We were supposed to go on a date, but Louis got sick. And so now he's spiralling and overthinking it all. "What if we're just-"
"No. Louis please. We can have a date here, at home. We can just watch some movies and I can take you out another time. Please don't say it."
"Harry this is the third time we've done this and the third time something has stopped us." I rest my hands on his cheeks. "You also can't kiss me. I'm sick and it's contagious."
"In the wise words of Victor Fuentes, I don't care if you're contagious. But also, I really don't care. I don't get sick, not that I would care if I did."
"Oh." I sit down on the edge of the couch as he lies there, pale and red nosed. "Poor baby. This is why you gotta take your vitamins man. Seriously it's I'm really important."
"You-" he hides under the blanket, coughing like an idiot before moving back. "You fucking suck. I feel like I'm signs usually I can fight through it. I mean I did three of Alines tours with the flu, this should be easy work."
"That's not okay. Like at all. My love you really need to just start taking breaks and saying no." He tried to sigh, but he ended up coughing himself into throwing up. "Damn baby. The fuck did you eat?"
"This is disgusting. Go away." He holds his hands over his head. "I can't leave you like this. That's not okay. Let me help you."
"No. It's gross-" holding his chest, I pat his back, kissing the top of his head. "If I wanted to leave then I would've. I want to help you."
"I'm fine. You have a bunch of shit to- to do." He points over toward my homework. "I can do that when you sleep. Please just let me help you. Please."
I hate that I was so scared, I know it was just sickness and it would leave. But part of me felt like he could've had something worse. "Harry I'm not dying, okay? I promise."
"I'm scared." For the first time in my life, I was serious. I would've put my life on it. "Why?"
"I don't want to lose you. I can't lose you. We need to get you checked up on. I have to do tests. I can't-"
"Hey, I'm okay. Harry it's just the flu. Why are you worrying?" I can't say it. Partly because I was terrified of the word, mostly because I was worried he would hate me for going that way.
"Oh. Okay. We can do some tests, if it makes you feel better. You can run your tests and I can ask for a referral. Okay?" I nodded, his fingertips brushing over my cheek. "I'm sorry."
"No. Harry it's not something you need to apologise for. You care. That's not something I would ever be mad at. Hey don't cry, we're doing fine. Yeah?"
"I can't lose you. I can't." He presses his forehead to mine, it was burning but I was freezing so I know it was helping him. "You won't lose me. I promise."
"I'm sorry. This is really dramatic. I'm just really scared." I stand up from the couch, kissing his cheek and moving into my room to grab the case.
"What tests are we doing?" Taking the microscope from near the window, I sit back on the couch, setting it in the table carefully. "All of the tests I can do. The ones you're comfortable with doing. Els, run a test on his body temp."
"Oh yeah! This is my favourite job. First I ask you, does your leg hurt? Both of them. You made a spelling error in the code. Do your legs hurt?"
"Yes?" She hums at him. "Okay. Your body temperature is 38.6. Which is not very good. You can try ice or you can sweat it out. I suggest sitting in the bathroom with the shower on a very hot temperature."
"Thank you Els. How's the robot coming along?" Louis frowns at me. "He is missing a leg, hopping. I have named him, Vada. Because of his strange usage of arms. Bye bye."
"Bye." I turned around to look at the clock, shaking my head. "Baseball game."
"She actually watches those?" He laughed. "Yeah. There's a screen separate from hers that pulls around her camera so she feels like she's at the game. She really loves baseball."
"That's so cute. You built an entire robot? Without being there?" I kissed his arm before pushing the needle through. "Mhm, I have everything programmed already. The power must've gone out and stopped building it. Which means there's just a robot leg somewhere in the building. I made him with titanium because I ran out of steel. And he should be okay so long as he doesn't get into the chemicals cabinet-"
I let out a disappointed sigh. "You left it open didn't you." I take the box from under the table.
"Yes. I haven't been there since I built that box. Did you wanna go with me?" I was silently begging him to say yes. "Absolutely. I wanna see a robot."
"Oh I have like 10 I think. I'm testing to see how the different codings react to being in life form. They're usually used to just run my computer but I have them arms so they're probably ripping their fake hair out."
"You have them hair?" I help him up from the couch. "I made them fake skin too. It's made out of the fabrics in the elastic, instead of the usual cornstarch and stuff. It would've set on fire if I'd used it. But they have tiny little fingers and they're so cute. Like little elves."
I clear my throat, helping him into the car silently. I could feel the judgement when I sat down. "Sorry. It's really cool in person."
"It's cool now. It's just that you get more excited about your robots than you did when you won that 2k on a scratch card."
"I win on those all the time. I won 50k one time." He leans against the door, the window opening slowly. "What did you do with the money."
"Gave it to charity. I don't want it. I got robots." He scoffs out a laugh. "How do you find these robots?"
"People buy things from me. Never in person. I don't sell my robots because I'm scared they'll be mean to my robots. I give them websites and adverts, most companies end up fucking their code up so they send it to me and I make like 500 off that. The websites are like 50 but the adverts are a lot I think I sold two yesterday and got like 2000. They were clay animations."
"You were with us all day yesterday." He crosses his arms over. Coughing but managing to keep it at that. "Yeah, I type in what I want and then my little robots do the rest. I love my robots. They are my friends and I will give them anything they want. I pay them in new code and they love it."
"Like crack for robots." He whispered. "Yes exactly. One of them is a little- weird though. He likes to scream. He likes to carry things as well but he's very weak so he just falls and then screams again. It's all very fun."
