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Linhardt adjusts his pillow for the fourth time before he thumps his head into it again. After a few minutes he sits up groaning, it’s nearly been an hour and he still can’t fall asleep while it normally just takes a couple of seconds to knock him out. That’s one of the things he hates about being sick, he may feel utterly drained and under the weather, but when he actually tries to sleep, this damn cold just doesn’t let him escape into the Land of sweet dreams. Absent-minded, he picks up one of the dozen books that lay scattered on the floor beside his bed from his previous attempts to read through the cold, although he closed it again after scanning two pages, not even really reading them. The combination of unease as well as fatigue makes the experience of reading an unpleasant one, which left him to glance out of the window, watching as a few droplets of water seemed to forecast rain.
All of the sudden he hears his door being slammed open, followed by an extremely familiar and loud voice. “Linhardt, I got you some hearty lunch to help your cold! Oh, and a sweet bun!” The cheerful blue haired boy stomps into the room, shutting the door with his foot.
“Come on, sit up straight and eat!” Caspar invites himself to sit on the bed with a food tray in both of his hands. Linhardt does as he’s told and inspects the tray, a plate full of meat and maybe some stray vegetables on the side, this is so Caspar-like, he thinks and looks further onto the mentioned sweet bun and next to it is a cup of tea.
“Is that-“ he starts just to be interrupted. “Yep! I got some Angelica tea just for you.” A proud smile graces his face as he places the tray on Linhardt’s lap. “You are aware that I’ll hardly be able to finish this all, yes?” And as if he already expected this to come up, Caspar scoots a tad closer whilst getting something out of his pocket.“If that happens, I’m ready to help out with the eating.” He exclaims chipper as ever and reveals a second fork.
“Haven’t you had lunch yourself just a while ago?” The meat was strikingly tender, much to Linhardt’s convenience as he was not in the mood to chew on anything too though. “Well, yes but these muscles need every bit of protein they can get! ...That was what makes your muscles grow faster, right? Proteins?” Linhardt just shakes his head as a response, a small defeated smile coming upon his lips. “I can’t reason with you about that, and yes, it were proteins that increase muscle growth”
Linhardt finishes his meal whilst listening to Caspar about what they’ve done today in class, more like what he’s done in the training grounds today, as that seems the only thing that’s stuck in his mind. “And then I knocked them to the ground with a good punch to the right.” He’s enthusiastically telling his story all the while punching the air, reminiscing how it felt. “That’s how I won the finals of the grappling tournament. Impressive, I know.” He slightly nods while listening and takes a bite of his sweet bun. With a quick glance from his bun to Caspar he moves his hand towards Caspar’s face, who catches the other’s gaze a bit confused at first which abruptly changes into a smile as he takes a big bite from the Bun.
Then Linhardt starts to speak again, his voice a bit hoarse “Caspar, you know you don’t have to do all this.”
“Do what?” He countered, as if the question was out of his realm of understanding. “Taking care of me when I’m sick,” Linhardt stared at the ceiling “it’s not like it was your fault that I caught a cold, so why would you spent your time after class being bored with me.” Caspar looked at him for a second with a gaping mouth, not knowing what to say. “Well, first off all, it was kinda my fault that you caught a cold. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have fallen into that river last week.” He quietly started, which is rare for Caspar. “Also, I remember how you always had trouble sleeping when you had a cold, so I thought I could, you know, check up on you?” that was rather an inquest than a statement, however Linhardt didn’t question him any further. “And...” he seems more bashful now, and maybe because Linhardt’s perception is a bit clouded, but it seems like a small cast of pink appeared on Caspar’s cheeks. “I think I spent enough time with you to realize that I don’t really get bored around you, even though I don’t understand most of your rambling.”
Linhardt felt something in him warm up a little bit, which he reasoned to be caused by his cold. “If it’s like that,” he started as he looked to where Caspar was seated, after he put Linhardt’s tray on the table he sat down closer to Linhardt than before. “Can you help me with something that may help me fall asleep?” Caspar’s face instantly lit up “Absolutely!” He chirped and pierced the other one with a determined look in his eyes. Linhardt yawned at the sight of that much energy “Come on, I said help me sleep, you don’t need to be so energetic about that.” Slight amusement was audible in his voice as Caspar looked to the side with a slight pout “Yeah, Yeah. So, what should I do?”
“Turn around so you’ll sit back against the wall. That would be all.” Linhardt moves sluggish to the side, making space for Caspar to relocate. “Alright, that’s easy.” He answers while turning on the bed, now facing the wall with his back as told.
“Good, good” Linhardt murmurs, right before yawning again, seems like tiredness has caught up to him again. Caspar didn’t know what to expect, he didn’t really care honestly but when Linhardt invites himself to lay on his lap, he sure is surprised. He relaxes his tensed up shoulders, at least he tries to, it was nowhere near the first time Linhardt napped on his lap, shoulder or anywhere he could fall asleep on nevertheless it still catchend him off guard this time. “Yes, this is much better than before.” Linhardt mumbles with eyes half closed. Somehow hearing him say that gave Caspar what he needed to relax and he gently started to comb through Linhardt’s hair with his fingers.
“Cas..” Linhardt whispers, it’s obvious that he’s basically asleep right now, but he still wants to say something.
“Hmm?” Caspar responds humming softly, normally the others sleepiness doesn’t affect him, yet now he feels his energy slowly leave him.
“Thank you Cas, for today.” About five seconds later and he was fast asleep, Caspar still combing through his hair and yawning himself. “For you everytime Lin.” And just as Linhardt, he fell asleep in mere Seconds, listening to Linhardt’s soft breathing and the distant sound of light rain.