*cracks knuckles* I'm sick but lets do this anyways! Probably gonna get eliminated anyways lol. I've been putting off writing this for WAY to long. Oh why, oh why am I such a procrastinator?  

Human AU 

"Are you alright?" 

Linh looked up miserably from the computer on her bed as her brother Tam stuck his head in her room. He was looking concerned as he set down some food in front of the door. "You've haven't moved from that bed in five days." 

It had been five days since Linh Song had tested positive for the first stage of coronavirus, and because of that, she had been quarantined in her room until another doctor could come in and test her for Stage Two. Until then, she was to remain closed off from all other beings, including her friends, and even her very own twin brother. 

"I'm fine." 

"You don't look okay. What's wrong? Do you need more omelets? I know they're your favorites, but we both know that I suck at cooking, so you can't really expect me to make anything better than these." 

The omelets in question, if you could even call them omelets, looked quite burned in Linh's opinion. She couldn't see how they could be any worse. 

"Don't come closer!" Linh said as Tam took a step into her room. "I don't want you to get sick too!" She buried her head in her pillow in an effort to make sure that Tam wouldn't breathe the same air as her. The only thing worse than getting the coronavirus herself, was seeing Tam get it knowing that it was her fault. 

Tam sighed and pulled out a mask from his pocket and pulled it over his head, strapping it securely over his mouth and nose. "Better?" he asked, voice muffled by the thick material. 

"Yeah," Linh said quietly, rocking on her bed in a tight ball, computer still open on a YouTube video about cute cats. Tam sat down next to her on the bed, and Linh immediately scooted away as fast as she could to the other side. 

Tam looked defeated, shoulder slumped as he watched Linh stare determinedly at the screen, which wasn't even un-paused. He stood up and left the room. 

'It's for the better,' Linh thought miserably, holding back tears as she watched her brother leave, the door shutting gently behind him. 'If he gets sick, then what would happen? This is all my fault for being careless in public. I never should have went out and bought that book without a mask on. It was my fault for forgetting Tam's birthday and having to get something so last minute. Even so, how could I forget to wear it? And look at me now, I'm so alone, and scared. What if I die? I don't want to die. I really don't want to die.' 

A tear slipped down her cheek when she thought about death. So many people died from the coronavirus, what if she did too? She didn't want to die. 

She reached forward for an omelet and tested it in her mouth. It was cold, with a lingering warmth in the center that went away as quickly as it came. It broke as soon as she tried to lower it back to the plate. 

'Just like how I'm gonna be,' she thought sadly, shoving the whole thing in her mouth regardless of how burnt it was on the outside, how broken and how cold. 'Cold and slumpy and broken.'

The door creaked open and she saw Tam's head poke out of it. In his arms, he carried... 

"Princess Purryfins?" she asked, reaching her arms up as the cat scratched Tam, leaped out of his arms and crawled up next to Linh's side, nuzzling her arm. 

"Sorry for being gone for so long," Tam said, staring at Linh caressing the cat happily. "That cat and me don't get along in the slightest, you should see how hard it was to get her to stay in my hold. She scratched me like, twelve times." He rolled up the sleeves of his sweatshirt and showed off an array of new, bloody scratches that ran up both his arms until his biceps. "Why does it like you so much and not me? What did I ever do to it?" 

"You hurt her when I first got her!" 

"I didn't even go up to her! She was the one that came up to me! It's not like I kicked her on purpose!" 

"Well, cats are just like that. You gotta be nice and biased to them. Aren't I right Pwincess? You so cute Pwincess." Linh said, massaging her belly. The cat meowed in pleasure, glaring at Tam from the side of her eyes. Tam glared right back. 

"Why'd you bring her in?" Linh asked as Princess Purryfins made herself comfortable on Linh's bed. "You never socialize with Princess Purryfins unless you absolutely have to." 

Tam shifted next to the door uncomfortably. "Well, just to tell you that the doctor's here. And um, he's here to test you for Stage Two. I thought you might be able to stay more calm if Princess Purryfins was her with you."  

Linh flung the blankets off the bed with shock. "He's here? Now? Already? I'm not ready, I don't want to know yet, Tam, I'm scared!" Her face scrunched up, trying to stop tears from running. "What if Stage Two is positive too?" 

"We can only hope for the best," Tam said. "And look!" He held up Princess Purryfins by her paws and clapped them together. "Princess Purryfins is here to cheer you on!" 

The cat hissed at Tam and scratched him again before snootily walking away and sitting beside Linh on the bed. Tam cursed under his breath from the corner of the room. 

"Can you please stay too?" Linh asked. "I would feel better with you here." 

"I'm not allowed to be here," Tam said, looking at the ground as the door opened and the doctor stepped in, a large mask over his face, carrying a hefty bag with what Linh presumed to be filled with materials for testing. She was calmed down slightly by the fact that this doctor seemed a lot nicer than the previous one, as he had cartoon cats with unicorn horns all over his doctor uniform. 

"Mr. Song, I'm sorry but you can't be here during testing," the doctor said. Linh noticed that Princess Purryfins did not immediately attack him. She wondered what this said about the doctor. 

As Tam shut the door behind him, Linh felt a thump on the other side of the door. She knew that this meant Tam was waiting on the other side for the results. Comforted slightly that her twin would be here in case of an emergency, she turned back towards the doctor, feeling braver. 

"I'm Elwin, and I'll be testing you. What's your name?"

"Linh," Linh said in a pathetically quiet voice. 

Elwin sensed that she was scared and patted her on the back. "It's going to be okay. You look like a very healthy, strong girl. Even if it is positive again, I'm almost one hundred percent sure you'll be able to fight it off." 

Linh laid down on the bed, arms tightly wrapped around her cat, much to the cat's displeasure, and Elwin first took her temperature, and did a bunch of other things that Linh didn't understand, and then, pulled out what may have been Linh's least favorite thing ever, a cotton swab. 

She remembered the first time a doctor had stuck that thing down her throat and she gagged on it and started to choke, only to be saved by Tam with the Heimlich maneuver. Ever since she had always been terrified of cotton swabs, especially down her throat. 

She felt Elwin's hand on her throat to calm down her frantic breathing, and held the cotton swab above her throat. "Close your eyes, take a deep breath and hold onto your cat. It will be over soon, and fast." 

She squeezed Princess Purryfins (she meowed in displeasure) and felt the cotton swab go into her throat and then out in a matter of seconds. Taking large breaths to calm herself down, she watched as Elwin recorded down data and hummed under his breath while he inputted results into a machine. 

Linh didn't even realize she was holding her breath until she almost died from lack of oxygen. Elwin turned around with a small smile on his face, and Linh felt her heart soar in hope- 

"Negative." 

From the other side of the door, Tam heard a screech and worried that there had been another cotton-incident, he rushed into the room, mask and gloves on so that the doctor wouldn't pester him about hygiene like the other one had. 

When he entered, he saw Linh crying on the bed, the doctor standing besides her, patting her on the back, a small smile on his face. 

"Oh no. It's positive isn't it?" Tam said sadly, looking at Linh's head bent down onto a pillow. 

Linh raised her head up and flashed a large smile. "No! It's negative!" 

"It's NEGATIVE?!" 

"Yeah! Apparently just cause the first stage is positive, I don't have the coronavirus!" 

"That's great! So you can come out of your room now?" 

"Yup!" 

Elwin watched the twins hug happily, and Linh lead Princess Purryfins out of her room and into the rest of the house. He packed up his materials and headed out of the door, but not before seeing Linh at the oven, Tam behind her, holding a giant egg. 

'They're cooking?' he thought curiously and laughed silently as he went out the door. 'Kids these days.' 

"Ok, Tam. This is how you make an omelet." 

"I thought my omelets were just fine!"

Princess Purryfins meowed in disagreement. 

"No, they were terrible." 

"You ate them all!" 

"Because I was starving and I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

"They couldn't have been that bad!" 

Princess Purryfins scoffed. 

"Oh yes they were." 

"Oh come on! Give me a break!" 

For all the chaos going on in the world, it was nice, Elwin thought, that there could be these small moments of happiness between people. Just two siblings, a cat, and an omelet. 

rosesanddandelions