LadyKF Writes

[Tumblr post] From the Sickfic Prompts list, No Rest for the Wicked - the big bad (character) has more to worry about than the good guys

In Hojo’s experience, there was never a good time to be sick. In was inconvenient, occasionally messy, and it made him even more impatient than usual. The lab technicians made themselves scarce or were walking on eggshells, and he all but threw Hollander out before dealing with any of his nonsense. His head was thumping, chest tight and threatening the kind of coughing that forbade working around anything but papers. Not that office work was bad, precisely, but he rather enjoyed a more hands-on approach and being active.

Not today. Not with this nasty little rhinovirus clogging his airways. There was a board meeting as well, and he simply opted out of it. If someone wanted him that badly, they could damn well come themselves; he didn’t feel like dealing with the fuss of it all. Honestly at this point, going back to his apartment was starting to sound unusually appealing.

So of course, someone would come. The quiet tap of dress shoes was deliberate, a Turk making sure he was heard, and Hojo gave Veld a watery glare over the rim of his glasses. “What?”

He got an arched brow and the faintest twitch of lips, emotion there and gone before it could be read with how practiced the Turk Director’s restraint had gotten. “Files from the meeting. You look like hell.”

“I very seriously doubt you care,” Hojo snipped, watching him set the file down with a look of utter disdain.

“I don’t. But you out of commission makes me more work than you doing your job,” Veld said smoothly, shrugging. Things hadn’t been the same between them since Valentine’s untimely death; the fallout after Kalm’s bombing had merely widened the gulf. “I’d rather not pile it on.”

“Far be it from me to inconvenience you, Faraman.” Hojo cleared his throat, chest clenching a moment against a cough and glaring all the more when the second brow joined the first. “Was there something you needed? I have work to do.”

Veld appeared to consider it a moment, lips pressed tight. Something in his tone softened just a touch in a way neither man would acknowledge. “Get some rest, Hojo.”

For once, Hojo looked away first, quiet. “Departments don’t run themselves. I’m sure you have your own business to attend.”

Veld made a quiet, noncommittal sound. There was nothing else to say, and he saw himself out.

Hojo certainly didn’t think of the look he’d been given again. He wasn’t that sick.

[Tumblr post] From the Sickfic Prompts list, Medic Down - every group seems to have a primary caretaker. How do they handle it when (character) is the one sick? (AGSZ set sometime after Zack makes First)

Generally speaking, if Angeal got sick he’d caught it from one of his lovers, but this one was a surprise. He’d woken up feeling off and it had mounted through the day into a quiet cough and the tingling urge to sneeze, which he generally tried to put off as long as he could - those didn’t quiet quite so nicely, and if they were forced to, it just made him want to sneeze again. 

Sephiroth noticed first, though he wasn’t certain - they shared morning coffee together, the first ones out of the apartment - and the fact that Angeal was moving a little slower than usual was notable. It made a curl of worry start, but he wasn’t sure what exactly was going on and he didn’t want to push. Angeal seemed in a good enough mood, just… tired, perhaps.

Genesis, with years of familiarity, noticed as soon as he stole into his office to sneak a few muffins for his own belated breakfast, coming in late as per usual. It was clear in the slight wrinkle of his nose and the way he cleared his throat, and the redhead reflexively toned down his antics. As soon as he left, he called Zack with a warning.

Zack wore his emotions on his sleeve, always had, and was a little wary of training with Angeal if he really was getting sick. But the older First gave him that frown for suggesting otherwise, the same one that had always pulled him back into line when he’d been his student, and he gave in. Thank god he was quicker on his feet, though, when Angeal’s breath caught after a swift kick and he turned away, coughing hard against his arm. His breathless apology was met with a little flailing and Zack all but begging him to end the simulation. A little embarrassed, he agreed to it and headed back to his office.

Zack called Genesis back immediately, apologizing that he’d ever even agreed to it - Genesis assured him that no, he knew how Angeal got and Zack didn’t have near so much practice telling him not to be an idiot - and they agreed that perhaps a gentler touch was needed. Not that Sephiroth had more finesse than Genesis, exactly, but his hesitance in the role of caretaker tended to bring out a softer side in Angeal that would be perfect.

Sephiroth decided to handle it by bringing Angeal lunch - tea and soup from a Wutai place they’d frequented - accompanied by a careful smile that earned him access, even though Angeal gave him a rueful one back. “Did the others send you?”

“Somewhat,” he admitted, settling into one of the other chairs to eat his own. “They’re worried.”

“It’s not too bad.” Of course, the steam from drink and soup alike had set him sniffing softly and Angeal grimaced, grabbing up a napkin and turning aside for a quick, sharp sneeze that didn’t muffle well and made him shake his head a little. The arched brow he was treated to made him chuckle. “Really, it’s not. Just sensi-iih… HISSHHU! Snf. Ngh, sorry. But I mean it, it’s really not that bad.”

“… bless you?” Sephiroth ventured, the phrase not coming near so naturally as it did to Genesis or even Zack. It earned a small, warm smile though, and that made it worth it. “It couldn’t hurt to take work home instead, could it? You’d still get things done, and be more… relaxed?”

“Here I thought I was forbidden to bring work home.” Still, Angeal’s smile was teasing. “I might. But it’s an easy day, I’m not worried. Promise, I wouldn’t even make one of you go home for this.”

“Hn, as you say.” Unfortunately, he really wasn’t a particularly good judge of illness. It just wasn’t something he had much experience with. “Try to keep it to an easy day?”

“I’ll do my best,” Angeal promised. “SOLDIER’s honor.”

Well, it really didn’t get better than a promise on Angeal’s honor. Satisfied for the moment, Sephiroth nodded. He’d still see about what plans could be made to help him relax when he got home, though.

[Tumblr post] PROMPT: What if Veld collapsed though? With a really high fever? Would it be mass TURK panic or would they take care of him ignoring the murderous glares and such? Though I guess they could just shove him off to the med bay.

I gave this thought, and the one thing I can say is that they would not shove him off to the med bay. Simply because Veld would not stay there. It’s one thing if it’s his Turks around, or close friends (canon and my own headcanons agree he and Reeve get on well) but just Average Joe Medical? Huh uh, no, Boss Turk has neither time nor patience for that.

So, there’s definitely going to be some panic because this is Veld and Veld is normally the definition of “has everything under control” so him collapsing? That’s the sort of thing that probably last happened… well, some point when he signed himself out of medical early, probably. Side note, I bet there were stories about the sorts of messes he and Vincent got into back in the day, and I doubt rookie!Veld was any more agreeable.

At the same time, while this newer generation doesn’t have the years of experience Veld does, they’re Turks and lack of precedent isn’t going to stop them from figuring out what to do. Honestly, Reno and Rude probably have a whole unofficial guide to managing when something happens to Tseng, so they at least have a starting point for dealing with a high ranking, incredibly stubborn, very crafty and probably cranky person with an aversion to taking it easy.

Here’s what I think would happen…

---

It started simple enough, a stress headache not too terribly unusual given the workload that the President was laying on their department; between being the head of the Turks leading the Turks, and also the head of the Department of Administrative Research and therefore a board member, Veld had more than enough on his plate. And then there was AVALANCHE, and the tail end of the war as it was wrapping up, nasty business he was all too glad to leave to Deusericus and his SOLDIERs for the most part.

He almost didn’t notice the shift of pressure in his head, but he definitely noticed the scratchy irritation starting in his throat. He’d never been too prone to getting sick, but after the hours breathing in hot ash and smoke during the bombing, Veld had found that he was a little more susceptible to respiratory things. Nothing he could power through so simple as a head cold, no this sort of thing headed for his throat and even for his lungs if he wasn’t careful. Unfortunately, though, ‘careful’ was a fine line to walk - he had far too much work to do on any given day to just take off a couple days for anything short of an emergency. And really, being sick didn’t get anywhere near counting. That was just inconvenient. It would go away eventually, and he didn’t have time or patience to deal with it beyond taking something to head off the cough. His voice was a little deeper with it by the second day, but that did seem to make him getting across how very done he was with Heidegger and the army happen much faster during a meeting later so small mercies.

Third day in, and a fever joined the party. Fantastic. Nothing to do for it but go about his day. He’d caught a couple glances between the others but a quick look headed off anyone saying anything. There was just too much going on to bother with it. He was doing his level best not to snap at anyone, but that was definitely helped by people keeping their noses out of it and doing their jobs. Especially when things went pear shaped, and there wasn’t time to stop and think about how he felt, dealing with fallout from another AVALANCHE attack where damage calculations were on a constant rise and hours blurred together trying to get a handle on it. He was just going to get something from the files, moving away from the monitors, when his vision began to cut in tellingly and he grabbed at the desk hard enough that the side under his prosthetic creaked in strain. Vaguely he heard someone say his name, and then there was nothing.

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[Tumblr post] From the Sickfic Prompts list, 99.9% Immunity - (character) never gets sick, right? Wrong.

It was not, unfortunately, true that SOLDIERs never got sick. SOLDIERs rarely got sick, increasingly so the more enhanced that they were. Which of course left Sephiroth able to count the instances he’d been ill - not counting poisoning, status effects or mako boosters - on one hand, even into his early twenties. There were times where he was a little too environmentally aware, an hour or so of a vague semi-allergic sensation when he was first at particularly potent new places - Wutai, Gongaga and Mideel had all been offenders - but over all it simply wasn’t something that occurred.

And then he got close to Angeal and Genesis, who were nearly to his level and yet just far enough that they got sick, certainly more than he did. Genesis was the worse of the two, somehow not quite as physically sound as his strength would have you expect, though Angeal was the worse for pushing through it. Of course, part of that was Genesis’ vanity refusing to let people see him in such a state. It spoke well of how they’d grown together that Genesis was willing to be around him then, to be seen at less than his best and even let himself be taken care of now and then but there was just the small problem of the fact that colds could be contagious. And if there was any way he could get something, it would be from his equally-enhanced lover.

More than one sniff within a handful of minutes had gotten an arched brow from Angeal. The first sneeze - breathless and barely audible - got a tsk from Genesis, but it was a second, later the same evening, that got him a more measuring look. Genesis was in the lazy, restful part of his recovery at this point, which had the benefit of him being much less volatile than usual. So instead of saying anything right away, he crooked a finger with a little smile as Sephiroth went to him.

Then, because he was still Genesis and never could leave well-enough alone, he cupped his cheek and brushed the pad of his thumb down the bridge of Sephiroth’s nose, just light enough to make it twitch and wrinkle with the unusual sensitivity. He tsked again, shaking his head with a rueful smile. “I take it I was a little too generous.”

It was, perhaps, unexpected kindness that he did admit it was his fault that Sephiroth was in such a state, or would be in time. It wasn’t precisely something he liked to admit to himself, that wasn’t supposed to be possible,not for him, and the last thing he wanted was testing. “You were.”

“My apologies,” Genesis murmured, stroking his cheek again without the provoking touch to his nose. “I’ll be sure to be ample distraction, hm? Maybe Lazard will send you to mind me.”

“He might.” Now that they were getting along - and then some, which he knew the Director was aware of - Angeal wasn’t the only one called to deal with Genesis when he decided to raise a fuss. Of course, the fact that he often did so just to get one of them sent his way was also something Lazard was aware of, but there wasn’t much to be done with it; the man was brilliant and far too accomplished to punish much. “I wouldn’t protest.”

“Of course you wouldn’t, you’re quite sensible.” Genesis hummed and stretched against him, winding a few strands of silver hair around his finger. “I doubt anyone will notice, regardless, but you let me worry about that, hmm?”

“No one would be inclined to believe it even if they did.” Sephiroth shrugged. It was fortunate, he supposed; it wasn’t like he wanted anyone noticing him weakened. Well… almost anyone. Leaning in for a kiss, he had to admit that if it softened Genesis’ edges and made him inclined to spoil him a little then it wasn’t too bad. “Planning to make it up to me?”

There was nothing even remotely innocent about the lazy, devilish smile that curved his lover’s lips. “Oh yes.”

Next >>

[Tumblr post] From the Sickfic Prompt list, It’s Nothing - (character) insists they’re fine, right up until they collapse

It started with a headache, a low thrum in the back of his head that made Zack wish he wore his helmet for once. Then again, the pressure might not have been great. It felt better to press at his temples and forehead, a little, so it was hard to say.

Kunsel, ever the detail man, had been giving him sidelooks all morning. At least since he decided that squats were spending energy he just didn’t have. He had a training session with Angeal that afternoon and was going to need all the reserves he could muster. Realistically, he knew it was probably just some bug or something, his body hurt and things didn’t taste right - didn’t help that he really wasn’t hungry, he made himself eat because he knew he was supposed to, that SOLDIERs burned calories like crazy even at rest because of the mako. Fat lot of good that stuff had done him against this, but there wasn’t anything he could do but gripe.

And Zack was many things, but he was not a complainer. Not about some stupid little bug, not when he’d seen his heroes shrug off literally bleeding wounds to get a job done. He didn’t even have a mission, it was just training. Stupid headache wasn’t going to stop him, that was just ridiculous.

He met Angeal at the VR room with a smile, always glad to see him, but didn’t have much to say. It was fortunately easy to deflect his moment of concern, saying he just wanted to focus on his training. Angeal wasn’t cruel, but he was definitely a hard case when it came to training. Zack felt himself breathing hard far too quickly, but waved it off when Angeal asked. You didn’t get breaks in the field, it would be good practice, right? He wasn’t sure about the sim, though, he hadn’t thought it was generally this hot in Wutai but he could feel himself sweating. He tried to get a good breath in, blinking a few times and wiping the sweat off his face as best he could with a damp arm.

“Zack?”

Again with the questioning. It was nice Angeal was concerned and all, but he was looking worried and that was just… just ridiculous. “’m fine, Angeal. Let’s do the next… the next part.”

The world tipped a little and Zack took a half step to the side, managing a startled little ‘oh’ before everything went black.
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[Tumblr post] From the Sickfic Prompts list, Don’t Speak - (character) has a horribly sore throat and is reduced to barely talking while they load up on hot drinks and soup to recover.

---

Angeal was not having the best day. Being sick happened rarely, given he was a First Class, but the nature of colds was to mutate and they had a way of getting around the enhancements now and then. The fact that this particular one had him coughing and trying to nurse a horrible sore throat was especially unfortunate, because it meant training just wasn’t going to happen. Zack had cringed outright when they’d met up, but it was for the best. He could get plenty done in office.

Of course, he hadn’t given enough thought to the fact that Zack did talk to people, as evidenced by his door swinging open and then being replaced by Genesis’ lean form, the older Banoran staring him down a long moment.

“A little wolf told me you were in-office.” There was absolutely no humor in Genesis’ voice, his lyric tenor almost flat and his eyes just as hard as he made an impatient gesture. “Up. You’re going home.”

“I need to-”

“Goddess, don’t talk,” Genesis interrupted, cringing a little at the husky whisper his friend’s voice had dropped to. “Whatever needs done, it can wait. Don’t ‘it’s just my throat’ me, you’re in pain. And I know where your pain threshold sits, you stubborn behemoth. Home. And bed. I’ll make you things. Come along.”

Angeal uncrossed his arms, frowning darkly at him and drumming his fingers on the stack of reports he had been working on with a pointed look. He wasn’t about to just leave, never mind that yes alright he was sick, it was just his throat. It wasn’t going to hurt less if he was at home, and things weren’t going to get done if he was.

Genesis rolled his eyes, muttering about how stubborn he was. “Fine. I’ll do it. But you need to get home, for heaven’s sake you could spread this to the lower enhanced. That’s the last thing anyone needs.”

That was unfair, but not untrue. Angeal sighed, rubbing his throat and seriously considering it. It wasn’t like it would take that long for his system to get rid of the virus, they never lasted more than a few days. And really, if he started coughing again… that could be a problem. Maybe being home would be the better thing to do.

Something must have told Genesis that he was getting his way, because he relaxed a little and crossed over to him. “Come on, then. Up-up.”

Angeal swatted at him, heaving himself up from his chair with a little wince at the low throb it started in his head. Alright, so maybe it was a good idea. But he wasn’t going to say that.

“I’ll make you some tea and stick a chicken in the crockpot and I’ll make soup later,” Genesis said, already making plans for what to do for him. “A little rest for once will do you wonders.”

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99.9% Immunity - (character) never gets sick, right? Wrong.

Behind Closed Doors - (character) has a solid public face, but in private they let themselves be taken care of when they’re not well

Bless You - (character) has a particularly sneezy cold, and may or may not be able to retreat from life to deal with it.

Don’t Speak - (character) has a horribly sore throat and is reduced to barely talking while they load up on hot drinks and soup to recover.

Elephant in the Room - (character) is sick, but for some reason - rank, personality, etc - no one is talking about it

Heroes Don’t Take Sick Days - there’s no time to rest when you have to save the world, so (character) has to push themselves even when miserable

I’m Dying - (character) has a headcold and despite that not being anywhere near the worst they’ve ever been, they’re flailing about it to anyone who will listen

Insult to Injury - as if being injured wasn’t enough, (character) is getting sick too

Ill Timed - it’s the worst possible time for (character) to be sick, but their body didn’t get the memo

Irreplaceable - (character) is the leader/boss and isn’t able to take personal time off, even when they’re under the weather

It’s Nothing - (character) insists they’re fine, right up until they collapse

Judgement Call - (character) really isn’t feeling well, but has pressing obligations. Others could step up, but no one is as qualified. They choose to…

Medic Down - every group seems to have a primary caretaker. How do they handle it when (character) is the one sick?

Milking It - if (character) has to be sick, they’re at least going to get as much pampering out of others as they can

Misery Loves Company - (character) is under the weather and not up for much, but really appreciates having someone there. Even if that someone is sick too.

Not a Word - (character) said they don’t get sick, and isn’t in the mood for anyone to remind them while they recover

No Rest for the Wicked - the big bad (character) has more to worry about than the good guys

Open Secret - everyone knows (character) is sick, but they’re trying so hard no one has said anything

Painfully Polite - (character) has very strong feelings about how one should behave, and they are even more mindful when they’re not at their best, talking through a sore throat, trying not to cough, attempting to stifle sneezes, etc.

Persuasive Partners - (character) is sick, and refusing to stay put; their partner(s) give them a good reason to stay in bed

Stay With Me - (character A) rarely asks for help, but they’re feeling miserable enough to ask (character B) to keep them company a while.

Stepping Up - boss/leader (character) is clearly miserable, so the others go out of their way to take as much of their workload as possible

Suffer in Silence - for whatever reason, (character) doesn’t want anyone to know they’re sick, and does everything they can to hide it

Take One Down… - (character) gets sick, and spreads it to the rest of the group

Team Mom/Dad - (character) is the one to always take care of others on the team

The Wolf Cries True - (character) has been known to exaggerate or even pretend they’re sick, only this time they’re telling the truth

This is Your Fault - (character A) was clingy while they were sick, and now (character B) has it

Why Didn’t You Say? - (character) hasn’t been feeling well, making for some uncharacteristic behavior, and their partner(s)/team/friends are much more understanding once they realize why

With Kid Gloves On - it’s a known fact that (character) has trouble accepting help, even when they’re sick; the others have learned specific “acceptable” methods over time

You Heard Nothing - (character) is obviously coming down sick - sneezing, sniffling, coughing - and absolutely refusing to admit to it, let alone take things easy.