The Wait: Love is the Best Medicine

"Haku, I like how caring you are, but this is getting ridiculous," Chihiro stated in a monotone voice. With her arms folded across her chest, she flatly stared at her boyfriend who was currently carrying ten one-liter bottles with him into the room, along with a huge pail filled with ice-cold water. A thick trail of water was forming on the floor, and Chihiro grimaced at the sight.

Haku put the bottles down on the study table, adding on to the other five she hadn't finished from the past three hours. Then he took the towel from her forehead and dunked it into the pail of water before placing it carefully over her head. She squirmed and made a sound of protest. "It's so cold!"

"Good," was his reply. He ignored her protests and pressed the towel onto her forehead. The frustrating thing was that she couldn't stop him or at least put up a fight, albeit a losing one. So she could only glare at him with as much energy as she could muster. She groaned at the numbness of her forehead. "I think I feel a frostbite coming on…"

Haku rolled his eyes. "No, you're not going to get a frostbite. I know the water better than you do. It won't do you harm."

She raised her eyebrow. "How can you tell, dragon?"

To that, he only smiled and said nothing. Chihiro would have pressed him on other occasions, but right then she was too tired to argue with him, so she settled with closing her eyes. "Are you tired?" he asked.

"Yeah. Tired of you."

"You're ill, and I'm just trying to do my best to take care of you…" he trailed off, sounding slightly hurt.

Chihiro was unaffected though. He had done this to her a couple of times for the past two days already to coax her into drinking till her bladder and stomach nearly burst. "That's not going to work on me anymore, Haku. I'm not drinking any more water for the next half hour at least."

He frowned. "You need to hydrate yourself more."

"Have you heard of water poisoning from drinking excessively in a short period of time? It's fatal. And I've been going to the toilet three times per hour, which, in case is normal for dragons, isn't normal for humans," she retorted.

Haku sighed. "Okay, maybe I'm worrying slightly too much…"

"Way too much," Chihiro pointed out.

"But it's only because I want you to get better sooner," he rebutted. "From what I've experienced, being sick isn't especially pleasurable."

"I know, I figured that much from what Shou said about you almost attacking him for making you take your medicine," she giggled with amusement.

Haku's eyebrow twitched. "That's not something I like to recall… And I only attacked him because he was being a pest."

Chihiro snorted. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Haku."

"Anyway," he said, changing the topics before she could get the chance to tease him any further, "the point is, it's my job to take care of you now."

She smiled at this and placed her hand over his. He instinctively intertwined their fingers and held on tightly. "You don't have to be so uptight over this. True, I can get sick easily, but I'm not that weak. I'll be fine; it's just a small fever. You can stop worrying so much; I feel bad when I see you so worried."

He stroked her flushed, hot face. "I don't think a small fever reaches 40 degrees, Chihiro. And I doubt I can ever stop worrying about you, love. But you are stronger than you seem to be, I guess," he added.

Chihiro chuckled smugly. "Just admit that I'm a strong girl. Maybe I'm even stronger than you."

"I highly doubt so," he laughed. He removed the towel momentarily to plant a soft kiss on her forehead, then put it back and pulled the covers over her. "Rest, I'll wake you up when it's time for lunch."

Chihiro nodded obediently and closed her eyes, but when she felt Haku moving away, she opened them again and tugged on his finger. "Stay with me, please?"

He looked back at her and smiled. "Of course." He interlocked their fingers again and sat down on the rocking chair by her bed, watching as she closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep quickly.

A few minutes later, Yuko's head peeked into the room. "Haku?" she whispered softly.

Haku tore his eyes away from the sleeping girl and turned to her. "Yes, Mrs. Ogino?"

"How is she?"

"She just fell asleep, and she's been drinking a lot of water."

Yuko's eyes trailed to the impressive number of bottles on the table and the huge pail beside the bed. "I can see that…" she murmured. She didn't know whether to be happy for Chihiro that her boyfriend was this caring; Chihiro could get irritated sometimes when she was forced to drink so much water since she never felt like it.

But if Haku could get her to drink so much water, it could be a good thing, perhaps. She was just worried that Chihiro may have to resort to diapers if she couldn't hold her pee in her sleep. Yuko chuckled to herself at that possibility.

"Well then, I'll be making lunch now. What would you like to eat?"

"Anything is fine, Mrs. Ogino. Perhaps porridge would be good for Chihiro?"

"I was planning on making porridge for her, but would you want to eat anything else?"

"No, porridge is fine. Would you like me to help out in the kitchen?"

"It's fine, dear, you've been running up and down to take care of Chihiro. Take a break, and you can help to look after her while I cook. Thanks for your help again, Haku. I really appreciate it," Yuko smiled sincerely at him.

He shook his head. "It's no trouble at all. Chihiro is my responsibility now too."

"Well then, I'm glad my daughter found a man like you."

"No," he smiled, looking at Chihiro, "I'm lucky to have found her." He touched her cheek with the back of his hand lovingly.

If Akio were here, Yuko would have nudged him and complained about how he was never this romantic with her when they were dating. I'm so happy for our daughter, aren't you? Yuko thought to herself, hoping that wherever her husband was, that he could see them and give them his blessings.

A/N: Yeah… it's a much, much shorter chapter compared to the others, haha. In my defense, there wasn't much to write since Chihiro is sick, so I made it as fluffy as I could (I was swooning while writing this lol).

By the way, I wasn't actually intending for you guys to get so worried for Chihiro; I only put it down that way because I couldn't really find a better way to end the chapter appropriately. Blame my amateur writing skills haha.

So in any case, I hope you liked this short update and stay tuned for more! Even though this update was short, do leave a review to tell me what you think yeah! I promise you, the next few chapters will be way more exciting huehue~

Yay for the reviewees the previous chapter:

AnimePriestessKikyan, NarutoSwag99, SAK00, SilentWriterGirlWithADream, HuntingStarlight, MiyukoLove, afraidofspiders, diety, SamsonandDelilah, lolli-dragon12, TheMagicManWithThePlan and Broken Orange!

Sorry for laughing at how panicked you got over Chihiro X'DDD I couldn't help it ahahahahaha~ *dodges tomatoes and angry pitchforks*

See you soon~ Love you and stay amazing!