Chapter 11

Porridge

It was soooo hot. She just wanted to sleep, why did people keep interrupting her sleep? Whatever she was lying on was soft and fluffy. Fluffy… She felt like someone asked her how long she would sleep. Forever and ever and ever. Is that so? Yes, I'll hibernate, that would be for the best. Wake up, Sakurai-san. No! Leave me alone, I'm going to hibernate.

"Sakurai-san, wake up!" Seto's voice snapped her out of her sleep and she looked up at him. He was standing above her holding a tray and glaring down at her.

"What are you doing in my room?" She panicked and sat up.

Seto glared down at her. "Your room?"

Ana flinched and looked around her. She was in Seto's apartment, on his bed, wrapped up in his sheets. She let out a very unbecoming choking noise.

"W-w-why? Why am I here?" Ana's fuzzy brain stopped working as she looked around and wondered if someone would jump out and shout April fools.

Seto rolled his eyes and plopped the tray down on her lap. "You collapsed on the sidewalk."

"S-so instead of taking me to the hospital you brought me to your room and put me in your bed?" Ana pulled the covers up to make sure she still had her clothes on. She did, minus her shoes.

"Don't flatter yourself, you're not my type. I didn't call an ambulance because I don't need that kind of publicity right now and my place was closest." Seto put his hands on his hips and growled at her through clenched teeth. "Now eat that, take the medicine and get out of my apartment."

Seto turned and stormed over to the kitchen. He looked like he was preparing his dinner. Ana looked at the tray and found a bowl of rice porridge and some cold medicine. If he wasn't such an ass, she would have almost found it sweet that he'd made it for her. Picking up the spoon, she took a bite of the porridge. It was light on the stomach, but she didn't feel very hungry. Not wanting to take medicine on an empty stomach, she forced most of it down, then popped open the pill box. After she finished, Seto came over and swiped the tray from her.

"Now get out." He glared at her.

Ana however fell back into the bed and put a hand on her forehead which was throbbing.

"Don't lay back down!" Seto snapped.

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Amin-chan, please stop shouting and for once let me see that ten percent where you're not an ass."

To her surprise, there was silence instead of more shouting. She opened one eye to see what was up. He was still glaring down at her his eye twitching. She would have laughed if it wasn't for her pounding head.

"You have fifteen minutes to get out of my bed and leave before I chuck you out myself." He didn't shout when he ordered her this time.

"That's about two percent, but I'll take it." She shut her eyes again and tried to calm her breathing. It was hard, she was burning up pretty badly. Her training with grandpa had gotten worse, and it was taking all she could to keep up with schoolwork. Now that she had to help Seto too, there wasn't much time to sleep or rest. Grandpa had yelled at her that morning for acting sluggish and told her when she got home, she would have to do extra training. Feeling her eyes beginning to sting, she slid her arm over them, refusing to cry. There was no way she would cry over a little something like a cold.

Beep. She peaked out wondering what the beeping was about and found Seto standing over her with a contactless thermometer. He was giving it an annoyed look.

"102 degrees." He said flatly.

Ana peered at him through blurry eyes. "I know I'm sick. You didn't need to confirm it."

He ticked his tongue and went over to Ana's bag. When he opened the top, she sat right up and chucked the pillow at him. This only made her headache worse. He caught it in the air and dropped it.

"How dare you look in my bag without my permission. You're an ass!" She screamed at him. A pulsing behind her eyes was making the headache worse.

Seto pulled out her phone and smirked. "Didn't we already cover this?"

"Give me my phone!" Ana shouted and much to her surprise he brought it to her.

"Call someone to come pick you up. If you walk home with a fever like that, then you'll collapse again. That would be annoying to deal with." After he passed it to her, he went over to his sitting table and plopped down with his back to her, took out his tablet and started working.

"You know Amin-chan, I don't think the ten percent counts if it's mixed in with you being an ass." Ana growled, the room was blurry and she wasn't in the mood to deal with any more of Seto.

He snorted. "When was I ever not being an ass? I don't recall being nice to you."

"Never look into my bag again." Her voice lowered, and she glared at the back of his head.

He ignored her and continued his work.

"Promise me, you'll never invade my privacy like that again! Or I won't call anyone and I won't leave." Ana was super peeved.

"What? Leave." Seto turned around and glared back at her. They ended up in a glaring contest.

"Promise me." Ana turned to the window above his bed and popped it open. It only opened partly since this was the eighth floor. The gap would be enough to drop her phone out of.

"What are you doing?" Seto growled at her.

"I don't have the numbers memorized. I don't have anything important on this phone either. I'll drop it and then I can't call anyone. If you still tell me to leave, I'll immediately go to my brother and tell him about the dating scam. Then he won't help you at all." Ana realized only after she said it that she could have just threatened him with her brother first. The sick mind sometimes didn't make sense. "Promise me you'll never get into my stuff again."

"Fine, whatever! Just call someone and get out of my apartment." He rolled his eyes at her.

It surprised her he'd given in so easily, but maybe he just wanted her to leave. "Say you promise."

"Yes, yes, I promise, now would you frickin' call someone to take you home already?" He turned his back to her again and went back to work.

She sighed, not sure if he would keep that promise. Looking down at her phone, she scrolled through her contacts and dialed Hikari. He would be the only one at this time of day that could come pick her up.

He picked up on the first ring. His voice was bubbly. "Ana, you never call me first. This is a pleasant surprise."

"I caught a fever, passed out on the sidewalk and I'm resting at Kaiba-san's apartment right now. It's Mizuki-oneesan's newest building. Can you come pick me up, please? I—"

Hikari hung up on her, and a text dinged. It read: I'm on my way. If that asshole touches you, I'll kill him. Ana was regretting calling him. How many traffic signs and speed limits would he disobey? She sat on the bed for about ten more minutes when she got a message that Hikari was here. It was twenty minutes from his school. She sighed and got up. Seto was so focused on his work that he didn't seem to notice. Picking up her bag and putting on her shoes, she left without a word. Taking the elevator down, she walked out into the lobby and Tachibana waved at her.

"Ana-chan, are you feeling alright?"

She smiled weakly at him. It took all her effort to stand right now. "I'll be fine. Sorry to make you worry."

Tachibana chuckled. "I don't think I was as worried as that boy was."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "What boy?"

"Kaiba-san. He came running up to the door, but since he was holding you, he couldn't open it. I thought he would try kicking in the door if I didn't open it. When I asked what happened and if I should call an ambulance, he practically growled at me. It was quite interesting to see that boy panic." Tachibana laughed.

Ana stood there, not sure how to take this part of the story. The Kaiba Seto panicked? She couldn't even imagine it and she didn't have the capacity too. A knock on the door drew her attention. Her brother was waiting out front for her. She said goodbye and thanked Tachibana again before going out to meet her brother.

"Ana, are you alright?" Hikari put his wrist on her forehead, she was too exhausted to swat his hand away. "Did that thing do anything to you?"

"That thing saved me from spending the night passed out on the sidewalk." Ana snapped her head still pounding.

"Why didn't he just call an ambulance? Did he have to bring you to his place?" Hikari hissed.

Ana wondered why he hadn't called one, he'd said it would have been troublesome, but couldn't he have used it as a publicity stunt and play it off like he'd rescued a classmate. Maybe he really was as panicked as Tachibana said.

"I don't know. I want to go home, Onii-san." Ana rubbed her eyes.

Hikari didn't seem to like this question dodging, but he took her to the car and opened the passenger seat for her. She slid in and buckled up. Once they were both in the car, Hikari took off. Ana pressed her forehead against the glass, which was nice and cool.

"Don't worry about grandpa, he wouldn't make you train tonight when your sick." Hikari tried to reassure her of something she hadn't been worried about.

"I know." Her breath left a little ring of fog on the glass.

"You're sure he didn't do anything to you?" Hikari pressed again.

Ana sighed. "He let me rest, made me porridge and gave me some cold medicine."

"What? Are we talking about the same person?" Hikari's voice was annoyingly loud.

When she put it that way it sounded like he'd been nice, as long as she left out all the other stuff. Maybe she could use this to her advantage. "Yes, he's nice to me. Won't you help him, please?"

She felt a little bad about lying to her brother, but only a little since this was partly his fault.

"T-that's…" Hikari couldn't seem to find the words.

Ana was at her limit and the glass felt so cool against her skin. With her brother quieted down, the world faded away until she fell fast asleep.