Headaches and Coughdrops

"Sick?!"

Illnesses were quite common for this time of the year, what with it being in the middle of the winter season, but it was rather uncommon for a certain someone to have contracted such a virus.

Remaining unphased by his teammates' reactions, Akashi simply nodded, flipping a piece of paper over on his clipboard as he continued to aimlessly scan over the day's training menu. "Tetsuya is ill with stomach influenza and will probably miss one or two more days of school."

"That's awful-ssu!" Kise cried. "We should go and visit him!"

"Idiot! Do you want to get sick, too, huh?" Aomine barked.

"Today had been marked as a terribly unfortunate day for those of the Aquarius sign. He must have forgotten his lucky item, nanodayo," Midorima stated matter-of-factly.

"Kuro-chin is sick, huh? Hmm, maybe he forgot to eat, or something," Murasakibara commented, mouth full with a sticky-sweet candy bar.

"Whatever the case, practice will resume as normal," Akashi commanded, yet regardless of his orders, everyone remained pretty stagnant. "And what are you all doing still standing here? Go and run your laps."

The looks of wordless conversation that were shared about the others made Akashi feel a bit irritated. Coincidently, Kise had been the first to speak up within the group.

"Akashicchi, I think we should take our practice time today to go and visit Kurokocchi." He knew that he was walking on eggshells with such a defiant statement, but luckily, his other teammates backed him up.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be the same without Tetsu," Aomine absently agreed.

"I suppose someone has to bring him his lucky item," Midorima sighed, adjusting his glasses.

"And food, Mido-chin. Someone has to bring Kuro-chin food," Murasakibara hummed, though it was barely comprehensible with the panda bear crackers that were stuffed between his lips.

Akashi was stunned by such acts of disobedience, but truthfully, he understood where everyone was coming from. Although usually viewed as somewhat of a pointless player, Kuroko really did bring about a sense of unity to the team. Without him, the central axis of things were tipped just the slightest bit.

After a bit more convincing, Akashi had finally agreed. "This is not a substitution, however. One of your weekend days in the near future will now be a full day of practice with tripled training menus."

What should have been groans of disappointment was surprisingly a surplus of excited chattered. Midorima mentioned how he "just so happened" to have Aquarius's lucky item for the day, and Kise and Aomine were busy betting on how many times Kuroko had vomited.

"I bet it was five times," Aomine snickered.

"That's too little-ssu! It was probably more around ten times!" Kise countered.

"Hey, guys, I'm eating," Murasakibara complained. "Stop talking about gross stuff."

"You're always eating!" seemingly everyone chimed in.

Kuroko's mother was, needless to say, a bit shocked when her doorbell had rung mid-afternoon and four unfamiliar faces were standing at her doorstep. "Is there something that I can help you with?" It was apparent by her drab way of speaking that she was, no doubt, related to Kuroko.

"We're here to visit Kurokocchi!" Kise piped up cheerfully.

"We brought him food, too," Murasakibara spoke through a Pocky stick.

"And a paperclip. It's his lucky item, nanodayo," Midorima added, holding forth the small trinket.

"I apologize on behalf of my teammates for the intrusion, but we are all concerned of Tetsuya's well being. I hope you don't mind us stopping in for just a bit," Akashi said politely, adding much charm to the oddball group.

Kuroko's mother seemed as if her attention was being pulled back and forth between the variety of answers and statements that were being tossed her way. A bit solemnly, she said, "I'm not sure if this is such a good idea. Tetsuya is pretty contagious, and I'm sure he would feel guilty if all of you got sick as well."

Akashi raised a hand in interruption. "There's no need for such worries. We've brought our own face masks." Their small group took the moment to demonstrate this by strapping on their masks and giving the thumbs up of safety.

Kuroko's mother was reluctant, but she welcomed the quartet into her house, apologizing for the small size after Murasakibara had hit his head on one of the door posts.

Kuroko really hadn't been lying, when he told his teammates that his house wasn't too big. The rooms were cramped and the ceilings were lower than normal. It was no wonder that having guests proved to be such an issue.

"Tetsuya's room is upstairs, the last room on the right," Kuroko's mother informed. "He might be sleeping, to please be mindful when you enter."

After promising to do such, Akashi lead the way as his teammates followed. Again, Murasakibara had ended up hitting his head on something.

"I don't like this house," he huffed. "Everything is made for mini people."

If words could describe it, entering Kuroko's room was like entering a war-zone of bacteria. Tissues were crumpled up into small balls all about the floor, empty soup bowls and half eaten remnants of dry toast were left on plates, a basin that had probably been filled, emptied, then refilled with bile over and over again sat next to the bed, and then Kuroko himself, all bundled up in blankets and hot packs, was laying haphazardly at the top of his mattress. Lucky for his teammates, he was awake.

"Kurokocchi!" Kise whined, quickly running over to the side of his bed. "How are you feeling-ssu?"

"Not very well," Kuroko responded. His voice was a bit raspy. "My body aches and I have a fever."

"Have you been eating, Kuro-chin?" Murasakibara asked, seeming as if it was all he cared about. Plus, he had been able to slip a piece of chewing gum up his facial mask before they entered Kuroko's bedroom.

"No, not really. Whatever I eat doesn't stay down for long."

"Oh? So how many times have you thrown up?" Aomine grinned, keeping his and Kise's bet in mind.

Kuroko seemed a bit offended by his friend's question. "I don't keep track of such a thing," he responded curtly.

"Well, if you had to take a guess—"

"I believe that's enough, Daiki," Akashi interrupted. Rounding the side of Kuroko's bed, their captain had pushed Kise—much to his unwillingness—out of the way. "I apologize for disturbing your rest, Tetsuya."

"It's fine," Kuroko nodded. Even after all of the commotion, Kuroko was still a bit confused as to why everyone was standing in his bedroom. It made him feel slightly claustrophobic. "Is there a particular reason why you are all here?"

"To visit you, of course-ssu!" Kise answered, his head popping up over Akashi's shoulder.

"Tch, more like to get out of practice," Aomine mumbled.

"To present you with your lucky item of the day, nanodayo," Midorima spoke.

"And bring you food," Murasakibara said whilst chewing.

"But most importantly, to inform you of your importance to this team," Akashi finalized. "Without your presence, or possibly even lack thereof, our usual focus was considerably unbalanced today."

"That's right, Kurokocchi! So get well soon-ssu!" Kise smiled.

"You heard the man, Tetsu," Aomine yawned.

"You won't get better unless you have your lucky item with you at all times," Midorima instructed.

"Get rid of this stomach flu thing so that you can eat again, Kuro-chin," Murasakibara sighed.

Kuroko was stunned by his team's words of encouragement. In fact, it was all so endearing that the smallest of smiles came upon his lips. That smile quickly faded, however, and so did the color of his face. Being the closest in distance to Kuroko, Akashi was the first to notice and shoved Kise in front of him.

"Hey, what are you-!"

Just as Kise was about to complain for being handled so roughly, Kuroko keeled over the side of his bed and vomited into his basin. The room was filled with gasps initially, Kise being the only one who had been moved to tears.

"It splattered all over my shoes!" he cried. "Akashicchi, you're such a bully!"

Kuroko wiped his mouth with a nearby tissue and apologized for not giving any further warning. "These kinds of things happen suddenly. I'm sorry, Kise-kun."

Even though Kise was still clearly upset about the state of his shoes, the room was filled with quiet laughter. Only something like this would happen to Kise, they all thought.

"Hey, it's not funny, guys! Stop laughing-ssu!" he whined.

40 hours later

"Welcome back, Tetsuya," Akashi said in greeting, removing his school shoes from his locker and replacing them with his public ones.

"Thank you, Akashi-kun," Kuroko answered, doing the same after he had placed his school bag down. "Where is Kise-kun? Don't you two usually walk to school together?"

Slipping his left foot into the according shoe, testing its fit, Akashi replied, "He's not going to be in today."

"Is that so?"

Akashi nodded and closed his locker. "He's been stricken ill," he affirmed, "with stomach influenza."

Hello, everyone! Chappy here! :D

Ahhh! This is a special dedication story! One of my most favourite writers for Kuroko no Basuke, baitosenshi (of tumblr), has been sick with bronchitis this past week. She's always writing wonderful things for everyone else, so I decided that maybe I would return the favor to her! :D

I'm by no means as good a writer as she is, so I hope that she enjoys this small drabble nonetheless. ^^;

Thank you for always writing such wonderful things for everyone, baitosenshi! And please feel better soon! :D

Thank you for reading!

- Chappy