Chapter Text
Ariadne woke with a tired stretch and hauled herself out of bed, leaving a sleeping Sylus behind as she went to shower.
The man was oddly still asleep by the time she got back, drying her hair off with a towel. She smiled as she leaned over his side of the bed and poked his cheek.
“Sy? Are you gonna get up today?”
His face twitched and he inhaled deeply before reaching out to snatch her around the waist, pulling her back into bed.
“Sylus! I have to get up,” Ari protested.
“Not yet,” he murmured, drawing her firmly back under the covers.
Ariadne squirmed half-heartedly. “I really need to get to work.”
Sylus sighed and kissed her forehead, finally releasing her. “Alright, sweetie, I suppose I’ll let you go. Your work is important after all.”
She shook her head fondly at his sarcastic tone and went to finish dressing, watching out of the corner of her eye as Sylus sat up against the headboard.
His eyes squinted slightly and he pressed a hand to his stomach.
Ariadne was instantly on alert, striding back toward the bed. “Are you injured?”
He scoffed. “I’m fine, sweetie, no need to—”
She pinned him against the headboard, giving him a look. “You came back late last night after that deal. I didn’t get to properly check if you were all in one piece.”
Sylus huffed but lay back with a dismissive gesture. “Do what you want, kitten.”
She tugged his shirt up, inspecting his abs and chest, but there was nothing but smooth skin. She poked his hip and Sylus huffed.
“Satisfied?”
“Does your stomach hurt?”
He pressed his lips together. “It’s a bit upset this morning,” he finally admitted. “But it’s nothing to worry about. I’m sure it’s because you continuously insist on making me eat bad food.”
Ari scoffed indignantly. “Don’t blame your picky pallet on me! Are you sure you aren’t getting sick? You feel a little warm.” She pressed her hand against his forehead, seeing that it felt slightly warmer than normal.
Sylus took her wrist and nuzzled her palm. “I’m fine, sweetie. Didn’t you need to go to work?”
She sighed, knowing she would have to leave soon to get to the association on time. “Yeah. Just…take care of yourself today, okay, Sylus?”
He chuckled and pulled her in for a kiss. “I’ll miss my little nurse. Come back safe, kitten.”
She gathered her gear and waved to him before leaving.
As soon as Ariadne had shut the bedroom door behind her, Sylus slumped back against the pillows, letting out a long breath.
Truth be told, he didn’t feel great. His stomach was actually hurting a lot more than he wanted to admit. It had started a couple days ago and only seemed to get worse from there, no matter what he did to try and soothe it. He hadn’t even gotten into any fights recently so he had no idea what the cause was. Maybe Ari was right and he had caught something.
He sighed and forced himself up, rubbing his side. Well, if nothing else, he would get his doting Hunter to tend to him if he was sick so it wouldn’t be that bad. Unfortunately, he had an important deal tomorrow night and he really hoped this cleared up before then.
He almost never took pain pills unless he had a migraine, but he did that day just so he could forget about the pain as he went about his business.
His first stop was at Odd Workshop to see Philip about a new Protocore modification he was doing on a gun for Sylus. Luke and Kieran tagged along to check out some of the new equipment Philip was making for them as well, and their added chaos caused a nagging headache behind Sylus’s eyes that made him want to tell them to shut up and sit in the car.
“I reworked the modulator like we talked about,” Philip was telling Sylus, handing him the rifle. “It should have double the fire power now. You want to try it?”
Sylus took it to the shooting range and pressed it against his shoulder. The nagging headache and overall ill feeling roiling inside of him made aiming more difficult than it should have been. He blinked, clearing his throat, before he fired, watching the gun blow the target into oblivion.
The jolt through his body made his stomach ache even more than it had been and he gritted his teeth. Damn, this pain…what the hell was wrong with him?
“Woah! Boss, that’s awesome!”
“Yeah, can you make us some too, old man!”
“But with modified barrels—”
“With flame detailing!”
Phillip huffed in fond annoyance.
Sylus handed the gun back to him. “It’s good. Make a dozen more.”
“Will do,” Phillip said as the twins crowed in excitement.
Sylus pressed a hand to his head, biting back a sigh. Phillip seemed to do a double-take when he saw Sylus and frowned.
“Mr. Sylus, are you… feeling all right? You look a little pale.”
Sylus shook himself, instantly frowning at the man, eyes narrowed. “I’m fine.”
Philip gave him a look, but Sylus knew he wouldn’t pry.
“When will you have them done?”
“Next week.”
“Good. I’ll send the twins to pick them up then.”
Sylus snapped his fingers at the boys who were still cavorting around the shop, messing with Philip’s half-finished inventions.
“Enough—let’s go.”
They followed him out to the car and as Sylus got into the driver’s seat, the pain flared in his stomach again and he exhaled a little sharply, gripping the steering wheel
Luke leaned over the seat. “Where to next, Boss?”
“Do you have any other tasks for us today?” Kieran asked.
Sylus pressed his lips together and started the car. “I want recon done on that gang we’ve been keeping an eye on. I’m meeting with the leader tomorrow to work out some sort of deal, but I want as much info as possible.” The recon was pretty much pointless at this point, but Sylus found that he wanted to get the twins out of his hair that day.
“Will do, Boss!”
“Can you drop us off?”
Sylus grunted in agreement and started the car, pulling out onto the road.
The nausea roiling in his stomach made driving…unpleasant. He had never had motion sickness in his life, but this…
He blinked and slammed on the brakes, just barely realizing there was a car stopped in front of him.
Luke and Kieran yelped from the back, instantly on alert.
“What is it, Boss?”
Sylus gritted his teeth, swallowing down the nausea as he eased his foot off the brake and started driving again when the car in front continued to move.
The twins leaned forward, and he could feel their eyes boring holes into him.
“Boss are you feeling okay? You look a little pale?”
“Yeah, are you sick?”
Sylus grunted and turned down a side road a little too quickly. “I’m fine. You two focus on your job.” He pulled over to the side of the road to let them out.
The twins shot each other a look, but did as he asked.
Sylus drove back to the base and thankfully the nausea faded a little after he got out of the car.
Not entirely, though. He could still feel the roiling upset in his guts, the nagging pain focused on his right side. He began to wonder if maybe he had been the victim of an attempted poisoning.
Or maybe it was just a stomach flu. He rarely got sick, but that didn’t mean he was completely immune.
Mephisto flew to greet him with a head-piercing caw. Sylus winced.
“Hush, you’re too loud.”
The crow cooed a little as he landed on Sylus’s shoulder, accompanying him to the office. Sylus headed to the sideboard and turned his kettle on. The thought of coffee made his stomach flip, so he pulled out the tin of ginger tea he usually kept for Ari when she had cramps.
He slumped at his desk with the fragrant mug steaming softly next to his hand. He rubbed his side again.
“Dammit,” he huffed and reached into his desk drawer, pulling out a bottle of pain pills. Second dose for the day. Unheard of.
Mephisto watched with a judging eye, ruffling his feathers.
“What?” Sylus snapped, swallowing a couple pills before turning back to his computer. “If you have nothing better to do, go out and help the twins with recon.”
The crow cawed with something that sounded close to a warning and flew off.
Sylus rested against his elbows, trying to focus on what he needed to do, but while he had quelled his nausea, his head was starting to pound even more and he felt both hot and slightly chilled. Did he have a fever now too?
He sighed, rubbing his head with his hands and finally locked in, working through the discomfort.
Luke and Kieran came back late that afternoon with Mephisto, bringing him what info they had collected. Sylus thanked them and then told them to take the rest of the night off. He hoped that would keep them occupied.
He went to shower, letting the hot water ease his protesting body a little. By the time he was done, he felt exhausted. More than he should have been considering how little he had done that day. He glanced a bit scornfully at the bed. This was the time he was usually waking up, but maybe it would be best to try to sleep off whatever this was.
His bodily needs won out for once, and he crashed on the bed, already feeling the relief of the cool silk sheets against his skin. He was out almost instantly, dragged down into a deep sleep.
Sylus didn’t wake until a nagging pain and general discomfort drew him out of sleep. He frowned, rolling onto his back as his body protested, slightly sticky with sweat. He groaned, bringing his arm up to settle the crook of his elbow over his eyes, the dull headache from yesterday back yet again.
The sound of his phone ringing brought him back. He fumbled for it on the sheets, and blinked to clear his vision, already seeing a missed goodnight text from Ariadne the night before. Her profile picture showed up on the missed call and he quickly tapped it to call her back.
“Hey,” she greeted. “I wasn’t sure if you would be up yet.”
“Mm, barely,” Sylus murmured, his voice rougher than he would have liked. He checked the time and saw it was already mid-afternoon—the next day. How long had he been asleep?
Ari seemed to pick up on his discomfort just from his voice. “Sylus, you’re actually sick, aren’t you?”
He sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Maybe.”
“Please take care of yourself,” Ari told him. “I can’t make it over there today, I’m gonna be stuck finishing reports tonight after I get back to the office, but please take care of yourself. I’ll come over first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Alright, sweetie, sounds good.”
“Just please rest and take it easy,” Ariadne told him before she ended the call.
Sylus lay there for a long minute knowing he needed to get up. But there was a sickly pit in his stomach that made him feel like any small movement would reawaken the nausea with a vengeance.
Still, he had to get up. He had to prepare before the meeting that night—and it was certainly one hell of a night for that.
He rolled over and pushed himself up, feeling his aching body protest as if he had gotten hit by a truck.
He made his way to the bathroom and splashed cool water over his face, all the while, feeling the nausea creep up his throat, making the muscles in his jaw clench, saliva gathering under his tongue and…
He couldn’t keep it at bay anymore. The nausea dug its claws in with a vengeance and he hurriedly crouched by the toilet, vomiting.
Sylus shakily wiped his mouth. “Shit.”
He flushed the toilet and bent over the sink, rinsing his mouth. The action of throwing up had made his lower belly ache and he cautiously pressed a hand to his side, brows furrowing. He couldn’t deny that it was bad. It wasn’t like he was a stranger to pain. It kind of came with the business. Prolonged pain, however, was not entirely common and he found that it was incredibly draining.
He reached for some pain pills in the medicine cabinet and swallowed them dry before forcing himself to dress.
The collared shirt and suitcoat felt constricting against his heated skin. He decided against the tie and fumbled with the watch around his wrist for a second.
There was a knock on the door and he bit back a curse, calling out. “Come.”
Kieran came in, giving him a nod. “Boss, there’re a couple calls for you.”
“I’ll handle it in a minute.”
“And we were wondering when we would be leaving for the meeting?”
Sylus checked his watch. “Two hours.”
Kieran nodded and headed out.
Sylus took a deep breath and made his way to his office, dealing with the phone calls he had missed while he had been asleep. His brain and body both seemed sluggish that day but he was also the master of faking calm.
He would get through the night, he was sure of it. After that, well, he would figure that out later.
When it was finally time to leave for the deal, he made his way out to the car Luke and Kieran had waiting for him and got in the back. They drove him to Elysium and Sylus pulled himself from the back of the vehicle.
It was more of an effort than he wanted to admit. His stomach clenched and a sudden sharp pain shot through him, forcing him to grab the roof of the car to steady himself.
“Boss?”
The twins were watching him with sharp eyes and he instantly straightened.
“You’re still not feeling well?” Kieran asked cautiously.
“I’m fine,” Sylus grunted, pushing himself away from the car and making his way inside. “Keep an eye out for any trouble.”
He headed toward one of the private back rooms as soon as he got inside. He poured a drink from the sideboard automatically, but didn’t drink it, his stomach turning at the thought.
He found himself subconsciously slumping against the table, sitting upright making everything hurt worse for some reason. He glanced impatiently at his watch, wondering how quickly he could get this done.
Finally, the twins showed the other men in and Sylus straightened, nodding for them to sit.
“Mr. Sylus,” the man said cautiously.
“Gentlemen,” Sylus replied. “Let’s begin, I have better things to do tonight.”
He listened to their offers, the pain only seeming to grow worse, and the nausea was creeping back with a vengeance again. A cold sweat prickled the back of Sylus’s neck and across his ribs. He tried to pretend nonchalance, propping an elbow on the table and pressing his knuckles to his lips. To anyone else he would look bored. They wouldn’t suspect he was trying to fight the urge to vomit.
It took him a moment to realize the men had stopped speaking and were waiting for him to reply with wary looks.
Sylus blinked and cleared his throat, pushing himself upright, fist clenching as his stomach protested.
“You assume I’ll accept the deal,” he said.
The men seemed surprised, glancing at each other warily.
“Under the condition that Onychinus gets 40% of what you make on imports.”
One of the men exhaled slowly. “We thought that was a fair price, sir.”
Sylus gave a dry chuckle. “Did you? Well, in that case, Onychinus will take 60.”
The gang’s boss scoffed, hand tightening around his glass. “Why should Onychinus make majority of the profits when we’re doing all the work?”
“I can ban you from every port and trade route we run if you would rather,” Sylus said, feeling the tell-tale crawl of saliva up the back of his throat as he fought a valiant battle against it. This had to end now.
“Mr. Sylus—!”
Sylus stood up, ignoring the pain in his side. The men shrank back in horror, likely waiting for him to simply crush them and be done with it. But instead, he silently went to the door, yanking it open with a shaking hand.
“Boss?”
He pushed past Luke and Kieran heading to the end of the hall and practically bursting into the bathroom.
He nearly collapsed against the sink, yanking the facet on as he gathered cold water in his hands and splashed it over his face. The shock forced some of the nausea back. He swallowed hard, grabbing some paper towels to wipe the water from his skin. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and grimaced. He looked completely wan and ghost-like. Pained lined drawing his features tight. He shut his eyes and took several deep breaths until his stomach settled again, then slicked his hair back and stepped out of the bathroom.
He returned to the meeting room and the men jumped, panic obvious in their features.
“I’m done for the night,” Sylus told them in no unfamiliar terms. “Come back next week and try again.”
They sat there in shock and Sylus moved toward the table slowly. “Don’t make me say it twice.”
The men nodded and scrambled from their seats, hurrying out of the room.
Sylus breathed a sigh of relief, and slumped instantly into the chair, rubbing a hand over his face. He needed to get out of here, he told himself. He just had to make it back to the base. But his body didn’t seem to want to move.
The twins appeared soon, glancing at him.
“Over already, Boss?” Luke asked cautiously.
Sylus grunted, and pushed his chair back, setting a hand on the desk as he shakily started to push himself up.
The dull pain in his side exploded and he let out a harsh breath, doubling over and gripping the back of the chair as he breathed through his nose, fighting back the threatening nausea yet again.
“Boss?!”
The twins were at his side almost instantly, reaching for him.
He waved them away, and sank back into the chair. “Give me a minute,” he gritted out.
The two seemed genuinely at a loss. Kieran clenched his fists at his sides.
“We’re calling the Boss Lady.”
Sylus didn’t protest, he didn’t really have the energy at the moment. He braced one arm against the table, the other curled around his stomach as he fought the urge to vomit.
It was time to stop denying that something was very wrong.
~~~~~~~`
Ariadne yawned as she finished up all the reports she’d had sitting on her computer for the last couple weeks. She stood up and stretched, grabbing her stuff to get ready to head home for the night, already planning on what she would pick up to bring to Sylus tomorrow morning.
She delivered the reports to Captain Jenna’s desk and bid goodnight to her coworkers before heading out to her bike,
Before she could even climb onto it, her phone rang. Ari pulled it from her pocket and glanced at the caller ID, expecting it to be Sylus.
She was surprised to see it was Kieran calling instead.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Um…it’s the Boss Man. He’s…”
Ari frowned, worry instantly nagging at her. “What happened?”
Luke spoke into the phone next. “Something’s wrong. He left the meeting earlier looking really sick and now he just sat down and won’t move.”
Worry instantly took up residence in her stomach as she got on her bike, shopping forgotten. “Where are you? I’ll come to you.”
After they had relayed the fact they were at Elysium, Ari sped toward the N109 Zone and stopped outside the club. The owner gave her a nod as she entered and gestured to the back.
Ari hurried through the club toward the private rooms and found Luke and Kieran milling worriedly outside one of the doors.
“Where is he?”
They pointed inside.
“Never seen him like this,” Luke said.
“Never.” Kieran reiterated.
The worry continued to churn as Ariadne pushed open the door and stepped inside.
“Sylus?”
He was sitting slumped over the table, one arm braced against it as the other curled around his abdomen, head hanging between his shoulders.
He straightened slightly as she came in, jaw tight and expression wan.
Ari instantly hurried to his side, placing a hand on his forehead, feeling how clammy he was.
“You look awful, what’s wrong?” she asked softly, pushing his hair back from his face, watching the beads of cold sweat form as his brows knit together.
“Don’t know,” Sylus grunted. “I feel like…”
He paled impossibly further and Ari instantly saw the signs. She rushed to grab a small waste basket from the corner and got back to him just in time for him to vomit.
She wrapped an arm around his shoulders to brace him as he clutched the trash can, groaning in a way she had never heard from him.
“You’re hurt,” she realized, snatching a napkin from under a forgotten drink and using it to wipe his mouth as Sylus slumped over in the chair, bracing himself against the table. “Did you get injured?”
“Sick,” he said.
“This isn’t normal sick,” she shot back. “You’re in pain, Sylus. I can tell. I’ve never seen you like this before. Even the twins are worried.”
He groaned, lowering his head into one hand as he curled the other around his stomach.
“It’s my damn stomach,” Sylus finally admitted. “Feels like…something’s wrong. Like someone poisoned me.”
“You have a fever, I don’t think you’re poisoned.” Ari frowned as she knelt in front of him, rubbing his arm comfortingly. “Where does it hurt?”
Sylus’s hand slid to his right side. “Here, mostly.”
She coaxed his hand away to lift his shirt, but didn’t see any injuries. Her fingers grazed the area and his breath hitched as he pulled away instinctively.
“It’s really tender?”
“Yeah.”
Something she remembered one of the other hunters talking about flashed through her mind. It had been some silly discussion with the hunters showing off their scars. One of the analysts had boasted that he had one too, only to reveal a scar he’d gotten from a surgery. The others had made fun of him, but he’d insisted that appendicitis had hurt like a son of a bitch.
“Sylus,” she said suddenly, straightening up. “Have you…had your appendix out?”
He frowned and shook his head. “No, sweetie, I…” he trailed off, then swore, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Of course.”
Feeling slightly relieved that they had found the most likely culprit for his condition, Ariadne reached out to cup his face in her hand. “Well, I guess that means hospital then.”
He pulled away. “No. I’ll call a private physician. Or take it out myself. I’ll heal right after—”
“Absolutely not!” Ariadne snapped, putting her foot down.
“Kitten, I’m not going to the hospital.”
“This isn’t some minor injury, Sylus!” she continued. “Part of your body is infected and needs to be removed. Your Evol might be able to heal stabbings and gunshot wounds but not infections. And I’m not going to let you cut yourself open like that! What if you pass out and can’t heal yourself?”
His jaw ticked, looking like he was going to protest, when another wave of pain seemed to rake through him and he curled into himself with a shuddering exhale. Ari’s heart wrenched.
“Sylus, please,” she begged. “Please let me take you to the hospital. I promise no one will talk. They’re good people there. My friend Dr. Zayne will make sure no one asks questions.”
Sylus scoffed. “You really want to make me go to a hospital. With…normal people.”
“Yes,” she replied firmly, reaching down to take his hand. “Please. For me.”
He exhaled slowly and squeezed her hand. “Fine. Do what you want. I can’t fight you right now anyway.”
She felt no satisfaction in his surrender. Simply offered a shoulder to lean on as he forced himself to his feet.
He didn’t make a sound, but his sharp inhale and the weight against her shoulder told her how much he was hurting. Luke and Kieran looked up in shock as she led him out of the room.
“Bring the car around,” she told them and they were already off almost before she had finished speaking.
Sylus tried to straighten up, but Ari rubbed his side soothingly. “We’re going out the back. No one has to see you like this.”
He slumped, breathing a sigh of fond relief before he allowed her to lead him to the deserted back alley where Luke and Kieran had parked the car.
She helped him into the back and urged him to put his head in her lap.
“Here, lay down,” she said softly, stroking his hair once he was settled.
“Where to?” Kieran asked, pointedly addressing her.
“Asko hospital.”
“But that’s in—”
“Just go.”
The Twins shot a look at Sylus’s figure in the back but he made no protest, so Kieran stepped on the gas and headed out of the N109 Zone.
Sylus groaned a little, paling, and Ari tried to soothe him, hoping he wouldn’t get too nauseous on the drive.
“Take the turns a little easier, Kieran,” she said.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Sylus gripped her knee, fingers digging in. Ari rubbed his shoulder, offering what little support she could.
“If you have to throw up, let me know,” she told him quietly.
He grunted but pressed his face further into her lap as the car made another, slightly less violent, turn.
Ari anxiously watched the miles crawl on their way through Linkon. The central city traffic was bad this time of evening, and Kieran swore, tapping his fingers anxiously against the steering wheel.
“Calm down, I’m not dying,” Sylus grunted, obviously sensing his fretting.
“Boss—”
“He’s right,” Ariadne spoke up, despite the fact that she also wanted to hurry. If she could stay calm then the Twins would follow. “There’s no point in getting pulled over for speeding, that’s not gonna help him.”
“Right.”
The twins shared a look and Luke started to do deep breathing. The act seemed to calm his brother and they crawled through Linkon’s rush hour as Sylus tried to relax. Ari continued to wipe clammy sweat from his brow with her sleeve, wishing she could do more.
A rather sudden stop had Sylus tensing, and she grabbed his hand, biting back a gasp as he squeezed it tighter than he normally would.
“Sorry,” he murmured.
“It’s okay. You’ll be okay,” she assured him.
She would make sure of it.