Work Text:
Daphne sobbed as she looked at the paper where the result of her covid-19 test were written. Tears were streaming from her olive eyes, her hands trembling as she stared at the positive result and she didn't know how to tell her husband who was currenty asleep in the bedroom.
They were staying at her husband’s, Apollo, family ancestral house in Italy directly after their marriage which was held two weeks ago and the pandemic disease called covid-19 broke out in Italy. Daphne had just married the man of her dreams and she didn't want to die just because she went out to buy some foods at the market the other week.
She heard footsteps coming from the bedroom towards the bathroom then the door of the latter opened revealing a still grogy Apollo with a dopey smile on his face but immediately frown when he saw his wife's tear-stained face.
"Love why are you crying?" He asked gently and his eyes turned to the paper on his wife's hands.
He made a move to get near her but Daphne stumbled to get away from him, her eyes widening as she tried to maintain a two-meter distance between them.
"Don't come n-near me darling, p-please.." she whimpered and reached out to give the paper to Apollo.
Apollo took the papers and his hazel eyes widened at what he read then stared solemnly at his wife but his lips were sporting a gentle smile. In a blink of an eye, Apollo was embracing his trembling wife who tried to get away from him.
"Apollo please let go or you'll catch the virus from me!" Daphne shouted squirming from Apollo's embrace.
"Shhh my love, if you have the virus then it is fair for me to have it too after all we vowed at the altar that we're going to be together through sickness and in health. I love you Daphne and we're going to be together even in death,” she broke down at his husband's declaration.
Apollo scooped her up and carried her back to the bedroom and they laid together on the bed while nestled on each other's arms. The two newly wed couple stayed at their room, never moving even an inch.
The word got out that one of the stricken was in the ancestral house but they refused to seek some help so the people were forced to board the doors and windows of the said house in hopes that the plague won't spread anymore yet almost half of Italy were stricken with the pestilence.
After ten days of being exposed to the virus called covid-19, Apollo was sporting some syntoms of being positive which was undoubtly possible. His head was ontop of Daphne's chest listening to her steady heartbeat.
"Don't leave me,” she whispered and her hand came up to caress Apollo's head.
"Never"
Daphne seemed peaceful after hearing her husband's response and snuggled deeply in Apollo's body. They stayed like that for a long time. Apollo was counting each beat of Daphne's heart, when the beat stuttered his arms tightened around his wife and eyes were brimming with tears.
He closed his eyes and inhaled the stench of death around the room as he awaits his end. Soon, very soon he'll follow her to the other world where Daphne must've been waiting at its entrance and surely wearing her signature smile that's reserved for him.
The time seemed to stop and a bright light enveloped the room and when he opened his eyes an angelic fgure clad in white was standing at the foot of his bed with hand outstreched for him. Apollo reached for the hand and suddenly he felt himself suspended in the air like he's flying then he turned to the angelic figure's olive eyes which were shining in happiness, and lips were stretched into a loving smile.
"We're going to be together forever now my love,” the fgure said and the voice was like music to his ears.
"I love you Daphne,” he said.
"And I love you too"
The two figures vanished from the room leaving the two empty vessels on the bed, still embracing each other. It was like an old picture of the first couple who lived there and died together in the very same room. It's been almost 800 years since that tragic love story and now history repeated itself to their last descendants.