TELOS TOU KOSMOU // Callahan X Reader

12

Fresh herbs in hand, you returned to the palace to repeat the same process of cutting and stripping and cleaning everything before it got put to use - all the while glancing at the open sign language book next to you. Your encounter with Callahan - learning his name - had instilled a vigor in you, a want to learn.

Unfortunately, your reason for being here was not to learn a new language, and the herbs you had cleaned were a reminder of that. You turned back to the medical books you had taken from the library, trying to pour the enthusiasm you had about the sign language back into your real work, and started on your seventh attempt at a cure.

You were boiling some water to begin actually making the thing when Ceres awoke with a cough, shooting up in bed and grasping at their chest.

You shot up from the table you were sitting at, depositing yourself at their bedside in a matter of seconds, placing one hand on their back to steady them. "Ceres?"

Their coughing resided as quickly as it had come, and Ceres took a few deep gulping breaths. You could hear the sound of fluid in their breath - a sticky, gravelly kind of sound that could mean nothing good. It was one of the first real symptoms of the plague, and the one that caused patients the most pain. It was distressing, not being able to breathe properly.

"I'm fine." Ceres rasped out, shrugging your hand off their back and flopping back into the pillows behind them. "Just a cough - nothing to worry about."

"You and I both know it's something to worry about." You said, reaching over to the nightstand to grab the glass of water you had left there earlier, offering it to them. "Here."

Ceres took the cup from you, tipping their head back and downing the whole glass in one go. They drank greedily and handed the cup right back when they were done, saying nothing. You just took it from them, placing it with all the other dirty bowls and cups and measuring equipment you would have to clean later, and sat back down at your table.

There was a moment of silence, allowing you to slide back into what you had been doing beforehand, adding a handful of ground pallas root to the water that was bubbling now. You were just taking the water off the heat when Ceres spoke again.

"What are you working on?"

"The cure, of course." You said, setting your bowl of boiling water (and now a handful of ground pallas root) down on the table, grabbing one of your stirring rods and beginning to swirl the water around, dissolving the root into the liquid.

"This is, what, the fifth attempt?" Ceres said, something jestful in their tone.

"Seventh." You corrected, watching as the beginnings of this version of your cure swirled in the bowl. "But we'll keep going until we find something that works."

Ceres sighed, shifting against the pillows. You knew what they were going to say before they even said it - and beat them to the punch.

"Don't start with your 'it wouldn't be so bad to die this way' jabbering now." You said. "The caesar commissioned me to find a cure - not just for you - and I will."

Ceres smiled, a wry sort of smile, mirrored eyes finding yours. "Alright." They said. "I won't. You do have to admit that there's something awfully bittersweet about it though. Poetic, almost."

You rolled your eyes at that. "It makes sense that your favorite work is the Hylla. So depressing."

"You just don't have an appreciation for realistic art." Ceres said. "It's catharsis, Y/N. Acceptance."

"I'd rather not read about the poetry of dying, thank you." You said, now adding a few chopped feverfew leaves into the pot as well, stirring them around with the nearly dissolved pallas root. "It's bad enough we're actually living in it - I'd rather imagine a nice world without all that."

"Naive." Ceres said, a jokingly malicious tone to their voice. "You'll never make it in this world with a mindset like that."

"Optimistic." You shot back, reversing the idea. "Though I'd rather be naive and happy than wise and filled with sadness like you. You'll never recover if you don't put your mind to it Ceres - half the healing process is being accepting of the healing."

"I'm being realistic." Ceres said. "This thing is going to kill me one way or another-"

They broke off into another coughing fit, this one worse than the last, their whole body jerking with the force of it. You scrambled away from the table again, hovering at the bedside and placing your hands - one on Ceres chest, the other on their forehead. Their eyes fluttered between open and shut as their body was wracked with coughing, no room for a breath. You could feel their heartbeat increase under your palm, their lungs twitching behind their ribs.

As best you could, you shifted Ceres further up the bed so that they were propped up against the pillows more, your own heart picking up speed as you started to panic. "Ceres-"

A deep shuddering breath interrupted you as Ceres regained control of themselves, the coughing subsiding to greedy deep breaths. You moved your hand from their forehead to their pulse, feeling the heartbeat steady somewhat as the fit calmed down.

Slowly, when you were sure that the coughing fit was over, you pulled back. "You alright? Do you want another glass of water or maybe tea-?"

Ceres just waved a hand cutting you off as they closed their eyes. "Don't bother." They said, the apathy returning to their voice. Any of the light-hearted joking from before was gone now - ruined by the coughing fit that you had just witnessed.

You still hovered. "Are you sure?"

"Don't worry about me." Ceres said. "You have your cure to work on anyway."

Even though they couldn't see you, you dipped your head, taking the dismissal as it came and going back to your table. There was no use in trying to change their mind about it - at least, not now.

The most you could do was what you came here for, and what was sitting in front of you (or at least, the beginnings were). You looked down into the cure you were cooking up, and sighed.