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“Alright, open your mouth now.”
Shin looked deadly serious. Not a fool, Ryo obediently parted his lips, letting the (slightly) older boy take out the thermometer that he started to examine critically. Then he slowly turned to look at Ryo with the most deadpan expression he could likely muster.
“So, what do we say now?” he asked.
“I, uh, I always had a high body temperature,” Ryo flushed and weakly defended himself, wondering why he was even trying.
Shin couldn’t, despite Touma’s banter, spot a lie from a mile away, but the Suiko bearer was hardly fooled by anything or anyone so long Rajura wasn’t involved.
“Oh, I’m sure you do,” Shin said amiably, turning the thermometer so Ryo could read the number himself. “But I think there is a huge difference between ‘being naturally hot’ and ‘irradiating heat like an oven’!” he finished, giving Ryo a stern look as Ryo’s blush worsened.
“I’m not feeling all that bad…” he tried again, but Shin just snorted.
“Of course you don’t, which is why Byakuen managed to pin you to the floor with just one paw,” he said dryly.
“We were playing?” Ryo offered, knowing it was a weak argument at best, even if it was technically true. He did often play ‘wrestling’ with the tiger, and it was often Byakuen who won – though generally not with the one paw, Ryo was forced to acknowledge.
It probably didn’t help that Byakuen had purposely pushed Ryo down before doing the pinning and roaring for attention, intent on letting the rest of the Troopers know that there was a problem – namely, a sick ‘cub’ to be taken care of immediately.
“Nice try,” Shin deadpanned. “You aren’t leaving the bed anytime soon, and that’s final.” He even stomped a foot on the floor to punctuate his order.
“But I can’t stay abed while you’re all…!” Ryo protested, leaning back against the pillows Shin had diligently put behind him when the other Trooper had bodily dragged him to his bedroom the moment he had realized Ryo might be ‘under the weather’. Those were nice, very fluffy pillows, too.
“While we all what?” Shin raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over his chest, daring Ryo to say more as he stood like a rock. “Go ahead, tell me what’s so important for you to do that we can’t cover in your place? Is it the laundry? Seiji is already on it. Cleaning, maybe? Touma had drawn that number, and Jun has proposed to help. Cooking? Shuu and I are on it already. Perimeter patrol in case more Youja show up? Byakuen is a very effective sentry, and you know that as well as I do. Helping Nasutei with her research? Unless you’re familiar with ancient script or familiar with the use of a computer – and in your own admission, you’re not – then there isn’t much you can do there either.”
“Groceries?” Ryo tried, though he knew it was a stupid one the very moment he said it.
“That’s under Nasutei’s purview and Seiji’s, if it comes to that,” Shin rolled his eyes. He looked disapproving – clearly, he was still not over the fact they were letting Seiji illegally drive. But between letting the blond Trooper behind the wheel to drive them around for emergency trips or bothering Nasutei whenever they needed to go downtown, well… Seiji was the lesser of two evils, which they all agreed about. “And the last thing someone sick need to do is to head out and risk to worsen their state.”
“… Homework?” Ryo proposed weakly instead, raking his brain for other arguments and finding very little that could convince Shin at all. There was ‘fighting’, but… yeah. For some reason, he didn’t think that one would fly with Shin at all.
Granted, if there was an emergency, nothing could or would stop Ryo from summoning his armor and joining into the fray, and he suspected Shin knew it as well as him, but so long nobody said anything aloud, they could pretend everything was fine and Ryo wouldn’t make something absolutely stupid as far as Shin (and probably the rest of the Troopers) was concerned.
“They can wait until you’re better,” Shin stated simply, shaking his head. “It’s not like the schools are going to re-open anytime soon anyway, and everybody know how many issues there are with the postal services anyway. Unless they’re evil twits without a hint of compassion in their body, they will not mark you down for being a day or two late.”
“That’s what you think; my History teacher makes Arago looks cuddly,” Ryo muttered under his breath, sighing and letting himself slide against the pillows.
He didn’t want to admit it aloud to Shin, but he felt cold. Very cold, in fact, and also very tired, and if he wasn’t shivering, it was only because he was already draped in several layers of blankets courtesy of an insistent, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer Suiko bearer.
The idea he could be sick and that it was okay to be so or that someone cared and wanted him to rest felt almost foreign. Ryo didn’t often get sick to begin with, and when he did… by a stroke of bad luck, it often tended to be while his Father was away on trips. Not always, of course not, but often enough that Ryo didn’t have someone handy to help him around when he was unwell, not unless he called his Grandparents or his Aunt, which he was always reluctant to do. Not only was he ware over potentially infecting them, but they also had their lives and shouldn’t be expected to drop everything just because their grandson/nephew had a light fever, a cough and a congested nose.
And honestly, Ryo didn’t even feel THAT sick. He didn’t have a headache (yet, though he supposed he should watch out for that), but he felt uneasy, cold, exhausted, clammy – the result of the fever he hadn’t felt coming, probably because he had gotten used at ignoring symptoms and all signs of minor aches during the weeks they had spent fighting the Youjakai’s forces.
Bad guys didn’t care about your body getting pushed past its limits, after all, and Ryo hadn’t been about to stop for anything but death after he had sworn to himself to save everybody from Arago’s grasp.
So, having Shin immediately zeroing on him after Byakuen’s ‘call for help’ was very off-putting and disconcerting.
The fact he hadn’t been the only one to react like that was still making Ryo blink, too.
Like… if Ryo hadn’t insisted he could walk just fine, he was all but certain Shuu would have scooped him up in his arms and carried him to his bed. Seiji had been fretting too, eyeing Ryo up and down, as if searching for a hidden injury he could heal (they knew Kourin’s sword could heal some things, such as Ryo’s eyes when he had gotten blinded by Naaza, but wherever it could be efficient against virus was something they had yet to test – and which Shin had firmly put his foot down about, despite Touma’s loud pondering and not-very-subtle hints that maybe they should test it out since Ryo was the ideal test subject – again).
As for Touma, he had disappeared in the kitchen, loudly proclaiming that orange juice and apple slices were just what Ryo needed if he was down. Shin had agreed, though he had warned Touma not to overdo it and not to bring anything yet.
His friends cared. And Ryo… didn’t want to worry them over nothing.
“It’s not ‘nothing’, Ryo,” Shin gave him a look, making the black-haired boy realize he had said the last part aloud by accident. “You’re our friend; we are going to get worried about you and the more so when we notice you are trying to hide a health issue,” he stated as he sat on the edge of Ryo’s bed.
“But it’s just a fever,” Ryo protested.
“Yes, it’s just a fever – for now,” Shin nodded seriously. “Which doesn’t mean there won’t be other symptoms later, or that it isn’t worrisome already. Your body was under a lot of strain lately, Ryo…” he argued, but Ryo cut him off.
“And yours weren’t? You were absorbed and stayed in Arago’s body much longer than me!”
“And we collapsed for two whole days the moment that we knew we were safe at Nasutei’s place,” Shin replied immediately, his eyes gentle but his expression still stern. “You, though, you went and burst out of his body with an armor that we didn’t know the existence of and channeled so much power you stayed nearly comatose for a whole week. And before you say anything, that wasn’t nearly as much rest as you should have gotten. Why do you think I warned you to take it easy the moment you were awake?”
Alright, alright, Ryo understood the argument. He knew Shin was right. And yet… it was hard to accept.
“… I don’t like staying in bed doing nothing,” Ryo sighed, passing a hand on his forehead. Uh. It did feel hot, even for him, he thought dazedly.
Shin chuckled. “Nobody truly likes that, and people who have an active life or a very active mind even less than the rest. But you’ll have to deal with it at least for today. You, Rekka no Ryo, are going to take a long nap. You’ll have orange juice and apple slices for vitamins along with some meds to try and bring your fever down and, knowing Shuu, you’ll have plenty of ‘get-better’, revitalizing’ dishes for diner as well,” he smiled. “And once you’re rested and if your fever has dropped enough, maybe I’ll let you have a couple of books to read in bed between two naps. How does it sound?”
“Fantastic,” Ryo replied dryly, sending Shin in a fit of laughter. “You seem really used to bossing sick people around.”
“Oh, that. My Mom has always been sickly, ever since I was a little kid,” Shin kept smiling, though his expression turned wistful. “She’s usually good at taking care of herself, but there are days where she can be stubborn too, so me and my sister Sayoko learned to take turn at ‘bullying’ her into taking proper care of herself. I guess I kept something of it,” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he rose, letting Ryo tuck himself better in bed.
“That doesn’t seem like a bad habit,” Ryo replied, bringing the blankets higher until they were reaching his neck. “Your Mother sounds very lucky to have such a devoted son.” If his own Mom was still around… Ryo thought he’d take care of her the same way.
“That’s kind of you to say and think so,” Shin smiled. “Now do try and rest, will you? I’ll warn the guys to stay as silent as possible so you can sleep. Oh, and remember, Ryo – you’re only allowed to stay in bed or to rise to use the toilets. If I see you anywhere but your bed or the bathroom, I won’t hesitate to tie you to that bed, even if I have to recruit the others for it,” he warned.
“Shin! That’s not funny!” Ryo protested, indignant.
“That wasn’t supposed to be. And remember, Ryo; you’re warned,” Shin repeated, and closed the door behind him after making a ‘I got my eye on you’ gesture that felt ominous.
Ryo could only blink as he pressed his head against a fluffy pillow that smelled of lavender.
Shin couldn’t be serious… could he?