A Fresh Start (For LittleRedDarlek)

[Poesdaughter]

Charlotte had been delighted the day that her neighbor had rented the home across from her.

It had been a long while that the house had stood empty, and seeing the lights being turned on in the evening warmed her heart. It seemed like the boy who’d rented it was a good neighbor too, because she hadn’t really had any complaints about him…no loud music, no throwing up in her hydrangeas, and no overgrown lawn. They spoke to each other over the over morning coffee in each other’s garden, chatted while she was hanging up her laundry, or waved when he had to step outside to get a signal on his cell phone. Their friendship had developed easily over the last little while to the point that she anticipated seeing him for their usual coffee and chatting in the morning, and had been fairly surprised when he hadn’t come out.

It had seemed like it was probably just that something had come up. Perhaps, he’d gotten caught up late working the night before and had slept in. It wasn’t that unusual to miss a meeting now and then (though they hadn’t since their friendship had began)! By the second day that she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him, however, she’d started to worry that something terrible had happened.

So Charlotte had opened the little gate that connected their gardens and had headed to the back door of his house. She’d wrapped her knuckles against the heavy wooden door and had waited patiently for evidence that her neighbor had not been horrifically murdered. The lights were still dimmed in his house, his car was in the driveway, but none of his usual routines had taken place in the past two days. It was probably nothing to worry about, but she already cared about him and hated the thought that he might have needed help.

“Hey, sweetie, it’s me!” She’d called so he’d have a chance to figure out who was knocking on his door without having to answer.

[LittleRedDarlek]

Will had just turned eighteen when he moved to this small town. He had grown tired of the large city life, with all its hurdles and the constant stress that would pile up. The first few days had gone a lot better than he had expected when he first started planning his move. He even managed to become friends with his lovely landlord, with whom he had a lot of nice conversations with. Their morning coffee meeting had quickly become one of his rituals before heading off to work.

But his luck ran out just a few days into living in this town. He had forgotten an umbrella on a stormy night and had decided to walk home instead of taking public transport due to his tight economy, a decision he quickly regretted when the first cold raindrop hit his tired body. He was completely drenched by the time he arrived at his house and could already feel his tired body starting to grow feverish.

He had woken up the next day with a terrible fever and a blocked nose, so he called in sick and decided to stay at home to recover. But his fever showed no signs of getting better, and he spent his entire day in bed without drinking or eating anything, and his body had gotten even worse on the second day.

He used every last bit of his crumbling willpower to move to the kitchen so he could prepare some food and was just in the process of cooking some noodles when he heard the knocking against his door. The short boy then draped a blanket around his half-naked body and moved towards the door.

"Hello Charlotte.. I'm sorry.. but I'm not feeling too great right now.. can we talk later?"

Will looked up at his landlord, giving her a clear view of his pale face; the open door also allowed her to spot the messy kitchen and the small instant noodles currenly soaking in some hot water.

[Poesdaughter]

“Oh, honey…” Charlotte said as she looked over Will.

He looked terribly under the weather with the typical signs of exhaustion that sickness always brought on in people. It looked as if he had the beginning of dark circles under his eyes, messy hair from trying to sleep, and the semi-unwashed appearance that went along with feeling so badly. It tugged on her heart strings to see the poor boy looking so uncared for, and a quick glance towards the kitchen made it clear that he was not in any state to be trying to handle his own cold. Ramen noodles were hardly going to do anything to offer him the necessary vitamins and nutrients to start feeling better.

“You turn that off and settle down on the couch, alright? You’re just going to make yourself feel worse with all those preservatives. I’m going to go get what you need to start feeling better, and I’ll make up some real soup for you,” The woman informed him.

Charlotte brought a well-manicured hand forward to rest against the boy’s forehead, giving a little soft tutting sound when she found that he felt warm to the touch. She lightly stroked away the slightly sweaty hair from his pretty face, giving him a soothing glance as she did.

How sad to think that her sweet little Will hadn’t thought to take any aspirin or anything of the sort!

It wasn’t surprising, in many ways, because he was so young…when had he needed to take care of himself in that sort of way before? He probably didn’t even really know what he needed to be doing. (Un)luckily for him, however, she knew exactly what sort of treatments might be effective at getting him back to feeling well soon and was plenty familiar with the pharmacist in town. Something that would end up coming in handy sooner rather than later.

[LittleRedDarlek]

"O-okay.... Thank you."

Will really didn't want his kind landlady to see him like this, and he especially didn't want her to care for him like she was his mother. But the short boy had absolutely no energy left in his tired body and was unable to complain as a result. Will then went back to his kitchen, walking around on his tired legs, which grew weaker and weaker as he tried to clean up his messy kitchen. They ended up getting so wobbly that he simply had to give up, crashing down on the soft couch with a heavy breath. His eyes scoured his room as he lay still on the couch. It had never been this messy before, with his wet clothes still laying in a puddle near the stairs and a rather embarrassing pair of cartoon-themed shorts resting on top of the pile. But his body was far too weak to get back up and try to clean it, so he ended up forgetting about it all, passing out on his couch, still clad in just a white t-shirt and a pair of white briefs, the blanket that was once wrapped around his body lying somewhere on the kitchen floor.

[Poesdaughter]

It didn’t take long for Charlotte to go find the things she needed from the pharmacy; after a quick discussion with her friend she decided on a thermometer, a few recommended medications, and some Pedialyte to help rehydrate him. As she’d been holding the bottle of Pedialyte in her hand, her mind had started to wander to thoughts of the poor boy living on his own and being so totally without guidance…that was what had encouraged her to purchase a few additional things before she’d left the pharmacy.

Once the necessary groceries had been picked up for soup, she’d headed back to Will’s house.

Charlotte let herself inside with a key only to be surprised by what she discovered upon entering. A soft tutting sound escaped her mouth as she’d looked down at the damp clothing on the boy’s floor, and she set the bags onto the counter quietly. It seemed as if her dear little boy was perhaps not as good at taking care of himself as he might have wanted to seem…
Still, she didn’t want to wake the boy from his doze so she set about putting the soup on the stove before she began to tidy up for him. It was with a soft little humming that she set about doing it, pausing momentarily to wash out one of the sippy cups that she’d picked up for him. As weak as trembling as Will seemed when she’d shown up, it had only made sense to ensure that he didn’t spill the Pedialyte on himself. So she filled up the freshly cleaned sippy, twisting the top onto it securely.

The was printed in sweet little strawberries which matched perfectly with the flavor that she’d picked out for him. The woman served a bowl of soup into a matching bowl, before bringing them both with her into the living room along with the pharmacy bag. She set them down onto the coffee table, and carefully picked up the blanket to tuck around Will.

“Ready to try to eat something?” she inquired gently to wake him.

[LittleRedDarlek]

Will woke up with a slight shock, his face going from pale to bright red the moment his eyes met his dear landlady, knowing full well that she had just seen him in nothing but his underwear and a small t-shirt. He quickly sat up in the sofa, making sure that the blanket currently wrapped around him covered as much of his small frame as possible, not wanting to embarrass himself further.

"Y-yes.. thank you.. and thanks for doing this!"

Will stuttered. He then gently reached for the bowl and the zippy cup before stopping as soon as he spotted the strange.. childishly themed tableware.

"W-what's this?.. i-i don't own any tableware that looks like that.. i-it's so childish.."

The sick boy complained, despite knowing he should be thankful for all the nice things Charlotte had done for him.

[Poesdaughter]

“You don’t need to be embarrassed, Will. It’s just me and you,” Charlotte said in her most soothing tone. She knew that some boys had trouble with their egos standing in the way of accepting things meant to provide them with tenderness and care, because they didn’t want to seem immature or anything like that. Their pride stood in the way of being able to accept that sort of doting because they’d been taught that they needed to be ‘the man’ in order to gain any respect. She didn’t see it that way, though. It took wisdom to know when to let oneself be vulnerable.

The woman picked up the bowl of soup, stirring it so that it would release some of the heat, before she filled a spoon full of the broth. She carefully held it out to the boy’s mouth with an encouraging smile.

“I didn’t want you to drop it while you were feeling so weak or spill any of your drink on yourself,” she explained. “Now open up and don’t fuss.”

Something about Will had awoken that protective side of her from the moment they’d met. It might have been his wide eyes, his sweet voice, or the little dainty way he always hunted for the key to let himself inside when he’d already arrived. They were traits that made her worry about how he’d handle the cruelty of the world. Women were taught from birth to expect that, but men…they didn’t get taught to keep their keys in hand when walking or to always have their phone charged. They didn’t learn all the details of how to keep themselves safe. And it appeared that this applied to Will even when it came to keep himself safe from catching a cold…the damp clothes certainly seemed to be an indication that he’d not been prepared to handle a rainy evening.

[LittleRedDarlek]

Will felt far too weak to continue his complaining and opened his mouth shortly after his landlord had told him to, allowing her to spoonfeed him the warm soup. The soup tasted amazing, and Will couldn't help but let out a soft sigh of relief as the tasty soup went down his throat and into his mouth, already feeling its warmth spread from his stomach to the rest of his body. His energy slowly returned, giving his skin a little more color. It felt strangely nice to be pampered like this, even if it also hurt his pride quite a lot to have messed up this badly on the first week of his independent living.

"It tastes really good, miss." "Thank you so much. "I don't think I would've been able to make something this good.

The sick boy then let the woman spoon-feed him the rest of the soup, not daring to offer any kind of resistance, as it felt like he would land in a lot of trouble if he did. He didn't really mind the childish bowl; it felt oddly fitting in the situation that he found himself in.

[Poesdaughter]

Charlotte smiled at seeing the boy's complaints slowly turn to contentedness at being spoon fed the soup. It seemed like part of him must have missed being shown extra care and attention, because he'd turned sweet and doe-like so quickly. She waited until he'd finished eating to put the bowl back down, and reached for his forehead to rest her hand there. It was just a slowly little gesture to test if he still felt hot to the touch, and unsurprisingly, she was discovering that he did.
It hadn't seemed likely that his fever would have broken in such a short amount of time.

"You still feel so hot, honey," she mentioned to him. "I'm going to take your temperature, so we can be sure you don't need to see a doctor."

The woman gave him a moment to agree to that, even though she knew that he was likely not going to be happy to discover what method that she intended to use.

Rectal readings were more accurate which was important when it came to a serious fever, though she knew that it was certain to be another blow to the boy's pride. After all, how many young men grew up thinking that anything that had to do with something going into their bottoms was some horrifically emasculating act?

[LittleRedDarlek]

"T-thank you, but you don't have to." I can just measure my own temperature... "I have one of those scanners somewhere in my bathroom."

Will smiled sweetly at his landlady. He did not want to trouble her any more than he had already done, feeling like he had enough energy to at least measure his own temperature. He then gently brought the sippy cup to his lips, downing almost all of the pedialyte inside the cup in one large gulp, quenching his thirst using the medicine.

"B-but if you really want to, you can measure it.. the tool should be in my bathroom.. right in the drawer below the sink!"