The dim light of the corner heater felt like it was stabbing into Julia's head each time she looked at it, her vision flickering like static, making her uncharacteristically whimper, something that caught the attention of Rika as they laid in bed.
"You alright?" She asked, reaching up to pet Julia's ears that had flattened on top of her head. Julia just groaned and laid back down, cuddling up against Rika as the rest of the cats all snoozed in varies positions on the bed.
"Head hurts...Think my eyes are glitching out…" Julia could see Rika's worried face close up in the dark as bright as day, her Archotech eyes normally nothing but useful to her. She quickly closed them again, covering them with her hands.
"Do you think you can fall back asleep? We could get Archie to take a look at you now if you need it, you know she wouldn't be upset to be woken up for us." Rika said and pulled Julia against her chest to get her to close her eyes, idly petting her little sister as they tried to settle back down.
"I can wait...If it is still hurting in the morning I'll ask her to take a look at me. Night Rika, love you." The feline sniper mumbled quietly before snuggling back in to try and sleep, hoping it would feel better in the morning.
It would be hard to tell if it was morning or not in their mountain bunker if not for the wall mounted lamp that imitated the morning sunlight's hue in the room. That light felt like it was burning Julia's brain as she closed her eyes right away, her ears folded again and her whimpering stirring the others a bit.
Rika was the first to awaken and sat up to put a hand on Julia's shoulder. "Still no good? Keep your eyes closed dear." She only got a shake of Julia's head, the pain appearing intense enough that her hands were clamped over her eyes. Rika leaned over to gently shake their eldest sister awake.
"Mmm? Rika? Fwaaaaa- Whats.. wrong?" Archie asked sleepily, yawning as she sat up, her ear twitching as she adjusted to being awake.
"Julia's eyes are hurting, do you think you could take a look at her?" Rika asked rather seriously, Julia not saying anything, seeming to be in obvious pain.
Archie scooted over to place a hand on her little sister's forehead, pulling it away quickly. "Keep your eyes closed okay? Just relax hun, it will be alright." Archie said, fully waking up as she felt Julia's temperature was quite high. She thought for a moment before leaning over towards the youngest twins to shake them away. She only needed Nala, but those two were too intertwined in each other's arms to only wake up one. Under normal conditions she would admire the adorable sight for a bit but she needed Nala's brain.
"Wha…? Archie? Whats up?" Nala asked, rubbing her eyes as she seemed to reboot quicker than the others, being genetically made to need less sleep. She untangled herself from Hoshi, who immediately took the blankets from them, and sat up.
"Julia's eyes are hurting her. Normally I would be fine looking at it on my own, but I was hoping you had any data on Archotech prosthetics that could help?" Archie asked nervously as she got off the bed and got dressed as she talked.
Nala got up to do the same. She brought a nightgown for Julia who always slept in the buff and helped her up.
Hoshi eventually noticed the bed getting colder and stirred awake. "Where...are my girls?" She grumbled sleepily before seeing them all getting dressed with more serious looks, with Julia hiding her eyes. She could tell by the air it was something abnormal and got up with them.
"Infirmary or your Lab Nala dear?" Archie asked as she wrapped and arm around Julia's shoulder so she could guide her. "Just keep your eyes covered hun, I'll get you something for the pain soon.
"Infirmary works, I'll just grab my data pad and find what I have on them, might be a little bit to find though." Nala said and skittered off at a hurried pace.
Archie and Rika would guide Julia out of the room. "Hoshi love, could you handle breakfast please?" Rika asked looking back at their sleepiest lover.
Hoshi nodded and stretched with a cute whining noise, giving Rika a nice glimpse of her figure in the artificial morning light in her negligee, making her flush despite the serious tone of the morning.
How did she manage to make even small things like stretching so sexy? Not everything could be explained by their engineered genetics… some people are just born seductive, to be poetry in motion. She quickly shook those naughty thoughts out of her mind.
"Of course, I'll make it easy on the stomach, in case the pain makes her feel sick. Feel better Julia, love you hun…" Julia gave a nod as she kept her eyes covered, wincing occasionally.
"There we go, just take a seat." Archie said and settled Julia on one of the beds. She judged what medicines would be best, but decided that the pain looked bad enough that immediate relief would be best. She grabbed a vial from a smaller cabinet on the wall, and a syringe. Filling up the shot with a small dose of morphine, or 'The Good stuff' as Hoshi called it. She headed back over to Julia to rub her shoulders, hugging her a bit to calm her.
Rika came back in with a thick black cloth before Archie could even ask. "I'm going to put on a blindfold dear, keep them closed tight." Archie said and quickly replaced Julia's hands with the opaque silk cloth, making sure it fit snugly around her head. "That good? Open up your eyes a little and tell me. You'll feel a tiny pinch love." Archie said after wiping Julia's arm down with disinfectant, and expertly slipping the needle in.
Julia seemed to relax instantly, taking a deep breath as the morphine hit her system. "That is… better...Can't see any light with the blindfold, thanks Archie love…" Julia said tiredly, she must not have slept well as her body nearly went slack.
"No problem dear." Archie said and sets down the empty syringe before hugging Julia close, rubbing her back. She smiled a bit more as she felt Julia start to rumble and purr. Archie remembered the last time Julia had morphine, and how affectionate their younger sister was. "Feeling up for eating anything?" Archie asked gently.
Julia nodded "Oh.. there is a few things I could eat…" Julia sleepily mumbled as gave a gentle nip to Archie's collarbone.
Archie snickered and scratched Julia's ears "Easy there dork. Lets get you some Actual food for now, save that for after the morphine wears off love." Archie said and helped Julia up. Rika stopped her own giggling and went over to help them get Julia, who was more.. floppy than normal, and get her through the halls and into the kitchen.
"How did I end up with four pretty kitties…" Julia mumbled as she was settled into a chair. Hoshi snickered and set some plates on the table.
"Because you are adorable, and have what those anime you pretend you don't watch call 'gap moe'?" Hoshi mentioned as she set Julia's plate in front of her. "Which one of us gets to feed her? Who do you want serving you today Julia love?"
"You know about that?! I thought I kept it so secret...I have to choose?" Julia said as she slumped on the table. The shift in normal personallity was quite amusing to the rest, she was almost never this animated.
"It is okay, you'll probably forget that we know once you come down from that high." Hoshi told her cheerfully, leaning across the table to ruffle that soft white hair. "I guess you don't, we can take turns feeding you. Right?" She asked and looked around at the others. Nala snickered as she walked in, catching the conversation down the echoing halls, seating herself next to Hoshi, giving her a tiny cheek kiss as she did so.
Julia sleepily allowed herself to be fed as they all enjoyed breakfast courtesy of Hoshi, each of them feeding their resident sniper bites of food as she purred like an engine. It was a side of her they didn't really ever see, and it was melting their hearts.
Once breakfast was consumed Nala handed her data pad over to Archie "Here is all the data I have on Julia's eyes. They are of course beyond anything I can make unfortunately...But I can kinda sorta understand them, not like I can take them to study. If we ever find another set I wanna research them much more thoroughly." Nala said as she stretched, looking the most awake of them all.
"Not a problem, but don't count on finding them...We didn't even find Julia's." Archie said and patted Nala's head.
"Yeah! It was those stupid science people in that lab who did! It hurt...they scooped out my eyes and I was still awake…" Julia commented in a sad voice that made them all drop what ever food they were holding, feeling suddenly ill.
"I'm… I'm so sorry Julia...We never knew, they didn't even…?" It was a topic Julia never talked about, and for her sake they never pried, they could tell how rough she had it. They all had gotten up to surround their sister, hugging at least one part of her. Those facts struck them, they all on some level seemed to not try and think about that fact, But to hear from Julia that she wasn't even asleep for that surgery? It broke their hearts.
"'s fine...I barely remember it, I try not to think about it. Thanks all, love you." Julia grumbled against the large group hug. "Kinda sleepy though...can I go back to bed?" She asked while leaning on them, trusting her weight to the bundle of cats.
"Yes you can sleep. We love you too." Archie said and pressed a kiss to her forehead, the others doing the same and breaking the hug. "Lets get you back to bed." She said and helped Julia up off the chair, helping guide their temporarily blind lover back to their giant bed.
"Feel better Julia dear, I'll come visit you later." Nala said and sat back down to finish her breakfast. She wanted to understand those eyes a bit better, if only to help Julia more.
"If you want I'll come take your mind off things later~" Hoshi chimed in as she planted herself in Nala's lap to the scientist's exasperation. A small and playful bop to the head chided her. "Not while your high obviously. Geez sis be nice, I wouldn't do that." She grumbled halfheartedly.
"I'll feed you lunch later okay?" Rika said and sternly looked at the younger twins, making them settle in their seats and start eating again, Hoshi's plate right next to Nala's, still fixed in place on that lap.
Archie was still quite worried as she tucked Julia back into bed, brushing her hair affectionately as Julia fell right asleep. This is why she only gave her as small dose as possible, she knew the woman was a bit more susceptible to it than most somehow. "I'll figure out what is going on with your eyes love, rest well." Archie set her mind to this task and left Julia to her sleep.
Rika had a difficult time waking her up for lunch, most of the morphine having worn off, making the sniper grumpy. "Is your headache any better sweetie?" She asked Julia as she helped prop her up.
"Yeah… Not nearly as bad, just sleepy still. Thanks for the lunch Rika." Julia said and rubbed her eyes under the blindfold some. Her hands were moved from her eyes by Rika.
"Lets get you fed first, leave your eyes alone." Rika said and held a fork towards Julia's mouth. The smell of meat and potatoes making her mouth water. There was less talking as she let their resident mother hen feed her. The little purr coming from Julia bringing a smile to Rika's face. She hummed a song as Julia ate, making Julia feel a bit more at peace in the darkness.
Later in the day Julia vaguely remembered Hoshi and Nala talking in whispers as one of them pet her hair, lulling her into a deeper sleep.
The next day Julia was the first to wake up, due to the amount of sleep she had gotten the previous day. With a relieved sigh she noticed she lacked the headache of the previous day. She removed the blindfold and peeked her eyes open. The dim heater light didn't send any pain into her this time, making her sigh in relief.
She got up to begin her day at 3 am, a rare smile blooming on her face as she looked down at her sleeping lovers, piled up snug in bed. It was a shame none were awake to see it. "You all are the best." She mumbled to herself.
She had her babies to tend to, those weapons wouldn't clean themselves~