#sicktember excerpt

[marionluth]

Irondad sicktemeber2024 excerpt 👇 🤩 With just one week to go and a lot of editing needed I need all the luck in the world to post this on time, so 🤞🤞🤞

Can you guess the prompt????

“So how long have you been feeling like this, kid?”

Peter’s eyes widened as he turned to meet Tony's gaze and the man had to school his expression. He tried to keep looking concerned instead of frustrated, suspicious, and admittedly entertained.

“Uh…Just since this morning. I woke up feeling crappily.”

"But you were fine last night, right?”

“Yeah, yeap. I was fine,” Peter confirmed.

"So why'd you skip patrol, then?" Tony asked casually, leaning back in his armchair, slow-cooking the kid.

“Patrol?”

Peter blinked repeatedly and Tony hid his face in his coffee mug, taking in a long sip.

“Uh, I had this thing for school with friends.”

Tony commended the effort. “What thing? What friends?”

“Well, you see… Friends? Not have many, I mean. You know? Like, MJ and Ned.”

Tony marveled at the syntactical anarchy of that sentence structure. “Right, right. And what was the thing?”

“Just a studygroup,” Peter shrugged and Tony raised an eyebrow.

"And how exactly did this study group sideline patrol? You were pushing to go out tonight, and now you’re sick as hell. So how’d a simple study session keep you off the streets?" Tony pressed, turning up the heat.

"Uh, I don’t know… I guess, now that you mention it, I was feeling a little… uh… out of it? So I figured it’d be smarter not to risk going on patrol when I wasn’t, like, 100 percent. I mean, you always say how important it is to have my head in the game, right? And, well, it was a really tough study session. We’ve got this big chemistry test coming up, and there’s a ton of material, and Ned was freaking out because his mom’s been on his case about his grades since he kinda slipped up this term. So we were really grinding, and we finished super late—like, almost curfew—so I thought there was no point in going out Spider-Manning when I wasn’t at my best and it was already so late."

Tony's lips twitched. Guilt-ramble-fest at its finest. He took in a few breaths trying hard not to snort or snicker, or start lecturing then and there. Because a. He was having too much fun, b. He was getting valuable intel, c. He genuinely wondered how long it would take the kid to break.

[vocalhitches]

i’ve been looking forward to the amazing @ithadtobesneezing’s cho/so drabble for today’s prompt ever since i saw that she was writing for him this sicktember and i HAVE to come on here and scream about how sexy it is

this was literally a mess/coldfucker DREAM fuuuuck i need him to sneeze on me right now

<- lil excerpt; pls go read the whole thing it’s so hot

[yes-i-am-happyaspie]

Lack of Self-Care by happyaspie

 Part 16 of Sicktember 2021-2023

No Archive Warnings Apply || Rated G || Word Count 2544 || Peter Parker & Tony Stark, migraine, sick Tony Stark

Summary: With Pepper out of the country and a plethora of projects requiring his attention, Tony fails to participate in any kind of self-care. As a result, he’s overcome by a pounding headache. At some point, Peter shows up with a guilt-inducing look of harried concern.

Sicktember 2023 Prompts: 1. Hopelessly Bad at Self-Care Alt. 6. Pounding Headache

[Excerpt Below the Cut]

.... [Tony] sat down and leaned over his desk, wincing as the pain in his head doubled with the new position. Fleetingly, he considered going upstairs and taking a few painkillers. Then FRIDAY notified him of the failed startup attempt leading him to sigh heavily. “Right. So, uh- Go ahead and highlight the origin of the errors and project it onto my main console. I’ll take a look,” he said while firmly pinching the bridge of his nose.

FRIDAY complied, and soon a long string of code was taking up the majority of the large screen that was across the room. He stood up and spanned the distance. Once he got there, he blinked a few times in an attempt to force his eyes to focus on the complexity of the programming language before him. Ultimately, he gave up, dropped down into the chair with an audible ‘oof’, and closed his eyes. “Why don’t you just give me the run-down, Darling? Is it the algorithm or a functionality fault?”

As FRIDAY began to drone on about the roots of the system failures, Tony found himself paying less and less attention. The longer he kept his eyes fastened the more fuzzy his thoughts became. He cracked an eye open to look at his coffee cup. He wasn’t all that surprised when it was empty. Yet, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to get up and refill it. Instead, he held up a hand, a silent request for FRIDAY to temporarily pause her analysis, and placed his aching head down on his desk. ‘Just for a few minutes,’ he told himself. ‘Then I’ll get back to it.’

What felt like a few scant minutes later, Tony was awoken by the swoosh of the sliding glass doors. He didn’t bother looking up. He merely lay there, wondering who it was that had entered his space. There were only so many options. Pepper was in Paris for the week. Rhodey was in D.C. doing God knows what and Peter - “Mr. Stark?”- was apparently walking towards him. He sat up abruptly, sending a shockwave of pain through his head. Automatically, he dug the heels of his hands against his eyelids in an attempt to combat it. By the time he’d cleared his vision, Peter was standing before him with a look of deep concern crossing his face. ...

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 29

Side Effects/Adverse Reaction

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

They finish cutting through the droids in the area not long later, and Anakin pauses next to a tree, resting a hand against it as he starts coughing again. He really wants to sleep, but there’s no time for that.

“Are all the droids gone?”

“I’m having the boys do a perimeter sweep now,” Cody replies, approaching and taking his helmet off.

“You sure it’s safe for you to do that right now?” Anakin asks. They’re a distance away from the mushrooms now, but he doesn’t know how much of that is still contaminating the air.

“Air’s clear out here,” he replies, watching him with concern when he suppresses a cough. Though, Anakin’s beginning to get afraid that Cody was right in warning him about these things. Not that there’s anything he could have done about it anyway.

“I am… usually immune to toxins,” Anakin tells him.

“Because you’re a Jedi?” Cody asks, curiously. All the clones have a certain fascination with the Jedi; unsurprising, when this is their first time interacting with any.

“I’m… not fully human.” He doesn’t want to get into the details of how he’s different. It’s not something he likes thinking about, because he never wanted what the ‘Chosen One’ title always came with.

“Oh,” the commander supplies, but steps closer uncertainly when Anakin coughs again. “You should get some rest.”

“You should, too,” he replies, pointedly. He sits down at least, though, hoping the momentary wave of dizziness he’s feeling is going to pass. That could be from his head injury as much as the toxin, though.

Cody sits down next to him, and Anakin wasn’t really intending to fall asleep, but he wakes up at the sharp inkling of danger in the Force. He’s curled up right alongside Cody, who’s also dozing. They must’ve rolled closer to each other, because he wasn’t practically resting his head on the clone’s shoulder when he fell asleep, and nor was Cody’s arm part-way on top of him.

[mrs-luigi-vargas]

WIP Wednesday

Had kind of a sub-optimal day today so I'm gonna post the part of my Sicktember fill drafts that I love the most so far. Which is from the 13 + 28 + Alt 4 + Alt 5 fill! (Here's the full list of prompts if you care to know what the numbers correspond to, lol)

I like it because I've been writing some banger Marios for these fills, and this little excerpt's his best showing as of yet, imo. The "silent but steady brotherly support" vibes are off the charts in this whole fill and it's a delight. There's a fill I'm gonna spend next month writing that might have moments that'll surpass this one (though there'll be a bit more angst, lmao) and I'm very excited to get to it! But until then, I get to reread this bit a lot and smile~ ^_^

---

From beyond the door, Toadsworth called for him. Luigi swept up the pink skirts of his borrowed dress and exited the room. With a quick circle around Luigi to make sure not a hair was out of place, and a nod at the lack of faults in his disguise, Toadsworth led Luigi down the hall. With each step, Luigi only got more and more anxious. What if everything went wrong? What if he let Peach down? What if his back itched and he couldn't scratch it?

In front of the doors that led outside stood Mario, waiting to walk out with him. Seeing the look on Luigi’s face, though, Mario hurried forward to press his forehead against his brother’s, coaxing him to take some deep breaths. 

“...I hope this isn't ruining the makeup,” Luigi fretted, and that was Mario’s cue to pull away, chuckling as he did so. He squeezed Luigi’s shoulders. Luigi tentatively smiled back.

Mario held out the crook of his arm. Luigi slotted an opera-gloved hand into it. Together they walked outside to the pavilion, Luigi humming under his breath to test his voice. Mario smiled encouragingly at him when he landed on the right tones to match Peach’s.

Toadsworth stepped up to the podium to quiet the gathered Toads. When there was finally nothing but the chirping of birds and the rustling of flowers and leaves, Mario and Luigi stepped up, to a smattering of applause. With one last squeeze to Luigi’s hand, Mario stepped to the side and backwards, leaving Luigi by himself up front. Luigi stood up straight. He cleared his throat. He took a deep breath. With Mario’s steady presence at his elbow, he began to speak.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 28

“I should have stayed home”

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

Anakin never felt like he belonged with them, and the more times goes on, the more it feels like it. He doesn’t know the clones well, but he feels like he fits in with them better far more than he ever has at the Temple. Like there’s a chance they could actually understand each other, even if they were raised entirely differently.

“You were still a… Jedi cadet then,” Cody says, blinking.

Anakin can’t help laughing at the unexpectedness of the term. “We call it padawan.”

“Still. Close to being a shiny.”

A shiny? Right. He’s… heard some of the clones sent out first calling the newest recruits joining them that. “Yes…?” he asks, uncertainly.

“Always wanted to see a Jedi,” the commander goes on, “Never thought they would be so… cool.”

He has no idea how to respond to that, to the clones practically worshiping him because of his abilities.

But at the end of the day, they’re only ten or younger. Barely older than when Anakin first came to the Temple. Even if they’re physically older, they really are children, and… of course, they would find it enthralling. He finds the fascination they have for anything Jedi a little adorable, if he’s being honest.

They feel like his age so he doesn’t exactly see them as children, but at the same time, he… kind of does.

“I had much more time to train than any of you,” Anakin points out.

“Then should’ve avoided those… mushrooms,” Cody says, blinking up at the top of the tent, gaze momentarily distant. “I won’t risk that again,” he assures. Not if he has a choice, anyway. Being this sick is very annoying.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 8

Persistent Fever

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

He can’t help learning forward, lightly resting his head on the palm of his right hand. It feels hot. His fever must be pretty bad.

Cody is looking at him now, but he doesn’t know what to say.

“You’ve done well with leading,” Cody speaks up finally, and Anakin’s head snaps up in slight surprise. “You told me in the beginning that you didn’t know how, but you are doing it fine.”

He’d talked to him about that personally, right after Obi-Wan left, because he had no idea what he was doing, and he couldn’t make a mistake when there were so many lives on the line. It still felt like he wasn’t doing enough, but to hear Cody saying otherwise…

“I… am?”

“Yes. And I am grateful that you chose to stay with us and fight,” Cody assures, even if he seems to be feeling a little uncomfortable, “But I must say I agree that you need to… take care of yourself better. You have hardly slept once since he left.”

“And you have?” Anakin asks, dryly. Cody might not be the one with a raging fever right now, but he still doesn’t look good at all.

“You are our… commanding officer,” he begins, almost hesitantly.

“That’s why I have to take care of you, regardless of what danger it puts me in,” he replies, bluntly. It seems so obvious, and he doesn’t understand why Cody’s acting like that’s not true. “You are not the same as us, sir. We were made for this, to fight for the Republic. We are ready to sacrifice what we have to,” Cody replies, as though he’s not calmly explaining that their lives don’t matter.

[yes-i-am-happyaspie]

Face First(aid) by happyaspie

Part 22 of Sicktember 2021-2023

No Archive Warnings Apply | Rated T | Word Count: 3,069 |Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Sick and Injured

Summary: While out on patrol, Peter decided he might not be feeling all that well. Eventually, he decides to swing home but his stomach is iffy, his body aches and his brain is a bit sluggish. As a result, he ends up slamming face first into a billboard, creating an explosion of pain around his nose. His AI was quick to alert Mr. Stark and bring up an ETA countdown in the corner of his HUD. He can’t decide if he was annoyed or relieved.

“Hey, Kid. Does your face hurt?”

Sicktember 2023 Prompts:

- Sick and Injured - "I could Really Use a Hug Right About Now"

[Excerpt below the cut]

It was relatively early in the evening when Peter left for patrol. He suited up and crawled through his window before shooting a web toward the nearest building. His stomach did a tiny backflip as he propelled himself forward but he didn’t think anything of it. May was out of town and he’d just eaten an entire double pepperoni pizza by himself. He’d not even bothered to take into account that he’d been feeling a tiny bit off all day. Whatever that was, he hadn’t quite been able to put his finger on it. Therefore he’d deemed himself healthy enough to go swing around the city helping the little guy.

By the time the clock struck eleven, Peter realized he’d not eaten anything since dinner. That was an odd occurrence on any given day. Generally speaking, no matter how much food he stuffed into his face he was always ready for more within a few hours time. Especially while he was active. He paused atop a water tower, crouched down so he could survey the city while trying to self-scrutinize. He wasn’t particularly hungry. He was oddly tired, though. And as he sat there, he started to realize his joints were starting to become a little achy. He was just starting to think that perhaps he should call it a night when his spider-sense flared beneath his skin. 

“Oh, come on!” he grumbled to himself. He immediately swung down, ignoring the way it made his head swim, and landed casually near the broken glass. “You’ve had all night to break into this store, but you waited until I was ready to go home to do it? Not cool, Man.” The bad guy whipped around brandishing a gun. Peter instantly shot a web to rip it from his hands. “You definitely do not need one of those. And while we're at it, you really shouldn't be taking stuff that doesn't belong to you.”

“What are you? My mother?” the bad guy asked while darting toward a jewelry case. He never made it there. Peter shot three more webs successfully sticking the guy to a fancy sunglasses display.

“You should probably look for a better side hustle. This one's clearly not working out for you,” he quipped before requesting his AI contact the local police.

As he climbed up the nearest building he sighed. “Time to go home, Karen,” he said, hoping nothing pressing would pop up on his way there. Fighting the one guy hadn't been much of a chore but his body was protesting it anyway. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep for the next three days. He scratched the back of his neck where sweat was starting to collect and rolled his uncomfortable shoulders. “I’m not sure I’m feeling so hot.”

“On the contrary,” Karen cheerfully declared. “Your body temperature appears to be mildly elevated.”

“Great,” Peter clipped with faux enthusiasm. Though the presence of a fever, even a little one was enough to confirm what he already suspected. He was definitely sick. “Just what I wanted to hear.”

“My protocols don’t require me to inform you or anyone else of your body temperature unless it reaches one point five degrees above your average reading,” Karen replied. “Would you like for me to adjust that parameter to one degree?”

“No, Karen.” Despite the mildly uneasy feeling that was settling in his stomach, he chuckled.. “I was being sarcastic.”

A full minute passed before Karen responded. “Sarcasm has been noted.”

[Continue reading on AO3]

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 6

Sick and Injured

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

“Cody!” Anakin calls, jumping to his feet. Much too quickly, because his head spins and he nearly starts coughing again. And he feels cold, even though the woods are pretty warm. He definitely is sick now.

Cody’s on his feet even faster, drawing his blaster as the first blaster shot from the droid’s rings through the trees.

Anakin loses track of him in the fray of the battle, operating purely on automatic as he cuts through him, ignoring just how close he is to dropping dead right now. His left hand feels like it’s shaking a little more than it ought to be as he tries to fight.

At least that’s one benefit to his right one being mechanical, even if it’s hurting.

This is very, very annoying, but he’s used to working in difficult circumstances, so Anakin pushes on the same way he always does.

He’s cutting through the last of the droids in this group when a stray shot catches Cody in the shoulder. The clone stumbles back with a strangled sound, blaster falling from his hand. Anakin Force-throws the droids right in front of him into one of the trees, hard enough to damage them, leaving them for the clones to finish off before he hurries to the commander’s side.

“Cody!” Anakin calls urgently, panicking.

“I’m fine,” he assures, pushing himself up. That’s familiar, too, and yeah, if he’s treated, he’ll be fine. Doesn’t mean Anakin likes that thought much, though. 

“You need to get this treated,” Anakin objects, taking the clone’s good arm and guiding him to somewhere a little more covered so he can sit down.

Cody does, even if a little reluctantly, and Anakin can’t say how grateful he is the moment he’s sitting down. He doesn’t want to move at all right now.

“You’re the one who doesn’t look good,” Cody replies, bluntly.

“You were right about those toxins,” he admits, sheepishly, “But I couldn’t have stayed behind.”

“I’ll go to the medics if you do too,” the commander decides.

Which is absolutely blackmail, but it’s probably advisable anyway. “Deal,” he agrees.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 23

Coughing Fit

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

The mission goes well until it doesn’t. They’re pushing the droids back quickly, until they stumble into a group of the mushrooms. The plants are enormous – several feet tall - which makes them harder to avoid when they’re trying to fight here.

Anakin knows it’s about to happen a second before it does; several stray blaster shots hit the mushrooms. A faint cloud of brownish spores floods the air literally right in front of him, and he’s trying to deflect several blaster shots away to protect the clones behind him, so he doesn’t have time to duck away from them in time.

And he promptly inhales a lung-full of them instead.

It makes his nose and throat itch terribly, and he turns sharply away from the mushrooms, coughing.

But it doesn’t seem to help much, and now he can’t stop coughing.

Ugh. Cody warned him about this, and he should’ve been paying a little more attention.

“We need to keep moving,” Anakin coughs, the moment Cody appears at his side, before he can ask if he’s alright. Even if he’s touched the clones are so worried about it.

“Sir,” Cody objects, reproachfully, “The side effects can be serious. Perhaps you should –"

“I’m not leaving you here alone,” he replies, fiercely.

They don’t have any longer to debate it, because the droids are swarming on them again, and Anakin jumps back into the fight, attacking the droids. Though, it’s a lot harder when his lungs are still burning, and he keeps coughing in between deflecting shots. And It's becoming annoying because it’s making him sloppy. The coughing starts to fade a few moments later, but he just… doesn’t feel so good anymore. Like, at all.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 25

Confused/Disoriented

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

Anakin keeps all his focus on bringing the fighter down without crashing. But it’s coming in too fast, and the controls aren't responding fast enough. It hits the ground full-force, throwing him forwards again, head slamming into the controls.

His vision is swimming and he tries to push himself up anyway, because staying in a crashed ship could be deadly, but even opening his eyes right now hurts. He needs to give it a moment to fade, and –

A rush of fresh air suddenly hits him, and Anakin blinks, trying to bring the world into focus around him again.

“Sir?” a clone’s voice asks.

He hasn’t known them long enough to tell who it is when they all sound similar, but when he listens closely enough, he can see the little differences.

Right.

He… crashed, and he needs to get out. Trying to blink away the dizziness - he must have blacked out for a moment – Anakin sits up, looking up at the clone peering down at him.

It’s one of the clone pilots, but he doesn’t recognize the armor markings yet.

“Are you alright?” the clone asks, almost awkwardly.

“I will be,” Anakin assures, clamoring out of his fighter, even as the world spins around him dizzyingly for a moment. At least it’s starting to fade a little.

Nearby, he can see the other crashed fighter, though that one is burning, flames licking dangerously close to the engine. The crash must’ve been a lot worse, even if he’s in better shape thanks to his armor. “Are you okay?” Anakin asks, eyeing him.

He seems momentarily taken aback. “Yes, sir.”

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 24

“Did you just sneeze?”

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Chosen Twins

Anakin Skywalker

“Did you just sneeze?” I hear Aniya’s voice saying, right near my head.

I open my eyes, blinking up at the sky above me. There’s no sign of the rain from yesterday. Except for a few clouds, the sky is entirely blue. The sun is slinking over the horizon already, lighting the grass golden. The grass right next to my head when I shift position is still lightly wet from the rain of the night before. It’s already right past sunrise, and that means we need to move out.

Slowly, moving to sit up, I see Aniya watching Obi-Wan, who… definitely is sick now.

He just… looks like it, far more so than he did yesterday. I don’t know if he has a fever or not, but he doesn’t look very good. And I don’t think even he can deny it anymore.

“You know, it doesn’t need to be a secret,” she chirps, when he ignores her prior question entirely.

“How are you feeling, Master?” I ask, eyeing him.

Obi-Wan huffs out a breath but sounds in general like he’s in serious need of coughing again. “It’s nothing serious.”

Which essentially means yes, he’s admitting he’s sick. I cannot believe he just confessed that, after denying all yesterday afternoon.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 18

“Wear Your Coat, You’ll Catch a Cold”

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Chosen Twins

Anakin Skywalker

A flash of lightning momentarily illuminates the endless field of grass surrounding us – it’s almost entirely dark out now – followed by a deafening crash of thunder. Which, of course, is the moment it starts raining.

“Predictably it starts raining the moment we’re stranded,” Obi-Wan huffs, pulling his hood up over his head. (And coughing again.)

“Would anyone like to go back to the cave?” Aniya volunteers.

“The entire place is already contaminated, and we’ve come far enough,” he replies, flatly.

“We can just stop under the trees,” I offer, gesturing to the group right up ahead that we’re approaching. Not that I mind being out in the rain. It’s so peaceful. I still faintly remember the only time I recall it raining on Tatooine, and I always wanted to see that again.”

“Yes, that will work,” Qui-Gon agrees, “A campfire will never last in this weather anyway, and considering the circumstances, I don’t think it’s advisable for you or Obi-Wan to be… thoroughly drenched.”

I pull my hood up over my head at the reminder, just in case. I think I’m fine, but taking precautions won’t hurt.

“That will be happening regardless,” Obi-Wan grumbles. Which… is true, but it doesn’t hurt to try minimizing that.“At least no animals should be out, thanks to the rain,” I point out. So we won’t have to worry about something trying to eat us during the night, not that that means we won’t still need to keep watch.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 17

Magical Remedy/Healing Potion

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

“So, if there’s anything I can do to help you, even if I have to stay here right now…”

“I don’t recommend disobeying the General’s direct orders,” Cody points out.

Well…  “I’m still jointly in charge,” Anakin reminds, “And I will rest.” He stops himself from saying ‘when there’s time’, so he doesn’t get another long lecture from the commander, about how his health is more important than the clones’.

It’s then that the medic finally arrives, giving Anakin strict orders to rest and do nothing else right now, before he turns his attention to treating Cody’s wound.

“We’re running low on bacta,” the medic comments, grimly, “But I can give you some pain killer to get through it. Just remember not to overstrain your arm.”

Cody makes a noise of acknowledgement as the medic fusses over him, bandaging up his wound.

“While you have the chance, you should rest,” Anakin comments quietly, once the medic moves away again. They’re in a tent, sleeping on the ground right now, and he scoots just a little closer to Cody.

Something about the commander’s Force presence feels dulled over and hazy now, probably from the medication.

“…”m tired,” he mutters, staring up at the ceiling, “But I hafta check out positions and inventory…”

…Okayyyy, clearly he has a little too much pain medication in his system right now.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 15

Sick in an Inconvenient Place

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Chosen Twins

Anakin Skywalker

“Anakin?” Qui-Gon asks, frowning. “You – ”

“I was just… feeling sick,” I offer, “But it’s going away now.”

“Is it?” Obi-Wan asks, eyeing me too, now.

“Yes.”

“And shouldn’t you be worried about yourself too?” Anika interjects, “You’re looking a little green too.”

“I am not,” he objects.

Why is he being so stubborn about it? Unless he really feels fine, but I really don’t believe that right now. Because Aniya’s not exactly exaggerating. “You haven’t seen your reflection,” I inform him cheerfully.

Obi-Wan coughs before he can deny it. “What’s the situation with the speeder?” he asks impatiently, cutting me off before I can say anything else.

“It won’t be going anywhere, Master,” I reply.

“We don’t have the parts to fix it either,” Aniya adds.

“Then we’ll have to go on foot,” Qui-Gon decides.

“That will be a very long walk, and they’ll be long gone by then,” Obi-Wan argues, crossing his arms.

“We don’t have any other method of transport right now,” Qui-Gon reminds.

“It’s going to be dark soon,” he adds, grumpily..

“Then instead of whining, maybe we should get started, right?” Aniya chirps, snippily.

“Good point,” I agree, “Come on, Master. It can’t be that bad.” Although, if he’s still feeling sick, maybe it can be that bad. Though I don’t know why he’d be reacting so much differently than me.Obi-Wan still doesn’t look too happy about it, but we start walking across the endless stretches of grass. I can’t say I’m overly excited to walk this far either, considering that it’s getting late and we’ll never get back to town in time – there’s dangerous creatures out here at night. But there’s no use whining about it. We just need to move.

[fanfictasia]

Sicktember Day 12

Old Wives Tale

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from The Mushroom Strikes Back

It’s not something he would’ve told most people, but it’s different with Cody – he feels safe with him, feels somehow at home, even though he shouldn’t. Cody is… a friend.

“We have a saying,” Cody replies finally, after a few minutes have lapsed. “That… those who pass on aren’t truly gone. That they’re still with us.”

It figures that the clones would have something like that – it’s the only way to deal with the constant loss of their brothers. “On Tatooine,” Anakin says instead, because he has to explain this to someone. Padme understands, and so does Palpatine, but not – not really. Obi-Wan doesn’t, and Anakin can’t help his desperation to explain it to someone who he thinks will understand. He’s still tired, and they should rest, but he also needs to get this said, no matter how sick he feels. “There was a… legend. About a sun-dragon. That it lives in the center of our sun, that it’s strong enough to protect everyone it loves. That… was supposed to be me. I should’ve – but I failed it. I failed her.”

Cody scoots over to him, reaching to touch his shoulder. “You’re not not just a legend to us,” he says, “You’re a Jedi and our commander, but… you’re still our…”

“What’s it like to have a brother?” Anakin asks, leaning into the warmth of his touch, because he’s fairly certain that’s what Cody is trying to say.

“I’m responsible for them,” he answers after a pause. “But I know they would do anything for me, too. We rely on each other.”

Anakin wishes he’d grown up with someone he could say that about, but maybe it’s still not too late to change that. “Maybe we are,” he says thoughtfully. “Brothers, I mean.”

“We are,” Cody agrees, “Or we… will be.”