Chapter Text
The allarm went down waking Wilhelm up who was sat on his desk laying on his keyboard, the boy barely got any sleep last night: he was furious and determined to get revenge on Dee one way or another; it was personal at this point he didn't even care about the school server anymore; he spent the night thinking about crazy plans on how to either frame or embarrass Dee that he was gonna put into action at school today, even if the boy wasn't in the best shape to do so after the all-nighter. He opened his eyes and whipped the drool out of the corners of his mouth and starred at his computer wondering what even was the word document open on the screen; his eyes read through the paragraphs "Make him get bit by an alligator" -"what the..."- He thought to himself still half asleep, what was he on last night? How was he even gonna get the creature to school, or get it at all, not to mention that freak would probably enjoy if an alligator came to school considering he brought a rat that one time. "Send him to Mars" Not... Just not: not possible, not plausible, not cheap enough, not legal, not practical and a lot more nots. "Make him get eaten by a T-rex" Wilhelm was getting pissed at himself, the thing's extinct! How was he supposed to make that happen; was this what he lost sleep over?! Scanning trough his "brilliant" ideas from last night he found something that wasn't actually so bad: "Steal Diana's books and frame Dee putting them in his bag" considering the two didn't seem to get along it wasn't that bad of a plan, Diana would be scolded by the teacher who would never believe her "excuses" such as "I swear I brought them, they disappeared!" since she's not exactly the most diligent student and if she looked down which Wilhelm osserved she does when scolded or upset she would definitely see her books in Dee's bag just beside her and then accuse him in front of the whole class. At that point even if he'd try to get himself out of it saying it was an accident or had no clue how they ended up in there, Diana would certainly not believe him and double down accusing him of bullying. Diana's popular even if the teacher sided with Dee the class wouldn't. That was a good plan basically and he decided to go with it; this train of thoughts was interrupted by his mother screaming at him to get up because he was late and God she was right he had been staring at his computer for good twenty minutes now, so he rushed to his closet to put on the first thing that came in hand and throw a couple of random books in his school bag that he vaguely remembered were to bring today and then sprinted out the door without even touching breakfast.
Wilhelm was eager to bring his plan to light all that morning, he had three classes before history and spent them thinking about the faces Dee was going to make when he gets accused and the face he was gonna make at him to make him know it was his doing without giving himself out to all their classmates. He was creepily laughing in class on his own and that actually lended him a couple of scoldings by his teachers but he was too high on fantasizing about his victory and Dee's downfall to care about anything else that day: the day was only gonna peak in history class, right after recess that started in minutes now. God he hated his snarky attitude, -"he just thinks he's better than anyone else uh?"- -"Well I'll show him what happen if you underestimate me!"- He kept thinking to himself still with that creepy and stupid wabbly smile printed on his face as the moment the bell would ring got closer and closer, and finally it did, shooting the guy out the classroom straight to his history class, everyone was always out for recess, even Dee who always stayed on his own and had no intents of socializing preferred reading outside, Wilhelm noticed he didn't like enclosed spaces, he always sat by the window and often wondered off with his gaze, at his house he did the same thing chilling in a window-seat in his room so he most certainly wouldn't find him in the classroom and Diana was popular even if she didn't want to, and she wanted to, she would be dragged out anyway. He was euphoric to say the least he rushed into the classroom with a crazy look not helped by the eyebags he got himself from the sleepless night; he looked over and... Dee's bag wasn't there. Dee's never late, he always drops his bag in the classroom and then head outside, could it possibly be he was so fast he had beaten him to it? He decided to wait in his seat as he ticked his fingers to his desk. One after the other all the classmates that didn't do it yet stopped by to drop their bags but Dee wasn't anywhere to be found. Wilhelm waited and waited always thinking "any moment now" but then the bell rang again crashing Whilelm's hopes; "coward" he mumbled to himself falling asleep on his desk.
Dee woke up late and in pain; maybe it was the chilly air or maybe the sheer weariness of yesterday that quite literally drained him, maybe again it was karma, a feverish state was the only time he was capable to admit to himself that he shouldn't have been stalking Lif; But it doesn't matter what coused it to get so much worse, the facts are that his state has plummeted to the ground since yesterday and that's an understatement. He would cheer himself up thinking about that saying "idiots don't catch colds" but his brother got it too, so it's obviously a lie; his has gotten better since yesterday though. Dee was sweating cold, had a bad fever that fluctuated between 39° and 40.5° and on top of that got a migraine, he was 99% sure that last thing was due dealing with Wilhelm last evening. It was so bad even Victoria started getting worried, she always said hospitals were a waste of time and a good sleep solved any health problem besides broken bones but she was seriously going to take him to the doctor if that fever got any higher, every couple of hours either her or Glam changed a soaked towel to Dee's head which made him cringe, this kid had the audacity to say "You guys are doing way too much, it's just a cold" to his very much concerned parents; he wasn't ungrateful, he was glad they cared but even in that state he managed to maintain that superior demeanor of his, mocking them in his own head for being anxious. One thing that he couldn't let go of and was tormenting him since yesterday was the fact he didn't get to find out where Lif was going so happily yesterday and maybe that's why he wasn't getting any better: the universe was trying to teach him a lesson he rejected completely and did a complete 360 on, and those were the consequences but this are all speculations, Dee doesn't even believe in all this ethereal hippie universe stuff his head is just a mess right now and he doesn't even know if it's his crush, his fever, or the medicines to blame.
Wilhelm got woken up by the bell his last class got cancelled so he was simply going to get home and sleep some more in his bed. On his desk was a paper sheet, they must've passed them on during class, it was something about a Rome ruler dude or something like that, he would get that sort out once he was home. He was the last one left in the classroom when he finished packing his backpack, he was heading out when his teacher suddenly seemed to remember something and stopped him. -"Wait! Wilhelm, do you happen to know where Dee lives?"- Wilhelm confused by the semplicity of the well known answer to probably the only question, that came out of that man's mouth, he would have been able to answer right, simply replied the Shvagenbagen's adress; everyone knew where they didn't wanna find themselves at, him because a nuisance like Dee lived there, the others where just scardy cats. -"Perfect would you mind bring this to your classmate?"- Wilhelm was humbled by his ingenuity, turns out he did not know the answer to his teacher's original question, he wouldn't be in this situation now if he did -"Umh I wasn't planning on going that way I wanted to go hom"- The teacher cut him out -"It's a really important part of your grade, the poor boy is sick, I knew rats only carried illnesses"- he said giving a brief break of hostility towards the creature remembering that day and the disappointment he felt to then continue with his usual softer voice talking about Dee -"I would really appreciate if you had the courtesy, no one in this useless class had even when asked to, to bring him his paper"- Wilhelm already wasn't the best at handling adults or authoritarian figures, he was failing this class too, he really didn't want to get on the bad side of the man; he looked at the paper, it was a different subject than his, probably they all had unique topics to discuss, the page was highly interactive, they had to draw some utensils they used in Rome, answer questions and other stuff, if it was something that could be mailed trough cellphone they would have already done it, the teacher wanted it on paper and would give a lower grade otherwise, what else could you expect by such a mummy, and he would definitely blame him if he didn't bring this paper to Dee's house, even if he wanted to ask someone else to do it that gothic girl who sprayed him with pepper spray finished school in two hours and there's bo way he was waiting that much, that other ginger middle schooler was absent today too like yesterday and everyone else was just too scared, so he grabbed it and decided to get this over with quickly.
Wilhelm was on his way to the Shvagenbagen's place mumbling some curses to Dee under his breath calling him a teacher's pet which to be fair he fitted the description of, he knocked at the same door he was at yesterday, and the same figure answered too -"Oh you must be Dee's friend! What was your name again?"- Glam said making the boy space to come inside the house -"It's Wilhelm, sir. I'm here to bring Dee some material for history"- he said making his way to the hall, Dee was weird enough, his parents and his brother were weird as well but his house was on a whole other level, they had lots of garbage pinned to the wall and just the aura of the place told him it was a weird one to say the least, surely there were rooms he didn't wanna enter in that building. Glam stopped his thoughts and his wondering gaze -"There's no need to call me sir, it's Glam! Dee's room is upstair, first door and the door inside of it"- what does that mean? Wilhelm thought, a room inside a room? Does he live in a bathroom? Actually that checks out; Glam continued -"It's lucky you're here, my work starts in exactly 40 seconds"- he said checking his wristwatch -"And I don't like being interrupted when I'm in my office, so since you're friends would you mind changing his cloth with cold water? Victoria's out right now but she should be back soon"- he spoke while heading to his office as Wilhelm followed, he couldn't believe his ears, a cloth? Was it really that bad, did his curses had succeded? Not to mention he really didn't want to get stuck playing maid for him out of all people, Whilelm was about to respond when glam interrupted him before he could even begin -"Ok! Times up, don't stay in there for too long or you'll catch the cold too, leave as you please when you're done"- he ultimately said before shutting his office door. Could this day get any worse?! He thought to himself sighing taking a second to process it all, -"Let's do this quickly and just go home"- he mumbled under his breath. Who even told him they were friends, Dee sure as hell wasn't the one, he distinguely remember him using the word classmates, looked rude to correct him on that but Dee will be the one to do it when he'll mention it again so no point in bothering right now; he was thinking that while making his way upstairs passing by heavy on the couch with a plaid around his body and his head making a hood, looked like he fell asleep watching tv, a couple of tissues, water and some medicine scattered around him while he sleeped soundly. He continued his walk upstairs and entered the first door, it was a mess clothes all around crumpled up tissues here too, so much stuff on the desk he didn't get how one could take one item out of the pile without it turning into a failed game of Jenga, snacks wrappers all around the tv and a sticky controller on a little table in the center of the room. Wilhelm wasn't a germophobe but he was about to develop it by the thought of that room alone, at the end of the space was a door, he was a bit nervous but he opened it.
Dee's room without a doubt: tidy, perfectly manteined, were the books in the shelves in alphabetical order? He had two desks one with his school work piled meticulously and a pen holder with some pen and pencils in it; before that he had another desk with only a computer in it and some exposed anime figures; Death Note, at least he had good taste; there wasn't even a chair though, what was he? a cartoon villain whatching that gigantic screen standing with crossed arms maliciously petting his black rat? That thought made him giggle slightly. He closed the door behind him getting closer to the patient even in this condition he manteined all of his used tissues folded and contained in a bin near his bed together to the empty medicine boxes, Right beside it there was a bucket with cold water inside. He finally got close enough to see him, Dee was asleep, he had a relaxed expression on his face, he breathed softly from his slightly open mouth without making a sound; Wilhelm never saw him that defenseless, his guard completely down, he starred at his face for a good while now that he had the chance to; his freckled cheeks were flushed, a rare sight if you weren't Lif, his brows were relaxed giving him a peaceful look, again a rare sight, he wondered how that expression would look on his face if he was awake and his eyes were open, his ponytail was slightly undone to the side to not bother him while resting his head on the pillow, spilling out some golden curl that framed his face like a painting. Wilhelm snapped out of it, that was weird why on Earth was he starring so much at his stupid face but for some reason the rage from that morning completely disappeared from his mind, he would have been able to take any revenge right there and there but maybe because he was guilty there was the possibility he was so sick because of his curses, or maybe because he told himself he was "noble" and wouldn't take advantage of a sick person, as if he didn't have an evil plan against him just this morning, or again it could have been pity! Yes he pitied him because he was so pure of heart, that was definitely it. Regardless of the reason he decided to give him a truce, life was already punishing him anyway. He carefully removed the cloth on the sleeping boy's forehead and dropped it in the bucket, was it even necessary he wondered, the curiosity got the best of him and he gently placed the back of his hand on the spot where the old towel layed, hell yes it was necessary he was burning up, whatever even if his brain got damaged that would only make him average, then maybe he would have the decency to associate himself with us mortals, he thought, not that he cared. He squeezed the fabric of the excess whater and placed it where it was before. The change of temperatures made Dee wake up squinting his eyes at the sudden light his eyes were getting used to -"mom-"- he looked over to the side where slightly freaked out Wilhelm stood -"Wilhelm? What..."- he didn't have the energy to elaborate what was happening he just thought it was the strangest dream; why in the world was Wilhelm in his room? Out of all the allucination his fever could bring him his brain decided to show him Wilhelm, changing his cloth too? Maybe his brain was in fact actually damaged at this point. He grumbled and protested -"Go away"- to what he thought was his allucination, turning around to face the wall. -"You ungrateful little..."- Wilhelm gave up mid sentence, there was no point in fighting with a sick person. He dropped the sheet he came to deliver on his desk and turned around to finally go home, he noticed his camera next to the computer while heading outside and grabbed it smiling, maybe that little side quest wasn't so useless after all. Once he was finally back home he collapsed on his bed immediately falling asleep.