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The moment he began to wake up, Towa immediately could tell something was off. He groggily opened his eyes. The room was still dark. Had he woken up too early? Had the sun not even begun to rise in the sky yet?
Towa sat up and rubbed his eyes. He glanced around. Everyone else was still asleep in the room. He seemed to be the only one awake. He looked over at the clock to find it was just past five in the morning. It was way too early to be waking up.
He laid back down and closed his eyes. The weird feeling remained. His head began to ache. And suddenly he was too aware of just how cold he felt. The blankets were doing nothing to keep him warm right now.
That meant... he was sick, didn't it? That wasn't ideal. Towa hated being sick as anyone would. But it meant that he was going to be stuck on bedrest. Bamba would refuse to let him do much if he found out. He hated being stuck doing nothing.
As much as Towa didn't want his older brother to know and start worrying over him, he knew it would only be a matter of time before he found out. Towa shifted over to be beside Bamba now. He prodded the sleeping man until he woke up.
"Towa...?" Bamba glanced at the younger boy with a confused and tired gaze.
"Cold..." Towa mumbled, shifting closer.
Bamba let him do so without complaint. "You feel quite warm. How are you cold?"
"Sick..." Towa didn't bother lying.
A hand was placed on his forehead. "You're burning up. You definitely are sick."
Towa hummed in acknowledgement and curled up closer. Bamba was a bit warmer. It was helping to soothe the chills running through his body. And there was a part of his that just wanted to be comforted while sick. As much as he hated being babied by anyone, he didn't want to let go.
"Try and go back to sleep." Bamba pulled him into a hug. "We'll see what we can do about you later."
"Okay..." Towa was too tired to argue. He would prefer to get some medicine or something now but he was already falling back to sleep.
Guess that could wait for a little bit.
...
Towa was rudely woken from his sleep by someone nudging him. He opened his eyes and tried, but failed, to glare at the perpetrator.
"I brought you some medicine to take."
Bamba was one who woke him. Towa pushed himself into a sitting position. He eyed the medicine for a minute, before he took it.
"Do you want to try and eat something?" Bamba questioned.
Towa nodded. He was hungry.
Bamba left the room. It took only a few minutes for him to return with a plate of food. Just some eggs and toast for breakfast today it seemed. Towa took the plate and slowly picked away at it.
"Where is everyone else at?" Towa questioned. The house was too quite right now.
"Out doing things. Not entirely sure what they were attempting to do." Bamba replied, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
"You're staying with me?"
"I need to make sure you stay out of trouble."
Towa pouted at his words. He wasn't that bad, was he? He just wanted to be able to do some things instead of being stuck on a bed the entire day. Was that really too much to ask for?
...
The day was creeping by very slowly. Towa was bored out of his mind. He had tried to go back to sleep, but it wasn't working. His head was pounding worse now. The medicine had only helped for a short time.
Bamba had stayed beside him for most of the time so far. They had talked for a while, but eventually Towa lost his voice. He was even more annoyed at that.
Currently he was leaned up against Bamba's shoulder. He had ended up trying to read something to pass the time and decide his brother's shoulder was a nice headrest. Bamba didn't say much about it. He was definitely a lot more lenient over Towa being clingy when he was sick.
Unfortunately the peace was interrupted by a call on their ryusoul changers saying the other three had spotted a minosaur. Bamba glanced at Towa, who met his gaze in return.
"Stay here." Bamba was firm. "You are in no condition to try and fight. I'll go help them."
"But, nii-san-"
"Towa! Stay here." Bamba was not having it.
Towa frowned and nodded. He just wanted to help. He wasn't that sick. He could handle a fight. It couldn't be that hard. He would be fine in a fight.
Bamba gave him one more firm look and then left to go to the others. Towa waited a few minutes and then got up as well. He was going too. He could fight. He'd show Bamba this illness was nothing.
Towa snuck out of the house. The last thing he needed was to alert Ui and her father about him leaving. They probably had been told to keep an eye of him and make sure he stays in the house.
Thankfully it was very easy to sneak on past them and outside. Once out of sight from the house, he took off running.
Towa came to a hault just a bit farther away from the fight. He watched as the four others were fighting it. They were handling it pretty well. But Towa still wanted to help them. He hated sitting back when everyone else got to do things.
The run here had taken a lot out of him, though. He was out of breath. That wasn't good for a fight. Towa gritted his teeth and then transformed. He could push through. He had to. He wasn't turning back now.
The minosaur knocked everyone away as they attacked again. Everyone fell to the floor from the hit. And then the minosaur noticed Towa. Since he was the only one standing, it wasn't that surprising he would be locked on to.
"Towa!"
The minosaur ran at him. Towa noted the voice yelling his name was Bamba and he was pissed. That was something to think about later though. He had more important things to deal with.
Towa blocked the minosaur with his sword and slashed it across the chest. It staggered back for a brief moment, but recovered quickly and swung at him with one of its hands that had some sort of claws on it.
Towa could have normally dodged an attack like that no problem. He was the fast one, after all. But in his current condition, his reaction timing was very badly off and he was struck.
The claws dug into his left arm, going down it. Towa was in too much shock and pain to even scream. He fell to the ground, his transformation coming undone. He could feel blood on his arm. Blood that was still pooling out of the wound. This was bad. That blow had gone through his suit.
"Towa!?"
The minosaur was hit back hard. Towa was too out of it to notice who had done so. There was a blurry face in front of his now. Bamba. Even as disoriented as he was, Towa doubted he would ever not be able to recognize his brother.
"Towa..." Bamba's voice was concerned.
Towa registered he was picked up. The trip back to the house was a blur. The next thing he could recall was the pain as Bamba had started to clean his wound up. Towa vaguely could make out the other ryusoulgers in his vision, watching over them from a distance.
"How bad is it?" Koh questioned.
"We need an actual doctor. He needs stitches." Bamba replied.
"I'll go tell father! He can get someone!" Ui replied.
"Nii-san..." Towa whispered.
Bamba placed a finger over his mouth. "Save your energy. We can talk later. Just rest for now."
Towa closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He hadn't meant for this to happen. He just wanted to help. He should've just listened and stayed in bed. Now he had made everything worse.
Bamba was probably going to lay into him when he woke up again. Towa was not looking forward to being scolded for what he did. He knew he messed up. He didn't need to be reminded that he did something stupid.
...
When Towa woke up again, it was dark out. He had opened his eyes and looked around. He was on the couch still. Bamba was asleep, kneeling beside him with his head resting on the couch. Towa looked at his arm. It had been stitched up and was also in a sling. At least he hadn't been awake for that.
Towa reached out his good arm to poke Bamba. "Nii-san?"
Bamba jumped awake. "Towa. You're awake. How are you feeling?"
"Okay..."
"They gave you something to numb the pain. It should still be working."
"I don't feel anything."
"That's good."
"Can I have some water?"
Bamba helped him into a sitting position and then handed him a glass of water. Towa thanked him and sipped at it. His throat was quite dry. This was helping a bit.
He set the glass down. "Nii-san... I'm sorry..."
Bamba sighed and ruffled his hair. "It's okay. I'm just glad you're alright."
Towa leaned over to rest his head against Bamba. Bamba hugged him.
"Just promise me you won't do something like this again. You've learned your lesson, I would hope."
Towa nodded. He definitely didn't want to repeat something like this happening again. Now he would be out of commission for even longer.
"Try and go back to sleep. The doctor will be back in the afternoon to check on you."
Towa looked at Bamba hesitantly. "Nii-san... can we... cuddle? I..."
Bamba sighed fondly. "You really shouldn't move much but... fine. I think we can make a makeshift bed for tonight."
Towa smiled. Bamba rarely would let him do something like this. He wanted him to be independent. To not depend too much on someone to help him. But, there were still times where that didn't matter and this was an acceptable thing they could do.
Bamba set up a bed by pushing another cot against the couch. It was sturdy enough for this.
"For the sake of your arm, you need to be on this side." Bamba stated.
Towa nodded and scooted over onto the cot. Bamba cautiously climbed over him onto the other side. Towa cautiously rolled onto his side a bit and moved in closer. Bamba gently pulled him into a hug. He had to make sure he didn't touch his bad arm that much if he could help it.
"Goodnight, nii-san..."
"Goodnight, Towa."
Towa moved a bit closer. Bamba pressed a gentle kiss to his head. Towa smiled. He liked these moments between them. It reminded him that he had someone who loved him deeply.
"Just hope we don't get yelled at for doing this." Bamba said.
"I'm sure it'll be okay." Towa replied.
"We'll see. Now get some rest."
Towa nodded and closed his eyes. Sleep came easily at least. Now to just hope his recovery could go smoothly.