"Sit, I insist," said Leah. "How long have you been on your feet today, Captain?" Leah was seated at the small two-person table. Her dusky blue skin seemed lighter than usual in the harsh fluorescent lights of the small backroom; she had her waist-length dark green hair drawn up in a high braid on her head, trailing down her back in a tight coil. She wore her plain nurse's uniform under a fuzzy pink cardigan. Leah was a slight, thin amphibious woman with eerily reflective pink eyes, regarding Arin with a keen, analytical gaze as she plopped down on the opposite side of the backroom table.
Arin was tall; a little more than a head taller than Leah, pale, and slightly stocky with shoulder-length crimson hair, striking violet eyes and a large pair of mottled brown sparrow-like wings. She was still in her day clothes, a long white sweater dress, at nearly midnight, and there were pronounced dark circles under her eyes.
"How are you feeling, Captain?" Leah asked, leaning over the table.
"A little tired, honestly," sighed Arin. "But I need the distraction. I need to go back to work."
"Your limit was supposed to be four hours a day, if I'm not mistaken," said Leah, her face dangerously neutral. Arin quailed a little under her stare, shuffling her wings nervously.
Leah extended a hand across the table. Arin pulled one hand up reluctantly, and stretched it out to meet Leah's.
Arin was sitting so close that Leah, who was a physical empath, could already feel an echo of Arin's body: from that close distance, she could clearly feel that Arin was exhausted, one of her wings was aching like she'd pulled it, and that her bladder was desperately full. When their hands touched, the echo of Arin's sensations became much clearer. There was a hollow feeling in her stomach that Leah had become accustomed to, her wing didn't hurt as badly as Leah had first thought, and she was extremely tense. It made Leah flinch sympathetically before she let go of Arin's hand.
"What you need is a good night's sleep and something to help you relax."
"Dagger root essence?" asked Arin hopefully. "I've been good, drinking a lot of water."
"I've noticed," said Leah. "And maybe later, but now I'm giving you a sleep aid and you're taking two days off from work to make up for today."
"But-"
Leah sighed. "I'll walk you back to your quarters, make sure you don't go back to your office again."
Once they were out in the hall, Leah could feel how badly Arin needed to pee. Every step was distinctly uncomfortable, but Arin didn't outwardly show it at all.
"There's a bathroom around this corner if you need to go," suggested Leah.
"No, no, I can hold it," yawned Arin. She stretched her wings one by one, slowly and carefully behind her as they walked.
"You andynes are so weird about that. Why don't you just pee when you need to?" asked Leah, exasperated.
Arin shrugged. "This isn't bad at all. I could probably hold it for another six, maybe twelve hours, at least."
Leah sighed, "If you say so."
The rest of the walk was uneventful. The airship was very quiet at that hour, and Arin couldn't seem to stop yawning. When they stopped at her door, Arin led them both in. Leah immediately made her way to the kitchen.
"You may want to use the bathroom," Leah called behind her. "You'll need to take a whole glass of water with the sleep aids."
Arin sat down on her couch. For once, the low coffee table she usually spread her paperwork out on was bare, until Leah emerged from the kitchen with a glass of water and set it in front of her.
"Here," she said, pulling a pill bottle from her pocket. She took out two and dropped them into Arin's palm. Arin put them in her mouth and downed the whole glass of water without hesitation.
"Now," said Leah, taking a step back. "That'll take about two hours to start kicking in, with your vascular system. If you need anything-"
"What I need is a muscle relaxer," snorted Arin.
"You know I can't do that," Leah sighed. "If I had any guarantee you'd keep eating I would...but I don't," she said pointedly. Arin looked away, blushing a little. "Do you do anything normally to relieve tension? Like a hobby? Or exercise? Masturbation?"
Arin looked up. "Did you just say-"
"Masturbation. Everyone does it, Captain," said Leah matter-of-factly. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."
Arin floundered, but recovered with an airy giggle, "I forgot how comfortable you amphibious doctors are with sexual stuff."
"We call that principle 'the whole person,'" said Leah. "If you're going to be working so closely with your patients, you have to be comfortable with everything about them; you can't just run away every time they have a bodily function. That can include sex, but that doesn't mean-"
"Oh, don't worry, I know," Arin laughed nervously. "Accepting that people masturbate is different from participating in it."
"And it isn't compulsory for the doctor, nor the patient," added Leah, nodding. "Consent is of the utmost importance." She felt Arin's bladder spasm next to her, and Arin pressed her legs together: the first sign that she was becoming uncomfortable. Leah stepped forward and sat down. "Would you like me to call your brother to keep you company until the sleeping pills take effect? I heard that he arrived on the ship last week."