A/N: Set before the manga or anime series.
My first fic in a while, and I'm not pleased at the writing quality but I got inspired while I was sick and had to write it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Heaven, or any of its characters, SPRAY/Higuri Yuu do.
Getting sick is not something you did when you had constant responsibilities. And thus, it took a good three days of increasing symptoms for Shinomiya Koji, dorm leader, president of the archery club and all around one of the more straight-laced, well-behaved students, to admit that he needed a break.
The first day he woke up feeling a bit congested, and admittedly, sneezing and washing his hands more than usual.
The second day he felt nauseous and had to excuse himself from his second class to vomit, (and sneeze, cough.)
On the third day, with some prompting from his friends, Koji admitted that yes, he felt nauseated, couldn't really eat, his head hurt, and he had gone through the majority of a box of tissues in the last 24 hours.
Takuto sat alone in the cafeteria. He looked around forlornly, then gave his breakfast an unenthusiastic stare. Everything was lonely without Koji.
No, it's good that he's resting. the artist chided himself.
At least, I hope he's resting.
But food was still hard without him. Sure, Takuto ate on a regular basis, but it wasn't something he often did with ease.
'll go see how he is after this. the artist told himself.
"I should bring him something."
He remembered how Koji had put effort into prodding at his own breakfast the morning before. How his uniform and hair had looked less tidy than usual. The archer's shoulders slumped but he insisted on attempting breakfast and getting through his day.
"Koji," Takuto's single word, doused in heavy hesitation and worry.
"Hmm?" the archer hadn't seemed entirely present as he responded.
"Maybe you should rest today." He tried to say it gingerly.
"I'll be fine," Koji said, trying to sound reassuring, rather than dismissive. Then he paused and actually looked at Takuto. "Thank you. But don't worry over me."
Tired albeit, but that smile made the artist's heart flutter whenever it was directed at him.
But you always worry over me….
Koji was just awake enough to register knocking. He had opted to allow the student council take over his job just until he was better, made sure his teachers knew he was sick (only dimly aware that he was doing so on a Friday night), and allowed himself to sleep the next morning away.
Until a coughing fit and need to blow his nose woke him. He had been awake just long enough to urge himself out of bed and open the door to his dorm room.
"Takuto?"
The artist stood in his doorway, giving him a look of worry as he took in how haggard the archer looked, and holding up a styrofoam container. "You weren't at breakfast."
"You're not at class?" Koji responded, but moved to let him in anyway.
"It's the weekend Koji, remember? But I would come anyway, because you're important," he smiled shyly at the floor, but Koji caught it and felt just slightly warmer inside.
"Takuto you-" he interrupted himself with a cough. "You shouldn't...for me...ah, but...thank you."
"Does your throat hurt?" the artist asked him.
"You can tell from my voice?"
Takuto nodded, "mm, so you don't have to say anything. You're always looking out for me and take of me when I'm sick. So that's why...let me too?" He phrased it like a question, looked at the archer pleadingly, but he knew that the artist had a determination when it came to things he cared about.
Of course. He cares about me.
So the archer just nodded and looked at the container curiously.
"I brought you soup and toast because I thought that might be easier for you."
Without hesitation he took the container and sat down on his bed, looking up at Takuto with a grateful smile. He opened the soup and without another thought took several gulps, smiling his thanks again that Takuto had even brought him extra napkins.
As Takuto smiled back he realized that the artist was standing there a bit hesitantly, so he patted the end of the bed next to him, out of breathing-on space. He didn't want to make the artist sick too, and hoped that a minimum of actual contact and not coughing on him might help. It seemed to work fine for him the few times (okay yes, he admitted) he had taken care of a sick Takuto.
"Sit?" he asked.
"Oh," Takuto's eyes widened at the gesture. "I can stay?"
"I don't want to get you sick though," Koji asserted. "So don't let me get in your space."
"It's your room..." Takuto said, a bit surprised. Always worrying about him, even now.
"I just...I'm going to get something," the artist said. "I'll be right back," and left Koji to finish the manageable liquid part of his breakfast.
Koji was just setting down a now empty soup bowl when Takuto returned, closing the door behind him.
"Any good?" he asked the archer, and set down the bag he was carrying.
Koji gave the bag a quick glance and recognized it as the "sketchbook and supplies tote" Takuto sometimes used. And then, realizing Takuto had been referring to the food he nodded.
Takuto stood there another moment, looking from him to the end of the bed, "um, can I?"
Koji smiled at him again, his heart fluttered again, and he took his place at the end of the bed.
The archer reached for some papers on his bedside table that Takuto registered as homework,
"Do you mind? It's just nice to be together when I'm not feeling good," Koji remarked.
"Oh, no, of course," Takuto responded quickly. It wouldn't be the first time they did work together, just the first time they did in Koji's room...on his bed.
Takuto picked up a sketchbook and pencil and turned so that his body faced Koji and the sketchbook did not.
Takuto let his mind travel, becoming unaware of his surroundings, the way he always got when he was absorbed in his art. He looked up briefly and was pulled out of his trance when he saw that Koji's eye's weren't entirely open and he didn't seem to be seeing the paper he was looking at.
"Koji, maybe you should sleep?"
"Hmm? Ah, yes...I..." the archer said, blinking.
Takuto closed his notebook and gently pulled the papers from Koji's hands, getting up to set them back on the nightstand. "It's okay Koji, rest."
He hovered above the same tired smile as the archer adjusted. "Thanks...for taking care of me."
Takuto smiled back at him "Ne? Of course I would, I-" he blushed and back-tracked, "you would too. I mean, you do too...I mean I-"
A soft laugh cut him off and Koji turned on his side away from him.
Maybe he was imagining what he wanted to hear, but the artist vaguely caught a sleepy mutter of "so it's mutual."