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Teru has an unfortunate amount of experience with being sick. Most of it has happened in the last year, to boot. Every time he perceives the slightest loss, which happens far more often now that he refuses to use his powers immorally, he can feel a wave of uncomfortable heat wash through him, his throat starting to itch near instantenously. It gets very bad very quickly, and will usually last for three long, terrible days. But that is just part of being humbled, which he needs. He deserves this.
Teru hasn't lost at anything recently, no lost fights or not quite perfect enough test scores or anything like that, but by now he can immediately recognize that particular raspy cough for what it is, that miserable little sniffle. Except it isn't coming from him.
"You're sick?" he can't stop himself from saying, looking at Mob, astonished. Why is he so surprised? Mob can get sick. Mob's a human being. (He just seems so much larger than life sometimes, it's easy to forget that. But he shouldn't forget it. That's the exact opposite of what Mob wanted to teach him.)
"I'm--" cue an unbearably cute sneeze, "I'm fine, Hanazawa-kun. It came on very suddenly, so I wasn't expecting it, but it's not so bad. I don't need to go home."
Teru can see where he's coming from. They'd agreed to this sleepover over a week ago, so having it suddenly cut short by a sudden bout of sickness would definitely be dissapointing. The responsible thing would be to send him home to his family, wouldn't it? Except Mob walked here, and are his parents even at home so that they can come pick him up? They seem to be away on business trips quite a lot. Leaving Mob to trudge home alone, getting progressively sicker all the while makes Teru feel sick himself.
"Okay," Teru says, and helps him lay out his futon.
He decides he'll be making chicken soup for dinner tonight instead of the hot pot he'd had planned, and to also act like he'd been planning on having chicken soup the entire time. He knows Mob hates to feel like he's imposing.
He manages to convince Mob to let him do all of the cutting after Mob goes into a sudden coughing fit and almost cuts his own hand off. Mob stirs, and makes sure to direct all of his sneezes into some tissues Teru gave him instead of the food he's making, and Teru valiantly fights off the urge to tell Mob that he thinks that he sneezes like a kitten, which is adorable.
Later on, after they've eaten their soup and are watching a movie Mob sneezes so hard that all of the furniture in the living room temporarily levitates. It is slightly less cute then.
By the end of the night Mob is definitely not having the great time Teru had been planning for him to have. Instead he is shivering as he tries to continue his halting conversation with Teru. Conversing with Mob is always a little bit slow, as Mob likes to take his time to seriously think about all of his responses (which Teru adores and admires, really, and he doesn't mind the view while he's waiting for a reply), but it doesn't seem like Mob even quite remembers what was said only a moment ago, so the discussion is growing quite disjointed and... bizarre.
Teru decides that this is offically no longer a casual fun time hang out session with a friend, and is instead time for Teru to take care of his friend in his time of need. This is super serious.
Teru tosses his blanket around Mob's shoulders for warmth, kneeling in front of him.
Mob's face is quite red, but honestly, it's been that way for most of the day. It's just the fever.
Mob blinks up at him, clearly gathering his scattered wits. "Ah, thank you."
"No problem," Teru says, which sounds dumb and like not enough, but sometimes when he looks at Mob for too long it's hard to think of things to say. He realizes that he's now just kneeling in front of Mob silently, looking into his eyes. "Just a moment, please!" Teru says hurriedly, and stands up, practically running to his bathroom.
It is only a moment later before he's back in his bedroom with Mob, with his very well stocked 'In Case of Defeat' kit, AKA what he uses when he starts sweating up a storm because he lost at rock paper scissors or something.
"Um, here, take this," Teru says after pouring out a spoonful of cough syrup.
Now, Teru will be the first to admit that Mob isn't perfect. He's amazing, but not perfect. No one is. But that's part of his charm! His flaws are the endearing sort, instead of the so-insecure-he'll-choke-a-stranger-out sort. Like the all around general social awkwardness. That's okay! It is okay to be socially awkward, Teru will make sure to be social enough for the both of them. But, anyways. Mob. Not so great at social stuff. Not so great at... reading people. Situations. Their words. Their intent.
What Teru's getting at is, Mob did not reach out for the spoon with his hand, but instead he, well. He leaned over and put the spoon in his mouth while Teru was still holding it.
"Oh no, are you getting sick as well, Hanazawa-kun?" Mob aks, his brows furrowing with concern behind his bangs.
"N-no, I'm fine, Kageyama-kun," Teru manages to choke out.
"Are you sure?" he presses. "You're quite red." And now there Mob is, close, so close, hand holding his bangs away from his own forehead so that he can press it against Teru's. Teru makes a horribly embarrassing sound like he's dying, and Mob look at him curiously. "You're almost as warm as me, Hanazawa-kun," Mob informs him gravely.
"Oh," Teru says, looking wide eyed straight into Mob's very close eyes, swallowing dryly. Mob leans back and Teru can breathe again.
"...I know you don't live with your parents, Hanazawa-kun," Mob interrupts the silence eventually after having apparently done some deep thinking. "So would you like to sleepover at my place after this? You shouldn't be home alone when you're sick, my master said so."
"Your master's very wise," Teru says, and was he coming down with something? Because he suddenly felt dizzy. He thought about sleeping over at Mob's place every time he fell sick, every time his team didn't win during gym class, every time he failed to learn clairvoyance from Rei-chan or telepathy from the Shiratori brothers. His heart was doing something weird now, too.
"He is," Mob agrees solemnly.
Defeat suddenly didn't seem so world shattering.