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Author's Note: The following was written for fic challenge #12.

Creature Comforts
by Tara LJC O'Shea

The thing about money is, when you have it you never think about it. And when you don't have it, it's just about all you can think of.

Simon had never not had money.

He'd grown up with all the luxuries of the Core at his fingertips, but he hadn't availed himself of most of them. He did not throw lavish parties. He did not buy a new flitter every year, outfitted with all the gadgets. He'd never showered a sweetheart with diamonds, silk, or jade. His apartment near the hospital was smallish because it was in the Old Quarter, and tastefully decorated, and filled with the best that money could buy. But he was never really there except to sleep, shower, and change his clothes before the next shift. He slept in the doctor's lounge at the hospital, on a standard cot covered with cotton sheets that were washed daily by anonymous workers, more often than his own bed. He wore recycled and re-used plain white scrubs more often than the silk or wool suits and shirts that filled his closet. While Ren, Sofia, Jackson and Kyle and all of his other Medacad friends had taken trips to Ariel or Ceres to see the latest cortex star singer or attend the "social event of the season" almost every season, Simon had worked double-shifts, studied even harder, or taken rare trips home to spend time with his family.

He had the money to do anything