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The coldest and coziest season of the year has arrived: It's winter.
It had been a while since Kei got a fever, he only caught a cold every once in a while. He wasn't one for getting sick during the holidays, but here he was. On top of that he fell sick at his best friend's place, at the Yamaguchi residence and he felt more than awful. Tadashi had insisted to let him rest at his place since the Tsukishimas decided to eat out, and Kei had the most urgent feeling not to participate there if he wanted to avoid the same old embarrassing stories his family told every year around Christmas.
He certainly aimed to hang out with Tadashi at his place, binge watching documentaries and just enjoying the holidays.
“Tsukki? Already up?” He heard the familiar voice of the freckled boy ask.
Still half dozing in sleep, he hummed a “... yeah.” He couldn't see much without his glasses on and as the almost blind boy reached out to look for them at the desk, Tadashi already pushed them softly up his nose. They immediately fogged up.
Kei sighed.
“How are you feeling?” - “I'm okay, 'Dashi, still a bit hot”, he murmured. Even with his glasses on everything still looked a bit blurry. He had napped for the afternoon and still felt really hot after. His breathing was slow and steady, but he really needed to eat something even if he didn't feel like it. Tadashi made rice porridge for the sick boy and prepared a bucket of cold water beneath the bed to keep the air humid and to be able to get the fast drying warm towel on his forehead cooling again.
He was really worried about his friend and took Kei's temperature again to see how bad it really was. The thermometer displayed 39,1°. Shit. The fever most likely wasn't going to go down soon. The last time was only a couple hours ago and then it were only 38, 2°. They needed to go visit the hospital or at least contact Kei's family. But Kei refused to let them know, not wanting to ruin their evening or worry Akiteru, and he especially didn't want to worry his mom. She had a rough time at her work place towards the end of the year and was finally able to rest for a bit. He didn't want to ruin that.
But still they needed some medicine to get his fever down, and Tadashi's mom was still at work till the evening. He needed to go buy some, but on the other hand he didn't want to let his friend alone in this state. Who knows what could happen in the meantime. What if Kei tried to stand up to go to the bathroom and collapsed half way?
The blond boy just sat there in Tadashi's bed and was barely able to keep the spoon straight and lost a big spoonful half way, his porridge falling back to the bowl. Tadashi felt a bit helpless.
“Gimme that spoon, Kei. I can't watch you eat like that. I'll feed you now,” the black-headed boy sighed with an exasperated tone in his voice. Kei did as he was told. In times like these, he accepted things unquestioningly fast. Tadashi found that quite cute about him but he wouldn't ever say it out loud in Kei's presence.
“Tsukki, say 'aaaahhhh',” Tadashi said to his friend who did as requested while Tadashi forwarded the spoon with the rice porridge, which was already getting cold. Kei's voice sounded a bit deeper than usual, drowsy. Tadashi smiled; somehow he loved to care for his sick friend since he wasn't often in this sleepy state.
The freckle-faced boy smiled at his beloved boyfriend after he finished and stood up to brew some camomile tea as the weaker tugged on the big cozy ochre toned pullover of the leaving boy.
“Don't leave me”, he entreated.
An astonished look spread on Tadashi's face.
“I won't,” he promised reassuringly.
“I was just going to brew some tea for you. Do you need anything else?”
“Can you bring me some water?”
“As you wish,” Tadashi turned right as Kei added: “And another blanket?”
“Of course, Kei.”
Another pleading look on the blond's face. “And I'd need fresh clothes” Kei looked to the drawers. As often as the two of them stayed the night at each other's places, Tadashi still had a few sweaters spared for his half freezing, half sweating mess of a boyfriend. He nodded with a hum.
“Ahhh, and don't tell Akiteru,” he began, “...please.”
Tadashi nodded again affirmatively as he left the room. He wasn't pleased not to inform at least Akiteru, but he couldn't really help it.
Although Kei wasn't really alert enough he listened to every step Tadashi took through the house. He just wanted to be sure Tadashi didn't leave him without a notice. His whole body shuddered again and he snuggled up into his pillow fort and his blankets. He coughed. His lungs seemed to be bursting, his throat was sore and he felt really lame. He was letting Tadashi nurse him like a mom.
Suddenly he had the need to pull on his headphones so he crawled over to his dark indigo bag to reach for them. While he did that, he pulled all the blankets and a few pillows with him down to the floor and bumped with a muffled sound to the ground. Within a few minutes, the brunet came back with a can of freshly brewed camomile tea and a few fleece blankets to see Kei laying an on the ground with blankets all around the floor, putting on his headphones.
“Tsukki, you know you should rest,” Tadashi scolded.
“But I didn't even turn on any music...”, Kei pouted.
“Yet. You didn't yet but you were about to, right?”, Tadashi completed his sentence for him.
With another sigh the nursing one confiscated the headphones and put them aside into a drawer he could lock up.
Carefully he pulled the confused Kei up to sit right back in his bed and continued to gather up the cushions and coverlets and cover the invalid up to the tip of his nose.
Soft murmurs came from the almost completely hidden boy as Tadashi kindly caressed Kei's cheek with a soft touch of his right hand. He removed the towel and gently planted a kiss on his still heated temple.
“Stay with me until I've fallen asleep,” Kei muttered almost half asleep already. Tadashi couldn't help but smile and gave him an affirmative hum. It didn't take long for Tadashi to notice the steady up and down of Kei's chest, a stable breathing.
Eventually Tadashi decided to go out to buy some antifebrile medicine and get some groceries at the next store. The second he stepped out of the door, he discovered the snowflakes falling slowly, steady like the cherry blossoms in spring or the floating leaves in fall. White, steaming breaths left to the grayish, cloudy sky above as he hurried from the closest drug store to the super market. It didn't seem like the snow was stopping any time soon. Tadashi left new footsteps in the newly fallen snow. He thought about how Kei would usually accompany him when grocery shopping was due, and how Tadashi often slipped up along the icy streets, a thought he had just before he felt his balance falter again. But he managed to catch it through an unstable stumble.
He tried to focus on getting home presently. A slice of strawberry short cake, pudding, a few carrots and celery and a bunch of medicine in his bags, he clomped through the thicker falling snow as early as the first streetlights were turned on.
In front of his house he wiped his snow-covered boots only to come to the decision that he should let them dry out on the doormat rather than staining the hardwood floor. Tadashi slipped off his dark , solid winter boots and tripped over to the kitchen to realize just now that his mother had pinned a note on the fridge saying: I will most certainly stay at Miyamoto's tonight since my colleagues at work decided to go out drinking. Don't wait for me and don't forget the grocery shopping!
Tadashi was happy his mother was having fun, so he didn't mind. He opened the refrigerator to stow the vegetables, and a plush dragon took him by surprise.
How did the dragon get to the refrigerator?
Nearly unfazed the bemused freckled boy, still a bit red on his nose, already felt the warmth of the house crawling into his veins as he snuck up to his room to see if the blond had already awakened. As he slid up the door, it was dark in the room as almost a faintly breathed “...'Dashi?” came from the place where his bed was placed.
“Sorry, Tsukki. Didn't mean to wake you up,” Tadashi whispered as he sat beneath him on the bed. But Kei just replied with a disapproving hum.
“I couldn't sleep much more now anyways.”
After this response, Tadashi chose to turn on the pleasant light of his nightstand.
“Are you hungry?”
Kei nodded.
“Did you drink the tea?”
A second nod.
“Can I ask you something?”, Tadashi started. Another nod. Tadashi sensed Kei had to be a bit dizzy after all that sleeping and the room had to be aired soon.
“Why is there a dragon in my refrigerator?”, he asked straight forwardly.
“It was hot”, was all Tadashi got in a bluntly given reply.
He knew it was going to be a long night.