#i promised him god damn it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

angstyaches · 2 years

Note

Maybe a fic with Shayne where he has one of the worst stomach aches he’s experienced… full cramping and unable to stand or move, with Charlie only as a caretaker. Bonus points if it’s the middle of the night and Charlie doesn’t even need to ask before Shayne is begging for painkillers bc it’s so bad. Sickness purely caused from the pain. Charlie patient as always just offering all he can with stomach rubs and heat packs and trying to help

CW: demon eating!! supernatural stomach ache, emeto. Pretty damn angsty, if I do say so myself.

___

Charlie put his phone down after cancelling the TV show he’d been casting.

Shayne frowned up at him, his eyes dulled by the pain that he hadn’t mentioned with words yet, but which his body was recounting to Charlie in little ways.

His head was resting in Charlie’s lap and he was curled up with a hot water bottle. He hadn’t asked for it, but Charlie knew it often helped a lot with the pain after Shayne had been hunting. And when he’d carried it in and rested it gently against Shayne's tummy, he hadn’t objected in the slightest.

“Thought you really wanted to watch that,” Shayne said weakly. It was true; the new episode had been released three days ago, and Charlie hadn’t stopped going on about wanting to watch it before he accidentally saw any spoilers.

“I’ll watch it tomorrow,” Charlie frowned, scratching the top of Shayne’s head. “I’m more worried about you right now, lovely. Does it hurt really badly?”

Shayne quietly rolled over onto his back, looking as though he was going to deny it at first. His hand pressed hard into the front of his t-shirt. He caught Charlie’s eye and gave him a pleading look.

Since he’d learned a little more about his body’s capabilities and stopped overdoing it, it’d become a little easier for Shayne to hunt. Consuming demons was still a drawn-out, painful task, but it’d been a while since a demon had taken him down this hard.

Charlie’s heart took a sickening dive. He placed his hand over Shayne’s.

“Do you feel sick?”

Shayne shook his head. His eyes trailed downward, watching Charlie’s hand. He moved his own hand out of the way.

“It just hurts?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Okay. That’s good.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah, like… if you don’t feel like you’re going to throw up, maybe we can get some painkillers in you.” Charlie’s hand glided gently back and forth over Shayne’s belly. “And if they kick in before we go to bed, maybe you can sleep through the night and the pains won’t be as bad in the morning.”

Shayne began to twitch his fingers one at a time, as though counting through the hours required for demon displacement. When he looked up at Charlie again, there was a glimmer in his eyes which made Charlie smile.

He recognised that look because he’d felt it come over himself so many times before.

The this is why I love you look.

Charlie’s heart gave a little flutter. “I’ll go get you some of the good stuff, and then we can go cuddle in bed.”

“Thank you.”

___

Charlie had hoped that rubbing Shayne’s stomach as they cuddled in bed would have helped his boyfriend relax enough to fall asleep. The flaw with that plan was that rubbing Shayne’s tummy also tended to make Charlie fall asleep, and he was the first one to drop off.

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed before he was stirred from his sleep by the sound of light panting. His brain flicked to life, much more quickly than it usually would.

They had been spooning, but Shayne had slipped out of his arms at some point, putting a few inches of space between them. From his silhouette in the dark, he seemed to have his forehead pressed hard against his pillow while curling up on his knees. The blanket was twisted and slipping off his back. His arms were curled, locked around his stomach as he gasped for breath.

Charlie shifted a little closer, reaching our a hand to let him know he was awake. He tried to brush his hair back from his face, and found it matted and tangled. He’d obviously been thrashing around for a while before Charlie had stirred.

“Hey,” Charlie said softly. “Still bad, huh?”

A wordless whimper was his only response.

“Can I –?”

“Please,” Shayne whispered, not even letting Charlie finish making his offer.

Goosebumps tickled Charlie’s arms. God, anything. Anything you need, my poor, sweet angel.

“More painkillers.”

Oh. Biting back a grimace, Charlie sat up and glanced over at the digital alarm clock. It’d only been about an hour since they’d laid down to go to sleep, and Shayne had swallowed two of the strongest tablets in the house just ten minutes before that.

“Well… lovely, I know it hurts, but you’re really supposed to space those out over a few hours.”

Shayne let out an empty sob into his pillow, like he’d just been thumped in the chest. “Please.”

“Are – are you nauseous?”

“No, it just hurts like an absolute motherfucker.”

Charlie hesitated another moment. The goosebumps crawled along his arms again, and curled up towards the back of his neck as he watched his boyfriend writhe, moving his hands so that he could squeeze his pillow.

“Shit. Okay. Back in a sec.” Charlie shivered and slipped out of the bed, not really sure what he was about to do. Never, ever would he go against the guidelines on medicine packets, but it was so rare for Shayne to plead with him for… for anything, really.

Besides, these meds weren’t specifically marketed towards demon eaters whose organs forced souls across the borders between realities, so how relevant were the instructions for use in this scenario, anyway?

When he got back to the bedroom with the meds and a glass of water, the bed was empty.

“Where’d you go?” Charlie called out lightly, glancing down the hallway towards the bathroom. No lights were on to indicate that Shayne had gone there.

“Here.” Shayne’s voice came from inside the bedroom.

Confused, Charlie power-walked across the floor. He found Shayne sitting on the floor at the opposite side of the bed. One hand was pressed to his abdomen, one was lost in the tangles in his hair, and his legs were in constant motion, as though the pain was keeping him from staying still.

Charlie crouched on the floor and placed the water and the pills in Shayne’s hands, and watched as he popped them in his mouth. He seemed to take in as little water as possible, barely sipping at the surface of the liquid before swallowing.

Eyes wide, Charlie took the glass back, placed it far away on the floor, and watched as Shayne let the back of his head rest against the bed. He was pressing one palm against the floor now and pushing hard, as though he was trying to lift himself up out of his body.

“Are you okay?” Obviously not. Charlie cringed at himself. Desperation and helplessness were not a good combination when the person you loved was in a kind of pain that you could never understand.

“I don’t know.” Shayne growled under his breath, formed a fist, and kneaded it into the floor. “Fucking demons. Fuck all of them.”

A twinge of indignance made Charlie’s skin bristle. Surely the “except you, CT” was implied, and Shayne was just hurting too much to say it aloud. Right?

“Has – has it ever hurt this bad before?” Charlie asked, trying to distract himself and his demon from the sting. He wasn’t sure if he was hoping for a yes or a no. A no would be terrifying, because it might have meant that something was very wrong. Charlie started to map out a plan for how he’d get Shayne downstairs to the car, how he’d take speed limits as light suggestions to get him to Ryan as fast as possible –

“Once or twice before.”

“Oh,” Charlie said dully. That wasn’t quite as concerning, but it was depressing to think that Shayne had been in thismuch pain before, but without someone to take care of him. “Still no nausea, though?”

“No. Shut up, asking me that.”

Charlie drew a calming breath. His eyes wouldn’t stop wandering towards the hand that Shayne was holding his stomach with, pushing harder with the heel as his fingers curled into the fabric of his t-shirt.

“Would you mind being touched?”

Dark, glassy eyes met Charlie’s. Shayne stopped writhing for just a second, only his chest still heaving. “Why?”

“What do you mean, ‘why’?”

“I’m…” Shayne grunted, his voice cracking. “I’m being so shitty to you.”

Charlie sighed as though in exasperation, though what he felt was closer to relief, now that he knew he could do something. He crawled closer to where Shayne was slumped against the bed. “Don’t worry about that right now. Where’s it hurt the most?”

“Where my hand is,” Shayne deadpanned, showing no signs of moving said hand.

“You want to get back in bed?”

“Nope.” The strain in Shayne’s voice was growing more obvious. It was possible that he did want to get back in bed, but didn’t feel as though he’d be able to move that far.

Charlie nodded. He slipped a hand alongside Shayne’s, smoothing it back and forth beneath his ribs. Shayne slowly shifted his own hand downward and made room for Charlie to gently massage his upper stomach. He laid his head all the way back against the edge of the mattress, fingers now permanently gripping his hair.

His face distorted as another cramp hit. Charlie pressed harder against his tummy muscles as they tightened, trying to feel out wherever the pain was the worst.

“Mm,” Shayne groaned. He grabbed hold of Charlie’s hand, shifting it around a little before pressing it harder into his belly. “Fuck.”

Some nameless emotion seized Charlie’s heart. Heat thrummed through his skull.

“Oh, lovely.” Charlie leaned in closer and brushed his forehead lightly against Shayne’s hair. “You’re going to break my heart one of these days.”

Shayne hummed anxiously. “Sorry.”

“No, no, no.” Charlie kissed the side of Shayne’s neck, continuously, leading a trail of them up to the back of his ear. “No apologising. Just resting.”

A slow exhale made Shayne’s shoulders sag, like he’d been deflated. He eased up the pressure on Charlie’s hand and, unintentionally, on his stomach. “Okay.”

“I’ve got you,” Charlie promised. “The painkillers should kick in really –”

Only a faint gurgle gave any warning that Shayne was about to retch.

Charlie mightn’t have thought anything of it in the moment, beyond a bit of bad timing between a sharp cramp, a cough, and what sounded like a shallow belch, if he hadn’t just felt something hot and viscous splash across the back of his hand.

“Shit,” Shayne whimpered, letting the back of his hand hover against his mouth. He’d somehow managed to direct the sudden, weak stream of vomit right down his front.

“It’s okay, don’t worry.” Charlie wriggled onto his knees and smoothed his clean hand over Shayne’s shoulder. He quickly crawled a few paces away to grab a used-once bath towel from the back of his desk chair.

Shit, he felt so bad for not being better prepared.

"Sorry, Charlie..."

“No, I’m so sorry, lovely.”

Lips trembling and glistening with saliva, Shayne glared questioningly at Charlie.

Charlie wiped his own hand clean and offered the towel to Shayne. “I’m sorry I wasn’t ready. I didn’t know you were going to throw up. You said you weren't nauseous, so…”

“I wasn’t. It just hurts so much, I couldn’t –”

Shayne gulped, clutching his belly as it collapsed visibly inwards. He leaned a little further forward this time and gagged over the towel instead of himself or Charlie. Thick strings of stomach acid were all that he seemed to get up before the retching stopped. Against Charlie’s wishes, he’d refused to eat in the hours running up to his hunt, to try to avoid vomiting, but clearly it would have been inevitable either way.

Charlie continued to rub Shayne’s shoulder, his own stomach turning as his eyes wandered over the towel. It was streaked with something black, slick, and stringy. The demon’s earthly essence. It wasn’t the first time Charlie had seen anything like it, but the darkness that permeated it made his soul feel like it was shrivelling.

“What is it?” he whispered. He wished his horror wasn’t quite so obvious in his voice. “What – what sort of demon is it?”

“I don’t – ugh, I don’t know.” Shayne folded the towel over and pulled one knee up, balancing his elbow against it. He clutched his head and shut his eyes. “I wouldn’t have gone after it if I’d – mm – if I’d known it’d be this bad.”

“I would’ve tried harder to stop you,” Charlie added.

“Mm.”

Without opening his eyes, Shayne felt for Charlie’s hand, and drew it against his stomach again. Charlie snapped into action. He worked lighter circles into his belly this time, and Shayne didn’t try to make him press any harder. He shifted his weight around and ended up slumping a little lower on the floor, but at least he wasn’t kicking his legs or pulling at his hair anymore.

“Let’s lie down,” Charlie found himself saying.

“I can’t, I can’t move, Charlie.”

“I know. Let’s just lie down here.”

“On the fucking floor?”

“Yes, on the fucking floor, if it’ll help you feel better.”

Shayne whimpered in the back of his throat as he turned and laid his head down on the floorboards. Charlie stayed close to him, holding his belly as lightly as he could. His back was turned to the underside of the bed as they both settled.

There had been a time when the underside of the bed had frightened Charlie because that was where demons and monsters were supposed to hide. He knew better now.

“God, it fucking hurts,” Shayne choked out.

Tears welled in Charlie’s eyes as he pressed his face into the back of Shayne’s head. “I know.”

A beat of silence passed.

“Shayne?” Charlie felt sick. “Should I be scared?”

“Of – of me?”

No. “No. Of this.” Should I be scared of losing you right now?

“Oh. N-no,” Shayne whispered.

A shudder ran through one of their bodies, but Charlie wasn’t too sure which. Either Shayne had shuddered from the pain, or Charlie had shuddered from the crack running through his heart.

“This is… this is what I’m for, Charlie.”

#GOD DAMN I APOLOGISE FOR THAT ENDING #things will continue getting easier for him I promise #StW Shayne #sick Shayne #sickfic #OC sickfic #whump fic #demon whump #stomach ache fic #fantasy sickfic #fantasy emeto #nausea #stomach ache #hurt and comfort #hurt comfort

64 notes · View notes

these-are-the-first-steps · 7 months

Text

Ok so like.....*sigh*

So like in the show he basically asks her to marry him and she says yes, and they're both like "Promise? Promise!" but she keeps fucking conveniently remembering and forgetting "the promise to mother" like I know he's intoxicating af and it's hard to hold a thought around this man (I also have a very hard time holding a thought looking at him), but pick a goddamn side and have a backbone about it ffs!! Like you can't waffle on people like this girl!! You literally sat here and engaged yourself to this man and then you go off and do THAT???

I would like to note that so far in the (very drastically different) novel, there is no such promise ever made, and she fucks off to the steppe because she's mad at Ning Yi thinking the whole entire time he had just been cozying up as part of a plot to kill her so leaving bought her time, space, and a power base to fight back and he just eats the misunderstanding like "????? fine, come and kill me when you're ready, at least I'll get to see you again, I am ok with this." which makes a bit more sense tbh.

In a loooot a lot of ways, the tv show is about 1000x more polished than the book, but at least the book has fewer slaps in the face like this. They become a bit more obvious on rewatch, especially after pawing through the novel. (I hope the translator finishes it someday!! They picked it up again this past may after two years of nothing so here's hoping!)

#the rise of phoenixes #spoilers #i needed to talk about some stuff ok #tbh I do like the ning yi of the tv show a LOT more- god bless chen kun #but the book ning yi also has his good points like accepting zhiwei's major choices #in the show it is absolutely not his fault that her mom and brother die- no question bc he tried damn hard to do everything he could #in the book he's got a bit more of the blame because he loses control of his subordinates after showing too much favor to zhiwei #they think he's blinded by her charm and talent and unable to make sound decisions so they act independently without telling him and fuck u #and he accepts that because he lost control of his people that that puts some of the blame on him because he WAS investigating feng hao #just not at zhiwei's expense which is what she thinks has happened- that wasn't the game at all #but he still takes the L with a little bit of dignity and it makes sense for her to get her space and leave #whereas in the show she highkey comes off as a pissbaby after this man wins a whole war on speedrun just to save her #only for her to conveniently remember mommy's promise again and break her engagement and fuck off to the steppe #which leaves him rightly a fucking mess and that was not a good look for her #i really really hope the translator picks the book back up and finishes it #i would love to see how this pans out there as the whole picture even though I know it has a happy ending already #but still!!

2 notes · View notes