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An incoming call wakes satoru out of his head, he listens three times to the personalized kitten ring, which he save especially for tsumiki’s contact, before answering
“He woke up already!” – the little girl’s frightened voice rings the second satoru has the cell phone against his ear.
“I’ll be right over. Give me five minutes.”
“Okay.” – the call closes.
Satoru nimbly maneuvers to put his phone back in his coat pocket and simultaneously pull out his wallet. He studies both fever syrups again for a few seconds before deciding it will be best to carry both.
Megumi will fight him if he offers him grape instead of strawberry and will also fight him if he offers him strawberry instead of grape.
He sighs defeatedly, pays for the medication and takes the opportunity to buy some other things, like instant noodles and other treats, which will definitely be all he will have time to eat until Megumi gets better.
Chickenpox.
One of the brats in his class had been infected and megumi had the bad luck to catch it, he along with five other children. Tsumiki had already had it several years before satoru took care of them so he didn’t have to worry about having two sick children.
He had had a difficult week, full of missions that required his exclusive attention, and it was the first time in three days that he had had free time to spend with the children when he noticed the six year old boy looking down.
His sunken face with purple circles under his eyes, which could easily compete with shoko’s, and the lack of appetite which, tsumiki mentioned, had persisted for a few days now.
As soon as the strange rash began to cover the little boy’s face, satoru ran out with shoko.
The woman did not take too long to check him and give him her diagnosis, megumi could not attend classes until the blisters healed and he needed medicine and rest. So, satoru now had two weeks off so he could take care of the cranky little kitty.
And he’s been quite busy at it.
Satoru assumes it’s not that bad. He knows from shoko that it’s a thousand times better for him to get it now that he’s a kid rather than contract it as an adult.
The problem here, (and it’s not really a problem for satoru), is that megumi is a spoiled sicko. Seriously, the child with a surly, independent nature disappears completely when the disease hits him.
It’s nice to be able to spoil megumi, to be honesto. Satoru just wishes there wasn’t something wrong with his health to do it.
He also has to admit that he is a bit worried that it is only megumi who is sick again, not that he wants tsumiki to suffer too, but between the two brothers he is always more prone to colds or other illnesses, he will have to talk to shoko about that.
The apartment is alarmingly quiet when satoru enters, he leaves his shoes at the entrance and carries the bag with the medicines in his hand, he walks silently in case megumi has fallen asleep again and is the reason why everything is quiet.
Satoru is five steps away from the door to megumi’s room when he finally hears the chaos.
“I don’t want to!”
“You can’t scratch them, megumi, you’ll hurt yourself!”
“It itches!” – replies an unsteady little voice, megumi is crying.
Satoru takes a deep breath before opening the door. He is greeted by the pitiful sight of a half worried half upset tsumiki, holding a pair of gloves in her hands and an even sicker megumi, welts finally formed all over his body and his cheeks are pink with fever.
“What’s going on?” – he asks, his voice calm.
“He’s hurting himself!” – tsumiki yells, followed by an immediate denial from megumi.
“Gumi, if you keep hurting yourself I’m going to tie socks on your hands.” – satoru says, half jokingly and a bit seriously, he won’t tie him up but they will have to put the gloves back on… It’s only been four days since megumi’s illness progressed completely and the little boy has been… (And satoru says it without any meanness behind it, seriously!) a little pain in the ass.
He refuses to take the medicine, he doesn’t want to bathe in the oatmeal tubs that satoru prepares for him – ‘I promise you’ll feel much better if you go in’ ‘I hate you!’ – and to everyone’s bad luck, especially megumi’s, he got blisters in his mouth, so mealtime is also a battleground for satoru.
Megumi squirms on the bed, offended at not receiving satoru’s support in his little tantrum, and satoru watches with regret as the green eyes are lost behind a layer of tears.
Megumi is a sick crybaby, he forgot to mention.
The morning incident ends after satoru carries megumi in his arms for a full hour, when the sobbing finally stops, satoru notices the warmth emanating from the little boy’s body. The child looks miserable with bloodshot eyes and the pout of pain etched on his sleeping face, he shivers slightly as satoru lays him down on his bed and covers him completely with the blankets.
“Gumi, wake up just for a moment.”
Megumi whines.
“I need you to take your medicine and you can go back to sleep, I promise.” – He raises his pinky in the air even though megumi’s eyes are closed and he can’t see it.
Megumi’s fever-induced mush brain is enough for the boy to simply open his mouth without a fight.
Satoru takes the opportunity to push the liquid onto his tongue, he has to remind him to swallow it and not just keep it inside his mouth, and once he is sure the medicine is in his system he lets it rest against the pillow.
He stays a few more minutes, plays with Megumi’s hair massaging the soft locks in search of more blisters, and reassures himself when he can’t find them, after making sure the child is well asleep, he leaves the room in search of tsumiki.
Tsumiki sits quietly in the living room watching movies, she has one of the bags of potatoes that satoru had bought that morning and turns to greet him with a smile on her face.
“Are you hungry miki?” – he asks, taking a seat next to her and stretching out to steal some potatoes.
“Pizza!” – she says enthusiastically as she nods her head. Satoru reaches for the phone and takes it upon himself to order two boxes of pizza, pepperoni with extra cheese and a small ham and pineapple one, in case megumi gets motivated and wants some.
He knows it’s an overly optimistic hope, but he really wants him to eat anything at this point, since the vegetable soup that shoko left out preparing for the week hasn’t been well received.
The doorbell rings after half an hour and their order finally arrives, tsumiki eats a total of four pieces before falling asleep on the sofa.
Satoru takes the half-finished slice out of her hands and covers she with a blanket.
He’s been indulging pretty much everything she asks of him, he doesn’t want her to feel left out by all the attention her brother gets, though he’s sure tsumiki would never be upset that someone is taking care of megumi, anyway satoru just wants to make sure they both feel equally loved and cared for always.
He takes the dishes and leftovers to the kitchen, heats up some soup and carries megumi’s pizza box towards his room. Megumi is already waiting for him with tired eyes and a pout, but at least his cheeks don’t seem to burn anymore.
“How are you feeling?” – satoru takes a seat on the side of the bed.
“Tired” – megumi replies with a yawn – “I don’t like being sick.” He adds annoyed, satoru looks at him sympathetically, “I bet you don’t.”
His hand travels to touch the boy’s forehead, the fever seems to have subsided significantly.
“Do you think you can eat some? I have soup and your horrendous pineapple pizza especially for you.” – He offers with a smile, chuckling a little when megumi scowls at him for offending his favorite pizza.
“Pizza.” – megumi rushes to answer, reminding satoru of his sister.
They stay together until megumi finishes a piece of his pizza and half a bowl of soup. Satoru is satisfied with that for the moment.
He helps megumi shower and then applies the itch ointment to his face and arms. Megumi becomes soft and pliable as the warmth of the blankets begins to lull him to sleep.
Satoru again bids the boy farewell with a soft goodnight kiss on his forehead.
“Thank you for taking care of me.” – megumi says, barely a whisper.
Satoru smiles – “Anytime.” – he gets up to turn on the night light, has a hand on the doorknob when he hears it. The faintest sound that but for the total silence of the room would have been missed.
“I love you.” – satoru stops in surprise, megumi already has his eyes closed, his breathing slow and a slight snore comes from his half-open lips. Satoru looks at him for a while as he processes his words. He has been in charge of the children for two years, two difficult years in which he had to take responsibility for the lives of two helpless human beings when he himself was not yet old enough to get his driver’s license, he has no idea what he is doing but if his kids love him… he is doing a great job, isn’t he?
After all he loves them too.