early December

[best_thief]

Lila had been food shopping when she'd run into Sirius and learned that Kell was sick. Sirius was on his stupid phone with Kieren and didn't elaborate or seem overly concerned about it, so she wondered at the way she couldn't stop worrying. It's just that Kell must have had palace doctors and nursemaids to look after him when he grew ill back in Arnes. He probably had round the clock care, medicines and doting fit for a prince. But here he had no one. Would he even know what to do?

Lila thought it would be up to her, then, but as she stood in the medicines aisle she realized she didn't know what to do. Back in London when she got sick she toughed it out until it eventually passed, there wasn't much else could be done. She was lucky when she could even afford a room for the night to get out of the cold.

She hated having to use her phone, but she had been shown how to ask it things which had been helpful in the past. So she consulted the phone, asking it, "What do you do for someone who is sick?" She clicked the first text that came up and spent a few minutes reading and formulating a plan.

Some time later found her at Kell's window. She used her magic to unlock and open it, tossing her bag in and climbing in after it.

"Kell?"

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[bloodandflowers]

Burrowed deep within two blankets, Kell might not have noticed her entrance at all but for the gust of wind. His ears feel stuffed, as does his nose and his throat, that is when it isn't screaming silently for every swallow, and he turns towards the window with a rednosed frown.

"Cold!" is all he manages before a fit of coughing takes him over.

[best_thief]

"Lord," Lila mutters at the force of Kell's coughs. She sees she was right to worry, and quickly closes the window. The list said to give the sick person fresh air, but it's obviously too cold for that one.

"I brought you medicine," she announces, pulling off her boots, shrugging off her coat, and perching on the couch next to Kell with her shopping bag. The sight of him all bundled up and pathetic looking somehow unearths maternal instincts she didn't even know she possessed, and she leans close to stroke his face, brush his limp hair from his eyes. He's both flushed and pale, he looks haggard and feels hot to the touch.

"I didn't think you could get any paler," she adds with a pitying smile.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell relaxes back against the couch as the window shuts, though the effect is more mental than anything. He's still freezing, no matter what he piles on top of himself, yet when she touches him his eyes widen.

Her hands are so warm they nearly burn, even as his skin feels stretched and hot. "I feel red," he says, too tired to try making sense of that for her. He blinks sore eyes and tries to focus. "You've brought medicine?"

[best_thief]

"You feel how your nose looks," Lila says, and turns to pick her bag up from the floor. There are a few non-medicine things inside, which she sets aside for later. The rest she upends on top of his blanket between them, small boxes and bottles tumble out.

"I didn't know what was wrong with you, so I just bought everything." Which is a stretch, because there had been entire aisles of medicines, but she had tried to get a wide variety. "The phone says to describe your symptoms and I suppose we can figure out which you should take."

[bloodandflowers]

For a moment Kell feels hopeful, and then the sheer volume of different rattling and sloshing bottles overwhelms him, and he sinks back into his nest.

"My head hurts," he rasps. "And my throat. And my lungs itch. And I'm cold." He stares despondently forward at the television, which ran out of episodes of Merlin not long ago. And every story I watch makes me weep, he thinks but doesn't say. It's surely just because he's so miserable. "When I blink my eyes are sandy."

[best_thief]

"Your lungs," Lila says, and begins to scour over the medicine boxes for their descriptions and healing properties. She hadn't had time to go over them all in the store, but she'd tried to choose the ones that looked the most promising.

Eventually she thinks she has the correct medicines picked. "You'll need to take three of these," she says, setting a bottle apart from the others. "Two of these. And drink some of this."

She gathers all the useless bottles and boxes, sweeping them back into the bag. "Do you want water, or herbal tea? The phone says you need lots of liquids."

[bloodandflowers]

Kell stares dubiously at the pills. They're small, but his throat hurts when he swallows so much as his own spit, and he picks up the little cup of liquid first.

"Water," he says and forces himself to down it. As expected, it hurts, but a cooling sensation follows. "And tea?" Kell's not really been hungry, but he knows he needs sustenance. "With honey?" He stares up at her, wondering for the first time that she's come here. In the last few days, Kell has felt awful, but without Rhy to prod him for care and to entertain him, he's been largely content to sit and feel worse.

Having Lila here is so much better. "Please."

[best_thief]

Lila has never had anyone to care for before, and has never especially wanted to, but she finds, during the the quiet moment while Kell takes his medicine, that she doesn't mind. He doesn't even annoy her when he asks for his tea a certain way. If it was anyone else she'd tell them to make it themselves, sick or not.

But Kell just seems so miserable, it almost hurts to see.

"Water, and tea with honey." She tucks the blanket back up under his chin and gets up to bring the water first, and picks up the can she brought with her. "I'm also going to make soup. It's chicken noodle, and it's for sick people," she tells him, wandering into the kitchen to get everything ready.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell feels oddly stricken as she rises. Chicken broth with noodles is not unlike what he'd have been fed at home when ill. By the sound of it, she hadn't known that, but Lila has taken the time to find out what will be best for him. Not only that, she's brought it all the way here and means to make it for him.

He feels a dangerous wobble in his chin, and Kell hunkers into his blankets to hide it. He's been emotional all day, the product of fever and fatigue and loneliness - that's all it is. "That sounds lovely," he says in his scritchy voice, and resolves to take every pill she's brought him, no matter how long it takes, or how painful.

[best_thief]

"It will be if I don't burn it," Lila calls back, setting the can on his counter and rummaging around for a glass. She puts on the kettle while she's at it, something she's at least more familiar with. "I'm not a very good cook."

But the glass of water is easy enough, and she returns to him with it. "Here you are, for the pills. And to stay hydrated," she adds, thinking back to the information she read. "Can you sit up at all? I don't want you to choke."

[bloodandflowers]

"Aren't I up?" asks Kell, bewildered. He struggles for a moment, and when he's exhausted, he reaches for the glass, holding it carefully as he selects his pills in order from smallest to most painfully large.

"Mustn't watch this part," he murmurs, suddenly half fearful he'll gag or choke, just as she's said.

[best_thief]

"Not enough," Lila chides, watching Kell struggle to sit upright. Or at least a little upright. She almost steps in to help, but he gets there himself in the end.

Her eyebrows raise when he commands her not to look. "Alright, but if you die before you try my soup I'll be cross," she says, and returns to the kitchen to prepare the tea and soup.

The soup thankfully has instructions on the side, but she wishes she'd spent more time with Olo to have a better idea of how it's all supposed to go. She just doesn't want it to taste terrible, is all.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell waits, and when she's gone he begins the laborious process of swallowing the pills. Each one seems to stick, but he gets them down, miraculously with an inch of water to spare left in the glass when he's done.

He settles back against the couch in relief. Kell can't see Lila from this angle, but he can hear her bustling about, and at length the smell of soup penetrates even his stuffy nose. It smells good, and Kell lets the full of his weight against the cushions, eyelids drooping until that glorious scent makes its way closer.

[best_thief]

"Are you asleep?" Lila asks dubiously when she returns, tilting her head to get a better look. Because the phone did say that when sick you need rest, but she's brought him the soup and she didn't even burn it. Much. ...Only a few pieces of chicken had to be scraped off the bottom.

[bloodandflowers]

He's not asleep, but he's drifting, and when Kell's eyes blink open it's with a wonder that accompanies one finding that they haven't dreamt the best parts all along.

"I'm here," he says, struggling again to sit up. As queasy as his stomach feels, from this close the smell of soup makes him ravenous, and he does his best to look ready to eat. "It smells very nice."

[best_thief]

Lila smiles, satisfied that he's not passed out and has even paid the soup a compliment before trying it. "Here now, careful," she says, sitting down next to him and trying to arrange his blankets and make a nice spot for the soup bowl to rest. She sets it, cradled in the cloth bowl holder, in front of him.

"You aren't so far gone you can't feed yourself, are you?" she asks, watching to make sure he doesn't spill the soup.

[bloodandflowers]

"Surely not," Kell murmurs, his voice a bit stronger after that cooling liquid. Still, he has to stare down at the spoon for some time before it behaves and holds still. He grasps it carefully, and manages to get a bite to his mouth. It's hot enough to sting his throat, but he swallows it hungrily anyway.

"How did you know I was ill?" he asks, fishing out another spoonful.

[best_thief]

Lila draws her legs up onto the couch, tucking them under herself to sit sideways and watch Kell. She leans the side of her head against the back of the couch, letting herself get comfortable.

"I saw Sirius at the market, and when I asked if he'd seen you recently he said you had a cold. He was talking to Kieren so I hadn't gotten any details. Something tells me it's gotten worse." She reaches over to smooth back his hair, it's limp and lifeless and keeps falling in front of his black eye. "This doesn't look like a cold."

[bloodandflowers]

"I thought it was," Kell admits, listing towards Lila when she touches his aching head. He tries to recall how long it's been since he spoke to Sirius, but the days all blend together into one long, miserable blur.

"But it got worse. At home, there would have been magical tonics." Kell frowns down at his soup. "I'm not actually sure how to make them. I never had to."

[best_thief]

Lila likes the way Kell reacts to her touch, and she can't help taking advantage of it. She misses touching him, she misses him. She lets her fingers stroke down to the nape of his neck, rubbing absently at his shoulders under the wide stretch of his shirt. The phone did say when sick, sometimes a massage would help.

"I bet there's somewhere here who does. We aren't the only magic users. Maybe I'll ask around tomorrow," she says, only because it's already starting to get dark out now.

[bloodandflowers]

"And if there's something to help me sleep?" Kell asks, hopeful. He's exhausted, but between the nausea and the full body aches and the waking himself with coughs, it's difficult to stay asleep.

He takes another spoonful of soup, wishing he felt steady enough just to lift the bowl to his mouth and gulp. "You'll be back then?" he asks. "Tomorrow?"

[best_thief]

"Oh, I have a medicine for that, when you're ready." She leans over to fish around in the bag and pulls out the box, reading the name. "It's called TranQuility."

She sets it on the end table for the moment, because Kell probably doesn't want to fall asleep in his bowl of soup. She considers his question, and him. "If you want," she says carefully.

[bloodandflowers]

"That sounds like something from home," says Kell with a half-smile and a pang in his heart. It's half fever and half homesickness, but he's missed Rhy keenly in the last few days. As long as he can remember, he's never had to weather an illness without Rhy to distract and comfort him. The room feels less empty now, better for Lila being in it, and Kell doesn't want her to go.

"Yes," he says. "And - " Kell nods at the television. "I've been watching some programs. You can watch, too, if you like."

[best_thief]

"Does it? Not my London," Lila says wryly, not missing her 'home' one bit. She misses Red, though. She misses the open sea and being surrounded by magic. She thinks if she didn't have Kell here she might have already gone out of her mind.

"The phone said that, to watch a movie," Lila says, snuggling a little closer to the mountain of blankets. "Or for me to read a story to you. What are you watching?"

[bloodandflowers]

"They're silly," Kell admits, ducking his head. "Little animated films about animals. Have you see any?" Some brightness returns to his glassy eyes. "They're like moving paintings, each cell painted by hand, can you imagine the hours it must have taken for even one scene?"

They're the sort of thing Kell would have kept in his secret room at home, had he the means to squirrel them away. "I suppose they're a bit childish."