Chapter 7: Disease

"Boy, with that kind of temperature, you should lay still for a week," the doctor murmured, and Magatsu groaned. The room was spinning, his head felt like an ant farm on opium and his nose was so stuffed he had to breathe through his mouth. He tried to wave the doctor's hand away from his head, but only managed to hit himself in the process. With a sigh, he gave up struggling. He could see Anotsu grinning through the daze.

"So, you suggest a week of nothing but rest for him?"

"Would probably be good," the white-haired old doctor nodded gravely. "Rest, and the herbs I left. Then he will be fine. Solid young lad." To make it all worse, he gave Magatsu a pat on the head. Then he said something more that disappeared in the fog, and when things cleared up, he was gone and only Anotsu was left.

"Seriously, Magatsu, sometimes you're the biggest idiot I know," he murmured, an amused note in his voice.

"Whad?" Magatsu mumbled. He wasn't exactly clear of what had happened.

"In case you didn't hear what I told the doctor – we found you passed out in the mud on the training ground. You were hallucinating."

"Huh." He tried to remember what had happened. He had decided to go to the kitchen, but no one was there, and no food either, so he had grabbed a wooden sword and...well, after that it got hazy.

"In short, you've caught a cold from not being careful, from not dressing warm enough, from not having sense to stay indoors at night, from not sleeping enough – what the hell are you trying to do? You don't get any extra points from playing martyr, you know."

"I'm nod..."

"Hard work is one thing, Magatsu. Every kenshi has to know his own limits. If he crosses them, well, then he might as well have thrown himself on his own sword."

Magatsu wondered if the man would leave if he pretended to be asleep.

"And just to prove my point, I will send a nice fat lady in here to bathe you every day."

"WHAD?" His attempt to sit up only landed him on his side. Damn, he was weak. He could hear Anotsu's quiet laugh behind his back.

"Well, if you just keep yourself still and follow the doctor's orders then maybe I won't."

Magatsu groaned and rolled back to the futon. Shit.

The day flowed on, as days tend to do, at least from Anotsu's point of view. He went about his tasks as usual, and not until the sun was setting did he think to check up on Magatsu.

He found him lying on his futon staring at the ceiling, his face empty of expression.

"How are things going?"

Magatsu was silent for a while. Then he slowly lifted his index finger, pointing upwards.

"You ndow...the fourteendth spot to the right there sorta looks like you when I squindt."

Anotsu smiled. "I'm glad to see you're keeping busy."

Magatsu snurfled.

"You did drink the tea the doctor left, didn't you?"

"Thad was tea? Persondally, I thing he pissed ind the cup."

"It will keep your fever down. The more you do as you're told these days, the sooner you'll get well." He settled down in the doorway, determined to keep a distance. He sighed. Damn the man. These things spread like vapors. Could he keep Magatsu in quarantaine and keep it in place that way? A separate building? He pondered it seriously for a while, then realized he was much too understaffed to spare the servants needed to check up on him. This secluded room would have to do, and if people got sick, they had to take it. He sighed again.

"Hey, you don'd have to stay here if you don'd wand to." Magatsu muttered.

"I'm out of things to do right now."

"So you thought you'd just stob by and watch mbe suffer, huh?"

"Something like that." Anotsu smiled. "No, I should get going actually. " He rose. "Get better." With those words he left.

When Anotsu woke up the next morning with a stuffed nose, sore throat and fever, he thought of Magatsu and mentally took back every kind word he had ever said to the man.

An extra futon was rolled out in the secluded room, under the much-too-amused surveillance of Magatsu. The first thing Anotsu did when he entered the room was to kick him. That didn't stop him laughing. With an exhausted sigh, the leader of the Itto-ryu pulled the covering over his ears and promptly turned his back on Magatsu, whose laughter faded to content chuckles as Anotsu drifted off to a feverish sleep.

He woke up from the sounds of someone muttering and thrashing about. Slowly coming to, his stuffed head reminded him of where he was and why. A brief sting of panic as he thought of the things that needed to be done today, then relaxation as he remembered Kuroi had promised to take care of it all. Still, he wasn't entirely soothed.

At the other end of the room, Magatsu was tossing and turning. He was probably burning up, but Anotsu was too exhausted to go check on him. Should he ring the bell for the servants? Just as he made up his mind to, Magatsu stopped thrashing. Anotsu sank back onto his futon and listened to him whispering something under heavy breathing. Dazedly, he wondered if he had talked in his sleep too, and if so, what he had said and if Magatsu had heard.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door sliding open and a servant entering gently, carrying a small tray with two teacups.

"Sir Kuroi told me to bring you both this, sire," he whispered. "It's made with the tea leaves the doctor left."

"Thanks. Jus' leave it."

When the door had slid shut again, Anotsu gently removed the two cups from the tray and, aiming carefully, sent the tray flying over to Magatsu where it bounced off his head, waking him up quite efficiently.

"Whad de fug...?" Magatsu muttered irritably as he slowly rose, rubbing his head and eyes.

"Tea." Anotsu explained sternly and sipped his. Oh god. It was the vilest thing he had ever tasted. He shot Magatsu a glare and got a grin in return.

"Yummy, eh?"

"You havend't heard the lasd of this, peasandt boy," he muttered as he, steeling himself, gulped down the entire content of the cup. After that he wanted to retch.

"Holy muderfug..." Magatsu spluttered, throwing his own empty cup to the other end of the room. "I swear dis sduff was brewed to force us to ged bedder. Shid."

With a sigh they both settled down on their respective futons. For a while, all was silence.

"If we give sombe o'dis to de Bakufu...I bet we'd wind in ndo timbe." Magatsu muttered.

"Whad's dat? I cand't hear you. You're gondda have do speak through your mbouth" Anotsu replied acidly.

"Whud?"

Anotsu sighed and started laughing, in pure despair. He had a feeling the following days would be looong.