A/N: Thank you all so much for the nice reviews. I'm really going to try to keep up with the chapters and not let this story die.

Oh, and the pharmacies where I live really are this slow.

Mokuba opened his eyes and sat up, annoyed with himself for falling asleep for so long. A quick glance at the clock showed that it was three O'clock in the afternoon, and the doctor had left at ten. He stood up and felt his brother's forehead and was relieved to find that his temperature didn't seem to have gone up, but alarmed at the same time to find that it hadn't gone down, either.

Kaiba opened his eyes and looked at Mokuba, "what are you doing?" He frowned and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand in disgust, hoping Mokuba couldn't tell that he'd drooled in his sleep.

Mokuba took his hand away and reached for the thermometer, ignoring Kaiba's problem, "I have to take your temperature, Seto. Dr. Tsuzuki wants me to keep track of it."

Kaiba sighed, "I wish everyone would stop treating me as though I were an invalid."

Mokuba frowned, turned the thermometer on and put it in his brother's mouth, "what's an invalid?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes in exasperation, wondering why the boy chose such a time to ask him questions. When the instrument beeped and was removed Kaiba explained; "an invalid is someone who's very sick for a very long time and can't do a thing for himself. I'm hardly that bad off."

Mokuba nodded, writing down the figure on a pad of paper, "I see." He didn't sound very impressed. The phone rang and Mokuba jumped on it, beating his brother by a long shot, "Kaiba residence, Mokuba speaking. Oh, hi Dr. Tsuzuki, how can I help you?" Mokuba nodded, "alright, I'll tell Seto, bye."

Kaiba didn't wait for Mokuba to start talking, "what will you tell me?"

"That Dr. Tsuzuki called in a prescription for eardrops for you and we need to go pick it up. Or I do, anyway."

Kaiba shook his head, "no, I'm going with you. They might need to check ID. Are we going now?"

Mokuba sighed to himself, but didn't argue this time, "alright, you can come. But I don't want to hear one word about the office or anything like that. And you have to dress warm."

Kaiba nodded, unwilling to admit out loud that he wasn't feeling well enough to even want to go to Kaiba Corp and make sure everything was running smoothly. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and snagged a handful of tissues. When he was finished coughing, sneezing and blowing his nose he rose to his feet shakily, muttering something about buying stock in the company that made his tissues so that he could at least break even with all the money he was putting into them. Mokuba just laughed and patted his brother on the back, "alright Seto, wear these." He handed him some warm clothes, "you need to bundle up; it looks chilly outside. Maybe you should wear a hat to protect your ears." He looked at the said ears sympathetically, wondering how he couldn't tell earlier that they looked painfully red.

Kaiba finished getting dressed and pulled on his warmer blue coat, "I draw the line at a hat, I don't need one." He looked outside at the grey, overcast sky and snagged an umbrella, "it does look like rain, though."

Mokuba followed his brother out to the waiting limo, thinking how strange it felt to not have to jog to keep up with his much taller brother. Seto was walking much more slowly than Mokuba was used to, and the unhurried, almost dragging steps worried the boy more than most of his other symptoms. "Wait a second Seto," Mokuba stopped in his tracks, "you forgot to take you're allergy medicine today."

Kaiba turned back and looked down at his little brother wonderingly, "I told you before to stop worrying about me, Mokuba. You're going to make yourself sick. You should know by now that I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

The boy stared up at him with a very unchild-like anger, "then why don't you, Seto? You can't tell me that letting yourself get this sick is taking care of yourself. You're the most selfish person I've ever met. You don't care if anything bad happens to anyone else as long as your precious company is safe. You even let yourself get this bad just to keep it running the way you want it to. You won't listen to anyone. Don't you care about me, Seto? I don't know anything about taking care of someone who turned himself into an invalid." Tears welled up in the deep blue eyes as Mokuba hung his head, "I'm sorry, Seto, but I'm scared now. You have to take care of yourself and get better."

For one of the few times in his life, Seto Kaiba was absolutely speechless. He opened his mouth to talk, but couldn't find the words. He looked down at his feet quietly, then back at his brother, "alright Mokuba, I'll go take my allergy medication now. I'm very sorry to have worried you."

Mokuba nodded and trailed after him, "Seto, I shouldn't have said all that. It was really nasty and uncalled for. You aren't mad, are you?"

Kaiba looked down at him, his allergy meds in his hand, "no, why would I be mad? You're right, I'm not taking very good care of myself and I'm not setting a very good example for you. I guess I'm the one who should be apologizing, not you." That being said, Kaiba shook out two pills and downed them, "alright Mokuba," his voice was crisp and stern again, the way Mokuba was used to, "we've kept the driver waiting long enough. Let's go."

Mokuba nodded and walked beside him, still surprised at himself for all he had said. He glanced up at his brother, worried as he heard the older boy's breathing coming in heavy gasps, "Seto, are you alright?"

Kaiba nodded; his face obviously more pale than it had been, "I will be after I sit down." Kaiba had never been out of shape, despite the fact that he'd never actually done any physical work, and the fact that he was so exhausted unnerved him. The brothers reached the limo's door and Kaiba slid in and stretched out on the car seat, coughing in a moist, congested way that made Mokuba cringe as he took the tissue box from the driver's hand and shove four into Kaiba's.

Seto continued to cough into them and finally finished. After wiping his mouth he wadded them up in his hand, looking around for a trash receptacle.

Mokuba plucked them out of his hand and tossed them in the small can near his seat, "alright Seto, we're almost there." He felt badly for Kaiba, who was rubbing his right ear and trying not to look as if he were in great pain.

Kaiba nodded and let his eyes drift closed, despite the fact that they had almost reached their destination.

Mokuba nudged Kaiba's foot, "Seto, we're here. Come on, the sooner we get your medicine, the sooner you can go back to sleep. Dr. Tsuzuki told me that you should get some OTC stuff as well. He said you'd know what that meant."

Kaiba nodded slowly as he pulled himself out of the car, "over the counter. It's just normal cold and flu medication that you can buy without a prescription." He walked up to the pharmacy counter, trying not to look as sick as he felt, but failing miserably, "Kaiba Seto. I'm here to pick up a prescription that was called in for me." He handed the woman his ID.

She took it and left the counter, only to return a few seconds later, shaking her head, "I'm sorry sir, but it's not ready yet. Would you care to take a seat and wait?" She motioned toward the wooden bench not too far from where the boys stood.

Kaiba was furious, "no, I would not care to take a seat and wait. Is it your custom to force already ill people to spend more time in this dumpy little store when they should be at home resting?"

Mokuba tugged at his brother's jacket sleeve, "Seto, let's go get that other stuff while we're here, alright. I'm sure that she'll page you when it's done, right Miss?" The woman glared at Kaiba, but nodded. As he and Mokuba were leaving the woman muttered something about spoiled rich brats who expect everything given to them right then and there. Mokuba's sharp ears caught her grumbling and he turned and glared at her, but said nothing. Fortunately for her, Seto couldn't hear much of anything, so her job was safe.

Mokuba came back to the counter and grabbed a handful of tissues from the box that rested there and then he ran back to his brother, who was in the middle of a violent sneezing fit. He snatched the tissues from Mokuba's hand and buried his face in them while Mokuba patted his arm, hoping that he would stop soon. When Kaiba finally did stop he straightened up and wiped his nose, "alright, I need to find something that's going to help make this stop. It's getting annoying."

Mokuba walked down an isle and came back with some nasal spray, "how about this, Seto?"

Kaiba took the bottle and nodded, "this will work, I guess. I'm not overly fond of this method though; it makes me sneeze even more."

Mokuba smiled to himself, thinking that Seto couldn't be feeling very sick if he were complaining about everything still, then he reached out to take the spray back, "do you want me to find something else?"

Kaiba shook his head and tossed it into the hand basket he was carrying, "don't bother, I'm not a fan of any type of medication. This is just as good as any other." He put a few more things in his basket that he thought might help him just as his name was paged over head. The pharmacist himself presented Kaiba with the eardrops as soon as the young man walked up to the window. He explained that the woman was new and didn't know that she was to alert him when Kaiba came for his medication so that he could get it ready quickly. "Spare me, please." Was the salty reply to all of the pharmacist's rambling, "I just want to get home and back into bed. I'm assuming that I can pay for this here." He waved a hand at the basket.

The woman opened her mouth to let him know that it was against regulations to make a normal purchase at the pick up window, but the pharmacist cut her off, "of course you can, Mr. Kaiba. In what manner will you be paying?"

"Cash," he pulled out his wallet and handed the woman a few bills, took his change and walked back out to his limo, "that was painful." He coughed deeply and opened a package of cough drops, popping one into his mouth before reading the instructions of his prescription. "How long will this take to work, I wonder." He twisted the top of the eyedropper, breaking the seal, and put the white liquid in his right ear. It was all he could do to keep from yelling in pain when the solution went into the ear canal, "what in the world did that old fool do to me!" He wasn't crying, but his eyes were watering as he used a tissue to try to get it out.

Mokuba bit his lip and patted his brother's arm gently, "we'll call him when we get home, Seto. Don't do the other ear until we know if it's supposed to hurt like that or not."

Kaiba nodded, biting his lip to contain another outburst and tilted his head to try to get every drop out of the ear. He sneezed again and rested his head in the palm of his hand, "I didn't know that any one thing could hurt that badly." He blew his nose, which had started to run during the ordeal with the medication and was aggravated by the sneezing.

The driver opened the door, having come to the house as Kaiba was having problems. Mokuba got out and offered his hand to Seto, who took it gratefully. Kaiba's hand trailed up to his forehead and he groaned.

Mokuba opened the door and got his brother settled on the couch, "alright, I'm going to call that doctor and make sure he didn't accidentally poison you or something." He ran off to call Dr. Tsuzuki as Kaiba blew his nose softly again and tried not to touch his sore ears.

Mokuba came back, gnawing on his lip in thought, "he said that it was normal to have some discomfort when you put it in, so there's nothing to worry about. You can keep taking it."

Kaiba looked at Mokuba incredulously, "are you kidding me? That was not discomfort. Discomfort is stubbing my toe in the dark; that was searing pain. There's a big difference."

Mokuba nodded sympathetically but held out the medication anyway, "I know, but he also said that your ears were really infected and you need to take it. He's known what he's talking about so far Seto, so I think we have to assume he knows what he's talking about now. Do you want me to hold your hand or something when you put it in?" He held out his other hand to Seto seriously.

Kaiba looked up at his brother to make absolutely sure that he wasn't making some sort of weird joke before shaking his head, "that won't be necessary Mokuba, thank you." He took the bottle, closed his eyes and put the liquid in, his eyes tearing up again, "that really hurts!"

It was very unlike Kaiba to complain about pain, and it scared Mokuba rather badly, "I'm glad you didn't hold my hand, Seto. You would have killed it." He looked at the pillow Kaiba was clutching tightly and shook his head, "I'm sorry it hurts you so much, but you have to do them both. He said that the left ear was worse than the right one because at least you can hear out of the right one."

Kaiba glared at his brother, "stop telling me what he said. He is a quack." Kaiba put the medication in his other ear none the less and bit his tongue to keep from crying out. He then sneezed and wiped his nose, which was getting very red and sore from all the attention he was giving it.

Mokuba sighed, "you really should stop calling him a quack, Seto. I think he knows what he's doing."

Kaiba closed his eyes, "if you say so, Mokuba. Could you hand me that cold medicine we bought?"

Mokuba looked confused as he went over all the stuff they'd brought home. Aside from the nasal spray they'd gotten night time liquid, day time liquid, cough drops and decongestant, "I hope you aren't thinking that you're going to take all this at one time. You're going to OD if you do. What one do you want to take now?"

Kaiba sighed, "how about the day time stuff? If I take anything else I'll be awake all night."

Mokuba nodded and handed him the small plastic cup and watched his brother down it in distaste, "at least it doesn't hurt; right Seto? What do you want to do now?" He patted Seto's head and smiled at him.

"Do you mean 'what do I want to do' as in what would I like to do, or 'what do I want to do' as in what you are going to let me do?" Came the dry reply.

Mokuba sighed, "we'll watch TV, alright. You aren't allowed to work, which I know is what you're thinking." Mokuba flipped the TV on and turned the channel to an educational program, knowing that his brother was less likely to protest if it was something he would like to watch. Kaiba nodded, not really looking at the TV. He yawned sleepily, despite the fact that he said that he would rather stay wake. Mokuba smiled and patted the broad shoulder again, "go to sleep Seto. You need it." He didn't need to have said anything however, as the blue eyes were already closed and the young man's breathing was congested, but regular.