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“Ugh...”
Two days.
It's been two days since the biggest revelation and the best decision of their entire lives—and afterlife, in Cassian's case.
Maybe.
What exactly would happen now that they had a Grim Reaper—ex-Grim Reaper, they reminded themselves—watching over their soul to keep them from dying any time soon? Were they truly mortal?
That's a topic for a different time, they, once again, reminded themselves.
Two days since the cutest, most adorable, loveliest man ever decided to leave everything else behind and go AWOL, just for him. His Sunshine. Just like he said he would.
Two days since Cassian and Casper really started their relationship.
...
And he gets sick.
Sick sick.
Cassian is in bed, shivering under the blankets like a leaf in a damn hurricane, fever of 103° Fahrenheit, and a migraine that definitely was not helping his nausea.
Head is foggy, nasal passages are all kinds of fucked up, which meant mouth breathing—yay, dry mouth!
Overall, he felt like hell.
Casper would not agree with that phrase, of course, but that's beside the point.
Neither of them knows what even caused them to become so sick so quickly, but Cassian had been feeling a bit sluggish and off yesterday too. Until of course it escalated to this point.
And Casper—bless him, really—is trying his hardest to keep things clean, take care of Cassian's snake Twizzler, AND take care of CASSIAN all at the same time.
Which wasn't exactly the easiest task in the world for someone who spent essentially his entire immortal life thus far in the Underworld, which meant he likely has pretty limited knowledge on what to do for a sick human.
Initially, he was afraid that it had to do with the fact that Cassian has been giving his soul away to those he thought needed it, but he quickly found that wasn't the case, thankfully.
Still, Cassian said he'd nurse Casper back to health anyway, not the other way around!
Casper was pacing around beside the bed where Cassian lay, head ducked and gaze trained on the floor while a hand rested on his chin, the other across his chest, mumbling to himself.
“What sorts of foods should he eat? Would pancakes be easy enough on them? No, too much sugar, I would think. Ramen? Soup?”
Cooking something like soup couldn't be too hard, humans have done that for centuries—no, technically ever since humanity as a whole began existing. And many of them just made soup out of leftover food they had around that needed to be eaten somehow. Surely it wasn't that hard!
But Casper didn't really know how to cook either, mind you.
However he's sure he'd heard something about chicken soup, at the very least, being a decent meal for a mortal to eat while ill.
So, without further deliberation, that's what he decided to make.
...That's what he decided he would attempt to make.
He was (semi) confident he wouldn't burn down the apartment at the very least.
He could follow recipes simple enough, he figured, so perhaps that was a good place to start.
___________________
Recipes are a good place to start...
For people who know how to properly follow them.
Casper is not one of those people, apparently.
The first part seems easy enough. Get the vegetables from the fridge, wash them (obviously, who knows what is actually on them), and cut them.
At least, it was easy.
Until it came to the cutting part.
How the fuck do you even chop a carrot?
Why is every other piece of onion a different size or shape than the rest?
Why is celery so goddamn hard to cut straight down the middle?
Thank the Gods the garlic is already minced-
He would have absolutely showered Cassian in all the love he had for already having leftover precooked chicken in the fridge, if they weren't sick unfortunately, because he did NOT want to end up giving them salmonella on top of whatever they had currently. Nor did he want to make cutting the chicken more complicated than everything else evidently was.
Long story short, many curses later, he's needed to wash his hands and the knife a few times because his knife skills were... not great.
But he managed! Little victories, as he's sure his Sunshine would say.
Now he had to... sweat them?
Since when do vegetables sweat? They don't have the anatomical structures to sweat, do they? No, they don't. That's a stupid question, he thought.
“Just follow the instructions,” he mumbled to himself, while putting a bandaid on his finger.
He opted to use measuring spoons and cups for the next few steps, deciding it would probably be a better idea than winging it when he has no clue what he's doing.
Once everything was in the pot, he just left it for a short while. He went to check on Cassian after stirring the contents around, and found he wasn't in bed.
Ah.
That's the sound of vomiting coming from the bathroom, isn't it?
Sighhh...
He hates that sound, for a number of reasons, and he didn't feel he needed to explain any of them.
But regardless, he went back into the mini kitchen to get a glass of water for them, checking on the pot once more, before bringing the glass to the bathroom.
“Sunshine,” he knocked, “are you alright? Can I come in?”
No answer.
“Cassian?”
“Yeah- yeah, just... Uh... a second, Cas.”
Casper waited anxiously outside the bathroom door, unconsciously picking at a loose thread on his pants. It's been more than a minute and the door still didn't open.
He really didn't want to intrude, he wasn't exactly sure what they were doing in there after all, aside from the obvious vomiting a few moments ago, but he was getting more antsy by the second.
And he wasn't sure if he could smell something burning or if it was his nervousness affecting imagination.
It has to be that, he hasn't left it unattended that long yet.
The door opened after another minute, he's been counting, and Cassian stood in the doorway, shaking just as much as before. His black hair is a mess, tan skin turned pale, and green eyes droopy with fatigue.
Casper would maim whoever or whatever made them this sick—but for now, he settled with just handing them the glass of water he brought from the kitchen. “Don't drink it too fast.”
“mnn...” Cassian murmured, which they hoped translated into 'thank you', before taking the glass carefully into shaky hands and drinking little sips.
Pleased by that, Casper smiled a little, and guided him back to bed.
“...Casper?”
“What is it, Sunshine?”
“Is... something burning?”
“What?”
Casper smelled the bitterness of burnt garlic wafting into the room along with an ever so faint haze of smoke, and helped Cassian sit down—very gently, of course—with a curse before rushing back into the kitchen to find the vegetables sticking to the bottom of the pot.
He used the spoon to scrape them off, hoping it isn't too bad, and noticed most of what burnt was indeed the garlic.
Curse garlic.
Nothing was going right today!
He'll be lucky if everything else masks the taste of the garlic like he hopes it will.
Wasting no time, he went to the next step.
After the chicken broth was added, along with the chicken, he scoured the cabinets and pantry for the herbs and spices he needed, but unfortunately was only able to find a small handful of them.
He thinks so, anyway. His frazzled brain was working harder than usual and he read the labels multiple times just to make sure.
Thyme, sage, oregano...
That's fine. He can work with that.
He dumped the herbs and spices he could find into the broth, hoping the slightly extra measurements would further mask the garlic in the long run, before putting the lid on the pot and setting the heat lower so it could simmer.
And now he waits.
But he chose to sit with Cassian and let them use him as an ice pack for their migraine while he waits.
___________________
Nearly an hour later, Cassian had fallen back to sleep with help from Casper and his, albeit slightly reluctant, snuggles during that time.
And just as reluctantly, Casper had to extricate himself from his grasp to check on the soup, replacing his presence with Azrael so he had something to cuddle.
He'd have to wash Azrael afterwards, but that's fine with him.
Entering the kitchen again, he lifted the lid off the soup pot and set it aside, looking at the soft boiling liquid and seeing everything float about.
It smelled... good.
Good sign so far.
He grabbed a spoon from the drawer to taste it, nearly burning his taste buds off in the process because he didn't blow on it long enough at first, but when he finally did taste it, it tasted...
Bland.
Dammit anyway-
He wanted the soup to be perfect!
He took a breath and ran a hand through his hair, letting out a disappointed sigh, but he didn't want to mess with it any further lest he end up making it worse than it already is.
At least it doesn't taste bad. More salt maybe, but he didn't want to chance it.
So, rather than remaining butt hurt over it, he decided to just grab a bowl and spoon so he could give his beloved some soup to make them feel better.
After setting the bowl down on the nightstand, he rolled the desk chair over beside the bed and sat down, letting his Sunshine get some sleep while the soup cooled. The last thing he wants is to wake him and make him burn his mouth all in one go, so he was patient.
He would be as patient as he needed to be when it came to his lover's health.
___________________
Another half hour or so later, with Casper observing them in quiet worry, Cassian stirred again.
He opened his eyes groggily, mumbling incoherently and trying his damnedest to breathe through his nose which was infuriatingly clogged up, before giving up with that and just weakly pushing themselves up slightly so they weren't buried under the blanket.
“Grimmy?” He mumbled, rubbing away the sticky crusties from his eyes.
“Right here. Don't try and move too much.” Casper said while standing up to carefully keep them sitting upright, grabbing the pillows behind them to prop them up against the headboard.
“What's that?” Their gaze had wandered over towards the nightstand while being sat up, nodding their head towards the bowl.
“Ah,” Casper flushed slightly. “I... um... made you soup while you were resting.”
“You... made soup? For me?” Cassian asked in a hoarse voice, clearing his throat a couple of times with a bit of difficulty.
Casper nearly felt offended at the genuine surprise in their voice. “Of course I did. I wasn't about to make you eat canned soup while you're ill like this. I've seen how much sodium is in them.” He huffed.
Though his expression softened once he saw the smile on his Sunshine's face, as always. Even if they're sick, they're apparently still as bright as ever.
That made him glad.
“Thank you, Casper... Can I...” Cassian trailed off, gesturing to the bowl for the ex-reaper to hand it to him.
“Right, yes. Here,” Casper reached over and carefully handed the bowl over, thankful that it wasn't too hot to touch by now.
With a 'thanks', Cassian slowly began eating, while Casper watched intently for any signs of displeasure.
Sure enough, there was an odd face and a small 'hm', and he knew it was because of the blandness.
But, to his surprise, Cassian didn't utter a word about it and just continued eating.
Whether for the sake of eating or the sake of his pride, he didn't know, but he focused on the former of the two.
As long as they were eating, that was fine by him.
___________________
“How are you feeling?”
“Like shit.”
“Obviously. You know what I mean.”
“Not hungry anymore, at least... And I'm comfier with you here, so a little better, I'd say.” Cassian murmured, all snuggled up against Casper, who had climbed back into bed after they were finished eating their bowl of soup.
“I should hope you feel better with me here,” Casper joked softly while rubbing their back in soothing circles, which got a content hum from the noirette in his arms.
“I'll always feel better with you here...” Cassian lifted his head to look up at him, and was going to kiss his cheek or lips, it was hard to tell which he'd actually go for, until Casper stopped him with a hand on his lips. “Mmmmh?” They grumbled with a pout.
"As much as I appreciate them, kisses should wait until you're better." He remarked. Even he had limits, and kisses while sick was one of them.
“Meanie...” Cassian mumbled.
“Yes, yes, I know. I'm horrible.” Casper rolled his eyes, but he did give his forehead a kiss at the least. “Try and get some more sleep. Okay?”
Cassian sighed and just buried his face into Casper's chest instead. “Mmff... Fineee...”
“Good boy,” Casper brushed his hand through their hair so it wasn't sticking to their sweaty forehead anymore, and ran his fingers through the rest of it afterwards.
“...Hey Cas?”
“mhmm?”
“I love you...”
“...I love you too, Sunshine.”