Jade/Roderich

[penguinknitter]

“Morning Roderich!” The cheery voice of Starr met him as he walked into the office to collect his mail. Smiling, he waved and returned the greeting, pulling the papers out of the box with his name on it, and noticing something odd.

“That’s strange…” He muttered, and Starr joined him in front of the wall of boxes. “Jade’s box is pretty full. Has he not been in?” Actually, he realized, he hadn’t seen Jade around much lately. Not an odd thing, considering it was winter break and classes weren’t in session for another few days.

“Oh, I figure you would have heard. He was helping Urd with something and hurt his back pretty bad. From what’s going around, he’s been stuck in his apartment for the past few days.” Starr looked over at him with a smirk on her face… it reminded Roderich of Urd in a way, and that worried him. He watched as she pulled Jade’s mail out of the box, wrapping a rubber band around it and handed it to him. “Take his mail to him, you’re neighbors, right?”

“Fine. Just… get that smile off your face.” Starr laughed before handing him a small box. He read the label and raised an eyebrow. She shrugged.

“You know what that is, use it if you need to.” She waved before heading out the door towards the science hallway, probably off to see Sara… or hunt down her boyfriend, Nuka. As Roderich headed out the front door towards the staff dorms, he pulled his coat closer and blinked against the snow, thinking about the last year, and all the changes that had occurred.

That train of thoughts took him to the floor of the dorm he resided on, and he glanced at the apartment across from his, before heading inside. Hanging up his coat, he grabbed a key out of a drawer and what Starr had given him before walking across the hallway to Jade’s apartment, using the key the older man had given him to enter.

“Jade?” He called out, walking into the entryway and looking around. Most of the apartment was dark, except light he could see coming from the bedroom. Knocking on the door to the room, he heard an affirming sound, before walking in.

“I see someone finally told you.” He heard Jade say as he walked over to sit on the edge of Jade’s bed, where he was lying on his stomach, looking over at Roderich. “Who was it?”

“Starr.” Roderich set the bundle of mail on one of the side tables. “She found me in the mail room this morning, as you can probably tell. What happened, exactly?” He glanced down at Jade’s back, where he saw some sort of pad resting there, probably a heated one.

“I was helping Urd move some things in her apartment. You can probably tell that I managed to hurt my back doing so. She thinks I strained one of the muscles, but would prefer that I stay in bed for a while.” He looked over at the younger man, who was still sitting on the edge of the bed.

“You could have told me, I would have come and helped with things.”

“Urd suggested that, but, as you know, I don’t accept help well.”

“Who has been around?”

“The person who got me into this predicament.” The look on his face said it all, Roderich knew. He’d probably convinced Urd that since it was her fault he was stuck there, that she should stick around. “She’s out with Woody though, so I’m stuck here all alone.”

“Do I detect a sarcastic ‘pity me’ tone?” Roderich laughed as he commented, watching as Jade smiled. “But, I do have something that might help, if you trust me enough.” Jade nodded, wincing a bit as even that movement hurt. Roderich reached over and pulled off Jade’s glasses, setting them to the side.

“Are you trying to take advantage of me while I’m hurt?”

“Very funny. Just relax, ok?” He watched as Jade closed his eyes before reaching over for the box Starr gave him, removed the vial inside, and poured some of the contents on his hands. It had been years since he had tried this, and he was pretty sure he was going to be horrible at it. “Where does it hurt the most?”

“Left side, right along the spine. Why do you ask--?” The last word was half a groan, because at that point, Roderich had placed his hands on Jade’s back, and applied pressure, running his fingers across the injured area. He ignored the look he was getting from the other male as his hands ran across Jade’s back, placing pressure in the right places, spreading the oil on his hands along the other’s skin.

“An old college skill.” Roderich said, finally looking up from what he was doing and seeing the question on Jade’s face. “A friend of mine taught me some, and it came in handy every once in a while, especially when someone got hurt.” He continued onward with his hands, running them along the other side of Jade’s back, realizing that the colonel was a lot more tense than normal. He decided it was due to the back injury, and didn’t mention it.

“And you just thought of it now?”

“No. Starr hurt herself a while back, and I had mentioned it to her before. She asked me for help.” There was a twitch Roderich could feel as he worked, and he ignored it. “Only you and Starr know about this, and I’d prefer it stay that way.” He removed his hand and looked over up at Jade’s face. “Please.”

Jade lifted an arm and made a ‘come here’ motion. Roderich obeyed and leaned closer, right as an arm reached up behind Roderich’s head and pulled him down to meet Jade’s lips. Roderich didn’t fight, responding to Jade’s demand, pulling away only when he felt the hand loosen.

“It’s safe with me.”