Archive of Our Own ^beta

The comfort of silk sheets was always a foreign concept to Vi. When she’d first laid in this bed, she remembered thinking great. I’m going to lay here and probably never wake up again. Months had passed since her first visit to Caitlyn’s room when she used to sneak in through the window. Now we walked in through the front door and said hello to Tobias on the way in, albeit she practically lived here rather than the small studio she rented for show. A much more pleasant indulgence happened to be the woman sleeping soundly beside her, and even though the sleep-addled cogs of Vi’s consciousness had just started to shift, she found herself gravitating towards Caitlyn as if they were live wires. Same energy and focus. Two different beings with the same hopes and dreams for their respective peoples. 

She had always been a sap for all that romantic shit. Though Vi never had much time to reflect on her desires, it felt like these past months were making up for it tenfold. 

It would have been nice to just lay in bed, sprawled across her girlfriend like a lazy house cat all day, but the more her mind woke up, it seemed her body wasn’t quite ready. A null pain in her back, aching throat. Once she was fully awake, she genuinely began registering the heat radiating from every limb. At a moment's notice, she flanked the blanket off of herself. Everything would have been fine after that. It should have been.

Except for the fact that she was heaving, shivering in response to the cruel pang in her stomach, and then running to the toilet half-naked to wretch her guts into the toilet.

She tried to stay quiet for Caitlyn’s sake. By some miracle, she even managed to get the door shut on her way in, but it’s hard not to draw any attention to yourself when your body is wrenching itself so intensely that the sounds coming out of you sound closer to that of a dying animal.

She heard a knock on the door, and a soft, raspy, “Vi, are you alright?”

Caitlyn didn’t wait for a knock on the door. She didn’t need an answer to a question she already knew. When she opened the door to see Vi curled up on the floor, head straight over the toilet, she understood the whole picture. As if to confirm her suspicion, Vi tried to answer, immediately finding herself interrupted by another vomiting episode.

Suddenly Caitlyn was beside her. She was whispering all these things Vi couldn’t understand in her situation, but she knew they were sweet because Caitlyn was speaking them, and she always spoke the kindest words to Vi when she needed them. 

“I think.” Vi croaked. “I’m good now.”

The longer section of her hair was tied back in one of Caitlyn’s hair ties. All she could hear was the sound of her own labored breathing as she mustered the strength to get back up.

“Would you like me to run you a bath?” Caitlyn asked. 

“No. I’m alright.” Vi murmured. People got sick all the time. Better to get up now and get on with her day before anyone else saw her like this.

Getting up should have been as easy as sitting down was, but it felt like her whole body had been jammed into a meat grinder, shredded into pieces, and taped back together. She got a good quarter of the way up herself before her legs gave way.

“I’ve got you,” Caitlyn murmured, balancing her before she could lose her standing. “You need some rest. Let’s get you back to bed.”

Vi groaned lowly but followed in Caitlyn’s footsteps as they walked back to the bed. Her body screamed at her with every step. Caitlyn was right. As much as Vi hated that, she was sick, and her girlfriend wouldn’t let her ignore it.

After changing into fresh, not vomit and sweat-soaked pajamas, Caitlyn grabbed something and put it into Vi’s mouth. “What the hell?” She asked as Caitlyn stopped her from trying to take the device out.

“Stop,” she said. Demanding, yet so very gentle. In a way that conveyed, I probably should have told you what I’m doing. Let me finish, and I’ll tell you. Caitlyn had a way of telling you exactly what she wanted to say with just one glance.

“I was taking your temperature.” Caitlyn explained, “Just as I thought, you have a fever.” 

Caitlyn showed her the little screen with the triple-digit number. It was child's play. In the Lanes, people got sick all the time. Claggor ate raw meat on a dare once and spent two days shitting his brains out. Vander once had an awful cold, and Vi had to run and supervise The Last Drop for three days. In the lanes, you got sick. You lay low until you got better and prayed that no one took advantage or robbed you. If you were lucky, your body fought off whatever sickness you’d been afflicted with, and if you weren’t— well, you died. 

Caitlyn scoffed as soon as Vi finished that explanation. As if it was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. “Well, no one is dying, and you, Violet. You’re resting whether you like it or not.”

“Fine,” Vi murmured.

A few hours passed, the Tylenol had started to kick in, and the anti-nausea meds allowed her to eat little more than buttered toast and fizzy water. Ginger ale. Caitlyn thought that was funny. Fizzy water. But they didn’t have all this shit where she grew up. In the lanes, it was Vodka, tap beer, and watered-down variations of sodas no one knew the name to. There was little to no medicine and drugs to help ease discomfort symptoms.

Sometime after the sun rose, Caitlyn read Vi’s favorite book aloud until her head started hurting again. It was a decidedly lazy day. One of the laziest days Vi had probably ever experienced, but she was boneless, exhausted, and ready just to relax. It didn’t matter how much she tried to resist. Once her body eased out of panic mode, she couldn’t help but fall into bed with her girlfriend and her soft hands running through her hair.

The glorious sound of the air conditioning drowned out the sounds of her discomfort. Caitlyn was wearing three layers and two pairs of fluffy socks and still shivering, while Vi looked like she was in the Sahara Desert. Down to her boxers and muscle tee, no blankets, and still sweating through the sheets.

“You shouldn’t do that,” Vi warned. Caitlyn had just kissed the top of her head after filling her cup of water for the third time in an hour. “Don’t you know I’m contagious?”

She must have been a little delirious. Caitlyn smiled in a way that made her think she might have looked funny. They hadn’t been dating for too long, not even a month. It surprised her that Caitlyn didn’t mind being so close when there was a chance that she’d catch whatever Vi had.

It also made her feel good. Loved. Years of doing it for others and never being the one who depended on others was exhausting, and for just a minute, for now… Caitlyn was a person she could lean on.

“I don’t mind it,” she hummed. Her fingers reached across Vi’s face, moving damp strands away from her eyes. “My metabolism is pretty strong. I haven’t gotten sick since I was very little.”

“I’m going to get sick now that I’ve said that.” Caitlyn laughed to herself.

“Probably.” Vi rasped. Despite having slept most of the day down the drain, she found herself quickly lulled back into a state of weariness and exhaustion. 

Time seemed to drag on. She felt better in short-lived stints. When she peeked open her eyes to find Caitlyn gazing down at her, lost in thought. Others, she found herself keeled over the toilet with her lover holding her hair back.

“I think I just lost my lunch,” Vi muttered, a feeble attempt at comedy. The pitiful glance Caitlyn afforded her as her whole body shook against the base of the toilet only solidified the point that her jokes weren’t landing.

Vi threw her head back into the toilet, ridding herself of the minuscule amount of hot bile her body had no intention of keeping. Caitlyn began running water and gathering towels, salts, all of the things Vi had no energy left for. 

“No. Caitlyn,” Vi pleaded. “I just want to go back to bed.”

“Darling, I know.” Caitlyn sighed. She turned to Vi and began to help her get undressed. “I hate kicking a woman when she’s down, but you smell vile.” 

“It’s not that bad.” Vi retorted.

“It’s pretty awful, though,” Caitlyn said. Though she was mostly joking, trying to get a smile out of her lover, Vi knew there was some truth to her statement. Her hair was damp with sweat, and she’d vomited on half the pajamas she owned. Half of the pajamas Caitlyn owned. “C’mon. I’ll make it comfortable, yeah? A nice hot bath is going to feel so nice, don’t you think?”

She knew what Caitlyn was doing the moment her hands started rubbing circles down her back. She knew how much her soothing tone could do to convince her girlfriend and she had every intention of using it when she was most vulnerable.

“Let’s get you out of this?” Caitlyn asked, hand brushing against her clothed thigh. Vi nodded in defeat, allowing her lover to help her out of her boxers and into the steaming water. 

Like all humans, Vi had her fair share of sickness, but she’d never been taken care of before. No one, not Vander or Powder, would have sat behind her and washed the grease and vomit out of her hair. Vi learned that her sole responsibility was to hide it from outsiders and loved ones whenever she was sick or hurt. And then there was Caitlyn, the girl who sat with her while she wretched into the toilet, massaged all the knots away from her stiff body, and made sure she took the disgusting medications to help with her fevers.

Caitlyn let her stay there as long as she wanted, refilling the tub when the water went cold and bringing tea to soothe her raw throat. She sat there beside her on the floor and held her hand until Vi was ready to get out.

“Thanks, Cait,” Vi hummed as Caitlyn tucked her back into bed, herself following closely behind. Vi found herself surrendering to the unforgiving warmth that was the love of another person. Her eyelids struggled to stay open as she shifted to face Caitlyn and wrapped a hand around her waist.  “For taking care of me.”

“Anything for you, darling,” Caitlyn murmured. “Anything at all.”