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It was beautiful outside, the sun shining down on the albatross like a warm blanket, covering its inhabitants in a sheet of gentle warmth and light. To Chip, however, this was the worst possible thing the sun could be doing. He was sweating already, battling the Sahara desert while icicles threatened to freeze him over at the same time, trying to snuggle into his blankets and get his body to decide which one to settle on. He could feel the heat radiating off of himself and, despite what others may say, he's not a complete idiot, he knows he probably has a fever. Completely disregarding the previous statement, he decides that he can just power through it, he's a busy man!
As Chip tried to pry the blankets from his body, he found that his hands were shaking too much to properly hold it, and decided to kick it off instead. Now, the fact that he couldn't even hold up a blanket would've usually worried any sane person, but this is Chip. He sat upright on the bed, and, immediately, went to stand up. Case in point. In his fevered brain, he thought this was a good idea, and, again, this is Chip we’re talking about. As soon as he stood upright, the world tilted and began to fall- why was the world falling? That is what Chip asked himself right before he hit the ground.
Jay wasn’t too worried about Chip at the moment, sure it was a little later than he usually sleeps in, but maybe he was just tired. Gill, on the other hand, had a nervous energy surrounding him, like he knew something was off. You see, Gill liked to have a schedule, have everything a certain way at a certain time, and, during this time, all three of them were supposed to be eating breakfast. How did Jay know he was bothered by this? Because his tail hit her leg every five seconds as it nervously flicked back and forth, she knew he meant well and that the tail had a mind of its own, so she didn't mention it. Instead,
“Gill, why don’t you go check up on Chip, make sure he's alright” Making it seem like her idea would take the blame off of Gill if he were to wake Chip up or if Chip was upset with him for going into his room. At this, Gill perked up and smiled,
“I will fend off any evils he might be facing with ease!” And with that, he left for Chip’s room.
As Chip came to, he vaguely registered feeling like absolute shit. Great. He debated falling back into sweet unconsciousness when he heard a knock at the door. Lovely, now he had to look presentable- and get to the door, somehow. Slowly, he brought himself into a sitting position, holding his head with one of his hands- gods he has a fever headache, literally the worst kind. There was no way he was trying to stand again, but he looked over at his bed, maybe he could get up there.
After a couple of minutes with no response to his knock at the door, Gill was getting nervous.
“Chip? Are you in there?” Now, he was all for privacy and sleeping in, but he could just feel it, something was off. Whether it be the fact that Chips is always one of the first of them up, or that he always answers on the first knock because he knows how anxious it makes them if he doesn't, Gill knew something was up. But, what he wasn’t expecting was to hear a loud thump and a string of curses from the room. Immediately, his heroic instincts kicked in and he drew his sword. “WORRY NOT CHIP, I WILL SAVE YOU!” He backed up for a running start, before running right through Chip's door.
After falling off his bed, Chip cursed every god he knew, holding his head with both hands now, as his headache only grew from the encounter with his bed. He vaguely registered someone shouting before there was more light and loud noises and- he just shut his eyes tightly and put his hands over his ears, it was all too much for him.
Instead of being greeted by an assassin or some big evil trying to hurt Chip, he was met with the human curled up in a ball, on the floor next to his bed. Oh. Well, that- wasn't at all what he was expecting, but his friend was still in need of saving? He wasn't quite sure, it was very rare for Chip to show his vulnerabilities like this- it was new territory for the triton. Slowly, he approached Chip, kneeling beside the human.
“Chip..? Are you alright?” He only got a whimper in response, if Chip couldn't even give him a response, it was worse than he thought. So, he did the only logical thing and scooped Chip up in his arms, now carrying him bridal style. The human let out a yelp, his face turning a few shades redder, Gill didn't know if that was normal or not. But he knows someone who probably would! He held Chip a little closer before standing up and running to the kitchen with him. He ignored how he turned a slightly darker blue as the human snuggled into his chest absentmindedly.
“JAY, CHIP IS DYING!” He proclaimed rather loudly, because it was the only explanation! Why else would he be clinging to Gill like this? Or fall from his bed only to curl up beside it… Gill was now very worried as he ran up to Jay, the human in his arms.
Now Jay was ready for a lot of things, she was expecting a grumpy Chip who was rudely awoken by the triton, or maybe for the triton to come back empty-handed, saying Chip wanted more sleep! What she was not expecting was to hear that her crewmate was dying. That- was definitely a new one, she’ll add it to the list for next time.
“He's what???” She asked, not too worried because Gill tends to exaggerate. Instead of explaining anything at all, he ran up to Jay and thrust Chip out in front of him for Jay to see. At first glance, he looked fine, maybe a little red, but Jay could tell why that might be, she grinned as he glared weakly at her. There it was, his glare didn’t hold as much heat as it usually did, and that's sign one. Sign two was that he was openly showing affection, leaning his head against Gill's arm. She put a hand to his forehead and winced at the heat radiating off of it, there it was.
“He's not dying Gill” The triton sighed in relief, holding Chip back to his chest. “He's just sick” Jay smiled and patted Gill on the back, trying to comfort her frazzled crewmate. Said crewmate looked down at the human in his arms, at second glance, he did look unwell, maybe not dying unwell, but sick nonetheless.
“How do we fix him?” Jay stifles a laugh at the wording, but waved off her friend's worry, “Just some medicine, soup, and some rest should do it” with that, Chip was put back into bed and tucked in.
When Chip woke up- for the third time today, Jesus- he felt a little less like shit which was a score in his book, but as he went to sit up, a cold hand was placed on his chest, keeping him down. He groaned and tried to fight the hand away, he was only met with soft laughter as the hand pushed him back down onto the bed. Now, logically it makes sense, he was really really hot, he had a fever, and the hand on his chest was cold! In his feverish state, not in his right mind Chip would later defend himself by saying, he wrapped his arms around the hand, snuggling into it and tugging on it.
That's how Gill ended up here. Here being in bed with Chip, his head resting on top of the sick humans while said human snuggled into his chest. The triton naturally ran cold, so he was basically a life-sized ice pack for Chip, which, Gill reasoned, is why the human was clinging to him and had his face pressed into the crook of Gill's neck. Though his face was heating up- maybe he was getting sick too now! Yes, that must be it… He nearly jumped at the slight snickering from the doorframe, but when he saw it was only Jay, the triton relaxed again. It was weird, all Jay did was flash him a thumbs up and wink at him before leaving, presumably to go fix her grappling hook. He chalked it up to Jay being- well, Jay, and as time went on, Gill's eyes grew heavy.
And if Jay came back in later to get some blackmail on Chip, that was nobody's business but her own, gods he's going to regret suggesting they all buy cameras. Oh, and Gill was totally going to get sick, so she prepared another round of medicine, just in case.