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luca awakes to light peeking through the blinds of his room as if it were shaking him gently as to wake up. oh, and the sound of gagging in the bathroom. the dim light of a candle sheds light on him as luca opens the door to see frederick wiping his mouth as he shuts the toilet seat down.
luca frowns as he looks at the other man. his eyes were puffy as if he'd been sobbing, the eyebags were so deep and prominent as if he hadn't slept in weeks but luca knows that not to be true as he'd seen the other man asleep in his arms last night.
frederick adjusts the long sleeping shirt he wore, wrinkles adorning the fabric, "what is it?"
his voice is raw and scratchy unlike his usual soft-spoken and angelic voice that you swore you'd only hear in the moments of death.
luca shakes his head as he shakes off the man's question, "you're not going to your matches today, are you?"
frederick nods as he fumbles with his hands, scratching at his cuticles, "i am and i can assure you i will do just fine, okay?"
"yes, but even so–" luca begins, his voice strewn with concern no matter how hard he tried not to show it to the other, it still leaked through.
"i will be fine." he states, "it's not that many, it's barely a handful unlike you. you have how many today? ten? eight?"
luca rolls his eyes, "seven." luca reaches to grip frederick's hands and he can see the other man scrunch up his face for a second as his smooth skin reaches the raw, dry skin of luca's, "but the difference is i am not ill, you however, are."
"i can function just fine." frederick huffs, "and it is not as if i am bleeding out. i can still do the usual things."
luca watches as frederick shakes his hand out of their grip and all he can do is sigh, "may i remind you that you have a very high possibility of bleeding out today? in fact it's almost guaranteed that you will bleed out."
frederick shrugs, "i suppose i will have to deal with it then, won't i?"
luca nods, "i suppose."
frederick was not dealing with it well. he had probably the biggest headache of his life, he felt as if he were sweating through all his clothes which was just a gross situation to be in and also the embalmer would not quit staring at him as they decoded together.
"you are sick." he murmurs, "why are you here?"
frederick glances at the embalmer who stares back at him with those wide, creepy eyes that seemed as if they were made of porcelain. his fingers typed on the machine with not even a glance spared at it as frederick stared down at the cipher as he twisted and messed with the knobs.
he laughs shakily, "i don't know, you are just so smart for figuring that out, you know?"
he does not intend for his sarcastic words to come out so harshly but they do. he blames it on how uncomfortable he was with every factor of this situation that he couldn't help but let it come out like that.
aesop, however, does not read his words the same way, "i did not know, but thank you for the compliment. my statement still stands– if you are sick, you should not be here, it is not good for your health."
frederick laughs softly, "since when have you cared about people's health? you aren't a doctor or any kind. in fact, i think you'd do the opposite."
aesop frowns, which was surprising considering he never showed any sort of emotion, just the usual apathetic expression on his face, "i am not a doctor, i realize that but i can still be concerned."
frederick sighs as he parts from the cipher, leaving aesop to finish it off, "i… i can do just fine. i assure you. so just leave."
aesop removes one of his gloves, folding it before gently shoving it in his pocket. he rests the back of his hand upon frederick's forehead and all he can do is lean into aesop's cold touch as if he were a kitten being pet.
aesop removes his hand promptly and put his glove back on as he speaks, "you should forfeit the match. you are not well."
"i have told you this previously, i am fine. you are still not a doctor of any kind so i don't even know why i am listening to you give medical advice. i mean, you don't heal people… you're–"
aesop cuts him off, "embalming is technically a part of the medical field, frederick. but even if it weren't, is it so wrong to be concerned?"
"yes!" frederick shouts without another thought.
aesop nods as he pulls out the walkie talkie from his side to speak into it, "can we surrender?"
frederick stares at him in silence before a deep, yet soft voice returns his message, "surrender? what for? we're doing fine."
aesop nods before he realizes patricia cannot see him, "i'm aware but frederick is not doing well. he is ill."
"why is he here then?" patricia asks before quickly moving on, "where are you? i will go get wu chang and ask him. he's very understanding as far as i am aware."
"alright." aesop nods before pinging his location and putting his walkie talkie on his side.
frederick stares at him with disbelief, "i told you i was doing fine."
aesop nods, "but you tend to lie so people don't worry about you."
frederick is about to answer when he feels his heart beating rapidly. it's so quick that he feels as if his heart is about to burst.
soft footsteps follow along with the clicking of heels. he has no clue how anyone takes part in this all whilst wearing heels, it felt crazy to him.
"you are sick?" a soft airy and almost ghostly voice speaks.
frederick turns around to see white guard looking at him with such gentle eyes that his heart almost shatters from the look of it.
frederick shrugs, "well i can do fine, it's not as if i am so sick that i shall pass out."
white guard tilts his head as his brows slightly furrow from that response, as if it were wrong and knowing how everyone had reacted that day it probably was, "then why are you here?"
"sorry?" frederick asks.
"did you ask the manor owner for a few days off?" the entomologist asks from behind wu chang.
frederick feels everyone's eyes on him and suddenly he feels a cold sweat run down his back, "i did not know i could ask for such a thing."
"oh." wu chang says, "well, i suppose i could just surrender and then aesop could put in that you are ill."
it's silent for a moment before wu chang presses a few buttons upon what looks like a remote before a robotic voice speaks through the survivors walkie talkies: "the hunter has surrendered. please exit and wait for your next match."
aesop ends up caring for frederick as they wait for luca to come back from his last game. it's so odd to frederick that aesop would even be a decent caregiver. he remembers how murmurs traveled through the manor when he had first arrived talking about how strange and off-putting aesop was and that he was selfish and it'd be foolish to even try and communicate with him. it seemed so odd now that he had gotten to know the other man well.
frederick unbuttons his shirt with trembling fingers as aesop fixes his messy bed which made no sense to frederick as he was just going to lay in it anyway.
frederick tosses his shirt on the floor haphazardly before quickly changing out of the slacks with not a care in the world as aesop averted his gaze.
frederick sighs as he pulls the sweatpants up onto his hips as he hears aesop mutter something under his breath.
"what were you saying?" frederick questions as he pulls his hair out of the thick ribbon, setting the piece of fabric on his dresser.
"i was practicing on how to ask you something." aesop says as he watches frederick get into bed.
"you don't need to do all that. just ask it, i don't care how you phrase it." frederick says with a yawn.
"alright." aesop nods as he sets a cold cloth upon frederick's forehead to which he responds with a soft hiss, "are you feeling alright?"
"very obviously not." the other man grumbles.
"apologies." aesop says, "i can't do much to help. i am not very empathetic, i suppose."
frederick shrugs, "i don't expect you to be. wouldn't expect it, anyway. just– let me sleep, will you?"
aesop nods and frederick does just that.
aesop is gone when he awakes and instead there are those familiar raw and dry hands running their fingers through his long strands. one hand is running through his hair and the other soothingly rubs over his hand, thumbing at his wrist.
luca must notice the shift in the air between them because he speaks softly, nearly whispering, "you're up."
frederick grumbles as he nods,"sure am."
"so…" luca trails on, "i am assuming your matches didn't go well if you're here."
"actually i did quite fine." frederick says, "granted, i was all gross and sweaty but that's the usual, i think. it was the embalmer who put up quite a fight for me to go and rest."
"oh, he did?" luca asks and seems to sound quite shocked by it, "i will have to thank him next time i see him."
frederick nods as he closes his eyes as if he were going to doze off once more before luca shakes his shoulder gently.
frederick furrows his brows as he opens his eyes once more.
"come on, eat. i brought food for you." luca says as he can hear the clinking of dishes besides the bed.
"i don't think i can stomach anything, luca, really."
luca sighs as he pushes frederick's sweaty bangs back, "it's still hot and you've got to try eating something."
frederick rolls his eyes, "and i will probably vomit it back up in an hour or so."
"okay." luca says and frederick thinks that's that and he's won the conversation as if it were to even be won until luca speaks once more, "and i will be there to push back your hair when you do, so try. please."
frederick sighs as he shifts in bed and luca already knows he has won even though frederick says nothing. luca watches how frederick shakily brings the spoon to his mouth and swallows the soup forcefully as if his mouth were made of sandpaper (which with how he was currently feeling, luca assumed it felt like it was.) frederick is silent for a moment before he opens his mouth to speak once more.
"who made this?"
luca grins, "i did."
frederick sets the spoon back in the bowl, "ah."
"what?" luca whines, "i'm not that bad at cooking!"
"i didn't say you were bad at cooking." frederick explains as he goes for another bite.
"well, you implied it." luca defends himself as frederick stares at him blankly.
"i did not." frederick huffs, "it's just– you can obviously tell when you make it versus someone like, i don't know, emily–"
"emily?!" luca shrieks, "you're so mean!"
"and yet you still insist on taking care of me, how odd." frederick says as he watches how luca narrows his eyes before crossing his arms and leaning in quickly to press a kiss to frederick's warm forehead.
"how odd, indeed." luca agrees.