Rating: T for the horrors that should never be spoken of again. Jk. It's rated K.
AN: I'm so, so sorry. Truly, I am. This prompt was requested by my friend (who is a total meme). Also, another peraon requested a fic where Mai was sick, but since there was no word given, I combined it with this prompt. Up next is "ludicrous". Read, review, enjoy!
XXX
Mai sighed, her aching body groaning in pain. She once more attempted to swing her legs off the side of her unkempt bed, but the sudden movement of her limbs, coupled with the pain in her throat and her stomach and basically everywhere, instead forced her to turn over onto her side, and promptly empty her already barren stomach into the trash can placed next to her. As she grabbed the towel on her nightstand to wipe her mouth, her cell phone began to vibrate on the table. Sighing once more, she slowly reached for it, grabbed the phone and flipped it open with a quick snap. "Yes...?" Her rasping voice echoed in the silent room, slightly startling her. She hadn't heard her voice since that morning, when she had called in to work to inform Naru of her current condition, and it had clearly worsened in quality from misuse, along with her illness.
"Mai," a cold voice growled through the speaker, a steely edge of irritation coating the sound. "I don't care how sick you are. Get to the office right now." A loud, but indiscernible shout could be heard on the other side, followed by hysterical laughter. The only fact Mai knew was that the displeased voice coming from the phone was that of her boss, and the background noise most likely belonged to Yasuhara.
She sighed, closing her eyes. "Naru... I can't even... get out of bed. How," she cut herself off with a fit of coughing, racking her chest and rattling her lungs. Shaking, she took a deep breath, and began again. "How do you expect me to... to get to the office?"
The man was silent for a few was just about to tell him to go away and let her rest, when he spoke up again, the words pouring from his mouth surprising the both of them. "Then I'll go over to your apartment and pick you up. I cannot deal with this... I need you here." Mai gasped- or attempted to, before the action once again made her hack and wheeze, sending tremors through her body. Naru was quick to fix his slip, however, correcting his earlier statement. "I need you to make tea, that is."
Groaning, she uttered her consent. There was no way he was going to give up- he never does. Wearily, she inched herself off of the bed, cautious and slow, careful not to disturb her twisting stomach. When her feet hit the carpeted floor, Mai gave a small sigh of relief; thankful that she didn't puke again. Her limbs heavy, as if wrought from iron bars, she moved towards her dresser. She proceeded just like this, until she was finally ready, after puking two more times in the bathroom. Mai glanced at the clock above the door, noting that it had been almost an hour since Naru had called. He should have been here by now, she realized, wondering why he was late.
Almost as if he knew her thoughts, a few short knocks on the wooden door signalled the young man's arrival. As Mai opened the door for him, he looked over her still slightly disheveled appearance with a withering gaze. Grabbing her arm gently, he guided her down the stairs of the apartment complex, and into the familiar white van. She stumbled quite a few times, the falling sensation nearly causing her stomach to heave again.
Sighing, Naru resigned himself to the task of getting her into the van, buckling her in. "It's a wonder you haven't died yet, Mai," said her cold boss. His voice was neutral, carefully devoid of any emotion, though if one looked closely at his face, they might notice a slight strain in his eyes, a whiteness in his knuckles. "When you had called this morning, you made it sound like a simple flu. But this is insane. I've called Matsuzaki-san to the office, she'll give you any medicine you may need. You are not to make any unnecessary sounds. No straining your voice. Is that understood?"
Nodding mutely, Mai agreed to his rules. Silence smothered the two for the rest of the short journey, other than the occasional coughing fit coming from the sick passenger. It took ten minutes to get to the office, getting Mai inside took another fifteen.
The sight that greeted the psychic when she stumbled through the door would have made her puke even if she wasn't sick. Her eyes flitted all over the room, taking in the shock. Her gaze shifted from the walls, the the table, to Naru, back to the walls, and finally, to the giggling mess rolling around on the floor.
"Y-Yasuhara, what on... earth happened?" Mai could now see why Naru was so desperate. Everywhere she could see, there was a printed out picture. Upon closer examination, these pictures seemed to have crudely drawn faces on them, accompanied by words such as 'troll' and 'tfw'. Her mouth dropped in horror, not wanting to believe her eyes. "Yasu... you've be- become... a meme!"
The bespectacled researcher's head shot up at her final word, an almost frightening grin plastered on his face.
He pushed himself off of the carpeted floor, sauntering towards the duo.
Naru's grip on her shoulders tightened, not wishing to endure this routine again. Cautiously, he whispered in her ear, "He's been like this all day. But these horrendous pictures on the wall are not even the worst part. The worst is... oh, no. Here it is."
Yasuhara stopped a few feet in front of the sick girl, a mischievous glint in his dark eyes. The next five seconds seemed to happen in slow motion from the perspective of Mai. His mouth opened, and his next words would be etched in her mind for the rest of her life. "When you mom come home and make hte spaghetti."
Mai screamed, Naru cried, Yasu laughed, doing a strange dance reminiscent of a small green alien from the magical land of tumblr. And the world was never the same.
XXX