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he awoke at his desk in the living room, yawning softly. nobody else seemed to be awake yet. having a small headache where his temples were, and feeling surprisingly cold; like he was incased in ice.
he got up, his legs wobbling as he caught himself on the armrest of the couch, putting his detective coat on overtop his vest. although, sitting down on the couch a few moments later when he felt like he couldn’t stand anymore. he rubbed the sleep out of one of his eyes, clearing his throat. only to see ryunosuke coming down the stairs of the attic.
"oh, good morning mr. naruhodo!"
"morning..." ryunosuke smiled softly, sitting down on the opposite side of the couch. only to notice sholmes seemed a bit shades paler than normal. ryunosuke rubbed the sleep from his eyes, his vision clearing, a bit but sholmes looked worse than ryunosuke thought, his smile faltering to a look of slight concern.
"sholmes, you don't really look well... are you feeling okay?"
"i can assure you i am absolutely fine, my dear fellow! just a bit un-" he got cut off by a coughing fit, making ryunosuke flinch. speaking once he stopped coughing, sniffling.
"u-under the weather!"
ryunosuke let out a soft hum of disapproval, yet deciding not to push it.
a knock on the door made sholmes snap out of his thoughts.
"oh! who might that be? i don't recall inviting somebody over!"
sholmes went and opened the door, ryunosuke noticing sholmes legs shaking a little.
"oh! ms. lesterade, what seems to be the issue?"
"i- i jus' saw a guy ge''in stabbed 'hrough 'he windah when i was on 'he sidewalk, an' 'he copper arrested 'he bystander nearby! you go' 'o defend 'im, naruhodo!!"
"hmmm... i see. well mr. naruhodo, time for some investigating!!"
"oh, alright."
so, after getting his hat and his black fingerless gloves on, grabbing a mini notepad and a pen as he went outside (since he'd probably be more forgetful today), the three of them pretty much ran to the crime scene, sholmes trying not to trip on the way there do to how dizzy he felt.
"well, what do we have here!"
sholmes looked around the crime scene, trying to ignore the dizziness plauging him. the dead body was still there, and the cause of death seemed to be a gunshot wound to the chest, and there also seemed to be hand marks around the victims neck, indicating that the killer was trying to strangle the victim beforehand.
after finding a few clues of what the killer did, ryunosuke and sholmes did a dance of deduction, yet sholmes' deductions were way more off than usual. yes, they were usually ridiculous, tethering on the line of bizzare; but it was almost like sholmes kept losing his train of thought and just moved onto the next thing. nonetheless, ryunosuke corrected the ridiculous deductions anyways, filling in the gaps when need be.
"guv'naw, are you alrigh'? you seem mawe shades paler 'han 'he usule, an' you seem 'o be mawe ou' ov focus?.."
"i can assure you i am fine, ms. lestrade!"
"alrigh'! if you say so!"
the three of them came home a few hours later, and boy, did sholmes feel more drained than usual. yet he hid it to the best of his ability, trying to not make ryunosuke or gina worry for him.
"welcome back, runo and hurley! oh, h-hi ginny!"
"'ello 'o you 'oo, iris!"
"hello iris, hello, ms. mikotoba!! i suppose the two of you just have awoken?"
"susie woke up a few minutes after me, i just finished making some tea, it's cooling down right about now!"
"thank you iris, i suppose i am a little thirsty after that investigation..."
"i suppose we shall all talk over some tea, then!!" sholmes said, his voice starting to get a tiny bit hoarse and raspy from trying to sound energetic when he felt nothing like it...
susato came down the stairs a few minutes later when everyone was talking.
"want to have some tea with us, susie?"
"i'd love to, iris."
susato sat down on the couch, eyeing sholmes with a look of concern. iris placed the tea down, snapping susato out of her thoughts of concern.
"thank you, iris."
she'd talk to sholmes later. she'd pry the truth out of him no matter what he said.
after a few hours, sunrise came around the streets of london, gina was asleep on the couch, and iris and ryunosuke were in their rooms, if you count the attic being a bedroom...
sholmes came down the stairs, letting out a soft yawn, nearly tripping over his own feet. catching himself on the wall, then going to the couch to sit. he sat down, about to question why susato was up, when she spoke.
"mr. sholmes," susato began, her voice soft as to not wake the others.
"yes, ms. susato?"
"you're sick, aren't you?"
"drats! seems like my disguise has been pulled off!"
"soooo... you're pretty much admitting you are sick?"
"what? no! the great mind of herlock sholmes simply can't get sic-"
"herlock sholmes." susato said, causing sholmes to look at her.
"y‐yes, ms mikotoba?" sholmes replied, not expecting his full name to be said.
"drop the act, please. you don't have to pretend that you're feeling well for our sake, even iris said you were acting off today. even gina can tell... you- you can't really fool us at this point."
sholmes let out a soft sigh, his expression faltering.
"i-i suppose i haven't been feeling the best today..."
he flinched as susato put a hand to his forehead, pushing some of his fluffy blond hair out of the way.
"m-ms. mikotoba!-"
"im getting a cold towel and some blankets."
"i‐i can-" sholmes was interrupted by a few coughs. "n‐nevermind."
ryunosuke woke iris up in the morning since sholmes didn't, the both of them went downstairs. only to see sholmes laying down on the couch, wrapped up in tons of blankets, a bucket beside the couch. an empty cup of herbal tea was on the coffee table, and a damp cloth of his forehead.
susato was asleep on the couch where gina was, yet on the opposite side. ryunosuke and iris decided not to wake the two of them, yet iris decided to change the cloth on her fathers forehead. making him stir.
his eyes slowly adjusting to the light. sholmes' usual lively eyes seemed more tired, his usual neat hair was a fluffy mess, and he just seemed exhausted all n all.
"m-morn... ing... r-r... ryunosu... ke..." sholmes let out a few coughs, mumbling an 'ow' afterwards.
"morning, mr. shol-... did you just say my first name?"
"i-i... don't care for... formalities... right n-now..."
"makes sense." ryunosuke replied, sitting down as iris came back with a damp towel.
"sorry for the long wait, just making sure the water was cold enough..."
iris put the towel on sholmes forehead, smiling softly as sholmes let out a soft groan. sholmes weakly smiled back after a few minutes, his half open eyes slowly shutting. his chest rising and falling as he slept.
"feel better soon, hurley..." iris muttered. "anyway, wanna see something i was working on, runo?"
"uhh... sure!"
so, iris and ryunosuke began chatting about what iris was doing, ryunosuke moreso listening than talking. iris was trying to be as quiet as she could as to not wake up sholmes, soon, susato and gina joined in, both of them being as quiet as they could.