Yeah, so I finally managed to get this one up . . .
Keith: She's a little worn out right now, so I'll be quick. Liulfr does not own any character that you recognize from the franchise, only me and the few random background characters that are created as this series continues.
Here's the chapter!
Chapter 10: A New Season Brings New Chaos
Prompt: I badly want a chapter involving Hojo, I mean, Omael; (Omael Hojo is now a part of my head canon, so thx for that) a bunch of chocobos; and pranking to occur. (Because the ff series fandom need more chocobo fics and I don't think I have found one involving pranks and Hojo yet, XD.) (Frorm Toyu on AO3)
-o0o-
Winter was always the worst season for Midgar, as it was the flu season for the city. Most of the city residents were used to the warmer climates, and so when winter rolled around, they were highly susceptible to colds and sniffling noses.
And since it was rare to have an employee born in a colder climate town, it was pretty easy to pass the bug around the normal SHINRA staff. Keith took colds very seriously, and so every time one of his janitors fell sick, they were put on leave until they got better. Sick days tended to pile up, so none of his workers lost out on their wages, but on the odd occasion one did not have any spare sick days, they were given a slightly lower wage for the days they had to take off.
And because Keith had grown up in a cold climate town, he had never fallen sick once during his time at SHINRA.
So it was understandable when Keith had taken his first sick day in years, that everyone started to freak the fuck out.
Which caused quite a headache for one Professor Omael Hojo.
-o0o-
It had been quite surprising for Omael when Sephiroth had willingly entered his office, sitting down on the couch and burying his face in his hands.
When the General hadn't spoken for several minutes, Omael was forced to leave his research and check on the man in order to sate his own curiosity.
"I assume there is something bothering you?"
Omael and Sephiroth had a love hate relationship. Sephiroth hated having all the tests done, but couldn't fault the scientist for doing his job. Omael was always curious as to how the J – cells were mutating over time, as Sephiroth was the only living SOLDIER to have the J – cells in his system for more than ten years, but he hated seeing the discomfort it caused the barely twenty year old socially awkward chocoholic.
"Keith is sick."
Omael couldn't help but stare at Sephiroth in disbelief. The pale blonde man was the healthiest person he knew, for him to fall sick, it had to be a major bug.
However, Sephiroth's next words made him retract those thoughts.
"He caught a cold."
Now that Omael considered it, Keith had been very stressed over the past few weeks from multiple experiments breaking out (Edmund refused to upgrade the security on his experiments cages), and Omael was well aware on how much sleep Keith had been losing out on.
He had seen the younger man close to the verge of collapse before, but Keith had never fallen sick even at those times.
And Omael knew how integral Keith was to the entire structure of the Tower.
"I guess everyone is panicking?"
Normally Omael would enjoy the chaos and panic that Keith caused with his very presence, but it was never fun when Keith wasn't there to enjoy it along with.
"I, knew Keith had a big impact on the rest of the staff, but never realised it was to this extent." Sephiroth sighed, rubbing at his temple to stave off a headache. It was only due to Omael's sudden pity for Sephiroth that he gave the chocoholic a Snickers bar from the small stash he kept in his drawers.
He was one of the few people who understood why Sephiroth was such a chocoholic. Due to the fact the mako enhanced a SOLDIER's metabolism the mixture of J – cell's in Sephiroth's bloodstream made him burn through calories and sugar much more faster than any normal SOLDIER. In order to keep up normal sugar levels, Sephiroth had to consume foods containing a high sugar count.
Chocolate just happened to be one food that was high in sugar and that Sephiroth enjoyed, but everyone else just thought that Sephiroth had an unnatural obsession with chocolate.
And right now, Sephiroth was about to have a sugar crash.
Sephiroth gave Omael a muttered thank you before tearing into the Snickers bar, and ended up hiding out in Omael's office of the rest of the day.
Neither of them was looking forward to tomorrow.
-o0o-
It took three days for it to finally sink in that yes, Keith was out sick, and yes, he wasn't coming back into work any time soon.
However, the mood of the Tower plunged to an all time low.
One that Omael took it upon himself to rectify.
No one knew how it happened, but they certainly did notice when they found a pack of Chocobo's roaming throughout the Tower. It was both hilarious and exhausting to watch the office workers to try and catch the birds, especially since they somehow knew how to operate the elevators and open the doors to the stairwells.
Not one janitor made an effort to help, having been informed in advance that they were to go on their day as usual and not help a single person wrangle the Chocobo's into submission.
In all the pandemonium, everyone forgot about the depression that had befallen the Tower, and ended up actually enjoying their day, chasing after the expertly trained Chocobo's.
-o0o-
By the time Keith's absence had hit the week long mark, even Omael was starting to get worried.
So he ended up dragging both Sephiroth and Tseng to Keith's apartment in order to find out what the hell was going on with his friend (and yes, he counted Keith as one of his few friends).
They ended up finding Keith buried under several layers of blankets, a jug of water at his bedside, and a very cranky purple lizard curled up on the headboard. It was painful to hear his rattling cough, Omael wanted force him to drink several cups of lemon and honey tea.
Keith looked quite surprised to see them there, until it crossed his bleary mind that Omael had gotten a spare key from him months ago. It took Keith a few minutes to reach full coherency to answer their questions, enough time for Omael to make lemon and honey tea that he made Keith drink at least half of the mug before talking.
"How did it get this bad?" Tseng was the first to ask a question, pulling up a chair while Keith actually took time to think how his cold had gotten this bad, showing how much the cold had been affecting him.
"Um, I thought it was a really bad head cold at first, so I called in sick and tried to sleep it off. It didn't go away, I had some Parecetamol and went back to sleep. Been too tired to really leave the house, and I don't have any cold medicine because I never really had a reason to buy it. Just been sleeping a lot." Keith muttered, his voice dreadfully hoarse and he took a long sip of the tea.
Omael couldn't believe it, it was at these times that he remembered Keith hadn't exactly had a normal childhood.
Which meant Keith was very ignorant about the most simplest of things, especially with how to treat a cold.
Both Sephiroth and Tseng seemed to realise that Omael was plotting something, and began to edge towards the door.
Only to find the door slammed in their face by a smug purple lizard.
"I think it's time you two learnt how to treat someone with a cold."
Sephiroth and Tseng were pretty certain that Cronkle was one Hojo's lizards, they knew no one else that had the same exact deranged grin.
-o0o-
They all ended up crashing at Keith's place that night, Hojo called up Veld and Lazard, saying that he was teaching the two of them a lesson, so they would be taking some of their sick days off. Once explaining that they were looking after Keith, there had been no resistance. (Sephiroth could have sworn he heard Lazard wish Hojo good luck with the endeavour).
Sephiroth had been left to ensure Keith kept drinking warm liquids while both Tseng and Hojo went out to get groceries, medicine and pick up the things they would need for the next few days.
And frankly, Sephiroth was completely out of his depth.
He could deal with seeing someone's limbs being cut off, blood splattered on his skin, organs oozing out of gaping holes in bodies, his SOLDIER's delirious from the mako injections . . .
But he had honest to god, no idea what to do, when faced with someone who was sick with a simple cold.
And that scared him.
Sephiroth had never felt so helpless in his life.
-o0o-
It was a week before they returned to the tower, a perfectly healthy Keith in tow. Sephiroth was unusually quiet and Tseng glared at anyone who pointed out his bad mood.
Keith ended up dragging both men to the Chocolate Ranch where they got a stern talking to from Denise which set the two of them straight.
There were a few good things that occurred from this incident.
The Tower had learned what would happen if Keith decided to quit, (something that would further influence how much they realised they needed the man), Sephiroth and Tseng knew how to treat a cold, and Omael finally got to use his pack of trained chocobo's to wreak havoc upon that pack of dunderheads that dared to question his intelligence.
-o0o-
A/N: So there, another chapter uploaded! Now I have to dig around for the next prompt I had in line, so it will be some time before my schedule (that currently does not exist) gets fixed. Which means it will be some time before the next chapter gets out. Hope you enjoyed this one, and have a great day wherever you are.
LiulfrLokison out! :3
