Work Text:
“I’m here.”
“Ah, BIg Brother!”
Awin made his way into the atelier and closed the door behind him, bringing with him a toolbox in addition to his trusty hammer.
"You're here to fix the shelving cabinets I told you about the other day, right?" Escha skipped over towards the door. “I emptied them so you can just go straight to work, just like you asked for yesterday.”
"Sure am.” Awin lifted his toolbox for emphasis. “I already took a look at it the other day, but let me just take another look at…” He stopped in front of the cabinet, some of the shelves on it even more bent than he remembered. “They sure really need a fix at this point, huh.”
“Yeah…” Escha laughed nervously, also standing in front of the cabinets with tilted and unstable shelves. “I tried not putting too much stuff on them like you told us to, but we just have so many things and so few places to put them in…”
“So, where are all these things you said you put away from…” Before Awin could finish his words, his eyes stopped at the pile of miscellaneous objects in the corner of the room. “That’s one way to do it, I guess.”
“T-this is just temporary, okay? I don’t usually just put things aside like that! W-well, not all the time at least. And besides, Logy - I mean, we do clean up regularly! Before the Chief yells at us for not keeping things organised!”
“All right, all right,” Awin let out a little chuckle as he closed in towards the cabinet.
“You don’t believe me, do you?!”
“I do, I believe Logy - I mean, the two of you do clean up periodically.” Notably, while the pout on her face still stayed, Escha had nothing to say about the fact that he said only Logy’s name at first. “Anyway, time to get to work! Can you hold onto this bit while I take some measurements?”
With that, Escha’s previous sour mood disappeared, or at least lessened, and she did as asked, holding the shaky shelves in place as Awin pulled out a measuring tape and marker to make some marks on where things needed to be fixed. Satisfied with the measurements made, he gave her a small nod.
“Okay, I’m all sorted out for what I need to do. Now, let’s start from this end-”
Whipping out a nail from his toolbox, he moved towards one side of the cabinet, hands stopping at one of the marks he made before. Just before he started his actual work, he could feel a strong gaze on him, and he looked towards the source.
“Anything wrong?”
“No, it’s just… you really do use that hammer for everything, huh.”
“Huh?” Awin looked at his trusty large hammer he was holding in one hand. “Oh, yeah, this. Figured it’s much easier to just bring one thing for everything than having to change things around all the time.”
“Isn’t it just easier to carry something smaller when you’re just fixing stuff, though?”
“I’m used to it by now. It’s good physical exercise, too.” He offered the hammer towards her. “Wanna try? It’s not actually that hard to use.”
“N-no, I’m good!” Escha frantically waved her hands in front of her. “I don’t think I can even lift that with two hands, let alone one!”
“Haha. Then, you can just wait over there, I’ll be done with this in a flash.”
Even so, the work still needed time to complete, and after some time had passed, Escha seemed to grow restless in her seat.
“Hey, Awin… is there anything I can do?”
“Well… don’t you have your other work to do?”
“I’m finished with synthesis for the day, and it was supposed to be a clean-up day, but I can’t do most of that when I don't have somewhere to put the rest of the stuff in.”
“Hm… what about your paperwork?”
“E-eh? That’s um…” To be fair, not even Awin himself was a fan of doing paperwork, so he couldn’t fault Escha for her reaction. “I know! Why don’t I help you with this cabinet instead?”
“I think I’m fine with this, though. You don’t have to worry.”
“B-but it’ll be faster if we work together, right?” Escha approached the other end of the cabinet. “And I might not be able to use your big hammer, but if you have a regular-sized one, it should be easy enough, right? Just hold the nail, and bam!” She finished with a downward swing of her hand for emphasis.
“You still need to be careful, you know? But if you do want to try…” Awin took out some more nails and a spare (small) hammer from his toolbox. “I’ve marked where the nails need to go on that side. You can try hammering those in if you want.”
“All right!” Escha made a gesture of rolling up her sleeves, despite barely having any to roll. “Okay, so this goes here, and I’ll hold it like that, and then… ouch!”
“Escha?!”
When Awin looked up, Escha was holding one of her thumbs in her other hand.
“I told you it’s not that simple… let me see?”
Sure enough, the thumb was swollen. But not quite as bad as the worst he expected.
“It’s perhaps good then that you can’t swing too hard… anything around here I can put on this?”
“There are some medicinal compresses and bandages on the desk over there," Escha pointed with her other hand.
Grabbing the items from where he was pointed towards, he swiftly came back to sit next to her. He carefully bandaged the swollen finger, periodically looking up at her expression to see her reaction - and to his relief, aside from a wince or two here and there, she seemed to be taking it all pretty well.
“...sorry for the trouble.”
“It’s no big deal. Remember when we were little and you’d often fall trying to chase after me and I’d have to help you with your scratches? It’s basically just like that, I’m used to it.”
“Mm," she grumbled with a small pout. "So you’re saying I’m still childish?”
“That's not how I meant it. But I’m saying that I don’t mind taking care of you this way.”
Escha’s face flushed slightly at the words, but only for a second before the pout made its way back onto her face. “You really mean that?”
“Of course I do. Unless…” Awin brought her hand to his lips and placed a kiss on it with a wink. “You want me to put something else on your hand to prove my words?”
This time, Escha’s face fully turned red. “W-wha- that’s - it’s too soon for - I mean -!” Another few seconds of unintelligible whimpering, and then she finally took a deep breath. “I-I’m not asking for that right now! Although… once things settle down at work and I know what I want to do long term… maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
“Y-you know what I mean!”
Awin let out a hearty laugh. “Anyway, just sit here and take it easy,” he said as he moved back to his working area. “But when the time comes…”
At that, a small smile spread across Escha’s face, and one made its way onto Awin’s as well.