Duke had expected aggression, just like they had seen in the rat, and then, eventually, the sweet embrace of death for him at Duchess' soft, alluring paws, sparing him the horror of having to live without her even for a moment… hopefully after all lucidity had left her along with his ability to give her security with his presence and reassurance. The possibility that there could be something worse than that hadn't occurred to him, and yet there was. Of course there was; why would a world cruel enough to inflict rabies upon the most wonderful person that ever lived stop there? His love had held up surprisingly well for a surprisingly long time, long enough to start slowly recovering from her injuries, long enough for him to hope that the rat's attack had somehow left her relatively unscathed… if anyone was strong and resilient enough to somehow find a way to best rabies it would be her… but then she had started walking oddly… staggeringly… the realization that she had once again lost her natural gait, much faster and more elegant than his, had torn through him worse than any teeth or claws could. It had never really stopped, just gotten worse as she spent more and more time resting… or, at least, lying down, it was doubtful that she was truly getting much rest…
She had barely moved in days, only doing so to weakly return his gestures of affection and attempt… mostly unsuccessfully… to get some food and water down, and he was pouring everything in him into making her as comfortable as possible and fighting off the realization that she wasn't going to be getting back up no matter what he did. No matter how much strength and resilience she had. He lay in front of her forlornly, licking her muzzle affectionately and receiving a horrifyingly labored lick in return several seconds later. …Her teeth were right there, and she seemed pretty out of it, she might not realize if he purposefully pricked himself on them… would she even care, after she had fallen into this condition in the first place because of his failure to live up to his duty of protecting her from problems like this, that he had brought into existence?
Yes. Yes, she would, he realized as he met her eyes, shockingly still finding… love? in them despite his failures and unworthiness. Somehow, he had arrived back at the question he had been pondering earlier, before Duchess had been subjected to the rat's attack that should've happened to him instead, that he would've given anything to have happened to him instead; would rabies or starvation make for a more merciful death? It was somehow more painful now, when it applied to him instead of the rat, and one of his options had already been blocked off for him by the pain it would cause his love. And yet, the only remaining option was the more appropriate one anyway, the one he probably would have eventually gone with. Duke had always been on the edge of starvation in his former life in the sewers, before Duchess and the brightness she brought into his life, so in a way it was an old albeit slightly foreign friend to him in the same way the Rats were. Maybe slipping under its influence completely would feel… welcoming, and… safe… it would certainly feel like a blessing once he no longer had the warmth and safety of Duchess to lean on, to curl up in, to live for… Duke rested his muzzle against hers and the ground, closing his eyes and praying to both of their Gods and to the essence of the Rats for good measure that their journeys away from the world of the surface would be painless and together.