#poor Laurence won't have a lot of text for a while...

[mrslittletall]

Title: Frenzy (Chapter 3) Fandom: Bloodborne Characters: Laurence the first Vicar/Ludwig the Holy Blade Word Count: 1.882 AO3-Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19858519/chapters/47128024 Previous chapter: https://mrslittletall.tumblr.com/post/186426405936/mrslittletall-title-frenzy-chapter-2

Summary: Ludwig takes care of Laurence.

Ludwig didn't knew how long he had sitting at Laurence bed, stroking his hair, when his stomach loudly grumbled.

Right, he hadn't eaten anything yet. Although Ludwig didn't had much of an appetite, he knew that not eating would be even worse for his health. His gaze fell on Laurence, who still sat on the same position in his bed, his blank eyes staring at nothing in particular.

Would he be able to eat? Would he accept any food that would be put into his mouth and chew and swallow it? Or was he in danger to choke?

Whatever the answer was, Ludwig just couldn't let Laurence starve.

“Don't go anywhere, I will be back right away.”, Ludwig said when he stood up, noticing how stupid that must have sounded.

Where should Laurence go when he was literally unable to move on his own?

Ludwig glanced one last time at Laurence before he left the room, hastening to the mess hall.

Shortly after he left, Ludwig entered Laurence' room again. Like expected, Laurence hadn't moved at all. Ludwig put the brought food onto the night stand and went to close the door.

“I don't know if you can eat solid food, so I brought some oatmeal.”, he explained to Laurence, who, of course, didn't react.

“Come, let's get some food into you.”, Ludwig said farther, sitting down next to Laurence. Ludwig had brought some food for his own, but had eaten the first half on his way back to Laurence' room and intended to eat the rest later. He could wait.

Ludwig picked up the bowl with oatmeal, he had made care that it wouldn't be too hot, he didn't want for Laurence to burn himself, and a spoon and carefully instilled the puree into Laurence mouth, keeping his head slightly turned upwards. He seemed to be lucky, because Laurence' swallowing reflex seemed to take over and put the oat meal in the right place.

Of course, feeding Laurence like this took a long time. With each new spoon, Ludwig feared that he would accidentally choke Laurence. Would he even notice if he choked or only when it was too late? Laurence wasn't exactly in the right state to call for help or gesture when something was wrong. Maybe he should have left this procedure to the medicinal stuff at the infirmary.

Maybe that would have been the wiser decision..., but for now, everything seemed to work out. The bowl of oatmeal was empty and successfully transported into Laurence' digestive system. Right, that reminded Ludwig of the problem, that Laurence surely wouldn't be able to use the bathroom on his own like this. He probably needed to accompany to him. At least in this state Laurence wouldn't mind.

Which almost made Ludwig's heart break. He was so... lifeless. Laurence didn't felt like a human, but some obscure life sized doll which somehow breathed. Ludwig briefly was reminded of the life size doll of Lady Maria, that Gehrman had made. With the difference, that this doll was truly not alive, but Laurence was. Only that at the moment, they hardly could be distinguished.

“You should drink something too.”, Ludwig said and led a glass with water to Laurence' lips. This turned out to be more difficult than feeding him. Ludwig was extra careful with the water, so that he wouldn't choke Laurence, but in return half of it leaked out of Laurence' mouth and dripped on his pyjama and blankets instead. That was less than optimal. Should Ludwig give Laurence' drinks in a bottle like a baby would get? At least like this nothing would leak out, but he hadn't actually seen them in adult size.

Besides, this felt so wrong. Little children needed the help of their parents because they were still weak and developing and couldn't do it on their own, but Laurence was a grown adult. He just had... some weird sickness. Or injury? The church doctor could only name the symptom, but not the cause.

“Just what was it that has you left in this state?”, Ludwig asked as he wiped Laurence' mouth.

In the meantime, the old blood in the blood bag hooked up to Laurence had completely entered his blood stream. And no improvement so far.

Ludwig searched for some gauze and found it in Laurence' night stand. He carefully pulled the needled that had been stung into Laurence' right hand and quickly pressed the gauze on the tiny wound to avoid bruising.

There was no sound, no wince, nothing. Laurence just kept sitting in the same position staring blankly at nothing.

As Ludwig bandaged Laurence hand, it probably was completely redundant, but he wanted to get sure, the gravity of the situation hit him and tears finally started to stream down his face, as he hugged his motionless boyfriend.

Guilt bubbled up in Ludwig's chest, if he just could have avoided this somehow... but he didn't even knew what actually happened to Laurence. The only clue was Odeon Chapel. And how afraid Laurence had acted around it the day prior.

But even though Laurence had been afraid, that had been far better than the emotionless, motionless state he was in right now.

Ludwig finally released Laurence from his tearful hug, considering. When Laurence would stay in the same position all the time, wouldn't he get sore? He probably should shift him around. At least with the blood ministration needle out, this wouldn't be much of a problem.

Ludwig shifted Laurence into another position and stepped away from the bed, his gaze on the food he had brought for himself.

He hadn't much of an appetite, but he would force it down nonetheless. Because not eating anything at all would make his situation only worse.

Ludwig was halfway through his first slice of bread, when it occurred to him that he completely had neglected his own duties in favour of taking care of Laurence today. At the same time, it occurred to him, that nobody actually had come asking for him. And that was when he heard a knock on the door.

“Who is it?”, he asked, gaze at Laurence. He didn't knew if anyone in the church besides Florence and the church doctor knew about Laurence' condition. It probably was the best thing to not make public for now.

“It's me, Florence.”, Florence' voice sounded. “Can I come in?”

Ludwig relaxed. Florence was safe. She surely wouldn't have told the whole church of Laurence' condition. She also knew about the relationship of the two, once accidentally having them busted when they had been locked into a passionate kiss. Florence had just cleared her throat and apologized for the disturbance, but Ludwig was sure she never had told a single soul about what she had seen.

Laurence and Ludwig both had agreed that it was better when their relationship was not public and having someone who knew this secret had always been a great relieve.

“Of course, come in.”, Ludwig said and the door opened, Florence quietly slipping in.

“How is he?”, she asked, but one gaze at him gave her the answer. “No improvement so far?”

Ludwig nodded, sighing: “Yes, sadly. Say, what have you told the others when you cancelled his appointments?”

“I said that he wasn't feeling well, but of course didn't say his exact condition. Only the doctors know it, because I heard them discussing how they were going to treat him.”, Florence answered. “And please don't worry about your duties, Ludwig, I have found a substitute for today. I said that you also weren't feeling to well. Half the church now thinks that there is some virus spreading, but that is better than them panicking.”

“Yes, indeed.”, Ludwig agreed. “Though I fear we can't keep this a secret for long, should he...” Ludwig hardly dared to finish this sentence. “...should he stay this way.”

“For now, all we can do is wait.”, Florence sighed. “Just stay with him, Ludwig, I am sure he appreciates it.... Anyway, I should go now. There is still a lot to do. And I apologize for having interrupted your meal.”

With that, Florence turned around and left the room as quietly as she had slipped in. Ludwig quietly finished his meal. When he looked out of the window, he noticed that in the meantime, it already was around noon.

At this time, the church would be pretty empty, with most of the people being at their lunch break. It was the right opportunity to lead Laurence to the bathroom without anyone seeing them.

After all, it would be better for both Ludwig and Laurence that he didn't need to change and clean him up every time he needed to go.

A short while later Ludwig had learned, that accompanying Laurence to any bathroom breaks was indeed the right way, his body seemed to understand what it should do once placed at the right location, but he still needed to remember to actually do this regularly. After all, Laurence wasn't in a state to ask Ludwig for a bathroom break. If he would have been in a state to ask for it, he probably would be able to go on his own.

Ludwig brought Laurence back to his bed and carefully placed him in it. “In this state, you require a lot of care taking.”, he murmured. “Florence won't be able to cover for me forever. I probably need to deliver you to the infirmary tomorrow.”, he said. No reaction from Laurence of course.

Maybe... maybe there was something he could do? Maybe Laurence would get out of it when he just found the right stimuli? It was worth a try.

Ludwig's gaze fell on a book with poetry in it, placed next to Laurence' bed. He probably had read this before..., well, before the unknown incident happened.

Ludwig picked the book up and began reciting the poetries in it to Laurence.

Once he was done reciting the whole book, the evening had already come. No reaction. Ludwig noticed that he was not only very thirsty from talking aloud so much, but also that he was hungry again.

Sighing, he put the book down.

“I'll get us some dinner and then I'll wash you up before bed.”, he said.

After Ludwig had taken care of Laurence for the evening and put him back into his bed after he had cleaned him up, he decided to sleep with him in the same bed.

He didn't even knew if Laurence would be able to sleep in that state. He very much felt like sleeping with open eyes. Worse even, because a sleeping person would at least move around.

Ludwig put on his own pyjama and carefully slipped under the blankets next to Laurence, carefully laying him down. His blank eyes stared at him, no, seemed like they stared at him, but he wasn't staring at Ludwig in particular.

“Let's sleep now, shall we?”, Ludwig said and carefully closed the lids of Laurence' eyes before lying down and closing his own eyes.

After a short while, Ludwig felt something tug at his arm.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed that Laurence had clung to his arm. (Author's note: So, uh, a few things I want to address. First, it is a real big pet peeve of mine when it isn't explained in a fic or book how a character in a state like Laurence is right now takes care of their bathroom breaks. I mean, in modern society we just use catheters, but we are in a victorian era and so I decided to explain this shortly. Second, it occurred to me that Laurence has Ebrietas in his basement, so why should he be afraid of the Amygdala? But, yeah, Ebrietas is completely docile and only attacks when you are mean to her. Also, I headcanon that she once was found in the Chalice Dungeons, where Laurence assumes the Great Ones mostly reside. The Amydgala's on the other hand, they sit all around Yharnam like they own the place and have a very obvious connection to the nightmare, with the one on Odeon Chapel even bringing you to the Hunter's Nightmare, which is Laurence' eternal hell. So yeah, it makes sense for Laurence to be a lot more terrified of the Amydgala than he would be of Ebrietas.) Next chapter: https://mrslittletall.tumblr.com/post/186517574184/title-frenzy-chapter-4-fandom-bloodborne