The Reaper Child: Book II [Child!Reader Protagonist]

~Chapter 25~

After you went to sleep following the brief moment with Will informing you that he'll be taking care of you, you had only woken up once. It was around 9ish when you woke briefly. Prior to that, you had that nightmare again, something that still occurred here and there but fortunately not as frequent as they were before, that was where you had never been adopted by Grell and your fate was remaining in foster home after foster home for the rest of your childhood.

The sun at this time was illuminating the room brighter than it had been earlier this morning. Thus, turning on the light was not necessary for you to see the crimson walls surrounding you. This was fortunate for you as you were too exhausted to do so much as lift a finger. After you fell into a coughing bit for a few seconds, you drifted back off to sleep.

Another nightmare intruded your slumber world, only this time the nightmare was different, perhaps just as bad as the one as your previous one if not worse.

It began peacefully. You were sitting in the tub, taking a warm bath. The water held mountains of bubble that released a sweet fragrance into the air. This gave you a sense of warmth and safety, the most comfortable and relaxed as you've ever been in your life. The one thing enhancing your experience of this tranquil paradise was the trail of rubber duckies, all lined up from largest to smallest, floating around. There was a magical force that made them move around in perfect circles.

This state of happiness did not last, however. With each passing moment, the water warmed itself by one degree. Eventually, the heat became uncomfortable. You tried to stand from the tub, but all your limbs lay limp. You couldn't move at all. The waters temperature was increasing more rapidly now, not taking long for it to become absolutely unbearable. You tried to scream for help, but your vocal cords were paralyzed too. 

Instead of being rescued from this horrific situation, you heard a voice saying your name.

"(Y/N)... (Y/N)..."

Finally, the world around you faded away. You felt shaking on your shoulder. You slowly opened your eyes to see that you were in bed in your source and that the person shaking your shoulder was Will. 

What was he doing here, you wondered.

"Oh good…" Will said with a sigh of relief. "You're awake."

At least he knew now that he wasn't going to get decapitated, not today perhaps.

"Why are you here?" You asked weakly and tiredly, though you weren't having a snarky attitude. You were genuinely curious since this was the first time he'd ever set foot in this room. "Why are you waking me up?"

"Oh. I just came in here to see how you were feeling," Will said matter-of-factly. "Your fever is quite high. I've decided that it would be best that you lay on the couch downstairs. It would be more convenient for me than for me to come up and down the stairs all day."

"But I'm tired. I'd rather stay here," you whined. Every time you spoke a syllable, it made your head throb even more. 

"I understand that. But it will only be for awhile. You may come back here once your fever is under control."

You were about to protest when you remembered your mother's warning from earlier: "If I hear that you behaved like an awful hooligan tonight, I will have a chat with your teacher, saying that you detest being the line leader and to never assign you to be one again."

"Okay," you said. 

"Follow me." Will turned around and began walking out the room. You dragged yourself out of bed and went to go follow him, only for dizziness to strike you. You stumbled over to the floor, catching yourself with a hand to the ground.

Will stopped when he heard you fall and looked over his shoulder. "Are you alright?" 

"Yes, I'm fine." You slowly stood back up. Will nodded and kept walking. You followed him from behind. But when you both made it to the staircase, you noticed that you took a lot of effort to maintain your balance just to put your foot down on the step in front of you. The dizziness came back again. You held onto the rail on the wall to your right in attempt to prevent yourself from falling again. But even then, you struggled to walk down the stairs.

Will didn't notice this until he was all the way down. He looked behind you to see that you were hardly a quarter down the stairs. 

"Is there a reason why you're taking so long?" He asked you. 

"I feel a bit dizzy," you admitted. 

"Hmm." Will walked back up the stairs to where you were. "Maybe it will be easier for me to carry you down?" 

After a moment’s hesitation, you said, "O-Okay..." 

Will paused to think how he was going to go about this. In all of his years of living, he'd never once carried a child. The only person he carries around is Grell, and prior to that was previous partners, which were a rare occasion. He thought about how a parent would lift their child and figured he would do his best to imitate that.

He bent down and wrapped both arms around your waist, and simply lifted you. You instinctively held onto his shoulders. He still wasn't sure if he was doing this correctly, but figured you both had to make do. 

It did feel strange being carried by Will. It was strange seeing him show his caring side towards you, even if you couldn't quite tell if it was genuine or if he was only doing this because your mother asked him to. Either way, he set you down when he reached the bottom of the staircase. You followed him again into the living room, fortunately no dizziness emerged during this time. 

Will took a seat on the sofa and grabbed his laptop. "Er.. go ahead and just rest here next to me," he instructed you. You nodded and took a spot on the opposite end of the sofa, just a couple feet away from him. 

Will put aside his laptop, having realized that he grabbed it without thinking. He silently scolded himself for attempting to work at an inappropriate time. He had a more urgent task to focus on right now. 

That's when he began to think. He did check on you and confirmed that you were still alive. That was certainly a start. He recognized that by doing that, he was in no doubt in the right direction. But that wasn't going to be enough. Rest was essential when one is ill, but by itself not enough for recovery,  which he was responsible for now.

Will thought back to his childhood, which was centuries ago. He remembered occasions where he fell ill himself, in some cases being in worse conditions than you were right now. And he knew that he had received remedies that enabled him to recover just fine. But the problem was that he couldn't remember what was done exactly. Those memories were a blur and nowadays, Will rarely thought about his childhood.

The only caregiving experience he had was caring for Grell when she got sick, as she had mentioned this morning. The last time it happened was just earlier this year, and she was in a similar state that you were in now. He was able to recall and remember everything he had done to help Grell recover, and while Grell herself had been quite a handful, she was well again within days. 

He knew what to do now.