"Do you want the rest of my coffee?" Rin offered, genty tipping the cup towards her friend who was clearly sluggish from being woken up at this ungodly hour. Len raised his head up from where it rested on his arms, shrugged at her, then put his head back down. Rin took that as a yes and set the velvet colored mug down on the table, trying to be as quiet as possible, since Len would be hearing the clanking a lot louder with his ear pressed against the table. She slid it over to him and waited for him to do, well, something.

It hadn't been a long morning. Quite the opposite, actually. They'd woken up about ten minutes ago and started to get ready for school when Rin suggested they go down to eat breakfast before getting dressed. Len just shrugged in agreement and followed her down to the kitchen table where he proceeded to half-sleep while Rin made her morning coffee. She figured he needed it more than she did, considered how tired he was acting.

"What time do you normally get up for school?" Rin asked, trying to start a conversation. It had taken quite a bit of convincing, but Rin and Len had finally convinced their parents to let Len stay the night at Rin's house for the first time since they were little. Their parents, being overprotective as always, initially denied the request on the grounds that they didn't want Rin pregnant, because of course every single teen is dtf at all times- But that argument was quickly nullified when Len reminded them that his boyfriend, Piko, would not be pleased to hear that he had sex with his best friend. After realizing that Len was one thousand percent not into girls, they finally allowed him to stay the night. It took a week of convincing though, and the hype of Len being allowed over had died down days before it actually happened. They were exhausted of the idea in the end.

Being as Len hadn't slept in his room or his own bed (actually sharing with Rin at one point in the night because of his sudden incoherent complaints that Rin couldn't seem to understand due to her grogginess), Rin assumed he hadn't slept well and was just tired. The first thing he said when he woke up was "it's too early", so she figured he normally woke up at a different time.

"Five minutes before I have to leave," he mumbled. Rin raised her eyebrows, but honestly wasn't surprised now that she thought about it. He tended to have bed head when he came to school. That sort of explained it.

Len slowly raised his head from his arms and sat up in his chair, sighing as he did. He looked at the cup of coffee sitting on the table in front of him. Fuck, why did Rin drink it black? It's disgusting. He looked over at her.

"Do you have sweetener and creamer?" he muttered. Rin thought for a moment, then stood up to check the cabinets. Sometimes there was a box of powder creamer, though Rin usually just used straight up milk. Len sat back in his chair as he waited for her, closing his eyes. Fuck, he was so tired.

Last night had been a total shitshow for him. The evening went fine and they had fun hanging out, but when it was time to go to bed was when everything went south. Len had woken up in the middle of the night feeling terribly sick to his stomach. He got up from his makeshift bed on the couch and stumbled through the darkness to find the bathroom, falling to his knees in front of the toilet. He felt incredibly nauseous, and no amount of forced heaving or pushing on his stomach would bring the relief he desperately wanted. After about half an hour of silently dry heaving, trying to induce vomiting, he stood up and put his hand on the wall, following along in the darkness until he reached a door. He turned the handle and stood in the doorway of Rin's room for a moment before stepping inside. He was exhausted from the pain, and just tired from lack of sleep, so he couldn't put his thoughts into words when he approached his sleeping friend. He knelt down beside her bed and pushed on her shoulder gently, rocking her back and forth a bit to try and wake her up. Rin was a heavy sleeper, but that seemed to be enough to jar her from her dream state, as she squinted her eyes open to look at whoever was interrupting her sleep.

"Len?"she mumbled, reaching her hand up to rub her eyes. She stretched her arms a bit before resting them back on the bed beside her and closing her eyes again. "What time is it?" she asked, clearly more awake, but still groggy.

Len stuttered through his words, not even sure himself what he was saying. "Rin, I-I…'m tired, and can't...it won't happen...I need to, but it won'..." He was embarrassed to tell her, so he dodged outright saying it, but he didn't know what else to tell her, and confused himself halfway through his sentence,completely forgetting what the meaning was altogether.

Rin furrowed her brows. "What?" she mumbled. She sighed. "You know what? Just come here." She scooted away from Len and made room on the bed for him to climb in next to her. She pat the open spot beside her to show him he was welcome to come up. Without thinking, Len crawled into bed beside her, curling his body around his stomach protectively. Rin drifted off to sleep again almost immediately, but Len lied awake for hours, biting his lip and trying not to cry from the waves of nausea and pain that hit him, worsening each time. He eventually grabbed Rin's arm and hugged it, resting his head on her shoulder to bring himself comfort, and he was able to finally fall asleep. Morning came too soon, however, and Rin's alarm seemed to ring as soon as he drifted off. Len immediately let go of Rin's arm when he woke up, because she hadn't known that he held it in the first place, and that wasn't something that platonic friends just did. He didn't want her to realize it if he could avoid it.

"Morning," Rin mumbled, half smiling at him. Len didn't say anything. He was too exhausted. Rin pouted. "Hey, time to get up, sleepyhead~" she teased. She shook him by the shoulder, jostling his stomach to the point where if she kept going, there would be a mess all over her bed. Quickly, his hand shot up and smacked her arm away from him.

"Too early," he muttered, drawing his hand back. He swallowed thickly and prayed that he could keep it down.

Rin frowned at him and held her arm, a red mark from where he smacked her slowly forming. She brushed it off as him being tired and sighed. Now she knew it wasn't a good idea to tease him first thing in the morning. Rin got up and stretched, walking over to her dresser. She opened the top drawer to take out a pair of underwear like she normally did every morning, but she realized that her friend was in the room, and immediately closed it. She looked over at him and smiled nervously.

"H-hey, how about we eat breakfast before we get ready?" she suggested. Len didn't get suspicious like she anticipated. Ordinarily he would have raised an eyebrow and questioned why, then suggested an embarrassing reason for her actions to try and make her mad. But today he just shrugged in reply, not saying one way or another. Rin furrowed her brows in concern. That wasn't like him…

"Tch," she muttered. He must be really tired, then.

Len rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and let out a shaky breath. He had no idea what he was going to do. He felt crazy nauseous still, and his head was killing him. There was no way he'd be able to go to school like that. However, the thought of having to admit that he was sick to his own mom was enough to make him have thoughts about just powering through the day and not embarrassing himself by telling her. Having to tell his friend's mom, who he was staying with, having to explain to his friend why he couldn't go to school with her, AND having her mom call his parents and tell them to pick him up because he was sick? Len sighed and leaned forward, resting his head in his arms on the table again. He was starting to think that lying was the best plan of action. A soft thud jerked him out of his thoughts, and he sat back up, finding that Rin was standing next to him. She'd set a jug of milk and a box of sweetener on the table in front of him.

"Here you go," she said, smiling. "We don't have any creamer, just milk. Sorry about that." She sat down in the chair across from him and put her chin on her hand, resting her elbow on the table. Ordinarily her mom would come down and cook breakfast before she left for work, so Rin didn't have anything to do except wait for her.

Len stared at the cup of coffee sitting in front of him, the smell of it nauseating him even more. He started pouring packets of sweetener into it, delaying the action of actually drinking it. Rin was staring right at him, so he couldn't just sit there and stare at it for long before she asked what was wrong. He opened each pink packet individually, buying more and more time. Thankfully, her mom came into the kitchen before he even got to needing the milk. She smiled at the two of them before walking over to the fridge.

"Morning you two," she said cheerfully.

"Morning!" Rin replied in a similar tone. Len narrowed his eyes at her. Good God, how could they be so happy and alert this early in the morning? He shook his head and turned his attention back to the coffee, pouring more sweetener into it. He tried to be as slow as possible without looking concerning. It was a difficult task. He'd used around fifteen sweetener packets on a half full mug of coffee- AKA way too much. He realized he'd need to pour the milk in and then pretend to drink it, or else he'd look suspicious. He reached for the milk, stretching his arm out towards it, when a sudden spasm rippled through his abdomen and a shockwave of pain resonated throughout his entire body. He bit his tongue and jerked his arm back, cradling his belly. He'd managed to bang his elbow on the table too, making a noise loud enough to get the attention of Rin and her mom. Great, now what…?

"You alright, Hun?" her mom asked. Len looked at her and hesitated a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, I just...bit my tongue," he replied. It wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the real reason why he recoiled like that. Rin seemed to catch on, however. She studied him closely. She took notice that he didn't reach for the milk again, and his arm staid firmly against his body. What was up with him today? She furrowed her brows.

"Oh, you two will be glad to hear this," Rin's mom said, pulling her attention away from Len.

"What is it?" she asked curiously. Her mom smiled and held up a package the she pulled from the fridge.

"I'm making bacon for breakfast today!" she exclaimed. Rin smiled. Bacon was her favorite junk food to eat, hands down. She looked over to Len to get his reaction. She lost her smile when she noticed that...nothing had changed. He was looking at her mom with his lids half closed, the corners of his mouth in a straight line. He almost looked disappointed…

Rin wanted to ask what was going on with him today, but she'd always been bad at confrontation. She never knew what to say to initiate the conversation. Normally she just ignored things until someone else brought it up, or just let it go altogether. It took her a few minutes before she finally put her thoughts together and decided to speak up.

"Hey," she mumbled. Len looked up at her. He'd been staring absentmindedly into his coffee.

"Hm?" he mumbled back. Rin frowned. She didn't' know where to start. Should she mention that she noticed something was off? Should she ask him straight up? Before she could speak, a plate of bacon appeared on the table in front of them. She looked up to see her mom smiling down at them.

"I'll have some eggs for you guys in a few minutes here," she said, clearly proud of herself. Rin smiled. Her mom liked to do the little things for people, like ask them about their day, or complement them on their outfit, or make someone their favorite food. Yes they were easy things to do, but they never went unnoticed. More often than not, they're what makes someone's day a good one. It was important to her mom, and she did it every chance she got.

"Thanks Mom, it looks great," she commented. She smiled and reached for a piece of bacon off the plate. Before her fingers touched it, something caught her eye. Her eyes widened and she gasped silently.

Len knew by the look on Rin's face that he looked as bad as he felt. The smell of the bacon had set him over the edge: he was going to vomit. He'd put his hand over his mouth to try and force it down again, but his churning stomach had other ideas. He feebly attempted to swallow as air bubbles and stomach acid rushed up his esophagus.

"Uuuuuuuuurp-!"

Rin's mom heard a deep, resounding belch come from one of the two at the table behind her and she couldn't help but smile. She turned around to tease them. "My goodness, did you already finish the-" She stopped mid sentence as the scene before her registered in her mind. Wide eyed, Rin looked across the table at Len, who was hunched over the table, his hand over his mouth. Liquid and chunks of mushed up, partially digested food were spewed in his lap and on the table in front of him. Rin's mom stared for a moment before Len heaved again, and she sprung into action. She threw open a cabinet door and whipped out a plastic chip bowl, then sprinted to Len's side, holding the bowl up to him just as the vomit poured out of his mouth. He coughed weakly afterwards, and only had a moment to breath before he was heaving again. Rin's mom looked at him worriedly. She situated the bowl in her hands so that it was stable with her only using one hand, and then reached her free hand around to Len's forehead, pushing the hair up so her palm was flat on his skin. She frowned and let her hand slide down the side of his face, coming to rest on his cheek. She wiped at the teariness that was beginning to form in his eyes from the discomfort vomiting was putting him through.

"Oh Honey, you're burning up…" she mumbled, more to herself than to the sick boy in front of her. He replied by heaving again into the bowl. He panted, struggling to breathe normally. He belched quietly a few more times before swallowing, the nausea finally beginning to calm down. He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, still mouth breathing.

"'M sorry…" he mumbled." Rin's mom set the bowl on the table and put her hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

"Don't be sorry, Hun," she told him. "You can't help being sick." Len wanted to sigh, but he was still out of breath from heaving.

"I know, but…" He swallowed, the thick saliva still coating his mouth. "The table…" He cautiously opened his eyes to survey the damage he'd done. He instantly regretted it and squeezed his eyes shut, the nausea climbing back up his throat. He moaned quietly, punctuating it with a sick burp.

Rin's mom planted a kiss on top of his head and rubbed his arm soothingly. "Don't worry about it, okay? What matters now is you, and getting you back up to bed." She thought for a moment. "But first let's clean you up a bit, alright?" She pulled the chair back away from the table, catching him off guard. He reached up and grabbed her arm firmly to steady himself. She frowned. "Sorry Hun…" She looked at his right hand. It was covered in vomit as well. Thankfully most of the vomit hit the table and the bowl, so he only had a few wet spots on his shirt and pants. The chunky stuff was on his hand and the table. She grabbed his arm and lifted him up carefully, steadying him before beginning to walk upstairs to the bathroom. Len begrudgingly opened his eyes, as walking with them closed was making him dizzy and nauseous. Not that he wasn't already. Rin's mom led him up to the bathroom and left his change of clothes next to him. Len was glad he brought basketball shorts instead of jeans, otherwise his belly would be even more upset from the pressure of the non stretchy fabric cutting into it.

Rin's mom allowed him some privacy to shower and get changed, of which he was thankful. He stripped his soiled clothes off and put them on the floor, not sure where else to put them, before stepping into the shower. He stood in there for a few minutes before his head started hurting more, and he had to close his eyes, which only made the dizziness worse and increased the nausea. Len's lip began to quiver and he bit it in a feeble attempt to keep himself from crying. It hurt so bad…

Next thing he knew, he was kneeling on the floor of the shower, sobbing, trying not to throw up again. His efforts were again in vain, because he found himself heaving again on the shower floor. He only brought up bile and water, but the heaving hurt his stomach more and made him feel weak. He was afraid to try and stand up. He didn't think he could without his knees giving out and falling. He just sat there on the floor of the shower, crying miserably with his arms wrapped around his belly for who knows how long before a knock at the door came. Len wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. He was saved.

"You doing okay, Hun?" Rin's mom called out. She was beginning to worry. He had been in the shower for half an hour now. Normally it wasn't a huge deal, but since he looked like he was feeling dizzy, she was worried he might have fallen.

Len tried to speak, but his throat was still raw from the stomach acid and he coughed harshly, then spit the remains of bile that had clung to his throat into the shower drain.

"Kagamine san?" he called out. He bit his lip. What was he supposed to say? He felt himself tearing up again and he just let it happen. There was no use in trying to control it. "H-help me…" he called out feebly, his voice not much louder than a whisper. He cried as he hunched over again, nausea willing him to vomit once more, despite not having anything in his stomach to give up. He wretched pitifully, bringing up nothing but more water.

Hearing the telltale sounds of wretching, Rin's mom opened the door quickly and hurried in to tend to the ailing boy. She wasn't surprised to find him curled up on the floor of the shower, dry heaving. She frowned in pity and rubbed his back, trying to comfort him in some way.

"I'm sorry, Dear…" she mumbled. "You're really not feeling well, are you?" She watched him dry heave for a few more minutes before sitting up a little more and reaching up for the shower handle. He turned the water off and sat there for a moment, sniffling.

Rin's mom gently smoothed her hand over his forehead, brushing the wet hairs back out of his face. Len looked at her out of the corner of his eye. He debated just telling her how awful he felt. There was no use hiding it anymore, she already knew. He needed to just get it off his chest though. He hated not being able to share how he felt. It was so burdening to carry it all on his own…

Len's eyes filled with tears again, and he bit his lip, willing himself not to cry. Rin's mom noticed, however, and placed her hand on his cheek, turning his head so he was facing her.

"Hey, don't cry, sweetheart," she said sweetly. She wiped a tear away with her thumb. That was all it took for Len to lose it. He turned completely towards her and threw his arms around her neck, sobbing mercilessly into her shoulder. She instinctively wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, not caring that he was still soaking wet. She patted his back and hushed him, willing him to stop crying. He may not have been her kid, but he was still a kid. And no kid should have to go through pain like that by themselves. She was willing to hold him as long as he needed her to. That's what moms do.

"Shhh…" she hushed him. She began to rub his back, tracing large circles into his back with her palm. Len never understood why, but the sensation it gave always calmed him. He felt warm and safe in her arms, and he started to calm down. He was mad at himself for being a baby and having someone rub his back to calm him while cried, but he was more relieved than upset. Maybe it wasn't so bad to just cry every once in a while. After a few minutes of Len sniffling, Rin's mom asked if he was feeling any better.

Len sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "Mmm…" he mumbled. Heat rose up in his cheeks. He was still embarrassed to outright say it. "M...my stomach still really hurts…" He buried his face in her neck, squeezing his eyes shut. He wanted to just melt away into her warmth.

Rin's mom pat his back a couple of times. "You're shivering a bit, Hun," she pointed out. Len hadn't realized. "How about you get dressed and I'll take you back to bed, okay?" Len swallowed hard. He didn't want to leave her embrace. He didn't care that he was wet and cold.

"U-um…" he mumbled, unsure of what to tell her. He couldn't just say that to her. It was weird, and not to mention embarrassing. But he wanted to stay just a bit longer…

"I'm feeling dizzy," he muttered. He half lied. "I-I don't think I can stand up…" He nuzzled his nose deeper into the crook between her neck and her shoulder. He felt her take a deep breath, and his cheeks flushed red again.

"I'll help you up, okay?" she told him. Len tightened his grip on her. No, she couldn't…

Rin's mom felt his arms tighten around her neck and shoulders. He shuddered slightly. She frowned and put her hand on the back of his head, pulling him closer. She rubbed his back with the other hand.

"Honey, you can't stay here when you're soaking wet like that," she told him. Len didn't answer her. He just shook more. She sighed. "Come on, I'll lift you on three, okay? One...two-"

"I-I don't want to get up-" he said quickly, feeling the heat rise up in his cheeks again. Rin's mom furrowed her brows in confusion.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Perhaps his fever was making him a little delusional. She hoped that wasn't it though…

"...warm…" Len mumbled into her shirt. He squeezed her tightly. She sighed softly and smiled sadly. Poor kid…

She squeezed him back. "I know you wanna stay here with me, but if you don't dry off, you'll make yourself sicker, dear," she told him in a sweet voice. He responded with a quiet whine. Rin's mom was finding it harder to not give into his desire to stay. If she didn't do something, he probably would just stay there and risk getting worse. Rin's mom reached her arm underneath his legs and hoisted him up, then set him down on the edge of the tub in one graceful movement. He whined in protest when she pulled away from him, then curled in on himself, clearly trying to hide what made him a boy. She may have been a mom, but that didn't mean it wasn't embarrassing for her to see.

Rin's mom opened the bathroom closet and pulled out a fluffy red towel and draped it around his shoulders. Len shuddered and pulled it around him, holding the corners tightly to his chest. He was freezing…

"Dry off and get dressed," Rin's mom instructed. "Then I'll take you downstairs to the couch and get you a blanket, okay?" She rested her hand on his cheek for a moment, looking into his eyes. They were puffy and red from crying, still glossy, as if tears were still trying to force their way out.