Fever by ImoutoCommissions

It was an ordinary day at Cafe Mew Mew, and since Taruto had some free 
time to himself, he'd decided to go there and enjoy some sweets while 
visiting Pudding at work. They couldn't spend much time talking to each 
other, since she was so busy, but she was at least able to wait on his 
table, and even getting to watch her while she worked was enough for him 
to enjoy. All in all, he was having a very good day, though he couldn't 
help but wonder if something was bothering Pudding.

Normally, she was very energetic, doing as many tricks as she could get 
away with, but today, she was just waiting on tables like anyone else. 
In fact, if he wasn't mistaken, it seemed like she was dragging a little 
bit more than everyone else, and that was what really concerned him. It 
was rare that she was low enough on energy to be like others, so if she 
was even dragging behind, then that had to mean that there was something 
seriously wrong with her. His concern grew as he watched her, and when 
she had a chance to come check on him, he asked, "Is something wrong?"

"What?" She even seemed a little dazed when she spoke, but she shook her 
head. "No, nothing's wrong. Why would you even ask?" She was so 
immediately defensive that he knew he had to be onto something. She 
always tried so hard to keep people from worrying about her that her 
attempts to hide her problems usually made the fact that there was a 
problem obvious.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You seem kind of out of it."

"I'm fine!" she insisted, and even though he wasn't convinced, she had 
to get back to work, so there wasn't really much he could do about it. 
Pudding went on her way, but there was a sway to her walk that really 
concerned him, but before Taruto had a chance to talk to her again, 
things took a turn for the worse.

He was lucky that she was walking close to his table when it happened, 
or else even he, with his alien reflexes, would not have been able to 
save her. As it was, Pudding began to collapse, and he was just barely 
quick enough to catch her before she hit the floor. He felt a panic 
overtake him, wondering what was wrong with her. The commotion had drawn 
the attention of Ryou, and the two of them brought her into the back so 
that he could check up on her.

When they laid her down, Taruto felt her forehead and said, "I know 
humans aren't supposed to be that hot. There's got to be something wrong 
with her!" Ryou nodded and got to work, and all Taruto could do was 
watch and wait, until finally the other man spoke.

"It isn't anything serious," he said at last. "Nothing that can't be 
treated with a lot of rest, but she does need to go home and rest, and 
you need to make sure that she does that. You need to stay with her 
until she's feeling better, and treat this just like you would any other 
cold. Just make sure she stays in bed, and she should be feeling better 
starting tomorrow."

Taruto nodded, but he still couldn't help feeling incredibly worried 
about her after watching her pass out like that. He quickly took her 
into his arms so that he could take her back to his home, hoping that he 
could get her fever to break soon. She kept a pair of pajamas there, 
because they were that close and spent that much time together, so he 
helped her get into those before letting her lay down in his bed. She 
was in and out of consciousness, and barely awake even when she was in, 
so he had to do most of the work himself. He put a cold washcloth on her 
forehead and watched her sleeping, uneasy, and fearing that she might be 
worse off than Ryou had realized. He knew that the older man was 
knowledgeable in these things, but he was just so worried about her and 
he didn't know what to do.

All he could do was watch and wait, and even though it was a bit boring 
sitting alone with her, he refused to get up and do anything else until 
he knew that she was okay. A few times, he felt himself drifting off, 
but he did what he could to keep himself awake while he watched her 
sleep. It was a few hours or so when she finally woke up, her voice a 
bit slurred as she called out, "Tarutaru..." causing him to jump.

"What is it?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"I don't..." she mumbled, her eyes bleary while she tried to find her 
words, tried to orient herself so that she could actually speak to him 
clearly. "I don't feel good..." Well, that much was already obvious to 
both of them, so she tried to think of something more clear to say. "I 
feel yucky," she settled on at last.

He got up to get closer to her, wanting to ask what he could do for her, 
and that's when he picked up the scent of what seemed to be sweat 
mingled with pee, and when he reached the bed, he pulled back the 
blanket to investigate. Sure enough, she was drenched in sweat from head 
to toe, her fever still raging, and her pajama bottoms and the sheets 
around her were absolutely soaked through because at some point during 
her nap, she had wet the bed.

She mumbled, "I'm sorry...made a mess..." Her voice was so pathetically 
fragile that it made his heart ache, and all he wanted was to make her 
feel better.

"It's okay, don't worry about it," he said, brushing it off. He instead 
helped her up, pulling her into his arms so that he could carry her to 
the bathroom to get her cleaned up. When he stood her up in the 
bathroom, he held her steady while he peeled her pajamas off of her, and 
turned on the bath, running cool water for her to soak in. Once the bath 
was full, he turned off the water, and scooped her up once more, sitting 
her down in the bathtub.

Being alone with her in such a state of undress, it was hard for his 
mind not to wander. Even though he knew that she was sick and knew 
better than to think about such things when she was in that condition, 
his body didn't seem to get the message, and he had to constantly remind 
himself that this wasn't the time or place for something like that.

She was in no condition for something like that, but it still took a lot 
of self-control for him to wash her without thinking several impure 
thoughts. "You feel so good..." she mumbled. "Your touch..." She relaxed 
in his arms so much that he was the only thing holding her up, and if he 
were to let go of her, then she would easily drop down, slipping below 
the surface of the water.

When she was finally clean and when he had given her some time to just 
soak and enjoy her time in the bath, he then helped her out of the tub 
and stood her up on the bathroom floor, taking a towel and getting her 
dried off. She swayed while he did so, and he often had to reach and 
grab her before she toppled over. If only her fever would break soon, so 
that she wouldn't be so out of it!

When he had her dried off, he got her a fresh set of pajamas to change 
into and asked her if he could get her anything. "Are you hungry?" he 
asked. She nodded weakly, but didn't speak, and he helped her into his 
living room where he sat her on the couch before he went to cook for 
her. He was glad that he still had some broth in his cabinets, because 
he couldn't think of anything else that would be very good for the poor, 
sick girl.

When he had it boiled, he contemplated putting it in a bowl, but he was 
afraid that it might be too difficult for her to eat that way. Deciding 
to put it in something a little easier to handle, he got down a sports 
bottle that wouldn't be bothered by the heat of the broth and poured it 
in there, carrying the warm broth to where Pudding waited for him. Her 
head was drooping to the side and her eyes were hardly open; she looked 
close to falling back asleep.

"Hey," he said gently, startling her back awake, and he sat down next to 
her, handing her the bottle. "I thought this might be an easier way for 
you to eat it. Is that okay?" But Pudding didn't say anything, taking 
the bottle from him with shaky hands, raising the bottle to her lips and 
drinking at the broth slowly. She struggled to hold the bottle at first, 
but as she emptied it into her mouth, it became easier for her to hold 
onto, until she had finished it all completely.

She set it aside and took a moment to catch her breath, even these 
simple actions enough to exhaust her completely. Her eyes threatened to 
close a few times while they sat there, but then she looked up at him 
and mumbled, "Tarutaru, I need to pee...can you...help me...?"

His face flushed at her words and he could feel the excitement he had at 
helping her bathe return and grow, but he was quick to try and suppress 
it once again. No matter how much fun they had with things like that 
normally, it didn't change the situation and didn't change the fact that 
she was not even in her right mind, much less in the sort of condition 
for him to play with her in any sort of way. He took a moment to take a 
deep breath, calming his own urges, before he said, "Of course, let me 
help you up!"

However, when he helped her to stand up, it wasn't long before she was 
swaying again, and she nearly fell once again, so once again, he had no 
choice but to pick her up in his arms and carry her. It was no burden to 
him, however; he didn't mind the closeness, and all he really wanted was 
to make sure that she felt better, no matter what it took. If that meant 
he had to carry her everywhere in the mean time, if he had to do 
absolutely everything for her, then he was more than willing to do so.

And so he carried her into the bathroom and sat her down on the toilet, 
not trusting her legs to remain steady even for the short time it would 
take to get her pajama pants off and to let her sit down on her own. He 
would have to manage to remove her pants while she was already sitting, 
but that wasn't impossible and he wasn't really worried about doing 
that...but he didn't factor in the fact that Pudding had not really been 
thinking clearly at all due to her fever, and that, since he hadn't told 
her of his plan, there was no way that she would know that was the case.

And so she had relaxed and given a little sigh of relief, mumbling 
something about it being just in time, and then he heard the trickle of 
urine splashing into the toilet and watched as a dark patch spread 
across the crotch of her pajama pants, just as he had reached for the 
waistband. She was wetting herself, for the second time that day, and 
there really wasn't much of anything he could do about it at this point 
but let her go on with it.

She gave a soft sigh of relief, and he was surprised by just how much 
she had been holding, considering the fact that she had already wet the 
bed once that day. He wondered if some of the broth had made it through 
her system that quickly, and he couldn't help but enjoy the sight of her 
wetting herself, at least a little bit. She didn't seem to notice at 
first, and was smiling lightly as she finished, the stream slowing to a 
stop. But then she paused, her face screwing up in confusion, and she 
opened her eyes and looked down.

"Oh no," she mumbled, and looked up at him with an unfocused look in her 
eyes. "I guess I couldn't hold it long enough? I'm really sorry...I 
didn't...I didn't mean to do that..."

"Oh, no, no," said Taruto, trying to regain his composure after that 
rather pleasant sight. "No, don't worry about, it wasn't your fault. I'm 
sorry for not telling you that I didn't have your pajamas off yet, I 
just sat you down without any warning, so it's really my fault and not 
yours."

"But I made a mess again," she said quietly, her head lolling to the 
side as she spoke. "I made a mess twice today and you have to clean it 
up..."

"No, no, don't worry about that! You were already sitting on the toilet 
so I don't have to clean up the floor, I just have to put the pajamas in 
the laundry with the other ones. It's no more of a mess, so all I really 
have to do is give you another bath," he said. "Would you like that?"

She smiled and nodded, so he helped her strip down and kept her from 
sinking in the tub as he let her soak again. He didn't give her as 
thorough of a washing this time, since she had already had a very 
pleasant bath that day, but he still let her relax for a while, until he 
was certain that she was going to fall asleep in the water if he didn't 
pull her out and dry her right away. So he did, and he dressed her in a 
pair of his pajamas, since she was all out, and took her to the guest 
room, since his own bed needed to be stripped down and washed.

However, as soon as he sat her down on the bed in his guest room, she 
stopped him before he could turn away. "Tarutaru," she cried weakly, 
"please...please don't leave me alone in here...I wanna be close to 
you..." Her voice was so weak and delirious that it was heartbreaking, 
and really, was cleaning up the mess that important? He could always do 
it later, and all he cared about was making sure that she was okay.

Walking back over to her, he said, "Alright, I'll stay right here with 
you until you're feeling better. How does that sound?"

Pudding nodded and mumbled something he could barely understand, but 
sounded a bit like she was telling him she loved him. He scooped her 
back into his arms and carried her away, going to sit down in a recliner 
where he could lay back a little bit while he was holding her. She 
snuggled up close to him and he wrapped his arms tight around her, 
gently kissing her forehead. She wasn't anywhere near as warm as she had 
been earlier, so he hoped that that meant that her fever was dropping 
and that she was starting to get better.

While he held her, he began to rock back and forth slightly, hoping to 
get her to sleep quickly. Now that she was actually able to sleep, 
however, she didn't seem nearly as relaxed as she did the several times 
she nearly fell asleep at inconvenient times that day, and he knew that 
it would take a little bit of work to relax her. The poor thing had been 
through so much that day, had had to suffer so much that it was 
heartbreaking, and he wanted her to be able to sleep peacefully until 
she was finally starting to feel better, or at least well enough that 
she was coherent.

He began to sing softly to her after a moment, remembering a lullaby he 
had heard her sing to Heicha before. He didn't know all the words 
because he could sometimes barely understand her, she sang so softly to 
her sister, but he knew the tune and could hum when he didn't remember, 
and she was so out of it that she did not notice the little gaps in the 
song, enjoying every minute of it as she relaxed and began to slowly 
drift off to sleep. This time, when she fell asleep, it seemed much more 
restful, much more sound and solid, than before, and he was glad for 
that. It seemed that all she really needed was for him to hold her in 
his arms.

Patting her hair, he felt himself relaxing as well, holding her like 
this. He was rather tired after his day spent looking out for her, but 
he let her sleep a bit before he really allowed himself to relax. It was 
only when he felt his eyes closing of their own accord that he stopped 
trying to fight off sleep, and he joined her, holding her close as he 
drifted off as well.

~X~

When he woke up the next morning, he was a bit sore from falling asleep 
on a chair like that, but holding Pudding was a very nice thing to wake 
up to. And what was more, her forehead wasn't hot anymore, which meant 
that sometime during the night, her fever had finally broken. He held 
her for a bit longer before she finally began to stir, and then woke up 
completely, smiling fondly at him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"A lot better," she replied softly, and gave him a big kiss on the 
cheek. "Thank you for taking such good care of me while I was sick!"