Tsuyoshi regretted every moment of his life that led to this hangover. He regretted letting the doctor throw him into the showers fully clothed the night before. He regretted not slamming the door closed when Zelko and that obnoxious colonel were having an argument over access to weapons, as if literally anybody could control that.

When he finally untangled himself from his blankets and stumbled out of his cave, Dr Yeoh was nearby to give him yet another unimpressed look. It was the last thing he needed.

He fumbled through one of the supply closets, looking for electrolytes. They had a lot of bandages. A lot of medications carefully labelled in characters he couldn't read. A lot of tape.

When he finally found what he wanted and shuffled back towards some taps, the doctor was there to bother him again, hanging over his shoulder like a looming ghost.

"Make sure you use one of the taps that isn't spurting out blood," she said.

Oh, yeah, real helpful. He rolled his eyes, even though it made his head pound like a bomb ticking down to explosion. "I'm hungover. Not stupid."

"Absolutely nobody believes you can't manage to be both."

"This is the worst hangover I've ever had."

"You're 19. That's less impressive than you think."

At least his blankets couldn't judge him when he got back to his cocoon.

*

Angharad came to bother him later, but she was relatively quiet about it, coming in to lie on his shoulder and handing him more pain killers without a word. She was probably the best person in the world at that moment.

When he finally broke the quiet it was to ask, "Do you hate me?"

"Why would I hate you?"

"I hate me, and we're pretty much the same person."

"No, we make completely different stupid decisions," she said.

As far as he could tell, the only stupid decision she'd ever made was getting on the plane that brought her here. But if she wanted to wallow with him, he wasn't going to tell her no.

She really had a lot of hair, though. For the first time he thought, maybe that much hair is excessive. It could stand to not be in his face. He tried to scoop it up and throw it back over her shoulder, but wasn't entirely successful.

"Where's your other half?" she asked.

"He's elsewhere. Yelling at people that aren't me. He loves doing that."

"Lucky you."

She wrapped one of her hands around his, nails painted a neat dark red.

"I don't know how you can stand to touch me. I'm just that guy that shoots people."

"You didn't shoot anyone. I mean, I'm not going to pretend I think handling loaded weapons while intoxicated is the greatest idea you ever had, but nobody got hurt."

He touched along the edge one of her long fingers, feeling the warmth of her skin. In this light she had no scars or marks at all. "I've shot people. I wanted to be a paramedic once I was done fooling around with arts. I actually thought I could help people. What an idiot, right? That's not what these hands are for."

She only pulled him closer. "You've helped me. Maybe don't pretend you didn't spend two months taking care of my unconscious body."

*

He dozed on and off until Zelko came back. The sound of big boots slamming on the floor dragged Tsuyoshi back awake. He half-opened one eye: Zelko sat in the chair, carefully undoing the laces.

"I come back to find you in bed with a woman. The world has turned upside down."

"It's just Angharad," Tsuyoshi said.

"And here I thought what we had was special," she mumbled into his shoulder.

She moved, like she wanted to pull herself and all that ridiculous hair away, but he wouldn't let her.

Zelko knelt by the bed, eyes warm and amused, then put his large hands on Tsuyoshi's face and kissed his mouth.

"Okay, you definitely have to let me out now," she said.

Zelko smirked at him as he pulled back, just far enough that they could look at each other without going cross-eyed.

"Be gentle," Tsuyoshi said. "Angharad's never been in a bed with two men before. She's pure."

"And I'm going to stay pure," she said, and finally pulled away from his hands. "Your jokes are the worst."

He didn't look at her as she left, soft feet shuffling into the hallway. He only looked up as Zelko pressed him onto his back.