Work Text:
Fiore laid awake in the shelter. It was long into the night, and the rest of the favorites team was fast asleep. Not Fiore though.
Fiore had felt nauseous all day. She figured she was just hungry, so she ate some food. That made it worse. She thought it may have been dehydration, so she drank some water. That didn't help much. Then she thought it may be heat exhaustion, so she loitered in the shelter for a while. That didn't help either.
Now that it was dark, and she had nothing to do but think about it, she felt even worse, and regardless of how hard she tried to get the nausea to subside, it was to no avail.
After a long while of contemplating, (she thinks it was about half an hour, but your exact concept of time gets a little skewed when you're cut off from the outside world) she decided that she'd leave the shelter. She figured that maybe the fresh air would help her, also, due to her worsening nausea, she'd rather be outside in the event she actually got sick, as opposed to cramped up in the shelter.
She tiptoed her way out of the shelter, careful as to not wake any of her sleeping teammates. Once out of the shelter, she wasted no time making her way into the forest surrounding the favorites camp, snapping twigs and crushing leaves as she went.
As embarrassed as she was to admit it, Fiore absolutely hated being sick. More specifically, she hated throwing up. She hated looking at it. The repulsive color of it. She hated the way her throat felt afterwards. Most importantly, she hated the fact she had zero control over it. She hated how she was at the mercy of her body, and how it wouldn't wait for you to get to a toilet.
After a few minutes of walking, Fiore finally settled down by a lake. She didn't feel much better, but the cool air emitted from the water helped. She took deep breaths, looking at the sky as if the gods would give her the magic touch and make it all go away.
Unfortunately for her, the gods did not seem to favor. Her attempts deep breaths soon became shaky as she attempted to clear her head. Why couldn't the nausea just go away?
Ultimately, she surrendered to the inevitable, squeezing her eyes shut and letting the wave rush over her. Once she was done she was breathing heavily, letting out small gasps between breaths. She felt the warmness of tears fall down her face.
She looked at the lake again, now polluted by the contents of the lunch she had earlier that day. Admittedly, she did feel better than before, however that didn't ease her.
Fiore sobbed, attempting to keep quiet, despite the fact that she was relatively far from camp. She let herself get sick, on a reality show of all places. The cameras probably picked up the whole incident, and if she was really lucky, it'd be broadcasted as an attempt to make her look like some sort of comic relief.
Eventually, she was snapped out of the her thoughts by the sound of footsteps behind her. Normally, she'd get defensive. She'd run, or hide, or maybe greet them with a stern "who's there?", but getting sick had taken all of her energy. She just sat by the lake, waiting for whichever poor unsuspecting member of her team had happened to find her.
"Fiore?"
It was Alec. She wasn't thrilled to see him here, considering circumstances, but of the possible outcomes, he was definitely the best one.
Fiore turned her head to meet Alec's gaze. It was filled with confusion, probably wondering what someone was even doing out here at this time. I mean, she could ask him the same.
"What are you doing out here at this hour?" He asked her
"I don't know, what are you doing out here at this hour?" She replied, doing anything in her power to avoid admitting the reason she left the shelter.
"Couldn't sleep, so I was going to read out here"
Fiore sighed. She wanted to ask more about his book, get him to talk so the question didn't loop back around to her, but she really didn't have it in her to listen to him talk about some book she didn't care about for God knows how long.
"Why are you out here Fiore?" He restated.
She looked down at the lake, contemplating whether or not she should tell him about what happened. Swallowing her pride, she finally responded.
"I threw up"
She looked back at Alec, whose eyes were now filled with worry for the child. He slowly approached her and sat beside her.
"How many times did you get sick Fiore? Just once?"
She nodded.
"Are you feeling any better?"
She nodded again.
"Yeah, maybe it was just something I ate"
Unbeknownst to her, the tears began falling again. Alec gently wiped them away with his thumb.
"Hey you're alright, you got sick but you're all good now" He attempted to reassure her.
This just made her cry even more. Not because he did anything wrong. She wasn't even entirely sure why she was crying in the first place. At home, nobody really cared when she got sick. She was sent back to bed, and if she kept dwelling on it, she'd get yelled at. She was told she was seeking attention, or that she was wasting her parents energy. If she was sick, she'd have to deal with it herself.
Alec pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back. She just sobbed into his shoulder. What we're stifled sobs soon became louder. The crying was loud, raw, and unfiltered. A part of her was upset for allowing herself to do this. She was letting herself be weak in front of Alec, but there was a part of her that acknowledged that it felt good. It felt good to just let her emotions run wild, and it felt good to have Alec there. He wasn't yelling at her or telling her to stop, nor was he attempting to talk to her or offer his pity. He was just there.
After a little while, her crying finally subsided, and she lifted her head up off of Alec's shoulder.
"Do you feel better?" He asked.
"Yeah" she replied "Thank you"
He nodded his head and looked back in the direction of the camp.
"I do suppose we should begin heading back, I think it'd be good for you to get at least a little sleep, if you're able"
Fiore nodded in agreement. Alec stood up and extended a hand to Fiore. She looked at him and took it, helping herself up. The pair made their way back to camp and into their shelter. Alec walked Fiore back to her bed. She tiredly hopping up and brought the blankets to her face.
"Good night, Fiore"
"Good night" she responded.
Alec made his way back to his bed. He turned back to face Fiore one last time.
"Wake me up if you need anything"
Fiore let out a hum of acknowledgement before drifting off to sleep.