Chapter 9 - Fever
8.15.1204 - Sunday (Free Day)
It was like any other afternoon in Trista. The children were playing in the park, some students were up to their club activities, while others were slacking in their dorm rooms or in the Student Union building's cafeteria, and Student Council President Towa Herschel was busy in the Student Council room. Meanwhile, Rean was going around town doing the requests that Towa had assigned for him earlier that day.
It was fairly routine for Rean to spend his Free Days helping Towa. He'd been helping her with the town requests since April. Although he never did have the heart to tell Towa that they were set up by Instructor Sara. He wasn't complaining though, in fact he wanted to thank Instructor Sara for giving him the opportunity to help the Student Council. Deep down he knew that without that little push he would have never offered his help to the Student Council, he wouldn't have gotten a chance to help the people of Trista, and he probably wouldn't have gotten to know Towa.
"There my head goes again. Why are my thoughts constantly drifting to be about President Towa?" Rean thought to himself.
Ever since Crow told him to keep the pictures of Towa and the locket Rex gave him, he couldn't exactly help but feel strange. Was it guilt for owning pictures of her that were taken without her knowledge? A little bit. Was it because he was living in fear that someone would find the locket and get the wrong idea? Not really, he made sure to hide it where no one in the Class VII Dorm could find it: in a small box under his bed. It was the same shoe box he had hid the recruitment brochures the RMP had been sent to Elise that featured several women in RMP uniforms back when she was still living in Ymir that he stole. He definitely liked a woman in uniform. He knew it was a good hiding spot since no one has ever found those brochures. The implications of keeping the locket in the same box as those brochures never really dawned on Rean however.
After clearing his head Rean went back to finish the final request. It was a fairly simple request, Instructor Thomas had somehow misplaced his glasses and needed Rean to find them for him. Unsurprisingly they were in the library. After handing them to Instructor Thomas Rean checked it off the list of requests. Now with all the requests complete all Rean needed to do was report to Towa like he usually did.
When Rean entered the Student Council room he was surprised to see that Crow was in there by himself surrounded by a large stack of papers. It was strange for Rean to see the Student Council room without Towa.
"You wouldn't happen to know where President Towa is, would you Crow?" Rean asked his upperclassman.
Crow was silent for a few seconds before he gave an answer. "Bad news Rean, Towa came down with a really bad fever this morning. She's been doing one too many all-nighters recently and it clearly put her under the weather."
"I see then. I suppose I'll give my report next time I see her. By the way do you need help with that paperwork Crow?" Rean said in response.
"Excellent observation. Towa actually told me to tell you that you should just take these to Instructure Sara to complete. They're for your upcoming Field Study, so don't take any peaks." Crow winked.
With all that said and done Crow left Rean to lock up the Student Council room, and after that he gave the paperwork to Instructor Sara who was miraculously still in the main building and explained what had happened to Towa.
Rean made his way outside the main building, as he walked by the Student Union building his thoughts returned to Towa.
He was hoping that she was recovering well. With how much she works he wasn't surprised she'd gotten sick because of it. Maybe he could make her some soup, his mom did teach him a recipe back in Ymir.
However, as his mind wandered into thoughts about having to spoon feed Towa some soup to help her recover, he was pinned to the floor by someone who ran into him. To his surprise it was none other than Towa.
She was the first one to realize what happened and started apologizing to him.
Rean was surprised to see her out and about since she should've been resting in her dorm room. But maybe she was feeling better, she didn't look like she had a fever. He decided to check her temperature by putting his hand on her forehead. She seemed normal until suddenly she started to feel warmer than before, he also took a look at her face and saw she'd gotten feverishly red.
"Oh good looks like the medicine Angelica and George got you is working! Your fever isn't as hot as Crow said it was anymore, but President Towa you still look feverish. You should go back to your dorm room." Rean said.
Rean knew Towa would protest. She was such a workaholic that she got sick after all. He probably needed to take her to her dorm room himself. So, he lifted himself up and tried to lift Towa as gently as he could. Before he knew it, he was holding her in his arms. It was clear to him that her fever was only getting worse by the fact her face was getting redder.
He made his way to the Lower-Class Dorm, but he noticed that Towa was unusually quiet and looked really nervous. He figured that he should fill up the silence by telling Towa about how the requests went and what Crow told him to do.
As he walked farther, he could feel her fever get worse by the second. She was only getting more and more warmer. She was also covering her face for some reason.
He quickly realized why she was covering her face. He could feel their classmates staring at them. He was confused, their Student Council President was sick and there they were just gawking at her. He finally understood why she was covering her face. He'd also be embarrassed if he was sick and all his classmates did was stare at him. He also could swear he felt Towa stare at him at some point.
He finally made it outside her dorm room's door and put her down.
It was clear to Rean that Towa was still feverish by the red in her face and was clearly worried about something.
He tried to say something to calm her down. "Oh no you still look feverish, don't worry I'll go tell Angelica and see if she can get you more medicine. In the meantime, try to get some rest. I'm sure Instructor Sara can do the paperwork herself. Please try not to do too many all-nighters for the seeable future alright President Towa?"
Before he knew it, he was rubbing her head. Whenever he saw his sister Elise nervous or anxious about something he would just rub her head and it seemingly always calmed her down. He admittedly had started doing that whenever she saw a girl in distress, it was quite the bad habit.
Suddenly he started to blush when he realized exactly what he was doing. Towa was giving him a strange look.
He quickly stopped rubbing her head and tried to apologize. "I'm so sorry President Towa, I usually do it to my sister. She says it's a bit of a bad habit of mine."
He knew Towa probably needed to rest. "Well, I should probably head back to the Class VII Dorm, the others might start to worry where I am. Have a good evening President Towa, I hope you get better soon!"
They both waved at each other as Rean made his way down the hall.
Rean quickly made his way to the Class VII Dorm. He started to question if carrying Towa to her dorm room had spread Towa's fever to him. As soon as he left Towa outside her dorm room he started to feel warmer himself and he felt his face get redder. He made a quick stop at Brandon's General Goods to buy medicine for his fever.
Once in his room he laid on his bed and took the medicine. It wasn't helping one bit, he was still feeling warmer and felt his face getting redder. It didn't help that his thoughts kept on returning to Towa for some reason. He could only imagine how bad Towa's fever was.
