He'd offer to hug her but under the circumstances he thinks that's not really doable. "You're not dying for real."

"I know that, dumbass, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm so terrified I think I peed my pants a while back."

...he starts laughing, which is an awful idea because he's pretty sure he's also got a cracked rib or two.

"It's not funny, you asshole!"

"It's a little bit funny."

"...it's a little bit funny."

"Besides, I peed a while ago."

"You did??"

"Yeah. I was also fucking terrified, man, and we're underwater, and it really will be a lot worse in..." He trails off as his eyes roll to the back of his head.

"...Vallynn?"

"Vallynn don't fucking die on me now," she says, panicking enough to get out of her terrified little ball and swim over to him one-legged to try to shake him awake.

He's still breathing, if a bit shallowly, and the shaking makes him bleed more but the pain does bring him back to. "Don't sleeping 'til four."

"Dude you're scaring me, did you get brain damage too somehow?"

That's funny for some reason. "Not ball hurt, just apnea."

"You're making no sense and that's scaring me even more, fuck, should I just—" She's not sure she can kill him either.

He shakes his head and lifts a hand, then has a thought and starts using sign language instead. "My words are coming out hurt. Wrong. Ball—brain. Not damaged. Blood strength."

Everyone learns some sign at the Academy and Vallynn clearly learned a lot more than the basics they get there, but she thinks she got the gist of it. "You think the pressure drop or blood loss is making it hard for you to say words but your brain is okay?"

He doesn't nod because he's too dizzy but he gives her a thumbs up.

"...should I kill you?"

"Not yet," he signs. "I'll kill you."

She gets a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. "No."

"Why?"

"I, it'll be too scary, and it'll make me twitchy about you later—"

He blinks.