Rei

Rei held Lisa through the latest round of weak coughing until the man sagged against Rei’s chest.

Holding a hot washcloth over Lisa’s face seemed to help the cough, but the one in Rei’s hand was now too cool.

Perhaps he should go rewarm it. Rei moved his leg to brace himself.

If he could just shift Lisa to the pillow for a few moments, he would be back with relief in mere minutes.

“Don’t go.” Lisa gripped Rei’s shirt and mumbled into the side of his neck. “Please don’t go.”

“You need to breathe better,” Rei whispered back. He put his hands over Lisa’s, gently prying them off. Lisa collapsed away from Rei, whispering something.

It had to be done. Rei tore himself away and rolled to the other side of the bed to evade Lisa’s hands.

In the bathroom, the water took time to warm.

Rei leaned against the counter, finger under the tap, counting the seconds until it was warm, one ear listening to make sure Lisa didn’t leave the bed.

As soon as he thought the temperature would be high enough, he shoved the washcloth under the spigot and started wringing it out and letting it absorb in turns until the cloth was hot to touch. He sprinted back to the bed.

Lisa was coughing again. Rei used all his strength to pull him upright.

He braced the other slave there and held the washcloth over his nose.

Lisa turned his head left and right and then—finally—breathed through the warm cloth.

He coughed harder, and then sagged against Rei, breathing easier.

Rei kept the cloth against his face, moving his fingers to let air in more easily every second or so, until the washcloth felt cool.

Lisa turned into Rei, pulling his knees up and bundling himself against Rei’s chest.

Rei pushed back against the headboard. Lisa was so much taller than him.

Whatever genetic mix of eastern Russia and northern Asia that Lisa had, he was much taller than Rei.

Only his severe lack of weight made it possible to handle him.

“So cold,” Lisa whispered in Russian, shivering. “Clothes, please. Please clothes. Just for night. Please.” He repeated himself in German and broken fragments of English.

Rei closed his eyes and squeezed Lisa against his chest. “Clothes. Yes. You can. Look, you have clothes.” He pulled on Lisa’s shirt and tugged on the waistband of Lisa’s sweatpants. They were Sevastyan’s and the drawstring was the only thing keeping them near Lisa’s hips.

The exterior door of the condo opened and closed. Lisa flinched and pressed deeper against Rei, his fingers gripping at Rei’s shoulders. He covered Rei’s mouth with his other hand.

Rei squeezed Lisa back and waited, listening.

It sounded like his master was taking off his shoes and coat.

A few minutes later Sevastyan appeared in the doorway of the bedroom.

He looked cold and his eyes were dull. There were several bags in his hands that he put on top of the low dresser on the far side of the room.

He pulled saline packets out of his inner shirt and held one out to Rei.

“How do these feel? They can’t be too cold, or it will shock his system.”

Rei held the bag to his cheek. “They feel like nothing. Like me.”

“Good.” Sevastyan sighed. “They were cold when I put them in.”

He shook his head and started opening up the package of tubing.

Removing a picture from the hook in the wall above the bed gave him an anchor point.

He hooked the saline packet over the nail, creating a gravity feed.

“We need to get the acetaminophen in him first. It’s a suppository.”

He held up one of their bottles of lube and a packet of medication.

Rei grimaced. Lisa fought Alexi about being fucked at least half the time. In his current state, violence was certainly an option, unless he trusted the one handling him. “I’ll do it.”

Sevastyan nodded. “Let me wash my hands and I’ll get the packet open. It’s small. You just have to get it all the way inside.”

“I remember.” Rei grimaced again. “You’ve done this for me.”

Sevastyan nodded and went into the bathroom.

Rei wiggled his way down to the mattress, bringing Lisa with him. He stroked Lisa’s face. “A-sa.”

Lisa grunted.

Rei kissed his cheek. “I need to check your ass.”

Lisa groaned.

“I’ll be gentle. Please.”

Lisa grabbed Rei’s hand. Rei let him. He pressed a kiss to Lisa’s shoulder. “It’s just medicine.”

With Sevastyan handing him the necessary items from a distance, Rei did what had to be done as quickly and gently as possible.

Lisa hugged Rei’s knee with both arms, while Rei worked. When everything was finished, Sevastyan handed Rei a medical wipe for his hand. Lisa blinked slowly, eyes unfocused. He pulled Rei down with surprising force. Sevastyan reached for Rei.

“It’s okay,” Rei said. His back hit the bed and he blinked. Lisa covered him with his body. “He always does this.”

“I know.” Sevastyan looked away and started fussing with IV supplies. He went into the bathroom to wash his hands again and returned, pulling on latex gloves. “He still needs fluids. Can you hold him like that?”

Rei nodded. He unfolded Lisa’s arm and tangled his fingers with Lisa’s, then stretched both their arms out on the bed. Sevastyan gripped Lisa’s arm, turning it so that the veins were visible.

“He’s probably better at this than I am,” Sevastyan muttered.

“Why?”

“According to the records Alexi sent over this morning, he was a paramedic.”

Rei looked down at Lisa. It was hard to imagine, but when he really thought about it, he could see.

Sevastyan slid the needle into the vein in Lisa’s elbow, keeping a firm grip even as Lisa cried and pulled away.

Rei gripped him with his arm and both legs, keeping his fingers tight on Lisa’s hand.

Sevastyan hooked up the IV and slid a pillow under Lisa’s elbow, keeping a firm grip on Lisa’s arm as well.

“The shivering is going to get worse,” Sevastyan said, sitting down and getting comfortable. “But the fluids should help bring down the fever. They’re cooler than he is.”

Rei nodded and dared to stroke his palm against Lisa’s back. “I think he thinks he’s back in the kennels. He keeps asking for clothes.”

Sevastyan lifted his hand as if to touch Lisa’s head, then drew back.

Lisa struggled a few times over the next quarter hour, but his fever started to come down by the twenty-minute mark.

His mumbling tapered off and for the first time since Rei had woken up and found him feverish, Lisa seemed to actually be asleep and not trapped in a hallucinative border state.

Sevastyan fell into a rough slumber, still in his clothes and holding Lisa’s arm.

Rei stayed awake, trapped under Lisa, slowly stroking his back and his hair. He was going to be sore for days. Every ache was a small price to pay for keeping Lisa’s nightmares at bay. In time he fell into a twilight state himself, resting while he could.