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Jona was walking on the mostly empty street. A few other people passed him, some of them giving him weird or concerned looks but no one said anything. Everything around him was gray. Rain was coming down from the sky ruthlessly, pouring on him like it was personally punishing him for something. Whatever the universe thought he'd done, it was succeeding in its attempts because Jona was feeling absolutely miserable.
And if that somehow wasn't bad enough, someone who was apparently in a lot of hurry, sped past Jona and right through a pretty sizable puddle that had been formed on the road right along the sidewalk. As a result Jona got absolutely splashed.
"Deep breaths, Jona.. Deep breaths. Everything's fine,"
he spoke to himself, barely audibly, as he felt a violent shudder travel through his body. He stared at the car until it rounded a corner and disappeared from his view. The thoughts Jona was aiming at the driver.. they were all unsuitable to be said out loud. He had even thought about flipping the bird at the wannabe F1 driver, but he was way too polite for such actions. So he just accepted his fate while whatever was left of his dignity went down the storm drain. Jona's hair, usually always perfectly maintained, was now a drenched mess draping over his eyes.
Sighing, Jona reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. Maybe he should make sure that Emilia actually was at home. Maybe he should have done that to begin with. His hands were shaking as he scrolled down his list of contacts and brought the phone up to his ear. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief when he heard Emilia's familiar voice.
"Hey, Emilia.. Are you at home?"
His voice was shaking and he could only guess just how pathetic he sounded in Emilia's ears. She was sharp and of course picked up on his unusual tone of voice right away.
"Jona? What's wrong?"
He could almost imagine the way her brows furrowed.
"Oh, nothing. I just.."
He considered downplaying the situation he was in, but another shudder pushed him to be honest.
"I'm.. kind of in a bad way. Not dying or anything, but I could use some shelter from the rain. I'm actually almost to where you live, I can see the building, and—"
"What the fuck..?"
Emilia huffed under her breath, interrupting Jona as she got up and walked to the window with a view of the street. And sure enough, after waiting for a few seconds, she caught the first glimpse of a lone person walking in the rain.
"Yeah.. Yeah, I think I see you. Alright, well.. Just come straight in."
"Thank you, Emilia.."
Jona said and felt another shiver as he hung up.
"Jona, what the hell?!"
Emilia half-sighed, half-yelled when she saw Jona, soaked to the core, standing on her doorstep.
"Hi,"
Jona greeted her with a sheepish grin. One that was downplayed and even muted.
"Yeah.. Hi. Come on in."
Water was dripping off of Jona as Emilia stepped aside to let him in.
"Care to tell me why you were walking in the pouring rain?"
she asked, and rightfully so.
"Well, I.. I think I just really needed to see you,"
he gave her some kind of an explanation.
"God, you're a fucking idiot.. You know, normal people would use umbrellas. Or a raincoat, something like that,"
Emilia sighed in slowly building annoyance as she witnessed Jona drip water all over her doormat.
"Well, it didn't exactly rain when I left home.. That's why I decided to walk. It only started when I was way past the halfway point. And then some driver speeding past me finished the job,"
Jona mumbled and grinned. Well, it was a valiant effort but only turned out to be pathetic.
"Enough, alright. Get into the bathroom, get in there! Take off every single thing and get under the shower,"
Emilia ordered as she pushed Jona straight into the bathroom.
"Uh, about that.. I don't exactly have a change of clothes with me.."
"Well, that sounds like a you problem. Like I already said, you're an idiot. I'll.. dig out the warmest blankets I have, you'll have to make do with them."
She did as she promised and went to dig through her closets while Jona rid himself off of his wet clothes and got under the shower. He couldn't help but close his eyes and sigh in relief as he felt the warm water run down his body and fight off at least most of the cold and shivers. He could still feel the most persistent ones remaining, but this was still an improvement.
At some point Emilia peeked into the room and left Jona a towel, a couple blankets and even a pair of woolly socks. Maybe his predicament had made her melt a little. Even if it had been all his fault. From there she made her way to the kitchen to boil some water so she could make tea for him.
About 10 more minutes passed without Jona and Emilia annoying each other. But of course Jona couldn't stay in the bathroom forever, and so eventually he had to walk out, wearing the socks and tightly wrapped up in two blankets.
"I made you tea,"
Emilia told him in her no-nonsense way.
"Figured you might want it. So just.. go sit down."
She was gesturing at the couch.
"Oh.. Thank you,"
Jona said and gave her a tiny smile as he got settled down as comfortably as he could before accepting the mug from her. He could feel the almost scorching warmth even through the blanket. He was still trembling even after the shower. Emilia sat down next to him after she had no further reason to keep wasting time in the kitchen.
"You're such a moron.. I hope you know that. You only get to blame yourself if you get sick,"
she told him while still holding back a little.
"Don't worry.. I already know. I'd rather not blame anyone else for my shortcomings."
Emilia frowned at Jona's words but didn't say anything about them. Instead, she turned on the TV to scare off the awkward silence that was about to fall on them. Jona didn't say anything else either and simply focused on drinking his tea. He could feel it coat his insides with a pleasant warmth.
After he was all done drinking his tea, he stood up and took the mug back to the kitchen so Emilia wouldn't have to worry about it. Once he had returned back to the couch, it didn't take very long until his eyelids started to feel heavy.
"You're so warm.. And feel like home,"
he mumbled as he tilted over to the side and leaned against her shoulder, eyes already half-lidded.
"And you're delirious, you don't know what you're saying,"
Emilia shot back. Still, she didn't push him off. Instead she brushed a few, still damp strands of hair off of his forehead. He gave her a tired but grateful smile. He seemed to be nearly falling asleep and looked almost exhausted.. Worn out. Emilia got up and went to dim out the lights in the living room when she saw him repeatedly close his eyes, almost like they were suddenly sensitive to light. The warm drink and the blankets seemed to have done their job as Jona did in fact end up falling asleep. Emilia sighed but still put an arm around him.
The following morning Emilia woke up in her own bed like she always did. And when she walked into the living room, she saw Jona still asleep on the couch, curled up with his legs pulled close to his body, clutching the edge of the blanket tightly. So it wasn't a dream, after all. Emilia ended up walking to him and touching his forehead. He wasn't showing any signs of fever, at least.
Once Jona had woken up, Emilia asked him if he wanted breakfast.
"Oh.. No, thank you,"
he attempted to turn it down.
"I'll be fine with just tea, then I'll get out of your hair,"
he promised. But Emilia served him a couple pieces of toast and a yogurt in addition to the tea he'd requested.
"And don't you even think that I'm going to let you walk back home. I can give you a ride later. I mean.. It's Sunday, you're not in a hurry to be anywhere, are you?"
"Well.. No, not really,"
Jona had to admit as he took a sip of his tea.
"Good. So, how about you just stay sitting down and try to enjoy the morning."