authenticity [c]

Adrien's reactions were unexpected to say the least. It felt silly to feel relieved at his presence. The contentment that came with his hold on her hand reciprocated. A smile that looked worn on his lips. The ginger would exhale a chuckle at the sight. So he did have the capacity to be gentle after all. Yet at the same time allowing anyone to see her in this sorry state was frustrating. Maddening even as the woman suppressed those thoughts. This moment was bound to be used against her later.

Even so, part of her was pleased that Arkwright had stayed. Even if him doing so was due to being bound by his word, he hadn't left. That was what the woman would assume that was his reason for staying and felt no need to inquire otherwise. The result might have been less than ideal to her but her pride was already wounded so salvaging what was left of it was akin to a fool's goals.

Almost as if proving so, Arkwright's voice would retort at her comment of being strapped to the bed. At that the ranger would huff rebelliously, "Don't sound so happy about it." It occurred to her that this might have been a smart sarcastic remark, however she couldn't help but lash back at it. While the woman continued to feel fatigued she'd keep herself from sounding as such on the scarce possibility of recouping her appearance. As if extinguishing that possibility, the declaration of doubt from Adrien left her scrunching her brows together. "Shit."

She knew that he wasn't wrong. Even without knowing what had happened to her fully, she could tell that it caused a heap of distress judging from the increased amount of medical devices that littered the room. Yet it did not stop her from groaning from the dissatisfaction that knowledge brought. "I don't have time for this," she'd complain again as she brought her free hand to cover her face momentarily. Normally the woman would have celebrated in from the concept of being able to have time off. On the other hand spending her time off at a hospital however and allowing work to pile higher on her desk was far from what she desired.

Dropping her hand from her face, her eyes fell back to Adrien and looked to him as if asking him to do something about this. She wouldn't ask him verbally of course but she knew that he might have been able to talk to someone. Not that she expected him to with the rate that he was forcing her to stay in bed in the first place. With a dejected sigh as she eyed Adrien's forced grin. At this point it was getting easier to tell the difference since it looked different from is mischievous and flirtatious ones that he consistently wore following their first encounter. A stray thought wondered how many times he was going to do that as she followed his opposite hand towards his knee. She'd stare blankly at the motion. She must have- "Good. About damn time," she'd assert with a smirk. "Try to keep it that way." She just had to go with it. If he was feeling better and patched up then it didn't matter what was said or done before then.

From the corner of her eye, Adrian caught a glimpse of the plastic bag that was brought in for her earlier. In the turmoil she recalled at the least that she had not yet eaten. Doing so now wouldn't be possible either. Her appetite was nonexistent and with how many bags of fluids were attached to her, she figured that attempting would make her nauseous. But what about Adrien? There had been a possibility that he had eaten when he had gone out. He never truly clarified that and between the time it took from when he came back to when she so graciously passed out, she wondered about it. "How long have you been in here?" she'd question as she delicately squeezed her hand around his to urge a truthful response. "Tell me you've at least had something to eat when you went out shopping."

Instantaneously the ginger rolled her eyes at the comment, revolting at what she believed he was imagining. The words hardly left much else to be interpreted in her perspective. "Ugh, and here I thought you were getting better." That mischievous smile came back though and she had yet to pull away from his touch. His grasp was the single thing that kept her grounded in believing this scene was real, which was ironic if one thought about it. Perhaps she was that desperate for human interaction.

It seemed that her desperate gaze for Arkwright to free her from the hospital was caught. His expression afterwards told her exactly what she needed to know as he affirmed her disappointment with a mild scolding. She clicked her tongue to show her displeasure. It was the exact result she anticipated but it didn't not change that it left her feeling dejected at the-

Wait... did he say her heart stopped?

"Oh," she'd react somewhat passively to the news. There was no sense of shock in her voice however her eyes did widen briefly. Half of her was taken aback, wondering if that was why Arkwright was acting so agreeable. The other half sort of accepted that it had happened, unfazed by the threat to her life. "That makes sense." A faint murmur to herself as her gaze lowered momentarily. She didn't doubt him, there was no reason to. But in the end why should it matter? It passed and she was still alive after all. Her heart was still beating. Yet somehow she doubted Arkwright, or really any of the hospital staff, saw it the same way. Probably why she was strung up like a rag doll at this point.

Nevertheless it was informative. Adrien spoke further in some attempts to persuade her down, something the ranger caught onto, however there was not much choice she had in the matter. "Relax huh?" she questioned as she moved her gaze back up questioningly, her tone almost asking him if he was being serious. There were monitors beeping at her every few seconds and she was stuck in bed unable to move more than an inch, yet she was being told to relax. She sighed imagining how long this torment would last. "I'll try... could use a drink but I guess I should be avoiding those for awhile." That was as much to Adrien as it was to herself, lamenting over the thought of trying to relax without alcohol. There was company for now at least, Adrian shifting her body to lay on her side to get a better look at Arkwright as he assured her that he wasn't going anywhere. "I believe you... You haven't left yet." She said that in a lighter tone, but his words from before her incident rang in her ears at the same time. He would leave before nightfall and she it was not as if she did not understand. Thus she'd take his assurance with a grain of salt, not because she did not trust his promise, but because they had already established he would leave.

Exactly like how she would take his words about having eaten with a grain of salt. However she was not in the mood to argue or debate over that at the moment rather than simply closing her eyes and nodding. At the least she doubted that he would have starved himself willingly. Finding a comfortable spot on the pillow, the ginger attempted to slacken the tension that built up in her muscles before her name was called once again. "Hmm?" she'd hum curiously, Adrian peeking one eye open with her focus solely on the man as he began to speak. She'd listen wondering what he wanted to say that warranted such a mellow tone. What she heard however made her open both of her eyes, her hand quivering in his. "If you don't stop apologizing, I'm going to get out of this bed and punch you." Her tone sounded as confrontational as ever, almost as if her energy had fully returned.

It wasn't like this was the first time he had apologized and she doubted it would be the last despite the threat she couldn't exactly uphold well at the moment. It didn't make her feel better. It didn't make her feel justified for anything. It just sounded like the man was feeling sorry for himself, or something that he had thought he had done, and that annoyed her. She sighed in some attempt to let go of that however, speaking again with a neutral voice. "You're here by my side comforting me, looking after me... as embarrassing as that is. You don't need to apologize to me and you don't owe me anything."

Throughout her small rant of sorts, Arkwright had remained strangely silent. Watching the expressions on his face revealed little to the ginger who would give pause out of concern. He appeared to be out of it to which the ranger chalked up to being weary from lack of adequate sleep. After all, he had been complaining that he wanted to rest ever since he had come to the hospital. At the time Adrian thought it was his way of attempting to avoid conversation with her. It was only now that she began to believe otherwise. Her lips parted, mentally prepared to direct him home to rest. In doing so the woman was unguarded to the subtle jab that came afterwards. "Of course I-" she started to rebuttal but was interrupted by the motions that were made before her eyes. "Adrien what are you-" The blue haired male would lower his head onto the pillow and it took her a moment to react accordingly. Suddenly her focus on the conversation was lost in favor of distinguishing what was happening as within seconds the man would bring himself onto the bed entirely.

And exactly like earlier in the morning Adrian found herself instantaneously flustered by his forwardness, a soft hue of pink coloring her cheeks. The heart monitors began to betray her as the rhythmic beeping rose in tempo to which Adrian herself would hardly notice due to the situation. Yet it didn't end there. Despite herself her eyes remained fixated on Arkwright's face, his words barely making it to her ears - his words of thanks left the ranger commissioner stunned and speechless. Gratitude was hardly something that was given to her freely, especially considering who this was coming from. Rangers were normally scapegoats for tragedy and her own personality prevented her from receiving much more than a reluctant huff of acknowledgment. He would repeatedly thank her for things that she didn't even give a second thought to and she reflected on if she truly deserved such praise.

As Adrien's little speech approached its conclusion, his words began to jumble. Where he wavered caused a jolt to her heart that would not appear on the heart monitors. Her thoughts scrambled as her mind tried to automatically fill the incomplete sentence. But what it had completed the sentence with couldn't be correct. He might have just fall - what?

Was that really a-?

No way.

She felt pathetic for thinking about it. She wanted to come straight out and question it but something stopped her, made her hesitate. Her lips would be pressed into a thin line as Arkwright recovered, going in a different direction. Stop messing with me. A flicker of what felt like despondency fluttered at her core. She shouldn't have felt like this and she was even starting to blame everything she could think of for it. The hospital, the drugs, the cardiac arrest itself - all culprits. These thoughts engulfed her to the point she almost glazed over what was actually being said. "Right... My heart..." she'd whisper solemnly as she realized her own stupidity.

Curiously Arkwright would hide his face in one of his hands, reflecting what she wanted to do herself had she the mind or the energy. She didn't think much on it due to her own thoughts, assuming he did it because he messed up what he was saying. This was supposedly supported by how he said he would stop to which Adrian shook her head. "Who told you to stop," another whisper would part from her lips as her face began to flush. In desperation the woman attempted to hide it by ducking her head downwards, breaking eye contact in favor of pressing her head towards Arkwright's chest and allowing her hair to mask rest of her features. She was so sure that she looked so deplorable that it would sicken her, but for once she didn't care.

"I wouldn't... mind if you stayed." The memory of this morning where she took her first loss replayed in her mind. She already told him what she wanted and she wasn't too keen on repeating that embarrassment. She was still getting over this embarrassment. Knowing that telling Arkwright what to do usually did not end well, the woman closed her eyes. "Do what you want..." Balling her hand into a fist, she'd attempt to punch him in the chest next to where her head rested however there was a significant absence of any force behind it. "Idiot..." the final word was more to herself that it was for Arkwright as she found herself comforted by the warmth from being in such close proximity.

The concerns that were raised did not go unnoticed however the embarrassment that arose from addressing it trumped her need to swipe away the unnecessary attention. Fully anticipating the chime of the assistance button, the woman tensed her shoulders in anticipation, only to hear the bewildered gasp instead. The ginger didn't bother to peel herself away from her position to distinguish the reason, prioritizing the hiding of her face. She didn't expect for this interaction to last for long as she felt Arkwright's body stiffen from her fingertips, which was fine. It would've given her enough time to recover and the space to do so would created when he pulled away. Time felt as if it had stood still after this, waiting for the moment that the blue haired man would break away and question her not coming soon enough.

Instead fingers would be felt passing through her hair, a sensation that should have made her flinch instantaneously. Yet for some reason she didn't mind it. In fact in some ways it had consoled her. The pressure and warmth placed over her head from Arkwright furthered the sense of security in her aching form. This came as a surprise considering that they had argued considerably that same day, pushing each other around, Arkwright himself trying to run away. And yet now it felt as if they were so close. Too close.

Adrian started to the man's chest, unable to move from her position being buried into it. Some portion of her being might not have even wanted to. His words would delicately reach her ears and once again the woman would hesitate, her hand pulling together into a gentle clutching of his shirt. She had to remember herself. To remember who Adrien was despite her own position within his grasp. "You're such a flirt..." she'd reply faintly in what would be a failed attempt to admonish him. This was such prime bait for him to be sure. She was helpless and pathetic. He was trying to comfort her the best he could with all the wires in his path. It felts too surreal.

But she knew better.

She wondered if this meant anything to Arkwright to hold her like this. For her to set any form of expectations would be setting herself up for failure and disappointment. "But fine," she concluded after a moment of hesitation. She caved, the cracks in her shell becoming exposed. For reasons unbeknownst to her, Adrian wanted to savor this moment. Allow herself the abnormal sense of security she felt for however long that Adrien kept her there. With closed eyes as she nuzzled further, she'd accept this "just for today." For in the end, she did not mind staying this way either.