After the snow storm hit I found myself having a harder, and harder time keeping warm. Despite having a thick blanket on me, and snuggling up against Mink with a fire in front of us, I just couldn't keep warm. And I don't think I could keep passing it off as me having trouble adjusting to the cold. Mink knew it took me a little while longer than him to warm up, but we had been sitting on the couch for the past couple hours, and I was still shivering. The strange part though, was that I wasn't feeling sick or anything. If anything I was quite content just sitting here watching the fire, and occasionally glancing outside at the massive snow storm happening. I don't feel clammy, and I wasn't achy at all. I felt normal; maybe a little tired, but I still felt fine. Mink did feel my forehead to see if I had a temperature, but to his surprise I didn't have one, just like I told him. So I just sat there curled up in a little shaking ball practically attached to Mink's side. Normally Mink didn't care for close contact for so long, but this time he didn't more or shift away; in fact he stayed perfectly still except for the occasional flip of his book page.
I pet Ren absent mindedly, and stare into fire feeling drowsier by the minute. I was warmish, but I still shook. Ren didn't make a comment on my health status, but even I could tell he was monitoring it very closely, looking for any sign that even the smallest thing was wrong outside of my continuous shaking; little screens would pop up in front of his eyes from time to time, more often than what was normal when he did a quick scan.
"Ren stop it." I told him gently. "You'll fry yourself if you keep this up."
"You are having abnormal shaking that has yet to recede for the past two hours." Ren stated. "There is some reason behind this. You are not showing any signs of other cold symptoms, nor do you show high levels of exhaustion."
"Maybe that's because I have a cold coming on, and just haven't showed signs of the other symptoms yet." I suggest, wincing as I uncurl myself, my joints crack and I let out a sigh. "Perhaps I'll retire early tonight that might help me overcome it if it is."
"You should drink some tea first." Mink said as I stood up, and placed the blanket on the couch gently.
"With honey?" I laughed quietly. "Heading that way now, want some?"
"I wouldn't mind." Mink said shortly as he watched me walk into the kitchen. I wasn't sure why, but Mink seemed to watch me whenever I walked through the house. It wasn't in a creepy way, but rather as if he was curious to know what I was going to do.
I sat out a teapot Mink had made, and filled it with water and placed it on the stove, adding a small amount of wood to get enough of a fire going to heat the water. I sat out the tea grains and small jar of honey on the counter while I waited. I gave a violent shiver, and another sigh as I leaned towards the window. The snow didn't seem to be slowing down, actually it just seemed to be getting worse and worse as the night progressed. Mink said not to worry about it, that the house was sturdy. But the more I saw much, and long the snow was falling I found it hard to believe that the roof wasn't going to collapse in the middle of the night, or at least before the storm was over.
I tapped my fingers against the counter as I stared out the window. I jumped slightly as a pair of dark arms wrapped around me. I twisted around slightly, and look up into Mink's golden eyes. He looked at me for only a few seconds before he stared outside. "Are you still worried about the snow?"
"Only a little." I said honestly. "I believe you, but there's so much snow."
"You've never seen snow before though right?" Mink asked me as I placed my hands on his arms. "No more than a small amount before."
"Well no, I've never seen snow like this before." I said slowly. "The snow we had at Midorijima was nothing compared to this. It was dark, and turned into water as soon as it hit the ground. Here it sticks, and the snowflakes are so huge, and they're really white. It kind of hurt my eyes at first, I didn't think snow would be so bright, or so soft. I thought snow was going to be hard since it's so cold."
"Snow can be hard, if you walk on the same patch of snow so much it'll turn to ice." Mink told me. "And snow reflects light so it'll be bright, sometimes your eyes may not adjust at all. In Midorijima there was pollution due to the way the city was built so close. That pollution will cause the snow, and ran to also become polluted. However here there is no pollution, and the snow comes down like this every year, sometimes there's even more snow. But rarely is there ever less snow."
"Wow, so this snow is normal?" I whispered. That was a little hard for me to imagine; this amount of snow was insane, where would it all go once the weather returned to spring and everything warmed back up? Snow was just frozen water, so when it melt it would go back to water. True some of it would evaporate, but not all of it. So that would cause flooding right? Ugh, ok Aoba no more worrying. Mink said everything will be fine, this is his native land' he grew up here so he knows what the weather is like, and the aftereffects as well. You trust Mink, so stop with the worrying. Maybe that's why you keep shaking, you're stressing yourself out too much. It'll give you headaches if you do. I mentally berate myself and shake my head' this was no time to be negative, it's a really bad habit of mine that I don't have time for.
I jumped as the teapot let out a shrill whistle. I jumped forward and grabbed the teapot with a towel. Mink stepped back as I grabbed two cups from the cupboard, and poured the tea in slowly so I didn't splash it anywhere. I added in a scoop of tea grains and then a little honey into both cups, and stirred them. I picked up one cup and almost bumped into Mink as I turned around.
"Whoops, sorry." I said as I handed Mink his cup. "Here you go, tea is done." He took the cup and leaned against the counter. "Ouch, hot." I hissed slightly as I took a sip of my tea. I blew on the tea before I took a more cautioned sip of my tea. I hummed at the taste of honey, it was sweeter than normal tea, but it wasn't too sweet, it still tasted like tea. Oh, I can't explain it, but it's really good. I probably drank more tea than what was really healthy for me.
"After this I suggest we both turn in for the night." Mink said after he took a drink from his cup. I nodded, and looked at him from over the rim of my cup then outside. After I permanently came to live here Mink had started to allow me to sleep next to him at night. In fact he didn't really allow me the option, not that I gave him much of an option in the first place either.
"Sure, I'm actually tired anyways." I admitted, Mink sat his cup down and I hastily drank mine as well. Mink took my cup and began washing them. I took them from him and dried them before placing them back in the cupboard. I walked to the bedroom door while Mink set about turning all the lights off, and made sure everything was locked up. The AllMates followed me into the room, Ren close on my heels and Harucan flew to the top of the dresser and immediately went into sleep mode. I quickly changed into pajamas and sat on the edge of the bed as Mink walked in. Ren walked over to his pillow I brought from Midorijima and curled up into a ball under the window and went in to sleep mode as well, I stared out the window as Mink changed and climbed into bed. Mink said the prayer he always whispered before he slept. He never told me what he would say, but I never asked. He said I didn't have to pray, but I did anyways he just didn't know I did. Every night as I was falling asleep I always prayed for Mink to be happy, to find his peace that he keeps chasing. I laid down, and stared at the ceiling as Mink laid down beside me. My shivering still hadn't stopped, and scooted closer to Mink curling up against his side. Mink shifted slightly and placed an arm around me and offered me a little more warmth.
I really hope I'm not sick when I wake up. Was my last thought as I immediately fell asleep against Mink.
Figures things wouldn't go as I wanted it to. When I woke up my throat burned like crazy, and I was immediately overcome with a coughing fit. In fact I was coughing so hard I woke Mink up.
"Aoba?" Mink sat up as I bolted up and hunched over coughing. I covered my mouth, and placed my other hand on the chest. My shoulders shook with every cough, and my chest hurt from how hard I coughed. Mink didn't move until my coughing fit subsided finally. I gave one last cough, and winced as I looked at Mink.
"Sorry…" my voice came out hoarse and harsh and I brought my hand to my throat. No, my voice was going away.
"Sit here, I'm getting you some medicine." Mink took the covers off him, and hoped out of bed. "I should have given them to you before you fell asleep."
"It's fine." I tried to say, but he just looked at me and walked into the hallway. I gave a couple more coughs, and looked down as I heard Ren give a soft whine. I leaned over and picked him up. He snuggled against my chest, and gave a huff.
"I'm sorry I didn't give you adequate warning about your health." Ren apologized and I hushed him immediately.
"Don't worry about it." I said as I looked out the window. It wasn't even dawn yet, actually I don't even feel like I slept last night. If possible, I feel even more tired than when I went to bed.
"It would be best if you didn't talk much." Huracan spoke from his perch. I looked up at him, and gave a smile. Guess I woke everyone up with my coughing. I scooted back and leaned against the headboard. I couldn't breathe very well, and if I laid down now I would be able to breathe at all. I looked over as I heard Mink enter the room again. He had a cup of water in one hand and medicine in the other.
"Take them." Mink ordered as I took the cup and medicine. I placed the medicine in my mouth and swallowed the water, coughing slightly after I did so. Mink sat the pillows up and added another blanket to the bed.
"You'll sweat to death if you sleep with another blanket on." I complained. I may be sensitive to the cold here, but Mink wasn't. Mink was used to this weather, and if he'd be miserable if he slept under two blankets.
"Don't worry about me." Mink grunted. "You need to stay warm. You're not accustomed to this cold, it'll keep getting worse if you don't get your body up, and keep it up. No lean back and go to sleep."
I gave a sigh, and leaned back against the pillows, and I pet Ren's soft fur. Mink didn't say anything and just sat on the edge of the bed. "Aren't you going to sleep? I can sleep in the extra room so you don't catch it."
"I won't catch your cold." Mink said and moved back into the bed as he shifted his pillows up like mine.
"Then you should get some sleep, I didn't mean to wake you up." I said slide down slightly, and winced slightly as my breath was cut off slightly. I sat up more, and just dealt with the fact that I would have to deal with an uncomfortable next few nights of sleep. "I just started coughing before I knew it."
"Don't worry about it." Mink placed his hand on the back of my head. "Just sleep so your cold doesn't get worse. That's all that matters right now." I leaned my head back against his hand, and the pillows.
"You always take care of me." I mumbled as I closed my eyes. "Thank you."
"Just sleep." Mink said, his voice low. "I will always take care of you." I smiled as I feel asleep next to Mink.
Me: oh gods I didn't think I would get this done. Not one bit. It's dead week here at college, and that's basically the week when your teachers feel like screwing you over and giving you a shit ton of last minute assignments. So on top of updating this story every day I also have two essays to write, two science projects, two presentations, and I think I'm gonna die by the end of the week. XD oh well, everything will get done, somehow I always manage to get everything done. So I'm gonna upload these, and continue typing away till I get what I have to done today. I hope everyone liked this chapter; and I think I'm gonna do each chapter like a route, so none of the chapters are actually going to intercept with each other, at least not a whole lot anyways, but each chapter will follow the previous chapter regarding that specific pairing. In other words, Mink's chapters will match up with each other, Noiz's chapters will match up with each other; etc. And they won't be in any specific order, the chapters will be done for whatever pairing I feel like doing.
Later ;P