In the interest of being organized (ha), I'm going to use a header!

Title: Unrequested Delivery
Author: WallofIllusion
Characters: Koki Kariya and Uzuki Yashiro
Pairings: I hereby grant permission for you to think of this as romantic interaction. Or not. I didn't necessarily write it with the idea of the two being a couple at the moment, but I like the couple, so do as you wish.
Rating: K
Summary: Kariya takes a day off from work because of a cold. When Uzuki shows up at his apartment, his evening becomes less relaxing, if more revealing, than he'd anticipated.
Disclaimer: I just play with the toys placed in front of me. They're not necessarily mine.

It started as an itch in his throat. Hoping to head off the worst, Koki popped an Aurora cough drop and got back to work, but when his nose started imitating a leaky faucet just as he had cornered a pair of Players, he called Uzuki over to harry them in his place and headed home. He had enough points that he could take a day or two off.

So he made himself a bowl of popcorn, put a box of tissues close at hand, and curled up on the couch to watch some television. Hours later, he awoke to a sound that he assumed was the remote falling from his hand to the floor. He left it there, shifted his pillow, and closed his eyes again. But then he heard the sound again. Someone was knocking at his door.

"Screw you," he muttered. Not only was he tired from his interrupted nap, but the cold was upon him in earnest now; his muscles ached with fatigue.

Another set of quick raps on the door, and then silence. Koki rolled over, satisfied that whoever it was had gone away until his phone buzzed viciously on the coffee table. He jumped half a foot.

"What?" he snapped once he'd gotten the phone open and to his ear.

"I have your dinner!" Uzuki sounded nettled. "Let me in."

Koki just hung up. Sighing, he sat up and wrapped his blanket around him before trudging to the door. If she was going to wake him up like this, he would make sure she knew she was inconveniencing him. He opened the door just as she was preparing to pound on it again.

"About time," she said, lowering her hand. "…Geez, you look awful."

"Well thanks. You know, I was asleep."

Uzuki waltzed in and placed her take-out bag on Koki's kitchen table. Then she looked around the apartment. "This place is a pigsty, Kariya."

Koki gave his home a quick once-over himself. It wasn't that messy, was it? The area around the couch was littered with used tissues right now, but that was the worst of it. Plenty of the floor was visible.

"I wasn't exactly expecting any visitors," Koki pointed out. "And certainly not a visitor who comes in and insults me and my home."

"But I did bring you dinner," Uzuki said cheerfully.

"Yes, yes, you've made your delivery. Now shoo. I hate to be a boor, but I'm really not feeling too hot right now—"

"I'm not leaving until you pay me."

"You would charge a sick friend for delivering a meal? When he didn't even ask you to?" Tired of standing, Koki went back to his couch and sat down.

Uzuki smirked. "I would when I erased sixteen Players today and he erased a whopping zero."

Koki looked at the bag Uzuki had brought. Sure enough, it was from Ramen Don. He sighed heavily and started clearing tissues off the couch.

"What're you doing?"

"Well, if that's our normal ramen, we can hardly eat it separately, right? C'mon, bring that over here."

Uzuki started to protest, but then she shrugged and did as she was told. Koki frowned at the ramen she handed him. "I think Mr. Doi screwed up, Uzuki. This is shio ramen. I like tonkotsu, you know that."

"Clear broth is better for you when you're sick," Uzuki said, no-nonsense.

Koki sighed and began to eat.

In a moment, Uzuki cleared her throat. She held out her hand, palm-up, and waggled her fingers expectantly. Making watery puppy-dog eyes, Koki gave a long and pathetic sniff.

"Nice try, Kariya. Pay up. This is what you get for slacking."

So Koki got 1280 yen out of his wallet and handed it over.

"And an extra 100 yen for delivery," Uzuki prompted.

Koki got out a 100 yen coin, but didn't hand it over right away. "This isn't for delivery," he said with a smirk. "These 100 yen say I get to make your life hell next time you get sick."

"My life?" Uzuki said, snatching the coin.

"You know what I mean."

She didn't seem to mind the prospect.

They settled down to enjoying their ramen and watching TV. Uzuki didn't find the adventures of Dead and his rival Black too interesting, though, so she soon began bragging about the Players she'd erased that day. Koki listened with half an ear. The shio ramen was better than he expected.

Near the end of their meal, Koki started coughing violently.

"Are you okay?" Uzuki asked in alarm. "What'd you do, try to inhale a noodle?"

Koki shook his head. He meant that no, his throat had just suddenly constricted again, but he couldn't explain that until he stopped coughing, which wasn't happening. His throat burned with each sharp hack.

"Seriously, Kariya!" Uzuki ran over and poured him a glass of water. "Here, drink this."

Kariya took the glass, but he had to put it down again in order to cover his mouth as the coughs continued to rack his body. He wouldn't have been able to keep the water in his mouth long enough to swallow it.

Finally he managed to drag a full breath of air into his lungs. After a few more coughs to fight off the resulting sting, his body calmed down. He drank the whole glass of water.

"Phew," he said, his voice hoarse. "That was something else, huh?"

Uzuki continued to look worried. "That settles it," she said in a second. "I'm staying here tonight."

Kariya was taken off-guard. "You're—what? Why?"

"To take care of you, you idiot!" Uzuki took the glass from his hands, refilled it, and brought it back. "Do you think that after a show like that, I'd let you stay alone?"

"It's just a cold," Koki protested.

"Sure, it seems like it's just a cold, but it could be something worse. What if it turned out to be the flu? Or what if some other illness snuck in while your immune system was down?"

Koki laughed. "I'm already dead, girl. I don't think this cold can make me any deader."

Uzuki looked ready to tear out her hair in exasperation. "How do you know that? Aaagh, I didn't even know Reapers could get sick!"

"I spent a lot of time on the RG last week, probably caught it there." Koki didn't understand why Uzuki was so worked up. "It's not a big deal, Uzuki. I can take care of myself."

His claim was undermined as another fit of coughing seized him. Uzuki handed him his water and stood waiting with her arms crossed.

"I'm staying. End of story."

Seeing that she was genuinely worried—agitated might have been a better word for it—Koki stopped arguing. Uzuki took a seat on the floor and leaned against the couch so that Koki could stretch out. Though he didn't want her to be uncomfortable, he was glad to lie down, so he didn't say anything. He just watched his partner as she stared determinedly at the television. Her lips were pursed and her brow knitted in distress. Whatever she was worried about, she was really worried about.

Then an image floated into his mind: a girl with bright pink hair, scared, trying to battle a Noise while simultaneously fighting off a fierce cough and barely managing to stand. Oh, he thought. But Uzuki finally seemed to be interested in Slammurai now, so he told himself he'd ask during the next commercial break and let his eyes close for the moment.

When he opened them again, the television was off. The bowls and chopsticks from their meal had been cleaned up, as had all the tissues Koki had been using. His glass of water had been refilled and set within reach. Uzuki was sitting as if she'd never moved, except that now she was about ten pages into Koki's copy of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

"Thanks," Koki said, halfway sitting up in order to stretch. "For cleaning up, I mean."

"No problem." Uzuki indicated the book in her hand. "Weird book."

"Murakami's a weird guy." Koki lay back down. "Hey… Uzuki."

"Mm-hmm?"

"Was your entry fee your health?"

He remembered her stumbling through the week, barely able to make it from one area to another without practically coughing up a lung. Despite the handicap, she'd done well—just not well enough to be offered reincarnation.

A blush crept up Uzuki's neck and into her cheeks. "Yeah," she said quietly.

"You died of illness?"

"A long bout of pneumonia," she replied, quieter still. "Which developed from an ordinary cold."

"Ahhhh." Koki looked up at his ceiling. That made more sense. Much more sense. In a minute, he said, "I'm not gonna die, Uzuki."

"Of course you aren't."

He closed his eyes, but this time he didn't fall back to sleep right away. He was starting to get a headache, a squeezy, achy feeling behind his ears, and that kept him from being fully comfortable.

Uzuki must have thought he'd fallen back to sleep, though, because in a few minutes he heard her murmur, "Not while I'm here taking care of you, idiot."

HELLO FLUFF
And I'm sorry, I know this plot is the town bicycle of fanfiction. I know it is. I'm sorry. But it's cute right? orz||||

Semi-relatedly, it gets really exhausting thinking up causes of death for everyone. Especially when "everyone" is so freaking young.

Also, I want to read some of Haruki Murakami's stuff. It's in my plans.