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"Mihawk, you can tell me you know. I'm strong enough to hear the truth. I'm going to die, isn't it?"
The older of the two huffed in exasperation at his husband's antics, "No, Shanks you're not going to die."
"But I'm hot and cold at the same time, my body is heavy, my throat hurts, my nose is leaking like Niagara Falls and my head is going to explode. I'm going to die, I can feel it," Shanks replied between two coughs that came from deep within his lungs.
"You're just sick so stop being so dramatic," Mihawk frowned in annoyance. He had a lot of work at the moment and he had to go back to his telecommuting meeting soon. Instead of getting ready, he had to take care of his sick husband and make sure he took his medicine. But Shanks acted even worse than a child when he was sick.
Mihawk knew this from experience since he was usually the one who had to force Shanks to take his medicine, or clean up his vomit, or bring him soup. Of the two, Shanks was usually the one who got sicker from not dressing up enough or fooling around in the snow and each time Mihawk was the one taking care of him. However, he still didn't know if he preferred when Shanks was sick or drunk. Either way, Mihawk had to watch over him, put him to bed, and clean up after him.
It wasn't the first time, or the last time, that Mihawk would hear Shanks say he is dying as soon as he was sick.
"No, I feel it deep inside me: I'm going to die," Shanks tried to sulk as he said this but he sneezed a few seconds later.
Even though Mihawk knew it was pointless at this point, he was still going to try to make his stubborn husband understand that no he wasn't going to die if he just took the damn medicines but a child's cry prevented him.
"No, I don't want dad to die!" Luffy shouted while crying hotly. The little boy was right next to Shanks in their bed since their son had passed on his sickness to his father. "Dad! Do something! Dad can't die!"
Had Mihawk warned Shanks not to get too close to Luffy or at least to limit contact as much as possible? Yes. Several times. But his stupid husband hadn't listened to him, as usual, and now Mihawk had to take care of the two sick people while watching over Ace and Sabo and working.
The flu had been hanging around their family for a week now, Ace had been the first to get it since their older son wouldn't listen when they kept telling him to put on warmer clothes. The boy had been bedridden for three days with Luffy clinging to him before being fully recovered. A day later and Luffy was already starting to get sick. And now Luffy wasn't even cured that Shanks was sick too. So far, only Sabo and Mihawk hadn't caught the flu yet. But Mihawk knew he was going to get it eventually since he was the one taking care of Ace, Luffy, and Shanks.
Mihawk looked into Shanks' gray eyes and rolled his eyes as if to ask, "See what you did?"
He looked at the clock and saw that he would soon have to join his colleagues for the meeting, to cook, and to make sure that Sabo and Ace did not destroy the house. "Dad's not going to die if he takes the drugs Dr Trafalgar prescribed for you."
"But they are no good!" replied Shanks who had his arms around Luffy to console him and to protect him from the glass of water mixed with an effervescent that Mihawk had been holding in his hand for the last five minutes.
"Shanks, you have to set an example for Luffy and drink the medicine. He won't drink it if you don't and then you'll both stay sick."
"The taste is weird. Why is Doc giving our children bad medicine?"
"Because they are effective, Ace was cured in three days because he took the drugs when I asked him to. You both have to drink it."
Both father and son shook their heads at the same time with Luffy pressing himself even closer to Shanks. Now that he was hidden, the little boy stuck his tongue out at Mihawk and called him mean. The older shook his head. It was nothing new that Luffy called him evil or told him that he preferred Shanks to him. The words stung, they always would because Shanks and Mihawk were both his fathers, to Sabo and Ace too. But Luffy was Shanks' exact copy. Mihawk was willing to be the mean or less cool dad compared to Shanks as long as their kids were safe and healthy.
"Shanks, I know meds aren't good but drink it, please," Mihawk didn't care if he begged his grown husband to drink meds. He was exhausted and no longer had the patience to negotiate with Shanks and Luffy at the same time.
Separately, the two were terrible patients asking for constant care and attention because they were miserable and wanted cuddles. It was a thousand times worse when they were sick at the same time as now. In return, Ace was the kind of patient who pretended he was fine and wasn't sick at all even though he was coughing and shivering. And Sabo was the perfect patient, Mihawk usually didn't need to tell him when to take his meds or which ones to take since Sabo had already taken care of that. Mihawk for his part rarely fell ill or when he was, he continued his activities as if nothing had happened. He wasn't going to take sick leave from a cold or the flu if he could help it. In fact, he was the exact opposite of Shanks and the redhead usually had to force him to stay in bed.
The pleading was enough since Shanks drank the meds even though he was still sulking. Mihawk said nothing when her husband pretended to vomit to prove the medicine tasted really bad.
"Alright Luffy it's your turn," Mihawk said as he handed a second glass to his youngest son.
"No, I don't want !"
Luffy hid his head under his duvet and Mihawk wondered how he was going to force his son to drink the medicine. Luffy could be extremely stubborn when he got down to it.
Miraculously, his husband decided to help him, "come on, buddy, we have to stick together, since I drank, you have to drink too."
"But daddy, it's bad! Luffy doesn't like to drink meds! Luffy wants to drink something else!"
The boy started coughing and sneezing mid-sentence. Luffy was sneezing like a little cat, it was quite cute.
"You have to drink the med if you want to get better and go back to playing with Ace and Sabo," Shanks said with a more serious voice than before. His husband was coughing and sneezing at the same frequency as Luffy but didn't sound like a cute little cat at all.
Shanks and Mihawk still bickered over everything and mostly over nothing even though they had been married for over 15 years. They loved each other but had completely different temperaments. But no matter how much they fought, at no time had they thought of getting divorced because bickering was their trademark and their way of fueling the fire between them. Sometimes one purposely disagreed to infuriate the other. Except there had always been one thing Shanks and Mihawk had always agreed on: their children's education.
No matter how resourceful and clever the three boys were, they still hadn't found a single loophole to exploit. Even asking one of their dads individually and assuring him that the other had said yes didn't work. Mihawk and Shanks knew each other well enough to know what the other would say.
Mihawk then decided to stick with Shanks and helped him convince their son, "Dad and I won't let you go back to playing with Ace and Sabo until you healed. You can play with them as soon as you've recovered, we promise you."
"Zoro and Nami can come home if I'm cured?"
"Only if their parents agree," Mihawk agreed, handing the glass to Luffy.
The little boy still wasn't happy about having to drink the water mixed with the medicine but he forced himself to drink. Mihawk was relieved when Shanks handed him the empty glass. However, now Luffy and Shanks had to swallow their antibiotics. There would probably be no problem with the oldest since he had already swallowed things bigger than a small pill but Mihawk feared his son's reaction.
However, Mihawk gained more time to think when the bedroom door opened. Ace and Sabo walked in uninvited and Mihawk couldn't even scold them because of the ridiculous clothes they were wearing. They had both put on masks, ski goggles, ski suits, oven mitts, and their boots to go play in the garden. It was their protective suit against the virus. The two boys approached the bed each carrying a tray that they placed in front of Luffy and Shanks. On the trays were a cup of hot chocolate and a Nutella sandwich.
"Thank you boys!" Shanks thanked them with a big smile as he drank the hot chocolate while Luffy swallowed the sandwich in two big bites.
"Alright, now you have to swallow the…," Mihawk began reaching into his jeans pocket for the two pills but was cut off by Sabo who grabbed his hand to guide him to the bedroom door.
"Let them rest, dad!"
"But…"
"They need to sleep without you breaking their ears if they want to be healthy," Ace added pushing him out the door as well, "especially if the crybaby wants to survive."
Luffy didn't even hear the insult as he quietly drank his hot chocolate. Mihawk stacked the two trays together so he could carry everything once the two patients had finished their improvised snack. Shanks warmly thanked their two other sons before settling back into bed with Luffy clinging to his side. Mihawk kissed the foreheads of the sleeping two before walking out of the bedroom with Ace and Sabo in front of him.
Mihawk looked at Ace and Sabo congratulating themselves by giving each other a high-five before asking them, "alright what did you two do?"
"We put the pills in the sandwiches!" Sabo confessed with a broad smile.
The two boys burst out laughing at their father's dumbfounded face, he hadn't even thought about it. Yet this technique was much easier than trying to negotiate a second time with Luffy.
"You should have asked us directly to help you," Ace said with a smirk on his face. "It's like giving a pill to a cat or a dog."
"We never had a pet," Sabo replied as they walked down the stairs, "how do you know that?"
"Everyone knows that, idiot!"
Mihawk decided to intervene before the two boys could start another fight, "Thank you boys, you've been a big help. I have to go to my meeting now so you're free to do whatever you want. But you have to play here and stay quiet. Otherwise…"
He was going to threaten them with taking their favorite games if they woke up Shanks or Luffy but the two boys had already left running. Mihawk rolled his eyes and locked himself in his office after setting the trays down in the kitchen. Ace and Sabo were too rambunctious to listen for more than two minutes anyway.
Mihawk suspected that his annoyance with six colleagues wasn't just because they couldn't agree on something. He felt more tired than usual and his headache was getting worse the more Crocodile and Doflamingo bickered. Only Kuma, Boa and Jinbe were of any help. And in fact, it was Jinbei who decided to end the lecture when the clock struck 6 o'clock. He must have understood that Crocodile and Doflamingo were more dissipated than usual and that Mihawk was not in his normal state to work properly. Mihawk sent a thank you message to Jinbe as his computer was shutting down. He could very well finish his work tomorrow.
After Shanks and Mihawk officially adopted the three terrors four years ago, the two had agreed to change their schedules. Shanks continued his work as a sailor but left their home for less time and less often to focus on his brand new company, while Mihawk had finally accepted the position offered to him by the government for a few years. He had only accepted because he could work from home rather than in an office. None of them regretted their choice, although Mihawk would have preferred to work with less exuberant colleagues.
Doflamingo had already sent him a gif of someone sick to make fun of him, Jinbe had told him to take a vacation if he needed, and Boa Hancok had just ordered him not to die because she didn't want to be left alone with the rest of their colleagues. There was a fourth message from Benn Beckman asking if Shanks was feeling better and if Mihawk needed help. Mihawk rarely received any SMS from Shanks' co-workers, except for pictures of Shanks being an idiot, but Beckman was always ready to offer Mihawk his help if he needed it, Shanks' second-in-command's loyalty extended to their entire family. It was Beckman who had sent Shanks home after he had spent the morning coughing.
Mihawk only replied to Beckman (Shanks won't return to work before Monday. All was well for now) as he silently went upstairs to check on his two patients. Shanks and Luffy were sleeping peacefully together with the little boy holding his father's shirt in his tiny fist as he slept peacefully. Mihawk snapped a photo knowing in advance that Shanks would want one. He smiled and closed the door so as not to wake them. They were better patient when they were sleeping than awake.
Everything was quiet when Mihawk came downstairs which wasn't that unusual since Luffy was not there to scream and jump around. Ace and Sabo were playing a racing game on their 3DS and didn't even realize their dad had just walked into the room. He let them play for about thirty more minutes while he checked his emails. They would squeal with joy every once in a while and threaten each other when the other won but didn't make too much noise and Mihawk didn't see the point in interrupting their game. However, it was going to be dinner time and the two boys would soon harass him because they were gonna be hungry.
"What do you want to eat ?" he asked after they had put their DS back in their cases.
Both boys looked at him dubiously since Mihawk rarely gave them a choice of the menu, it was more something Shanks would do, "we can choose?" Sabo asked.
"Anything ?" Ace added with a raised eyebrow.
Mihawk shrugged, "or you can eat the same thing Luffy and Shanks are going to eat later."
He put his unlocked phone on the coffee table and Ace was the first to grab it. Sabo approached his brother to look over his shoulder. It didn't take long for Ace to find the online ordering app and even less time for the brothers to bicker over which restaurant to order from.
"Sabo let Ace order and choose the movie instead."
Stars shone in Sabo's eyes as he left Ace's side to retrieve the TV remote and find a movie.
Mihawk ended up eating fried chicken while watching Treasure Planet on the living room couch with Ace and Sabo on each side of him while Shanks and Luffy were still sleeping upstairs.
No, he didn't regret any of his choices if it meant his children and husband were safe for another day.