Author's Notes:
Ugh... something exploded with the formatting of this thing. If stuff seems to be randomly shoved off to the side... sorry. I tried to fix it.
In this story, Aster is 12 and Richter is 14.
Well, I like this story. It's... cute. That's all, really. Enjoy!
(...This story could possibly have been 1337 words long, but I just had to mess with it. Phooey.)
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Flu season is a nightmare for students and researchers alike. Not getting work done for days on end is definitely the worst aspect of being sick.
Well, as luck would have it, Aster refused to wake up one day. I almost always was awake long before he was, so making sure he actually woke up was my responsibility. That day, I took one look at Aster and saw that something was very, very wrong. When I finally woke him up (an effort that took even more creative ways of making loud noises than usual), he stared at me blankly, with his eyes completely glazed over.
After a lengthy silence, Aster shivered, coughed, and croaked, "Richter... I think I caught that bug that's going around... there's no way I can go to class today. I'm sorry..." He collapsed into his blankets again.
Now I had a dilemma: I could stay with Aster and take care of him or I could go to class. Both had very strong pros and cons. I really wanted to take care of Aster. I was the older boy, so I ought to be the responsible one. I would also be spared from the hail of paper balls that were thrown at the back of my head almost every day... at the cost of having roughly double the amount thrown at me the very next day and being twice as likely to get yelled at by the teacher for even blinking too much. If I went to class, the day would be that much more likely to pass without incident. But what would Aster think? Having Aster unhappy with me would crush me. I asked, "Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault that you're sick."
Aster was very perceptive of my emotions. "Richter... Go to class. Don't worry about me. I'll probably be unconscious for most of the day, anyway. You'd be sitting around doing nothing. Everything will be fine, so don't worry..." He cracked a tiny smile. It looked like it hurt for him to do even that much.
I was going to say the same thing to Aster that he would always say to me when I closed myself off. I said, "Aster... Tell me how you really feel. Do you want me to stay here and take care of you?"
Aster replied, "Just go to class. I've got a headache." That just about made my decision for me. Rule for Surviving Sybak number twelve: don't ever mess with a researcher that has a headache. Enough said.
The next few days passed largely without incident. About two days after Aster recovered, I nearly passed out on top of my homework... twice. That was normally something Aster did, not me. (He had something of a knack for falling asleep while doing homework but still being able to do it correctly and on time. How he pulled that off was always something of a mystery to me, but I always chalked it up to his natural intelligence.) Aster, observant as always, pointed out what was happening. "Hey, Richter, are you alright?" All I could manage with my spotty concentration was a nod. "Fine, sure... But if you just randomly conk out like that again, you're going to bed, no questions asked. Okay?"
"Uh huh. Just let me finish." I felt a little achy, but I convinced myself that it was all in my head. I couldn't get sick when they were starting to pile the work on. I finally let myself go to sleep after what felt like hours of work. Aster was already asleep when I went to sleep, but I could have sworn that he took a quick look at me as I was climbing into bed.
Aster almost never woke up before me. I was so on schedule with waking up that, on the rare occasions where Aster would wake up before me, he would immediately assume that something was wrong with me. Nine times out of ten, he was right. He was right that morning, too. I groggily looked up at him as he tried to shake me awake.
"Richter... You're not going to class today."
"What are you talking about? I'm fine. I just overslept a bit."
Aster shook his head and gave an exasperated sigh. "No, you overslept a LOT. It's ten o'clock! Besides... Do you really feel like moving?"
"Stop asking weird questions. I'm fine!" ...No, I wasn't. I tried to make my body move, but I had no success. I finally gave up. "It hurts, Aster."
"You're sick, Richter. Just get some rest, okay?"
A coherent thought finally surged across my mind. "Aster, why aren't you in class?!"
Aster was the calm one for a change. "I'm staying here and taking care of you, that's why. Just relax. I'll make sure no one raises too big of a stink over nothing."
I wanted to raise another objection, but instead I obeyed my body and closed my eyes.
I woke up some time later to see Aster hunched over his desk. An idea crawled into my head, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to rest until I told Aster. "...Hey, Aster." I practically had to shove my words out.
He turned to face me and said, "Oh, hey! You're awake! Do you feel any better?"
I weakly shook my head. "Aster... why are you staying with me?"
"Because I want to."
"But it's not fair to you... You let me go to class, so you should go too! Besides, I'm older than you. I should be taking care of you, not the other way around."
Aster literally waved me off. "Oh, hush. If you didn't go, you would have gotten in trouble because of me, and that would have been even less fair to you. I don't mind taking care of you."
My mind was frozen on one thought. "I should have taken care of you, Aster."
Aster folded his arms, clearly fed up with my whining. "Richter, stop it. Angst doesn't look good on you." He softened up a bit. "So, just... take it easy for now, okay?" ...Ending his sentences like that was his verbal tic that he used to try and reassure me. I couldn't keep arguing with him. He had a kind of sweet stubbornness to him that I just couldn't win against. ...Not that I ever really tried to fight with it.
Aster turned back to his work, but he wasn't able to get far before I called him again. "Aster... Can you come over here for a minute?" He came over. I reached out and took his hand. "...Thanks," I wheezed. I wasn't quite sure why I did it, but Aster always seemed to be willing to lend a hand, in every sense of that phrase.
Aster smiled and squeezed my hand. "No problem, Richter. No problem at all."
...I never feel like I can pay Aster back for all the things he did for me. Even if he always said that I didn't owe him anything, I always felt like I needed to do something for him. I'd like to just be happy with the explanation that being his friend was adequate payment, but I can't. All I can say is... I'm grateful, Aster. More grateful than you'll ever know.