Tourism 21: Holiday sniffles can be unexpectedly helpful.

Click.

"Huh?"

That wasn't a normal click. It wasn't the satisfying sound you get when a picture has been captured. This was a flatter sound. A duller sound.

I quickly turned the little toothed wheel on my camera and pressed the capture button again.

This time there wasn't click. There wasn't any sound at all.

I felt hollow.

"No, no, no..." I remember my eyes going wide and I felt almost as if my world was falling away around me. And now that I look back it must seem so stupid, but at that moment in time I felt so distraught. I couldn't think of a time I had ever been so upset before. "My camera's not working. It's not working!"

"Alice?" Tsukiyomi brows furrowed and he set down the paint palette. Hades looked up from unpacking his telescope.

"That was my last- I can't!" I choked out. My hands were shaking, my lips were trembling. I didn't know what to do with myself. I had been rather emotional all day- earlier with my anger and now this. My head was killing me. I felt like there was an immense pressure pushing down on my skull. My eyes were even beginning to water. I was such a hypocrite. After all my talk of hating crying and there I was with tears streaming down my face and showing no signs of stopping.

Tsukiyomi was the first to react. He strode forwards and had his hands on my shoulders, eyes upon my own, no doubt searching my face for a clue to why I was acting like this. I'm sure he must have been surprised. I'd never behaved like this before- not in front of him, or Hades, or anybody. "What's wrong?"

"I can't- I can't-" I could barely speak, my breathing was too erratic.

Hades had now abandoned his equipment and had rushed over. "You can't what?"

"I can't record! I can't remember!" I cried. "I can't!"

"Record?"

Their confused echo of my words was the last thing I heard before everything faded to black. I had feinted, I later realised. I had never feinted before. It was a rather odd experience. Everything goes dizzy, and then there's a rushing in your head, you can't support your weight and then bam. You hit the floor. I'm not sure if anyone caught me. They better have. Well... I assume they did because when I came to both Tsukiyomi and Hades were hovering over me anxiously.

"Roth, Roth." Hades called as I blinked myself back into consciousness. "Alice Roth."

"Hm?"

Hades breathed a sigh of relief as my eyes fluttered open. I looked up at him and Tsukiyomi blearily. They did their best to cover their looks of alarm, but they weren't quite quick enough for me to miss it. I watched them warily. "What's with the long faces?" I still hadn't remembered my freak out moment.

"Are you feeling well, Alice? You said some strange things..." Tsukiyomi said, feeling my head with the back of his hand.

For a moment, I was bewildered by their concern- then I remembered. "Shit... I can't believe I did that. Earlier I was so angry, I had a headache... Now I've cried about a disposable camera and feinted. I must be ill."

Tsukiyomi frowned. "You didn't fie-"

Hades cut in then. "We should probably head back early. You need rest." He and Tsukiyomi shared a look. They were trying to hide something from me. Tsukiyomi had been about to say I didn't feint. But I did. I blacked out.

Tsukiyomi stood. "You're very warm, Alice. You could have a fever. I'll go ahead and get some medicine from the school shop. Can you take Alice back to her room, Hades Aidoneus?"

At first Hades looked like he was going to disagree, maybe he was thinking about causing misfortune again, but then he steeled himself, nodding. "Of course."

And before I knew it, Tsukiyomi had run off and I was being given a piggyback ride by Hades. It had been a long time since I'd had one of these. My last piggyback ride had been at the age of eleven when I nearly did my Dad's back in after leaping on him by surprise. He told me firmly that I was a big girl now, too big for a middle-aged man to carry around on his back. I always poked fun at him for getting old after that. I guess I was annoyed. But I understood. I would not have a piggyback ever again if it meant keeping my Dad safe and healthy.

It was lucky for me Hades had the youthful gall of a spring lamb. Well, by that I mean he had at least enough strength to carry a fully grown woman. I felt a bit guilty since he was currently limited to human strength but it's not like I asked him to carry me. I probably should have protested like most heroines would do if someone offered to carry them. I'm not that noble though. The moment Hades suggested it I couldn't say no. I even overplayed how weak I was feeling. I mean, I probably could have walked- with difficulty- but I was seriously itching for a piggyback ride. As far as I was concerned I could just sit back (not literally because I would fall off) and enjoy the ride.

"Hades," I mumbled into the back of his shirt as we trekked back to the school campus. "Aren't you worried about causing misery by holding me?"

"I've already caused enough misery for one evening. I'm hoping your moment earlier will be the last of it." He told me glumly.

"Oh no, that wasn't your fault." I probably shouldn't have brought up misery in the first place, but now that we were talking about it I would at least let him know that he definitely wasn't the cause of it. "I've been feeling off all day. It's my own fault for pushing myself. This was all just a coincidence."

"It culminated around me though. There's no coincidence in that."

"No, no." I shook my head so fervently I ended up butting my forehead against Hades. He grunted in pain and I gave a quick apology before continuing (feeling slightly sicker after shaking my head like that). "Honestly, I was so ill earlier I thought I was going to strangle your brother. Literally."

Hades raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Don't worry. He has that effect on people sometimes. I should know."

"No, you don't understand. I was so mad. Livid even. I don't know what came over me."

"Feverish hallucinations came over you. People often become irritable or their imagination stretches when they have a high fever. It is common." Hades explained, readjusting me as I began sliding off his back. "As is weakness. Are you struggling to hold on?"

"Nah," I said and then began to slip again. "Okay, maybe I am." My limbs felt like jelly and was I flipping exhausted. All I wanted was to sleep and not wake up until Christmas. I could hibernate like a bear, but instead of waking up in spring I could wake up in winter, just in time to make merry on the best holiday of the year. I hoped we'd celebrate it here. I couldn't imagine missing Christmas.

I'm not sure but I think I heard Hades chuckle, probably at my quick change of mind. But I was delirious. What do I know? "Try and hang on for a little bit longer."

I nodded whilst attempting to stifle a yawn, and without the use of my hands, I ended up yawning into Hades hair. It was really gross. I got a mouthful of it. Luckily he didn't seem to mind. If I had had the energy I would most likely be embarrassed about it. "Hades?" I called.

"Yes," He replied unsurely, looking back to see me still spitting out bits of his hair.

"What do I do about my cameras?" I asked sadly, "I really love my cameras, you know?"

"You might be able to find another in the school shop," He answered, "And if not, there are always other ways to record memories. You can draw, or write... That's what you were upset about, right? Not having a way to document memoirs."

I didn't even know why I had got upset earlier. But I guess that must have been the reason. I found it funny Hades was able to come up with such a well established reason for my break down. I think I may have started to giggle. Like hysterical giggling. As I've said, I was delirious. I'm not quite sure about anything that happened. This is just my reconstruction. But I feel like this happened. I hope this is what happened.

I must have fallen asleep after that because my next memory is of me waking up to the sound of Melissa going on about how he had been right. "I knew it! I knew it! I said those boys would be the death of her."

"Melissa," I heard Yui's voice nearby. She was hushing him. "Quiet now. She's sleeping."

"Not anymore." I grumbled. I felt really sick, like super sick. My body felt like a volcano and I was profusely sweating. When I finally summoned the energy to open my eyes, blurred images of Yui and Melissa swam in front of my field of vision. "Oh man, I'm seeing doubles."

"You really are ill." Yui said worriedly, "I'll get you a cold towel for your forehead."

"Where am I?" I asked Melissa woozily, trying my best to focus my eyes on the clay monster.

"Your bed, Alice." He answered me in a mixture of amusement and exasperation. "Hades came stumbling in with you on his back yesterday. Tsukiyomi came in with medicine a little while afterwards but you were already asleep. You should take some when you feel up to it."

I looked over to my side and saw a glass of water and a medicine package sitting on the table. I smiled, despite feeling like a pile of shit. "Nice... Squad power."

On one hand, the outing had been somewhat of a disaster (no one to blame for that but me), but then also in some strange way, in the wake of my disaster, I felt that finally I might be getting somewhere with this squad of mine.

Ah... The typical fever scene, or was it? Haha ha hahha Mwhahahaha!

Just gonna say, I have so much fun writing this fic. I find it a lot easier to write than any other story I've started on this site. To be honest, its probably the one I'll finish first. And we've still got a little while to go yet.

Ooooh! And how does everyone like the little revamp I've done. With Alice's tourism pointers at the top of every chapter. This story is really starting to come together. It may not seem like it yet, but it is! Just you wait and see...

Happy reading!