#personal care

♥♥♥♥♥

Sylus

            Ironically, the headquarters of Onychinus was the closest place you could get to. Your head was pounding. Your vision? Swimming. All because of a freaking sunburn that was on your back, shoulders, and chest in the exposed places where your dress hadn’t covered. You had been at a party. Undercover of course. Part of you had hoped to see Sylus there, but a quick text message later told you that he wasn’t going; he had a meeting at a different place in the N109 Zone that had taken place at the same time. While he wasn’t against making a fashionably late appearance, he felt more like taking a nap afterwards, and was thus going to return back to his home. The party was hosted by a low-level rival anyway. Wasn’t even worth his attention. He had advised you to go home.

            You should’ve heeded his word.

            You’d gotten trapped by a gaggle of women who all wanted to gossip and pick targets for the evening, despite how much you politely tried to remove yourself from the conversation. You found yourself standing in the overbearing sun. The party was out on a garden rooftop which the low-level boss had had built in the most recent months. Its purpose? To flaunt his money.

You realized after doing your homework that he was such a low-time guy that crashing the party hadn’t even been on your mind…. That was until you’d gotten wind that some Protocore smugglers were going to be in attendance. One of those invited, a guy named Frasier, was one you’d been keeping an eye on for Aether core smuggling for months. As afternoon wore on, it became clear that he didn’t currently have what you were interested in and you were trapped in boring conversations with your back fully exposed to the sun. By the time night was falling, your skin was itchy, red, and tingling and a growing headache prompted you to politely leave the party.

            As you raced through the streets, the pain grew more intense. Your leather riding jacket brushed your sunburn, and you wanted to scream. That was how you found yourself pounding furiously on Sylus’s front door.

            Luke or Kerian, you couldn’t tell which because of your slightly swollen and dry eyes, opened the door for you and you pushed past them, going into the living room and ripping your jacket off of your back. You unceremoniously dumped it on the arm of one of the chairs in there. The twins both approached you.

            Alone again, he brushed some of your hair back off of your face. “Sweetie,” he said in that beautifully rich baritone voice, “I need you to sit up and turn around. Can you do that for me?”

            “Yikes,” Luke hissed.

            “How’d you get that,” Kerian followed up. You didn’t answer. Answering required you to not hurt. You curled yourself onto the couch so that your face was buried in the smooth leather and your back was facing the room. Your skin felt weird. Moving made it feel tight. Like shrink wrap had been used on you. After a few moments of silence, a hand touched your forehead, and you blearily opened your eyes to look up at Sylus. His expression didn’t betray what he was thinking. His ruby-rich eyes scanned you for a moment and there was a softness that you had seen growing in them with every new interaction the two of you had. He turned away and ordered the twins to go get some medicine for you. They left with a quick, “Yes boss!”

            “I just want to sleep,” you moaned. You swatted his wrist weakly away. “Let me sleep.”

            “I’ve got a better place for you to rest,” he promised. “Come on. Sit up.” Begrudgingly, you did so that you were on the couch, facing him. Sylus, without hesitation, scooped you up so that he was carrying you like a toddler being carried by their parent. You instinctively wrapped your legs and arms around him. Your head fit nicely onto his shoulder. His hands secured you to him under your thighs, which thankfully didn’t feel like they were injured. Even though he was warm, the feeling wasn’t uncomfortable. There was no energy left in you to protest, but he carefully took you out of the living room and further into the building, back to his own bedroom. The room was a far too intimate sight.  

            Sylus knelt so that you were on the edge of his bed. He released you. Your hands skimmed the bedding, realizing that his sheets were pure satin. They were clean. And they were cool.

            “I’m going to take this dress off of you,” he purred.

            Again, with no energy to argue, you watched as he carefully pulled the string at your neck that held the top up, letting it fall away so that your chest was free. Normally, this would have been enough prompting for him to take things further, but you saw his eyes darken in a different way- hesitation. Care. Emotions you weren’t used to seeing from him all the time. This was a moment of rare vulnerability that made your own heart squeeze a bit. He pulled the dress out from underneath you by lifting you a bit and letting it fall to the floor. All of your exposed skin was angrily red. Your back was the worst of it though. Sylus finished undressing you but gave you some sleep pants to at least put on.

            “Lay on your stomach,” he directed once you were done shimming the pants on. “Your back got the worst of it.” Sleepily, you obey. You crawl back onto the sheets which feel amazing against your burns. You cling to one of the pillows and bury your face into it. The welcome darkness behind your eyes makes your head spin for a moment. Time feels like it is at a standstill.

            Suddenly, something cool and wet gently touches your back and you yelp, nearly jumping off the bed in surprise. Sylus chuckled.

            “Easy sweetie. I’m cooling your skin. Luke and Kerian will be back in a bit with some medicine we can apply. Until then, we’ll keep you cool in other ways.” He directed you to lay back down. Slowly, carefully, he wiped down your burn. The feeling of the water made a sigh of relief escape your lips and your whole body slowly unwound. When he was done with that, Sylus applied some general lotion. The last thing he did for you was pull your hair out of the intricate display you’d forced it into hours ago, choosing instead to make it into a simply messy bun at the top of your head. “Sleep,” he whispered. He placed a kiss on the top of your head just above your right ear. “I’ll wake you when the twins are back.” You murmured lowly. Within seconds, you were out.

            “Sweetie,” a familiar voice called. In the haze of your dream, you weren’t certain if it was coming from inside your mind, or outside, but when you were called again, you realized the voice sounded familiar. Slowly, you woke. The pain once more hit you like a truck.

            “Sylus,” you whined. You didn’t dare to move. Your back hurt. Everything hurt. The bed dipped as he sat next to you. “It hurts.”

            “A burn this bad? You don’t say,” he hummed. You wanted to turn and swat at him, but doing so would have been worse. Suddenly, a cold sensation hit your back. You didn’t jump too badly this time, but you definitely jerked a bit in surprised. Sylus didn’t wait for permission. He rubbed the medicine in gentle circles, covering every inch of your red exposed skin. When he finished the back, he made you sit up to get the slightly less, but still needing treatment, burns on your chest and shoulders. “There. Your treatment’s all done kitten.” He reached up, brushing back some of your hair before planting a gentle kiss on your forehead. You hummed. Leaning closer, you gently took his free hand in yours. The two of you stilled for a moment. Sylus breathed deep and then moved back with a smile. “Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you up for dinner and medicine later.” He pulled the thin satin sheet over your legs as you readjusted.

            “Sylus,” you mumbled. You couldn’t see him, but you could feel him stop next to the bed. Burying your face back into the pillow, you mumbled out, “Thank you.”

            “Anything for my sweet kitten,” he said so lowly you weren’t sure it was said. Maybe it was part of the dream that you entered as your consciousness faded away back into a peaceful sleep.

♥♥♥♥♥

Please do not repost to other websites. Reblogs welcomed!

Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you enjoyed it!