Ghosee

Michael getting sick is somehow a lot less chaotic than the other way around. 

First of all, it’s important to consider that while he doesn’t catch regular diseases as often as the average person, he does still get ill several times a year. It’s just that usually it is related to him getting injured during a spree and he is awful when it comes to taking care of those injuries. 

Luckily for you, most of the time, he sees you patching him up as a way to bond, regardless of how much him getting home injured stresses you out. The issue is that even with all your effort to disinfect everything and let it all heal in peace his lifestyle gets in the way. He just isn’t the best at taking care of wounds, which combined with a tendency to ignore and push through any pain, makes him the perfect candidate for getting infected and letting it get so severe he gets sick from it. 

His lack of communication skills really get in the way in this case as he is quite hard to read. You need to be able to figure out how he’s feeling all on your own and when it comes to treating an infection the time is certainly ticking before it gets to the point it is barely treatable at home. 

At the very least he is pretty much inhuman, so he isn’t going to die from it, which isn’t as comforting as expected when he finally succumbs to disease and can barely stand up on his own. Time to try to somehow get your hands on antibiotics. 

That being said, less severe illnesses are a lot less stressful and can be funny to some degree. He gets a lot clingier when sick, one of the early ways for you to realize he isn’t feeling well when combined with him being slower and groggier than usual. 

Michael doesn’t deal very well with common or seasonal diseases. It’s not the type of pain that his body is used to. Besides even considering how he walked off deadly injuries when hunting, without all the adrenaline the discomfort is a lot more noticeable. 

It’s not even the pain that bothers him the most, he can deal with pain, but a clogged nose, temperature swings and general exhaustion catching up with him isn’t familiar at all, considering how isolated he was growing up. Between him being kept away from the other patients for the most part, first due to his age and later at Loomis’ insistence, and any flu outbursts being contained quite quickly in the hospital his immune system would have been downright shitty if not for the supernatural aspect. Both things end up canceling each other out, which leaves his ability to deal with illnesses only slightly above average. 

He gets so sweet when sick though. He’ll follow you around constantly, with a lot less distance in between the two of you than usual and may even try to prevent you leaving the house when you have work or errands. (Surprisingly chasing him down after he took your coat was a lot easier than you expected, a good sign that it’s probably best to get him to bed.)

Michael is about as uncooperative as expected at the start. He’ll refuse to lie down and try to get away at the first chance he gets, fight you on taking off his mask despite it not only getting in the way of his labored breathing, but also becoming a hub for the spread of germs after every single cough and refusing to eat anything when he doesn’t feel hungry due to the sickness. 

His stubbornness fades quickly though, with the discomfort progressing and after an hour or two he will actually go along with whatever you suggest to make him feel better. 

Except for medicine, that is one thing he isn’t willing to compromise on after what he went through in the sanitarium. He doesn’t trust it plain and simple. You can convince him to give antibiotics a try if it is one of his wounds that got infected. It will require a lot of explanation and his utmost trust in you, but he will finally agree after seeing how terrified on his behalf you are. 

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

You are likely to wake up to him staring at you, either from his spot on the bed beside you, or standing above if he is not comfortable sleeping next to you just yet. He does not like to sleep for long and watching you is one of his favorite activities, which he is likely to continue for the rest of the morning as you go around getting ready for the day. Wherever he will do anything besides staring depends on how close you are and if he is okay with messing with his mask around you. If he is fine with at least lifting it up he will likely go along with everything you do but otherwise prefers to wait until you leave, as a lot of morning activities like eating breakfast or brushing teeth just can’t be done with it on. 

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Michael is certainly a night owl, so this is the time during which he is most active. That’s why it is actually the easiest to get him to do things late in the evening. You could probably coax him into helping around the house or going on a walk with you, maybe even watching a movie together, though he prefers to watch tv during the day because it is such a low energy activity. 

But it is not all good, because this is also the reason evenings are a hard time for him. Usually he can entertain himself, even by just staring ahead, but at night he actually has the motivation to do things. The issue is that thanks to spending most of his life locked up, he does not have any hobbies or activities he can focus on outside of murder. 

Because of this he would get uncharacteristically clingy at night and focus on you instead. He would adore it if you helped him to find something to entertain himself and even more if you wanted to do something together. He would also be open to trying your hobbies with you, whatever they may be, because he doesn’t have any of his own. 

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

As mentioned before, he doesn’t really talk, so you would have to figure things out about him on your own. Otherwise he wouldn’t really try to hide anything, outside of just keeping his distance at the beginning. He can be very closed off but it isn’t on purpose, it’s more so just who he is as a person. 

He is not exactly easy to read but if you pay attention you can for sure start noticing the small changes in his behavior like how he stays close when he wants affection, locks himself away in the smallest room he can find whenever he is tired or hurt and constantly sneaks up on you when he is bored. 

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

Michael barely ever gets angry, regardless of how violent he is, almost all his actions are premeditated and not a result of him losing his temper. The closest to anger he really feels is frustration and that is also pretty rare. Usually it is the result of him being limited in some way. He very much appreciates any freedom he can get because the lack of it always reminds him of being locked up. He ends up getting very restless every time he has to force himself to do something that is not what he wants at that exact moment: seeing him pace around can be quite entertaining, he is rarely so expressive. 

Whenever he does get frustrated it is almost never at you, unless you were trying to actually order him around, which is a bad idea in general. Usually it is because the search for him has gotten stricter, often right after another attack, and he struggles with safely leaving the house. He does not like having to avoid the cops but he isn’t naive either. He has quickly realized that he can’t take them all down and getting caught means being locked up again. That would mean even less freedom. He might have risked it if it didn’t also result in you two being separated. Deep down he can’t imagine how much worse being back at the sanitarium would be after knowing he has someone waiting for him outside. 

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Knowing everything about you is probably one of his favorite activities. He loves watching you and seeing your reactions to everything, even more he loves actually being able to predict them after a while. You are pretty much his priority and biggest interest. 

Still, you could actually not even know, because despite the large amount of time that he spends on gathering information about you, he does not actually do much with it. To him, knowing everything about you is the end goal, not what he could do with that knowledge.  

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

It’s likely to be the moment you actually caught his attention. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the first time you met, more the first time you showed him something about yourself that intrigued him, that was unpredictable to him. Michael never even considered voluntarily staying around other people, let alone anything close to a relationship. There had to be something really special about you to change his mind. Everything else is built around that and extremely new to him. And that moment, when he realized everything would change, because he experienced feelings he never had before, is really important in his mind. 

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?) 

Very much so, he hates the idea of you potentially getting hurt and is willing to do almost everything to prevent it. The main thing for him is keeping you far away from any killings he does, especially the people trying to catch him for it. He knows how dangerous they can be and is also very aware of the fact that you are more fragile than he can even imagine. I mean he got shot six times and walked it off, so regardless of how strong you are it cannot compare. 

Michael would like you to stay home on Halloween, but if you wanted to spend the night outside the city he wouldn’t be opposed to it. It wouldn’t be really suspicious as a lot of people make sure to stay away when they know he’ll likely be out killing. Besides this is the night he would be watched the most closely and he cannot risk anyone following him home, back to you. If you were gone and someone did see him getting inside it would at least give you the benefit of the doubt, because it is not like Micheal is against breaking into others homes. 

On the other hand, he would miss you for sure, especially on the night he comes home, beaten and bruised, perhaps even wounded. He does like being taken care of a lot, especially when you worry about him. The absence stings and if you insisted on staying around for this reason he would feel touched by it. 

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?) 

He doesn’t really understand the thought behind most of those things. He dislikes leaving the house with you because everytime is a risk of someone seeing you two, which puts you in danger. So dates are out of the question unless it is at home or very sneaky. Still it is enough for him to just be around you, so if you want to do something more you’ll have to be the one to organize it. 

Anniversaries are confusing too. He understands seeing certain days of the year as special, but you’ll have to be the one to explain to him why this one is. If you do, he is likely to at the very least get you something and perhaps even agree to do things for you that he usually wouldn’t. Celebrate in some way. Even then, you will still have to be the one to come up with the ideas. 

Gifts are a bit easier though, he is likely to get you things that remind him of you at random. It will be very uncoordinated and unplanned though. Whenever he sees something he thinks you will like he’ll just grab it and leave for you to find. The objects are just as unexpected, one time he brought you an entire armchair because it had a similar pattern to one of your sweaters.

Unrelated but I want all of you to see the drawing I made last week :)

how it started:

michael is possessive and protective. this is what made him follow you around without you even knowing at first.

then he noticed how fast you really are when you have headphones on for music, your pace is a challenge for him.

michael stalked you as he would a victim - but he never felt the urge to harm you in any way, at least with his knife that is. instead, he preyed on your anxious glances when you felt his presence but couldn’t see him.

this carried on for months. you had no idea he was following you until he made himself known.

michael had scared you. you were by some trees so he hid himself until you stopped running to check your phone. he stood behind you, breathing down your neck. he loved how you reacted, eyes so full of fear when you saw him. 

but what he loved more was how you calmed down and grabbed his arm for comfort, you trust him so much it’s heartwarming.

after you found out he was the one stalking you, it created some kind of twisted game of tag. you even played the part of a real victim just to satisfy him.

Michael breathes heavily through his mask - the sight of you running away triggers his dark instincts. You glance behind to see him walking at his usual pace. And since the area was clear, you ran faster into the woods, a hidden trail being the place to play this game now.

Deep down you know he won’t hurt you. But the chase is enough to frighten you to the point of hiding and trying to stay quiet - running away when you hear his heavy footsteps get closer. 

Michael is always so calm about it. He won’t rush it at all. Part of the reason is because he feels as if this is a way to bond and be affectionate. You’re playing a game with him, something kids do - something he lacked in his childhood. And in his mind, this is the best way to test the relationship. Do you truly trust him? Does he trust himself not to lose control? It’s risky - just the way he likes it.

Tonight is different and the ultimate test.

For the first time, you fell and hurt yourself bad enough to let him get closer, too close - Michael seemed to be in a daze, so deep in his sadistic emotions. You could only watch with teary eyes and racing heart - the way he twirled his bloody knife while staring down at your helpless body struck a nerve in you. 

Did he hunt someone while chasing you? It would explain the stained knife that was once clean when he started hunting you down.

You’re starting to feel scared - the chance of him not knowing it’s you is high, he is trapped in some kind of trance. But to your surprise and relief, Michael only stood above you with his head tilted to the side - he is confused. Why did you give up so easily? You ruined the fun for him. 

Michael had leaned down to grab your arm, pulling you up a bit too rough. He caressed the spot he grabbed before pointing further into the woods with is knife, telling you to keep running. He needs this practice and wants to keep playing with you.

bonus:

michael won’t hunt you during the night. he wants you in the house where it’s safe and although he can protect you outside - he won’t take any chances.

if you freak out too much he will soften up and reassure you in his own ways that you’re not in any real danger.

if you learn to love it and even ask him to do it, prepare for clingy michael afterwards.