A/N - Day 6 of 12 days of ficmas!

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Sick

“ACHOIYOIY!”

Momo had always had a unique sneeze, Sana did too so for a while the family had all believed it was a Japanese thing until Mina’s pretty normal sneezes showed them otherwise. The truth had come out a few days ago and since then Tzuyu and Momo had both been off school. Tzuyu would have been off anyway until things died down but due to being out in the rain both she and Momo had both come down with nasty colds and so were confined to Tzuyu’s room. Somehow Nayeon too had gotten ill, less sneezing and coughing and more vomiting, headaches and tiredness but all three were now under quarantine.

In this house if one person got sick, everybody got sick and so quarantine was required to prevent an outbreak. They were all grumpy about not feeling well but both Nayeon and Momo were somewhat happy about spending time with Tzuyu. It had been agreed that once they all felt better they’d have more of those nights like the one after Tzuyu was brought home, just the sisters all together joking around.

Only not in Tzuyu’s room. Elkie had come by at six in the morning and scared the e out of Jeongyeon when her face appeared at the second story window. Safe to say the duo were back to hating each other but Jeongyeon made a point of not being too cruel where Tzuyu could see them.

“Ugh,” Momo whined, “I’m dying.”

“Join the club.” Was Tzuyu’s response,

“At least you two aren’t vomiting every hour.” Nayeon complained,

“True.”

The trio were laid in Tzuyu’s bed. Momo had put on a film to watch while Nayeon tried to nap. The eldest was at the side of the bed that wasn’t against the wall so that she could run to the bathroom if she needed to. Momo was in the middle, she’d been getting cold chills and so wanted to snuggle between her sisters. Tzuyu was on the other side, texting Elkie with a small smile.

Momo noticed, “She treats you well right?”

“Hmm?”

“Elkie,” Momo said, “She looks after you, right?”

Nayeon turned over to see Tzuyu’s face when she replied.

Tzuyu nodded, “She does.”

“Are you two dating?” Nayeon asked, interested,

Tzuyu shrugged, “I don’t know. We’ve kissed a few times--”

“Wait, a few times?” Momo smirked, “You’ve been holding out on us, I thought the party was the only time!”

Tzuyu blushed, she hoped the duo would put it down to a fever, “She kissed me for the first time after that whole…incident went down. She said it was so that my first kiss with a man could be bad but my first kiss with a girl would be better.”

“Tzuyu…”

Tzuyu sent them a sad smile, she was okay.

“Achoo!”

Nayeon rolled her eyes, “You were so cute until the snot rocket.”

Momo laughed, “Do you remember the last time we all got sick?”

“Christmas dinner right?” Nayeon laughed, “Appa Sang bought bad beef from this shady market stall and we all got food poisoning.”

“That was a dark few days.” Tzuyu shuddered,

Momo chuckled, “No it wasn’t. We took the heater up into the tree house and hung out up there.”

“Oh yeah!” Nayeon laughed, “Jihyo puked over the railing and it froze in the snow.”

“You guys didn’t let me up.” Tzuyu commented, “You said I was too young.”

Momo and Nayeon exchanged a look.

“It was fine,” Tzuyu shrugged, smiling at them, “Me and the Appas watched Christmas movies all day and made a blanket fort.”

Somehow it didn’t make them feel any better. Momo cuddled up to Tzuyu, “Baby Tzuyu! We were so mean to you when we were kids.”

“It’s okay.” Tzuyu sighed,

“No it’s not.” Nayeon told her, “We’re going to try and….try and…oh no!”

Nayeon bolted out the room, hand over . They watched her go, they pitied her a little. Neither of them had been sick, whatever illness she had was worse than their colds that was for sure. Momo remained cuddled up to Tzuyu, running her fingers through long dark hair.

“I’m sorry I got you sick.” Tzuyu whispered after a while,

“What do you mean?”

“You were only out in the rain because of me,” Tzuyu said, sounding timid, “If I hadn’t disappeared you wouldn’t have been out there.”

“I’d do it again.” Momo told her firmly, “I’m not always the best unnie but I do love you Tzuyu, I’ll always come looking for you.”

“I think you’re a good unnie.” Tzuyu told her starting to doze off,

Momo was taken aback a little, “R-Really?”

“Yeah,” Was the breathy reply, “You always looked after me when everyone else was distracted. I was glad that you found me, your hugs are *yawn* special.”

“Th-Thanks, Tzu. You get some sleep.”

“Mm kay.”

Momo felt tears prick but quickly blinked them away. Nayeon walked back in looking like death, “Ugh what’s wrong with my body?”

Momo hushed her quietly, Tzuyu’s breathing against her shoulder had evened out meaning she was sleeping. Nayeon mimed zipping shut and climbed into bed.

“Tzuyu said I’m a good unnie.” Momo whispered,

“You are.” Nayeon told her, “Not many people would run through the rain to find their little sister and then give her the jacket of their backs.”

“I did what any of you would have done.”

“Maybe, but you were the first to jump up to do it.” Nayeon sensed Momo needed to be reassured about something but didn’t know what, “You’re selfless Momo. You’d stay up all night coaxing Sana through a thunder storm, you always give Chaeyoung compliments on her art no matter how disturbing her imagination is sometimes, you listen to every piano piece Dahyun composes, you drive Jihyo to and from all her activities when Appas are busy. I love Jeongyeon but when I went to college you stepped up to look after everyone. You’re a great unnie Momo, I hope you know that.”

“Thank you…sometimes I’m not sure.”

“Well of course you’re great! You learned from the best!”

Momo giggled. Tzuyu suddenly whined in her sleep, she’d been having nightmares a lot lately so Momo knew to keep her hair until she calmed. Nayeon frowned looked at her.

“I still feel guilty.”

“We all do.” Momo sighed, “But we had no way to know, we can’t focus on guilt we need to focus on being there for her now.”

“You’re pretty smart, you know that?”

This time Momo did sniffle, she’d never been called smart before. It struck a big chord with her. She’d only ever been called dumb and, while she didn’t really believe it, hearing her sisters tell her that she was smart meant the world to her. Sensing this was a conversation to have when they were healthier, Nayeon rolled over and cuddled into Momo offering her the comfort the younger girl had given Tzuyu as she wept quietly. This was probably yet another sign that Nayeon should be around more, not just for the younger girls but the older ones too. She had just left them to fend for themselves forgetting that they would also need guidance. That was her mistake, she wouldn’t leave them behind again.

She thought back to that Christmas a few years ago, before they all got food poisoning. They had all sat round the table pulling crackers and laughing and joking. In the end that memory of the warmth and the joy had made up for the stomach problems over the following few days. They would have to do that again sometime soon, steal the heater and go up into the tree house - with Tzuyu this time. It had become apparent recently that they had all neglected the youngest a little bit and she sought to change that before she returned to college.

There were still a lot of things that remained unsaid but they’d be dealt with over time and as the four of them lay in that bed, they had no idea how complicated things were about to get.

A/N - No I didn’t miscount. Prompts welcome :)