#ts au

Not that he cared much for his birthday anyway. He didn’t actually know what his birthday was, since his parents had left him at the doorstep of the orphanage when he was a baby. They’d picked a date five months before, since that’s how old the doctor said he probably was, and Cuersaar 6th it was.

And Cuersaar 6th it was, and he was sick, and he needed to get up for work before his second alarm went off and he was super behind for the morning.

Thankfully, Caduceus wasn’t into grand gestures of affection in general, but instead small, intimate gestures. So, when he sat down to shove some toast in his mouth, which scraped his already irritated and painful throat going down, and sniffled pitifully, all that met him was a warm cup of tea, and an affectionate hand on his forehead.

“Good morning, Fjord,” Caduceus said, giving him a knowing smile. “Happy birthday. Are you sick?”

“S’ a cold,” Fjord rasped. “Probably got it off Luc.”

Veth’s son loved Fjord, much to her dismay and his delight, but he’d parked himself in Fjord’s lap for all of movie night while his nose ran and he coughed quietly into the elbow of his sweatshirt. Veth and Yeza had said they’d just stay home with him, but no one in their friend group cared about a little cold.

Now, Fjord almost wished he had.

Caduceus hummed knowingly. “Ah, he was real snotty on Friday. Probably. Sorry, friend. I’ll put some tea I think will help in a travel mug for you to take with us.”

Fjord didn’t go a day without feeling like he was so desperately lucky to have a friend like Caduceus. “Thanks, Cad.”

“Mhm. I think there’s some soup left from a few nights ago. I can put that in a thermos for you, if you’d like? For lunch?”

It would have been easy to brush Cad off and tell him that it was fine. He probably wasn’t going to be hungry, anyway. He didn’t even want the toast he was currently choking down, but he knew that he needed something to get him through his classes. 

“I–”

“Let me? Since it’s a day about you?”

That stopped him from declining, and Fjord nodded slowly after a second. Cad knew the mixed emotions that came with his birthday; he had for years. 

“Okay,” he rasped, wincing and taking another sip of tea. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Sure,” Cad said, smiling widely at Fjord, and making him feel a little warmer inside. “I think there’s some cold medicine under the sink. Why don’t you go get some before we leave while I pack this up?”

Fjord nodded, obeying like a child. Regardless of the fact that he was a thirty-one, no, thirty-two year old man, he wished the same thing he’d wished every time he felt poorly since he could remember. He wanted to be comforted, and taken care of, not because it was someone’s job, but because they wanted to. Because they loved him.

And Cad did. He really did. Fjord knew that. But like a friend, or even a brother, and that was different.

He rustled through their bin of medicine that Cad kept stocked with natural and chemical remedies, and found a few blister packs of bright orange cold and flu medicine. He swallowed one pack, and stored the others in his pocket, wishing that he was staying home in a sweatshirt and joggers instead of the khakis and polo he had on for his job. The fact that Cad got to wear whatever he wanted only frustrated him until he remembered that Cad wasn’t going to be teaching Biology, but Culinary and Agriculture. He’d spend half the day outside in the crisp, early Cuersaar wind.

The thought of it made him shiver, or maybe that was the fact that he was decently sure he was sporting a mild fever, but he didn’t let himself dwell too long. He needed to drive to school.

“Cad?” He called, wincing and sniffling quietly as he pulled a jacket over his polo and pulled his keys off the hook.

Gods, he felt awful.

“Coming!” Caduceus rounded the corner with his school bag, already in a coat, and with both their lunch boxes in his hand. He smiled widely, giving Fjord an encouraging nod, and holding out his other hand, which held the travel mug of tea. “Oh, and don’t forget this.”

Fjord managed a small smile, taking the cup from Cad with a nod. “Thanks.”

“Oh sure. It’s a chilly morning, and by the sound of your voice, I’d say your throat needs it.”

It did, and when it was gone before his first period prep was over, he wished it wasn’t. He knew it wasn’t strep – he’d had that enough times in his life to know the feeling – but it was enough that he wished he had a days supply of the warm tea to keep him from rasping so badly while he taught his first two blocks of AP Bio. Several students looked at him with worry, ones that he knew were prone to anxious thinking, and he tried to give them a reassuring look as he explained the circulatory system.

By the end of his third period the cough had started, and the sniffling was getting annoying enough that Fjord had just grabbed a box of tissues from his cabinet and parked it on his desk. He’d already figured he was going to have to restructure his afternoon classes plans to be independent work, as opposed to teacher-led, but he knew his AP students were already worrying about Thunsheer’s test, and he owed it to them to give them everything they needed.

Even if it was at his own destruction.

When the bell for his lunch period rang, he audibly sighed, and when he turned to make sure his kids hadn’t left anything behind, he nearly jumped.

“Shoot! Oh, Orym. You startled me.”

The senior was looking at him with drawn eyebrows. “Sorry. Coach, are you okay?”

Orym had a heart of gold. Fjord noticed too, now, that Dorian was hanging in the doorway. It was unusual to see one without the other, and Fjord sighed, running a hand through his hair that desperately needed a trim.

“I’m fine,” Fjord said, like a liar. He didn’t want to worry Orym more than he already was, especially with the heaviness he already bore. “Just a cold. Annoying, but bearable.”

Orym nodded, and so did Dorian from his sentinel’s post. “Okay. You should see if Nurse Jester has anything that can help. She showed up in Herr Widogast’s room earlier with cough drops.” He smirked a little. “Someone might have narked.”

Ah, Caleb. Caleb’s immune system was made of tissue paper, and as Luc’s uncle, he tended to pick up anything on the kindergartener immediately. 

“Herr too, huh? Good to know. Thanks, Orym.”

“Are we still having practice?”

Crap. Fjord did not want to have practice out in the crisp wind. He forgot they even had soccer that day. Why would he schedule a practice the day after a game? They didn’t have another one until the next week.

“Right, um. Let me get back to you, okay? Come see me after lunch. This is your lunch period, right?”

Orym nodded. “Okay. And then I’ll let the team know in the groupchat?”

“Perfect. I’ll write you a note to show up to fifth period a little late so we can figure it out. Now, go eat.”

Orym smiled, looking back at Dorian and nodding so the other boy would open the door, and they scrambled out to go find Imogen, no doubt. The three of them were a motley crew, but a favorite among his friend group of teachers. He could help but chuckle watching them go, and then sigh when the door closed and his headache reminded him that he was, indeed, sick.

The only good thing was that none of their friends knew when his birthday was. They didn’t know that it was, supposedly and legally, that day, and wouldn’t fret at him about being ill on a day that was supposed to be happy.

It wasn’t particularly happy, anyway.

The first one in his room was Beau, rage in her eyes, and he knew that the peaceful lunch he’d hoped for to let himself feel like crap was not happening.

“Do you know how ridiculous Kaylie can be?!”

Fjord sighed, sitting down at his desk and pulling out his hidden box of crackers, his water, and another blister pack of cold medicine.

Caleb had filtered in after that, looking pale and sucking on what Fjord assumed was a cough drop. He took a look at Fjord, and under Beau’s rant quietly said in a voice that matched his own rasp, “You as well then?”

Fjord gave a tired smile and nodded. “Yup.”

“Isn’t anyone listening to me?!”

“Kaylie is being a menace today because she spent the weekend with her mother, and then yesterday back with her father, so she is having the emotional whiplash,” Caleb said easily, and raspily, but Beau didn’t seem to notice.

“She still doesn’t have to be a monster–”

“Calm down, Beau. She’s seventeen and her home life is a wreck. Well, her mom’s home is a wreck. Let it roll.”

Beau looked at Fjord silently after he was finished, and then sighed, flopping down at her desk and basically throwing her lunchbox down.

The rest of their group filtered in, Cad bringing Fjord his lunchbox when he did, and Fjord savored the way the warm soup coated his stinging throat, and let conversation wash into the background as he settled a little bit into misery. He’d perk himself up when he needed to teach his next class, especially if he’d be dealing with a pissed off Kaylie, but for the time they sat in comfortable companionship, he simply let himself wallow a little.

Jester was eyeing him with worry, he knew that, and it embarrassed him, especially since he’d realized that he was very much in love with her, and she very much still had a shitty boyfriend. He tried not to make eye contact, but when the lunch bell rang and everyone started cleaning up their things to get ready for their next class, she was standing at his desk, holding a bottle of ibuprofen and a bag of cough drops.

“Here. I already gave Caleb what he needs for the rest of the day. You can come to me too, you know? I’m basically here for the students and the teachers. Having a cold while you’re teaching sucks so bad. Let me make it easier.” She leaned in and whispered to him, so no one else would hear what she said next. “Especially on your birthday.”

He felt like he was going to melt under the sincerity of her gaze, and he couldn’t do anything but give a little nod, his heart doing some sort of anxious tap dance when he took the bottle from her and their fingers brushed. 

“Thanks, Jessie. I know, I just… didn’t want to bother anyone.”

“Cad told me that you don’t want anyone to know about today. And I won’t tell anyone, but, maybe on Folsen I’ll bring a cake to Molly and Yasha’s for family dinner. Just because. Not for any reason.”

Her eyes were sparkling, and she was looking at him with no pity whatsoever. She wanted to do it, he could tell, and she wanted to help him, and all those things made it really hard to focus on what he was going to say next.

“I– Alright. Can it be strawberry?”

“Of course it can. And, I know you’re going to say no, but I’m going to get you a present. Don’t tell me no, I’ve made up my mind. You deserve something better than a cold for your birthday.”

She nodded, speaking in a normal voice again. “Also you should cancel practice, since you’re sick.”

“Oh,” Beau said, whipping around at the word ‘practice.’ “I can take the boys today. You should go home and sleep, you look like you need it.”

They were the only ones left in the room, everyone else having left, Cad with a small wave as he’d gone while Fjord had been talking to Jester.

“I–”

“Say yes,” Jester said simply, and shrugged. “Or else.”

“Or… else?”

“Or else.” She turned, her hair nearly smacking him in the face as she skipped out of the room, her pink scrubs a whirl as she spun out the door, and around Orym as he walked in.

Orym looked confused, but shook it off as he faced both Fjord and Beau.

“Hi, Coach Lionette. Coach Stone, did you figure out practice?”

“You guys are going to practice with me and the girls today. Let your team know.”

Orym looked between Beau and Fjord for a moment before groaning quietly. “They’re gonna kick our butts.”