Chapter 5 Medicine

"You have a high fever." I start awkwardly standing for a while before nearing the bed.

"Fevers can be caused by infections from injuries..."After hesitating for a moment I threw caution to the wind and bit the bullet peaking in through velvet curtains.

The god of the Underworld held a scroll in between long pale fingers, amber eyes immersed in its contents. His face was smoothed out, loosing their cold and oppressive feeling in the midst of being focused and preoccupied, but the serious expression never lost its arrogance.

"...so you have any?" I brace myself to meet the enchanting eyes but yet I was baffled and silently scolded my weak spine.

"No."

The single word seems to reverberate through my bones, the cold undertones to his voice like hidden daggers and I retrieve my neck.

And realising how uncooperative he was, I skip to the open door with a spontaneous idea. "You wouldn't mind if I go out for a bit." But I had thought he would have never acknowledge it.

"Running away." It echoed through the room, but yet it felt incomplete as if the god himself did not know whether it was a question or a fact.

And I didn't turn back knowing that he remained hidden and pad out closing the door behind me gently.

Outside I met a sneering face of one among the many who had been previously outside the same door.

"Don't get lost!" The man still calls out despite his obvious dislike as I walk away in confident steps when in reality I kept to the left side of the wall to later retrace back to the starting line.

Not long later I caught sight of a group of people talking cheerfully and my ears pick up two words distinctly, one being doctor and the other weird.

The crowd was made up of seperate people, but in the end when they took notice of an outsider they grew the same head fully ignoring my presence and silently praying for me to go away.

And it made my mission hard to accomplish with only few wanting to listen to me and only handful of them obliging to reply.

"Our Lord rarely leaves the palace, but-" The maid I was questioning after a full five minutes of coaxing hesitated lowering her already soft voice to a whisper. "I have heard from older workers that a few centuries back, our Lord loved visiting earth, but then he suddenly stopped and no one knows why."

"Our Lord is very devoted to his work and hardly ever rests...it might be the reason he shuts himself off in his home."

And in the end it was the thought shared by almost all the helpful souls who I talked to and while I returned to his bedchambers I had my own conclusions. But with little information to diagnose his illness by his reluctance to comply I could only jump between guesses and doubts.

Exhaustion and fatigue was a long standing enemy for the workaholic, sometimes even severely deteriorating their health. But it was not a human being that I was made to treat, but a greek god, so could it really be that simple?

The sturdy guard by the door straightened his posture when I turned the corner coming into his view, and I fought back a smile which I then moulded into a grimace that he met with his own.

I pushed open the door and only after I barge in do I realize my rudeness and pause my steps bracing myself if the god's temper was stroked.

"I am back." I say while noticing two baskets and a basin filled to the brim by water."Your workers brought the things I asked for. I will get to it then." And I had almost gotten used to talking to a stone sculpture.

I go forward and sit on the floor feeling too humble to make use of the fancy furniture and quickly bring out the the things from baskets of silver and order them in a manner that would be frowned upon by perfectionists.

What I needed to prepare was a medicine to bring down the temperature and one for infections just in case. And I get to work, the procedure followed from no manual, but pure instincts.

Not complicated in the least, the process was more of, 'Yeah this might work...mmmm, that can help too...wait those looks good...maybe a bit of that too.' And though knowing the oddity to such skills that never once failed me, I enjoyed it.

Sometime later, soundlessly the velvet curtains were opened from the other side and eyes of hellfire lowered their focus to a hardworking mortal wearing a smile of triumph and eyes like distant stars.

"Why are you willing to treat me?" His voice was deep, his tone serious and even in death my heart stopped beating for a split second before restarting with beats of stampeding horses.

"I want a reward." It was the reason for my forced calmness, the sanity that I was holding onto, a hope that kept me from trying to run away.

"What do you want?"

I wanted to go back home one last time. But I did not tell him outright.

"If I do cure you then I will ask for it and I am finally done." I unfold my crossed legs and stand up carefully holding onto bowl to keep it from spilling, each drop worth an hour and half of effort.

"It's very bitter." I warn knowing the taste myself and hold it out for him to take and curiously watch on as he brings it to his lips to surprisingly take only two gulps without a change of expression, without a crease in his beautiful face.

I close my mouth. "Doesn't it taste bitter, don't you have taste buds?" My nose crunch imagining its unpleasant taste and wonder how he could maintain such composture while most would throw a tantrum and drown half a kilogram of sugar.

"I chose not to taste it."

"Right." I turn away looking down to the floor as the curtains are drawn close before I could retrieve the empty bowl.

And I was vaguely aware of the mess I created but was too egoistic to admit I was a klutz when I hardly find space to let myself down amongst the residues of the former invention littered around without thought.

"Are you some mad scientist?" Like a silent breeze a blue eyed man appears leaning by the door and my heart surges in joy when meeting a friendly face.

"Will."

"Here, the water lily you asked for." He extends his hand holding the flower with a star like bloom by its slender stem and blue eyes wander to the plight of the green tainted floor and then trail to my hair.

"Thanks, this would help me with the bitter problem." I mumble and notice how he did not ask for permission as he entered, and was rather at ease in the room where every other trembled to take a step into.

And as I watch his hand raise to my hair and gently pulls away a tender bud caught between tangled strands.

"Thank you again."

I had finished conveying my gratitude when the same fingers suddenly rush to my hair thoroughly working to leave the ebony strands in disarray.

"Aaaah! You meanie!" I exclaim stepping away from the merciless claws and then he was gone the same way he came.

For a while I stared at where he formerly stood trying to figure out this peculiar blue eyed man but in the end didn't come up with reasonable guesses so I turn back to the bed to catch the god sit up with the curtains pulled up again at some unknown time.

My feet instantly brings me to the bed in long strides while my hands stretched to his powerful shoulders to force them down. But like a boulder he did not budge, a frightening light in the amber eyes of his as he proceeds to grab onto my wrist.

"Sleep."

His gaze turns to me, silent and unimpressed and hence I withdraw crossing my arms with a sheepish smile. "When was the last time you slept?" And like all responsible teachers I was prepared to answer it myself though with a rough figure but he surprises me by replying.

"Four earthly days." His brows raise as if asking, 'so?'

"You have to sleep." I take upon the role of a tired mother trying to feed her picky son vegetables while lying they were weird looking chocolates. "You have to sleep in order for the medicine to take effect."

I feel you mom.

The god's face was placid, devoid of emotions as he wipes away the bitter residues between his lips the colour of cinnabar. "What type of medicine have you made?"

"What a grumpy patient. " I said in an incoherent mumble taking hold of the bowl set down on the bed, but when meeting two deadly frost blades narrowing their gaze I look away rushing to reply in a whisper. "My medicine"

And even when the importance of sleep, its advantages and aesthetics were fully and softly explained, the god did not as much as blink, much less sleep and thus I was forced to use my ultimate weapon in an uninhibited moment.

"Twinkle, twinkle litle staaar." I start my twist on soap opera, my voice a heavenly symphony.

"How Iii, Wonder whaaat you aare?" And it very soon turned into an action song when I bring my hands to rest over my heart to put emphasis on the dramatics.

"Up above the wooorld soo high."

"Like a diamond-" A hand clamps down over my lips pushing back the words to the pit of my stomach with his strength threatening to unhinge my lower jaw.

"Stop." It was three fourths an irrevocably order and one fourth a plea.

I am good, really good.

The fingers loosen trailing down and away from my skin. "The nerves in your brains are misplaced". And without an another word he softly falls onto to the pillows shutting away the beauty of amber eyes.

"I know