Work Text:
Gillion had been feeling a little off all day.
Well…saying a little would be an understatement. Gillion had been feeling very off. He felt hot but he also felt cold. He had a headache pounding behind his eyes. His muscles ached. He was insanely thirsty. He didn't feel well at all.
But still, he carried out his duties. He was never one to abandon his duties just because he was feeling a little off.
"Hey Gil, are you feeling okay? You, uh, look kinda-"
"You look like shit," Chip cut in, pushing in front of Jay. Gillion blinked at his friends.
"I can assure you both, I am fine," Gillion said, putting his hands up.
"You're, uhm…a little shaky?" Jay pointed out. It was true Gillion felt a little cold, but he didn't think he was shaking any. Jay must've been imagining things.
"We're not getting anywhere with this if you're just gonna dance around the topic, Jay. Gil, are you sick?" Chip asked. A little rudely too, Gil noticed.
"I am Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep! No sickness could ever hinder my ability to succeed!" Gillion declared proudly, a broad grin on his face.
Chip and Jay glanced at each other. Chip stepped forward and stood on his toes, pressing one hand against Gillion's forehead and the other on his own.
Gillion wasn't sure what Chip was doing and backed away from his touch after he recovered from the brief shock of this interaction. Nonetheless, it seemed that Chip had gotten what he needed from this odd exchange.
He nodded to himself, wiping the hand he'd placed on Gillion's forehead on his pants. "Yep. He's sick."
"As I've announced earlier-"
"Yeah yeah, no sickness can stop you or whatever but it can get me sick and I don't know about you but I am not a fan of being sick," Chip said, looking at Gillion. "So you, mister, are going to take your sick fishy ass under the deck and rest. Captain's orders," Chip added as he turned to head back to the wheel.
"Wait- but Chip I thought we were all the captain," Gillion called after him.
"Then it's a democracy! Jay, you agree with me," Chip called, looking pointedly at Jay.
"You really should rest so the rest of us don't get sick with you. It would be bad if all three captains were in no condition to run the ship," Jay told him.
Gillion sighed. "I suppose I cannot argue with democracy…" He climbed down into the small sleeping space they all shared and made his way to his barrel. He detached the small glass container that held Pretzel and emptied it into the barrel. He then got inside himself, sinking his face into the water.
He was pouting.
"I'm not too sick to work. I'm perfectly fi-ha…" Gillion cut himself off with a sneeze. He knocked into the back of the barrel, a tiny bit of water splashing out of it.
Pretzel looked at him. He knew that if she had eyebrows, they would be raised. She chirped her response at him and dove under the water.
She was right. He was in no condition to work. He was exhausted and he felt so hot and cold and just wanted to sleep. And so he did.
…
"Hey. Hey, wake up."
Gil opened his eyes slowly, rubbing at them. He had an odd dream he didn't quite remember. But he emerged from his barrel, all the same, water dripping off of him. He looked through squinted eyes at Jay who held a bowl of soup in each hand, then to Chip behind her with a bucket of what may have been water and a towel hanging over the edge. "Is it late?" Gil asked, rubbing his eyes again.
"No. Alphons made lunch, though," Jay said, holding up a larger bowl of soup.
The two looked at each other for a beat of awkward silence. Chip set the bucket down behind Jay, setting the towel in the water.
"Is that for me?" Gillion asked, pointing to the larger bowl of soup. Jay nodded. Gillion stood, careful of Pretzel, and climbed out of the barrel, sitting down in a very un graceful motion. The water in his clothes squished out from under him. He reached up to Jay so she could hand him the bowl of soup.
"Uhm…how are ya feeling buddy?" Chip asked. He wrung out the towel in his hands, placing it on Gillion’s forehead. It felt nice against his feverish skin. Chip grabbed his bowl of soup once more and sat at the edge of his makeshift bed.
Gillion swallowed a big spoonful of soup. "...icky."
Chip blinked at him. Once. Twice. "You feel icky ?" Gillion nodded and swallowed another spoonful of soup.
"What kind of soup is this, it is delicious," Gillion asked, looking down at the yellowy broth with some sort of meat chunks.
“Chicken soup. Or, uh, we didn’t really have chicken but Chip caught this really big fish so it’s fish soup. But you can pretend it’s chicken if that makes you feel better,” Jay said, shrugging.
“Just like grandmama used to make,” Gillion hummed, eating another big spoonful.
“Your grandma made mediocre fish soups?” Chip asked, earning him a glare and a sharp elbow to the ribs from Jay. “Hey! Watch it! You almost spilled my soup!”
“I thought it was mediocre?” Jay huffed, drinking the last of the soup in her bowl.
Chip rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath with a glare at Jay. Gillion watched his friends fondly from where he sat on the floor, setting his half-empty bowl of soup on the floor in front of him.
“So this big fish Chip caught?” He asked, looking at the brunette in question. Chip almost lit up. He would never miss an opportunity to make himself look grand and amazing and jumped in immediately to tell an extremely over-dramatized version of him catching a large fish.
Somewhere along the way, the three had huddled together. Gillion was wrapped up in a blanket in between Jay and Chip, the soup in front of him long forgotten.
Jay had jumped in immediately after Chip to tell a story about when she caught a fish even bigger than Chip’s in an attempt to show him up. The back and forth about the fish went on for who knows how long, resulting in the two arguing. To no one’s surprise, Gillion was the one to break up their argument.
“My fish is still better,” Chip said, rolling his eyes.
Gillion yawned. “Of course it is,” he hummed. Jay had gone to the upper deck with the bowls to help with washing them.
When she returned, she saw Chip and Gillion leaning against each other still sitting on the floor. They had fallen asleep. Gillion was wrapped tightly in his blanket while Chip had just stuck his arms inside of his tunic. The towel had fallen off of Gil’s forehead and into his lap. Jay rewets it, placing it back on her friend’s forehead. She sat next to him, leaning her head on Gillion’s shoulder, and fell asleep alongside her friends. The three of them slept peacefully throughout the night. There wasn’t one disturbance.
…
Gillion stood up and stretched out. He felt perfectly fine and healthy once more and was excited to get back to work with the crew.
He shook his co-captains with a broad grin on his face. “Chip! Jay! It’s morning, time for us to get back to work!”
Jay groaned and smacked at Gillion’s leg. “A few more minutes…” Chip merely buried his face in his arms. And grunted something about not feeling well to Gillion. As the blue-skinned male stared at his friends, he noticed they seemed a bit red in the face. He felt both of their foreheads and they were both warm, much like he was yesterday.
He looked between the two of them and job-walked up onto the top deck. “Alphons, we are going to need more soup!”