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Skateboard had woken up incredibly groggy from last night, his hair still cold and dripping. He could barely open his eyes, he was tired all over. His head hurt like hell. His nose was really clogged and each time he inhaled a loud sniffing noise came out. The current situation became increasingly more apparent to him: He was sick. It was a common legend that if you slept with your hair wet then you would be sure to get a cold the very next day. Unfortunately, that did happen to Skate, and he had to suffer the aftermath of walking in the rain.
As to how he somehow contracted a cold, yesterday his best friend Boombox came over for game night. There was an ongoing thunderstorm however, and their plans got cut short when the power went out. As it turned out, Boombox had been really scared of the rain, which led to the two of them having to walk to the bus stop together (not like Skateboard minded all that much.) Skate ended up getting soaked in water from trying to lend his umbrella to Boombox, completely forgetting that he needed it too. He went to meet up with skate fam and it just so happened that one of them had a cold. He suspected that that’s where he got the disease.
And that’s how he got here. Lying on his bed, motionless, and struggling to pick himself up.
Then he realized his phone was on the bedside table. He could totally go call Slingshot to go take care of him, but he figured the poor guy probably stayed up late trying to manage the cafe again. Calling Coil wasn’t the smartest idea either for reasons that were quite obvious. While he could go and call skate fam over, he didn’t really want a bunch of his younger ‘siblings’ worrying too much about their big brother.
That meant the only person he could really call was Boombox.
There was one problem though.
He had a big, fat crush on him.
There was no denying all that, unfortunately. He’s had a crush on Boombox ever since they were little. The idea of the person he’s currently madly in love with taking care of him when he’s all sick and miserable like this.. SFOTHs, just the thought of it drove him crazy.
The predicament as of the moment was that he could either suffer in bed all day feeling all sad and gloomy and not doing anything at all, or call Boombox over and try to not to make a mess of himself in front of him. He was seriously contemplating the former, not wanting to talk to his friend again after all that happened yesterday (speaking of which, he hoped Boombox didn’t notice the bright red flushing on his cheeks during the majority of it.)
Unfortunately, he knew that if he didn’t at least try to take care of himself then Slingshot and Boombox would absolutely flame him. Those two were always going off about how he should ‘stop caring about his loved ones more than himself’ and all that nonsense, or so he called it.
He couldn’t believe he was doing this, but he picked up his phone and called Boombox.
Boombox immediately picked up, as per usual. Skateboard couldn’t help but love that about him.
“Ack- uh- Yo, Skate?” Boombox greeted enthusiastically. He looked like he had just woken up.
“Sup- hurk-!” Skateboard said before breaking out into a coughing fit. “Agh.. fuuckkk dude… can you like- cough-” He continued until finally giving up on trying to make sense of his words.
“Oh! Wait, gimme a sec, I’m going there right now!” Boombox exclaimed, clumsily getting off from his bed and rushing to the door.
“You can’t even- achoo! c-can’t even open the door.”
“Right, shoot! How am I supposed to-”
“Coil has spare keys, I think.”
“Alright. I’ll be there soon! Stay put!!” Boombox chirped before quickly hanging up the call.
It was only a matter of time until Skate heard the door unlock, followed by a few Boombox-sounding footsteps coming towards his bedroom.
“Skate? You in there?” Boombox asked as he knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Skate answered before breaking out into a coughing fit.
The door creaked open, with a short, chubby figure standing behind it. Boombox was still in his pajamas, he wasn’t wearing his visor, and it was obvious that he was rushing. He had a decently huge backpack with SFOTH knows what was in it.
“Yo! You good man?” Boombox greeted panickedly.
Skateboard was half-asleep, trying his best to keep his eyelids open. His nose was running and his face was extremely red. He tried to say something, but got abruptly cut off by even more coughing.
“Oh dear, you look worse in person than on call.”
“Everything hurts, Boom,” Skate said, voice slurring from how tired he was.
“I got some stuff that I think’ll help you feel better,” he said as he sat his backpack on the floor. He grabbed a.. pack of instant chicken noodle soup? It seemed pretty cheap, so Skateboard assumed he bought it on the way.
“Like hell you think that’s gonna work,” Skate bantered.
“Hey, it’s the best I could get!” Boombox snapped back. “I didn’t have anything better, sorry.”
“Nah, it’s cool. Just- cough- messin with ya,” the other chuckled, with his friend having a slightly annoyed look on his face.
“I’ll go and cook this in the kitchen real quick, you stay here, alright?”
“I don’t think I can even- cough-” Skateboard said feverishly before yet again being cut off by his throat aching.
Boombox scurried off with the cheap pack of noodles into the kitchen, and Skateboard continued to lay there on his bed. He cupped his face into his hands in disbelief. No way. He actually called Boombox over, and now the guy’s actually gonna take care of him. Shiittttt… he thought; he knew damn well if Boombox kept on doing this he was actually going to go poof and turn into glitter. He was far too deep into it now, though, and there was definitely no way he could go back.
After a good agonizing while of Skateboard regretting every decision he made up until this point, Boombox eventually returned with a big hot bowl of soup. It was so hot that the guy had to use a thick stack of paper towels as a potholder. It reeked of cheap herbs and spices.
“Be careful, it’s newly cooked,” Boombox said as he put the bowl down on the bedside table. “It’s ironic how hot soup can cure hot people, don’tcha think? As in, uh, temperature, haha, get it?” Skateboard thought he meant something else when he said that, but he was most definitely delusional from the cold.
Skateboard eventually sat up, using Boombox’s shoulder to lift himself. Getting up so fast almost made him fall down again from how much his head hurt. Boombox took a spoonful of the soup and gently blew on it. “Say ‘ah’,” he said as he held the spoon to Skate’s mouth.
Ok, cool- He’s gonna spoonfeed me?? Skate thought, eyes widening as he looked at the spoon. His mouth formed into a squiggly line, and his face only got redder. He did, ultimately, follow Boombox’s request, and opened his mouth. He took the spoon in and the moment the hot metal hit his tongue-
“Pfffttt- Hothothothothot-”
“Shoot, sorry!”
Boombox grabbed another tablespoon of soup, being careful to blow on it until it was at a reasonable temperature. He put it up to Skate’s mouth again, this time with the soup not as hot, and the other slowly sipped it from the spoon.
The soup definitely didn’t taste the best (it was quite cheap after all), but it didn’t taste as bad as Skateboard initially expected. The warm broth felt nice as it went down his throat, and it certainly did lighten his mood, albeit only a little bit.
“So is the soup good?” Boombox asked.
“Dude, this stuff tastes ass,” Skate giggled before being greeted with a gentle yet slightly painful flick on his forehead. The other inphernal let out a soft laugh after that.
“At least I managed to get something for you to eat, otherwise I don’t think you would’ve been able to do anything the entire day,” Boombox said.
“True, true,” Skate replied, “I guess I’ll manage.”
Boombox continued feeding Skateboard the weirdly-flavored chicken noodle soup, each scoop pooling up as a warm feeling inside his stomach. And there was another thing contributing to this warmth, and that was the intimacy of this all. Boombox got to see him in such a vulnerable state, yet he still trusted him with all his heart. Not because he was blinded by love, or anything like that. He’s known Boombox even before they landed in Craterdust together, and they both knew each other inside out. He knew Boombox would never use this chance of him being so exposed, so defenseless, as a way to hurt him. Even when the chance was laying right in front of him. Even when most other inphernals would’ve taken it, given their violent nature. And that’s one of the things he loved about him. All this warmth was making him sweat, even.
After he finished the bowl of soup, Boombox grabbed a paper towel from his bag and wiped Skateboard’s soup-covered mouth with it. He couldn’t imagine how much he was blushing at that moment (and thankfully Boombox was incredibly blind to this.) Boombox then reached down into his backpack for something, and when he pulled his hand out he was holding an ice pack.
“Can you lay down real quick?” Boombox asked politely, to which Skateboard soon followed. He then placed the ice pack on his forehead as the other softly closed his eyes. It was a tranquil scene as he watched Skate fall asleep, and admittedly his eyelids felt heavy too. He decided to lean against the side of the bed, resting himself on the floor. He fell asleep shortly after that.
When Skateboard woke up, he felt a bit better. The aching in his throat had definitely subsided, and he wasn’t that warm anymore. He noticed, however, that Boombox wasn’t there, at least, not in his room. His bag was still on the floor, though, so he assumed that maybe he left his stuff. He slowly got up from his bed and unsteadily walked out the door.
What he didn’t expect was that Boombox was still in his apartment, busy preparing something. Laid out on the table were a plate of sandwiches, an assortment of different ingredients for said sandwiches, and a few cold juice boxes.
“Oh, you’re here! Just in time,” Boombox greeted. Skateboard couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Dude? What’s with all this?” Skateboard asked in confusion.
“Oh yeah, I just wanted to make something nice for you when you wake up. I hope you like it,” Boombox answered.
“No, I mean, why are you still here?”
“I wanted to help you out, is all. I figured that since you were sick, I’d make some sandwiches for you,” Boombox said. “Come here, sit down!”
Skateboard walked over to the couch and followed Boombox’s request. He sat down, took a sandwich, and bit a small piece off of it. Its contents were most certainly nutritious, and it seemed Boombox put a lot of care into these sandwiches. They were yummy in Skateboard’s opinion, and he continued to eat the sandwich he was holding.
“This stuff is good, man,” Skate said.
“Great! I’m glad you liked it,” Boombox replied enthusiastically. “I couldn’t really make much with the stuff in your fridge, so I made what I was able to.”
Skateboard admired Boombox’s hard work, but he did have something to say to him. “Look, Boom, this is like, really nice and all, but I gotta ask,” he said, “why are you doing all this?”
Boombox paused for a moment. “I thought I already answered that, didn’t I?”
“You did, but there’s gotta be some other reason to it. Besides, isn't there anything more important for you to do? Like making music or something?”
“I guess, but…” Boombox hesitated.
“But what?”
“I just…wanted to repay you for what you did yesterday.”
Huh. So that’s what was going on. It all made sense now.
Skateboard let out a soft chuckle. “Really, dude? That’s what this all was?”
“Hey,” Boombox answered rather annoyedly. “What you did for me back there.. I don’t think I can thank you enough,” he said, turning his head away.
“Well you don’t have to,” Skate replied. “You needed help, so I helped you.”
“You’re being too kind, man. I gotta return it, you know?” Boombox retaliated.
Skateboard turned to look at him. “You already do enough by just being my friend,” he smiled.
“...Gee, I..” Boombox wavered. “...Thank you.”
“No problem, dude.”