Work Text:
yuzupepper: hey
yuzupepper: Alice
yuzupepper: r u there
heatwavebunny: Yes, Yuzuha?
yuzupepper: im sick
yuzupepper: can u bring me tissues from the store
yuzupepper: i ran out~
yuzupepper: at my dorm room btw
yuzupepper: o wait
yuzupepper: r u busy?
heatwavebunny: …I will come as soon as possible.
yuzupepper: ♥
A sigh leaves my lips. Just how in the world did she get sick? Here I am thinking Yuzuha was supposed to be unnaturally lucky. I suppose I’m ending my fencing practice early today to help her.
My rapier fits snugly in its holster on the wall of my living room. I’ve turned my apartment here in Failume Heights into somewhat of a training room, at least until I find an actual fencing club around here. I desperately don’t want to get sick, even if she’s not contagious, so I grab a face mask and a shopping tote from my closet before heading out of the door.
Good Goods is just down the street from my apartment. The small convenience store will certainly have tissues. And just in case, I’ll buy two boxes. Yuzuha told me she’s sick, but didn’t say with what or how bad it is. All I know is that she needs tissues, and that usually indicates an illness producing lots of mucus and fluids. Those tend to be contagious, from my experience. It is possible Yuzuha fails to have any medication, too. Hmph. Painkillers and allergy medicine from Peace Herbal just next door should do it. Actually… I ought to buy a few hydrating drinks as well.
…
Right, that should do it! The tote is completely full now. Time to text Yuzuha and let her know I’m on the way.
heatwavebunny: I’ve bought hopefully everything you need and I will be heading to your dorm room now. It would have helped if you gave me any information about your condition, but I believe I’ve covered most bases.
yuzupepper: yuh
I roll my eyes as I step out of Peace Herbal. The journey to Yuzuha and Manato’s school isn’t too far. The public transport system in Waifei Peninsula is very reliable and I’m able to make it to the dorms in 10 minutes, proceeding to Yuzuha’s room with a knock on her door.
A muffled, nasally voice comes from the other side. “Kamaaaa…”
There’s a scurrying noise shortly before the door opens, and I make it inside with the hefty bag of supplies. Yuzuha’s tanuki partner, Kamanosuke, closes the door behind me. “I’m here, Yuzuha…” I look around her chaotic room, placing the bag on a fortunately blank spot on her otherwise messy desk.
Yuzuha’s laying under a very fluffy looking comforter on the twin-sized bed at the other end of the room, her vivid red hair undone. “Aliiiice~” She gives me a weak smile, her lips chapped and her voice raspy. “Just be careful~ I’ve got an illness that makes thiren ears shrink.”
My eyes widen and I jump back with a shriek, thankful I brought a mask. “What!? W-why did you tell me to come, then!?”
A coarse laugh erupts from Yuzuha, but it quickly turns into a coughing fit. She leans over the side of her bed and into a trash can as her coughing wears down. “Just kidding!” She smiles up at me from the awkward position. “…it’s probably just the flu or something… hrk!” She grabs the sides of the trash can and hurls into it. “Can you take care of that.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. This… is going to be a long day. Handing her one of the boxes of tissues, I pick up the trash bag of… waste. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“Uhh… there’s a bigger trashcan near the outside of the dorms, and some more liners in my bathroom under the sink.” Yuzuha wipes her mouth with a tissue and puts it in the trash before I wrap it up, taking a long drink of water from a bottle at her bedside.
I exit the room, disposing of the trash. When I return, I enter her bathroom, sneer at the complete disorganized mess, then take the new liner to replace. “There!” I sigh, retrieving the supplies I bought and bringing them over to her bedside, kneeling down. “I also brought a backup tissue box, painkillers, allergy medication, and some hydrating sports drinks. I wasn’t sure which kind of flavor you liked, though, so I hope you like red.”
“Wow, red flavor…” She smiles at me. “I’ll take those meds. Can’t hurt, right?”
“Certainly!” I hand her both bottles. “Even if it’s not allergy related, the medicine can help reduce swelling in your sinuses and clear them right up. It should help you breathe easier, too, but it’ll make you sleepy quite quickly.”
“Thank you, my lady~” She takes a red drink as well, cracking open the lid.
“Do you need anything else?”
“You?”
My heart skips an exceptionally long beat and I blink rapidly. “O-oh! Oh, um, alright! Then… I will stay!” I can’t say no to this girl, can I…? If she asked me to take over the world, I’d probably actually give it some thought…
Leaving the supplies on the floor beside her bed, I take a seat at the edge of her mattress, watching as she puts the two pills in her mouth and swallows them with the hydrating sports drink. She smiles at me with that all-too-familiar expression. “Thaaanks~”
Honestly, I can't stand her stupid, smug face. The way her green eyes slightly squint and her lips curl into that mischievous little grin. As if she’s always got another trick up her sleeve, always one step ahead. Even with her lips chapped and dry, she still looks… nice. Pleasant, maybe, is a better word. Her face is a magnet for my gaze; constantly smirking even when sick. I can’t help but take note of her details sometimes, even when it might not be appropriate.
"Whatcha looking at… milady...?" Yuzuha's raspy, low voice grounds me. I blush, not realizing I had just been staring at her lips for far too long.
"N-nothing!" I look away back at the untidy room as she laughs dryly. Another sigh. "…Why didn't you ask Kama or Manato to help you?"
She giggles at me. "Why would I… do that…? They're..." Yuzuha's voice draws out into a yawn as she gets quieter, and I look to see her eyes struggling to stay open. "Not... you..."
If it weren't for my sensitive rabbit ears, I wouldn't have heard those last words. I clutch the hem of my skirt with white knuckles upon hearing that. Why? Why does she say such... intimate things to me?
When I was surfing on television for the resort's promotion back then, I even heard her cheer for me, saying “…you steal my heart away!” I think about that a lot. Far too often, to be frank. I look at her again, fast sleep with her mouth wide open as her chest slowly rises and falls. She already seemed tired when I arrived, but the medicine must have sped her sleepiness right up.
My heart softens and my cheeks warm as I watch her. I… need a distraction. Her desk! Her horrible, disorganized and asymmetrical desk. I'll start there.
For starters, her laptop is completely off center, not to mention it's at a 37 degree angle. This small CRT isn't parallel to the edge of the desk, either. This is absurd! If I have to fix everything for her, I may lose my mind! These knick knacks are misaligned. Her mouse pad is... upside down? How is that even possible!?
...
There! Her desk is now beautifully, symmetrically arranged. The next thing that catches my eye is a pin board to the left of the desk. The photos on it are all hung up at varying angles: pictures of the view from Failume Heights, passersby on the beach of Sailume Bay, and... one that’s familiar to me. A hair clip featuring the familiar animated character, Sailorboo, is attached to photo. Yuzuha and I both grew up watching this show, and this very hair clip belonged to me once. For many reasons, it’s hers now, and seeing it tugs tightly at my chest. No less do my emotions well up upon seeing what it’s clipped to.
I remember this photo. It wasn’t that long ago—we’ve only known each other for a few months at present—Yuzuha, Manato, Belle, Wise, and I were all present for an impromptu Astra Yao concert at the resort. I’ve always been obsessed with Astra, so it was an incredible experience to finally see her perform live.
Yuzuha took a selfie of all of us, with me in between Belle and Wise, and Manato behind us. The concert sat in the background as the sun set. Written at the bottom of the photo in black permanent marker it says “We’ll live on, together ♥” in Yuzuha’s handwriting,
My bottom lip quivers and I touch the photo, my thumb running over the beat-up hair clip. A whimper leaves my mouth and I pull my mask off, burying my face in my hands.
She means so, so much to me. They all do, of course, but nobody handles my heart the same way Yuzuha does. She makes me feel special, feel cared for. I sit at her desk and let the emotions overcome me, resting my head on my arms as my tears flow freely.
A familiar scurrying makes my ears twitch, and I look up to see Kama holding a box of tissues. I laugh through my sobs and take a handful. "Thank you, Kama."
Gathering my composure and wiping my face, I take a deep breath and look at the desk before me. Against every fiber in my body, I decide to put Yuzuha's things back the way they were: chaotic and asymmetrical. Every fiber, that is, but the ones in my heart.
To heck with it! If she wants me to stay with her, then I don't care if I get sick. I stand up and look over at Yuzuha again; fast asleep. Walking over, the back of my hand moves her hair out of the way and rests against her forehead. Hot, as expected.
I ought to check if she has a thermometer in her bathroom. Opening all of the cupboards and drawers, I can’t help but cringe at how disorganized she is, but I stay strong. Finally, I remember to check the medicine cabinet, finding the thermometer inside the somewhat hidden compartment behind the mirror.
“Okay… just keep your mouth open…” I whisper to myself, looking down at Yuzuha and uncapping the thermometer, trying to position its tip underneath her tongue. Satisfied with its position, I close her mouth and press the button for the temperature reading. 101 Fahrenheit. That confirms her fever.
Her mouth slacks open again as I take the thermometer out. She took medicine relatively recently, so temperature should be going down shortly. I’ll check again at some other point. For now… I find myself admiring her again. It’s… strange, but that magnetic pull affects me again. I press my lips together and feel a strong consideration to kiss her on the forehead. That’s something friends do, right? When they take care of each other?
My face heats up and my ears twitch. No, no! Don’t be a creep, Alice! Even if she is your friend. I can’t be selfish like that!
I tear myself away from Yuzuha’s bedside, setting a timer and going to her desk. I spend the next two hours browsing and commenting on the Spook Shack forum—making sure to avoid the urban legend and ghost story sections, of course.
The timer on my phone goes off, and I check on Yuzuha’s temperature again. 99.4 Fahrenheit. No more fever, for now at least. This time, I place my hand against her forehead despite already knowing her temperature. Is it possible I just… want to touch her? What a strange and unladylike thing to feel, especially toward another girl. As if I’m moving on my own, I lean down closer to her, closing my eyes as I go to kiss her forehead—but I stop myself. No, Alice!
My heart’s beating one mile per minute, and I hold my shoulders tightly as I speed-walk toward her chair again. Kama would have stopped me for sure if he hadn’t also fallen asleep. He seems to have his own bed on a shelf at the foot of Yuzuha’s bed. Cute!
Thirty minutes go by as I stare out of her window at the twilight-drenched college campus. My ears twitch and turn around; Yuzuha’s stirring.
“Alice…?” Her voice still sounds raspy, but it’s less nasally now. The medicine seems to have helped. I turn around to see her sitting up ever so slightly, smiling at me with that familiar half-lidded gaze.
“Yuzuha! How are you feeling?” I jog over and kneel by her bedside.
“My chest feels sore still, but I can breathe through my nose a bit better.” She coughs and grabs her water bottle for a drink.
“I took your temperature; your fever has gone down for now, at least.”
Yuzuha blinks at me. “You took my…? Did you do things to my mouth while I was sleeping, Alice~?” She gives me that obnoxious smug look again.
“T-there’s no need to word it like that!” I sit at the edge of her bed, my cheeks warming.
Yuzuha’s laughs turn to coughs, and she leans over into the trash can again, wretching and making spitting sounds. Not quite vomiting, which is an improvement. She lays back down and groans, smiling at me again. “Oh, m’lady?”
My tail wiggles. “Yes?”
“Can you look into that drawer over there?” She points to the cabinet underneath the photo board I nearly rearranged earlier. “It’s that top right one.”
I head over, searching the drawer. “What am I looking for?”
“There should be a wired up white rectangle thing with some smaller black rectangle things sticking out of it. It should have like, a bunch of little green lights on it.”
How descriptive. Luckily, it’s enough to clarify the mess of items in here. “Yes, I see it.”
“Can you take out two of the little black rectangle things and bring them here? Just twist ‘em a bit to the left and pull.”
I do as she says, taking a pair of them and handing them to her.
“Thanks, miss!” Yuzuha puts the two “rectangles” on her lap, sits up straight, and reaches up to the sides her head. She takes out her earbuds, alongside the circular devices attached to the sides of her head, which the earbuds are plugged into. They don’t seem to be clipped on her hair like I suspected, rather like they’re just attached to her head through some kind of magnet? I’ve certainly never seen her take those off before and, admittedly, she looks strange without them.
Yuzuha pulls out two identical “rectangle” of the devices, replacing them with the ones I gave her.
“What are those, anyway?” I tilt my head.
She doesn’t answer, putting the devices on the sides of her head and earbuds back in her ears like before.
“Yuzuha?”
“Hm?” She beams at me, putting the old rectangles in my hand. “Sorry, if you said something just now, I didn’t hear it.”
Odd. “I was wondering what those devices are. I’ve always seen you with them, but I guess I never thought to ask before.”
Yuzuha giggles. “If you put those batteries back the same way you got the new ones, I’ll tell you~”
“Hm…” I get up again, opening that same drawer and putting the objects back into that white rectangle, twisting them into their sockets. If these small black things are batteries, this white larger one must be a charger of some kind. Once I close the drawer, I sit cross-legged beside her and eagerly look at her, awaiting the answer to this mystery.
“So, when I was still a kid and the ocean’s waves carried me to Sailume Bay, saving my life, I was pretty alone. I would play and explore with the other kids there, but over time I noticed that my hearing started getting worse and worse.” She takes another drink of water and lays back down. “When he adopted me, Baorong knew about this and spent a lot of money looking into it. He ended up getting a surgery arranged for me, which gave me these.” Yuzuha points to the side of her head. “These are called cochlear implants, and they allow me to hear.”
My eyes widen. I can’t believe I had never noticed. But then again, how could I have known without asking directly? “Yuzuha… so you’re… deaf?”
She nods and smiles at me. “You got it. Kinda funny, huh? You’ve got big bunny ears to hear easily with, and I can’t hear at all without these!”
I always thought the biggest differences between Yuzuha and I was our class gap and her asymmetry against my symmetry, but it seems we’re even more different than I thought. “How does it work?”
For a moment Yuzuha gradually smiles wider and wider at me, silently staring like she just realized something. I wish I could know what she’s thinking right now. She lets out a small chuckling cough. “Well, you might think these earbuds are some kind of hearing aid, but actually they’re primarily microphones.
They can connect to my CD player wirelessly too, but their main purpose is to record sound almost like a normal ear would.” She points to the wire connecting her earbud to the circular device—the implant. “It then transmits the sounds it hears into the processor, where it turns the sound into a signal.” Her finger touches the outer black casing of the implant. “Then, that signal goes into the transmitter, this white part, and that transmits to a receiver under my skin.
Aaand then, the receiver turns the signal into electrical impulses that go all the way into a part of my inner ear called the cochlea.” She sips her water. “That impulse basically makes my brain sense semi-normal hearing!”
“Semi-normal?”
“It’s not quite the same as the way you hear things. In fact, I had to do a lot of training and therapy to learn how to interpret sounds this way!”
Sitting there for a moment, I process all the information. I certainly learned more about Yuzuha today. “Yuzuha, that’s amazing. I can’t believe I didn’t know about this kind of technology!” I smile at her, tail wiggling. “Thank you for sharing all this with me.”
She bats her hand at the air. “Ah, it’s nothin’! I should be the one thanking you!” Her tone lowers to something sounding more sincere. “You’ve stayed here all day, even while I was asleep.” Yuzuha looks up at the ceiling, folding her hands together over her stomach. “I’m really lucky to have you as a friend.”
My emotions well up again. Seeing Yuzuha be sentimental with her writing on that photo is one thing, but saying it to me directly hits me differently—and much, much harder. I wipe the building tears in my eyes and turn my head away, hoping she doesn’t notice. “D-do you need me to stay the night, Yuzuha?”
“Please?”
I look over and see her pouting, her hands praying in front of her face. My arms wrap around her, trying not to squeeze too tight. “Of course.” I choke, tears coming up again.
Yuzuha strains under my clutches, and I stop as I hear her start coughing. “Ehehe, you love me that much, my lady? Hey, aren’t you gonna get sick?”
Before I can answer that embarrassing question, Yuzuha thankfully puts my mind on another topic and I compose myself. “…I’ve decided it wouldn’t bother me if I became sick this way.”
This entire time, the lighting of the room has been controlled by the sun. Yuzuha’s had the lights off all day, and as the room’s light turns to a darker blue I realize just how well it’s been naturally lit.
“Really?” Yuzuha pats my back. “That’s really unlike you, Alice.”
My cheeks turn pink and I sit up straight. “Ahem. D-do you have a sleeping bag I can use?”
“It’s just under my bed.”
I take the sleeping bag and unroll it onto the carpet beside her bed. We sure do have sleepovers a lot. Slipping into the sleeping bag, I watch as the room darkens. “And yes, it is unlike me… You often bring out parts of me that I’m… unaware of.”
A raspy giggle leaves the bed. “I know I do.”
Our rapport dies down with the lights, and soon it’s only silence and darkness between us. “You steal my heart away.” what she said lingers at the forefront of my thoughts again as I stare through the darkness at the ceiling. For me, I can still see in this dim dusklight. Yuzuha, though, likely can’t see much or anything at this point. Perks of being a rabbit thiren!
I look over at her, wondering if she’s fallen asleep. Listening to hear breathing from here, it isn’t likely, so I take the opportunity to reminisce out loud about our relationship. “You know, sometimes… I feel I’ve known you all my life.”
Immediately I learn she in fact isn’t asleep. She sits straight up and looks at me—or rather the source of my voice—in the pitch blackness of the night that has filled the room. She doesn’t say anything right away, just looks at me. I can’t make out her expression, but her eyes are wide and observant; it’s clear she’s thinking intensely.
“Haven’t you?” She finally responds with a scratchy whisper.
Now it’s my turn to think. We haven’t truly known each other since childhood, but “I suppose… in a way we’ve always been connected.” I sit up now, too, using the last of my night vision’s capabilities to look into her searching eyes. “But even without all that, I mean it. That’s how I feel, sometimes.”
“I feel the same about you.” Yuzuha responds, her tone strangely flat and serious.
My heart rate quintuples. Something… shifts, inside my chest. Like a gear clicking into place, I finally realize the missing piece of the puzzle. Yuzuha has told me in the past that I’m slow, emotionally speaking, and she’s right.
It’s taken me this long to realize that I’m in love with her.
Without missing a beat, I wiggle out of my sleeping bag and sit on her bed beside her. At this point, both our eyesight has adjusted to the darkness of the room, its atmosphere illuminated only by distant streetlights and lit dorm rooms across the campus. I can make out her face well enough. “Yuzuha…” What feels like a boulder makes its home in my throat before I can say what I want to, so I try something else. “Is it weird that I’ve always had this fantasy… of becoming sick by kissing somebody I like, and not regretting it at all?”
That face again. Her stupid, dumb, annoying face, half-lidded and smirking. She lets out an inaudible chuckle and her hand cups my cheek, her tone incredibly soft and endearing. “Yes, it’s weird.” Her thumb gently rubs my skin.
I breathe deep and my hands rest on her shoulders. “Good.” And my eyes close as I kiss her in the dark. Kissing her aggravating, smug face with everything, every emotion I’ve ever had for her: annoyance, impatience, anger, sadness, happiness, and love—a disproportionate amount of love.
Her smirk widens into a grin as she holds my face with both hands now, kissing me back. We lose our breath together in the moment, and hot tears roll down my cheeks into Yuzuha’s hands. Our foreheads touch and the boulder in my throat dissolves.
Of course, she steals my heart away, too.
“Yuzuha, I…” I whimper through my tears. “I’m in love with you.”
She’s crying too, now, as she wipes my face with her thumbs. Laughter attempts to cut through her sobs. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that, Alice.”
I don’t ask how long she’s been waiting, and I don’t ask myself how long it took me to realize it, either. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is we’re here together. We’ll live on together.
yuzupepper: manatooooo~
heatwavebunny: Good morning, Manato!
aratama-maru: huh, what’s up?
yuzupepper: we’re sick
yuzupepper: can u bring us tissues from the store
aratama-maru: you’re not infecting my ass before finals. get kama to do it.
yuzupepper: can u at least cover for me at work
aratama-maru: hell no.
aratama-maru left the group chat.