〄Hᴀʟғ-Bʟᴏᴏᴅs' Lᴇɢᴀᴄʏ〄 [Ch. 4 Up!]

[Tinkpetz]

Yay!! That was so great and adorable! Your romance is just fine, idk what you're talking about.

[scmarshtacky]

I'm glad you think so.

[scmarshtacky]

Chapter 26 – Fighting the Flu

Mika slept extremely poorly that night. She couldn’t breathe through her nose, and her mouth got so dry she couldn’t even think about getting comfortable. She was constantly switching from feverishly hot to ice cold. When she had the covers on, she was too hot, and without them she seemed to freeze. The couple of times that she did manage to get into a light doze, she was woken up by a fit of coughs.

By the time the sun started to peak over the horizon, Mika felt like she might as well just crawl under a rock and die. She felt that awful. Nonetheless, when her alarm sounded at 8:00, she hauled herself to her feet, and went into the bathroom to clean up.

After fixing up her appearance as best she could, she headed down the stairs. Her eyes first went to the couch which was already vacated, and then she scanned the lower floor of the apartment. Kaito was already at the stove making tea.

“Kaito I –” she stopped suddenly upon realizing how scratchy and hoarse her voice was after the night. “I can do it,” she repeated after clearing her throat a couple of times, making an honest effort to talk normally.

“The smell of sickness is all over you,” he stated simply without turning around. “You cook every day. I can do it at least once. Here, drink this.” He turned from the stove and set a cup of tea on the table in front of Mika.

She picked it up, letting the warmth from the glass flow into her hands. “Thanks,” she said gratefully before taking a sip. “Oishii (Yummy). Did you put honey in it?” She asked taking another sip of the deliciously sweet liquid.

“I’m glad it tastes okay.” His eyes softened as he watched her sip down the tea. “I think I read somewhere that people put honey in tea to help sooth a sore throat, or something like that.”

“They do,” she said with a little chuckle. “My grandma used to always put honey in my tea when I was sick. Did your mom not?”

“Ah...no.” His shoulders tensed unconsciously as he spoke, and for a moment it seemed as if he would go on, but instead he sat down and grabbed his own cup of tea. “It isn’t nearly as good...” he muttered to himself.

“Did you say something?” Mika asked looking up from her cup.

“Not a thing,” he replied. “I only made tea, but if you want soup or something I could probably handle that,” he said after a moment.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m honestly not hungry at all.”

Kaito studied her for a moment. “Fine then, just tell me when you are. Even I should be able to heat up a couple of cans of soup or cups of ramen.”

“I know you could,” she answered with a smile. After Mika had drained two cups of tea, she lay out on the couch and mindlessly watched TV while Kaito headed upstairs to get a shower. He came back down about fifteen minutes later.

“I’m heading out for a while,” he announced. “Just try lay low and get some sleep. I know you got none last night.”

“Oh... okay.” Mika was dying to know where exactly it was he was going, but she knew that he’d probably just cut her off and change the subject. “Itterashai (See you later),” she said as he headed out of the door.

He nodded once in acceptance of her words, and let the door close behind him.

Mika lay back down on the couch and was actually able to successfully doze off for a couple of hours. She woke up still drowsy, but feeling much better. Despite her better instincts to stay in the apartment, she dressed and headed back down the road to her house to continue the cleaning.

The first thing she did when she walked into the house was open all of the windows. Although the smell had definitely improved, it was still strong enough to give one a headache after a while. Then she grabbed a fresh trash bag to start on the living room once more.

It didn’t take long to clean up the remainder of the trash on the floor. Then, she began on the couch, and finally moved onto the table. She was in the middle of sweeping everything on the table into a bag when she noticed a small slip of paper. Curious, she picked it up to find only two words on it:

I’m sorry.

Mika looked over the words time and time again, but the more she did, the angrier she got. You’re ‘Sorry’? You nearly kill me and that’s the only thing you have to say for yourself?! She crumpled up the paper in the palm of her hand and threw it into the trash.

In another hour, all of the larger trash was successfully crammed within three large bags, and the vacuum cleaner bag was very nearly about to bust. Mika took it out, and carefully wrapped it within a smaller shopping bag.

After surveying the lower floor of the house and deciding that was the majority of trash, she began to drag the bags outside. They were incredibly heavy with the large amounts of glass, and it seemed to take forever for her to move them out to the street where the garbage men would pick them up.

Mika left most of the windows cracked, turned off the air conditioner, and then locked the house back before heading back down the street. It was around three in the afternoon, and due to the humid weather and heat, clouds were quickly building on the horizon. Mika started off as fast as her legs would carry her, but even so, it had begun to rain halfway down the road.

The first thing Mika wanted to do when she got back to the apartment was collapse, but she trudged up the stairs and grabbed a towel to dry herself off with. It wasn’t until she had opened the closet and seen the rags and Clorox that she remembered today was Saturday, the day she always cleaned up as a payment for allowing her to freeload in Kaito’s home.

After spending several minutes rallying herself, Mika headed over to the sink and began to clean up the counter in the kitchen. Then she moved on to cleaning dishes from the morning and the table. Before she began to vacuum, she grabbed a cold wash cloth and ran it over her now hot face several times. She wrapped it around her neck, and then proceeded to vacuum the floors.

With her leaden body, and growing headache, it took her forever to finally finish. She was in the middle of wrapping the power cord, when the door opened, and Kaito stepped through it. “What are you...” he began as he saw her.

Mika quickly stood up to welcome him back, but as she jumped up, her head spun and she had to grab the vacuum cleaner for balance.

“Have you been doing this all day?” he asked scrutinizing her.

“No, not all day. I didn’t start until after noon...”

“And then you walked home in the rain,” he added.

Mika looked down, not wanting to meet his gaze. She bent down and finished wrapping the cord, and then began rolling it back toward the closet.

“Leave it,” Kaito said from behind her. “I’ll get it later.” Mika opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced her with a sharp look. Then he took something out of a bag that Mika hadn’t even noticed he was carrying until now. “Here, I think this stuff’s supposed to help,” he said tossing a bottle in Mika’s direction.

She just barely caught it, and turned it over to look at the label. “Cold medicine?” she asked. “Surely that’s not where you’ve been all day?”

“Of course not,” he answered indignantly. “I just happened to pass by a pharmacy and thought I might as well grab some while I was there.”

“Thanks,” Mika smiled and poured herself a serving of the medicine. He had gotten the ‘night’ type, so Mika took a shower and put on her sleeping gown, even though it was only six in the evening. Kaito offered her food once more before she went to bed, but she rejected it saying she still wasn’t hungry at all.

“Mika if you eat nothing, you’re probably never going to feel better,” he said as he sat on the edge of the bed watching her crawl into it.

“I know... but I just feel like if I eat, it’s all going to come up again.” She settled herself on her side and gazed up at him.

Kaito sighed and then smiled at her fondly. “Well fine then. Just call me if you need anything.” With that, he stood and closed the door softly behind him.

“Thanks,” Mika whispered once more at the now closed door. She rolled over, closed her eyes, and for the first time, slept fairly well for several long hours.

When Mika did wake up, it was early in the morning. She opened her eyes slowly at first, and then realized what it was that woke her up. Her stomach seemed to flip, and she gagged as a wave of nausea washed over her.

Mika swiftly ran into the bathroom, and after fumbling with the light switch and closing the door behind her, ran over to the toilet. After emptying her already empty stomach, she ran a cold cloth over her face, and sat back against the wall, letting the cool tile floor chill her.

“Mika?” a soft voice sounded from the closed door accompanied by an even softer knock. “You okay?”

“I’m f-fine.” Her body was still shaking slightly from her bout of sickness, and her voice only seemed to amplify her trembling. Mika could almost imagine Kaito’s frown as he realized she clearly wasn’t okay, and tried the locked door. Mika hadn’t remembered actually locking it, but her mind had been on other things at the time.

“I’m coming in,” Kaito announced, and to Mika’s amazement, the door knob started to spark with electricity. The lock slowly turned until it clicked into place, and Kaito stepped into the light of the bathroom. His eyes immediately locked on Mika.

He sat down beside her, and her heart seemed to flutter in her chest as his fingertips brushed over her cheek. “Well, at least it seems your fever has gone down a bit.”

“Y-yeah,” she stuttered. Although she was beginning to feel feverish again, she decided it was caused more by his presence than actual sickness. Mika closed her eyes for a while, and soon, the nausea faded. Very slowly, Mika moved closer to Kaito and laid her head on his shoulder.

He accepted her touch with a soft gaze in her direction, and wrapped his arm around her waist. Mika wasn’t sure how long she stayed there with him, because shortly after relaxing, she fell back to sleep. When Mika woke up the next morning, she was back in the bed, with the sheets pulled up around her.

She shot up, and looked around the room to find Kaito sitting on the windowsill reading a newspaper.

“You’re awake I see,” he commented, tossing the newspaper on the bed.

“What were you reading?” she asked as she picked it up. She scanned over the first page. In bold letters it stated: String of Murder s Stop Suddenly: Police are Clueless. After several moments of simply staring at this, Mika finally said, “So... about where you went yesterday... Did it have anything to do with this?”

Kaito only smiled down at her as he stood and announced he was making morning tea. He shut the door to the bedroom behind him as he went. She sure catches on quick doesn’t she?

Mika scanned over the main passage and learned that this particular serial killer had been at large for less than a week, but in that time, more than ten bodies of various people had turned up, beaten, and slashed. The police seemed to believe that they died of blood loss from the deep cuts they recieved. The killer left no evidence behind, and the police had been busting their butts trying to find any leads but to no avail. The fact that the killer seemed to simply have vanished was obviously very disturbing to them.

“Are you still reading that?”

Mika jumped at the sudden noise. “Of course,” she stated, quickly recovering. “As an inhabitant of this area, I like to keep up with the news.”

Kaito shrugged, and handed her the cup of tea which she sipped on gratefully. “Are you planning on eating today? You seem to be feeling a bit better.”

She hadn’t really thought about it until now, but she really did feel infinitely better than she had the greater part of yesterday. “I am feeling a lot better, and I think I wouldn’t mind making a bit of rice in a little while.”

So, in another thirty minutes, Mika and Kaito had settled themselves at the table to enjoy a light breakfast and another day of their quickly ending summer.


A/N~ I think it's ironic that this chapter happened to fall here after the Christmas special, but I want to remind everyone that this was written nearly half a year ago. Enjoy~


<==Chapter 25

Chapter 27==>

[Muse.]

-rolls around on floor-

I went to my bookmarks, saw this, and read it right away. Boredom cured for a little bit! xD

Can't wait until the next one~

[scmarshtacky]

The next chapter will be fun. I get to start the new arc that I think you all will enjoy.

[kingbellamy]

I am also sick, not with the flu, but if was interesting to read. Good chapter!

[scmarshtacky]

It would've been very ironic if you had the flu. Hope you feel better soon. ^^

[Muse.]

o: Really? -can't wait-

I'm sick right now too. |: Cold symptoms, and then sick to my stomach a bit. Sucks.

[scmarshtacky]

Everytime I get a cold, someone or something close to me dies... It's really freaky and kind of scary, and that has been going on for about four years.

[~Erratic~]

Everytime I get a cold, someone or something close to me dies... It's really freaky and kind of scary, and that has been going on for about four years.

^She ain't lying. When she gets sick, its a warning. ._.