"Surge?"

"Surgery. People mostly use them for cosmetic stuff, there's a thing lots of people are doing with their eyes right now, but they still exist for medical purposes. This one just — I can't tell if it made things worse or not but it didn't help." 

"I guess even the utopian future has untreatable neurological problems and incredibly unhelpful doctors."

"I guess," he agrees. Maybe they should sit down and then Sasha can cuddle Lev. 

"Milliways has private rooms, we might want to go up to one of those instead of being all PDA-y in front of the other customers."

"The extent to which I can handle stairs is. Limited." 

"There are rooms on the first floor."

"Then yes, let's." 

He'll keep leaning on Lev some, but while they're moving it's much easier to lean on walls and chairs. 

Fortunately, Lev likes it when Sasha leans on him!

He obtains a room key from the bar and then they have a little hotel room with a desk and a giant soft bed. 

He flops backwards onto the extremely soft bed. He has spent kind of a lot of time in soft beds recently but hopefully it'll be different when there's someone else there with him. 

Lev puts his head on Sasha's shoulder and pets his hair. "Tell me about where you're from?"

"I'm not really sure where to start — there's a thing lots of people are doing with their eyes right now, getting little jewel flecks implanted? They're not actual stone, obviously, but designed to look like that, I think it's kind of creepy looking but that's fashion I guess. You can't get surgeries for non-medical reasons until you're a Pretty, and it's mostly New Pretties that do that kind of thing — I think it's that everyone's getting their first taste of being able to do whatever they want to their face all at once so everyone kind of eggs each other on — is that the kind of thing you mean?" 

Lev kisses his temple. "You're smart, I like listening to you talk. You and Lily both have a-- way of approaching things?-- that is really interesting. So you could probably talk about anything and I'd like to hear about it."

"...thank you." He's glowing. "I don't think anyone's ever told me that. — I wouldn't necessarily know if someone had, though, my memory is kind of fucked." 

"...same reason your balance is fucked?"

"...yeah. Memory's fucked enough that I don't know for sure, but I don't think I was like this when I was Ugly." 

"...when they do the operation do they do it to your brain?"

"No. But — there's a couple people every decade who die from being under anaesthesia for too long, I don't know for sure but if I had to guess —" 

"Do you have... headaches, seizures, nausea, dizziness, trouble speaking, sensitivity to certain lights or sounds, ringing in your ears, insomnia, mood swings, depression...?"

"Yes, sometimes, sometimes, yes, no, yes, no, no, I don't think so but it's hard to tell, and I don't know what that means in this context."

"Uh, you're sad all the time, it's hard to concentrate on things or make decisions, you feel guilty, you kind of want to die a lot... since you're a Lily I'd guess you also don't eat enough..."

"I don't really feel guilty ever. But — yes." 

Lev hugs him really really close. 

"I think you have a traumatic brain injury. Except-- that doesn't make any sense, you're from three hundred years in the future, you guys get recreational plastic surgery for parties, how would people not notice that you have a TBI?"

"Because I'm a weirdo who stays in all the time and sleeps a lot and doesn't have friends. Who'd notice?" 

"But you went to a doctor...?"

Lev is not consciously aware of how tightly he's hugging Sasha.