More than friends ; family
The first time she had gotten sick, it was pure chaos. Everybody fussed and worried so much that she'd started thinking the stress had more probability of killing her than her sickness did. She was human and no longer as invincible. That she understood. But she still thought all the fuss was completely unnecessary.
Fever wasn’t going to be the thing that killed her. Not after all the times she had survived much closer brushes with death.
She wasn't surprised that Druig was the most composed of all of them. It wasn't that he didn't care - she could tell by the way he avoided looking at her resting figure, or how his brow furrowed whenever she had a coughing fit - it was just that he knew she wouldn't like it. She could handle Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos's worries. But if Druig started worrying, it would only make her feel worse. Worse, her mind would start to imagine the worst-case scenarios.
When Sersi deemed her well enough to at the very least be given some breathing space, Sprite jumped at the idea of some peace and quiet. She suggested it to them as nicely as she could, saying she wanted to get some sleep. She even added a convincing yawn as proof.
She dropped the pretense after some skeptical looks were cast her way. "Really, I'll be fine. If you need to see me, I'm only a door away. Now, please—and I'm saying this as nicely as I can—get out," she said with the sweetest smile she could muster.
They were used to her snips and looked rather relieved by the fact that she was back to her old sarcastic self. Slowly they all filtered out of the room. With Druig lingering a bit longer before leaving.
The quiet gave her time to let her mind rest. It wasn't long after she closed her eyes that she fell asleep. And with it came the nightmares.
It wasn't long before she was sweating and waking up. Her hands were trembling as she raised them to wipe her eyes. She was sobbing. Her vision was blurry, and it took some time for her to recognize her room. She checked the time and found it was still early in the evening. She attempted to swing her legs over the side of the bed but was unable to raise her upper body. She groaned, and her voice sounded strange.
Nightmares were bad enough without being sick.
He had heard the ragged coughing and muffled groan. The sharp faded echo of pain that reached his mind was what finally convinced him to knock on the door.
“Sprite?”
Without missing a beat a tired reply was heard. “I’m fine. Go away, Druig.”
The thought of leaving was tempting but he stayed glued to where he stood. He knocked again.
“I said I’m fine-”
Her words cut off as he pushed on the handle and entered the room. Glassy eyes looked at him in surprise, then irritation.
“I said-” she flung her blanket aside and moved to stand, although the moment her feet touched the floor the world spun. Whatever words she was going to say were jumbled and nearly indescribable as she swayed dangerously.
Swiftly, he took hold of Sprite’s upper arm to keep her upright. It took a while until she stopped resisting and let him lead her back to bed. None too gently he let her go and she plopped face-first onto her mess of a bed.
She flipped him off, unable to see his reaction but she heard the low amused chuckle.
“Get out and give me back my privacy you ass.” Her muffled voice called out to him. For a while there was silence, and she took the chance to peek out of her pillow. To her despair, he now sat by the side of her bed, looking at her.
“Argh! Leave!” She pushed herself off the bed and settled on her back. “Why can’t you just leave me alone!” Her sentence ended with her in another coughing fit.
“Sleep.”
“Not if you’re here.” She would not be able to sleep peacefully.
“Wouldn’t or couldn’t?” He asked her, eyes glowing softly.
She scowled. “Stay out of my head.”
At her tone and seriousness, he sighed, the golden glow dimming. “I could help.”
“With what?” She snapped.
“The nightmares.”
She had opened her mouth, a strong “No!” on the tip of her tongue. But then her body reminded her that it has had enough of fitful sleeping and would very much like to rest.
“Just the nightmares,” she replied slowly, steeling her eyes as she made one thing clear “no picking at my brain, got it?”
He didn’t reply, his expression unchanging except for the slight nod of his head that led her to lie back down. Though before she even managed to get settled, she was out like a light.
The next time she woke up, the world was less blurry and her body felt less like a burning cage. As her thoughts were much more easily formed, she was starting to wonder if she just had a very weird dream of Druig taking away her nightmares.
Reaching blindly for her phone, she checked that it was indeed early in the morning and she’d slept all through the night.
Without nightmares.
Huh. Guess it wasn’t a dream.