"Where's Gre-Avarie?" Charity asked his crew. "It's unlike her to be late."

Apparently nobody knew where Greed was, which was weird. Really weird.

Could she be kidnapped? he asked himself. Greed wasn't exactly the friendliest person, and she probably has a lot of enemies, so kidnapping wasn't ruled out.

He decided to check her room to see if she was murdered, kidnapped, or just overslept because of the truckload of work she'd insisted on doing.

"Greed, you in there?" he asked, knocking on the door.

"Yeah, I'm in here," came the weird-voiced reply. "The door's not locked."

Charity slowly opened the door... and found Greed miserably surrounded by blankets and mountains of used tissues.

That explains her voice.

"Are you sick?" Charity asked, half concerned, half incredulous.

"Yes," Greed replied, wincing. "I would get up and force myself to go to work, but I tried standing up and my head felt like someone's trying to pry it open."

Charity entered the room and closed the door behind him. He walked to Greed's bed and laid a hand on her forehead. "You've got a fever. This seems like the common cold."

"The common cold?" asked Greed indignantly. "I thought spirits don't get sick!"

She coughed right after saying the sentence.

"Well, when they overexert yourself, they do get sick. Like you. You've been working from, like, six AM to one AM. And you've been sleeping in your human form. Check your spirit gauge."

Greed rolled her eyes. "I get your point. There's no need to check my spirit gauge."

Charity did it anyway. "You're at twenty percent right now. Change into your mini form and sleep, for God's sake."

"I did try to change," she admitted. "Let's just say that it wasn't pleasant."

She sniffled miserably as she tried to breathe, but failed and sneezed instead. "This is exhausting."

"Of course it is," Charity said. "I'm going to bet you get all the worst symptoms, like muscle ache."

"Well... yes."

Charity frowned. "I feel bad for you-" he said, but stopped when Greed glared at him. "Why is changing unpleasant for you?"

"Cats aren't supposed to get human sickness. And also I can't breathe."

She sneezed again. And Charity would never admit this (lest he be killed by Greed) but her sneeze is cute, much like a kitten's sneeze. Probably because her mini form is a cat.

Wait, a cat?

"Your mini form is a cat?" Charity asked.

"Oh, you didn't know-" she coughed and continued, "yet. Yeah. My mini form is a cat."

"Maybe I can get you some human medicine to clear your nose so you can actually rest," Charity offered.

Greed sniffled miserably. "Shouldn't you be working? Stop fussing over me."

"I'll just tell the crew what happened to you and I'm taking the day off."

Charity left the room despite Greed's protests against him taking the day off.

"What happened to Ava?" Neith asked. She was the most worried about Greed, probably because of her gift-the Braille book on accounting.

Choruses of "yeah, what happened?" followed.

"She's got the cold," Charity told them. "Not that bad, though, she's just really miserable right now."

"Can we go see her?" Ajda asked, concerned. "She doesn't seem like the type to be miserable unless the sickness is unbearable."

Oh my God, I completely forgot about that.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's a good idea. Ava can be... really antisocial at times." Charity said. Especially when she's in her mini form.

Mido nodded. "We get that."

"So, I'm taking the day off to make sure Gre-Ava doesn't kill herself. Would that be okay?"

Everyone agreed. The crew dispersed and went to their respective stations while Charity bolted to the medicine cabinet, grabbed paracetamol, and just straight up ran to Greed's room.

Adja was right. Greed was... let's just say delirious. She was buried under more blankets, and when Charity checked her temperature, it showed 39.5° Celcius.

"Who are you?" she'd asked, then squinted. "Whoever you are, I think I know you. Oh, wait, you're Charity!"

She's getting worse.

"Greed, are you feeling okay?" Charity asked, worried. He wanted to take her to a doctor. But he wanted to know what Greed felt.

"Huh? Me? Yeah, I'm totally great! Well, Mido and Neith are better, have you seen them? They are so nice and patient and talented, and oh my God have you seen Neith she's a great candidate for a businesswoman and I'm lowkey afraid of Lust, she is terrifying, but I'd rather kill Wrath he has too much debts to me, he never pays for stuff, and -"

She paused to sneeze.

"And God, the Elives are so loyal, I want to cry when I think of them, they just put up with me threatening to cut off their pay, and to be honest Gluttony is a great doctor, I mean, he can literally regrow limbs, that is mind-blowing, and your foundation is so wholesome, it feels like a family, and you are so great I will literally build an orphanage if you ask me to-" she stopped to take a breath- "you are too nice I don't deserve you oh my God I would die for you I love you so much Charity I don't deserve this at all."

Charity just stood there, stunned at Greed's rambling. Especially the last part.

He mentally shook himself. This is a symptom of delirium, he thought. Greed really needs rest.

But Greed's rambling was still in his mind as he coaxed her to take the meds. "Do you want water?" he asked when he finally succeeded on making Greed take the paracetamol pills.

She shook her head, winced because of her headache, and swallowed the pills dry.

Then Charity took the NyQuil (the one with the sleep aid) and gave her twice the dose needed (because she's a sin, not a normal human) but Greed didn't even question it.

Charity makes her drink more water anyway. Her lips were chapped and he did not want her to be dehydrated.

Two glasses of water, a lot of cute sneezes, nose-blowing, coughs, sniffles, and thirty minutes later (that was how bad Greed's condition was, Charity had to help her drink in small amounts), the paracetamol had kicked in and Greed was sleepy. Really sleepy.

So, naturally, she glomps Charity (not glomp exactly, she just hugged him from behind) and pulled him into bed with her. "I'm cold," she whined. "The blankets don't work."

"...Are you asking for cuddles?"

Greed nodded sleepily.

Charity couldn't believe his ears. This woman in front of her, Greed, a senior sin, his rival, was asking for cuddles. It wasn't the most ideal thing to do, since he was supposed to help Greed lower her temperature, but, the paracetamol is already in her system, and she did ask for it...

He climbed onto the bed and let Greed assume the most comfortable position before spooning her.

A few minutes in, Charity could feel... purring?

Oh my God is she seriously purring?

He decided not to comment. They stayed like that for an hour before Charity could feel Greed's breathing stabilzing.

He stayed for a few more hours before slowly detangling himself from Greed. After a minute's consideration, he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

"Get well soon," he whispered, and exited the room as quiet as smoke.

-

a few days later

Greed didn't remember anything starting from the rambling to the... cuddles.

Charity did.

And he was determined not to bring it up.

Except he slipped. It was a tiny slip, but, still...

They were working like usual when Greed accidentally inhaled some dust and started to sneeze.

"Your sneeze sounds like a cat's," Charity said on autopilot. "It's cute."

Greed sneezed once again, then Charity's words seemed to sink in.

"What?!" Greed choked out, gaping at him.

Charity seemed to realize he'd just said that her sneeze was cute. He just did the one thing he'd promised himself not to do.

"I'm sorry!" he immediately said. 'It just slipped out-"

Greed just started making noises that sounds like meowing mixed with the word no.

the end