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Jouno walks out of his room, readjusting his belt so that it’s positioned correctly. That’s when he hears Teruko whining. He steels himself for the explosion that is definitely going to happen when he tells her that Tecchou is sick, and won’t be able to work. When he makes it to the living room, he can immediately tell that something is very wrong. Teruko is crying, but she sounds terrible. Her voice is wrecked, and he can already tell that Teruko and Tachihara are both running a fever.
“How are all of you sick?” Jouno asks, putting his hands on his hips.
“I don’t know, but what do you mean?”
“I mean that Tecchou is sick too. If something that contagious was going around, you’d think I’d be sick right now.”
“What about the Commander? Is he sick?” Tachihara asks, coughing for a minute after he’s done talking.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him. How about this, I’ll get you two set up, then I’ll find the Commander?”
“Yeah, thanks, Jouno.”
“Go to your room. I’ll get the Vice-Commander to her room. I’ll come by with supplies after I’m done with that.”
“Ok, but wouldn’t it be easier if we’re just all in the same place?”
“Yes, and we’re rediscuss if the Commander is sick too. I was going to bring Tecchou to your room since your room and Teruko’s are right next to each other. I figure if I put a mattress in your room on the floor, then I can watch all three of you pretty easily. If the Commander is also sick somewhere in this building, then I’m dragging mattresses onto the floor in the living room, and you’re all camping here. At least until I can get the doctor in to check on you guys, or I can take one of you to his office.”
“Oh, ok, that makes sense. I’ll go to my room now.”
Jouno nods, then turns to Teruko.
“Come on, ma’am.”
“No!” Teruko says, weakly swinging an arm at Jouno.
Jouno just moves back a little bit, then scoops her into his arms.
“I’m going to kill you,” she says between sniffles.
“On most days, I would believe you. Right now though, I don’t think you could if you wanted to.”
Teruko sniffles again. Then she goes to bite him, but he just bops her face before she can actually put her teeth on him.
“You are not going to get me sick. Don’t breathe in my face, don’t put your tongue or teeth on me, and try not to cough on me.”
“Fine.”
She pouts the entire way to her room, but settles down when Jouno puts her on her bed.
“Alright, stay here for a few minutes. Then I’ll get your hair fixed for bed, and drop off a few things.”
He walks out, knocking on Tachihara’s door.
“You can come in.”
Jouno opens the door.
“Are you good for me to look for the Commander?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Ok, I’ll be back then.”
He shuts the door, heading back through the base. He goes to the Commander’s room first. Once he doesn’t find him there, he goes to his office. That’s where Jouno finds a note. He can’t read it, so he takes it back to Tachihara. Tachihara sighs when he reads it.
“So, it actually said that he’s at his apartment in the city, because he’s sick. It’s dated from three days ago.”
“Did we seriously not notice that he hasn’t been here for days?” Jouno asks.
“Well, I mean, he does just disappear for long periods of time without telling us where he’s going. Also, most of us have been feeling off for a few days now.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, almost a week actually.”
“And no one told me? Also, how am I not sick?”
Tachihara shrugs with a sigh.
“This is fine. I’m actually going to bring two mattresses into Teruko’s room, and have you all set up in there so you’re all in the same room. Once I get some supplies in there, I’m going to call the on base doc. Just stay here, and get ready to move into Teruko’s room.”
“Where are you going to get two mattresses?”
“I’m going to take them out of Tecchou and I’s room.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”
“Yeah.”
Jouno walks back out, heading to his room. He talks to Tecchou, and they get both of their mattresses to Teruko’s room. After that, Jouno heads to Tachihara’s room. It takes less than fifteen minutes for him to get the mattresses in there, and then Tecchou and Tachihara onto them. After that, he comes back with medicine, water, a thermometer, and some extra blankets.
“Alright, I need to know the symptoms, and how long you’ve had them,” Jouno says, as he sits down on the edge of Teruko’s bed.
He gently takes the ribbon and hair tie out of Teruko’s hair before beginning to brush it out.
She leans into his side as she says, “I’ve been tired for a week, almost sore. I’ve had three headaches this week, and my throat has been sore and swollen today.”
“I haven’t noticed anything before my fever this morning,” Tecchou says seriously.
“How am I not surprised? Would you have noticed if something was wrong?”
“Probably not.”
“Alright, Tachihara?”
“I’ve also been tired, except I’ve had a sore throat for a few days now. I just assumed it was allergies. Today I have a fever and I still have a sore throat.”
“Ok.”
Jouno ties off the braid he just did Teruko’s hair into before standing.
“Alright, you’re good. Tachihara, give me your earrings. You know the back is going to stab you in the head.”
Tachihara offers them to Jouno, who takes them without a word. Then he turns to Tecchou.
“Give me your knife?”
“Why?”
“Because any time you have a fever, you end up stabbing yourself. Now give it to me.”
Tecchou starts pouting, but hands over his knife. Jouno takes it, slipping it into his belt before walking back out. He calls main base, then gets transferred to the doctor. He explains their symptoms, then asks him to come down as soon as he can.
“If you need, I can bring one of them to base, but you know how they are.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll come down in a couple of hours. I have an opening before my lunch break. So, I should be able to check them out then. Just keep them alive till I get there.”
“Yes, sir. That I can do.”
He hangs up, then heads back into Teruko’s room. He sits down at the desk, tipping his head back. Teruko is breathing heavily, meaning she already fell asleep. Tecchou is measuring his breath, meaning he’s trying to sleep. Tachihara is reading something, though he seems to be shaking slightly.
“If you need another blanket, I have some over here,” he says, not pointing out who he was talking to since Tachihara will know.
He waits the hour and a half that it takes for Tachihara to fall asleep before he stands up. He walks to his room to change. He changes into a pair of sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie to make sure that as little of his bare skin comes into contact with them as possible. He puts his uniform to be washed since he’s had so much contact with the others.
Then he heads to the kitchen, making sure to scrub his hands and arms before touching anything else. He starts some soup, then heads back to Teruko’s room. They’re all still asleep, so he heads back to the kitchen for some alone time while he waits to add the noodles to the soup.
He can feel his fingertips buzzing, and his brain overworking. All of the noises are too loud, and even the feeling of his jacket touching his arm feels like it’s scraping his skin raw. At that point, he heads to his room to get his soundproof headphones. They’re not actually soundproof for him, though they do help a lot with overstimulation. So, he slips them on, and heads back to the kitchen. He tosses his jacket and his shirt onto the couch since he’s alone, and the sleeves are bothering him.
Then he just sits in the kitchen until the food is done. He pulls his shirt back on. Right as he’s grabbing his jacket, someone knocks on the door. He heads to get it, already recognizing the doctor’s heartbeat.
Once he opens the door, he says, “Dr. Jackson, so good to see you. Please come in.”
Dr. Jackson nods.
“Jacket, that’s a good idea. You can slip the sleeves over your hands too so you don’t have to touch them with your bare hands.”
Jouno smiles politely.
“They’re in the Vice-Commander’s room. We can head there now. They were all asleep the last time that I checked in on them. Just try not to wake Teruko up if you can. She can be your worst nightmare when she’s tired.”
Dr. Jackson nods.
“I know, she’s quite the beast coming out from anesthesia too.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that at all.”
Jouno leads him to Teruko’s room, then opens the door very quietly. Tecchou still looks up anyway, blinking sleepily.
“Well, we woke him up. Do you need me here for this part, or can I go make them bowls of soup?”
“You can go. I’ll let you know when I’m done with them.”
Jouno nods before heading back into the kitchen. He pulls his sleeves up, then grabs bowls from the cabinet. Once he’s made them bowls, he just waits for the doctor to come back. It’s another fifteen minutes before he does.
“Ok, so I’m going to run some blood tests, but it looks like your entire team has mono. I would check in with your Commander, even if it is over call. The good news is that you don’t have to worry about touching them. Just don’t share any cups, utensils, or other dishes.”
“Mono? They all have mono?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the case. Do they normally share utensils, or cups? Those are the most likely to swap saliva.”
“I actually don’t know. I’ll ask, but I don’t know what else could have happened. I’d think that they all got infected near the same time though, so maybe this was an isolated incident. I will make sure that they don’t share anything with the Commander in the future though. He was definitely the start of all of this.”
“Ok, so there is no fix all for mono. Just make sure that they get lots of rest and fluids. They can have Tylenol to help with the fever and pain. Make sure that they eat, and don’t drink any alcohol. It shouldn’t take anywhere near as long for them to get better as it would for normal people, so I can’t give you any kind of timeline. Just watch them, and don’t let them push themselves too far, ok?”
Jouno nods as they reach the door.
“I’ll give you a call when I get the results back.”
“Thank you.”
The man nods, heading out. Jouno shuts the door behind him, then bangs his head against it.
“Mono? Freaking mono? What the hell?”
He sighs, walking back to the kitchen. He grabs their bowls, then heads back to Teruko’s room. He decides not to tell them that it might be mono until it’s confirmed. They’re all awake, though luckily Teruko only seems a little bit grumpy.
“Hey,” Jouno says as he steps between the mattresses.
He hands them each a bowl.
“Eat what you can, but don’t make yourself throw up.”
“Ok,” Tachihara and Tecchou say at the same time.
They look at each other in surprise as Teruko just hums. Jouno settles back down in the desk chair, choosing to stay with them now that they’re all awake again. He puts off calling the Commander until the doctor calls him back, which doesn’t end up happening until five that afternoon. Once Jouno gets confirmation, he calls the Commander. He picks up on the last ring.
“What?”
“Commander, I thought I’d give you a-”
“Jouno, get to the point. I don’t feel good, and I want to get back to sleeping.”
“Fine, you gave the entire team mono. Aside from me, of course.”
“I did what?”
“I don’t know who you were jamming your tongue into their mouth, but you have mono. You gave it to everyone else.”
“Oh, well, my bad.”
“I thought I’d give you a call since you have it too. I’m going to get back to taking care of them though. I’ll see you when you’re feeling better.”
Jouno hangs up before Fukuchi can get another word in, knowing that he’ll probably be in trouble for how he handled that once Fukuchi comes back into work. Jouno walks back into the room with the others.
“Alright, we need to talk.”
“About what?” Tecchou asks, then sniffles.
“About what you guys caught.”
“Did you hear back from Jackson?” Tachihara asks.
“Yeah, I did. You guys have mono. We think the Commander caught it first. Did any of you share a drink or a utensil with him?”
“We all shared a drink with him aside from you. He asked four times before I said yes, while the other two just agreed immediately. I think he asked you at least a dozen times to try it before giving up. I don’t think you were paying that much attention though. You were doing paperwork, and just kept saying no thank you without actually acknowledging what he was asking you to do.”
“Ok, well don’t give into peer pressure next time. The doc said that he has no idea how long it’s going to affect you guys with your physical enhancements. So, we’re just going to have to wait this out, and see how long it takes for us to get back to work. Until you start feeling up to at least ninety percent, you’re not going anywhere. You’re not doing anything strenuous. Other things can be discussed as you want to do them. Are we good?”
A chorus of mumbled yeses later, Jouno gets them settled for dinner. It’s not until they’re all asleep for the night that he drops onto the couch.
“I can’t believe they all have mono,” he mutters, rubbing his nose. “Ok, this is fine. Hopefully it won’t take that long for them to feel better. Then we can get back to how things were before, and pretend that this never happened.”
He swings his legs onto the couch, over the arm. This goes on for a week and a half before they start to feel pretty good again, and it’s another week before the Commander comes back. It isn’t until a month after they first get diagnosed before they’re back to a hundred percent, and can go on hard missions again. They were doing small jobs for a week or so before then, but before then, Jouno had to wrangle everyone into bed.
By the time they’re feeling good again, Jouno is done with all of them. He ends up having to take two days off, and stays in a hotel in town. However, just like he wanted, they pretended like the whole incident never happened after that.