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Hunched up over the toilet seat, emptying his already empty stomach into the damned bowl while huffing and puffing all night till dawn, Olruggio was positive he was dying.
It was rare for him to be sick. Sometimes, the girls’ outings would bring back a flu and he’ll catch them, but it was never this severe. His travels for work also never really struck his health that much, with how much his commissioners would pamper him with all their wealth and time. Headaches were common with how bad his habits were. His hangovers were never this painful, so something must be wrong.
Especially if this has been going on for two days. Nothing he made was kept inside his stomach, it would all be retched out in just minutes and he would have to survive off of water and beef stock that they had on the stove. It was even worse that Qifrey and the girls were away at the Great Hall to pick up something Beldaruit had gifted them. The blasted old man could’ve given them his gift another day, not when he’s literally decaying on the toilet floor.
Olruggio really did want to drag himself out of the damp bathroom and into his room, but there was no more strength in his body left for him to even sit up. He laid there, with cold sweat sticking onto his skin and clothes in disarray. His hands reached down to his pocket to grab his pen, thinking of resorting to sending a distress signal with a spell to summon Qifrey and save him from his lame condition.
The appearance of Riche proved that he didn’t have to do it.
He couldn’t even notice her coming. The little blue haired girl gasped when she saw him lying on the floor, then disappeared from the door, presumably to call upon Qifrey. Olruggio sighed, relaxing his body when he sensed the other’s scent. He smelled a bit distraught, like wood that had caught fire, immediately kneeling in front of him and shouting something to the girls in hurry. Their voices couldn’t be registered in his mind and all of a sudden, everything went pitch black.
When Olruggio finally stirred awake, all he saw was grey. He was laying in Qifrey’s room, judging by the disarray and lack of color. His scent was everywhere, sticking onto his skin and clothes. Looking to the side, he saw Tetia peeking into the room, and almost immediately the girl screamed for everyone to come and check his condition. Great.
“Tetia, not so loud,” Olruggio groaned, trying to sit up. A headache was splitting into his skull as he massaged his temples. His body felt better sleeping in a bed, but his stomach still felt empty, his limbs weak and light.
“Sorry Professor,” Tetia smiled sheepishly. “I mean, everyone was so scared when they saw you pass out in the bathroom! We’re all worried.”
Just like she said, it seemed that everyone was very worried, thinking he was about to die. Agott arrived first, still carrying her pen. Coco tripped in the hallway, but still safely made it to Qifrey’s room. Riche then came, a little furrow in between her eyebrows from worry. And Qifrey, with a yelp and a few pots and pans clanging down, finally arrived in his own room with a cup of hot marktea.
“Here, drink this. It should ease your stomach. The nurses told me it would help prevent further nausea,” Qifrey said, sitting on the bed.
Olruggio’s mouth and throat felt burnt because of his stomach acid, but he still forced himself to drink the tea. “I’m sorry for worryin’ you guys, I didn’t know–”
“What happened professor?” Coco asked, cutting in. “Are you feeling better now?”
“Did you skip meals again, professor? You were the one who told us that’s no good, and yet–” Agott argued.
“How long did you stay in the bathroom vomiting?” Riche asked in curiosity. “Your distressed scent is still lingering there.”
Qifrey cleared his throat and silenced all his students. “Come on, girls. One at a time, can’t you see how tired Olruggio is?” he told them gently. “I must admit, I am quite curious how you ended up like that,” he frowned.
Olruggio scratched the back of his head. “I dunno, Qifrey,” he groaned. “I’ve been vomiting all my guts out for two days now. Nothin’ I ate stayed ever since I came back from the neighboring town. Even the slightest scent triggers me now.”
“Maybe it’s the stomach flu?” Coco offered, her hand holding his. “But it doesn’t seem like you’ve got a fever running…”
Qifrey’s face darkened. His snowy white hair swayed over his eyes, looming over them. His finger stayed atop his lip, his hands kept tightly to his torso. Olruggio sighed at that. Every time Qifrey was struck with worry, he’d always seem that way. The white haired alpha would be lost in thought, just imagining all the different, bad scenarios that might happen.
“Look, Qifrey. I’ll be fine, I just need a teensy bit of rest–”
“Professor Olruggio, maybe you’re pregnant,” Riche suddenly said, breaking her silence.
The whole room went silent, just enough to hear the rattling windows from the wind. Olruggio’s frozen in place. He did not have the energy to deal with this. His eyes trailed to Qifrey, who’s as white as paper. What now? Olruggio wanted to spit out.
The girls seemed pretty excited with the idea, exchanging their ideas and even suggesting baby names between each other. They guessed the imaginary baby’s gender, how it might look, how amazing it’ll be to see him pregnant, and all that.
“Who’s the father?” Tetia asked, giggling away.
He was about to say that he was definitely not pregnant, but Qifrey thought otherwise. The alpha merely raised his head, looking ever distraught. “Who?” he asked, “Did- Did something happen on your trip? Were you attacked?” he leaned forward, placing his hands on Olruggio’s shoulders. “I swear, if anything happened–”
“Qifrey!” Olruggio shouted with all his strength. He signalled to the girls, who looked a bit scared of their teacher’s reaction. The alpha’s scent had always been calm, but ever since he came in, he smelled like smoke, and it irritated him. Even more so for the girls. “How ‘bout you all go to the kitchen and help prepare a bowl of nice warm oatmeal with honey for me, hm?”
“Ah, sure,” Tetia immediately got the signal, herding the others out of the room. She didn’t forget to close the door behind her, giving him a little ‘sorry’ gesture for starting the whole debate.
Qifrey rubbed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Olly. I was just. Surprised,” he tried to explain. “But be honest with me,” he began again, eyes filled with determination to find out the truth. “Nothing happened on your trip, yeah? You- You’re not–”
“Of course not!” Olruggio cut him. “Nothing happened on that trip. The town I visited is a respectable town with lots of elderly and children. If I were attacked, you would know from my scent, would you not?! Stop being ridiculous, yer not a pup anymore,” he scolded, accent dripping in his words as he angrily pointed at Qifrey.
The white haired alpha looked away in guilt, looking entirely like a kicked puppy. “Alright,” he reluctantly said, biting on his lip. “Still,” his blue eyes locked again with his, “When was your last heat?”
Olruggio scoffed. “Why do you care? I already told you–”
“Just tell me, Olly! I just want to make sure,” Qifrey yelled back.
He really wanted to throw a pillow or something at Qifrey’s face. If he was in a better condition, he’d probably throw a book at his face just for yelling at him. But he was too tired. All he needed was rest and everyone was taking it away from him.
“It should be last month. Not sure,” Olruggio answered curtly, looking absolutely pissed. He could barely remember what he last ate, and now Qifrey’s demanding for his heat schedules? Besides, he always had trouble recalling what happened in his heats. He spent most of them sleeping as far as he knew. When his heats gets worse, he’ll just… deal with it on his own. But sleeping helped.
Qifrey still didn’t look convinced, all caught up in his head as he muttered to himself. “Then we wouldn’t know just yet,” he whispered, which irked Olruggio even more.
“Don’t tell me ya think I’m really pregnant. Qifrey, y’know I’ve got no time to spend my heats with an alpha. I’ve never–”
“I know,” the alpha sighed. “But–” he bit his lip, holding himself back from saying something. He then stood up abruptly, walking over to the door looking even more stressed than ever.
Olruggio decided to pay no mind to it and rest up. The girls came by once more afterwards to deliver his meal, and then he let himself fall back to sleep in Qifrey’s bed.
Nothing worked. The oatmeal still didn’t help, now being ejected out of the system the way it went in, down the toilet void where nothing can be seen. Olruggio sat down pathetically on the floor, out of breath from all the retching and coughing he did before. He had a good 4-5 hours of peaceful sleep, until his body acted up and forced him to get up and vomit again. It was almost dawn now, with only Qifrey watching over him, rubbing circles on his back.
“This… shucks,” Olruggio said, trying to avoid vomiting again.
Qifrey’s eyebrows were furrowed deep, trying to soothe the omega. “Would eating fruits help? They could be filling.”
“N-no, definitely not fruits. Even the scent of something as simple as– urp- an apple,” he wheezed, “Would make me gag.”
Qifrey kneeled next to him in silence, staring at him with a funny look on his face. “Olly, I think,” he placed a hand on his shoulder, “We need to get a sample of your urine to be sent to the Great Hall.”
“What?!” he slapped away the alpha’s hand. “Because you still think I’m pregnant? Qifrey, you know I’m a virgin! There is absolutely no way I’m–”
“We don’t know that yet,” he replied seriously. “Look, I’m just trying to… map out all possibilities.”
“And me possibly having indigestion isn’t one of ‘em?!” he hissed.
“You’d have other symptoms accompanying you if that was the case,” Qifrey refuted.
“Or, or. You could just take me to the doctors at Kalhn,” Olruggio said, trying to avoid peeing in glass. As much as he loves his friend and cherishes him, he could sometimes be a little extreme.
Olruggio thought it was logical to just go to the doctor, but Qifrey seemed to detest the idea. “No, you can barely walk to the bathroom as of now. What makes you think you’re able to travel there?”
“You can carry me,” he shrugged, earning an exasperated look from the other. “You carry the girls with ease. Am not much heavier than three of ‘em combined.”
“I can’t risk it,” Qifrey chewed on his lip. “Just give me a urine sample.”
“No!” Olruggio screamed in whispers, it’s almost daybreak and he does not want to attract the attention of the four girls they’re housing. “What is with your obsession with me being pregnant?! I’m not!”
The alpha seemed surprised with his question, freezing up just for a moment before he looked away suspiciously. It was as if the white haired man knew something that he didn’t, and he hated it. He knew Qifrey had secrets and he was willing to wait until the other was ready to tell his story, but if the secret involved him, Olruggio couldn’t just let it slide. “Just what are ya hiding–” he was about to ask, but Qifrey beat him to it.
“Evidence shows that there’s a possibility that you are,” Qifrey pointed at the toilet bowl, distracting him. “Look, if you’re ashamed of having to pee in a glass beaker, that’s fine by me. But we still need to check. I… know of a method to do so from some midwives I helped when I was travelling alone.”
Olruggio narrowed his eyes at the other, suppressing another wave of nausea. He remembered the time when Qifrey travelled away, the hard time he had given him for disappearing out of nowhere. “And how exactly are ya gonna do it?” he slurred, leaning against the bowl to hold himself back before he vomited on Qifrey.
“Allow me… to demonstrate,” Qifrey said, slowly pushing Olruggio down.
His movements were careful, but definite enough that Olruggio wasn’t able to defy him. In mere seconds, the omega was leaning against his forearms as he laid back, looking up towards Qifrey’s blue piercing eyes.
“Qifrey…?” Olruggio questioned. The white haired alpha moved in between his legs, removing incessant robes that were in the way.
“The method is a bit… intrusive,” the other said, his adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed his nervousness. Qifrey’s hand travelled south, fingertips pressing the area under Olruggio’s belly button, the heat emanating from the other’s skin burning through his sleeping robes.
Olruggio couldn’t help but jump at the contact. He wasn’t used to any of this, his heartbeat skyrocketing quickly that he could hear them in his eardrums. He felt cold just a while ago, but right now the room felt hotter than ever, making his head spin. All of a sudden, he became hyperaware of everything: his position, the way his arms were shaking as it held up his body, the way his legs quivered as it widened to accommodate Qifrey in between them, the rise and fall of his own chest, Qifrey’s eyes that were trained as if he was about to devour him, Qifrey’s touch on his waist, trailing down to the hem of his pants–
“You understand that I’m just trying to help you, yeah?” Qifrey whispered, fingers slowly slipping in to pull his pajama pants away. “I just want you to be well, Olly. It’s for your own good. You’d let me check, would you?”
“How?” Olruggio managed to squeak out. His body felt frozen in place.
His hip bones were now exposed to the air. Qifrey licked his dry lips, exposing Olruggio’s skin bit by bit, tantalizingly slow. “You know. By–”
The sound of Coco shouting broke the frozen spell that Olruggio had, giving him enough adrenaline to push Qifrey away from him. The nausea disappeared. The alpha also reacted strongly to the shout, scrambling away from Olruggio as if he had touched fire and immediately ran out of the room towards the source of the sound. Olruggio was glad something distracted them or something unexpected might’ve happened. Whether it was going to be a good or bad thing depends on what Qifrey was hiding from him.
“I did it! I know why Professor Olruggio’s sick!” Coco’s voice was audible just before Olruggio entered the kitchen. A relieved sigh escaped his lips at this.
“What did you find out?” Qifrey asked gently, kneeling down to match her height. He watched the scene unfold by the door, leaning on one of the cupboards for support.
“You know we do have the eternal soup that you showed me during my first days of joining the atelier, right?” she said excitedly. “It seems that combined with Professor Olruggio’s usual sickness after dealing with commissions, uhh… hang, hang?” she tilted her head, trying to make out the words.
“Hangovers,” he supplied, remembering how he stumbled inside the house in a drunken mess.
Coco brightened at that. “Yes, hangovers. It seemed that he accidentally smudged the seal on the pot, causing the soup to go bad,” she showed the lid, and lo and behold, it was indeed smudged a tiny bit. “I was planning on making breakfast for everyone when I smelled something off. Turns out it was from the eternal soup.”
“Fu–” Olruggio almost cursed in front of Coco, smacking his own mouth shut. He really did poison himself. With his tastebuds a bit mangled from all the alcohol his commissioner had given him, it was no surprise that he didn’t notice the soup was a little off. He has got to be more careful next time.
“Eternal soup,” Qifrey echoed, giggling at the words. “My, thank you for your astounding investigation Coco. It seems that the mystery is solved,” he turned to Olruggio. “I guess I can make some soups that would be easy for Olruggio to digest. You’ll have to drink more water than you usually do to make up for the loss.”
Olruggio scoffed at that. “Sure.”
“You should go and wash up Coco,” Qifrey told his apprentice, removing his external robes for ease of movement. “I’ll deal with breakfast.”
The girl cheerfully grinned at him. “Okay Professor Qifrey!” she replied, scurrying out of the kitchen. The little brushbuddy followed behind on its little legs.
Olruggio huffed, walking down the stairs to stand next to Qifrey, who was taking out appliances and ingredients. He folded his hands in front of his chest, narrowing his eyes on the alpha.
“I told you I wasn’t pregnant.”
The alpha refused to look at him, probably out of guilt. “Better safe than sorry,” he shrugged, grabbing a celery to cut.
“Why are you so adamant in provin’ I was pregnant anyways?” he tried to ask, leaning on the counter. The loud chopping Qifrey was doing to the poor vegetable stopped.
The alpha’s eyes stared at Olruggio’s collar. The intensity almost made the omega shiver if he wasn’t already so sick. “It’s not that I was trying to prove something,” he sighed, continuing to cut slower now.
“Then what?” Bile was creeping up his stomach. He had to admit, he’s a little hurt with how tight-lipped the alpha was. After what happened in the bathroom? Qifrey had no right to stay silent and continue on with his daily tasks as if nothing happened. But there was nothing Olruggio could do to win this. He could scream, shout, or even threaten Qifrey, but the other would never budge. Instead, he could leave him forever–and that’s something that Olruggio wanted to avoid.
He refused to push and pry Qifrey again on lest he runs away and never comes back.
“I can’t tell you,” Qifrey looked away. Again and again, the alpha runs away without explaining himself. Countless times this had happened. Countless times Qifrey hid things from him.
And countless times, Olruggio lets this happen and forgives him every time, because he tries to never doubt Qifrey and trusts that he has a good enough reason behind all this. Again and again, the omega would shrug off the uneasiness from his chest and let the alpha do whatever he wanted–even if it hurts him.
Olruggio had begun to become very skilled at masking his disappointment. “Fine, do whatever you want,” he turned on his heel to exit the kitchen. He’d rather be in his room than stink up the room with his silly sad pheromones. “You never tell me anything anyways. Also,” he pointed down at Qifrey, “Deal with your problem before the girls notice what’s happening under there.”
Qifrey’s face turned bright red at that. Flustered, he adjusted the skirt robes he used over his pants. “...On it.”