Atsushi had managed to find his way around the small kitchen just fine. He had been sitting alone at the table for about 5 minutes now,
eating what was arguably the best curry he'd ever eaten. Not that he could tell Akutagawa that- ever. He was trying really hard not to
eavsdrop on the phone call taking place. It was hard to put together all the, "Ya", "I'm ok", "Uh huh", and the like when you only heard
one side of the conversion. He held a bite of curry almost to his mouth, when a cell phone was slipped beside his bowl on the table.
"Gin wants to talk to you, can you just appease her please?" And he took a long drink from the cough syrup, pulled out a chair and sat down.

Atsushi suddenly felt extremely nervous. He had his eyes darted on the phone. Lowering his spoon he thought, I guess I'll see what she wants.

"Hello? this is Nakajima Atsushi speaking."

"Ryuunosuke Gin. I'm appreciative of you taking my brother home. He's pretty hard headed."

"Mmmm ya, I guess I can see that." Atsushi cocked his head sideways and wrinkled up his nose. Akutagawa was alternating bites of curry with
sips of cough syrup.

"I know it's a lot to ask, but you have to be a nice person..."

Uh oh.

"Do you mind staying with Aku tonight? I can tell he's over doing it on the medicine, and he can get pretty sick fast if he's got a
fever."

"Uh..well..I do-"

"Please? Just until I can come by there tomorrow morning. He's a doofus, but he really isn't a bad guy."

Atsushi's heart sank. He really didn't feel like he knew how to take care of this person, but he felt a strange obligation to the girl
on the phone.

"Just until you get here. I guess that's ok."

"Really? Thank you!"

Click.

"Well, whaddshe want?" Slurred Akutagawa. His face was beet red, and he kept swaying dangerously in his chair like he couldn't quite
hold his balance. Atsushi leaned over and took the cough syrup out of his hand.

"Gibbit back!" His hand swung out for the bottle, and-

Clunk

He did fall out of his chair.

"Seriously, how do you ever take care of yourself? You really need to pull yourself together." Atsushi felt a little badly for lecturing
Akutagawa, seeing as they had just met.

"S'was perfectly fine, just go." He was still on the ground, but he was motioning his hand toward the door.

"No. I promised your sister I'd look after you tonight. You should be ashamed of making your little sister think you need babysat!" Honestly, what
was this guys' problem? Atsushi took the bowls from the table and placed them into the sink. It won't matter if they get washed tomorrow. He just
wanted to go to sleep, maybe read a bit of his book so the day didn't feel like a complete waste. He tapped his mouth with his finger and decided
he'd have to pick Akutagawa up and put him in bed himself. He kicked the chair away a little, and stooped forward, cradling him like a child.
He wasn't much bigger than one, Atsushi thought.
"Honestly...honestly.. but you do look like you're burning up." I bet he doesn't keep a thermometer around for himself, either. He stepped over to the bed and laid Akutagawa down on top of the mattress, glancing around the room. He noticed a lamp on the floor beside the nightstand, and a pile of empty cough syrup bottles.

Back on the couch, Atsushi tried to read his manga, but his head was spinning. This was definately not how he'd planned his Saturday to go. He
pulled his phone from his front pocket and his heart sank a bit when he had no missed messages. He swiped it on, and sent a quick text to Dazai- "And
you think your Saturday is exciting. We will have something to talk about." No sooner than he was about to lay it down, it buzzed.

"OooOooo you lucky dog! ;-P~"

Atsushi sighed. Yeah right. Atsushi slid down onto the couch and closed his eyes. He could hear himself breathing, but he could also hear Akutagawa who was taking sharp raspy breaths, and occasionally let out a small whine. It almost sounded sad. He decided to get up and check on him.

Akutagawa was sweating a little bit, probably his fever breaking, and he kept making that whining sound when he exhaled. Maybe he's having a bad dream.
Atsushi pushed Akutagawa's bangs off his forehead, and kneeled beside him. Raspy inhale, followed by a small whine. Over and over and over. He put his hand to his forehead again. I think his fever is gone at least. He was about to stand up when Akutagawa's hand lurched up and grabbed his shirt. Startled,
he looked down at him, but his eyes were still closed. "Just stay." Atsushi was pretty sure he was talking in his sleep. His hand relaxed and fell back
onto the bed.