I actually wrote this one about two weeks ago, but forgot to post it. It's another request fic, this one for infinitebeauty on LJ. I love the trio of Amatsuki so I was happy to oblige, but I discovered that they were surprisingly difficult to write. Hopefully I kept them in-character, but I leave that to my readers to decide. :) Oh, and as a warning, this is unbeta'd, so if there are hideous glaring grammatical errors... that's why. :P
As always, no BL (/slash/yaoi/shounen-ai/etc) is intended or implied.Disclaimer: I am by no means talented enough to be the creator of this series. All the rights belong to... whoever they belong to. Certainly not to me!
Misery Loves Company
"This is your fault, Toki."
The accusation was met with an immediate yelp of protest. "It is not! How can you blame me for this?"
"It is too." Kon sniffled—no, make that sniffed, because men did not sniffle. "Because you were the one who got sick first. If you hadn't gone and gotten a fever and made me take care of you last night, I wouldn't be sick now."
"Is not. I didn't ask you to take care of me, you know." A rather pitiful little cough followed that assertion, and Toki burrowed deeper into his blankets with a shiver. A fire was crackling away in the grate by his head, but his chills persisted despite the heat.
"Is too. And yes, you did." Kon shifted on his futon across from Toki, and his hoarse voice sounded profoundly smug. "You wouldn't let go of my sleeve all night. I had to sleep on the floor!" He sneezed violently, as if to punctuate his statement.
"… Is not." Under normal circumstances Toki would have been red to the roots of his hair, but with the feverish flush still present across his cheeks, any further color was indiscernible. Even so, Kon could probably sense the embarrassment coming off him in waves. He cleared his throat and tried to put some strength into his voice. "I was delirious. I can't be held responsible for my actions when I'm delirious."
Kon made a sputtering sound that might have been laughter, but it turned quickly into a fit of wracking coughs that made Toki wince in sympathy. Once he could breathe again, Kon doggedly returned to the argument. "Is too," he croaked. He coughed once more and tried again. "Ah, kuso, this sucks."
"Is not. But yeah, it does."
"And it's your fault."
"Is NOT!"
Neither cared that their squabble was rapidly going from immature to downright childish, which was perhaps evidence of their feverish states of mind.
"Is too."
"Not."
"Too."
Toki drew breath to make his expected rejoinder, but suddenly the door to their room slid open with a deafening bang and a slender shadow fell across them. "If you two don't stop your inane argument right this second," Kuchiha roared, "I am going to come in there and drown you both with your own tea!"
A girl's voice really shouldn't boom like that, Toki thought absently. Fortunately even his fever was not enough to make him voice that opinion out loud. Instead he responded with a meek, "Yes, ma'am. Hestartedit." The last sentence was mumbled and audible only to the invalid in the futon across from him, he hoped.
Perhaps Kon's fever was a little bit higher and had started to affect his brain, or maybe he was just too miserable to care. "Go away, Kuchiha," he groaned. "Let me pick on the ahou in peace." He sneezed. "There's no more tea to drown us with, anyway."
The sound of Kuchiha's teeth grinding was audible as she entered the room and sat down between the two futons with a thump. "Listen, you brats," she growled, "Shamon-sama hasn't touched a drop of sake since yesterday. Do you know what that means?" Toki started to reply, but she answered her own question instead. "It means he's worried about you two!"
On Kuchiha's other side Toki could see Kon's dark eyes, open now and watching her intently. Glancing up at her face himself Toki was surprised and confused to see the hint of a blush spreading across her cheeks. She was staring at the floor, avoiding both their gazes. "You guys can't be wasting energy on your stupid fight when you're supposed to be getting better," she said, her voice softening.
"Kuchiha…" Toki was taken aback. Was she actually worried about them?
As if sensing his thoughts, Kuchiha snorted and folded her arms. "Not that I would waste my time worrying about two idiots like you," she clarified. "I told Shamon-sama as much, but he's an idiot too. He swears he won't drink until you're both completely recovered."
Neither Kon nor Toki could think of a reply, and Kuchiha rose to her feet with a sigh and a rustle of her robes. "I'll go make you some more tea." She padded to the door but paused when she reached it. "Seriously," she said, turning to speak over her shoulder, "hurry up and get better, both of you." She let that hang in the air for the moment before adding, "Because Shamon-sama is driving me crazy. He's even more obnoxious than usual when he's sober."
Apparently satisfied that she had made her point, Kuchiha started to close the door, but Toki spoke up before she could. "Kuchiha." He coughed briefly, then propped himself up on one elbow to meet her eyes earnestly and smile. "Thank you."
Kuchiha returned the smile full-force, a rare gesture that lit up her face. "You're welcome."
Feeling left out, Kon interrupted the bonding moment. "Yeah, yeah," he mumbled, closing his eyes again. "Kuchiha, I thought you were"—he had to pause to sneeze a few times—"getting tea."
For a second Kuchiha glared at him, and Toki feared that Kon was in for a beating, sick or not. But apparently Kon's unusually gentle tone, at odds with his words, had not missed her attention and she smiled again, with genuine affection. "Coming right up, you ingrate."
The door slid quietly shut behind her, and they heard her footsteps fading down the hall. Both were still feeling utterly miserable, but the silence that fell was comfortable nonetheless. Finally, Kon broke it.
"This really is your fault, you know."
:: owari ::
Glossary:
kuso :: all-purpose curse word
ahou :: moron, idiot (depending on the region it's used in, it can be either meaner or nicer than the more common "baka")