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It took a week of constant sneezing, coughing, and sniffling for Y/N to admit that she was sick. Sick as a dog, as Alfred would say. Although she’d never witnessed the Wayne household’s dogs, Ace and Titus, be as sick as she felt at that moment.
Y/N had begrudgingly wiped her schedule completely clean after being persuaded 24/7 by Alfred and Bruce, and she still wasn’t too pleased to be spending all of her time at home. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her husband and his surrogate father, but she liked her work. Being a concerto pianist with the Gotham Symphony Orchestra was her lifelong dream and ever since achieving it she wasn’t going to let some other players take her spot that she worked so hard to get. At least she could take a week away from the orchestra’s overbearing conductor who enjoyed stopping an entire piece just because one note was out of place.
Spending time with the boys won’t be so bad, she thought as she sat on the couch with Ace and ran her fingers through his fur. The German Shepherd nuzzled his face into her lap and looked up at her with his big brown eyes.
“Careful, boy,” she said to the dog. “You’ll make your brothers get jealous.”
“Never mind his brothers, what about me?” a deep voice said from behind her. Y/N turned her head slightly and smiled when she saw Bruce standing behind the couch with a steaming mug of honey and lemon water for her.
“It’s not you who I need to worry about being jealous, honey,” Y/N in her rusty voice. “We have five other boys who would all fight you and Ace for me.” Bruce rounded the couch to sit next to her.
“Good thing they’re all busy today,” he said as he gathered her into his arms. Ace whined slightly when he could no longer cuddle with his mommy.
“Hey, you’ve had your turn. Let your daddy have a turn now,” Y/N said to the dog who slinked away to bother Alfred for treats.
“How are you feeling today?” Bruce asked her. She could only cough in response. “That good, huh?”
“I feel like I’ve swallowed a razor,” she rasped before taking a sip of water. “I knew I shouldn’t have shaken that new cellist’s hand. He’d been sniffing and wiping his nose with the back of it all week.” Bruce soothed his large palm over her arm as she drew herself closer into him.
“That’s why we should all carry hand sanitiser, you don’t know where people have been or what they’ve been doing.” Y/N wheezed a small laugh at that. “I’m going to keep you company as much as I can until you feel better.”
“Bruce, I’m not a child. You don’t need to keep an eye on me all the time,” Y/N chided. “And besides, I have Alfred and the dogs to keep me company.”
“Are you saying you’d rather hang around the dogs than your husband?” Bruce asked in mock offence.
“Maybe. My husband doesn’t appreciate ear scritches and belly rubs as much as Ace does,” Y/N countered amusedly.
“Alright, you got me there. But I’m still going to-” He was cut off by his phone’s text alert. He sighed as he pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket.
“What is it?” Y/N asked, trying to get a peek at the screen without spilling scalding hot water in her lap.
“Lucius,” he replied, his brow furrowed. “He says it’s urgent. Sorry, sweetheart. You’ll have to spend the day with Alfred and the dogs after all.”
“Hey, you’ve spent your whole life with Alfred. You of all people should know that it’s not a death sentence.” Bruce chuckled and kissed her on the forehead.
“I’ll see you tonight, honey. Don’t do anything too strenuous, you need to rest.”
Asking Y/N to not do anything too strenuous was like waving meat in front of an animal and telling it not to eat it. Of course, she was going to be on her feet at some point.
When she knew for sure that Bruce wasn’t home and Alfred was busy running errands, she changed out of her pyjamas and got ready to take Titus and Ace for a walk around the manor’s grounds. If anyone had seen her they would have thought it comical that such a small person could walk two huge dogs without being pulled along by them. But she and Damian had worked hard on training their mini wolf pack so the two smallest members of the Wayne household had no problem at all.
A walk will definitely blow some of these cobwebs away, Y/N thought as she breathed in the fresh scent of the flowers in the gardens that she had planted weeks before. However, as she bent down to let the dogs off of their leashes, she suddenly felt light-headed. She stood for a moment to regain her bearings and take a deep breath before shaking it off and following the dogs. It didn’t last long, unfortunately.
Her legs felt heavy and sluggish, cold sweat started to bead on her brow, and the world seemed to be spinning faster and faster. The dogs looked to be miles away and she couldn’t catch up to them. She felt herself slowly come to a stop before the ground came up from under her feet, sending her crashing into the grass. Before her eyes closed from exhaustion she felt a wet nose nudge at her cheek, while barking sounded off in the distance.
When Y/N finally came to, she found herself tucked in bed with a heavy weight draped over her middle. She opened her eyes to see Ace resting his head on her stomach, while Titus was snoozing on her legs. She turned her head to see Bruce parked in a chair beside the bed, scrolling through his phone. He looked up when he heard the sheets rustling.
“Hey, how’re you feeling?” he asked gently.
“What happened?” she asked in response. “The last thing I remember was walking the dogs in the garden. How did I end up here?”
“Well, you pushed yourself too hard - like I told you not to do - and you fainted from exhaustion,” he said as he placed the back of his hand on her forehead, feeling her temperature. “It’s a good thing you and Damian have trained the dogs so well or else you’d have been there for hours.”
“Sorry,” she said sheepishly while nuzzling her face into Bruce’s hand. “I thought the fresh air would do me some good.”
“It’s okay, honey. I would have done the same thing. Now, how about I run you a bath?”
“Could you run us a bath instead?” she asked sweetly.
“If by ‘us’ you mean me and you, I certainly can,” Bruce said before placing a soft kiss on her hot cheek.
“Thank you, baby,” Y/N called after him as he disappeared into the bathroom.
Ace had shifted further up her chest while Titus had moved from her legs to her side. Thankfully the master bed was big enough for all of them. Y/N gave them both head scratches which they both leaned into appreciatively.
“And thank you, boys, for looking after me,” she said to the dogs. Titus responded with a huff before shoving his head under her arm while Ace gave a small lick to the tip of her nose.