drabble (2/10)! based on a prompt that sickie asks caretaker for a massage, but ends up being waaayyy too sore for it lol.
“but i barely touched you?”
sunny/lucky sickfic drabble (sick sunny, caretaker lucky) || 689 words
cw: mentions of pain, discreet mention of intrusive thoughts, fevers, productive coughing
“Okay, love. Where do you want me to start?”
Lucky takes a seat on the bed next to her pillow-cuddling partner, a frown residing on her lips as she watches Sunny shivering without her extra layers. Those had been shunned in favor of skin-to-skin contact, as Sunny had always preferred the direct sensory experience of comforting touch from Lucky’s hands.
“Uhm…” A thick, congested cough rattles in Sunny’s lungs, her already-pale fingers draining to a bone white complexion when she grips the edges of her pillow in pain. “G’hnnn… my back… or— or my shoulders.”
The hovering redhead gives a little nod. “First, please—“ she stretches out to grab Sunny’s cold water bottle off the floor, holding the straw up to her lips— “drink.”
It takes a couple tries for Sunny to get her mouth around the straw and her hands around the metallic surface, but once situated, she takes a couple seconds to slowly sip the frigid liquid, eyes scrunched with discomfort. Swallowing certainly didn’t make her throat feel any less sore… plus her teeth had always been very sensitive to temperatures.
While she takes her sweet time sipping her drink, Lucky rolls her flannel sleeves up to her elbows—for nothing more than the ‘feeling’ of freeing up her hands—and grazes her fingers across Sunny’s shoulders to find the chronically tight muscles.
Damp shirt, she notes, which is good. Means her fever might finally be breaking a bit.
The new observation calms some of Lucky’s nerves and allows her to channel more of her focus into the real world, and not the hypothetical frightening scenarios her brain came up with on occasion. Nice. My therapist would be proud!
“‘M gonna start on your shoulders here, baby girl. Is that okay?”
She waits for a consenting nod from Sunny before gently pressing her thumbs into the tight muscles. The massage doesn’t last much longer than that, however, before the receiver flinches away with a pained—
“Y’oWch—!”
Lucky’s hands immediately fly away. “I’m sorry, baby! Too hard?”
A feeble nod, followed by a violent shudder.
“Okay. I’ll be more gentle, lovely.”
I barely touched her in the first place, Lucky thinks, but she’s still willing to try again. Just to make Sunny feel as comfortable as possible. This time, she uses her entire palm, gently pressing into her sore shoulders and rocking her hand back and forth.
“Better?”
All she receives in reply is another pained “nnnnh…”, followed by another chesty fit of coughs.
Biting back a sigh so as to not sound impatient, Lucky moves her hands away once more. “Alright. It’s okay, baby girl, it’s okay.” She leans over to grab a tissue from the depleting box on the nightstand, gingerly wiping the cough residue off her little sickie’s lips. “How about I try your back instead? I think your shoulders are just too sensitive today.”
Sunny’s eyes flutter shut again, preceding a timid nod and a quiet, hoarse, “‘M sorry…”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, baby. You’re sick and you hurt. You’re okay.” She repeats the latter statement a couple times under her breath, hand trailing down to rest in the middle of Sunny’s back while she does so. The massage proved to be too much, so she settles for rubbing her hand up and down the warm surface, scrunching her fingers up in her shirt every so often like she always specially requested.
This time around, however, she never relaxes or leans into the touch. In fact, with each subsequent brush against her back, her muscles only seem to tense more. It’s when Lucky finally hears the soft whimpers skillfully muffled into the pillow that she takes her hands off the shivering sickie for the last time.
“..I think you might be a little too sore for this.” Punctuated with a little chuckle, Lucky suggests, “How about you just take a nap instead?”
Another small laugh huffs out through her nose when Sunny rolls over onto her lap without a moment’s hesitation, head resting on her stomach and arms curled around her back. “Good plan. Goodnight, baby..~ You’ll feel better when you wake up.”
