It was on the same day but late at night, nearly past midnight. Seraing usually decided to stay at the Twin Towers when his work extended into the night and he would spend too much time travelling to the residential areas only to sleep – this was way easier, even if he had much less fresh clothing and daily necessities on him at this place. 

   He was finishing his last tasks, making his notes on his computer. He slept a few hours at noon, and spent the rest of the day checking the resources and other reports from Judges. This was nothing too hard, but he still felt pretty tired. He wanted to finish this last work and have a better and longer sleep today.

   He closed the file, closed all the windows, turned off the computer, rearranged the envelopes on his desk and then started to change into his night clothes. He put his uniform on a hanger, smoothed it down with his hands and hung the hat on the top. He did this every evening before sleep; it felt like a perfect ending to a long day. Then he finally made it to his bed.

   As soon as he put his head on the pillow, his communicator started to ring, but muted shortly after.

   It was a message. Seraing closed his eyes, and contemplated if he should get up to see that message. Then the ringing started again, again and again, at a rapid pace one after another. He sighed, got up and took his communicator from his desk.

   He felt like something tugged his heartstrings, and his face relaxed by a smile as he glanced at the top of the messages.

Dr Ji.

As he opened the first one, he walked back to his bed, and sat down.

 “Seraing! Have you heard the news already?”

Seraing raised his eyebrows, and opened the next one.

 “I just overheard it… but I don’t think they would joke about it.”

 “Seraing, Lu Feng’s plane crashed.”

   After the third one, Seraing lost his smile, and he felt cold all of a sudden. He opened the fourth message much faster.

 “But they contacted him for a minute. It looks like they’ve lost the connection after the crash.”

 “I think… ah, I don’t know… Can I come over? I’m being paranoid… I think someone is watching me.”

 “Hold on…”

   Seraing got a bit confused by the last two sentences, but then Dr Ji stopped writing. This was the time for him to answer.

 “Doctor, thanks for the heads up. I haven’t heard of the Colonel. Please, stay safe. I can come over if you’re in trouble.”

   He was once again a bit tense, but tried not to overthink. If they’d contacted the Colonel, he will be fine, but they probably will have to send a rescue party for him. The hard part in this was to locate him if he wasn’t able to tell where he was.

   Nonetheless, Seraing felt disrespected as a Judge again. The military should’ve called him if his boss had an accident. Well, not as if this was a surprise.

   So, he was waiting patiently, but the doctor hasn’t sent anything else since then. It started to make him worried. He knew that Dr Ji was overdramatic at times and got panicky way too fast. But he also knew that the doctor was aware of his own antics, and wouldn’t try to message him unless he really felt being threatened.

   Seraing’s fingers were gently stroking the screen of his communicator. He’d reread all of the messages many times. He constantly checked the time as well: it was fifteen minutes since he got the last message… then twenty… then twenty-two… it was a long time, considering the context of the last message. Seraing frowned. Maybe he should change to his uniform and go, not wait for answers? He didn’t like the silence. It was not fitting to Dr Ji.

   He stood up hurriedly, but at the very same time a fast, short and quiet knocking sound came from his door. His body stiffened and froze in his stand before he reached out for his gun on the nightstand. The knocking halted, and there was not a single sound to be heard.

   Seraing lifted his pistol, supported with two hands, holding it securely. He approached the door with careful steps, before leaning against the metal sheet, holding his breath. Just his heart pounded loudly. He only heard the usual noises of the building. It seemed like the person on the other side also tried to stay hidden: didn’t move or already had gone.

   There was no other way to find out. Seraing slid his fingers onto the knob, and with a swift movement, he opened it up widely, immediately putting out his gun in front of him in case someone would attack.

   The person in front of him hasn’t moved; recognising him made the Judge stop as well. Dr Ji went pale in the second he saw the gun pointing right at his face, and it looked like he was about to pass out.

   Seraing quickly withdrew his gun and sighed deeply. Before he would apologise, he grabbed the stunned doctor, jerked him into the room and closed the door with the same momentum.

 “Excuse me… After your message I was alerted. I thought someone was trying to hit on me as well.” He explained calmly, putting down his pistol back in its place, looking at the blond figure.

   Dr Ji was still slow and his hands were shaking, until he crossed his arms below his chest. Yeah, he was panicking again. Seraing almost smiled.

 “Please, sit down.” He offered gently and pulled the chair from the desk closer. Before he could say or do anything else, Dr Ji, as if it was totally natural, just dropped himself onto Seraing’s bed, sitting like he didn’t notice the chair. So it was left for Seraing to sit on. He didn’t mind that much. “Have you not seen my message? I wanted to go to your place.”

Dr Ji frowned, and took out his communicator to check his messages.

 “Ohh… I didn’t see.” He said in a hoarse voice, and after that he dropped his communicator onto the quilt. He suddenly leaned forward, burrowing his face into his palms, elbowing on his knees. “Seraing, I might go crazy.”

   This was nothing new. Seraing kept his calm and patience. He felt rather happy to have company. Before this, he didn’t have visitors at night, at least not since he was out of the Garden of Eden. Only children had secret meetings in each other’s rooms at night.

 “Calm down, doctor.” He said it like a mantra. “What happened? How is this related to the Colonel?”

 “Oh, you don’t think it’s related?” Dr Ji swiftly straightened his back and looked at him with a desperate expression on his face. “How do you think his plane got into a crash?”

 “So, do you assume it was an assault?” Hummed Seraing, trying to think of any proof that would support the doctor’s idea. “Why there, out in the wilderness?”

 “Well, they can’t just take out the Arbiter here.” Snored Dr Ji, and his gaze were jumping around in the room. “Most people hate Lu Feng, but not everyone. But… but then, when I heard about this, I felt as if I was being followed to my room… and I heard footsteps outside my door, just a few steps before they stopped… someone was walking around my door again and again.”

   This was indeed weird if it really happened. Seraing frowned. It was not like he didn’t believe Dr Ji. But when someone was overtaken by extreme fright they tend to see and hear things that were not even there. It was a natural response. But instead of pointing this out, he asked something else.

 “How did you get out?”

   Dr Ji suddenly laughed, but his voice was so high-pitched and shaky, that he shut up very soon, and tried to smile with trembling lips.

 “Through the window…”

He looked awkward and lost, and he hugged himself again.

   Seraing pressed his lips together. The doctor wasn’t too athletic. He was not in bad shape, but didn’t seem to be very agile when it came to sticky situations. Him coming out of the window in his worn-down white lab coat that he was wearing – especially seeing the freshly made cuts and dust spots on it – it should’ve been a very… comical escape scene. Seraing kind of regretted not going to him to see how he was coming down from that window.

   Seraing stood up and stepped to the doctor. Dr Ji raised his head and the corner of his eyes got red. For a moment, Seraing felt a sudden urge to stroke this man’s hair, but he got confused by this idea… Indeed, Dr Ji was pitiful, but Seraing was still much younger than him. And not only that, the doctor had a way higher rank than him, so it didn’t seem appropriate to touch him like that.

Instead, he put his hand on the cramping shoulder.

 “Did you get hurt? Let me see.”

Dr Ji hung his head.

 “Just… a little.”

   Despite that “just a little”, his voice sounded more mournful than calm. With shaky hands, he pulled up his coat and shirt’s sleeves. There was a tiny scratch on his arm; it wasn’t even bloody that much. It dried up by the time he got here. But Seraing took him very seriously in order to calm him down, so he earnestly started to take care of the wound. He took out the first aid box and looked for antiseptic, ointment and gauze. When he found everything, he also took one of his candies from his small stock.

   Then, he sat down right beside the blond doctor, their thighs were pressing together; without saying a word, he slowly cleared and wrapped up his arm. In this process, he touched the pale skin quite often, and he had to blink and swallow a few times because a very faint, but slightly uncomfortable feeling had risen in him by those light touches. Dr Ji’s skin was soft like silk on that inside part. Suddenly, Seraing remembered that conversation that they had after the doctor was attacked.

 “Here you go. You will survive it.” Seraing said after a longer silence. His voice got a bit raspy but he smiled at Dr Ji.

   From this close, the doctor seemed just as tired as he was. Under those azure blue eyes, there were two big dark circles, his eyelids dropped halfway – he said to Seraing, that he has pretty eyelashes, but the doctor had some beautiful, long ones too. Well, maybe the dusty glasses hid them too much; they weren’t that visible from afar.

 “Sorry…” Dr Ji whispered and looked down on the fresh bandage, stroking it with his unharmed hand. “I overreacted the situation. It was not a sneak attack, right?”

   Seraing swiftly licked his lips and sighed. Then, as if he was trying to calm down a kid, he reached out for the doctor’s anxiously moving hand, and put the candy into his palm. Dr Ji frowned, before he took a look at the small object. When he realised, what it is, many emotions ran through his eyes. In the next second, he swiftly unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth. Seraing cleared his throat. The brief moment, when Dr Ji’s tongue licked the candy, right before closing his lips, was burnt into his mind too brightly. In order to regain his focus, Seraing answered.

 “Honesty, I don’t know. Perhaps it was. You could’ve been right, I can’t quite rule out the possibility. It would make sense. But, I didn’t experience anything like you described. Maybe you just felt alerted because you were eavesdropping around soldiers. You have to be more careful, for your own safety.”

 “Hmph… I’s wei’d.” Dr Ji’s words were muffled by eating the candy; then one of his cheeks popped up, as he was relocating the sweet snack in his mouth in order to be able to speak. However, he still didn’t look up. It was quite unusual to see him like this. This was a bit different than his casual dramas. “Things should be alright by now… the aurora is back, the magnetic field is getting better, the Lighthouse and the United Front Center both survived, the Eden kind of survived, even though we lost all of our fertile woman and the babies… It seemed like we made some progress, but I still feel like I can die in any moment.”

 “It’s normal.” Seraing tried his best to reply immediately, despite his own sleepiness that has started affecting his thinking speed. “We’re not completely out of trouble. And the last couple of weeks that we’ve experienced aren’t going to just disappear in an instant. We need several weeks to get over it. And you tend to be more easily… frightened anyway. It’s okay.”

   Dr Ji finally reciprocated Seraing’s gaze, and looked like his words were reaching the doctor. He was not that shaky anymore.

 “You’re right. Of course… that entire horrible thing just happened…” He murmured, repeating Seraing’s words to himself. A light knocking sound followed his words; he must bit on the candy. “Probably, I just got anxious over Lu Feng’s case.”

 “I’m sure the Colonel will be alright,” Seraing said confidently. “If you want to be worried, be worried for the monsters trying to attack him.”

Dr Ji’s lips trembled and turned into a smile, and he let out a breathy laugh.

 “You’re so right. There is nothing that can harm that idiot. He is too big of an asshole for that.”

   Seraing didn’t agree with this part, but he knew that the doctor and the Colonel were good friends, so he didn’t get upset over the name-calling. Even if it wasn’t his style to speak like that with close friends, he understood that Dr Ji wasn’t seriously trying to insult the Arbiter.

 “I’m sure, we will hear about him soon. There is no point in worrying about him right now. Try to not dwell on it so much.”

The doctor took a deep breath. The candy was already gone.

 “Yeah, yeah. I’m trying. Maybe I should’ve just taken a tranquillizer and slept.”

 “That’s probably not a bad idea.” Seraing nodded. “But if you feel better coming here, please, do as well. I’m glad you’ve sought out my help.”

   Dr Ji stared at him for a while, investigating Seraing’s every single feature on his face. The Judge felt a bit of warmness by that look, but did everything to keep his calm.

 “You are too kind.”

Seraing laughed before he could stop it.

 “Yeah… I know. I heard this one as well… a lot.”

   Turned out that he should’ve not said that. It was only a second for him to realise this, as they locked eyes. As soon as he made this comment, Dr Ji’s face tensed again, and the blond man pressed his lips together. Obviously, Seraing reminded him about that conversation, when Dr Ji was complimenting his eyelashes…

 “Is there anything that you haven’t heard yet?” The doctor asked, visibly annoyed.

 “I apologise… mm… I don’t know… I cannot really point out something that I’ve never heard.”

 “… for the fuck sake.”

   Dr Ji suddenly leaned sideways, and fell onto Seraing’s bed behind its owner’s back. Before Seraing could’ve said a thing, the doctor kicked and crawled, until he found a comfortable position for himself, stretching out and lying over the whole bed, digging his head into Seraing’s pillow. Seraing slightly raised his eyebrows, turning towards him in his sitting, watching these movements. After Dr Ji burrowed his head into that pillow, he closed his eyes and seemed to take a deep breath.

His face blushed.

Seraing felt extremely confused. Is the doctor drunk maybe?

 “Are you feeling okay?”

   He only got a humming noise, before Dr Ji turned his back to him, clearly demonstrating his displeasure.

Is he going to sleep here?

   Seraing closed and rubbed his own eyes. Not as if he minded it but… if he wanted to sleep as well, they had to share the bed. Or… he can just sleep on the floor. The doctor didn’t leave too much space behind him.

   He stood up, and put his chair back in its original place before he turned to his wardrobe. There was only one extra quilt, or more like just a thin blanket, but it was more than nothing. Seraing took it and placed it beside his bed, before sitting down and laying over it.

   It was very hard and quite uncomfortable, but he had such experience in armored vehicles all the time. And those moments were even worse since the car was bumping and jumping as they drove through the unlevelled areas in the wilderness with it.

   He heard the squeaking noise of the bed. When he looked up, he saw a blond head peeking down at him.

 “What are you doing?”

 “Trying to sleep?” He asked back calmly, still with a raspy voice. “Doctor, I’m also really tired. I don’t mind you staying here, but I have to sleep. Don’t worry, I’m a light sleeper, I will wake up at any little noise if someone breaks into this room. I will protect you.”

   At least, he assumed, this was the reason for which the doctor wished to stay in this room. Dr Ji pressed his lips together again.

 “… Why on the floor?”

 “Because you’ve taken over my whole bed.”

   Seeing the confused look, Seraing figured out that Dr Ji wasn’t aware of the situation. So it was not intentional.

 “I will sleep on the floor.”

 “You’re my guest; I won’t let you sleep on the floor.”

 “Then get your ass up, and use the bed! Are you that disgusted by me? You can’t even lay behind me?”

   Of course, he would have a problem with Seraing’s decision… The Judge sighed and sat up. By that time Dr Ji was once again showing his back to him, but he leaned closer to the wall. Seraing’s bed was a single bed, quite narrow, more suited for only one person, but with just a bit of adjustment, it could serve two people. The doctor left enough space for Seraing this time.

   But they were still pretty close to comfort. It would’ve been much better if he could’ve placed his arm around the doctor, leaning against him, but he didn’t want to freak him out. So, he turned to his right side, this way only their backs were pressing against each other.

 “Good night, doctor.”

 “… Good night… Judge.”

   Why is he sulking again? Seraing closed his eyes, but he couldn’t help but smile for some reason. Despite all the odds, he fell asleep very fast.

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