Summer Cold
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Character(s): Kuroko Tetsuya, Ogiwara Shigehiro
Notes: Wrote this to distract myself from the painful chapter 216. Childhood OgiKuro stories warm my heart ( ´ ▽ ` )
Disclaimer: Kuroko no Basuke belongs to Fujimaki Tadatoshi.
That morning, Ogiwara woke to the feeling of heavy muscles, headache, dry mouth, and burning eyes. However, his excitement to see Kuroko later made him ignore all of these. Thoughts of what they would be doing for summer filled his mind until his face met the hard cold surface. His mother came rushing in to check the commotion and found him lying on the floor. An excuse came up that he just slipped, but his mother simply showed him the thermometer.
40 degrees Celsius.
On the first day of summer, he managed to get sick.
So he was stuck in bed for the next three days but there was no sign of his fever going down. His mind couldn't rest as he kept wondering about Kuroko. Was he upset that their plans were postponed? Was he playing at the street courts by himself?
The guilt inside him grew. If only he had taken care of himself more, then they would have been having fun right now. At this rate, he might end up getting sick for the rest of summer. With a dejected sigh, he shifted to get more comfortable but stopped. Sitting next to his bed was a short man—or was it a boy?—wearing a face mask; a scarf wrapped around his neck; a winter cap on his head; gloves covered his hands; and a coat. Blue eyes stared at him and he could only blink back.
At first, the question, "Who are you?" crossed his mind. Instead, he asked, "What you're wearing… Don't you feel hot in it?"
"Ah, my grandmother made me wear this so I can't catch your cold," the short man said in a muffled voice.
"Really?" Ogiwara continued to stare, almost in wonder. "Are you a magician?"
It took a moment for the other to respond. "E-Eh?"
Ogiwara immediately sat upright—a bad move since his world spun around him. The short man immediately stood, ready to catch him in case he would fall. He used that opportunity to grab onto those gloved hands, his eyes sparkling as if he had caught a tooth fairy on the act. "Then can you use your magic to make me better?"
"B-But I'm…"
"I don't want to wait another day!" Ogiwara declared, his expression determined. "My friend and I… We already made plans for this summer and I don't want to waste another day. We promised we would have fun. I don't"—sadness replaced the earlier determination, his eyes downcast—"I don't want to keep my friend waiting."
Silence fell over them.
"Actually, I…" the short man spoke up before giving himself another moment to think, "I'm not a magician but I came here to give a message from your friend."
Ogiwara snapped back up, his mouth hanging open. "A message from Kuroko?"
The messenger nodded. "He said, 'I'm sad that we can't start our summer but I'm more worried about Ogiwara-kun's health. You should focus more on recovering. We still have time. I will wait for you so don't worry.' That's his message."
"He wasn't upset?"
A shake of the head. "No."
For the first time in days, Ogiwara felt his worries had been washed away and flashed a toothy grin at the short man. "Thank you."
He then fell back on the bed. "All right! I better recover fast. Once I do, Kuroko and I have a lot of things to do. We will play basketball until we collapse, eat Chu Chu popsicles until we can't anymore, and… and…" A snore.
The short man fixed the blanket to cover the sick boy properly. "Get well soon, Ogiwara-kun."
