Right, this is a stark contrast to the previous chapter. It's pre-series, when the kiddies all have their metaflux-induced fevers. Well, no— just afterwards. All except for one. It's also based off of and inspired by a true story between two infant sisters.

Warning: Angst and fluff.

Thran never stopped to wonder at his closeness and protectiveness of his brother, as he was quite young, and in the end it was just the way it was. He accepted this in the way only a child could, and so didn't think his actions at all questionable when he broke into the hospital that night.

Both twins, and two of their friends, had all come down with terrible fevers. Thran's had broken; Ahito's had not. In fact, he had been getting steadily worse, thus being hospitalised. But although their kaa-chan was there with him, his aniki was not, and neither of them could stand it.

Hence why Thran was breaking into the hospital.

Ahito blinked blearily as he watched his nii-san open the window of his hospital room, probably with one of his clever gadget-y things, and climb in. He felt overwhelmingly hot, but he couldn't stop shivering, and his mouth and throat were dry and painful, and the people here had stuck things in him and it hurt.

Hospitals were supposed to make you feel better! (Even if it had, he still wouldn't like them) That's what kaa-chan said… so why did he feel worse? The doctors even said he was getting worse, when they thought he couldn't hear, and they made his kaa-chan cry. And his aniki hadn't been there, but he didn't want Thra-nii to cry either.

But he was here now, and Ahito felt better already. He tried to speak, but he could barely move save his shivering, and he was quickly becoming too weak to even do that.

Fortunately, Thran wanted the opposite; he wanted his otouto to stay still and quiet, to rest and not wake kaa-chan up. She was in another bed in the room, staying close to her precious son in what the doctors believed to be his final hours. It was unlikely he would last the night, they said, but she had refused to believe it. She had been unable to remain awake after almost a week of sleeplessness, though, and if Ahito truly didn't make it, then she would never forgive herself.

Without any kind of hesitation, Thran crept into Hito-nii's sickbed, tugging off his shoes and coat and snuggling up to his brother. He frowned at the heat and sweat he felt, and tried to move away again so as not to make his otouto hotter, but Ahito whimpered at the perceived abandonment and he moved back again. He couldn't stand to upset his little brother (his twin, his Hito-nii, the sweetest otouto-kun in all the galaxy) when he was as sick as this. He was always getting sick. Something to do with his 'deeyenay' or something.

You see, Thran and Ahito were to be identical twins. However, Ahito's genetics suffered a few slight mutations. Nothing truly serious; uncooperative hair as opposed to his twin's easily-manipulated style and the like. However, these mutations left him slightly more susceptible to illness, and he was also pegged as the most likely to develop some genetic disorder in later life.

As far as Thran could understand it, life was being pretty darned mean to his nii-chan, and he didn't like it one little bit.

Ahito felt contentment rise in him, almost not feeling his raging fever anymore as he was reunited with his big brother (his twin, his Thra-nii, the bestest aniki-san in all the galaxy) and they snuggled together in the all-white bed that smelled icky and felt weird, trying to ignore the pipe-thing in his arm.

There were barely a few minutes between them, but young children assimilate; their kaa-chan treated Ahito-chan like he was two or three years younger that Thran-kun, and he responded accordingly. It would be quite a while before this stopped— at tou-chan's insistence and Ahito's indignance because one day he was going to be eight and a half and that was plenty old enough to stop calling him chan, thank you very much— but for now he was the baby of the family. And right now, he was content as he was.

The next morning, the boys' tou-chan turned up at the hospital. He had awoken to find Thran missing, along with his coat and shoes. Paying no heed to how he'd gotten in, as the little one surely had, the man simply knew that Thran-kun would go to his brother and his brother was at the hospital so they'd both be there. He was right.

He crept carefully past Masaki (who complained about his sleeping habits but wouldn't wake herself if the house fell down) and looked upon his sleeping boys, quashing the sick feeling at the sight of his youngest son's pale and sweaty face. Out of habit, he reached out a hand to brush sweat-slicked hair away from Ahito-chan's face, and as his fingers made contact with the child's skin, his heart soared.

Ahito's fever had broken.

The story this was inspired by is of two infant sisters. They were born small and weak, and it looked like one of them wasn't going to survive. Then, one of the nurses broke the hospital rules and placed the two babies together in one incubator. The healthy girl wrapped her arm around the other in an embrace, and her life signs stabilised.

I've never had a proper fever before, not anywhere near to this extent, so it's mostly guesswork. I hope it's okay :)