Misery Loves Company

Illness

You sigh as you rinse your dirtied hands in the sink, blood and dust being cleaned from them. Your own injuries were still open and unclean, but you felt a bit low on magic and couldn’t be bothered to take care of them, they would heal themselves anyway.

You’d be fine...

At least that’s what you thought some time ago, and now you were lying awake in bed, unable to even get out of bed as moving in the slightest made you feel like you were going to vomit. It’s terrible and you regret everything, you’ve never gotten sick before today, at least not in this life, you even thought that you couldn’t get sick.

You tried going to sleep but it just made you more focused on the churning in your non-existent stomach, even your tendrils were affected and you near wanted to cry. You didn’t know what time it was but considering the fact that you could see the sun shining through your window that was covered, you could infer that it was later than you would get up, even on a bad day.

You let out a whine, the sound loud in the usually quiet room, you felt too warm. Your corruption was literally almost fully melted off of you, but most still stuck to you, letting your usual six tendrils remain. It felt entirely too much for you, and you couldn’t find your will to call out for help, stars admit you were much too prideful.

After another small period of time, you managed to force yourself out of bed, enduring the pain that came with the awful way your magic churned inside your bones. You were already secreating magic in the form of sweat and your clothes stuck to your body, making you cringe in slight disgust and discomfort with every movement as you made your way to the restroom.

You set the water to a mediate setting, knowingly torturing yourself in an effort to make your illness leave. Your sludge sags and slips into the warm water, revealing your pearl white bones and you sigh, feeling less suffocated than before.

You take care to carefully scrub your bones and rinse them with clean water before stepping out and dressing in a black shirt, some shorts, and some slipperboots, which is very different from your usual attire, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care, comfort is more important at the time.

Your chosen form and attire is sure to raise questions but you could just say that today is your relaxing day, especially after yesterday, unwinding after the troublesome kidnapping mess. You can still perform your duties just fine, no tiny fever is going to stop you.

You step out of your bedroom, heading to Dream’s room, where Killer stands guard outside the door. “killer” you call his attention in a slightly raspy voice, you curse inwardly as he turns to you, his gaze questioning and turning even more confused upon seeing your face. “yes, boss?” he inquires, “tell me why my brother followed me to lustfell?!” you demand, glaring sharply as you cross your arms.

You can tell how his gaze moves from your face to the floor, though he has no eyelights, “m’sorry, boss, i took my attention away from him for a moment, since he’d asked me to get him something to eat” he starts and you can feel his shame, fear, and self-dissapointment waft from him, which was weird, considering he barely ever felt nor showed such strong emotions.

“i should’ve known not to leave him unattended, boss” he finishes with his skull tilted downward in a bow-like manner and you scoff, “geez, all i asked was a simple question, all i needed was a simple explanation but i suppose that shall do” you say, choosing to not enter your brother’s room.

He of all beings would be able to sense your illness right away, and that would be terrible.

Instead, you walk downstairs, not chanceing teleportation when you’re sick. You feel drained and hungry, you realise that it’s past noon when you spot the staff preparing dinner. You order them to send food to your office right away before leaving with a brief goodbye.

You instantly groan at the stack of papers as you enter your office, there was so much, and you have to do it all.

You instantly begin working, taking out treaties and punishments. It hits your mind and you remember what Red did, you compose a note to the Underfell residents detailing Red’s betrayal and how they were to be punished if they didn’t provide proper compensation.

You send it through a small portal, landing on what looks like an empty throne.

You hear a knock on your door and look up from your papers, “come in” you call. In enters Dream, Cross, and Killer. You curse aloud and have an urge to slam your skull on your desk. “what do you need?” you ask briefly, turning away from them so they don’t see your sweating overheated face, you look at your papers and begin looking them over again.

You ignore the churn of your magic, “brother, i can tell you’re sick” Dream says and you don’t have to even glance at him to know he’s frowning, “sick? i don’t get sick, i am perfectly fine” you respond, still avoiding looking up.

“then why won’t you look at us” he inquires, seeming to be the only one brave enough to speak out, knowing you wouldn’t dare harm him, “because i have work to do, which is more important than your false observation” you reply, trashing a few papers that were now useless.

It’s almost too much when you feel his gloved hands touching your face and your body betrays you with a flinch, Dream doesn’t seem to notice or if he does, he doesn’t say anything and you're thankful. He tilts your skull up and makes you face him and the other two.

Your most likely flushed face is now on display, you shake his hands off you, “i’m fine!!” you snap. Dream shakes his skull in what seems to be disapproval and takes a glove off, laying his cold hands on your forehead and you can’t help how you lean into the comforting touch as soothing pulses are sent through you.

“liar” Dream says simply, and you can’t deny it, as you almost whine when his hand pulls away.

You always hated that Dream was stronger than you in this form...

He scoops you up and you groan, now unable to avoid being taken care of and babied.