Ricky Bowen Sickfics

25

Third Person POV

Whenever Ricky got sick he never liked to be taken care of by his parents because it always ended up leading to an argument between them and Ricky would feel worse than before. For several years now, Nini has been taking care of Ricky whenever he gets sick because she knows why it stresses him out to be around his parents. Usually his parents wouldn't even know he was sick and he'd just spend most of his time at the Salazar-Roberts house.
Then they broke up. Ricky was a wreck for a long time after that happened and eventually it started taking a toll on his physical health. Ricky was taking such poor care of himself that he started coming down with something nasty.
His head was aching and he was freezing but he was also sweating and his nose was dripping but it was also so stuffed up he couldn't breathe. Ricky was pretty sure he had the flu. He was a little nauseous and he knew that he had to avoid any meals with his parents because if he wasn't eating then it would start an argument between his parents.
There were a few problems, though. Red was out of town and Ricky didn't have the brain capacity to think of where else he could go. He mumbled to his dad that he was spending the next few days at Red's—which was a lie. Ricky didn't even know where he was going as he packed his bag and skated into the night.
Skating with a fever is not recommended, Ricky realized as he skated over a rock and ended up face-down on the grass next to the sidewalk he was riding on. He was grateful he didn't end up on the asphalt. His hands were scraped though and the impact didn't help his headache.
The only thing that was helping his headache was the cool air but it was not helping the rest of his body. Ricky had only grabbed a sweatshirt on his way out, not feeling a need for a coat at the time because in his house he was roasting hot. It was below freezing outside, definitely a lot colder than his house.
Ricky didn't know he had a destination in mind until he looked up and saw Nini's house. He froze. He and Nini weren't exactly on good terms, but she had to understand right? He had nowhere else to go!
Since Ricky couldn't think of any other options he walked up to the front door and knocked. He was hoping that either of Nini's moms would answer the door and would explain to her why he was there. That was not the case.
Nini opened the door with a big smile that quickly faded once she realized who it was.
"Ricky...what are you doing here?" Nini asked.
That was a good question. What was he doing there?
Before Ricky could answer Nini started speaking again, "Oh my god, is that blood on your forehead? Come inside!"
Oh, so he must've scraped his head when he fell. Ricky hadn't realized a more concentrated pain until he reached his hand up to the cut and pulled it away to realize there was indeed blood coming from his face.
Nini grabbed Ricky's arm and pulled him inside as he neglected to move despite Nini's invitation for him to enter.
"Moms, Ricky's here! He's hurt, can one of you get the first aid kit?" Nini called while leading Ricky deeper into the house.
She sat down with him on the couch and Mama C brought in the first aid kit. She spoke to Ricky, well mostly at him, for a few minutes while Nini extracted everything she needed from the kit.
Nini took an alcohol wipe and opened it and started cleaning off Ricky's scraped palms first. She then put a light wrapping of gauze around each. She then moved on to his forehead which she tackled more carefully.
However, after getting her hand close to Ricky's forehead Nini shot her hand back and gasped.
She then caressed Ricky's cheek. "Ricky, you're burning up. Is that why you're here?"
Ricky nodded and gulped. He feared that if he opened his mouth he wouldn't be able to prevent tears from flowing with his words.
He let out a small cough into his elbow instead.
"Tell me what's wrong," Nini urged.
Ricky took a deep breath and tried to think. He hadn't spoken in several hours he didn't know what his voice was going to sound like. "My head, my-ow-" Ricky winced and grabbed at his Adam's apple. "My throat. I've been sneezing nonstop for a little over a day now. I think that might've been why I fell. I can't remember."
"Ricky, you should've called me."
"You wouldn't have answered," Ricky murmured.
Nini sighed. He was right. "Here's the thermometer. Take your temperature. I'm gonna get you some tissues and some water and I'll be right back."
Ricky took the thermometer from Nini's hands and put it in his mouth. It beeped before Nini returned and he struggled to read the small numbers. He was still squinting at them when Nini walked back in. She chuckled at him and read the numbers easily. "100.7, that's a fever, Ricky Bowen," Nini said.
Ricky blushed. He then ducked down to sneeze twice. He blushed again as Nini handed him some tissues. He blew his nose quietly and then folded up the tissues.
"Come on, let's go," Nini said.
Ricky was confused. "What? Where?"
"My room. Come on."

The pair made it up to Nini's room but not without struggle. Ricky paused midway through after getting hit by a strong wave of dizziness. Nini stabilized him and then they took a second before finishing the flight.
"Here, lie down," Nini said.
She pulled the covers of her own bed back and instructed Ricky to get in. He followed her commands without question.
For the next three days, Nini handed him a tissue after every sneeze, fetched him water, took his temperature, rubbed his back, brought him soup, etc. Ricky felt like he was in heaven—if he didn't feel like shit it would've been better.
But then the fourth day came and Ricky felt better. He was going to get up and get changed and skateboard out of the Salazar-Roberts house before anyone noticed but then Nini walked into her room with a glass of orange juice for Ricky and a bright smile and Ricky had his best worst idea ever.
"How are you feeling today?" Nini asked.
Ricky did his best to make his voice sound as rough as possible, "Not great." He forced a cough.
Nini frowned, "That sucks, I thought you were doing better yesterday. Let me take your temperature."
Ricky let her do so.
"98.9, that's almost normal!" Nini smiled.
Ricky panicked and looked up at the bright light in Nini's room hoping it would make him sneeze. Sometimes bright lights would do that and it worked especially well if he was also sick. Fortunately for Ricky it did the trick and it did it well. Ricky grabbed a tissue and sneezed into it thrice.
"Goodness, bless you!" Nini exclaimed. "I'll get you some decongestants and a hot water bottle."
Ricky asked, "Could we maybe watch something together?"
Nini nodded and then left the room.

Ricky was able to keep the ball rolling with this for another day or two. When Nini was out of the room getting something else he got a call from Red.
"How are you doing, dude? You still sick?" Red asked.
Ricky replied, "Not really. I think I'm pretty much better, honestly, but I miss Nini so much and having her around and taking care of me is just too good!"
"What?" Nini's soft voice broke Ricky's attention away from the words his best friend was speaking on the other line.
Ricky's head snapped around and he saw a very upset-looking Nini staring at him with teary eyes. He hung up the phone immediately and turned his full attention to the girl in front of him.
"Nini, I can explain-" Ricky tried.
Nini shook her head. "I was so worried that you weren't getting better."
"Nini, I love you," Ricky said. "I noticed that when you were taking care of me and I just know that we aren't exactly in the best spot and I just...I was too weak to give this up and go back to you...hating me."
"I don't hate you," Nini cried. "You didn't need to lie to me about your health to get me to care, Ricky!"
Huh. that hadn't occurred to Ricky. Interesting.
"Really?"
Nini scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Of course not! I thought I was going to have to take you to the hospital or something! You're really not still sick?"
Ricky nodded, "I'm a little sniffly but other than that I'm doing alright I guess."
"Fine, then you can take me out to repay me for everything I've done for you the past few days," Nini declared.
Ricky could literally not say no.