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“Mittens, you’re going to be late for school!”
It was already Emira’s third time knocking on her sister’s bedroom door in the last forty minutes—one before getting ready in the bathroom, one after, and now she and Ed had finished breakfast and Amity still wasn’t up.
She only had about five minutes left to get ready if she wanted to get to school in time.
This was very unlike her.
Amity had probably been up late studying again. She pretty much always was, but that usually didn’t keep her from waking up when her obnoxiously loud alarm went off.
“Almost done,” Amity mumbled, and she sounded like she was seconds away from dozing off again.
“No offense, but I don’t believe you, so I’m coming in.”
Emira had been more hesitant to enter her little sister’s room without permission after the library incident, breach of privacy and all that, but this counted as an emergency, right?
Probably.
Amity’s room was a bit of a mess. There were open text books scattered all over her desk, her bag was open and had apparently toppled over—half the things that were supposed to be inside it were on the floor instead.
Amity herself looked no less of a mess than her room did. She was leaning heavily against her bed. She was still in her pajamas, her hair was a disaster and her face was ashen.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on.
“I’ll be right-” Amity started quickly when she noticed her sister—which took way too long for Emira’s liking. The sentence was cut in half by a lengthy coughing fit. “-there,” she added weakly when the coughing stopped.
The hand she used to steady herself against the bed was trembling.
“Mittens, you look horrible...”
“Thanks,” Amity shot back, but her voice was too weak for it to actually sound sassy. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. “I overslept. I’m going to be late...”
Amity looked so unbearably guilty.
“You’re not seriously considering going to school today!” Emira protested. It wasn’t as surprising as she wished it had been. This was just what Mittens was like, courtesy of the massive amount of pressure their parents put on all of them. Emira felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest as she watched her little sister struggle to stand, still insisting on going to school because she didn’t want to disappoint their parents. “Mittens, please go back to bed.”
“‘M fine,” Amity insisted, slowly removing her hand from the bed and taking a couple unsteady steps forward as if to prove her point.
Then, just like that, she collapsed in the middle of the bedroom.
“Amity!” Emira’s heart skipped a beat, and she barely managed to catch her little sister before she hit the floor. Weak arms wrapped around Emira’s back as Amity melted into the embrace, her entire body shaking. Emira held her sister for a moment, stroking her head gently. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.”
“Everything hurts, Em,” Amity whispered weakly, and then she started sobbing quietly into her sister’s chest.
The stubborn, protesting girl from a moment ago was gone now. It was maybe the most vulnerable she’d let herself be in front of Emira in years.
“No school for you today, and that’s final. Let’s get you back to bed, yeah?”
Amity nodded slightly, and the lack of protest scared Emira almost as much as Amity’s legs giving out had. You usually had to force Amity to take even an hour off of school, let alone an entire day.
If she gave in this quickly, it had to be really, really bad.
Emira gently picked her sister up and carried her back to bed.
Amity winced when Emira lowered her onto the mattress.
“You know, you’re a lot heavier than you look.”
While Emira just used that fact as a joke to lighten the mood—jokes made overwhelming, scary situations easier to handle for her—it actually got her thinking.
She still vaguely remembered when Amity had been tiny enough for her entire body to fit into a crib barely a third of the size of her bed. When had she grown so tall?
“Shut up,” Amity replied weakly.
Concern tugged at Emira’s heart when she noticed the small orange bruises on her sister’s lower arms. The diagnosis was fairly easy. No wonder Amity was in so much pain.
Emira shuddered as she remembered the last bone flu she herself had gone through.
“No can do, Mittens,” Emira said, trying her best to cover up her concern with what she hoped was a convincing sly grin.
Amity groaned a little, but she let Emira tuck her back in with very little complaint.
Then the room door opened again, with so much momentum that it hit the wall with a bang.
Amity winced.
“Uh, hate to interrupt, you guys, but we‘re late for school, and-”
Emira turned around to see her brother standing in the doorframe. She crossed her arms and didn’t let him finish.
“Edric! Please be a bit more gentle with the doors today.”
“Why?” He looked at his twin sister in confusion. He seemed to not even notice Amity until Emira glanced pointedly in her direction. “Titan, is Mittens still in bed?”
“Correction, she’s not still in bed, she’s back in bed,” Emira replied, not moving as much as an inch from her sister’s side. “Amity’s sick. No school for her today.”
“That serious, huh?”
Emira nodded.
“Bone flu.”
Edric winced. He stepped to the other side of the bed, looking Amity over with a worried expression on his face.
“How are you feeling?”
“About as well as I look,” Amity replied weakly. Then her pained grimace turned into one of shock and she frantically tried to sit up. “Thorns, I totally forgot I have an exam today. Mom and dad are going to kill me if I miss that.“
“They’ll have to go through us first,” Edric immediately reassured her, gently pushing her back onto the mattress.
“Also, no offense, but you can’t even stand straight right now,” Emira added. “You’d totally have flunked the exam in the condition you’re in.“
Amity groaned.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, you guys.”
“At your service,” Edric said with a mock bow before turning to Emira. “Em, even if it’s no school for Mittens today, the two of us still kinda need to get going. I don’t care too much about being late, but we’ll barely make it to our second class in time if we stick around for much longer.”
“I’m not going today,” Emira replied immediately. “I’m staying with Amity.”
Bone flu was a scary thing to deal with on your own.
Recent events had made Emira painfully aware that she hadn’t always been the good older sister Amity deserved, and she was determined to make up for that now. At least a little.
“Hold up.” Edric crossed his arms. “Why are you the one that gets to use this as an excuse to skip?” he protested.
“Thanks for your concern,” Amity grumbled, sinking further into her pillow.
Edric winced. He was worried. Of course he was. The thought of leaving scared him almost as much as admitting that out loud did.
He didn’t want to spend the whole day alone at school, with nothing to distract him from his worries.
“Okay, one, I was here first,” Emira replied. “And two... the diary thing was my idea. I owe her.”
“We both do. Even if it was your idea, I went along with it with just as much enthusiasm.”
Edric deflated a little. Emira’s expression softened as she turned back towards her little sister.
“Sorry Mittens, looks like you’re stuck with both of us today.”
Amity let out a groan, but didn’t manage to sound quite as annoyed as she wanted to.
“Lucky me...”
“Don’t write off our help too quickly. Yeah, we’re probably gonna be annoying about it, but we will be spoiling you until you feel a bit better,” Edric said with a grin. “On that note, what do you want for breakfast?”
“I’m not hungry,” Amity insisted, in spite of her grumbling stomach.
She didn’t feel like eating.
“You can’t just skip meals, Amity,” Emira protested. “Especially since I’m pretty sure you weren’t at dinner yesterday either.”
“I was studying!” Amity explained. Well, she’d been trying to. Despite taking a potion to lessen the pain, there was only so much one could focus on when feeling like their limbs were about to fall off. “Besides, I wasn’t very hungry yesterday either.”
Edric crossed his arms, his worry only increasing by the minute.
“Thorns, Mittens, just because the word ‘dying’ is part of studying doesn’t mean you can just forget to take care of yourself over it.”
Amity glared at him.
“Will you please at least try to eat something?” Emira tried a tad more gently. “It doesn’t have to be much.”
Amity shook her head.
“Not now. Later, maybe.”
She just wanted her stomach to stop hurting before she did. The mere thought of food made her feel sick.
Emira looked at her sister in concern and sighed.
“Okay. We’ll go find you some medicine, then. And don’t even think of trying to get up again in the meantime. I don’t care if you’re sick. I will not hesitate to kick your ass when I get back,” she warned her.
“Okay, okay.” Amity managed a strained smile. “I’ll stay in bed.”
“We’ll be right down the hall. If you need anything, just yell.”
Twenty minutes later, Emira slammed the medicine cabinet with a frustrated groan.
“Of course. We have a whole closet full of medical brews, but nothing for bone flu.”
One would think their mother could use her oracle magic for something useful for once, but apparently not.
“I found some pain killers, at least,” Edric said, holding up the box of tiny creatures.
“That’s a start. But it won’t be enough.” Emira sighed, worrying at her lip in concern. “Can you head to the brewery and get some medicine while I stay with Mittens? I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving her here all alone.”
In that moment, she was very glad Edric had insisted on sticking around as well.
“I don’t know, Em. That didn’t go so well last time...” Edric trailed off, gaze averted in shame. If it had been some minor thing, he probably would have managed, but he couldn’t afford to mess up something this important. Having Amity’s recovery depend on whether or not he grabbed the wrong potion felt like way too much responsibility. “Can you go instead? I could stay with Amity in the meantime.”
“You know, I don’t think you would...” Emira started, but she broke off in the middle of the sentence when she realized Ed wasn’t meeting her eyes. She hated seeing him so insecure. Emira wished she could reassure him rather than going instead of him, but the fifteen minutes that would have required were fifteen additional minutes Amity had to go without medicine. She squeezed Edric’s shoulder gently and made a mental note to sit down with him to talk about this later. “Alright. I’ll go. Be right back.”
Amity barely lifted her head when her brother opened the door again.
She really wanted to sleep, but despite her heavy eyelids she just wasn’t able to. The pain had kept her awake for most of the previous night, and it still refused to let her rest now.
“Where’s Em?” she asked, still looking in the direction of the door, expecting her to come in any second.
“She went to the brewery to get some potion for you,” Edric explained. “In the meantime... it’s not bone flu medicine, exactly, but we had some pain killers.”
Edric waited for Amity to sit up. Then, he handed her the little box, along with a glass of spineapple juice he’d brought from the kitchen. Amity grimaced.
“Titan, I hate these.”
But she forced herself to put two of the tiny beings into her mouth anyway. She struggled not to bite down on the pain killers as they moved around her tongue before quickly gulping them down with the juice.
Amity shuddered. At least that was over with.
She set the empty glass down on the nightstand beside her.
“You’ll be feeling better in a bit,” Edric mumbled and ruffled her hair gently.
“Stop ruining my hair...” Amity whined.
Ed’s encouraging smile did little to make her feel better.
“No offense, but I don’t think it can get any more ruined than it already is,” he joked. “You’ve always had a pretty severe case of bed head.”
“Great. Thanks.” Amity was on the verge of tears, and she absolutely despised it. She didn’t want to feel so hurt over a mostly harmless stupid joke, but her entire body was aching and she felt awful. Knowing she looked the part as well made her feel even worse. “I know that I look like a ghost, and my nose is all runny, and I have these stupid bruises all over my body, but thanks for the reminder that my hair is also a complete disaster on top of that.”
She had another coughing fit, and this time she was almost thankful for it, because despite how much it hurt, at least the tears now looked like they were caused by that rather than the comment.
Her brother rubbed her back gently.
“Do you want me to brush it?” he asked softly.
Amity wiped her eyes with her sleeve, then raised an eyebrow at her brother.
“That’s a thing you can do?”
“Uh, yeah? You don’t think my hair looks this amazing by itself, do you?” he joked. “Think that would make you feel a bit better?”
She rolled her eyes at him.
“You‘re a dumbass, you know that, right?” But then she sighed. “And... it might, I guess. I don’t know.”
She took the brush she’d safely locked away in her nightstand—she’d have to find a different hiding place for it now, but that was an issue to be solved some other time—and handed it to her brother.
Edric took the brush, looked at it and snorted.
“You have an Azura brush? Really?”
“I- it’s a really good one, okay?” Amity blushed. “It magically untangles hair, and... Luz got it for me as a thank you for helping with her glyphs.”
Amity immediately regretted letting that last part slip out, wishing she could remember a spell for taking back words, but her pounding head prevented her from thinking straight.
“Awwww.” When Amity looked up at her brother, she expected a teasing smirk, and not to hear the end of it for the next half an hour... but the smile he showed her instead was completely genuine. “I like Luz. From what I’ve seen of you two together... she’s pretty good for you.”
“You... you really think so?”
“Yeah. You seem happier when you’re with her. I’ve haven’t seen you smile like that in years.”
Edric smiled fondly at his blushing little sister.
“Do you think she’ll be sad I’m not at school today?”
“Yeah. I’m sure she will be. And then she’ll catch on to what’s going on, and have some elaborate plan to cheer you up by noon that may or may not lead to her lighting your bedroom on fire by accident.”
Amity snorted, and Edric’s smile grew even broader. It’d been a long time since he’d last managed to make her laugh like that.
As Edric sat down on the bed beside his sister and began to brush her hair gently, Amity found herself actually talking to him, in a way she hadn’t in years. Her story about one of Luz’s adorable shenanigans caused a surprising lack of teasing from her brother, and it was... nice.
Edric just listened and smiled, brushing her hair until every last strand was in place.
“I’m glad you’ve found someone that makes you this happy. Luz will make a rebel outta you yet,” he joked, and for once, Amity didn’t mind. “I think I’m done. Is this okay?”
He held up a small mirror. Amity’s reflection looked exhausted and undeniably sick, but it smiled back at her.
“It is. Thanks, Ed.”
“Anytime.”
Edric was sitting at Amity’s bedside and telling her about a prank he and Em had pulled recently when Emira herself walked back into the room.
To her delight, Amity looked like her mood had somewhat improved since she’d left. Whatever Edric had done worked.
Emira stepped to the free side of Amity’s bed and set the bubbling light blue potion down on the table.
“Here you go. It’s not gonna taste great, but this should help you feel better.”
“Thanks, Em.”
Amity managed a smile as she sat up again. The pain killers had done their job, so she was feeling a bit less miserable than before, but she still couldn’t wait to take the potion and have this nightmare over with.
“And I, uh... brought you a little something,” Emira continued a bit awkwardly. It was only now that Amity noticed the plate she was holding. “Scornberry tarts are still your favorites, right?”
Amity stared at the pastry. It was true, she did love them—as annoying as raw scornberries were, their taste was incredible, and if they were baked, one was spared any snappy comments from them while eating.
“Mom says I’m only allowed to have these when I get perfect scores back.”
“Well, mom isn’t here, is she? Besides, house rules only apply to non-sick people.” Emira handed Amity the plate and smiled at her. “Try to eat, okay?”
“You... didn’t have to bring me anything. This is really sweet of you,” Amity mumbled, undeniably touched by Emira’s worry.
“Damn right it is,” Em joked, because of course she couldn’t do anything nice without immediately ruining the moment. This one time, Amity could be okay with that. “I’m your favorite sister for a reason.”
Amity rolled her eyes, but smiled in spite of it.
“You’re my only sister, Em. That simultaneously makes you my favorite and least favorite sister.”
“She’s got you there, sis.”
Emira rolled her eyes at her way too amused brother.
“I told you not to call me that.”
“And I promptly felt encouraged to do so more often,” Edric replied with a grin.
Emira scoffed and turned back to Amity.
“Seriously though, it wasn’t a big deal,” she said with a smile. “The bakery is only about a five minute walk from the brewery, anyway.”
“Still, I appreciate it,” Amity replied, looking at the small tart fondly.
A part of her couldn’t believe that her sister even remembered what her favorite comfort food was. Maybe Emira did pay more attention to what Amity said than she let on.
“Did you get me anything?” Edric asked.
“Okay, one, you already had breakfast, Ed. And two, last time I checked, you were perfectly healthy and capable of acquiring your own food. Get back to me when you’re, like, dying or something.”
Emira winked at Amity conspiratorially, took a small bakery bag from behind her back and gently tossed it at Edric.
It hit him right in the back of the head.
He proceeded to catch it masterfully, dramatically whisper “goodbye cruel world” and then fall to the floor in slow motion.
Amity snorted with laughter.
“You guys are idiots.”
“Maybe,” Edric agreed, eagerly unpacking whatever was in the bag as he got up. “But you’re laughing, aren’t you?”
Amity blinked.
“Huh.”
The distraction had been so effective, she’d all but forgotten how awful she felt for a while.
“Now eat up, take your potion and then sleep for a bit, yeah? The healer said you should start feeling better in a couple of hours.”
Emira ruffled her hair gently.
“Hey!” Edric protested. “I just fixed that!”
“Ah,” Emira said dryly. “That explains it.”
“What?”
“How Mittens managed to make her hair look worse than it did when I left,” Emira replied, sticking her tongue out at her brother.
On any other day, Amity might have reacted badly to a statement like that. Hell, if Emira had made that joke earlier today, she probably would have.
But right now, Amity knew her hair looked perfectly fine, and that Emira was just poking some good-natured fun at Edric, like she so often did.
“Okay, first of all, how dare you-” Edric started.
Amity chuckled, and looked down at her plate.
The tart didn’t look... terrible. Maybe she could try this.
Edric and Emira bickered in the background as Amity ate, and as she watched them she found herself smiling.
Maybe her siblings weren’t so bad all the time.
...Maybe she was even lucky to have them.
Occasionally, at least.