[ warm cloth ] sender presses a cool cloth to receiver’s neck or wrist. ( desi to Sakura? )
For days now, all she had known was a hazy fevered rush and Desiderius at her side the whole time. Occasionally Aurelia, Lani and Zoé would visit her to see how she was and give her updates on things but she was strictly forbidden from going anywhere but her bed, sofa and the shower when she could manage it. They had grown used to his presence the best anyone can to someone that visited a fine balance between infrequent and frequent. She had joked with all of them that he was consistently inconsistent. What had surprised her though, was that after collapsing cleaning up after another successful open mic night, he had stayed.
She could not say for sure when her fever finally broke, but she awoke to a cool cloth gently wiping sweat off her face and neck. The window of her bedroom open and diffusing the soft salty scent of the ocean at night through her bedroom. Opening her eyes to look at him, the vision that greets her is something more like something she would imagine from lifetimes ago. His red-brown curls are loose around his face, his suit jacket abandoned and white shirt buttoned a few buttons and rolled up his forearms.
He looks like he is straight out a book that should be impossible to see in real life, his features holding shape in away that she has always felt seemed out of time and place. With moonlight on him, and the facade of being just a normal traveling businessman removed she can suddenly see, quite clearly he doesn't just look like a mystery, he is one.
As the understanding settles, she says nothing of it. Only lets the moment settle with a small nod. She could ask any number of questions, but they all seem very small to the fact for all his mysteries he had stayed, for her. That maybe, is all that really matters anyway. Closing her eyes and just letting him care for her, she swallows down emotion not made numb from illness.
"Thank you. No one has taken care of me in a very long time."
The words leave her reedy and barely above a whisper, her throat sore. She could ask why he had stayed, but the truth is she knows and he knows why. The simple, impossible fact that they cared about one another.
"You've done this before."
She says after a few seconds, finding the green of his eyes. Recalling, even through hazy memories how quick he had been to take charge of the situation.
