Chapter Text
The room was filled with a smell reminiscent of roses. On the bed laid what was once the fearless leader of Justice, until in one mission she forgot to cover herself properly and ended up getting sick due to the weather.
“God, I hate this.” a feeble voice was heard through the dark, empty room. Elizabeth hated getting sick, her muscles felt sore, and she couldn’t breathe properly, but the worst for her was not being able to work.
“Who do I give this amount of paperwork to? I can’t give it to the girls. Not like I don’t trust them, but there’s a reason only I can do them.” She chuckled. Liz really loved her mates. When they found out she had fallen sick, everyone rushed to do their work. She found it funny, since when she’s feeling alright, everyone does distract themselves quite often, and it’s up to Liz to keep them up to date with deadlines and such, so seeing that change of pace from them was relieving but kind of insulting since they only worked when they knew they couldn’t get away with doing nothing for most of the day.
But before continuing her train of thought, she was interrupted. Someone had come in the room.
“Liz, are you okay? Sorry if I woke you up!” She recognized that voice anywhere, it was Raora.
"Rara, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t get near me, you’ll get sick!" was what she was thinking, but then again she felt quite lonely, so a little bit of company wouldn’t hurt.
“Don’t worry, I just woke up and was thinking for a bit. What brings you here?” Liz responded with a gentle smile, she observed how Raora’s tail began wagging.
"Cute" she thought.
“Well, Cece told me to bring you this soup just in case you were hungry. And Gigi went out to buy medicine for you as well.” She laid the tray with what looked like chicken noodle soup besides her bed and took out the two packs of pills and a bottle of water.
“Thank you Rara, tell the others as well.” the redhead grabbed her soup, took a spoonful, blew on it a bit and tasted it.
“Well, I’m glad to have helped you! Please get well soon!” the artist said while directing herself to the door.
“Raora, wait!” Liz raised her voice, surprising herself.
“Do you need something, Liz?” Raora stayed still like a statue when she heard her name, even her tail got surprised by that.
“Oh, damn, I mean…” Liz started to feel embarrassed, her cheeks grew redder and hotter, but since she already stopped her, might as well continue. “Could you stay with me… Please?”
Raora stayed silent for a bit, her tail staying perfectly still as her, but the redhead could tell she turned a different shade of red, which made her feel relieved she wasn’t the only embarrassed in the room. She closed the almost open door and grabbed a nearby chair and sat beside her, all while avoiding eye contact.
“Sorry, I mean, if you need to leave you c-”
“No! It’s fine, I am glad to stay by your side, Liz.” Her face when she said that turned even redder, she used both of her hands and covered her mouth.
“W-WHAT I MEANT WAS THAT I WAS GLAD TO STAY RIGHT NOW TO HELP YOU, SINCE YOU’RE OUR LEADER AND YOU DO A LOT OF WORK AND-” Raora started to blabber, trying to defend herself. This got a chuckle out of the red haired woman.
“Thank you, my pretty kitty.” Raora immediately shut up, looked at her and then the ground, hiding how flustered she was.
Elizabeth knew how much nicknames like those affected Raora, she loved her overreactions and how she would try to combat them, failing in the process.
They bantered for a while. Raora getting flustered and Liz obviously to blame. Even though Liz missed working, she definitely missed spending her time like this. But all good things came to an end, she started to feel a bit groggy but didn’t want Raora to leave.
“Hey, Liz, are you listening? Are you feeling alright?” She concentrated so much on staying awake, she didn’t hear Raora at all.
“God, I’m sorry Rara, I’m just getting sleepy.”
“Oh no! You should rest, it’s almost four o’clock, I’m sorry Liz!” Raora apologized, grabbing the red haired girl’s hand in the process.
“Don’t apologize. At least I had a bit of fun after only doing paperwork and getting sick.” She giggled while squeezing Raora’s smooth and warm hand.
“Can I ask you one last thing? It may sound really selfish, but…” Liz closed her eyes and laid down, all while still holding the panther’s hand. “Can you stay with me until I fall asleep? If you don’t want to, you don’t need to worry, I don’t want you to get sick as well. Having me in bed is already bad enough, I don’t want to leave Gigi and Cece alone to run the HQ. Who knows what would blow up first.” She tried to alleviate her request by joking a bit. The redhead was expecting a rejection, but deep down she wanted to be with the pink panther.
“Of course, don’t worry. You really get needy when sick, huh?.” She didn’t realize she was looking at the panther with such desire and squeezing her hand so hard she probably stopped her circulation. The red haired woman let go as fast as she could. Before giving her thanks, she felt a hand rub against her crown and scalp, going forwards and backwards, almost rhythmically.
This is the first time the Scarlet Queen was flustered by her big pink cat. All she could do is let her do her work. The blood eyed woman took a peek at the panther’s tail, only to see it wagging extremely fast, she was nervous as well. "I guess we are at a tie then" she thought as her eyes closed and could only smell the scent of her beloved kitty.