He was hot. His muscles were burning, skin was like gum. He needed air. Alexander opened his mouth and- He couldn't catch a breath. When he tried to inhale, all that came out was a dry cough.
“Shhh…” Bright light stuck sharp in his eyes. Eliza was sitting next to him, with a cold hand on his forehead. Pale on face, she frowned her wrinkly forehead. She pulled up a duvet over him, tucking in corners around his neck. "Rest." The faint smile in her voice was supposed to be encouraging, or soothing, he couldn't be sure.
His head was heavy. Everything was spinning. His stomach was upset. Bile came up to his mouth. He closed eyes and let his head fall down onto the soft pillow.
It barely got dark and something moved him upwards, an arm pulled on his shoulders. “Drink.” John put a jug up to his lips, holding up his head. “Alex, you have to drink. You're sweating too much…”
Water dripped down the corner of his mouth as he tried to swallow it down his sore throat. His muscles trembled as he attempted to keep himself up; his body went limp and he slumped into John's strong embrace.
The thin pallet shook his bones as he fell onto it. They didn't break, they'd never break, but it felt as if.
John wiped his face with something. As gentle as he could be, it still felt like a slap. How could a moist rag feel?
She put the cold towel on his forehead.
Head buried deep in the pillow. His eyes came up with mist before his pupils. Irony all his senses seemed heightened but the useful one.
The dirt that fell on the cot scratched his cheek painfully.
He vehemently twisted in half over the edge.
An arm held him up as he puked violently. Burning in the throat, mouth, nose. John was stroking him in the back. He caught his eyes, over a rusty bucket of his own sickness - grey under, red inside.
Eliza's sight oozed with worry. He didn't want her to worry.
Something dragged him and plunged in a chilled washtub. A bucket of freezing water splashed his shoulders. He flinched at the hit; it burned worse.
John pulled off his own coat and draped it around his shoulders. “Temperature is rising… I'll try to ask for more blankets, but we don't have any left.” He laid him down, careful.
“Stay with me.” John's warm breath tingled his neck. Arm wrapped around his chest, his own heated body pressed to him as tight as the coat. “Please, Alexander, stay.”