day 11 - getting a cold
When Mary woke up she could tell something was different. Usually she woke to the noises of Kano and Kido fighting, and Seto trying to mediate as he got ready for work. Today it was surprisingly quiet, and she wondered at first if she'd woken up late. She swung her legs over the side of her bed, yawning and scrubbing the heels of her palms against her eyes.
In the kitchen, she found an even stranger scene. Kido was stirring something on the stove (soup, maybe?) and Kano was nowhere to be seen. Even weirder, from here she could see Seto's shoes by the door, and there was no trace of him having eaten breakfast. Utterly confused, Mary sat down at the table.
The sound of her drawing out the chair alerted Kido to her presence, and the green-haired girl glanced at her over her shoulder. "Good, you're up," she said by way of greeting. Before Mary could ask why that was 'good', Kido continued, "you can take this to him in just a minute." With sure, deft motions, she turned off the stove and ladled a good amount of soup into a bowl, bringing it over to the table.
"Wait a bit though, it's hot." She caught Mary's confused stare, and realized the smaller girl had no idea what was going on. "Seto's home sick today," she told her.
Everything suddenly made sense to Mary; the shoes, the lack of noise, the soup. She wouldn't be surprised to find out Kido had thrown Kano out of the house that morning to give their sick friend some rest. She seized the bowl, remembering to grab a spoon. "I'll take it up to him," she agreed eagerly. Kido nodded in approval.
Careful not to spill, Mary took the stairs slowly, and nudged the door open with her elbow. She could see a lump under the covers, which she took to be her friend, and she padded over to the bed carefully, setting the bowl down on the bedside table.
"Are you up?" she whispered, hovering over the bed. The lump under the covers stirred and turned, and Seto peeped out of the blankets and looked up at her.
He looked terrible. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his skin was pale and looked clammy. "You're gonna get sick," he croaked, his eyebrows drawing together, and Mary giggled at the humor of the situation. Of course he was worried about her, even though he looked like death incarnate right now.
"Brought you soup," she replied, gesturing at the bowl. "Kido's orders."
He opened his mouth to say something, but started coughing instead, curling forward with each cough. Worried, she sat down on the edge of the bed, twisting her hands in her lap and trying to remember what her mother had done when she was sick.
When the coughing subsided, he didn't seem capable of straightening out his hunched posture, and he swallowed hard with his fist pressed against his mouth. After a second, he lowered his hand and looked up, giving her the sweetest smile, although there were lines of pain in between his eyebrows.
She bit the inside of her cheek and reached up, pressing her hand to his forehead. It wouldn't do her any good, of course; she was colder blooded than humans, and he always felt warm to her. But today he was burning, and she almost snatched her hand away. But her fingertips were so much colder than his fever-racked skin that he visibly relaxed at her touch, his eyes falling shut.
"You're gonna get sick," He mumbled again in protest, but he leaned into her palm, and she giggled at how at-peace he looked now. She pushed his bangs out of the way, fingers combing through gross sweat-damp hair.
"I probably can't catch the same things you can," she reminded him, though they knew from experience that was mostly untrue. Still, he was done protesting, and let her curl up next to him on the bed. He did wince from headache when she pulled his head down to rest on her shoulder, but he seemed much more comfortable there, leaning against her.
She resolved to make him eat something soon, probably as soon as her body temperature rose from such close proximity and her hands weren't cold enough anymore. But for now she pressed her cool fingers to his temples and listen to his breathing slow.
