#oh nidhogg-altered estinien my beloved

[keicordelle]

After Estinien gets his body back from Nidhogg, he finds himself changed. Always a little surprised to uncover the differences. Most of them are benign: a few scales in places they don't belong (as though they belong anywhere), a few barbs in places not worth mentioning, a sense of smell and hearing that far outpaces his comrades'. And a weakened immune system (or so he thinks).

Years of thinking he just gets horribly, terribly sick for a few weeks out of every year - a peculiar kind of sickness, to be sure, that leaves him flushed and sweaty and aching in places that the common cold usually leaves untouched, but undoubtedly, unquestioningly ill.

The first one strikes while he's still in Ishgard, recovering from being possessed, and suddenly every part of him feels like it's on fire again. The healers can't do anything for him, but they refuse to allow Aymeric to see him until he's recovered.

And then he leaves, off to wander the world, and suffers his new chronic illness alone for untold moons. He's accepted it as routine by the time he makes his way back to Ishgard.

And yet the instant he catches a whiff of Aymeric's scent, familiar despite the years spent apart, he feels himself falling ill. Curses his luck and his shitty immune system for its timing, but pushes through. He wants to at least greet Aymeric before hiding himself away for a week of suffering. But he can scarcely make it through dinner before he's forced to retreat, panting and fevered and aching.

Except that this time there's no chirugians to keep Aymeric away. He shows up on Estinien's doorstep the following day, worried for his old friend. Estinien tries to stop himself from what comes next, he really does, but... it's a battle he's destined to lose.

And to his astonishment, Aymeric is more than willing to do whatever it takes to help him feel better. Whatever it takes.