It's almost sickening how easily a common cold can make the simplest things impossible. The little things that are so easy for me to accomplish on your average day manage to turn the tables and kick my ass. I mean, come on... walking up twelve steps should not have me gasping for air until I need a damn water break to regroup myself. Just so you know I didn't mean something else... twelve steps... not flights... steps.
Individual steps.
Opening doors is another problem of mine right now because it requires upper body strength that is not present at this moment in time. Oh, hell... When I woke up this morning, Heero was already sitting up in our bed, staring at me like I was the Satan Incarnate.
I didn't get my good morning kiss! Woe is me!
I suppose I can't really blame him for not wanting to kiss the bloody, chapped mass that is my lips. When I went to the bathroom to get ready for school, I nearly threw myself to the tile when I caught sight of the stranger in the mirror. Hoo-boy, I have never looked so damn horrible in my life before. To possibly give you an accurate mental image of my lovely appearance, let's just say that I frightened myself, okay? I do believe that Heero wouldn't have taken it properly if I shot myself just because I didn't think the person in the mirror was really me. It was a little upsetting, though, that he wouldn't even remain in the same room as me for up to two minutes. Two simple, quick minutes would pass and he rushed out of the room so fast I thought he burned our breakfast or something. To be quite frank, I didn't know the guy could move so fast outside of a mission.
Don't worry...
I forgave him rather quickly as he gave me a small kiss on the cheek before he walked outside to go wait for me by his car.
Oh, his car...
It hurt to sit down!
Who the hell gets winded when climbing into a car? That's all I really want to know! How can a perfectly fit individual bend down to climb into a car and start panting just because of a little cold? A little, bloody, good-for-nothing, common house cold. A little, bloody, good-for-nothing, son of a bitch, whore of a house cold. A little—you get the point. I could go on for hours, my friend. Hours and hours, but alas... I won't if it'll make one of us happy.
Anyway... where was I?
I genuinely wanted him to point his gun and shoot me if it meant that my disorientation would ease up or just go the fuck away. Am I that lucky? By golly, no.
The brutal steps that nearly ruled me and made me their bitch are the ones leading up the school grounds towards the commons. The doors are the ones leading to the stairwell, which—by the way—looked quite unappealing as I managed to crawl through the door and saw all those bloody contraptions laid out in front of me. Granted, if they were just stairs leading down, I could have thrown myself down happily to get to my destination, but you can't throw yourself down stairs that go up.
Common sense, my friends. Common fucking sense on that one.
As soon as Heero parked in his assigned parking spot, he turned back into my little sweetheart momentarily and carried my backpack for me. Sweet, isn't he? Of course, one of the only reasons why he was being sweet was because I fell out of the passenger side of the car and my backpack followed because it had been propped up in my lap the whole time. Not to sound weak or anything, but Heero carried my stuff because I was too tired and in pain to push it off my chest.
The sweetness ending as soon as we entered through the front doors of the school building, him kindly opening the door for me after he watched me struggle with the handle for a couple of seconds too long. We had to separate from each other at that moment in our day because Heero, being Heero, likes to challenge himself with honor classes while I like the regular classes because I can sleep. He made sure I had my backpack safely on my shoulders, managed to steady my body so I didn't fall into a nearby trash can, and gave me a gentle shove towards the direction of my first class.
"... bye, Duo. Try to learn something today?"
From the lilt in his smooth voice, I could tell he was smiling in my general direction, but I was too confused to turn around and return the random act of kindness. If he really wanted me to see, he could have walked me to my first class like a good boyfriend should do, keeping me up on my feet so I didn't walk into a wall or bust my ass on some random obstacle.
"Ha, funny. I'll see you at lunch, 'ro."
And that was our separation. Breaking off of the trunk that is Love to climb on separate branches of the tree... going... Um. Yeah.
I'm confused now.
My head is so muddled with these pointless thoughts of me dancing on the cafeteria table. The image is so clear that I have to ask myself if it's just another memory instead of a pain-induced hallucination. I should ask Heero later, no? I haven't seen him around since we drove home, so he may be avoiding me because he's embarrassed or something. If I did dance on the table, then I wish I could have been there to see it because that would have been funny.
Okay, so I made it to first block in a decent condition. I managed to plant my ass in my desk before the late bell rang, and I even managed to take like... oh, let's say... one paragraph of about six of the notes we had to jot down for Marine Biology. Not bad, if I do say so myself. On the way to second block, I was a little afraid because I had a relapse and all my senses just clogged up so I couldn't breathe, my eyes were watering like nothing else, my ears needed to be popped. Fun, fun, fun!
The relapse turned into horrid sneezing which nearly sent me to my knees in random places of the school. I was halfway across the school, running late for my next class, and I just sneezed and practically flew right into a set of lockers. To be honest, I don't have a very attractive sneeze, if anybody's remotely curious about that. It isn't some soft, practically nonexistent sneeze like Quatre's, or the delicate noise that Heero lets out when he's close to a certain type of flowers that irks his nose. No... that would be too easy, and too cute. Mine's this horrible sound that has some people wincing from fear, almost like it's a damn gunshot or I'm some morbid individual verbally assaulting a police officer.
Hardly attractive at all, and draws so much attention to me at the same time. How worse could it get?
My limbs never want to work when I'm sick, so all day, I was trying to write stuff with my whole arm frozen on the surface of my desk. Frozen and in pain because I was trying to relax but, by the way, was failing miserably. My nose was running like a broken facet, distracting me away from lectures and bootleg history movies that took up my sleepy-sleepy time. When everything seemed to be in working order and I nearly dozed into a pleasurable sleep in my English class, my bitch of a teacher came over and planted her foot right in a place I didn't want it...
... on the leg of my desk, causing me to jerk awake and slam my head on said desk surface that my arm was frozen on when I was trying to write. Then I was sucked into delicate humiliation as the class laughed at my pain, some laughing even as class let out and we could go to the next block.
At lunch, I was so ecstatic to see Heero again, and he was waiting at our regular two-person table with his bag lunch spread out in front of him. Spread out in front of him in perfect, precise, alphabetized order, might I add. Yeah... he's got some little obsessive-compulsive quirks, so what? Who doesn't? There's something incredibly sexy about how he looked at me when I walked through the cafeteria door, a small smile gracing his beautiful features as he allowed his eyes to drift up and down my body...
"You have pen ink on your right cheek..."
Way to ruin the mood, Heero!
"... and toilet paper on your shoe."
Oh, God.
I didn't even go to the bathroom! Why was toilet paper laying in some random place of the school, and why did it choose to stick onto the bottom of my shoe? Why not Heero's? Why couldn't I have stomped into the cafeteria, my sickness momentarily pushed aside just so I could tell my lover that he had an embarrassingly long piece of toilet paper stuck to his heel? That would have made my horrible day so much better... Heero gains no pleasure from this...
... his smile told me otherwise, however.
A senior in high school, and Heero finds toilet paper on my shoe funny. How incredibly horrifying to know up close and personal how much this weird little kid grew up into... um... an even weirder, sexier young man. Something of that sort, at least.
When I sat down in front of Heero at our table, another bad thing happened when I realized how big the lunch line was and by the time I got some food, it would probably be time to go to the next class. That sure was a depressing bug gnawing at the confines of my sick mind. I wanted some food, dammit, and I sure as hell wasn't going to get my fix of ultra-greasy lunch food. Mm-mm. Such a shame.
"I'm hungry, Heero."
"You should have gotten here earlier."
"I'm sick! I'm walking like a damn slug, 'Ro. I can hardly pick my feet up, and those stairs wanted to keep me with them as company! They wanted me to sit my butt down just so they could have me as one of their own, and I almost stayed!"
Insert Heero's odd little exasperated look, one of his hands running across his alphabetical food items to push his sandwich out of the orderly line. See? There's that sweetness again. I bet you were thinking he was bad company and always acted like an ass, but not the case. He's so kind to me sometimes.
And he makes good sandwiches, which is one of the things I love about him. Heero's not the kind of person to like any condiments on his regular sandwiches, so I was graced with two pieces of bread, a slice of turkey, and some cheese for lunch. Then I was thirsty, so he gave me his bottle of water and told me to keep it as soon as I offered it back so he could have some. It was then that I was kindly reminded of my sickness in a very subtle manner via my gorgeous lover and his damn OCD-ness.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for when I slammed my head on someone's locker when I stood up from retrieving my fallen pen off the floor. That hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes and a headache to top off the sickness. What a wonderful day to have a cold, don't you think? What a wonderful day to be a clumsy American who wants to do anything but something, if you know what I mean.
So, as soon as the last bell rang, I had to drag my ass down two flights of steps, down a couple of hallways, and out into the parking lot. Heero, like always, was waiting for me when I got there, leaning against the passenger side of the car by the trunk, his backpack resting on the hood. As soon as he caught sight of me, he pushed himself off the car and opened the door for me, giving me another one of his odd little looks that I still can't manage to identify. How sweet... odd, but sweet.
When we got home, he took off his shirt in the hallway and trucked on down to the door leading to the basement. For some reason, he likes his shirts cleaned whenever he does something that requires natural, outside air. So... he does a lot of laundry even if no laundry is needed. As soon as he put his shirt into the washer and was back upstairs, he told me he needed to get a report written and typed out and disappeared into our bedroom.
And I almost followed him, I swear. I came so close to forcing my feet to move the small distance to our bedroom just so I could watch his fingers dance across the keyboard of his laptop, the soft clicking of the keys sending me into a not-quite-asleep state of dreaming. There's the thing, though, I couldn't force my feet to do anything but walk into the living room just so I could collapse onto the beaten-up couch. And... oh... it felt good to be smothered by the cushions under my body. It felt good up until I realized that with my mouth pressed against the cushions, I didn't have a reliable source of air, so I had to roll onto my side.
As soon as I was on my side and staring at the dark curtains around one of our windows, I think I must have fallen asleep because I don't quite remember how long I was staring at the window. I don't quite understand how much time passed before Heero went upstairs and then came back down, sitting himself down by my feet and offering me a small smile as soon as I looked away from the window and at him.
He shifted towards me until he was closer to my chest, his hand going across my hip to curve up onto my back. His damn smile was still in place as he leaned forward and pressed a small kiss to my shoulder, running his roaming hand up my back until he was giving me an oddly positioned, semi-hug thing that was an example of him being tender and loving. Damn fool pressed the softest kiss on the side of my neck, the tip of his tongue pressing against my heated flesh for a moment so I had time to question whether the heat was from him being so sexy or from my painful cold.
When he moved his face up to look right at me, leaning towards me with his intentions quite clear in his midnight blue eyes, I had to turn my face away because it made no sense to me. I mean, I woke up and he refused to give me the slightest kiss to show that he still thought I looked okay, even if I didn't. He could have lied even though he's not the kind of person to act like that. He could have made an attempt at making my day a little brighter, rather than keeping me in the gloom that is my sickness.
Oh, no... no, no, no.
I wouldn't give into him that easily even if he walked into the room with nothing on but a skin-tight tank top and leather shorts. Although...
Sorry. Mind drifted.
I needed a reason as to why he suddenly wanted to pay so much attention to me when he practically shunned me this morning for no apparent reason other than the fact that I was horrendously unattractive, even to myself. I needed a reason even though I wanted to roll onto my back and let him take care of me, placing his kisses on my neck and on my sore flesh because he wanted to. I wanted him to want it, not the other way around, but... why else would he risk his own health just to spend a little time with me?
"Heero, stop..."
He leaned away from me, that small smile still plastered on his face. His roaming hand settled on my cheek, his thumb tracing little patterns on my face like he tends to do when he's bored. Straddling my body, by the way. How could I possibly think about my being sick when he's sitting on top of me, doing the little quirks he does when he's bored and needs entertainment for himself? Why the heck would I stop that? Curse me and my damn need for information.
"Why?"
"You pushed me away earlier."
Heero leaned towards me again and tried to place a kiss on my lips but failed when I turned my head and he ended up placing another soft kiss on my cheek. He sighed and placed his head on my chest, his eyes turned towards the window that had sent me into a brief catnap. His hand remained up my my face, three of his fingers twiddling a strand of my bangs... just for the heck of it, I suppose.
"Sorry about that."
The rumble of his voice against my skin brought a little laugh from my sore throat, but I still wanted a decent answer out of him. Nobody can just dance around me, especially when I'm sick, without giving me an answer that suits my needs. And Heero definitely doesn't want to make me upset because he refrained from saying anything at all.
"You're sorry?"
He nodded against me, apparently still watching the window.
What can I say? It's a lovely window we've got... nice curtains.
"Very much so, Duo."
I seriously thought that if he didn't give me a good answer soon enough, I would have dumped him right off the couch to get his heat off of me. I was burning up from being sick, but he was adding to the discomfort by planting his gorgeous self right on top of me. He could have sat in the chair, or on the floor, or on the coffee table. No, he has to be difficult and plop right on top of me so that I catch on fire because of the combined heat.
"You pushed me away earlier, refused to drink after me, and told me I had toilet paper on my shoe. Why should I let you kiss me when all you really wanted to do was avoid the risk of catching something?"
He rubbed his cheek against the fabric of my shirt, one of his fingers moving down to trace the curve of my nose. Done with his physical foreplay, he planted both of his hands on either side of my head and pushed himself up so he could look at me again. As soon as his beautiful eyes met mine, I noticed something that I had obviously ignored when he first looked at me after my nap.
Just a slight cloud in his normally clear eyes...
Just a little sniffle...
Just a tiny glitch in his smooth voice...
Or, maybe I noticed because he told me.
"I feel kind of sick."