Chapter 11

It was a typical Saturday morning for the sisters' where they don't have any classes or extra ones to attend, no groceries to do because they're still in stock and both of them don't have any plans with their friends to hang out. Except now, Lily has become part of the household, so it's less typical now.

Of course, being the good-in-grades students they are, a day off like this means to finish all of the homework and assignments given for the weekend.

On the other hand, Lily who just finished her daily television time has nothing to do than to walk back and forth, like how she's doing now in front of Emma who's currently watching her as she was a very interesting sports section on the channel while munching on a jar of a cookie, taking a short break from dwelling with her papers scattered across the dining table.

"What are you doing?" Lily who had her eyes on her feet the whole time raises her head upon the question thrown. "Walking?" The bear scratches her nape when Emma continue to stare at her in amusement.

She then walks over to the latter and sat in front of her, supporting her chin with both hands. "Lillian is bored. Play with Lillian." The bear pouts very bored with walking now.

"Sorry baby bear," Emma cleaned her hands before leaning to pinch Lily's right cheek. "I still have some papers to finish. Maybe next time?" She pulls back and turns her attention to the said work.

"Okay..." Lily slowly pull back and stand up. "I'll just play with Wally." With two slumped shoulder, she walks over to the wall and hugs it. Emma can only chuckle. "Have fun."

A few minutes later, Jennifer makes her appearance from upstairs, carrying a small pile of books and papers combined in her hands, probably her assignments to be finished.

A thud can be heard when Jennifer dumped her stuff on the table in the living room, making Lily snap out of her comfort against the wall.

"Jennifer, welcome home!" Lily detached herself and skips to the latter with a cheerful greet accompanied by a wide grin that makes her eyes disappear, the one that she always spawns whenever she sees her master.

"I didn't go out, Lily." Jennifer stated lazily, throwing herself on the couch heaving a sigh afterwards. Not affected by her tone, Lily only sit next to her and lays her head on Jennifer's thighs. Her master's warmth is the best, she once claimed.

Unexpectedly, Jennifer didn't push her away. She only closes her eyes while putting a hand on top of Lily's cheek, not that Lily is complaining. "Play with Lillian?" She changes her position to face Jennifer, but she didn't reply.

"Jennifer?" Her calls remain unanswered. The bear pulls both of her master's hands and put them on her cheeks before calling once again.

"Jennifer? Are you okay?" Lily stood up, somehow Jennifer's hands feels oddly different. She cups her cheeks this time, making Jennifer open her eyes slowly but still expressionless.

"Emma!" Lily calls, the pair of worried eyes still in contact with Jennifer's, "Something is wrong with Jennifer."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Emma asks back still on her position.

"She's...hot."

"Lily, stop flirting." The squirtle retorted.

"What is a flirting?" Lily peeks at her this time.

The latter only blinks after Lily's honest question before walking to the two in the living room. Jennifer's expression remains the same. Seeing the slight pink tint on her cheeks, she puts a hand on her sister's forehead and the other on her own.

"Sis, you caught a cold." The younger holds her by the shoulders, stating the obvious worriedly.

"I think so..." Jennifer says weakly.

"But...How?" Emma tilts her head.

-FLASHBACK-

"Emma, have you seen my umbrella?" Jennifer shouted, she was busy digging through the lower cabinets of the shelves on the corridor looking for the said item.

"It's on the usual spot!" Emma shouted back from the kitchen.

"But there's nothing here!" The latter checked the spot where she last saw her pink umbrella for the nth time that morning. "How am I gonna go to school under this weather?" She stomped her feet in anger.

"That can't be, who else would take you umbrella?" Emma made her next to her Sister to make sure she was not lying. It took a few moments before they realized someone else exists in their house.

They both then ran to the bear in the living room. Lily was lying on the floor, trying to fight off the sleepiness so that she can kiss bid her master goodbye before taking off.

"Lily?" Jennifer called carefully.

"Hmm? Are Jennifer and Emma going already?" She rubbed her eyes and stood up quickly.

"By any chance, did you.... Take my umbrella?" They both eyed the bear.

"Umbrella? What is that?"

"The thing that was inside a pink cylinder placed under the cabinet over there." Emma pointed at the shelves.

"Ah- That was an umbrella? I thought it was food HAHAHAHA-" Lily laughed but they siblings only looked at each other.

"Well, did you take it?" Jennifer asked hopefully. Lily only nodded gleefully.

"Where is it now?"

"I thought it was food but it wasn't, so Lillian threw it away because it was making Lillian unhappy." The bear chirped as if it was the most normal thing to say.

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"Oh. Yeah. Now I remembered."

"Exactly."

"Is Jennifer okay, Emma?" The bear's frown is very visible now as she asks. "Apparently, Jen is sick...," The latter looks over her tilting in confusion. "Which means, she's not healthy."

"WHAT-" Lily grabs her tight by the shoulder. "DON'T DIE ON LILLIAN!" She shakes her vigorously.

"Stop that!" For someone who's weak the sound of the smack landed on the bear's forehead was quite loud, sending her tumbling over the couch and to the floor.

"Oh what to do!" Lily panics as she runs around in circles, ignoring the pain on her forehead.

"Don't overwork yourself, it's just a cold." Jennifer groans. "A really bad one." Emma continues when she saw her sister coughs rather loudly. "You should lay down for today. Lily help me out while I arrange her stuff."

Being the loyal bear she is, helping out the siblings has become one of her chivalry, though some tasks were poorly done, it didn't stop her. Heck, it doesn't affect her at all, except for Jennifer's constant yelling. So, there she is, helping Jennifer to lean back on the couch. Feeling a little bit under the weather today, she didn't argue back.

"Lily, stop." The latter pushes the bear's face away when she leans too closely to her face. "I'm not in the mood and you might get sick too." She breathes. Feeling disappointed, she pulls back with a frown knowing that no one will be playing with her today.

Just then, Jennifer's phone rings but she's unable to answer because it was too far for her reach, she signals Lily to grab it for her. "Don't worry, Lillian already saw you both do this a lot of time!" The bear shows her a toothy smile before sliding the screen to answer the phone.

"HELLO~" Lily sings.

"Hello- Jen?" It's Isabella .

"Oh no no, this is Lillian. Jennifer is sick.. wait. JENNIFER IS DYING PLEASE SEND HELP-" Looks like Lily had forgot that her master was sick, reality strikes and she just shouts through the phone.

There's no reply on the other line but a loud thud can be heard by Lily. "Hello? Bella?"

"Bear you're overworking yourself!" Emma grabs the phone from her. Jennifer can only groan in frustration.

"Hello? Bella? Sorry about that, Lily is-"

"I'LL BE RIGHT THERE" Disconnected.

___

Bella arrives less than half an hour later. Turns out, she was making her way to the sisters' resident for Jennifer's help on their homework. It's not the first time though. Sometimes it was Mia.

"JENNIFER PLEASE DON'T DIE YET, YOU STILL NEED TO HELP ME WITH THESE HOMEWORK I DON'T UNDERSTAND-" The long-legged girl burst inside without even Emma finishing her sentence, flailing her papers while running towards into the living room.

"Um, Bella can you please look over Jennifer and Lily? I need to go buy some med. We're kind of running out of it." Emma peeks which the latter response with a wave.

"Oh God why..." Jennifer heaves a sigh watching her friend, fanning her papers dramatically in front of her face. "I'm just sick. Not dying."

"HAHA I know." Bella fixes her position, she was joking but it doesn't mean that she's not worried. "I bought some ingredients, cooking you something is the least I can do." She smiles at the latter which she gladly returns.

It is true. When her friends were sick, Jennifer would visit them. She would stop by their house too after school if one of them were absent. Though they seem to argue a lot, taking care of each other had been a common courtesy.

"You don't have too..."

"Ah but I must!" She sees her coughing and feels her temperature. "You got it bad... Do you want something? Water maybe?"

"Actually yes, I asked Lily" Just then Lily appears with a glass of water in her hand, "Bella!" She chirps, Isabella threw back a bashful smile upon hearing the nickname. "Hello baby bear." She cups her cheeks, shaking them in process.

"What's taking you so long?" Jennifer tries to sit up with the help of her friend.

"Sorry it was hard to find it..." She handed the glass to Jennifer. She studies her carefully before handing the glass to Isabella. "Can you please make sure it's water, I can't smell anything in this state."

"Lily..."

"Hmm?"

"This is vinegar."

____

Now that Jennifer is asleep, the other two are left on their own things to do. As for Isabella, she is busy preparing a soup for her friend. Lily on the other hand, is staring at her peacefully sleeping master. She has her arms crossed, supporting her chin on the edge of the couch.

"Baby bear, help me over here?" Isabella calls her when she sees her poking Jennifer's cheek annoyingly. Lily gravitates to the kitchen a few second later. "Yes?"

"Instead of bothering your Majesty, you should help me take the other ingredients out of those bags." Isabella points at the items on the counter with a knife before going back to cutting.

"But who'll look after Jennifer? She might need something!" Lily sports a pout only for it to be pinch by the latter. "I'm sure she's not that weak to call one of us from there." She laughs. "Plus, you were not that far from waking her up."

The bear huffs making her way to one of the chair and starts taking out the stuff out of the bags. To Isabella's surprise, Lily didn't ask anything at all about any of the things she takes out one by one.

"What's wrong? You look down."

"No? I'm looking at these things."

"No, I mean, you look unhappy. Something matter?"

"How can I not be unhappy when Jennifer is sick." Lily stops and leans toward with a deep pout. Isabella who just sat beside her. She just laughs and pats her on the head. "You are so cute. I don't even know how Jennifer can reject you like most of the time." She helps the bear with the stuff.

"If I were her, I'd date you though. You're cute and pretty sensible to me. You may be dumb but you only have your attention on her." Isabella states nonchalantly. "Date?" The bear tilts.

"A date is something you do with someone you love!"

"What is love?"

"Well, love is-"

"HELLO PEOPLE, QUEEN MIA HAS ARRIVED!"

___-

"I meet Mia when I was making my way home. She said she needs Jennifer's help too." Emma says after pouring a glass of water for her sister to eat the medicine. The cat was long awake because of the Satan's loud scream after accidently drinking vinegar.

Lesson learnt, never ask Lily for water.

But luckily, she fell back asleep the second after Lily's constant caressing on her hair after she took her med. "Emma, Jen is getting warmer." Emma looks over the pouting bear who is still caressing her hair.

"I'll wet a towel for her." With that, Emma makes her way.

"You're lucky you're adorable or I might as well choke you to death for the vinegar." Mia exclaims between coughs. She walks over to the sleeping figure and feels her temperature. "Sorry, didn't know you caught a cold..." She mumbles pecking her on the forehead.

"Mia, help needed!"

"Mmkay." The said girl then stands up and gravitates herself to the kitchen leaving Lily with Jennifer behind.

"Jen~" Silence, only the sound of Jennifer's heavy breathing can be heard in the living room, of course if you exclude Isabella's yells and Mia's screams of pain from the kitchen.

"It's okay! Bella says you'll be alright, until then we can play, right?" Another silence.

Lily was about to hover over her wanting to pull her into a hug after pecking her forehead like Mia did but only to be pull back by Emma on the collar. "You're gonna get yourself sick too, you know." Emma place a wet towel on Jennifer's forehead. "And we can't afford missing any more assignments to finish."

"EMMA, I THINK YOU GUYS ARE OUT OF VINEGAR."

__-

Jennifer wakes up the day after, the ceiling welcoming her sight, looks like she slept on the couch throughout the day.

Thankfully, the cold seems to have faded as she can breathe freely. She need to thank Isabella for the soup that taste somehow odd (because Mia had put the wrong amount of wrong ingredients, somehow Isabella manage to fix the taste a bit since they're running out of ingredients) but thanks to her worn out taste buds, it doesn't affect her that much.

She's about to sit up but something, or someone, is holding her down. As if she doesn't know who's always clinging on her.

"Lily." She shakes her a bit, but there are no answers. Lily only rubs her face closer to her chest.

"Lily." She says a little louder this time only to have Lily throw her left leg over hers and pushes a pout on her cheek.

"Lily!" A kick is thrown to the bear causing her to stumble over the couch. "I DIDN'T TAKE YOUR MILK I SWEAR- Oh! Jen!" Her panic expression turns into the grin again seeing her master sits up.

"Good morning! Are you okay now?" She cups her cheeks.

"Seems like it...Thank you." Jennifer pulls her hands away before smiling. She doesn't know why she's thanking Lily, the last thing she remembered Lily gave everyone vinegar.

"Yes!" Hugs. "Does this mean we can go out and play?"

"You really need to start acting like an adult now." She looks over her arranged materials. "And no, I still have a day left to finish my homework- stop clinging on me!"

"Sis! Good morning!" Emma appears with a towel over her head. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine now, thank you. Sorry I made you went out to buy some supplies..." Her sister gives her a grateful smile. "Don't sweat it." Emma receives a messing on her hair.

"Oh and please remind me to thank those two idiots later." She only hums in response.

"Is it okay for Lillian to kiss now?"

"Wha- NO." She pushes the latter's face away before getting up.

"Urgh. Can I kiss Emma instead?"

"HAHA LOL NO." Emma laughs mockingly but stops when the bear only frown at her. "Maybe Isabella might want, you should ask her later."

"EMMA!"

"I'm just kidding! A kiss on the cheek sometimes would be oka-Lily?"

Lily was making this weird face as the two exchange words. "Lily, what's wrong?"

"AH CHO!"

🧸