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Shinei Nouzen isn't sick. He can't get sick. There's a war raging on just beyond the relative safety of the Rüstkammer headquarters and he can't possibly afford to take the day off. He is a captain. An Eighty-Six. He'd endured much worse than this and survived to tell the story. He's fine. When he starts feeling strange, he brushes it off as a mere cold that would pass naturally over the course of a few miserable days.
While he does display all the symptoms typical of a common cold, he didn't account for the fact that not everyone will be as uncaring about his health as he is.
“Captain Nouzen?”
“Yes?” His answer is a bit too late. The entire room immediately gives off a disapproving aura that Shin feels down to his aching bones. “What?”
“Oh my. You don't look too good.”
Everyone—even Lena—nods along to Grethe's words.
“He's sick,” The tone Raiden uses makes it clear that he felt a bit too satisfied with the truth being exposed. “I insisted for him to rest.”
Shin thinks up some excuse, but his attention is quickly stolen by Lena's hand touching his face. Her cold, soft hand, placed against his hot forehead where moisture shone. It feels blissful. He unconsciously leans into Lena's touch, watching her through heavy-lidded eyes that threaten to slip closed.
“You're running a fever. You shouldn't have come if you felt like this, Shin.”
Some childish giggles arise from the other adults attending the meeting. Someone—maybe, no, probably Shiden, he's sure—compared the sound of his uncharacteristic nasally voice to a cartoon character known for his grating squeaks.
“I agree with Colonel Milizé,” Grethe's commanding voice silences the room before it can delve into complete chaos. “We can't have the Captain run himself ragged. You put the entire operation at risk by refusing to rest.”
“Told you, dumbass.”
He glares at Raiden. The desired intimidating effect behind that gesture falls flat.
“I'll keep the Colonel for a bit longer, Captain. I'm sorry. Lieutenant Shuga, take him to the infirmary. Force him to rest and make sure he doesn't sneak out of his room. Use any means necessary.”
“You can't be serious.”
“And that's an order!”
Raiden, loyal to his superior officer, followed her commands with the highest level of diligence. Shin had fleeting memories of being sick as a child. He remembers his mother would describe each and all of his symptoms while Shin herself seldom said a thing. Much to his amusement, Raiden had behaved much in the same manner. As much as Shin disliked his coddling, he did feel better after taking the medicine that had been prescribed to him. He can admit that much.
After taking a cold shower, as Raiden had insisted him to, he fell asleep as soon as he threw himself into the comfort of his bed. He woke up minutes or hours later to fingers brushing his hair away from his face. Raiden… would not do that, not in a million years. He squints his eyes open, straining against the artificial light of his room. Lena. That touch felt like Lena's.
“Shin,” her voice hits his ears before her form is completely clear and visible to him. “I’m sorry for waking you, but you should really eat something…”
Normally, he'd be able to identify her footsteps before she'd even reached his door. Light and precise, as if she's following a series of dotted lines. The noise of her heels. Even how she paused a second before knocking. Perhaps he's worse off than he thought, for him to not have noticed her presence.
He nods slowly, sitting on his bed as Lena brings a tray containing two bowls over to him. They had a habit of having each meal of the day together—even with Shin being sick, it's no different. He imagines that the soup prepared by the base's cook must smell incredible to someone who still has a sense of smell.
Shin expects to be handed the bowl and a spoon. Not for Lena to feed him. Confused, he simply stares at the spoonful of soup waiting to be placed inside his mouth.
“Are you going to feed me?”
Lena tilts her head.
“Raiden said he always does this to you when you're sick. What's wrong?”
“That's… not true.”
“Oh! Then… oh. This is so embarrassing! He was just messing with me, wasn't he? But Raiden isn't the type to do that, so I—”
While she's rambling, Shin curls his hand around her wrist, opens his mouth, and eats the food she's offered him. As expected, it doesn't taste much like anything. He takes the bowl and spoon from a surprised Lena and points his chin in the direction of the untouched bowl still on the tray.
“You should eat too, Lena.”
“R–right.”
There's a table and a chair in his room that could be used for eating a meal, but Lena decides to use his bed instead. It's clearly not something she's used to doing.
“How was the meeting?”
“Well…”
Eventually, both of them finish their meal and Shin learns of what was said in the meeting after he had left. Nothing world-ending, thankfully. Shin is sweating by the end of it, maybe because of the warm meal he'd just had, or because the effect of the medicine is starting to wear off. Still, despite all the warmth, he's starting to feel strangely cold. He closes his eyes, slumping back into the pillows, and doesn't open them even as a wet cloth is plastered to his forehead.
Lena extends her hand and drags her fingers through his hair, the same way as when she woke him up. He responds with a content sigh.
“Are they loud?”
“Mm?”
“The Legion.”
“Ah. It's as usual.”
“Will it feel better if I read to you?”
Shin adored Lena's voice. That clear, sweet, silver bell voice. The first thing he had ever known about Lena. Before her name, her face, her love.
“I'd like that.”
She stumbles on a small pile of clothes he left near his bed and he feels some sort of shame at the mess he'd kept in his room. If he knew she would be coming over, he would have cleaned up better. Regardless, she makes it to his bookshelf unharmed.
His collection is not sizable. Save for the increasing amount of books he'd received as gifts from others—including his grandmother—most of the books he reads belonged to the base's library and would have to be returned eventually. Lena's fingers skim the titles. She ends up picking a book about some adventure at sea, its cover barely hanging on. She sits on his bed once more, at arm's length like when they had their meal. Not close enough.
“Can you… come closer?”
One time, she said she wanted him to be a little more spoiled. Is the soft smile on her face only there because she finally got to? Shin thinks he should allow himself to do this more often if it satisfies Lena that much.
“Of course.”
Shin drops his head on her lap and his eyes flutter closed as she begins to recite the first lines that open the second chapter of the book, where a bookmark had been placed. He hums to the feeling of Lena scratching a comfortable spot near the back of his head and listens attentively to each word falling from her lips. Before Lena has even reached the fourth page of the book she'd picked, he dozes off; not long after, he's brought back to consciousness by her seemingly leaving his bed. He acts before he thinks. His hand curls around her wrist.
“Don't go.”
He had gotten sick as a child shortly after being taken to the concentration camp—trembling with fever in that cold train, confused and surrounded by others who fared worse and soon passed on—and learned, then, that he would not be taken care of like that ever again. He still had his brother. Later, he would meet the Priest. But even at that young age, Shin no longer felt allowed to act as weak as when his parents were still around. Rather, he put on a brave face. He drank the Priest's bitter herbal medicine without complaints. He did not ask for his brother to read to him or for his hand to be held, even if Rei still did those things. When was the last time he was cared for like this and felt such a tender touch? Lena must think of him a pathetic man, but Shin's feverish mind decide it did not care.
“I'm not going anywhere.”
Her free hand gently undoes his desperate grip. Shin dropped his hand with a certain degree of hesitation but gave no further resistance. Lena never gave him a reason to not trust her. She would take care of him. He knew she would.
Lena grabbed the blanket he'd been using, which had half-fallen to the floor in his sleep and neatly used it to cover Shin and herself. Shin shifts around a bit, seeking a comfortable position that is closest to Lena. He ends up on his back, his head leaning towards the crook of Lena's neck while she pats his chest in a regular rhythm.
“Sleep, my love. I'll stay with you. I promise I won't leave.”
The last thing he's aware of is the brush of her lips against his forehead.
When morning comes, Raiden opens the door to Shin's room. Lena didn't call him or request his presence, so he can only assume nothing went wrong. Or, something went so wrong both Shin and Lena were knocked unconscious and unable to call for help.
His worries only fade once he sees the two of them in deep sleep, curled around each other inside a tight cocoon of blankets. Such a sight would make for amazing blackmail material if the wrong person had stumbled upon it. Raiden, however, is more worried about having to handle a sick Colonel.
He will be sure to scold them for being so close when they wake. For now, Raiden allows them to have their much-needed rest.