Author's Note: Please forgive any butchering of Kureno that might occur. I barely even know what he looks like. Did I mention AU?

Beta-ish thanks to Kurai.

Disclaimer: Still not mine, but it's on my wish list!

[2]
We juunishi are always closest to each other, but it seems that the closest bonds form between those who are the same age, regardless of how compatible their personalities seem they should be. I could probably write a doctoral thesis on it, but I'm not sure my colleges would believe me.
-Sohma Yori, dog, 1963

Hatori expected to be barred from his office completely, but he was allowed to get a prescription pad and pen on the theory that he could diagnose himself and send someone else to the pharmacy.

Diagnosing himself was harder than it should have been. He couldn't keep his mind focused enough to take his own pulse. He quit trying as if it was completely intentional that he didn't get a number. Taking his own temperature was much easier, and he jotted down a list of instructions while he did it: no matter what, lots of liquid; if my fever breaks this, do this; if my fever breaks that, do that; if my sinuses act up, take this medicine, etc.

At some point while he was writing, he ended up with a blanket tucked around him and a mug of tea close at hand. He set down the pen and looked up to see Kureno's disapproving frown. "You were supposed to write out a prescription for yourself, not write a manual."

Hatori opened his mouth to give an icy reply, but remembered in time that Kureno would probably report everything back to Akito. "Right." His precise handwriting marked out a prescription for a course of antibiotics.

"That's it?"

"I could be healthy tomorrow." Hatori didn't sounds like a whiny three-year old when he pointed out that little, unlikely detail. He didn't. He didn't. He didn't. Hatori closed his eyes and massaged his temples. "Fine." He pulled out an extra piece of paper, and made a quick shopping list for some non-prescription medications.

Kureno looked over the list and left, while Hatori quietly sipped his tea. Once he was alone, he removed his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. Hatori knew he should probably go to his room and just go to bed, but the couch was so comfortable, and there was even a pillow here, and...

()
Aside from Hatori, there are very few people who can tell what Shigure is thinking.... He may be smiling on the outside, but on the inside, he's up to something.
-Yuki

Hatori woke up disoriented. The angle of the sun was wrong, and the ceiling was.... He started to sit up, but fell back with a dizzy groan. Ah yes, he was sick, and must have fallen asleep on the couch. Fever? Check. Aches and pains? Check. Sinuses? There was some pressure building up there. Shigure sitting in a chair watching him? Check. In short, everything he would need to be miserable was present. He threw his arm up over his face, as if blocking the sight of Shigure would make him not be there. Why couldn't they all just leave him in alone?

"Because you'd miss us if we went away, Haa-san." Hatori hadn't meant to speak aloud, and was almost positive he hadn't, but Shigure was still talking. "No, you didn't say anything, but I know that ungrateful look. And after I took the trouble to come down here, leaving those children to get into who knows what trouble in my house." Hatori tried to block out Shigure's voice, but the man was on one of his rambles where he projected his voice straight through one's skull and directly into one's conscience.

Hatori was actually considering apologizing when Shigure tugged his arm down away from his face. "Here." A mug appeared in his field of vision. It seemed that Shigure's voice really had been moving around, not just drifting in and out of focus. "According to your own instructions, you need liquid, so don't...." Hatori accidentally made eye contact with Shigure. He didn't know just what his cousin saw in his face, but it made Shigure's voice drop several decibels, even if it didn't make his stop talking. "Don't just lie there and brood. You'll give yourself wrinkles. Here." Shigure pulled him into a more upright position and sat down on the edge of the couch, maintaining his monologue so that Hatori couldn't find a way to make a dignified protest.

The contents of the mug--it might have been tea, but Shigure's cooking skills were not the greatest--was too hot to drink, so Hatori tried to focus on the soothing warmth in his hands, instead of the insistent pain in his head. He winced as Shigure's voice started rising again. Shigure broke off mid-sentence. "Oh, I almost forgot." The writer produced a pill bottle from the sleeve of his yukata. "You're supposed to take one of these now, and...." He gave a bag on the floor a meaningful look. "You should probably pick something else from that bag of goodies you requested."

Hatori eyed the bag with distaste. Inflicting medication on others was one thing, but he had no desire to experience such things for himself. The dry false alertness of some medications was just as bad as the foggy drowsiness of others. He didn't even want to take the antibiotics, and those would barely affect how he functioned. All Hatori wanted to do was go sit at his desk and bury his mind in paperwork, but Akito was punishing him for daring to be sick in his presence.

"Haa-san." The hairs on the back of Hatori's neck started to rise at the falsely sweet way, Shigure said his name. "Haa-san, if you don't tell me what to give you I'm afraid that my concern for your health could cause me to give you everything, and you don't want me to have to live with the guilt of um, overdosing you and-"

Hatori cut him off with a resounding sneeze, and added on another three sneezes for emphasis. The hot liquid in the mug slopped over his hand and onto the blanket. Hatori just gaped at it, until Shigure took the mug from his hand, and wiped the tea away with a towel. Shigure was surprisingly grave as he did this, but he handed the half-full mug back when he was satisfied with his cleaning job. "Drink, or I spoon feed you your lunch." Hatori blinked a few times at the smiling steel in his cousin's voice, and drank. Shigure might be a manipulative pervert, but he was a manipulative pervert who did things for the good of his family. Which meant that even if he was Akito's watchdog--Hatori had to be feverish if he found that pun amusing--he would also make Hatori do things for his own good. Hatori still found himself thinking of big needles.

A tray appeared in front of him, and he realized he was no longer holding the mug. He was fairly sure that Shigure was talking, but it was from far away and he couldn't be bothered to make it penetrate the fog surrounding his brain. The drifting feeling was actually rather pleasant--it made the sense of failure go away--until a hand roughly grabbed his chin, and forced him to look into Shigure's very close and very worried face. "Hatori?"

"Y-yes?" His voice rasped.

"Haa-san, please eat your lunch. I don't want to spend my afternoon feeding miso soup to a seahorse with an eyedropper."

Hatori's eyes widened at the implicit threat, though he didn't wonder just how Shigure would make him change. First Akito was mad at him, and now Shigure was taking advantage of his... of his something. For the sake of his dignity, he tried to eat the soup, but he couldn't keep his hand steady with the room spinning. Hatori was starting to get very annoyed with the room.

Shigure made a frustrated sound and took the tray. Hatori wanted to protest that he was trying, but another sneezing fit distracted him. This time, he could feel the rush of mucus filling his nasal cavities. "Here." Hatori accepted the tissue from Shigure gratefully. When he was able to breathe through his nose, Shigure handed him another mug, this time half full of soup. "You aren't getting out of eating so easily. Drink."

When he emptied the mug, Shigure put the rest of the soup in and handed it to him again. This time, Hatori couldn't bring himself to finish it. He gave Shigure a wary look as he set the mug on the end table, but the Dog was reading the labels on various medicines.

"Ah, Haa-san, you finished. Is your throat bothering you?" Shigure was back in his harmless-cheerful mode.

Hatori glared at him suspiciously, but nodded, and then realized that Shigure wasn't looking at him. "Yes."

"All right, then. I guess this one will do." Shigure held up the bottle that just happened to contain the medicine that would not only make him the wooziest, but also the worst tasting. Why had he put that on the list? It wasn't like he had a fever, a sinus problem and a sore throat all at the same time. He was just a little dizzy. And he was a doctor! Doctors didn't get sick, right? He coughed a few times, and sniffed to try to clear his nose.

Hatori was just fine and he was going to get up, and go do that paperwo... No, wait. Akito had said he wasn't allowed to work. Akito was mad at him. But he was going to... going...

Shigure caught him before he fell forward. "Ah, yes, Haa-san. Good idea. We should go and get you out of that shirt before the stain sets in." Oh, of course. That's where he was going--his room.

"Shi-Shigure? Why are you pulling at me like that? It's making me dizzy."

"I'm not pulling at you. You're sick." The reply was one of someone who was suffering deeply.

"Am not. Doctors don't get sick. I'm just-" Hatori stopped walking and started coughing.

When the fit passed, Shigure handed him another tissue. "C'mon Haa-san. Let's go back to your room."

Wait, he didn't want to go back there. It was the middle of the day. He needed to be working, but he wasn't allowed. Something was wrong. "You're trying to trick me. 'M not going to play hooky. I should go and work. I didn't finish checking Akito." There was something heavy in the way that wouldn't let him turn back down the hall--Shigure's arm.

"Haa-san, I'm wounded. When would I ever try to trick you?"

Hatori gave his cousin a flat look that somehow conveyed total disbelief, scorn and distrust all at once. The amused affection that usually accompanied the mix was missing, but Shigure didn't seem to notice. Hatori was positive that his cousin was acting oddly, but he couldn't figure out why.

"Oh, right. But, Haa-san, you spilled tea on that shirt. Didn't you want to change it?" Hatori tried to push his cousin out of the way, but his arms wouldn't straighten. He ended up not-quite cuddled against Shigure's chest, which was odd, because Hatori was taller. Shigure placed one arm around Hatori's back and used his free hand to brush Hatori's hair out of his face.

"I need a haircut. Everyone keeps playing with my hair." Hatori tried to scowl, but changed it to an attempt to not sneeze directly into Shigure's face.

"Maybe we'll get Aaya to come over and do it for you. But let's get your shirt changed." Shigure carefully coaxed Hatori down the hallway.

Hatori's mind drifted off again, and the next thing he knew was that he was swallowing some incredibly foul tasting medicine, and being tucked into his futon. "You did trick me," he mumbled into the pillow. "I'm going to...."

"Of course you are, but rest now." Hatori drifted off to the feel a hand running through his hair.

()
Haa-san has something that Aaya admires. He looks up to him... and adores him. Once, a long time ago, he talked seriously to me about it. I guess--to put it simply--he loves him.
-Shigure

Once Shigure was sure that Hatori was sleeping, he rose from the edge of the futon and silently left the room. He leaned against the nearest wall, and carefully did not bang his head against it. Aside from having no audience for such histrionics, he had no desire to wake his cousin. Getting him into bed once had been quite enough work already, thank you very much.

Keeping him in bed until the fever went away would be an epic feat, and it called for reinforcements. Fortunately, the phone was far enough from Hatori's bedroom that Shigure didn't think he would disturb the man. It was time to set some plans in motion.

He dialed the number without looking, and waited for an answer. "Aaya, darling! Do you miss me?"

"'Gure-san! Indeed, I am but a wilting flower, alone in a sea of darkness without your light!"

"Ah, Aaya, no, you are my light!" There was a pause. A huge grin suddenly split Shigure's face as he and Ayame both said, "Yosh!" together. Across town, Ayame's face would be lit with an identical grin of mischief.

"So, 'Gure-san, why did you call me, aside from the need to talk to the wonderful, magnificent me?"

Much more serious than he would normally be, Shigure asked, "Ah, well, are you very busy in the shop right now?"

"Very busy in that I am working like mad to fulfill the dreams of some truly discerning customers and have many orders for special items, and these items are quite complex, with the flounces of white lace, and the special decorative embroideries that will offset my brilliant designs perfectly, but there aren't any customers in the store, so I am really busy only in theory."

Shigure interpreted that as "not at all." "Do you think you could work on those orders some where else?"

"'Gure-san? What's wrong? It isn't Yuki, is it? You'd tell me right away if my little brother was sick, wouldn't you? You wouldn't be so cold-hearted-"

"Aaya. Stop. Yuki is fine. Haa-san has a cold."

Ayame said nothing for several moments. When he finally answered, it was in that rare solemn tone he seemed to only use for Hatori. "Ah. You've already gotten him into bed, yes? I'll just get a basket and give Mine some instructions. Jaa." The soft click meant the line had been cut off before Shigure could reply.

It was still too early for Shigure to call his own home and expect and answer, and he didn't dare leave Hatori alone. If Hatori woke up, and decided that he needed to be doing something, well, seahorses were rather petite, and could be very hard to find even in a house this small. With an ear open for Hatori waking, Shigure settled on the couch and returned to editing his current project.

He'd only gotten twenty or so pages in when there was a light knock on the door. The door slid open to reveal a rather subdued Ayame balancing a basket on one hip. "How is 'Tori-san?"

Shigure smiled reassuringly. "He's sleeping quietly. It's been about an hour since I got him to take the cold medicine. Come in."

"Do you think...." Ayame bit his lip slightly, uncertainty testing its way across his features as he slid the door shut behind him. "Do you think I could sit in his room? I don't want to bother him, but...."

"Go ahead. I'm only out here because I wanted to watch for you, Aaya. There should be enough daylight that you can sew. Someone should be near him no matter what."

"'Tori-san will be fine, right?" Shigure almost didn't recognize the expression on Ayame's face--it was just so odd to see Ayame worry about anything. Normally, Ayame would simply laugh, and dance madly across whatever thin ice life presented him with.

"Of course he will. We'll be looking after him." Shigure rose, and gently pushed Ayame down the hall. "I have to go... out. I set his alarm to go off when he needs to take another dose, even though I think I'll be back by then."

Shigure was about to close the door to the bedroom again, when Ayame turned and caught his arm. "'Gure-san?"

"He'll be fine." The reassuring smile slipped away to reveal a fierce determination. "We won't let him be anything else." I won't let him be anything else, his eyes said.

Ayame's face reflected his determination, and then suddenly split into a grin. "Yosh." He kept his voice soft, but it was just as fierce as Shigure's.

A/N: Yuki's quote comes from Chapter 16, Tokyo pop translation. Shigure's quote comes from Chapter 22, Tokyo pop translation.

the-kaiba-heir: Why yes, yes I do respond to bribery...

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Ahem...