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“No, that won't do…” Himeno clicks her tongue and shakes her head, while Aki is dry heaving into the trash can. She's rubbing his back in soothing circles, while Aki spits out bile and saliva. He can't even hold water down in his stomach. How was he planning to reduce the fever? This is bad. She needs to do something, anything. “All good? Sure you don't need to throw up anymore?”
Aki shakes his head, collapsing on the bed. His breathing is heavy and uneven. He reaches out a trembling hand and wipes cold sweat from his burning forehead.
“I'm fine, Himeno,” he says, when she hands him in a thermometer. “I… will be fine. Just need to sleep through it.”
Himeno gives him a doubtful look, putting a thermometer in his mouth. Denji called her just an hour ago, right off the bat telling that “it's an emergency” and asking her to “come asap before he kicks the bucket”, all to the background screams of Power that she “didn't do anything to him, swear!” Himeno couldn't get any more clarity from Denji because at that moment Power shouted something and he dropped the phone. She hastily dressed herself up and hurried to the partner's flat.
The situation turned out to be not as terrific as she first thought but not an easy one as well. Aki hasn't been feeling well since the morning, he threw up several times throughout the day and then he blacked out in the middle of the living room, almost cracking his skull opened if it wasn't for Power who managed to catch him in the last second. While Himeno was on her way, they carried Aki to his bed, and Denji fetched a bowl of cold water with a towel.
The flat isn’t locked, so Himeno storms in and finds all three of them in Aki's bedroom. Denji is wiping Aki's face with a wet towel and Power sits in the bed's head, fanning Aki with some papers.
“He's really hot,” Denji said worryingly. “And looks like shit.”
Himeno managed to find some medications in the bathroom and grabbed fever reducers before rushing back to the bedroom. She chased Denji with Power away to bring them a glass of water and held the alcohol soaked wipe under Aki's nose for a couple of seconds before he began coughing, coming to his senses. She explained to confused man why she was here and even made him swallow a couple of pills. However, under no longer than ten minutes those pills were on the floor in a puddle of bile and water.
Before running to the nearest pharmacy, Himeno manages to make Aki talk and finally the truth uncovers. It is quite prosaic though: didn’t feel well since Monday, and today is already five days without any improvement. Himeno stops herself from hitting him on the back of his head. She’ll do it later, when he’s feeling better. It’s not surprising but not comforting either. She knows that Aki can be stubborn pretty often, and sometimes it does harm even to his own health.
When she returned, Aki has already fell into feverish sleep, curled up in fetal position. Having prepared all the necessary medicine, Himeno carefully shakes him awake.
“Can you hear me?” she asks. When Aki nods in reaction, she continues, “We have to bring down your fever, okay? I'm going to give you an antipyretic shot, alright?”
Aki shakes his head. No doubt, he feels terrible but not to that extend. “Himeno, don't worry about me so much,” he says in a weak voice. “I-“
“You lay your ass down and I give you a shot,” she doesn't let him any chance to finish. Aki is stubborn most of the time. Then, she adds, “Don't worry, I have a light hand.”
Aki obediently rolls over on his stomach, lowering his sweatpants along the underwear just enough to get the things done. He doesn’t even say anything, just sighs and buries his burning face into the pillow. Himeno looks at the dimples on his lower back, resisting an urge to touch it.
Himeno carefully palpates the bony buttock with her fingers to prevent hitting the bone and Aki slightly flinches under her touch. It’s not surprising as her hands are always cold and his body now burns from fever. Finding the right place for injection, she quickly wipes the skin with the alcohol wipe and drops the hand with the syringe.
Aki shudders when the needle goes deep into the muscle. It’s not really painful, more of unexpected. However, pain follows shortly after when Himeno pushes the plunger down, slowly inserting the medicine. It stings so that Aki can feel his leg is cramping and his body start to tremble involuntarily. Himeno puts a free hand on his back, rubbing soothing circles. When the last medicine drops are finally injected, she removes the needle in one smooth motion, covering the site with another alcohol wipe.
“There we go,” she sighs a breath of relief. While she’s putting a cap back on the syringe and puts it away at the bedside table, Aki pulls his clothes up and turns over to his back with a silent moan.
“You lied about having a light hand.”
Himeno smiles wryly. “Little white lie,” she shrugs. “I couldn’t just scare you off right off the bat. Did it hurt really bad?”
“It was okay,” Aki says, watching her with his eyes half-shut. “Can I sleep for a bit now?..”
“Of course!” Himeno puts a hand on his head, ruffling his loose hair. “Sleep and I’m gonna keep my eye on you. I’ll wake you up if you’re still feverish by the evening.”
“Please look after those two instead,” he asks in a begging voice. Just the mere thought of his roommates makes a new wave of headache wash over him. Aki curls up on the bed, closing his eyes completely, and feels Himeno covering him up with a blanket and rubbing his back. As he drifts off to heavy sleep, he mumbles, “I don’t wanna wake up in ruins…”
This brings genuine smile to Himeno’s face. If she wasn’t so worried about him, she would’ve even laughed as she did whenever Aki said some drunk stuff. Hopefully, the injection will do the trick and Aki will feel at least a little bit better. Only then, can Himeno be finally able to sigh with relief.
Now it’s about how to kill the time waiting. When the adrenaline slowly starts to leave her system, Himeno wants to smoke. She was in such a hurry that had left her cigarettes at her flat’s balcony.
“Sorry, Aki,” she whispers, reaching out to the half-empty pack of cigarettes on the bedside table. “I’ll make it up for you… If you notice.”
Before walking out of the room and closing the door behind her back, Himeno turns one more time to take a look at the sleeping teammate. In the living room there is already Power, cuddling with Meowy on the floor, and Denji, dozed off out of boredom. The latter jumped from his place upon hearing the footsteps.
“What happened, Himeno-senpai?” he asks impatiently, jumping up to his feet. ”How’s Aki?”
Himeno bites the cigarette between her teeth and nods to the balcony door.
“Everything’s more or less fine,” she breaths out a small cloud of grey smoke. “He has a high fever but I gave him the medicine, so he’ll be alright in no time.”
***
Next time Himeno returns to Aki’s room carrying a bowl of cold water and a small towel in her hands. She puts everything on the bedside table and dips the cloth into the water, squeezes it a bit before carefully putting it on Aki’s burning forehead. He wakes up from the hot feverish dream, flinching from the cold touch, and looks at her with sleepy red eyes.
“Open your mouth,” Himeno says, taking a thermometer. Aki obeys, not saying anything. It seems like he’s gotten even worse since a few hours ago. He looks even paler with dark circles under his eyes and a feverish blush on his cheeks. He didn’t eat anything and everything he drank would come out right away. That is alarming. When Himeno looks at the numbers on the thermometer, she frowns. Temperature dropped but only for a half-degree. Well, at least it hasn’t got bigger.
During that brief time Aki manages to fall back into sleep.
“Aki,” she calls him softly, putting wet locks away from his forehead. When he opens his eyes, she continues, “How’re you feeling?”
“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. Then he thinks it through and adds, “Bad but it’ll do, I guess.”
Himeno bites on her lower lip, while caressing his head. Her touch is both pleasant and painful. Aki takes her hand in his own and puts on the wet sheets, stroking the back of her hand with a thumb.
“If you don’t feel better, we’ll have to take you to hospital,” Himeno finally voices what’s been bothering her from the very beginning. “It doesn’t look like a common cold.”
“Hell no,” he replies weakly. His brain is weighting possible scenarios of what Denji and Power will do in his absence and none of them turns out to be a positive one. “I’d rather accept another shot from you.”
“If your fever runs past 39 again, I’ll have to do it anyways,” Himeno smiles thinly, and Aki frowns, evidently not amused by such possible turn of events. “Try to drink a little.”
Aki sits himself up with a visible struggle and Himeno brings a mug to his lips. It gives off a nice aroma of tea Aki bought months ago but didn’t even had the time to taste. He takes the mug in his hands and takes a couple of sips before putting it back on the bedside table. As liquid gets to his stomach, it begins to turn rather painfully. After some time, nausea retreats but he doesn’t want to risk drinking anymore. He collapses back on the hot sheets and closes his eyes. Head’s spinning. Cold touch to the forehead makes him snap back to reality, - that’s Himeno putting a damp towel on his burning face.
“Maybe you wanna eat anything?” she offers dubiously, taking a seat on the bed side and wiping Aki’s cheeks and neck with a cool cloth. This feels nice but Aki cannot understand whether he’s hot or cold. Most likely, it’s both.
“Best if I don’t,” he shakes his head and then flinches, as if remembered something. “What’s the time?”
“It’s about…” Himeno squints at the clock, “Six in the evening. Don’t worry, Denji will handle the dinner and cleaning.”
Aki stares at the ceiling blankly. Vague colored spots are slowly dancing before his eyes. Words go into one ear and out of the other, without even stopping to be processed in his mind. Bile goes up his throat and Aki barely manages to lean over the edge and grab the trashcan. All the liquid pours back mixed with bile and saliva. Throat is burning from countless puking. Aki spits out vomit, coughing and choking, while Himeno holds him by the shoulders with one hand and rubs his back soothingly with the other one. The last thing he’s ever wanted is to be seen in such a wrecked condition. He’s dry heaving again and again. Cold sweat rolls down his face. Can’t breathe.
“Easy, easy…” Himeno whispers, leaning closer and pushing hair out of his eyes. “Breathe slow, okay? Breath in… Breath out… Come on, do it with me.”
Aki barely manages to catch his breath before hanging powerlessly in Himeno’s arms. It seems like he even blacks out for a second there.
“I feel like shit,” he confesses finally.
***
Himeno frowns at the numbers on the thermometer’s display. Fever has hit its highest point for today.
With his eyes half-shut, Aki watches as Himeno fills the syringe once again. Pulling the plunger with a whistle.
“This one has to help for sure,” she says, taking a seat beside him. “I should’ve probably inject it in the first place. I just didn’t think it was this bad…”
“It’s okay,” Aki replies in a low voice. “Thank you… for taking care of me. And not only…”
Himeno smiles sadly. “Come on, turn on your side,” she says, patting his thigh. Aki lies on his right side, still feeling the pain from the first injection. “I warn you, it’s gonna hurt.”
This time Himeno’s telling the truth. The medicine’s going into the tensed muscle like melted iron, and the pain gradually makes his leg cramp up. At first, it doesn’t cost a lot of effort to endure it, but near the end he’s given up and let out a muffled moan. Himeno removes the needle, pressing an alcohol wipe against the injection site and massaging it for a bit. Aki tries to relax but his body refuses to take his commands. The only hope at the moment is that the shot will do the job right this time and they won’t have to go to the hospital. He’s already feeling bad enough about making Himeno run around with him all day long.
Behind his back, the bed bends under the weight of another body, and he can feel cold hands hug him.
“Please, Aki,” Himeno breathes out in his neck. “Get well soon.”
He takes her narrow palm in his hand and gives it a weak squeeze in reply.