Work Text:
The day after the incident with Livyjira, Shu isn't surprised that Yuma ends up calling out, sick with a cold.
As if the worry Shu felt when he heard that Yuma fell into the lake wasn't enough for him to deal with. Although, much to Shu's dismay, the image of Yuma in front of him, head bowed, already sneezing, the picture of a sopping wet cat — it just hasn't left his mind. He'd had the strangest urge, then, to pat Yuma on the head, of all things; pathetic isn't the right word, not exactly, but Yuma had looked... vulnerable? Small? ...Cute?
Of course, Shu hadn't acted on that urge. He's a professional, after all. (He also decides, summarily, to ignore the voice in his brain saying yes, Yuma had looked cute.) With Yuma actually being out sick, though, it's a little bit harder to disguise his worry; the aftermaths of kaiju incidents like this, especially ones where Arc shows up, mostly consist of paperwork, but Shu finds himself unable to focus to the best of his ability. Not even his coffee is enough to get his mind on track. Yuma lives alone, doesn't he? Is he taking medicine — does he have medicine? What about food? Shu's aware, of course, that these thoughts go far past professional concern; he's had coworkers at the GDF get sick before, though in most cases, it wasn't the result of falling into a lake. He hadn't felt half this worried, back then.
But SKIP's office just feels... emptier, without Yuma around. The morale of the entire team will go up when Yuma's back; it's Shu's duty, as long as he's stationed here in Hoshimoto, to make sure that it happens as soon as possible. For SKIP's sake.
(It has nothing to do with his traitorous brain conjuring up images of Yuma's smile, how bright it is when it's at full strength, and how right now, he must not be smiling, and how wrong that feels. Nothing at all.)
After a brief stop by his own apartment to drop off his briefcase, Shu stops by a corner store after work, picking up cold medicine — nighttime and daytime, just to be thorough — and a bag of cough drops; then, he stops by the food stand Yuma likes for a bowl of hot soup. (Shu would make it himself, but... save for hard-boiled eggs and coffee, he's never been much of a chef.) When he actually gets to the door of Yuma's apartment, though, Shu hesitates. His hand hovers, poised to knock, but for a moment, he just can't bring himself to move it; he'd hate to wake Yuma up from a nap, if he's resting, or —
Just a moment later, before he has the chance to figure it out, Yuma opens the door in front of him. "Ishido-san?" he asks, blinking, his voice rough with sickness. "What are you...?"
"Soup," Shu blurts out. "...That is to say, I brought you soup. And medicine. I wanted to check on you," Shu explains, hastily, avoiding Yuma's gaze. Yuma always dresses more casually than Shu does at work (...well, everyone at SKIP does; Shu will always, always prefer his three-piece suits, though), but he's only in a pair of boxers and a t-shirt; it feels... it feels like seeing Yuma like this is something he should feel ashamed about. He hastily hands the bags with Yuma's meal and medicine over, and nods. "I'll be taking my leave —"
"Thank you," Yuma says, and, oh — there it is. That smile, perhaps a little bit dimmed by illness, but so dazzling. It almost, almost, reminds Shu of Arc — the lightness in his chest, at least, the way that one expression makes him dizzy, is so, so similar to how he'd felt when Arc had lifted him up and saved him. It's still so fresh in his mind — how that hand felt, how he'd been set down, softly, as if the Ultraman was afraid of bruising him.
Really, the issue is the fact that Shu can't stop coming back to it. He knows for a fact that there are no records stating that the Ultraman is kind. There is no space in the GDF's files for that kind of data.
(But something about the fact that it's something that only Shu gets to know makes him smile, anyway.)
"...Well, um," Shu says, after a moment, clearing his throat. "It's no problem. I — everyone misses you... your presence at the office." (It's hard not to physically cringe at how awkward he sounds. He hopes he can pass it off as nothing.)
Yuma just smiles again. "Well, thanks to you, I'm sure I'll be back in no time," he replies. "Have a good rest of your night, Ishido-san! And thanks, again."
"It was nothing. Rest well," Shu says, pushing up his glasses, and immediately turning on his heel to leave.
He suddenly wishes he had brought his suitcase, because if he had something to hold on to, perhaps he could calm the racing of his heart. He couldn't have caught Yuma's cold, could he? No, if he had, the symptoms would've been different — there's no tickle in his throat, and while he does feel a bit feverish, it's not the kind that comes with an actual fever — and they'd barely spoken, since Shu's brain had apparently decided to cease all of its usual functions. He can only hope that Yuma didn't pick up on just how flustered that one-on-one conversation had made him. He's never like that at work, but outside of a professional environment...
Well. Regardless. Shu's goal had been to check on his coworker, and bring him some supplies; with that accomplished, there's no reason to dwell on things. The squeezing of his chest makes it difficult, but — if he can keep his feelings for Arc in check at work, he can certainly do the same for the feelings that — apparently — he has towards one Hiize Yuma.
(He gets a message on LINE, later that night — another thank you from Yuma, with a little happy emoji next to it.
Shu promptly puts down his phone, and buries his face in his pillow.)