A/N: So basically long story short, my best friend and co-cosplayer got sick today and he's too far away for me to bring soup to so I'm going BLARRGGHHH and spit out this fic as fast as I could since it's late and I have work tomorrow. I haven't proofread this or anything so it might be crap BUT ITS TOO LATE FOR ME TO CARE I NEED TO SLEEP. (IS THIS ENOUGH TO MAKE UP FOR NOT GETTING YOU REAL SOUP MY NINES?)

Two sets of sturdy boots pounded harshly into the ground as their owners dashed across the barren landscape, the two remarkably human-like figures only a fleeting presence to all stationary landmarks they passed. With lithe grace and an uncanny stealth, they were there one second and then gone, even their frantic footsteps barely causing a stir. Comparatively, the machine only yards ahead of them desperately attempting to escape was creating a disturbing clamour, all of its rusty parts grating against one another in a shrill shriek while a distorted voice also screamed from it.

Overhead, the sky was bleak gray, seemingly draining both life and light alike from the world. While heavy, dark clouds skidded past, creating an ever-rippling blanket of ominous fluff, the cold wind responsible for that buffed harshly against the pursuing androids.

Its ever ongoing scream coming to a fever pitch as the androids grew closer and closer, the machine started weaving back and forth wildly, ducking into paths and obstacles the human mimics were too large to directly follow through. While one of them paid no mind, only continuing to deftly follow it and lose no speed like a vicious predator focused only on her prey, the other had more trouble. Once or twice he tripped up, stumbling over a rock or loose branch while his partner sped past him, though he did make up for lost time by taking shortcuts and catching up to her relatively smoothly.

The machine again ducked into a tunnel, some sort of old concrete tube jutting out of the ground, and disappeared almost instantly. "2B! We're going to lose it!" The slower of the two exclaimed in a panic, and determined to keep up with it this time, jumped into the tube after it without hesitation. Inside, the tunnel was at such an angle that he was able to ski down after the machine, gaining more speed than ever. Staying above ground and taking an alternate route herself this time, 2B jumped over the opening and followed her partner's signal as he weaved around the path underground.

Twisting and turning and nearly bashing the android into concrete walls time and time again, the tunnel dipped into an ever deeper decline. The further down he followed, the more the machine's screaming pitched higher, almost sounding even more horribly terrified than it had been by just the androids alone. Suddenly the sound ceased entirely, leaving him confused for a moment before theorizing that the machine had found an exit to the tunnel.

His pod jingled with an incoming transmission, one that opened up to 2B's face a moment later from where she stood above ground. As soon as it patched through, her voice blared in his ears.

"9S, stop! Don't go to the end of that tunnel!"

Instinctively following her orders without question, he planted his feet, trying to grind his boots into the slick wet concrete. But he had too much momentum, and the sudden change in his posture did nothing but knock him down and keep him sliding forward at the same speed as before. Furthermore, there was nothing but smooth walls, leaving him nothing to grab onto.

He also happened to forget about his pod at this very moment, despite its ability to carry and slow his descent, for the sake of plot convenience.

Above ground, standing on the edge of an oceanside cliff, 2B was able to watch all too clearly as 9S was launched from the tunnel where it ended abruptly and plummet straight into the raging sea below.

The next time 9S clutched his way into consciousness, he was choking up water, and shivering intensely. Familiar warm hands held his shoulders and supported his weak body as he could barely hold it up on his own, and all his scrambled mind could really focus on was how uncomfortable he was. His clothes were soaked through with ice cold water and clinging to his entire frame, and he almost couldn't feel most of his skin with how cold it was.

His hair was dripping cold water onto his face, and the wind was blowing harder than ever onto his drenched body. Despite 2B's attempts to shield him from the majority of the wind, there wasn't anything she could do about the water. The world started fading to black, and he realized he couldn't hear the waves or 2B's voice, though far in the distance he could almost make out the sound of a pod beeping out a low temperature warning.

The last conscious thought that went through his mind was how warm 2B's body was when she picked him up.

"He'll be okay." One of those medic twins at the Resistance camp was saying, though 2B wasn't paying enough attention to figure out which one it was. She was watching intensely through the door, opened momentarily as it was, toward her partner in their room. 9S was wrapped up in blankets on one of the beds, his drenched uniform slung over a support line in the breaking sun outside. The door shut, cutting off her view of him, and she was suddenly forced to focus on a hand waving in front of her face. "Hello, earth to 2B? He's fine."

2B's face betrayed nothing, especially behind her blindfold, though a slight tensing of her jaw became visible. "He started sneezing on the way over here."

The medical android blinked, and her face grew thoughtful. "Oh, hmm… I suppose it's possible the shock of that much cold so fast could have made him a little sick. It's rare, but not completely unheard of."

It was unheard of to 2B, who turned to the twin with a bit more force than was necessary. "How do I fix it?"

"You can't really… fix a cold, per se. But... I can see you're not going to be able to relax just sitting here. So here, take this list, and go gather all these supplies, okay?" Popola(?) said, and 2B's pod opened up with said list on its transmission screen instantly. Peering at it, 2B wasn't quite able to keep the suspicion off her face as she read… a shopping list? The hell did they need carrots for? "I know it looks pretty odd, but trust me. We can use this stuff to help 9S feel better faster when he wakes up."

Wordlessly, 2B nodded and started walking away. The medical unit was right, even a seemingly useless task was better than nothing.

The rest of the day progressed faster than it would have had she just sat around waiting at the camp, and almost could have been considered fun if not for the nagging worry at the back of 2B's mind the whole time she was gone.

As ridiculous as it was, she followed the list on her pod to a T, even going in order and not moving to the next item until she'd gathered the first. Most things were relatively easy to find; there were carrots growing pretty heavily in some sections of the forest, hidden behind a large herd of less than happy boar. They didn't give her too much trouble, only huffing at her in a grumpy manner and backing off when she turned to stare them down.

If 9S were here, at this moment, he'd make a comment about her being scary enough that even wild animals wanted nothing to do with being on her bad side.

Most of the other ingredients were equally uneventful, many even being located in the same locations. She found leeks in the forest as well, and a plethora of herbs in the city ruins that were also listed in the note Popola gave her.

Some things were more difficult, though. After spending three hours hopelessly wandering around the desert, 2B learned that it was actually very hard to find 'tomatoes' when you didn't know what they looked like. It was at that particular moment that she wanted 9S most, since his endless curiosity over all the plant life and his dutiful documentation of everything he saw meant he most likely would have known. In fact, she was willing to bet they'd encountered the plant before, and he'd told her all about it in a wave of excited chatter, and she hadn't listened.

She ended up being saved by Operator 6O, who just so happened to call at just the right time and also happened to have just enough plant knowledge to help out.

Tomatoes don't grow in the desert, as it turned out.

At long last, the only thing left on her list was fish. Memories from another life flashed before her eyes as she tossed her pod into the water, of a grinning Jackass and a feeling of all systems shutting down permanently, leaving only blackness and a vague feeling of absolutely no regret. When her pod danced around and popped back out of the water with a fish, she pulled a face, and immediately threw it back.

Whatever Popola was planning, 2B was not bringing mackerel anywhere near 9S.

Thirty minutes and a pile of caught bream later, 2B's pod retreated from the water for good. That should be safe, right? Anything aside from mackerel, probably…? Whatever, it probably wasn't her problem anyway.

Despite the lack of a nighttime, it was still around that time when most androids had retired somewhere to rest. The only one still hanging around the deserted Resistance camp by the time 2B returned was Anemone, who was sitting alone in the center of the area. Given there was no one else to report her mission to, 2B approached the stoic leader, forgetting her arms were still full of fish and random vegetation.

"Uh…" Anemone looked up, and raised an eyebrow as 2B approached. "What have you got all that there for?"

Looking down at her own arms, 2B paused.

"I don't really know." She admitted. Anemone just laughed.

After several minutes of confused back and forth from that point, and questioning on Anemone's part, the two finally managed to figure out Popola's plan. At least, Anemone did, anyway. 2B was left confused as ever as the Resistance leader started putting together and lighting a campfire. It didn't help that there were still fish in her arms all this time.

"Listen, 2B. I had a member of my squadron get sick one time, just like 9S might possibly be. And I think Popola means for you to do the same for him that I did for them." She explained, feeding the fire she'd built until it was roaring. She also happened to produce a working surface table and a pot of water from seemingly nowhere, that definitely weren't skimmed over purely for the sake of speeding up the story.

Too confused to bother caring anymore, 2B just blindly followed the leader's instructions as she set the pot of water in the fire, and the two set to work together chopping vegetables and skinning fish.

Why they were putting a bunch of random plants and fish in a bath of hot water, 2B didn't understand in the least. Part of her wondered if Anemone had completely misunderstood what the medical unit had initially planned all these things for.

She'd just have to wait and see what happened, apparently.

When 9S finally woke up, the first thing he felt was a pounding headache, and a strange ache in all of his limbs that might have been from getting so cold. Sitting up ever so slowly, he noticed his uniform folded neatly on a shelf near the bed, and his pod in sleep mode next to it. Before he could investigate anything else, he sneezed loudly, and immediately groaned at how it made his stuffy head ache even more.

The door flew open, and in stepped 2B, almost as if she'd been standing there staring at the door for who knows who long. Normally 9S would have panicked over his current state of undress, but his head was too warm and slow for him to care.

"9S, you're awake." She mumbled quietly, voice laced with emotion so faintly that no one else would be able to notice it, but even in his delirious state, he did.

He smiled at her despite the pounding headache and the way he struggled to get a full breath of air. Ever so faintly, she smiled back, and finally he noticed the object in her hands. "What's that?" His voice was raspy and cracked, surprising them both.

"You sound bad." She deadpanned, and then sat on the edge of the bed, offering the object to him. It was a wooden bowl. "Anemone and Popola set me up on a very strange mission… Um, this is for you."

Taking the bowl in his hands, it was warm, and a surprisingly pleasant smell rose from it in thick puffs of steam. Inside, there was an invitingly thick golden broth, with distinguishable chunks of fish and vegetables inside. His eyes widened, and he looked back up at his partner. "You made this?"

"Anemone did most of it." She admitted. "I don't even know if it's right, or how it'll help, but she said it would be good for you."

"Thank you, 2B."

Carefully, he momentarily set the bowl down on the nightstand beside the bed, and turned back to 2B. She almost looked worried, as if he was going to reject her wonderful looking soup, but that wasn't his intention at all. Maybe it was how stuffy his head was, keeping him from rational thought, or maybe he lost a logic chip in the ocean, but either way, he only hesitated a little bit before hugging his partner tightly. When she looked down at him, he quickly pressed a kiss to her cheek, and pulled away before she could murder him.

"Now, um… Can I have a spoon?"

A/N: I do still intend to keep writing on this series and taking prompts, despite the random hiatus. So, feel free to leave more prompts and next time I get a moment free from cosplay work and real work, I'll see about finally getting to that pillow fights prompt fic.