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It was a normal day.
Gakushuu was doing extra student council work as usual, so Ren had waited for him to go home together.
They were about to leave the school building, when he noticed something and stopped walking.
Gakushuu looked back to him and shot him a questioning look.
“Ren, is something wrong?”
“Where’s your scarf?”
“I accidently left it at home. It’s no big deal, let’s go,” Gakushuu said and turned to the doors again.
Ren sighed. There was one thing he had to learn through all these years with Gakushuu; his boyfriend may be a genius, but he was incapable of taking care of himself. It seemed like as soon as something concerned his health, physical or mental, he forgot every knowledge he had.
“Gakushuu,” he called out again, making the other stop in his movement.
“Don’t think I missed all your coughs today. And I know for a fact, that you didn’t have a scarf with you these last few days. If you continue like this, you’ll catch a cold. Here,” Ren walked up to him, taking off his own scarf and tying it around the other’s neck, “take mine.”
“But what about you?” came the immediate protest, and Gakushuu started taking the scarf off before Ren put his hands on top of his to stop him.
“We both know you need it more. After all, I’m not the one quietly coughing all day long.”
Gakushuu rolled his eyes.
“It’s a matter of principle, not some stupid coughs. I’m fine and it’s yours, so take it back.”
Ren had to suppress a sigh. Gakushuu could be stubborn.
“Look, if you don’t want it because of your coughs, then please wear it for me. See it as me being worried about you and looking after my boyfriend.”
He could see Gakushuu’s cheeks flushing a bit and rolling his eyes again.
“Fine, if you insist. Let’s go, we already wasted enough time.” With these words, he started walking away.
Ren couldn’t stifle his laugh as he caught up to Gakushuu and intertwined their hands.
There was another thing he learned about him after all this time. Despite Gakushuu’s natural confidence, he was completely inexperienced with everything concerning a romantic relationship and easily flustered.
Not that Ren would tell him that, Gakushuu would just try to hide it and it was cute.
So they continued their walk home, talking like every day.
“Here, thank you.”
Ren looked up to see Gakushuu standing in front of him, putting his scarf on his desk.
“Don’t worry, today I got my own,” he added, absent mindedly pointing to his bag where Ren could see a violet scarf.
“Thanks,” Ren said, packing his own one away.
He could still hear a certain roughness in Gakushuu’s voice, but hopefully it would go away soon.
As it turns out, it wouldn’t.
Ren still heard his friend coughing and sneezing and it didn’t look like it would go away soon.
Despite that, Gakushuu vehemently insisted that he felt fine.
Ren didn’t believe him. Gakushuu would rather suffer than to admit that he wasn’t at his best and should rest, even though it was quite obvious.
It didn’t help Ren’s disbelief that he found him in the student council room, conveniently seated closer to the heater than usual when no one was around. Gakushuu seemed to have trouble concentrating and shivered a bit. Not a lot, but still noticeable.
“You seem unwell.”
His boyfriend looked up from his papers.
“It’s nothing, merely a small headache. Nothing worth noting,” Gakushuu waved it off and looked back at the documents.
“And your new seating position is also not worth noting, I presume,” Ren retorted. “I can see you shivering.”
Gakushuu sighed.
“The temperatures have been pretty low recently with the latest snowfall. I don’t see how it’s strange that I am a bit cold.”
Now it was Ren sighing. He knew how stubborn his boyfriend could be and he himself could easily be overreacting, but this was just getting ridiculous.
“Gakushuu please, don’t lie to me. It’s fine if you aren’t feeling well. You don’t have to hide it and should rest.”
The other looked back up at him with a small scowl.
“Exams are coming up. I can’t allow myself to slack off.”
“You’re just going to make it worse. And then you’ll have to take exams while you’re sick, because I know you wouldn’t want to miss a single school day.”
“It’s nothing an Asano can’t handle.”
There it was, his usual excuse. Ren didn’t know what the line of logic was with it, but apparently as long as an Asano could still somehow function and wasn’t dying, they had to do everything as usual.
Though he could understand how Gakushuu could believe something like this, giving that it seemed to be one of the fundamental lessons his father “taught” him.
“You shouldn’t ignore your health because you think you can handle it,” Ren said, approaching Gakushuu and sitting down next to him. “If you’re not going to rest, then at least let me help you.”
“You don’t have to. I’m student council president. This is my job.”
Ren ignored his objection and took half of the paper stack.
“And I’m your secretary, so this is also my job.”
Gakushuu let him do it.
“If you insist.”
They worked for a few minutes until Gakushuu addressed him again.
“You really don’t have to do that. Thank you.”
Ren smiled at him and squeezed his hand. As a result he noticed he noticed how warm the other was. Not to a concerning extent, but Ren was sure he felt warmer than normal.
After that a pleasant atmosphere settled over them while they worked in silence.
The next day Ren put a thermos and a pack of tablets on Gakushuu’s desk.
“What’s this?” the other asked, eyeing the new items.
“Warm tea and some tablets against cold.”
“Why?”
“Because I know you wouldn’t get these by yourself, so I bought it for you.”
He could see a smile grow on Gakushuu’s lips.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to, it’s not-”
“I know, I know,” Ren interrupted him. “Please, just take them. Okay?”
Gakushuu gave him a small peck on the cheek.
“I will.”
Ren waited for Gakushuu.
They agreed to meet up at his house to learn for their exams. His parents had their own plans so they wouldn’t be interrupted.
It actually was Ren’s idea to study together. He knew how much pressure Gakushuu put on himself, not to mention his father.
And he knew that Gakushuu wouldn’t let himself rest, so the best idea appeared to be to study together. That way he could look after him and ensure that his friend wouldn’t worsen his cold.
He heard the doorbell and went to greet Gakushuu.
While they were talking Ren noticed that the other’s voice wasn’t so rough anymore.
“You took the medicine.”
“I told you I would.”
Ren smiled at him, glad that he took his advice.
“We should start studying.”
After a few hours, Ren stood up and stretched.
“We should take a break.”
He saw how Gakushuu’s pen froze. His friend hesitated for a few seconds before he put it down and stood up as well.
“You’re right.”
Ren laughed at the forced sound of the words.
“I know you’d love to continue, but I won’t let you work yourself to the ground.”
They walked to the couch and sat down, Gakushuu leaning against him.
“I know, we talked about it more than enough.”
Ren put an arm around his boyfriend and kissed him on the hair, smiling fondly. He still felt a bit warmer than normal, but he didn’t seem to be cold anymore or have a headache.
“And you still hesitate every single time. Even though I’m sure you already memorized all of our books.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“I’m telling the truth. You know that you would have spent the entire day locked up in your room, reading the same passages over and over again. The only way of stopping you is to force you to take a break.”
“That’s why you invited me over? To make sure I don’t do something like that?”
“I’d lie if I said it wasn’t a major deciding factor.”
“Oh, what would I do without you, forcing me to stop studying?” Gakushuu asked sarcastically.
“Probably writing exams with a headache and a horrible cough,” Ren answered laughing, trying to avoid Gakushuu’s light jab into his side.