Michael woke slowly and almost immediately groaned. His head was pounding and his stomach churned, his throat was scratchy and even his bones seemed to ache. Forcing himself to sit up he winced as the nausea got worse and his vision blurred. Taking a moment to calm himself he stood and ignoring the pain he managed to stumble to the bathroom, taking a small moment to glance into his friend's rooms, finding them both asleep.

He was glad they were asleep. Not only did they need it, Ritchie from constantly taking care of Austin, while Austin was still exhausted from the Liche draining his mana, but he didn't want them to see him before he could at least make an attempt to make himself presentable. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that he'd be able to hide it completely, but with any luck he'd be able to downplay it. He knew if they knew how bad he felt they'd both feel guilty as he was pretty sure he was sick from the exhaustion that he'd been stuck with from his research and potion making. Plus for all he knew the magic radiation could finally be getting to him with the amount that he'd exposed himself to in the last few months.

Either way the point was that he'd stop them from feeling useless and misplaced blame on themselves if he could.

Getting to the bathroom took longer than he'd like to admit as he had to balance himself on the walls and every now and then he had to stop and fight backing the spots that appeared as his body tried to give in and shut down. But once he'd arrived he found himself clutching the sink and staring into the mirror.

"Huh..." He muttered sardonically. "I do look as bad as I feel."

His eyes were dull and partially glazed over with dark bags beneath them. His skin was pale verging on grey, minus the flush on his cheeks from the walk over. He was breathing hard as he leaned heavily on the sink. Even his hair was dull and lifeless as it hung down into his eyes.

The ice mage groaned letting his head thud against the mirror. This was gonna be harder than he thought.

Eventually, after making himself look somewhat normal, he sat on the couch in their living room book in hand. He didn't even attempt to read instead just opening it and letting himself just stare at it in order to appear that he was doing something. It wasn't long before he heard a voice from the doorway.

"Hey." Ritchie greeted leaning on the door frame.

Michael gave a small smile and waved.

"You been up long?"

"Nah." Michael winced at the scratchiness of his own voice. He cleared his voice and tried again. "I woke up about half an hour ago."

Ritchie's eyes narrowed but he nodded. "Alright. I'm gonna make breakfast. Anything particular you want?"

Michael scrunched up his nose. The thought of food made him wanna puke more but he didn't want the other's to find out. So he shrugged. "I'm not in the mood for breakfast food. I think I'll just make myself a sandwich or something. Austin still asleep?"

"Yeah, I was gonna let him sleep a little while longer. He needs his rest."

Michael nodded. "I'd say make breakfast then wake him when it's done. He needs rest but he also needs to eat."

Ritchie studied him for a moment before sighing. "I guess I'll make us pancakes or something." He turned and left before Michael had a chance to respond. It wasn't long before he heard the sounds of pots and pans clanging from the kitchen. The ice mage held back a groan. It seemed Ritchie had seen through his words and was intent on making him eat.

"Fantastic."

It wasn't long before he found himself dragged into the kitchen where Ritchie forced him to sit and threw a stack of pancakes on a plate in front of him. He vanished from the room, presumably to wake Austin and while he was gone Michael quickly cut a small section from his food and tossed it to the trash.

When Ritchie returned with Austin he glanced at Michael's plate and Michael watched the relief flicker across his face.

"Eating without us?" Austin teased sitting with a yawn.

"Sure am Sleeping Beauty."

"Aw, I'm flattered. You hear that Ritchie? Michael thinks I'm beautiful."

Michael smirked and made a show of taking a bite of his food despite his bodies protests a Ritchie shot back.

"Well Michael must not be wearing his contacts."

Michael giggled as he watched his friends laugh and joke with each other. On a normal day he would have joined in but this time he was content to just watch. After forcing himself to eat a few more bites Michael decided he was done and forced a yawn.

"I'm tired. I think I'm gonna sleep for a bit."

Austin frowned at him. "You sure you don't want to eat more?"

"I'm good." Michael stood and almost immediately the ground beneath him began to spin as pain wracked through his skull. He stumbled and almost hit the ground before warm arms caught him around the waist. As he came back to his senses he felt himself be sat back in his chair as his friends spoke.

"-ichael? Hey buddy?" Austin crouched in front of him to look at his face. "You with us?"

He nodded weakly, wincing at the pain the movement caused.

He breathed a sigh of relief and Ritchie reached past him to feel Michael's forehead. Michael couldn't stop himself from leaning into the cool touch.

"Jesus, he's burning up!" Ritchie muttered. "Alright, bed time Michael."

He sighed. "Okay." He went to stand but before he could he found himself being carried bridal style in Austins arms. He yelped wrapping his arms around Austins neck before groaning at the nausea the movement caused. "Ugh, slower please..."

"Sorry."

As Austin carried him gently through the building Ritchie ran ahead and stepped in to Michael's room, setting up the bed and making sure Austin had a clear path.

Austin carefully laid Michael on the bed and almost immediately the other curled into a ball and was fast asleep. The two stared down at him and sighed.

"What are we gonna do with him?" Ritchie whispered reaching over to brush some of Michael's hair out of his face.

"Don't know, but he can't keep doing this to himself." Austin sighed.

"To be fair there wasn't really a choice this time."

"No but, if he hadn't done this as much as he has, do you think it wouldn't be as bad?"

"...What?"

"...Never mind." Austin shot Ritchie a smile. "Let's let him rest."

Ritchie shot one last look at Michael before following the fire mage out.

A/N: Bleh. I don't like this. But I also haven't updated this one in a while so I figured might as well try to write up something. I rushed the ending because I have work in like half an hour so yeah. Either way I hope you all enjoyed. Peace!