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Fauna hums. Her headache hasn’t lessen since this morning, only getting worse as the day approached noon. She opted for tea, but it would be her fifth cup for that hour, unable to let herself take a sip more, to make herself take more than that. She retreats from her office, hoping to have done something to work on some deadlines, but the pounding in her head makes it impossible to do so.
Was it the heat? It was the peak of summer, and the AC was on, so it couldn’t have been that. Was it sleep? No, she miraculously had a good night’s rest the night before, so it couldn’t have been that. Was something happening in Earth? Fauna hums.
No no, it can’t be that. Sana’s destroyed the Earth multiple times now, and Fauna’s more than okay during those. She’s even rebuilt it to its, now former, glory. So it couldn’t have been that. She slumps as she makes her way to the kitchen, preparing herself a glass of water. She doesn’t even notice Mumei greet her, or Kronii reach for a glass in the higher cupboard beside her. She’s focusing on being okay, too much so that she accidentally steps on Kronii’s foot and stumbles.
She yelps, and Kronii catches her waist just in time, with Mumei immediately jogging their way. Fauna groans at the way that stumble shook her head, opting to just lean on Kronii for a moment. Her furrowed brows worried them both, sharing a glance before deciding that Fauna needed some rest.
Kronii leans onto her ear, whispering gently, “Fauna, I’m going to carry you okay? Is that going to shake you up too much?” Fauna barely registers that she was being talked to, and faintly shakes her head.
“I can handle it.” She takes a deep breath, and with Mumei’s help, Kronii has her in her arms without hurting her any further. They make their way back to Fauna’s room, and Kronii whispers again, “I’ll put you down now, yeah?” Fauna nods, her face half buried into the crook of Kronii’s neck and shoulder. She feels the softness of her sheets and pillows, and Kronii’s hand on her forehead.
“You don’t have a fever…” She hears her mumble. She smiles a little, a bit strained and weak, but a smile nonetheless.
“Just a headache. Where’s Mumei?”
“Here! Here.” She winces at the shout, the second half a loud whisper instead. She gets handed some tablets and a glass of water. Fauna pursed her lips. She didn’t want to take any medicine for as long as possible.
“Please, Fauna?” Mumei whispers to her. She isn’t convinced.
“We’ll cuddle with you until your headache’s gone?” Kronii negotiates. Fauna contemplates.
“You’ll cuddle with me either way.” A scoff—more like a playful sigh, a mix of the two—and a giggle.
“She’s not wrong, Kronii.” Mumei’s quick to switch sides.
“Wh-” Kronii looks at her incredulously. Mumei simply smiles, before looking back at Fauna with a more pleading look.
“Uuu. Fine.” It’s hard to refuse her when she looks like that. She takes the medicine, struggling a bit as it stuck to the roof of her mouth, gagging at the indescribably bitter taste stuck in her mouth after she manages to drink it.
“Ahk-” She doesn’t like it at all. Kronii merely laughs, soft and gentle as she helps her lay down again, Mumei shuffling next to her. Fauna last remembers soft hums and blueberry perfume as she falls asleep.
“I’m back!” Mumei shouts from the front door as she struggles with Animal for a bit longer. Fauna welcomes her as she walks from the dining room, only to gasp as she sees Mumei look disheveled, scratches and dirt covered her from head to toe—was that a leaf in her hair?? Her usual bright smile freezes Fauna in place before rushing to her in worry.
“What happened?” Fauna wipes her thumb across her face, and Mumei winces as she accidentally glides over a scratch. Fauna’s hand ghosts over her face more gently.
“Animal dragged me around more than expected.” Mumei grins. Kronii walks from the living room, wondering about what was going on, only to still as she sees Mumei. Her brows furrow as she walks to them, picking off the leaf stuck in her hair.
“Oh! I didn’t know that was there.”
“You look like you have more things to worry about.” Kronii’s nose scrunches, and her spare towel that hung loosely over shoulder was now being used to wipe some dirt off more effectively. Mumei’s eye closes as her cheek is squished in Kronii’s attempts of cleaning her up. She pushes her off with a pout, a look, and Kronii just laughs.
“Follow me? I’ll wash your hair for you.” Fauna says, and the two perk up at that.
“Can you wash mine too?” Kronii asks as they go to the bathroom. Fauna simply giggles, and shakes her head. The taller one whines while Mumei sticks her tongue out in victory. Kronii playfully leans in, and Mumei shrieks as her face turns red. Fauna just shakes her head at their antics, smiling fondly.
Fauna was preparing a bath just before Mumei came home so the bathtub was full and ready. Mumei shuffles out of her clothes, a bit impatient as she just wanted to jump into the bath. Her shirt gets stuck around her head, and she wiggles in place. She yelps as Kronii’s cold hands make contact with her waist, trying to stabilize her.
“Woah woah, calm down. You almost hit the cabinet.” Kronii helps her out of her shirt, and Mumei sighs, finally submerging herself in the warm bath. Mumei watches as Kronii fixes up her clothes, putting them in the basket, then rummaging the cabinet for some shampoo.
“Mumei? Let me clean your wounds first, then we can start washing your hair.” Fauna’s voice was a blur, she almost fell asleep in the tub, its warmth enveloping her nicely after such a rough walk with Animal.
“Mmh?” Her voice barely a whisper as Kronii helps her up the bath.
“Can you tell me where the scratches are, baby?” The nickname wakes her up, and she blinks owlishly at her before nodding.
“I think only my face was scratched, really. My arms and legs were covered by my clothes.” Fauna cups her cheeks gently, as she examined the shallow cuts that made its way to her face. She takes cotton in tweezers and adds some ointment on them.
“This might sting a little.” She sucks in a breath, gripping Kronii’s offered hand as Fauna dabs her gently. They get through cleaning her wounds more properly, now starting to wash her hair.
Fauna starts scratching her scalp, and Mumei simply melts at the touch. Kronii cleans through the rest of her hair, combing through the tangles with her fingers. Mumei feels as though she could fall asleep right there, in their care. But she wanted to feel every bit of it, every second of what they were doing. She didn’t want to waste a moment.
They wash her hair off, not realizing that Mumei had truly fallen asleep. Once they did, they simply shared a glance and smiled, rinsing off the brunette’s hair carefully, trying not to wash the soap suds onto her face and wounds, trying not to wash off the ointment. Kronii pulls her out of the tub, and Fauna works on drying her with a towel after finally placing band-aids on Mumei’s shallow scratches. Mumei’s eyes flutter open as they tried to put a shirt on her, the two smiling sheepishly as Mumei blinked sleep away, staring and trying to process what was going on.
“Meimei?” Fauna kisses her cheek, and a rumble erupts from her throat, a content hum as she wore the shirt more properly. She was still sleepy, unable to keep her eyes open after all that. The last she remembers are soft giggles and forehead kisses before she drifted into slumber.
Kronii rarely gets sick. No sir. Never. Not once, no matter what Sana nor Bae tells you. They would tell you about how she was very sickly in high school, and Kronii would just scoff, saying that no, that’s impossible. She had the most perfect immune system.
Mumei and Fauna knew otherwise.
Currently, Kronii was bundled up in blankets, sweating as she sniffles, burying herself further into her pillow. She coughs, all watery yet hoarse, and she grumbles. She needs to get up. They must be waiting at the table. She wills herself to get up, only for her room’s door open. Fauna looked at her worriedly.
“Why didn’t you knock?” Her voice was barely present, strained as it scratched her throat into a cough. Fauna rushed to her to rub her back, frowning a little as she puts the back of her hand against her forehead, flinching away at the temperature. Her frown deepens.
“I did. You weren’t answering so I got worried.” Fauna wanted to make her lay down, and rest some more, but she adamantly refuses, whining as she tries to fight back. She ends up sitting up, sniffling as she coughs into her hands.
“I’m fine. I can go down to eat.” Kronii removes her covers, only to shiver as the frankly warm afternoon air waft against her exposed skin. She was wearing pajamas, but the air sneaked in wherever it could. She wraps the blanket around herself tighter, a change of heart. Fauna would’ve laughed if not for her poor state as of right now.
“Wait here, I’ll go get Mumei to cook a quick soup, while I get some medicine for you, okay? I’ll be back.” Fauna gets up as she sees Kronii nod, and goes to Mumei who was waiting at the table, swaying her feet.
“Mumei? Can you cook up some soup really quickly? Maybe some tea too.” Mumei perks up at that, but tilts her head in question as she stood.
“What for? Is Kronii okay?” Fauna just shakes her head.
“I need to look for some medicine, and run to a pharmacy just in case, but can you do that please?” Mumei nods, and Fauna kisses her a bit before rushing to their cupboard to check for some appropriate medicine. She shuffles around, checking packs after packs, bottle after bottle, and she hears Mumei prepare some food.
“Not this… Not this one either…This one’s expired..is it? Yeah…” Fauna mumbles as she puts aside tablet after tablet.
“I’ll go and bring her some water, Fauna? I’ll go back to the kitchen in a bit.” Fauna nods absentmindedly, as she finally finds the right pack, keeping a mental note to clean it out more properly soon. She goes to the kitchen, watching as the soup and tea prepares to boil and steep.
“Kronii?” Mumei knocks on the door, and Kronii could only weakly grumble. She sits up a bit, with Mumei helping her up for most of it. The brunette hands her some water and she graciously drinks it, the crisp feeling soothing her throat better than before, now less dry and parched. She finishes a third of the bottle when she puts it down, and she sighs. Fauna arrives, with a tray of a bowl and a thermos. Kronii leans back onto the wall, cushioning herself with the rest of her pillows. She sniffles, vaguely sensing the smell of tea. Ginger.
Mumei takes the thermos, and hands it to her insistently. She just laughs, strained and weak, but takes it anyway.
“Maybe we should’ve prepared porridge instead.” Fauna smiles sheepishly, and Mumei just shrugs.
“No no, I’ll eat the soup. Drink? the soup? I don’t know.” Kronii’s energy was slowly returning to her, as she reaches for the spoon. Mumei swats it away, and she whines. Mumei reaches for it, and takes a spoonful, blowing on it gently before gesturing Kronii to open her mouth.
“Aah.” The spoon touches her lips a bit and she flinches, and Mumei pulls it back slightly.
“Is it still too warm?” She blows on it more, and Kronii feels warmer than when she had her blanket around her earlier. She gestures it to her again, and She can’t refuse her as she opens her mouth to accept the spoonful of soup. It was cooled down just enough for it to still be warm down her throat and she sighs. She finishes the soup while trying to take the spoon from Mumei who only adamantly refused, occasionally handing it to Fauna to feed her instead. Kronii was flushed more so from a different reason now.
She takes the tablets quickly, it was a bit difficult to swallow, her throat contracting painfully around the tablet that almost makes her choke and cough. She drowns it out with more water and tea, and she breathes a little better. She sniffles still, and Fauna kisses her on the forehead for such a good job. Yeah! She did a good job. Definitely.
She ends up lying down again, and she blearily sees them shuffle around the room, fixing up the bottles, the bowl, and Kronii’s blanket. As they return, Kronii’s already asleep, a lot more peaceful than when Fauna first entered the room. She sighs, worry finally seeping through and dissipating.
“Can you get some face masks Mumei? We might have to stay here for a bit to watch over her.” MUmei salutes her playfully before running to go find some. Kronii stirs, and her eyes open a little.
“Go back to sleep, dear.” Fauna’s fingers brush through Kronii’s bangs, and Kronii simply leans into her touch.
“Will you stay?” She sounded so small, so vulnerable, and Fauna’s heart aches.
“Mumei and I will. She’s getting us face masks right now. We can’t risk all of us getting sick.” She brushes more of her hair until she looks positively drowsy, and drifted into slumber once again. Mumei arrives with an extra face mask, already wearing one. She helps Fauna with wearing it, and they both sit back around the foot of Kronii’s bed.
“I want to cuddle her right now.”
“You’re gonna get sick, Mumei.” Even Fauna wanted to.
“But Fauna..”
“Kronii wouldn’t want us to catch her cold now, would she?” Mumei pouts as she leans on Fauna’s shoulder, hugging her arm instead.
“You can sleep, I’ll wake you up if we need to check on her again.” A soft hum was her only answer. Fauna watches the two of them and as her eyelids feel heavier, the last she remembers are peaceful breaths and a weight on her shoulder that sits just right.