Nef had repositioned himself on the kitchen counter, so, even when sitting, he could look over Ergo who sat back down at the kitchen table.
“Do you remember that time I ended up in the hospital?” Nef broke the silence with a question. Ergo turned to him.
“When you almost died of acute pneumonia after ice swimming? Yes.”
“Those were the best days of my life,” Nef said. “I remember lying in bed, trembling, sweating, delirious. And then you would come and tell me about your day, about the changes in the stock market.”
“I even filled out your reports so you wouldn’t fall behind.”
The two men looked each other in the eyes.
“Those were some of the worst days of my life. When the doctors allowed me to see you, I really thought you were going to die,” Ergo said. He picked at a stray strand of hair, surprised that Nef would bring up such an old memory.
All Corpus crewmen had to go through what was called “emergency training”, and one of the modules included teaching oneself how to rescue yourself after falling through a crack in the ice. For some reason, Nef decided to pick up ice swimming and he convinced Ergo to go with him. The two men would spend months taking ice-cold showers and preparing their bodies for the cold. They would even take walks in the tundra landscape after a session in the sauna.
Eventually, after deciding that they had prepared enough, Nef found a spot where to take a MOA and order it to cut a hole in an iced-over lake. Then the two men took off their clothes and went for a swim - the culmination of their efforts of adaptation. The next day both were a little snively, but Ergo was used to it - he was prone to catching colds, even if otherwise he felt healthy. Nef, on the other hand, became worse and worse throughout the day.
He was rushed to the hospital in the afternoon and transferred to intensive care in the evening. Only after three days did a doctor allow Ergo to visit him and even then “only for a short moment”.
Thinking about it now, Ergo realized just how worried he was back then. After all - they were just two crewmen. Back then, they were just two friends, trying to earn a living together.
“Ergo, are you even listening to me? You’re going to pull all your hair out!”
Ergo snapped out of his daydream. Somehow, he let his thoughts wander and spent a good while twirling hair around his finger and pulling it just a little bit too roughly. It was a bad habit, probably stress related.
“Why did you bring that up? That was so long ago,” hiding his disappointment was suddenly very difficult. Nef didn’t look particularly impressed, maybe he was even offended by Ergo’s remark.
“Well, whenever you make breakfast for us, I just remember how you took care of me when I was sick and dying. I suppose I just really like being taken care of,” Nef finished his monologue with that sly smile that meant everything and nothing.
Ergo sighed.
“And I like taking care of you.”
The dishwasher changed the tone of its purr. The first cycle was complete.
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