Five Times Phoenix Walked In On Mia

By Cyberwulf

Rated T

Summary: Five times Phoenix walked in on Mia, doing...things. What sort of things? Well, you'll just have to read on and find out. Inspired by a prompt on the kink meme about Phoenix walking in on Mia doing [blank].

xxx

i. …in Bed

This place was pretty well stocked for a hospital gift shop. The candy section had everything from big bags of treats for kids all the way to high-end luxury chocolates for adults. Flowers of all types and colours were arranged in beautiful bouquets. They even had the latest line of Plushypets among the stuffed animals.

Makes sense. If somebody's here, they need cheering up.

Phoenix sighed and looked down at the large box of chocolates he was holding. Mia's favourite. He hadn't seen her in two weeks. Not since the night their lives had been turned upside down. One minute he was calling out to Mia, apologising for being late. The next he was crouched under the window, fumbling for her pulse while her blood ran down his sleeve and a teenage girl he'd never met before screamed hysterically. The relief he'd felt when he realised Mia was still alive had only lasted till the police came and arrested Maya for attempted murder.

Two weeks. It was nothing and forever at the same time.

"Sir? Can I help you?"

The clerk behind the register looked mildly irritated. Phoenix managed not to scowl. Picking the right gift for his mentor after she'd suffered a fractured skull wasn't something he did every day. It took time. He was not stalling. In fact, to prove he wasn't, he grabbed a Plushy Giant Panda and stuffed it in the crook of his free arm.

He hadn't been stalling. For the first four days that Mia'd been in the hospital, Maya and then he had been charged with her assault and naturally hadn't been allowed to visit her. And when he'd finally dragged the truth out for all to see, there was paperwork to take care of, and Mia was fragile and needed more surgery and it just didn't feel right to be there, him not being family –

"She looks okay, Nick," Maya had said three days earlier, when he'd walked her to the bus stop for her usual visit. "I mean, she doesn't have any hair but she's still Mia. She can talk and she knows who we are…"

He'd felt relief at that. The doctors had warned them that she might have brain damage, and he couldn't deny that it was one reason he'd kept away until then. But even when that reason was gone, the thought of visiting made him feel like – well, like how horses felt when they refused to jump a fence. Stopping dead. Uh-uh. Nope. Not happening.

And then this evening, as they reached the bus stop and he was about to walk away, Maya'd just said "Please." She'd looked so sad and small, and he could've kicked himself for being so selfish. She was only seventeen and he'd been letting her sit in a hospital ward, by herself, looking at her big sister all bandaged and stitched for days like a jerk. So he'd got on the bus with her, and now Maya was upstairs visiting and he was down here still being a jerk.

He turned on his heel and stalked up to the register, pausing to grab one of the bigger bouquets of flowers for good measure. The gifts took a toll on his wallet but he didn't care. He gathered everything up and made for the elevator. The doors opened and he stepped inside, jabbing angrily at the button. He gazed at his armload of gifts while the car slowly travelled upwards.

Flowers, candy, stuffed animal. Now you've got no excuse to not see her.

It didn't seem like enough.

What if she hates me?

He should've been there on time. No, he should've got there early. All he had to do was come by the office when she asked him to and he couldn't even manage that. Hell, if he'd been a little later Mia might've been dead, instead of lying in hospital with a busted skull and no hair for the last couple of weeks. All his fault.

The elevator doors opened and for a few seconds Phoenix couldn't move.

Come on, Phoenix! You really think not showing your face around here is going to make things any better? What's Mia going to think of you if you let her little sister down, too?

The thought was enough to propel him out of the elevator just as the doors began to close. He stalked up the corridor, reciting Mia's room number under his breath and counting off the doors as he went. Maya was up ahead, getting a soda from a vending machine. He nodded as he passed her and reached Mia's room, juggling the gifts to one arm.

"Nick, wait!"

He grabbed the knob before he could think about it and pushed the door open.

Phoenix thought he had prepared himself for what was on the other side: Mia, his mentor, his Chief, lying in a hospital bed, huge ugly stitch-marks running the length of her skull, hooked up to drips and drains.

He had not expected to walk in on her in the middle of pulling a T-shirt off.

He reversed immediately, closing the door as softly as possible, but the damage was done. The image was burned forever into his retinas: Mia sitting up in bed, her face obscured by the grey shirt she was taking off, her pale creamy boobs – bigger than he'd ever imagined – exposed, the blue hospital blanket pooling just a little too low around her hips. Phoenix stood with one hand still on the doorknob, staring into space. All his anxiety and self-recrimination had evaporated, leaving only one thought in his mind.

I just saw my boss naked.

There was a tug on his sleeve and he almost leapt ten feet in the air.

"I told you to wait," Maya admonished with a teasing smile.

"Haha, yeah," Phoenix managed, carding his free hand through his hair. Maya elbowed him gently and poked her head around the door.

"Sis, you decent? Nick's here!"

Maya entered the room, leaving the door open. Still, Phoenix waited a couple of seconds before he followed her.

Mia was in bed again, dressed in a white T-shirt with a cute desert island graphic on the front. Her blankets were pulled up around her waist. She looked weird with no hair, and the surgery scars were as ugly as Phoenix had imagined. But Maya was right, she was still the same old Mia.

"Phoenix!" Her face lit up, and a moment later she folded her arms in mock-annoyance. "Long time no see."

Phoenix let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. If Mia knew he'd barged in and caught an eyeful, she wasn't showing it. He stepped forward and offered her the bouquet. "Here. Something to make up for not visiting sooner."

Mia accepted the flowers, closing her eyes as she breathed in their fragrance. "They're beautiful," she murmured.

"Here, lemme take those for you, Sis," Maya piped up. Mia handed her the bouquet and she carefully arranged them in the vase on the bedside locker.

"I, uh…I got you these, too," Phoenix continued, handing over the other gifts.

"How cute -!" Mia tucked the panda into bed next to her. "And my favourite chocolates." She gazed down at the box for a few moments, then smiled at him. "Phoenix, you shouldn't have."

Phoenix smiled back, all the tension of the past couple of weeks finally slipping away. "Only the breast for you, Chief."