#sydlijah

“Sydney…?”

Elijah’s voice was raspy, but comforting through the early morning’s dark.

Sydney was whimpering under his breath. Sweat covered his face like the morning dew, and he twitched in his sleep, as if to move away from the wetness attached so elegantly to his skin.

Elijah shuffled closer, reaching out to move Sydney’s dark curls away from his face, and Sydney was suspiciously warm. Elijah’s touch eased him awake, and he came to meet his light blue eyes with Elijah’s honeyed brown ones.

He stayed for a moment, in his lover’s eyes, before groaning and throwing his arms over his face.

“My love, what’s happened? Another night terror?” Elijah sympathized.

Sydney’s voice was scratchy and forced, “Mmm… mhm,”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, honey. Can I get you anything?” Elijah pet Sydney’s face.

“Mm-mm,” Sydney shook his head weakly.

“My poor love,”

Elijah laid back down beside Sydney, keeping the man firmly in his arms. He ran his fingers over his clavicle, tapping his heartbeats upon it rhythmically.

They had fallen asleep together. However, come morning, Sydney had vanished from their shared space.

Panicked, Elijah pulled himself fully awake, threw the blankets back, and jumped out of their bed.

“Sydney?” He called out, but there was no answer.

It didn’t take very long before he heard the dreaded sound from the bathroom…

RRRETTTCHHH

The sound of his lover’s vomiting.

Elijah tried to make his approach to the bathroom door audible enough as to not scare Sydney too terribly.

He gently knocked on the door with the back of one of his knuckles,

“Sydney? My love?”

“Hhhgh… y-yeah?”

“May I open the door?”

“Gh… yeah, sure,”

Elijah carefully opened the door to the sight of his lover sitting on the floor, hunched over the toilet.

Sydney was pale, much paler than his typical porcelain complexion, and sweat rolled off his temple.

“My poor doll,” Elijah pouted.

He fully entered the bathroom, and opened the medicine cabinet, grabbing a thermometer.

After disinfecting it with a wipe, he got onto his knees at Sydney’s side.

He cupped his hand around the side of Sydney’s warm face as he inserted the tip of the thermometer into Sydney’s ear.

“One hundred three,” The worry in Elijah’s voice was hard for him to mask.

Elijah got up from the floor, standing back at the medicine cabinet.

He rummaged around until he found a half-empty bottle of naproxen.

Under the sink were bottles of water, specifically for situations like these, so Elijah got Sydney a bottle of water and handed him two pills to take.

“I might also…” Sydney weakly began.

“Need your pain meds?” Elijah finished.

Sydney nodded.

“I can grab them, don’t worry. Don’t you want to come lay in bed, though? The bathroom tile doesn’t look too comfortable for you,”

Sydney head butted Elijah’s shin, grabbing onto and tugging at the ends of his sweatpants.

Elijah bent down and put his hands under Sydney’s arms to gently help him up.

Once they were both standing, Sydney hung off of Elijah for support while walking back to their room.

As soon as they reached the room together, Elijah helped Sydney lay down into their bed.

He carefully pulled the blankets over Sydney, and grabbed his stuffed rabbit for him to snuggle with.

He pulled the trash bin over to the side of the bed, and made sure Sydney had access to his medication and fresh water.

“Is there anything else? Anything else in the world? I’ll get it for you,” Elijah whispered, placing a kiss on Sydney’s forehead.

“You?” Sydney looked up at Elijah.

“I’m right here, love,”

“Okay, well… that’s all I need,”