“Ciel!” Vex exclaimed, pushing Bracks out of the way and taking a step forwards before immediately dropping to his knees and rubbing his hand along Ciel’s thigh. “The blood’s coming from your leg Ciel, it’s your skin when your tail’s squeezed it. Fuck, I think you’re having an allergic reaction to the salt water.”

Ciel let out a loud, shuddering breath of relief, his hands still refusing to move from where he was cradling his belly.

“Uh…what…what do you want us to do?” Bracks asked awkwardly.

“Just tell Dr. Inez I’ll be late for Economics,” Vex replied hurriedly grabbing Ciel’s hand and tugging him over to the showers before fumbling with the knobs.

“Ew…” Ciel heard someone whisper as the others all awkwardly carried on with changing in relative silence.

“Vex – it stings,” Ciel croaked hoarsely as Vex pushed Ciel under the cold spray, evidently trying to wash off the salty water. Ciel hissed at the change in temperature from the warm, humid pool area.

“We’ll go to the sanatorium in a moment,” Vex replied, “let’s just rinse you off.” Vex leaned forwards to push his fingers through Ciel’s hair, encouraging the water to do its job. Ciel noticed with surprise that the other man was trembling slightly and his brown eyes look wide and frantic.   

“It’s fine,” Ciel murmured, “I’ve had reactions before.”

“This one looks really bad,” Vex huffed, his eyes drawn together and his brow furrowed. “Move your hands, we need to wash your stomach.”

Ciel instinctively clutched himself tighter.

“Ciel, what the hell are you doing…” Vex trailed off before blinking at the other man. “Ciel…were you worried that the blood was –“

“Let’s go,” Ciel snapped. “I’m washed enough.” Ciel quickly hopped out of the shower, his skin still felt like it was being splashed with hot wax and he quickly rushed over to grab his things and push out of the changing room doors.

“Will you wait a fucking minute?” Vex snapped, charging out after him, evidently having grabbed his own bag.

The two of them made their way in silence across the campus. They ignored the strange looks from other students for the most part, until Vex let slip another spew of expletives and forced Ciel to at least drape Vex’s zip up across his bare shoulders.

The doors to the sanatorium swung open to reveal Felix talking on the phone, the other man quickly hung up however once he clocked sight of Ciel.

“What on earth happened?” Felix blinked before striding forwards and guiding Ciel over to a nearby bed.

“I guess my lineage isn’t salt water,” Ciel stated grouchily, the itching was becoming unbearable.

“You went swimming?” Felix gaped before sending Vex an incredulous expression.

“I researched it – it should have been perfectly safe,” Vex growled, looking flushed.

“For hell’s sake Vex, Ciel is a pregnant aquatic demon with dermatological problems, would it have killed you to check with his attending physician?” Felix retorted in disbelief.

“You mean you,” Vex stated angrily.

“Yes, me,” Felix groaned, rolling his eyes.

“He’s bleeding,” Vex said quickly, gesturing to Ciel’s thigh where his tail’s dry scales had rubbed painfully against one of the new raised red disc sores that was already ominously blistering.

“Have you washed off the salt water?” Felix asked. “There’s a shower over there if not.”

“We already showered,” Vex nodded before Ciel could say anything, although honestly Ciel’s lips were now starting to swell up and it was all he could do not to start writhing around the bed in distracted frustration.

“Okay Ciel I’m going to start applying the medicine now,” Felix informed him, donning latex gloves and scooping out a dollop of white creamy goop from a black pot. “This might feel cold.”

Ciel hissed as the almost ice-like substance was spread across his thigh but a moment later he found he didn’t mind at all as the soothing effect was almost instantaneous.

He let out a small, breathy moan of relief before slumping back down in the bed. He couldn’t even bring himself to be embarrassed as both Vex and Felix’s heads jerked to him in surprise.

“Is…is it helping?” Vex asked, looking rather awkward and still holding all their bags and clothes in a jumbled mess.

“Yeah,” Ciel swallowed thickly as Felix smoothed the cream down the rest of Ciel’s leg and moved on to the other one.

“You’ll need to undress for me Ciel,” Felix stated gently, “I can see the reaction is further up as well.”

“O-Okay,” Ciel nodded, moving to sit up and pull down his swim shorts when he paused, realising that Vex was still standing there, rooted like a statue.

“Vex, if you wouldn’t mind giving Ciel some privacy?” Felix raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“What about you?” Vex retorted, a high flush on his cheeks.

“I’m the doctor,” Felix countered, looking distinctly unimpressed. “Unless, of course Ciel, would you prefer to administer cream to those areas yourself and you can call me back in when you’re done?”

“Actually, um,” Ciel coughed, “would that be okay?” Ciel didn’t miss the way the way Vex’s shoulders seemed to relax as Felix nodded kindly and the two men stepped out behind the curtain.

Ciel shimmied out of his shorts, hobbling over to the wall length mirror in the cubicle in order to apply the cream.

He hadn’t quite realised how bad the reaction was but seeing himself now he could understand the look of concerned horror on Vex’s face. He was absolutely covered in angry, raised patches and what looked like mottled bruises.

Ciel turned to try and spread some of the medicine on his buttocks and then his front. He looked ridiculous, half smothered in white cream and the other half an angry red.

His mind wandered back to how incredible Kieran had looked in his new scarlet swimwear, curvy thighs and a toned ass, his thick, spiked tail standing so erect from his lithe body.

Ciel stared numbly at himself in the mirror. No wonder Vex had initially been so embarrassed to be associated with him.

Somewhere in the background of the sanatorium a phone began ringing loudly and Ciel was jerked from his reverie. He shook his head, angry at himself for thinking along such shallow terms. It was against everything Ciel believed and now here he was letting his insecurities eat him from the inside whilst the allergic reaction worked on the outside.

Ciel quickly grabbed one of the sanatorium’s patient robes and pulled it on. When he looked back up at the mirror he was horrified to see his eyes were glistening. He knew he was stronger than this, he was better than this.

“Ciel? Are you done? Felix has just had to take a call,” Vex’s voice filtered through the curtain.

“I’m done,” Ciel replied, quickly trying to scrub at his face and wincing as he only worsened the itch there.

“Are you okay?” Vex asked hesitantly as he stepped through the curtains and paused, watching Ciel’s face in the mirror carefully.

“I’m fine,” Ciel sniffed, climbing back on the bed and opening the cream again. He let the robe fall loose from his shoulders as he began applying it to his belly, chest and neck.

“I can do your back,” Vex offered, stepping forwards.

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll catch something?” Ciel asked bitterly.

“What?” Vex screwed up his face in confusion.

“Your friends,” Ciel murmured, “they were worried I was contagious.”

“Well that’s fucking stupid,” Vex shrugged. “Look this is all my fault anyway, swimming was my idea. I thought it might be fun considering you’re aquatic, but obviously your lineage must be freshwater so this was a total fuck up.”

“No,” Ciel shook his head, sighing, “I…I actually did enjoy it. I’ve always been a bit worried about spending too long in water in case it triggered something in me, but actually…it felt freeing.”

“Oh,” Vex looked surprised but pleased. “Okay, that’s good – maybe next time we could try swimming in fresh water then?”

“Next time?” Ciel gave him a small, sad smile.

“Sure,” Vex nodded, sitting down beside Ciel and motioning for him to turn round.

“I can ask Dr. Blake if it would be okay,” Ciel murmured, feeling a little embarrassed and wondering if Vex’s offer had been genuine.

“Please don’t,” Vex groaned, “the fucker will probably gatecrash with some giant tacky inflatable flamingo or something.”

Ciel laughed, tensing slightly a moment later as Vex gently administered the thick cream to his back. He could feel Vex’s fingertips running down his spine and it felt much more intimate than Felix’s gloves and professional movements.

Ciel sucked in a breath as Vex dipped his fingers below the folds of the robe, gracing just the very top of his ass.

He almost laughed thinking about if he could go back a few months and tell himself that Vex Dubois would be rubbing ointment across his bare skin like this, the other man’s hot breath ghosting the back of Ciel’s neck. 

“By the way, about Kieran,” Vex began. Ciel immediately stiffened, reality crashing back down on him as he tugged his robes closed again and shifted away.

“I don’t care,” Ciel replied.

“Do you even know what you don’t care about?” Vex asked, his voice sounding aggravatingly amused.

“I assume you’re fucking him,” Ciel stated woodenly.

“I’m not,” Vex replied, his tone less jovial now and a lot firmer. “He was showing people some photos he had taken for his tail page last night at the club.”

“You don’t have to explain anything,” Ciel said tautly.

“I know but…for fuck’s sakes Ciel, every time I think I understand you –” Vex began when the curtain was dragged open again and Felix walked in with a cheery smile.

“Sorry about that but it was an important call,” Felix announced, “Ciel, that was the aquatics expert based in Lilithia. They’ve checked your blood markers and scans and we think your due date is the sixteenth of March.”

“That soon?” Ciel gasped, March was only four months away.

“March?” Vex repeated, sounding shocked.

“Yes,” Felix announced, a wide, happy smile across his handsome features. “Isn’t it exciting?”