The Sun Also Rises

A chicken. A chicken! Of all the things that might have helped them in that moment, stray poultry was surely not it. Dorian could so hardly help that look of confusion that found his features in the moment after that birds appearance. The already distinctly stressed Monarch inclined to become even more put out by the animals appearance. Illusion or not a chicken held distinctly little use. After all, one could hardly make soup from an illusion he was sure. Sebastian, despite his impending death at the hands of what Dorian had become convinced was the plague, seemed to still possess the sense to inform his female companion that he would not have their carpet ruined by the bird. Petra, in her own state of rapid decline at the hands of whatever illness afflicted her seemed to take that very statement far more harshly then either man anticipated. The vampiric woman so proceeding to all but burst into tears. A look of alarm managed to find its way to the Fae Kings features once more as those silent tears all but streaked down the woman's features, her body racked by the occasional sob as her chicken rushed towards her in some equally bizarre measure effort to comfort her. How very strange this night was becoming. How hardly he could remember the last time a woman had cried in front of him. For several moments yet the Monarch so found himself caught between the desire to further assist his husband and that near ingrained politeness passed down from century after century that so demanded he attempt to console a crying woman. Dorian, so at last, seeming to settle for something in between as he so instructed his lover to raise his arms so that he might examine the vampires sides for any sign of that plague that had once torn apart his own beloved Italy and, in turn, so ravaged his very Mother. How much that disease had once taken from him! Dorian wholly unwilling to allow it to take any more.

Sebastian, despite his confusion, seemed willing to comply with his directive and raise his arms upward to afford Dorian that chance to circle about him in clear contemplation. His husbands sides and underarms, mercifully, remaining clear of those purpling bruises. A telltale sign of that affliction. Dorian had no sooner returned to stand before those vampires then he sought to query them both upon any bleeding they might have had. That very question seemed to prompt yet another insistence from his husband that they would be fine. That very word, a distinctly favoured on of his lover, only prompting a veritable frown from Dorian now.

"Stop saying you are fine Sebastian, you are clearly not. Neither of you are. I will not hear you say you are fine again!"

How firm those words were! Dorian, in that moment, taking a distinctly hard tone of voice with his husband in a fashion he never before had. One the Monarch so rarely utilised outside of those Parliament meetings and one that surely betrayed he had no further desire to argue with his husband over this matter. Sebastian and Petra both were clearly taken ill! No amount of his lovers use of the word 'fine', a word Sebastian and the British as a nation seemed to misuse continually as it was, would seek to change his mind. Another sudden sob from Petra drewhis silver gaze upward as the woman seemed to believe that it might yet be blood leaking from her eyes. As if tears were somehow new to her in some fashion. This, so at last, seeming to prompt Dorians features to soften slightly and peirce through his own haze of worry.

"Those are tears, love. Not blood. They are made of water."

Sebastian too was quick to assure Petra she was crying rather then bleeding. The woman continued to clutch her chicken as if deriving some measure of comfort from it, Sebastian in turn continued to reach for his head as if it somehow pained him. This so surely enough to prompt Dorian into further action as he sought to summon Charles. He was oblivious, in that moment, as to how his own fluttering heart and the nervous energy that filled him seemed to all but call to Petra. That vampiric woman having drawn closer and closer with that very contemplation of biting. The hurried appearance of Charles seemed to halt her advance. It hardly took but a moment for Charles to be sent for a doctor. The manservant, confused though he was, equally as quick to take in both vampires appearances before rushing down those stairs to shout for Elizabeth. Dorian, despite that worry that afflicted him, so readily attempted to....qwell those feelings if only to prevent Sebastian from becoming aware of their full extent. His hand reached for his lovers own then. Sebastian's palm so distinctly...clammy in his own and yet, once more, Dorian made but every effort to prevent that clear distress for marring his features a second time. The Monarch instead content to offer both vampires tea and blankets. An offer Sebastian was all too quick to take up.Petra, in turn, querying whether she might have multiple blankets if only to be more comfortable in her impending death.

"I can arrange multiple blankets for you, Petra, yes."

Dorian's head nodded readily, the Monarch so attempting a polite smile once more in a continued effort to conceal his distress as he so moved to lead the way down that hall and toward the stairs, his hand so firmly nestled in his lovers own and with Petra in tow. His efforts to reach the lounge below however were halted by Petra's sudden query upon whether or not she might eat Charles! Dorian so near pivoted in place at that very request, those words caught upon his lips before Sebastian rounded upon the woman far more quickly with that abrupt insistence that she was absolutely not permitted to consume their manservant. Surely Sebastian had not brought an uncivilized vampire into their home...had he? Such things, surely, would need be worried about later. Dorian so content to afford Petra an equally firm look before continuing to lead the way down the stairs and into the sitting room where Charles hovered in a clear state of distress.

"Charles, light a fire please, Sebastian is cold and then please fetch some tea. Petra would like some blood stirred into hers from what we have stored. Sebastian can have some of mine. I will come to the kitchen in a moment. Bastian, you rest here on this sofa. Petra, you may take that one, I shall fetch blankets."

Dorian so moved to guide his lover gently toward that sofa closest to the fire then as Charles hurriedly coaxed those flames into life, the warmth of that fire readily beginning to fill the room as Charles all but hurried into the kitchen and Dorian in turn so moved to stride out of the living room and toward that linen storage cupboard near the laundry. It took but several moments before the Monarch returned, laden with those blankets. Several, as she had requested, were handed to Petra, the rest offered to his husband. Dorian wholly content to assure both vampires were well settled before he moved to assist with that tea as best he was able. Elizabeth, surely, would not be long. Time was of the essence! Surely modern medicine had developed a cure for such diseases by now, had it not? Even for vampires? How that worry gripped at his chest like an icy fist! Those very tears at even the mere thought of losing his husband, just as he had lost his mother, so daring to threaten at his eyes as the Monarch all but blinked them back before focusing upon offering Charles that blood for Sebastian's tea.

It was several minutes later that both Charles and Dorian so returned with that tea. Charles was quick to offer the tea he carried to Petra before inquiring as to what else she might need or whether or not she might like her chicken put outside. Dorian, in turn, so gently handing his lover his own cup, his silver gaze lingered upon Sebastian far too pale features. How hot that room was! Yet how readily neither vampire seemed aware of it. A near sudden commotion in that entranceway so promptly saw his attention shift as Elizabeth, doctors bag in hand, so all but hurried into that room in a state most flustered! The anomaly of a sick vampire, it seemed, having prompted no small amount of panic in the woman in turn.

"Elizabeth! Finally! Sebastian is taken ill, as is his friend, Petra. We've not the time to wait for another doctor, can you please examine them."

Elizabeth, he knew, was so hardly fully qualified and yet surely she had enough experience to do ...something didn't she? The young woman glanced near anxiously between those vampires as if attempting to decide just which might be the safest to approach before settling firmly upon Sebastian. Dorian, in turn, so proceeded to hover near anxiously behind as Elizabeth placed that stethoscope in her ears before proceeding to place the other end upon Sebastian's bare chest.

"I just need to listen to your lungs, Your Highness, can you breathe deeply for me? Thank you. Can you cough for me?"

What on earth the woman was listening for Dorian so hardly knew, that frown on Elizabeth's face hardly helping to ease his concern as the woman removed that stethoscope only to rifle within her bag for a wooden tongue depressor.

"I need you to open your mouth and say 'ahh' Sebastian, yes im quote serious, you must have gone to the doctor as a child to remember this!"

Elizabeth waited only so long as it took Sebastian to comply before moving to place that wooden stick upon his tongue to hold it down and peering into his throat with the insistence of what Dorian was sure appeared to be a rather small torch.

"What other symptoms are you having?"

The young woman stood then before making her way over to Petra with the clear intention of performing that same examination and yet that hesitation to approach an unfamiliar vampire was strikingly clear upon her features.

"Petra, was it? Would it be alright if I listened to your chest too? You need not take your shirt off, perhaps you might merely lift it up just a little? I shall stand in front of you so that neither His Majesty or His Highness has any view of you"

It would, after all, be distinctly inappropriate for either man to witness such things. Dorian so continued to linger beside his husband, the Fae glancing between his lover and Petra before turning his head away from that very examination. His attention returned only when Elizabeth queried whether or not she might look at Petra's throat in turn.

"You won't bite me, will you."
"She most certainly will not."

Dorian was near quick to interject, a distinctly firm look so given to Petra then as Elizabeth continued with that very examination before at last standing upright once more to glance between both vampires. How curious that look on her face! How Dorian could so hardly take that silence!

"Do you know what's wrong with them, Elizabeth? I can't possibly bear waiting any longer, what do you think?"
"Well, I....you see, they have the flu."
"I....beg your pardon?"
"It's just the flu. A regular flu. I don't quite know how either managed to catch it. It may be a new supernatural strain so, Your Majesty, you may want to be careful for a few days to make sure you don't catch it too but with bed rest and fluids both should be fine in a few nights."

That look of utter bewilderment so readily found the Monarch's features as Dorian glanced between both vampires and Elizabeth once more. How readily that relief seemed to find him! That flu, in modern times, so hardly the disease it had been in his own era. This, so surely something his husband and Petra both would recover from.

"Thank heavens it's not something worse! Thank you Elizabeth."
"As long as neither is running too higher fever I can give them both a flu shot, it won't cure them but it will protect agianst other strains. You should probably have it too, Dorian. To protect you agianst the strain they have."
"I don't understand, a shot?"
"Yes, like this."

Elizabeth so proceeded to reach into her bag once more to produce the parts of that syringe and hold them upward. Dorian inclined to step backward and closer to Sebastian once more as if his lover might somehow protect him from that distinctly unfriendly looking apparatus.

"I....no thank you. I think we will all be fine. Thank you, Elizabeth."

How readily he hoped the woman might take her leave before Sebastian could insist....

Dorian Ellington-Aragona