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The process of waking Jay up in the morning was slow, much more of a fight than normal, even worse than on the days she woke up with a hangover. It was like molasses had taken over her brain in the night and was taking its sweet time to clear up and free her from the dregs of sleep.
She drifted in and out of consciousness occasionally, sounds and sensations registering for only a few moments before fading. The sound of water splashing and heavy footfalls on the wooden floorboards registered in her mind, but not enough to fully wake her up as she shivered and curled up tighter in bed. Sweat rolled down the side of her head and she almost let out a whine of discomfort.
Gillion stopped, said something to her in his soft, slightly confused yet concerned voice, and left after a few minutes. Jay didn’t catch what he said and only drifted back into a fitful sleep.
At one point, she woke up to the sound of Chip loudly bustling around the room, banging open his storage chest and running into the bedpost with a long string of swear words. Being quiet in the morning was never his strong suit.
But even Chip loudly moving around wasn’t enough to fully wake her. Even when he, too, stopped by her bed for a moment, reaching out with a careful hand to push her bangs away from her face. His hands were hot and Jay’s face was burning up, she remembered unconsciously moving away from the sensation, this time unable to stop the whine from slipping past her lips.
She fell in and out of sleep for a while after that. Jay had no idea how much time passed or how long she was sleeping, unable to wake herself up as she shivered and sweated at the same time.
When she did finally manage to pull herself into full consciousness, Jay had a hard time peeling her eyes open. Her eyelids were heavy and it made it nearly impossible for her to open them once the sun started to peek through the porthole window in their cabin and splay across her pillow. She groaned and stuffed her face underneath the blankets, the throbbing pain of a headache radiating through her skull the moment she became fully aware of her body and how gross she felt.
She felt sticky, sweat rolling down the back of her neck and causing some of her hair to stick to her face, curls flattened and frizzy from tossing and turning all night. She had sweated through her pajamas and the fabric was sticking to her skin, making her feel trapped and confined. She squirmed and tried to kick the blankets off, but at the same time, she shivered.
Jay pressed her face deeper into the pillow, hating how hot it was against her burning skin. She whined and continued to wiggle in bed, struggling to get comfortable through the pain and heat that rolled down her body in tingling shivers. Even her teeth were chattering as the cold air nipped against her soaked skin when she decided to fully knock the blankets away.
The rocking of the ship made Jay’s head spin even as she was lying down, spirals forming in the darkness behind her eyelid as her head simultaneously felt so full of liquid that it was going to burst, and also like she was going to pass out at any second from how lightheaded she was.
Jay turned over onto her side and squeezed her eyes shut again, the brightness of the sun not doing anything except making her head hurt worse. She tried to turn her back to the direction that the light was coming from, but she could still see it behind her eyelids.
Her head hurt, her body ached, and when she tried to breathe, it felt like she had swallowed needles. Not to mention she was sweaty and burning with what she assumed was a high fever, but she couldn’t bring herself to try and take any of her warm, sweat-soaked pajamas off. Her arms were shaky and weak, she figured she wouldn’t even be able to get it up over her head if she tried.
Even as she was lying down, her entire body trembled both with shivers and general tremors that rolled down her spine in waves. Her muscles were weak and flimsy, and even curling her fingers around the blanket as something to ground her spinning head was a feat in itself. She wheezed and couldn’t tell if tears or sweat were running down her cheeks.
The idea of sitting up to try and do anything was so unappealing that Jay didn’t make the effort. She figured that it was getting later in the morning as the sounds from the rest of the crew were starting to echo and rattle around in her ears, irritating her headache and thudding against her skull. It felt like she was underwater in a bathtub and every sound around her was dull, watery, and echoed so loud that it made her flinch whenever someone slammed the door too loudly.
Which is exactly what happened when one of her probably well-meaning co-captains burst back into the sleeping quarters, the door hitting against the wall and causing Jay to flinch. She whined and curled in on herself further, squeezing her eyes shut and now suddenly wishing that she could fall back asleep. Being awake was so much harder than being asleep.
The loud, wet footsteps that followed the door opening were enough to tell Jay who it was. But she made no effort to try and look over and greet Gillion. She was so tired, so exhausted, so painfully weak that even moving was too much.
“Oh, Jay,” Gillion’s sharp accent was rough as it cut through the air, he cleared his throat before speaking again, “I did not realize that you were still in bed.”
He sounded apologetic. Jay didn’t respond. She didn’t think she had it in her to respond.
“Jay?” Gillion’s footsteps approached the side of her bed. She moved only slightly, twitching her shoulders in an attempt to look over at him. But her head seemed to weigh a hundred pounds, and she was too weak to actually turn over.
His hand found her cheek, claws very delicately moving the hair out of her face, peeling the sticky sweat-soaked curls from her skin. Jay whined and squeezed her eyes shut tighter, but noticed with relief so sweet that she almost started sobbing on the spot, that Gillion’s hands were cold. He was always cold, Jay knew that, but in her feverish, muddled mind, she had forgotten.
It was only when he pressed his chilled, slightly damp palm to her skin that she involuntarily let out a small sigh of relief, barely managing to lean into the contact. It felt so nice against her burning skin and she would give anything for him to stay there, the chill of his skin to soothe her raging fever.
Gillion clicked softly, chittering in a curious yet concerned way. He slid his hand from her cheek, feeling her forehead in the way that Chip and Jay always did to him whenever they thought he was getting sick. Then he pulled his hand away and Jay nearly sobbed at the lack of contact.
Maybe Gillion heard that in her voice because he quickly replaced his hand on her cheek cautiously.
“Jay,” Gillion said softly, “You are very warm…”
Jay managed just enough strength to pry her eyes open so she could squint up at Gillion through tired, heavy lids. Her vision was slightly blurry and as the Albatross rocked back and forth with the waves that pushed against its hull, the world around her seemed to spin. She grimaced and stared at Gillion, his lips contorted into a worried frown.
His hair had been tied back into a bun with a few strands spilling out around his face to frame his features, but as more of it slipped from the straining hair binder, he didn’t react. He just looked Jay up and down, electric blue eyes scanning her form for some sort of injury or anything that he knew how to fix.
“I think I need to get Chip,” Gillion admitted, his expression panicked. That unfortunately meant that he had to pull his hand away, the cold that Jay had been relishing in instantly being replaced with the sticky heat that she had been struggling with this entire time.
Jay whined and felt tears slip out from the corners of her eyes, real tears this time, pouring down her cheeks as she tried to move her arms to grab at Gillion again. But she couldn’t find him, not when her arms would barely move to twitch in his direction, or fall limply back at her side.
She shut her eyes again as Gillion left her field of view only to be replaced with harsh beams of light from the window. She cried in her loneliness, unsure what happened to Gillion or where he went, only that now she was alone, sticky, uncomfortable, and unable to move. Even her tears were warm as they slid down her cheeks, delirious thoughts of being abandoned flashing through her mind as she clung to the sheets and incoherently begged for Gillion to come back.
It felt like hours, it may have only been a minute, or maybe several. Maybe it hadn’t even happened at all and the first Gillion that Jay had seen was only a figment of her imagination, a manifestation of her fever. Maybe none of this was even real and the blurry, dizziness in her vision was playing tricks on her.
Jay shivered, trembling so hard that when flashes of heat rolled down her spine she worried that she was going to be sick. And she didn’t have the energy to sit up or move or do anything but lay there pitifully. Everything hurt, everything was sticky and uncomfortable and wet. The air in their sleeping quarters was sticky and humid which made it even harder for Jay to breathe. She hissed through her teeth and wheezed, wishing that the hot air didn’t sting so badly against her sensitive, overheated skin.
After however long it had been since Jay had last allegedly seen Gillion, she heard footsteps again hurrying down the stairs toward their sleeping quarters. She whined and tried to hide her face in the pillow, wanting to block out all the sounds around them.
The door opened, and two voices filled the air, overlapping with each other in such a way that they jumbled and wrapped around Jay’s head incoherently. She shut her eyes and whined.
“JayJay, hey,” Chip spoke softly as he hovered near the edge of her bed. He reached out and placed a hand on her forehead to check her temperature. The magic from his tattoos flowed through his body, raising his body temperature above what would be normal and comfortable for a human. His hands were almost as warm as the rest of Jay’s body.
She squirmed and tried to lean away from his hand. It was so hot, she was so hot, and any more felt like it would be the tipping point. She was either going to pass out or get sick all over her bed and the sudden jerk of movement as she tried to get away from Chip’s hot skin was starting to tip her towards passing out. A high-pitched whine spilled from her lips and she wanted nothing more than to be allowed to fall back asleep.
Chip swore. He said something to Gillion that Jay didn’t fully understand, and then Gillion was placing his hands on Jay’s shoulders this time. The fabric of her pajamas was soaked through with sweat, and it was uncomfortable when Gillion pressed down on the wet fabric. But she didn’t pull away. He was cold. It felt nice.
He hooked his arm behind her shoulders, sitting down on the edge of the bed with a small creak of the mattress. Then, very carefully, he began to help her sit up, words of encouragement washing over her in a wave of his comforting accent. Before she would even have to reach out to try and straighten her arms underneath her to get sitting, Gillion pulled her against his side for support, enveloping her in the coldest hug that she had ever felt. But when she was burning with such a high fever, it was practically heaven.
Jay cried at the ache in her joints when she moved. And when Gillion wasn’t so careful and accidentally ran the tips of his claws across her skin, she whined at the tingling feeling that ran down her limbs. Her skin was so sensitive it was like pins and needles were constantly prickling at her skin and any amount of pressure made it worse through the heat of her fever.
Gillion propped her up against him, sitting back so that he could rest against the wall, tucking Jay into his arms and carefully running his hands up and down her biceps. Jay shivered and wheezed against his chest, hair falling in front of her face and sticking to her skin.
“Jay, may we help you undress?” Gillion asked carefully, trying to speak softly so he didn’t make too much noise to disturb Jay. “Chip says that it will be more comfortable… and possibly less hot.”
Her clothes were so warm. She was sticky and her clothes pressed uncomfortably against her when they hung off her skin in thick heavy folds. She mumbled something of an agreement that she hoped was coherent enough for the other boys to hear and tried to bury her face into Gillion’s shoulder where she knew his skin would be cold against her feverish cheeks.
She was being shifted again, Gillion’s cold hands holding her up and keeping her steady when her entire body was limp and shaky and she could barely hold her head up for very long. Then, as much as she hated it and tried to squirm away, Chip helped unbutton the cotton shirt that she was wearing, every time his hot hands brushed against her skin she whined and tried to pull away, but they only had two pairs of hands to work with. And Jay was useless to provide any assistance.
Chip helped shimmy her wet pajama shirt off as well as her pants after a lot of wiggling and whining. And Jay was left in her undergarments, only caring that the uncomfortable sensation of her clothes sticking to her was gone. They didn’t bother trying to get her in another change of clothes. Jay just huddled back against Gillion’s chest and felt his strong arms wrap around her, rubbing her back gently and combing through her hair.
There was a flurry of conversation around her that Jay only knew was happening because she could feel Gillion’s throat vibrating every time he responded. It was comforting. Gillion’s voice washed over her like a cold, reassuring blanket and whatever it was that he was saying, she figured it was somewhat of a reassurance to her. She relaxed in his arms, fully limp but still conscious as she trembled and sucked in pained, wheezing breaths.
At one point there was silence. The conversation around her cut off and then footsteps. The door opened and closed, taking all the sound around them with it. Gillion continued to rub her back and comb through her hair, but there was an air of caution to each of his movements like he was afraid that if he held her too tightly, she would break.
Jay drifted in and out of sleep at that point, comfortable enough with the chill of Gillion’s body tightly pressed against her, she was able to fall into a fitful but comfortable sleep, only woken up again when Chip returned, quietly this time.
She didn’t open her eyes, but she could suddenly hear the two of them talking above her again. A straw was pressed against her lips, causing her to whine and pull away, barely managing to peel her eyes open to see what was happening.
“Hey, can you drink a little bit of water?” Chip was leaning down in front of her, his expression soft and slightly worried, he was holding a cup of what Jay assumed was water. He furrowed his eyebrows softly with concern.
Jay whined and tried to bury her face back against Gillion, but he pulled her away and stopped her from completely hiding herself in his arms. She whined and felt more tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, she was so tired and she just wanted to go back to sleep. Her body hurt and she was uncomfortable.
“Jay, you need to drink something,” Gillion insisted, petting her hair and brushing her bangs away from her face, cheeks red and burning up. She whined, not even daring to shake her head in denial.
“Come on, just a few sips and you can go back to sleep,” Chip said gently, coaxing the straw to her lips.
Jay did take a few sips from the cup. She didn’t even realize how dry her mouth was and how thirsty she felt until the cold, crisp water slid down her throat, easing some of the ache and pain of needles scratching the inside of her mouth.
She sighed in relief, drinking a little more after she caught her breath. The water felt nice, smooth on her tongue, and pleasantly cold. And it was much easier to drink through the straw when Chip held it up to her mouth.
Jay drank a little more, and then a little more, and then the cup was empty and her stomach was full. Chip pulled the cup away and Gillion kissed her on the top of the head, his lips cold and soft when they pressed against the skin of her forehead.
The water did make her feel a little better. Jay fell back against Gillion and let her eyes slip closed, feeling Gillion peppering cold kisses all across her face, her forehead, her cheeks, her eyelids, and her nose. He pet her hair and rubbed her back, holding her close while she leeched off the chill of his skin, trying to cool down from where the fever caused her to sweat and shiver.
Jay fell back into a restless sleep against Gillion’s chest, only being woken up a few more times by Chip to encourage her with soft words of praise and gentleness to drink some more water that he offered. She did, but only as much as her stomach would allow before she fell back asleep.
The morning was spent drifting in and out of consciousness with Gillion gently rubbing her back or kissing her head softly while Jay soaked up the attention and comfort from his arms, relishing in the coolness of his arms.
It was only when her fever broke a while later, after lots of water and a cold rag running down her back (and maybe a little bit of healing magic that Jay didn’t even notice) did Jay actually get some restful sleep, passed out completely against Gillion’s chest, face pressed into his neck.
Against Gillion with his arms wrapped tightly around her weak, shivering form, Jay slept the best that she had all night for hours tucked against him, sleeping off the remaining dregs of her fever.