, with an ugly face in the hilt and misshapenspikes along the blade. Most of them were standard longswords, but he spotted afew samurai swords and other variations like the daggers and one that lookedlike a rapier.

He reached for his whiteboard again. Can we switch them around?

Carolina shrugged. “Why not? We’re just playing around.”

Wash nodded and picked up the ugly villain sword. Carolinasnickered. “Well I was going to pick the rapier,” she said, “but that lookslike it would smash it.” She picked up one of the samurai swords instead. “Okay,go easy on these things. They aren’t meant to hold up to a lot.”

They shoved the rest of the swords off to the side anddid a few basic stretches. Wash couldn’t keep the grin off his face when theyfinally faced each other, swords in hand. This was, easily, the most ridiculousthing he’d ever done—and that felt like saying a lot, since he put up with theReds and Blues and their shenanigans.

Carolina laughed and lunged at him, taking a swipe athis midsection. He blocked it with his sword and clumsily slashed his uglysword in her direction. It very quickly became clear that Carolina was in muchbetter shape than him, especially when he blocked a strike and his sword sailedacross the room. He smacked his forehead with his hand and then shrugged, as ifto say sorry.

She waved him off. “No, sorry, I’ll go a little easieron you. This isn’t a competition, it’s supposed to be fun.” Wash knew that, ofcourse, but he supposed she needed the reminder more than he did.

He went to retrieve the sword but decided against it,instead going for the pile again. He cracked a grin and pulled out the rapier,which really did look especially flimsy. He stood in front of her again andmade an exaggerated pose with his legs too close and his arms too wide.

 Carolina burst out laughing. “You look ridiculous,” shetold him.

Wash just grinned and made a come-hither motion withone finger. Carolina rolled her eyes and lunged at him again, this time slowerand with less force. Wash still blocked and parried and stabbed clumsily, made evenworse by the fact that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. He kept upthe stupid exaggerated poses and motions until both of them were breathlesswith laughter rather than exertion. At one point he jabbed her in the forehead,making her outright squawk, causing them both to flop down on the mat, laughinghysterically.

He made sure to breathe carefully, and got up andswallowed a few mouthfuls of water when he could breathe easier again.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

He nodded quickly and went back for his whiteboard. Hesat back down as he wrote, Yeah, justlaughed pretty hard. Being careful. She nodded. He grinned, and added, you have a red dot on your forehead.

Carolina sputtered and covered her forehead with herpalm, effectively starting the giggles again. She rolled her eyes. “I am threeseconds from confiscating that damn sword from you, you know.”

Wash snorted, knowing there was no real threat behindher words.

She paused. “Your laugh is so quiet now.”

He smiled wistfully. Can’t even screech.

She laughed. “Now there’s a real shame,” she lamentedjokingly. She stood and held out a hand to help him up. “Okay, probably only afew more minutes. I don’t want to wear you out too much.”

Wash nodded and tossed the rapier back to the pile, andgrabbed the pair of daggers she had shown him earlier. Carolina retrieved the uglyvillain sword from the other side of the room. He twirled the daggers in hishand experimentally. They were awfully light, and there were two of them, butat least here he had a little bit of expertise.

The last fight was a lot more even than the other two,though less comical than when he’d been goofing off with the rapier. It feltlike a real sparring match, although dialed down exponentially, and he hadmanaged to show off a few tricks before Carolina said they’d had enough.

They settled down on one of the benches, slowly sippingfrom their water bottles. Wash smiled at her gratefully. Thanks, he wrote, this was alot of fun.

She smiled back at him. “I’m glad. You lookedmiserable, being confined to bed in the hospital. I figured you could use alittle fun, even if you get discharged in a few days.”

He nodded. Ireally appreciate it.

She waved him off. “Don’t make it weird.”

Yeah they’recorrupting you.

“Let’s get you back to the hospital.”

They made it back to the hospital the same way theywent before, slinking in the shadows and ducking around corners. Carolinaclimbed through the still-open window and pulled him up after her. He changedback into his hospital gown, and she gave him a washcloth to wipe away theworst of the sweat with. She closed the window and closed the curtains.

When he was done, she tucked him into bed and settleddown into the visitor’s chair. She pulled out her datapad, and he curled up andsettled back into his pillows. He honestly felt exhausted, despite theirattempts to keep their spar light.

And when Dr. Grey came to check on him and hook him up beforeshe left for the night, if she noticed anything amiss, she didn’t comment on it.Carolina winked at him as soon as Dr. Grey left the room.