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"Alyosha! Are you there!" Aether calls out, hoping to find his friend. Sadly the only reply he's met with is the howl of cold wind moving throughout the cavern. Earlier that day, Aether and Alyosha were supposed to head to Podvorye Restaurant to meet up with Odette and Vodyanitsa. However, an old lady came to them asking for their help in retrieving an item that was stoleln from her. While searching the area, a huge snowstorm came out of nowhere. Aether ended up rushing into a cavern in order to escape the storm. And, now here he was feeling cold, and searching for his friend. Aether sighs hoping that Alyosha is okay, but smiles to himself. Alyosha is probably fine. I mean he's a hunter and has probably been in worse situations. Aether continues moving forward in search of an exit, but ends up in some sort of ice maze.
"Seriously..." he mutters to himself, feeling annoyed. "Ugh...which way do I go?". After some trial and error, Aether finally makes it out of the ice maze and the cavern and feels triumphant. The moment he steps out of the cavern he realizes that the snowstorm stopped and there's even a bit of sun. Aether smiles and stretches. His joy however, is short lived, when he slips on a patch of ice and crashes into a snowbank causing him to be buried under a bunch of snow.
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Meanwhile, Alyosha found a shelter to hide in and wait out the storm. He pulls out a piece of sausage and gives it to Tugarin who wastes no time in gobling it up. Alyosha chuckles and shakes his head as he scratches behind Tugarin's ears.
"I hope this storm eases up soon so we can find Aether", Alyosha says softly. "I know Aether, has traveled to lots of places and experienced things worse than snowtorms but, I can't help but feel a little worried".
Tugarin barks a few times as if saying, "Aether's strong, he'll be okay". Alyosha smiles softly and feeds Tugarin one more sausage before checking to see if the storm has stopped. When he realizes that it has, he whistles for Tugarin to come and help him find Aether. It takes about ten minutes before Tugarin stops his search. He stands near a pile of snow and barks for Alyosha to come over, then starts digging. Alyosha rushes over and starts digging too. Once Aether is free from the snow, Alyosha pulls him out. Aether stands up and sways a little.
He laughs and says, "Sorry, I think I slipped on some ice. The next thing I knew, I was buried under all this snow".
Alyosha notices that Aether looks a little flushed. "Are you arlight? We can find a place to rest for a whi-"
"I'm fine, I'm fine"
Alyosha does not believe that Aether is fine, but doesn't press any further. Alyosha and Aether start making there way back to his (Alyosha's) cabin, but along the way, he keeps noticing that Aether keeps falling further, and further behind. Even Tugarin seems worried. The poor dog keeps stopping and looking back at Aether, then looking towards Alyosha as if to say, "Is Aether sick?".
As they get closer to Alyosha's cabin, Alyosha can see that Aether is literally struggling to keep walking. He stops, turns around and walks toward Aether. Aether on the other hand, does not even realize that Alyosha is walking towards him. He's too busy dealing with some internal struggles. Those struggles namely being, feeling extremely hot - despite being in Snezhnaya, which is litterally the nation of snow and ice-, feeling like his limbs are made of jellow, and....needing to pee badly. Did he catch a cold or something? If he did, it was probably from getting buried alive under snow.
Aether is suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by the sensation of someone picking him up. He looks up at Alyosha who is now carrying him bridal style. Aether opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out.
"Why didn't you say anything?", Alyosha asks softly, as he climbs the steps and heads toward his cabin. He can feel how stiff Aether is in his arms and doesn't know if it's because Aether doesn't like that Alyosha is carrying him, or if it is something else.
Aether is about to answer and ask Alyosha to put him down when, he feels a scratchy feeling in his throat, causing him to cough. The poor blonde feels his control over his bladder slipping as a few spurts of pee escape, dampening his briefs.
"Al....Alyosha. Can...can you please put me down. I need to pee and...and I don't think I can..." Aether is interrupted by a few more coughs escaping his lips, causing his briefs to get even wetter.
Alyosha realizes what is going on and starts walking faster. He manages to open the door to his cabin without needing to put Aether down, and rushes to the bathroom. He sets Aether dow in front of the toilet.
"Do you need any help?", Alyosha asks but is only met with whimpers as Aether struggles with his pants. Alyosha moves Aether's hands out of the way so that he can help him get his pants down. Aether starts doing a pee pee dance and crosses his legs tightly. "Alyosha..", he whines.
"I know, I know, almost done", Alyosha manages to get the belt undone and starts helping Aether pull his pants down when Aether sneezes and the damm breaks. Pee starts flooding Aether's dark brown briefs and ending up all over his pants and the floor. In order to do some damage control, Alyosha maneuvers Aether so that he's sitting on the toilet with his briefs still on.
Alyosha can't help but smile at the soft sighs and moans that Aether lets out, which makes him wonder how long the blonde hero had needed to pee. After a while, Aether finally finishes peeing. His face is red from both the fever that he probably has, and from embarrassment. Alyosha wipes a few tears from Aether's eyes.
"Feel better?" He asks. Aether nods in response and buries his face in Alyosha's chest. "Good. I'll get a nice bath started and some clean clothes ready for you. Then when your bath is finished, you can take some medicine, and have a nap."
Aether nods again and lets Alyosha help him out of his soiled clothes and tank top thingy. Alyosha drops the soiled clothes in a corner next to the washbasin. He starts a warm bath for Aether, and makes sure to add some bath toys in there, especially the one that looks like a jack frost. After checking the temprature, grabing a bar of soap and a washcloth, Alyosha helps Aether into the bath and starts cleaning him up. For a moment, it seems like Aether might have fallen asleep while Alyosha was cleaning him, but the former lets a relaxed sigh as Alyosha starts washing his hair and massaging his scalp.
A small smug smile forms on Alyosha lips and he says, "Oh, you like that huh?". Aether relaxes even more when Alyosha scratches certain parts of his scalp and Alyosha even swears he heard Aether purr. After he finishes washing Aether's hair, Alyosha decides to let Aether play with some of the bathtoys for a bit while he cleans up the pee on the floor as well as Aether's soiled clothes. It takes him around 30 minutes, and when he's done washing Aether's clothes, he hangs them up so they can dry, then grabs a towel and helps Aether out of the bath. Once Aether, is dried and dressed in his Aranara pajamas, Alyosha helps Aether into bed and gives him some medicine.
"Yuck", Aether says after taking some of the medicine. His face wrinkles in disgust at the aftertaste.
"Yeah, I know the medicine tastes awful, but, it'll help you feel better" Alyosha says a he helps Aether drink some juice in order to get rid of that disgusting medicine-y aftertaste. Once Aether finishes the juice, Alyosha washes the cup out, fills it with water and places it on the bedside table. He then lies down next to Aether and places a hand on the blonder traveler's forehead.
"Hmmm....you still feel warm, and I heard you coughing from the bathroom while I was washing your clothes, but I think you'll be fine so long as you get lots of rest and take some of the medicine." Alyosha's hand moves from Aether's forehead, to his hair again, and starts combing a hand through it. Aether's eyes flutter closed as he relaxes and leans into the touch.
"You kind of remind me of Tugarin sometimes", Aether's eyes snap open and he stares at Alyosha. He huffs and closes his eyes, deciding to take that as a compliment. Alyosha chuckles softly, "I'm just kidding".
After a few minutes, Alyosha notices that Aether's breathing is starting to even out, so he continues combing a hand through the blonde hair until Aether finally falls asleep.
Alyosha kisses Aether's forehead and says, "Sleep well traveler".