Hi again. I didn't give up on this I didn't I didn't NO I DIDN'T SHUT UP, I'VE BEEN SO FUCKING BUSY *throws chair at screen*

Don't worry about me, I'm just fine. I've been busy with exams and projects and dick friends and... just life in general. I'll try to update sooner next time.

Let's go! *throws myself off a cliff* by the way short chapter because I had no more time to make it larger, sorry!

When Ivan woke up, he made sure not to wake her up and tiptoe his way to the kitchen without being heard. Before walking away, he put a tender hand on Anita's forehead and holy sh- she was burning.

Ivan took an abandoned piece of clothing that lay on her counter and dampened it, placing it on her forehead afterwards. He saw her stir lightly and murmur a few nothings to her hair– or more a mess of golden strands sprayed around her head. Her cheeks were completely flushed and her breath came out in laboured, long sighs.

The caramel blonde glanced at the clock and pondered his thoughts. Going to Claire's so early would be a pretty bad thing to do. But Anita's health was at stake and he would do his best to get her back to her feet. He buttoned his shirt to the neck, put on his jacket and silently exited the house.

Half and hour later, a very anxious redhead opened the door with her pinkette coleage and the town's fellow teacher, who could now allow himself to breathe seeing her in good hands. Claire and Nellie started with their regular check-ups and brought out some medicine and notepads.

Dirk and Freya joined the scene, but were scarcely seen as Ivan took them out to speak with more privacy.

"What's wrong now?" demanded Freya, frowning. "I saw Nellie and Claire running here and got curious."

"More like worried sick." remarked Dirk after remembering how pale she had got after joining the dots.

The blue-eyed girl smacked his shoulder.

Ivan sweatdropped. His ease broke down with a sigh a few seconds later. "Anita's health is... weak, now." explained he. "She has been suffering of temperature swings, but I expect her to be back to normal soon."

"That's what you told Claire, right?" asked Freya, squinting her eyes.

"Yeah."

She could read him like an open book.

"Now, tell us what really happened."

Ivan pinched the bridge of his nose, an uncommon gesture of distress that he didn't do in purpose. Dirk knew about this and also came to realize how bad the situation had to be if he was so pale and so, so stiff.

"She got cold, then became a vulcano and collapsed." both newbies gasped. "Other than that, there's nothing new. Fainting, having heat attacks... none of that is new for her."

Newbie 1 and Newbie 2 exchanged glances and furrowed their eyebrows. Not so Newbie Ivan sighed, shoulders slumped with exhaustion.

"We were having such a tranquil night. She started sneezing out of the blue and I had to carry her to the bed." explained he, avoiding the fact that he slept with her

– only in the same bed –

and that he had seen that weird tattoo imprinted on her neck.

Freya smirked with devilish eyes. "Oh. And I'm certain you weren't willing to carry her, were you?"

Ivan hissed under his breath. "Jusshutup."

Dirk ignored that issue. He focused on the most important one right now: Anita's health. "Jikes! This isn't good at all!" murmured the teenager. "There must be something we can do!"

The other female nodded her head with fervor and agreeing with him. She wasn't going to let her free day go to waste, nor was she goin

"I'm afraid that's not a possibility." sighed Ivan. "This is on Claire and Nellie's hands now. We don't have any medical experience other than knowledge about colds and wounds– how would that help now? Besides, we don't know what Anita is suffering of in the first place."

Dirk's eyes hardened as they also shone with fueled determination. Anita was his friend as well. He had no say in Ivan's love life – and whatever that had happened the night before that Ivan wasn't purposely talking about. However, he would always rise to help her even if his brother restrained him.

Giving up wasn't a possible option. And, given Freya's nod, it seemed like he would have someone as a backup on this.

He wasn't giving up, not ever ag-!

"Listen to the smarthead, he knows his stuff."

The three of them turned to Claire, who appeared pretty tired on the doorway due to the early hours and the interrupted hours of sleep. She caressed her forehead to relieve her stress and exhaustion. There was a hint of worry in her eyes.

Ivan approached her, Freya and Dirk tagging along. "How is she?"

"It could be a nasty flu, book boy. Sadly, after some more deep checkups, it's worse than we expected."

The young girl and the waiter gasped, horrified. The teacher knew better than to lose his composure and swallowed.

"Her body isn't reacting to any of our medicine– more like she isn't reacting fully positively to them." her glance was cast on Ivan's eyes. "Her temperature swings are getting worse and worse. I'm not sure how long can a human being handle them, but I can ensure it's not a a very extended span of time."

Them all were taken aback by her words. Ivan was starting to breath harder and deeper than ever, Freya was sweating and Dirk had to sit down. The female dared to speak up. "What do you mean by... what could happen if she didn't...?"

Nellie appeared in the doorway as well. She was the next one to answer given she had been listening all the time.

"She'll most likely collapse out of mental and physical exhaustion." interjected she. "There's something wrong with her system we can't repel or locate. Her brain trying to knock her out of it so she can stop suffering..."

Dirk rose an eyebrow when Nellie trailed off.

"...but?"

Claire sighed. "Something else is making her stay conscious. Whether she's willingly staying awake, her brain is trying to shut her down. I think Anita is actually trying to cooperate with us, but..."

They stayed silent for a few seconds.

Then the redhead spoke again. "I think she's afraid of not waking up ever again if she gives up... and it's a logical fear. It's not a discarded possibility."

Three faces paled.

The other doctor would have liked to lessen the impact – because her friend had no touch with those things – but there was no other way around it. Anita could be dying, or she could get through it.

Nellie sighed as well. "We don't know what to do now. Anita's body rejects the paramedics and doesn't react to external contact. She's struggling between conciousness and a physical and mental breakdown. Sometimes she's aware of her surroundings, sometimes she isn't and goes into overdrive."

Ivan was seriously considering throwing up out of anxiety. His whole being was trembling as it was filled with both despair and shock. His eyes were going wild, his hair was starting to perk up and he was in the end positively quivering.

His whole body trembled.

Anita could be dying.

Anita could be dying.

Anita was not alright.

She was sick.

Oh so very sick.

Anita could be dying.

dying dying dying dying dying dying...

"...d-dying, dying, dying, dying, d-dying..."

Dirk got up and grabbed his brother's shoulders tightly, shaking his pale form. "Ivan! Ivan, snap out of it!"

He was violently shaking and blabbering nonsense to himself, his eyes lost somewhere else as his mind bounced to nowhere, skipping in between reality and what wasn't so present: his memories with her, a laugh, a tear, them quarreling, them smiling, them reading, them talking...

It was her all around him. Just the thought of her in such critical predicament made him just tremble more. He wasn't shaking, he was practically convulsing at this point.

"Oh my goddess!" Claire rushed to his side as Ivan's legs buckled underneath him and she got a hold on him. "HE'S HAVING A SEIZURE!"

Dirk stepped back to let them work, Freya screaming at Ivan to get a hold of himself while holding his scared brother. Dirk was left shivering at the sight of his ever-so-strong brother collapsing in front of him.

Ivan hadn't ever reacted this bad to these kinds of things. In fact, he never broke when his parents died. Or, if he did, Dirk never noticed. His older brother had reacted badly to those news, had cried hysterically and gotten a little bit tipsy some wine nights.

But, just start to melt at them?

Not ever.

Freta, on her part, was a loss at words. Anita was seriously ill and she couldn't do anything to lessen her pain. She was practically tied on this. She was useless now. It all depended on Anita and she hated that. In fact, had it been her with freedom to do whatever she wanted, and she would make fucking sure to bring Anita back.

Alas, all she could do was watch the events unfold to their own will.

When Nellie confirmed that Ivan had ended up fainting, she took him inside. Freya had wanted to follow her, but decided not to seeing how shaken Dirk was. Claire sighed.

"Well, if this isn't a problem...!"

"He fainted!? Are you serious!?"

"Yeah."

"How can that be true? Ivan is so stoic all the time! You gotta be kidding me!"

Kevin sighed. "It's not even close to a joke, Cindy. After hearing the news about Anita's worsening health, he had a breakdown."

Ethel spoke up with her raspy, sweet voice. It held pure worry nonetheless. "Is she that sick?"

Freya, who had sat down on the flowerbed in front of the square clock, glanced at the mass of people who had gathered around to listen to the news. They were being hard to assimilate.

"Yeah." breathed she. "It pains me to confirm the situation is that bad. Anita's breaking down bit by bit, her mind almost shattered at this point struggling to shut down. She's making the biggest of efforts to stay awake so she can cooperate."

She bit her tongue to dodge the topic about Anita being also afraid of a looming death in case she stopped fighting the illness. A shadow crossed Dirk's face, who nodded his agreement.

Lloyd stepped forward. "What does she have?" he wasn't one to show much care towards any individual, but after realizing how Anita had stopped visiting him to annoy the hell out of him, he gor nervous. He was now truly worried about his friend, a very important one.

Angelo glanced at him with furrowed eyebrows. He shared his concern towards the blonde girl and even made it deeper given how much he wanted to talk to her after her breakdown from sometime ago. She had made herself terribly scarce around town, and it made him worry and warn other villagers, who agreed on her strange disappearence and had gathered today to speak about it.

Yet, no matter how severe her illness was, he knew her enough to know her heavy head and confude on her to come back. She would no matter what, and Angelo knew that. He had faith.

"It's still unknown." answered Claire with crossed arms. "We don't know the source, its nature or its location. Her body ignores the medicine or digests it badly."

The whole town seemed to slump down when they heard this. Saddened whispers about Anita not deserving this and sighs from others invaded the athmosphere. There was also a whimper.

The Mayor looked down to see Lauren sniffling at the news. Cindy held her hand gingerly.

"Mom?" Claire looked at his son. "Is she... is Anita gonna...?"

Everyone jerked in anticipation. Claire, however, was touched by her son's earnest tone. She had never seen him so dejected in his whole life. Did Anita mean so much to him?

Kevin was looking at her, but his mom looked to her side, just as upset as her son. Kevin's eyes were watering up, but he was forcing himself to stay quiet and save his pride. He had never admitted how much he liked Anita – not in a crush way, but more like admiration – until he noticed her absence. He missed her a lot, just running around with her and laughing his day off.

Kevin believed in her so much, she had to push through and be alright!

"She's strong, Kevin." her eyes were looking at her feet. "She's the strongest for holding up 'till now. I trust her enough to come back, but we're not sure when she will."

Marian and Antoinette shared worried looks. "Will she be alright?" asked them both at the same time.

Judging by everyone's eyes, they were wondering the same. It was because they loved the upbeat farmer, because she had done so much for the community and because, damn, Ivan would be done if she abandoned them.

They asked, so Claire had no other option but to answer.

"I have no idea, son." she ruffled his hair attempting to shrug it off. "But she'll get over this. I can tell you that much."

"Anita...?"

Ivan crawled from the makeshift bed by the table to his love's bed, still numb from before and feeling sore to the core. But he didn't care. He needed to see her and just check her breathing.

Just...

Just in case she was in need for help. Even in his zombie state, he would make a cake for her if she asked. Anything for her welfare since he needed her back to keep on living in his right mind. He didn't need another corpse to bury.

Ivan needed her a little bit too much. He couldn't have her dying just when they had almost kissed, almost made up, almost cured each other's scars, almost-

Damn, almost everything! They had a lot of uncovered path to still walk! She wouldn't leave him while he was around.

Ivan arrived to ber bed and threw himself on her sleeping form. By what Claire had said before, this was a rare sight, so he drank from her peaceful face with tired eyes.

He gripped her hand.

She couldn't die.

He gripped harder.

She couldn't. He wouldn't fucking let her go.

Feeling drowsy from all the little movement he did and also a little light-headed, Ivan murmured sweet nothings to the comfy coverlet as he fell into a deep slumber.

His hand never lost hers.

*shipping overload*

*brotp overload*

*sick Anita overload*

*breaks*

I know little to nothing about mental breakdowns and seizures, so I hope you weren't expecting an accurate description. So not gonna happen.

*dies*