I don't normally do this but... Who: Micah and Nic Where: The hospital When: morning Warning:
The sun was up again, which meant Micah was as well, scrubs rumpled from having slept on a cot in a backroom. There was a locker room that someone saw fit to add into the place, giving it some sense of normalcy, and Micah had been by there to brush his teeth and find clean scrubs, but there hadn’t been any. That was what had him behind the counter of the nurses’ station, going through the stack of laundry someone had done recently to find something clean, all the while trying to pat his bedhead back into place. He really should go home at some point, he realized that, but it had only been two days or so, since the curfew started and people start dying in mass quantities. When that was done, then maybe he’d go home. The shower here had worked just as well the night before as the one at his place. Why leave when there was work to be done? Unlike Micah, Nic was one to separate work from home. He loved his work, but he liked the break, and found he operated much better when he’d had a full night’s rest. Yesterday had been odd, to say the least. He’d ended up investigating the locations where the drained corpses had been found, trying to pull together any details that might help him figure out who the other vampires in town were. He didn’t have a lot to go on, but he planned on sharing any knowledge he acquired with December. He also planned on taking today easy. It was his birthday and he was still alive. That seemed like something to celebrate. Now they just needed a day without someone else dying.
“Looking for something?” he asked, passing by the laundry room. His own scrubs were black, the color of emergency personnel. Prior to the dome, he would have had a uniform that identified him as a paramedic, but this was just easier some days. Nic only pulled on his fire gear when there was actually a fire.
Micah jolted, somewhat unlike Doctor Micah and more like the normal version, banging his head on the bottom above the shelf he’d been looking through. Wincing and rubbing it, he glanced to the door, seeing Nic there and finding a smile. “Hey. Yeah, just something clean.” He had his fingers on a spare shirt, which for now would have to do and he pulled away from the shelf, green shirt in hand. He needed to finish waking up and get himself more in gear. It was mornings like this one that he really missed the coffee.
Nic winced as Micah hit his head on the shelf, feeling sympathy for the pain. He should have known better than to grab his attention while digging through things; it was a move Nic might have made himself. “Sorry,” he said as if he was to blame for the drawer’s placement. “You weren’t here all night, were you?” If he had been, then that was at least two hospital employees pulling overtime. It made Nic itch to help out more, even if he wasn’t trained in either profession that seemed the most in demand.
“Not your fault,” Micah corrected easily, smiling more, feeling that doctor skin slip on easily. That was how he functioned. If he wasn’t thinking from that frame of mind he’d probably be spending more time thinking about how Nic was one of the more appealing paramedics he’d seen and yet, probably young enough to not notice Micah. Or not interested. “Well...yeah. But I didn’t work all night. I got a good four hours of sleep.” Which was more than enough for him to function.
“You’ve got to know that’s not enough,” Nic pointed out with an easy smile. Four hours sleep. He’d be the walking dead if he tried to get by on that. Nic was a morning person by nature, but coffee always helped, of which he had some, complements of his cousin. “Even I remember reading up on sleep studies. But if you’d like some caffeine to get you through the morning, I don’t mind sharing,” he said, pulling a thermos out of his bag. “It’s not Starbucks or anything, but it’s decent.”
Micah chuckled as he pulled off the wrinkled, dirty scrub top and tossed it in the basket of laundry to be washed. The sparrow tattoos on his chest stood out more than the scar on his cheek, something that seemed so unlike him and who he was. In reality, it mostly was and wasn’t. He’d wanted something traditional and liked what the sparrows meant, which was why he’d gone for them, but he knew not many med students had ink like that. Like the one on his forearm, sure, but not his chest. “You know you read those and they tell you that, then they teach you how to function on two hours. Four’s about as much as I can do in a stretch.” He pulled the clean shirt on before eying the thermos. “Though if you have coffee...you might be my hero.”
Nic couldn’t help but stare as Micah pulled his shirt over his head, his eyes catching on the ink on his chest. It wasn’t something he would have expected of Micah, but then he didn’t know him that well. The fact that it seemed to clash with what he would have guessed made him all the more curious. “Like your ink,” he said, even if it acknowledged that he’d been looking in the first place. “Coffee’s for the man who will at least try to make it home tonight,” Nic smiled. “Do you take it black? I don’t carry cream or sugar with me.”
Micah glanced down at his now covered chest and smirked a little. “Yeah? Thanks.” He caught himself thinking that maybe it meant Nic was looking for real purposes, but one, that was stupid, and two, he really needed to stop thinking like that. He was younger and he looked a good bit younger than Micah felt, even if he had no idea just how old the man was. But at the same time, Micah felt like he’d aged ten years in the past five and most days thought he looked it too even if he really didn’t. “You really should see my place. You say that like it’s this place someone wants to be, when really it looks almost the same was that room back there with the cot in it.” Though the bed was bigger under the pretense that someone else might share it, though as of yet, he’d not found time for that. “Black’s fine. Med school remember?”
“Do they mean something? The sparrows?” Nic liked the idea of tattoos that meant something, which was why he hadn’t ever decided what he wanted on himself. He’d thought about it several times, but tended to back off when he realized whatever he wanted one day didn’t carry over to the next. Tattoos were too permanent for him to get something he might regret. “That’s because you spend no time there,” Nic pointed out. “You’ve got to make it your own. Make it home. Plus, I’m pretty sure the bed you’ve got at home has got to be more comfortable than one of those cots.” He’d slept on one before. Nic wasn’t a fan. “They didn’t have cream or sugar in med school? Glad I went the paramedic route,” he grinned.
“All sorts of things,” Micah said, nodding towards the counter where the charts for his patients were stored. He wasn’t the only doctor, but if there was anyone in the place, they were his. “Freedom is the most popular. But also, life in a way. Sailors used to get one at the beginning of a journey and another at the end. Survival. Didn’t quite think it would mean that as much as I’d planned, but turns out...” He didn’t need to go into it. Nic would know. Smiling more he pulled open a drawer and held out a key on a lanyard to Nic. “How about...you just go by and make it homey or whatever.” The part of him that didn’t do social practically passed out from the joke and the fear that Nic might be there and then Micah would have to deal with him, but the enjoyable Doctor held court and smiled through it. “You’d probably manage better than I would.” He wasn’t a homey person. He’d lived in a hospital for years. This felt more like home. “You should be glad. No sleep, too much work and too much money.”
“I like the idea of one at the beginning of a journey and the other at the end,” Nic said thoughtfully. “Did you get them at the same time?” It was probably personal, and yet he couldn’t stop himself from asking. Since his night with Skylar, Nic had started to make an effort to get to know people, especially those he saw on a regular basis. It was silly how little he knew about people he ran into almost every day. Being presented with the key to one of their houses, though? That was unexpected. “You’re giving me a key to your house?” he asked, reaching up to grab the key. He couldn’t turn down a challenge like that. “And if it’s homey... you’ll stay home? At least one night a week?” It wasn’t a lot to ask, in his opinion, but he doubted Micah expected him to take it. “You’ve obviously never received a three a.m. emergency call for someone wanting an aspirin. Do you work the ER or general surgery?”
“I did. But I was going for symmetry. If I’d gone with the lore...I guess I’d be getting one about now.” Micah grinned as Nic took the key, raising one eyebrow. He had no idea what the other man had in mind, and the list of options that ran through his head likely weren’t it. “One night a week? It’s gonna have to be pretty damn accommodating,” he teased and shrugged. “Try me. I need a reason to sleep in that bed.” God damnit he was flirting. It was the easy, casual flirtation he hadn’t used much in years, the one that came out with nurses when he’d been in school or other doctors, but here he was laying it on Nic. Maybe he did need more than four hours of sleep. “I’ve seen a lot of shit that was straight up stupid though. Have no fear.” Reaching for a chart he flipped it open, reading notes made overnight before setting it away. “I actually hadn’t finished yet. The Doctor title is a bit unofficial. I was still rotating trying a little of everything.”
“So it’s not the bed you take offense to?” Nic asked, raising a brow. He’d been reading too much into everything lately, thinking just about every guy he met was flirting with him when they were very much straight. He wasn’t about to assume anything here, even if they didn’t technically work together. “I think we could find a reason. We just need to get you out of your scrubs first.” As soon as he said it, he realized how it sounded, though he’d been meaning that Micah needed to get out of the hospital and into normal clothes, that he needed a bit of a social life. That... wasn’t how it sounded. Nic decided now was a good time to pour them both a cup of coffee. He just wished he had something stronger to spike his own with. “So is the paramedic title, but I don’t think I’m ever going to get the chance to finish official training and I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced everything and more. So let’s keep calling you doctor.”
“Bed’s actually not too bad,” Micah agreed, grabbing another chart to flip through. The comment about getting him out of his clothes, that slowed him, looking up at Nic surprised, not entirely uninviting. “Seems like it’d have to be a good reason. Did you have something in mind or just confident?”
Nic could feel the blush creeping up his face as he opened his mouth, struggling to come up with an answer right away. “I meant-- out of your scrubs and into other clothes, so you could go-- out. Somewhere. Not the hospital.” Definitely not the smoothest he’d ever been, but that’s what he got for telling hot doctors that they needed to take their clothes off. “Like get a drink or something. Not something you should do in scrubs.” Even if he did it all the time.
The blush wasn’t expected. The blush meant the flirting wasn’t unwelcome, or the comment that followed would have been about a woman or pushing Micah away. Instead the reaction was blushing and stumbling over words and Micah was struck with how goddamn adorable Nic was despite every effort he’d made to ignore that. Closing the chart even if he’d not made it pass the third word he reached for the coffee, focusing on that instead. “Shame. Other meaning wasn’t half bad.” He used the cup to hide his smirk, eyes watching Nic instead.
Nic’s eyes widened slightly as he found himself completely out of his league. It was one thing to flirt with Skylar when he was high as a kite and another to attempt it with a doctor who was clearly more aware of what was going on than Nic was. Maybe he was just teasing Nic. He’d been only half paying attention, looking at charts while he spoke, but something in his eyes told Nic differently. “I’m not confident enough to have said that out loud,” Nic said, even if he very much had. “Just a slip of the tongue.”
Micah smiled as he gathered up his charts for the day. There weren’t as many patients as there had been with so many dying recently, but there were still some. “See, when you say it like that, it sounds more like a Fruedian slip. Something you meant, but you didn’t want to say and inevitably couldn’t help saying.” Nothing about his tone was condescending, but instead he sounded interested. There was the part where if something did happen, and he doubted it would, outside of the space he was in now, his scrubs that gave him some sense of authority and distance from things, he’d be stammering and blushing more than Nic, but Micah powered through. “You’re the one with the key,” he added nodding towards the key still in Nic’s hand. “I think that means what you decide happens when you convince me out of the scrubs. Drinks or otherwise.”
For a second Nic wasn’t sure if he was being corrected or flirted with, but he tried to just roll with it, pretty sure he’d already given himself away. “That. Exactly,” Nic laughed, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced towards the ground. It was true that he had Micah’s key, but that didn’t mean he had a clue what to do with it. “If I have the key, doesn’t that mean you’re even less likely to go home? Or am I now responsible for getting you there?” If this was him actually asking a guy out, then Nic was certain he was doing it wrong. That he might be doing it at all was amazing in itself.
Really, truly adorable. That was all that was rushing through Micah’s mind. “I’ll let you decide if you being there is more a reason or less. I think you can figure that out.” He wasn’t like this. Friendly, yes, but just outright flirtatious? God no. Not since his massively inappropriate romance with a married man. Then he’d been like this. And shy and awkward behind closed doors. He’d been so good at getting there, but once alone he’d half shut down, needing the orders and direction to feel less like he was screwing up at every turn. But Nic brought out that urge to play and tease that fit the man in scrubs so well, so Micah took it with a smile and ran with it, assuming it wouldn’t pan out anyway.
“You, doctor, are a flirt,” Nic laughed, unwilling to tell Micah if he would or wouldn’t be there. It was a little too bold for him, plus he wasn’t just going to hang out at Micah’s place in hope that he might catch him, but maybe he’d leave him a note or something. He could play along, just in case Micah was serious, though he was still trying to wrap his mind around that possibility. Here was a man who could have anyone he wanted, and yet he seemed to be flirting with Nic. “Do you offer everyone a key to your house, or just those nice enough to share their coffee?” It was easier to dance around it than say he would or wouldn’t be there.
Micah chuckled to himself. "I've been called worse things." Though not by anyone who was in Nic's position. Leaning against the counter which brought him a little closer to Nic he shook his head. "Just the too-young-for-me heroes." Which really meant no one. Who was he going to date? When was he going to find time? And while he was comfortably out, there wasn't a community teeming with available gay men.
“I didn’t mean it as an insult,” Nic smiled. This was nice. Nerve wrecking, but nice. Nic didn’t know how he’d ended up in this position, but at least he was flirting with someone who might actually be interested in him, rather than a very nice guy who most definitely wasn’t. He’d been doing too much of that lately. “How old do you think I am?” Nic asked, raising a brow. He’d been in a lot of awkward situations, but this was the first time someone ever insinuated that he was too young for them. “You’re not exactly an old man.”
"I feel like one," Micah said shaking his head and running a hand through his hair. He'd seen the fine lines starting to show up at the corners of his eyes and he was all too conscious of the scar that marred his cheek. "Twenty-two? Young enough to have better options." He didn't seem upset about it though, smile on his features.
“Well, at least you made me drinking age,” Nic said. He knew he sometimes looked younger than he was, but he wasn’t that young. “I turn twenty-six today, so you’re only four years off.” Twenty-six sounded old to him, though he wouldn’t say it sounded that way when it applied to anyone else. “You’re not giving yourself enough credit and you don’t know my record,” he grinned.
“Twenty-six today?” Micah smiled more at that. “Happy birthday then.” He had work to do, he really did, but he found himself more curious about that statement. “There’s no way you’re only two years younger than me.” Nic seemed far more youthful than he was. Like he’d have so much more energy. “Tell me about your record.”
“Thank you,” Nic said with a little laugh. It was why he was splurging on things like coffee. It might not seem like celebrating to some, but when coffee was as hard to get as it was, it was a big deal to have a cup. “Why’s that? Yesterday I could have said three years, if that makes you feel better.” Except a day didn’t really make a difference. “Well... in the past week I’ve managed to hit on one straight guy, possibly two, and a girl who turned me down, then seemed to be upset by the decision.”
“Because you look so much more...awake.” Micah, rested his elbow on the counter. “And I see myself as this old man. Rounding the corner on thirty.” He ran his hand over his hair again, smiling a little. “A girl too? How are you doing now?”
“I think that might have more to do with my sleep schedule than my age,” Nic grinned. Of course he looked more awake. He’d gotten a full eight hours last night and he was on his second cup of coffee. “You’d think with girls in the mix, it’d be a little easier, but it’s not.” And it was way too early to have discussions about his sexuality. “Now? Hard to say, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.”
“Details,” Micah said waving his hand at what Nic said about sleep. “Adding girls to the mix never makes anything easier.” He took a sip of his coffee, smiling again. “Definitely a step in the right direction.” It was in his mind at least.
Nic liked this thing where people found out he was bisexual and didn’t ask questions. It was new to him, but very welcome. “So if I was to ask you to get a drink with me sometime, it wouldn’t be turned down?”
That left Micah stumbling internally even if it didn’t show. He wasn’t good outside of the hospital. Not like this. “No,” he said honestly, because he wouldn’t, but it might go terribly awry. “But, we’ve already had a drink together.” He tapped his coffee cup against Nic’s. “But I can say I’m going to try and go home tonight. Provided nothing crazy happens.”
Nic’s stomach did a backflip, that one little question making him far more nervous than he let on. For all he tried to play it cool, asking a guy out on a date was a first for him. He and Dixen had never been that official, or even that public. “Then maybe I should let you get a good night’s sleep first, in case you’re answering in some kind of sleep deprived delirium,” he smiled. “You never know with things around here, but I’m hoping we get a quiet day. We need one.”
Micah shook his head. “I’m not that sleep deprived Nic. The sleep deprived version of me would have done something far more drastic than say yes.” He gathered up his things again, really needing to stop flirting and get to work as much fun as flirting was. “Me too.” He nodded towards the key in Nic’s hand again. “And maybe I’ll see you later.” He took his cup of coffee with him, smiling as he backed up, watching Nic.
As curious as Nic was as to what something ‘far more drastic’ might be, it was probably a good thing he hadn’t done it in the hospital. Nic had done some wild things in his time, but he’d never done them on the job. “You’ll just have to make it home to find out,” Nic smiled, allowing Micah to get back to work. He wasn’t sure what he’d do with the opportunity he’d been given, but the last thing he’d do was let it go to waste.