Chapter Thirty-Six - Sleepy

“Long-held international conflicts, as well as conflicts that have arisen between racial and religious groups, will not fade away just because of an existential threat to all of humanity.

While it is optimistic to hope that such groups will set aside their differences in the face of a threat the likes of which the Antithesis pose, such wishful thinking had little basis in established fact.

Some of these groups are facing existential threats, perceived or real, already. The addition of another, alien threat isn’t a cause for them to cease their attempts to fight through long-held grudges.

There is a non-zero chance that the last bullet fired by the last human isn’t aimed at an alien, but at their fellow man.”

-US Intelligence Services Report, June 2025

***

I stumbled into my place feeling like I weighed fifty kilos more and like all of my limbs had been replaced by sludge. My jaw was aching from all the yawning I was doing, and I was pretty sure anyone could convince me of anything at the moment.

Which is probably why it took me a moment to register Lucy standing in front of me wearing nothing but short-shorts, a tank-top, and a large apron that read “Kiss the Me.”

“Hi,” Lucy said.

“Oh, hey,” I said before stifling another yawn.

Lucy nodded, then reached over and started taking my jacket off. She tossed it on the couch, then pushed me forwards. I didn’t have the energy to protest, and just let her press on until we were in our room. “Come on, let’s get you out of these clothes,” Lucy said.

She pressed herself against my back, warm and soft. Her hands trailed along my side, then worried at the button of my pants. “Lucy,” I said.

“Mhm?”

“I love you.”

“Yup.”

“I don’t know if I’m in the mood,” I complained.

Lucy snorted. “You stink too much for that,” she said. “Come on, let’s get you in the shower. The warmth will help.”

I didn’t have it in me to protest. Instead I left a trail of dirty clothes in my wake as I made it to the washroom and then into the shower. Soon, warm, pre-soaped water was pouring down onto my head, and I just stood there for a moment. It was nice.

I came out of the shower some indeterminate amount of time later. Lucy was waiting for me with a large, fluffy towel. She wrapped it around me, then wrapped herself around me too. It was warm, both the towel and Lucy.

“Come on,” she said before she started moving the towel around and drying me off.

“I can handle it,” I said. “I’m tired, not infirm.”

“Don’t care,” Lucy said simply. “Also, we need to do something about your hair. The highlights are almost all gone.”

I blinked, then glanced into the mirror. My hair was still wet and matted down. My usual ponytail had come apart and my hair was down around my shoulders. Longer than was fashionable at the moment. The pink highlights I had at the front were barely there anymore. “Yeah, I guess I could redo those,” I said.

“I bet Myalis has beauty stuff for cheap,” Lucy said. “Or, you know, we could buy normal stuff. No harm in that.”

“Mhm,” I agreed.

Lucy stopped towelling me, then grabbed some clothes from next to the sink. They were pyjamas, big, thick, fluffy ones. The kind of extremely girly shit that I didn’t usually jive with, but which I was totally going to give in to right then and there.

Shit was soft.

“There you go,” Lucy murmured. She guided me out of the washroom, and I blinked as I noticed the bed was all done up, which was extremely unusual. Most of the time the most ‘done’ our bed was, was when all the pillows and blankets were heaped onto it and there weren't too many dirty clothes on the edge.

“You did the bed?” I asked.

“I’m trying the whole stay-at-home-wife routine,” Lucy said.

“Oh.”

“Don’t get used to it. Cleaning sucks and I refuse to do it full-time. I’m going to try the stay-at-home-businesswoman-who-hires-a-maid routine next. It seems way more fun.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

Lucy ushered me into bed, tucked me in the way I’d seen her do for dozens of younger kids at the orphanage, then she pressed a kiss onto my forehead.

I felt a little babied at the moment. It was kinda nice though.

“Sleep tight,” Lucy said. “Myalis, can you let me know when she’s up? I’ll make sure there’s something warm and hot for you.”

“Hmm, are you sure you don’t wanna keep up the domestic routine?” I asked. My eyes had closed already, I didn’t have the strength to open them, nor did I want to.

“Positive,” Lucy said.

If she said anything else, I lost it as I fell asleep.

I wasn’t sure if I dreamed at all. I just woke up with no clue what time it was. There weren’t any windows in our bedroom, not that there was much point in looking at the sky most of the time. So I glanced at the clock in my HUD and groaned. “How long did I sleep for?”

Five hours and thirty-two minutes?

I stretched. “Feels longer,” I said.

You did have a few hours of sleep before you left. Your total sleep time adds up to over eight hours, which is about what I’d recommend you receive.

“Mmm,” I murmured as I stretched my legs out under the blankets. I rolled onto my side, then got up. It was three something in the afternoon, and I decided then and there that I wouldn’t be doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Well, maybe a few little productive things, I amended for myself as Lucy walked into the room with a tray. She paused by the entrance, smiling. She was wearing a lot less under the apron this time.

About an hour, an entire can of whipped cream, and a second shower later, I found myself wandering through my place feeling a happy little buzz. “Any news from that fox guy?”

Millennium Animal hasn’t yet sent any concrete updates. He has posted the job, and there is some interest on the more public bounty boards. A lot of the interest is in the form of whether or not the price for the contract is worth it. There is a lot of speculation about the catalogues and items people could purchase. Some seem to think it’s not worth as much as a pure-credit translation, others are speculating otherwise.

Yeah, that tracked. “Well, keep me posted if he sends anything, please?”

I can do that.

I found some rags to wear, then headed out. It was surprisingly chilly outside, though I couldn’t tell if that was the height or the weather being unseasonable. In either case, it wasn’t so cold that I couldn’t get to work.

The mech’s repairs were... well, they were progressing. “I think,” I said after I spent the first twenty minutes of work not doing any work. “That we’re almost to the point where the mech could be used. Like, that bit’s connected to that part, and we just need to close that doohickey there and slap the armour back on, right?”

That would make it usable, yes. Though you’d be missing one of your primary guns, and the other wouldn’t have its full aiming radius. Also, that would create a noticeable weakness on that side.

“Meh, it’s good enough to know that I can get the mech out and moving again with just a few hours of work. I don’t want to close everything up though.”

Doing that would mean that I’d have to remove things again once I decided to fix the rest of the mech up, which would be a pain in the ass. Still, the fact that I knew that much was nice. I was improving. It felt like I was getting better fast, too.

Then again, that might have just been a symptom of picking up a new skill. Those tended to improve quickly at first, from what I could tell, then things would slow down drastically once the basics were down.

Oh well, I could live with that. Chances were the mech wouldn’t stay in one piece once I was done fixing it. Not for long, anyway.

The chill eventually convinced me to get to work. There was no way I’d be able to keep warm unless I started to move. The repair drone came out, and soon enough I was back in the guts of the machine.

This was a much, much better way to spend the day than chasing assholes.

***