#Pre-War Sickfics With the Yuu4

[healeroflightanddark]

Yuya's Sleepiness

Yuya tried to keep his eyes open as he lay in his bed, feeling the weight of his illness settle over him. He never had enough energy to stay awake for very long when he was sick, though he always tried. But his head was starting to hurt from the light streaming into his room through the window.

His mother came in with a bowl of chicken and rice soup, a cup of steaming jasmine tea, and a bottle of medicine. Yuya started to sit up, swaying from his sudden dizziness. Yoko quickly set the tray down and steadied her son with a hand. “Careful, Yuya!”

“Dizzy…” Yuya mumbled. Yoko helped him sit up with his back leaning against his headboard. Yuya closed his eyes for a moment, slowly relaxing a bit. After a few moments, Yoko gently shook him. “Yuya, wake up. You need to eat!”

“Huh…?” Yuya opened his eyes and looked sleepily at his mother. “M’awake…”

“Here, eat some soup,” his mother said gently, picking up the bowl of soup. She held the spoon up to Yuya’s lips, and the tomato-head sipped it slowly. “Yummy soup…”

“It’s good for you too,” Yoko said, smiling at her son. Yuya slowly nodded, closing his eyes again. Yoko quickly poked him, causing him to open his eyes with a sulky pout. “No sleeping until you eat some more soup.”

“Tired…” Yuya mumbled. Yoko smiled sympathetically at him. “I know, but you need to eat before you go back to sleep. I know you, and I know you’re next to impossible to wake up when you’re sick, even for soup and medicine. So you need to eat now, so that I don’t have to wake you up for a while.”

Yuya pouted for a little while longer, then slowly opened his mouth for more soup. Yoko spooned some more into his open mouth, watching as he chewed and swallowed. “Mom…?”

“Yes, Yuya?” Yoko asked gently. Yuya raised a hand and pointed at the tea a bit shakily. “Can I have some tea, please…?”

“Yes, of course,” Yoko replied, setting the bowl of soup down and picking up the tea. She helped Yuya sit up enough to drink some of the tea. “Nice and hot.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Yuya murmured after he’d satisfied his tea thirst. Yoko ruffled his tomato fluff, smiling warmly at him. “Eat a little bit more soup, and then you need some medicine, and then you can sleep.”

“M’kay,” Yuya mumbled, opening his mouth for more soup. Yoko smiled and began feeding him some more soup. Yuya was able to finish almost half the bowl before he finally turned his head away from the spoon.

“Full?” Yoko asked. Yuya nodded, closing his eyes again. Yoko set the bowl aside and picked up the bottle of medicine. Yuya opened one eye, watching his mother open the bottle and pour a dose of medicine into the cup. When she held it towards her son’s mouth, the boy turned his head away. “No… no medicine… hate medicine… sucks…”

“Yuya, you have to take your medicine,” Yoko told him firmly. “Otherwise you’ll stay sick for longer.”

“Nuh-uh…” Yuya mumbled, turning over in bed and burying his face in his pillow. “Never…”

Yoko sighed and rolled him back onto his back. “C’mon, Yuya. Medicine.”

“Noooo…” Yuya whined. “S’time for sleepies…”

“No, no sleepies until you take your medicine,” Yoko replied. “You wanna get better, don’t you? You don’t wanna be sick for longer than you have to be, right?”

Yuya closed his eyes and pretended to fall asleep. Maybe if his mother thought he was sleeping, she’d leave him alone and let him actually sleep. Unfortunately, Yoko’s stubbornness was greater than her son’s. She poked him in the side a few times, making him giggle and squirm. “Mohohom! No tickling! Stohohop!”

“Take your medicine and I’ll stop tickling you,” Yoko replied, switching from poking to tickling in earnest. Yuya squealed and tried to wiggle away. Alas, while he was a very wiggly worm in his sleep when he was healthy, he didn’t have much strength or energy when he was sick. “Ohohohokahahahay! Mohohom! I’ll tahahake my medicine! Just stohohohop! Heeheeheeheeheehee!”

“Open!” Yoko said, still tickling Yuya as she held the medicine cup up to his lips. Yuya obediently opened his mouth and let his mother pour the medicine inside, forcing himself to swallow it. As soon as he did, his mother stopped tickling him. “See, now was that so hard? Now you can rest for a bit until the family doctor arrives.”

Yuya nodded and snuggled back down into his blankets, closing his eyes. Within moments he was already drifting off to sleep. Yoko tucked him into bed and kissed his forehead before taking the tray she’d brought back to the kitchen. “Sweet dreams, Yuya.”

*   *   *

By the time the family doctor arrived, Yuya was already fast asleep. The doctor knew from experience that Yuya would be next to impossible to wake up for the examination, so he would have to check the boy while he was asleep.

“Looks like he’s got the flu,” the doctor told Yoko after doing the examination. “I’ll need to take a sample of his saliva to run a few tests to confirm, but I should have a proper diagnosis ready for you within a few hours, as well as a prescription for his illness.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Yoko said. “Hopefully it’s not something too serious. I still remember the time he was sick with pneumonia when he was eight. He had to go to the hospital for emergency care. I don’t wanna risk anything like that happening again.”

“Yes, I remember that too,” the doctor said. “As I recall, the doctor you had at the time misdiagnosed him, and he almost died. He’s lucky you listened to your instincts and took him to the hospital instead of trusting that doctor’s judgement.”

“Oh, yeah, I read that doctor the riot act the next time I saw him,” Yoko said, scowling at the memory. “He didn’t even seem to care that his misdiagnosis nearly cost my son his life. I don’t think someone like that should be a doctor.”

“From what I heard, he was recently fired for malpractice and is facing serious charges after a couple more misdiagnoses,” the doctor confided. “Actually, I think you may be contacted for a testimony, and might be awarded financial compensation for what happened to Yuya back then.”

“Well, that would certainly help with our current financial situation,” Yoko sighed. The doctor nodded as he packed up his medical supplies. “I should have a diagnosis for Yuya ready within two hours. I’ll contact you and send you the prescription as soon as it’s ready.”

*   *   *

A little less than two hours later, Yoko came into Yuya’s room with a bottle. Yuya was sleeping like the dead, and Yoko knew that it would be a struggle to wake him for his medicine. His face was flushed red from the fever, and he was sweating profusely.

“Oh, Yuya,” Yoko murmured softly. The doctor’s diagnosis had confirmed that Yuya had the flu, but at least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Yoko left the room to grab a cloth and a bowl of cool water to help with Yuya’s fever. She dipped the cloth in the water and placed it on her son’s forehead, before pulling the blankets off him. His fever was so high that having too many layers could cause him to get heatstroke.

Yuya began shivering almost as soon as the blankets were on him, and Yoko began lightly shaking him. “Yuya, wake up. You need to take some medicine.” The tomato-head did not wake up, so Yoko shook him just a little harder, not hard enough to hurt him though.

It took three and a half minutes of shaking Yuya for him to finally respond. “Uhn…?” he groaned, forcing his eyes open. The light from the window made him shut them tightly again.

“Yuya, you need to take some medicine,” Yoko said gently. Yuya groaned. “Noooo…”

“Shh, it’s okay!” Yoko soothed him. “It’s not liquid this time. It’s a pill. It shouldn’t taste bad. The doctor said it shouldn’t have any taste at all!”

Yuya whimpered, but reluctantly opened his mouth after a few moments, waiting for the pill. Yoko opened the bottle and placed a single tablet in Yuya’s mouth, then held a cup of jasmine tea up to his lips so he could swallow it.

Yuya hadn’t realized just how thirsty he actually was until the tea flowed over his tongue. Before he knew it, he had drained the entire cup. “More… more please… so thirsty…”

Yoko poured some more tea into the cup and helped her sick son drink it. It took three more cups of tea before Yuya’s thirst was finally sated and he lay back against his pillow. “M’cold…” he mumbled, shivering.

“I know, sweetie,” Yoko murmured soothingly. “Your fever is so high that the room feels cold to you. I’ll get you a clean sheet to cover you so you don’t overheat.”

“M’kay…” Yuya mumbled, still shivering. Yoko picked up the blanket, which by now was wet from Yuya’s fever sweat, and took it to the laundry room to wash it. She grabbed a clean linen sheet from the closet on her way back to Yuya’s room.

By the time Yoko returned, Yuya was already fast asleep once more. He was still shivering, so Yoko covered him in the thin linen sheet and tucked him in. Her poor boy pulled the sheet closer to his chin in his sleep, mumbling incoherently.

“Oh, Yuya,” Yoko said softly, kissing his cheek. “I wish there was something I could do about your weak immune system. You always get sick at least three times every Cold-and-Flu season, and everytime a new sickness shows up, you somehow manage to catch it as well.”

Well, if there was one good thing that came out of all of this, it was the fact that Yuya didn’t seem to fight the medicine as much as he usually did. It seemed he’d learned that the medicine wouldn’t simply go away if he ignored it. And at least Yoko was able to take care of him even without Yusho around to help her anymore. Yoko would never leave Yuya, no matter what. A mother’s love knew no bounds.

[healeroflightanddark]

Yuri's Demands

Yuri whined in distress as he lay in his bed, his head pounding like a sledgehammer was being bashed around inside. Oh, how he hated being sick! It was just awful! He just wanted to curl up in his bed and fall back asleep, but he was too warm and sweaty to get comfortable

Suddenly his dorm door opened, casting horrible light into his nice dark room. The light was hurting his eyes and causing his headache to get worse. The silhouette of a tall bald man stood in the doorway.

“Sick again, Yuri?” the voice of the Professor rang out, hurting the poor cabbage’s ears. Yuri whined and threw a pillow at him, though his illness made him too weak for it to go very far. “Go ’way… too bright…”

The Professor did not go away, however, and instead stepped into the room and turned on the light. Immediately Yuri hissed, covering his eyes. The Professor frowned when he saw Yuri’s feverish face, then sighed. “Great… just great…” He didn’t even need a thermometer to confirm that Yuri was actually sick. The cabbage-head never faked an illness.

The Professor turned and stepped back out of the room, looking around for the nearest person that could be trusted to take care of Yuri. His eyes fell on Sora, who was walking down the hall, and he immediately waved the blue-haired boy over. “Yuri’s sick, and can’t be left alone. So I’m assigning you to be his caretaker. Be aware, however, that he’s very, VERY needy when he’s sick.”

“Oh, okay,” Sora said, waving his hand dismissively, “that’s fine. I mean really, how bad can he be when he’s sick?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough,” the Professor replied, walking away. “Very, very soon.”

*   *   *

Oh, Sora regretted taking on the job almost immediately. Not only was Yuri a very needy princess, but he was also whiny, and would throw a tantrum if Sora didn’t attend to his demands within two minutes. And! he would call Sora every five minutes with a new demand. The Professor wasn’t kidding when he said that Yuri was very needy when he was sick!

“Soraaaa!” Yuri whined, and the blue-haired boy sighed. “My pillow fell!”

Sora got up and put a bookmark in the book he was trying to read, before walking to Yuri’s bed and picking up the pillow from the floor where it had fallen. “Here,” he said, trying not to look at Yuri’s face. Despite his efforts, his eyes fell on the flushed, feverish boy, and he felt a twinge of guilt at being so annoyed with him. Yuri was very obviously miserable and unwell, and it was honestly very difficult to be annoyed with him right now.

Yuri hugged his pillow tightly, then kicked off his blankets. “Too warm…” he muttered, snuggling into his pillow. He closed his eyes and Sora quietly exhaled, walking back to his chair and sitting back down. He hoped that Yuri was falling asleep so he could get some peace and quiet for a while, but his hopes were quickly dashed when suddenly Yuri whined again. “Soraaaaa! M’cold!”

Sora groaned and put his book down, getting up again and tucking Yuri in. “Stop kicking the blankets off,” he scolded the cabbage-head. Yuri glared at him and smacked him with his pillow. “Don’t tell me what to DO!” he screeched.

“Oi! Stop it!” Sora yelped at the pillow onslaught. Yuri shrieked again at the demand, and continued smacking him until the blue-haired boy stepped out of range. Yuri tried to scoot closer, but fell out of bed with a yelp. “OW!”

“Oh crap…” Sora hurried over to the fallen cabbage. “Are you okay?” He heard a sniffle, then Yuri started crying. “Sorrraaaaa! I feeeeeell!”

“Okay, c’mon,” Sora said, trying to be gentle. He’d never seen Yuri cry before. It was a bit of a shock to know that Yuri could cry, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel bad for the older boy. He carefully picked Yuri up and placed him back in his bed, tucking him in and giving him back his pillow. “There, all nice and cozy. Stay here, I’ll go get you some medicine.”

“No!” Yuri yelled defiantly. “No medicine! Never!” Sora sighed and ignored his angry, defiant yells as he stepped out of the dorm. A couple of the other students were milling about, and they looked up as Sora walked out of Yuri’s room. One of them gave him a pitying smile. “So you got stuck on Princess Yuri Duty this time, huh?”

“Apparently,” Sora sighed, grabbing some medicine from the medicine cabinet. “Can’t be too mad though. Yuri’s almost adorable when he’s being needy, like a normal sick kid.”

“Mm, has he started crying yet?” asked another student. “He cries when he’s got a headache or is too hot or feels like throwing up.”

“Yeah, but he was crying cuz he fell out of bed,” Sora replied, reading the instructions on the medicine bottle. After a moment, he grabbed a bottle of orange juice out of the minifridge and poured a glass, then poured a dose of medicine into the juice.

“What are you doing, exactly?” asked the first student, raising an eyebrow at the blue-haired boy’s actions. Sora replied, “Well, Yuri doesn’t want any medicine, so I’m gonna see if I can trick him into taking it by mixing it with something that masks the taste so he doesn’t know.”

The other students stared at him in surprise, then a girl asked, “Why didn’t I think of that when I was in charge of him? He fought tooth and nail to avoid taking medicine! Literally! He scratched and bit me!”

Sora shrugged, “I’ll let you know if this works, then!”

“SORAAAA!” Yuri’s scream could be heard, and Sora hurried to his dorm with the glass of medicine-juice. “I’m here!”

“I’m THIRSTY!” Yuri sobbed, kicking his feet and pounding his fists on his mattress in a tantrum.

“Shh, it’s ok, I got you some orange juice!” Sora said, offering him the glass. Yuri glared at the juice suspiciously for some reason, but he took the glass and cautiously drank some of it. After a moment’s pause, he suddenly began downing the juice, much to Sora’s relief. It seemed that tricking him into taking his medicine would be a lot easier than the blue-haired boy expected.

Yuri finished his medicine-juice and pointed at a book on his nightstand. “Sora! Read to me! I want stories!”

“Okay, hold on, just lemme put this glass in the kitchen—” Sora began to say, but Yuri screeched and kicked his feet furiously, throwing his pillow at him. “No! Now! I want stories now! Now, now, now, now, now!”

“Okay, okay!” Sora said, quickly setting the glass on the nightstand and picking up the book. He frowned at the title. “Huh, never pegged you as someone who enjoyed fairytales…”

“Why not?” Yuri asked, crossing his arms over his chest and sulking at him. “Do you even know how gorey and bloody and tragic the original versions of fairytales were? I was reading Cinderella last night, and her stepsisters cut off their toe and heel to fit into the slipper!”

“Really?” Sora blinked in surprise. That actually did sound like something Yuri would enjoy reading. “I didn’t know that! Huh…”

Yuri suddenly hit him with his pillow again. “Less talkie more readie!” he whined. Sora had half a mind to take the pillow away from him, but didn’t want him to start crying again. So he opened the book to the page marked by Yuri’s bookmark and began reading, “‘And when her wedding with the Prince was appointed to be held the false sisters came, hoping to curry favor, and to take part in the festivities. So as the bridal procession went to the church, the eldest walked on the right side and the younger on the left, and the pigeons picked out an eye of each of them. And as they returned the elder was on the left side and the younger on the right, and the pigeons picked out the other eye of each of them. And so they were condemned to go blind for the rest of their days because of their wickedness and falsehood.’”

Yuri listened happily, or at least as happily as he could whilst ill. Sora blinked as he re-read the paragraph he’d just read out loud, this time in his head. “Woah, wait what? This is a fairytale? Which fairytale is this?”

“Cinderella,” Yuri replied. Sora blinked again, then shook his head, “No way this is Cinderella! I don’t remember that happening in the movie…”

Yuri pouted, “Yeah, cuz the movie is child-friendly, marketed to families. The original fairytales were meant to scare kids into behaving, so they were all gorey.”

“I see…” Sora said. Yuri hit him with his pillow again and whined, “Read! Read! Read!”

“Okay, okay! Just stop hitting me!” Sora groaned. He turned the page and began reading the next fairytale.

Meanwhile, the Professor’ was in his office, watching the scene unfold. There were no cameras inside the dorms, but there were some in the halls facing the dorm doors, and he could see what was going on inside Yuri’s room. He’d seen Sora successfully get Yuri to take his medicine, something that everyone else had struggled to do. Yuri always fought to avoid taking medicine, and even the Professor couldn’t make him take it without having him physically restrained and forcing his mouth open. And that in itself was a risky business, as Yuri would not hesitate to bite even him.

“Well, it looks like Sora’s the best option for a caretaker when Yuri is ill,” the Professor said. “If he can trick Yuri into taking his medicine without putting up a fight, that will save a lot of trouble in the future.”

*   *   *

Meanwhile in the Synchro dimension, a certain blunana couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing. The orphanage caretakers dreaded what they were certain was coming. “Oh, Yugo,” one of them sighed. “I really hope you’re not getting sick.”

“Me too,” Yugo mumbled when he managed to stop sneezing. “I don’t like being sick… it’s awful and scary.”

“Come, Yugo,” the caretaker said, “off to the sick room. We need to take your temperature. Hopefully this is just some new kind of allergy to dust or something.”

[healeroflightanddark]

Yugo's Nightmares

Yugo whimpered as his caretaker grabbed a thermometer from the medical kit. He didn’t wanna be sick! He always got such awful, horrific fever dreams when he was sick, and woke up screaming and sobbing.

“Here, Yugo,” his caretaker said, holding out the thermometer. “Open.” Yugo crossed his arms and looked away, sulking. Maybe if he didn’t get his temperature taken, his sickness would just go away!

Unfortunately for him, his caretaker seemed to know exactly what was going through his mind. “Yugo,” she said sternly. “You’re not going to get better if you ignore it. And we need to figure out whether you’re actually sick or not so we can take care of you properly. And if you’re not sick, we need to figure out what’s making you cough and sneeze, so we can take care of the issue.”

Yugo felt his throat start itching again, and couldn’t stop himself from coughing. His caretaker immediately seized the opportunity to stick the thermometer into his mouth. Yugo whined but reluctantly sat there and let his temperature be taken.

“Yep, you’re sick,” the caretaker sighed when she read the thermometer. “Alright, into bed. I’ll get you some cartoons to watch while you rest.”

Yugo lit up at the mention of cartoons. That was the only good thing about being sick, he was allowed to stay in bed and watch cartoons all day. Oh, and he didn’t have to go to school. That was great too!

Yugo changed into some pajamas and climbed into one of the beds in the sick room as the caretaker left. A few minutes later she and a few more caretakers came back. One of them had a box of cartoon DVDs, one of which he put into the sick room TV’s DVD player. Another caretaker had a bottle, which made Yugo��s heart sink. He immediately spoke. “I am NOT taking that medicine. No way! Nasty!”

“You are taking it, Yugo,” his original caretaker replied sternly. Yugo immediately hid under the covers. “No! Never!”

“Yugo, we can either do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way,” the voice of the head caretaker said. “It’s your choice!”

“NO! Go away!” Yugo yelled. There was silence for a moment, then a sigh. “I should’ve known you’d pick the hard way. You always do. Alright, suit yourself.”

Moments later Yugo’s blankets were pulled off of him and he was grabbed by the caretakers. Yugo shrieked and immediately began fighting back, thrashing around in a desperate attempt to get free. He was a very strong boy, and it took three caretakers to restrain each of his limbs, and two to pin his head down so he wouldn’t bite them.

As soon as he was fully restrained, Yugo shut his mouth tightly, refusing to open it for medicine. This was something he always did when he was sick, and the caretakers had long since figured out that he wouldn’t open his mouth even if they pinched his nose shut and cut off his air supply. They’d tried in the past, and he’d held his breath until he’d passed out, which had caused more problems than it was worth. Fortunately, the caretakers had figured out a way to make him open his mouth.

The head caretaker began tickling Yugo’s tummy, which made Yugo squirm frantically. He tried not to laugh, but his tummy was too ticklish, and he couldn’t stop himself. He giggled and squealed, “NAHAHAHA! STAHAHAHAHA—GHAH!”

As soon as Yugo’s mouth was open wide enough, the head caretaker poured a dose of medicine into it, and immediately covered his mouth so he couldn’t spit it out. Yugo’s eyes went wide at the disgusting taste, and he frantically thrashed as much as he could, trying in vain to get free. After some time of desperately trying to escape, he reluctantly swallowed the nasty medicine and went limp.

“Good boy,” the head caretaker said as all the caretakers released the sick blunana. Yugo retched, trying to get the taste of the medicine out of his mouth. One of the caretakers brought him a bottle of water, and he quickly downed it. “I hate medicine!”

“I know,” the original caretaker said soothingly. “But it’s for your own good. You need medicine to get better. If you don’t take your medicine, you’ll be sick forever. And that means you’ll be having your fever dreams forever too. And you don’t want that, do you?”

Yugo was quiet for a long moment. Then, he slowly shook his head. “No…” he admittedly. “I hate fever dreams…”

“See, that’s why you need to take your medicine,” the caretaker said. “And now you can watch cartoons.”

Yugo cheered up at the mention of cartoons. As the caretakers filed out of the sick room, one of them turned the TV on and gave Yugo the remote. The blunana smiled happily as he lay back into his bed and began watching Sailor Moon, his very favorite show.

*   *   *

Yugo wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, but he woke up to the sound of claws scratching on the window of the sick room. He froze, trying not to let whatever it was know he was awake. The scratching continued for a few moments before stopping.

Yugo was silent and still for what felt like hours, trying to figure out if whatever it was had gone. After some time he let out a sigh of relief and slowly relaxed.

But then! the window of the sick room slowly began opening! Yugo whimpered as the whatever it was slowly crawled into the sick room. It appeared to be a large emaciated bear with a bird skull instead of a head, a stegosaurus tail and spine plates, and ten-inch-long razor sharp claws. It slowly began making its way toward Yugo, its claws scraping against the floor. Sparks flew as the creature’s claws made deep cuts in the floor.

“Yuuuugooooooo…” the creature hissed. Yugo yelped, scrambling away from the creature. He fell out of this bed with a painful thud.

Immediately, the creature scurried to him, grabbing him by the shoulders. It had long, sharp teeth and green drool dripped down from its mouth. Yugo screamed in terror, frantically trying to get free. He managed to hit the creature in the face, and it screeched in pain but didn’t let go of him. It grabbed his wrists and tried to pin them down.

“NO! NO! HELP!” Yugo screamed, trying to get away from the creature. But the creature didn’t let him go. It simply held him tighter, hissing at him. “Yuuuugoooooo… Yuuuuugoooooo… I’ve gooooot yoooooouuuuuu…”

Yugo tried to kick the creature, but it pinned his legs down. He screamed for help, screamed for the caretakers, screamed for anyone to come save him. But his screams only attracted more of the same creatures, which rushed into the sick room and grabbed him.

“NO! NO! NO! SOMEONE HELP ME!” Yugo screamed as the creatures restrained him. “SOMEONE PLEASE!”

“Yuuuuuugooooooo! Yuuuuugooooo!” the creatures began chanting his name. The poor blunana was absolutely terrified. He began to hyperventilate, and his vision began to fog up. One of the creatures hissed, “Stooooop screeaaaming… you’re waking evvvvveerrryyyyyoooonnne…”

Yugo just screamed louder. No words this time, just screams of terror. If he was waking everyone with his screaming, then maybe the caretakers would come save him! Where even were they?! How did these awful creatures get in? Then another, more terrifying thought crossed his mind. What if these horrible creatures had eaten the caretakers?!

“Yugo! Yugo!” the voice of the head caretaker finally registered in Yugo’s terrified brain, and his vision cleared up. He wasn’t being restrained by those terrifying monsters! It was the orphanage caretakers! He sobbed in relief and went limp, much to the caretakers’ relief.

“It’s alright, Yugo,” the head caretaker said as he was released. “It was just a nightmare.” One of the caretakers had a cold, damp rag ready and placed it on his forehead. Yugo noticed one of the other caretakers gingerly touch their face where a mark was forming. The head caretaker was looking at them. “You okay?”

“Yeah, Yugo just panicked and hit me while I was trying to get him back into his bed,” the caretaker replied. “At least he’s not as strong as he normally is. I suppose that’s one good thing about him being sick…”

“M’sorry…” Yugo sobbed. The caretaker sighed. “It’s fine, Yugo. It’s not your fault. You can’t control how your fever dreams will affect you.”

Even still, Yugo felt awful. Oh, how he hated being sick! It was just the worst! The caretaker gently picked him up and put him back in his bed as the blunana looked around. The window was closed, and there were no scratch marks on the floors. It had all just been part of his fever dreams.

“Try to get some sleep, Yugo,” the head caretaker told him. “We’ll get an ice pack for your forehead, and a fan in here to try to cool you down. Hopefully it’ll reduce your temperature enough to prevent you from having any more fever dreams.”

“It didn’t seem to work last time,” one of the caretakers pointed out. The head caretaker just sighed. “I know, but it’s still worth trying. Anything is worth a try if there’s even the slightest chance it’ll stop him from having fever dreams.”

Yugo lay back in his bed, listening to the caretakers as a yawn escaped him. Man, he really was tired. All that terror from his fever dream and fighting against what he thought were terrifying evil creatures that wanted to eat him… it all really took a toll on his body. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to at least try to get a little bit more sleep…

*   *   *

Meanwhile, in Standard, Yuya was coming downstairs for breakfast. He felt a bit lightheaded as he sat down and looked at the plate of pancakes on the table in front of him. They didn’t seem very appetizing right now.

“Mom… I think I’m sick…” Yuya mumbled before sneezing. Yoko immediately left the room and came back with a thermometer. After taking his temperature she nodded. “Yep, you’ve got a fever. Alright, back to bed with you. I’ll make you some chicken and rice soup for breakfast.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Yuya mumbled. “I’ll try to stay awake long enough to eat some…”

[healeroflightanddark]

Yuto's Denial

Yuto scowled, trying to hold back a cough. He was not sick! He didn’t get sick! No, no, no! But he knew that if he coughed or sneezed, Ruri and Shun would think he was sick and try to make him stay in bed so they could take care of him.

At the moment, the three of them were sitting in the Kurosaki house with some friends, watching a movie together. Yuto’s eyes watered a bit as he tried not to cough, but the itch in his throat was getting to be a bit unbearable. As the movie got louder, Yuto decided to risk it, hoping the volume of the movie would overshadow his coughing.

But as soon as Yuto let out that first cough, Shun’s head snapped around and he looked at his best friend with eagle eyes. Yuto tried to stay quiet, but that first cough broke the dam, and he couldn’t stop coughing. Ruri looked at him with a worried expression. “Yuto…”

“I’m… fine…!” Yuto managed to say through his coughing. “Just got… popcorn… stuck… throat…”

“Uh-huh…” Shun said, watching him. “You haven’t even touched your popcorn, Yuto. You’re sick, aren’t you?”

“No!” Yuto managed to stop coughing and scooted away from his friend. “I’m fine!”

“You don’t sound fine,” Shun said. “You sound sick. Don’t deny it. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, Yuto.”

“I don’t get sick!” Yuto protested, scooting a little further away. Shun frowned. “We can either do this the easy way or the hard way, Yuto. Your choice.”

Yuto was silent for a moment, then suddenly jumped up and bolted. Shun immediately stood up, “Guess he’s chosen the hard way. Why am I not surprised. Ruri get the handcuffs.”

“Handcuffs?” one of their friends asked, bewildered as Shun chased after Yuto. “Why do you guys have handcuffs?”

“Because Yuto refuses to stay in bed and rest when he’s sick, so Shun always has to tie or handcuff him to the bed,” Ruri said, getting up from the sofa. “Otherwise he’ll keep getting up and get worse.”

Yuto ran back through the living room and into the kitchen, followed closely by Shun. “Dammit, Yuto, you’re going to make yourself even more sick!”

“I don’t get sick!” Yuto exclaimed, running down the hall. He ran into a bathroom and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him. As Shun pounded on the door, yelling at him to open it, Yuto opened one of the cabinets under the sink and crawled inside, slowly closing the door behind him so as not to make any noise that would expose his hiding place.

“Yuto, you open this door right now!” Shun yelled, still pounding on the door. “Why do you have to make this so difficult?!”

Yuto didn’t respond, hoping Shun would give up. After a long moment more of his friend yelling and pounding on the door, there was sudden silence. Yuto remained quiet, not daring to make a peep. After a few more moments, he heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock of the doorknob, and then the sound of the bathroom door opening. “Where are you? You can’t hide forever!”

“Woah, where did he go?” asked one of their friends. “Did he actually run outside?” The bathroom had a door to the laundry room, which had two more doors. One of them led to the kitchen, while the other led outside. It was obvious that Yuto hadn’t gone into the kitchen, as Ruri was in there grabbing the handcuffs from the miscellaneous drawer. But the possibility that Yuto might’ve run outside wasn’t completely unfounded.

But Shun frowned. “I doubt it, he didn’t have a jacket and it’s cold outside,” he said, walking over to the outside laundry door. He checked the lock. “Nope, it’s still locked. Which means he’s gotta be in here somewhere.”

Shun checked the bath and shower to see if Yuto was hiding in them, but the sick eggplant wasn’t there. Then, Shun checked the cabinets. “Aha!” he yelled when he saw Yuto curled up inside the sink cabinet.

Yuto screamed as Shun grabbed him under the arms and dragged him out of the cabinet. “No! No! I’m not sick! Let me go!” he shrieked, thrashing around in a desperate attempt to escape. “Help! Help! Someone help me!”

“Nah, you do sound sick,” someone said, but Yuto couldn’t see which of their friends it was. Shun tossed Yuto over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and began carrying him to the guest bedroom. Yuto wasn’t about to go quietly, however, and pounded his fists against Shun’s back as he kicked his legs.

“See, this is another reason I know you’re sick,” Shun pointed out. “You’re normally a lot stronger than this. You don’t even have enough strength right now to hit my back that hard.”

“Put me down!” Yuto shrieked, his voice going near silent for a moment halfway through his sentence. Shun rolled his eyes, “And you’re losing your voice. Wanna give me more reasons to prove you’re sick?”

“I’m not! I’m not sick!” Yuto protested, before Shun tossed him onto the guest bed and pinned him down. Ruri came in with the handcuffs, and Shun wasted no time at all in handcuffing Yuto to the bed. “There, now you can stay there while I make you some soup.”

“Shun!” Yuto whined. “You can’t just leave me handcuffed to the bed like this!”

“I have no choice,” Shun replied. “You’ll just get up and try to do things you shouldn’t do while sick.”

“But I’m not sick!” Yuto whined, before sneezing three times in a row. Shun raised an eyebrow as he grabbed some tissues and held them up to his friend’s nose. “Not sick, huh? Sure. Now blow.”

Yuto glared balefully at him, but Shun didn’t budge. After a long silent standoff, Yuto reluctantly submitted. He obediently blew his nose into the tissues, before pouting furiously. “Let me up.”

“No,” Shun replied, tossing the used tissues in the trashcan. Yuto glared at him. “Let me up!”

“No.”

“Let. Me. Up!”

“No.”

“Why not?!”

“Because someone has to take care of you while you’re sick, and you and I both know that it’s not going to be you taking care of yourself,” Shun pointed out.

“Oh, come ON!” Yuto groaned. “Do I handcuff you to the bed when I think you’re sick?”

“One, you are sick, you’re just in denial as usual,” Shun replied. “And two, I don’t need to be handcuffed to the bed, unlike you, because I actually stay in bed when I’m sick. Unlike you!”

“Let. Me. UP!” Yuto said, kicking his feet furiously. Shun rolled his eyes and turned to leave, not willing to argue any longer with a stubborn, sick Yuto. As the taller boy reached the door, Yuto tried a different tactic. “Shun.”

“What?”

“I have to use the bathroom.”

“No, you don’t, you just want a chance to run away. I know you, Yuto. This isn’t the first time I’ve taken care of you while you were sick. I learned my lesson the last time you tried the I have to use the bathroom trick,” Shun replied firmly.

Yuto sighed, resigning himself to his fate. “It was worth a try.”

“Mhm, now I’m going to make you some soup,” Shun said. “Behave yourself. I’ll be back as soon as the soup is ready.”

*   *   *

Shun was a good cook, and Yuto wished he could actually taste the soup he made. Unfortunately his stuffed up nose made it impossible for him to smell or taste the no doubt yummy soup. Yuto pouted as Shun spoonfed him, still in denial of his illness. “You know, if you unhandcuffed me, I could feed myself.”

“Yes, and if I unhandcuffed you, you could also make another escape attempt,” Shun pointed out. Yuto scowled, unhappy that his latest escape plan had been foiled.

Ruri came in with some cold medicine as Yuto finished his soup. “I tried to find some medicine that doesn’t taste so bad,” she said, holding up the bottle. “This one says it’s strawberry flavored.”

Yuto scowled and immediately snapped his mouth shut. No way in hell was he going to cooperate in taking some nasty medicine. No. Way. In. Hell. He wasn’t even sick!

Shun and Ruri saw the look on Yuto’s face and immediately recognized it. Sighing, the two of them got to work. Ruri poured the medicine into a little cup as Shun pinched Yuto’s nose closed, cutting off his air. Yuto tried to resist, but eventually had to open his mouth to breathe. Immediately Shun stuck his finger into Yuto’s mouth and forced it open wider so that Ruri could pour the medicine inside. Before Yuto could spit it out, Shun forced his mouth closed again and held his hand over it until he had no choice but to swallow the medicine.

“Ugh! Water!” Yuto whined when Shun released his mouth. Shun grabbed a glass of water from where he’d placed it on the nightstand and held it to Yuto’s lips, allowing him to wash the nasty medicine taste away. “Ugh, that’s so gross! I HATE medicine!” Yuto whined.

“I know, but if you would just cooperate we wouldn’t have to go to such extremes, and you wouldn’t have to taste it for so long,” Shun pointed out. “Now get some rest so you can recover.”

Yuto scowled, but reluctantly lay his head back on his pillow and closed his eyes. He was feeling a bit tired. Maybe a little nap wouldn’t be… so… bad…

Shun sighed as Yuto fell asleep. He was such a drama queen when he was sick but Shun still loved him nonetheless. Denial, resistance, and all.

*   *   *

Meanwhile, in Academia, a certain cabbage-haired boy was whining in his bed. The morning wakeup call was hurting his head, and his nose was all stuffed up, and his throat hurt. He knew immediately that he was sick.

One of the Obelisk Force came in to make sure everyone was out of bed. Upon seeing Yuri’s flushed face and hearing him cough, the Obelisk Force soldier froze. “Are… are you sick…?”

“Yes,” Yuri muttered. The soldier winced, “Ah crap…” A sick Yuri was more of a brat than a healthy Yuri. This really wasn’t good. Well, the Professor would need to be informed of this problem.

[healeroflightanddark]

Yuu Belong to Me, Chapter 10: Yugo's Submission

So I've decided that after the fourth one-shot in my Pre-War Sickfics With the Yuu4 miniseries is published, I'll go back to publishing just one post a day. The burnout is just too much for me to handle, and I want to go back to being able to write longer chapters.

Yugo, meanwhile, was going crazy with his inability to move very much. At least Yuri and Yuto could kick their feet to try and get away! Yugo’s ankles were restrained so he couldn’t escape.

The only other Yuu who was restrained as much as Yugo was Yuya, who’d started babbling incoherently at this point. Yugo would probably feel bad for him if he was able to focus on anything other than his Speedroids and Clear Wing tickling him mercilessly for more than a few moments.

“NAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” he shrieked with laughter as Den-Den Daiko wiggled a finger in his belly button. The poor blunana didn’t think he could take much more of this. The only person who had ever really tickled him was Rin, and it had been years since the last time. And she’d never been as merciless as Yugo’s own monsters!

“PLEAHEAHEAHEAHEASE! STAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I CAHAHAHAHAN’T TAHAHAHAHAKE IT!” Yugo wailed, thrashing around frantically. He was sure he’d be able to handle it if only his riding suit hadn’t been unzipped! But now, with his bare tummy exposed, he was at the mercy of his monsters. He really couldn’t take any more. “OHOHOHOHKAHAHAHAY! OHOHOKAYAHAYHAY! I GIHIHIHIVE! I GIHIHIHIVE! JUST STAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Zarc chuckled from where he was still tickling Yuri. “That’s two down! Two to go! Who will submit next?”