A/N: Hello again! Things have been really slow for me lately. Sorry for the long wait. x_x; This chapter is a little shorter than the others, only about four pages in Word (others were at least six). This scenario was requested by SourL. I'm not sure what to think of it, really, so if it sucks, I apologize!

Thanks again for reviews! I won't answer any this time, as I don't want to ramble on and such.

Persona belongs to Atlus.

Chapter 10

The Bug

Orphanage, 2nd Floor, Boys' Room - Late Afternoon

Everyone around the orphanage was catching it that week.

The adults called it the bug. It took a couple of hours for Akihiko and Shinjiro to convince Miki that it was something she did NOT want to catch.

"You gotta watch yourself, Miki," Akihiko was telling her. "Don't touch things other sick kids have been playing with, or you'll catch it, too."

"Why not?" the girl whined pitifully.

"You don't wanna get sick, do you?" Akihiko crossed his arms, looking sternly at her.

"No…" Miki pouted, kicking her feet at the air.

"Then listen to me an' Shinji and Suoh-san and Reiko-san, okay?"

Shinjiro had stood by as the "lecture" continued. Akihiko was only echoing what the adults had been telling them since the other day, when one of the older kids had fallen ill. Since then, three more kids were rendered bedridden, including Masaru, one of the older boys.

Masaru had recently taken it upon himself to make the others as miserable as he was, sneezing and coughing over everything he could despite Suoh's warnings. She was too busy tending to the other kids to really stop him, however, until Reiko started a crackdown on those spreading germs on purpose.

Currently, two of the extra rooms used for storage were cleaned out so that he and Mai, the oldest child in the orphanage, could have their own space. The contents of those rooms were shifted to either the attic or the basement.

"… I KNOW already, onii-chan!" Miki said loudly. "You don't have to tell me anymore!"

"Jus' as long as you get it." Akihiko crossed his arms, looking sternly at her.

"Course she does," Shinjiro finally said, looking almost thoughtful. "If you keep pestering her, Aki, she won't listen to you anymore."
An evil grin appeared on the lone girls face. "Yeah, Miki won't listen to onii-chan no more!" she sang, sticking her tongue out at her brother.

The brunette buried half his face in his hand. "… You've been hangin' around us too much, Miki…"

Boys' Room - The Next Day

He never remembered feeling so sluggish in his life. His limbs ached and felt heavy, his head throbbed, and the bright light hurt his eyes.

A fit of coughing racked his small body, and left his chest feeling sore.

There was no joking around… He had definitely become one of its victims…

Shinjiro curled up on his bed, pulling the blanket over himself. He felt way too cold.

The door on the other side of the room opened, followed by several pairs of footsteps.

"I tried to get him up, but he just groaned and turned away," Akihiko loudly shouted. "S'why me an' Miki came to get you, Suoh-san."

"Suoh, is Shinji sick?"

The brunette pulled the duvet over his head. Great, he came back. The boy had tried shaking him to get him out of bed earlier that morning, but Miki was shouting at him to stop after a while. It only made Shinjiro's head hurt worse.

"Shinjiro," Suoh chirped, her gentle voice wafting to the boy's ears.

He only groaned in response. Adult or no adult, he did not want to move. However, he was powerless to stop the young woman from removing the blanket from over his head. Harsh sunlight from the window invaded his eyes once again, and he shut them tightly and buried his face in his pillow, shivering.

"Shinji!" Akihiko sounded especially worried. He was a hothead, but he was an overly sentimental hothead.

"Akihiko-kun," Suoh addressed him, "Go get my aunt. Tell her to bring a thermometer."

"… Well, the good news is, we're not rushing him to the hospital. S'only round 100. Any higher, and, well, you get the picture."

The two women stood in the hallway just a ways from the boys' room. The older frowned in concern as she looked at the younger. "You're getting a little better, Suoh. You didn't panic as much."

Her niece glared at her, cheeks reddening in embarrassment. "Oba-san!"

"S'a complement. I'm surprised, though. Shinjiro-kun never gets sick. This makes what, the second time? Yeah, it's the second…" Reiko closed her eyes, nodding to herself. "Anyway, good thing you acted fast. Otherwise…"

"Shinjiro would have ended up like him," said Suoh, as though to complete the sentence.

"Now, that's not what I was going to say, Suoh…"

"But it's the truth." The younger woman gazed directly into her aunt's brown eyes, her own reflecting her inner emotions. "I won't let it happen to any other child. I failed him. I failed my own son, Oba-san."

The older woman took a step towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Stop beating yourself up about it, Suoh. Hideki-chan was already a sickly boy, and everyone, including us, did all we could for him."

Suoh bit her lip. She looked she wanted to say something, but couldn't. After a moment, she finally turned away and headed downstairs, leaving her aunt alone.

Reiko sighed heavily. "Tch, you're acting like it's all on you," she said bitterly to herself. "I know you still miss him, but using Aragaki so that you don't have to face it is just wrong…" She pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger, shaking her head. "Hideki-chan, your mother is driving me to drink…"

To Akihiko, it was a truly worrisome sight.

Shinjiro was reduced to a shell of what he once was. After he had come back with Reiko, both she and Suoh continued checking over the boy for several more minutes. Shinjiro was cranky throughout the whole ordeal, and now that they weren't there, he seemed a bit more peaceful, albeit bedridden with a blanket up to his neck and a cold cloth on his forehead.

The silver-haired youth sat on the bed next to where Shinjiro slept, with Miki keeping him company, as always. She looked as though she wanted to reach for him, but resigned herself to leaning her head on her brother's side, gazing at the dozing child with doleful eyes.

"Ne, onii-chan…" Miki shifted so that she was looking right in Akihiko's face. "Onii-chan, do you think Shinji'll get better?"

"Course he will. Why?" Akihiko looked puzzled.

"Shinji looked real mad after Reiko gave him that red stuff. He musta hated it…" Miki's voice had dropped to a whisper, making it hard to hear her.

"That red stuff is medicine. It's nasty, but grown-ups say it's to make you better when you're sick." The silverette motioned to the small bottle on the side table between them and Shinjiro's bed. "That's it right there."

Miki stared at it with narrowed eyes, scrutinizing every detail. "How's it supposed to make sick people better if it tastes bad?"

"It's the same as vegetables," said Akihiko plainly. "Except that you HAVE to take medicine so that you don't stay sick."

"… Noisy…"

The Sanada siblings froze. Slowly, their heads turned to Shinjiro, who was looking right at them, although he seemed too tired to look annoyed. "… You're… noisy," he repeated before he started coughing, making the cloth on his forehead slide off.

"Oh… er… um… sorry, Shinji." Akihiko looked embarrassed. "Miki just…"

"… Quiet…" Shinjiro's eyelids were already drooping. "… dummy…"

It took all the self-control he had to keep his mouth shut and not angrily yell at the brunette. Even when ill, Shinjiro never failed to insult him. Perhaps it meant that, in his own way, he was reassuring Akihiko that he'd be alright, or that he really needed to adopt an inside voice.

He felt his sister leaning on his arm and shoulder. Turning his head to look, the small girl was rubbing her eyes.

"Don't fall asleep, Miki," Aki said softly, stifling a yawn of his own. "At least not 'til Reiko-san and Suoh-san come back."

"M'not tired," the girl mumbled groggily, still rubbing at her eyes. The effort proved futile as her hands drooped anyway, and she slumped backwards onto the bed.

Akihiko chuckled lightly, sliding off so he move the girl's feet onto the bed while he sat on the floor.

After a few moments, he started tipping over sideways. The silverette jumped suddenly, forcing his eyes wide open and his posture upright. He didn't last long, however, and he, too, drifted to slumber.