#starfolk7

He was running out of time.

The first symptoms had started with a fever, at least Laurence had believed it was a fever. But once his body temperature rose high enough to actually spontaneous melt the candle he wanted to light, he knew something was wrong. And this also had been the point where he managed to see that his teeth started to get more pointy and fang like.

Laurence, of all people, had managed to catch the beastly scourge.

He had to admit, his symptoms differed a bit of the usual ones. He wasn't too sure if he maybe caught a new unknown sickness yet, but the rest of the symptoms made sense. His body started to change, a strangely big blood lust (granted, Laurence liked to indulge in blood ministrations all the time, so that wasn't that unusual) and a far more short temper than usual.

So now Laurence was sitting in a corner of the library of the Grand Cathedral of the Healing Church, going over all the books he could think of in search of the cure.

We haven't found a cure in all this years. Why should I find one now?

The thought was deep into the back of his mind, a thought he didn't want to think about, but would come back to him once and once again. What other choice did he have? When he turned, all would be over. All the stuff he build himself up. Nobody could know that he managed to get the beastly scourge. He hadn't even told Ludwig and the both where as close as Laurence let another one be. If anyone would know, the reputation of the Healing Church would be over. Especially after what they had done to Old Yharnam...

Thinking about the day the city was burned down into flames to dam the spreading of the beastly scourge, Laurence noticed that the book he was reading at the moment started to smoke. Cursing, he quickly withdrew his hands and put them into a bucket with cold water he had brought with himself, steam coming from the water. He literally couldn't go anywhere without water anymore, the risk that he would ignite something was too high.

Sighing, Laurence grabbed a towel to dry his hands and grabbed for the next book. He started to get more and more desperate. They didn't even know where exactly the beastly scourge came from and using the old blood didn't work. Nonetheless, Laurence still tried. The old blood had been able to heal anything, why wasn't it able to heal the stigma that had befallen Yharnam?

Scanning page after page, Laurence felt his vision swam. It already was after midnight. He must have sat in the library for a few hours now. And he couldn't let his daily duties as the vicar of Healing Church slide either. Staring at the pile of books he still intended to go through, Laurence sighed. He was in for an all-nighter. He slowly pulled the next book to scan through its pages.

The next morning Laurence had met up with Ludwig for breakfast. Because of his status, they couldn't share a room (although Laurence sometimes would slip in the same bed as Ludwig) and so the Hunter didn't had a clue that Laurence had pulled an all-nighter, probably have been out doing his duties the whole day anyway. For Ludwig it was normal that Laurence often was too caught up in his work to be available, so he wouldn't say anything and simply enjoyed the time they could spend with each other.

However, at the moment, Laurence had drifted off and heard the voice of his boyfriend like it came through a fog: “..ence? Laurence? Are you feeling alright?”

Laurence opened his eyes, noticing two things. First, that he apparently had fallen asleep at their breakfast table, his auburn curls sprawled out on the table and second, that the soft boiled egg he wanted to eat for breakfast was hard boiled now.

Laurence shook his head, locking his blue eyes on Ludwig's worried gaze. “I didn't had much sleep.”, he answered truthfully. Ludwig's brown eyes continued to shine with worry.

“Laurence, are you having a fever again? Maybe think about taking one day off, please?”, he said. Laurence could practically feel the guilt burn in his stomach. Or maybe his sickness was digesting the food he had eaten into lava, because that was how he felt whenever the “fever attacks” flared up. Of course he had lied to Ludwig about having the beastly scourge, hiding every symptom he could, but the “fever” was too apparent. He couldn't hide it from Ludwig.

“It will be over soon.”, Laurence said as he fanned himself some air.

“Promise me to take it easy when it doesn't get better.”, Ludwig said with a sigh. “You always push yourself far too hard. Everyone needs a break now or then.” His eyes looked on Laurence. “And be assured, I am going to force you to take this break soon when you keep pushing yourself like this.”

Even while burning up inside, Laurence couldn't help but shiver at the words of the Holy Blade. He even swore he could see the turquoise glow of the sword when Ludwig spoke this words. He gave Ludwig a faint nod and stared at the rest of his breakfast. Laurence didn't felt much of an appetite anymore. In fact, he started to feel terribly nauseous. Oh no, he needed to puke.

He hastily stood up and muttered an apology to Ludwig that he needed to get ready for work now, rushing out of the room with one hand clasped over his mouth. Luckily, his office wasn't far away. The first thing he saw was the obligatory bucket with water and Laurence wasted no time to spit out the sparse breakfast he had managed to eat into it.

Damn, what floated into that water, really was lava.

He wasn't only feeling like burning from the inside, he was literally burning from the inside.

Laurence started to wonder in which kind of beast he would turn.

He quickly shook his head. There were no need to think about this. He just had to discover the cure and he would never find out. However, Laurence still had to go on his daily duties and he was expected at the morning prayer. And he certainly couldn't show up there with the danger of throwing up lava, he still felt pretty nauseous. So Laurence hooked himself up to his personal blood ministration equipment and felt how the old blood flowed into his veins.

Although the old blood hadn't been able to heal the beastly scourge, Laurence still found that it helped to suppress the symptoms at last, making him able to go around a few hours without feeling like burning or intense nausea. While Laurence waited for the old blood to completely join his own blood stream, he heard a knock on the door.

“Laurence, you barely have eaten anything. I am just worried about you. Are you sure you are fine?”, Ludwig's concerned voice sounded through the door.

Laurence, who had leaned his upper body on the table, righted himself up, replying: “I am fine, Ludwig. You know I always turn out fine, regardless what happened. Would you please leave me alone, I need to prepare for work.”

“... You are hanging on the old blood again, right?”, Ludwig sounded through the door, dismissive tone. Ludwig always had found that Laurence overused the old blood and wouldn't even shy away from pulling the needle out of Laurence' arm, creating quite a few bloody messes and bruises at Laurence expense. Needless, Laurence heard the heavy boots of the holy blade trotting away. Laurence sighed and relaxed, laying his upper body and head back on the table. He needed to make it up to Ludwig somehow. Laurence felt bad enough for lying to his boyfriend about his sickness, he didn't deserve the treatment he put him through lately.

After the blood bag was completely emptied into Laurence' blood stream, he unhooked himself from the equipment, pressed a handkerchief on the puncture until he was sure it wasn't bleeding anymore and changed in his white church robes to attend to the morning prayer.

Laurence took a last glance in the mirror to see if he looked representable enough. By the great ones, he looked like crap. Eyes sunken, dark eye circles, pale complexion, the curls which framed his face where damps with sweat and when he opened his mouth that fangs felt so apparent. However, it was going out like this or shut himself in his room and raising even more suspicion. With another sigh, Laurence turned around to leave his office.

To his surprise, Laurence managed the morning prayer mostly fine and nobody even commented on his crappy look. Perks of being the vicar probably, nobody would ask questions (unless the person was Ludwig of course). But just as the prayer ended with the obligatory “Bless us with blood”, Laurence noticed that one of his infamous nosebleeds had started.

Which wouldn't be too bad, although a bit embarrassing, it had happened before, the problem was, that the blood was hot and he could already hear the floor sizzle where the blood had dripped down. Swallowing a curse, Laurence quickly turned around and left the scene, hoping that nobody would notice his absence, pressing his left hand in front of his nose, retreating into the hallway and rushing into an unoccupied room, intending to waiting for the nosebleed to stop.

When the nosebleed finally stopped after a few minutes, Laurence needed two things.

First, to wash his hands, second, he needed to change into clothes that hadn't burn holes all over where the blood had dripped down. Surprisingly, the hand that got covered in that burning blood, didn't feel burned at all.

“It is as if fire is becoming a part of me.”, Laurence muttered to himself, scanning the hallway if it was safe for him to walk it and rushing into his office once he could see nobody passing by.

After Laurence had managed to make himself presentable again, eyeing the blood ministration equipment again, but decided against it, not so soon at last, he could go on his daily duties. He didn't feel like it. He wanted to continue the research for a cure, but sadly, he was the representation of the Healing Church was expected to be around. At least Laurence would be able to continue a bit of his research when he would meet up with the heads of different groups in his office. There was a bit of wait time between each appointment. He went to the library to fetch a few books and then went off to his daily duties.

While Laurence managed to keep up his composure just fine when interacting with others, the sleepless night got to him and he caught himself more and more falling asleep for a few seconds or even minutes before waking up and frantically curse how much time he had wasted. It became especially bad when he had to wait during the appointments, falling asleep over the books more than actually reading him.

Using a bit of the water he had near him all the time to splash himself, trying to get the sleepy feeling out, Laurence told himself he was fine. He could do it. He didn't need any sleep. He could sleep when he was cured.

After Laurence was finally done with his duties, he snatched the books, his notes and another bucket and practically rushed to the research hall, he didn't even think about meeting up with Ludwig for dinner this time. Laurence was just too caught up in the work. Maybe he would reach a breakthrough today. When he was able to heal the beastly scourge, this would not only mean that he himself would be cured, but it would even further cement the Healing Church's position in Yharnam.

However, the lack of sleep finally overtook Laurence and he messed up one of the experiments, which slightly blew up and left him coughing his lungs out, knees on the ground, wheezing between coughs. The smoke he saw rising, was that from the failed experiment or did he literally cough up smoke? He couldn't say with his watery eyes. And before Laurence was able to pull himself up, continuing his research, his body gave up on him and he passed out.

When he woke up, Laurence found himself in his room, feeling that familiar burning feeling. Oh no, hopefully the bucket with water was near, before he could ignite his sheets, but Laurence noticed that he wasn't covered with a blanket. Instead, his forehead, wrists and ankles were covered in cold compresses. Laurence relaxed, that would suffice to keep him from burning things.

But wait, who actually had applied these things? Carefully turning his head, Laurence saw Ludwig sitting next to his bed, adjusting the compress on his forehead. “Ah no, Laurence, don't move yet, you were awfully hot when I found you.”

“... How did you know where to search?”, Laurence asked.

“It was obvious.”, Ludwig stated. “Where else would you be other than at the library or the research hall? I am just glad that I found you in time. I don't know how you were able to suffer something like a heat stroke in the middle of the night, but it happened.”

Laurence winced. Was Ludwig really believing his own words? Laurence had done his best to hide his sickness from him, but now it was too late. Ludwig had found him like this, burning up. He couldn't believe that it was a simple heat stroke, especially with all the fevers Laurence did had beforehand.

“It's a symptom of your sickness, right?”, Ludwig said, eyes locked on Laurence.

“... You know?”, Laurence asked. Ludwig hadn't mentioned that it was the beastly scourge, he just called it a sickness. Maybe he really didn't know. Maybe he thought it was a different sickness. After all, Laurence symptoms differed from the usual ones.

“Of course, Laurence, or did you think I didn't notice your fevers, how often you excused yourself with flimsy reasons and that you wouldn't let me into your office anymore, practically begging for me to go away? Why would you do that if not having something to hide?”, Ludwig stared at Laurence with a scolding look in his eyes. “And then you overwork yourself despite being sick. The librarian has said to me that you spent the whole night in the library, practically having left it when she returned in the morning to reopen it.”

“It could also mean that I just have been there early.”, Laurence said with a sheepish grin. As the Vicar, he had a master key for the whole cathedral and could go and leave whenever he pleased.

“And then falling asleep at breakfast? And having this dark circles under your eyes? No, Laurence, you can't smooth talk your way out of this. You overdid it and I told you, I am forcing you to rest when this happens.”

Laurence shot up when he heard this, groaning, that had been a mistake, it made his head swirl. He felt how Ludwig gently caught him and forced him back to lie down, reapplying the compresses that had fallen off in the process.

“I don't have a choice, I am running out of time.”, Laurence murmured. “I have to find it before... before...” before he turned into a beast. Laurence couldn't end the sentence.

Ludwig stroked over Laurence' scalp, following one of his curls to the very end.

“You can admit that you are afraid. I, too, have never seen a sickness like this before. But I am sure, you will find a cure. And don't forget, you aren't in this alone. You have the whole church under your command and please don't forget that I will forever be at your side. But you have to allow me to be your guiding moonlight.”

Laurence lips parted into a grin. It was very Ludwig to say a corny thing like this.

“Alright.”, he said. “You got me. I will rest for a while.”

“See, that is the spirit.”, Ludwig said, continuing to stroke Laurence' head. “Now how about you try and sleep for a bit? At least until your body cooled down.”

“As long as you don't leave my side.”, Laurence murmured, eyes already closing. While he was definitely running out of time soon, Ludwig was also right that he would go nowhere when he overworked himself like this.

And, who knows, maybe the breakthrough was just around the corner. For now, he needed to rest. Laurence drifted to sleep under the gentle touch of his boyfriend.