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All in all, it’s a lovely day.
Collei has been feeling remarkably well, and today is no exception as she excitedly takes up her patrol routes. She usually sticks to afternoon patrol, so it’s a strange thing for her and Tighnari to both be up before the sun rises. After her patrol, they get to have lunch together for the first time in a week due to their hectic schedules.
Cyno was able to come today, as well, so really it’s their first family lunch in a little over three weeks. Not that Tighnari keeps count or anything.
He’s looking forward to their afternoon of rest and relaxation, but some foreboding feeling starts creeping around as he’s washing the dishes. He zeroes in on every sound: the flick of TCG cards behind him, the occasional chirp of a bird and other active wildlife sounds that he can usually tune out, the wooden bridges creaking…
The only reason he’s able to hear it at first is because he’s so focused. Usually, Kunimitsu is one of the exceptions to Tighnari’s ears, simply because he likes to fly or float most places and therefore never creates footsteps. However, with the amount of time he’s been spending with their group more often, Tighnari has become a little more accustomed to the sound of him flitting through the air. Like the buzzing of a bee, almost, which is ironic considering his little nickname for Sethos.
“I think Kunimitsu is here?” He informs Cyno and Collei, even though the words themselves sound wildly unsure.
The two slowly look up from their game, then to Tighnari, then to each other once more. The frowns on their faces are nearly identical; if Tighnari didn’t know any better, he’d go as far as to say it was genetic. “Um… why?” Collei pipes up, eloquently.
“I suppose we’re about to find out,” Tighnari says, just as his ear flicks at the sound of a loud thump hitting one of the nearby bridges and the startled shouts of his watchers.
The footsteps quickly make their way to his own hut, and the curtain sweeps open with no preamble. Kunimitsu steps in, looking simultaneously harried and startlingly neutral. He whips his head around, eyes quickly bypassing both Cyno and Collei before they land directly on Tighnari.
“I need your help,” he says, which would be remarkably more terrifying if Tighnari wasn’t slowly getting used to that sentence coming out of Kunimitsu’s mouth.
As it is, he just casually dries his hands off and makes his way over to the table. “Hello to you, too, Kunimitsu. Thanks for dropping by. I’m doing well, how are you?”
“I don’t care,” Kunimitsu grits out, eyes narrowing. “This is important.”
Tighnari would love to mess with him some more, but unfortunately, it does actually seem like something important is taking place. Kunimitsu never comes to Gandharva Ville unless he’s being forced by Nahida or the Traveler. And when either of those two are involved, there’s usually trouble.
“Fine.” Tighnari crosses his arms. “What do you need?”
Out of countless possibilities, he can’t say he’s prepared for the next words out of Kunimitsu’s mouth. “Durin is sick.”
Tighnari blinks. Immediately, thousands of questions are pouring into his brain. Sick? How sick? What are the symptoms? His species can get sick? Aren’t dragons supposed to be miraculously powerful, or something?
The question that first comes out, however, is “Durin is in Sumeru?”
It’s not the right question, and Tighnari knows that, but being faced with Kunimitsu’s expression of pure offense and outrage is threatening enough. “Yes,” he says slowly, “and he’s sick.”
“Right.” Tighnari clears his throat. “You do know I’m not actually a doctor, correct? Why can’t you take him to the Bimarstan?”
Kunimitsu’s face only becomes more incredulous. “You’ve seen him. He’s an alchemically constructed dragon. I’m not taking him to the doctors of the Akademiya.”
Cyno and Tighnari share a look. It’s gotten much better over the years, especially with the ousting of the sages, but both of them have had less-than-pleasant experiences with actual healthcare professionals; it’s one of the reasons Cyno had chosen to leave Collei in Tighnari’s care rather than take her to the city. Hermanubis and the intricacies of the Temple of Silence, plus the rare species of the Valuka Shuna… some just cannot get the message that their attention is not wanted.
Collei gives Tighnari her best helpless puppy-dog eyes, albeit unintentionally, so he nods to her. She immediately gets up and starts preparing a bag of medical supplies.
“Alright.” Tighnari sighs. “Tell me his symptoms. How bad is it?”
Kunimitsu does something strange. He looks away, and there’s a strange wince to his expression that suggests he might be… embarrassed? “I don’t believe it’s anything life-threatening,” he says, shuffling around by the entrance. “At the basics of it all, it’s… well, a cold, really.”
The clink of medical tools pauses from somewhere else in the room, just as Tighnari’s brain skids to a similar stop. “You flew all the way to Gandharva Ville. Because Durin… has a cold.”
“It’s not a normal cold,” Kunimitsu immediately raises his voice, defensive. “It’s— well… It started as one, but I think it’s presenting differently because of his species. He usually runs hot, but his temperature is abnormally high. Not to mention the… well, fire.”
His rundown of the symptoms almost sounds like he’s talking to himself, like a scholar preparing notes (or Albedo, just normally). It’s a decidedly neutral way of communication compared to the stressful way he paces and the furrow of his eyebrows, so Tighnari can come to the not-so-outlandish conclusion that he’s worried. And seeing as he’s never seen Kunimitsu worried before, this generates some concern.
Especially since— “What do you mean, fire?”
Kunimitsu looks at him seriously and says, “I mean fire.”
Great. Well.
Collei skitters over with her bag and Cyno stands up from the table, his own stuff pulled together. It seems Tighnari is getting his own little assistants for this excursion, whether he wants it or not. Kunimitsu seems to know that, too, considering the subtle glare he looks over them both with.
Kunimitsu doesn’t have the ability to fly all three of them to Sumeru City, unsurprisingly, so their trek across land is swift and peppered in with grumbles and snide comments from the man who chooses to walk alongside them simply to tell them to get a move on. All three of them have received worse from worried mothers and the like, so they are unaffected.
They’re led up to the Sanctuary of Surasthana, to which Tighnari idly wonders once more where the hell Kunimitsu lives. The Sanctuary has been dutifully decorated since Nahida’s release, even being separated into different rooms like a true house. Kaveh had helped with the design, which is part of why he and Nahida were able to get so acquainted without Kaveh having a heart attack on the spot.
Tighnari expects there to be some sort of bedroom or similar relaxation spot (do Nahida and Kunimitsu even sleep? Does Durin?) for Durin to rest, so he’s a little caught off guard when they walk into the Sanctuary to be greeted with the sight of his sickly form laid out on a nearby divan.
Surrounding him is Nahida, and surprisingly Alhaitham and Kaveh. Durin has most of his extra layers removed, leaving him in his weird black semi-turtleneck and white pants. For some reason, that pink gem still remains on his chest. Tighnari doesn’t want to ask why.
Kaveh looks all the part of one of aforementioned worried mothers, pacing and biting at his nails and jumping straight up at the sight of them all when they come in. Alhaitham, his mirror in every way, sits relaxedly in the nearest chair, watching Nahida soothe Durin.
Again, the absolute least urgent of questions comes out of Tighnari’s mouth when he registers the presence of his friends. “What are you doing here?” He blurts out, even as he rushes closer to get a better look.
“Babysitting,” Kaveh says at the same time that Alhatham responds with, “Observation.”
No time to ponder that. At a closer look, Durin does look quite ill. He’s sitting up, but only with the support of the arm of the divan. His eyes are bleary, but he does track the movement of those around him, so there’s that at least.
“What are we dealing with here?” Tighnari asks, mostly to Nahida.
“We’ve already written to Albedo to hopefully get his advice,” Nahida starts with, which doesn’t bode well. “After all, I am not… er, well-versed in the field of how alchemically-made dragons get sick. It seems to be, at its core, simply a cold, but…”
Tighnari immediately moves to check his temperature, which sure enough, is as abnormally high as Kunimitsu claims. “You should barely even be able to move. How do you feel?”
“Well, I’m a little weird, so I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks…” Durin’s voice is scratchy, nasally, and all the pinnacle of a sickly child as he sniffles miserably. “I have a Pyro Vision, I’m a dragon, plus the abyssal powers…”
Yeah, Tighnari is not qualified for this. Albedo better get back to them soon.
“In that case, I’m not sure we’ll be able to do a lot…” Tighnari tilts his head, analyzing. “As it is, it seems to be affecting you in the same way a normal human fever would. What’s your usual baseline temperature?”
Durin opens his mouth to answer, but then a look of horror starts to dawn on his face. Tighnari has enough experience with nauseous children to know that that’s his cue to get the hell out of the way.
Instead of vomiting, though, he sneezes. It’s a good thing everyone knew to shift away anyhow, because with the sneeze comes a sudden billowing of flames across the room. A second sneeze comes after, sending a fluttering of smoke out with it as well.
Tighnari looks to Kunimitsu, who makes direct eye contact back. “The fire,” he confirms.
Great.
Generally, there’s nothing Tighnari can really do. Despite the high fever, Durin is acting as any normal child would with a cold. Their first cold, mind you.
They keep ice on his neck and a cold rag on his forehead just to try their best, but it doesn’t make much of a difference. Especially when Durin is consistently sneezing fire.
When he coughs, ash comes out as well, which requires a bucket on standby for Durin to hack out his gross, germy, fiery ashes into. Kaveh looks downright disgusted, but Alhaitham constantly glances over like he wants to study them. Tighnari himself is having trouble trying not to think about it.
Sethos comes by at some point (who knows how he heard word) with ingredients for tea, a temple recipe that is said to help with even the most severe of sicknesses. He does attempt to try to heat the tea by putting it under Durin’s nose, but Tighnari and Kunimitsu both smack him away.
The tea does nothing, unsurprisingly, except somewhat soothe Durin’s throat in between fiery sinus attacks. Despite what seems to be his heated biological nature, every time he sneezes it seems to wreck his throat more and more. Nevermind the ash. Nahida tries her best to assess Durin’s body on the inside with permission, but an alchemical complexity like Durin exceeds most of her expertise. It seems the only one really able to help him at the moment is Albedo.
Kunimitsu seems just about ready to rip his hair out at any given moment. It’s gotten to the point where he’s not even snapping at those who bother him; he’s completely zeroed in on Durin, choosing the higher road of ignorance. Durin is much too sickly to calm him down, so it comes to Nahida and Tighnari to give him pointless reassurances.
It’s nightfall by the time any of them get any relief. Collei and Alhatham have taken the nearby separate divans as their own sanctuary to sleep; Cyno and Sethos are playing card games in order to keep themselves awake; Kaveh has somehow only become more restless and agitated, despite not being related to the situation at all. Tighnari and Nahida continue to be the sole voices of reason: Tighnari switches out cold compresses and keeps ice and bins nearby for whatever ash Durin continues to cough up.
It’s lasted long enough that Durin doesn’t even try to talk anymore. Tighnari’s not sure if he can; his throat has been destroyed by fire despite the cooling tea. Somehow, Kunimitsu has arranged himself to be Durin’s pillow, allowing the dragon to lay his head in his lap while he tries to get any semblance of rest. It’s a decidedly vulnerable and affectionate move from him, so everyone pointedly avoids looking anywhere in his direction.
Just when Durin looks like he’s about to devolve into full-blown tearful sobs (Tighnari is kind of curious if Kunimitsu would even be equipped for that), Albedo enters the Sanctuary with zero preamble.
“Pardon the intrusion,” he tells Nahida, and immediately makes his way to Durin, holding a flask of something emitting Cryo energy. Tighnari, creating distance between where he’s currently caring for Durin, can feel the coldness emanating off of it from here.
Nahida blinks and shakes her head. “No need. Ah, how did you get here so fast?”
“If your people report sightings of a large blue dragon, do not panic,” he says, which assuages no one’s curiosities. Alhaitham raises his head up, probably wondering if it’s worth it to go take a look outside.
He and Kunimitsu exchange no pleasantries, simply working around each other. Kunimitsu raises Durin’s head up enough for Albedo to tip the potion into Durin’s mouth, with him being just aware enough not to choke, thankfully. “Thank Captains Kaeya and Eula once you’re back,” Albedo gently tells him. “I employed their assistance to create this potion with haste.”
Durin exhales a long breath of steam, hissing as the potion seemingly evens out his internal temperature. He coughs a few more times, but no ash comes with it. Just normal and sinus-y. Tighnari never thought he’d be so relieved to hear a child’s disgusting cough.
“Is it a normal cold now?” He asks, voice coming out strained and weary. Durin drinks the rest of the concoction and promptly passes out in Kunimitsu’s lap, but Tighnari isn’t concerned. It’ll be good for him to get any rest—same with Kaveh, who sighs with the most relief possible and curls up on the other side of Alhaitham’s divan.
Albedo nods. “It should be. To be honest, I hadn’t even considered the possibility of sickness in the first place… after all, I don’t get sick.”
Kunimitsu finally acknowledges his presence, whipping his head up. “He’s not even supposed to get sick?”
Albedo hums noncommittally, checking over Durin’s pulse and temperature. “I’m unsure. We have different creators and different properties. I’ll look more into it. For now, though, it doesn’t seem like anything to be concerned about. More than likely, it is a tame manifestation of his Abyssal nature.”
Tighnari tries to keep up, but instead he just shares confused looks with the others in the room.
“Well, now that you’re here…” Cyno says to Albedo, holding up a card, “Would you like to play TCG?”
Tighnari briefly considers bashing his head into the wall, but instead settles on getting some much needed sleep. If Nahida is against all the people staying at her abode, she doesn’t show it, instead gathering extra pillows and blankets for them to use. Sethos piles a portion of them into some kind of quilt monster and immediately falls asleep. Albedo takes his place in TCG.
“It’s kind of sad that Durin isn’t part of our sleepover,” Collei says tiredly, yawning. Tighnari wasn’t even aware she was still awake. “He didn’t really seem to know what was going on.”
“You all will just have to stay for part of tomorrow, too!” Nahida claps her hands together.
“Some of us have jobs,” Alhaitham says, but he’s getting quite comfortable with his blankets over there.
“Your boss is telling you to skip. Listen to her,” Kaveh grumbles.
“Okay, I have to know. Do you guys—” Tighnari gestures to Albedo, Nahida, and Kunimitsu, “—even sleep?”
As if to prove a point, Kunimitsu gently lays Durin down on the divan and lays down on the floor next to him, retrieving only a pillow, and closes his eyes.
“I’m capable of sleep, but do not need to,” Albedo, at least, gives him some information in between trying and failing to defeat Cyno with Sethos’s deck.
Nahida nods politely, taking up refuge with a book next to Durin. Her legs just barely touch where Kunimitsu is laying, but he just curls up his own legs without complaint. Is he used to sleeping on the floor, or what? “Sleep is sort of necessary for me, but not as much as humans. But I also don’t sleep how you do.”
Somehow, this answers none of his questions. Tighnari gives up, grabs a pillow and blanket, and lays beside the divan Collei is sleeping on, where she can easily grab for him if needed. In this, he understands Kunimitsu a little more.