Hi! ^^
I know, I know, I'm late! . I wasn't able to finish all the stories on time, I'm sorry :( "^^
But I'll post them anyway! Even if a couple of days later! ;D
So please, enjoy! ^^
UNEXPECTED REACTION
Escanor was, as usual, helping the Mage in her lab, he was sorting and dusting her various things around the room, while she was occupied at her cauldron with an experiment.
He had noticed that her movements had gradually slowed down, and that puzzled him, enough that he was looking at her in confusion.
Suddenly he heard her make a strange noise and then saw her run to the bathroom, it was clear that she was throwing up by the sound of it.
He was frozen in shock for a second, he had never seen or heard of her getting sick, then moved into action, following her and finding her kneeling in front of the toilet. Immediately he searched for a clean cloth, poured water on it, and then came to Merlin's side, pushing her hair back and passing the fresh cloth on her nape and forehead.
When she was finished, he gave her a glass of water to rinse her mouth, and then she leaned back on him, making the man almost jump, but he restrained himself and concentrated on the Mage, from this position he could now make out the dark circles under her beautiful eyes, and her sickly pale complexion, she seemed exhausted.
"Escanor…"
"Miss Merlin! H-how do you f-feel? How c-can I help you?"
His tone was urgent, he was very worried.
"I feel...awful. I don't know what came over me."
The Lion frowned, if she didn't know then it could be serious.
"D-do you think y-you can walk?"
He wanted to put her to bed as soon as possible, and then call for help.
She didn't seem very inclined to move.
He had no other choice. He took off his glasses, growing immediately in size and strength, took the sick Mage gently in his arms and brought her to bed in the adjoining room. He made sure to not shake her too much, leaning her down and covering her with a sheet.
He touched her forehead lightly, she was warm, then quickly went out of the room to fetch a glass of water, a wet cloth and a basin, in case she would need to throw up again.
"Please, stay put until I come back."
He asked, almost pleading, while laying the cool cloth on her forehead.
Merlin's eyes were lucent with fever, she was breathing hard, and could only nod at his words; she didn't have the strength to disobey him anyway.
Satisfied by that, the Lion quickly exited her quarters and went in search of the other Sins, and specifically King and princess Elizabeth.
He had to hurry, he didn't want to leave the Mage alone for more than a few minutes.
The Lion sprinted and jumped down the stairs, hoping to find the others at the main floor of the tavern; not everyone was there but, luckily for him, his two preys were.
"King! Princess Elizabeth! Please, come with me, something's wrong with Merlin!"
The ones present at the moment followed him immediately, Escanor was always worried about the Mage, but he had never looked so panicked before, and had never forgotten the 'miss' either, so they knew that, whatever was going on, it was serious.
When they entered her bedroom it was clear also to the others that something was very wrong with her.
Elizabeth and King ran quickly to her side, followed by Escanor, Gowther was staying away so to not get in the way, while Meliodas frowned, looking at the situation from the door, he had never seen the Boar like this, not even when she had been attacked by Zeldris, and he was worried for his longtime friend.
"Merlin! Merlin dear, What is wrong? How are you feeling?"
Elizabeth was also very concerned, taking the other woman's hand in hers.
"Big Sis-Sis…"
She opened her eyes, her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing hard, she felt hot and cold at the same time.
King put a hand on her forehead, and both he and the princess concentrated their powers to try and understand what was wrong.
After some time they stopped, looking at each other and frowning slightly. The Lion didn't miss that.
"What? What is it?"
The goddess turned towards him, a serious expression on her face.
"Sir Escanor, what exactly happened?
He had to rein himself in to not begin shouting that he wanted to know what was wrong with the woman that he loved, but he rationalized with himself that his answer to her question may have proved useful to determine the cause of the Boar's sickness.
"She was doing some experiment, as always, when I noticed that her movements were slowing down, and right after that she was in the bathroom, throwing up."
"Oh my! Did you get her pregnant Escanor?"
Meliodas tried to lift the mood, but he didn't receive the responses that he wished for, it was clear to everyone that that wasn't the case. Too bad.
Merlin wanted to frown at the Captain, and opening her eyes she saw the Lion doing just that for her, so she sighed and closed them again. She felt totally awful.
The princess and the fairy seemed pensive.
"Merlin, did you use some strange ingredients? Something that you hadn't ever used before?"
Elizabeth asked her, thoughtful and worried about the raven haired woman.
The Mage was having a hard time concentrating, but tried her best.
"A new plant… I think… never seen that before… but it felt… familiar in a way."
"Not even in the Fairy King's forest?"
She nodded, and that had King surprised, he was sure that if there were strange unknown plants they would be there, but the Mage knew them all, he knew.
"So?"
Escanor was becoming impatient.
"She seemed to have a strange allergic reaction."
Answered the fairy, worried by how strong a reaction that was.
"She's feeling this bad because it's affecting not only her body, but also her magic."
Elizabeth's words shocked all of them.
The Lion was watching the woman he loved suffering, he wanted and needed to do something for her, to cure her.
"What can we do?"
He asked, trying to swallow the panic and fear he was feeling.
"I'm not sure, I would need to see this plant, maybe we could also ask the druids."
"I don't see any strange plants here!"
Called Meliodas who had gone immediately to her workstation to see what he could find.
Even the goddess seemed out of options after that.
In the meantime Escanor could stay still no more, and had neared the bed, kneeling beside Merlin, wiping her face with a clean cool cloth; she smiled briefly without opening her eyes, she knew it was him there besides her.
"Oh! Wouldn't that be a plant with green and yellow leaves, and violet and blue little flowers in grapples, would it?"
Asked suddenly Gowther, as if he had remembered something.
"... yes…?"
Answered back the Mage, frowning slightly at that.
"Then it's simple. More than 3000 years ago it was more common, but the Belialuin's wizards had it eradicated, it seemed that it had strange effects on them."
Everyone was listening to him, but they had a confused look on their faces.
"Essentially they were allergic to it. And it disrupted their magic."
The people present were all in shock, Merlin most of all, she didn't remember anything about it, and said as much.
"Of course not! They wiped it out when you were too little and still locked inside the city. I know about it because the late Gowther told me these things and gave me his memories and knowledge."
The Goat made one of his strange poses, satisfied to have been able to help out.
"Do you know of any cure, Gowther?"
Asked hopefully the Lion, who was absentmindedly caressing one of the Mage's hands between his own.
"Of course! It's a bit tricky to find the ingredients, but we should have no problems collecting them."
There was a collective relieved sigh from everyone in the room.
"Then we should go right now!"
The Captain was grinning now that they had a solution.
They decided that Elizabeth would stay with Merlin, to monitor her, while the four other Sins would go to retrieve the ingredients.
Before he left her side, Escanor looked at Merlin with a loving look, then kissed first her hand and then her forehead.
"Wait for me, I'll be back with what you need."
He whispered with determination. His gestures and words had the Mage's heart skip a beat and then beating even faster, she felt warm but in a good way.
She nodded, smiling weakly.
"...come back...safely…"
Her words may have had a more profound meaning, but he couldn't waste any more time.
Then they were gone.
Thanks to Oslo they were able to travel to all the places that Gowther pointed to, in very little time, and gathering the ingredients hadn't been difficult, seeing as Escanor had some steam to burn and that some of the ingredients were living monsters that needed to be put down.
Anyway, they took at least a couple of hours to take them all, and then hurried immediately back.
They arrived on the main floor, and the Lion took the stairs two or three at a time to go back to her room.
"Merlin?!"
He was fearing for her life, he was almost panicking, hoping that he wasn't too late.
Inside the room Elizabeth looked at him with real worry in her eyes, and was very relieved to see them all returning.
"You're back, good! We must hurry!"
She left her position beside the bed and went with the others to prepare the antidote.
"Please, stay with her Sir Escanor."
After that he was left alone with the sick woman.
He slowly approached the bed: she was even paler than before, and looked quite exhausted. He kneeled beside her, taking one of her hands in his own, kissing it and leaning his cheek on it.
"... Escanor…"
Even saying his name seemed to make her more tired, she forced herself to open her eyes to look at him, she needed to see him.
"I'm here Merlin, we brought the ingredients, you'll be better soon."
He tried to smile for her, but seeing her like this, twisted his stomach painfully, so it was more of a grimace than anything else. He could see the fear in her eyes.
The Mage was so grateful to have him with her, she couldn't die, she had too many things that she still had to do, and she promised herself that the first thing she would do if...when she was better, regarded this wonderful man, always at her side.
For the Lion the preparation of the cure took a very long time, in reality it was only ten minutes, the others had worked quickly and fervently.
Elizabeth came back in the room with a vial, full of a strange liquid changing colour.
"Merlin, you have to sit up and drink this, come on."
The Boar was evidently too weak to do anything, so Escanor had no other choice: he took the vial with the antidote, drank it, slipped a hand behind Merlin's head to angle her in the right position opening her mouth just a little, and then pressed their lips together, passing the liquid from his mouth to hers, making her swallow it.
The others in the room were very shocked by his initiative.
"Uuuhh! That's The way to, literally, kiss someone better!"
Joked Meliodas, whistling in surprise and respect for the other man.
The Lion made sure that she swallowed every last drop and then broke the contact, leaning her gently back down, caressing her cheek.
"Now we can only wait for it to work its way."
Said the princess, and everyone left the room, leaving only Escanor to watch over the Boar.
He sat himself on the bed beside her, taking again her hand in his, alert to every minimal change in her, now he could only hope that they hadn't been too late, and that she would soon get better.
"If only it was possible, I would take all of your sufferings and pains within me, freeing you of every torment that assails you, if that would mean that I get to see your radiant smile just for one other time."
He whispered those words against her knuckles, kissing her hand, never breaking contact with her.
"That would mean nothing if you weren't with me anymore."
Those words visibly startled him, he looked up at her face to see her open eyes regarding him with affection, and a beautiful smile on her lips.
"Merlin! How do you feel? Are you okay?!"
She seemed still weak and exhausted, but was breathing normally and was able to converse and keep her eyes open.
"I feel better already, that concoction was very strong if it's working so quickly."
The Lion sighed in relief, kissing her hand again, before realizing what he was doing and dropping it on the bed immediately, blushing furiously.
She frowned, she felt the loss of his touch, and slowly she moved her hand, arriving to touch his leg.
He seemed surprised by that.
"Thank you for saving me, Escanor."
Her hand was slowly moving again, searching, until he moved his own to make contact, and she grasped his fingers, squeezing them, gratefully.
"It wasn't only me, everyone helped."
He was still blushing, but was letting her play with his hand until their fingers were comfortably intertwined.
"I know, but you were the first one to help me."
He decided to not answer that, he knew that she was stubborn, and didn't really want to argue with her on that one, he was just so happy that she was alright.
There was a long moment of silence, neither felt the need to break it, they were just serenely basking in each other's presence.
Merlin was the first to speak.
"Why, instead of taking all of my pains and sufferings, we don't share both mine and yours between us?"
The Lion's eyes opened wide in shock at that, she couldn't mean it...could she?
But looking right in the depths of her eyes he had no doubt that she was serious...and blushing too!
He cleared his throat, trying to recall his wits and thoughts.
"I don't know, you seem to be a reckless one..!"
He answered, joking, trying to hide his smile.
The Boar gasped, seeming insulted by his words.
"How could I have known that I was allergic to that vicious plant, and that it had these kinds of effects on mages?!"
She was pouting, and he could only think that she was absolutely adorable.
"I think you'll need me precisely because you get into trouble if I leave you on your own."
He affirmed seriously, but his smile gave him away.
The Mage chuckled at that, reaching for him, to make him lean down towards her.
"Then it's perfect, since you love coming to my rescue."
Her eyes were shining cheerfully, she was enjoying their banter very much.
"Well, I can't deny that, since there's nothing about you that I don't love."
It was the most that he could come up with as a confession as he was, but Merlin just smiled more, seeming pleased.
"I think you'll have to show me, to convince me."
Her words were almost whispered on his lips, they could both feel the other's breath against them.
Escanor didn't need another invitation, and swiftly kissed her, with everything that he had, trying to convey all his feelings for her in that single kiss.
Merlin was totally convinced after that.
But maybe another kiss would help, and another, and another...
I hope it was worth the wait! :D As will the other two stories that I'll be posting as soon as possible! I promise! "^^
We're almost at the end of this magnificent Escalin Week! Keep enjoying every work until the very end, and even more after that! ;D 3