Chapter Text
“Yuzu, I don’t think this is a good idea…” Mei asked as drops of water hit the top of the umbrella.
“Trust me Mei, I did this all the time as a kid!” Yuzu gave a bright smile and ran out from under the shield protecting her. While they were walking home, Yuzu had the idea of walking in the rain, which had been pouring for the whole day, for the rest of the way back.
Maybe it was because of the excitement of a three-day weekend, or because she genuinely did feel in the mood to. And like she said: She did this tons of times when she was a kid, and maybe she could share it with Mei. Dancing in the rain looked really romantic in all her mangas and movies, but she felt so much more immersed doing it in real life.
“You’re sure you're not going to catch a cold or anything? I don’t want you getting sick, especially when we have an extra day together…” Mei said, slightly worried she wasn’t being responsible enough and letting Yuzu put herself in danger.
“I’m sure!” Yuzu laughed and turned around, now walking in reverse to meet Mei’s eyes, concerning the taller girl even more. “You could join me if you want, home isn’t that far away anyway.” Yuzu gave Mei a waiting look, but still, a smile remained on her face.
“Sorry Yuzu… but I don’t think I should. I’d rather not risk getting sick…” Mei said and shook her head, although she did have to admit, it did look really nice… and not just the rain part. Yuzu looked beautiful as is when she had makeup on and her hair in a cute way. But to Mei, she looked just as good in this condition, maybe not cute or pretty, but majestic and striking.
“Aw. It’s alright, I’m not gonna force you to do something that you’re not comfortable with.” Yuzu smiled and reached out to Mei’s free hand. “Let’s get home as soon as possible, okay?”
“Of course.” Mei nodded and let Yuzu claim her, fingers not wasting any time intertwining.
“So you did this all the time as you were a kid and never got sick?” Mei raised an eyebrow and followed Yuzu, trying to keep the umbrella as stable as possible with one hand. For now, she could just watch the love of her life in a beautiful state and walk home hand in hand.
“Yup! Never got sick, not once!”
The next day…
“Achoo!”
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea…” Mei murmured as her hand felt Yuzu’s forehead, letting out a deep sigh of disappointment.
The next day when Yuzu woke up, she felt feverish and sick. She immediately got worried of what she had told Mei and all her concerns, and also the fact that if she DID find out she would barrage her with scoldings and “I told you so’s.” Yuzu tried her best to avoid any signs of feeling sick whenever she was around Mei or Ume, but unfortunately, she let a few sneezes and coughs break through her while she was near Mei, and by evening the younger girl had grown skeptic enough to confront Yuzu who immediately broke secret.
“I’m sorry, okay? *Cough* …I thought this wouldn’t happen, it never did when I was young!” Yuzu defended herself.
“That’s because you wore a raincoat those times!” Ume said as she facepalmed and shook her head. “You at least had some headcover then, but this time you had nothing!” Ume scolded, her disappointment matching Mei’s.
“I…!” Any slim chance of Yuzu winning this argument went out the roof. Her mother was right, due to her carelessness, she now had a fever AND had endangered her family in getting sick too. “I’m sorry Mama. I’m sorry, Mei. It was a dumb thing to do…” Yuzu diverted her eyes to the ground, knowing she was the one at fault in this situation.
“What am I going to do with you?” Ume rubbed her eyes and sighed, she had no problem with her daughter playing in the rain, why would she stop Yuzu from having just a little fun? She was more disappointed that Yuzu had done it recklessly and in an unsafe manner, she definitely could’ve at least kept a hoodie in her backpack–not even a raincoat.
“Hey… *Cough cough* It’s not THAT bad of a fever. I’m not throwing up or anything…” Yuzu tried her best to seek some positivity out of the situation.
“Well then let’s see.” Mei picked up the thermometer that was resting on the table and gestured for Yuzu to open her mouth.
“Mmmf!” Yuzu overdramatically pouted, not giving Mei a very enjoyable look.
“Calm down, it’s only for a few seconds.” Mei rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but crack a smile.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
“99.4…” Mei said, reading the thermometer's digits.
“See? I told you it wasn’t that bad!” Yuzu gave her mom a confident look, smiling triumphantly for whatever reason.
“I don’t know why that’s something you’re proud of, but I guess it isn’t THAT bad.” Her mother said, feeling a bit more weight off her shoulders. If the numbers were right, then the fever would probably go by tomorrow or the day after, allowing her to not miss a day of school.
“Just promise me you won’t do something this dumb again?” Ume sighed, but her face returned to its calm, motherly, caring self. “And not just for my sake, for Mei’s as well. I expect you to not do these kinds of shenanigans when you and Mei get married and start living together.” Ume stated authoritatively.
Mei felt some embarrassment and blush from Ume’s sudden change of topic, but still nodded along.
“I know I know, I won’t do it again unless I’m safe. I promise.” Yuzu said sincerely, catching some pinkness on Mei’s face before she could get rid of it, causing Yuzu to smile at her personally, not assisting Mei’s face at all.
“I’ll go prepare dinner now. You two just stay where you are.” Ume got up and started working on her next task of cooking them their meals.
Fortunately, it didn’t take very long as she didn’t have to make that large of a portion since Yuzu was only allowed to eat toast for the next few days. But that didn’t stop her from cooking just a bit more than the minimum just in case Shou came back or if Yuzu got better sooner than expected.
Ume placed both of the plates onto the table and went to start serving herself. Mei started her dinner as Yuzu stared at her plate, feeling a bit left out with what was on her plate. Combined with the feeling of wanting a bit of fun, she came up with a plan.
“Mei, can I have a bite of your food?” Yuzu said with pleading eyes, trying to be as persuasive as possible.
“And why should I do that?” Mei swallowed her current portion and gave Yuzu an unamused look, knowing exactly what she was planning.
“Well, Mama’s cooking smells really good, and I don’t think one bite would hurt~” Yuzu smiled cheekily and looked away from Mei’s general direction.
Mei looked at her plate and looked back at Yuzu, maybe Yuzu was right, it was only one bite of tempura. And as long as she didn’t give anymore, it should be okay
“Hmm. You’re right Yuzu, I guess it does smell good…” Mei started, causing Yuzu to think she won. “However, how would you even smell anything when you have a fever?” Mei gave the same unamused look at the same time, causing Yuzu to be caught off guard.
“Well um…! I just know it smells good! I don’t need any sense!” Yuzu proclaimed.
“Hmm… Very well… you have a point there,” Mei said, picking up her chopsticks.
As silly of any idea as it sounded, Yuzu was expecting Mei to feed her. She opened her mouth and closed her eyes, waiting for Mei to walk on over and give her the fish. But she was met with nothing but the sound of something sitting on her plate and footsteps walking away.
Yuzu opened her eyes to see Mei already back on her side of the table and returning to her meal.
“H-hey! I thought…” Yuzu stopped herself, realizing how bad of an idea it was for Mei’s chopsticks to go anywhere near her, nevertheless her mouth, in the first place.
“You thought what?” Mei looked up again, but still not showing any annoyance from her side surprisingly.
“Never mind.” Yuzu smiled and gladly ate the portion Mei had given her, making her dinner just that much better.
“But you must be really tired, Yuzu. You should probably sleep early,” Mei continued, her voice noticeably flatter than before.
“Huh? What makes you say that?” Yuzu raised an eyebrow, I'm not sure where Mei got that conclusion from but did know that sleeping early was good for you when you’re sick.
“I mean, you let out a long yawn just now. It sounded like you’re really tired, even though you did nothing…” Mei explained, insulting Yuzu by accident, giving Yuzu a strong gaze from across the table
Yuzu didn’t care about the insult; rather, her mind was focused on what Mei meant by her yawning. She thought she would notice a yawn, especially a lengthy one, but she couldn’t recall any that she had let out recently…
…
“Yuzu, are you okay? you look kinda red… that's not a good sign during a fever…” Mei said as she watched Yuzu’s face slowly turn pinker and darker.
Yuzu had no plans to tell Mei why her mouth was open, in the case of making her look even more like a fool or getting a disapproving look from her fiance. She also couldn’t cover her face since her hands had crumbs on them, so she had to just let this play out and wait for her blush to drift away.
“Y-yea… I’m fine…” Yuzu chuckled to herself nervously. “Guess it is a good idea to head to bed soon…” Yuzu smiled and continued her dinner.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~
“I’m back, do you feel better from the shower?.” Mei said as she returned to find Yuzu sitting on the edge of the bed. Mei set her towel into the closet and hung it to dry, she was already in her pajamas.
“A little, I don’t feel as ill as when I woke up today. So… you don’t have any academy work today right?” Yuzu said in an obvious shy way; way too unusually shy to go unnoticed.
“None, I agreed to sleep at the same time as you, and I’m sticking to my word,” Mei said as she had a feeling Yuzu was trying to make her reconsider her choice, although she didn’t know why Yuzu would want that.
“I see…” Yuzu saw Mei’s confused face and realized her words sounded different in Mei’s ears. “Don’t get the wrong idea! I-it's just that… I just want to see you when I’m sleeping…” Yuzu said nervously.
“See… me?” Mei asked herself but then grasped what Yuzu meant by that. “You want to see me working since if I sleep on the futon you can’t see me?” Mei confirmed with Yuzu.
“Y-yea… I know it’s kinda selfish, but… would you?” Yuzu asked, giving one last shot. She didn’t want to force Mei but knew well that her pleading voice could very much force Mei to go through with it.
“I’m sorry Yuzu… but maybe if I had something to take care of I would, but it would be useless for me to just sit there… but I’m still going to be sleeping just a few feet away from you.” Mei felt sorry for denying Yuzu but knew it was irresponsible to do something like that.
“I understand, Mei. Don’t worry about it.” Yuzu nodded understandingly, she did indeed feel a bit too selfish for asking to have Mei do something at her expense. She was going to smile at Mei to reassure her, but the younger girl was already gone, presumably to go get something. All Yuzu knew was that it was probably important since Mei would seldom go to do any task right before bed.
“Yuzu.” Mei called Yuzu’s attention, who was preparing the bed in the meantime. Yuzu turned around to see Mei holding out Kumagorou towards her. “Here, you can have Kumagorou tonight,” Mei said with a hint of jealousy.
“Aw, thanks, Mei!” Yuzu giggled at Mei’s offering and gladly took it. “But aren’t you worried about me making him sick?” Yuzu asked, squeezing Kumagorou.
“We can always clean him, and besides… you probably need him more than me…” Mei looked away and sighed, starting to prepare her futon.
“If you say so!” Yuzu smiled and placed the soft bear onto the bed, she definitely would miss Mei’s presence of being beside her, but she guessed Kumagorou was as best as she was gonna get tonight.
Or at least that’s what she thought…
“Sorry, I’m making you sleep early with me Mei, especially on a weeknight. We could’ve been doing something more fun than this if it wasn’t for my carelessness…” Yuzu said as she crawled onto the bed, watching Mei lay her futon flat on the floor.
Mei sighed, she did partially blame Yuzu for all the trouble (and herself a little as well), she knew it couldn’t be helped. If sleeping at the same time as Yuzu made her feel better, then that's what she would do, even if it was at the expense of Mei. And besides, it did feel lonely and unfair doing something without Yuzu.
“It’s fine, Yuzu. As long as you’re going to be okay, I’ll be okay as well.” Mei said, surprisingly without any reaction, especially when she said something that sounded romantic to Yuzu.
“Also, you can use the entire bed tonight. I don’t want you falling off the bed on top of being sick.” Mei said, not wanting any more problems on top of the already annoying fever.
“Alright!” Yuzu said as she lay down and gave one last grin at Mei before the younger girl turned off the lights. She watched as Mei walked back and lowered herself down to the floor, feeling a sense of separation, ignoring it.
“Goodnight Mei. Sweet dreams~” Yuzu said, Mei hearing her audibly move the blanket into a comfortable position.
“Goodnight Yuzu… sweet dreams…” Mei said, but not as confident. She felt a feeling of being out of place over not sleeping in the same bed but knew this was only temporary. And on top of that, the futon wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world.
All she had to do was sleep, it wasn’t that hard. She just needed to focus on herself… Yuzu would most likely feel better tomorrow and they could do anything they want…
10 minutes later…
“How long has it even been…?” Mei thought to herself, desperately trying to move in whatever position her body felt the most comfortable. For whatever reason– actually there was an obvious reason why she couldn’t sleep and I don’t think I have to say it to you.
She could hear Yuzu’s snoring, which meant she clearly didn’t have a problem… well she had Kumagorou so the advantage wasn’t very hidden. Mei wondered if Yuzu actually didn’t have a problem or if having something to cuddle with really helped that much. She and Yuzu cuddled sometimes and she would always feel sleepy after a few minutes…
Soon Mei felt relieved to feel a familiar feeling, the tugging of her eyelids. A drowsy sense swept over her, and soon not caring about the uncomfortable futon below her. However, as soon as Mei was about to lose consciousness…
“ACHOO!”
Mei jolted up from her futon mostly, not scared, just startled from the loud noise. She gave a sigh of annoyance, but let it go, she guessed that she would just sacrifice a few more minutes to fall asleep.
“Sorry about that, Mei…” Yuzu said weakly, before dropping back onto the bed and returning to her rest.
“It’s fine…” Mei said, unaware that Yuzu had fallen back asleep. She laid back down and sighed again. The sneeze was pretty big, so Mei was hoping that maybe there wouldn’t be another one… and when there would be, she would be asleep.
But that’s not what happened… not at all.
*Cough cough*
…
“Achoo!”
…
*Cough*
…
“ACHOOO!”
For the longest time, Yuzu would let out a sneeze or cough every few minutes. Mei swore Yuzu had never been this loud earlier in the day… was she doing this purposefully? To give Mei a sign…? Nonetheless, whether or not these actions were real or not, it hurt Mei… she hated hearing Yuzu suffer through all this whilst they were trying to sleep.
“Is she trying to do this on purpose?” Mei thought restlessly, literally. There was no way she was going to sleep at this rate or with this type of disturbance. She wanted to see if Yuzu was okay, but she wasn’t asking Mei’s name or saying anything at the least.
After a while, Mei decided that there were two solutions to this problem, none sharing any similarities in any way. One, she could either leave the bedroom and sleep in the living room… or two, she could go onto the bed with Yuzu and sleep as far as she can away from her. One choice was extremely logical, and the other well… was silly and careless–
~-~-~-~-~-~-~
“Why am I doing this?!?” Mei asked herself, staring at the Yuzu with extreme vexation. She felt too guilty to leave the room and have Yuzu stay sick here all alone, besides Kumagorou. She noticed that Yuzu didn’t listen to her pillow advice and had stayed on her respective side of the bed, almost like she was imagining Mei was still sleeping beside her.
“This is your fault, I wouldn’t be doing this if you didn’t– who am I kidding, I’m acting just like you…” Mei thought, her eyes gazing at Yuzu’s closed ones. The Aihara inheritance, the future chairwoman of the academy… doing something like this? But no, she wasn’t doing this because of some stupid bloodline or inheritance. She was doing this out of her free will, something she had never imagined a dozen months back.
Mei pulled herself onto the edge of the bed as delicately as she could; any sinks in the bed could potentially wake up her dozing partner and embarrass her even more from being caught.
“Every time I try to show how much I appreciate you, your eyes are always closed…” Mei said as she started lying on the bed, trying to stay as far away as possible from Yuzu, but very well that the blonde could move around in the middle of the night.
All it took was one sneeze from Yuzu to make Mei almost back out of her decision. She fought against the urge though and stayed put, she wouldn’t say it wasn’t worth it until she she got sick.
“I’m going to regret this aren’t I?” Mei thought, but her heart stopped when she felt Yuzu move around on the sheets.
“Regret… no…” Yuzu said in her sleep. It didn’t take Mei long to realize what she had thought was actually what she said. She panicked even more as she felt Yuzu moving a lot, she watched as the blonde went from lying on her back to facing her direction.
Mei knew it was too late to back out; otherwise, Yuzu would have woken up. She continued to look at Yuzu’s face, watching every flinch and exhale. She was so panicked that she didn’t know what else to do, not even Kumagorou’s face which was also looking at her was helping. But when she slowly saw Yuzu open her eyes, she thought it would genuinely be the end of her reputation, and would probably lose the ability to use any senses.
“Yuzu! I… I…” Mei stuttered. She couldn’t think of any explanation for this besides her wanting to be closer to her. It looked like this was the end of any credibility behind anything she had said previously, she would probably be teased and embarrassed by Yuzu for the rest of their lives…
But contradicting Mei’s expecting outburst from her partner, Yuzu seemed to have dim eyes and gave a tired expression, not one that was surprised or embarrassed. Yuzu stared at Mei for what felt like way too long, but it was only about half a minute.
Finally, words left Yuzu’s mouth, preparing Mei for the worst and watching in fear. “I’m sorry, Yu-” Mei started, but was interrupted.
“Kumagorouuu… there’s a really really hot girl over therrree…” Yuzu mumbled and flipped over, not one hint of hesitation coming out of her sentence.
Mei lay there, her entire face frozen still, but her skin tone burning from blush. She turned herself around, guaranteed if she saw her face right now, it would be comparable to crimson. She was right, she DEFINITELY regretted doing this.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~
The next morning, when Yuzu woke up, the first thing she realized was that she had her sense of smell back. She noticed this through her nose, smelling a pleasant, sweet aroma as she moved around in bed. Even though it took a while, she wondered why she would smell something so nice in bed.
The longer the thought stayed in her mind, she realized that this wasn’t just any air freshener or perfume… it was Mei’s bath salts. But Mei was sleeping on the futon on the floor… how was the smell so strong and close to her…?
She quickly got up and looked over to see the other side of the bed neat and empty, no Mei. Yuzu sighed, she sighed and reminded herself that Mei would NEVER do something like that.
“Yuzu… good morning.” Mei’s voice came as she entered the bedroom, still in her pajamas.
“Mei! Good morning!” Yuzu said as she smiled at her lover, forgetting all about the aroma and just Mei.
“Are you feeling better now? You definitely sound better than yesterday.” Mei said
“Yup! I think the fevers are gone now, we can do whatever we want today!” Yuzu exclaimed, already feeling excited. “Is that why you’re up so early!? So you could spend more time with me?!” Yuzu gave Mei an adoring look, Mei would probably never tell Yuzu why she got up early, so just fell to the cute eyes and confirmed. However, maybe if Mei got sick from Yuzu last night, it might’ve might’ve made the scenario look more suspicious, but luckily that wasn’t the case
“I guess yea… can I ask you something?” Mei asked and sighed deeply
“Of course you can Mei, go for it.” Yuzu smiled, crawling towards the edge of the bed.
“Um… did you wake up at all last night? Or do you even remember seeing something in your dreams?” Mei asked that same hesitant feeling from last night returning.
“No… none that I recall… why do you ask?” Yuzu said as she got off the bed and started walking in Mei’s direction
“N- no reason.” Mei sighed and followed Yuzu to the day that would come.