Firstborn [malexmale]

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

"He's going to be fine, but it's definitely Recharge."

I stood off to the side, watching Lucifer sit at Hades's bedside. Hades looked paler than I'd ever seen him, a sickly grey palor to his skin, dark circles under his eyes, his lips chapped and parted ever so slightly. Lucifer squeezed Hades's hand, dipping his head down to touch his forehead to Hades's knuckles before he looked up at Rowan, who stepped away from the bed, stripping the white latex gloves from his fingers.

"I'm sure you've dealt with this before?" Rowan asked, turning to Lucifer, who nodded.

"He's had it a few times before. Plenty of fluids and cold medication?" Lucifer asked. Rowan inclined his head.

"Pretty much all you can do for him right now anyway. And knowing this asshole," he said, reaching into his bag and taking out a bottle of pills, tossing them to Lucifer, who caught them in surprise, "He needs bedrest. A lot of bedrest. Once he wakes up, he's gonna want to get back to work and start doing shit. He stays in bed. Those should keep him there." Lucifer eyed Rowan warily.

"He'd kill me if I drugged him."

"And it'll kill him if he pushes himself. Hades isn't immortal in the same way I am, or the hybrid. He's just really hard to kill and only he'd be dumb enough to kill himself," Rowan answered, then paused and got a strange look in his eyes before he shook his head and grabbed his bag, swinging it over his shoulder and heading for the door.

"Rowan," Lucifer said, rising to his feet and Rowan glanced at him, "Thank you, so much." Rowan looked uncomfortable with that and just inclined his head respectfully before departing from the room. I turned back to where Hades was laying in bed. He'd rolled over onto his side, frowning in his sleep, like something was making him uncomfortable.

Lucifer walked over and set the bottle of pills on the nightstand, then went and poured Hades a glass of water before setting it beside the pills. I watched as he climbed into bed with Hades and spooned right up behind him. Hades sighed in his sleep, appearing to relax.

"You smell like vanilla cookies, asshole," he mumbled. Lucifer smiled, scooting closer so he could rest his head against Hades's.

"And you smell like you need a bath."

"Ouch," Hades muttered without opening his eyes.

"Ambrosius's vessel is complete," Lucifer said softly, making Hades's eyelids slide open slowly, revealing the flickering blue bulbs.

"Yeah," he murmured, "Is Joxeia here?"

"Yes. He's just waiting on Stanton to give us the go ahead whenever Ambrosius is ready," Lucifer replied softly. Hades nodded and started to move, but Lucifer clamped his body around Hades, who growled low in his throat.

"Get off me, angel, I need to be there to make sure--"

"You don't need to go anywhere," Lucifer assured him, snuggling in closer and making Hades roll his eyes, "I'm not going to drug you, as tempting as it may be. I find this to be a much more entertaining method of keeping you in place."

"I'm going to break your nose with my head."

"Go ahead. I don't mind. Better than letting you go bumbling around the place half-cocked."

"Excuse you."

"No," Lucifer argued, "You're not strong enough, and besides, why does it matter if you're there? This is Joxeia's part. Once Ambrosius is in his vessel, we'll send him right to you, understood? But then he'll have to leave and go back to Thorn." Hades growled again, but this time, he didn't fight Lucifer; he just gave up and let Lucifer hang onto him.