I awoke in the morning to my body forcing me to sneeze. It was loud enough to wake May with a fright. She sat up quickly, startled. "What was that?!" As I pushed myself to sit up as well, I was hit with the most intense head rush I've felt in years. Spots appeared in my vision and I had to fight my body from falling back to the ground. I realized that I was still shivering and was experiencing heat flashes at the same time. The head rush I felt was soon replaced with a headache.
I placed a hand on my head in an attempt to stop it and started to cough from the phlegm in my throat and nose that were cutting off my airways. May turned to me with a worried look on her face. "Dedrin, you're sick!" I forced myself to stand and turn away from her. "No, I'm not!" I said in a very clogged voice. Saniel then moved out of the way as I sneezed loudly again in his direction.
May stood up after me and ran over to me. "You need to rest! Take off your armor, you slept in cold metal all night!" I pushed her away and shook my head. "I don't get sick! Every time it looked like I was going to get sick I stopped being sick and started being a badass instead. I am not resting! I'm fine!"
May then gave me a look that made my expression change to surprise. It was anger. I had never seen her this angry before and it freaked me out as soon as I saw it. "That is it!! Self-care is something I never take lightly so you better take off that armor right now and let me take care of you or else I will kick your ass and take it off myself!!!" I stared at her in shock for a moment until I rolled my eyes. "Yeah right, like you could kick my ass."
She then pinched my ear and pulled me down to her height. "Ah!" The pain was so much more severe now that I was in this state, and I quickly stopped her before she could do anything else. "Okay! Okay! I'll take it off!" May let go of me and I rubbed my ear with my palm. She had returned to her usual happy self as soon as she let go. "Yay!" I glared at her as I started to remove my armor. "Just to clarify, I'm not doing this because you told me to, I just wanted to remove the snow from my chestplate."
As I removed it, a wave of water fell out from inside and onto the ground. May looked at the puddle that was seeping into the dirt and then back to me with an eyebrow raised. "So, do you have any concept of health?"
Later, after I took off my armor, May swaddled me completely in a blanket she had stored in her satchel so I couldn't move or stand up. She made me lay down as she restarted the fire and cooked soup over it with ingredients she had collected. I was feeling worse than before so my struggling was weak, and after a while I let my body be sick in defeat. I felt horrible and I couldn't think of anything but the soreness in my throat.
May helped me sit up against a tree so I could eat, and she also ground up some medicine to give to me. She even helped me blow my nose and mixed herbs together into a special tea. After we ate, she laid my head on her lap and wiped my forehead with a washcloth. She had warmed some water in a bucket and dipped the cloth into it to press against my forehead.
As she did that I was faced with the conflict that she was being genuinely thoughtful to me. I remembered that the reason I didn't let myself get sick when I was younger because I had to. Ever since I was born everyone has been too afraid of me to bother being kind. All I could do then was to stay in bed alone and wait until I got better. The thought of someone caring for me despite how awful I've been to them started to scare me from how odd it was.
May wiped my forehead again and noticed that I was thinking intently. "Is something wrong? Is the water getting cold?" I sighed and coughed a little before I could answer. "Why are you like this? Why do you do so much for other people even when they don't deserve it?" May's face softened and I looked up at her to see her gaze lost in a memory.
"...My mother used to say, 'There's no such thing as a selfless good deed, because no matter how kind you are there is nothing in the world that feels better than making others happy. So, if you're going to be selfish, be selfish for that feeling.' Then she'd say something funny like, 'Because that way karma can't bite you in the ass for it.' Haha."
I looked away from her and down at my body which was wrapped like a burrito. "What happened to her?" May's smile faded but her eyes continued to be lost. "Wrangwobblers." A soft silence passed for a moment before I decided to speak again. "Well, you're lucky you had parents who loved you." May's face became surprised as she was pulled out of her daydream. "What do you mean? I'm sure your parents love you just as much as mine." I shook my head. "The only feeling my parents have toward me is fear. So much fear that they refuse to make me king."
May continued to disbelieve me. "Nonsense. I'm sure your parents are just acting out of interest for the kingdom, not their personal views of you. I guarantee that they have always dreamed of the day when they could hand over their crown to you ever since you opened your eyes."
I wanted to laugh but my body refused to go through the pain of it. "You don't know them." May smiled again as she spoke. "Well, I do know that all parents want what's best for their children, and you must really love them if you're willing to go to all this trouble for them." I raised an eyebrow. "Trouble? Oh. Right." I decided to stop the conversation there to avoid letting any information slip about my true intentions for the stone.
I closed my eyes as my headache became more severe, and I started to shiver again. May gasped and put down the washcloth. "Aw, you poor baby! Would you like me to massage your temples?" I then curled my body towards her to try to get warmer. "Why is that a question? Hell yeah, I do." May then started to rub the indents on the sides of my head and the pain in my brain started to relax. "Aren't you afraid of getting sick?"
May shook her head happily. "You don't have to worry about me, my immunity is through the roof. I was the type of kid to jump in a mud pile every chance I got." I kept my eyes closed as I enjoyed her massage. "Knowing that you were also the type to chow down on glitter, that doesn't surprise me."