The Kids Get Sick

Nagisa is sick, Masaru cares for him

Mararu was an idiot.

Nagisa said that with the utmost respecet, too. he was stupid. the fact was glaringly obvious. He was also overconfident, sensitive, childish, kid, endearing, pretty, and a whole slew of other words.

So, he wasn't being mean to call Masaru stupid. just honest. A firm confirmation of this was the medicine he had brought back. HE had obviously tried, but he had carried back a few jars of Vitaman gummies, cough drops, and a bunch of band-aids. All good suplies to have on hand, but none of it helped with the flu much. Thus, the next morning at breakfast, he brought it up.

++++
"What do you mean I didn't get the stuff on the list?" Masaru groaned, pouting.

"I mean that Gummies do not count as medication, Masaru." he stated, shaking his head and setting the table towel. The boy seemed to have gotten some sleep, always a plus with him. Yet somehow, he still had managed to wake them both up early (around 2 A.M) and demand to go with him on a run so they could get some 'real medicine'.

"Why not? they have all the same vitamins." He argued stubbornly, chomping on a granola bar that Nagisa had handed him.

"Medicine is more complex then vitamins." he answered, grabbing backpacks for the pair of them.

"...fine." he relented, unable to argue with Nagisa anymore on the issue. He didn't know much about medicine. "But! you can't come! You're sick, and as your leader I can't let you!" he ordered, pointing a finger at him dramatically.

"You don't have much of a choice. You do not know what medication you need, and I do. A leader should never be off base long, right? This will minimize your time away." Nagisa reasoned, staring at the red head blankly. He thought the claim over a few times, not wanting to agree. He can do this alone! A good leader can look out for their own, so he should be able to do this!

....But, as usual, Nagisa was right. He shouldn't leave Jataro and Kotoko alone long, let alone with each other. The base would be covered in glitter again, totally not cool! With an angry sigh and a reminder to kick himself for relying on Nagisa later, he nodded reluctantly.

"Wonderful. Shall we be off then?" Nagisa asked, a smug smirk playing his lips for only a moment before falling into his usual scowl and handed over the red backpack, dawning the green one himself and walking out behind Masaru. He was the leader, after all.

----
Nagisa walked a few strides back from Masaru, watching him with a small content smile. He felt like hell and his head hurt and his legs felt like Jelly and he needed SLEEP, but he could settle for what little rest Kotoko had secured him last night and a cough drop. After all, Masaru needed him. whether he'd say it or not, he needed Nagisa to tell him what to grab. Nagisa would quickly exceed his expectation because really, it wasn't asking for much, and what else was he good for?

The hero danced through the streets, either facing wandering Monokumas bravely or sneaking around demons like a ninja. It was fun to watch him run around, though every time the boy faced an opponent Nagisa's heart jumped because he couldn't do ANYTHING, he couldn't help, he could just run and hide and shout warnings and fix him up after fights (scratches and bruises and .

The adults were still angry. The Monokumas weren't their friends. The Monokuma kids had moved on.

They were alone in the world, but that was fine.

when the athlete was busy, Nagisa would be scavenging. The adults were either too big to slide under the shudder and over the counter or too stupid to try, so there was a lot of medicine back there. He grabbed all the medicine that they would be able to consume (which meant no adult medicine, at all, even if they could technically take some of it). he left a note pinned to a box with the rest of the Medicine for Big Sis and Masaru transported it to a secret spot that Big Sis and her crazy girlfriend could pick it up to help with renovations and taking care of adults. After meeting Big Sis, they all discovered that not ALL adults were demons. Just most of them.

Still, they didn't help out of the goodness of their hearts. It was Big Sis's orders, in return for not telling anyone where they are hiding, that they helped collect supplies they weren't going to use (Big Sis said it was like doing chores instead of being grounded. Kotoko kinda got it, but the rest of them were confused).

It was also nice that SOMEONE was proud of them, even if they were just following orders.

After that was done, Nagisa informed Masaru that thy had been out for about two hours, the others should be waking in about three hours, and they had all they need. Masaru grinned and gave a satisfied nod, running off with a loud shout of 'Race you back!' that made Nagisa flinch. He didn't want the attention, especially in a city full of things trying to kill them. None the less, he tried to run off after Masaru, afraid he'd get into trouble and Nagisa wouldn't even see, and that fear had him almost keeping pace, though it was obvious that Masaru was going easy. He was pobably afraid of pushing Nagisa too far, the boy realized.

It was an odd thought, someone worrying about his well being.

++++
They reached the base and Masaru won, looking back at Nagisa and teasing him for being so SLOW, biting his tongue for a few of the mean things he said to the other boy so it was even. Nagisa was breathing heavily and collapsed when he stepped into their base, muttering something about how a leader shouldn't be a sore leader.

"Whoa, Nagisa, you okay? As the leader, you have to tell me if somethings wrong so I can fix it." He insisted, fully aware that Nagisa would brush him off without the reminder. He wasn't a complete Idiot.

"...water." The boy answered bitterly, probably upset that he played the 'I'm the leader, this is an order' card. He knew it wasn't nice, knew that it was playing on what the demons had drilled into his Sage's head (respect authority Nagisa, follow orders Nagisa, listen to those in charge Nagisa), but he wouldn't ask for help otherwise (that didn't make it okay though, he'd punish himself later).

"okay! anything else?" Masaru questioned cheerfully, grabbing a bottled water they had found (a 32 pack unopened, lucky them) and bringing it to Nagisa. Nagisa tried to hold it, but his hands were shaking from exaustion, so Masaru poured it into his friends mouth helpfully until he had recovered enough to drink himself.

"hand me the medicine bag." he requested with a similar bitterness for all the same reasons, sipping the water. Masaru followed the order, happy to help his friend.

As Nagisa dug through the bag in search of medication and took a few of the right pills, they noticed no one else was asleep. Masaru order Nagisa to try sleeping some more, Nagisa saw the bags under Masarus eyes (probably from the stress he ccaused by being sick, he realised, and how Masaru must be blaming himself in some way) and said that he wouldn't unless Masau did.

In the end, they fell asleep under a shared blanket (Nagisa took half a cap of childrens Nighquil first), leaning on each other for the comfort they had never had before the end of the world.