#it’s where things go awfully wrong for them once again (this is like their…fourteenth again of the day)

[theolddivorcedzukka]

my powerpoint presentation on why “careless whisper” is about divorced zukka. slide 1 out of 64

[dragonwitch77]

BFF

She. Was. Late.

Most of the forest felt an unease tension that grew with each passing day that a certain hatted child seemed to miss showing up. The minions could feel it. The Dwellers could feel it. Peck, even the annoying Fire Spirits could feel it too! Even the spiders and the nonliving nooses could sense the tension! It probably wouldn’t be surprise if she could feel it as well.

“You go talk to him.”

“No way! You go talk to him.”

A small group of minions were huddled in front of the Boss's home, whispering to one another so not to alert/anger their ghostly ruler of their presence. They had all agreed that something had to be done with the fourteenth day rolled by, and still there was no sign of the newbie anywhere. The Boss's anger was getting suffocating at this point, and it was only halfway through day fifteen! Someone had to know what was going on!

Only problem was that no one was willing to go up there and talk to him. Their bravery had washed away when the hollow tree home of the Snatcher came into view. Now they were bickering amongst themselves to who would go talk to him.

“I can’t go talk to him! He’ll kill me!”

“We’re already dead! Just go talk to him already.”

“No! You should go talk to the Boss.”

“M-me?”

“Yeah. You.”

“B-but what i-if he eats m-me?”

“Boss only eats souls from contracted clients.”

“Yeah. He’d never harm us!”

“Well he did send one guy to HER place that one time…”

Silence hung over them, turning gazes at one another as the tree seemed to loom over them with foreboding. None of them wanted to walked up to the Boss and ask him what was keeping the newbie from coming to visit and why he was so angry.

“M-maybe we should come back later.”

“Yeah. Maybe the Boss will calm down in an hour or two.”

“Waiting sounds like a good idea!”

“Are we sure that’s a go—”

“THAT’S IT!” The minions jumped as the Snatcher's loud outburst caught them off guard, as well as the sound of a heavy book slamming shut before being thrown to the ground. The long serpentine body of the Snatcher floated out of his hallow home at a fast pace, grumbling to himself and not noticing the small crowd of cowering minions below him as he passed by.

“Pesky kid. Making me worry. Over HER of all things! Not visiting over two weeks. Doesn’t even let me know!” He continued to grumble to himself as he headed towards the best place to look for the kid first, leaving behind very confused minions.

“… sooo. Who wants to bet that the newbie’s alright?”

“Five says that she’s hurt!”

“Ten says that she’s sick!”

“Forty says that the Boss takes care of her!”

*^*

Cooking Cat sighed as she stirred a pot full of soup. She hoped the child would be able to eat this. She hadn’t eaten anything solid over a couple of days now, and it was starting to worry her. The poor girl couldn’t keep her food down for long, and Cooking Cat was certain that this wasn’t just a common cold now.

Her fever kept spiking, her body was shivering like a dog out in the cold, her skin was turning awfully pale, not to mention how dark her eyes were getting. The poor girl looked like she was dying! Not even the medicine that she gave her was helping out, and she seemed to be getting worse each day.

“Hmm. This doesn’t seem like a normal fever. Then again, I don’t rightly know how alien fevers work.” She talked to herself, a little habit she did when she felt nervous. “I just wish she would get better soon. This sickness is putting the poor girl through a lot of pain.” Taste testing the soup and deeming it ready, she poured some into a bowl and proceeded to head for the bedroom.

Only to get a nasty surprise when she stepped out from the double doors.

“THERE YOU—” Cooking Cat screamed as a black shadow face with yellow eyes screamed in her face, only to stop suddenly once they realized they were yelling at the wrong person. “Oh wait. You’re not the kid.”

Cooking Cat clutched her chest, trying to get both her breathing and her heart rate under control.

“Wait a minute. Aren’t you that cat that cooks? Cookie Cat right?”

“C-Cooking Cat actually.” CC replied once she managed to get her breathing under control.

“Right right. Whatever. Where is she?” Cooking Cat tilted her head as the shadow disappeared one moment and reappeared the next.

“Who?”

“The kid!” He plucked one of the ‘relics’ up, looking underneath it. “She’s been absent in her usual pestering visits to my forest. You can’t believe how many of my minions have been pestering me about it!”

“Well she’s certainly not underneath a hamburger plush.” Cooking Cat shook her head. “You must be Snatcher correct?”

“S’up.” Snatch greeted, dashing down into engine room and came back with a deep scowl.

“Look, if you’d be so kindly as to not visit at the moment?” The ghost turned to glare at her. “As much as she would like company right now, poor little thing is too sick to see people right now.”

“Sick? What do you mean sick?” The shadow put his hands to his… well, not exactly hips.

“Sick as in SICK. Really badly too. Poor dear can’t even get out of bed much less eat anything right about now.”

“Well not if it’s on the floor.” Snatcher pointed at her feet. She looked down and grumbled as her well-cooked soup was now on the floor. “Probably wouldn’t be the best to serve the kid that dish.”

“Look, would you please—”

“Check on the kid and give her a piece of my mind? Sure!”

“What?! No! Stop!” The shadow didn’t listen to her as he took off towards the bedroom.

*^*

The lights were off when Snatcher fazed through the doors. His glowing eyes illuminated in the dark as he slithered right up to the bed. He could hear ragged breathing under the covers. Pinching the cloth between his fingers, he lifted the sheet slightly.

The kid look like DEATH! It shocked Snatcher how bad she looked. She skin was pale, her face was twisted in pain, there were dark bags under her eyes, and good NIGHTMARES this kid had it bad!

“Kid?” Snatcher was starting to grow a little worried. She wasn’t wearing her outfit, just a simple nightgown with frills, clutching his little gift he ‘mailed’ her. Her hair was down and her forehead was covered by a wet washcloth. Small whimpers were coming out of her.

This was certainly bad.

“You!” Snatcher snapped his head towards the door, not noticing that they had opened. Cooking Cat was glaring at him, waving him over. “Get over here! Let the poor girl sleep!” She whispered harshly so not to wake the child.

Snatcher glanced at the hatless child one more time before placing the sheet back over her and going over to Cooking Cat.

“What were you thinking?!” CC yelled as the entered the living room. “She doesn’t need anyone bothering her at this moment! You can’t just go barging in like that! She—”

“How long has she been sick?” Snatcher’s question cut her off.

“What?”

“How long has she been sick?” Snatcher repeated, looking at Cooking Cat with dead seriousness.

Baffled, CC thought back to the earliest she could remember. “About nine or ten days now. Maybe longer. She didn’t really start showing any signs of sickness till she collapsed. Make matters worse when she snuck out once and the Conductor brought her back carrying her like a small baby all red faced and barely able to breathe while sweating up a storm! Poor dear was out cold with a burning fever after that.”

“If it’s that bad, why hasn’t anyone taken her to a hospital already?”

“Do you know anyone with medical knowledge for sick alien kids?”

Snatcher opened his mouth but nothing came out. CC sighed, shaking her head. “The Conductor had taken her to the hospital first, but since she’s an alien, they were much of a help there.”

“Isn’t there a book or a medical guide on this ship? Anything that could help her?”

“No. I’ve cheeked everywhere I could and still found nothing that can help.” Snatcher turned away, frowning deeply at this new information. “Look, as much as your concern is nice—”

“Concern? Concern? I’m not worried about the kid! I’m just here because my minions wanted to know what happened to her and that’s it! Now that I know, I don’t need to bother coming back here again!” With that, Snatcher had disappeared again, leaving a confused and miffed cat.

*^*

“Come on sweetie. You have to eat!” Cooking Cat rose the spoon to the child’s lips, but sighed as she turned her head away with a whimper. “If you don’t eat something, you’ll only get worse. Please, try to eat something.”

“nooo.” Hat Kid weakly mumbled, hugging her Wolfy close to her and burying her face against the plush.

“Sweetie, please. Just try. I even made this one nice and mushy so you don’t have to chew it.” CC tried to bring the spoon closer to her, but was rebuked again. She sighed, putting the spoon down back in the bowl. “Alright, we’ll try again later. How’s you ice pack? Does it need changing?” She took the bag off of the child’s head, earning a whine of disapproval.

“Hmm. Feeling to be warm instead of cool. Be back in a bit sweetie.” Cooking Cat left the room, leaving the sick child alone.

She tried to sleep, but the smell of Cooking Cat’s soup was making her stomach turn in a sharp twist. Whimpering, she tried covering her head under her blanket and cuddle with her Wolfy. Normally she wouldn’t be cuddling her dolls like this, but Wolfy was special. Plus he was supper comfy to hug when she was feeling bad.

“Kid? Hey kid, you awake?” Something poked her side, forcing a whimper out of her. “Come on kid, I didn’t spend about two days worth of searching just for you to ignore me. Come on, get up.” The poking continued.

Hat Kid whined as she slowly proceeded to sit up. She weakly glared at the intruder for waking her up, but it was quickly replaced by a sleepy smile when she saw who it was. “sssnaaaaccccchhh…”

“Snatcher kid. A for effort though.” Snatcher huffed, setting down a large book at the foot of the bed. The hatless child looked at the book in confusion as he proceeded to open it wide and flip through the pages. “Let’s see. Sicknesses. Sicknesses. Hmm.”

“wha you do?” Hat Kid crawled over to the book, watching as Snatcher turned page after page.

“Looking through this old book on illnesses. Back in my day sicknesses were common. We had to rely on the village’s doctor a lot. Kind of a weird fellow. Almost like a voodoo doctor with crazy experiments going on at his place.”

“why?”

“Kid, I’m not dumb enough for this.” Snatcher gestured to her whole body. “Clearly you’ve contracted something that’s not normal.”

“didn’t… sign… noothing…” Hat Kid mumbled, hugging Wolfy and rubbing her chin on his head.

“Not that type of contract kid.” Snatcher rolled his eyes. He kept looking through the pages, stopping on a few that seemed plausible to the kid’s sickness but was quickly thrown away once Snatcher checked for all other signs of the listed sickness. “Black tongue, no. Pinching ears, no. Sheesh kid, you’re sweating up a storm there.” Snatcher joked as he searched the kid’s hair for bugs lodged in her scalp.

“no funny…”

Snatcher frowned. “Kid. Help me out here will ya? Is there anything that you know might help me? Anything you’re not telling me?”

She pushed her lips together, thinking very hard. “… fiiingers… tingly… head… hurt… feel… icky… side… hurts… really… bad…”

“Which side?”

She lifted her left arm up, patting her left side. “still… hurts… when… got it…”

Snatcher could have quirked an eyebrow, if he had any. He maneuvered over to the left side of the bed, pinching the nightgown the kid wore. “May look for just a moment?” Hat Kid whined but allowed Snatcher to lift her nightdress up. It was not a pretty sight. There was a bruise on the kid’s side. A deep purple with small pale blue spots surrounding it.

… pale blue spots…

Why did this look so familiar to him?

He went back to the book, flipping the pages more urgently. “snnnnaaaach?”

“Hang on kid. I think I might got something here. I just need to find the right page and—ah-ha! Here we go!” Snatcher picked up book, looking over it carefully. “Let’s see what we’ve got here…” His smile was slowly turning downwards, frowning deeply. He looked at the kid to the book and back, looking at the child with an expression that she couldn’t place.

Finally, he lowered the book but didn’t let go of it. “K-kid? Funny… funny question.” Snatcher chuckled nervously, gripping the book tightly in his claws. “D-did you happen to find some flowers? Blue ones with purple tips with spiky leaves?”

Hat Kid looked at him confused.

“Y-you know. Long black stem, with a… a small vine wrapped around it, blackish color with red spikes on it.” She kept looking at him in confusion. “It’s-it’s a plant that floats on water? Like on a small pond, or lake, o-or a big puddle surrounding a big hallow tree with a face in it?”

Her eyes widened.

“You… didn’t get near any of those… right?”

She frowned a little. She pointed to her pillow pile. Snatcher frowned a moment, looking between her and the mountain of pillows. “fort.” She said softly, hugging Wolfy in a one arm hug. “fort.”

Snatcher blinked, but shrugged, diving slowly into the pillows and searched around till he found a secret little room. He found what awaited him was a big plush bear, a small bookshelf filled with books, a small desk with a book laid open.

And a wilted flower inside a vase of water.

Snatcher.

SCREAMED.

*^*

The young prince didn’t understand what was happening.

Many strangers and servants were coming in and out of his parents room, dashing to and fro with items such as blankets, bowls of soup, jars filled with something he could not make out, and herbs that he recognized that were for medicine. But no matter how many times he tried to stop someone and ask what was going on, no one paid him any mind as they rushed about.

He frowned sadly. Mother was awfully sick lately. His father was worried to the point where he didn’t even notice him tugging his pants. It was worrying the young prince how his mother was suddenly stuck in bed. It felt like it was his fault somehow. But he didn’t recall seeing his mother’s arm covered in small blue dots before or the red stuff coming out of her nose and ears before.

Father didn’t seem to react well when he told him about this. It was almost five days ago, and yet there was still no news about his mother.

He tried distracting himself with books, but his worry was ever growing. He just wanted to know if his mother was alright!

“Wilfred? Is mother going to be alright?” He tugged on the old butler’s pants. Wilfred didn’t seem as busy as the others, and the old man looked down at him with a sad look on his face.

“… My prince.” Wilfred started, licking his lips and glancing around the hall. “I’m… sure the queen is fine.”

“But she’s been stuck in bed for five days now! Wilfred, when will mother be better to come play again?” He tugged on Wilfred’s pants harder. He wanted to know that mother was going to be fine. That she going to come back. That she was just messing around with everyone and would return to her normal self soon.

“… My prince. I’m… afraid that at this rate it’s already too late for the queen.” The old man sighed.

“Why? Isn’t she just sick?” The prince tilted his head in confusion.

“She’s been sick for far longer my prince.” Wilfred bent down on one knee, looking at the small boy in the eyes. “She has a sickness that has claimed many lives. And I’m afraid it will soon claim hers as well.”

“Why? What do you mean by ‘claim’? Is she going somewhere?”

The old butler frowned, rubbing a hand down his head as he sighed. “It’s… It’s called—”

“The 25 day illness.”

Cooking Cat gasped, covering her mouth in shock. The scared look on her face would have brought joy to the ghost if he was not glaring at the wilted flower in his hand. Its wilted dry form mocked him, teasing him with its frail dead state.

He growled, crumpling the flower in his hand and making it into a fine powder. “Stupid weed. I should have gotten rid of them sooner, but no. Some idiot had to invade my home and keep me busy from noticing the kid getting close to these things!” His hand ignited, burning the powered to ashes.

“It can’t be the 25 illness. I-it just can’t!” CC shook her head, gripping her chefs’ outfit in her claws.

“So you’ve heard about it.” Snatcher crossed his arms, dumping the ash to the ground.

“A little. Back when I was a kit in class. I’ve read about it and none of it was good.”

Snatcher sighed, watching as the small robot vacuumed up the remains of the flower. “It was a deadly thing in Subcon. It took many lives before a treatment was found.”

“I read that it died out years ago.” Cooking Cat looked at the ruler of Subcon. “But, I don’t think there’s a treatment for it now.”

The ghost growled.

“Snatcher, this is bad! Not only is she not doing well, but she’ll just get worse as the days—”

“I KNOW THAT!” Snatcher roared, slamming a fist against the wall and shaking the entire ship. “… I… know…” He hand dropped to his side, gaze locked down on the carpet.

Cooking Cat stared at him a moment before sighing, shaking her head. “Look, I… I need to check up on her. Make sure she’s fine after that freak out you had earlier. Can you wait out here for a moment?”

“Sure just… whatever.” Snatcher sighed, sinking to the floor as Cooking Cat went to check up on the alien child. He buried his face in his hands. How was this possible?! That flower was supposed to be extinct years ago! It was the first plant to go once he saw it again after his death. He was sure that he got them all!

But apparently he missed some. And someone had the stupid idea of placing them around his home. How? How could this happen?! He tried to keep the kid from that accursed flower when he found them, but it seemed the kid already found it before he did! Why did that stupid Mafia man keep him so busy?!

There was no way the kid was going to live! She was as good as dead! And not by his hands but by stupidity! He didn’t know the cure for this! He couldn’t fix this with a simple snap of his fingers! He was powerful but he wasn’t a healer! Why didn’t he study more on health like his father insisted when mother died?! Why hadn’t he looked through the village healer’s notes when he had—

His eyes widen. “That’s it!”

*^*

“Boss? Are you sure about this? We’re really far from the village and—”

“QUIET.” Snatcher all but growled as he poked his head in another building for what felt like the hundredth time, hissing in anger as he pulled away. “It’s not this one either.” He floated to the next house, doing the same for that one and got the same result. “Are you certain you remember where his home was?”

The minion, who was the unfortunate one to still retain bits of memories of the old village before her icy rampage, nodded their head. “Yes! He lived somewhere inside this area of the village! It was a big house with horseshoes hung on its roof!”

Snatcher sighed. It would have been that easy to find a building just like that, but none of the houses had any roofs much less whole roofs on them anymore. They were either caved in or completely missing.

“Boss? Is the newbie going to be okay?” Snatcher shot a glare at the minion.

“What do you think?!” He hissed, going to the next still partially standing building. Once he deemed it not the right one, he growled in frustration and blasted it away. “WHERE IS THE PECKING PLACE?!”

“Calm down boss! I’m sure we’ll find it!” The minion scampered ahead of the Snatcher, coming across some ruins of what used to be an old building.

“This is getting nowhere!” Snatcher growled, throwing his hands up in the air. “Why did I even think this was a good idea?! Everything here is nothing but ruins and rotting wood! No journal is going to survive wreckage like this!”

The minion wasn’t listening as Snatcher continued to rant. There was… something about this place that rung bells in their mind yet they didn’t know why. There was hardly anything left but the back crumbling wall of the building and its wood rotting flooring. Yet it felt very familiar to the minion the longer they stared at it.

“And just wHy did it have to be this place?! Why of all places did it have to be here where failure is EVERYWHERE?! Just being here makes me regret ever LIVING here! Of all places!”

Living here.

It clicked in the minion’s mind. They looked closer at the wall. Closer at the hanging horseshoe hung on the left corner. “BOSS! THIS IS IT!” The minion cheered, catching the Snatcher off guard in his ranting.

“What?”

“This is where the village healer lived!” The minion explained, hopping up and down. Though their joy wasn’t shared with the same enthusiasm with Snatcher as he stared at what little ruins remained.

“… there’s… NOTHING here.” The minion stopped jumping, looking at their boss in worry. “There’s absolutely NOTHING left of this place!” He growled, looking at the remains with anger. He extended his claws, jamming them into the floor and proceeded to tear out the rotting floor.

Only to be surprised to find something underneath.

“Are… Are those hidden boxes?!” The minion exclaimed as they saw many piles of boxes that were hidden under the floorboards. They picked up the closet one, opening it up and pulled out a jar with a dried plant inside. “This looks like a healing herb that the healer used. Were these boxes for storage or—”

They jumped as something smashed far behind them and looked up to see the Snatcher grabbing boxes after boxes, opening them and closing them. “Come on, come on. Where are you?!” He grabbed one more box, opening it wide and smiled in triumph as he pulled out a worn old book. “JACKPOT!”

Tossing the now useless box away, he proceeded to go through the book, looking over every page carefully but quickly, flipping through page after page after page after— “HERE!” Snatcher pointed to a page in the middle of the book, lowering down to the minion’s level for them to see. “Here! The treatment for the 25 day illness! Every last detail and key!” He threw back his head laughing out loud as he hugged the book to his chest. “The kid has a chance! She has a chance!”

“Um, Boss? What does the book say?”

“Right right! The book! This wonderful book!” The Snatcher looked back at the page, reading it over and frowned. “… It says that the illness can be treated with a special concoction made of different certain plants.” His face grew hard.

“… Boss?” The minion was getting worried.

“… everyone.”

“What Boss?”

Snatcher shot forward, enlarging himself and glaring at the minion who shrieked and coward beneath him. “Gather every minion! I want all minions searching the whole forest for these plants! No one is allowed to stop until they have gathered ALL of the plants needed for this cure! Am I clear?!”

“YES BOSS! IMMENSELY!”

“Well what are you waiting for then?!” Snatcher summoned parchments of paper with a list of all the plants needed written on all of them. “GET MOVING! GO GO GO!” The minion took off, running as fast as they could back to the village with papers in their hands. Snatcher himself already headed off, starting his search as fast as he could.

*^*

“Peck! Peck! Peck! Peck!”

“Shouting peck isn’t going to make things any better.”

“Peck it is! It’s makin’ me feel jus’ dandy!” Conductor shouted, pacing around the living area of the spaceship. “Ah come bringin’ a doctor like ya asked, n’ now they’re tellin’ me they can’t do peckin’ squat ‘bout it?!” He stomped his foot on the ground. “What kind of doctor can’t help a lass when she’s in pain n’ sufferin’?! It’s like watchin’ me own kids sick with the flu, but worse!”

CC’s ears flattened against her head, looking on the verge of tears. The Conductor saw this, sighing loudly and shook his head. “Six days they say. All she has left, they say. What rubbish! If they can’t even give her somethin’ tae help with the pain, then they ain’t no doctor in me eyes. Can’t even show a smidgen of sympathy fer this.” He sighed, leaning against the wall for support.

He hadn’t felt this drained since the doctors had told him there was nothing they could do for his dying wife.

“Isn’t there… anything anyone can do?” CC asked, wiping her eyes.

“Well, unless someone come bargin’ in with a cure, Ah can’t really say fer sure.”

“COOKING CAT!” The duo jumped as Snatcher burst out of the ground with several minions in his arms. He stood motionless for a moment before falling flat on his back, dropping all the minions, whom they too fell to the floor with their boss.

"Good gravy on a battered pork roast! Snatcher you gave us a scare!" Cooking Cat along with the Conductor ran over to the large ghost. "Where have you been?! You took off the moment I went to check on the poor sweetie! Do you have any idea how worried you made her in her condition?!"

Snatcher wheezed, a feat that should not be possible for him since he didn't need to breathe. “she… she’ll… thank me… later…”

“Ah don’t think so spook! No one has the right tae leave a sickly lass like that n’ expect them tae forgive ya! Ah have the right mind tae shove ya down the nearest, darkest, deepest hole Ah can find n’—”

Snatcher held up a book, stopping the old bird in his ranting. “I’ve got it.”

“Got what?”

“The kid’s cure.” CC and the Conductor froze as Snatcher handed the book to Cooking Cat. “The middle section of the book contains the way to curing the kid’s sickness.” He pointed to the minions scattered all over the floor. “They have the ingredients for the cure.”

The minions weakly held up an ingredient before their arms flopped to the floor.

“Wha—ARE YOU TELLIN’ ME YA BEEN GOIN’ ROUND FER THE LASS’S CURE N’ DIDN’T EVEN THINK ‘BOUT TELLIN’ ANYONE?!”

“Excuse me birdy, but I was BUSY.” Snatcher glared at the old bird.

“Ah could have helped ya!”

“You would have been in the way!”

“Says you ya over grown shadow!”

“Well at least everybody knows what I am you old dinosaur!”

The Conductor gasped. “Oooh, NOW ya done it spook!”

“Oh yeah? Bring it on you—”

“SHUT UP!” The duo froze, stopping their argument as Cooking Cat read the book over. “Boil water, cut plants, certain parts, squeeze this for juices… I can make this. I can make this!” She jump for joy, grabbing the Conductor’s arm and pulled him along. “Everyone to the kitchen! We have a cure to make!”

The minions groaned, getting up one by one and followed the cat as she dragged the Conductor along to the kitchen. Seeing everyone follow the duo, Snatcher sighed, laying his head back down as his worry started to disperse. Not long after, he was fast asleep.

*^*

“No!”

“Lassie please! Stop strugglin’! Ya need tae take this!”

“No!”

“Sweetie please! We don’t want to hurt you!”

“No!”

“Lass if ya don’t quit squirmin’ right now, Ah’m gonna force it down yer throat!”

“Conductor!”

“NOOOO!” Snatcher growled, trying to focus on the book as the Conductor and Cooking Cat tried to feed the sick girl the cure. Only problem was, surprise surprise, she didn’t like it one bit. He could smell why. That stuff smelled AWFUL!

“Lass, please! It’ll make ya feel better! I promise!”

“Nononononononononono!” With another growl, Snatcher slammed his book shut and floated over to the bed.

“Alright, that does it.” He grabbed the child, forcing her to stay still. “You had the easy way kid, now we have to go this the hard way.”

“Snatcher—”

He shot a glare at Cooking Cat. “The longer she doesn’t take it, the closer she is to dying. So just shove some of that in her mouth already and get it over with!”

“No! Nononononononononononononononono!” Hat Kid screamed, trying to get out of the ghost’s grip but proved to be too weak to do so. The Conductor and CC shared a look before the older of the two sighed.

“Alright lass, jus’ hold still an think of it as candy.” Conductor held her mouth open as Cooking Cat poured a spoonful into the sick girl’s mouth.

Her eyes widen as the most awful tasting thing slid in her mouth. She would have spat it out had the Conductor not pinched her lips shut and forced her to swallow it. Tears ran down her face as the taste lingered in her mouth. But the worst part was yet to come.

The two adults and ghost cringed as she started hacking, dry heaving as her stomach, barely having anything inside for days, forced her to throw up the awful thing onto an awaiting towel laid out in front of her. She openly cried at this point.

“Oh lass. Ah’m so sorry.” The Conductor patted her back in sympathy, rubbing circles and hugging her close as she cried her little heart out. “There there lassie. Shh. Yer so brave. Yer a brave one. Shh. Ah know. Ah know.”

“Come on kid. You need to keep taking this.”

“don’t wanna!” Hat Kid cried, burying her face against the Conductor’s chest as he rocked her back and forth. “it’s yucky and gross and i don’t want it in meee!”

“Sweetie you have to take it! If you don’t then you’ll never get better!” CC tried to reason with the child. “We have to get the bad stuff out of you so you can get better, and you want to get better right?”

“No! No no no no NO!”

“You’re taking that stuff and getting better! Whether by force or your cooperation!” Snatcher growled.

“but it makes me feel bad!”

Snatcher sighed, shaking his head and leaned closer to the girl. “Look kid, do you want to die? Because that’s what will happen if you don’t take this stuff. Is that what you want? To die? A painful, slow, death? Hmm?”

The small girl sniffled, shaking her head.

“Then you have to take this. If you do, I’ll promise that you can have as many sweets as you want when you get better. Any sweet that you want and more for an entire week.”

She sniffled, blinking away her tears. “r-really?”

Snatcher nodded his head. “If you get better, you can have any sort of candy you want! But only if you take this medicine and get better.”

She stared at him a moment, hugging the Conductor. “…”

“Lassie, it’ll be fine. It’ll be over before ya know it! An when it is, you can go back tea playin’, n’ runnin’ n’ all sorts of fun when ya get better.”

“And you’ll be able to eat again!”

She looked between the three, staring at them with puffy tear filled eyes. “… no more yucky?”

“You won’t have to taste it ever again when you’re well again.”

She was silent for a moment before she finally nodded her head.

*^*

Four days passed before they finally made progress.

The kid’s fever started to go down some, and she was starting to eat some soft foods again, if only just a little. Snatcher looked up from his current book as Cooking Cat stepped out of the bedroom with a try still full of food. “She’s still not eating?”

“No. But the good news is that she’s getting thirsty again.” Cooking Cat smiled. A small sad one. “If this keeps up, she’s be right as rain again! Though I do wish the Conductor was here. Poor sweetie won’t take the stuff without him there.”

“She has her wolf. She’ll be fine.”

Cooking Cat gave him a look. “You know, this is awfully nice of you to help the poor thing out like this. It’s generous of you to do something this nice.”

“Yeah yeah fine. I’m being nice. BIG deal.” Snatcher waved her off, focusing on his book as the cat chef went back to the kitchen laughing.

*^*

It was nice to see the newbie sleeping peacefully.

Seeing her sick made them feel bad, especially since it was the 25 days illness. They didn’t recall much of their past, but that name alone set shivers down their nonexistent spine.

They hummed a little, taking the cloth off the newbie’s head and dipped it in a bowl of water, wringing out the excess and putting it back on her head. Newbie was lucky the boss was so worried about her. She really made his life more… well. Lively!

She was certainly the boss’s favorite, even if he would never admit that.

“You really got the Boss wrapped around your little fingers newbie. I don’t think he’s ever show this much care for anyone before.” They ‘smiled’. “The Boss really likes you!”

“Yes. He does, doesn’t he?”

They froze, quickly spinning around before the last thing they saw were strings and then.

Nothing.