Yesterday had been a very long day with college classes, band practice and the late shift at the café. Haruki had dragged himself home groggy and tired and had only managed to kick off his shoes in the entrance and to collapse onto his bed half-undressed.

He slept in until almost noon, only waking up when his bladder was making a pressing argument that it would be better for the mattress and his dignity to get up and visit the bathroom. The bed on the other hand was really damn warm and cozy and Haruki's eyes just wouldn't open. He felt like he could just sleep through the whole day. It was Saturday so there were no college classes but he still had some more work and band practice scheduled in the afternoon and evening, which he pointedly ignored for the moment to indulge some more in his dream of a lazy day at home.

But a few minutes later he really could not ignore his need to take a leak and after some tossing and turning, Haruki was finally awake enough to open his eyes and slip out of bed.

On the floor lay scattered a few more clothes than he remembered shedding last night. Haruki was vaguely aware that he had shrugged out of his jacket and sweater before he was too exhausted to work on his t-shirt or any clothes below his torso. Apparently he must have wiggled out of his socks and jeans sometime during the night. No wonder, it was really rather unusually hot in his bedroom.

Haruki made a very short detour to the window and cracked it open to let in some fresh air. Fall was slowly changing to winter so it was getting a bit colder these days but Haruki was sure he had not switched on the heating yet. A quick check by putting his hand on the radiator below the window confirmed this, it remained cool to the touch.

He shrugged it off and scuttled barefooted to the bathroom. The tiles were pleasantly cool under the sole of his feet and he left some damp footprints on them with each step.

After relieving himself, Haruki diligently washed his hands – he was the hygienic type after all – and scrutinized his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were bleary and he had some dark circles around them, while his skin managed to appear paler than normal and with a kind of greyish tint to it, apart from the dark splotches of pink that sat high on his cheeks. Haruki was sweating. He realized he was definitely coming down with something.

A sigh escaped his lips as he hung his head over the sink in defeat. He finally understood why he had felt a little under the weather the past few days. Well, nothing he could do than to let it run its course.

Haruki turned on the faucet and splashed some cold water into his face. It cooled him down for a whole two seconds and managed to wake him up a bit more. Then he grabbed his toothbrush and began scrubbing the morning breath away. He was really particular about his teeth and his morning routine spent a good amount of time on keeping those pearl whites perfect, which was quite a feat for a combined smoker and coffee drinker.

After the thorough dental hygiene Haruki went back to his bedroom, made his bed, picked up his clothes from yesterday and pulled some fresh ones out of his wardrobe. Then he returned to the bathroom, where he dumped his dirty clothes in the laundry basket, including the shirt and boxer briefs he woke up in. The clean clothes were laid onto the bathroom cabinet to be in easy grabbing range once he exited the shower.

With all preparations done, Haruki turned on the shower. He waited a bit before testing the temperature then adjusted it to a warmer one and stepped under the spray as soon as the water felt hot enough. The constant stream of warmth engulfed Haruki's body and, under the pressure of the water jet, his muscles slowly began to relax and he felt some relief in the dull ache of them. At the same time, though, it made the pain in his bones more prominent.

Haruki chuckled to himself. Feeling like an old man at the tender age of 23. Maybe he needed some more exercise, even though he really did not know how to add that to his increasing everyday tasks.

Shaking off all unnecessary thoughts, Haruki began to lather up his body and shampoo his hair. He took his time cleaning up, enjoying the warm embrace of the water until he started to feel a bit dizzy in the heat. An untimely slipping accident in the shower was something he really did not need to add to his list of bad luck, so Haruki rinsed off quickly, turned off the shower and stepped out of it and onto the shower mat.

After he had dried himself off, gotten dressed and blow-dried his hair, Haruki was more or less human again and ready to face the day.

He only had to work half a shift at the café. Haruki had promised a distressed and desperate female colleague to cover the second part of her shift, since she had to leave early and had found nobody else to do it for her. She was a single mother and it probably had something to do with her young kid but Haruki did not pry for a reason, she did not have to explain herself to him for something like that. He already felt bad that she had thanked him so profusely, when he had told her he'd come in on his rare Saturday off and she had promised him repeatedly that she would cover whenever he needed to. It was a nice sentiment but Haruki would probably never take her up on that offer since she already had enough on her plate.

Afterwards Given had band practice scheduled for the evening. He did not want to cancel that either, since they had a small gig coming up and it was always best for their self-confidence to get the needed practice in.

Haruki was glad that it was only the fever, so far he was lacking a runny nose and sore throat and if it was up to him, it could gladly stay that way. He could deal with a slightly elevated temperature, no problem.

Notes:

So apparently I just randomly started writing this so I have no idea where I'm going with it, there might not be an actual plot in the end lol Yes Haruki is 23 now, since this takes place during late fall in the year they got together in spring and his birthday is during the summer I really stress about including or leaving out details that are absolutely not important but that I am overthinking about a lot
e.g. we know that Haruki is usually wearing contact lenses most of the time but when I wrote the beginning where he just tiredly collapses onto bed the night before, I wonder, did he have time to get them out? writing that in this context would be weird though "i'm dead tired I can't even undress properly...but lemme just get my contacts out!" lmao
The other option would be that he slept with the lenses still in. I hope not but also if he did I should have mentioned it in the morning routine...
URGH so I just left it out but then felt guilty about my lack of detail lmao
I hope you don't care too much about it, just imagine he did whatever you feel fits best XD I already wrote a little further but since this is absolutely not outlined at all, feel free to leave any "this would be cute/fun/nice" ideas
maybe it'll spark some inspiration