Charlie with a day long migraine where everything is just awful… Shayne can’t even sit on the bed and comfort him because any movement is causing Charlie extreme nausea … cool cloths and pressing ice cubes to Charlie’s temples in an effort to ease the pain. Just good shit 👾
CW: migraine/headache, dizziness, nausea (no emeto), guilty/anxious caretaker, mentions of demon possession/conversing with inner demon.
___
“Do you…?” Shayne cleared his throat, his voice groggy from sitting in silence for as long as he and Charlie had. The last time either of them had spoken had been on the road, right around the time that the orbs of burning pain had fully replaced Charlie’s desire to keep up a conversation.
He winced now, drifting back to reality with a horrible, dizzying jolt. It wasn’t even as though Shayne had startled him, or that his voice was particularly loud; it was just that Charlie was in enough pain that it seemed a disservice to himself not to wince.
“Think you can move yet?”
Mustering all of the strength and patience he could find, Charlie let out a sound. It was something like a grunt, something like a sigh, and something like the yowl of a cat whose tail has just been stepped on.
His eyes were closed, his head was cradled in his arms, and he’d been trying so hard to zone out that he’d started to drool on the steering wheel. He was fairly sure he hadn’t fallen asleep, but time and space seemed to have warped since he’d pulled up in the driveway. His arms ached from tensing up to keep his forehead from slipping down onto the centre of the wheel and honking the horn.
Scarily enough, the end of the drive itself was warped. He remembered Shayne asking him if he was okay, but he couldn’t remember how he’d answered, if he’d answered at all. It was a miracle he’d kept the car between the ditches all the way home.
“Love,” Shayne said when there was no tangible answer. “Want to try moving inside?”
“N-no,” Charlie slurred. Even the minimal movement of his jaw sent unsettling vibrations up through his aching head. “Not until the sun’s gone away.”
“That’s hours from now.”
“Mmmm.”
The fabric of Shayne’s clothes made a muffled rustling against his seat as he shifted around. His seatbelt clicked free. Every single sound felt like a needle going through Charlie’s right temple. If it’d been anyone else, he probably would have yelled at them to stop whatever they were doing.
But even when it felt like his brain was exploding, he couldn’t bring himself to yell at Shayne.
He felt a hand brush against his ankle. He whimpered at the mild inconvenience of not knowing what was going on, but wasn’t bothered to open his eyes and see.
“Here… here,” Shayne murmured. “Put these on and keep –”
Charlie Two’s aura splashed the insides of Charlie’s eyelids. “Whatissit?”
“Your sunglasses, love.”
“Oh.” Charlie had been wearing his sunglasses on the drive home, trying to push back the pain and prevent the sun from agitating it any further.
He’d wanted nothing more than to enthusiastically bury his head in his arms, so as soon as he’d engaged the parking brake, he’d flung the sunglasses into the footwell.
“Put them on. Keep your eyes shut, too.” Shayne pressed the sunglasses into Charlie’s hand. “And you can hold onto me until we’re inside.”
Forehead still anchored to the steering wheel and eyes squeezed shut, Charlie slipped the sunglasses over the bridge of his nose. He flinched as Shayne got out the passenger side door, every click and thump once again swelling into a symphony of suffering before it reached his eardrums.
The door slamming shut almost made Charlie weep. The driver’s side door being opened was almost as loud, but softer.
He swallowed hard and tried not to scrunch his eyes up too much. He didn’t need any extra tension in his face and head, thank you very much. His eyelashes fluttered helplessly as he felt Shayne put his hands on his arm.
“Let’s go, love.”
Charlie leaned into his boyfriend’s body and let himself slide out of the car like he was made of liquid. He didn’t even care about closing the car door. Let the piece of shit get stolen. Charlie didn’t care. The way he was feeling, chances were that as soon as he was face-down in a dark room, he’d never want to leave again anyway, so he didn’t need a car from this point on.
His knees tried to buckle beneath him as he walked, and he gripped Shayne’s shoulders for support. His head was swimming. His eyeballs felt like they’d been propped up on a blow-up mattress and sent out to sea.
He murmured wordlessly, forehead searching for Shayne’s collarbone, as they reached the front doorstep. Shayne’s hand felt along Charlie’s pockets until he found the key to let them both inside.
Charlie all but tripped as the rubber shoe of his shoe caught on the way through.
“I’ve got you, I’ve got you. You want the sofa?”
Charlie shook his head, grimacing nauseously as he glanced towards the stairs. Opening his eyes wasn’t quite as intense an ordeal now that he was out of the sun’s glare. It was a long way up, but it’d be worth it. He didn’t want to curl up on the scratchy sofa cushions; he wanted to sprawl face-down on the cool bedsheets.
His legs were thankfully steadier now, possibly steeled by their mission to get him to bed. He went faster than Shayne, eventually slipping away from his support and gripping the banister instead. By the time he reached the landing, a flurry of what seemed like sun spots convened in his eyeballs, and his instinct was to bend over with his hands against his knees and groan.
“Are you gonna puke?”
Charlie shook his head.
“Okay. Well, when you’re ready, you’re almost there.”
Charlie blew air out softly through pursed lips before straightening. His body overestimated itself and he almost simultaneously threw his back out and sent himself hurtling backwards down the stairs.
“Whoa. Fuck.” Shayne’s hands gripped his shoulders again, keeping him in place until the swaying stopped. “You okay?”
“No,” Charlie exhaled, taking a step towards the bedroom. “But I’m good.”
“You’re not okay, but you’re good?”
“Yes.”
“Walk me through that one?”
“I don’t think I can.”
“Fair enough. Nearly there.”
When the bedspread came into sight, Charlie flopped down with far too much of his own weight. His belly roiled as it hit the mattress, his head spinning as the whole room seemed to bob and sway. Closing his eyes did nothing but disorient him even further. He could have been lying flat on the ceiling with one leg dangling around the back of his neck, and he wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
He waited for the feeling to pass.
The mattress bobbed again as Shayne sat down on the other side of the bed. His fingertips were cold as he brushed them across the back of Charlie’s neck, just below the hairline. The stab of pleasure through his body only heightened the pain though, and he rocked his head from side to side to shake away the touch.
“Sorry,” Shayne whispered, nearly inaudibly.
Waves of pain still thrashed in Charlie’s skull, rolling down his whole body and making his stomach flip over like it’d just been kicked. He swallowed over the taste of acid and tried to suppress the shiver that took hold of his spine. It took him a few seconds to realise that the nausea was because of Shayne; the mattress was tilting towards his weight, making Charlie’s stomach feel like it was dropping through outer space.
He didn’t give himself the chance to feel guilty about what he was about to do; he was going to throw up within a matter of seconds if his belly didn’t find some peace, stat.
“Can you…?” Charlie swallowed, making an audible gulping sound in the back of his throat. He prodded uneasily at Shayne’s leg, the closest body part to him. “Get – get off the bed? Get off the bed. Please.”
Shayne shuffled off the mattress, flinching away from Charlie’s jabs. “Whoa, what’d I do?”
“Sitting. Swaying…” Charlie dragged his arm up over the back of his head. His tummy no longer felt like he’d taken it on a roller coaster, but the relief wasn’t quite as relieving as he’d hoped. “Sick,” he finally murmured, his tongue thick with saliva.
“Fuck. I’m sorry. Um,” Shayne mumbled. “I’ll get you a bowl or something.”
“Thank you,” Charlie whined. His vision was swirling, even with very little light penetrating his eyelids. Shades of purple and indigo throbbed back and forth, stirring up a ghostly touch of motion sickness.
Are you doing this? He groggily decided to interrogate his demon counterpart, who seemed to shudder at the accusation.
Nope. This is all you, flesh bag.
Shut up. I’m suffering here.
Oh, and you don’t think I suffer when you suffer?
Charlie groaned weakly. His stomach twisted without any regard for how much pain his head was in, and his attention drifted uncontrollably between the two. He took a deep, steady breath to try to clear his brain of its dreadful haze; a careful swallow to combat his churning belly. A soft whimper erupted when neither decided to cooperate…
“Charlie,” Shayne’s voice suddenly whispered.
Charlie flinched, not because Shayne had spoken loudly, but because he hadn’t heard him return. Shayne usually moved quietly to begin with, but maybe Charlie had also blacked out for a few minutes without realising. He let out a low whimper to affirm that he was conscious, that he’d heard him.
“There’s water here, and some – some of those painkillers you take, but you said you felt sick, so – so maybe not those yet? Um. Brought you a bowl, in case you need to throw up. Fuck. Sorry I’m talking so much.” Shayne paused to take a breath. “Last thing before I shut up: I brought a cold cloth. Just in case you think it’d be good for your head.”
Charlie sighed shakily into his pillow. He pried his eyes open long enough to confirm that Shayne did, indeed, seem to have a damp cloth in his hand. “Yes, please. That.”
“’S’it okay for me to touch you?”
“Mmhmm.”
The moment of anticipation seemed to go on longer than it should. Charlie’s head throbbed from all angles. He whimpered as the muscles on the back of his neck were slowly enveloped by a pleasantly cold weight; Shayne must have held the cloth by the corners and lowered it. The iciness crept into his vertebrae and seemed to pluck at the knots of tension in his skull.
It wasn’t even clear if the feeling was relief, or just the pain being dispersed from its original spots, but he’d take it.
“That okay?”
Charlie mustered up the urge to open his eyes again, squinting to protect them. “Mmmm. Can you do the sides of my head?”
“Yeah.” Shayne sank down to the floor and leaned against the bedside locker, despite the fact that the knobs must have been digging into him. “You want to get closer to the edge, so I don’t have to pull on the mattress?”
Charlie wriggled forward, like the world’s most sluggish worm, until his cheek was barely on the pillow anymore. The fresh patch was cooler, though not as blissful as the cloth.
Shayne had removed it from his neck and folded it up into a messy little cube before pressing it softly against Charlie’s temple. His expression was deadly serious as his eyes scanned Charlie’s face, eyebrows set in a frown.
“Hey.” Charlie felt a weak half-smile float to the surface, like a petal that had been released underwater. “I felt sick because of the headache. Not ‘cause of you.”
“Ssshh. It’s all good.”
“Mm.” Charlie let his eyes flutter shut. The flashes of colour inside his head were muddier now, and as the pain fluctuated, the sick feeling in his belly started to dissipate, too. A lukewarm clamminess was already creeping into his temples though, chasing out the tingling relief.
“It’s not cold anymore.”
Shayne lifted the cloth from Charlie’s face and made a low sound in his throat. He peeled himself away from the locker. “Didn’t last very long. Hang on, I’ll be back.”
"Okay. I'll be here."
He listened until he could no longer hear Shayne on the stairs.
Without the pressure on his temple – or even just Shayne’s presence in the room – to focus on, the swirling motions in his brain began to resurface, as did the churning in his belly. Charlie lifted his head and raised one arm to get the water from the bedside table. His joints almost felt rusty and every inch was agony, but his tongue and throat thanked him once he’d taken a few sips.
He settled back down on the mattress. A few quiet seconds passed before his tummy let out a little gurgle, informing him that the water had been received and – hopefully – appreciated.
Shayne came back without announcing himself, but the air in the room seemed to change, and Charlie knew he was there without opening his eyes again. His ear rang with a high-pitched sound as he sensed something coming close to his head.
And then there was a breath of heaven enveloping the side of his skull, and Charlie could have wept. Instead, he frowned slightly, lips coming apart in wordless appreciation.
“How’s that?”
“Mmm. Fuck. Yes,” Charlie sighed. “What is that?”
“Ice cube inside the cloth.”
“Ugh. Good idea.”
“Thank you.”
The calming waves of thought took a little dip, overlapping with CT's consciousness. “Wait, did you –?”
“Are you seriously about to ask whether or not I filled the tray back up?”
“… Um.”
“Because I did. Your future iced coffees are safe.”
“You’re the best.”
"I don't think you're gonna be drinking coffee for the rest of the day, though," Shayne added gently.
Charlie swallowed. There was no acidic reflux or nausea since he'd gotten some water down. But yes, Shayne was most likely right; based on past experiences, this headache was primed to keep him pinned to the bed for several hours.
He was just glad that he wasn't alone.
48 notes
·
View notes
Hi, I'm the same anon who was 8 weeks on t. About to 10 now. And im also the artist who ran the angel Instagram.
Wish I could show my face but, with my current situation, I am unable to nor do I wish to be hounded by vivs cult.
Running the angel Instagram, I felt like the other users, [mainly the one who ran val ] took their chance to bully me through that account.
Not oy that, but ideas I had for angels Instagram would be questioned while others who practically do as they wanted. Now I won't lie, maybe I had gotten carried away with ideas like the note of angel and husk arc where angel and husk were having a lil romance drama.
Or that I had gotten a friend outside of the project to run cheeri bomb. That I should have known better. I just wanted to share the same fun I was having with a friend.
But I want to clarify that I did get permission before having cherry added. I asked.
As for how I lost the angel account, ah, well blonde [the really jerky user who enjoyed the fact I was took scared to join call when she hoped on] asked for my pass and information on the account and when I was 'let go' , I found out I was other blocked or the account that belonged to angel dust was removed entirely. Greatly upset by this and I am unsure if I can ever get that back. As for the art of it, I'm sure I have it sent in my discord. I don't mind sharing what I have left of it for y'all to use as y'all please. Just be warned, it's old art and it probably doesn't hold up like it use to.
Alien anon 👽 [new tag so you know which anon is me. ]
Hi, hello, first of all know that I'm completely starstruck and that I wish Angel Dust was your character and not Viv's. Also, your take on Huskerdust was lovely and remains to this day the only time I've ever really shipped those two.
Not surprised to hear Viv was terrible to you, slightly surprised to hear the other Instagram accounts were too. In both cases, you deserved better, and thank you for speaking out now.
(And yes, whatever art you want to share with us would be very welcome and appreciated. And by that I mean I'm gonna be on it like apples thrown into a pig pen.)
74 notes
·
View notes