Feeling Sick?, a honkai: star rail fanfic

Stelle couldn't sleep.

She wasn't someone who was plagued with insomnia but for some reason she couldn't sleep. Her mind raced too fast. Her thoughts refused to calm down. Her heart did not want to slow down. Her breath refused to steady.

Despite her head aching, despite her eyes becoming too heavy to keep open, her body refused to sleep.

And she knew exactly why, but it agitated her just thinking about it.

So she stood up from her bed and opened the curtains. The gray rocks of the underworld greeted her vision.

The hustle and bustle of the underground city had calmed down during this hour, that isn't to say that no one was awake, just a significantly less amount. The reason not only being just how late it is, but also because the overworld had finally opened up to the underworld just a few days ago.

While she's a humble girl (when she wants to be) she couldn't help but take pride in the fact that citizens had her to thank for that.

She released a sigh, and finally decided what she wanted– no, needed– to do.

She held out her hand and grasped an object.

Her bat appeared in all its glory.

Maybe it's weird to admit it but this weapon felt right in her hands. It belonged to her and only her. This bat is her and she is this bat.

Her head still ached and her eyes were still heavy, but despite that she took a swing, and then another.

She kept her eyes on the bat and tightened her grip with every swing. She heard the sound of the wind flow past it with every swing.

"Boink." She whispered.

Bostonian blood flowed through this trailblazer—-

She stopped. Her headache remained but her thoughts were slightly clearer.

Why was she doing this? No idea, but if her body refused to sleep then why not just listen to it?

Actually, that's probably a bad idea.

She sighed and ignored the hollow feeling in her soul when she let the bat disappear.

She didn't have anything that could help with sleep, no sort of medication in the room nor hotel.

Medication, to help sleep?

"Natasha!"

A lightbulb lit up in her mind, and she changed out of the pajamas that the hotel gave to their guests.

She waved at a few people– the only ones that were awake and walking in the underground city at this hour– while exiting the hotel and walked to Natasha's clinic.

She felt the ache in her head begin to tighten. Her thoughts became more muddled as she continued to walk. Her eyelids were heavy but her eyes refused to close them.

She walked up the steps to the front door of Natasha's clinic. She didn't know how long she had been walking as her sense of time had become nonexistent, but she was still aware enough to know where she was.

She rang the doorbell and then knocked on the door three times.

She didn't know why she did that when the door was unlocked, but it didn't really matter anyway.

After a couple seconds she thought she heard footsteps, and then her thoughts were proven true a couple more seconds later when lo and behold, the great clinic of the underworld opened the door.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

Natasha spoke in her usual calm and caring tone, yet her eyes seemed devoid of emotion. Like a machine simply repeating a recording. Stelle couldn't see the doctor's mouth behind her face mask.

"W-what?"

Too tired to understand any of this, Stelle held her hands to her head with a groan. Her headache grew in intensity.

"I asked if you're alright." Natasha's usual mature and soothing voice asked.

And then suddenly it calmed down. The headache was still there of course, but it wasn't as intense as it was just a second ago.

Stelle opened her eyes to see Natasha without the face mask, a frown present on the woman's face. This time her gaze was filled with care and concern.

"C-can't," Stelle tried to gather her thoughts, but the headache still persisted. "Can't sleep."

"Oh dear," Natasha held her hand against Stelle's forehead. "You aren't burning up…"

Natasha released a silent gasp when she finally remembered where they were– her mind too focused on caring for the trailblazer.

"Here, come in, let's get you to a comfortable bed."

"Hm, thank– thank you."

Natasha gently wrapped an arm around Stelle and helped her walk to the next floor. They got to an empty hospital bed with little issues.

"Here, lay down," Stelle did so, quickly and sloppily placing herself under the covers, not even bothering to take off her clothes or shoes.

"I'll go get some melatonin, and while it doesn't seem to be that bad yet, I have some stuff that can help with migraines. I'll be right back." With a pat to the head, Natasha quickly moved away, leaving Stelle alone in the bed.

Then her headache grew again.

She groaned, pushing her hands into her forehead. The pain grew in intensity and her mind began to hurl. She squeezed her eyes shut.

And then it stopped.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

She didn't even notice Natasha's voice as her mind cleared. Her eyelids were no longer heavy and her eyes were no longer burning. Her headache completely vanished.

"W-wha–?" She could only stutter. While her mind was clear she still did not register the events around her just yet.

That was until she heard it again.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

Natasha's soothing, mature, and caring voice echoed throughout the room and through her mind. That question that she heard Natasha ask to new patients plenty of times.

But why was she still asking this? Natasha knew Stelle, Stelle knew her.

Stelle hopped out of the bed as quick as she can–

And almost tripped as the room turned white, as if all color seemingly vanished.

A song began to play in the distance, growing louder by the second. The strumming of acoustic guitars and violins. A pleasant melody grew louder, but that pleasant melody was accompanied by a dreadful feeling.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

"Where are you?!" Stelle asked. "Natasha?!" Her voice filled with concern, and an etch of fear creeped up her spine.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

Stelle took multiple steps in random ways, and her head snapped in multiple directions, searching for the source of the noises.

"Natasha?!"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

Finally, the doctor appeared before Stelle. Her attire is the exact same, her face mask covering her mouth, and her eyes devoid of all emotion. Everything about this was wrong.

"Natasha," Stelle spoke slowly, her heart beginning to beat a mile a minute. "I don't like what's happening, Natasha."

She took a step forward, and her voice subconsciously raised. "What's going on, Natasha?"

She kept repeating the doctor's name, and she didn't know why, but it felt as if she just had to keep repeating the doctor's name.

Greetings, this woman is Natasha, an esteemed doctor of the underworld, are you perhaps suffering from an illness?

The doctor took a step forward. That single footstep echoed like a gunshot. Stelle visibly flinched backwards.

The doctor took another step forward, her footsteps echoed again. In return, Stelle took a step backwards. In any other situation she probably would have ran directly towards the woman, but in this scenario.

Her body screamed at her, do not get any closer to her.

Natasha took another step forward, and then she ran. Her speed was so fast that Stelle's reaction seemed slow in comparison. Almost tripping over her own feet, Stelle snapped around and sprinted as fast as she could.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

Natasha's voice echoed again and again. The calming melody played a segment on repeat.

Over and over.

Again and again.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

Certain death approached towards Stelle at an alarming speed. Her legs ran as fast as her heart beat. Her breath loud from the constant movement.

A thousand thoughts swam through her mind, this time not accompanied with pain but instead with panic.

What the hell is happening? Why the hell is it happening?

Someone help me.

"Stelle."

In her panic she did not hear another voice enter. She kept running, even when her lungs began to sting she kept running. Even with her legs becoming numb she kept running.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

"Stelle!"

The other voice grew. It only took a few seconds before it rivaled the other voice.

It was the same voice– that of Natasha's.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natasha, an underworld doctor. Feeling sick?"

"Stelle!"

The voice calling her name came from in front of her. She didn't know what it was but as if by instinct she held out her hand forward.

"Help!"

"Stelle–!"

"Gah–?!"

Stelle shot upwards with her hand facing forwards, her palm spread open as if it's attempting to grab for something.

"Ah." The Underworld air filled her lungs when she took a deep breath.

"That, was just a dream?" She muttered. What kind of dream was that? How the hell did it even happen?

She didn't know, and to be completely honest she didn't want to know.

"Are you alright?" Stelle turned her head towards that familiar voice. It was the same voice that haunted her yet it was entirely different. Natasha's tone was once again filled with care and her eyes filled with concern.

"Y-yeah," Stelle hesitantly nodded, "I think I'm alright."

She looked up, her gaze happening to move out the closest window. The lights filled the underground city and if Stelle listened closely she could hear the rumbling of footsteps and the chatter of people.

"What—" She spoke, hesitating for a second, "What happened?"

She looked at Natasha.

"You fell asleep as soon as you laid down in bed, and seriously…" Natasha released a huff. "You really must have been extremely tired, you've slept for eighteen hours straight."

"Really?" Stelle stared confused, even in that nightmare she could have guessed that she was only there for a few minutes.

"I think you just need to have a better sleeping schedule." Natasha advised. She moved her hand towards a pill bottle on the cabinet next to the hospital bed. She held it towards Stelle, who grasped it gently, the word 'melatonin' written in bold on the front. "Here, if you need some more, give me a call."

"T-thank you."

"Of course." The face mask was not on Natasha, so Stelle could clearly see her comforting and bright smile. "You can stay here if you need some more rest, but I'll go tell your friends that you're awake."

"Alright, thank you." Stelle repeated her thanks again, and Natasha responded with a nod and a hum.

As the doctor walked out, Stelle threw her head back into her pillow, holding an arm up to her forehead.

What a horrid dream.

(A/N) This came to me in a dream. Get it out of my head Get it out of my head Get it out of my head Get it out of my head Get it out of my head Get it out of my head Get it out of my head