[For PanzerSoldat] The Most [UN]Wonderful Time of the Year

[infestedadmiral]

He has felt it coming on for the last few weeks.

The tightness in the limbs on his left side....the random bouts of itching and an inability to get comfortable.

Stukov knows the signs now...an incoming molt is on its way.  He hopes it will hold off until Reinhardt has those Christmas Market shifts he keeps talking about.  It is highly unlikely as those are almost a month away...but a Terran can dream, even an infested one.  There is a deep feeling of dread in his heart.  He is disgusting when he molts-a tangle of peeling reptilian skin, oozing slime and split carapaces.  If he is lucky, it will all be over in a little less than a week.

He hasn't told Reinhardt about it...and he feels a bit like a heel that he hasn't.  There has been no reason to, really as it has not effected them yet and hopefully he could conceal it if he needed to.  It only happened twice a year...that wasn't terribly intrusive, all things considered.

Still....still it was not something he looked forward to.

The itching and tightness are becoming more obvious and one day, on one of the days Reinhardt is scheduled to take leave and spend the next week with him...he starts peeling.  

Well...well <I>CHERT</I>.
 

Comments

[panzersoldat]

Reinhardt had been utterly looking forward to this week. An entire week. In the past, he would have never taken such time to himself. Reinhardt doesn't take leave, not ever. He's always been there, always. When it's time for his leave, he always gave it up to others. He had no need for it. He had no where to go, no one to spend it with. This year is different. This year, for the first time since he had put on a uniform, he is taking his leave, because he has Alexei.

He's going to spend an entire week with the man he loved. Sharing his house. Sharing his space. Going to sleep with him, waking up next to him. They got an entire week to live as if they were both retired. Just together. In a way, he's a bit anxious about it. This would be the first time he's stayed for more than a day or two. He's worried that he might overstay his welcome. That Alexei will realize that maybe the house is too small for two large men and three little zergling. That maybe they weren't suited to co-habituating.

He tells himself that it's just nervousness. They'd already gone well past their honeymoon phase. They'd had their first arguments and come out the other side of them stronger for them. If Alexei wasn't going away because he put kraut on everything then he wasn't going to go away for anything else.

So he gets his small duffel, full of the clothing he'll need for the week (clothing he is considering just leaving over there) and heads on over, taking the now deeply familiar path to the small cabin at the edge of the woods. He almost expects to see Der Kinder tearing down the path towards him, but they aren't outside. Probably indoors saying warm.

His heavy steps hit the porch and he's going for the knob. The door's always been unlocked to him in the past. The house is safe. Der Kinder would never allow anyone into that house that they didn't trust. But when he goes to turn it, the knob doesn't turn. Locked? He frowns and roots through his pocket for his key.

"Alexei? Are you in? Am I too early?"