Disclaimer: Gravitation © Maki Murakami and not me. :(
AN: With finals only weeks away, I hope I can get this story finished by New Years'... adding that and my deep-rooted issues with serialization in general, we'll be lucky if I finish this before I graduate from college. (Just kidding. I think.) Enough of my excuses though, hope you like the first chapter!
Oh, and quickly—the incubation period for a virus is normally longer than...well, a night full of sex, but I'm going to hold my artistic license close to my chest and defy modern-day science. So there. :)
The Sure-Fire Cure
Chapter 1: Infection.
Eiri popped his hard-earned cigarette into his mouth with a smug grin. The sun was rising; he could see the sunlight cast through the blinds becoming more prominent on the ceiling by the minute. His ears took in the heavy, rhythmic breathing of the boy next to him as he reached toward the nightstand for his lighter. Sometimes he stayed awake after sex, exhausted as he was, just to take in the serenity of afterglow and the sound of Shuichi sleeping. It was horribly romantic, and he tried not to think about the fact that he was doing it more often than he used to.
The shock of too-cold air hitting his bare arm got to him suddenly as he shivered; was it really that cold already? He didn't remember being cold through the night. Then again, he had something to keep him warm... The blond man grumbled as he gently untangled himself from Shuichi's grasp. He might as well turn up the thermostat if he was up...and squeeze in a post-coital smoke while he was at it.
As he threw the covers off of his body, he was struck with the sheer frost in the air and his barely-clothed body started to involuntarily shake. Shit. Do I need a cigarette this badly? His brain refused to unfog as he reached again for his lighter, then brought it to his cigarette, hand shaking violently all the while. The situation became even more pathetic as his increased shaking prevented him from actually striking a flame. Eiri cursed, afterglow making way for nicotine-deprived irritation. Fine. He would turn the thermostat up first, then smoke the stupid cigarette. He started to push himself up and out of bed...
...but fell back down, his head spinning and his arms aching. God, he felt awful... he hurriedly pulled the sheets up over his body to try and retain some body heat, but it wasn't enough; he was freezing. Still shivering, he wrapped his arms around himself and curled into the fetal position—anything to retain the body heat he had left and to stop the chills that were wracking his frame. Damnit, why did autumn mornings have to be so damn cold?
And suddenly, it dawned on him. It wasn't the temperature of his surroundings... it was his temperature, burning hot enough to fry eggs on his skin.
"Hiro couldn't come today because he came down with some crazy virus infection or something that involves a lot of coughing and headaches..."
Oh God. Oh no. Oh shit.
"Shuichi..." Eiri made a move as to throttle the sleeping man but found his energy sapped dry in the process, and his arm fell lightly over Shuichi's chest instead. God, he was as threatening as a freaking lamb. "Damn kid, I'm going to kill you for this..."
He didn't realize that he was snuggling up against Shuichi for warmth as he, with his world spinning around him viciously, blacked out in utter sickness.
"Yuki...Yuki! YUKI!!"
Eiri drifted painfully back to consciousness, his eyes opening slowly to see a very worried, pointed face with delicious little lips turned into a worried frown. "Nnn..." he croaked, too tired to attempt any higher type of conversation. Shuichi put his lips to Eiri's forehead, kissing the skin softly while assessing the damage.
"Yuki, you're burning up!" was his intelligent conclusion. Eiri rolled his eyes to the best of his abilities. "No, Yuki, don't be a man about it and try to shrug it off! I'm worried—your temperature is high! It's REALLY high!" Panic wracked the pink-haired boy. "Oh no!!!! You could have the flu, or pneumonia, or SARS, or—"
"Shuichi," Eiri said weakly, his voice still managing to drip with cold sarcasm, "you're giving me a headache."
"OH YUKI I AM SO SORRY!" Shuichi recoiled in horror, slapping his hands to his mouth. "Mmm mnmph nnnnff." He winced at the obvious stupidity of trying to speak while being muffled by his own hands as he dropped them. "I mean," He whispered, "I'm sorry, Yuki."
The boy was just too damn cute for his own good sometimes. Eiri gathered his strength and traced Shuichi's jaw line with his fingertips, too delirious with sickness to be fully aware of the affection he was showing. God, everything took effort...even thinking. No thinking..no talkie...I hurt. He was blacking out again, and being non-responsive just made sense, damnit all.
He was pulled back into the pain of consciousness with a rainstorm of Shuichi's tears.
"Yuki, you're so NICE when you're sick...I wish you could ALWAYS be sick!" He sobbed. Eiri settled for blatantly ignoring the ridiculous statement and took a shallow breath, still shivering slightly, and Shuichi's eyes widened as his tears immediately stopped. "Oh, you're freezing, aren't you? Selfish me, caring about whether you're nicer to me when you're sick as death... Let me get you warmed up!" And he unceremonially fell on top of Eiri like a lumpy blanket. Eiri, already weak with fever, had no way of pushing Shuichi off of him...or breathing. Luckily, Shuichi soon rolled to the side and wrapped his arms around him before he started turning blue. "Heehee! I'm Yuki's blanket!"
"Stupid boy," Eiri wheezed, gasping for air. "Don't you know...how to take care of someone that's sick?"
Oh shit. Oh shit.
And damn it all to hell. Did he just suggest that Shuichi should take care of him? Even he wasn't delirious enough to trick himself into thinking that Shuichi could do anything but make him even more sick. Maybe if he closed his eyes and prayed to every god imaginable that his lover didn't get the hint...
But Shuichi always ended up being the most observational when it was the least convinient for Eiri. As he opened his eyes again to see Shuichi's face flush with the chance to prove himself, he cried inwardly with horror. I'm going to die.
"Yuuuuki..." Shuichi said in play hesitation, his index finger pressed daintily on his lip, "if you wanted me to take care of you..."
Eiri shook his head as violently as possible (which consisted of a pathetic tremor from side to side) as Shuichi blasted out of bed, his fist triumphantly raised in the air as he landed on his feet. The Flames of Everlasting Love and Devotion© crackled to life behind him, making obvious his...well, everlasting love and devotion.
Had a seatbelt been present, Eiri would have buckled himself in with resignation.
"If you wanted me to take care of you... ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS ASK!" He grinned maniacally, then struck a noble pose that slightly resembled Sailormoon at the end of another pointless speech. "I'll have you feeling better in no time!"
"Nnn...no..." Shuichi bent over and pressed his finger onto Eiri's lips, silencing the desperate protest and plea.
"It's okay, Yuki, I'll just call K and tell him that I can't come in today—everyone else is sick anyways! Wow, isn't that crazy? I wonder how everybody got sick at the same time...what a coincidence!" He ran off to fetch the phone in the study as Eiri glared at his retreating back. Shuichi, Bringer of Death and Disease. He wondered if Nakano and Suguru had met their same horrible fates because of Shuichi's 'immune system of steel'. Hopefully they hadn't obtained the infection quite in the same way he had... with another smirk of satisfaction, Eiri felt himself loose his grip on consciousness once again. Blacking out was tasty.
next up: Shuichi 'proves' his mad doctor skills to Eiri. Place your bets now on whether the cranky writer kicks the bucket.
Chapter 2: Playing Doctor.
Yes, I'm slowly inching towards more humor. And those of you that said it couldn't be done...I shake my fist at you. *proceeds to shake angrily* ...Right. Anyhow, thanks to those that reviewed the prologue—I love feedback! And thanks goes to my ever-tolerant beta reader, Navale. Yey. :D And thank you for reading. Hopefully you'll stick around for the next installation, hm?
Limey