Sick day. :(

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

When; Fri. 11/14, evening.
Rating; TBA, likely not going to go past PG13
Characters; Machi Tobaye (machi_tobaye) & Armand (amadeodivenezia)

Machi used several large blankets from around the house to wrap himself up like a burrito. He coughed and shivered, surrounded by little wadded-up tissues. He tried to get them into the wastebasket next to him, but picking them up from where they fell was just too much effort when they didn't make it.

He waited for Armand like this, feeling as completely miserable as his condition warranted. His mind was fevered, hazy, and he was sure he heard distant music sometimes. In his own self-indulgent way he thought he might be dying and hearing the music of heaven.

Probably not. He'd live to survive another day in the City. Just not before coughing up a lung.

Comments

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

Armand enjoyed Machi and simply wasn't ready to let him go yet. There would likely come a time when he did let go; he was so very practiced at letting go after all.

For now, though, he wanted to hear more of the boy's piano, more of his stories, more of his precariously innocent jadedness. These were things that were worth playing nursemaid to a human boy for a time. He had done it for others over the years when the urge had taken him.

Despite it all, Armand was in a good mood after visiting with Marius. He had received the gift of not just the portrait, but of its provenance and subjects. He treasured both and could not help but be buoyed by them.

Once again he let himself into Machi's apartment without knocking and followed the sound and sense of the youth to appear staring down at him, wordlessly assessing his condition.

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

Machi was currently overtaken with another coughing fit, covering his mouth with a tissue and shaking violently. He frowned at the blood streaking his mucous when he was finished, and, disgusted, balled up the tissue and tossed it in the bin. At least that one made it in.

He wasn't aware of Armand at first. And then when he was, his feverish mind took a moment to realize who it was. "Armand," he said weakly. "You come."

He was shivering again.

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

Oh, but he could smell the blood, minute though the quantity was; it was a bright note among the other smells in the room. After tending to Daniel's self-destructive streak over the recent years, he knew well enough that modern medicine could take the fear from many illnesses.

Still, the scent of blood was never a good omen.

"I said that I would come." He put out a hand to touch Machi's forehead, wanting to gauge the heat of him. "You have not been tending yourself."

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

Machi was distracted by the thoughts of the orphanage, of scratchy blankets and rooms full of coughing children. The hand on his forehead was cold, but so soothing. It almost seemed to assuage that childhood memory.

He was burning up. Of course he was, he had a terrible case of the flu. And he was coughing again, too, sort of curling away from the touch of the one who seemed so close to his age and yet was so much older. "S...sorry."

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

People had died of this in the past. The flu was a killer that had once had a mortality rate that rivaled that of the Black Death. Flu had brought the world to a halt in the early 20th century.

He felt the drift of Machi's thoughts, but put them aside as he sat next to Machi and moved to put an arm around him to lift him into a sitting position to help ease the cough.

"What medicines do you have here? When did you last eat?"

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

"Just some cough medicine, I took some, ah, awhile ago. I... I don't know when I eat last. Yesterday?"

In short, no, Machi hadn't been taking care of himself adequately. He prided himself on his independence since his roommate disappeared, but in the face of illness and misery he shut down and hid, attempting to run off his concerned friends so they wouldn't get sick too.

He was a little bit like a sick kitten, trying to avoid the world and just let everything take its course.

Machi pulled the blankets around himself tightly, trying not to whine or whimper. He felt really terrible and he was a little embarrassed, too. But mostly he was glad Armand was here.

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

The vampire forgot nothing, though there were times when he wished he could forget. He remembered the relief of an inhumanly cool hand on his fevered skin when he had been human and fallen ill. He settled Machi and helped to tuck the blankets around him before cupping the young man's cheek in his palm. If Machi enjoyed the cool, it could easily be said that Armand enjoyed the warmth.

"You will drink some tea. You will take the medicine I bring you." If he did not begin to mend, a doctor would see him, one way or another. "Then you will rest."

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

Machi couldn't find the strength to answer, so he just leaned against Armand a little bit, nodding in reply. He didn't really want the vampire to leave - such anxiety surrounding it in this apartment that belonged to Klavier, everyone always, everyone always... - but he didn't speak any resistance either.

Though the fingers clamped around Armand's wrist weren't really prepared to let him go. Little fragmented feverish dream-thoughts danced under his eyelids. Lamiroir's hand wasn't cool like this, it felt so different. A hand she used to learn his face.

Puppy's hand had been warm too. Puppy. And that was enough to bring him to tears - Puppy had been here too, once, in this apartment. Would've taken cared of him and probably called him babylove sweetie honeybuns the whole time, too.

He sort of wanted the the illness to take him. Sniffling, Machi let go of Armand's hand.

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

"I will stay until dawn." Armand murmured the reassurance to Machi even as his mind was on other matters: tea, broth... did they have real medicines for influenza here or just the patent nostrums that humans flocked to when they did not want to see a physician?

He disengaged himself and stood again, somewhere in the back of his mind also vaguely pleased for the opportunity and excuse to search this apartment in his quest for medicine and tea. He started with the kitchen to set water boiling and search the cupboards for the items on his mental list.

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

Machi nodded, seeming only vaguely aware that Armand even left the room.

The pantry was by no means full, but it wasn't totally empty, either. There were some boxes of cereal, cans of soup and vegetables, bread and peanut butter. Machi kept a neat house, the only out-of-place thing in the kitchen was a growing collection of empty bottles. Even those were cleaned neatly and lined up in a row on the counter, but somehow their presence contributed to a loneliness in the room.

In the medicine cabinet there was a plethora of hair care and personal hygiene products, most of them obviously belonging to the apartment's previous tenant. As far as remedies went, there was a typical first aid kit, some ineffective cough medicine, and painkillers.

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

Armand turned a blind eye to the liquor bottles just as he had when Daniel chose to drink himself out of his life. It was not in his nature to save most people from themselves.

He opted for the soup instead of tea, putting that on the stove to heat while he continued his search, returning with a mug of the soup's broth and both the cough medicine and pain reliever.

He set the medicines aside and sat again, sliding an arm under Machi to draw him closer when he offered a sip of broth.

"Drink. Drink and then you can rest again."

[ooc: Long day. I have to crash early, but I'll pick up the ping in the morning before I have to run out for a few hours' errands.]

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

Machi drank the broth. He couldn't taste much than its saltiness, but the feeling of the hot liquid down his sore throat was soothing, even if it was a little painful, too.

He was grateful for Armand's presence. Leaned against him. Amazing how much it meant just to lean. Since Puppy went away months ago, the time he spent with others was sporadic and rarely involved physical proximity (there was that drunken night with Artemis - but they were both plastered and his student liked a girl, and Machi respected that). He hadn't realize he missed it, just leaning.

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

After a few sips, he put the broth aside to offer Machi the medicine he had brought. Something to perhaps reduce the severity of the cough, something else that claimed to reduce pain and fever.

Better. Though he would have to investigate finding better medicines for Machi than those he'd found in the house, at least he was drinking the broth, and his thoughts lacked the sense of delirium that would have had Armand more concerned.

The loneliness and the need in Machi's thoughts came as no surprise. Humans did not choose drink for a companion because they were healthy and contented.

How Armand felt about the simple act of holding Machi was more complicated than Machi's simple enjoyment of leaning. He had returned to the lessons of his earliest days as a vampire and did feel tenderness and compassion and even love for the humans around him, but it was almost impersonal, lacking the depth that Marius had tried to inculcate into him.

Amadeo, they are all going to die. Someday, Machi would die, whether of flu or alcohol, misadventure or simply time.

He loved every human he took time with, in his way (surely Daniel would argue that "in his way" could be demanding and even sadistic), but informed as he was by centuries of knowing that they were all going to die, he kept his heart distanced even in loving them.

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

Machi crinkled his nose at the medicine, what of it he could even taste. Machi had a strong dislike for sweet things and as it happened, the cough medicine was saccharine-sticky and did not go down easily.

He coughed a bit afterward, as of the illness wanted to resist any treatment. The sight of his own blood distressed and disgusted Machi, but he didn't complain of it. When he was through, he settled against Armand with no real intention of moving unless he had to.

[amadeodivenezia.livejournal.com]

Armand could be undemanding company when he chose, and he did choose to be undemanding then. He had many things to think on, and no need to fidget or readjust to get comfortable. If it weren't for the occasional light touch of his hand to Machi's cheek or forehead, he may as well have been as still and silent as a statue.

[machi-tobaye.livejournal.com]

And it was like this Machi finally drifted into much-needed sleep. He dreamed of summer in his beloved mountains, of climbing a tree to see the beautiful, bright cocoons of butterflies.

He felt safe and secure in this embrace. Not the least bit endangered, though he understood he should. So he slept.