Red, Yellow & Blue

5. Sick

"You're not sick."

Shinchan looked up from underneath the heavy blankets that covered him from foot to shoulders and coughed for extra measure, "I hate to disagree."

Himawari tossed her school bag on the floor and loosened her tie with a grunt, "You're just pretending to be sick to get out of school. You might fool Mom but I see right through you."

"Oh great. I think I bruised my lungs by coughing too much. Can you take a look and tell me how it is?"

"As ghastly as the rest of you," she smiled sweetly and pushed aside her brother's legs to make space for herself on the mattress.

"Why is everyone picking on me?" Shinchan looked at the ceiling to see if atleast it sympathised with his woe.

"Why are you you skipping school, doofus?" She pressed the back of her hand to her brother's forehead to find it warm, "Oh, you are sick. That sucks."

"Not really." Shiro came running into the room and jumped at him, only to be engulfed in an equally enthusiastic embrace, "I didn't want to go to school anyway."

"That dog is so partial! I'm in the room too, Shiro," she complained but reached out to ruffle his head, "Why not? Don't you want to see your lover boy?"

Shinchan had never said anything about Kazama to anyone but as rightly put by her, she had the nasty habit of seeing right through him. And he saw no point in denying it.

"Correction. He doesn't want to see me."

"Nonsense. He's your best friend."

"So we say. Kazama doesn't think so," he muttered and pulled Shiro even closer, probably suffocating the poor, faithful companion.

"Of course he does. You practically grew up together! He's just busy with his studies," she sounded panicked as if she didn't know how to talk to him when they were not fighting. He would have laughed if laughing didn't feel like such a chore.

"He said he hates me," he finally said. Saying it aloud was even worse. His throat was closing up so he turned the other way and buried his face in the pillow. He certainly was not going to cry in front of his little sister and especially not over this.

Himawari was quiet for a while then tried weakly, "I'm sure he didn't mean it. He was just-"

Seeing her struggling for words, he chuckled, "Hey stop, it's all right."

With a heavy sigh, she got up and turned to leave.

"Turn on the TV before you go." he said, but didn't think she would listen.

But surprisingly, she complied. He had half a mind to tease her for it but wisely kept his mouth shut in case she changed her mind and turned it off.

Aw, come on, don't be shy. If you liked it, vote, comment and make me smile.