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You knew the second you had stepped into the bright light of the library that you were going to get a headache. Headaches were normal for you, a near daily occurrence that had plagued you for years. You hadn’t counted on the headache growing into a migraine, a groan escaping you when little splotches clouded your vision and made it difficult to read your books.
You took some ibuprofen. Maybe that would stop it before it became unbearable.
You weren’t that lucky.
The pain slowly became worse and worse, morphing from a dull ache into a sharp pain that crowded behind your eye and your temple. Your head was throbbing, your stomach churning from the intensity of the pain. The bright lights only made it worse, each overhead only dialing the pain up to 11.
You snatched a book off your table, staggering to a dim section of the room in hopes of finding some relief. No such luck.
You crowded into a corner, head ducked between your arms, eyes squeezed shut as you prayed to any deity that was listening to end the throbbing pain in your skull. You don’t know how much time passed, the only clear thought being that the pain was only getting worse, which made you feel sicker, which made getting rid of the pain more difficult.
You could sense someone approaching you as you quietly suffered, eyes blinking open to find a pair of boots stopped right in front of you. You looked up, wincing as you did, tears burning the backs of your eyes as you fought to hold them back.
Aether was standing there, a sympathetic look on his face. “A little birdie told me you aren’t doing so hot,” he said, crouching down in front of you, his eyes glowing behind the lenses of his helmet.
You nodded, struggling to breathe as anxiety set in and your pain became nearly unbearable. “Hurts so bad,” you mumbled, the words getting stuck in your throat. It felt like someone was slowly choking you with barbed wire, silencing you and suffocating you.
“What hurts?”
“Head,” you replied, pressing a finger to your temple in explanation.
“Ahhhh,” he hummed, “I see. Pain killers didn’t help, did they?”
You shook your head in answer, fighting your tears. It was quickly becoming a losing battle, your limbs slowly growing shaky as you curled into an even tighter ball.
“C’mere, kiddo,” Aether urged, opening his arms, “let’s get you back to bed and do something about this migraine.”
You accepted rather quickly, leaning into his arms and allowing him to pick you up. You buried your face in shoulder and neck, closing your eyes. You silently began crying, your head feeling as if it was going to explode; your head felt like a watermelon that someone had stretched rubber bands over, slowly adding more until the fruit imploded.
“It’s gonna be okay soon, kit,” Aether soothed in a low whisper, trying to move as quickly as he could without jostling you too much.
“H-Hurts so bad,” you cried quietly, clinging tightly to him.
“I know. I’m going to help take that away in just a minute. I promise, kit,” he murmured, navigating through the dorms until he found your door, opening it and stepping inside. Aether laid you down in bed, going about shutting the curtains and turning on the fan.
You got under the sheets, curled up on your side, your hands over your eyes as you tried to calm down. You felt terrible, the sharp pain driving you to the brink of insanity with each and every second that ticked by.
Aether climbed on the bed, pulling you into his chest. You buried your face in it, fingers clamping down on his sleeve as you sniffled, trying to quell your tears. “Alright, little one. You’re going to feel better real soon, I promise. Just breathe for me so I can draw it out,” he ordered gently, taking deep breaths so you could mimic him and calm yourself down.
It took a few minutes, but you finally managed it, breathing in and out deeply, the tears coming to an end.
“That’s good, kit,” he praised softly, running claw-tipped fingers through your hair gently, his fingertips stopping at your temple. He slowly began searching for the threads of pain in your skull, finding them rather quick because of how severe your pain was. He pulled at them, unraveling them from around your brain and lessening your suffering.
You felt it almost instantly, mouth falling open in relief, eyes fluttering shut. The one side effect of Aether doing his little… magic thing was that it put you to sleep. He hummed softly, pulling at the thread a bit more, your body going limp against him as you began to relax and drift in and out.
“Go to sleep, kiddo,” he urged, smiling softly despite your eyes being closed, “you’ll feel better when you wake up.”
You believed him, drifting off into the blissful nothingness of sleep.