A/N: Why should Ryan get to have all the fun? I've recently become obsessed with the show: Kyle XY. (For those of you who found this fic through my others and have no idea who/what a Kyle XY is- check it on one hulu(.)com because it's great.) The guy who plays Kyle is like a total hottie. Plus clueless!Kyle & Kyle/Nicole bonding is just too damn cute, (seriously it's could give Ryan/Kirsten bonding a run for its money in cuteness-factor)
This is set sometime early in the first season
"Hey Ky-HACHOO!" Kyle stared aghast at Declan as Declan sneezed loudly upon entering the Trager home.
"That is a strange greeting." Kyle said.
"Yeah," Declan rubbed his nose and sniffed, "Sorry, I have a cold."
"You have a cold? But it's not very cold outside."
"Bless you Declan," Laurie said coming into the foyer.
"Thanks." Declan tried to smile at her.
"And he didn't say that it was cold outside, he said he has a cold. It's an illness."
"Are you ill?" Kyle looked at Declan with a concerned expression on his face.
"It's really minor," Declan said, "I'll be fine in a few days. ACHOO!" He sneezed again.
"Bless you!" Laurie said.
"Why do you keep saying bless you?" Kyle asked Laurie.
"It's just the polite thing to say when someone sneezes." Laurie shrugged her shoulders.
"Are you ready to get to studying?" Declan asked.
"Only if you promise to not sneeze on me." Laurie smiled.
"Right, I'll try." Kyle's eyes followed them as they walked up to Laurie's room and then he went to find Nicole.
"Nicole, why do you humans get ill?"
"Oh was that Declan I heard sneezing out in the hallway?" Kyle nodded.
"Well Kyle, there are things called viruses and they are these tiny microscopic organisms that well, I guess they want to do what any organism wants to do which is breed and make more of themselves. Unfortunatly sometimes their breeding grounds of choice are human beings, and when they get inside of us they make us sick. Luckily human beings have white blood cells which can fight off these viruses."
"Oh." Kyle said, he retreated to his room and ran a quick internet search. Viruses. White blood cells. Vaccines. Immunities.
Sometimes I forgot just how very fragile human beings are, they are highly susecptible to things like these viruses. I learned that other things causes illnesses too, like bacteria. I wondered how suseptible I was to these things. The articles said that after humans got sick their bodies learned to recognize the virus and the next time, if they encountered the same virus they wouldn't get sick. I also learned about transmission- being in close to contact with someone who was sick could get you sick, and that viruses could travel through the air and through direct contact. Laurie and Declan were in close proximity! She could get sick!
"Laurie!" Laurie and Declan both jumped when Kyle burst into the room.
Geez Kyle- you almost gave me a heart attack!" Laurie said.
"Don't kiss Declan!" Kyle exclaimed.
"I wasn't going to... He's sick."
"Yes, but even being in close proximity can allow for transmission of the virus, and you may not have an immunity to it."
"Kyle, it's just a cold. Calm down." Laurie said, "Don't worry, I'll be fine." Kyle's brow furrowed in concern, the way it did whenever he was trying to reconcile human behavior with factual information.
"But it may not be just a cold, it could also be a flu. And cold's can easily lead to complications like bronchitis or pnemonia."
"Wow Laurie, your own personal WebMD." He coughed and covered his mouth with his hand. "Kyle might be right, maybe I should go. I don't want to get you sick."
"You should get lots of rest, and drink plenty of fluids." Kyle offered helpfully.
"Thanks Kyle," Declan said, as he got up off the floor, groaning slightly against his sore muscles.
*******************************
"Well that's just great," Laurie snapped her phone shut with annoyance the next day at school. "Declan's home sick. He says he started to feel way worse after he got home last night, and now he has a fever of 101. I swear if he gave this stupid cold to me..." She turned and smiled at Kyle, "I guess I should thank you for sending him away last night."
"The normal human body temperature is 98.6 degrees. It's good he stayed home, he needs lots of rest. And it's No problem Laurie," Kyle said. "I feel like it's my job to keep you and your family safe."
"And you do a good job of it, don't you oh cute-cluess-one." Hillary pinched his cheek. Kyle knew it was a gesture of affection, but also that such gestures were usually between a much more ederly person and younger one. He wondered why Hillary did it to him when they were approximately the same age.
He was going to ask her, but was interrupted when air suddenly pushed its way out his nose and mouth. "HAHACHOO!" He managed to cover his nose and mouth, but looked up startled and stunned.
"Bless you! Wow Kyle, you don't ever do anything half-way do you?" Laurie started to tease him, but stopped when she saw how concerned he looked.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Don't worry Kyle, you just sneezed, it's not that big a deal."
"Oh..." But he still looked worried.
Sneezing was a rather unpleasant sensation. Completely uncontrollable and convulsive, and worst of all, you were forced to shut your eyes. For a moment your body was given over completely to the involuntary reflex. The I remembered that Declan sneezed. Laurie wasn't sick, but her blood cells had anti-bodies. I had probably never been sick before, so my body wouldn't, but I am also stronger than most humans, perhaps my body will react differently and I will not be so affected by the illness.
That day after school Kyle had planned to train with Voss, so even though he had sneezed exactly eight more times he went over there after school.
Today, Voss had taken a wire and strung it across the room, about two feet off the ground. "Your goal Kyle," He explained, "Is to walk across that wire."
"That's easy." Kyle smiled.
"While carrying this." He gestured to his favorite training tool- the long iron bar from which he liked to hang cinderblocks. Today as he placed the bar over Kyle's shoulders and added the cinderblocks he heard Kyle grunt slightly. He glanced at him, but nothing else seemed out of place, so after he placed three blocks on each side, he gestured to the wire.
Kyle mounted onto, and then an all-too-familiar itch started in his nose. He decided to ignore it, block it out as he started down the wire. His legs trembled slightly and he focused all his strength and energy on keeping himself carefully balanced. It felt harder than usual today. His strength felt oddly drained, and the tickle in the back of his throat and nose were getting worse.
Suddenly, he couldn't hold it back any long and he sneezed, and fell off the wire. The cinder blocks and pole tumbled to the ground with him. Some of them fell against him, some of them he landed on he fell. He lay on the ground for a moment in a crumpled pile.
"Hey... Hey. Don't move." Foss was by his side, a gentle hand on his back, as Kyle pushed himself upright. "Are you alright?" Even Foss could see that the fall had been bad and Kyle could have been seriously injured.
"I-I'm..." He sneezed again, and put his hands to his sore ribs that had collided with one of the cinder blocks.
"Are you hurt?"
"I can't tell..." Kyle said, and then he coughed.
"You're sick." Kyle wasn't sure if it was a statement or an accusation. "Dammit Kyle, you should have told me you were sick."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize."
"Alright..." Foss sighed, "Let's get you home."
"But practice..." Kyle protested.
"Post-poned, your body needs rest right now." He helped Kyle to his feet.
"You shouldn't be so close to me, I could get you sick."
"Let me worry about that," Foss said.
******************************
"Kids, dinner's ready!" Nicole yelled, she looked up when only two kids appeared.
"Where's Kyle?"
"Dunno..." Josh said, reaching for a freshly- baked dinner roll.
"Josh, you wait with the rest of us!" Nicole said, slapping his hand away. "You and Laurie, go set the table." While they were occupied, Nicole went to Kyle's room and knocked softly on the door, "Kyle?" There was no response, so she went inside. She was surprised to see him nestled inside his bathtub. "Kyle?" She shook his shoulder gently, "Dinner's ready."
Slowly Kyle's light blue eyes opened, "Okay, I'll be right there." He sat up and coughed slightly.
"Kyle are you okay?"
"I don't know." He answered honestly, "I beleive I may have ACHOO- caught Declan's cold."
"Bless you- It looks like you have." Laurie agreed, as Kyle sniffed. "How are you feeling?"
"I don't know... My chest feels tight, and I feel as though I am not breathing right, and my head is hurting me slightly."
"Sounds like a cold."
"Yes, the internet said I should get plenty of rest, so I took a nap."
"That was good thinking Kyle," Nicole agreed, "Do you feel up to having dinner with rest of us?"
"Yes, I would like that very much." Kyle smiled.
"Okay, I'll give you some Tylenol too, that should make you feel a little bit better."
I tried hard to enjoy dinner with Tragers, but it was hard. My head felt strangly heavy, and I was very tired, and I wasn't very hungry. I kept coughing and sneezing too, and was anxious that I might get the other members of the Trager family sick. It was strange, I was not used to feeling this weak... Or cold.
Dinner was almost over when Nicole got up and walked over to Kyle's seat. He was hunched over, and hadn't said very much throughout the meal. "Kyle?" She reached out and tenatively rubbed his arm, "Are you alright?"
"I... I don't feel quite like myself." Kyle said.
"Come on, let's get you back into bed.... err, your tub."
A/N: So I guess if people read this I'll continue otherwise, I'll call it a one-shot and back to the OC I shall go!