Work Text:
In English class, Makoto stares at Haru. His boyfriend can’t seem to sit up straight, and his eyelids flicker like he’s about to fall asleep. Come to think of it, Haru did look pretty groggy this morning when Makoto came to his house.
He hopes he’s just overthinking things. But when Haru’s eyes close and he slumps, his elbow slipping off of his desk and jerking him awake, he realises that something might be wrong. Most of the class laughs and their teacher raises his eyebrows.
“Haru?” he whispers once the laughter has died down. “Are you okay?”
Haru nods, still looking half asleep. “I’m fine.”
He doesn’t believe him.
At lunchtime, Kou realises that Haru is barely eating. She stares at her boyfriend, who she knows is obsessed with eating enough protein. So to see him picking at his food is quite unnerving.
“Haru, why aren’t you eating?” she asks.
The moment she says it, everyone looks at Haru. The five of them have been dating since not long after Rei first joined the swim club, and are known to be quite protective of each other.
Haru sighs. “I am eating. I’m just not very hungry today.”
“But… but you always want to eat mackerel,” Kou says, and the other boys all nod their heads. “Are… are you feeling okay?”
Haru smiles one of those tiny smiles of his. “I’m fine.”
She doesn’t believe him.
In the locker room, Nagisa jumps at the sound of coughing. Turning his head, he realises it is Haru, hunching forwards and coughing with a fist pressed to his mouth. He appears to have started coughing halfway through taking off his shoes, and coughs and coughs with his face screwed up.
Nagisa runs up to his boyfriend and places a hand on his bare back, rubbing circles. “Haru?! Are you okay?”
Haru can’t talk while he’s having a coughing fit, but when it finishes, he stands up straight, looks at Nagisa and says, “I’m fine.”
“What? No you’re not.”
“I am, really,” Haru says, putting a hand on his shoulder.
He doesn’t believe him.
At the poolside, Rei is about to take off his glasses when he notices something: Haru appears to be shivering. Rei at first thinks he is imagining it, but a closer look confirms this thought: Haru is shivering. He stands at the side of the pool wearing nothing but his trunks, swim cap and goggles, his muscles trembling as he shivers. It is subtle, but Rei has noticed. Although the others don’t seem to have noticed.
So Rei walks over to Haru and says, “Are you cold?”
Haru looks up, flinching. “Uh, not really.”
“Then why are you shivering?”
“I’m fine, Rei,” Haru says, and he walks away, pulls his goggles over his eyes and dives into the pool.
And Rei doesn’t believe him.
He feels dreadful. His movements are sluggish as he swims, not able to move as fast as he swims up and down the pool. The cold water makes him feel colder than ever, and Haru is sure he would be shivering if he wasn’t exercising so hard.
When he woke up this morning, he had a horrible cough. It has been getting worst all day, leaving him exhausted from the effort of constantly coughing. And he’s off his food and he just feels so cold, but he can’t let on. He doesn’t want to worry his girlfriend and boyfriends. He doesn’t want to take it easy. He needs to keep swimming.
But when he finally drags himself out of the water, another fit of coughing hits him. He coughs violently, his chest heavy with phlegm, muscles trembling with shivers. His eyes are screwed up, but he feels hands on his back and shoulders and arms, and can hear panicked cries of, “Haru!”
Finally managing to stop coughing, he wipes his mouth and looks at them. They all look so worried; Nagisa is near tears. “I’m fine, really.”
And then his legs wobble and his knees give way, and Haru collapses. Hands grab his arms and lower him to the ground.
“No you’re not,” Rei says, helping him lie on his back.
“You’re sick,” Kou says, brushing wet hair from his forehead.
“We knew there was something wrong all day,” Makoto says, covering him with a towel.
“We’ve been worried about you, Haru,” Nagisa says, his voice cracking as he leans down to hug him.
So his plan failed. He tried to act like nothing was wrong, but they saw through it.
“Sorry,” he whispers.
“Don’t worry about it. We just want you to feel better,” Makoto says, putting another towel across his legs.
Haru smiles. And then his boyfriends and girlfriend each kiss his face in turn: Kou kisses his forehead, Makoto kisses his right cheek, Rei kisses his left, and Nagisa kisses the tip of his nose. This makes him laugh – at least until he coughs.
So yes, he feels dreadful. But now he’s let his guard down and the others are here to help, he doesn’t feel quite so awful.