Work Text:
Yesterday, Hanako thought he was just suffering from the uncommon cold and was excited to inform both Minamoto-Kun and Yashiro as well as Tsuchigomori-Sensei who simply sighed and invited him inside his boundary for a bit. Which did end up being far longer than just ‘for a bit’ and was actually him sleeping on the makeshift bed that he often found himself lying on far too often then he would ever end up admitting.
Currently, though he no longer thought he had caught an unfortunate case of the uncommon cold and instead believed he was dying for a second time with how warm everything felt and the uneasy rolling of his stomach, making his throat feel sour as if it was preparing itself for the inevitable misfortune. Hanako ripped the blanket that had previously been covering him off loosely to the right, his foot still being slightly covered from the navy coloured fabric; the air around him now feeling several degrees colder than he was. He groaned quietly before sitting up.
And immediately regretting it.
He felt that exact moment that his stomach decided to flip and he tried to combat the rising bile from his stomach, which he quickly realised was a losing battle as he got up from the comfort of the bed and hurried over to the best possible object for this kind of emergency. The bin near Tsuchigomori-Sensei’s desk.
Tears formed in his honey-yellow eyes as the vomit that he had been fighting in his throat was expelled from his small frame, forcing him to gag on the liquid that his stomach was forcing him to expel. He briefly registered the sound of footsteps and heard jumble words before a tender hand was placed near the top of his back as he continued to hack up the contents of his stomach.
Finally, his stomach gave him a break from his vomiting where he groaned, leaning his head lightly on the bin, turning his head to look at number five, Tsuchigomori-Sensei, who was kneeling next to the other supernatural, an ungloved hand rubbing small circles on his back, “That…must have been unpleasant,” the man eventually settled on, as he put a hand on Hanako’s sweat and tear-stained cheek, “Hm, you’re too warm as well.”
Hanako puffed a sigh, making his sweat-soaked bangs flutter slightly before sticking back to his forehead, minutely aware of his churning stomach as he continued to stare at Tsuchigomori-Sensei.
They stayed in the same position for roughly ten more minutes before Hanako had to quickly turn his head into the bin again and vomit the contents of his stomach out, more tears spilling down his face and joining the mess in the bin as he hacked up the leftover content. Eventually, he was dry-heaving over the bin with nothing but spit leaving his mouth and tears falling down his too warm cheeks into the bin. Tsuchigomori still consistently rubbing soothing circles into the back, between the boy’s shoulder blades, and occasionally whispering praises to Hanako. He spat one last time before sighing and closing his eyes, about to lean his cheek back against the bin before Tsuchigomori gently led him onto his lap and held him much like a young child who was upset, the boy’s head leaning against his chest instead. He felt his past teacher hum before whispering more praises to the child in his lap.
For just over ten minutes the pair stayed in the same position next to the vile stench of the bin with Tsuchigomori comforting the forever young ghost with slightly awkward praises and gently rubbing Hanako’s shoulder in a slow up and down motion as near silent tears dripped down his fever-flushed face (a part of his brain reminded him of when he was younger and sick, much sicker than this and his mother would kneel next to his bed and gently stroke his sweaty forehead, helping to removing the hair that clung to his skin, and Tsukasa would run into the room and- he stopped those thoughts there). Occasionally he would hiccup, which did not help the overall uneasiness he felt in his stomach although at the current time the young teenager did not feel the need to throw up what could possibly be left in his poor stomach, little wins he guessed.
“Feeling slightly better, number seven?” Tsuchigomori questioned, eyes downcast towards Hanako who had now backed out of his lap and was instead kneeling beside him, posture slouched slightly more than usual. He hummed non-committedly, which Tsuchigomori took as a yes as he went to stand, making an effort to stretch his legs. “Follow me, kid.”
Slowly, Hanako stood, following Tsuchigomori-Sensei towards a dark grey sofa with wine purple pillows and a messed up cream coloured blanket roughly thrown over which was a couple steps away from the desk they had been crouched next to beforehand; a rounded dark coffee table separating the desk and sofa area. Two large piles of papers were stacked on top of the table along with multiple empty and half empty mugs, most not on coasters and most likely leaving stained rings on the table. He sat, sluggish, when Tsuchigomori-Sensei motion towards the sofa before a large bowl appeared by his side on the floor and the science teacher was kneeling besides him again, a hand on his forehead suddenly which he automatically flinched back from, causing the frown that had been on Tsuchigomori’s face to deepen although he didn’t comment. Almost as fast as the hand was there it was gone, replaced by a wet cloth from a snap of Tsuchigomori’s fingers. Hanako let out a small sigh of relief as he felt the coolness from the cloth make contact with his too warm skin.
Not soon after, Hanako’s head was slowly nodding back and forth, any left over energy melting away from him to the point where he didn’t notice the growing concern in Tsuchigomori’s eyes as he helped the boy lay on the sofa and loosely covered half his body with the blanket. Double checking to make sure that the damp cloth was secure on the young teenager’s forehead before standing and walking over to his work desk, where a telephone was placed off to the far left of the desk.
The phone rang a few times before a voice chirped into Tsuchigomori’s ear, “Hello, this is Kamome Academy’s front office. How may I help you?”
“Um, hello, this is Tsuchigomori, I won’t be able to make it to work today…” He heard some clacking of a keyboard and humming on the other side before the voice chirped back at him.
“That’s fine, as long as you have some cover for us to email over to the substitute, Tsuchigomori-San. Do you think you’ll be back tomorrow?”
Tsuchigomori ignored the small part of his mind telling him that he was actually in the school in favour of looking at the sick boy on his sofa in front of him before replying: “Most likely not, no.”
“Okay, just make sure you send over the cover.” The chipper voice said, “Hopefully you’ll be back soon.”
“I will do. Thank you for your understanding” He sighed, grateful that the voice didn’t question him before he placed the phone down, the voice on the other side hanging up the line before he did. He looked back to the bin, before it was swiftly replaced with a clean replica of the previously vomited in bin before he decided to sit at the desk and send an email for two days worth of cover, mentally sighing in worry over his classroom; knowing full well by the time he gets back the place will look either destroyed or like the aftermath of night club.
Briefly, he looked towards the young looking teen resting on his sofa who appeared to be in a deep sleep, mouth slightly agape and head lolled to the side, facing towards the coffee table. It was rare that supernaturals got sick and it didn’t usually take them too long to recover, but during it was usually horrible. A sigh escaped his lips as he looked at the nearest stack of papers on his desk, much smaller than the ones on his coffee table, as he picked up a vibrant red pen and began to continue marking the homework. It was for the second year middle schoolers, chemistry work.
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Two hours passed before Hanako woke up again, slower than last time. The uneasiness in his stomach slowly making itself known as he blinked owlishly towards the coffee table, he was also distantly aware of the faint sounds of a pen somewhere close to him, a reminder that Tsuchigomori-Sensei was nearby (his mother used to do the same thing, when he was younger he would occasionally wake up to see his mother somewhere in his bedroom sometimes cleaning up the room, or she would be doodling on a spare piece of paper, or very rarely bringing a book as she sat besides him. And when she noticed he was awake she would speak in hushed tones asking if he was feeling any better- Hanako shut those thoughts down again).
Even slower he began to sit up, the blanket he hadn’t realised that was on him creasing at the movement, all too aware of the twisting of his stomach with every movement. His throat felt dry as well which was certainly an odd feeling for the apparition now, used to not feeling things such as hunger or thirst and instead indulging in eating and drinking for the fun of it, although he understood it was most likely from throwing up before, the sour aftertaste clinging to his tongue.
“You’re awake,” Tsuchigomori said calmly whilst standing up and walking towards Hanako, “How’d you feel, kid?”
Hanako ignored his brain supplying him thoughts of his mother taking care of him, instead focusing on his reply to his past teacher, “Sick.” His voice sounded raspy even to him, making him wince internally.
“Helpful,” Tsuchigomori clicked his tongue, “Do you think you're about to be sick?”
He shrugged his shoulders non-committedly before eventually shaking his head, feeling the nausea and already wanting to fight against it.
Tsuchigomori looked at him in slight disbelievement as he took the cloth that was now warm from the boy’s forehead, which he also didn’t notice, and immediately replaced it with a new, cold one; the warm cloth vanishing in thin air. Hanako hummed pleasantly at the coolness of the cloth, very much aware of the rising vomit at the back of his throat. He tried to swallow it back down.
A large bowl was placed in his lap with a displeased look from Tsuchigomori-Sensei, “Don’t try to swallow it back down, it’ll only make you feel worse, kid.”
Hanako glared at the bowl as if it had offended him before he dipped his head down and dry-heaved into it, only spit leaving his mouth for a minute before the vomit returned, eager to exit his body, the soft circling motion returned to his back as another hand helped keep the bowl steady.
Fortunately, he did not puke for long and was swiftly handed a tissue to wipe his mouth. He gave a meek thank you to the man before quickly wiping his face roughly. Hanako, sighed deeply, “This sucks.”
“Sorry, kid.” Tsuchigomori-Sensei answered sympathetically, patting his shoulder blade a few times.
Conversation died out quickly and they sat in a comfortable silence as well as the puked in bowl being cleaned out and put back on the floor before Tsuchigomori stood up, walking towards his desk. He opened one of the draws before grabbing a word search book and walking back over to Hanako, who was still sitting on the sofa, his back supported by the arm rest.
The science teacher dropped the book onto the ghost’s lap unceremoniously, “To keep you entertained a bit.” He said, before slowly walking back to his desk and resuming marking the piles of paper. Looking through the book Hanako noticed a pen helpfully placed about a third into the book with a few of the word searches being completed before but the book remained mostly empty; he flicked through some pages before choosing one with the theme of animals and started there.
He did the word searches for just over an hour before sleep began to catch up with him, Tsuchigomori-Sensei stopping his work that was nearly finished to change the cloth as Hanako began to drift in and out of sleep, and not long after he fell into a dreamless slumber. His head resting against the armrest and the book placed on top of his lap which Tsuchigomori moved off to put on the coffee table instead in order to stop any of the pages from creasing. He woke up a few times, although he fell back to sleep very quickly, occasionally mumbling to Tsuchigomori in some of the longer periods of wakefulness.
Fortunately, whilst Hanako still felt a bit too warm he was feeling much better the next day, whizzing around Tsuchigomori-Sensei who had convinced him to stay in his boundary for just one more day with the promise to inform Yashiro and Minamoto-Kun of where he was.