Cala nodded, turning to head back to her room. She paused before taking a step, glancing back at Yeong. "Um…goodnight, Yeong. I hope your dreams are kind." Was that the right phrase? A slight flush hit her cheeks as she turned away and slipped into her room, trying to remember what the phrase she had intended to say was. Have nice dreams? Sweet dreams. That was it.
She made a face at herself, shutting the door softly and turning the lock. It hadn't come with one, as whoever designed the apartment probably didn't expect the owner to need a lock on the only bedroom door. She had installed it herself, after a night spent with her desk wedged in front of the door.
Cala changed quickly into a pair of sleep shorts and a men's shirt she had bought for sleeping in. Normally, she would have been up and about her apartment a lot later into the night. But tonight seemed like a good night to read.
When Cala didn't reply to the offer to take her out to dinner once he was feeling better, Yeong hummed to himself, shrugging his shoulders a bit. Oh well. If she didn't want to, he couldn't do anything about it. "M'hm, goodnight," he replied, tilting his head to look over and watch as she left to go back to her bedroom. Once she was gone, he took his time with steadily changing into the t-shirt and sweatpants that he had been given. His leg ached, and his knee looked quite swollen from the torn ACL. He huffed, doing his best to make himself comfortable on the couch. He threw the blanket over himself and rested down against the pillow, huffing as he relaxed.
((cala's very 'gonna ignore the flirting cause i dont know what to say to it' lmao))
Her sleep had been easier that night. Though the nightmares still haunted her, they were silly ones, of being followed down dark streets and being trapped under ice. None of them were plucked from her memories, and for that, she was grateful. She had woken every few hours to check on Yeong, relieved each and every time to find him still breathing and sprawled across her couch.
It was 5:30, and sunlight made its way through her window, dancing pleasantly along her skin and across the quilt she was tucked under. Peaceful. It was a rare feeling, and she clung to it like a lifeline as she rose to face the day. Getting dressed was quick, a pair of denim shorts and a bandeau top paired with a light blue button up that she had claimed as hers when Hino failed to pick it up after a month of it sitting in her closet. She'd likely switch it out for something different later in the day, but it worked for now.
Quietly, she made her way into the living room. She wasn't sure how long Yeong would continue to sleep, but he needed the rest. She was almost silent in brushing her teeth, minus the running water, and found herself craving pancakes. That seemed like a good breakfast option when Yeong woke up. For now, she moved on light feet about the house, tending to all of her plants with water, whispered words in Greek, and humming. And plenty of funny faces one would make at a child.
(lmaoo that’ll just make it funny, yeong would get a “wtf stop ignoring me :(“ attitude so fast)
Yeong was still in a deep, buzz induced sleep. It had been late, he was all out of energy, and he was injured. He had every right to sleep in a bit late. His parents always made him wake up at the crack of dawn, so he cherished the times when he was able to stay somewhere away from home and get a couple extra hours. It was difficult when he wanted to go out and party all night, but then had to wake up so early in the morning.
Yeong’s parents always said it had to do with his ‘duty’ or something along those lines. He could easily assume that those duties had to do with him being the heir to the cartel. He didn’t really want all of that. He didn’t think he was ready for anything like that, he had so much more of his free life to live. Maybe that was why he got black out high and/or drunk almost every night. Trying to have his fun while he could.
His eyes slowly fluttered open, squinting in the light. As his eyes focused, he tried to remember where he was. He would have assumed that he had crashed at a friends, but when he moved to sit up and the pain set it, he suddenly remembered bits and pieces of the night before. After a moment, his stomach began to churn and his hand slapped over his mouth. On instinct, he tried to jump up to find a trash can, but his injured leg gave out on him. “Cala! I really need a trash can, por favor!”
Cala jumped at her name being shouted, only taking a split second to compute what Yeong had shouted. Luckily, she kept two waste baskets in the living room, one for dead plant trimmings and the other for medical trash. She quickly grabbed the latter bin, handing it to him. After making sure he had a good enough grip on it, she hurried to the kitchen. "Water and aspirin. Theós, I probably should have given you water last night, to take the edge off the alcohol."
She tried to remember if she had spare toothbrushes, as she filled a glass with water. There had been a few, and she had a few for regular visitors as well. Shaking her head, she returned with a bottle of aspirin and the glass of water. Worst case, she could let him use hers, and go pick up more. At least they weren't expensive. "Times like this make me glad I don't drink regularly."
Yeong kept a hand over his mouth, gagging gently as he waited. When he was finally handed a waste basket, he snatched it and proceeded to get quite sick. The lack of water and food the night before, combined with the alcohol and drugs, was the perfect storm for a hell of a hangover.
Once he was finished, he spit in the basket and then wiped his mouth off on the back of his hand. “Fucking hell. If the cops hadn’t of shown up, I could have gotten some food to have with all the other stuff.” When he was offered the water and aspirin, he took them gratefully and popped a couple of aspirin pills into his hands before dropping them into his mouth. He drank a couple gulps of water, thankful the nasty taste was out of his mouth as he swallowed the pills.
Cala's grimace was sympathetic, as was her tone as she spoke. "Is it helpful to mention I was going to make pancakes? The bread-y consistency might be good on your stomach." She said, taking a seat on the edge of an arm chair. "That, and you definitely need some food in you. Otherwise, how are you feeling?" Once again, she had wrapped her arms around herself, unsure of what to do with her hands as she sat and talked to someone. If you weren't doing something, people usually expected eye contact, too. That wasn't as easy for her as it was for other people, as her father had managed to beat eye contact out of her.
At the mention of food, Yeong seemed to perk up a tad. "That sounds absolutely perfect," he replied, pushing himself back up by his arms to sit back down on the couch instead of on the floor. "I could eat literally anything right now." He took a moment to look around the room he was in before his eyes landed on her. He seemed to study her for a moment before speaking up again. "I don't remember much of what happened last night. I obviously remember the big things, but I could not tell you a single little detail. But I am smart enough to assume that because I am in this condition, we did not sleep together." He was used to waking up quite often next to a stranger.
Her cheeks flushed pink again–why was that happening so much lately–and Cala shook her head fervently. "N-no, we didn't. You showed up, we talked about grilled cheese while I dealt with your injury, and then you slept on the couch. I wouldn't-I'd never sleep with someone who was injured. That seems sort of like malpractice." She said, her words almost tripping over themselves in a hurry to leave her mouth. "You said you were running from the police, and got injured. That's about all that matters from last night."
If she was lucky, he would have forgotten both offering to repay her help and taking her out. The latter hadn't been much of an issue up until she realized he was probably flirting with her.
Yeong chuckled when he noticed the color come to Cala's face. "Talked about grilled cheese, huh? I must have been off of my ass," he laughed. That was obvious, considering that he did not remember most of the night before. At the mention of sleeping with someone hurt being a malpractice, he shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know anything about that sort of thing. "Shit, well thanks for helping me out, then. Did I pay you? I got my wallet on me," he started, before looking down at himself and realizing he wasn't wearing his own clothes. "Where's my clothes? My wallet was in my pants."
Cala jumped to her feet, holding up a hand as though to say 'hold on'. The laundry room was sort of connected to the kitchen, and she had taken his pants to wash them. The shirt had obviously gotten tossed. She wasn't even sure she could get the blood out if she tried to mend it.
The pants were sitting on top of the dryer, clean. The items from his pockets were sitting on top, and she grabbed the full bundle, returning to the living room to give them to him. "Don't worry about paying me, please. I-" She took a deep breath, figuring being assertive here wouldn't be the end of the world. "I won't accept any money. Pancakes, I should make those. Do you like yours with anything in them? Fruit, chocolate…?"
Yeong waited like he was told, and when Cala came back with his things, he gratefully took them all. He set the wallet, a set of keys, and a lighter down next to him. His lips twitched into a frown when he was told no about the money. "Can I offer you anything besides money?" he asked. He clearly did not remember the night before when he was persisting on and on about taking Cala out to get pasta properly.
At the offer of pancakes, he perked up with bright eyes. "Fruit would be great, thanks," he said with a smile. He shifted on the couch to be able to look in the direction of the kitchen. "So you made the pancakes yourself, huh?" he asked. He had always been a fan of home cooking, preferring that over any sort of restaurant made food. Most homemade food just seemed to have a lot more flavor and life to it.
Having already gone through this the other night, Cala shook her head as she headed to the kitchen. It was an open concept, so he could see everything she did, and hear her fine. "You already thanked me verbally, that's more than enough." She assured, pausing in front of the fridge to stretch her arms up as high as she could. The scars on her stomach were visible, mostly because she had forgotten to throw on a shirt that would cover them. Yeong was unlikely to judge her for them, though. He likely had his own.
"Oh, good. I just bought a bunch of fresh strawberries. And yes, I make them myself." After grabbing a carton of eggs and carton of milk, she balanced a bowl of strawberries on the crook of her arm, shutting the fridge door with her hip. "Eating out constantly would get to expensive, to start. Not to mention this way, I can make as many as I want. The limitations of restaurant portions don't exist here." She said seriously, glancing out at him. "Do you drink coffee?"
Yeong huffed when he was denied. It was her loss, he thought. He could not force her to accept anything from him. When Cala stretched her arms out and exposed her stomach, his eyes glanced it over momentarily. Normally, he would have wondered about the scars, but considering she was working with the cartel from what he knew, he wasn’t surprised. Cala would have been right, he did have plenty of his own spotted all over his skin.
“Strawberries sound great,” he agreed, listening to how she went on about the disadvantages of eating out at restaurants. “Yeah, I do,” he confirmed. Really anything to eat or drink at the moment sounded perfect to him. He lifted the glass of water and downed the rest of it. He had to nurse his hangover some how. Still feeling quite thirsty. He slowly pushed himself up, putting his weight on his right leg. He balanced there for a moment before looking over at Cala.
“Have a crutch or anything lying around here that I could use, doc?” he asked, a little bit of a teasing edge to his tone.
Halfway through starting the coffee pot, Cala paused, thinking for a moment. Doc. Her heart briefly ached for a different set of circumstances. To be licensed, and practicing, and an actual doctor. "Crutches? Not in the tote, definitely, but….oh, I may still have the ones from when Hino broke his leg." She was half talking to herself, half to Yeong, something she did fairly often. Like she couldn't decide between thinking out loud and actually speaking to someone. "Just a second-" After pressing start on the coffee machine, she made her way to the guest room door.
There were, of course, more plants inside, and the room was mostly done being turned into a guest room. All she was missing was a bed, but at least the book shelf was full stocked. She rummaged around in the closet for a moment, before triumphantly pulling out a pair of crutches. "Found them! Do you want one, or two? Oh, and do you know what's wrong with your leg, or do I need to take a look?"
Yeong arched a brow as Cala seemed to talk to herself a bit. He hummed to himself as he waited, holding an arm out so he could grip the back of the couch and keep his own balance. The smell of the hot coffee beginning to brew, and he inhaled deeply. It smelled like heaven to him, sounding quite refreshing to him at the moment. That should help with the horrible hangover he was feeling. "Uh, I'll just take both of them," he started. When asked about his leg, he glanced down at it and lightly pressed his fingers against his own kneecap. There was not much pain with that. "It's definitely not broken anywhere, but it's worse than just being strained." He assumed that it must have been something more serious with the muscle. He would have been right about that- when he had fallen, his ACL muscle in the knee had torn.
"You might have torn something." Cala suggested, bringing out both of the crutches. She eyed Yeong up and down, before adjusting the crutches to fit hit height. "The best I can do there is wrap it, and tell you to stay off that leg as much as possible. This is the perfect time to be as lazy as possible." She offered the crutches, a tiny, soft smile gracing her lips. Her blue eyes glittered in the soft natural light spilling into the apartment, underlined by the evidence of quite a few sleepless nights. "And you're welcome to stay here as long as needed, of course. I'd feel better being able to make sure you were okay."
Yeong took the crutches when he was offered them. “Thanks, I don’t mind having the down time. Honestly, I prefer it over most of the running around my dad has me doing on the daily,” he said with a roll of his eyes. He said it like it was too simple for what was being implied. It sounded like he was a preteen complaining about their parents making them do chores every once in a while. But that made him think about his parents. “Shit, I should call my dad and let him know where I am. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about my mom making him send out a whole search party.” He would he planning on staying for a short time- until he could at least walk on his leg without the crutches. He had no idea how long that would take, though, so he guessed that he could be at Cala’s place for a bit.
Cala nodded, turning to head back to the kitchen. As she resumed making the pancake batter, she spoke. "I take it you don't disappear often then? If a single night warrants a search party. Oh, feel free to grab a mug, they're in that cupboard–" She pointed with a whisk at a cupboard above the counter. She had at least ten mugs, each featuring various animals. Frogs, dancing frogs, butterflies, birds, and fish were the most common. And most used. "But reach with the arm on the side opposite your stitches, please. Do you need a phone, or did you have one on you?"
Cala found herself relaxing a bit more in Yeong's presence. Partly due to the fact that he wasn't drunk anymore. He didn't seem overly angry, either, let alone easy to anger. Some of the men that came by were like that, particularly when injured. Those were the ones who broke things.
“Mm, no I do. I stay at places over night, but I usually let them know before hand, or I come home early enough to where they won’t worry too much- I’ll usually send them a text if I’ll be staying somewhere longer and I can’t tell them in person,” Yeong explained. “Just over protective parents, you know? Cartel parents and all…”
He used the crutches to head over to where the the mugs were. He picked out the one with birds on it, a smile on his lips. He thought about his phone for a moment. He did not have it on him. It was not with his things that was given to him from his pants pockets. ”I might need to borrow a phone… Fuck, I probably lost mine when I was running from the cops. I’m sure my parents have been blowing up my goddamn phone and freaking out because I’m not answering,” he huffed with a frown on his lips.
When Yeong mentioned overprotective parents, Cala shook her head, snorting at the idea. She had never even known her mother, and the same might as well be said for her father. She was about ready to start the pancakes when he spoke again, and she frowned a little, tilting her head. "Let me go find mine. Your father made me save a number for him, but you can easily call any you have as well."
She set the bowl down, moving about the kitchen and checking under things that looked like they hadn't moved in at least a day. Her phone didn't get much use. When Hino or Maria called or texted, but even with texting, she often only responded a bit after. It was a good thing she didn't have anyone to talk to who needed her for important things.
"No, nope…" Muttering to herself as she looked, she moved to the tiny two person dining table, lifting an embroidery piece she had been working on. She had never really done embroidery, but it seemed fun to try, and she didn't have much else to do. "Ah ha! Found it." With the phone lifted triumphantly in the air, she went back to the pancakes, unlocking it and setting it on the counter. "Creamer's in the fridge, it's uh…butter scotch? But there might be some normal French vanilla if you look. Oh! The strawberries!" Once again, a frown had her nose wrinkling, and she set to cutting up the strawberries in small bits while the pan heated up.
Yeong chuckled and thanked Cala when he was told he could use her phone. “Yeah, He has a couple of different numbers. I have to call his private cell or the home phone number,” he said, leaning against the counter so the crutches would stop digging into his underarms as much. When Cala found the phone, he looked at it and decided he would wait until after breakfast to call his parents.
He went over to the fridge, looking through it to find the french vanilla creamer. He found the bottle, and after filling up his coffee mug, he poured a bit of the creamer in. He put the creamer back into the fridge before stirring the creamer into his coffee a tad bit to mix it up. “Do you… need any help?” he asked slowly as he watched her cut up the strawberries. Cooking was something that he could enjoy doing at times. He had learned from his mom and abuela from watching them in the kitchen every day.
The word no caught on the tip of her tongue, such an automatic response. But he had to be bored. And when she was bored, she cooked or baked. Or cleaned. And he seemed to earnestly interested in helping, somehow. Besides, it felt sort of wrong to have said she'd think about something he could do to help, and then taken advantage of him forgetting. She nodded once, motioning to a drawer by the sink.
"There's two spatulas in there. If you grab both, we can make twice the pancakes in half the time." Hino would have called that a 'pro gamer move', and the thought made her smile. She didn't understand half the things he said, but they were funny. "Unless we want bacon, in which case, we could do that too." Oh, decisions. "Or eggs. Do people eat eggs with pancakes? What does a normal breakfast look like for you?"
Yeong gave Cala a grin when he was given permission to help her out. She would have been right- he was bored standing around. He already hated the fact that he had to be on those crutches. He wanted to be up and going around, doing things properly without any sort of pain. He headed over to where the drawer was, taking out the spatulas and bringing them back over.
He handed one spatula to Cala, listening intently to her go on about types of breakfasts. “For me? Lots of protein, high energy stuff. I’ll eat eggs, drink milk, have sausage… Those sort of things. If I didn’t have those things, I wouldn’t be able to function throughout the day,” he laughed, seeming to make fun of himself. He joked about everyone, and felt just as comfortable making jokes about himself. He looked at the spatula in his hand, tilting it back and forth between his fingers.
"I can do eggs, and I have milk, I can't remember if I picked up any meat at the store…" Once again half talking to herself and to Yeong, Cala almost frantically moved to the fridge, searching through it. Too often, she found herself seized by the need for perfection, particularly in meals. That had been ingrained as well. Some habits were harder to break, and some came back full force in the face of other people's scrutiny. "Of course I have milk, I just used it. I don't know if…no no no, I don't–no meat. I'm sorry."
Her grip on the handle of the fridge was tight, white knuckled, and she forced herself to take a breath. Then another. She was not bound by the whims of anyone but herself anymore. She just…had to remind herself of that. Over and over. "I'm sorry. I think I used it all last time I had someone here, and forgot to buy more on my last grocery run."
