(Author's note: This is obviously set into the world of Off Balance, because it wouldn't make much sense in the canon timeline. For anyone who hasn't read that fic, it is about PK abandoning the vessel plan and accepting Hollow as his child, searching for a different way to deal with the infection.
Requested by anon on tumblr.)
It was the first time that Hollow had ever been sick.
Needless to say, they weren't feeling well. Of course it wasn't the first time they were in pain or feeling unwell. They were used to chip their shell from falling over all the time (though that didn't happen a lot anymore), but that they could just fix by healing themselves with Soul. They also were used to getting cuts or lacerations in their void body, but Father could easily help them out with it, bandaging it or let them absorb more void. They even knew how it felt to throw up, what happened after they had drank Father's coffee, but this had been one or two horrible hours and then it had been over.
They hadn't felt like they were melting, their normally ice cold body having a far higher temperature than normally. In fact, they had started to melt for real, first their shapeshifted fingers had vanished and then their arm was dripping, staining the floor with void and that was the moment when Father had known that something was amiss.
He had stabilized them as best as he could with void and helped them into bed, even providing a bucket to melt into, if it should happen anew. He then had told them that they had contracted an illness and murmured that he needed to do some research and had vanished, leaving them alone.
With them not being able to sign or write, they hadn't been able to tell him that they wanted for him to stay. They were scared. They didn't understand what was happening to them. This was so much worse than an injury. They felt so hot and their whole body ached and they had trouble breathing. They felt like they needed to vomit, but it never happened. Their whole body was in a constant state of pain and there was nothing they could do against it.
Also, being stuck in bed with nothing to do, feeling too nauseous to even attempt to sleep, all they could do was think and they never liked when they thought too much. It reminded them of the time when they still were the Pure Vessel, trying their hardest not to think about anything.
As they laid there, body hot and in pain, not working properly and in danger of literally melting, their thoughts went to a scenario in which they had contained the Radiance. They wondered if containing the infection would feel like this. Would it be like being sick? Would they feel hot and would they ache? Would their body melt and be replaced by the orange chunks of infection? Would they have been forced to not think, never think, not giving her any ground to attack them?
The mere thought that this once was a very possible fate for them, one that they had accepted, even with their own free will, made them shudder despite their body feeling so warm. Worse even, the shuddering didn't stop. How could they feel far too warm and freeze at the same time? That didn't make any sense? If only Father would be here. They wanted for him to tell them that it would be alright, that they would be fine, they wanted to get their horns stroked by him, they didn't want to be alone. They just wanted some comfort.
Even with them not being the Pure Vessel anymore, all these thoughts made them feel so incredibly selfish… they couldn't force Father to be there for them just because they were a little sick. He had so much important work to do. They had to get through this on their own.
They turned around to face the wall and spotted their nail leaning against it. Not the new one that they had gotten during their first trip to the City of Tears, their old one. The small one. The nail they had wielded before they had grown.
Without thinking (for once) Hollow reached out for the nail and pulled it closer to their chest. Instantly, they felt calmer. Holding the nail made them feel safe and secure. Finally, the shuddering stopped and they felt how fatigue and exhaustion took over them.
When Pendry entered the room to check up on them, he found them peacefully asleep with their tiny, discarded nail in their arms. He knew that they still had it, but they normally didn't carry it around with them anymore.
They looked so peaceful and a lot better than earlier, when they had literally melted, so he didn't want to wake them. He sat down on the bed and stroked their horns. Hopefully their sickness wouldn't be so bad. He had done a lot of research on how to heal a void creature that had contracted an illness. He never had to deal with that before.
"I am sorry I had to leave you alone, Hollow.", he murmured, his gaze still on the nail. He wondered for a brief while why they were clutching it like a stuffed toy when realization hit him.
"That was the first item I ever gave to them…"
(Author's note: I kept Hollow's illness unspecified, but it was probably just a common bug flu. Because they are half void, their body does strange things when they are sick, so their symptoms aren't exactly common.
This was the second prompt I filled out for the sicktember, I hope you enjoyed it ^^)