Chapter Text
A lull in the conversation wasn't unheard of, nor was it unpleasant. The silence that befell tonight’s call was, in sharp contrast to that comfortable stillness from countless other calls, utterly deafening. Mizuki would have liked to say that they didn’t know why the energy in the room felt so unbearably off , but they would be lying.
Normally, during the quiet periods of their calls, everyone would be working hard, focused on completing their part of Nightcord at 25:00’s next song. Tonight, though, the group’s attention lay not on their work, but on Mizuki themself. Mizuki was fully aware of why, but still held onto a thread of hope that maybe , just maybe, if they ignored it, so would everyone else.
That was absolutely not what happened, and Mizuki silently cursed Mafuyu as he broke the silence with a deadpan “You shouldn’t have joined if you were sick.”
Mizuki was about to argue, but Kanade chimed in with an earnest “Please don’t overwork yourself…”
This prompted a scoff from Ena, who quickly went silent again. Though everyone’s webcams were off, Mizuki swore they could feel Ena’s stare boring into her screen, directed at them.
“Aww, are you guys worried about little ol’ me?” Mizuki asked, with as playful of a tone as they could muster with the ounce of energy they had left. It was true that they felt horrible, but they didn’t want to slow down progress on the song, or ruin the mood, or— God forbid— make anyone worry about them. Never mind that they were already doing all three of those things; through making themself suffer for no good reason, they could at least pretend that everything was fine.
They continued, “I’m seriously fine! Allergies are kicking my ass today, but I’m not, like, sick sick.”
This statement was also a lie, as they were undeniably sick sick, sore all over and fighting an increasingly sore throat. But, they figured, the lie about allergies would excuse the sound of their voice, which should have been the only indicator to the voice-only call that something was wrong.
The members of the chat briefly absorbed the statement before someone spoke up.
“Is that so? That’s good,” Mafuyu replied, and for a moment Mizuki relaxed. If Mafuyu bought their lie, then surely Kanade and Ena would, too, and all would be well—
“In that case, you should have a fair amount done by this point. Could you send a work-in-progress?”
Mafuyu, why would you say such a thing?
Mizuki paused. They had only managed a few minor adjustments on the MV today, not even close to enough to send with the expectation of anything but disappointment.
Though it was, in reality, a few seconds at most, Mizuki felt as if they had been frozen for a thousand years before Ena spoke up.
“You don’t have anything, do you? Because you’re sick and pretending you’re not?” Ena spoke with an accusatory tone, but there was an underlying softness to it, and a tinge of the worry that Mizuki had tried so hard to dispel. “Like Kanade said, don’t push yourself too hard. Your health comes first, and you can’t create anything while you’re feeling this bad anyway.”
Mizuki wanted to argue against Ena’s plea, to make a quip about how terribly they’d miss everyone if they were to log off so early, but as a wave of exhaustion and pain crashed over them, they began to wonder if giving in would really be so bad.
Before they could even make that decision for themself, they found themself nodding along to what Ena said.
“Fiiiine, if you say so,” they mumbled as they navigated to the Nightcord window to leave the call, their arm visibly shaking as they slowly pushed the mouse to its destination. “G’night.”
A chorus of “good night”s came through Mizuki’s headphones, cut off at the end as they finally managed to click the “End Call” button. They sighed heavily as they slid their headphones off and saved their progress— it sucked that they weren’t able to do much in the way of the MV, but they were grateful that it resulted in it only taking a few seconds to save. They were exhausted. Shutting down their PC, they leaned on their desk as they slowly stood up, taking a deep breath before they began the treacherously long journey to their bed.
Five agonizing steps later, they’d arrived at their destination, collapsing onto the soft surface immediately, not even bothering to tuck themself in. Their heavy eyelids sank shut, and they welcomed the sweet embrace of sleep.
Mizuki’s rest lasted for a little less than an hour, at which point they were rudely awoken by a pounding headache. Great. They internally cursed themself for not taking medication for the pain before sleeping, then began the grueling task of hauling themself out of bed.
One slow, groggy shuffle to the kitchen and back later, Mizuki delicately placed their newly acquired glass of water on their bedside table and flopped back down on their bed, painkillers now in hand. They spent a moment catching their breath before rolling over and propping themself up on one arm. Quickly, they swallowed the pills with a small sip of water, which turned out to not be nearly enough. They downed the rest of the glass upon realizing this, but the damage had already been done, and now on top of being sore, their throat was doubly uncomfortable from the tablets grazing it.
Letting their arm give out from under them, Mizuki groaned as their head hit the pillow. Pressing their face into it so as to not let in any light— too bright, everything was too much at that moment—, they prayed that the painkillers would kick in soon.
How does one pass the time when their face is smushed into a pillow and the rest of their body isn’t cooperating? Mizuki pondered this momentarily, but their thoughts were interrupted as their phone dinged. They considered answering it, but rolling over and grabbing it was so much effort , and they had not a scrap of motivation to move.
Their phone dinged again, and again, and they reconsidered their stance on the matter, curiosity starting to take priority over the immense amount of discomfort they were in. They shuffled around in bed, moving their pillow so that their head would rest at some semblance of an incline, and grabbed their phone off the bedside table, whining to no one in particular as their sore muscles protested.
Their phone displayed three unread messages, one from each member of their group. All were some variant of “You’re probably already asleep, but good night and sleep well. Love you, feel better soon xx”.
Mizuki smiled softly as they read them over, pressing the heart reaction on each one. They may have been achy, miserable, and practically dying at that very minute, but at least they would go out knowing they were loved…
Having had their fill of dramatics for the time being, Mizuki scanned their apps for a second before settling on opening Candy Crush. They figured that since they already had their phone in hand, now, they might as well try to distract themself from the pain. They got to work, halfheartedly matching candies and only partially paying attention to the game. They’d lost three lives already to level 243, but advancing in the game wasn’t their aim, so much as having any sort of stimulation to distract them from the wreck that was their body.
Their phone dinged again, the drop-down notification surprising them slightly. It was a message from Ena, so naturally, they tapped on it as quickly as their feeble, illness-ridden body could.
MAR. 12
3:28 AM
Enanan: why are you still awake??
Amia: Head hurty (╥ᆺ╥；)
Amia: I did nap for a lil bit at least
Enanan: well that’s good, have you taken any medication? are you staying comfy and hydrated
Mizuki felt their heart flutter a little. They still felt terrible for making Ena worry about them— never mind that they couldn’t help being sick, they’d still feel bad about it, they decided. That said, seeing the more gentle, caring side of her come out was always a sight to behold.
Gay thoughts aside, they needed to draft a reply to her most recent message. Medication was easy enough, they’d taken ibuprofen. As for hydration, they weren’t sure, and in terms of comfort…
Mizuki looked down at themself and grimaced, becoming acutely aware of the various layers of their clothes digging into them. Right, they’d been too wiped out earlier to perform any of their bedtime routine, and that included putting on pajamas. Their hair was still up, too, and they wondered if it was partially the culprit for their nagging headache.
Amia: Ibuprofen, no (fell asleep in my clothes), maybe
Enanan: mizukiiiii :(
Amia: Hey at least I said yes to the first thing
Amia: 1/3, could be worse
Enanan: my god
Enanan: go get changed!! get some water!! Please
Amia: But
Amia: Bed confy
Amia: Mizuki hurty
Enanan: pretty please 🥺
Amia: Only for you
A loud, dramatic groan escaped Mizuki’s lips as they sat up. The painkillers were starting to kick in, so completing Ena’s requests seemed like less of a herculean task than they first thought. They gingerly stepped out of bed, nearly stumbling— wow , their balance was off— and first made their way to where they kept their pajamas.
Changing was something of a struggle, the buttons of Mizuki’s clothing fervently refusing to allow their shaky hands to undo them, but with much determination and several exasperated sighs it was done. The pajamas they now wore were markedly lighter than their day clothes, and exposed more of their skin to the cool air of the room. If there had been any doubt that they were running a fever, the chills that ran through their body served as evidence enough to dispel it. Shivering, they shuffled over to their bed and pulled the blanket from it, wrapping it around themself before picking up the glass that needed refilling.
This task was a far less arduous one than the last, though Mizuki did have to cling to walls and furniture for support as their legs performed a spot-on impression of jelly. Once again, they returned to their bedroom, setting the glass down in its designated spot and sinking once more onto their bed. They picked up their phone, already feeling guilty for leaving Ena hanging without an update for as long as they had.
Amia: Got changed n’ grabbed water
Amia: I’m basically the queen of self care
Enanan: don’t get ahead of yourself, mx. takes ibuprofen for what’s probably the flu
Amia: What’s wrong with it
Enanan: nothing for your throat? don’t you have cough medicine? throat drops or something???
Amia: Idk where they are if I do have em
Enanan: mizuki jesus christ
Enanan: i’m coming over in the morning. you’re hopeless
Amia: Aww ena :3
Amia: You’re so madly in love with me that even when I’m at my lowest you can’t resist me 💖 I’m touched!
Enanan: mizuki your allure has nothing to do with it. i’m coming to babysit your pathetic ass
Amia: So you admit I’m alluring
Enanan: go to sleep
Amia: Hehehe
Enanan: i’ll head over as soon as the sun comes up and stop for medicine and stuff on the way, i don’t want you alone for any longer than necessary
Amia: Okayyy~ gn
Mizuki glanced at their phone’s clock, which read around 4:00 AM. They figured it would be in their best interests to get some sleep before Ena arrived.
Right, because Ena was coming over. That hadn’t quite sunk in for Mizuki until that very moment. They wondered if they should have argued that they were fine on their own; Ena probably had her own things to do that she was putting aside for their sake, and on top of that, there was the risk of her catching Mizuki’s illness.
Really though, Mizuki thought, Ena would have come over no matter what they said to change her mind. Their girlfriend could be incredibly pushy when she wanted to, and this was certainly one such occasion. In all honesty, Mizuki didn’t mind. They were admittedly very touch-starved at that moment, and that combined with how unbearably cold they were made cuddling sound incredibly appealing.
With their head full of thoughts and some residual pain, Mizuki set their phone aside and drifted off to sleep.