Tsuna was sick and miserable.
This was a little unusual since he was the kind of person who never seemed to get ill. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd caught a cold. And yet somehow, when he finally did manage to get sick it was with a rather aggressive chest virus that he'd contracted from god knows where.
As such, the brunet was quarantined at home and hadn't been to school since last week.
He'd been coughing non-stop for several days now and had finally lost his voice.
Everything hurt, but especially his chest. Just breathing too deeply was painful, and when a particularly strong coughing fit came on he would end up hunched over, shaky and teary-eyed by the time it stopped.
And he felt weak, limbs heavy.
On a few occasions just standing up for too long had brought on a dizziness that made him nauseous.
One time when he'd gone to the bathroom he'd had to stop halfway back to lie down until the hallway stopped spinning. Hayato had nearly had a fit when he found him like that. Probably thought he'd up and died or something. After weakly waving an arm and reassuring the dog that he was fine, totally not dead yet, Hayato had decided to join him on the floor in a show of solidarity until he was up to moving again. A minute later Takeshi had joined in for - what he could only assume was - the fun of it. Tsuna might have laughed if the action wouldn't have been eye-wateringly painful.
Then, the day before last, he'd woken up with a fever on top of everything else.
That had been the last straw for his mother and she'd finally dragged him to the doctor's. They wrote him up a prescription and the medicine had done its job wonderfully so far. His fever had broken overnight and the coughing reduced. Now he was optimistically looking forwards to a speedy recovery.
Currently though, he still felt like shit, and was lying in bed having just woken up from one of his long naps. The low orange glow of light through the curtains told him that it was probably late afternoon.
His body felt even heavier than usual and he glanced down.
It was a testament to his condition that Reborn had temporarily relinquished his territory to the other two. Hayato was at the end of the bed, lying across his lower legs, and Takeshi was curled up at his side, squished in between him and the wall with his head on Tsuna's stomach. Both seemed to be fast asleep.
Tsuna swallowed thickly, throat working. He had a headache, probably from dehydration, and felt like he maybe, probably needed a shower. He didn't particularly want to try getting up though, and he couldn't call for his mum.
He exhaled slowly through his nose and licked his dry lips. All three dogs had been hovering pretty much constantly near him ever since he'd started getting sick, so hopefully the eldest would be nearby as well.
"Reborn", he tried, just managing a croaky, barely there whisper. It sounded louder than he thought it would though, in the quiet of the room.
There was a long moment where he thought maybe he hadn't been heard, and then came the soft pad of paws on carpet. Reborn slipped through the slight crack in the door and made his way up to Tsuna's bed side where he made a soft sound, black eyes peering patiently at him in question.
"Mum, please", Tsuna said simply, knowing that Reborn would get the message.
His dog turned and left with a dip of his head, heading downstairs to retrieve Nana. Not a minute later she followed him back into the room, bringing a blessed cup of water with her. Reborn stopped just inside the door and sat while Nana gave Tsuna a small smile when she saw he was awake and came further in, placing the water on the bedside table.
"How are you feeling?" she asked quietly, stroking the hair back from his forehead.
Tsuna smiled tiredly.
"Not great, but, better", he said slowly, voice cracking terribly over the few words. He gingerly sat himself up with weak arms.
The sleeping pair of dogs stirred at his movements and woke up. Hayato had to roll out of the way as Tsuna dragged his legs from under him, but Takeshi just slipped down and ended up with his head on his thigh instead. The Kai Ken let out a jaw cracking yawn and shifted to get comfortable again, tail flopping happily when Tsuna absentmindedly scratched around the base of his skull. Hayato sat up attentively.
"You should take some more medicine while you're awake. Do you want tea? You need to keep your fluids up", Nana fussed, still speaking softly.
Tsuna nodded to the offer. Tea sounded nice.
"What about food?" she asked. "Feel up to some soup later?"
"Maybe, a little", he said hesitantly, not really feeling any appetite but knowing he needed something.
Nana smiled faintly in understanding and nodded.
"I'll bring the tea and medicine then", she said, and left.
The mattress dipped as Hayato came closer, carefully stepping in the gap between his legs and on the other side from where Takashi lay. Tsuna lift a heavy arm and gave one of those droopy silver ears an affectionate rub. Hayato's eyes closed and his tail gave a slow wag. Tsuna laid his other hand on the back of Takeshi's neck, slowly stroking down past his shoulder blades, then leaned his head back against the headboard and closed his own eyes, still tired.
He cracked an eye open as the weight on the mattress shifted again. Hayato moved away from his hand so he dropped his arm to his lap and watched the dog retreat back the way he came. The silver dog jumped from the end of the bed with a thump and disappeared into the hallway. The direction he left in meant he was probably going to the spare room down the hall where Shouichi was. Tsuna hadn't seen the guinea pig much the last few days.
Tsuna tried to stifle a yawn and winced when his chest ached and the dry skin on his lower lip stretched taut, threatening to split. He reached over and carefully picked up the water with his weak grip, taking a few long drags before continuing to sip more sedately.
After the much needed drink he placed the glass back down and glanced at Reborn while probing his lip with his tongue.
The dog now lay vigil near the door and seemed to be listening to whatever he could hear Nana doing downstairs.
A black ear swivelled and the dog turned his head slightly.
Hayato had returned, walking slowly. He dipped his head to Reborn as he passed the doorway and Tsuna spotted Shouichi, perched carefully in the groove between his shoulder blades, little feet gripping the silver fur. The dog had probably opened the cage to bring the guinea pig to him, having known that Tsuna felt kind of bad about leaving him alone for so long. Not for the first time, he wondered if he should find his animals' very high levels of intelligence more disturbing than he did. He guessed he'd just gotten used to it.
Tsuna gave Hayato an apologetic smile and scooped the guinea pig up before giving the courier a quick thank you pat. The dog sat down next to the bed with a satisfied air.
Shouichi whistled in greeting, nose twitching. Tsuna smiled and set him on the bed cover between his legs, where he sank in slightly. Takeshi opened an eye and rolled his head to give the guinea pig a quiet wuff in hello while Tsuna gently rubbed the back of a finger against one of Shouichi's fluffy cheeks. The guinea pig squeaked under the attention.
A few moments later his mother came back with a tray balancing a cup of tea, a small measuring cup of liquid medicine, and a chocolate to chase away the terrible taste afterwards.
Tsuna smiled gratefully but gave the measuring cup a frown of trepidation.
Nana just held the tray out and quirked an eyebrow meaningfully.
He eyed her but took the medicine and with a fortifying nod, knocked it back in one go. He instantly grimaced and held his tongue out between his teeth. It tasted even fouler than the average cold medicine.
Nana giggled at his antics while she set the tea cup on the bedside table for him, exchanging the chocolate for the medicine cup when he held it out to her. She nodded in satisfaction and gave an approving hum at the empty cup while Tsuna unwrapped the sweet, popping it into his mouth. She didn't say anything about the appearance of the guinea pig on the bed.
"I'm going to start dinner now. It'll be at least an hour though, so do you think you'll be hungry by then?" she asked, hugging the empty tray to her chest with one arm.
Tsuna tilted his head thoughtfully and gave a slow nod.
"Alright, I'll bring a bowl up for you then", she said. "You boys take care of him, hm", she smiled and said to the gathered dogs and guinea pig in parting.
That got a round of soft woofs, tail wags, nods, and a squeak in response.
Tsuna slumped down with a shake of his head.
Notes:
Reborn: ? Groenendael
Gokudera: long haired Weimaraner
Yamamoto: Kai Ken
Shouichi: red abyssinian guinea pig