Chapter 6: Average is Not an Option, Okay? Deal With It!

Something was strange with Aomine the next morning. His head felt extremely hot, and his body couldn't move. He tried to sit up on his bed, but a sharp pang entered his stomach and it shot him back down.

There was only one person in the world who could diagnose this problem.

"Got… to reach… my phone," Aomine struggled, forcing his arm to stretch and land on the table that was beside his bed. He was surprisingly successful in that motion, then fell back on his bed.

'This is the first time his number has actually come in handy. Actually, I have no regrets doing this… should I? I hope not. Well, here goes nothing.'

Midorima Shintarou sighed as he slid into the shower. The hot water melted his sore body and made him feel better. He didn't bother to take off his glasses, as for he dismissed everything around him and closed his eyes. Being a physicist was nothing but a pain in the head, but at least he was interested in it and it supplied him with an occupation throughout the long days.

Yesterday, Wednesday, of all the days in the week, was the worst. He had met this newly recruited nurse named Takao Kazunari (still male! No gender-bending!), if he remembered correctly.

Minus the raven head's sexy eyes and hair style, he had driven Midorima nuts! Goodness, was the poor gentleman unlucky! But something still bothered the green head. No matter how many times he tried not to look at him, he found his eyes wandering around his body. Nothing was special about him at all; he drove the guy up the wall!

'Takao, this unusual character,' he thought with vigor. 'Ive never seen such a person before, but now I have. I have a feeling that my life in the medical industry shall not be ordinary anymore. Gods of Cancer, should the Lord have mercy on me.'

He sank inside the tub more, the tingling of the hot water stinging his toes and lower body… in a good way, of course. "This is just what I need," he slurred.

But the question is: why was his body sore in the first place? He thought for a while, then the memory popped out from the delete file of his brain.

Before he was about to leave the Akakuni Hospital of the Body and Mind yesterday, Takao had surprisingly pounced out of the shadowy corners and tackled Midorima to the ground.

The green head had dropped his suitcase and his glasses fell off, pissing him off the maximum. "Hey, get off me this instant, Takao!" he had shouted with anger.

"Shh! Keep your voice down! I just wanna play with you for a while before I go home!" the raven head had reasoned. He began to wrestle with Midorima, "accidentally" hitting some of the vital spots of the latter's large body.

"Stop hitting me, you mongrel! Can't you see that we are in a public space?! Anyone can come and catch us– I mean you! Cease this foolishness–"

"Will you just shut up? I'm just trying to see if your body is sore or not. After all, I am a nurse. In charge of making others feel better," Takao said with glee.

"You must be kidding. You are going to make me sore and make me feel worse; completely the opposite of what you just said, idiot! Now will you please get off me? I need to go home and rest; I've had a rough day today."

Takao sighed and got off. "Fine, fine. But…" He aimed his fist at the large man on the ground and it connected right with his stomach. Then he ran away, laughing and blushing.

A few minutes later, Midorima remained on the ground catching his breath. "What the hell… is wrong with this guy? He basically tried to kill me for all god knows!"

A footstep resounded off the ground, and the man looked up to see his fellow colleague Kiyoshi Miyaji, blinking. "Dude, you okay? It looks like you got jumped by that new guy."

"No, not all," Midorima lied. "I just slipped on something and accidentally ended up like this. I swear."

"Ok… do you need to ask me something?"

"No."

"Are you sure that you don't need to ask me something? Something that can help you get home faster?" Miyaji asked temptingly, moving his head back and forth.

The latter looked at him, then at himself. "Oh! Can you help me up, please?"

"There you go! It's about time! Well, see you tomorrow," and Miyaji left with his hands in his pockets.

Midorima was dumbfounded. "What the?! I thought that you were going to help me up! Curse everybody!"

And there you pretty much have it, a short recap of what happened. If it is correct to label it short, of course.

An hour passed, and Midorima's skin was beginning to get prune-like, and he didn't like that feeling. It was 65 minutes before he had to go to work, so he figured that he should speed up the process and get going.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

"By the heavens, who could this be?! I've never gotten a call before this month." He stood, reached for his green towel, and rushed out of the bathroom, limping on the way to his bedroom dresser.

He glanced at the caller ID and sulked. "Out of all the people in the world, it just had to be this guy! I bet it's for something foolish."

Without second thoughts, the man with glasses picked up the call and said blatantly, "Hello?"

"Yo, Midorima!" Aomine greeted from the other end of the phone.

"You sound rather lively this morning. What is it that you need? Make it quick; I have to get going."

"Yeah, about that…"

The next two hours, Midorima found himself beside Aomine's bed with the most bored-ish face he could muster and his arms crossed. "I'll make you pay for this, damn it," he grumbled. He had reasoned with his boss that he couldn't make it to work today because a friend of his needed a serious diagnosis and that he might die if the reason was not found (pure blasphemy, it sounds like).

"Thanks dude," Aomine said, smiling.

"Ugh, I didn't come all the way here to be friendly and miss a day of work. Well? Show me where the pain is."

The tanned man pointed in all sorts of ridiculous directions: his heart, stomach, armpit, arms, hands, legs, spinal cord, lower legs, and especially his head, to which he pointed to twice for emphasis.

Midorima dug into his bag and took out a pair of white gloves. He put them on and squeezed each part of Aomine's body for a period of time before moving onto the next. Aomine screamed or yelped quickly, grimacing.

"Shut up or else it will sound like I'm raping you… to the neighbors next door."

Aomine shut his mouth as best as he could, then let out a deep breath of relief when the examination was complete.

Midorima placed his hand on his chin and nodded briefly, standing up. "This is strange," he announced, pacing around the room. "Did you hurt yourself somewhere, perhaps bumped into something solid by accident?"

"No."

"Did you fall?"

"No."

"Did you have an umbrella with you when it was raining yesterday?"

"No."

"Well, that's one explanation to why you have some sort of fever, but that's not the real reason to why your body hurts. This is strange, very strange indeed…"

Aomine sat up successfully this time and made a derp face (yes, I don't even know if derp is real word). "So what you're trying to say is that this condition is not normal? Not average on the human possble situation scale?"

"Precisely."

"I see…"

A heavy silence fell underway, until Midorima made a sound. "Hold on a second! By any chance, did something emotional occur this week? You know, something heart-changing?"

The dark blue head pouted and closed his eyes, reminiscing the shocking events that happened with Akashi and Kuroko. Though he hoped Kuroko didn't learn of his past, it was quite unimaginable what that snake Akashi would do anyways.

"Yeah," he responded covering his head with the blue bed sheets. "But I'd rather not talk about it. But I'll give you a gist of it: it has to do with Tetsu and Akashi."

"Tetsu? As in Kuroko, our old teammate?"

"Yep."

Midorima snapped his fingers and sat down with an eager and serious expression. "Sit up; I've found the perfect answer to your problem!"

"Yes, sir!" Aomine perked up.

"Good. Now, I know this may sound weird and complicated, but–"

"Everything you say is weird and complicated," the latter mumbled to himself.

"Before I was rudely interrupted by the person who actually needs this information, there is one word to name your condition. I just made up this word, but it's pretty easy to catch on to. It's emotioniphilijepsis."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Midorima took off his gloves and set them on the table. "What it means is that a series of overwhelming emotions has affected your body in the most physically impossible way. I'm afraid that you won't be going to work for a few days at Pilot Hectexa. I'll make sure to contact Kagami-kun and inform him about this."

"Wait a minute. How do you know about my job?"

"I wear glasses, duh. I can do almost anything. Besides, the pieces of advice I can give are to don't move that much and to constantly drink cold water while soaking in a hot shower, with your underwear. I believe that can help reduce the pain. Meanwhile, you should try to figure out how to solve your romantic/emotional problems. That's sure to get rid of the aching faster. Do you understand what I just said?"

Aomine nodded without hesitation, thanking Midorima for his help and wished him goodbye. Once he heard the front door close shut, he slumped into the coziness of his warm and fluffy bed, falling asleep in a moment's notice.

"Wow, I never expected to see you in my life again, four-eyes," Kagami cursed as he got up to meet Midorima at the front door of his office.

"Me neither. Well, I am here to tell you that your employee Aomine Daiki shall not be coming to work today because–"

"You raped him, didn't you? You have his scent all over you!"

"N-No. He has a case of emotioniphilijepsis."

Kagami's eyes widened. "Da fuck is that?"

"It's a word I created, thank you very much. It happens when overwhelming emotions take a toll on your body physically. In this scenario, Aomine-kun's body has aches and pains all over the place and is unable to move for a few days. There you have it."

The redhead shook his head and place his hands on his hips. "Ya know, you should have just called me. I seriously don't wanna see your face right now."

"I know; neither do I. But it was the only thing that I could do since I was in the neighborhood. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking my leave," he scoffed, making his way out the room.

Kagami sat back down and chuckled lightly to himself, once again standing and walking towards the window. He lifted the blinds and stared out, watching the tall Midorima cross the street and into a convenient store.

"I've always hated the bastard, popping in and out at the worst times imaginable," he said to himself, squinting his eyes.

Aomine woke up from his early nap sweating bullets, his stomach pinging like a shotgun. He couldn't breathe properly, and he felt like fainting right here, right now.

His heart was beating faster than normal, and his cheeks felt hot. Blushing? I think so.

Suddenly, he felt a presence near him. He turned his head to the left slowly and gasped. "You…"

"Hi there, Aomine-kun. How are you feeling?" Kuroko asked, smiling.

Here we go, I'm on a roll! Things are getting juicier, aren't they? Anyways, RnR! Tomorrow is the start of the ELA State Test! Wish me luck!

*Emotioniphilijepsis (emotion- e- filly- jep- sis)- a made up word by me and Midorima Shintarou, meaning the act of overwhelming emotions affecting the body. Do NOT use this word on a test, or else you shall not get full points for it.