There were only so many things that could get Horo's lazy ass out of bed in the morning.

The list consisted of food, snowboarding and… well… that's about it really.

The Ainu had been awake for over 10 minutes, but because he hadn't moved at all, neither his body nor mind were aware of consciousness.

That soon changed however, when he heard a dry cough emanate from somewhere to his left.

Horo slowly wiggled his toes and twitched his fingers, gently and calmly moving one limb after another to wake his mind up without seeing spots for twenty seconds after.

Horo rubbed his sore eyes and yawned, stretching his legs, arms and back as he did so.

He blinked a few times, before he heard another dry cough, this one sounding a lot more painful.

Horo watched Ren cough for about a minute before his mind even contemplated doing anything about it.

Horo woke Ren and sat him up, trying not to flinch at how bad the coughing sounded. He rubbed Ren's back soothingly until the cough subsided, at which point Ren had exhausted himself and was falling asleep on Horo's shoulder.

Horo put a hand to Ren's forehead, and decided instantly that he had caught a cold, which wasn't really surprising if he had been out in the rain as long as Horo suspected.

Horo filled a bowl with cold water and went on a hunt for a flannel, which he found in one of his cupboards.

After putting the damp flannel on Ren's forehead, Horo stood in the kitchen, racking his brain for some kind of drink or food his mother used to make when he got sick.

He closed his eyes and could almost taste the warm concoction. It was sweet, but had a sour aftertaste to it, and it smelled citrussey, like limes.

After calling Pirika to confirm his guess, Horo set about boiling the kettle and gathering the two other necessary ingredients.

'Argh. I feel like someone ran me over and then put me in a pond.' Ren thought, his throat too dry to produce sound. He knew he was at Horo's before he even opened his eyes. He recognised the feeling of the soft sofa underneath him, and whatever was covering had the Ainu foresty scent all over it.

"Horo." Ren tried, but all that came out was a scrappy 'oh' sound. He licked his lips and tried again, this time it came out as a loud croak.

Ren scowled and settled for rapping his knuckles on the coffee table.

Sure enough, Horo's blue head poked out from the kitchen, and instantly a broad grin spread on his face.

"You're awake then. Hang on, I'm making something that might help." he instructed, ducking back into the kitchen.

Dreading to think of what this 'something' might be, Ren yawned and snuggled further under the covers, not surprised to see Kiyay on the floor by his head, blinking her blue eyes at him.

Ren smiled and lifted the kitten onto the sofa with him, letting her nuzzle into him and flop down against him.

Horo came out of the kitchen, carrying a small glass of some light amber liquid mixture.

Ren took the glass from him and took a tentative sniff, before looking at Horo and arching an eyebrow in question.

"It's Honey, Lemon and hot water. My mum used to make it for me and Pirika when we got sick with colds, which was often." Horo smiled, his eyes taking on a faraway look as he got lost in his memories. Horo blinked and smiled again. "Go on, it's not poison, Ren." he chuckled.

Ren, still too drained of energy to argue, started gulping down the strange sweet and sour drink.

"Whoa! Slow down!" Horo laughed, "It works better if you sip it, inhaling it like that wouldn't do anything and I'd have to make you another one."

Ren nodded and sipped it like Horo had told him, and he felt his throat warm up a little.

He smiled, and tested his vocal chords with a "Thanks, Horo."

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Ren grumbled into his borrowed duvet.

Horo had forced him to stay at his instead of going to school, and said Ainu kept flitting around him like some kind of fly that Ren would like nothing more than to SQUISH.

An idea popped into Ren's head and he suppressed a grin.

"Na, Horo," Ren paused to cough, before looking up at the other shaman with as much helplessness as he could muster, "My throat really hurts… There's this medicine you can get just a few blocks away that works a treat, and I'll pay you back when I can get back to my apartment…" Ren trailed off when he saw that Horo had cottoned on.

"So, you want me to go and get you this medicine?"

Ren nodded, coughing again and letting out a small groan when it felt like he'd swallowed the blade of his Kwan Dao.

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Horo squinted at Ren's almost purposefully bad attempt at Japanese before looking up at the signpost he was stood in front of.

According to Ren, though he couldn't remember the exact name of this medicine, he did know that it contained Eucalyptus oils and Menthol, and tasted like honey.

Horo looked back down at the paper in his hands, trying to figure out the vague directions.

He sighed, shrugged and took the nearest turning.

He continued like this for some time, and was now deep into a part of Tokyo he'd never been to before, glad that foreign places didn't scare him.

Much.

Horo sighed in defeat and strode into the nearest shop.

"Hey, can you help me?"

A girl in the shop's uniform turned to face him and gave a forced smile.

'someone's only in it for the money.' Horo joked mentally, keeping his face straight.

"I was wondering if you knew where I could find a shop that sells some cough remedy that tastes like honey and has Eucalyptus oils and menthol in it."

The girl smirked and said "Sure", before leading him to the medicine shelf and handing him a small packet.

Horo blinked.

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Horo stepped into his apartment and slammed the door behind him, still letting off a string of curses under his breath.

He shrugged off his coat and pulled his feet from his boots, before rummaging in his coat pocket.

Ready to argue Ren's ears off, Horo strode into his living room and stood in front of the couch where Ren had temporarily set up home.

Horo opened his mouth… and paused.

He blinked, before moving closer to Ren to see his face properly.

Horo smiled, his anger almost completely forgotten. Ren was sleeping, his face completely neutral. It almost seemed wrong, or clichéd, but Horo thought that Ren looked… peaceful… innocent, even.

Still smiling, Horo left Ren to his sleep, but not before leaving the 'medicine' on the coffee table.

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Ren breathed heavily after a particularly nasty wave of coughing washed over him, leaving his throat feeling completely dry and raw. He swallowed and winced as the cutting pain seemed to sting more for a few seconds, before it calmed down a bit into a dull ache that seared with every breath.

He slumped back against a cushion and rubbed his sore eyes. It was about 3am now, and he had woken up roughly an hour ago by his coughing, and hadn't been able to nod off again.

When he was sure that he and his throat were safe for now, Ren looked guiltily at the pack of Soothers that he'd sent Horo all over Tokyo to find. He only wanted to get Horo the Mother Hen out of his hair for a while, and he had even made it blatantly obvious what he was after! He hadn't expected the Ainu to be gone hours and hours for something so basic, and obvious.

It was Horo's fault for being an idiot. Yeah.

So why couldn't he get to sleep again, even though the coughing had subsided?

With a frustrated sigh, Ren kicked the covers off of himself and headed into Horo's kitchen.

It took Ren about 20 seconds to realise that poking the bridge of his nose was not helping his sight in any way, because his glasses were back on the coffee table and not on his face.

Ren made a mental note to order new lenses ASAP, and started shifting around in Horo's medicine cupboard.

He popped a Nytol from its packet and swallowed it with water, before sneaking a glass of milk, figuring that Horo wouldn't mind.

Now back on the couch, Ren waited for the Nytol to kick in so that he could go comatose for at least a few hours.

Realising that if it carried on, he would miss school on Monday, which appealed to him strongly because he wouldn't have to pretend to not hear the rude comments and insults he was getting for being 'gay'. Oh yeah, and he wouldn't have to pretend to like Horo either.

It wasn't that he didn't like Horo, of course he liked Horo, they were friends!

He just didn't like Horo that way, and draping himself over Horo for most of his time was getting quite tedious already, after only one school day.

Ren yawned softly and let himself drift off to sleep. He'd muse over it more in the morning.

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Horo let out a sigh.

Yes, he was pitying Ren. The short-tempered, short-sighted, short shaman who had had him running all over Funbari and Shibuya for a pack of cough sweets.

But honestly, if you had spent the last hour listening to your best friend of two years violently hacking up his lungs in the room next to you, you'd feel pity too.

Seeing as he could no longer hear sounds from the other room, Horo decided that Ren had either succeeded incoughing up his lungs, died or fallen asleep.

Horo blinked, and was at his bedroom door in an instant.

Slowly, he cracked it open an inch or two so that he could see Ren over on the couch.

Horo let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Ren was definitely breathing, his chest was rising and falling every few seconds, as it should be.

Slightly embarrassed, Horo slunk back to bed and fell asleep, safe in the knowledge that his friend had been granted a few hours' peace.

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Ren woke slowly, his head breaking and his throat ablaze.

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it really did hurt!

He sat up quickly, coughing hard. His vision span, his eyes unfocused and sore.

He didn't notice Kiyay squeak and rub against him. He didn't notice Horo looking at him with concern in his eyes, a hand against his forehead. He didn't notice anything that was being said to him.

When the vicious coughing bout subsided, Ren sat gasping, holding onto the closest thing (Horo's shoulders) with stiff arms.

Horo smiled sympathetically and rubbed Ren's back, care and worry making his stomach drop with fear for his friend. He gave the ill teenager a hot drink, helping him hold it in his shaking arms.

Ren finished his drink and started coughing again, stopping with a loud cough and a small moan of pain, before he clung to Horo, catching the Ice Shaman off guard.

After Ren had fallen asleep again, he noticed with a chuckle that it would be the third time in three days, three being 'Ren's number'.

Horo was propping Ren up a bit more with pillows and cushions when the doorbell went.

He glanced at the clock, 7am, and answered the door to find nobody there.

'damn ding-dong-ditchers.' Horo thought, and was about to close the door when he heard a small cough. He glanced down and saw Manta, looking slightly peeved at not being noticed.

"Err… ohayo?"

"I came to see if you really were ill or if you were skipping school to get out of the plan. Looks like I'm losing that bet, ne?" Manta justified, glaring up at Horo.

"No, I'm not ill." Horo grinned sheepishly, "But I'm not skipping."

Manta raised an eyebrow.

"Honest! Look, you can come and see why Ren and I aren't at school."

Manta blinked, stepping inside.

"How did you know Ren was off school too?" he asked, taking off his small shoes and following Horo into the living room. Upon seeing who was bundled up on the couch, surrounded by old mugs, tissues and cough sweet wrappers, Manta gave an 'ohhhhhh' of understanding.

"You know how he is. He would've just gone to school, sick as a dog, and gotten worse." Horo explained, Manta nodding in understanding.

Manta left with an apologetic smile and a promise to let all of their teachers know.

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Ren stared, almost unblinkingly, at the VCR clock on the other side of the coffee table. Horo had been in the shower for five minutes and fifteen seconds so far.

Ren rolled his eyes and removed himself from the sofa, strongly ignoring the way that the room swayed and the waves of nausea that accompanied it, he staggered into the kitchen and poured himself a large, cold glass of milk, which he proceeded to drink steadily.

When he had finished, he took his glass to the sink to wash it up, but soon found out that nearly every other plate Horo owned was piled inside, waiting to be washed.

Feeling slightly guilty for what he had made Horo do, Ren rolled his sleeves up and ran some water.

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"What are you doing?"

Ren glanced towards the doorway to see Horo leaning against it with an eyebrow raised.

"You didn't expect me to leave your kitchen in such a state, did you? I know full well that you would never do these yourself anyway." Ren shrugged, turning back to the last few plates.

"Domo, Ren. But, you really didn't have to."

Ren mumbled something resembling a 'yeah, whatever' and Horo smiled, knowing this to be Ren's twisted way of thanking him.

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Woo!!!! I finally finished the chap n.n;

For being an ass at updating, I have put in a little preview :3

"Are you going to get that?"

Horo blinked, having drifted off slightly.

"Huh?"
"The phone. It's ringing. Are you going to get it?" Ren repeated, irritation clear in his voice.

Horo rolled his eyes in a Ren-like fashion and picked the phone from the receiver.

Ren, having nothing better to do, listened in on the conversation.

"Hey! …Problem? What kind of--… you can't be serious… you are? Oh, God…"

Ohayo Good Morning

Domo Thanks