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“I’m telling you it’s not pneumonia, it’s just a small case of the flu. It’s not like I’m gonna puke blood and die, I’m just playing a little more nerffed than usual until they wear off.”
In spite of Tomura’s affirmations that he was not about to drop dead, Spinner was still trying to grapple him into another coat and tie a makeshift cold compress to his head.
“You’ve been achy and nauseous for two days now, and you’ve been getting chills while I know you already have a high fever!” Spinner protested as he finished tying his river-soaked scarf around Tomura’s forehead, “Can you just stop squirming like an angry toddler and lie down? You’re gonna mess up your lungs even more if you exhaust yourself!”
“It’s December in the woods and I’ve been fighting in 44-hour shifts, of course I’m chilly and achy! And don’t get me started on how I’m just naturally nau-” Tomura exclaimed before breaking out into a coughing fit that sent him sprawling towards the ground. Luckily, Spinner was already close enough to catch him quickly, and Tomura finally gave in and let Spinner help him lie down on the forest floor.
“Look, just because some of my symptoms match both bugs doesn’t automatically mean I have the worser of the two. You’re being more pessimistic than usual.”
“It’s not pessimism its realism!” said Spinner, at this point exasperated beyond belief, “If you do have the worse one than I wanna take it seriously, you’ve got enough odds stacked against you as it is.”
“Oh please, I’ve fought in more garbage conditions before, I can handle this.”
“That doesn’t mean you should damn it!”
Spinner groaned and proceeded to throw himself to the ground next to Tomura, crossing his arms and pouting.
Now who’s acting childish? Tomura thought, but instead said, “Hey, I’ll beat Machia whether I’m sick or not. You don’t gotta worry about us losing or whatever.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. I just… you’ve got enough on your plate with this mission. I wanna help lessen the weight you’re carrying as much as I can. If that means finding medicine or forcing you to give your body some more rest then I’ll do it.”
Tomura turned his head to see that Spinner was worrying his lip and his eyes were just a bit too shiny. If he didn’t do something to lighten the mood soon then he’d have to deal with a crying Spinner, and as far as Tomura was concerned no one wanted a poor, sad, crying Spinner except maybe a sociopath.
“Pfft, aren’t you sweet?” Tomura said, letting his voice be infected with the affection he had for his friend, “Does it mean giving me warm soup and a goodnight kiss on the forehead?”
The feeling of Spinner’s scaly lips on his forehead when he impulsively gave him said kiss confirmed that yes, Spinner really was willing to do whatever it took to help, even if it left the poor guy with a soft yet obvious blush of embarrassment.
“Hmph, I think we should call the doctor about this, just to see if he’ll get you some medicine or something that’ll make the debuffs suck less,” Spinner stated, barely keeping his composure.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Tomura replied, a little more breathless than usual, “but maybe he’ll be able to figure out what I’ve got and prove me right.”
“You wish,” Spinner chuckled. Suddenly he paused and reached out to feel Tomura’s forehead, the scales feeling cool but not unpleasant against his skin.
“Huh, that’s strange. Your fever’s gone down. What’s-”
“Hmm, now that you mention it,” Tomura mused as he sat up, “I don’t feel achy either. This must be the fastest flu I’ve ever had!”
“That can’t be right, you don’t just magically get better from pneumonia without some kind of medi- oh.”
“What’s oh?”
If Tomura had looked flushed from his fever before, than the new blush taking over Spinner’s face made him look like his head was on fire. “Uh well,” Spinner fumbled, “This is kinda stupid and probably isn’t an actual explanation but um… did you know that gecko scales are… um… antibacterial?”
Tomura couldn’t help it, he started giggling like a madman. Unlike the illness, the giggling was apparently contagious and soon had Spinner bursting into laughter alongside his friend. They both continued cackling until the rumblings of Machia called them back into battle.
~
“So, who won?”
Tomura and Spinner stared impatiently at Doctor Ujiko as he finished analyzing the test results.
“Neither of you won,” the doctor said as he turned to face them with a stunned expression on his face, “It wasn’t influenza or pneumonia.”
The answer was met with groans by the pair over what was likely a immature bet that now meant nothing, until Spinner asked, “Well, what was it?”
“An infection of Yersinia pestis, manifested in the pneumonic form,” Ujiko said shakily before composing himself, “Now how did you-”
“Ha, pneumonic! I did win!”
“Ugh fine,” Tomura sighed as he admitted defeat, “You can pick the first game in our marathon once we pulverize the mindless boulder-bitch. Alright if you’ve nothing else then send us back doc, we’re ready.”
Once the two were warped back to the battle zone, Ujiko took off his glasses to rub at his sinuses in a vain attempt to mitigate the oncoming headache.
“Tomura Shigaraki, only you would give zero cares to the fact that you caught the black plague and managed to survive it.”