~Chilled's POV~

More and more these past few days I've come to realize something: I have no idea whether this curse of mine is pernement or just a phase. If it was a phase it's a damn long one but in the back of my mind I can't help but hope it really is just a long temporary condition. Of course the lapses being a plushy has been lowering and lowering and nowadays it is possible to only switch once the entire day. While more often than not I turn around three times, the days it's only once I feel a wave of hope that it will continue on to be like that. With the increase of close friends nearby I suppose I'm beginning to yearn for what we call the curse to just go away one day. Gassy came back, with three other friends whom I'm becomign close to, especially Nanners. When my thoughts go to Nanners I pause, feeling a bit strange for thinking about him. What really is he? A friend, of course, I guess. I'm not really sure to be completely honest.

"Are you here Chilled?" a familiar voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I jerk my head up, prepared to make excuses to either of the Penningtons that I wasn't sleeping on the job but instead all I see is Nanners entering the shop. Speak of the devil. Literally.

"What's up Nanners?" I ask and freeze when I notice his actual expression. He looks like absolute shit. His eyes are obviously exhausted and tired while his skin even seems a bit more pale than usual. Somehow I never expected to see Nanners in such a state for as long as I live, partly because I thought he was a demon and can't get sick. Nanners approaches the counter and avoids my gaze, looking towards the counter or the shelves of plushies, just anywhere but my eyes. This is really off for Nanners.

"Where's Ze? Is he taking a break?" Nanners asks before standing up again and steps around the shop, seeming to be restless with the way he just paces around and looks at the most random things. I sigh, watching him, before leaning on my palm, my eyes seemingly stuck to him.

"Yeah, he's in the back sleeping," I explain and Nanners shows no sign that he even heard me or even cared but continues to look at some random pink bear on the shelf. I frown at his complete distractedness and begin to rise from my seat. "Hey, Nanners. Is something up man?" He suddenly looks back at me and smiles awkwardly, seeming a bit nervous.

"Well - yeah, something did come up. I - uh - I got kicked out." I stare at him for a long time, waiting fo rthe punchline or the usual "just kidding" he always throws out there with a laugh and other snide remarks. But it's not coming as much as I wish it would. Quickly, I stand up and approach him, grabbing a hold of his arm and force him to look down at me.

"Nanners...are you serious?" His silence gives me a hope that he really is joking and it's just an extremely delayed "just kidding" and yet his nod completely destroys the small hope I had. I let go of him and run my fingers through my hair, a million possibilities running through my head and not one very likable. To be kicked out of somewhere you have to do something intense. Even when a couple has a minor fight and break up they may not always just kick the other person out, well one of the reasons is because of money issues but otherwise you can't just kick someone out of their shelter.

"Don't ask," Nanners suddenly says and the one question I so much desired to ask is shot down immediately. What did he do? Gassy is a reasonable man, and so is Diction from what I've seen of him. I doubt Sparklez will just kick him out either so he must have actually done something that will have them hating him for a good few weeks. I stare at the man for a few seconds before sighing and returning to my post behind the cash register, at a loss for words if I can't ask him what went wrong. We both stay in silence, the only noises coming from us is our silent breathing. I wonder if it was a really serious fight, and if it was will they force me to choose sides? Of course I've known Gassy for a long time and I trust him wholeheartedly but since I've gotten to know Nanners he is also pretty high up on the list of people to trust.

"Do....Do you need a place to stay?" I ask silently at last making Nanners turn to me in shock. "You have to, right? It's not like I'm at home often in the first place anyways. I have a bed in my office anyways so you can take the bedroom. I - I won't be home often though," I explain only makign Nanners' shocked face look more and more shocked as I begin explainign my home situation. I'm hardly ever home, though a major part of the reason is because I usually end up staying at the shop because of my condition or even stay over at Ze's when I don't feel confident about walkign home alone. If Nanners were to stay at my house he'd probably hardly even see my at my house anyways, so I shouldn't really worry.

"Are you serious Chilled?" Nanners asks and I glower at him, irritated he'd suggest I'm pulling one on him when the atmosphere is so dead serious. Nanners smiles and even laughs before scraching the back of his head and approaches me at the other side of the counter.

"Thank you, Chilled."

"Oh shut up, you came here looking for me to plan to leech off me anyways, weren't you?" I complain and he just laughs in return, neither admitting it or refuting it. Glancing back at the back door I feel the constant threat of Ze bursting out at any moment before turning back to Nanners and dig through my pocket, finding the metallic jingling keys and stare at them. The house key is actually a golden small one with random numbers on the side while I also have a small Mario keychain hanging next to the other key. I don't even remember what the other one is used for but I guess I've always kept it in case I ran into a lock I don't remember the key to.

"Here, I'll text you my address. Just...promise me you won't tell Ze or anybody that you'll be staying with me," I sigh and Nanners seems confused but more than okay with complying. To be honest he'll probably be completely fine with not telling Gassy or the others he's freeloading off of me, well actually I don't plan on letting him freeload but I can already tell that could be what's going to be the result out of this. Nanners stares at my keys for a long time before stuffing them back into his pocket but still stares off into space. For a second I just watch him then I quickly rise from my seat and jump over the counter, raising my hands towards Nanners' cheeks, shocking his warm face with my cold hands.

"Oh shit dude, you're burning. I should have known at least one of you guys would get sick, after all, this place is extremely different from the desert you used to live in," I explain, feelign stupid for not realizing it the moment he walked in. I noted he was pale and didn't seem right but I had assumed it was because of what seemed to be on his mind. Without warning the back door opens and out comes a yawning and stretching Ze who glances at both of us and almost suspicious look in his eyes as he sees me with my hands up towards Nanners' cheeks. 

"Hey Ze, I'm gonna go out with Nanners. Seems like he got sick from the huge climate change," I explain and Ze narrows his eyes at me but nods, probably a bit curious as to how my "human state" is right now. To be honest, right now I'm too focused on getting Nanners into a bed and safety to worry about my stupid condition.

"Fine, alright. Leaving again. Leaving me to take care of the shop again," Ze complains and I just roll my eyes as I practically force Nanners to leave the shop in front of me.

"Oh quit being such a baby," I complain back towards Ze and he just shakes his head at me as I force Nanners outside. The moment we're outside I unwrap the scarf from my neck and toss it around Nanners'. Nanners stares at me as I do this, his eyes just staring plainly at me with a blankness that makes it obvious he's not feeling good and definitely has a growing fever. Our eyes meet and the emptiness and blankness in his eyes hurts me. I'm not sure why but I don't want to see Nanners, or anyone with those sort of eyes.

I see, it's not just the fever. Him and his friends, or a friend, must have gotten into some pretty serious fight. I couldn't say I've had such a serious fight before, probably because people won't be friends with me in the first place if they couldn't handle my shit. After carefully wrapping it around him carefully I raise my hand to his face again, finding his heat burn at my hand. Quickly I hold onto his hand and pull him towards the regular direction to my house, a direction I actually hardly ever go despite being the route to my house. As to be expected people from around begin to glance over at us in curiosity, especially now that the one I'm out with isn't my limited amount of friends they've come to know about like everyone in the Derp Crew or Ze. After wandering for a bit (totally didn't get lost for part of the way) I finally find the nice and comfortable home I've come to make myself. I take my keys back from Nanners who's practically lifeless and depending on leaning onto my shoulder for his support.

Struggling with the lock before finally breaking through the small amount of ice and successfully unlocking the door, I allow Nanners to go in before me. Making sure to lock the door behind me I hear Nanners in the background collapse onto my couch. Turning back to him I find him sprawled out on my couch completely comfortable making me feel a bit guilty for having to pull him off and drag him over to my room. When I throw him onto my bed he sighs into the cold sheets, probably soothing on his hot skin but I force him under the blankets while taking back the scarf and taking off his jacket. He takes a deep breath before pulling up my sheets to his neck and turning towards me with a blank expression.

"Chilled...I'm sorry."

"You..." I stop myself from commenting snarkily to him when I notice his red eyes and definitely sickened color. Today's not the time for your sass Chilled.

"I'm sorry Chilled," he says again before covering his forehead with his forearm and shutting his eyes, his breathing steadying and becomign deeper. I stare at his lifeless figure for a good few minutes before hurrying to the bathroom, picking up a towel and wetten it for his forehead. To be honest I have no fucking clue how to take care of a sick person. I've never had to. Ze would always push me away and insist he can take care of himself while I...well when I'm sick I typically just don't take on a human form. I shiver in the memory of the times I'm sick. It's torture as a human but for me, I switch into the plushy form and just don't turn back until the sickness is through usually. Ze would try anythign, the typical human helping things on the doll but nothing would ever work. Then I would still feel heat from inside that form, it was terrible. Like there was another skin entrapping hot air around me burning at my actual skin.

I return to Nanners and remove his arm from his forehead to replace it then move my hand down to his cheek, feeling his warm temperature. God damn, Nanners, I've never felt a human become so hot. He must've been really stressed. People do that right? Become sick when they are stressed? I feel like those are the only times I ever become sick which only makes it worse for me. I move my thumb on his face and realize he was seeming completely earnest when he was telling me he was sorry. Does he actually have something he did to me? Maybe indirectly? If he was awake it'd be a lot easier to beat the answer out of a sick person. Maybe he's worried because he's sick and might miss the Winter Festival? Oh shit, he might be sick for the Winter Festival. I feel a mini panic at the thought but quickly calm myself. If Nanners can't make it, I'll ignore Ze and all of his stupid precautions and participate myself. I got away with it last year.

His cheek twitches under my hold and I immediately move my hand from just hovering over his face probably making the whole heat thing worse. After removing my hand I glance down at his closed eyes and fo rthe first time I realize he has pretty dark eyelashes. Curiously I reach forward and graze his eyelashes with my thumb making him twitch and frown making me smile deviously and do it again. This time he lifts his hand and smacks my hand away, only making me giggle this time and rise up from my crouching position. I should... what do you do with sick people? I sigh and glance everywhere in the room as if something will give me a clue but when nothing does I go to my phone and open up my contact list. Galm, Smarty, Ze, Tom, none of them will have a clue of what to do. Sighing in frustration I search for all of the girl names, hardly any and I highly doubt Minx will even give a shit.

"Chilled?" I jump at the sudden voice and turn to see Nanners has woken up, at least almost as he narrows his eyes towards me seeming tired.

"What's up?" I ask and hurry to his side, the panic from before easing that he might just ask me for something, but instead he jus tsmiles and shakes his head.

"Chilled. I like you," he suddenly mutters, shocking me and nearly making me want to leave and turn away but his hand reaches up and pokes at my cheek. "You're a really likable person you know. Can you...tell me what your secret is?" I hesitate suddenly at this question. Of course Gassy asked about it earlier but not so directly and sudden. "We'll trade. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," Nanners suggests and I widen my eyes, feeling very tempted to hear just what kind of secret such a man could have. However, I can't just tell him my secret, because no matter what his is I doubt it's something as outrageous as mine.

"Sorry, Adam," I mutter and surpriginsly he just smiles and shakes his head seeming to have expected this answer.

"Chilled. I'm with you." I look at him confused but before I can ask about it his eyes shut again, leaving me in absolute confusion. He's with me? As in he's alive and well with me? Well definitely not well but he is here. Maybe sick people just get delusional and say weird things. That would actually make a lot of sense for what he's said. I guess I'll just avoid thinking too deeply into it.