MPC 52C: First Global Sick Day

MPC Name: First Global Sick Day

MPC Number: 52C

Reward: Posts

Leith thought he knew that something was a little off when he'd gone to bed, but he didn't think much of it. He attributed the sort of bloated, gaseous feeling in his stomach to nerves as he lay down. It was a reasonable assumption, after all; Leith had been very nervous very often lately, and that was a common physical manifestation of his anxiety. What the young man hadn't considered was that perhaps eating pizza after it had been sitting in a fridge during a 24-hour power outage might have been a bad idea. He didn't know it yet, but he was definitely feeling the effects.

Leith wouldn't learn just what was happening, though, until heavy breathing woke him up around 1:30 in the morning. To his credit, Leith knew what was going on as soon as he jolted awake; it wasn't his first stomach bug. This was the first time Leith felt the need to cover his mouth, though. Why? Because this was the first time Leith's body had attempted to force him to vomit while he had a room mate. That presented a quandary, though: Leith had only seconds to get out the door and reach the bathroom just down the hall, but he also wanted to do it without waking the little guy he'd given his sleeping bag and a space on the floor to - a space in front of the door no less. Maybe there wasn't much time to think, but that didn't stop Leith from trying to plan a route without waking his room mate. Alright: over Veemon, out the door, run down the hall, shut the door to block the noise - oh, wait, I need to shut the bedroom door in case someone comes by and sees him!

Too bad Leith didn't actually have time for such a meticulous plan. He was losing precious seconds, and he could feel it in his stomach. So Leith had the good sense to prioritize reaching the toilet; stealth and security would have to be secondary. Alright, fuck it, was how he motivated himself to get his bare feet on the ground, open the door as little and quietly as he could, tread lightly on his way to the bathroom after tiptoeing over Veemon and slipping down the hallway. It was tied by the time he reached the bathroom, but his time was so short he didn't have a chance to close either door before he knelt by the toilet, as at that point he had reached the point of no return.

From there, it wasn't pretty.

Only after rinsing his mouth out north of ten times was Leith finally able to weakly limp back to his room. From outside, though, he could see something concerning: Veemon was not asleep in his spot on the floor in front of the door. Oh, that's not good... Leith had his apology prepared as soon as he walked through his bedroom door, off-balance and breathing hard. "Veemon, I'm-"

"Please don't." Well, that put a damper on the plan. Veemon hopped off from sitting on the bed soon as Leith walked inside, and before the young man even had a chance to figure out what to say next, the little blue digimon had pulled him by the hand toward the bed and pushed him backwards gently but insistently to make sure his human partner lay down.

"Hey, could- could you get the door?" While Leith got comfortable and uncomfortably avoided direct eye contact, Veemon backed away and shut it with his foot without taking his eyes off Leith. The young man felt ashamed when he looked out of the corner of his own eyes and found Veemon frowning. He at least knew the digimon wasn't mad at him, but he was equally disappointed by what he knew Veemon was feeling toward him. "You don't have to look so sorry for me. I've been sick before." Veemon still wouldn't say a word or even stop frowning, the latter of which truly rattled Leith; he couldn't remember a time since meeting Veemon that the little guy wasn't grinning. So, after coughing a couple times, Leith simply asked, "Veemon?"

Still Veemon didn't answer. In fact, he fled the room then, opening the door and rushing out. "Veemon!" Leith hissed after the digimon then, but he didn't return. "Shit... I think I pissed him off." The young man sighed and lay back on his bed, resigned. "He'll be back... I think." It turned out that not only did Veemon come back, but he actually came back just a couple minutes later. That was fast, Leith thought to himself as the digimon returned. It seemed the little blue guy had brought something, too: a small kitchen from his father's office. The boy instantly recoiled at the sight of it. "I'm not a child, Veemon. I can make it to the toilet myself."

"And I'm not a house pet!" Veemon's outburst of anger was such a shocking new side of him that it made Leith sit upright, alert. Good thing he did, because that helped him be just fast enough to catch the plastic bowl that Veemon hurled at him. "I just wanna be your friend, but you just wanna be all by yourself all the time!" Leith was still too stunned to speak, but he at least had the sense to think. That wasn't entirely true, he believed, but he needed time to figure out how best to explain it. Luckily Veemon granted him that time by sitting down on the bed and calming himself only a little. "And I know it's not just me. In all the time I've known you, I've never seen you ask your family how they feel or go out with someone besides me. Now you're pale and sick, and you still wanna be all by yourself! I'm sorry for yelling at you when you're sick, but, shoot, I don't know what to do with you!"

Well there wasn't much to think about that. It was so straightforward, direct, and uncomfortably accurate, that Leith somehow managed to feel even worse than he did while he was by the toilet. He avoided eye contact altogether, instead looking down at his own lap, and spoke in a low voice. "I don't wanna be be all by myself. I just don't want to bother other people either."

Veemon pursed his lips and crossed his arms. "I think you just don't wanna look weak, so you don't share with other people."

Ouch. The young man physically recoiled from that accusation. He's good, Leith had to reluctantly admit. Rather than explicitly admit to his own pathology, though, Leith more implicitly acknowledged it by asking, "Can you blame me?" Before Veemon got the chance to scold him for evading again, though, Leith's stomach convulsed again. He was terrified he was about to upchuck right there in front of Veemon, but it turned out to be one of those passing nausea episodes. When it passed, Leith put the bowl he'd grabbed back on the bed. "Maybe it's a little of both, OK? Just... you know. Like... it's hard to explain. In my heart I know I hate being alone and should open up more, but in my head I think I'm either gonna bother someone else or be the one who gets hurt myself, making it a no-win option."

Veemon huffed in annoyance, but he couldn't stay mad at his friend while he was finally opening up a little, not to mention seeming more understandable as Leith explained himself. "You should trust people m-" Before Veemon could even finish, his boy convulsed once again. This time, however, it was Veemon who took the bowl and held it up in front of Leith, which was fortunate because the boy didn't have a chance of making it down the hall this time. The boy felt absolutely humiliated for letting Veemon deal with the unpleasant situation before them. Even more humiliating, though was that Veemon went on like it hardly happened. "I just want a chance to be your friend! Maybe neither of us knows why digimon and humans are chosen to partner with each other, but you can't believe it's a complete accident!"

"Are you seriously saying that while you're holding a bowl of my vomit?" Leith had to balk, "Like, look at this right now. I don't need a servant. I can hold my own bowl."

"I'm not doing it because I have to, you know!" As Veemon exclaimed that, he placed the bowl back down on the night stand. "I want to, because you're all I've got in this world! Both worlds!" Veemon climbed fully onto the bed then, rather than just sitting on its edge, and kneeled in front of Leith. "Please. I just want to be your friend - no conditions, no... I don't know! If I have to earn that, fine. Let me! Please!"

Leith swallowed the lump forming in his throat. No one... has ever tried that hard for me. The young man needed a moment to gather his thoughts, during which time he covered his mouth with his hand, a habit of his when he wants to think without bothering to consider his speech. It took him a little under a minute, but the words he decided to use at long last were, "You don't have to earn anything, Veemon." He then clarified, "I mean, you do because everyone does, but you- I mean, you have. By now. Like, right now." Leith glanced at the soiled bowl then. "So... yeah. I mean, it feels corny, but by now we're friends. I know I play everything close to the chest, but you really-"

Veemon interrupted Leith then by wrapping his arms around Leith's torso without asking his permission and pulling himself into Leith, embracing the boy. At this, Leith raised his arms out of the way in an evasive manner, but that was pure instinct. When Leith actually processed what just happened, though, his expression softened. The young man's arms lowered and even gently embraced the digimon right back, the sort of gesture of affection Leith would be reluctant to show to anyone else. Though the feeling of the hug was almost as alien as the being giving it to him it for some reason felt like the most natural hug Leith had even given.

Nah. Not 'some reason,' Leith corrected himself as that thought occurred to him, I know exactly why.

Veemon was a dutiful nurse throughout the night, and Leith's way of implicit thanks was keeping both wisecracks and complaints to a minimum. Neither human nor digimon got much sleep, but after a long of bowl washing, water fetching, and small snack retrieval, Leith's stomach finally settled enough to let him completely fall asleep some time around 8 in the morning, which was at least made a little easier by never having changed out of his PJ's. Also lucky for Leith was that his family was happy to let him sleep in long as he liked, because as soon as his work was done, Veemon collapsed like a sack of bricks across Leith's lap out in the open.

It wasn't until one in the afternoon that that Leith awoke to find Veemon splayed across the boy's belly, looking to be both quite peaceful and in quite the awkward, uncomfortable-looking body position. Surprisingly, Leith's first instinct was not to wake the digimon or even to try and get out from under him without waking him. Eh... he's not hurting anyone. And I'm not gonna retch again... probably. Leith sat up a bit then and looked directly down at his nurse. Much as he wanted to be happy and grateful, which he was, the feelings were still bitter-sweet. I can't promise I'll go from being my normal self to a fluffy bunny sort of person, and I can't promise we're gonna be best friends when you wake up. In another rare show of affection, then, he took one of those long ears between a thumb and his forefinger and played with it gently. But I can promise to try my best... and if I do, knowing you, that result is probably inevitable.

Leith smiled gently down at his partner with one last thought. And I'll definitely pay you back, naturally.