Chapter 4

Rei pulled the blanket higher so that it could cover up to Makoto's neck. He brushed Makoto's hair aside that had covered his eyes and then gently caressed his face. He planted a soft kiss on Makoto's forehead before standing up, heading to the bathroom.

It took Rei about fifteen minutes before he finished bathing. Once he was done, the first thing he did was to check on Makoto who had taken his bed. No movement, he was still sleeping. Then, Rei went to his table and started to do his homework. When he was done, he felt so tired to the extent that he straight away fell asleep on his study table, with the lights still turned on.

After hours of sleeping, Rei woke up with a sore neck, muttering cold to himself. Then, he weakly stood up, went to his wardrobe and took out a jacket for himself. After he had done that, he walked towards the bed and checked on Makoto. His face looked a little red, thus when Rei held his hand out to touch Makoto's face, he realized that it was burning.

Anxiously, Rei immediately called out to Makoto. Makoto only opened his eyes after about fifth times having his name being called by Rei.

"Makoto-senpai, you are having fever, do you want to go to the hospital?" asked Rei worriedly.

Makoto didn't immediately answer Rei. Perhaps he was still not fully awake. After a few seconds of silence, Makoto finally spoke, "N-No, I am fine."

"You are not at all. You are having a high temperature. At least get some medicine," said Rei as he left and came after a few minutes with a glass of water on one of his hand and medicine on his another hand.

Rei helped Makoto to straighten up his body before he gave him the glass of water and the medicine. After Makoto swallowed the medicine, he weakly muttered a 'thanks' before Rei started to help him put away the glass of water.

"Do you feel a little better now, Makoto-senpai?"

"Yes. Rei, what time is it?" asked Makoto, and Rei then went to check his watch located at his study table.

"It is already two in the midnight," answered Rei.

"What? So late already? I need to go home," said Makoto, already trying to leave the bed.

"Eh? Wait, Makoto-senpai," said Rei as he held out his arms to stop Makoto from leaving the bed before he continued, "I already contacted your parents and told them that you will stay overnight at my house tonight."

"I see."

Then it struck Makoto that he was sleeping on Rei's bed.

"Rei, am I disturbing you from sleeping? Well, I am having your bed after all… Where are you going to sleep tonight?" asked Makoto.

"I will be fine. Anyway, Makoto-senpai, you should go back to sleep now," said Rei.

With that, Rei turned off the light.

A pair of droopy green eyes were opened to realize that he was in a room, which did not belong to him. As he weakly forced himself to change his position into a sitting position, he felt something fell off from his forehead.

It was a cold, white towel, folded few times.

Feeling surprised to see that a towel was actually placed on his forehead, he tried to get off of the bed to search around and check where was he. As his feet touched the cold floor, he was unable to find sufficient energy to allow himself to stand and lost his balance, but his body never meet the ground. He felt someone called his name and he was suddenly leaning against someone's chest.

"Rei?"

The said boy who had just appeared in time helped Makoto to sit on the bed. The next thing happened, Makoto felt Rei's palm on his forehead.

"You are still having fever, but it is not as high as yesterday," said Rei.

"Oh…" answered Makoto simply. He seemed to have forgotten that he was having fever, or perhaps he did not even know that he was having a fever. That explained why he could not gather enough energy to stand a moment ago.

"Are you hungry? You should eat something first," said Rei.

When Makoto nodded, Rei guided him out of the room, to the living room where there was a table with a pot in the middle of it along with two small bowls and spoons located beside the pot. Then Rei directed Makoto to get a sit on one of the chairs. Next, Rei took off the cover of the pot and poured some of the contents in one of the bowl before handling it to Makoto.

It was porridge.

Makoto took the bowl of porridge after thanking Rei. Rei simply smiled and get himself a bowl of porridge as well. Both of them maintained the silence while enjoying their breakfast.

Rei and Makoto were on their way back to Makoto's house, with Rei holding an umbrella and held it on top to block as much sunlight that was heading towards the elder man.

"Rei, you don't really need to put the umbrella towards me so much," said Makoto, trying to push it more towards Rei.

"No, you can't, Makoto-senpai. You are still having fever, and I must make sure not to make your temperature higher," said Rei, earning a 'thanks' from Makoto again.

Not long after the walk, they reached Makoto's house which was then Rei realized Makoto's had become a little red again. Rei shortened their gap and used his palm to feel Makoto's forehead again and realized that his temperature was indeed rising again.

"Makoto, and Rei-kun," called Makoto's mother who seemed to have just came back from buying groceries.

"Oh, Makoto, you are looking pale," commented his mother.

"About that, aunty, Makoto-senpai is having fever since last night, he is better this morning but his temperature rises again when we reach here," explained Rei.

Then Makoto's mother quickly walked forward and touched her son's forehead to check the temperature. After that, she rushed Makoto into the house, and invited Rei in at the same time. Rei thanked her for allowing him into the house. Once in the house, Makoto's mother quickly took the medicine out from somewhere and urged Makoto to take it, in which Makoto had quietly obeyed. After he had swallowed the medicine, Rei had followed Makoto to his bed after Makoto's mother had asked him to take a rest. When Makoto was already on bed, Rei helped him to put on the blanket.

"Well then, I will take my leave first. Can I come and visit you tonight?" asked Rei, standing.

"Sure," replied Makoto.

As Rei headed to the exit of the room, he heard his name being called from behind. He turned around and faced Makoto who was currently on the bed.

"Thanks," said Makoto.

Rei simply smiled and spoke, "You have already thanked me enough today, Makoto -senpai. I will be here whenever you need me."

With that Rei turned off the light before leaving the room, giving time for Makoto to rest.

The next day was Sunday. Haruka was spending his morning in his bathtub as usual. Today he would be free, Rin did not ask him out, and so he would need to have his own planning for the day. He had decided to visit Makoto's house again.

When he had finished shopping with Rin and Nagisa the day before yesterday, he went to Makoto's house to check on his earlier weird behaviour, only to have Makoto's mother telling him that Makoto would be spending the night at a friend's house. Haruka did not ask whose friend was that, but he regretted it. He should have asked. Then Haruka called Makoto, but no one answered the phone. He wanted to visit him yesterday but then Rin came and they spent almost the whole day together.

Thinking that, he left the water, got himself dressed and headed towards Makoto's house again. As he left his house and went down through the stairs, he pressed the doorbell, waiting for either Makoto or his siblings to open the door. At this time of the day, his parents should be out after all. As if to prove that Haruka understood Makoto's family very much, Haruka was greeted by Ren and Ran who pulled him in and hugged him.

"Haru-chan!" called Ren and Ran in unison.

"We need to lower down our voice, brother is resting upstairs," said Ran as Ren put a finger on his own lips, fully understanding that he needed to keep quiet.

"Makoto is still sleeping?" asked Haruka. That was weird, Makoto usually woke up early.

"Brother is sick since yesterday," said Ran. Before she could say anything else, Haruka has rushed up to check on his best friend.

"Makoto, I am coming in," stated Haruka, but he didn't wait for a reply and proceeded to enter the room. When he entered, what he saw was Makoto sitting on the bed, he looked a little pale, but didn't seem very sick. Most probably he had recovered since Ran had mentioned that he was sick yesterday, but what surprised him was that beside Makoto there was another person sitting on the bed. Rei.

"Haruka-senpai," greeted Rei as he stood up.

"Rei? Why are you here?" asked Haruka.

"I came to visit Makoto-senpai to see if he had recovered from his fever," said Rei.

"You knew?" asked Haruka, curious. Since when did Rei knew things about Makoto that he did not know of. It felt so weird.

"Erm, yes…"

Ignoring Rei, Haruka went towards Makoto and touched his forehead and asked, "Are you feeling better already?"

Before Makoto could say anything, Rei spoke up, "I guess it's time for me to leave first. Well then, take care, Makoto-senpai. Bye, Haruka-senpai."

Haruka nodded. Makoto prepared to stand up and see Rei down, but was stopped by Rei, stating that he could just leave by himself and told Makoto to get more time to rest.

When Rei finally left the room, Haruka asked again, "Why didn't you tell me that you were sick? Was this why you said you suddenly had something to do that day?"

Haruka was referring to the day where he realized how close was Haruka and Rin, and the exact same day where he realized Haruka might not need him around soon. Then he went under the rain, and Rei was chasing him, and they both spent the time under the rain as he was shouting out his sorrow. Makoto simply nodded, trying to push away the painful memories.

"Are you able to go to school tomorrow?" asked Haruka.

"Yes, I have rested enough. My temperature has lowered down already, so no problem for me," answered Makoto, smiling.

Then, his door was knocked again, but this time by his mother.

"Oh, Haruka-kun, you are here," said his mother smiling. She looked around the room and asked, "Where is Rei-kun?"

"He has gone back," answered Makoto.

"I see, I am about to come in to ask him if he wanted to stay for dinner. How about Haruka-kun? Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Haruka simply nodded and muttered thanks to Makoto's mother.

After dinner, Haruka told Makoto that he would go to his house and pick him up tomorrow morning before leaving his house. Makoto was told to rest earlier by his parents, so he returned to his room right after dinner. Once he returned to his room, he heard his cell phone ringing. It was from Rei.

"Hi, Makoto-senpai. Have you taken your dinner?"

"Yes. Have you taken?"

"Yes, I have. Erm, you will be coming to school tomorrow, right? I will come and walk you to school."

"Oh, no need for the trouble…"

"It's no trouble at all. I would like to get more exercise early in the morning."

"Well, but Haru will walk with me to school tomorrow, so there is really no need for the trouble."

There was a moment of silence. Just when Makoto was about to ask if there was anything wrong, Rei spoke up.

"Yes, you are right. Haruka-senpai will walk you to school, then there should be no problem."

As Makoto listened to Rei, he thought he sounded a little unhappy.

"See you tomorrow, Makoto-senpai."

"See you tomorrow," said Makoto as he ended the call. He then placed his cell phone on the table as he proceeded to turn off the light and sleep.

~TO BE CONTINUED~