Title: Rough
Fandom: Final Fantasy XVI
Rating: G
Length: 227 words
Pairing: Cidolfus Telamon/Benedikta Harman
Content notes: Spoilers! Post-Game AU! Chronic Pain Issues!
Summary: Some days are rough.



It's a bad day when Cidolfus sways into the wall stepping out of bed. It's a worse one when he doesn't fight Benedikta sticking to his side on the way to the ale hall, or on returning to their room immediately after the breakfast he didn't touch.

Cidolfus sheds everything above the waist in his chair, and everything below when he's moved to the bed. On a better day, he would shoo her out, telling her she's got better things to do (than see him like this), rehearsing the knock-down arguments of a man who believes care is only his to give, never to receive. Today, he lies down with a groan, no cover, the pain's false fever sweat darkening the sheets.

Benedikta locks the door to the corridor and unbolts the balcony door for a breeze. She changes into a summer nightgown, and lies down carefully beside him. On a bad day, there are so few ways she can touch him without causing more pain.

Later, when he wakes them both from an hours-long nap, it's storming outside, the boom of the thunder, the lightning's sparking light. The rain's soothing chill spills through the open balcony door, where it touches nothing that can't be dried out with sun and time.

Cidolfus pulls Benedikta closer against him. "Don't know about you," he says, "but I could eat."