It was a widespread fact that Tsumugi, the local "manager" of the residence, was a workaholic young woman who could spend days in paperwork and barely emerge when someone would enter her study with food she'd have forgotten to even think about getting into her systems. That was how things were: her fellow residents would easily get worried for her to indulge in so much work and that intensely, but she didn't mind. It was part of the course, in a way.
Still, she never refused any help from anyone. She knew Mitsuki'd always insist to give her food during her long afternoons of paperwork, that Sogo was the kind to check on her often to make sure she wasn't completely drowning, that Tamaki would usually let one of his puddings near her so she'd eat it between two folders. All the boys had a way to show they cared, something that'd never stop warming her heart. Feeling loved was always nice.
She had been drowning in paperwork for a while, there. She was just seeing the end of the tunnel, and despite the rests she'd take and the full nights of sleep she enjoyed more and more getting despite the frustration of knowing she could have spent that time on something more urgent. She had to preserve herself.
That last statement was especially valid right now, as she rubbed her throbbing head. It was a way for her body to tell her it was time to stop and get some rest, perhaps even sleep. It was five in the afternoon: she had spent at least four hours in a row on this to take care of some important renovations for the residence's faulty heating system.
A knock on the door was what definitely broke her out of her trance.
"Yes?" she said, trying to sound as peppy and warm as she possibly could as her hands stumbled upon the loose sheets on the desk for the goodness that was her headache pills.
A familiar face entered the room with a tray in his hands, silver eyes looking right at her. There was a steaming mug and a plate of cookies on it.
"Ah, hello, Iori!" she took again her peppy voice to greet him. "How are you?"
"I'm doing just fine," he said as he put the tray on her desk, right where there were no paper sheets.
However, there was something in his voice that was telling her he wasn't as fine as he was saying he was.
"Let me ask you the question back, Takanashi."
"Oh, huh… You know, a bit tired because of all the work I've done lately, but nothing too bad! I'll just have a very nice night of sleep after this, it's almost done anyway… Dad's not able to take care of it because he's stuck in bed with the flu, so I'm taking care of it for him."
Tsumugi smiled softly as she looked at the tray's insides.
"Thank you for this, by the way, Iori. It's very nice of you."
He blushed and looked aside, clearing his throat before replying.
"I'm just here because the others I've sent me," he said in that "lying voice" of his as Mitsuki would have called it. "The cookies have been baked by my brother, so you'll have to thank him later!
"Will do! What about this hot chocolate, though?"
The smell of it was delicious, almost appetizing, despite her latest snack having been so little time ago.
"I've made it."
"You do care, don't you?"
The blushing on his face increased.
"It… It'd be rather mean-spirited not to."
Her eyes fluttered on the tray as she picked up the cup, noticing something she hadn't seen before.
"Are these headache pills?"
"Yes. I'd have figured you'd end up in that situation one way or the other, since you're a terrible workaholic at times."
Feeling embarrassed and judged all the same, she tried to strike back as she took one of the pills with a gulp of milk.
"It's funny, we're kind of the same there, Iori… You like to lock yourself in your flat to study often!"
He rolled his eyes.
"Just take these pills and some rest, even if you don't sleep. You'll write stupidities on these papers if you overwork yourself, and it'll make all of us look like fools."
She whispered under her breath, "Sometimes I wish you weren't be that honest…"
"Oh," she broke herself out of her embarrassed silence, "why don't you take a seat next to me?"
She pushed some papers to make stead for a second person's comfort, hand pointing to the chair next to her
Despite the painful feeling of her eyes hurting and her brain in overheat, Tsumugi could still notice Iori didn't seem like he was doing much better than she did. He had a mask over the lower half of his face, reddened eyes and slightly dishevelled hair, as if he hadn't combed it as well as he'd usually do. However, the most trying (and, honestly, most relatable) weird thing about him was his hand rubbing the bridge of his nose and middle of his forehead.
"Are you alright, Iori? Is your head hurting?" she asked in concern, almost pained to see the boy in such a poor and unusual state.
"I do have a headache, but there's nothing you couldn't do about it. I'm fine."
"Oh, and… why do you have this mask? Is there an epidemic I should be aware of?"
"Not really, even if Yotsuba has the flu and I think Osaka is about to catch it too if he's not more careful…"
"So you're really, really not the one who's sick?"
Tsumugi had learnt how to bypass Iori's initial brushing off and coldness by targeting directly what she thought was happening and going through his mind. At times, he'd just bust her out immediately, but it costed nothing to try.
"Why do you want to know that so much? I guess I can't hide anything from you again…"
"I'm not asking this to tease you, don't take it so badly, please… I'm just worried for a friend! Do you know what you have?"
"Sinusitis. Nothing too bad, but not something I'd have wanted to contract in the first place. It'll go away in a few days. I apologize if my voice sounds weird because of it."
Slowly and softly, she put her hand on his forehead, to which he hissed but still somewhat leaned in.
"You're running a fever, but that should have been obvious…"
"I told you, I'm going to be fine, I'm not a little child. My brother's already fretting over me enough, I don't need you to do that too."
"We're just worried, Iori! It's normal for people to get worried, wouldn't you get concerned if any of us was sick? You were already concerned for me because I've been working a lot on my own to make everything fine."
He groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"What's wrong?" escaped her lips as she retained her hands from immediately jerking in panic.
"That… thing's getting to my nerves from behind my eyes… If you want an honest answer, all I can say it's that you're not the only one to have a raging headache. So, please, don't add anything on top of it with your fretting."
The more she looked at him, the less her own head was throbbing, as if the feeling had been drained by her thoughts. Worry kept bubbling in her stomach, almost forming a knot.
"I should get going," he spoke up as he rose from the chair, albeit not with swaying on his feet before finding his balance. "It's getting late and I still have some homework to do."
That was horrifying, seeing him being so out of it and yet trying to sound determined with that congested, hoarse voice of his.
"Wait, you're attending class in that condition?! You're going to make it worse, Iori! You should be resting!"
The boy scoffed back, before muffling a cough in his sleeve.
"I know. Don't you think the doctor told me that already?"
"Then… Why do you do that? You know it's bad for you, right?"
"For the same reason you keep working even with a headache, Takanashi."
To that she blinked in surprise, before bobbing her head now.
"I… I see what you're saying, but…" She rose her eyes again, the lingering headache still raging down her neck. "Shouldn't you know better than me? I think you said that once!"
"That was when you worked yourself to a fever and Rokuya found you unconscious on the floor, thus waking everyone up early in the morning because he had finished binge-watching the latest season of some cartoon. I'm fairly certain I know… better than that…"
He swayed again on his feet, before she jumped out of her chair and caught him.
"Iori, I insist, you're really warm! You need to rest instead of teasing me!"
His face lost all its colours, almost as if he was giving up on something.
"You know what…? You're right…"
A smile couldn't help but appear on her mouth.
"Here, let's bring you back to your place and both rest. I promise I'll do that once I'm sure you'll do it."
She got a rare smile back.
"If that'll make you stop… Then it's a deal…"
Steadily, yet slowly, making their way out of the office and to the first floor on the ground floor, she could only notice how warm she felt, heart beating against her chest. She didn't enjoy having to manhandle Iori like that, as if he was a chiffon doll, but she'd have lied if she said she didn't enjoy being able to help him and, in a way, pay him back for all he had done for her by helping her with management and getting others' opinions.
That and, of course, there was something special to being able to watch over someone she cared for. Sleeping off the headache was tempting, but it was even more tempting if she was near him. Silently making a note to Google for solutions to make his nose feel fine again, she made her way to the room.