Solidarity

When Aomine Daiki woke up that particular Friday morning, he felt absolutely terrible. He was sweating like he had just ran a marathon, shivering even though he was under at least three layers of blanket and his head was muddled with confusion.

He sat up with slight difficulty, blinking rapidly against the soft sunlight streaming into the room. He sat there for a few minutes, trying to assess his condition. His head was pounding with every slight movement he made, his mouth felt like cotton and he felt like vomiting even though there was nothing in his stomach.

He was sick.

He groaned under his breath. He must have caught a cold yesterday after getting drenched in the rain while coming home. Grimacing, he swung his legs out of bed, pausing for a moment as the entire world swayed around him. He dragged a coverlet off his bed, wrapping it around his body as he staggered towards the kitchen. His vision hazy with exhaustion, he had to try a couple of times before he managed to open the cupboard where his mother kept the first aid box. He slumped into a chair, gulping down the aspirin pills and washing them down with a glass of water.

He wanted to just go back to sleep right there and then, but the chair was really uncomfortable, so with another groan, he stood up and dragged himself back to his room, climbing into bed.

Just then, his phone rang. He winced as his headache came back with a vengeance. He quickly fumbled around for his phone. He held the phone up, noticing Momoi's name splashed over his screen. For a second, he debated whether or not to pick up the call, but finally chose the former, knowing that the girl would merely kept calling if he doesn't.

"Hello?" he grimaced as his voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

Fortunately for him, Momoi didn't start off the conversation by screaming into her phone and shattering his eardrums, like usual. Her voice sounded surprised and unsure as she said, "Dai-chan? Are you alright?"

He threw an arm over his eyes, adjusting his position. "Not really. What do you want?"

"N-Nothing! Dai-chan, are you sick?" Momoi questioned worriedly.

Once again, he wondered if he should tell her the truth. It's not like he has never skipped school before. But with his voice sounding like he has not spoken in years, it was hard to hide the truth.

"I'm fine. I'm just..." he paused, contemplating on what he should say. "Having a headache."

There, he thought. He wasn't lying, but he wasn't telling the complete truth either. He didn't need Momoi around to make things worse. He just needed to sleep off the sickness. If he's lucky, he'll be fine by tomorrow.

"Really?" From the tone of Momoi's voice, she sounded unconvinced.

Aomine sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, if there's nothing else, Satsuki... I'm going back to bed."

He ended the call, tossing his phone to the corner of the room. He buried his head under the pillow, blocking out the world. Sleep didn't came easily though.

"Whoa, he's burning up." This time, Aomine woke up to the sound of a muffled voice and a cool hand against his forehead. He tiredly opened his eyes to see a pair of honey brown eyes watching him with concern.

"Oh, Aominecchi is awake!" the added suffix to his name alerted him to the intruder invading his personal space. He wanted to ask how the stupid blonde hovering above him got into his apartment, but when he took a good look around his room, the question died on his lips.

He must be hallucinating, because otherwise he wouldn't be seeing half of his former team in his room. Kise was shoved aside and Momoi came into his view. She was pale with worry, her eyes wild with anxiety. She's always too high-strung whenever he's sick, he thought in bemusement.

"Why are you all..." he was cut off by a bout of coughing.

He tried to sit up, and Murasakibara, who was previously sitting quietly at the edge of the bed, swooped forward to help him up. Aomine was too out of breath by the time he stopped coughing to be bewildered by that.

"Dai-chan, you told me you just have a headache." Momoi frowned at him, stern-eyed and angry.

He winced at the look of fury in her eyes. Momoi, though she doesn't show it often, could be incredibly overprotective over her friends and family.

"I thought it was just a cold." He mumbled, cowed by the look on her face.

She looked like she might flare up again, but was interrupted by a soft, amused voice. "Aomine-kun rarely gets sick, but when he does, it's never just a common cold."

He glanced at the doorway to see Kuroko entering the room, holding a steaming bowl of soup in his hands. He was followed by a scowling Akashi. Aomine balked at seeing the redhead in his room.

"Why the hell are you all here?" he demanded. He regretted it immediately as his throat burned in pain. He tried to hide the grimace, but it was impossible to hide anything from Momoi. She instantly shoved a glass of water at him.

"Drink." She ordered. He obediently sipped at his water. He was too tired to object.

Kuroko sat down beside him, holding the bowl carefully. As he stirred the soup idly, he explained since no one else seemed to be speaking up, "Momoi came by after school to check on you, but when she realized you were running a fever, she panicked. She called me, and since I was with Kise-kun, he came over too."

"I called Midorin too, since his school is near." Momoi added. "And erm... for some reason, Muk-kun and Akashi-kun showed up."

Aomine barely refrained from rolling his eyes. Akashi has this freaky psychic ability of knowing things before it even happened when it came to his former team. Aomine wasn't surprised.

"It should be warm by now. Here, Aomine-kun, open your mouth." Kuroko said flatly.

Irritation crept up on him. If there was one thing Aomine hated most in the world, it was feeling helpless. "I can eat by myself!"

"No, you can't." Akashi interjected severely. "You can't even sit up on your own. Let Tetsuya feed you, Daiki."

Whenever Akashi gives an order, it must be obeyed and most people had learned not to defy the redhead without consequences. But Aomine wasn't like 'most people'.

"I'm fine!" he protested, glaring at his former captain. Akashi's eyes darkened and he'd have hit Aomine if the latter wasn't so sick.

"We'll be more inclined to believe you if you stop looking as if you're going to pass out any moment." Midorima said lightly.

"Aomine-kun," Kuroko tried again, raising a brow at him. "Just let us take care of you."

He sighed, grumbling under his breath and finally allowed Kuroko to slide the spoon into his mouth. The soup was delicious, most probably cooked by Akashi, but he could barely taste anything.

"Hey, I want to feed Aominecchi!" Kise suddenly said, reaching out to snatch the bowl from Kuroko. The shorter boy easily stopped the blonde with a foot to the gut.

"Stop fighting, the both of you!" Momoi complained.

Midorima easily plucked the bowl of soup from Kuroko's hands before it could spill over, taking over the feeding of Aomine while Kise jumped onto the smaller boy. Akashi was immediately onto them, unleashing his wrath. Aomine sighed, rubbing his temple. It was like a madhouse in here. How was he supposed to get well faster if they're here?

He managed a few more spoonful of soup before he started coughing again. Midorima placed the bowl at the side, gently stroking his back. Midorima rested the back of his hand across his forehead, feeling his temperature. Heat radiated from Aomine's skin, but he was perspiring cold sweat.

"Get a towel and warm water." He commanded. Kise was out of the room instantly, worry painted over his face.

Aomine dropped his head onto Midorima's shoulder, breathing a little irregular. Akashi went to retrieve more blankets, placing them over Aomine with uncharacteristic gentleness. Kise came back with a pail of warm water, a towel draped over the edge. Momoi picked up the towel and dipped it into the water, an eye watching Aomine the entire time. She squeezed the water out of the towel and dabbed it over Aomine's skin tenderly. He moaned under his breath, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Cold." He breathed. The other six exchanged alarmed glances.

Kise was wringing his hands nervously at the side. "Aominecchi's going to be okay, right?"

"We'll have to lower his temperature." Akashi said. "Atsushi, get another glass of water, will you?"

The team worked vigorously to bring down Aomine's temperature. Somewhere around evening, Aomine's temperature spiked and rose dangerously high. He started vomiting out the soup he had consumed hours ago, and was barely conscious, delirious with pain.

The team's efforts finally paid off near midnight. Aomine's temperature finally lowered. His coughing had also finally stopped. However, he was dead tired. His fever had kept him up the entire day. He didn't even manage to get a decent rest.

Kise collapsed in a chair, huffing tiredly. It was a tiring job taking care of Aomine. Aomine would be a terribly difficult patient if he wasn't so weak whenever he's sick. Kuroko was right; when Aomine falls sick, it was never just a common flu. Aomine gets dangerously weak when he's sick. Cough, flu, fever, headaches, you named it. The first time Aomine had fallen sick, back when they were still in middle school, they had panicked. If it wasn't for Akashi and Midorima's calm composure, they wouldn't have known what to do.

"Are you feeling better?" Momoi asked, gently wrapping a quilt around Aomine's shoulders. An hour earlier and Aomine would have answered that he's fine, but the fever had sapped all strength from him, and all he could do was nodded weakly.

"Stubborn." She murmured, shaking her head. But there was a noted improvement. Aomine was at least feeling better to finally sleep.

"It's late. You guys... should go home." Aomine mumbled, eyelids drooping. His head dropped onto her shoulder.

"I'm staying." She said instantly. She glanced at the others. From the looks on their faces, it didn't look like they were going to leave either.

"I've already informed my parents I'm staying to look after Aominecchi." Kise said brightly. Kuroko nodded quietly beside him.

"I'm not leaving." Murasakibara deadpanned, chewing on a gum. "What if Mine-chin gets worse in the middle of the night?"

Akashi and Midorima didn't bother to say anything. They weren't going to leave Aomine alone.

"Annoying." Aomine whispered, but there wasn't any heat to his complaint. He closed his eyes, leaning against Momoi's warmth. Kise slipped into bed, caging Aomine between him and Momoi. Kuroko rested his head on Kise's thigh, squeezing at the lower end of the bed instead. Akashi sat down on the chair, grabbing a blanket to toss it over himself, while Murasakibara took his place on the floor beside the bed.

Midorima sighed, moving to switch off the lights. The room went dark, and he joined Murasakibara on the floor. After a few minutes, the room went silent too, with only the sounds of soft breathings.

So this wasn't really well done because I'm still not familiar with Akashi, Murasakibara and Midorima's personalities, but I tried my best. *shrugs