A/N: I have definitely had a hard day. My class went okay, but my dog got a stroke and died. I thought maybe working on this fic would help take my mind off stuff.

Before you proceed, I'd like you all to observe a moment (or at least a second or two) of silence for Emma, the border collie mix.

Thank you.

Now on with the fic.

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When Emi got back from lunch, she went to check on Misawa right away.

He was awake, but barely so. He looked perfectly innocent; certainly not like a pervert!

He tried to greet Emi but this brought on another bout of coughing.

Emi hoped with all her being that this wasn't pneumonia. She had neither the time nor the resources to deal with something that serious.

To rule this out, the first thing Emi did was take out her stethoscope and listen to Misawa's lungs. They sounded perhaps slightly congested, but nothing too bad.

Good. That ruled out pneumonia, bronchitis, and most other nasty respiratory ailments.

Misawa now looked like he wanted to say something. Emi let him do so.

He said, in a very low voice, "If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could check my throat? It really hurts..."

Emi barely restrained an eye-roll. She asked, perhaps more sharply than she meant, "And why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I didn't want to bother you."

Geez, did this guy have self-esteem issues! Emi wondered if this had anything to do with the rumors. She hoped he hadn't heard them.

But she said nothing about this to Misawa. Instead, she simply stated, "Okay, I guess I'll have to take a throat swab. Let me go get the materials."

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Just as Emi suspected when she first heard about the sore throat, the swab tested positive for a strep infection.

That she could deal with. It just needed a lot of rest and antibiotics to dissipate.

By the time the results came in, classes were over. This was when students came into the infirmary to see their sick friends. No one was visiting with Misawa.

Could the rumors have even spread to his friends? She would have thought that Judai wouldn't be the type to listen to gossip.

However, now was not the time to think about gossip. Now was the time to try to get Misawa to eat his dinner.

"But you have to eat," she coaxed him. "You don't want to starve!"

"I'm sorry, Ayukawa-sensei, but I'm not hungry."

" You must eat something. I'm not leaving until you do."

This was getting a bit annoying. It was like talking to a precocious two-year-old!

But come to think of it, that rice did look rather bland. Heck, she wouldn't want to eat it, so she shouldn't make him do so.

"If you really want, you could have a condiment on that rice. It's really not good for your throat, but you could just use a tiny bit. We have soy sauce, wasabi-no, better avoid that one. Maybe you could have hot sauce instead. I'll see if we still have...what's wrong?"

For Misawa had suddenly turned his face into the pillow.

Again, Emi asked him what was wrong.

"Nothing..." he mumbled.

Emi raised an eyebrow. She knew he wasn't telling the truth, but she thought she should just leave Misawa alone for now.

As she walked out, she said to him, "I still expect you to eat at least some of that."

Her only answer was a muttered collection of seemingly random syllables. It was hard to tell for sure, because Misawa's face was still in the pillow.

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While Emi was waiting for Misawa to finish eating, a Ra Yellow student walked in. He was carrying a cardboard box.

Emi's hopes rose. Maybe Misawa would finally have some company.

Sadly, that proved to not be the case. The student just said, "Here's Misawa-kun's stuff. I have to go now-I'm missing the Pro League game on TV."

Emi wanted to say that the morale of a classmate was more important than some stupid game, but decided to be more subtle. She simply raised an eyebrow and coldly replied, "I see. Thank you."

"Kabayama-sensei sent me," added the student, as if trying to reassure Emi that he would have never helped out of his own free will.

Before Emi could say anything else, the student left.

Emi walked back into the sickroom, determined to socialize with Misawa. If no one else would visit him, SHE would!

He had finished eating. Sort of. It was quite apparent that Misawa had just taken a few bites and pushed the rest of the food around the plate.

Emi decided not to press the issue any further. She searched for something she could say. But there was really nothing TO say. Misawa's main interest was math, a subject which Emi hated.

As if sensing Emi's dilemma, Misawa abruptly said, "I'm sorry about what I did before."

Emi answered, "I forgive you. I'm sorry for not being more considerate."

After a moment of silence, Emi added, "Should we unpack this box?"

Misawa nodded.

There was nothing really exciting in the box. It was mostly stuff one would take to a sleepover.

There was also that day's homework assignments. It was quite amusing to see how happy Misawa got over some homework.

He was really a cute kid. It was a real shame that everyone was acting so coldly towards him!

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. There was no sound from Misawa. After Emi took his temperature again, he fell right to sleep.

Emi decided to sleep in the infirmary that night. She was really supposed to be supervising the dorm, but was allowed to stay here if someone was really sick.

She was just getting into bed when she heard moaning coming from he sick room.

It was enough to make Emi wonder if those rumors didn't have some truth after all. But she quickly realized that it wasn't THAT kind of moaning.

It sounded like Misawa was having a fever dream; most likely a nightmare.

She ran into the room to calm him down.

He soon went back to sleep, but not before muttering, "Don't hit me..."

Emi was confused. Had someone hit him? Maybe it was just a random dream intensified by the fever.

Or maybe not.

It took Emi quite a long time to get back to sleep.

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A/N: I forgot to point this out last chapter, so I'll do it now. There will be no REAL romance in this fic. A crush on Misawa's part is a possibility, however.