#dkthunderiv

“Your little suggestion tactics won’t work on me,Blackquill.  Right now having you here ishurting the overall efficiency of theoffice.  And you’re clearly not fine, judging from how loud your coughinghas been.”

“I’m-”

“Enough.  I’m calling you a car right now.  You will go home and rest.  We won’t discuss this further.”

Before Simon was able to protest, his boss was onhis cell phone and getting him transportation back to his apartment.  It took another ten minutes before the carwas in the building, and Edgeworth himself had escorted Simon until hissubordinate was seated in the back.  

“Take him here,” Edgeworth told the driver,handing him a piece of paper with Simon’s address on it.  “Do nottake him anywhere else.”  And Edgeworthhanded the driver a few large bills, leading to an emphatic agreement on thedriver’s part.  Simon rolled his eyes,sinking in the seat with his arms crossed, like some little kid who wasn’tgetting his way.  Why did Edgeworth-donohave to micromanage so much?

After telling Simon to go rest, Edgeworth walkedback into the building, and the car drove off. Simon’s stubbornness was battling with his genuine gratitude for Miles’actions; he really wasn’t feelinggreat.  His nose was stuffy and hisviolent coughing had caused him to have a rather horrid headache and a sore throat, and whenever he stoodup he felt dizzy.  Not to mention he justfelt so goddamn hot even though itreally wasn’t all too warm out.  He hadn’tbeen this sick in quite some time.

When the car pulled up to his apartment building,he grunted out a goodbye to his driver and slowly made his way up thestairs.  He actually had to grab onto thehandle and hoist himself up at some points, and part of him was tempted to justsit down on the steps, but he pressed on. Once he finally reached his door, he immediately fell into his couch assoon as he stepped into his home.  

Only…maybe he shouldn’t have plopped down sohard.  The landing exacerbated hisalready excruciating headache, and he groaned loudly.  Taka flew over to him and thankfully did notscreech in his ear, but did nestle into his hair comfortably.  Maybe if he just…napped for a little bit, hecould wake up and miraculously feel better.

He wasn’t sure how long he was asleep for; theonly thing he knew was that Nahyuta was leaning down and staring at him when hewoke up.  Taka had flown away, leavingsome rogue feathers lodged in his ponytail. “…Don’t you know staring at someone while they’re sleeping is a tad creepy, Nahyuta?”

“I haven’t been here long.  I thoughtyou were coming to get me at the airport. After waiting for about an hour and not getting an answer from you whenI called, I decided to take a cab here. I was worried, so I called the office…Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth saidyou went home early because you were, as he said, as sick as a dog.”  He thought for a moment.  “You know, I never truly understood the pointof that English expression…dogs aren’t usually sick, are they?”

Crap.  Withhis head as foggy and disoriented as it was, Simon completely forgot that hewas supposed to pick Nahyuta up today. For some reason he had started thinking it was tomorrow that Nahyuta was landing. “Shit, Nahyuta, I’m sorry.   Ishouldn’t have stood you up like that.” Simon struggled to bring himself into a sitting position, groaning theentire time and coughing up a storm, making sure to cover his mouth in thecrook of his arm so as to not spread his germs to Nahyuta.

“I’ll admit I wasangry, but it is hard to stay that way when you look so pitiful,” Nahyuta said,with an innocent smile on his face.  Simonpouted, not appreciating the adjective, but a well-timed sneeze didn’t help hisnon-verbal argument at all.  “And youdidn’t even get undressed or anything. Honestly, can you even take care of yourself without me around?”

Nahyuta took off Simon’s boots and tossed them tothe side.  “I’m fine, Nahyuta.”  The monkjust rolled his eyes and held out a hand to help Simon up.

“Sure. Your dull eyes and pale…er, paler skinjust scream the image of perfect health. Not to mention the coughing songs you’ve serenaded me with already.”  

Despite Simon’s instinct to argue, he justallowed Nahyuta to help him to his feet, and he couldn’t stop himself fromslouching as his head spun from the level change.  Nahyuta’s arm was around his waist, anddespite how much Simon was sweating from fever, he appreciated thecloseness.  He missed his boyfriend, andcursed the fact that he got sick on the day he landed in the states.

“Into bed, you,” Nahyuta ordered once theyreached the bedroom.  He took off Simon’scoat, vest, and shirt, and offered him a loose black t-shirt instead.  After Simon put it on, he removed his hairfrom his ponytail and laid down on the bed. Once Simon was on the mattress, Nahyuta was also stripping him of hisdress pants, leaving Simon in just his underwear as he instructed him to getunder the covers.

Simon was in no condition or mood to argue, so hejust did as he was told, settling into the plush pillows and bringing the coversover him.  Nahyuta kissed his forehead,despite the sweat that had accumulated on his brow, and informed him he wouldbe right back.  Simon closed his eyes andcoughed a few more times, feeling hot and yet also shivering under hisblanket.  He was miserable right now, and once again cursed this illness for keepinghim from being able to attend to Nahyuta the way he ought to.  

Nahyuta soon returned with a glass of water, somepills, and a wet kitchen towel.  Heplaced the pills and the water on the nightstand next to the bed, and gentlyput the cloth on Simon’s head.  It wascold to the touch, and Simon flinched at first…though it took very little timebefore it felt amazing.  He couldn’t helpit – he smiled.  A big grateful andalmost goofy smile that never would have come across his face had he been inhis right mind.  “Thank you Nahyuta.  I missed you.”

“And I you, love,” Nahyuta replied, returningSimon’s smile with one of his own.  “You do need to take these though,” he said,as he grabbed the water and pills and held them out.  Simon struggled to put himself in a sittingposition, but took one of the pills from Nahyuta’s hand and popped it into hismouth.  He then allowed Nahyuta to bringthe glass of water to his lips and he felt the cool crisp liquid soothe hisburning throat as he swallowed.  Theyrepeated this twice more until all three pills were in Simon’s system.  He leaned back down, snuggling into theblankets.  

“I’ll let you sleep,” Nahyuta whispered, beforemoving to walk away.  However, Simoncaught his wrist, and he looked back.

“Can…you stay? Or...maybe you shouldn’t…I wouldn’t want you to catch anything fromme.  Sorry.”  Simon released his grip on Nahyuta and lookedsad, turning away.

Nahyuta just sighed, but his smile indicated thathe was far from annoyed.  Instead, hekicked off his boots and shed his own jacket before climbing into bed andbringing Simon into his arms.  

“I wouldn’t want to leave my sick panda all byhimself.”

Simon smiled again and closed his eyes.