A/N: In which Tori subtly takes care of Jade until she finally admits she's sick;
Tori had known from the moment she'd heard the first little sneeze from Jade from somewhere in the apartment that her girlfriend had caught some type of cold or flu, but knew she'd never hear Jade straight up admit she was sick and ask for Tori to take care of her. So for the first little while following that sneeze (and the other inevitable ones that followed it, along with the quickly appearing telltale signs of sickness), Tori thought of ways to subtly try to make Jade admit it so she could help her to feel better quicker.
The first thing she came up with was to offer Jade some hot soup.
"What's this?" Jade asked, the slightest hint of a stuffy nose making itself visible at her words, as she confusedly took the hot mug from Tori.
"It's an ice cream sundae, what do you think it is?" Tori asked, carefully sitting on the couch next to Jade with her own mug (she didn't feel sick herself, but didn't want to make it look obvious what she was doing; and also it was cold out, so she was in the mood for soup, anyway).
"I know what it is," Jade replied with a huff, "but why are you giving it to me?"
"It's cold outside and I just thought you might like some soup," Tori said, pressing herself closer to Jade, so they were shoulder to shoulder. She brought her mug to her mouth and blew on it, before taking a small, cautious sip. "Please, have some."
Jade narrowed her eyes but brought her own mug to her mouth, blowing her own soup before taking a little sip. She turned her head to Tori and said, "Thanks, I guess."
The pair went on taking turns sipping their soups and watching whatever show Jade had put on the tv, but there was no mention of Jade feeling under the weather despite the signs being there.
The first test may have failed, but at least Tori had made Jade have some soup (and the cuddle they'd had were nice, as well).
The second thing she'd tried, another what she hoped was a subtle little thing, was bring all the tissue boxes in the apartment to Jade (still camped out on the couch, empty but still warm soup mug clenched between both hands, a blanket wrapped loosely around her body), who looked at Tori as confused as she'd been about the soup.
"Which brand of tissue is your favorite?" Tori asked, sitting on the table in front of the couch and shoving both tissue boxes into Jade's sight. She lifted the boxes as she referred to each one. "I think this one is softer on the nose, but these ones are scented and that just makes blowing your nose a little more pleasant, you know?"
Jade raised an eyebrow, clearly confused as she looked between the two tissue boxes Tori was holding out to her.
"Uh, the ones that are softer, I guess?" She sat up a little and pushed the boxes from directly in front of her, looking Tori in the eyes. "Tori, what's this about?"
"I was just wondering which ones to buy more of when we need to next time," Tori said innocently, placing both boxes on either side of her on the table. "So noted, softer on the nose ones. I'll put them on the grocery list."
Jade's pink and slightly stuffy sounding nose and flushed cheeks were not lost to Tori, who had almost gone through her list, but had one more plan up her sleeve to getting Jade to maybe finally admit to feeling sick.
It was a little while after the tissue discussion. Tori came to the couch with her and Jade's favorite blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Jade, slumped back against the couch with her face now flushed and with no hoodie or blanket covering her, her arms crossed over her chest, clearly under the weather but still too stubborn to say anything, could only roll her eyes up to Tori from her spot on the couch.
"Can you sit up for a moment, Jade?" Tori asked. Jade immediately started to shake her head no, but saw the stern look Tori was giving her, and decided to just give in. She was pretty sure what this was going to be about. It hadn't taken her too long after the tissues to figure out what Tori was trying to do, and figured that by now she looked (and felt) miserable enough to stop trying to hide how she was feeling any longer. So with a groan, she slowly sat up. Tori immediately climbed up and into her lap. Jade sighed and began, "Tori, whatever you're going to say—"
She didn't actually say anything, but instead leaned forward and wrapped the blanket around Jade, and pressed her forehead against her girlfriend's. Jade's forehead was on fire compared to Tori's. Just as Tori had suspected all day.
"Jade."
"I didn't want you to worry or, like, go crazy trying to take care of me," Jade replied quickly, her voice raspy due to her stuffy nose.
"But if you're sick and not feeling well, I want to take care of you," Tori said, pulling herself slightly away from Jade. "Starting now."
"Continuing now, you mean," Jade replied with a sigh. "I realized sometime between the soup and the tissues what you were doing, no, what you've been doing, all day."
"I knew you wouldn't straight up tell me so I had to try to be subtle to get you to tell me, and when that didn't work, I just had to do this."
This time Jade pressed her forehead against Tori's softly. "I'm glad, I guess. But I swear if you tell anyone, Tori..."
"I won't, if you agree to let me keep taking care of you now."
"Fine. Deal."
Tori pulled away again with a smile. "So, can I get you some more soup?"
Jade thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, but that ice cream sundae you mentioned earlier sounds pretty good."
A/N: Sorry it's been a while since last update, it's been a wonky couple of weeks for me. Thanks for reading!