Bayblade Fanfiction

P1, Chapter Two; Shu

I opened the door to our apartment.

"Aneka, are you here?" I called. No answer. I glanced in the kitchen. She wasn't there either. I opened the door to the bathroom. Not there. I opened the door to our shared room and saw Aneka in bed, her teeth chattering.

"S-shu. What a-are you d-doing home so e-early?" She stuttered.

"Nevermind that. Why are your teeth chattering? Are you cold?"

"Y-yeah. I came h-home and I c-can't get w-warm." she shivered. I pressed my lips to her forehead. I had read somewhere that it was the best way to take a person's temperature because the lips were more sensitive than the fingers.

"You're burning up. Didn't you bring your coat today?" I asked sternly.

"I f-forgot."

"Don't forget, please. I'll make you some chicken noodle soup and some tea, probably peppermint. How does that sound?"

"Heavenly." She said.

"Now change into your pajamas and get comfortable. I want you to get better, so no going outside till you are." 

"O-ok." She stuttered. I left the room. Of course, she was sick. She could be just as forgetful as Valt sometimes... I smiled as I remember when Valt had last come over. He himself had forgotten his jacket and had also gotten sick, though it wasn't anything too bad. Aneka and I had nursed him back to health. To see Aneka like that, standing over him with her hands on her hips, her mouth set... She looked just like Mom... I turned my attention to the soup. As the noodles were cooking, I poured some hot water on the teabag and brought the tea to our shared room.

"Here. Drink this." I said and handed her the tea. She sipped it and sighed. "Better?"

"Better." She said. Her teeth had stopped chattering. I hurried over to the noodles and turned off the stove just in time. I might have burned them otherwise. I poured the noodles, chicken, and broth into a bowl and carried it into our room. She accepted the bowl gratefully and dug in, slurping up noodles and drinking the broth eagerly. She winced and put the bowl down. "Ouch. I bit my tongue."

"The way you're eating, it's no surprise," I said and smiled. "How was your day?"

"Pretty normal. Oh, except at lunch, Catlin came up to me and said... what was it? Oh, right. She said that she was going to sit with her friends 'the ones who listen to her'." She kept her eyes on the bowl and said it in a bored voice, but I knew Aneka better than that. I frowned.

"And it bothers you."

"No. I'm just... a little confused. I don't know how she wanted me to take that, but I acted like I didn't care."

"That might have been the wrong approach. "

"What?"

"I mean, think about. It could have been some sort of test, or something, to see if you'd care. She might have wanted more of a reaction so that she knew that you still cared, and seeing as you acted like you didn't, it's going to make it a lot easier for her to leave without feeling bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you didn't throw a tantrum or sob and beg her to come back, but not caring at all makes you seem mean."

"Huh. I guess I shouldn't have done that. How was your day?"

"Nothing unusual. Valt forgot his homework again, and his textbook too, so he got no marks for his homework and we had to share a textbook."

"So nothing's changed."

"Not really."

"Can you help me with my homework?" She asked. I stood up and grabbed her backpack. She unzipped it and pulled out her math homework.

"Math again?"

"Hey, this equation and order of operations can be really confusing. Especially the Pythagorean theorem."

"The Pythagorean theorem? What about it?"

"All of it!" She said and waved her hands in the air in exasperation.

"Ok, so here is leg c, and here is leg b..." I said, pointing to the paper. It wasn't long before we had finished the paper. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"No, not really. Math is so much fun!" She said and put her dishes on the bedside table.

"Sometimes you remind me of Valt."

"How so?" She asked, looking at me curiously.

"When Valt gets excited, he has this fire in his eyes. You do too, but I've only seen it with math."

"Really? That's pretty cool."

"Also, you can be just as loud, maybe even louder." I teased. She playfully punched me in the arm.

"Shut up, Shu." She said and smiled. She yawned loudly.

"You should get some sleep, since you woke up so early," I suggested.

"Good idea." She yawned again. She curled up and closed her eyes. It wasn't long until her breathing evened. I sighed and looked at her. She was so at ease. Not the mask of nonchalance that she kept on, but truly at ease. Truly relaxed. I felt her forehead. The fever had gone down, but it was still definitely there. Hopefully, it will be gone by tomorrow evening. I curled up in my own bed and drifted off to sleep...