Chapter 3: Workaholic Syndrome
"You *cough* don't have to come in today, Claire. I think I caught something and I'm not opening the shop today *cough cough* so just take the day off." Kaden leaves a message for his part-timer as he lays in bed.
Kaden places his phone on his nightstand and shuffles under his blankets. The warmth of his body was evident to him as he felt himself getting more lightheaded.
Not how I expected today to go… But a day off can't hurt every once in a while.
He had been working non-stop for the last week in preparation for the expo in a month. He needed to finish the prototype and test it to work out any kinks in the design before the expo began. Keeping this in mind, he tirelessly continued carefully assembling the gun and looking for the right catalysts for the bullets.
His weapon design so far consisted of two primary components: the engraving of the casing and the powder in the bullets. The engraving might have looked like an aesthetic choice to most, but it was a carefully prepared magic circle grafted onto the outer shell of the gun. With Claire's strangely extensive knowledge, he had finally gotten a circle that he could activate with the press of the trigger, snapping the last part of the circle into place and causing it to react.
Now he was left with the other problem, procuring the correct materials that were both conductive with magic and resilient enough to withstand being fired from a gun without activating too early. Again with Claire's assistance, he had done plenty of research on the required materials and put a request in with the guild to get them procured. But, that had been several weeks ago and unfortunately no one had fulfilled the request. He was starting to consider going and just doing it himself but that was too risky for someone with no combat experience, let alone the person who made the request. Not to mention he had gotten sick on the day that he had planned to go to the guild and instead request that he be given contacts for a company that might already have the materials in stock.
Unfortunately, he lay in bed, sick and frustrated at his lack of planning ahead yet again. As he stared at the ceiling, he heard his phone vibrate and then stop. Curious to see what had happened, he only saw a text from Claire.
"Well, if you're sick then I'm coming to run the shop for you."
Kaden sighed and responded, "No, you are to stay home today. End of argument." He then muted his notifications and put his phone back on his nightstand and closed his eyes, trying to finally get some rest for once in his life.
A few hours would pass and Kaden would stir after napping for a bit and hearing a ringing in his sleep. As his eyes opened, he realized that the ringing was not in his mind and was in fact his doorbell being rung repeatedly. He dragged himself out of bed and walked to the door with his blanket still wrapped around him, his body trying to keep any warmth it had.
"Come on… open the door already!" He heard a voice mumble to itself outside his door. He did recognize the voice, it was Claire.
He opened the door slowly and looked at her. She was dressed in her usual attire, a basic school uniform with a pleated skirt and a blazer. A white button-up shirt with a ribbon that kept the collar from straying too far from her neck. She was wearing a mask and holding a plastic bag, seemingly she had brought something for him.
" *cough* So, you ignored my instruc *cough*" instructions?" Kaden could barely finish a sentence.
"Look at yourself! You wouldn't have anyone to take care of you if I wasn't here!" She clearly was pouting even if he couldn't fully see her face.
Kaden just waves a hand at her as he takes the bag from her, "Yeah. Yeah. *cough* Just go home." He starts closing the door and walking away.
"Nope." Claire steps into his apartment. "I'm staying here for a while. I'm not letting you just take care of yourself. End of story." Her tone is final.
He turns back, his vision growing hazy and all he can muster is a simple hand wave at her to try and get her to run off. However, she does not budge and, lacking any kind of strength, he decides to relent and return to his bed.
As she steps into the apartment, she fidgets slightly while he's turned away. She's never been in a guy's house before, let alone with one in their own home. Her nervous nature is only masked by her desire to make sure he becomes healthy again. After all, she can't risk going back home now that she has a place where she can do work that she actually enjoys. And in her mind, her sister admonishing her is a worse offense than just helping him get better. Plus, she can just go back home like normal, right?
As Kaden hobbles back to his room, he leans on the wall, attempting to keep his balance. Upon reaching his bed he promptly collapses into it and feels a temperature spike. Claire follows at a distance looking around the room as they walk, Kaden being none the wiser.
His apartment isn't dirty per-say, but it isn't immaculate. A thin layer of dust is on a few objects, mostly furniture that looks like it has just sat since it seems that Kaden doesn't have guests over that often. Claire was psychoanalyzing him without even realizing it before he basically falls into his bed and her focus completely shifts to the bag that he dropped onto the floor as he fell.
The bag is relatively empty besides the two things that she brought with her, a pack of medicine and some cooling pads for his high temp. Claire had to even ask advice from her friend about it who almost lectured her for an hour about what to get. She had hung up before the friend had even gotten the thought to ask who they were for thankfully, but she knew that her friend wouldn't bother her since she was more likely to forget it than remember a single conversation they had.
Claire quickly grabbed the bag and opened the medicine pack, but realized that Kaden didn't have a glass of water near him so she quickly ran to the kitchen. Arriving in the kitchen, it was probably the next cleanest part of the apartment. The dishes were all relatively neatly put away save for the cutlery which rested in a drawer. Claire was unfortunately not tall enough to reach the glasses in the upper cabinet, not that she was short, the cabinets were just high up and Kaden had a habit of putting the glasses high up because of his home life before moving to Lastation.
After grabbing a glass, she filled it with water and ice before bringing it to Kaden, who had begun to breath more heavily.
"Kaden? I got you some water." She carefully held the glass out to him.
His vision was hazy but he slowly sat up and grabbed the glass in silence, a complete 180 from how he usually was. Normally he'd make a snarky comment to her but his silence was almost more of a concern than anything.
"Here, medicine." She held out a pill for him to take.
He grabbed it and grimaced. Kaden wasn't the biggest fan of pills, in fact he had never liked taking them even when he was younger. But, he knew it would most likely help so he carefully put it in his mouth and took a swig of the water. The cold relief from the water instantly helped him but the medicine wouldn't be so immediate. He put the glass onto his night table and laid back down.
Claire watched in silence as Kaden demurely tucked himself in. She thought it was almost cute, if she didn't know how he was normally, she would have found herself more enamored with his appearance. After a few short minutes, he seemingly fell asleep and Claire slowly got up to at least make him some food for when he woke up.
Approaching his fridge, she hoped that there would at least be something to cook. Surely he would have the things that she was thinking of needing to make the meal she had decided to make. Suddenly, her phone rang. Not thinking of who it was, she answered.
"Hello?"
"Where are you?! I've called you multiple times and you still haven't left work yet?!" Her sister's voice was shrill, simultaneously angry and panicked.
"Ummmm, I'm at work?" Claire sarcastically responded since she had not intended to head there just yet.
"Don't you understand that this is important?! The guild put out the emergency request and not a single member was willing to take it and that's why-"
"Look, give me an hour and I'll be there! Is that what you wanted to hear?" Claire was indignant, not even letting her sister get the chance to lecture her any further.
"Hold on… Fine, but you better be here!" Her sister hung up and Claire looked back into the fridge.
"...Yeah, I should be able to make that for him. It's the least I can do…" She leaned in and grabbed the ingredients and started cooking.
A few hours would pass before Kaden reawoke. By that time, Claire was long gone, off to help her sister, not that Kaden knew that. He slowly got out of bed as he smelled something nice coming from the kitchen. As he walked, he felt his strength coming back to him after resting. Coming to the kitchen, he looked around. The kitchen was exactly as he remembered leaving it the night before, nothing out of place besides the cutting board and a pan in the sink.
Looking at the counter, a note lay next to the stovetop. Picking it up and reading it led to Kaden finding out what had happened.
"Hey, I thought that you and your reckless decision making needed a bit more help in recovering so I made you some food. Sorry about the dishes, my sister called. P.S. Don't think I did this for you! I just wanted to improve my cooking skills!"
He chuckled, "Just as prickly as ever…" He put the note down and opened the fridge. Inside was a simple plate of food made from what he had sitting in the fridge that morning. Just a simple fish dinner with spinach. The salmon looked like it had a parmesan crust with breadcrumbs mixed in. It was a small filet with a side of vegetables.
"Huh, how thoughtful." He pulled the plate out of the fridge and put it into the microwave. As he watched it spin, he could smell the spice mix she used fill the air. It was a citrus-like smell with a hint of garlic. It was very pleasant.
Kaden extracted the plate from the microwave and sat down with it in front of him. As he tore into it because of how hungry he was, the flavor washed over him. It was good, really good.
"I'll have to pay her back for this." He remarked after finishing the plate. And as he walked to his window, he saw a light flash in the distance.
"Must be a monster extermination, looks like the CPUs are involved this time."
But that was of no concern to him, Kaden still had the prototype to finish, and he would be damned if he wasn't going to get it done.