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Rose had not been feeling well that day. At all.
As soon as she woke up, the moment her feet touched the ground and she attempted to stand up, a bolt of pain shot down. It began on her hip, making its way down her leg and debilitating her like a snake bite, or what Rose imagined a snake bite would feel like. The weakness forced her to sit down again, yet much to her luck after a few minutes it was better. By her standards, "better" could mean anything ranging from no longer making her vision go white with random flashes as the pain spread, to not feeling it anymore. It was a "no longer flashing" day.
The moment she felt it ease enough to stand up, the second surprise of the day arrived. Surprise? she chuckled at herself. It was practically routine to feel her vision go completely blurry and have her ears ring as she attempted to get up every morning, which if she was honest with herself, the days in which she felt more unable to than actually capable to outnumbered the second by a good amount. She had worked so hard not to let her disabilities show in class, only for something as simple as a mild routinary dizzy spell to break her perfect attendance record and consequently raise some questions.
Instead, she simply had a specially generous breakfast, enough to allow her to go until lunchtime without dizziness or a headache crawling their way onto her.
The way to school was pretty much uneventful, except for the fact that every time she dared minimally put a bit more of her weight onto her left side, the same excruciating dashes of pain reappeared. Somehow, she still had no idea how, she managed to get up the mountain of stairs Francois-Dupont had for an entrance, and all the way to her class. At least Juleka was there, as always, ready to greet her with their usual morning kiss.
~(x)~
If there was something she hated, it was consecutive hours in her timetable. The kind in which she would have to stay seated in place for two, even three hours at a time, rarely getting permission to stretch. In which after a while, she would start feeling the blood in her system pool down in her legs, making her more lightheaded with every second that went by.
I... I have to get out... Before they see me...
She looked to he side, where Juleka was still taking notes, yet side eyed her with a pinch of worry in her eyes.
Rose shot her hand up. Her fingertips were getting whiter by the second.
"Excuse me, can I go to the bathroom?"
The teacher nodded, and she made her way out the best she could.
She didn't even get half the way to the door before her ears started ringing and her vision faded to black.
~(X)~
Rose woke up to a blinding white surrounding her. White ceilings, white walls, white bedsheets. White in the curtains that surrounded her, blocking her view.
Not again, she thought idly.
The last thing she remembered was blurry shadows transporting her, while her hands were filled with what she called "anti-pain", the complete opposite of the blinding flashes pain was for her yet not much more comforting. The purple tips of Juleka's hair brushing against her arm, tickling her, but being too weak to even begin to open her eyes properly.
Now, she had an IV connected to her wrist, and no one around.
She closed her eyes again, feeling her heart rate speed up and run.
By the time she was conscious enough to register her surroundings again, Juleka was there.
"Rose?" she said ss she turned to the curtain. "She is awake now!"
"Jules? What are you doing here?"
"I was worried about how you collapsed in class, so as soon as it was over I came here. To check on you."
"I'm... I'm sorry for worrying you,. Its pretty normal for me at this point, but I kind of hoped there wouldn't be a need to tell you," Rose said with a trace of guilt in her words.
"Why should you be sorry? You fainted. It worried me. It was all but your fault, Rose."
For some reason, her eyes began to fill up with tears. Juleka was so understanding, even when she had failed to tell her it was part of normality for her, nothing more than an everyday thing. The spells, the full blown fainting, it was normal. She hadn't mentioned them before, and she made her girlfriend worry. And she wasn't mad, at all.
"You can tell me everything. Anything you want to. The class can be not nice about some things, I'll give you that, but even if they don't know you can tell me."
Rose was fully crying, real tears streaming down her cheeks. She had hoped to be able to pretend she was normal with her girlfriend, no need for special caretaking or for her to worry. But it had failed.
Juleka picked up her scjoolbag from the floor, rummaging through its contents for a few seconds before stoppin gand extracting something.
"I stopped at the train station to get you this. In case you need to stay the night here."
It was precious. Fluffy, sparkly, the cutest unicorn Rose had ever seen.
More tears rolled down her face and onto the bedsheets as she held the plushie in her hands carefully, admiring its colors.
"I hate to see you hurt, but I love to see you cry. Right now, I mean. Like this"
Rose looked at her girlfriend with allt he love her tired body could muster up.
"I love you, Jules. I love the unicorn. I'll name her Princess Sparkles!"
"Keep her. Just... dont pretend you feel alright if you dont. Seeing you struggle the entire morning was not nice, but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, so I let it slip by. Tell me, please."
Rose hugged her, decided to allow herself to feel unwell if she needed it again.
She didn't want the moment to end.