58Alright, so since you guys asked (I wasn't expecting that much feedback for a 'dead' fic), here's the rest of the story! Enjoy!
Sick Day II
Ding dong~
Lightning heard the faint ringing of the bells from downstairs. Someone was at the door..
"Lumina, take care of HJ while I'm gone. I need to go down to see who it is."
"Alright mom." She felt her cheek being smooched before hearing the door creak open and close behind her. Now, it was just her and HJ.
Her emerald eyes were fixated on the sick boy lying in bed in front of her. She inched herself much closer towards the bed frame, leaning her body against the wall adjacent to the bed. The sight of her silver-haired brother sleeping peacefully felt almost cathartic. She brushed the wet strands of his silver hair covering his closed eyes. His breath felt hot to her skin, no doubt the fever was still burning up his insides…
She leaned her head against the edge of his pillow, feeling the warmth of his head radiate towards her.
HJ's eyelids slowly began to flutter open, revealing a pair of blue orbs looking distraught and disoriented. Her emerald eyes stared back, peering into his little blue ones.
"M.. mom?"
Lumina felt a giggle bubbling from her lips. She gently lowered the mask from her face, revealing the smile that had been hidden all this time.
"No dummy," she giggled, "It's me, Lumina."
"M-mom? Mom?"
He must've been too disoriented from the fever. It didn't seem like he'd heard her, and he was clearly confused and scared. He seemed to toss and turn as he tried to get up from the bed.
"Shh~ It's okay HJ. I'm here, big sis is here."
She placed a kiss on his forehead, hoping that it would calm his disoriented mind. By this point, she'd forgotten about the whole protective measure that was her mask as it lay hanging there on her neck.
HJ's soft whimpers seemed to die down once Lumina continued to stroke his hair. "Shh~ It's alright HJ. Mom's downstairs.. okay?"
Eventually, his blue eyes finally locked on to hers, their previous look of disorientation and confusion slowly disappearing, instead replaced by a look of curiosity.
"L-Lumina?" he squeaked through his hoarse and feverish voice, "W-When did you get here?"
"Over an hour ago," she giggled as she shook her head. She took off the towel covering his eyes before putting it back into the basin of water to soak.
"Oh.. I.. I didn't notice." Each word that came out of his mouth sounded as coarse as sandpaper. "W-where's mom?"
"I told you she was downstairs silly," she sighed as she wringed the towel from the basin, putting it back on his forehead.
She could see his blue eyes staring back at her as she brushed away the wet strands of his hair starting to cover his eyes. She gave him a gentle smile in return. "Go back to sleep HJ, you need to rest."
"But... I'm... not.." His words seemed to come out slowly, and before long Lumina could already hear the gentle snores emanating from him.
-Sleepy… "You totally are..," she whispered with a smug smile.
She leaned back down onto the side of the pillow, bringing her forehead to touch his.
"You always looks so cute when you're asleep.." she whispered to herself as she ran her delicate fingers through his damp hair.
She was starting to wonder where mom had gone. It felt like she'd been gone for an hour or something..
Her emerald eyes met the sight of the digital thermometer on the dresser right in front of HJ's bed. The rose-haired girl got up to her feet before taking the electronic thermometer into her hands.
She lifted the edges of the towel on HJ's neck before aiming the straight little line of red-light onto it. She pressed the trigger..
Beep beep beep beep~
"Thirty-eight point nine.." It was an improvement, but still high. Hopefully he'd be in the low thirty-eights by the end of the day..
Time seemed to past almost seamlessly in that room - or maybe that was just the boredom of taking care of HJ with nothing much to do other than sponging and keeping an eye on him.
She finally took off the mask that'd been dangling from her neck for quite some time now, tossing it aside to some corner of the room. Ah, that felt much better without that string irritating her neck.. She slouched back into the side of the bed, boredom quickly taking its toll on her.
"Co..Cold.."
His hoarse voice cutting through the silence had put her into attention, lighting up her bored eyes. Lumina could notice that he was shivering, even though he was already wrapped up in his blanket.
"Cold…" he whimpered again.
She inched her face closer to his. "HJ, you're cold?"
His eyes barely opened for a few seconds as he nodded his head. "C-c-cold.." he chattered through his teeth as his hands went to huddle his knees closer to his chest.
Well, she couldn't take off the towels from him or that would just prevent his temperature from going down, and it wasn't like they had any blankets to wrap over him…
"I'm.. c-cold.. Please…"
"Umm.."
She looked around, trying to find a solution to solve HJ's coldness when suddenly an idea came to mind.
"Ah, I know!"
She lifted the blanket, slowly climbing up onto the bed. HJ didn't seem to mind in the slightest that she was starting to take up some space in the bed. She huddled up beside him as she draped the blankets over herself.
After wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and back, Lumina gently pulled HJ closer until he was snuggled up close to her chest. She could feel his silver hair tickling her nose and his high body heat beginning to warm her own body. Her mom would do this to her once in a while whenever she'd gotten down with the cold - much to her dad's protests about getting infected of course.
"Are you warm now HJ?" she spoke into his thick bunch of silver hair.
"Y-yea…" he said weakly as he snuggled up further into the folds of his sister's pink hoodie.
He looked just like he did back when he crawled up into her bed when he had a nightmare all those months ago…
His chattering and shivering had slowed down to a halt. She ran her fingers through his silver hair, soothing him into a deep sleep so that he could rest much more easily.
She brushed up his hair, placing a kiss on a spot on his forehead which hadn't been covered by the wet towel.
Before long, her eyes were starting to feel heavy as well. Mom still wasn't back from wherever the heck she'd gone off to.. so perhaps she wouldn't mind if she took a little nap. She was taking care of HJ in a way…
She heard his muffled whimpers coming from below her. He must've been having a fever dream. Ugh, she always hated having those nightmarish sort of dreams…
"Shh~ HJ, it's okay. Big sis is here…"
This was.. comfortable, and the sound of his soft breathing was lulling her to sleep.. She could just snooze off right here...
Zzz..
"So Lumina's taking care of HJ right now?"
"Mhmm, should be in there sponging and keeping an eye on his temperature."
"Aww," she cooed, "That's so sweet of her!"
As they reached the end of the hallway, Lightning pressed down on the door handle, slowly opening the bedroom door. She'd expected to see Lumina sponging HJ or even just slumping down next to the bed in boredom. But what she saw was entirely out of her field of imagination...
"Oh my god!" She could hear Serah squealing like a little girl. "They're so cuuute!"
Serah's eyes were practically sparkling and her heart felt like fluttering at the oh-so adorable sight. Lumina was snuggled up with her little brother, hugging him so tightly in her sleep that she looked like she was starting to smother him. Oh the cuteness!
"If only Austin and Rosa were like this.."
On the other hand, Lightning didn't mean this when she told her little sister that Lumina was taking care of HJ. Heck, this was entirely the opposite of what Lumina was supposed to be doing! She was going to get sick at this rate!
"Dammit, I need to wake her up before she gets infected.." she sighed as she shook her head in a mixed feeling of frustration and surprise.
Before she could step into the room, she felt her sister's hand lightly gripping her shoulder. "C'mon sis, I think we should just leave them like this, dontcha think?"
"But-"
"Sis, it'll be fine. I'm sure of it," Serah said trying to convince her older sister. It didn't help that she was putting on that big, googly-eyed look to persuade her… "And don't you think they look so adorable like that?"
"Pfft.. You're not the one that has to take care of her when she gets sick…" And no doubt she would.
"But.." The elder rosette's eyes took another glance at the display in front of her. Her son looked so peaceful snuggling up with his sister in their shared blanket, and Lumina seemed to be just as comfortable. Heck, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to let them be..
Lightning let out a sigh of defeat as she crossed her arms. "Fine.. I guess I'll leave them like this.."
"I knew you'd come around! Now c'mon, let's go make some porridge for HJ."
"It'll be for the both of them once Lumina eventually gets infected..." Lightning sighed as she shook her head. But what could she do? It wasn't everyday that her daughter would show this much care to her little brother. Well, she could let it pass for now..
…..
"Ughh.. mom~"
Now, she was spoon feeding porridge to two mouths rather than one. She knew this would happen. Just her luck that her compassion would end up getting her daughter sick. I'm getting too soft..
"That's what happens when you take off your mask and sleep with your sick little brother.." Lightning chided as she wiped the bits of porridge lining her pink-haired daughter's lips.
She turned her head towards her little sister feeding HJ some porridge as the boy sat quietly on the bed beside Lumina. That apologetic and sheepish smile on Serah's lips was evidence enough for her to know that she too realised how much this had backfired on them.
Lightning sighed as she scooped another spoonful of hot porridge before glaring daggers at her little sister. "I shouldn't have listened to you.."
"Heheh.. sorry sis," she squeaked as she continued to feed HJ more porridge.
"So does that mean I don't have to go to school tomorrow?" the little rosette suddenly spoke up with a raspy voice.
Lightning felt like banging her head against the wall. Instead of one, she had two sick children to take care of. "Yes..," she sighed, "That means you don't have to go to school tomorrow.."
"Yay!" Lumina hadn't lost her energy just yet, especially when she'd just raised her hands in celebration of her exemption from school for tomorrow.
HJ, with his scruffy hair and reddened face, perked up when he heard that. "Lumina's not gonna go to school tomorrow?"
"But.." Lightning spoke up with a new-founded sternness to her voice. That 'but' cut through the Lumina's joyful glee like a hot knife through butter. "If you get better by tonight, then you'll still be going to school tomorrow.."
"What?! Noooo~" Lumina's face scrunched at the thought of having to go back to that dreaded place. "But I don't wanna go to school mom~"
"Lumina.."
As the two rosettes continued to have their back and forth on the prospects of the younger one going to school, Serah giggled to herself. Dejà vu.. It was like seeing mom and her big sister back during her childhood right in front of her eyes. She let out a content chuckle from her lips. Who'd have known that things would turn out this way for the both of them.
That's all folks! In the foreseeable future, I may continue the story with HJ and Lumina and their antics with the XIII gang. So who knows, a new chapter might pop up soon. As for now, see ya later!
