Yugi woke up from his sleep feeling hot and dizzy. Sighing, he flipped his covers off of his body, and slowly got out of bed to check the thermostat. His frown deepened when he noticed that the temperature was at seventy one, which was fairly normal. He was about to return to his bed, but stopped when his head started pounding.
"What the hell…" he whispered tiredly, subconsciously rubbing at his eyes.
Knowing that there was no way he'd be able to fall back asleep with a headache, he quietly walked through the house until he was in the kitchen. His eyes immediately scrunched up in slight pain as he turned the lights on, the brightness of them making his eyes sting.
"Advil… advil…" he muttered to himself while looking through the medicine cabinet. He flinched when he accidentally knocked over another bottle of pills, sending them crashing to the floor. "Shit!" he whispered, scared the sound might have woken up one of his brothers.
He dug around some more until he found the bottle he was looking for. After popping one pill into his mouth and gurgling it down with water from the faucet, he put all of the bottles back into the cabinet.
Hoping his headache would go away soon, he turned off the kitchen light, and quietly made his way back to his room.
The next morning Yugi woke up, he groaned in the attempt to lift his head up, the headache he thought he had gotten rid of had come back, only stronger.
"Crap…and I have a track meet today," he mumbled.
And the state tournament tomorrow, his thoughts reminded him. Cursing as he stumbled out of bed, he noticed how wet his shirt was, and how sticky his forehead was. He knew that it was hot last night, but damn! Deciding a shower might help, Yugi hurriedly grabbed some fresh clothes from his dresser and got into the shower.
While letting the water wash over his face, some trickled into his mouth, and it was at the moment that he noticed how his throat was slightly sore. Double crap, this was not looking good.
After quickly washing his hair, brushing his teeth, and putting his clothes on, Yugi shuffled downstairs trying to act as normal as possible. He was suspicious of the sick symptoms he was experiencing, and needed to get the thermometer to check his temperature. Without his brothers knowing of course. There was no way he was going to miss the state tournament, and if he really was sick and his brother's knew about it than they would refrain him from competing.
"Morning Yugi," Dark exclaimed happily from his spot in front of the stove.
The smell of grease from whatever he was cooking was making Yugi slightly nauseous. Deciding to take a safe route, he poured some cereal into a bowl with milk following in right after.
"Morning," he replied casually.
Yugi sat down at the table and slowly began to eat his cereal. He needed to create a distraction, one long enough to give him time to swipe the thermometer from the medicine cabinet. After taking a few more bites, an idea came to him. Now all he had to do was to wait for Atemu and Mahado to show up.
It wasn't long before either of them came down. Atemu was wearing nothing but boxers, looking totally out of it as he sat down. Mahado was reading the newspaper, sitting down without even watching what he was doing.
"Morning sleeping beauty, and dorky twin of mine!" Dark said in greeting.
"Feed me!" Atemu whined, a small pout forming on his face.
"In a second! Sheesh, can't y- hey Yugi, you aren't gonna have any of what I'm making?" he asked curiously.
Of course it looked suspicious for him to be eating just cereal. Yugi was known for eating practically everything that Dark made.
"Oh, uh, no not today. I've got a track meet so I don't wanna eat too heavy," he lied.
"That reminds me," Mahado flipped a page of the newspaper. "I'm gonna come watch today."
Had it been another day, Yugi would have been ecstatic, but unfortunately he was almost sure that he was sick, and he didn't want to give Mahado the chance to observe him. He was the most perceptive of them all.
"Really?" He feigned enthusiasm. "That's great! Can you buy me a water for afterwards?"
Maybe if he gave his brother a task to do than it would occupy him enough for Yugi to pull himself together.
"Yeah, sure."
"It's ready!" Dark sang as he brought the plate of food over.
Just as Dark sat down, Yugi stood up with both his glass and bowl in hand. He pretended to trip over his chair, and allowed the cup to go flying from his hand, while he simply dropped his bowl on the ground. Glass shattered all over the floor, and Yugi winced at having to destroy a perfectly good pair of dishes.
"What the hell?" Atemu shouted in alarm.
Yugi winced at all the sound, his headache not having let up yet. Ignoring it, he kept up with his act and apologized for dropping everything. As his brothers all got on the floor to start picking up the big pieces of glass, he excused himself to get towels.
None of them noticed as he went to the medicine cabinet, grabbed the thermometer, and stuffed it in his back pocket.
Once Yugi was successfully out of the house, and in his car, he brought the thermometer out of his pocket, turned it on, and slid it under his tongue. He waited a minute before hearing the beeping sound. Grabbing the end of it he pulled it out of his mouth and looked at the small screen on it.
Triple crap. He had a fever.
The rest of Yugi's day had been eventful to say the least. He had taken some pretty drastic measures to ensure that no one found out about his fever. That included, not holding Yami's hand, staying clear of Ryou, who would see through his façade easily, and pretty much avoiding contact with everyone.
His day only got worse when Coach Kujen pulled him out of class to practice, since the practice that morning had been cancelled due to a meeting Coach Kujen had to attend. It was around lunch time too, which was when the sun was at it's hottest. Yugi had sworn he was going to die while running around the field, and wanted to cry at the fact that he would have to be running again in the afternoon.
The run had only proved to worsen Yugi's fever as it made his hands shake, and his knee's wobble. He had gone to the locker room afterwards and turned the shower onto a very cold temperature in hopes of cooling off his body, but that seemed to make everything worse.
Now it was the afternoon, classes had just ended, and it was time for the actual meet. Yugi was freaking out because before his last class Yami had told him that he was going to come watch him run. Then Ryou, after his last period, had told him that he was coming as well and was even dragging Bakura along to watch. Now there would be four people watching him, and it frazzled his nerves.
"Hey Mutou," Souta shouted by the door. "Let's go, we need to warm up."
Yugi looked up from tying his shoe and nodded slowly, making sure to grab his water bottle before leaving the locker room. He trailed after Souta, mindful of how heavy his head felt, and the slight discomfort in his stomach. Whether it was from the fever or symptoms from being nervous, he couldn't tell.
Stepping outside, Yugi hissed slightly from the light the sun was emitting, and hurried to where his other teammates were gathered. Some of them were jogging in place, others were helping each other stretch. Yugi set his water down before going off to the side, bending his arm behind his back and pulling. He sighed in slight content as his muscles popped.
It wasn't but a few minutes later that Coach Kujen had him warming up around the field next to Souta. They jogged at first, but then picked up their pace towards the end, much to the protest of Yugi's pounding head.
He barely noticed Mahado, Yami, and Ryou waving at him from the bleachers. When they managed to catch his eye they all shouted words of encouragement to him in which he responded with a shaky smile and a thumbs up.
By the time he finished warming up it was time to start the race. However, his event didn't start for another twenty minutes so he took the time to hydrate himself. As the water slid down his throat he winced due to his throat still being a little sore. He hoped that he only had a fever and not strep throat.
"Yugi!" Souta tugged on his shirt roughly. "We're racing against Raido!"
Yugi threw his head back and let out a strange sound that was a mix between a whine and a growl. Raido Hiboku had been a problem for Yugi ever since he began track. The boy from their rival team was always 'accidentally' falling and tripping other players. Yugi was no different. It just so happened that whenever they raced against Raido's school, Raido would always be placed right between Yugi and Souta. In their freshmen year Raido had bumped Yugi into a trash can, and stepped on the back of his heel. Yugi had complained about Raido to his coach and the officials, but they weren't allowed to do anything about it unless they themselves saw Raido causing harm to other players.
He could only hope that the other boy wouldn't play any dirty tricks.
Yugi took off at the sound of the air horn, making his jersey flap around behind him. The only thing his mind registered was the cheering crowd and the huffs of the other runners who were behind and in front of him.
Unfortunately for Yugi, Raido was once again placed beside him on the track. He could feel the presence of the taller male behind him and increased his speed to get away from him. His goal was to stay at the top of the pack, around the fourth spot. Then towards the end he'd make a break away and hopefully come out in first.
Briefly he allowed his eyes to stray to the side where he saw Souta lagging just two steps behind him. His teammate looked fired with adrenaline, yet something in his pace almost made Yugi hesitate. It was probably due to Raido.
Shaking his head slightly, Yugi focused his attention back to the front of the track. After running a little while longer he decided it was time to move forward some. Pushing his legs faster, he eventually found himself in the third position. Yugi almost grinned when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Souta follow his lead and take the fourth position.
The happy feeling didn't last long, especially when he heard a low chuckle that seemed to carry itself through the wind. Taking it as a bad sign, Yugi pushed himself forward once again with a jolt of speed that had him in the second position. Souta followed his lead like before.
The cheers from the crowd became louder, which told Yugi that the finish line was coming up. He hadn't noticed before, but now that the race was almost over he was more aware of his body. His body reminded him that it was sick and weak, it protested with ever step he took. Yugi ignored it completely, intent on winning this race.
It was only when he decided to pass the first spot runner that his body began to shut down. Yugi noticed how hot his head was, how it felt as heavy as lead, yet there was a buzzing sensation going throughout it. His ears felt clogged, and his eyes started to lose focus.
Yugi knew he needed to stop when his vision started to fade to black. He couldn't even hear the sound of cheering anymore. His mind panicked, resulting in his legs giving out from under him. Yugi felt pain when his chin collided with the first spot runner's feet, taking them both out. They tumbled across the track, with Souta and Raido soon following them. All of the runners had too much momentum to stop themselves, resulting in all of them falling in one huge heap on the ground.
Yugi struggled to breathe properly. All of the hot sweaty bodies pressing against him made him highly uncomfortable. Despite the pain and nausea he was feeling, he refused to pass out.
A/N - Was it just me or was the beginning and middle of this chapter choppy and horribly done? I think I went a little comma happy and it made it weird. Ah well, anyways Yugi is sick now. He's doesn't want anyone to know so that he can compete in the dive state tournament, but will it be his downfall? Muaha. Oh yeah I noticed something as well. Track is like a fall or spring sport and swimming/diving is a winter sport… well I screwed that up, but oh well. Can't do much to change it now haha
Ah yeah, I forgot to mention that it's taking me longer to write chapters cause sophomore year is kicking my butt and I barely have time to do anything with all the sports I'm doing and stuff.