A/N: Some of you have already noticed (cabbages *cough*) that I like to put easter eggs into my story. I promise that one won't be the only one ;).
The doctor came the afternoon of the same day; he was an old man with a kind smile. He looked as if he would collapse any minute, his legs were shaking from the effort to climb up the stairs but he refused any help aside from Berwald carrying his bag. He shuffled into the room, his eyes hidden behind thick milky glasses; I wondered how he could even see like this.
He gestured for Berwald to set his bag down and immediately began to feel Tino's forehead with his long arthritic fingers. Then he sniffed the air around him. I shot Mathias a questioning glance but he just shrugged and continued watching as the doctor put his ear to Tino's chest. Then he leaned over to rummage through his bag and pulling out what looked like a giant magnifying glass. I wondered what he needed that for and watched in slight confusion as he proceeded to pull out Tino's tongue and giving it a thorough look over. And that was supposed to be a skilled doctor?
"It was good of you to get me when you did, that poor boy has severe pneumonia which could very well be deadly." A wave of silent horror suddenly swept over the room, no one had thought that Tino's condition was that worse. "But you can help him right?" Berwald asked and I could clearly see the worry on his face, his hands were clutching around the wet piece of cloth he had removed t make room for the doctor's examination. We all waited anxiously for the doctor's reply, hoping that it would be a positive one.
"Let me see…" He stroked his thin beard absentmindedly while he pulled various items out of his bag. I watched the look of worry on Berwalds face grow stronger with every passing second, I wanted to shake the old man and yell at him to tell us already if he could help Tino or not. Although I didn't know what to do if he couldn't.
"Ah here it is." He finally had pulled out what he was obviously looking for and held out a tiny pouch. "But there is something missing." He said as he checked the contents of the pouch. "You need to get dried willow bark somewhere and grind it into a fine powder and add it. Then you have to make tea with this mixture and make him drink a whole cup every three hours. And he has to drink as much water as possible."
Only then did he seem to notice the worried expressions all around him. "Don't worry." He pulled his wrinkled face into a smile, "he survived until now he will pull through, and he's a fighter." With that he dropped the pouch in Berwalds hand and started to toss all the equipment he previously had pulled out back into his bag. Relief washed over us and I could technically feel the tension rise from the room.
He shuffled over to me, blinking his sacking eyelids at me. "Let's take a look at you son; I heard you were sick too." Before I could object he was already feeling my forehead, his face only inches from mine. Then he pressed his ear to my chest as he had done with Tino, humming softly to himself and listening to whatever there was to listen. Thankfully he didn't inspect my tongue. When he was finished he patted my head and smiled his crooked smile. "You're fine too, just drink something of that willow bark tea and you'll be better in no time." I nodded, I hadn't really felt that ill, despite my coughing but it still felt good to be reassured. Maybe he wasn't that bad of a doctor.
"So now let me take a look at those hands of yours." He unwrapped the bandages and scowled at the sight. "Can you bend your fingers?" He asked and proceeded to see for himself by slowly bending finger after finger, until he was satisfied. "You have to keep moving them as often as possible." He instructed me with a stern look on his face, "This one cut is especially deep, it probably severed some muscles or nerves. It will hurt, but if you don't move them the muscles will grow stiff and you won't be able to use them properly ever again."
My eyes widened, I didn't think that things could end up that bad. I just thought the stiffness was a sign that they were healing and would hopefully go away by itself. "I'll give you a healing salve you can apply, it will soothe the pain a little, but remember, use your hands as much as possible." With that he took a small jar filled with a weird smelling salve from his bag and showed me how to apply it properly. After that he rewrapped the bandages, tightening them even more than Mathias had. "This way you will need more strength to move your fingers, and that will in turn strengthen the reattaching of whatever has been damaged." He certainly was not a bad doctor, I had decided by then.
"Excuse me," Emil asked politely, "where can we get willow bark, do you know that?" The old man looked over to Emil and his eyes suddenly sparkled in excitement. "Oh my, is that a puffin you have there, young man?" Emil took a step back as the old man approached him. "Can I touch him?" He asked, not waiting for an answer and carefully stroked one finger over the bird's head. For a moment his face dissolved in complete bliss. "Thank you, young man you have made an old fool really happy."
Emil looked as confused as the rest of us felt, as he watched the doctor retreat and taking up his bag. "You can find the bark on the spice's market down on the East side, they usually have some around." He slung the bag over his shoulder and walked over to the door, leaving us behind gaping and perplexed, but then Mathias recovered his wits and ran after the man, calling: "Hey wait, you forget your payment." We couldn't hear his reply but moments later Mathias returned to the room with a look of disbelief on him.
"He didn't want any money, he said helping five strapping young lads and being able to touch a puffin was enough payment for him." We looked at each other, silently asking if we could trust this man and his medicine, but in the end we didn't have much of a choice so we decided to better get that willow bark.
This time I was allowed to go out and so Mathias and I went into the city to buy willow bark. I remembered my mother once mentioning its healing properties but willows didn't grow where we lived and so we couldn't get our hands on any to treat her illness. Emil had decided to stay with Berwald this time, mentioning something about his puffin needing quietness.
Mathias of course was excited to get out into town again and he was happy to show me everything that he and Emil had discovered on their first trip this morning. Which consisted of a nearby park, an entire street dedicated to selling various kinds of food, a majestic and intimidating church and the quarter where the local rich and noble people lived, guarded by a small ring wall around the area. It was hard to believe that Mathias actually had been raised in a far bigger city than that. But I didn't mind his enthusiasm, it was rather refreshing.
Mathias had slung one arm protectively around me and eyed everyone who shot so much as a glance in my direction with accusation. I enjoyed the warmth of Mathias' touch for the air was rather cold. Winter was on the doorstep and the air smelled faintly like snow. The merchants on the markets wore thick woolen overcoats to protect them during their long shift in the cold; farmers were selling the products of the year's work and clothiers sold garments for the upcoming winter.
My eyes lingered on the signs hanging above a door that apparently led to a store that offered high quality clothes. The borrowed clothes from Mathias were too loose to provide proper protection from the cold. The wind blew right through the wide openings of the sleeves and collar rising goose bumps all over my skin. Emil had it better, he could borrow some clothes from Tino, they were about the same size, but for me his things were too tight. But Emil could still use something that was just his own, he was uncomfortable like wearing someone else's clothes as much as I was. But I couldn't ask Mathias to spend so much money on us; he had done enough for us after all.
Mathias, who had followed my gaze, suddenly switched directions and strode towards the doors of the store, pulling me along. "Time to get you a shiny new outfit." Before I could even try to get free of his grasp he had already pulled me through the door, which closed behind us with the ringing of a bell, alerting the shop owner to our presence.
"Mathias." I hissed, "What are you doing? I don't have any money." Mathias aimed a wide grin at the shop owner, who had just entered through a door at the back, a man in extravagant clothes and shoulder long blond hair. "Could you throw together a nice little outfit together for my friend here?" He leaned over to whisper in my ear: "Don't worry babe, I got it covered, you just have to get along and look cute." I blushed at Mathias words as he pushed me towards the owner who had started to pull seemingly random pieces of clothing out of racks throwing them over his arm. "You'll like look totally good in a sailor suit." He exclaimed, adding said item to the ever growing pile.
Mathias beamed at the words. "Lukas you remember, you wore a sailor suit on the first day we met, and you even had that adorable hat that goes along with it. We'll definitely buy one of those." I just watched in horror as the pile grew bigger and bigger, until the blonde could barely see over the mountain of clothes in his arms. "Try these on." He commanded as he shoved the whole amount into my arms and pointed towards a secluded area in the back, where customers could change. Then he went off to find some shoes that would go along with whatever combinations he had thrown together.
In the end Mathias didn't buy each and every outfit I tried on, even though the smaller effervescent blonde did his best to spur him on with comments like 'fabulous', 'smashing' and 'gorgeous', but that was mainly contributed to my refusal to let him buy everything, and not to his restraint. And since I had to go through such an ordeal, I decided that he could very well afford some clothes for Emil too. But at least the continuous task of doing and undoing buttons and whatnot proved to be a good exercise or my still stiff hands, albeit it slowed down the whole process.
What happened to 'get me one shiny new outfit'? But Mathias and the shop owner who at some point introduced himself as Feliks seemed to be happy with the purchase, so I supposed it was alright.
Since we had still some way ahead of us until we reached the spice market, we arranged with Feliks that he would deliver our purchases to the inn we were staying in, while we would go and buy the willow bark.
We had wasted enough time with clothes and such, so now we walked through the city in a brisk pace; I was clad in one of the new outfits, a warm ensemble of dark fur trimmed deerskin padded with lamb wool. It was the first time in my life that I wore something as soft and cushy as this and I would have sure as hell never been able to afford it. And I had to admit, I felt handsome from just wearing such fancy clothes. Mathias was grinning beside me, looking at me whenever he could to drink in my appearance.
"I can't wait to fuck you when you're wearing that cute little sailor suit." He said with a low and seductive voice, licking over my earlobe to strengthen his statement. I replied with a sharp elbow to his ribs and a satisfied grin as he yelped in pain. "Unawesome, babe." He whined, but refrained from such commentaries on the rest of the way.
The spice market proclaimed its existence by smell, long before it came to sight. The cold autumn air carried the smell of pepper and rosemary, of cinnamon and fennel, of coriander and chamomile, the pleasant aroma greeting us and welcoming us to the plaza where the spice merchants had lined up their stalls.
We strolled along the stalls at first, neither of us having any idea how to identify willow bark. There were plenty of bark types displayed along with strands of dried plants and multicolored powders. So in the end we decided to ask a friendly looking woman with an enormous belly and a motherly smile. It turned out she didn't only have willow bark, but also the already grinded powder, which she handed us with the explanation on how to correctly prepare the tea. We thanked her and gave her the money, before turning around and making our way back to the others.
Once back at the inn we asked the innkeeper if he could provide us with a tea can and some cups. Every room of the inn had a fire place and a metal device to place in the fire to put things on to heat them up, so we could brew the tea in our rooms.
My and Emil's new clothes had been delivered in the meantime, Emil had already put on his new outfit and relaxed in a chair before the crackling fire place. Mr. Puffin was once not anywhere near his owner, but was cuddled into Tino's chest and sleeping. Tino's face was pale and the light of the fire casted a sickly glow on his sweat beaded forehead. It was due time that he'd get his medicine.
It took a while for the water to heat, so I used the time to mix some of the willow bark into the powder mixture the doctor had given us, but keeping the rest for me. When the water was hot enough I poured the water in two mugs and added a small spoonful of willow bark powder in one, and another small spoonful of medicine in the other. Berwald took the mug for me and blew over it to cool down the temperature before he pulled Tino into an upright position and gently made him drink the fluid.
I drank my own tea, it didn't taste like much, but I could feel it ease the subtle pain in my throat. When we were both finished with our teas I took the cups into the bathroom and rinsed them out, and placed them on the small board above the sink to dry.
Tino had woken up while I was in the other room; his eyes were still glazed with fever bit he blinked at me in recognition as I reentered the room. "Hello Lukas." He said weakly, and I had to smile at his effort to appear strong. "Welcome back Tino." I said and stroke the hand that looked out beneath the covers reassuringly. "How are you feeling?" He had to think for a moment before he answered. "Better, I guess. Truth is, I remember not much aside from weird fever dreams, the others just explained me where we are." His face fell a little, "I'm sorry that I am such a burden." Berwald grunted, I could only guess that it was his way of scolding Tino for saying something like that.
I furrowed my brows in mock exasperation. "Listen young man, we are friends and last time I checked, this is what friends do for each other. So as long as we both know that you would do nothing less for any of us, you better quit saying such nonsense and focus on getting better so that poor Berwald over here can stop playing the mother hen." Tino had to fight a laugh at my words, his forehead creased in silent amusement. "He's right, we're friends and we leave no one behind." Mathias stepped behind me and slapped me on the shoulder, making me wincer under the force he had used.
Berwald said nothing but he put his hand on Tinos and patted it gently. "You should rest some m're." He said, pushing Tino back down onto the cushions and pulling the blanket up to his chin. "We'll leave so that you have some peace." Emil who had reclaimed his bird took Berwalds words as his cue to leave the room, Mathias and I made to follow him. "No." Tino said weakly, "Berwald please stay, I…" he hesitated and looked down on his hands pale against the white sheets, "I don't want to be alone." "S'alright, I'll stay." With that he pulled Emil's chair closer to the bed and sat down, leaning over Tino and kissing him on the forehead. "Rest well Tino." I said before I left the room with Mathias in tow.
"Emil, what about I give you some money and you go down to that bookstore you were interested in earlier and buy yourself some books?" Mathias asked as we were all standing in the corridor. "But Emil can't read." I said and shot Mathias a glance. "Doesn't matter, there are books with pictures, and some that even try to explain how to read." He pulled some coins out of his pockets and gave them to Emil, who actually seemed rather thrilled at the prospect of getting some books. He took a step toward the steps that led downstairs but was held back by my voice. "Lukas, what do you say if someone gives you a generous gift?" "Nah it's fine, I know he appreciates it." Mathias shrugged and proceeded to pull me to our room. Emil had briefly looked back and uttered a small 'thank you' before skipping down the stairs.
Mathias opened the door to our room and pushed me in, before closing it behind us and turning the key. Then he moved to the bags that lied on the bed and began to tear through them until he had found what he was looking for. I watched him with mild curiosity, wondering what he was up to now. A suspicion rose as I saw that the item he had retrieved from one of the bags was nothing else than the blue sailors suit that he had purchased earlier. Mathias pressed the suit in my arms, along with a hat that I didn't notice he had bought until now, and a set of gloves. "I told you." He said, brining his mouth close to my ear, "I'm going to fuck you, while you wear that suit, and I'm not going to stop until you beg for mercy.
This was going to be a long night.
...