He had known the moment he saw her that she wasn't well that morning. The whole class was in chaos preparing for major examinations that day, but she caught his eyes the minute she entered the classroom, her pale skin stealing his attention from the piles of notebooks on his desk.
"Are you alright?" he asked as she took a seat next to him, noticing the pallor of her skin almost matching the tint of the pile of notes before him, save for the light flush stretched across her cheeks.
"I'm fine, just a little tired. There was so much to study", she said, glassy eyes squinting at the mild morning glare from the window beside him.
Takeru sighed. It's not like she needed that extra effort. She was almost top of the class as it was, and was probably already one of the most diligent students in the class, if not of the entire school.
"Did you get any sleep?" Takeru asked, though the bags under her eyes already told him all he needed to know.
"A bit," she answered with a little cough.
"What was that?"
"Nothi—" she tried to say, but was cut off by a full blown fit. Takeru was immediately by her side, rubbing gentle circles on her back until the fit settled.
"Sorry," she says, catching her breath. "Choked a bit."
They both knew she was smarter than him, but she couldn't sincerely believe he was that dumb. Takeru looked her dead in the eye and said, "You're heading straight home, Hikari Yagami. Now."
"But our exams!"
"I'm texting Taichi," he said, pulling the flip phone from his back pocket.
"No!" she said with enough strain to spur another fit.
"Have you heard yourself?!"
"He has a big game today," she barely managed though the coughs.
"And you've got pneumonia or something. I'm calling," he said, bringing the phone up to his ear.
"Please," Hikari pleaded, looking straight into Takeru's eyes and placing a hand on his. Her gaze is glassy but intense. "It's the finals. He's been training for it for months. I don't want to—" she said before cutting off into another series of coughs.
Takeru sighed as he continued to rub her back, hoping it would help calm whatever was raging in her chest. "Fine. I won't tell him but you have to go home now."
"But the exams! What if I fail and don't get to university!"
"You won't need a university if you die before then!" he argues, trying to pull her from her seat, but she was planted firm.
"I'm not dying, Takeru-kun.", though with the rasp of her voice right now he could have guessed otherwise. "I'll just take the tests, pass by the photography club, then head straight home. How about that?"
"You're still thinking about clubs?! Hikari-chan—"
"Okay, okay! I'll just take the tests then head home. Could we stop arguing please? I'm getting a headache."
Takeru sighed once again. He knew the Yagami in her was not going to give up once she'd set her mind on something, but still he couldn't shake his worry for his best friend. In fact, he felt he was more worried about her right now than the tests they were about to take.
"Fine, but we're passing the nurse's office for that headache," he said, and even Hikari couldn't argue with that.
The nurse gave Hikari some cold medicine to get her through the day. Takeru passed by a vending machine and got her a bottle of warm tea to drink, and a can of chilled cola to press on her cheek the whole way back. At first she flinched at the cold but the cool was so comforting she couldn't even be annoyed.
The tests went on more or less without incident, except for their teacher initially suspecting the two of conspiring to cheat, but this was only because Takeru turned to Hikari in concern at every cough or sniffle.
The teacher could have sworn it was some form of cheating, some mode of communication, but when he peered over the boy's answers to confirm his suspicions Takeru heard their teacher clearly stifle a laugh at some of them before going on his merry way back to the front of the class. (He thought he should have been irritated at this, but between worrying about the test and Hikari's sounding increasingly worse throughout the day he simply couldn't be bothered.)
The minute they were dismissed, Takeru was standing by Hikari's desk to walk her home. She was so exhausted she didn't even stand. From her seat, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her head into his abdomen for comfort.
This took Takeru by surprise, because Hikari was typically more restrained, but when his hands brushed her neck, and then her forehead he knew she was doing much worse than she was this morning.
"You really don't feel good, do you?" he asks, though he already knew the answer.
"I'm ok—" she tries to say, but is broken off by a coughing fit. Once it settles, she rests her head on his stomach, perhaps now too winded to even respond.
"You are not okay," he says, pulling her up from her chair with a little more effort than usual. "Come on, let's get you home."
Takeru walks Hikari to the school parking shed to fetch her bicycle.
When Hikari gets her hands on her bike though, Takeru notices she is a little unsteady on her feet. "Do you think you could manage the ride home?" he asks.
She's barely lifted a hand to form a thumbs up, when another coughing fit overcomes her, both hands occupied covering her mouth and causing her bike to fall to the ground. Takeru is by her side that second, rubbing circles on her back.
"This is what I was worrying about earlier," he says, his voice painted only with worry.
"I'm sorry, I felt fine this morn—" she is cut off by another coughing fit. Takeru sighs, as he continues to rub her back.
Once the fit is done, Takeru picks up the fallen bike and sets himself on its saddle. "Come on, I'll pedal, just hop on," he says, patting the bike's rear seat for her to mount.
"Takeru-kun, I'm fine. I don't need—" but another coughing fit tells them both otherwise.
"That sounds nothing like fine. Now, come on," he says so firmly she can't help but concede. When she mounts the rear seat, she initially plants her hands on the seat. She is clearly trying to keep her distance from Takeru, perhaps in an effort to keep him from catching whatever she has. She had already gotten too close in a moment of weakness earlier, and she probably did not intend to have another one.
When Takeru notices though she still has some trouble keeping steady on her seat, it is he who secures her arms around his waists. "Does this help?" he asks.
She almost resists, but it clearly helps. This close, she could feel the cool folds of his uniform, the comfortingly soft tips of his hair almost brushing her face. His familiar scent fills even her dulled senses.
So she concedes, and wraps her arms more tightly around him, resting her forehead for a second on the square of his back. She nestles her head onto his back in a nod. Her fever is so glaring that he could feel the heat of her forehead searing through the thin cloth of his uniform.
"You're really warm," he says with a sigh.
"And you're really cool," she says breezily.
"We could take a taxi if it's more comfortable. I could come back for your bike later," he offers, worried she might lose consciousness or her balance on the way to her apartment.
"This is fine," she says, still savoring the comfort of his clothing, the his soothing scent relieving her heavy head.
Takeru sighs. He wants to argue for the taxi, but thinks that might just waste valuable energy Hikari just doesn't have right now. Besides, the time wasted hailing the cab in the afternoon sun might be better used actually getting her home anyway.
So instead resigns to wrap one hand around hers, to secure her arms around him. Biking with one hand would be a struggle, but Hikari losing her hold and falling off the bike would be an even bigger problem.
In a while, they arrive at the Yagami residences (Takeru is almost sure Hikari had indeed dozed off a few times on the way, but just made sure to fasten her arms around him even tighter when he felt this.)
Hikari tries to immediately send Takeru off when they arrive, saying he's done enough for her as it was. She's already caused too much trouble, but Takeru is having none of it.
"I've come all this way and I can't even have a cup of tea?" he says with an expectant grin.
Hikari blushes, embarrassed she hadn't thought of it first. Of course it was the least she could do for all his trouble.
As they arrive at the apartment, Hikari tries to remember where the family tea leaves are, but her head is fuzzy and thoughts come slow. The minute she finally remembers where to find the tea though, Takeru has already beaten her to it (by now he knows every corner of the Yagami apartment, from having to tend to Hikari for this precise same situation a few dozen times before.)
She almost tries to protest before realizing she barely has the energy to. She barely has the strength to stay standing at this point, and if she were completely honest the room was starting to spin.
So Takeru banishes her to her room to change into more comfortable clothes, while he waits for the teapot to boil. With some effort, she emerges in her pajamas (she can't even feel embarrassed at him seeing her in homeware, knowing this is nothing that he hasn't seen her in before).
When she reaches the living room, she finds two fresh cups of tea on the coffee table, and a crisp new comforter waiting for her on the couch. Takeru is already seated there, adjusting the air conditioner to just the right temperature he's set a dozen times before, the only precise temperature he knows Hikari can tolerate when she's feeling like this.
When she sets herself on the couch, he unfolds and drapes the comforter around her, just in time for a chill and a few coughs to come over her. He is by her side rubbing her back once again, his free hand finding its way to her forehead to again assess the extent of her fever.
"That's some fever," he says, brow furrowed deep with worry. "I'm calling Taichi."
"I'm fine," Hikari says, allowing herself to rest her tired head on Takeru's ready shoulder.
Takeru almost laughs. "You've been saying that all day."
Takeru expects the usual rebuttal, but is instead taken aback as she wraps her arms around him for the third time today, nestling her weary head into the cool folds of his collar. He almost asks what she's doing, before he sees she's already fallen asleep, head nested gently on his shoulder. He plans to text Taichi about her status, but worries the beeps of his keyboard might wake her up.
In a minute he'll sneak away to text the older Yagami, and maybe fetch her some medicine (he still remembers where to find them from the last time he'd taken care of Hikari), but for now he lets her sink further into this much needed rest, both enjoying this brief reprieve from the coughing fits that had plagued her the entire day.
Just when he thinks she's fallen into complete slumber, to his surprise, she mumbles, "I'm fine with you here to take care of me."
Slowly, Takeru smiles and for the first time today, he won't even argue with that.
