Work Text:
Mikoto finishes another long day at work, he pushes the door closed behind him while standing there soaking wet and tired for a few moments. After taking his shoes off, he walks over to his soft looking bed.
The only thing he wants to do right now is sleep. It's so tempting to go to sleep right now and not do anything else and to not think about anything else.
"You'll get sick if you just lay down. Make sure to wash off and put dry clothes on first.”
"Ah... yeah, I'll do that. Thanks."
Mikoto grabs clean clothes before shuffling into the bathroom and turning the shower on. The water feels nice, but he shouldn't stay in here too long–he could fall asleep standing up or slip or something. He doesn't feel any better after finishing, but at least he's clean now. He dries off and gets dressed next. Now, he can finally sleep. He'll feel better in the morning, he's probably just tired.
The next morning Mikoto feels hot and cold at the same time and his head is pounding badly, making him groan in pain. Even just the sound of his voice is making his head hurt more. He squeezes his eyes shut and grabs his head, hoping it would help. He's relieved that this is his day off, he wouldn’t have been able to work like this. That wouldn’t have been good.
"You need to eat."
"I’ll eat later… I’m not really hungry right now." Mikoto shakily replies while sitting up, swaying back and forth.
"Last time you were sick you got worse from not eating."
"Ahaha... then Mappi had to come over and help, right?"
"Yeah. She told me that when she walked in we were unconscious on the ground. "
"I feel bad for bothering her like that..."
"Don't-it could've been worse if she didn't help."
"Mm..." Mikoto hums as he starts tilting to the side before catching himself by putting his hand on the bed.
"Mikoto, come on... even something small would be good." John pleads.
"Okay..." Mikoto, half in a daze, walks to the kitchen. "Ah, what should I make? How about this?" Mikoto asks while picking up instant ramen.
"Sure. I'll make something better later. Getting strength back is more important right now."
The wait feels longer than usual as Mikoto stands there while leaning on the counter as he waits for the ramen. Once it's done he lifts it up, feeling life come back to him as he eats it. Then he drinks some water and takes some medicine, helping even more. He still doesn’t feel well enough to do anything, but at least he doesn’t feel like he’s dying anymore. After grabbing a blanket he wraps himself up in it and sits on the couch.
“Is there anything you want to watch?”
“No, you can pick.”
“I chose what to watch last time, you should get to pick this time. It wouldn’t be fair if I picked every time.”
“There’s really nothing I want to watch.”
Mikoto puts the remote back on the table. “Then we won’t watch anything, we can just talk together instead. I think that’s a better idea anyway.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh! We should talk about plans to celebrate your birthday! It would be good to start now.” Mikoto says as he points towards the ceiling at nothing.
“We don’t have to do that this early, it isn’t for a few more weeks.”
“See? That’s exactly why we should plan now! So, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t care, whatever’s fine.”
Mikoto crosses his arms. “John… you have to decide something for yourself. You can’t keep letting me tell you what you want, you know.”
“Then let’s look at the stars.”
“Ooh~ that sounds nice. Anything else?”
“I want to bake a cake. Tastes better than one you can buy.”
“Okay! What kind of cake?” Mikoto asks as he types everything onto his phone.
“Vanilla.”
“That sounds good! What else?”
“It’s fine, that’s enough. I don’t need more… don’t stress yourself out over this.” John says plainly.
“But it’s your birthday! It has to be special! I can’t have you just not enjoy your birthday.” Mikoto whines.
“Mikoto, you caring like this makes it special. You don’t need to do anything else.”
“Mm… alright. But I really don’t mind doing more.”
“Then focus on getting better first.”
“I will…” Mikoto stands up–still wrapped up in a blanket and walks over to the curtains to open them. “There, that looks a little nicer. That should help me feel better. Hm, you always have handled being sick better than me, how?”
“Because I rest. You try to push yourself to get better too soon.”
“Ah-haha.” Mikoto scratches his cheek while laughing awkwardly. “I guess that’s true. I guess I’ll have to work on that, huh?”
“That’d be a good idea. Don’t want anything bad happening to you.”
“Maybe I’ll rest then… just for a little bit. That should help.”
Mikoto climbs under the blanket on his bed, falling asleep fast. A few hours later, he wakes up to see that the sun is already setting.
“Did I really sleep that long…?” Mikoto wonders while putting his hand on his forehead, messing up his bangs.
Mikoto feels even worse than before. His breathing is shaky and heavy and he feels even hotter as sweat rolls down his face. Maybe he should check his temperature? If he can stand up. He clutches onto the bed sheets as he attempts to stay balanced once he stands up. He checks his temperature to see it’s 39°C. Will it get worse if he goes back to sleep again? He doesn’t want that. But if he doesn’t rest he could get worse too.
Mikoto scratches his head in frustration. “Ahh, what am I supposed to do…” Mikoto crouches to the floor, gripping the sink while hanging his head low.
He stays like that for minutes, until he feels ready to stand up again. He should drink some water, that should help. Mikoto stumbles out of the bathroom and drinks some water. He thinks he can eat a little more now too. John grabs some eggs, bread, and strawberry jam. That should be enough. He cooks two eggs and toasts a single slice of bread, spreading a layer of jam on it. He writes down a note to get tea for next time before grabbing more water.
He sets everything down and the table and starts eating. It’s bland, but something like that is good when you’re sick. If he makes anything too fancy it could just make him sick. He made that mistake before. He can’t let himself feel bad over that right now, making sure he gets better comes first. After eating he does the dishes then sits back on the couch, staring at his reflection on the blank TV screen. Maybe he should start that show Fuuta told him about. He keeps talking about it nonstop, he should see if it’s as good as he says. All he knows about it is that it’s apparently based off of a video game. He watches two episodes before falling asleep in the middle of the third one.
Mikoto wakes up to see that the TV is on but paused from being on autoplay for too long. He very briefly wonders if he fell asleep while watching TV before realizing what happened. He feels guilty, making John have to take care of things again only to get told he’s wrong and that it’s fine. The feeling of guilt still lingers, but he tries to believe John’s words. He shuts the TV off and checks his phone after it buzzes to see that it’s already past midnight–and that he was asked to come in a few hours early. At this point he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all if he doesn’t tell them no. Taking a deep breath he starts typing an apology, telling his boss that he’s sick and won’t be able to come in early or at all. After reading it multiple times to make sure he doesn’t accidentally say something rude or if there’s a typo he missed, he closes his eyes and hits send. He tosses his phone to the side of the couch and starts getting ready for bed. He walks around his apartment, doing everything he needs to do until his phone buzzes. He checks it to see an angry text message from his boss. He knew his boss wouldn’t be happy, but he has to get better first–that’s more important.
Once he finishes getting ready, he makes sure to plug his phone in to charge then shuts off the lights. He waits until his eyes adjust before walking over to his bed and crawling into it, snuggled under the warm sheets. John caresses Mikoto's face, his cool hand making him feel better.
"Thank you..."
"Anything for you."
"Hehe, I love you, John..."
He feels his face grow warmer suddenly. "I love you too."
Mikoto smiles while closing his eyes, hand dropping onto the bed after a few minutes and falling asleep.