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Plub should have worked from home today, she thought as the nurse finished putting on the cast for her left leg. By now, she could have been sipping some coffee in her living room while she listened in to her meetings, blissfully unaware of the discomfort she was now in.
“I’ll call the doctor in so she can tell you about the next steps,” the nurse told her, smiling kindly at her. Plub did her best to smile back, but it probably didn’t look too genuine.
At least, she had managed to convince Note not to call Peach when she tripped stupidly on the steps of the restaurant they had lunch at. The loud pop had been undeniable: she had fractured her left foot. Note had panicked, already reaching for his phone to call her brother, but she stopped him in time.
Peach was working on Arseni’s latest shoot, and she would be damned if all the work they had put into it went to waste for something so minor. Instead, she talked Note into calling them a car and going to the hospital with her.
She was feeling particularly proud of herself for that plan, up until she heard a loud commotion outside the door of her hospital room. Before she could even start to understand what happened, the door was slammed open to reveal a distraught Note.
“Plub, I swear I didn't tell him—”
Startled, she blinked at him and asked, “Tell who?”
Her friend had just opened his mouth to respond when he was shoved to the side to make space for P’Kian.
Suddenly, the noises she had just heard and Note’s desperation started to make a lot of sense.
Her brother-in-law crossed his arms over his shoulders and stared menacingly at Note until he gulped in fear.
“I swear I didn’t tell anyone. I don’t know how he found out,” he managed to explain amidst his panic.
Plub chuckled. “It’s okay, P’Note, I believe you. You can go. I’ll talk to P’Kian.”
Without waiting another second, Note vanished through the door to make his escape, leaving Plub and Kian alone.
The moment Note was gone, P’Kian rushed over to her side, inspecting her leg as if it harbored every evildoing in the world.
“How did this happen? Do we need to sue anyone?” He immediately asked, holding her by the shoulders.
She laughed. P’Kian’s desperation was a nice distraction from the pain her foot was currently in. “I tripped going down the restaurant’s stairs. No one needs to be sued because I was clumsy.”
He chided, “I’m sure their stairs were too steep. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Not the case here, P’Kian.”
“You don’t know that!” He exclaimed, throwing his arms up. He opened the door again and shouted at one of his bodyguards, “Make sure to review this restaurant’s blueprint to check if it’s up to standard.”
“It really isn’t necessary—” She tried again to stop the clear spiral P’Kian was currently in.
“It absolutely is,” he argued, pulling out his phone and typing furiously. “I’ve ordered bars for the bathrooms back home and hired a nurse to look after you while you recover.”
Now, Plub almost regretted not telling Peach about this hospital visit. If her brother were here, he wouldn’t hesitate to put a stop to this surge of overprotectiveness, but Plub was still quite weak to it. She didn’t have the nerves of steel of her Phi. Quite the opposite: she quite enjoyed the feeling of being spoiled rotten by P’Kian. It felt like having twice as many brothers with only half as many rules.
“Okay,” she mumbled, defeated. “I can stay with you and P’Peach while I recover, but I insist I’m alright.”
P’Kian put his phone away and nodded solemnly. “I must talk to your doctor now to ensure she gave you the best treatment.” He paused and seemed to consider something for a moment before speaking again. “In fact, I shall speak to the whole hospital staff—”
“P’Kian!” She yelled, trying to infuse her tone with the same tenacity her brother did. It was a poor imitation of the real thing, but it worked well enough to make Kian pause. “The doctor and nurses have been nothing but kind and professional. Please, don’t pull them away from their work for my sake.”
P’Kian looked like a balloon deflated with the way his shoulders dropped and his cheeks colored red as he seemed to finally notice he had overreacted.
“Only because you’re asking,” he conceded.
“Thank you, P’Kian,” she said, softening her voice so he knew she wasn’t mad.
He nodded but still looked unsure of himself when he stated, “You must understand how worried I was when I heard you were in the hospital.”
Plub frowned, confused. “How did you hear about it?”
Thee smiled shyly, nervously tweaking with the hair strand that always fell perfectly over his forehead. “As a stakeholder in this hospital, I’ve ordered the staff to report to me if anyone in the family ends up here.”
That might be the type of privacy breach that would make some people wonder if their family member was paranoid to a concerning degree, but Plub had grown to take Kian’s eccentricities as the endearing shows of concern they were.
“That’s very smart, P’Kian.”
He preened, proud of himself. He walked towards her and sat by her side on the hospital bed. Kian asked once again, “Are you sure you’re fine?”
She nodded. “I am. It’s not even hurting, P’Kian. Don’t worry,” Plub said in hopes of calming her brother-in-law down.
“Hum,” he murmured, dissatisfied. “If you say so.”
“At least P’Peach isn’t here too, or I’d have two worried brothers to handle,” she confessed, leaning back on the hospital gurney to rest against the wall.
“About that…” P’Kian trailed off.
“What?” She asked, immediately returning to an upright position.
“I’m sorry, N’Plub, but I had to tell him when I got the news. He’s on his way.”
She grunted, hiding her face in her hands. “Great. He will go crazy.”
P’Kian held her shoulder in a silent show of support. “I couldn’t not tell him.”
“I understand,” she remarked. “I’d have to tell him anyway. I just wanted to get everything sorted out by myself first.”
P’Kian frowned, deeply confused. “But why would you need to sort it out alone? You have us.”
He said it so matter-of-factly that Plub’s heart swelled with the unexpected affection Kian had caused in her since their first proper talk, when he told her they were a team.
The fact he proved how sincere he had been every day since made her so emotional that she could cry. Instead, she lunged forward to hug Kian, lacing her arms around his neck. He gasped in surprise but immediately held her tightly.
“Thank you, P’Kian,” she whispered, her face pressed against her brother’s chest.
“Anything for you, N’Plub,” he whispered back.
She knew he meant it.