"Okay!"

"Dangers of working with children. Sorry about that."

...Bun apologizes too much and it is very very weird. "I guess you can go first? And I can pay attention to how you did it."

... Tanidio has seen him naked as many as multiple times, he has no reason for any modesty. Yes, he can definitely demonstrate how to cover himself in sulfur ointment.

"There's a beautiful view."

"Well, I'm glad someone appreciates it."

"Very unfortunate that sulfur can't go in your mouth, really."

"I'll just have to find a medical reason to cover myself in edible oil."

"I trust in your creativity."

Did you know that it's surprisingly difficult to get ointment on your own back?

"... Nope, all I can think of involves parasites. -- more parasites."

Tanidio helps without Bun having to embarrass himself by asking and pretends as if he didn't notice Bun's difficulty.

"Healers prescribe massage for a lot of things." 

"That's an actual thing, but I'm unfortunately not trained in it."

"Really? I always sort of assumed it was like prayers to Asmodeus or warm baths, a way to entertain the patient while the disease gets better on its own."

"It's good for musculoskeletal pain."

He finishes rubbing the sulfur into Bun's back and takes off his own clothes in a businesslike fashion.

One good turn deserves another, and there's no reason the treatment shouldn't start with his back.

Here's the thing--

Tanidio's mother was a good mother who loved him a lot and wanted to make sure that he grew up strong, so she followed all the advice the Church of Asmodeus told her about how to raise a child. If you cuddle or praise children too much or give them too many things they ask for, you're teaching them to be weak and dependent on you. If your child doesn't obey promptly as soon as you make a request and you don't hit them with a switch, or you stop the beating before they're fully broken, you're teaching them to be willful and disobedient. If you hold them and comfort them when they cry, it teaches them that they should cry more because it gets them things they want. 

Except when Tanidio was sick. His mother fed him spoonfuls of broth when he was too weak to get the spoon to his mouth. She sponged him with cold water when he had a fever. She sang to him and read him stories to distract him. One time, when he was very ill, she prayed, sobbing, to any god that would listen to keep her Tanidio alive because she loved him so much, and she thought Tanidio was asleep but her crying woke him up and he stayed very still, because if she knew he was awake she would stop, but if he pretended to be asleep he could hear how he was smart and disciplined and helpful and the only source of joy in his mother's life and she didn't know what she would do without him and she was proud of him.

So. Some wires got crossed, in Tanidio's upbringing.

And, much to his surprise, having Bun gently rub a medicated ointment into his skin leaves him achingly, throbbingly, almost painfully hard.

Look, he could very much be flirty Bun right now. But Tanidio isn't saying anything, so it's time for Dr Bun, who definitely notices when bodies do things but doesn't pay attention or care when they do something embarassing.

He is flushed red all over his body and he is dying of humiliation, that he gets off on such a stupid thing to get off on, that he likes being touched with tenderness by someone who is taking care of him, what kind of lame turnon is that, the whole room smells like sulfur and there's no way this is a sex thing for normal people and Bun has to know it's because he's weak and broken and wants things that people don't get to have, and the humiliation is only turning him on more because Bun is safe because he can be vulnerable around Bun and nothing will happen because if Bun knows he is stupid and weak he's not going to take advantage of it because Bun saves children and cares about keeping people alive and is like no one else in the world that is a stupid way to think, there's no one it's safe to be vulnerable around, not unless you've Charmed them and he decided not to--

He presses his lips together to keep from moaning and all that happens is that little gasps and whimpers escape that sound even more wrecked and desperate.

... He has never seen Tanidio react that strongly. Well, that's not accurate, he's never seen him react so strongly in a negative way.

Good thing Doctor Bun does not care about that at all, and merely cares that Tanidio ends up with sulfur ointment on his arms.

Tanidio was desperately hoping that Bun would keep applying it to his front, and hating himself for hoping for it, and refusing to express the desire for anything so embarrassing. If it happens on its own it's not his fault.

When Bun puts the sulfur on his arms Tanidio makes a soft small broken sound.

The fact that Bun is so professional about it makes Tanidio, impossibly, even harder. If he noticed it and was comforting, it would mean he wanted something from Tanidio, or was planning to fuck him over in some way. If he ignores it and just keeps treating Tanidio, then Tanidio's safe not safe, there's no such thing as safe, but his cock isn't listening. He wishes that when his cock had a mind of its own it would make him rape people or something. He wants to be swallowed up into the earth.

The distant, aloof kindness sends electricity down Tanidio's entire body.

(Bedside manner is similar across worlds. The healer was the only adult in authority that Tanidio ever talked to who never hit him.)

... He is going to consider talking about this later. Maybe. But right now what matters is that Tanidio ends up covered and he doesn't flee the room before that happens.

Bun accidentally brushes against Tanidio's dick with the back of his hand and Tanidio comes, frustrating and unsatisfying and incomplete, his cock jerking and spraying come down his thigh and across the hardwood floor.

He stares in mute horror.

Yep, bodies do that sometimes. It's just a thing and not one that matters to him. The one thing that matters is that the sulfur ointment gets applied and they don't end up in an infinite scabies loop.

(He has a lot of experience seeming calm and unphased by anything. This in particular is not a situation he had encountered, but it was much less alarming than say, having to hold someone's insides in so they don't become their outsides. This is much better.)