"How are you feeling today, love?" Hilda asked cheerily as she entered the room that was occupied by her sister, who took it upon herself to send daggers into the direction of the blonde witch.
"What do you think, Hilda," Zelda said with just the right amount of annoyance to her voice, though her voice was strained and you could clearly tell that the ginger witch wasn't up to her usual standard as the comment wasn't nearly as vicious as Hilda was used to.
Ignoring the comment, Hilda went on to press her hand softly against Zelda's forehead, earning a scowl. The ginger tried to batt her sister's hand away but even the slow movement of lifting her arm sent her into another coughing fit; one of many she had experienced over the past three days.
"Lord, you are burning up," Hilda said, a frown pulling on her features. She knew her sister hated being fussed over, but the illness she was having, was unlike the witch had ever seen and it was only in her nature to fuss and worry about her older sister, despite her constant complaints about it.
"I am fine. You are exaggerating," she said and tried to stop the coughing, suppressing it to the best of her abilities.
"Stop playing it down all the time. You are clearly not well and if you would stop trying to prevent me from helping you, maybe you'd be back to health again," Hilda said and forced the cup of throat calming tea, Zelda had ignored for the past hour or so to her lips.
"No, no. Drink up," Hilda commanded and Zelda slowly opened her mouth, all the while shooting her sister the deadliest of glances she could muster up in her state.
"It wasn't that hard, was it?" She mocked her sister, not being able to keep it in after seeing the face her sister pulled as the sour taste of the charmed tea hit her taste buds.
"Are you sure you're not trying to poison me?" The ginger spat and turned her attention back to the newspaper in her lap, feeling secretly grateful for the immediate calming sensation that was spreading through her sore and aching throat.
"If I wanted to poison you, I wouldn't be so damn obvious about it," Hilda whispered into her own cup of tea and looked at her sister worriedly.
"You may leave now," Zelda said and tried to sound stern and decided but her voice came out strained and weaker than ever. She didn't want her sister to see how bad this was really affecting her. She had never liked people seeing her weak and broken down, so she naturally couldn't stand her suffocating need for the help her sister so readily offered.
"Are you sure you don't need anything else? I could bring you something to read, something real, not all these newspapers. Or I could just be your company. I don't know but maybe... Maybe it would be nice to spend some time together, catch up. You have barely been home these past weeks and I feel like you have drifted away from us," Hilda dared to finally say, now that her sister was in a weakened state and could not spit fire her way.
"Just because I don't spend my every second with you lot, doesn't mean I am drifting away from you for Satan's sake," she said, a cough following closely. She knew her sister was right, that she had a point but she would have never dared to admit that her sister had been right in her suspicions. But how could she when the reason for her absence was yet another sinful mishap of hers.
"That's not what I meant," Hilda whispered and Zelda rolled her eyes, annoyed.
"Then what did you mean, sister?" Zelda snapped and Hilda started kneading her hands nervously.
"I meant that you have been keeping secrets from us... More than usually," she said and her heart sank at Zelda's guilty expression. She knew that face not well, as guilt was something her sister did not like to show very often, but well enough to be able to tell it was guilt that her face was portraying.
