A short Dragon Age thing (Cullen, illness)

[Sitruuna]

Kind of rushed and unedited because I am impatient, sorry.

(also cross posting between every possible place lol)

 

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”What is that?” Cullen asked, looking at the small jar in Lavellan's hands.

”Some salve I got from the herbalist”, Lavellan replied. She removed the lid and smelled it. ”I think it has herbs in it.”

Cullen lifted her hand together with the jar and tried to smell the salve himself, succeeding in little more than a pitifully congested sniffle and a small cough.

”What is it for?”

”Your nose”, Lavellan said with a sympathetic smile. ”Mostly for the skin. It looks painful.”

”Oh… Go ahead”, Cullen said when she scooped some of the salve with one finger. She hesitated a little before starting to spread it on the red, dry, slightly flaking skin. Just looking at it made her own body ache in sympathy.

Cullen's nostrils flared in response to her touch as she carefully spread the salve on the curve of his left nostril. The skin felt warm from the irritation and fever, and there was a bit of moisture on it despite Cullen's attempts to keep his nose from running. She could tell from the way he was half holding his breath that he was embarrassed, probably worrying she found all this disgusting. But she wasn't disgusted. She had some experience with taking care of ill people and she wasn't afraid of illness. And this was Cullen; she didn't think anything could be disgusting as long as it involved him.

She was thorough with her work, making sure the salve got everywhere where it needed to be. She could maybe have been a little faster with it judging by how Cullen's nostrils were quivering by the time her finger got to the area beneath his nostrils. She could see a drop of liquid right at the edge of the nostril, and swept it away before spreading the salve there. It was a gamble as his nose often started to run more when it was wiped like that, but before anything else could happen his breath hitched.

”Wa-hh-wait. I-hh! he-TSHo!” Cullen had just enough time to turn away from her before he sneezed. He clapped one hand over his nose and mouth right after, catching the second sneeze in it. He rarely sneezed more than twice, sometimes thrice, at a time but the two sneezes didn't seem to have quelled the itch at all.  He kept the hand over his face as he waited for more to come.

”hhtsho! hhKSHO! HeTSH! Hh..! Hhtsho!” Each sneeze was wet, the fit was punctuated with thick sniffles, and by the time he was done there were irritated tears in his eyes. He sniffled again as he fished out his handkerchief and pressed it to his nose. She could see a glimpse the mess the sneezes had caused when he replaced his now dirty hand with the one holding the cloth. He blew his nose several times before dabbing the skin as dry as he could.

”Sorry, my nose might be a little sensitive right now”, Cullen said. He still sounded badly congested despite all the blowing.

”Don't worry about it”, Lavellan said, scooping more salve from the jar. Cullen didn't seem too excited about having to endure more of this but he also couldn't argue against it: she still had the other side to go.

Her finger was deliberately slow again as she swiped her finger over the  curve of his other nostril, her touch maybe a little more gentle than was needed. His nostrils flared again as her finger moved to the inner curve, spreading the herbal salve on every bit of the abused skin.

”Sorry.” Cullen breathed out the word as drop of clear liquid fell on her finger. His nose hadn't stopped running after than one drop she noted as more liquid slowly dribbled on her finger. He was on the edge again, waiting for her to finish the torture so he could deal with the effects of it. It seemed to her like he wouldn’t be able to hold it back much longer, which was further confirmed by his whispered ”please hurry”.

”HHTSHO!” Cullen almost sneezed on her just as she finished spreading the salve. He jerked forward with the force of it, right toward her lap, but was able to cover it with his hand just in time. He sniffled thickly before sneezing again. It took several more sneezes to clear the itch, and by the time he was done Cullen seemed thoroughly exhausted.

[Arty]

I've heard of this and played a little bit of this game but I like it. Poor guy sounds really sick and miserable. Good thing he has a nice caretaker.