VI - The Comfort

Anais, despite being much smarter than your average four year old, was still just that – a four year old. This meant, despite how much it embarrassed her, she still needed to take naps during the day sometimes.

This normally happened on weekends, since during the week, she was at school. Today, she had been instructed by her mother to make sure she got at least an hour of sleep, since that's what was still needed for her age group – she had done all her homework already, so she figured; why not?

There was only one potential problem: Gumball was sick in bed today, and Darwin was at a synchronised swimming meet, so wasn't around to keep him in check. Gumball had a high potential of being obnoxious and needy when he was sick, and Anais would be going right into his territory if she went into the bedroom.

But… she didn't really have a choice, if she wanted to avoid the wrath of their mother. Anais sighed, resigned, and braced herself for any potential moaning or requests. If she was lucky, he would be asleep.

Anais reached their bedroom door, and opened it quietly. She stopped, and listened for a moment – nothing. Daring to hope, she peeked inside and cast her gaze onto the bottom bunk.

Where she expected to see a miserable looking lump covered in blankets, or a large blue head, she instead saw nothing except rumpled sheets.

Anais frowned. She hadn't seen him around the house all day, and he definitely couldn't have left it – he was way too sick. Deciding she would worry about it in an hour since it wasn't her problem, she entered the room fully and made over to the bunk bed ladder, climbing it.

Upon reaching the top of her bed, Anais was abruptly given an answer as to why her brother wasn't on the bottom bunk.

It was because he was on the top bunk. Not under the covers, but lying right in the middle of it, curled up in a ball. He was breathing raggedly, and Anais wasn't sure how she had missed that obvious sound earlier.

She let out a sigh. There was no way she would be able to get into the bed with him in that position – he had somehow managed to find the exact most inconvenient place to fall asleep in. She would wake him up, get him to his proper bunk, change her sheets (...ugh) then take her nap. There was no way she was going to let him be and take the bottom bunk – it was full of sick germs!

She began this process by climbing the rest of the way up the bed and crawling over to her brother. When she reached out to wake him, she could feel the fever radiating off him – a brief pang of concern filled her chest. Maybe she would give him some panadol when he woke up.

"Gumball!" She said at a normal volume, not wanting to shout. "Wake up! Get back into your own bed!"

Gumball let out an incomprehensible mumble, furrowing his brow in his sleep. Anais tried again, this time shaking him a bit.

"...Wassat? Sis?" Slurred Gumball, finally opening his eyes. "What're you doin' 'ere?"

"This is my bed, Gumball," said Anais, rolling her eyes. Her tone softened. "Come on, let's get you some medicine and back into bed."

Anais gently helped him up, then guided him to the edge of the bed and down the ladder. "It's really comfy," said Gumball sleepily. "You're lucky, sis… your bed is really comfy…"

Anais made absent hums of agreement as she carefully made sure he didn't fall down the ladder. Gumball was still groggily talking about how good that position had been when he climbed in the bottom bunk, and when Anais pulled the covers up to his chin.

"Don't go to sleep yet," she informed him. "I'll be back with some medicine, okay?"

"...'kay," he slurred. Anais left to the bathroom, poured some panadol into the small cup, and came back as fast as she could, hoping he hadn't fallen asleep. He hadn't, so Anais handed him the cup and he sluggishly drank it.

"Alright, you can sleep now," said Anais. Gumball sank down into the sheets, closing his eyes, as Anais made back to the bathroom to put away the cup.

By the time Anais had changed her sheets and was climbing up to get into bed, Gumball was fast asleep and his breathing was slightly better.

An hour later, Anais woke up feeling refreshed. Yawning and stretching, she decided to lean her head over the side of the bunk to make sure her brother was still doing okay.

She hung her head down over the railing, her ears dangling down in front of her eyes. "Gumball?" She asked quietly, moving them out of the way. When the bottom bunk came into view, her eyes widened.

He was gone – of course he was.

"Gumball!" She exclaimed, sitting back up onto the top bunk.

Anais was just about to climb down and go search the house when a low groan emitted from somewhere below her.

"Whattttt…" came her brother's voice, muffled with sleep.

Confused, Anais quickly moved her attention to the desk, where the voice seemed to have come from, only to deadpan in exasperation.

Gumball was in the same position he had been in earlier on her bed, except this time he was lying on top of the keyboard attached to the computer.

"Wh-" began Anais, before deciding she wasn't even going to try with this one. Letting out a deep, long-suffering sigh, she began to climb down the bunk. It looked like it was up to her to make sure Gumball survived the day.

"Alright, you dummy," she groaned. "Please get off that keyboard, it can't be comfortable. Seriously," she finished, chastising. She made her way over to the computer, jumping up onto the chair in order to pull him off. "Not to mention how dirty it is, and you're sick!"

"But I love doing thissss…" moaned Gumball, letting her drag him off. She helped him back to the bed, this time just putting the covers over him rather than tucking him in. She was too annoyed at him for that – but she was satisfied to feel that his fever seemed to have gone down since last time.

"Okay, I'm going downstairs to watch TV; try to get some sleep, alright?" Said Anais, moving to leave.

"Yeah fine whatever," sighed Gumball, already half asleep.

About halfway through a fourth episode of Daisy the Donkey, Anais was distracted by some crashing noises coming from upstairs. A pang of concern filled her chest – Gumball hadn't fallen out of bed, had he? Closing her eyes and letting herself feel a surge of annoyance, she paused Daisy, and replaced the annoyance with worry.

She ran upstairs as fast as her small legs could take her. "Gumball-" she began –

Only to find, when she reached the top of the stairs, that the bathroom door had swung open and several miscellaneous products had rolled out into the hallway. Anais paused. Had Gumball gone to the bathroom and tripped? Had he tried to take a shower and fallen?!

Quickly, she rushed inside, only to find –

"What the – GUMBALL!" She yelled, now mad.

Her brother had once again proven he was of another world, this time having made himself comfortable in the bathroom sink. He was too big to fully fit inside, so he had decided to sit in it and stick his feet up over the edge instead.

"Oh heyyy, sis," said Gumball sluggishly. "Did you know that the sink is actually realllly comfortable? I didn't! We should tell Darwin, he might want a go…"

"Gumball, GET OUT OF THERE! Sinks are really really dirty, you know! And you're sick!" Yelled Anais, already having grabbed his hand to pull him out.

This time, Anais did pull the covers up to his chin, and made sure to tuck them around him very, very tightly.

Unfortunately for her, this was not the end of her brother's absurd escapades to find somewhere comfortable to sleep. When she went into the kitchen for lunch, she found that he had somehow found a way to get on top of the fridge, and was quite content staying there. When she checked outside the window upon hearing a strange noise from outside, she found him asleep on top of an empty flower pot. When she went into the laundry to deliver some dirty washing, he was asleep inside the open and empty washing machine, and then later on top of the newly clean and dry pile.

Anais knew that preteen and teen boys slept like rocks, but this was a bit ridiculous. He seemed to want to sleep literally anywhere that wasn't his own bed – the last straw was when she found him asleep right in the middle of the floor, in the prime spot for everyone to trip over him.

"Please stay in bed this time, Gumball," Anais said, exhausted, after another tiring session of dragging him up the stairs and into bed. "I can't exactly stay in here to make sure you don't leave – I have stuff to do! Plus, I really don't want to catch whatever you have, okay?"

Gumball seemed a bit regretful at hearing that, turning over in bed to look at her. "I… I'm really sorry, Anais," he said. "I just… can't get comfortable in here, and I have no idea why. My brain just isn't working today… I feel really warm…"

"I'll get you some more panadol – but please stay put, okay?" She replied, crossing her arms.

Gumball gave a sad nod, and Anais went to the bathroom to collect another dose. As promised, he was still there when she came back, dozing lightly. She woke him up and gave him the medicine, which he drank obligingly, sinking down further into the sheets.

When Anais went back downstairs, Darwin was coming in through the front door. Darwin! Anais perked up, and ran down to greet him.

"Darwin!" She exclaimed. "How was swimming practice?"

"Oh hey Anais!" Replied Darwin happily. "It was great! We have a new routine that I think is coming along really nicely," he said, his tone switching to one of concern as he closed the door. "How's Gumball? Any better from this morning?"

"Not really," sighed Anais, moving with him as he went to the laundry to put his swimming cap in the wash. "He won't stay in bed – I've had to police him all day, and it's been horrible," she said, a bit cross, but mostly concerned.

"Ah…" said Darwin awkwardly, moving his hand to the back of his head. "Yeah, I was worried that might happen. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him for you," he said, and Anais broke out into a beaming smile.

"Really?" She said, already imagining how much more Daisy she'd be able to watch.

"Yeah," smiled Darwin, moving towards the stairs. "I'm sure you've done a good job already!"

"He had some panadol a few minutes ago," she informed him. Darwin gave a salute, then disappeared up the stairs.

Once he was gone, Anais sighed with relief. Of course, despite her annoyance, she was always happy to take care of a sick family member – but it was nice to relinquish it to someone else for the time being. She settled herself down on the couch, and found herself uninterrupted by any of Gumball's misguided sleeping attempts for the next few hours.

This chapter is brought to you by my cats, who have slept in places including but not limited to: A suitcase half filled with clothes, the bathroom sink, the washing machine, on top of our printer, inside empty flower pots, on top of our clean washing, underneath a pile of our clean washing, inside the bottom draw of our pantry, down the side of my bed, and of course, the exact centre of my bed at the exact time I go to bed, and right in the middle of the part of the floor that gets the most traffic.