Title: Ai ni Yotte Influenza
Meaning: Love by Influenza (roughly)
Pairing: KyoxShinya; KaoruxShinya
Type: Fluff-ish drama; romance
Rating: PG
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When Shinya next became aware of anything, he was aware of white – lots of white. He squinted against the sudden onslaught of brightness in an attempt to ward off the coming of a headache. He heard voices as if through water, somewhere to his left.
“Shinya?”
He tried to look over, but his body felt like it was made of lead. Cool fingers smoothed his forehead, pressed his eyelids gently down.
“Go back to sleep, Shinya.” the voice said, “You need it.”
He wanted to protest that he didn’t need to sleep – he’d slept enough. He tried to open his eyes, but the fingers were persistent and the blackness creeping up on him was seductive.
“It’s okay, Shinya. Kaoru and I are here. Go back to sleep.”
That settled it. If Kyo and Kaoru were there, everything would be taken care of (though what needed taking care of Shinya wasn’t quite sure anymore). He could count on them. Shinya smiled briefly, and closed his eyes. He was deep asleep a moment later.
Die and Toshiya came bursting into the hospital with such force that the many of the people in the lobby waiting room – including the normally carefully neutral nurses behind the desk – gave collective gasps of shock. Some clutched each other as if for protection. Neither band member paid them any mind, sights set firmly on the information desk.
Toshiya started speaking before they’d actually reached it. “We’re looking for Terachi Shinya. He came in with Nikkura Kaoru and Niimura Kyo.”
The nurse, wide-eyed, hesitated and looked at them both, as if deciding whether to admit them or not. She looked over her shoulder for help from the other two desk workers, but both just shrugged and nodded to the computer. The woman sighed and started looking in the visitor’s log.
Suddenly, Kaoru’s voice echoed down the hall. “Totchi, Dai!”
They turned to the sound, and were greeted by the sight of Kaoru waving his arms. Die took off immediately, the bassist on his heels.
“Thanks anyway,” Toshiya called over his shoulder.
The woman breathed a sigh of relief as they left.
Kaoru was all but dancing his impatience as the bassist and rhythm guitarist reached him – a sight that would, under any other circumstances, have had Toshiya and Die rolling on the ground with laughter. The lead guitarist didn’t even wait for them to catch up before he had turned and started for the stairs, and then up them.
“We’re on the second floor. They said it wasn’t critical, so he’s not in ICU or anything. I asked – we can all be inside at once.”
“What was it?” Die huffed.
“The flu. Apparently they caught it just in time for it to be treatable.”
“That’s what he was hiding?” Toshiya asked incredulously.
Kaoru shrugged while walking. He crested the stairs and turned right, “I doubt he even knew. Prob’ly thought it’d go away ‘cause he’s never sick.” They walked passed six doors before Kaoru stopped.
“He looks a lot worse than he is,” the guitarist started, opening the door quietly, “He’s on an IV because of dehydration, but that’s all that’s wrong now. He’s probably still asleep.”
They entered to the sight of Kyo sitting on Shinya’s bed, facing away from the door and humming softly. He didn’t appear to have heard them come in. No one said anything, just took the chairs against the wall and settled down to wait for the doctor’s analysis.
Shinya thought he was awake, because he thought he heard voices. Thought he felt movement. Why was he moving? He’d been in bed. Unless this was some prank of Die’s ... but that didn’t make sense. Die wasn’t there. Only Kyo and Kaoru. They were there, because Kyo said they were. Didn’t he? Shinya furrowed his brow, trying to remember. He could have sworn Kyo had been there, urging him to sleep. Saying he and Kaoru would stay.
The drummer tried to look around, but his neck wasn’t listening. He tried to speak, to call out, but his voice wasn’t cooperating. He was almost caught up in panic – not that panic in his state could really mean much, but he couldn’t figure out why – when familiar voices grew louder. Kaoru’s voice. Maybe Die’s voice – but that was silly, because Die wasn’t at his home. He’d have remembered that.
“We’ll stay with him when we get home.”
“You sure? We could take over.”
There was rustling. What felt like blankets being removed. Shinya hoped vaguely that he was wearing clothes. But what the hell was Die doing in his bedroom?
“No, no. It’s fine. Kyo ‘n I have got it covered.”
A shadow leaned over him. Shinya had to wait before recognizing Kaoru. The blurry face smiled.
“Ah. Welcome to the land of the waking. Think you can stand?”
Shinya tried to reply, but his voice still wasn’t working. He managed a blink and a weak nod. The guitarist sighed.
“I don’t believe you. But let’s try it.”
Between Die and Kaoru, Shinya got on his feet, but he still had to sag heavily against Kaoru. Into Kaoru’s warmth. Feeling the beating of his heart against his ear. What was his ear doing near Kaoru’s heart? He wasn’t that short. They shuffled him to a chair. The chair moved.
Wheelchair? What?
Shinya closed his eyes in confusion. When they opened again, he was being moved into a car, into someone’s lap. Strong arms were wrapped around him, holding him steadily. Holding him carefully. He couldn’t really tell which. There was a hand threading through his hair. It felt good. Lips brushed his forehead.
“You skinny dope,” Kyo murmured.
Confused, but pleased, Shinya settled in closer and closed his eyes.
When Shinya woke up the next morning, he was disoriented. He knew he’d been moved sometime during the night, but he couldn’t remember the details. He could only remember Kyo and Kaoru and Kyo’s promise to stay with him.
But he was alone in his room.
He opened his eyes slowly, hoping that he was wrong; that Kyo or Kaoru would be there, sitting in the huge arm chair by his bed, maybe dozing off. But when his eyes focused, neither or them were. Miyu was curled up on the pillow next to him, but there was no Kyo and there was no Kaoru. He closed his eyes tightly, feeling absurdly disappointed and betrayed. His head pounded and there was a horrible throbbing behind his eyes.
Kyo said they’d be here, he thought unhappily, fighting against angry tears that threatened to fall and mentally smacking himself for it.
He’d never felt betrayed by stupid little things like that before. Why should he start now? Shinya scrubbed his eyes angrily and resolved to get up and get himself some breakfast before he became dizzy again. Sitting up proved that he was already dizzy anyway, and he flopped back down on the mattress with a groan. Miyu woke and yipped softly at him. He gave her a wavering smile and held out his hand. She curled up against his arm, licking him a few times. Then the door flew open.
“You awake Shin-shin?” Kyo asked, “I heard Miyu yapping.”
Shinya tried not to think about the stupid smile that must have crossed his face. “Kyo-kun ...” he murmured. He decided he could chalk it up to being dizzy if he was called on it.
“I told you that we’d be here, didn’t I?” the shorter man asked, smiling, as though he knew exactly what had been going through Shinya’s head. It was entirely possible that he had known, as far as the drummer was concerned. “Kaoru’s in your kitchen, trying to dig up a suitable breakfast for you. You have the weirdest foods in there.”
“Breakfast? It’s that early? It’s so bright out. What time is it?” the drummer asked, looking around vainly for something resembling his clock.
“Eh-heh ...” the singer grinned sheepishly, “about that. We kinda took that thing into the next room with us. We couldn’t figure out which was the alarm button and didn’t want it to go off. Sorry. Anyway. It’s about 10 in the morning of Saturday. We have no practice.”
“You ... stayed? All this time?”
Kyo shrugged casually, as if he stayed over at sick band mate’s houses on a regular basis. Though if given the chance it was entirely possible that he might, Kyo was easily the most susceptible to illness out of all of them and was usually kept away from even people with simple colds, just incase. He walked farther into the room and perched himself on the edge of Shinya’s bed. He pressed the back of his hand to Shinya’s forehead, checking for a fever.
“I wanted to make sure you were all right. I don’t like seeing you sick,” he said simply.
The young drummer tried not to blush. When Kyo did nothing to tease him, he figured he had succeeded. Then he realized the vocalist was staring at him pensively, as though contemplating how to tell him bad news.
“Kyo?”
“Do you remember being in the hospital?”
Shinya blinked. Hospital? “What?”
“We had to take you to the hospital. You had a high fever. 40.5 degrees. You also scared the shit out of us because you were hardly coherent, so the next time you get the brilliant idea to not tell us that you have the flu, please think twice.”
The information was new to Shinya. He blinked again, trying to process the rapid word flow. “Flu? What?”
“You had the flu, you skinny dope. Able to survive an avalanche or not, you do not mess around with sicknesses like that. Would you let me alone if you knew I had the flu? Amantadine is supposed to be administered within two days – they were lucky they caught it when they did. It can lead to bronchitis, and pneumonia, you know.”
“Um, no ... I didn’t. Have you been reading about this?”
Kyo sat on the edge of the bed, clenching his hand in a fist, “Thought I should read up on it for next time. Y’know, in case you decided that potentially life-threatening illnesses aren’t such a big deal again. I saw a medical dictionary that I’ve been thinking about buying.”
Shinya placed his hand over Kyo’s. “All right, all right, I get it. ... I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t go to get checked out.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just – ”
“Don’t get sick. I know,” Kyo sighed. He stopped, tilted his head to the side, then jumped off the bed. “Kaoru’s almost done, I think. I’ll go make sure he doesn’t blow up your kitchen.”
He was gone before Shinya could call him back. The drummer sighed and dropped his head back onto the pillow.
Stupid.
“He’s awake?” Kaoru asked without turning around. He gave his pot of broth a last stir and poured it into a bowl. Noodles went in after.
Kyo watched the way the guitarists’ hands moved. “Yeah.”
“Then why the hell are you in here?”
The vocalist scuffed a toe on the floor and shrugged, forgetting that Kaoru wasn’t facing him. He sighed. “I ... I sort of reprimanded him for getting sick.”
All movement from the leader of Dir en grey stopped. He turned slowly, soup bowl in hands, until he was facing Kyo. But he didn’t look angry. He looked ... bemused, maybe. His eyebrow was raised in a questioning manner, anyway.
“You reprimanded Shinya?”
“... Sort of.”
Kaoru’s lips twitched. “You yelled at him for getting sick.”
“I did not yell at him. You’d have heard that.”
“Semantics,” Kaoru shrugged. “The point is you still scolded him for getting sick – only parents and lovers do that.”
“Are we really getting into this again?”
“We might as well.”
“Why? And why now?”
“Well, we could do it with Shinya while he eats. He’s probably getting hungry. Or wondering where you went.”
Kyo looked over his shoulder automatically, eyes searching for Shinya’s bedroom door. Kaoru clicked his tongue in amusement. The vocalist pointedly ignored him. The guitarist sighed then, and all movement stopped. When he spoke, Kaoru’s voice was the most serious that Kyo’d ever heard.
“Kyo. I ... we can’t keep this up. Even if we don’t settle who does and doesn’t like him, or who he does and doesn’t like, this can’t keep us at odds.”
“It’s not.”
“Not yet,” Kaoru corrected mildly, “But it will. It’ll grow and fester and eventually we won’t be able to gap the chasm.”
“How poetic. I’ll think I’ll use that line, if you don’t mind.”
“I’m serious, Kyo.”
“So am I. I am going to put it in a song.”
The guitarist made a sound of disgust, but whether it was aimed directly at Kyo or at the situation or at the conversation, Kyo wasn’t sure. He didn’t know that he much cared, either. Kyo continued to scuff the floor with his toe, still looking over his shoulder at Shinya’s door. So he was surprised when all of a sudden Kaoru was standing in front of him, using his larger body to keep Kyo’s pinned to the doorframe.
“You can be absolutely annoying.”
“I know,” Kyo said cheekily.
Kaoru opened his mouth, about to say something, but decided against it. Instead he grabbed Kyo’s chin, tilted it up, and kissed him soundly. Kyo’s eyes shot open, his mouth parting in surprise and allowing Kaoru easy access. Kaoru slid his tongue into Kyo’s mouth, tasting him thoroughly. Kyo made a whimpering noise that the would deny with his dying breath. Then he pressed against the guitarist. Kaoru stepped away.
“Wha – ?”
The guitarist smirked, “Now that that’s out of the way, where were we?”
“Um ...”
Kaoru headed back to the table and picked up the bowl of broth. “Oh yes. See, I’ve decided. I like you. I like Shinya. You like Shinya. And from the way you reacted just then, I’d say it’s not a stretch that you like me. So rather than let you wallow in denial and self-pity, I’m going to have you both.”
Kyo gaped, trying to process the statement and failing miserably. “You ... both ... what?”
“Exactly. Now we just have to inform Shinya and it’ll all be good. Carry the mug into the bedroom, will you?” and with that, Kaoru brushed passed Kyo.
Kyo stared blankly down the hall. He blinked. Pressed fingers to his lips. Working on automatic, he grabbed the mug from the table and went to join his band mates. A slow smile crossed his lips. Whatever it lead to he’d deal with tomorrow.
Owari