Work Text:
When Niki made it to the training room, he was met with the common sight of HiMERU glaring at him disapprovingly which was made all the more bizarre by the fact HiMERU was currently doing the splits. It was much harder to take someone seriously when they were on the floor with their legs at a perfect 180° angle but HiMERU still managed to look intimidating. It was honestly kind of impressive. “You’re consistently the last person to arrive to practice, Shiina.” HiMERU never broke eye contact when speaking to someone. It was always a little unnerving, but that was exacerbated by the pose. “You need to work more on your punctuality. Don’t you at least have a watch?”
“I do, but I forgot it at home,” Niki said sheepishly. “Can you cut me some slack because I was at work? Besides, I’m not the last one today. Rinne-kun’s still not here.”
Kohaku looked up at him from where he was doing his own (albeit much more normal-looking) stretches. “Ya didn’t see Rinne-han’s message?”
Niki shook his head. He had left his phone at home today, too, but he decided not to mention that. He had been on the receiving end of enough scrutiny today and the morning had only just ended. Kohaku sighed. “He said that he can’t make it today, but he already paid for the practice room so he wants us to make the most of it. It’ll be a bit inconvenient, but the three of us can practise without him for now.”
“Eh? Did he mention why he couldn’t come?”
“If HiMERU recalls correctly, Amagi just said that he was feeling under the weather,” HiMERU said. They had changed positions, laying on their stomach and stretching so that the top of their head touched their toes. They were so flexible that it could be almost scary. “He didn’t provide any details other than that. HiMERU thinks that he may have caught the illness that Shiina recently recovered from.”
That would make sense. Niki had caught a cold just a week or so ago. His symptoms had been mild and he’d mostly gotten over them by now. “I should go check on him. Is he in his dorm?”
Niki turned to the door but Kohaku appeared next to him and grabbed his sleeve. Niki swore that he had been on the other side of the room just a second ago. “Ya ain’t goin’ anywhere,” Kohaku’s disappointed expression was awfully similar to HiMERU’s. It was cute in a way, but it would be much cuter if poor Niki wasn’t the victim of that sharp gaze. “Rinne-han will be pissed if you waste the L$ he put on this room. Yer goin’ to practise with us ‘til we’re out of time.”
HiMERU nodded, standing normally again. “HiMERU agrees,” they said. “HiMERU noticed that you’re dancing has been lacking. This practice session is very much needed.”
Niki pouted, but there was no point in complaining when they were both right. Rinne would come later then.
Niki never wanted to dance again. As soon as their practice was over, he crawled back to the kitchens to stuff his mouth. There was a dull ache in his feet and his stomach was screaming for carbs, but he definitely understood the performance much better. He had made a surprising amount of progress in a little under an hour. Maybe Rinne’s absence helped him learn faster.
He made his way up to Rinne’s dorm with a flask of warm soup once his hunger had been satiated for the time being. “Rinne-kun, are you home?” he called, knocking at the door.
“Come in! The door’s unlocked!” someone called from inside. It didn’t sound like Rinne’s voice. Maybe he was asleep. Niki opened the door and saw Hiyori Tomoe sitting on a bed and brushing Kanata Shinkai’s hair. The other two beds in the room were empty. So was the sofa. Rinne wasn’t there.
“Can I help you, Niki-kun?” Hiyori asked, momentarily taking his focus away from his roommate’s hair.
“Are you ‘looking’ for your ‘husband’?” Kanata added, getting a small laugh out of Hiyori.
“Husband? Are you talking about Rinne-kun?” Niki would have to talk to Rinne about this later. “No, we’re not married, and yeah, I’m trying to find him. But it looks like he’s not here so I’ll check somewhere else. Sorry for intruding ♪”
Kanata tapped his chin in thought. “I saw Chief-san this morning,” he said. “He had a bad ‘fever’. I am a bit ‘worried’ about him. He could barely ‘lift’ his ‘head’, as if he was a ‘newborn’ baby.”
Hiyori nodded. “Goodness, the poor thing didn’t look well at all! I tried to talk to him before I left for work and he said something about ‘going home for the day’ but then fell back asleep before I had the chance to ask him about it. Does that help?”
Home? But Rinne was living in the Starmony Dorms? He most definitely wasn’t talking about his hometown either. That only left one place. Niki felt the faintest blush creep onto his face. “I know exactly where he is. Thank you both.”
It was freezing cold today. Japanese winters weren’t kind. It made him even more worried about Rinne. When Niki got sick, he might be feverish for a day or two and sniffly for a week. It was irritating but thankfully easy enough to manage. Rinne got sick far less often, but it balanced itself out by being much worse. He would be bedridden for days as he slept it off, refusing to take any medicine or see a doctor unless it was an emergency which just made more trouble for Niki if anything.
The door to Niki’s apartment was unlocked when he got there. That was worrisome. There was no sign of anyone breaking in so Rinne must have forgotten to lock it which was unusual for someone as meticulous as him. The curtains were drawn so it was dim inside despite how bright it was outdoors. “Rinne-kun? Where are you?”
Still quiet. “Rinne-kun?” Niki listened carefully. He faintly heard a mumble from the bedroom. That must be it. He cracked open the door, flask still in hand. Through the darkness, he could make out the shape of a large lump on the bed. He sighed and closed the door softly behind him, making his way to the curtain to let some light in. The sunlight illuminated the bedroom, making it much easier to see the person on their queen-sized bed hidden under a thick pile of blankets.
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled back a few of the blankets, just enough to reveal Rinne’s sleeping face. Niki put the back of his hand to Rinne’s forehead. Just as he thought. He was completely burning up. He gently shook Rinne’s shoulder. “Rinne-kun? Hey Rinne-kun?”
Rinne cracked his eyes open and mumbled something incoherent. Niki stroked his sweaty, tangled hair. “How are you feeling?”
Rinne’s eyes fell shut again. “Like shit,” he grumbled.
“Hey, don’t go back to sleep! Have you eaten anything yet?”
He groaned and crawled further into the blankets. “Go away.”
Niki lay down beside him. “You know I’m not going to do that.”
Rinne didn’t say anything so Niki shuffled closer. “Are you worried about getting me sick? Because you really don’t have to be. I had the same virus earlier so I can’t get it again.”
A flushed face peaked out from the sheets. “That’s not how it works?”
Niki flicked his forehead. “Yes it is, stupid. Have you eaten or not?”
“Don’t think I can stomach anything like this.”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Niki sighed. “Just because you’re lucky enough to have a healthy body doesn’t mean that food isn’t important for you. You can’t get better on an empty belly. Here, I made you some miso soup with a bit of tofu and onions. It’s not too heavy but it’s good for you. You’ll need the vitamins and the protein.”
It took some trying but they eventually got Rinne up into a sitting position. Niki forced him to drink a cup of water before starting on the soup. Niki fed him the solids and held the soup to his lips for him to drink. It didn’t help that Rinne was constantly on the verge of drifting off to sleep again. Eventually, the flask was empty and Rinne’s stomach was (hopefully) full. Niki managed to get one more glass of water in him before tucking him in again.
“Niki?” Rinne slurred.
“Hm? Are you still hungry?”
“It’s cold.”
It would be. The apartment walls felt like they were made of cardboard. Their bedroom always felt especially cold.
Niki took a moment to think. If he was smarter, maybe he could figure something out with the heaters or the blankets. When Niki got sick, Rinne would wrap them both in the blankets in a way that made Niki feel warm from the inside out. He said it was something he learned from his parents. He wasn’t sure how he could replicate that, but he wanted to do what he could. “Move over a little, Rinne-kun.”
He nudged the sickly Rinne to make more space for himself, crawled into the little pocket of heat Rinne had created and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him as close as he could get. Rinne’s skin was burning hot and slightly sticky, but they had been through worse. “Is this better?”
Rinne shifted into a more comfortable position. His face was pressed against Niki’s chest. “It’s your fault if you get sick.”
“I told you that I’ll be fine,” Niki said. “Hey, is that why you came here instead of staying in your dorm? Because you don’t want to get your roommates sick?”
There was a pause. “… No. Just didn’t want Hiyori-chan or Kanacchi to complain or anythin’. Harder to sleep with all the noise.”
“Sure,” Niki smirked. When Rinne was either super sick or super drunk, he would talk much slower, as if it took him longer to figure out what the right thing to say was. Niki didn’t need to press him. He knew Rinne Amagi like the back of his hand. Well enough to easily figure out what he meant under all his theatrics. Honestly, he shouldn’t need to bother with all that when it was just the two of them but he was nothing if not stubborn. He absentmindedly traced shapes on Rinne’s back, feeling the muscles under his finger relax. Sometimes he reminded him of a cat. A horrible pain-in-the-ass of a cat.
Rinne’s breathing grew soft and even. He had fallen back asleep. Between barely having any food today and his immune system having to fight off this nasty sickness, the poor thing probably had no energy at all. As strange as it was to see the bold and tenacious Rinne Amagi being so vulnerable, it was nice to be reminded of his cuddly side every now and then. These intimate moments together were hard-earned after all so Niki would always savour them as they passed by. He remembered back when Rinne still refused to fall asleep if he knew Niki was still awake. That paranoid teenager seemed light years away from the man who dozed off in Niki’s arms like it was the most natural thing in the world. It was a winter like this one when they had started sharing a bed in the first place, when it was far too cold for Rinne to keep insisting on sleeping on the sofa. Niki initially thought it would take him time to adjust to having a whole other person in bed with him, but it was surprisingly easy.
(One memorable night, a drunken Rinne confessed that he felt his body was crafted just so it could fit perfectly with Niki’s. That crossing paths with Niki had been like a passionate kiss from Lady Luck. That being by Niki’s side made him feel more whole. It had been over a year since then and Niki still didn’t know what to make of that. It somehow felt different from his usual declarations of love.)
Niki yawned. He may as well make the most of this moment and have a nap too. The rumble of his stomach would eventually wake him up anyway. He could force Rinne to eat something then. This was how it had always been. When one of them got sick, the other took care of them. He gently kissed Rinne’s sweaty forehead and closed his eyes.