#non-gendered

Missions can be all sorts of things. From boring and very drawn out; to the fun ones that go by too quick for your liking; to the extremely exhausting kind that leave you feeling like a shell of a human.

Unfortunately, for you, the last few missions you've been to have ended up draining you and your team more than they should. Short breaks. Then another mission. And another. And another. Because someone needed a Tenno's help - (Everyone always needs a Tenno's help, you think briefly, bitterly, to yourself. Which, in hindsight, is true.) - so you'd rest when you could, then off you went to wherever you were needed. Never given enough time to recover.

So it went, one after another, with only a few hours to catch a breath if you were lucky. At some point it was started to wear you down big time. You should be used to it at this point; you're not. Neither are you sure if you ever would.

Yes, someone has to step up, but there's others to do the job – you've seen them, you know there's more than enough – so why do you have to be the one to do it? Can't someone else deal with all this? Don't you and your warframes deserve a break?

At this point you're pretty sure Ordis, or Lotus or-- Whoever's in charge right now with Lotus missing - is sending you off to as many missions as they possibly can.

Do they not know you need more rest than the warframes? Do they not realise that even as an enhanced human you, too, have needs and limits before your body inevitably gives up on you? While you might not need as long to recover as normal people would, you're very quickly running yourself into sleep debt. You're already past the burnout point; running on nothing but fumes before you collapse and take a few day nap.

You need to rest and recharge before your body forces you to.

You need tell Ordis you're done putting your well-being on the line until you feel better.

With a small groan you force your body to move, your muscles screaming at you when your feet hit the floor of the orbiter. That's all it takes for you to stumble. The wall to your right is enough to keep you from falling too far but that still doesn't help your legs from buckling under you regardless.

“Welcome back, Operator!” The moment you're properly inside the ship you hear your cephalon chime in, most likely glad you and your first ever Warframe – Excalibur - are both back in one piece. You wave up at the ceiling with a grimace and he gasps, lowering his voice to a whisper. “I trust your mission was a success?”

You manage to nod your head in response, not in the mood to be verbal. Your bones ache, stomach twists and your head is hammering – you're probably severely dehydrated as well. Great. You need put some water and food in you soon before you pass out.

Taking what you think is a short moment, you fight the increasing nausea. It is, in fact, a few long minutes instead.

Behind you, Excalibur stretches as he walks further into the ship. He's dragging his feet behind with every step – much better at hiding at just how much these things tire him out - but you know better. You know exactly what to look out for in your companion, and the fact that he still hides it? It worries you sometimes.

… No, it worries you constantly.

With groan you shake off as much numbness from your limbs as you possibly can in a few seconds. Your bones creak as you walk up behind your warframe, sighing before you wrap your arms around him tightly. You lean more weight onto him than you meant to, but he's quick to shift his balance and hold the both of you up.

"Ugh..." You vaguely acknowledge Ordis in the moment as he tells you to hydrate. "We did good today, I think." You rasp out.

And you mean it, both for his sake and yours. It was an exhausting few hours, yes, but despite the casualties you did the best you could. No need to beat yourselves up over what already happened.

Giving Excalibur another squeeze you reluctantly peel yourself away him and move to his side – he's once again quick to catch you when you stumble. When your hand comes to contact with a rough patch of armour your lips immediately tug into a deep frown.

He's covered in muck, blood, scratches and... Whatever else it might be. No matter how you look at it he's in worse shape than you are. Asides from a few cuts here and there you're mostly okay, Excalibur on the other hand? He looks like he got tied to a ground vehicle and dragged behind for a few miles.

“...Shit.” The deep ache in your chest comes back tenfold. It's your fault. “I'm sorry I got you so beaten up again. I'll do better next time.” And you mean that, too. You're his operator, you're supposed to keep him as safe as he keeps you.

The pit in your stomach only grows when the warframe eyes you silently for a few seconds, going as far as tilting your head up to get a better look at you, and-

Oh.

Oh, he's checking you for wounds too. Of course he is. He promised to keep you as safe; of course he's going to put himself and his well-being in second place.

You literally do the same things for others. You hypocrite.

Pushing his hands off your face, you take a step back to look him over properly. And maybe, just maybe, because you don't want to lean on him any more than you already have.

“Okay, uh... Are you okay? Need me to tend to any wounds or-?”

Excalibur shakes his head before you can finish asking. Instead, the fucker gives you two thumbs up. You squint at him in response.

Typical 'cali.

“Are you sure you can handle it yourself?”

This time you get a nod. And as if to assure you he's perfectly okay (which you know he isn't) he lifts his unwounded hand to pat your head reassuringly. Needless to say it has the opposite effect.

“... Yeah, no. I still want to take a look over you just to be safe." You worry your nails between your teeth and he quickly swats your hand away from your lips. Sighing, you give him a tired smile, “I know it's not that easy to actually wound you but I still worry, okay?"

He seems to ponder over your words, but before he can refuse you continue.

“Besides, I have eyes. I can see you're struggling to stand up just as much as I am, you asshole.”

You can practically see him freeze for a second, turning his head to the side in thought before he has the audacity to pat your head again. You click your tongue, annoyed.

The audacity of this bitch.

With a huff you jab an accusatory finger at his chest. You're not letting it go that easily.

“No-- Listen, I know it's technically your job to protect me – even though we had this conversation already and this is a TWO way street – but! That doesn't mean I can't make sure you're alright after a mission like this." Exasperated, you let your hands drop at your sides loudly, looking up towards the ceiling before calling out to your cephalon. Anything to not look at your warframe's face. “Ordis?”

A few seconds pass before you hear from Ordis, and you realise it's a bit odd for him to stay quiet so long. Then again, you also know he doesn't like getting in between you and your warframes. Last time he interrupted a conversation he got a good scolding from both Nidus and Follie after - at least that's what you've heard from Volt.

According to your beloved cephalon you “Tend to worry too much for those who shouldn't be worried about, himself included”.

You're still bothered by that. Warframes are your companions - you will worry regardless of whether or not they need it. Besides, you can't simply just... Stop caring. They take care of you, so why shouldn't you care for them back?

It didn't take you very long to figure out what Ordis meant.

It's because you treat them with care, worrying about them when others would not; treating them like you yourself would want to be treated. Apparently, it's not common for Tenno to care about their Warframes or Cephalons to this degree. It happens, yes, but there's also those who look down upon that. There's people treating their Warframes as nothing but weapons, and Cephalons as means of transportation, and that makes you irrationally angry. You've been around both long enough to know that they're more than just... Armour and ships.

“Yes, operator?” Ordis' voice rings out throughout the ship, catching you off guard enough to stop your thought spiral.

"How long have we been gone?" You ask, once more shifting your weight to another leg and swat Excalibur away when he tries to help you stand.

"9 hours, 42 minutes and 15 seconds, to be exact."

Oh.

10 hours. No wonder you feel like shit.

"Your readings show accelerated heart rate, delayed reaction times, and severe dehydration, operator.” He continues as you groan, knowing what comes next, “Excessive exhaustion such as this can lead to migraines, shortness of breath and, potentially, fainting spells- All of which you seem to be experiencing as we speak.” You can't argue with that. “When was the last time you ate?"

That's a stupid question. You obviously haven't eaten anything since you left, but you can't bring yourself to bark back the obvious. He sounds concerned, and you know he cares. It's not his fault the mission went haywire and you lost contact with him for majority of it.

You still can't help but shoot an annoyed look upwards, purposefully ignoring the concerned look Excalibur gives you.

"Now's not the time, Ordis. I'm trying to—"

“-I have completed a quick scan of Excalibur” And there he goes interrupting you again. “I am pleased to confirm that he is, indeed, in a perfect working condition."

"Perfect my ass!" You exclaim, now pointing up at one of his speakers. He better be grateful he doesn't have a physical form out or you'd be halfway through strangling him right this second. “Just because he's still in a working condition doesn't mean he's not wounded! Or exhausted! You better than anyone should know th-- Ah!”

You're hoisted up and into Excalibur's arms before you can finish arguing. Instantly, you reach out to cling to him, terrified of being dropped almost as much as you're scared of being carried.

"Hey! No! Put me down!” You smacking the warframe's shoulder where you're gripping onto him with both your arms. “We're worrying about you now, not me! I'm not past kicking and biting you if you don't set me down!" Your yelling goes ignored until the last sentence, and you can feel your stomach drop when he stops walking.

Slowly, the warframe looks down at you, shifting you in his arms to get a better grip on you - you're sure if he could he'd be staring you down in amusement. The head tilt almost sets your face on fire. Oh for crying out loud.

"...Shut up." You huff, reaching up to push his face away. Anything to get him to stop staring at you. He lets you avert his gaze and his entire body shakes in a silent laugh. “Stop laughing!” Unfortunately that only gets him to laugh more.

A few moments later, you're sat down onto the bed inside your personal chamber.

Excalibur stares at you for a few seconds, deep in thought, and you take that time to shake off any embarrassment from the previous exchange. It wouldn't be the first time you threatened biting and definitely not the first time you bit one of your warframes. Fortunately for them, your teeth nor your jaw are strong enough to actually hurt them. Unfortunately for you, a lot of them are into it.

As Excalibur gets his thoughts in order, you get comfortable on the bed. The aches hit harder now that you're not standing. (Oh, its bad.) Once your companion arrives at an acceptable plan of action, he lifts his hand up, motioning for you to stay where you are as he hurries off.

You immediately narrow your eyes at him. That bastard is going to take care of you while you're incapable of returning the favour.

He returns with a bottle of fresh water, a fruit of some kind that you've never seen before, and a cleaning rag. Plopping himself down onto the corner of the bed as if to not disturb you or take up too much space, he holds the bottle out towards you.

"Thanks." You sigh, taking the drink and unscrewing the top. Like a man starved you start to glug it down – were you really that thirsty? Fuck.

You're halfway through chugging when a gentle hand stops you, reaching out to rest on top of the one holding the bottle to your lips, and tugging it down. You almost choke, startled at the sudden contact, but manage to recover like a champ.

… By coughing your ass off for the next few minutes.

Great. You're so very smooth and you have it all handled together so well. Wow.

He's by your side the moment you start coughing, pulling the bottle away from you and setting it aside. By the time you're done coughing and can catch a breath, you deflate back, unintentionally leaning into his comforting back pets. Oh boy, what a day to be gay.

Straightening up as fast as your aching muscles allow you look back at him, face flushed from all the coughing (definitely the only reason why you're blushing). Once he's ensured you're okay and won't die, he nods seemingly to himself.

He grabs the bottle off the floor along with the rag he brought earlier and wets it, careful to not spill any water on the bed as he does so. You watch almost mesmerised at just how focused he gets over it, lips tugging into a gentle smile when he screws the cap back on and turns to you.

The moment he does turn, though, you look the hell away as fast as you possibly can – blush creeping its way back to your face like some kind of badly-cured cold. There's only so much your small gay heart can take in such short amount of time.

Is it hot in this room or is it just his caring nature?

If he caught you staring, he doesn't show it. Then again, it's hard to tell where he's looking without eyes, so he could've been staring at you all this time and--

'Okay, calm down' You think to yourself, exhaling a slow breath. 'No need to work yourself up over nothing.'

He did notice though, and before he can react any further than the small, dumbly adorable tilt of his head to the right, you grab the rag he just handed you. Without thinking, you throw it at him. The wet 'SLAP' of the rag hitting his face makes you both jump. You... May have put a little too much force into this than you originally intended.

That probably hurt.

The cloth slides down his face before falling down onto the bed. He doesn't move an inch. Oh, you fucked up.

Slowly you reach up, holding your hands up in defeat (and to protect yourself from a potentially incoming attack), letting out a small, nervous chuckle.

“... Sorry?” You try offering him a smile to hopefully persuade him to spare you. “You wouldn't hurt your Tenno, would you?”

That's not good enough though.

Not even close.

Before you can protest, get away, or hide, the wet rag is picked up and the favour is returned- you raised hands aren't enough to stop it. A loud shriek sounds out when the cold cloth hits your face. You suppose Ordis was right about delayed reaction speed.

“Rude!” You yell, lips tugging into a grin. Wiping your face with your sleeve you gently toss it onto the bedside table while Excalibur almost rolls off the bed losing his shit laughing at how loudly you screamed.

Excalibur raises his hand, hesitating for a second, before scooting closer and gently cupping your face. Breath hitching, you stare at him, blinking rapidly when his face moves closer to bump his forehead against yours. You hold your breath for as long as you can (few seconds). Exhaling dramatically, you press your forehead back to his, all the fight draining out of you.

As his hands move to sign an apology, he bumps the bottom part of his face to your forehead instead – right to where the rag hit you. A kiss.

Then, he leans back to give you the rag again. You sigh and start wiping him down.

"I know you don't have to but thanks for letting me take care of you. It... puts my mind at ease a bit. You're basically the only person I have apart from Ordis and the other warframes."

Excalibur turns to look at you, confused. You stare back, equally as confused.

"What? Why are you giving me that look? What'd I say?"

He tilts his head slightly. His hands move, sloppily signing out a question.

" 'Person'?" You parrot back, "I mean... Yeah? I have the fish and a kubrow that'll hatch soon but--"

He covers your mouth with his hand firmly. He signs again – slower.

Person.

"Have I never called you a person before?" You frown, reaching out to wipe his shoulders down. "Shit... I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like anything less."

The rag is getting too nasty to clean with. You set it aside, looking up at him.

"I'm not good at comfort stuff but to me you're as much a person as I am to you."

A pause. His head tilts again.

It seems to be one of those things he needs to process for a moment before he responds. After a few seconds he nods.

And before you know it, you're tugged into a hug – firm but careful not to press anywhere your body might be aching. You accept the hug, wrapping your arms around him. Exhaling deeply, you melt into his chest, and exhaustion finally starts catching up.

"Okay.” You mumble, not bothering with sounding anything but tired, “How about I make sure you're all clean, then I get something to eat, and then we can call it a night. Sounds good?"

Excalibur nods. You smile.

"Okay, good. I'm almost done so it shouldn't take too long."

The comms in the ship crackle to life and you squint upwards at the ceiling. Usually your room is off limits for Ordis unless it's a life or death situation. Sometimes, though, you request him to talk you to sleep. Sometimes.

"Operator, I have taken the liberty of heating up a meal for you. It will be ready by the time the two of you are done." You give him a tired thumbs up. "You-- oWE ME BIG TIME-- are most welcome, dear operator."

You snort, rolling your eyes fondly at the cephalon while your warframe wets the rag again. Then, with what would definitely be a smug look if he had a proper face, he leans towards you to get you to continue. He enjoys being taken care of more than he'd admit. And you, in return, are grateful that he's not as stubborn as Nidus is about being fussed over.

Nidus hates water. You've found that out very quickly when you got dunked into the bath instead of him.

A comfortable silence and armour scrub later, Ordis floats into your room with a plate on his head. You can't help but crack a smile as you wiggle your way out of Excalibur's arms – who doesn't even fully let you go, just loosens his arms enough to let you sit up and grab the plate before he snags you right back.

You pick at the food, chewing slowly while you fight the nausea from returning. For a while your partner tries to steal the fork just to feed you, but you quickly swat his hand away and ask him to let you eat. Eventually, he settles on just holding you close – arms wrapped tightly around your torso, hands resting crossed over your stomach, and his chin pressed into your shoulder. It's a nice sort of quiet. The gentle, constant hum of the ship around you the only true noise.

You eat as much as you can before you set the plate on the counter. Excalibur's body tilts with yours, his arms loosening slightly, just enough to let you know he dozed off. Carefully, you manoeuvre his arms off you, then gently lean him down onto the bed. You abandon the blanket he's laying on and instead quickly dig one out from the basket under the bed. With that, you drape it over him and crawl under it yourself.

He inhales, wrapping his arms around you to bring you back against his chest. Your temple rests on his arm, his forehead pressed to the back of your head as he curls his legs up to yours. A sigh passes through you and your eyes droop; comfortable, safe, and with the warmth of your frame behind you.

Sleep comes easily. One moment you're finally settled down, the other you're out.