You remembered the call you got earlier today from Kronii; your gut instinct seeing her number flash on your phone told you immediately whatever it was about wasn’t good since she hardly ever reached out to you in the AM.
“Hey, so uhh… good morning, I guess. Listen, I know this is kind of inconvenient for you… yeah yeah, morning-voice me, it’s not that special, jeez. Anyways, what was I going to ask? Oh yeah, could you do me like a big favor and pick up some stuff and drop it off at my place?”
While you normally did find a little enjoyment in hearing her use her “just woke up” voice, it was noticeable more gravely-sounding, and you could hear her trying her must to mask a cough.
“Sick? Me? Shit, does it sound that bad to you?”
Apparently she had caught some nasty bug that had been floating around lately; she had just visited her family’s place not too long ago to help take care of them when they had it. She had joked that it would be her turn to catch in sooner rather or later, and the day after she got back, she said she remembered feeling more tired than usual before falling asleep and ended up waking herself up with her cough.
You took note of all the items she asked for, and told her when you’d be able to swing by her place.
“You’re a lifesaver. I’d do it myself, but I think this is one of those sorts of colds I don’t want to expose anyone else. And no, I will not give you my Kronii cooties unless you want to feel as miserable as I do right now.”
A few hours later, you rasp her apartment door with the backside of your hand before dropping the stuff she asked in front of it. You hear the pitter-patter of footsteps and slowly the door creaks open.
“I’d take a few steps back if I were you. I wasn’t kidding about how much this cold sucks.”
You comply, putting a few more feet of distance between you and the door before Kronii pokes her head out.
She was wearing a light blue tank top and some blue sports shorts, and was wearing one of those cheap tie-dye masks you could get at the local pharmacy. Even from a distance, you could tell by the frays in her hair, the sweat stains under her pits ,and her generally slouchy-way of carrying herself that she was not presently enjoying life. Even her expression looked more gaunt, the bags under her eyes highlighting this was no ordinary tiredness she was dealing with.
“Thanks again for picking this ah… ACHOOOOOOOWWW!”
All you could do was watch her strain herself for a few seconds to try and turn her body away in the opposite direction from you so she wouldn’t buckshot you with her oncoming sneeze. She succeeded in that (and you would have likely been okay since she was wearing a mask anyways), but ended up banging her head on the door while doing do.
“Ugh, I really hope that headache medicine you brought was extra-strength, owwwwww…” she manages to sputter in between sniffles as she holds her now (presumably more than before) throbbing head.
You offer to help her, but all she does is put out a hand in protest as she braces herself against the door with the other, propping her up.
“Seriously, I can handle myself and I’d feel bad if I ended up giving you this cold too.”
As much as her stubbornness frustrated you at times, you decided to not push any more into it today given her pitiable state.
“The doctor I spoke to said I should probably expect to take the next week off” she says in an annoyed tone, taking the moment to run her hand though her hair. You can tell she’s frustrated because the two of you were planning on going to the movies this weekend, and it was one of those limited engagement types where it was one night only playing at one of those snobby small-scale places where you could get craft beer on tap and candies you’d only find in the really snooty grocery stores.
“Hey, if it’s not too much trouble, I might ask you to pick some more stuff up for me while I wait for this thing to run its course. Don’t worry, you know I’m good to pay you back.”
You can very barely make out a blush on her face when you tell her you have no problem serving as her personal goffer. Or it was just from her fever, either or.
“And with that, kroyasumi.”

Every other day for the next two weeks, you pick up some groceries and things like tissues and disinfectant wipes, and drop them off at her place. She was very adamant about not giving you her cold bordering on weird about it, so you actually haven’t seen her for some time now, though you can very much tell she’s still alive since you’ve heard her coughing and sneezing when you knock on the door to drop off a delivery before heading home yourself.
Apparently after that initial day, her throat started to hurt as well, so all of your shopping lists have been done via text, and you actually haven’t spoken to her lately either. Given her line of work, no wonder she was asking you to buy throat lozenges like they were candy. While part of you wanted to press the issue a bit and help her out more directly, previously experience reminded you that Kronii was indeed “built different”, so respectively kept your distance.
After roughly two weeks, you get a text message from her, this time at a different time of the day.
“Went to the doctor’s this morning, and they said it’s out of my system and I’m feeling a lot better now. Pizza at my place tonight <3?”
You emphatically text her back “it’s a date”, and suddenly the rest of the workday blazes by in an instant.
On your way over to her place, you pick up some flowers for her from the local florist. Sure, getting flowers for a dinner date over pizza sounds silly, but all you could imagine was that the inside of her apartment probably hasn’t seen much light come in, so you’d hope she’d at least appreciate the gesture.
You knock on her front door, and after a few seconds of waiting the door quickly opens.
“I was wondering when you’d get here, come on in.”
Stepping inside, you breathed a sigh of relief. Kronii sounded like she was back to her usual self, and you felt a small shiver run down your spine hearing those words after being deprived of her voice for the past two weeks.
“And you brought flowers too? God, you really didn’t need to do that, but thanks.”
The initial chill is soon replaced by a very different tingling sensation when you realize contrary to the tossed together-looking outfit she was wearing when last you saw her, she’s now wearing nothing but a light blue dress... of the baby doll variety.
She very gingerly wraps her arms around your neck and presses herself up on your chest, wearing a very wry smile giving off the slightest of blushes.
“Kept’ you waiting, huh?”
You quickly resign yourself to the fact that there is no pizza, but that might not be such a bad outcome.