I lay on my bed that night after Kon left, hugging the green blanket like a body pillow. You’re a goddess, Maze. A tha of the Circassian people.

I didn’t feel like a goddess. The Circassians didn’t need a tha anyway, not when almost all of them had converted to different religions. What was I supposed to do with this information? I smushed my face into the blanket and sighed. It felt like I was more of a foreigner than I already was before.

***

In the morning, Kon came knocking.

Knock, knock.

“Maze?”

I groaned in reply as I tossed around in my bed.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Maze, are you awake? We’re going to be late for school.”

At those words, I tried to stand up and failed. I was clammy with sweat and was shivering.

“Kon, leave without me,” I croaked and coughed. “I think I have a fever.”

There was a beat of silence, and I felt Kon leave. I pulled the blanket tighter over me and sniffled, feeling lonely.

Should I call my father over? But I hated to use his name like that. It felt like I was forcing him to comply with my wishes whenever I did that.

I sighed. Maybe I should have asked Kon to stay with me today. It was with these thoughts that I fell back to sleep, wishing I wasn’t alone.

***

I woke up to a refreshing feeling over my forehead. I touched it, and my hand came back with a damp towel warm to the touch.

Who had been nursing me while I slept?

The answer was a feeling. The feeling that someone was by my side. Someone I knew very well.

I turned to my left and, just as I expected, Kon was sleeping on my chair by the bed. He must have pulled it over from the study desk. On my desk, there was an empty bowl of porridge and a cup that probably used to be full of lemon and mint tea. Kon knew I loved to drink lemon and mint tea when I got sick.

When had he fed me those, though? I didn’t remember, but I felt way better now so he must have woken me up sometime.

I smiled and called out gently. “Kon?”

His right ear twitched, and he grumbled in his sleep.

I chuckled. “Kon, go to your bed. You will get sick.”

His right ear twitched again, and he opened one eye. “Maze?”

Gods, his voice was so husky when he was sleepy.

His other eye opened as well, and he yawned as he stretched like a cat. Or maybe like a fox. Since he was a fox. Was I rambling? No, I wasn’t.

Kon frowned.

Oh, no. Was I thinking out loud? No, I wasn’t. So why was he frowning?

“Do you still have a fever?” he continued as he pulled the chair closer and placed a hand over my blushing cheeks. “You feel warm.”

I was going to get even warmer if he wouldn’t let go.

“I’m fine,” I said instead with a sheepish smile. “I guess a bath would help, though.”

“Oh, would you like help?”

Whose help?

“Genka should be in the house,” he said as he stood up. “I’ll go call her over right away.”

I watched Kon leave with the tray in his hands. He closed the door behind him, and I sighed with my face in my hands.

This sickness was making me weird.

***

After the bath, I indeed felt so much better. I wasn’t sweaty anymore, and I was comfortably warm—not chilly or too hot. I announced I would be fit to go back to school tomorrow as I sat down on my bed.

“Are you sure you’re completely healed?” Kon replied, sitting in my chair. “Maybe we should wait one more day at home.”

I shook my head with a grin on my lips. “I’m fine. You worry too much.”

Kon sighed. “If you say so. Still, rest a bit more for tonight.”

I chuckled. “Okay, you worrywart.”

Then, snuggling into my bed, I pulled the covers over me and said, “See? Cocooned like a silkworm. I will be a healthy butterfly in the morning.”

Kon chuckled as well, “Then we will fly to the school.”

BONUS CONTENT: Kon nursing Maze

With a tray of porridge and lemon-and-mint tea, I knocked on Maze’s door.

“Maze?”

No reply. Was she getting revenge on me for the stunt I had pulled yesterday? Would she be half-naked as I had been then, maybe wiping her sweat?

The thoughts made me blush and stutter, “M-Maze. I’m coming in.”

No reply again.

I slowly opened the door, cringing at the slight noise it made as if to chide me for my expectations. My eyes lowered to the floor, I gulped and slowly raised them when I heard no reaction still.

She was asleep.

She was asleep, cuddled under her blanket green as her eyes, and I was so embarrassed that I wanted to run away. Ruffling my hair with one hand, I tip-toed to the desk and placed the tray down.

“Maze?” I whispered, gently patting the mattress under her.

She groaned and turned away.

She was sleeping deeply, but she needed nutrition to get better.

“…ry,” I heard her croak then. “I’m…so…rry…”

A tear nestled on her nose, shaking and finally dropping off the tip onto her blanket.

“Kohaku…I’m…sorry…”

My lips pursed on their own, and I patted Maze’s hair.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “Maze, it’s okay.”

Maze flinched in her sleep. “I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…So, so sorry—”

She jerked awake then and, still lying down, looked around with glazed over and teary eyes. Her eyes landed on me and her lips trembled.

“I’m…sorry…Kon…”

I tried to smile, but I wasn’t sure if I managed. “What for?”

She raised her left hand to touch a tear that had escaped my eyes and was traveling its way down my cheek. “I made you…cry…”

“Sshh,” I said as I held her hand that was still holding my cheek. “Come on, you need to eat.”

Maze frowned. “But I’m not…hungry…”

“Then you can drink some lemon and mint tea first.”

“Oh…yeah…I can do that…”

“Good,” I said as I helped her sit up, her back supported by the head of the bed. “Come on, you need to sit.”

After that, I rushed to the tray and was back right away with the glass in my hands. I blew on it to cool it down a little before I handed it to her. “Careful, it’s hot.”

She wrapped her hands around the glass and took a sip, sighing after she gulped. The drink was gone soon enough, and she was more open to eating porridge after that. I helped her eat that, too, and then tucked her in.

“Now rest up,” I said as I caressed her sweaty hair out of her face, and she smiled.

“Okay…”

And she was gone back to the land of dreams, just like that. I pulled the chair at her desk by the bed and prepared to watch over her.