JohnKat: Sick

"Karkat?" You look over at the troll by the doorframe. He's leaning against the door, his skin paler than normal. "Karkat you don't look so good."

"Shut up, I'm fine." He took a few steps forward before he started to fall.

You rush up and support him, "You're not fine, Karkat, you can hardly stand!" You place a hand to his forehead, "Oh gosh, Karkat you're burning up! I think you're sick."

"Nonsense, I've never been sick." You help him back into his pajamas and under the covers. "This is stupid, I've never been sick on Alternia."

You nod sympathetically and leave to grab the thermometer. You've heard from Rose that trolls are pretty similar to humans biologically, so you're hoping the thermometer will work. "Here, this goes under your tongue for a while." He takes it without question and sticks it in his mouth.  After a few minutes you take it out and look at it. "Holy shit, Karkat…"

He looks up at you worriedly, "John?"

The device measured well over a hundred. "Uh, one second." You pick up the phone and call Dave and Terezi; you have no idea what the normal body temperature of trolls are. Unfortunately neither do they, though Dave recommends you call Kanaya. You hate bothering them for everything, but you're concerned about Karkat. "Rose, hi, yeah I'm good. No, it's about Karkat. What is the normal temp for trolls? Do you know?" She put Kanaya on instead. "Kanaya? Can you help?" She tells you calmly that trolls have a range of internal temperatures ranging from ninety degrees Fahrenheit to over one hundred.

"If he's sick all you have to do is subtract a few degrees and that should be his normal body temp. No, of course not John, human medication should be fine. I wish you luck."

You hang up and breathe a sigh of relief, his temp is normal for a sick troll. "Karkat, you'll be fine. You're just sick."

He crosses his arms, "It's this stupid earthlike temperatures that gave me your stupid earth human viruses."

"Karkat, I hardly doubt it was the winter, you always wear at least four layers at all times, you probably picked something up from the people around us."

He grumbled and took the medicine you handed him. He scrunched up his nose after drinking and growled. "This tastes like shit."

"Well of course, you're not supposed to like it."

He wiggles back down into the blankets and closes his eyes. "This is stupid." He mutters.

You rest a hand on his head, "I'll be in the other room, just call if you need me. I'll be in to check on you in a few hours."

You've never had to care for a sick person before, but you're sure you know what to do. You beat the game, how hard could a cold be? In a few hours you checked in on Karkat, he was still fast asleep. "Hey, Karkat, wake up." He rolled over and looked weakly up at you.

"I feel worse than before," he grimaced and sat up.

"Sorry buddy, that's usually how being sick works." He looked a little worried. "I'll go get you some more medicine; do you want anything to eat?" He nodded, "I'll be right back then." He watched you hand him a small bowl and more medicine. "It's chicken noodle soup, it's like a classic get well food." You sat down by his bedside and ate a small bowl for yourself. He sipped the broth and picked at the soft noodles and chicken pieces. "Do you feel nauseous?"

"I've never thrown up, I'll be fine."

You took the half eaten bowl from him and he settled back down into fluffy blankets. You stayed by his bedside for a little while longer, watching him sleep. You watched him freeze and his eyes fly open. "Karkat?"

"S-Shit, bathroom, now."

"O-Oh, ok!" You helped him up and to the bathroom. You rubbed his back as the chicken soup left his body. He was shaking pretty badly and his breath came out in raged gasps. You helped him back to bed and grabbed him a glass of water. "Here." You also placed a plastic container on the floor.

The trolls ears drooped and he looked miserable. "That was scary…" He turned and looked at you, "are you sure I'll be ok?"

You brushed the hair from his eyes and tenderly kissed his forehead. "Of course Karkat, you just have the flu or something. You'll be fine."

"But I've never…"

"I know, it's ok." You tried to reassure him. The troll was shaking and shivering, "Karkat…" he whimpered when you went to leave, so instead you pulled the blankets over him and sat back down, waiting for him to sleep. When he did you left his side and wandered back to the kitchen. You dumped the remaining soup from Karkat's bowl and washed it out. You knew he needed to eat something, so you pulled one his favorite fruit cups. Recently humans and trolls had managed to recreate many of the natural foods found on Alternia, this was one of them. You mashed up the small berries and made it similar to applesauce. The berries weren't acidic, so you hoped it would be ok for him to eat.

"Hey buddy," You say as you enter the room. "Here I got you something else." You sit down and hand him the small cup of fruit.

He looks down at it a bit frightened, "I don't want to."

"Karkat, you have to eat something." You move to his bed and sit next to him. "I know you're worried, but these things happen when you're sick." He whines and picks up the spoon. "You can't get better if your body doesn't have energy."

He looks up and nods, taking a few bites himself. "I just, really don't want to throw up again. That sucked."

"It generally does." You tell him sympathetically. "But everyone does when they're sick."

He spent most of the day sleeping, but you'd hear him get up and throw up occasionally. You felt so bad for troll, especially since he'd never been ill before in his life. His temperature hadn't gone down at all. It was really hard to see him lying motionless in bed. He was now only accepting water; everything you fed him seemed to come up not long after. Luckily he was still taking the medicine when you gave it to him.

When it came time to sleep yourself you checked in on him one last time. "Hey Karkat, you any better?" You knew the answer but you had to ask.

You saw the troll's ear's twitch and he looked up at you. "No." He tried to smile weakly.

You laugh quietly and ruffle his hair. "I'll wake you up when you need your next dose of medicine." You kiss his forehead again and he purred weakly. "I'll be just outside in the living room." Karkat was sleeping in your bed, so that left the couch for you.

The alarm was set for a few hours and you flopped down on the couch wearily. It was a lot harder than you though taking care of someone. It was even harder when that person happened to be your boyfriend. You're alarm woke up not too long after your head hit the pillow. Another trip to the kitchen provided you with more medicine and a fresh glass of water. You opened the door and saw Karkat's glowing eyes watching.

"Karkat, you're supposed to be sleeping." You set the water down on the side table and knelt by his side. "What's wrong?"

He whimpered pitifully and gripped your arm. "It hurts…"

"Karkat…" you hugged him and pet his hair. "Where?"

"Everywhere."

You tried to make him more comfortable, and reassure him.

"I hate this feeling John." He had a few tears sliding down his cheek. "Why does it hurt?"

"Awwww…Karkat…" You rubbed his shoulder and he continued to whine and whimper in your arms. He took his round of medicine and pressed his face into your arm. "Fevers go away Karkat, it won't be forever." You could feel more hot tears run down your arm. "I know it hurts," you kissed the top of his head. "Be brave."

You tucked him in again and left. It hurt you to see him like that, but you hoped he'd be better tomorrow. His temperature still hasn't gone down, but you figure the first day would always be the hardest.

The next morning you entered the room quietly. "Hey Karkat, good morning. How are you feeling?"

He looked up at you and smiled a bit, the color had started to return to his face. "Better, but still not good." He sat up and purred quickly when your hand brushed past his horns. "At least my stomach stopped punching me."

You smiled and took away the dirty dishes. "I'll be right back." You returned and sat beside his bed for a while. "Do you think you can handle some soup again? He looked a bit worried but nodded.

"Tomato soup this time." You placed the new bowl in his hand. He kept it down a lot better and seemed to improve as the day went on. He had you put in a few romcoms on the TV in front of the bed. You could hear him from the other room; he loved to shout at the characters on screen.

At least he was sounding more like himself. But he wasn't feeling like himself. He still complained that his stomach hurt and he had a headache. However he wasn't as nauseous as he was the day before. You wish his temp would go down, but it wasn't budging. He developed a small cough and runny nose throughout the day as well.

"It's like every part of my body wants to kill me." he grumbled when you came in to take his temp again.

"Well, you know what they say, when it rains it pours."

"And it's so damn boring. Fuck John I can't stay in bed any longer."

You pushed him down into the blankets, "You can move around when you don't have a fever. Until then stay put." He growled weakly and you just rolled your eyes. "Do you want your computer?"

"No, I'll just watch more movies. I don't really feel like talking to those idiots anyways."

You laugh a bit, "Those idiots are your friends, Karkat. And they might be worried about you."

"Yeah right, those fuckers are too busy with their lives to care that Karkat Vantas stopped screaming at them over the net for two days."

"Maybe if you wouldn't scream…"

He growled again then stopped. "Y-You don't think I'm annoying do you? Am I mean to you? Shit…"

There wasn't anything that could stop the smile from spreading across your face. "No, Karkat, of course not. You're you, even the rage-caps part." You popped in another movie and hugged him, "Just work on getting better ok?"

He nodded and watched you leave sadly. Karkat did get a bit better throughout the day, his face was bright with color again, and his eyes no longer looked dull. He stopped throwing up everything you gave him, though you hadn't tried solids yet.

You were over joyed when you walked into the room that night to take his temperature and found it had lowered. "Karkat, this is great news, you're getting better!"

"Finally." He groaned and leaned back. "Does that mean I'm good to go tomorrow?"

You laugh and put a hand on his shoulder, "Probably not, Karkat your fever is going down, it's not gone." He sighs and flops back over. "You're doing fine," You lean over him and plant more kisses on his neck and forehead.

"Can you stay with me yet?"

You frown and pet his head, "Sorry Karkat, not yet. Someone has to make sure you can be cared for." He growls and you scratched the base of his horns. "Soon, don't worry."

He pulls your face down and nuzzles your neck a bit. "I miss you."

"I know, me too." He coughs harshly and reaches for the water by his bed. "It won't be long." He nods sadly and releases the hand he was gripping without you even noticing. You flash a smile at him and close the door.

The next day Karkat seems worlds better.

"You still have a fever, but since it broke last night it's stayed low." He sighs and leans back. "I'll bring you some breakfast, anything you want?"

"Fruit, or something."

You nod and return to the kitchen. His favorite fruit you neatly chopped up and put in a small bowl of yogurt. "Here Karkat," you hand him the small bowl and flip on the TV, putting in another of his favorite movie. This time you slide under the covers and sit next to him.

"J-John, you nookwhiff get out of here, you'll get sick too."

"I think I'll be fine." You wrap an arm around him and pull him close. "Being sick sucks, but being alone sucks more."

He took a few bites of the fruit yogurt mix. "Thank you; you're an amazing Matesprit John."

"I'm only doing what any other person would do."

He finishes breakfast and rests his head on your shoulder. His cheeks are still flushed red and he's warm with fever, but he's happy. His nose was running and the troll ended up sticking tissues in them and leaning against you. He looked absolutely ridiculous and he was still the most adorable thing you've ever seen.

You pet his head slowly and listen to him purr softly.

"I guess being sick isn't all bad." He sighed and gave you a small smile. "I get a whole day in bed with you."