Theme:Â floof
Note: bc SOME of you (coughcoughCMO) have been craving them,,
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Uta always seemed like the daughter of nature, her liveliness rivaling the flitting of butterflies, her smiles emitting sunbeams. Despite this, and her apparent tendency to do anything and never come down with anything, Uta had gotten a cold. Yoriichi believed it was his own fault, catching some sort of cough after going into town for some food for an injured faun they had taken in a while back. Uta, however, claimed that it was probably from spending the night outside in the snow just for fun—which made sense, but given that it hadn’t happened any of the years before, Yoriichi was slightly doubtful.
Either way, he was struggling to keep Uta in bed, not wanting her to go prancing in the trees next and getting a fever or some such. Unfortunately, Uta had something else in mind, constantly slipping from his grasp. Yoriichi was always afraid of scaring her off, not wanting to handle her a bit too harshly and end up being herded out of the house. Luckily, it had yet to happen, and he was very apt at having her heal quickly so he pinned her to the bed, wrapping the blanket tightly around her and tucking the ends under the futon. After a bit more struggling, Uta finally gave in, settling in and simply listing out her complaints at being held inside.
Yoriichi was mildly amused by her attempts to persuade him into letting her at least move around inside as he stood. Wordlessly, he motioned to the kitchen, indicating that he would make her some food. He left the room, closing the door behind him for good measure before he went to see if he could coax any more flavor from the mint leaves he’d collected from town.
For the following days, he made sure Uta stayed inside, doing all the work by himself so she wouldn’t be tempted to hop out of bed. On the fourth day, when her cold still refused to relent, Yoriichi sat by her side, waiting for her to finish her tea. Uta was pouting, handing him the empty cup and sulking back under the blankets.
“Is something wrong?” Yoriichi murmured, placing the tea cup somewhere safe and scooting closer to perch on the edge of the futon.
Uta peeked out from under the covers, gazing up at him with her wide, obsidian eyes. “I don’t like being sick.”
Yoriichi hummed. “It’s good that you don’t get sick very often, then.”
She huffed, squirming a bit before finding a more comfortable position which she could lie in, facing him. “Yeah, but I’m sick now and I hate it! I want to go outside!! It’s already been like a week!” she whined, sniffing.Â
Yoriichi petted her gently, combing his hands through her relatively smooth hair. To soothe her, he had brushed her hair out earlier. Her tranquility had obviously only lasted so long.
“It’s been four days,” he said gently. “You’re refusing to sleep as much as you should, so it’s taking longer to drop down.”
Uta frowned. “Sleeping’s boring…”
“It gives you the energy and the time to heal,” Yoriichi said patiently. He took one of her hands in his own, squeezing it affectionately. “Is there anything to convince you to rest? If you want to go back outside, you have to sleep more.”
She thought for a moment, most likely weighing her options. Of course, it wasn’t as if she had many. Perhaps she was thinking of something she wanted in exchange for her to sleep. No doubt she’d send him off to get some sweets of some sort. Instead, however, her decision surprised him.
“Can you sleep next to me? Sometimes we cuddle when it’s colder even though neither of us get cold easily, but I like doing that, it’s nice. Also you always get shy and it’s cute,” she said, smiling at the memory.
Yoriichi arched an eyebrow slightly, but assented. “If you’ll sleep more… But I have to attend to the fire place first—and doublecheck that the stove is off,” he said.
“Fine,” Uta agreed, making room in the bed and waiting as he picked up the tea cup and left the room. After he made sure that everything was in order, he joined her on the futon, shifting the blanket so it rested mostly on her; she would need the warmth more than he.
“Is this okay?” Yoriichi asked, unsure if this was more uncomfortable for Uta than she’d anticipated. Somehow, she seemed absolutely elated, wrapping her arms around him.
“Mhm!” she hummed, a smile gracing her lips and dusting her cheeks pink.Â
Yoriichi lay stiffly for a long moment until he decided that relaxing would probably be more comfortable for Uta and forced himself to let out a breath, embracing her reluctantly. They lay there for along time before Yoriichi realized Uta’s breath had steadied into sleep, her eyes closed and face pressed flush against his chest. He cradled her closely, feeling very protective of her.
“Good night,” he murmured.
In the end, Uta recovered quite nicely from her cold the following day. On a side note, however, Yoriichi realized he had caught it and spent the next week under Uta’s care—discovering that she was, in fact, quite inept at caring for people without guidance.
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« Word count: 877 »
the end was most definitely necessaryÂ
(we dont talk about how short this is sdjhgj)
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