Who: Ben Where: On clean-up duty When: Early afternoon-ish
Ben had awoken that morning - thankfully early so that hopefully nobody had seen him - half in and half out of his own cabin door. He'd gotten to his feet quick enough to hide his embarrassment at being there stark naked. Unfortunately, that had been far too quick for his joints and muscles to cope with and, once he'd gotten himself inside and the door closed behind him he'd sank down to the floor once more, whimpering to himself in agony at the fiery protests that coursed through his body.
He'd slept there, then, half propped up by the closed door, until the sky had darkened and the wind had arisen and woken him from a dreamless sleep - at least he didn't remember any dreams. He'd glanced around himself, taking a moment to remember just where he was. Then, with a low groan, he'd closed his eyes again.
And shivered. Not that it was cold, but it was colder than he'd felt for some time. He was dirty too, he knew. He couldn't remember much, but the fact that he was naked and had been outside during the night... well, it didn't take a genius to figure it out. An image of the cabin's shower entered his brain and he knew what he needed to do.
Ben opened his eyes and hesitated for a brief moment, gathering his wits and gritting his teeth, then he started pushing himself to his feet. It hurt. Jesus, but it hurt. He felt like he'd been folded into three and stuffed into a contortionist's box. But he managed it eventually and he stood, swaying uncertainly while his head got the message that that was the position his body needed to be in.
He looked around the room. It was hard to tell how much damage had been done last night since it was still hardly an improvement on the night before. Ben had left most of the mess yesterday, but he was a tidy man by nature and he knew it needed sorting - sooner rather than later. Plus, he had no intention of asking anyone for help, so that meant he'd have to do it all himself.
But first, shower.
He made it to the bathroom, turned on the water and simply stood under it for a long time, not moving except to occasionally move his head slightly under the jet of warm water. God, but it felt good. He caught some in his mouth and rinsed it through his teeth before spitting it out and watching the reddened water swirl away around his feet and down the drain. Then he slowly raised his arms and slicked his hair back with his hands then opened his eyes and reached for the soap. He took his time, making sure that every inch of himself was thoroughly washed and rinsed. Even then, he didn't exactly feel clean, and he didn't hurt any less thanks to the exertion he'd needed to expend. But, as he turned off the water and continued to stand there, dripping until the cold got to him again, Ben felt a little better than he had earlier. Even the aches in his joints seemed to be a little eased.
Of course, he'd taken no clothes into the shower with him, but there were a couple of reasonable-sized towels in their, so he wrapped one around his waist and the other was - VERY carefully and not without some pain - draped over his shoulders before he made his slow progress to his bedroom.
He looked longingly at the bed, then turned from it to get out a change of clothes, including socks since he didn't want to move around barefoot until he'd gotten all the debris up from the floor. He didn't bother to towel himself dry, but once he'd set his clothes out on the bed he'd allowed himself to sit there for a while and dry off in a way to cause him the least discomfort.
He'd awoken again three hours later to find the weather definitely changed for the worst and his muscles and joints even more receptive than earlier. This pleased him, but the fact that he'd fallen asleep again most certainly did not. He'd sat up and dressed, then left the towels on the bedroom floor as he went back down once more to the living area.
The laptop called to him and he was tempted. But the mess chided him in a louder voice and he knew what would have to come first. He sighed and turned to it, making notes as he went along as to just what he'd need to fix the place up, and praying to anyone who could hear his thoughts that this wouldn't happen again tonight.