Name of Story: Delirium
Written By: Iced Hearts
Pairing(s) & Character(s): TezukaxOC
Genre & Rating: Romance/Mild Humour. Rated T just in case.
Full Summary: When Tezuka was asked by his neighbour to look after her ill daughter one night, he had not expected the girl to suddenly come up with a raging high-fever. He had not expected his first kiss to be taken that same night, either.
Official Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis © Konomi Takeshi; Harada Kimiko © Iced Hearts.
Author's Notes: This was written last year when I was running a high fever. I've decided to post it for you all to read. Yes, I'm quite aware of the many stories I have that are incomplete. I'm working on them.
By the way, I'm not exactly familiar with the terms used for Japanese traditional-styled homes, so if you happen to be knowledgeable in that area, do correct mistakes if there are any in your reviews.
Chapter 1 – Yudan Sezu Ni Ikou
Bzzz... Bzzz... Bzzz...
Tezuka Kunimitsu glanced up from his World History homework and his gaze landed on his hand-phone. The sea-foam green contraption had been set on silent, and was now vibrating violently against his desk, sounding very much like an angry bee.
Who could be calling me at this hour? He eyed the wall clock with something akin to wonder. His teammates knew better than to call their buchou at 8 o'clock at night, unless it was something urgent, lest they risk earning laps from him.
Deciding not to delay the call any further, he reached over and picked up the hand-phone. "Hello?"
"Ahh, Kunimitsu-kun!" A familiar feminine voice chirped. "Thank goodness you answered!"
"Was there anything you needed, Harada-san?" Tezuka questioned the lady politely.
"Err, yes, I actually do need a favour from you, Kunimitsu-kun... I'm really sorry for troubling you, but..." There was some static from the other end of the line, before the voice continued, "...could you go over to my house and look after dear little Kimiko for me? She's really ill, and I'm still stuck at work, so... please?"
The ever-stoic boy blinked slowly as he processed all that information in his brain at top-speed. "Harada-san... you want me to look after your sick daughter...?"
"Yes, yes, indeed!" Harada Keiko sounded a little too carefree for someone whose daughter was ill. "I don't mean to be a bother, but since we're all neighbours, and you're also her classmate, I thought maybe you could help... I mean, who knows what trouble that girl could get into when she's sick and at home alone, right?"
Tezuka barely registered what he was going to say when he responded, "It's fine, Harada-san. I'll be over there right away."
"Really? Oh, thank you, Kunimitsu-kun, thank you!" The lady cried out, relief lacing her tone.
"It's fine." He adjusted his spectacles. "What time will you be coming back?"
"I'm not so sure. The tea-shop is awfully crowded today..." She replied breezily. "I'll let you know again later, alright? Goodbye, Tezuka-kun!"
"Goodbye, Harada-san." Less than a micro-second later, Harada Keiko hung up.
Tezuka stared emotionlessly at his hand-phone for a few moments, before it quickly registered in his head that his presence was required at the Harada Residence next door.
He sighed forlornly as he stuffed the green contraption into his jeans pocket and swiftly packed a few necessities into a black bag. Looks like my homework has to wait for now... He set off, not forgetting to lock the front door behind him.
Ding-dong...
Tezuka stood at the doorstep, his black bag slung over his shoulder as he silently raised an eyebrow, noting the sudden bang that followed immediately after he rang the doorbell.
Loud footsteps were heard before the front door was flung open at an abnormally fast speed, and a girl whose height barely reached his shoulder blinked up at him. "E-eh? T-Tezuka-kun? What are you d-doing here?" Harada Kimiko stuttered out, not because she was nervous or anything, but she was feeling chilly, even though the weather outside was perfectly normal.
He eyed her flushed cheeks and quivering figure for a second or two, before quickly nudging her to get back inside. "Your mother asked me to come over to look after you. You're sick, right?"
"Y-yes, but I'll be f-fine on my own! Okaa-san shouldn't have b-bothered you!" Harada declared, turning around and trying to push Tezuka out of her home... The word 'trying' being the key word here.
The brown-eyed boy sighed and shut the door, before none-too-gently pushing her inside, purposefully ignoring all her rather loud, hoarse protests about his pushiness. "I agreed to help Harada-san and look after you, so now you're my responsibility. Now, have you eaten?"
Harada puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms, muttering grudgingly, "Yeah, I have."
He nodded approvingly. "Good. You should be resting now."
"I was resting o-on the couch... until someone rang t-the doorbell."
"...I apologize, Harada-chan." He deduced that he must have startled her into falling off the sofa, which caused the loud sound he had heard earlier.
"Whatever." He watched as she disappeared around the corner to the kitchen. "Do you want some t-tea, Tezuka-kun?"
"That would be fine." Tezuka paused, before heading inside the kitchen to find Harada adding hot water into a pot. "Hold on, you shouldn't even be brewing the tea. You're sick."
"I'm perfectly fi–Atchoo!" Harada sneezed suddenly, making both of them jump. Well, technically, the girl jumped. Tezuka merely flinched slightly, thinking, At least she had placed the pot down on the table a few seconds before... Or else someone would have been scalded right there and then.
He reached over and took the pot away from her. "Hey!" She protested, standing on her tip-toes in a fruitless attempt to get it back. "I told you I'm f-fine!"
"And that sneeze just now meant that you're fine?" He asked somewhat wryly, taking out two small mugs from the cabinet and carefully pouring the green tea into each mug in equal amounts. "What illness do you have anyway?"
Harada sniffed and blew her nose into a tissue. "Hakase-san said that it was just the c-common flu." She glared at nothing in particular at her constant stuttering. Stupid chill!
"Ah. Come on, quit standing around in the kitchen. You should be seated and warm yourself up with tea." Tezuka spoke with some of his buchou authority as he placed the two mugs onto a tray and nimbly carried them out, with the normally loud-mouthed girl following behind silently.
As the two neighbours settled down on the zabutons in the dining room, they fell into an uneasy silence, with the occasional sniffling and mild coughing in-between the tea-sipping.
Of course we're uneasy... After all, it's not every day your male neighbour whom you have a secret crush on comes to your house to look after you because your Okaa-san wants someone to make sure you don't get into trouble at home... Harada thought sullenly.
Half an hour later, they had long since finished downing their green tea, and found themselves staring at their empty mugs in an attempt to maintain the peaceful air of tranquility they shared, no matter how awkward it seemed.
"... You should go home now, Tezuka-kun." The girl finally decided to get it over and done with by standing up. She brushed away a soft tendril of red hair that escaped her loose ponytail as she began clearing up the low table. "I'm fine now."
One of Tezuka's no-nonsense stares was directed at her. "No, you're my responsibility until Harada-san comes back. Besides, you're still ill. You let your guard down."
She gave him a boyish snort of amusement at that. "I was wondering when you were gonna say that."
His lips twitched a bit before he got up as well. "Let me do it."
"No way. I don't care if you were brought up to help weak, defenseless girls, but this is my house, so I do things my way." She clutched at the two mugs with one hand stubbornly and swatted his outstretched hand with her free one. "You wait here."
Tezuka sighed in mild annoyance as he watched her relatively smaller figure slip into the kitchen. He sat back down cross-legged, closed his eyes and listened to the sound of water flowing out of the tap as the girl washed the mugs clean.
After what he had deemed a while, he let one eye crack open. There was no noise what-so-ever.
Both his eyes sprung open instantly.
There was no noise what-so-ever.
That could NOT be of any good.
Quickly, his gaze swept across the dining room. No sign of her in here... He got on his feet and stalked out, checking the kitchen. Not here... He shuffled towards the living room. Not here either...
His brows furrowed slightly in thought. If she's not in the dining room... Nor the kitchen... nor the living room... Could she be in her own room...?
The brunette nodded curtly to himself and moved towards the other three rooms, softly sliding the shoji doors open for a brief glance, before shutting it again and going on to the next room if there was no sign of the pesky girl.
When he reached the last room, his gaze was caught by a mob of red hair. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and slipped in, sliding the shoji door shut behind him.
He noted that it was a typical traditional room, with little decoration and mostly calligraphy scrolls hanging from the walls. What weren't traditional were the green school bag dumped unceremoniously by the door and the small bed placed along the side of wall, along with the sleeping figure resting on the bed.
Upon closer inspection, the "sleeping" figure... wasn't exactly sleeping. Harada was tossing and turning in the bed, muttering unintelligibly under her breath. She was sweating bullets, and her face was more flushed than it had been earlier.
Tezuka gingerly placed a hand on top of her forehead, and almost immediately pulled back, alarmed. She's running a dangerously high fever!
He walked out of her room and into the kitchen briskly, filling a small bowl with cool water and wetting a few clean rags with cool water, before turning tail and heading back just as fast with the two items.
When he got back, the girl had kicked off her blankets and was nestled into a ball, whimpering quietly. "C-co-co-col-cold..."
The boy hesitated for a fraction for a second, before climbing onto the bed and placing the girl's head on his lap, carefully making sure that the water didn't spill. She can kill me for this later. Her health is also my responsibility, he decided firmly.
"Mm... G-go a-away..." She moaned out, trying to wiggle away. "I d-d-don't ne-ee-d th-this..."
"Shush. You're running a fever, Harada-chan." Tezuka told her quietly as he laid one of the wet rags across her forehead. "Don't move about."
"You d-don't even c-c-care... Go a-away..." The red-head coughed a bit, still trying to pull away. "You n-never c-cared... Always w-working at y-your stupid t-tea-s-shop..."
Briefly he wondered if she was even hearing him. "Harada-chan... This is Tezuka. Your Okaa-san is at..." He trailed off, realizing that that was exactly what she had just mumbled out. "...just don't move about, alright?" His tone was gentle, but left no room for arguments.
Sadly, the girl didn't seem to notice. She continued to mumble and squirm away from him, this time even sitting up while on his lap. He sighed, mildly pushing her back down... only for her to spring back up again.
He felt the beginning of a steady pulsing in his temples right then. This stubborn, stubborn girl... I might need the aspirin I brought in my bag, after all...
After many, many tries, he finally got her to relax and her head was once again pillowed by his lap. Gradually, she quieted down, and he aided her by dabbing at the beads of sweat sliding down her forehead with the wet rag every now and then.
Silence stretched between them once again, only this time it was accompanied by soft, incoherent murmurings and slightly laboured breathing from the girl.
"I... I'm thirsty..." Harada's voice sounded horribly scratchy and barely above a whisper as she blinked up at him with hazy eyes.
The brunette sighed tiredly, smoothly easing her head off his lap and onto a soft pillow before he got up. "I'll get you a glass of water. Please don't get up." He gave her a stern look before he left the room.
Author's Notes: Hope you have enjoyed the story so far. Let me know if you find any mistakes, or if you find anyone OOC or if Kimiko has some traits that need to be fixed.
If anyone is wondering about the OC's name... In Japanese, "Harada" means "meadow rice field", while "Kimiko" means "upright or righteous".
Reviews are welcome. Thank you.
.:Iced Hearts:.