"You really should do something about that hair of yours. Eventually, you're going to get called in by the principal."
"Ah, But I already have!" Ayame replied, waving his hands grandiosely. "Once my presence was requested in his humble study, I sat down to spin him a tale of ancient royalty and divine traditions - one of my better ones, I must admit. I began by telling him that we Sohmas are of a noble royalty, dignified and ancient as the mountains themselves! And as I..."
His animated chattering spilled out into the lunchroom, enthralling those around him. Save for Hatori, who shook his head mutely before coughing into his elbow. The school was slipping into cold season and he, like multiple other students, was wearing a mask to avoid spreading germs.
"Do my antics make you sick, Hari? Or so you have been known to tell me! This story's even clean, you know, and -"
The other boy adjusted his mask and did not reply.
After a moment's pause, Ayame finished out his story, albeit with lessened volume and enthusiasm. The bell rang shortly after, and the trio scurried off to class.
Mr. Yamada reminded the students of their upcoming project - "You are second-years now; you should know the drill. No late projects will be accepted."
Shigure and Ayame sat still through his class, which was a bit unusual for a teacher they disliked so much. Aside from the occasional sneeze from Hatori, they waited out the rest of the day impatiently but quietly.
"We should probably work on Yamada's project this afternoon," Shigure suggested as they packed up to leave.
"True, true. Might I offer my humble dwelling?" Ayame replied.
"Oh, Aya, I'd let you take me home any day."
Hatori still hadn't spoken. It wasn't like he was very talkative normally, but this was a different kind of quiet entirely. A worrisome kind.
Shigure's father, whose turn it was to pick them up, dropped the trio off at Ayame's house, where they immediately spread out their things and began studiously not working.
"I can't believe the principal let you go like that," said Shigure.
"Well, it was definitely one of my better performances," Ayame replied with his characteristic amount of humility. Meaning none at all, of course.
Shigure might have said something to that had he not been interrupted by a paroxsym of coughing from Hatori. It took him a long time to regain his breath.
Ayame announced, "I shall have to regale you with my escapades at a later date, for it seems our friend is infirm!"
Hatori tried to wave off the either boy, who flitted around him like a silver butterfly, trying to check his temperature, but was unable to hold out for long.
"Ooh. Haa-san, you're warm." Then, almost briskly to Shigure, "Do you know where the thermometer is?"
The dog nodded and scurried off to fetch it. He did know, because of Yuki, mostly. The Mabudachi trio had very little contact with him themselves (Ayame was never sure how to act around him), but the brothers' parents could sometimes be seen fussing over the boy. Less as one would with concern for a family member, but more as though polishing a trophy. Akito's trophy...
Shigure removed the thermometer and its little case from the cabinet and trotted downstairs to his friends. Hatori was no longer wearing the mask.
He did look, Shigure admitted to himself, worn out. There were dark spots forming under his eyes and the parts of his face that weren't flushed were ghastly pale.
"Thirty-nine point four. How were you still up and walking around?" Shigure asked. He didn't say what else he was thinking - that the zodiac dragon must have been feeling pretty badly to even permit people to fuss over him like this.
"You should rest," added the snake, somewhat subdued now. "There's a couch just in the other room."
Nerves. The rest of the trio had been to the house plenty often to know where the couch was. Not only that, but where the bathroom was in the dark and where the brothers' parents stored the good snacks - and the cigarettes.
Hatori was shakily transferred to the couch and covered with a nearby blanket.
Just outside the door, Ayame pulled Shigure aside. "I'm surprised he's held out this long... He's gonna transform."
"Can we move him to the bathtub?"
"I'm a writer, not a weightlifter, Aaya." Shigure added, a moment later, "Why don't you go see if you can find something to fill with water? I'll stay with him this time."
Aaya nodded, flouncing out with less than his usual vigor.
Already, the zodiac dragon's black hair was sweat-slicked. He looked to be worsening fast. Intermittent coughs shook his whole body. He wiped his dripping nose on a tissue and curled up with his back to Shigure.
It was then that Ayame came rushing in, silver hair whirling, clutching a teakettle.
"We are... putting our sick friend into a kettle?"
"We're putting our sick friend into a kettle."
They locked eyes for a moment before erupting into desperate, gasping laughter. For a fleeting while, nothing in the world was funnier than a seahorse in a teakettle.
A coughing fit from the couch sobered them both. Ayame fussed over Hatori like an oddly-hued hen.
Once their friend had fallen into fitful sleep, the two returned to the kitchen, working in silence. Ayame's mother returned home. She took no notice of them until the phone rang.
The brothers' mom stalked into the room. "It's Akito."
The snake and the dog looked at each other a moment. The latter spoke first.
"It's a wonder he hasn't transformed already."
"I'm not sure if he's even well enough to take to his own house."
"We can't take him anywhere like this."
"But you know we can't defy Akito's will."
"Never defy, but perhaps change..." And Shigure held out his hand for the phone.
"Akito? This is Shigure... He's become very ill, Akki, and may not be of much use to you right now...Of course I do... I have always loved you and so has he. You know that. Now just try to go back to sleep for me, okay?"
Click.
"She must really be sick this time. Hardly any argument at all," Ayame observed, nervously coiling strands of silver hair around one finger.
"She'll come out of it alright. It's Hatori we've got to worry about now."
As he said that, they heard a cry from the other room.
"Their memories. I stole... stole their memories." A shudder. The blanket laid over him rippled down onto the floor. Ayame gathered it up and began spreading it back over Hatori.
"This is only going to get worse, you know."
The snake turned to his friend, startled and nearly dropping the blanket.
"Not him. Not that: Akito. It's only going to get worse. You've seen how she clings to Hatori now. Just wait until he's through med school. She'll never let him go."
Poof.
Ayame picked up the seahorse and slipped him into the teakettle. There was no laughter, not even a desperate kind, now.
"Just be careful when he looks about to change back," advised Shigure, unnecessarily.
Or perhaps not, as Ayame himself turned to cough into his arm.