He nods even though Sean can’t really see it.
“I know you’re a little angry.”
He looks down, surprised. He sees how big his hand looks on Sean’s head. It makes him feel strong. Like he’d be enough to stop anything from coming after Sean. He thinks, Fuck it, and says, “Yeah.”
“Yeah,” Sean says, laughing a little. “‘Yeah,’ he says. It feels good. What you’re doing.”
So he keeps on doing it. “You have to.”
“I have to what?”
“Take better care of yourself.”
“I know.”
“I need you to.”
“I know.”
“If something happened to you—”
“Nothing’s gonna happen to me, big guy.”
“You don’t know that. Nobody does. You can’t say that because it’s a promise you can’t keep.” Okay, so maybe he’s angrier than he thought.
“They’re not worse. That’s the truth.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. If they get worse, you tell me. And you take the pills with you. And if you need a break, you tell Walter to get his ass out from behind the grill so you can take one. People can wait for their damn food if they need it.”
Sean shivers a little. “And you.”
“And me.”
“You have to take care of yourself too.”
“I do,” he says, but he wants to take it back, because things have been weird lately. He remembers the day last week when he had the gap in his memory and didn’t come back into the land of the living until late in the morning. He lied to Sean about it, or at the very least, let him assume something that wasn’t true. Fact is, Mike’s not a stupid man, and he’s thinking things like brain tumor or Alzheimer’s or some other thing that’s wasting his brain away, but he’s young (ish) and strong as a horse (and he’s distracted by this thought, just a little, because a horse is a horse is a horse), and he lives in Amorea. He’s fine.
“I’m serious, Mike.”
“I know.”
“You’re scratching your wrist again.”
He is. He didn’t even notice. He stops. “You’re wearing a sleep mask.”
“Your wrist is near my ear.”
“It’s fine.”
Sean sighs. “Quite a pair, aren’t we?”
He feels absurdly fond at that. “We are,” he agrees.
Sean yawns, a loud, cracking thing. “The pills,” he mutters. “Always make me sleepy.”