Chapter 1
Summary:
This was originally gonna be a long one-shot, but fuck it, let's break it up into chapters.
Notes:
“Закрий свій довбаний рот!” "Shut your fucking mouth!"
Yes, I'm still standing by the half-and-half headcanon. Someone set it up, so I'm keeping half of it.
Chapter Text
When Astrid woke up one morning before school, she felt horrible.
Her skin was so sensitive, it felt as though it was made of porcelain, and the slightest movement would send a jolt of pain through her body. Even though she got a full 8-hours rest, her body was tempting her to lay back down and go back to sleep. Her nostrils felt as though they were nearly on fire and at the same time, when she tried to breathe through her nose, it was like cotton was stuck inside of her nostrils. And every so often, a violent and dry cough would emerge from her throat.
Yep. There was no doubt about it; Astrid was sick.
Of course it wasn't entirely a surprise. For the past few days, she'd felt more and more terrible after getting her long overdue COVID booster, which she wasn't surprised about due to hearing about the side effects, but the symptoms should've gone away by now. She'd still been feeling achy the day prior, but now it was worse than before.
She knew better than to go to school while sick, but at the same time, it was actually a decent temperature for her to walk to school that day. Also whenever she wasn’t in Choir, according to Penny, Ocean would made passive-aggressive remarks about Astrid. It wasn’t as though she wanted to skip choir—
“!!!!”
Pain surged throughout Astrid’s whole body as she tried to sit up, prompting a wince of agony and a small whimper that she attempted to suppress. Her body was urging her to get the hell back into bed; there was no way that going to school like this was healthy. But she couldn’t give up now; if she was able to outrun her best friend during a mile run in the dead of a blizzard back in Ukraine in just her school uniform or kick the ass of a cocky boy in grade school back in Norway, she could deal with a little cold. She could just wear a mask.
But God, it was difficult to bear.
Every single movement felt as though a random surge of hot electricity was searing Astrid’s nerves. When she finally got out of bed, the pain was taunting her; “Try to walk normally, I dare you,” it would cackle before she tried to take a single step. More agony shot through her nerves, and after several short sessions of trial and error, she found that the best way was to sort of walk like a broken marionette. She could only imagine how she looked walking like that, which she theorized looked silly at best and dehumanizing at worst, but at least it was bearable.
After lazily throwing on her uniform as best she could, Astrid did her damndest to look well as she grabbed something to eat and headed out the door. The January winter wind wasn’t as cold as it could’ve been, but it still seemed to suck any moisture from her throat. Her focus was fading in and out, causing her to begin to tumble backwards before catching herself. She was stumbling about halfway down the street, covering her mouth with each new cough, when—
“ASTRID!”
Her foot almost seemed to slip right out from under her. And then the other. And in spite of trying to catch herself on the ice, which now had a layer of water on top of it, she came crashing onto her knees with a crack below her. There had never been any worse agony than this. Gladiators stabbing at her with spears, carpenters bashing nails into her with hammers, drummers beating at her with sticks. And the shards of ice as the ground snapped below her were incredibly powerful.
She was so consumed with pain and trying not to cry out that she didn’t even hear someone hurry up to her.
“Astrid, what happened?”
It was Ocean, adopted right out of her weed-obsessed parents and now Astrid's older sister instead of older cousin, a role she embraced ever since.
"Oh dear God, she can’t know," Astrid thought.
“I just slipped,” she replied in her usual snarky tone, or at least as best of one as she could. “No thanks to you for yelling out my name like that.”
“What’s with the stuffiness?” Ocean asked. “You sound like you have a cold.”
“Yeah no shit,” Astrid sniffled.
“Though….” The gears in Ocean’s mind began to turn. “You could have COVID.”
The snark immediately turned to anger.
“Закрий свій довбаний рот!” Astrid snapped. “There’s no way I have COVID. I got my booster just a few days ago.”
“That doesn’t mean you have the antibodies,” Ocean lectured. “Plus it was a long overdue booster. You should probably stay home.”
Astrid shook her head.
“I’m fine,” she hissed. “It’s probably just a cold with the booster symptoms.”
“Astrid!”
“I. Am. Fine.” She gritted her teeth as she tried to get back up, her whole body trembling and every single nerve becoming aggravated as she did.
And Ocean could see it clearly.
“I’m telling Aunt Oles—mama,” she said, clearly still getting used to being the older sister as opposed to the older cousin.
“No, the fuck you wi—!“
Astrid was cut off by a cough that ended up throwing her off balance; she fell back onto the ground. Hard. Feeling a lump form in her throat, she tried not to cry, but a small whimper betrayed her. At that moment, Ocean gently grabbed ahold of her.
“Come on, Astrid,” she said softly as she helped her up. “We’re taking you back home.”
"Ocean, I--"
"No." The overachieving ginger refused to let Astrid get even a word out. "We are going back home and getting you into bed; no ifs, ands, or buts."
Normally Astrid would attempt to hold her ground and even bite Ocean to get her off her back, but the ground that she was standing on was slippery as hell and she didn't want the double fall to become a triple. Swallowing down her pride, she let Ocean drag her back to the house, not knowing what to expect, but fearing that she was about to be bombarded with an even greater annoyance than before.
Chapter 2
Summary:
Astrid's not expecting this out of Ocean.
aka Ocean actually being nurturing in her own way.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
They entered the house as quietly as possible; in spite of Astrid’s insistence of having a roughly-clean bill of health, despite her clearly not being well. Ocean was not having any of it.
“I’ll stay with you until Au—mama wakes up,” she said as she went into the closet and pulled out fresh warm pajamas for Astrid who was currently leaning against the wall and trying to keep the room from spinning like her usually-beloved chaotic ride on the Teacups. "Or perhaps I can stay the rest of the day."
“What about school?”
“Family comes first,” Ocean answered, surprisingly instantaneously. “Now let’s get you into warm clothes.”
She helped Astrid out of her wet uniform, at least the socks and whatnot, allowing her privacy to get changed, but still keeping guard in case Astrid collapsed from dizziness. The Norwegian-Ukrainian had a feeling taking off clothes would be difficult, but hers were wet and cold, so that just made things worse. It was like every nerve of hers was being set on fire and it was taking all of her conscious thought to not cry out in agony. Even with everything going on, and her very apparent illness, no way in Hell would she admit to Ocean of all people that she wasn't well. Sure there was that night that the two got closer after she had been woken up by Ocean after having another nightmare about her biological father leaving them after they moved tom this shithole of a town, a thought that only made her feel worse, but she'd resorted to becoming tougher for the most part.
But after about five minutes, she'd barely made any progress in getting out of her clothes and all of her focus was on not letting her façade break. Cursing under her breath with each sentence alternating between Norwegian and Ukrainian in order to hold back the whimpers, she practically threw off her uniform and changed into the clothes Ocean had handed her.
As soon as Astrid was in clean and comfy pajamas, Ocean brought her to the bed and helped her on before tucking her in.
"I'm going to quickly call Father Marcus about the situation, then I'll start making a list of what we need for you to get better. In the meantime, you get some rest; Dr. Ocean's orders."
"I will pay you to never call yourself that," Astrid thought.
"But we don't have much money," Astrid replied sleepily as she grabbed her favorite teddy bear.
"I'm sure Constance and her family would be more than willing to give some for your health." Ocean reached into her uniform pocket for her phone.
"Ocean, we are not taking money from others." The very idea only made Astrid feel even sicker as she dialed the number for Choir.
"It's not taking; we're asking for some for health reasons. Now give me a second."
Ocean held her cellphone to her ear as Astrid groaned.
"Hello, Father Marcus; it's Ocean O'Connell-Rosenberg. I'm going to have to call in absent for both myself and Astrid today; Astrid woke up feeling ill and needs rest.......oh, no I'm fine; I'm just going to be taking care of her and getting her things to help her get better......yes, I know she's nearly an adult, but I'm her big sister and I want her to be healthy.....I trust Penny and Constance will be able to lead today......mm-hmm....mm-hmm.....alright, thank you; God bless you."
She hung up the phone.
"Father Marcus says he'll be praying for a swift recovery for you," she replied as she dialed a second number. "Now to ask the Blackwood family."
"Ocean....please don't ask for money from the Blackwoods," Astrid groaned. "I don't want to waste their time and I certainly don't want them to waste their money on me."
"It's not a waste of time or money if it's going towards essentials, and you know they love helping people. Now be quiet.....hi, Mrs. Blackwood. This is Ocean O'Connell-Rosenberg....yes, I realize it's odd for me to be calling you right now, but my little sister Astrid has fallen ill and I'm staying home to take care of her. Unfortunately we're not in the most ideal financial situation or even close to it, so I was wondering if you'd be willing to lend me some money to buy her things like cough syrup, soup, decongestants, etc,......mm-hmm?.....mm-hmm....alright, thank you. I'll be over as soon as I can. Thank you very much."
She hung up the phone again.
"Mrs. Blackwood also hopes for a quick recovery for you."
Astrid huffed.
"Ocean, you don't need to make such a big deal out of this," she yawned. "It's probably just a minor cold or, at worst, the flu."
"Oh really? Then I'll be adding an at-home COVID testing kit to my shopping list, and if you still don't believe me, we can get you checked by a doctor. Now, rest. I'll bring you some water as well."
She walked out as she made a list on her phone. Meanwhile Astrid groaned; she wasn't used to being fussed over nowadays because of the persona she put up of being tough. It hadn't happened to her in years, not since she was a little girl. Of course she knew that if and when Hank heard about this, he wouldn't hesitate to do something to show his care, so she supposed that was okay. But from Ocean? Not in a million years would she have seen that coming.
Several minutes later, Ocean brought a glass of water and a coaster, putting them on the bedside table.
"Alright, I'm heading out to the Blackwood Cafe; stay in bed and rest. It's one of the best ways to recover."
"Ocean--"
"Uh uh uh, that's Doctor Ocean."
"This is fucking insane," the Norwegian-Ukrainian thought to herself.
"....Doctor Ocean." Astrid gritted her teeth. "You don't need to fuss over me."
"It's my job as your older sister---"
"--By seven months--"
"--Now rest."
Ocean closed the blinds to keep the sunlight from pouring in and headed out. As much as Astrid didn't want to admit it, she definitely felt sleepy. Settling in and holding her teddy bear, she nodded off.
Notes:
I WISH I had this when I got sick.