Kamek slept through the night well enough, aside from occasionally coughing himself awake. Also woken up, Mario would pass him some water, and then they would both go back to sleep. It was times like these when Mario envied his brother's ability to sleep through practically everything.
After fully waking and having breakfast, Mario and Luigi spent the morning playing a game of cards Mario was almost positive Luigi was cheating at.
"You don't hafta be such a sore loser about it." Luigi smiled innocently.
Definitely cheating.
Mario reached over and swiped at Luigi's hand, kicking off a brotherly scuffle for Luigi's cards. Just as Mario was about to get his hands on them, they heard a flurry of sneezes and coughs from the recliner.
"Good morning!" Luigi put his cards down on the table. "How're you feeling?" he asked Kamek.
Kamek squinted blearily at him. "Could be better," he croaked.
"Well, we saved some oatmeal for you, if you're up for it?"
Kamek nodded.
"Great! Bro, could you —?" Mario was peeking at Luigi's cards. "Hey!"
Well, it certainly looked like a legitimate hand. But Mario had a bowl of oatmeal to retrieve. Heating it up in his hands, he brought it over as Luigi sat Kamek upright.
"Alrighty, time for breakfast!" Luigi scooped up a spoonful of oatmeal and held it out in front of Kamek's face.
Kamek stared at it in befuddlement. "Wha —?"
Luigi shoved the spoon into Kamek's mouth. Kamek jerked away, mouth suddenly full of oatmeal.
Mario put a hand on Luigi's shoulder. Maybe Kamek had enough energy to feed himself now.
"Guess so!" Luigi placed the spoon in Kamek's hand. "I kinda liked feeding him though..."
Kamek glared at Luigi, face even redder than he did when he woke up. Was his fever rising again?
Slowly but surely, Kamek ate his oatmeal. Around him, Luigi fluffed up Kamek's pillows, and adjusted his blankets, and changed his washcloth, and took his temperature, and —
Kamek flailed his arms around with a screech. "Go away!"
Luigi backed off, amused. "Aw, I just wanted to help..."
"Can't you simply leave me to my misery?" Kamek sniffled.
Mario chuckled. It came with the territory when Luigi was the one caretaking. Luigi grinned, reshuffling their cards. Kamek sunk further into the blankets.
Mario motioned to the bowl, a wordless suggestion to start eating before Luigi decided to feed him after all. He turned back to the card game, intent on making sure Luigi truly wasn't cheating.
Behind them, Kamek put another spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth. He got through about half the bowl before leaning back, eyes closed. Luigi bustled over to take the bowl from him; Kamek opened an eye and watched him leave before settling back down to rest.
Luigi's eyes snapped open. Aw man, did he fall asleep? He'd only meant to close his eyes for a second. He sat up on the couch, ears catching a wheezing noise coming from Kamek's corner of the room. Was that what woke him up? It sounded awful.
Luigi crept over to the recliner. Kamek was curled up into a trembling ball there, at the center of a scattered nest of blankets. Eyes squeezed shut, his hand was clutched unconsciously to the front of his robes, and that combined with the choked and hard-to-make-out mumbling clued Luigi in to the fact that Kamek was currently having a nightmare.
"Hey, Kamek, wake up," Luigi whispered, reaching out to shake Kamek's shoulder. As soon as Luigi's hand made contact though, he recoiled. This had to be the highest Kamek's temperature had been up until now! What were they gonna do now...?
Unnoticed by Luigi, Kamek had stiffened when Luigi had touched him, eyes opening wide and glassy. Luigi did, however, notice Kamek flinching away from him as he held the back of his hand against his neck to check his temperature, and the soft whimper that accompanied it.
Luigi stilled. "Kamek?"
Kamek's breath hitched. He curled in further, shoulders tensing.
A sense of uneasiness crawled up Luigi's spine. For someone who was usually taunting them, or monologuing, or complaining, or all three at once, it was almost unnerving to see Kamek so...vulnerable. Before, it was desperation, but now Kamek seemed afraid of whatever he was seeing behind his eyelids, and it fed into Luigi's own fears. Because whatever Kamek was afraid of, it must be terrible, right? Luigi was getting upset just thinking about it. And there was only one thing to do when he got this upset.
"Mario!" Luigi screamed in a whisper, and as if summoned, Mario slid into the room. He joined Luigi by Kamek's bedside.
Mario's eyes roved over Kamek's distressed face. He carefully untangled Kamek's hand from his robes and squeezed it gently. After a moment of waiting, Kamek woke up. Sort of. He was still glassy-eyed, looking around dazedly. The heat rolled off him in waves. His gaze settled on Mario, eyes squinting in confusion; Mario tilted his head, confused by Kamek's confusion.
"You..." Kamek took his hand out of Mario's grip to poke at Mario's face. Mario endured it, still puzzled.
"Uh, Mario?" Luigi said warily, "I think his brain is finally done cooking."
Luigi's comment earned both an admonishing glance from Mario and the attention of Kamek, the former of which Luigi ignored and the latter of which Luigi met with a stare of his own. Kamek's gaze was unwavering; Luigi waved hello because the staring was starting to go for a bit too long. Meanwhile, Mario wet a washcloth to wipe the sweat off Kamek's face.
Kamek was reaching for Luigi now, and Luigi indulgently leaned forward to meet him. "Wow, you're really out of it — hey!" Kamek grabbed Luigi's mustache, tugging at it harshly. "Come on, I spent ages this morning getting this to look nice!" Luigi whined, trying unsuccessfully to loosen Kamek's grip. Mario bit back a laugh. Luigi would have wailed in frustration if the noise wouldn't startle Kamek.
In one swift motion, Mario took off Kamek's glasses and wiped his face. Kamek sputtered, letting go of Luigi. Mario was starting to understand now; Kamek was simply confused about how old they were.
"Is that what it is?!" Luigi cried, trying to straighten out his mustache.
Kamek slumped back down into the recliner, mulling over Mario's hypothesis. His face twisted. "I'm old?!"
Mario and Luigi snickered at how scandalized he was about it. "Don't worry," Luigi said as they tucked him back under the blankets. "You're still, uh, handsome or whatever."
"Hmph," Kamek sighed, and immediately fell back asleep.
...
Luigi collapsed onto the couch, exhausted from the emotional rollercoaster he'd just gone through. Mario rubbed his brother's shoulder in commiseration and returned to what he was doing before Luigi had called for him, trusting his brother would actually mind Kamek instead of falling asleep this time.
Sure enough, when Mario stopped by next, Luigi was at Kamek's bedside once again, frowning down at him.
Luigi beckoned Mario over. "His temperature's gone down, but..." He motioned to Kamek, who was shivering and shivering and shivering, despite being under a pile of blankets. Luigi had probably searched every corner of the cabin and grabbed every warm-looking piece of cloth he could find. And the fire was happily roaring along, heating up the room. What else could they do to warm him up?
An idea struck Luigi. "I know what you can do!"
Him?
Luigi raised his eyebrows meaningfully. Mario lowered his eyebrows in suspicion. The two of them held a debate solely by exchanging a series of facial expressions. Mario lost the debate, and his face scrunched up in displeasure. It was a reasonable idea...
Moving some of the blankets (because they didn't need Kamek to start overheating, after all they did to get his temperature down), Mario climbed into the recliner next to Kamek, so they were pressed together. An awkward position, sure, but it allowed Mario to share his higher-than-normal body heat, which paid off as Kamek finally stilled, settling into a deeper sleep.
Luigi shot Mario a thumbs up. Mario shot Luigi a dark look. If he had to lay here cuddled against one of his archenemies for the foreseeable future, then the least his brother could do was get him something to read.
"Yeah, yeah." Luigi rolled his eyes, backing out of the room. The thump of Luigi tripping and falling as soon as he was out of sight was more than a little bit satisfying.
Later in the evening, Kamek, whose temperature was still staying down, stirred from his slumber. He stared up at Mario, with whom he was still nestled, and who was very pointedly not meeting his gaze. "Why?" he asked flatly.
Mario jerked his chin at Luigi, who raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, it worked — you're not shivering anymore!"
Kamek had no answer to that. He wasn't quite ready to give up Mario's body heat, either, as they sat up to eat. As Luigi pulled Mario into a conversation about a plumbers' school, of all things, Kamek worked through his food, finishing long before anyone else was even halfway done.
Mario noticed Kamek's empty plate and grinned. Kamek's revitalized appetite was a great sign, especially since he'd hardly eaten much since they'd got here.
Luigi held up the serving spoon. "Another helping?"
"No thanks," Kamek said. He looked at them oddly. "Why are you..." He faltered. "Nevermind."
Mario jostled him, wanting him to continue.
Kamek glared back, but he was the one who started this conversation so he took as deep of a breath as he could, given his congestion. "Why...are you doing this?
"Doing what, giving you food?"
"Yes. No." He gestured vaguely. "All of this."
"Why wouldn't we?" Luigi answered. "You wouldn't think we'd be so heartless as to let you suffer in sickness alone, would you?"
"Ack, I suppose not; you heroes wouldn't even dream of letting that stand." Kamek shook his head. "Maybe you all were right; this break was sorely necessary."
That still didn't explain his initial surprise about being cared for like this. Did not even Bowser check up on him when he was out sick? That didn't sound like him at all.
"I've never been out sick, so no."
At all?
"I can hardly afford to, can I?" He shot them a withering look. Right. Bowser's Castle would probably fall apart without him.
"But you have to get sick sometime! What do you do then?"
"Drink potions and work, usually."
"Well," Luigi said after a beat of incredulous silence, "you don't have to do that here, and you're already on the mend! I told you we would have you feeling better in no time!"
"Heh. I suppose you did." Kamek laid back and closed his eyes.
Luigi huffed quietly as Kamek dozed off again. "What kind of circus are they running at Bowser's Castle anyway?" he muttered to himself as he gathered all their plates.
A circus that depended almost solely on Kamek to function, evidently. Mario could understand Kamek's aversion to taking days off; it was largely thankless work, despite its continued importance. But he also knew Bowser expected his troops to actually use the time off he gave them (Peach had overheard him ranting about it once or twice), so it was quite the mystery how Kamek had managed to get away with not using any for so long, as Bowser's second-in-command.
Carefully extracting himself from Kamek's grasp, Mario got out of the recliner to pop his back and shake the pins and needles out of his leg. Kamek sighed in his sleep, curling up to compensate for the absence of his living heat source, but did little else, his earlier shivering disinterested in resuming. Watching him, Mario wondered if they should snitch to Bowser about the amount of sick time Kamek's probably stored up in the...forever he's been working at the castle. He'd ask Luigi about it, he decided, wandering into the kitchen to see if he needed any help cleaning up after dinner.