He shoved his fingers through his hair and shook his head slightly as he walked along. It rather clear from looking at the blonde that he was sick, even if he insisted that he was not. His cheeks were flushed pink from fever, and his eyes were dark from lack of sleep – which is probably what caused him to be sick in the first place. But there was no time for sleep when he was keeping up a 4.0 GPA, planning school events, working, making pages in the yearbook, searching for his sacrifice, and making time for his friends. No, sleep was basically the last thing he ever did and that was exactly why he was sick as a dog right now. Either way he was pissed that his teacher more or less kicked him out of class. He needed those notes!

He groaned softly and allowed his hand to slide down his cheek. Dammit, it was hot. He shrugged his jacket off rather violently, though he regretted it not even a second later because then he was freezing. Either way he was at the nurse’s office by this point, so it was too late to decide whether or not he wanted to put it back on. His fingers curled around the knob as he twisted it and gave the door a little tug, stepping in slightly shakily thereafter. His eyes fell on the sandy-colored head of his elder brother and he forced a little smile. “Rue…” He greeted softly, hiding his face behind his jacket as he coughed a few times. “Can you give me a note to give my teacher or something so I can go back to class?” He asked, leaning back against the door as the world got slightly shifty.

It may have been the fever that caused him to address his brother so informally, he wasn’t sure. His head was fuzzy and he was having a hard time making sense of most things. His pink eyes rested on the other male as he stood up – why was he doing that? He didn’t need to stand to write a note did he? What was he doing? He breathed out heavily when he looked…. down at him? What? In all of his memories of Rueben, the other male was taller – impossibly taller. Ezra had often wondered when he would get to be as tall as his brother, and yet now he was taller than him. “When did you get so short…?” He half-joked, though in his sluggish mind it almost seemed sad somehow.

Either way, when he felt that hand on his head he sort of slid down the door a bit so he was eye-level with his brother. His hands made no move to push the other male away… until his request was refused of course. He turned his head to the side suddenly and straightened his knees back out. “I’m fine, though.” He insisted stubbornly, his mouth setting as he looked down at the other yet again. He just wanted to go back to class, that was literally all he wanted right now.

When the sandy-haired male gave that order with that look, though, Ezra moved to comply before he even realized what he was doing. Goddammit. He’d never exactly been able to tell any of his siblings ‘no’, and apparently that extended to Rue as well. He stumbled slightly on his way to the bed, but he’d eventually flop down on it with a dramatic sigh. When his world gave a slightly dangerous lurch from the movement, though, he’d groan slightly. “I’m going to miss so much… nobody… takes good enough notes.” He grumbled slightly as he placed his arm over his face.

As he laid on the bed, the world seemed to continue to spin around him. He was still perfectly aware of everything Rueben was saying, even if he wasn’t watching him. He didn’t have to be perfect? Well, that was just silly. Of course he did! The blonde couldn’t even sleep at night if something was out of place in his dorm, he couldn’t function unless he felt like he had done everything he could to make everything as close to perfect as it could get. Of course, nothing could ever be truly perfect and that was a shame, but at least he sort of recognized that fact. He laughed a bit and shook his head, kicking off his shoes so he could place his feet on the bed. “You know I have to.” He mumbled, his ears twitching this way and that as they followed Rueben around the room.

He finally removed his arm from over his face as he heard his older brother approach, and he scowled a bit at the thermometer. He knew he had a temperature, Rueben knew he had one, and this thing would remove any doubt from the situation. Either way, he sighed and took the instrument from the brunette, placing it under his tongue as he had been directed. After several seconds, it would beep and he would remove it, handing it back over without even attempting to read it. “So, what’s the damage?” He joked, rubbing his hands over his cheeks in an attempt to cool them down just a bit.

--
No worries, dear<3

His mind was so sluggish that it was hard for him to understand why his brother didn’t know why he had to be perfect. Rueben had to know, right? Though, of course, when he thought of the reasoning – which he didn’t do very often – it seemed so childish and silly that sometimes even he wondered. Sometimes he told himself he was going to stop, and yet the next day he was compulsively doing it again. If he forced himself to stop, he felt like shit, so he just fell back into the same pattern. He couldn’t get out of it, and only a very small part of him wanted to anyway.

He gave a little laugh at the quip, rolling his eyes. Though of course, any positive emotions would very quickly leave him when his brother gave that order. Rueben may as well have told him that he was about to die, in fact, he might have gotten a slightly less dramatic reaction in that way. As it was, the younger blonde was already forcing himself into a sitting position way too quickly. His ‘what’ seemed to give way to a groan as the world spun around him quickly. He braced his hands against the bed to keep himself from falling back, finally speaking when he steadied a bit.

“No!” He took a deep breath, his pink eyes rather wide. “No, absolutely not. I can’t do that. I have work, I have classes, I have…” He couldn’t quite seem to remember what else he had to do, but he knew there was a lot of it and it was all important. He shook his head frantically. “I can’t take a week off.” His voice rose in a bit of a whine, his expression begging his older brother to understand.