50 Wordless Ways to Say "I Love You"

#33 - Illness (IRL Mikado Sannoji & Kokoro Mitsume)

Characters: Mikado Sannoji, Kokoro Mitsume

Pairing: Mikado Sannoji & Kokoro Mitsume

Time Period: Super Danganronpa Another 2, Chapter 0

Prompt: Throwing away their piles of tissues when they have a cold.

SPOILERS FOR SDRA2 CHAPTER 0!

***

Kokoro was walking through the hallway of the lab with a cup of black coffee when she suddenly heard a loud sneeze, followed by some light coughing. She opened the door to the main office and quickly found the source: her absolute trainwreck of a coworker.

He had dark bags under his eyes, messy hair, unfocused eyes, tilted glasses, and a pile of tissues on the corner of his desk. Despite all this, he continued working at the computer.

"Mikado Sannoji." She spoke evenly. He didn't seem to even notice her as he concentrated on his work. She cleared her throat, hoping that he would take notice, but to no avail. Finally, she went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to whirl around, startled.

"Aah! Mrs. Kokoro, how long have you been standing there?!" He asked, his face flushing. However, Kokoro felt that his red face wasn't just from his being surprised. She walked closer to him and put her hand against his forehead, sighing when she got her answer.

"I've tried getting your attention a couple times, Mr. Sannoji, but touching was the only one that worked." Kokoro walked over to the other side of the room, picking up the trash can and walking back to the hacker's desk. "How about you take a break for today?" She asked, using one hand to sweep the used tissues into the trash can.

"Huh?! But-but-I need to work on fixing that stupid bug! I can't stop yet!" Mikado protested. Kokoro noticed his breathing was becoming heavier and her eyes narrowed.

"Mr. Sannoji, you have a cold. I'm not giving you a choice." Kokoro reached past Mikado and managed to save his work while swatting his hands away. "Now, you should head back to your bedroom and wait for me to bring you medicine. Unless you want to be sedated and carried over there? You're not working either way in this state." She stepped away from the chair and the conflicted ill hacker.

To her relief, Mikado sighed and turned off the computer. "I hope this won't impact our progress..." She heard him mumble as he rose on wobbly legs and walked to the door. Kokoro went over to her side of the office, opening a mini fridge under her desk where she kept the most used medicines in the lab. She quickly found the cold medicine on the top shelf and took it out, heading back over to the door and down the hall to Mikado's bedroom.

As she expected, the tech wizard had tucked himself into bed with multiple blankets resting on top of him. Kokoro sighed and went over to the bed, pulling one of the heavier blankets off him. "H-Hey! What gives?" Mikado weakly protested. He tried to sit up but Kokoro pushed him down with a single hand on his chest.

"You have a fever, which is why everything is cold to you. Having too many blankets causes you to dehydrate faster. Here, I brought your medicine." Kokoro handed him the cap of the bottle, filled almost to the brim with the liquid. Mikado reluctantly downed the medicine in one go before handing it back to Kokoro and lying back down on the bed. Well, it wasn't 'lying down' per se, it was more like 'collapsing'.

"Haah, haah, haah..." The poor hacker's fever caused him to writhe in discomfort. Seeing his pained expression, Kokoro began to mess with his hair and rub his head, hoping it would relax him long enough for the medicine to kick in. It would be bad if a colleague was down for more time than necessary, after all.

Soon, Mikado fell asleep under the effects of the medicine. Kokoro decided to leave his room, planning to come back later to feed him and give him water. Now, the next problem was stepping out of the laboratory to get food.

***

Art credit: love_kanade11 on twitter