Title:: Softened

Author:: AislinCeivun

Fandom:: Natsume Yuujinchou

Rated:: G

Length:: 1871 words

Genre:: General, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic

Disclaimer:: I do not own any of the characters. Credit goes to Midorikawa Yuki.

Warnings:: n/a

Summary:: Natsume is sick. Madara is irritated - at first. But then he softens.

A/N::

1. Originally published in March, 2012. Underwent a much-needed edit in April, 2020.

2. HUNGARIAN translation is available. Link in my profile.

3. I'm no longer using FFN, but in case anyone's interested, I came back to this fandom with another Madara & Natsume goodness - 10k of it this time! ;) It's called The Cat and His Boy, and you can find it under my AO3 (same username).

Softened

.

This imbecile! Madara thought while dragging the wet cloth back onto Natsume's forehead with his teeth. A few drops of water streamed down the boy's flushed face.

At the feel of the heat surrounding Natsume's skin, Madara swore. Foolish, foolish brat! How many times have I told him to be careful? But no, he always has to ignore me! One of these days, I'm going to find him dead and the Book gone thanks to an ayakashi. Bahh!

The thought of some low-class demon killing the boy stirred something tight and uncomfortable in Madara. He pulled a face.

"Stupid Natsume! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he snarled, not at all concerned whether he was going to wake the brat with his loud growling.

Well, he did.

Natume's eyes shone with fever as he glanced at Madara stretched out beside his futon. "Nyanko-sensei…"

"If you think even for a second that I will babysit you through the entire night because of your own idiocy, you are horribly mistaken!" Madara snapped, swinging his paws heatedly in front of Natsume's face. "A powerful youkai such as myself cannot be degraded to the level of a common nurse!"

Natsume's mouth curled into a small smile. "I know, sensei. I'm sorry."

He started coughing then, and Madara grimaced even harder than before. This was all stupid! Why, just why did he have to care so much for this stupid human?

"And how am I supposed to sleep when you make so much noise? Not to mention that you are so hot it feels like I'm in an oven." Madara turned his nose up and stretched out his legs, his claws pushed out and scraping lightly over the tatami mat. "I'm getting your foster mother."

"What? No!" Natsume sat up so quickly he seemingly got hit by a dizzy spell: he swayed. Once he managed to balance himself with his arms, he turned to Madara with fear in his eyes. "You can't let Touko-san know about this, sensei! She can't know that I'm sick. There's nothing she could do with the youkai's poison anyway, and Hinoe already got me the antidote." Madara puffed up at the mention of the demon woman, but if Natsume noticed, he let it go. "She said I'll be alright by morning, so we have to make do like this, without Touko-san and Shigeru-san noticing."

Madara often found it difficult to understand humans and their strange ways, and Natsume Takashi was an even greater riddle than the rest. He knew why the boy didn't want to reveal the secret of his abilities to his guardians - but not asking for their help even in a situation like this? With ayakashi - especially strong ones - it was different, of course; they would never ask for help. But his experience with humans showed that these puny mortals loved to depend on each other.

So why was Natsume different? Because of love? So that he wouldn't cause problems for the woman and his mate?

Madara snorted. This whole 'love' thing was utterly ridiculous. There was no such word in his own vocabulary.

There wasn't.

"I'm sorry for being a bother," Natsume said. His voice has gone weak again. He laid back down on the futon and pulled the blanket up to his chin. "Please bear with it, okay? In return, I won't say anything if you go drinking sake tomorrow."

Madara grumbled under his beath, but it was unlikely that Natsume heard him; the brat fall back asleep almost instantly.

As the ayakashi watched him, the burning anger of inconvenience slowly subsided in his chest. He inched closer to his protégé, lay his head beside Natsume's, and studied his fluttering eyelashes, the sheen of sweat on his forehead, the spots of red on his cheeks. He's in a bad shape. I'm going to rip Hinoe to shreds if her medicine doesn't work!

For a second, he was taken aback by the ferocity of these emotions, but then he forcibly calmed himself. The Book was the only reason for why he would need to punish Hinoe. Should Natsume die too early, a crowd of youkai would be grabbing for the Book in a heartbeat. Madara would beat them all with a swish of his tail of course, but it would be tiring and bothersome - and entirely unnecessary. No… It was much easier to just wait until Natsume gave him the Book of his own free will, letting every ayakashi know that from then on and ever, the Book of Friends belonged to Madara alone.

Just let there still be enough names in it when he finally got his hands on the damn thing! The brat was headbent on turning it thinner and thinner every week…

Madara's head whipped up when Natsume moaned in his sleep. Immediately, the ayakashi scolded himself for the reaction. What was he, a pet dog?!

Shaking the thought away, Madara leant over Natsume and pressed his nose to the boy's body. He usually felt nothing but disgust at the odor of human sweat, but this time, it caused some odd, sharp pain behind his ribs with the realization that the fever was not going down. What's more, Natsume's skin still smelled of that youkai who had injured him earlier in the day. It was a tiny, pathetic weakling, his poison not even strong… but, as it seems, just strong enough for a human.

Madara grit his teeth. He wanted to go find that bastard and tear him apart for daring to hurt- for daring to make a fool of Madara. (The only reason for why Madara's anger was burning so white-hot was because the youkai managed to sneak up on them and then get away with all his limbs intact. Madara committed to being a bodyguard, so naturally, this blunder hurt his pride.)

(That was the only reason. It was.)

Madara watched the boy in silence. So small, so fragile, so weak… He was too ashamed to admit it, but sometimes, he found himself forgetting the rather significant fact that Natsume was a mortal human. He blended into the spirit world too seamlessly.

But then situations like this would occur, he would abruptly come to realize his mistake… and something would stir inside him; an uncomfortable, weird twisting of his insides that made him feel like throwing up.

Natsume is human. So what? he thought bitterly, his anger directed mostly at himself. I'm only interested in the Book, anyway.

Natsume whimpered again, immediately drawing Madara's attention. The boy's forehead was wrinkled, and he was shivering all over.

He's cold, Madara noted with a tight feeling in his throat. Damnation. That means his temperature is still increasing…

That was it. He would just go and get Touko, Natsume's request be damned. Even without speaking to her, Madara could surely come up with something to get her to come and check on Natsume. If nothing else, he'd bite her skirt and drag her here.

He stood up, ready to go… but when he cast one last glance at the shivering boy, something held him back. He wanted to move, he really did - he had to do something if he wanted to get a good night's sleep - and yet his short, stubby legs refused to move, locking him in place.

After standing there like a statue for who knows how long, Madara finally lowered his head. What the hell am I doing? I've been totally softened by this brat.

Madara shook his body from head to tail, reverting to his true form in a flutter of mist as easy as breathing.

So much for getting the woman. Now Natsume was the only one in the house who'd be able to see him.

Truth be told, Madara hated changing into his real form here; no matter how hard he tried to make himself smaller, his enormous body could barely fit in the tiny room. But right now, this bothersome fact couldn't be further from his mind. He stretched out his legs, then curled himself around Natsume's still form and lowered his head. He gently grabbed Natsu'mes sweat-soaked shirt between his teeth and pulled the boy until he was lying against soft, snow-white fur.

Natsume nuzzled into Madara's warm body. "Nyanko-sensei…"

"Hush, brat," Madara said, his deep voice vibrating in the quiet. "Sleep."

The boy obediently fell quiet, and Madara lifted his long, shaggy tail to wrap it around Natsume like a blanket.

Natsume's shivering eventually subsided. He was still pink from fever and sweating profusely, but the heat of his body has finally started to decrease. Madara opened his large mouth and breathed on him soft and slow, concentrating all his spiritual powers on cooling him down.

Outside, darkness spilled over the streets and mountain ranges like black ink, but Madara's sharp golden eyes remained fixed on the boy by his side, wide awake. When Natsume stirred, the slit pupils narrowed. When Natsume relaxed, Madara did the same.

At dawn, the sun broke out in brilliant orange patches over the bottom of the rose-colored sky. Madara laid his long head next to the sleeping boy, closed his eyes and listened to the even heartbeat with growing ease. Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dumb… Natsume huffed peacefully into Madara's thick coat, and the ayakashi decided that it won't be necessary to kill Hinoe after all.

The room was bathing in sunlight by the time Touko knocked on the door to wake Natsume up. Madara, half-asleep, lay beside the boy in his usual ball-shaped cat form. At the noise, he opened an eye to check on Natsume.

The brat was stretching his back, his expression well-rested, devoid of any sign of sickness. When he noticed Madara watching, he smiled. "Good morning, sensei."

Madara let out a huge yawn and pointedly turned away. "Leave me alone! It's your fault that I couldn't rest enough, so I'm going to catch up on sleep now."

Natsume just laughed.

He stood up, folded his blanket, then reached down to scratch that lovely place under Madara's left ear before stepping over him to go to his closet.

"I must properly thank Hinoe for the antidote later," he said as he put on a new shirt. "She was right - it really worked quickly!"

Madara snorted. But you won't thank me, will you. As soon as the thought popped up in his head, though, he was already pushing it away. He would have bitten off the tip of his tongue sooner than admit to… what, exactly? That he watched over the sick boy all night long? That a foolish human child was able to soften him this much? That he was not, after all, as indifferent towards Natsume as he had claimed…?

Bah. Never! Never, never, never.

"Come on, sensei."

Madara was determined to let the brat wander off alone today so he could take a nap and then go drink with the other ayakashi of Yatsuhara. Really, this was the least he deserved after the events of the night.

And yet, when Natsume bent down and reached for him, a strange, inexplicable impulse made Madara shamble up to the boy's shoulder where - after settling down comfortably - he was perfectly happy to wait for them to leave the house for the new day.