ENG - My best friend's sister ᵐᶦᵏᵉʸ ˣ ᵒᶜ

19

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I'm sitting on the couch snuggled up in a cozy blanket with cool towels wrapped around my feet and my injured hand. I can feel the cool water slowly soothing the heat in my feet and hand. Again and again I have to sneeze and sniffle. Suddenly he comes into the room with a steaming bowl of noodles.
"Here are your noodles," he says, handing them to me. I can smell the delicious aroma of the steaming noodles and immediately my stomach announces itself with a loud growl, which only makes me blush.
"You're burning up even more than yesterday. You should be resting and not walking around here. You saw what happened, idiot," he adds, putting his hand on my forehead to feel my fever.
I roll my eyes and mumble back, "Whose fault is it that it happened? What are you sneaking up on me like that too?" As his hand rests on my forehead, I feel my heart beat faster. When he takes his hand away again, I take the noodles and stir them around. He has also made himself some noodles and now sits down next to me. We eat in silence, at least I try to. I have trouble eating the noodles because my hand is still burning from the hot water and the cool cloth around it doesn't help it. I struggle a bit with how to hold the fork, but finally I almost give up and sighing, I set the fork aside.

Just as I'm about to give up, he holds a fork of noodles in front of me.
"You can't watch this," he comments, grinning at me. I want to say something stupid in response, but he just sticks the fork in my mouth. I feel him slowly pull the fork out of my mouth and grin at me.
"It would be easier if you just let him feed you. You need to eat something and then please go back to bed," he says. He laughs and shoves another bite into my mouth. I blush because I feel so helpless, but finally just let him feed me silently.
"You're going to piss me off forever about this, I know it," I say eventually, looking at him.
"Probably, at least once every time I see you," he grins stupidly at me and all I can do is roll my eyes.
"Figures," I mumble softly and the next fork is already in my mouth. Somehow it makes me uncomfortable.
"Open your mouth, the plane wants to land and unload its luggage," he suddenly says in baby talk, waving the fork in the air as if I were a small child. I have to laugh at his childish manner, and he laughs with me. It definitely lightens the mood again, which was so uncomfortable for me just now. I can see how his eyes sparkled and how happy he was. It was nice to see him so happy.
"Why are you doing this, Mikey? What's in it for you? You could just go and make fun of me like you usually do and yet here you are doing all this, why?", I ask him since it doesn't really make sense to me.
He just looks at me for a little while and seems to be thinking, until he shrugs and says, "I guess I like you," he smiles and clears everything away. Once again I blush and pull the blanket up over my nose, why is he just causing me heart palpitations? It's definitely the fever, why else would my heart be beating so fast! And yet my heart stops for a moment as I snuggle further into my blanket as if it could protect me.

When he returns, he kneels on the floor in front of me and removes the cloths from my feet without asking. I look down at him and blush as I watch him without resisting. He is so gentle and careful about it that he doesn't seem like a person who would normally do such a job. But it reassures me immensely that he has such a gentle side to him and it makes me smile.
"Why are you grinning like that? Do you think it's so funny?" he asks me and I startle, look away for a moment and pull my blanket up over my nose again. I can feel my heart beating fast as he touches my feet and gently cares for them.
"Oh, shut up...", I reply, looking at my feet. Both are extremely red and burning terribly.
"I think you should be able to walk again tomorrow, but you should still keep cooling it," he says and puts a new cool cloth around my feet. He then sits down next to me and does the same with my hand, taking extra time, or so it seems to me. So unbelievably gently, almost gossamer, he touches my hand and ties the cloth around it. It's almost as if I'm in a trance as he puts a new, cool cloth around my feet and then does the same with my hand. His gaze is intense, and I can feel his attention.
"You better watch out, you're so clumsy," he smiles slightly. I notice him raise an eyebrow at me as he does so, his lips twisting into a mocking grin.
"You're annoying," I mumble into my blanket, continuing to look at him.
"I know," he continues to grin, lingering on my hand for far too long.

For some reason, my heart starts beating faster as I watch him like this and feel his gentle touch. When he's done, he looks at me and I look at him. Our eyes meet and I don't know how long we just look at each other, but I can definitely feel the blush on my face. It's like the world around us stands still while we just look at each other. An eternity passes for me until he puts his hand to the back of my head and pulls me closer to him. His forehead and mine touch and I feel his breath on my face, that's how close he is to me and not for the first time in such a short time. Somehow it feels like this has become a habit.
"It's getting worse, your face is getting redder," he then speaks. I can see him looking at me scrutinizingly as he gently places his hand on my cheek and looks at me. I can feel myself getting even redder and I want to push him away from me, but by then he's already picking me up in his arms and carrying me back to my room. I want to say something, I want to push him away from me, but my body just won't respond.
"Get some rest, I'll send Emma over later to check on you. I have to go now, so get some sleep," he almost orders, and then disappears directly in response. I really can't say anything to that.

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