Chapter Text
In hindsight, Yu could admit that he had been a bit delusional.
To be fair, he rarely ever got sick. Rarely enough that he literally couldn't remember the last time it had happened. He was yet to determine if he had some sort of super-resilient immune system or if he was just obscenely lucky.
Not only that, but they had just beaten a literal god in a fight less than two weeks ago. After doing something like that, it was hard to imagine getting knocked out by something as paltry as a cold.
He was unable to fully shake off the exhaustion after their battle with Ameno-sagiri, but it didn’t bother him much. After all, it had been their toughest battle by far, so it made sense that the fatigue lingered longer than usual.
He didn’t have a similar excuse for the growing frequency of his headaches, but he popped some painkillers when they grew too strong and continued about his day. Maybe the sunshine was hurting his eyes. After all, the town had been shrouded in fog for a long time.
When he found himself dragging on the way home after visiting his friends on New Year’s Day, he chalked it up as a result of him flitting around Inaba all day. He hadn’t realized how many people he had connected with this year until he wanted to see them all.
The chill seemed to cling to his skin as he stepped into the warm foyer of his home that evening. He found himself shivering as he got ready for bed, and he grabbed an extra blanket for his futon.
Despite the added insulation, he slept terribly that evening. He woke up constantly due to the pervasive chill, and when he did manage to catch snatches of sleep his dreams were as unpleasant as they were hazy.
He had broken at one point and stumbled across his dark room to blindly pull on a sweatshirt, but nothing seemed able to banish the ice that had settled in his bones.
Despite all the alarms that should have been blaring, Yu shrugged all of these symptoms off. He had run himself into the ground in the TV world over the past few months and had been fine; it would be ridiculous for his body to give out now, when he was actually getting rest.
That’s why he brushed Yosuke off when he asked about it the next day.
He was greeted that morning with the sound of someone seemingly leaning on the doorbell. His head felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton as he trudged to answer. The repetitive sound was not doing wonders for his headache.
He opened the door to find Yosuke and Teddie standing on the stoop. Yosuke had a hand on the collar of Teddie’s shirt, trying to drag him back from the bell.
They both looked up from their struggle when the door opened. Normally, this is where Yosuke would greet him with an easy-going smile. But this time, he had a strange look on his face at the sight of his Partner.
“Dude, did you eat something from the back of the fridge again?” Yosuke asked in lieu of an actual greeting. Yu didn’t pay much attention to his reflection when he had gotten ready that morning, but he must have looked different, because Yosuke’s eyes opened wide at the sight of him.
“Not this time,” he assured him. Just the thought of some of his fridge “snacks” made his stomach turn dangerously. “Just tired. And cold.” He pulled his jacket tighter around him.
Yosuke’s eyebrows scrunched together in that way they did whenever he disapproved of something Yu had said or done. It happened far more often than one might think, especially when it came to his allegedly questionable abilities to take care of himself instead of running around for someone else. “And pale,” Yosuke added.
He strided forward. Suddenly, Yosuke was way closer than he had been before. Normally, Yu was just slightly taller than him, but with him barefoot and Yosuke wearing his chunky motorcycle boots, he found himself at perfect eye-level. Yu’s heart leapt at the sight of his soft brown eyes so close to his own.
Yosuke placed the back of his hand against Yu’s forehead. Yu barely stopped a sigh and resisted the urge to melt into his Partner’s hand. His hand was cold against his skin, but it felt like a soothing balm instead of making him colder like it logically should have.
He closed his eyes, and missed the way that Yosuke’s frown deepened the longer his hand remained.
Finally, Yosuke pulled his hand back and Yu resisted the urge to chase after it like an overeager dog. “You’re burning up, Partner,” he concluded.
That couldn’t be right. He was freezing; he knew that if he pushed up his sleeve he would find gooseflesh.
“Your hands are just cold from outside. I’m okay.”
Yosuke gave him a skeptical look, but let the matter go. It helped that Teddie provided a convenient change of subject when he launched himself at Yu.
“Thank you for inviting me in!” He said, giving Yu a quick hug and then dashing past him.
“Hey!” Yosuke yelled after him. “You’ve got to wait for him to actually invite you in first!” He shook his head and gave Yu an apologetic look
Yu merely smiled and waved him off. He found it difficult to get irritated at Teddie’s antics, especially when they were mild compared to the kids on the hill. At least Teddie had never swung a metal bar at him.
After completing a lap of the house, Teddie threw himself onto the couch with a gleeful noise.
Yosuke groaned. “Seriously Ted, knock it off. Just because Partner is too nice to kick your ass for busting in here and running around like a lunatic doesn’t mean that everyone else will do the same thing.”
Teddie whined. “You’re no fun, Yosuke. You’re always getting onto me!”
Yosuke threw his hands in the air in frustration. “I wouldn’t have to if you would be normal for once in your goddamn life!”
“I’m learning!” Teddie argued.
“Not fast enough! It’s been like six months, you should know not to do home invasions at this point!”
Yu watched them volley back and forth. He would never admit it to Yosuke, but he enjoyed their arguments immensely. They were both so reactive that it was endlessly entertaining.
“You’re mean, Yosuke! I’m moving in with Sensei!” Teddie crossed his arms and looked away from Yosuke disdainfully.
“Mean!? You’re the most ungrateful, demonic little bear I’ve ever met! And you are not moving in. You can’t just invite yourself to live with someone. Plus, he’s already having to do all the housework. He doesn’t need to babysit you too!”
Yu should have agreed with Yosuke. He didn’t really have the energy to keep up with the bear right now, but Teddie’s eyes were open and pleading. Nanako and Dojima also had to go back to the hospital today, and he could admit how much he despised living alone in an empty house. It reminded him far too much of the city apartment.
“He can come stay over if he wants.”
Yosuke’s eyes went wide and he jerked Yu to the side. “Dude, you do not have to do this just because he asked,” he told him gravely, eyes as serious as they were in their strategy meetings. “You don’t understand how sticky he gets. Your room will never feel clean again,” he warned urgently.
That got a laugh from him. He playfully shoved Yosuke off. “It’s fine, really. You’ve been watching him for months, I can take a turn. Besides, it’ll be nice to have company.”
At the last sentence, Yosuke’s eyes softened significantly. He took a step back. “If you say so, Partner. Only for a bit, though. And if he gets to be too much, I’ll drag him back by his grubby little ear.”
Teddie squawked in protest as Yu grinned at the mental image. “As long as you let me watch.”
Yosuke turned on Teddie. “You hear that, bear? You better be good.”
Teddie stuck his lower lip out. “I’m always good, Yosuke.”
Yosuke snorted.
After seeing Nanako and Dojima out and hashing out some of the ski trip details with Yosuke, his Partner left with Teddie. Teddie insisted that he needed to collect his “bear-longings.” He wasn’t sure what a human-bear-hybrid-boy-thing had as possessions, but he supposed that he would find out.
He would need to stock up on some Topsicles too if Teddie was going to stay over. The team had discovered to their dismay that his obsession with the treat hadn’t diminished in the slightest as the temperatures plummeted.
Unfortunately, Teddie didn’t get his Topsicles. Nor did Yu find out what he considered the essentials for an overnight stay. Because shortly after Teddie walked in the door with a duffel bag over his shoulder, his hubris caught up with him.
He took two steps up the stairs to put Teddie’s bag away, and the room swirled around him. His base instinct was that he had been hit with a status effect, which was both ridiculous and not possible.
Despite his best efforts, the floor seemed to rush up at him. He distantly heard Teddie shout his name before his vision blurred too much to keep his eyes open.
He didn’t know how long it had been when awareness began to creep back into him. His body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and his head hurt enough that the mere idea of opening his eyes made his stomach roil.
He should have tried his best to sit up and assess the situation like a strong, competent leader, but he couldn’t seem to make his body obey, nor could he collect his thoughts enough to even begin to attempt such a thing. Instead, he kept his eyes screwed shut and laid there.
There were voices around him, he could tell. They didn’t seem too panicked, so surely whatever had happened to make him like this couldn’t be that bad.
He drifted in and out of sleep, only vaguely paying attention to the noises around him. There were a lot of voices now, both male and female. Was that…Rise? Why would she be here? The thought floated away before he could examine it further.
If he was capable of flinching at the moment, he would have when he heard a sudden outburst. One of the voices shouted loudly, and the others ceased momentarily.
However, after the sudden shouting, he finally placed one of the voices for certain. He would recognize it anywhere. Yosuke was here. The worry that had been trying to penetrate the haze in his brain eased. If his Partner was here, then he would be fine. He let himself fully surrender to the pull of sleep.
Yosuke hadn’t made it five steps into his house when his phone chirped. He groaned. It was the special tone that he had assigned to Teddie so he would know immediately when he messaged. One time, he had missed six texts from Ted and had to rescue him from getting lost in the clothing section of Junes. Even at the time Yosuke had thought it was ridiculous. Sure, he hadn’t been in the human world long at that point, but the section wasn’t that big.
Regardless, ever since then he changed the tone so he knew to read the text right away, even if he didn’t respond right that instant. He began to toe his shoes off as he flipped open his phone. It buzzed in his hand as he scanned over the messages as they came in.
[1:52pm] Ted: Help!
[1:52pm] Naoto: WHAT DO U NEED HELP W/ TEDDIE
[1:53pm] Kanji: fr dude u can’t just text help and nothin else
[1:53pm] Ted: Something is beary wrong with Sensei (´；д；`)
As soon as his eyes scanned over the words, he was yanking his shoes back on and sprinting out the door.
His feet pounded against the pavement as he ran back across town. His mind flashed through worst-case scenarios as he ran. He knew that he shouldn’t have left him alone with Teddie. Especially when it looked like a stiff wind might knock him over. What was he thinking? He was the worst Partner ever.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket incessantly, but didn’t bother to check it. Someone yelled at him as he darted through the shopping district, and he gave a wave back, hoping that made up for whatever he did to make them mad this time.
He slammed open the door of the Dojima residence, panting and covered in sweat. He was lucky that their activities in the TV world had done wonders for his athleticism. If he had tried to run across town like that a year ago, he’d be dying on the side of the road with a stitch in his side after two minutes.
As soon as he spotted Teddie in the living room, pacing with an anxious look on his face, he stalked over. He jabbed a finger at his chest. “Why the hell,” he said between heavy breaths, “Are you making bear puns at a time like this?!”
Teddie stammered out some dumb excuse that Yosuke wasn’t actually interested in hearing. He was far more interested in the sight of his Partner laying on a futon by the kotatsu.
His expression was as deathly pale as it had been this morning, but now there was a thin layer of sweat over his brow. His face wasn’t relaxed like it should have been in sleep; there was the faintest shadow of a grimace twisting his features.
His stomach dropped at the sight. He looked awful. While he logically knew that the fog was gone, seeing his Partner weak and pale like this reminded him too much of seeing Nanako in the hospital.
Teddie was saved from whatever punishment Yosuke had yet to decide on by the arrival of the rest of the Investigation Team.
Rise smiled when she saw him. “Yosuke-senpai! Is this where you were going so fast?” Her nose wrinkled slightly as she took in his disheveled state. “What got into you?”
Yosuke tried to come up with something that sounded cooler than ‘I sprinted across town at the mere thought of Yu being sick,’ but he was a terrible liar. Instead, he went with one of his most tried and true strategies. Deflection.
“Me? What about you all? How did you all magically get here at the same time?”
“I was working at the shop. It’s right down the road, and you literally passed me. I tried to talk to you, but you didn’t stop,” Rise said.
Oh. Oops.
“Yukiko and I were already getting meat skewers!” Chie helpfully volunteered.
Yosuke threw an arm in the direction of Naoto and Kanji. “What about you two?”
Inexplicably, Kanji’s face turned a dark crimson. The hell?
Naoto stepped in. “I had business at the textile shop, and Kanji decided to come with me when we received Teddie’s message. Besides, we all responded that we were coming over. You were the only one who didn’t say anything,” she pointed out.
Yosuke opened his mouth and then promptly shut it again. He’d been trying this new thing where he puts down the proverbial shovel before digging himself even deeper.
“Whatever,” he huffed, crossing his arms. Rise gave him a knowing look, but mercifully didn’t push it.
If Naoto was the type of person to roll her eyes, Yosuke would certainly have been receiving one right now. But, while Yosuke could use her head as an armrest, she was still the bigger person metaphorically. Therefore, she turned to Teddie instead of calling him on his obvious bullshit.
“Can you tell us what happened, Teddie?”
“I don’t know!” Teddie wailed. “Sensei was fine, and then he just fell over! He didn’t really wake up and I didn’t know what to do, so I put him in bed since he seemed sleepy.”
“He was not fine,” Yosuke corrected. “He looked like shit this morning.”
Chie snorted. “Look who’s talking.”
“Not the time, Chie!” He thought back to how boiling his forehead had been. “He was also crazy hot.”
Chie giggled. “You make it so easy, Yosuke.”
Yosuke felt his own face grow hot as he realized what he had said. “Not like that!”
Kanji crouched down by the futon and placed an oversized hand on Yu’s forehead. He held it there for a moment and then stood up. “Yep, he’s burnin’ up alright.”
Naoto hummed thoughtfully. “It’s most likely a simple cold. He did spend an inordinate amount of time outside on New Year’s. It’s not surprising that it caught up with him when you consider how much stress he’s been under.”
The mood fell somber for a moment. They had all been witness to Yu’s declining mental health during the events of November and December. Honestly, thinking about it, Yosuke was surprised that this didn’t happen sooner.
Rise stepped in to keep them from lingering on the horrors of the past two months. “Well, if it’s just a cold, he just needs some rest and fluids! Easy peasy.”
“Agreed.” Naoto pulled out her phone and began clicking buttons furiously. “I have a contact at Inaba Memorial. I can get some stronger medicine for him later this afternoon.”
“Does this mean Sensei and I get to play doctor?” Teddie asked, hope gleaming in his eyes.
A spike of fear shot through Yosuke. “No!” he shouted instinctively.
The whole team turned to look at him with a look of confusion.
He tried to play it off. “I’ll take care of him. It’s no big deal.”
Teddie’s face fell. “What? What about my sleepover?”
Yosuke rubbed his temples. “Ted, look at him. He’s not exactly going to be down for a wild party.”
Yukiko tapped her finger with her chin. “Still, I think Teddie might be okay with him. He’s made a lot of progress on the whole…functioning thing.”
Teddie beamed and Yosuke groaned. Easy for her to say. She didn’t live with the little bastard.
“Listen, Teddie can do a lot of things well for a weird bear thing, but I do not trust him to play nurse with Yu. Knowing him, he’d try to get him to drink lighter fluid or something to warm him up.”
Chie smirked. “I’m sure that’s it. Nothing to do with you getting to play nurse for our dear leader.”
Yosuke sputtered indignantly. "I-It’s not like that! Besides, do your research, I like the nurses to take care of me, not the other way around.”
Yukiko cackled while Chie made exaggerated retching sounds.
Yosuke looked at Teddie meaningfully and gave a pleading look to Kanji. Kanji's face was unimpressed.
Well, time to get desperate. “Dude, I will get down on my knees and beg, for real. Take one look at that thing and tell me he’s going to be helpful.”
“Getting down on your knees for Kanji, huh?” Chie had taken a break from making vomiting noises to interject.
It took Yosuke a moment, but when he realized he was torn between throttling Chie or throwing himself into the Samegawa out of embarrassment.
“You know what I meant!” He shouted, gesturing furiously.
He turned to Kanji again. “Please dude, you’re my only hope. Yukiko said he’s not allowed to stay at the inn alone anymore.”
Yukiko shrugged unapologetically. “It’s true. Even if he wasn’t a nuisance to the guests, he got into the hot springs in his bear suit.” Her nose wrinkled at the memory.
“I did!” Teddie agreed cheerfully.
Yosuke made a ‘see’ motion with his hands. When Kanji didn’t say anything, he started to kneel down.
As soon as Kanji saw him start to get on the ground, he jumped back. “No no no no, I’ll take the damn bear,” he said frantically.
Kanji looked over at Teddie and ran a hand through his hair. “Do not even go near the yarn closet. Pull anything like ya did last time, and imma turn you into a bear-skin rug,” he warned, a dark expression on his face.
Yosuke had no idea what Kanji was referring to, and he planned on keeping it that way. Teddie gave a frightened squeal at the threat and hid behind Yosuke’s legs. “Please don’t let him hurt me, Yosuke!”
Yosuke pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t be a nightmare and he won’t.”
Kanji sighed. “Come on, Teddie. We can start working on that plush you were talking about.”
Teddie crept out from behind Yosuke’s leg, hesitant.
“Promise?”
“Fine, yes, whatever!”
Teddie pumped his fists. “Yay! I’ll be on my best bear-havior!”
“You could try doing that all the time, you know!” Yosuke griped.
As the rest of the Investigation Team filed out (with Naoto promising the return shortly with medicine and supplies), Yosuke managed to pull Kanji aside.
“Seriously dude, thank you,” he said.
He meant it. To say that he had been a dick to Kanji historically would be an understatement. Even though he had finally manned up and apologized a few months back, the fact that Kanji had always been a great friend even prior to the apology was proof that Kanji was a bigger man than him. This time, both metaphorically and physically.
Kanji brushed him off. “Nah, it’s no big deal. Just make sure you take care of our leader, y’hear?”
Yosuke nodded gravely. “I will.”