Mildmay the Fox

[st_rikingblueeyes]

After the visit from Kolkhis, Corbie had set everything to the side for a while. Even if she'd been ready to talk about it, Mildmay just wasn't physically capable for at least a week afterward. She'd tended to him in spite of any protests, spent most nights in the other bed in his room, and made sure he had medicine, that he ate, that he drank enough water. That the sheets got changed so the bed didn't do more harm than good. She did what needed doing without complaining.

Every day he needed less of her. Every day she spent less time hovering and more time out on her own business. The fever did break, but then there was a lot of coughing. And a lot of fluids that if she hadn't seen it before, Corbie would have wondered at something that color coming out of a human body. Jackson had been--for once--a genuinely steadying influence through the whole thing, reassuring her that this was all in the range of normal and Mildmay was on the mend.

And eventually one morning when she woke up, she sensed that he was already awake and alert. Not just awake, but awake in a way he hadn't been since before she'd first bullied him into admitting he was ill.

Eventually, Corbie got herself out of bed, padded over, and slipped into his bed beside him. "Morning," she murmured. "How're you feeling?"

Comments

[st_onecoldfox]

"M'awake." But that wasn't what Corbie was asking, and they both knew it. Powers, Mildmay'd been waiting on this ever since Keeper'd... since Keeper'd reminded him what he was, and Corbie along with 'em. On the other hand, even once the fever and the coughing eased off, there was a long time where doing the least little thing meant having to lie down and sleep for a hour or more. So awake was a start.

"Don't feel like I been stomped on by a giant or anything."

He couldn't start the conversation he'd known was coming. He wasn't brave enough to do it, when it'd mean losing the person he was closest to here. She'd have to do it herself. But he was maybe well enough now to hear it, and that was what she needed to know.