She had been with him for months now, but Kisara still hadn't quite managed to shake the idea that Seto Kaiba wasn't invincible. It wasn't to say that she didn't know about the well-publicized Duel Monsters losses, or his well-hidden struggles with social anxiety and agoraphobia. She had seen photographs of Seto as a youngster—all of them in existence, she was fairly certain—and knew the dark, troubling stories behind each and every one of them. But despite Seto Kaiba's personal troubles and difficult past, nothing seemed to be capable of physically harming Seto Kaiba. His body, Kisara had theorized, might be a very tall, slightly gawky, broad-shouldered Teflon vessel, immune to mundane human pathogens and the normal wear and tear associated with being a person in the outside world.

Which was why it was took her by such surprise when she awoke in the middle of the night to find Seto missing from bed, and a path of light glowing from his private bathroom, wide enough to indicate that the door was left open. She was dimly aware of these facts, but too sleepy to comprehend them, until she heard a terrible retching from inside the bathroom. Kisara rushed into the room, dizzy and half-asleep and freezing cold, to find a pale, sweaty Seto slumped onto his knees on the cold tile floor, taking short, shaky breaths. Upon seeing her, Seto had shaken his head at her, signaling for her to leave him alone before he collapsed into another fit of vomiting.

Kisara's bathrobe was drying on a towel rack a few feet away, she gently took it down and wrapped it around Seto's shoulders. He looked at her briefly, shaking his head before staring away from her. Kisara leaned over him, stroking damp brown bangs from his forehead. He felt unnervingly warm to the touch.

"Everything okay?" Kisara crooned, perching herself on the edge of the bathtub.

Seto shook his head again; his damp bangs sent sweaty droplets onto the floor. "Just go," he mumbled. Kisara watched in amazement as Seto curled up on the floor, tucking his knees to his chest. "It's fine."

"Obviously, it's not fine. Are you ready to go back to bed?" Seto gave a meek half-nod, and Kisara grabbed his arm, pulling him into an upright position. His weight tipped forward, and she stumbled, momentarily panicked that she would fall and he would and on top of her; hastily, she grabbed onto the towel rack to stop her fall and readjusted her weight.

"It'll be okay, Seto," she said softly, pulling back the covers and rolling him into the bed. Seto mumbled something in response that Kisara couldn't make out, seeing as he was talking into a pillow. She tiptoed outside, hastily making her way downstairs to the kitchen to fetch something for him to drink.

…

The thermometer beeped, and Kisara delicately extracted it from Seto's mouth, grimacing when she saw the number on the instrument. "One-oh-three point six," she grimaced, stroking Seto's forehead with the back of her hand. "That's not great. We should take you to the hospital, Seto."

Seto's head was sandwiched between two pillows. "Kisara. Leave me alone," he grumbled.

"Okay, fine. But if you still have this fever tomorrow morning, we have to take you in. Alright?"

"Ughhhhhhhhhh."

Kisara rolled her eyes. "Come on. I got some flu medicine for you at the store. Why don't you guys own flu medicine?" The bottle of pills opened with a soft rattle, and she shook two bright-blue tablets into the palm of her hand.

"Don't need it," Seto groaned quietly.

"Are you kidding? You can't even make it from the bathroom to your own bed."

Seto's response: "Don't want...don't want to be dependent."

Kisara bit her lip, struggling to keep her annoyance in check. So Seto could be just as stubborn when he was sick, apparently. "That's a stupid argument. You're not dependent, you're just giving your body what it needs to bring down your fever and give you some peace. Is it seriously worse to take some flu medicine with a one-oh-goddamn-three fever, or to get sicker and leave your whole company hanging? Not to mention me and Mokuba."

"One-oh-four," came Seto's weak response.

"What?"

"Point-six means you round up," Seto grunted.

It was difficult for Kisara to suppress a frustrated scream. "I...oh, right, you round up the decimal. Fine. Come here, you big baby." Kisara tapped gently on his shoulder, and helped him to adjust the pillows until he was propped into a sitting position. "Take these," she commanded him softly, transferring the flu medicine into the palm of his hand and grabbing a half-full glass of water from the nightstand.

To her great relief, Seto took the medicine without questioning, and drained the rest of the glass of water. "What now?" he said grumpily, slumping back into a sleeping position and pulling one of the pillows back over his head. "I feel the same."

Kisara sighed. "It takes a little bit. Try to sleep, okay? I'll give you some space." She watched Seto nod and nestle deeper into the covers before turning around and heading for the door. She was supposed to spend the day coding and sipping on an ice-cold mocha, but now she was caring for her cranky, obstinate boyfriend.

Still, something about turning about-face and leaving a feverish, weakened Seto Kaiba in his bed felt wrong. She closed her eyes, turning around while silently berating herself for being such a sap, and pressed her lips quickly to his cheek before turning around and leaving again.

"Something's wrong with Seto." Mokuba was sitting on the storage bench outside of Seto's room, kicking his legs anxiously at the carpet. He looked up at Kisara, and she pursed her lips, trying to hide her alarm that his wide violet eyes looked watery.

"He has the flu, I think. He took some medicine. You're brother's gonna be okay." Kisara sat down next to Mokuba, cautiously placing her hand over his.

Somewhat to her surprise, the boy turned his palm upwards and curled his fingers around the top of her hand. "Seto doesn't take medicine," he said cautiously.

Kisara couldn't help but snicker. "Yes, he told me that. But he came around. It's going to be all right, Mokuba." Her eyes met his, and she smiled in a way that she hoped looked encouraging.

"Is it that bad, then?" Mokuba fretted. Kisara's heart jumped with alarm as his voice started to rise with panic again.

"It's going to be okay, Mokuba. It's just a bad cold."

Mokuba looked at her suspiciously. "You said the flu," he accused.

"Maybe. I don't know what it is. He's going to be okay."

Mokuba hesitated for a moment. Kisara watched as the younger boy's brow furrowed as if he were contemplating something very carefully. "Can I stay home from school?" he asked.

Would Seto allow his younger brother to take the day off just because he fell—albeit somewhat violently—ill? Kisara wondered. This was, indeed, the man who had attempted to shake her off while he was vomiting and collapsed on the bathroom floor. Then again...Kisara looked to Mokuba, who was staring anxiously at the ground. "Alright, alright. Stay here with me today, and we can look after Seto."

For all of the times that Mokuba had come to Kisara for food, pleading for her to cook for him, Kisara had come to assume that the boy had no cooking skills. She was surprised, then, when he asked her to take her to the store that morning. Doubly surprised when she met him at the end of the cash register and he was carrying a roasted chicken and an assortment of vegetables. Triply surprised when she emerged from checking on Seto to find Mokuba standing on a stepstool, hovering gracefully above a stock pot full of sizzling vegetables. The whole kitchen smelled fragrantly of celery and onions.

"You cook," Kisara remarked, not bothering to hide her surprise.

Mokuba was opening a large can of chicken broth. A forceful hiss echoed through the kichen as the cold liquid hit the bottom of the pot, and the savory steam obscured the boy from Kisara's vision.

"Not really. I looked it up on the internet." With his soup now simmering cozily on the stovetop, Mokuba retrieved a cold can of soda from the fridge, and sat down next to Kisara.

Kisara smiled fondly. "Soup for your brother, huh?" She smiled.

Mokuba nodded. "I read somewhere that, scientifically, chicken soup is supposed to help with upper respiratory infections," he said thoughtfully. The words sounded suspiciously rehearsed, as if he had just finished reading the article and didn't quite fully understand it.

Kisara's heart was thoroughly warmed. "Sure, I bet."

"Mokuba, come on. Don't you want to bring your soup up to Seto?" Kisara was carefully balancing a tray of soup, bubbly water, and a napkin with flu medicine carefully folded inside. "It's going to get cold."

Mokuba looked up from his seat on the sofa. He was still curled up under a thick blanket, and his eyes looked surprisingly forlorn. "It's okay. You do it," he said softly.

Kisara frowned, setting down the tray on the coffee table. "Is everything okay?"

Mokuba hesitated, pointedly avoiding her gaze. "I just...if he's doing really bad...I just...I don't like seeing him...like that," he blurted out finally, cupping his chin in both hands. "I-"

A wave of empathy rushed through Kisara, and she pulled Mokuba into a quick hug. "It's all right," she said softly. "I'll make sure he's doing okay, all right?"

Mokuba nodded, sniffling softly.

"And I'll make sure you get the credit."

Kisara had very little experience balancing precarious, heavy trays loaded down with liquids. She struggled to open the door to Seto's bedroom with her elbow to maintain her two-handed grip on the food tray, whacking the door ajar with her knee. To her surprise, Seto's night-light was on, and he was propped up in bed, wearing his glasses and typing away with his laptop balanced between his knees.

"You're up," Kisara remarked, handing him the tray.

"Observant, I see," Seto remarked softly, stretching out his legs to form a flat surface for Kisara's offerings. "Here, Mokuba made you some soup. The kid's worried about you, Seto."

Seto frowned. "He's an anxious kid," he remarked, his eyes narrowing.

Kisara rested her head against Seto's shoulder. "Can't you worry about that another day, when you don't have a one-oh-four degree fever?"

Seto wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "One-oh-one, Kisara," he said, with a voice full of amusement.

Kisara's eyebrow arched with amusement as she watched him unfold the napkin full of medicine, and swallow the pills down with a glass of water. "Think the medicine had anything to do with it?" she joked, adjusting her position so she could gauge his reaction.

Seto looked momentarily caught off guard, but his face quickly assumed the darkened demeanor Kisara expected when he was being teased. Giggling softly, she crawled forwards on the bed to plant a kiss on his forehead. "Wait a moment," she said suddenly, springing up.

The look on Seto's face quickly turned from darkened to confused. "What's going on?" he asked, pausing for another sip of water.

Kisara grinned. "I think there's someone who's going to want to see you. Wait up, please..."

The relief on Mokuba's face was simply radiant as the younger boy rushed towards his brother, eagerly sliding into the bed next to him. "Seto! Feeling better?" he bubbled.

Seto's sigh was distinctly, comically pronounced; Kisara surmised that he was trying to reassure his younger brother that he was, indeed, going to be okay. "Just fine, kid," he said softly, graciously accepting his brother's hug.

Luckily Seto's bed was a king-sized monstrosity, or Kisara wouldn't have any room. She settled down on Seto's other side, entwining her arm with his. "You know, it's early," she said thoughtfully. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Mokuba's and Seto's faces turned to her, both equally confused. "I don't get it," Mokuba said finally.

Kisara smiled. "We could all just stay in bed and watch a movie here..."

Author's Notes: So, it's been awhile! A whole bunch of thanks to everyone who read/reviewed since I last updated-it's a really neat feeling to know that people are reading what I've been writing :D And the first chapter officially expired in my doc manager so...I guess this is a real thing that's been going on for awhile now :)

If anyone here has a tumblr and is interested in having a chat, my tumblr is tangled-upinlights-I haven't been super great at being responsive, but the Yugioh fandom has been very welcoming and kind to me so far and I would like to sincerely thank everyone for welcoming me into the Yugioh fandom community! Still writing, but more in the brainstorming stage right now than anything-if anyone has requests or anything of the like, that would be amazing :)

Till next time!

~Mei