Second fan fiction. Vector comes down with the flu on his 21st birthday. Espio decides to take it upon himself to take care of him. Though most would be bummed to be sick on their birthday, but Vector is kinda pleased to have a sexy chameleon nurse to do things for him =P

Contains mild Vecpio fluff X3

Twenty-one. An age that many cannot wait to reach. It's the age where one truly reaches adulthood.

Today was Vector's birthday. Although, the more appropriate term would be "hatch day". Vector might have been excited about turning 21 if he hadn't completely forgotten that today was his birthday. A splitting headache left him dazed and unfocused. Vector struggled to do his work under the mounting pain.

"Let's see… This check is for… the water bill, right? No, no. It's for the heating bill… Or is it?"

After Vector got everything figured out, he leaned back into his chair and turned off the small desk lamp. He let out a moan while trying to shield his eyes from the little light that was in the room. To make things worse, he started to feel extremely hot. Parched, he decided to get a glass of water. As an aquatic reptile, it was important for him to stay hydrated.

Vector left his office only to come into a dark living room.

"Why's it so dark in here?"

Vector patted the wall until he found a light switch. Once the light went on…

"SURPRISE!!!"

Charmy had sprung up from the couch wearing a party hat over his helmet and had a party whistle in his hand. Vector cringed when Charmy blew into it.

"What's this for?" asked Vector.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten your own birthday." Espio said, coming from the kitchen with a cake in hand.

"Huh… I guess I did forget." he said with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Come on Vector!" Charmy said. "This is your day! Let's party!"

Espio placed the cake on the coffee table. It was complete with 21 candles; each one representing a year of Vector's life. Vector was seated on the couch as Espio and Charmy sang "Happy Birthday" to him. During the song, Espio couldn't help but notice that Vector's color seemed paler than usual. After they were finished, Vector quickly thought of a wish and blew out the candles. That seemed to be a bad idea because he went into a coughing spasm afterwards.

"You alright?" Espio asked.

"Yeah… Just got something caught in my throat."

Espio removed the candles and began to cut the cake into sections.

"Ooh… I want that piece!" said Charmy.

"Charmy… Vector is supposed to go first."

"It's alright. Charmy, you can have any piece you want. I'm not that hungry anyway."

Vector, not hungry? Espio almost dropped the cake cutter when he heard the words "I'm not hungry" come from Vector's lips.

"But, this is your favorite flavor."

"Yeah, I know. And I appreciate everything you two did for me. But I'm just not in the mood for this."

Suspicious, Espio moved in close to have a good look at Vector's face.

"Err… what?" Vector asked.

"You look a little flushed…"

"Nah, I'm fine."

Espio then placed a hand on Vector's forehead. His eyes widened as he felt the heat.

"You're not fine. You're burning up."

"Vector's sick?" asked Charmy.

"Really Espio, it's not a big deal."

"Not another word." said Espio as he gently pushed Vector down onto the couch so that he was lying down. "I'm getting the thermometer."

After Espio left the room, Charmy attempted to grab a piece of cake.

"Don't you dare touch that cake, Charmy." said Espio from another room.

"Aww…" he said disappointment.

Espio returned with the thermometer moments later. He placed it in Vector's mouth and turned his head to the clock on the wall. After three minutes passed, he removed the thermometer from the crocodile's mouth.

"102.4 degrees… It's a fever all right."

Vector sighed known that there was no escape from Espio now. The chameleon pushed the coffee table out of the way before grabbing the blanket that was folded up on the chair. He then threw it over the ill crocodile.

"You need to rest for now. Can I get you anything?"

"Well… some water would be nice."

Espio nodded and headed for the kitchen.

"So when can we eat the cake?" Charmy asked.

"I don't think we'll be eating it. Vector already blew on it and we might pick up his germs if we eat it."

"Man…"

"Sorry Charmy…" Vector said. "I promise I'll make it up to ya."

Vector's throat began to feel dry again which forced him to cough some more. Espio quickly returned to the living room after hearing the coughing spasm. He handed the glass to Vector.

"Thanks…" he said in a rather horse voice.

While Vector was drinking the water, Espio turned to Charmy.

"Think you can play quietly upstairs?"

"Yes sir! No prob!"

Vector's eye twitched as the pain in his head returned.

"On second thought, why don't you go see a movie? Here, I'll give you enough so you can take Cream with you."

"Yeah… Guess that's cool."

"Charmy's gotta girlfriend…" Vector teased.

"Do not! She's just my friend!"

Espio eventually got Charmy to leave the house so Vector could have peace and quiet.

"By your reaction to loud noises, I'm guessing you have a headache too?"

"Yeah… Since I woke up."

Espio went back to the kitchen.

"You should have said you weren't feeling well."

"Didn't think I was that sick…"

"Even so, it's not good to work when you have a headache."

He returned with a damp washcloth and placed it on Vector's forehead.

"Hopefully that'll bring your fever down and ease your headache."

"Thanks 'Ma'."

Espio knelt down so that he was at eye level with Vector.

"Call me if you need anything else, 'Sweetie'." Espio then started to gently stroke the side of Vector's face. "Love ya…"

"Back at 'cha, babe." he said while rubbing Espio's back.

Espio disposed of the contaminated cake. Afterwards, he decided to take advantage of Charmy's absence to do some meditation. But it seemed he couldn't concentrate because Vector would have a coughing fit every so often. But he worked with what he had.

Oh yeah, Vector's gonna love the extra attention XD