Tea Time

The morning had started normally enough at Bar F that day. Even though Homura hadn't gotten up along with everyone else, they had mostly assumed he was just tired from being out gathering attachments the previous night.

Uruu had a slightly bad feeling about it in his gut, but he ignored it…

It was only once Uruu was halfway through his curry that Homura finally showed up at the bottom of the stairs.

"Are you finally joining us?" Takara asked with a smile.

Homura took a moment to reply, still looking quite tired. "Hm? Oh… Sorry, I think I'm just tired…"

He took a seat beside Uruu, eating his curry rather slowly. Uruu looked at him intently. Something definitely felt wrong…

The room started feeling a little warmer, making some sweat gather on Uruu's forehead. He wiped it away with a handkerchief, raising an eyebrow. "Is it supposed to be this hot this time of year…?"

"What do you mean?" Ranmaru asked. He didn't seem to be sweating at all, but Jyuka seemed to be sweating a little himself.

"It was fine just a few minutes ago, but it's gotten warmer all of a sudden…" He brought a hand to his chin as he thought for a moment, then quickly shot a glance at Homura. "Wait…"

Uruu looked over to Homura as well. He was just finishing taking another spoonful of curry, and when the spoon came out of his mouth… It seemed a little bent.

"Homura, are you sick!?" Jyuka asked.

"Hm?" Homura turned his head to him slowly. "Sorry, I'm a bit out of it today… But I do feel a little weird…"

Uruu brought a hand to Homura's forehead, but was only able to keep it there for a very short moment before needing to quickly pull it away with a yelp from just how hot his skin felt. The warmth in the room was getting a little worse, too, making Uruu a little dizzy.

"You definitely don't look good." Takara looked around a little panicked. "Ranmaru, since you're not as affected by his fever, could you help him back up to the bedroom? I'll take his food there later."

Before Homura could say anything Ranmaru was up and right behind him. He sighed, clearly having some difficulty to stand up from some slight dizziness. Ranmaru pulled one of his arms over his shoulders to better support him as they walked towards the stairs.

The heat that had been in the room slowly dissipated as he got further away. And Uruu couldn't help but feel a bit worried. "Is that normal?"

"It seems to be a normal cold for fairies from the Ignis Clan, but I'll have to check him properly later." Jyuka explained. Takara placed two very full cups of water on the counter, and Jyuka quickly thanked him before continuing. "It's probably better for you to not stay too close to him for the time being, since the excessive heat can be a little bad for you. I do have a potion that makes it not a problem, but I only have one and I don't have the ingredients to make more right now…"

Uruu nodded, despite not being so pleased to hear that. He imagined that would be the case, but it wasn't very pleasing to feel so… Powerless while Homura was in that state. He took a sip of the water before speaking again. "Can I help with anything else, at least?"

Jyuka paused for a quick moment to think, then smiled. "Actually, I might need some stuff from the Aqua Clan to help him get better. So after I examine him better I can give you a list!"

Uruu nodded, and he felt himself get a little less tense. At least, there was something he could do to help for the time being…

A few hours later, Jyuka had examined Homura properly and given Uruu a list of some stuff he would need from the Aqua Clan. Fortunately, it was simply a normal cold that wouldn't be hard to deal with. So that was one less thing for Uruu to worry about.

He couldn't remember when was the last time he went to the Aqua Clan markets. Back when his mother was alive, she would often go herself - rather than asking some servant to do it - and bring him along. She'd say she liked seeing the common people out and about, that it helped her understand them a little better.

Now that Uruu was an adult, he could more clearly understand what she meant. Some things had changed, some hadn't, but it still felt nostalgic to go there again after all those years.

And now, he also understood why she would look so melancholic whenever they walked by happy-looking couples… He couldn't help but wonder if him and Homura looked like that to others, too.

He shook his head. This wasn't the time to be questioning if he was a good boyfriend or not. Homura needed help, surely what he was already doing at that moment was enough.

For a moment, another common memory of his childhood came to mind. Whenever he got sick, his mom would make him a specific soup for him. It was the one good thing about getting sick back then…

He couldn't quite remember what its name was, or if his mom had ever even told him the name, but he could remember some of the main ingredients and what it tasted like. So, he pulled out his phone and started looking up a few keywords.

He had a result close enough to what he was thinking in just a few minutes. Blue Salmon Soup, quite usual among the common folk of the Aqua Clan. The recipe he had found seemed to have some things he didn't remember tasting when his mother gave it to him. He suspected she had altered it slightly back then.

He wondered if maybe Homura would like it…

At first, it had just been a passing idea. But the more he thought about it, he considered it more seriously… He suspected it would be a little too light for his taste, but maybe he could make some alterations like his mother had.

Jyuka had gone to the Ignis Clan himself to get other things he needed, so Uruu sent him a message. He was gonna need some stuff from there himself now.

Even though it was just a common cold for fairies, that didn't mean Homura wasn't feeling pretty bad. His fever would come and go, one of the medicines Jyuka had only able to drive it away for a few hours before it would come back. But Jyuka's other medicines were helping him get better bit by bit, making it just a little less insufferable.

Though, that also didn't mean he didn't feel pretty bad about the fact that his condition would negatively affect Jyuka… And Uruu…

He was as isolated as possible in the bedroom, having been given an actual mattress on the floor in the corner of the bedroom instead of sleeping on Bakkun like the others. In the previous night, when Jyuka didn't have enough potions to make everyone more resistant to the effects o his fever, he had slept on the table seats in the first floor.

Even with the new potions Jyuka had made, it was still a bit frustrating to be needing to put that much distance between him and everyone.

He heard Uruu's muffled voice coming from behind the door before it opened. Uruu walked in with a tray in his hands. On it was a bottle of the medicine Jyuka had been making for him, and a closed bowl that made Homura curious. He had been smelling something pretty nice for the past half hour or so…

"How are you feeling?" Uruu asked as he put the tray on the floor beside the mattress, sitting right beside it himself.

"Like shit." Homura grumbled.

Uruu's mouth and eyebrows twitched, clearly holding back on the urge to reprimand him for his language. But instead, he just sighed before grabbing the medicine bottle. "Drink it, then."

Homura groaned as he grabbed it. He closed his eyes shut and tried to chug it down as quick as possible without spilling it, not wanting to feel the bitter taste for too long. He immediately started drinking from his water bottle after he was done with the medicine.

He glanced at Uruu, partially expecting him to be finding his suffering with the medicine amusing. But instead, Uruu seemed… Frustrated, perhaps? He had a frown that Homura couldn't quite tell the reason behind.

Right, Uruu had been changing his attitude towards him after everything that had gone down with Procyon and Sirius. They hadn't quite figured out what to call their relationship yet - both unsure how to even talk about it - but… Uruu had been trying. Homura could tell, even if he couldn't tell what was going on in his head at that moment.

"Thanks for coming here." He paused a moment to cough. "You didn't have to."

"I felt I did have to…"

This time, Homura could maybe guess what was in his mind. 'It's what you do for people you care about.' Perhaps they were getting better at this.

"You… Can eat this too, if you want." Uruu unfolded the legs under the tray, then placed it over Homura's lap.

He opened the lid on the bowl, revealing its contents to be some kind of soup, with some kind of fish in it and, surprisingly, some vegetables he recognized from Ignis Clan dishes among some he knew were from the Aqua Clan. The smell was even nicer now that it was uncovered.

"Thanks for the meal." Homura carefully took one spoonful into his mouth, making sure to get a good amount of meat and vegetables in it.

He hummed, it was a very nice taste. And to his surprise, he noticed quite a bit of spice in it. It made him wonder if it was even Uruu who actually made it.

He glanced over at Uruu, and only then noticed there were quite a few bandages on his hands. An almost concerning amount, actually. "What happened?" He asked.

Uruu's cheeks turned a little pink, and he bit his lip for a moment before responding. "I'm… Not very used to cooking. Eventually, Utashiro and Ai insisted on dealing with the more dangerous parts while they were helping me…"

So it was him who made it… "Well… Thank you. But you should be more careful next time."

Uruu just stayed quiet, looking off somewhere else with furrowed eyebrows. Homura couldn't help but find that expression a bit cute.

He ate another spoonful before speaking again, confirming his suspicion that there was something in it he didn't recognize. "What fish is this? I can tell what most of the vegetables are, but not this…"

"Blue Salmon." Uruu said. "It's… Something my mom used to make me when I was little, but I changed it to fit your tastes more with Utashiro and Ai's help."

Homura was surprised to hear that. He had expected it to simply have been something he had looked up somewhere, but it was a bit more personal than that…

"Thank you. It's really good." He smiled at Uruu. His blush deepened and he avoided looking at Homura, but he still quietly nodded.

He held back on the urge to chuckle at that. Even if Uruu was still struggling to say how he felt out loud, Homura could tell where he was trying to get from his actions.

He was going to enjoy that soup with as much of his attention as he could.