Day eight: sickness

"Is Haru even awake right now?" Rin asked, looking down the hall. It was a bit past nine on a thursday morning. Makoto had already went off to work, and Rin didn't have to go to practice for another few hours. He thought it was odd that when they woke up Haruka didn't join them for breakfast or get in the bath first thing.

Making his way down the hall and back into their bedroom, sure enough, there was a Haruka-sized lump still under the blankets. With a sigh, Rin sat on the side of the bed, shaking him gently.

"Hey, it's time to wake up..." No response. "...Haru?"

Prying the covers off, making the smallest let out a whine, Rin was surprisingly met with red-tinged blue eyes.

"I don't feel so good."

"Well you don't look so good, either." He pressed his hand to Haruka's sweaty forehead, and pulled it away.

"No wonder you didn't come out when Makoto made your mackerel for you this morning."

The mention of it made Haruka's face change hue. "...that's because when I could smell it, I threw up."

"THE Haruka Nanase, throwing up at the scent of his beloved mackerel? Quick, better tell the fish market to stop selling to us!"

"Shut up, you're too loud." he whined, pulling his pillow over his head. "Call the aquarium and my manager for me and say I'm sick and can't do anything today."

Rin sighed, flicking Haruka's nose. "Fine. But I do have to leave soon for practice. So in the meantime I'll get things ready for you and I'll have to call someone to watch you while I'm gone."

A tired grunt in response, and Rin left the room to make a few calls.

"Thank you two for coming, it really helps me out," It wasn't his first choice, but he couldn't miss practice or call Makoto and make him come home, either. Haruka did fight it, saying that he was an adult and didn't need anyone to watch him because he was sure 'it's just a 24 hour bug and nothing is serious', but the redhead wanted to make sure. "I have everything set out; already made some soup, he took some medicine, you know where everything is, and with today's schedule Makoto should be home before me. Call only if he's dying."

"Rin-chan you're so strict!" Nagisa huffed, folding his arms with a coy smile. Over the years the blonde had gotten taller, but still a few inches short of meeting the redheads' height. "But Rei-chan and I have this under control, no worries!"

"You two haven't changed at all," Rin sighed, opening the front door and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "And I swear to god if I find out that you two had sex in this house I won't hesitate to murder you and force you to clean EVERYTHING."

The statement made Rei flush deep red. "R-Rin, I promise, we won't do anything!"

"Rei, you're no fun either!"

Rolling his eyes, Rin took a deep breath and closed the door, thinking that this was an absolutely awful idea.

At least he let Makoto know.

"Haru-chaaaan!"

"Nagisa, he's sick! You need to be quiet."

"Oh, sorry! Haru-chaaaan-" The blue-haired man sighed and rubbed his temples.

Haruka groaned and opened his eyes, seeing Nagisa's pink eyes a mere few inches away from his and Rei behind him. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Nagisa and Rei's watching service at your service!" Nagisa beamed, making both Haruka (and Rei) cringe. "Oh, sorry!"

"Just let me sleep."

"Fine, but Rin said that we should start up a bath for you and we did, so..."

"Move."

"That's the spirit!"

"No, move-!" Hands covering his mouth, Haruka scrambled out of bed and dashed to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

"Haruka, are you okay...?" Rei said, almost knocking on the door when Nagisa stopped him, grabbing onto his arm.

"I wouldn't bother a person throwing up, Rei."

"...oh."

"Come on, we can just wait. The tub's already full in there so he might use it once he's done. We'll just...check up on him in a little bit. In the meantime we can warm up the soup and cuddle on the couch?"

Rei sighed, adjusting his glasses. "I suppose so."

"I'm home!" Makoto called out, putting his suitcase on the floor and taking his shoes off.

"Welcome home, Makoto." Rei welcomed quietly, trying not to wake up Nagisa who was sleeping beside him.

"How's he doing?"

"In bed, sleeping again. We had to, uh...wrangle him out of the tub and it's definitely not like when we were in school." Rei's face flushed, referring to the bathing suit not being present. "Nagisa was the unluckiest and went head-on and I apologize on his behalf."

"Oh...no." Makoto let out a nervous laugh. "Well, you could stay if you like since Nagisa seems pretty content on the couch..."

"Thank you, Makoto." Rei smiled. "But I think I'll wake him up and get him home, it's been...quite the day, and I feel pretty tired myself, too."

"Hopefully you didn't get what Haruka has! Would you two like to do dinner sometime? I think the three of us should be free sometime next week."

"That would be wonderful. Hey, Nagisa..." Rei awoke the blonde, who mumbled something and just clinged to Rei, arms around his waist. "Alright, we'll be on our way."

"Thank you both, really." Makoto waved goodbye to his friends, smiling as he watched Rei easily managed to carry a grown Nagisa, still sleeping, on his back.

Makoto walked into the bedroom, crawling into bed carefully and placed Haruka's head on his lap, running his fingers through dark hair.

"Feeling better?"

"A little..."

"How was Nagisa and Rei?"

"Loud."

Makoto just laughed, continuing running his fingers through Haruka's hair until falling asleep as well. When Rin got home later, upon seeing his peaceful boys, he joined them.

"Yes, Nagisa? About dinner tonight..." Haruka sighed into the phone, glancing back at Makoto and Rin in their bed, both feeling miserable as Haruka did days ago. "The boys got what I did."

"That's alright Haru-chan, Rei and I are still feeling a bit under the weather even though we got better yesterday. Maybe next time!"

"Yeah, next time..."

Author's note: Hooray for Nagisa and Rei cameo! And yes, Rei denied Nagisa making official watching service-service shirts in case this ever happened again.