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Steve thinks having his nose stuffed up is the worst kind of being sick. Throwing up isn't a lot of fun, but sometimes he does it even when he isn't sick, and coughing is just normal, and headaches bad enough to be really miserable usually mean his mom gives him some of the morphine she takes from work and that helps with the coughing too, but having his nose stuffed up is just -
His eyes kind of hurt when he squints them open, as he tries waking up. He doesn't know if he wants to wake up. But it's getting hard to stay enough asleep that he's not having weird and scary dreams, or half-dreams about stuff like Mom getting sick, and if he wakes up maybe he can read a book or something. Or Mom could read to him maybe? It sounds like she's here, so either she didn't go to work or she's already home, he's not sure, except it's probably the first one because it's too light -
Except when Steve blinks his eyes all the way open it's not his mom sitting on the chair beside the bed, it's Bucky, sitting watching Steve with his arms around his bent knees and his sock feet braced on the edge of the chair's seat. His hair's a bit ruffled and his shirt's all wrinkled under his suspenders and the light looks like it's morning.
"What're you doing here?" Steve manages to rasp, as Bucky puts his feet down and leans forward so he can give Steve the cup of water on the broken stool beside the bed.
"You were still pretty sick by last night when I brought the school stuff," the other boy says, shrugging. "Told your mom she could go to work and I'd stay and run come get her if something was wrong, I know she stayed home night before."
Steve doesn't know what to say about that so he says, "Didn't have to, 've stayed sick by myself b'fore," and tries not to spill the cup of water. Bucky shrugs again.
"Your mom seemed pretty worried," he says, "an' Big Mike was going by so I asked him to stop and tell them at home, means my mom could stay at Aunt Kate's'n'yesterday was payday so Dad woulda been out all night anyway. Didn't mind."
"But - " Steve says, still frowning. "S'Tuesday. S'school."
"S'only Religion," the other boy says, and sounds a little disgusted. "I can catch up."
"An' 'rithmatic - " Steve starts but the other boy shakes his head.
"Already did that part," he says, and takes the cup back now that Steve's emptied it.
Steve feels off-balance and embarrassed, because he knows he can't really sit up yet. Bucky wraps his arms around his knees again and rests his chin on one of them. "Your breathing sounds better'n'it did last night," he says. "How often you get sick like this?"
Steve's the one who shrugs this time. "Lot," he says. "Can't help it."
"Don't think anyone gets sick if then c'n'help it," Bucky points out.
"Well," Steve says. "They get drunk an' sick."
"That's different," Bucky says, "you get to be drunk first before you're sick an' it goes away fast. Your mom said you should have milk when you wake up, if y'think you c'n'drink it without throwing up." And he gives Steve a questioning look. Steve kinda wants to tell him to go away and go home, because it's embarrassing for someone else to see him sick, someone who's not his mom seeing him when he can't get up, but Bucky's not acting like he thinks it's embarrassing and besides, Steve thinks he might be able to get up enough to empty his bladder, but not enough to do that and go get milk, and he's hungry.
"Yeah," he says cautiously. "Maybe."
"Okay," Bucky says, pushing himself down off the chair again. "Be back in a sec."
When he goes out of the bedroom, Steve tries pushing the covers back and pushing himself up to sitting.