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Okita's chest has been feeling painfully tight all morning, which is normal. She's grown almost used to it since being summoned. Constant pain, always there in the back of her mind, that ebbs and flows with each breath she takes. She can nearly ignore it on good days.
Today is not a good day. She just has to hope it won't get worse.
Nobunaga, to her credit, is an excellent distraction. Particularly her lips. Particularly, her lips on Okita's, pinning her down to the bed they share. It's the kind of thing Okita can get lost in: holding Nobunaga close, kissing her, being kissed. They'd spent the morning sparring together, then returned to their room for tea, which had quickly turned to cuddling in bed. Okita doesn't mind in the slightest as her tea grows cold; not when Nobunaga's lying on top of her and keeping her so very warm.
The trouble starts as a familiar tightness in her chest, a tickle in her throat a second later. It's always like this. Okita tears her mouth away from Nobunaga's and rolls violently to her side. Nobunaga only manages a shocked, "Hey, what—" before Okita's coughing hard. The taste of iron fills her mouth before she can swallow it back down. Great. She'd been doing so well today.
"Hey, are you okay?" Nobunaga says. She's pulled away from Okita, now, and is sitting up on the futon.
Okita nods, wiping her mouth and pulling herself up to sit next to Nobunaga. "I'm fine, it was just—" She's interrupted by another coughing fit, one that wracks her whole body. Nobunaga sits there patient and silent, waiting for it to subside. "A cough," Okita finishes.
"Yeah, obviously."
"I'm fine now."
Nobunaga scrunches up her face. "You've still got some blood right there."
"Oh, let me…"
"I got it, I got it." Nobunaga drags her thumb against Okita's chin. It comes away streaked red, but Nobunaga just wipes it off on her pants before Okita can say anything about it. She pauses for a moment, closing her eyes the way Okita knows she does when she's considering something important. Finally, she says, "For the rest of the day, just leave everything to me."
"I don't need a caretaker," Okita protests.
"Good, 'cause I don't wanna be one." Nobunaga looks serious, and Okita's inclined to believe it's genuine. A rarity. "I'm just saying that I'm here for you. After all, not many people can say that the great Oda Nobunaga, Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, has personally offered them her assistance!"
There she goes again, Okita thinks, but it still brings a smile to her face. "...Alright."
"Great!" With that, Nobunaga flops back down onto the bed, pulling the covers around her (or, as much as she can with Okita still sitting on them).
"What are you doing?"
Nobunaga looks up at her with big, questioning eyes. "It tires you out, right? I'll rest with you."
Okita hates to admit it, but Nobunaga is right. Maybe Nobunaga is a lot more perceptive than she lets on, or Okita's doing a poor job of hiding her symptoms. Either way, there's no arguing with someone like Nobunaga.
Lying back down proves to be the right decision. Okita's whole body feels like it's collapsing, even as she cuddles up to Nobunaga so they're face to face. It subsides a little, not having to support herself, but the sharp ache in her lungs remains.
"Better?"
Okita nods. "...Thanks. Although, I don't think I can sleep like this…"
"Too early? I can tire you out if you want!"
"No, no, I mean— " Okita's face flushes hot. "I'm… it's nothing, it just… hurts too much to really fall asleep."
"Is that so?" Nobunaga yawns. "I could fall asleep right now. Oh, oh, I'll sing, how's that! I'll sing you to sleep."
"Don't. Please," Okita mumbles, a smile making its way to her face nonetheless.
True to her word, Nobunaga dozes off easily, her responses to Okita tapering off until she's lying there silently. She looks so peaceful like this, Okita thinks, not at all like the warlord who united half the country or the Servant who wished to make the Grail into a bomb. This is a side of Nobunaga that few ever get to witness.
It's nice. This is nice, all chest pain aside. This is the kind of thing Okita never got to have in life. However transient she and Nobunaga may be in their Servant forms, Okita wants to hold onto moments like this.
Okita threads her fingers through Nobunaga's hair, and gently pulls her sleeping body close. She could stay like this, she thinks. She could stay like this for a long while, not minding at all.