Author's Note: I told you all that I would update fast, and for perhaps the first time in my fanfiction writing career, I've delivered (at least, I have according to my standards). Though, it helps that I'm now out for summer vacation, and therefore don't have anything better to do than provide strangers on the Internet entertainment.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket. I do own this story however, and that knowledge somewhat helps to fill the void.
Chapter Two: In Ayame's Hands
If asked, most people who knew Ayame would claim that he was a morning person. And while this was true, it wasn't necessarily accurate. He wasn't strictly limited to mornings alone. He was also a night person, an afternoon person, and a whatever-time-that-was-in-between person. Shigure had once told him that there was a period around 2:57 p.m. where he would start winding down briefly, but other than that, he usually had energy to burn. As a result, Ayame's sleeping pattern was hopelessly erratic, though not quite bad enough to rival Shigure.
But usually even he could be trusted to sleep in a little on a Sunday. So when the snake woke up at six thirty that morning, he wasn't able to understand why his body kept urging him to get up. It wasn't like he had anything pressing to attend to. The shop was closed today, so there wasn't any work to do down there, he didn't have any current plans that he was aware of, and Yuki probably wouldn't even be up yet…
Ayame bolted upright. Yuki!
Swiftly, the silver haired man jumped out of bed and ran towards the closet. After maybe half an hour of dressing, primping, and making sure that his appearance met his own high standards, he headed towards the living room.
Yuki was exactly where Ayame had left him last night. Curled up on the couch, though the blanket the snake had given him appeared to have been kicked off sometime during the night.
Ayame frowned, and tried not to think about the possible symbolism that entailed.
Briefly, he considered just letting the young rat sleep. In his experience, nobody liked being woken up unnecessarily at seven a.m. (Hatori certainly didn't) and maybe if he prepared breakfast before getting Yuki up, Ayame could convince his brother to stay a bit longer. The boy had fallen asleep before they had gotten the chance to talk much last night.
But then again, knowing Yuki, he probably would want to leave as soon as possible, and trying to force him stay would only make him dislike Ayame more. And besides, Tohru was probably worried sick about him. It would be selfish to keep him here.
Sighing in a soft, self sacrificing manner, Ayame reached out and gently shook his little brother's shoulders.
No response.
Frowning, Ayame shook him again, this time a little harder. Still nothing.
Okay, Shigure had warned him that Yuki could be a little difficult to wake up in the morning (actually, the word the dog had used was dangerous), but this was ridiculous.
"Yuki," he called. "Come on, wake up."
At last, there came a sign of life in the form of a grunt.
Somewhat encouraged by this show of acknowledgement, Ayame doubled his efforts.
"Time to get up, little brother! The sun is shining, the birds are singing and it's going to be a beautiful day!" Ayame cooed in a sing song voice. And it was true. The only evidence that it had rained at all last night were the wet streets and numerous puddles that had been left behind.
Ayame was rewarded by a slit of violet through cracked eyelids. For a few eerie seconds, Yuki just seemed to gaze right through him without truly seeing anything at all. Then his eyes were shut once again, closed off to Ayame as well as the rest of the world.
I give up, the snake thought, throwing his arms up in defeat. "Fine. Don't get up. If you're really so eager to stay with me a bit longer, who am I to deny you?"
There was another small groan of irritation, but that might have been because Ayame was persisting in talking to someone who was still mostly asleep.
He shrugged, figuring that if the boy was so determined to sleep in, he might as well make breakfast after all.
As if somehow sensing Ayame's decision and trying to show his approval, Yuki turned over to his side, causing the blanket crumpled at his feet to fall off completely.
Smiling to himself, the snake picked it up and gently smoothed it over Yuki's form.
Only to have the juunishi kick it off once again.
Ayame blinked, and tried to ignore the sudden wave of hurt. Did Yuki really hate him so much he couldn't even accept a blanket from him?
No, that was silly. His brother wasn't even fully conscious. There was no way dislike could go so far as to affect someone on an instinctive level. Ayame tried again.
"No," Yuki murmured, much to Ayame's surprise. It was the first real word he had said all morning. "Too hot."
Too hot? It couldn't be too hot. Ayame was always very careful with his thermostat. He had to be in order to avoid transformations.
Then again, looking closer at him, Yuki's face did look a bit flushed. Was that sweat on his brow?
Concern beginning to grow inside his chest, Ayame reached out and lightly touched his forehead.
And he ended up agreeing with the young rat's previous assessment. Too hot. Much too hot.
Eyes widening, Ayame made a beeline for the phone, rapidly dialing the number he knew by heart.
"Hello?" the familiar voice on the other end of the line asked.
"Haa-san!" Ayame cried, feeling certain that he had never been happier to hear the other man speak in his entire life. "Yuki's hot!"
There was a long stretch of silence before Hatori finally answered in an exasperated, slightly scolding tone, "Ayame, I know that you believe that those kinds of jokes are funny, but I really don't think that you should be saying things like that about your own brother."
"NO! Not that kind of hot! I mean hot, hot! Feverish hot!"
"What?" Immediately, the voice changed into something clipped and professional as Hatori's medical training kicked in. "Yuki's sick?"
"Yes! He's sick and it's completely my fault. I should have made him change earlier! No, I should have told him to take a bath! Oh, I am the worst big brother in the entire world!" Ayame wailed, his voice rising to decibels that ordinarily would have been unheard of for a man.
"Ayame," Hatori said, somehow managing to keep a hold on the phone with his ear intact.
"He's going to die, isn't he? Yuki's dying and it's my fault!"
"Ayame," Hatori repeated.
But the snake was on a roll. "I should be arrested! I've murdered my little brother! What am I going to tell Tohru? She'll be heartbroken. And what about Haru? He'll go black and kill me when he finds out! You know how much he's always—"
"AYAME!!!!!!"
Stunned, the snake stared at the phone, almost unable to believe that the roar had come from Hatori.
"Calm down. Deep breaths." Hatori advised. But eventually the doctor had to tell him to stop, because at the rate Ayame was going, he sounded like he was on the verge of hyperventilating.
"Now tell me what happened." Hatori commanded.
And Ayame did. He told the whole story from start to end, and as a testament on how worried he was, he told it completely without embellishments.
"It sounds like Yuki has the flu to me." Hatori remarked thoughtfully after the symptoms had been described. "That has been going around lately. He probably caught it from someone at school, and when his body got chilled he became all the more vulnerable."
"So it is my fault then," Ayame said quietly, a bit more subdued now but still not quite past his guilt trip.
"I don't know, Ayame." the doctor admitted with a sigh. "He might have just gotten sick anyway. But, even if you are to blame, there's no point in dwelling on what you could or should have done. All that matters right now is making sure that Yuki gets better."
The silver haired man smiled. "You're right. You always are. And I swear that I will do everything in my power to make sure my adorable little brother gets back to his vibrant, healthy self!"
Hatori, sweatdropping slightly at the sudden mood swing, shook his head. "That's good…I guess. If I'm right, Yuki's illness should mostly run its course in about twenty four hours. Just make sure he gets plenty of rest and drinks lots of fluids. Normally, I would come over and check on Yuki myself, but as I said before, this flu is going around. I have dozens of patients that I need to attend to, not to mention that Akito has also managed to catch this little bug. Between him and everyone else, I have no time to spare."
"That's all right! Just leave everything in my capable hands!"
Before Hatori could reply or give any further instructions, Ayame had hung up, leaving him staring at the phone in bewilderment.
Returning the receiver to its cradle, Hatori let out a small sigh. "Poor Yuki."
Yuki had always been a completely rational child. He had never been prone to dramatics or wild fantasies such as monsters lurking under his bed or in the shadows. He had never needed to be. Nothing in his imagination could have ever competed with the reality of Akito.
So, despite the fact that his head felt like someone had stuffed it with cotton, his limbs ached, and his body temperature kept switching from hot to cold at random intervals, Yuki knew that he couldn't be dying.
"Never fear, dear Yuki! Your wonderful elder brother is here to cater to your every need!"
However, the sight of Ayame in full nurse's garb, complete with hat (though he was wearing pants, thank God) was enough to make him wish that he was.
"What are you wearing?" Yuki demanded, sitting up slowly, much to his body's protest.
Ayame beamed and twirled around to give his brother a full view. "Do you like it? It's a feature from my new men's collection."
Yuki frowned, trying to fight off visions of what else Ayame might have created for his "men's collection".
"I'm leaving," Yuki declared flatly, slowly standing up on legs as shaky as a newborn foal's. He felt certain that if he didn't, one way or another he would end up finding out.
He managed maybe two steps before collapsing.
It all happened so fast. One second, Yuki's body was plummeting towards the ground, the next he was being held in place by a pair of arms.
"You can't leave today, Yuki." Ayame gently explained, balancing the boy precariously by the shoulders. "You're too sick. Haa-san thinks you might have the flu. I already called Shigure, and he said that it would be fine for you to stay another night."
Yuki shook his head. He was still too dazed by his tumble to recognize the logic in his elder brother's words, and the fever wasn't helping.
"No," he murmured. "I can't stay here. Not with you." Pushing Ayame's arms away, the rat attempted to walk once more, this time using the arm of the couch as support.
"Come on, Yuki! You can't just go! You're only going to make yourself worse!" Ayame protested, seizing the boy's arms and attempting to guide him back to the couch.
Yuki tried struggling, but unfortunately in his weakened state, Ayame's strength was far superior. Eventually the snake managed to force Yuki back on the sofa.
"Look," Ayame began, seeing that Yuki still looked as if he was ready to bolt any second. "I know you don't want to be here, but moving wouldn't be good for you right now. And you may not like me, but I'm still your big brother and I want to help you. So I'm asking you to please, just this once, let me take care of you."
Let Ayame take care of him? The very idea went against Yuki's nature, and any other time he would have refused. But he was just so tired, and as he looked into his brother's pleading, genuinely concerned eyes, he could feel his resolve crumbling.
The boy sighed, and finally said, "Okay."
Yuki's illness is a new kind of flu that I've invented for this story. Therefore, if you see some symptoms that ordinarily wouldn't exist for influenza, or some key ones are just omitted altogether, it's because I am shamelessly tweaking them to fit my needs.
Please review! You're feedback makes my day!