Apparently the superior technology of this current century has not advanced so far as we all thought. Apparently the force of human will is not always sufficient to overcome the obstacles placed in its path. Apparently all the care and preventative measures in the world cannot protect forever. And apparently, despite all his insistent contentions to the contrary, the perfect soldier was no match for the common cold.
The problem did not actually lie with the cold itself. After all, people do not die of little trifling colds. The problem arose from the fact that afore-mentioned perfect soldier did not like to be kept from his missions; particularly when the delay involved so intimately a large box of Kleenex and an ineffective bottle of foul tasting cough syrup.
The irony of the whole situation was that Heero Yuy's physical enhancements, although they could not actually overcome the virus itself, prevented any medication from having an effect on him. Thus, he was forced to live with the symptoms until his immune system could destroy the offending invader.
The fact that the one person who could have nursed the teen back to health in a suitably maternal and efficient way was also too sick to leave his bed further complicated the matter. Quatre Raberba Winner had proved his healing skills as well as his superior bedside manner when a pitiful Duo Maxwell and an irate Chang Wufei had succumbed to the disease the previous week. Quatre had patiently and tenderly bathed Duo's fevered forehead with a cold compress and provided him with fresh squeezed orange juice and comic books to keep him occupied. Then, he had turned around, wrestled a sickness-weakened Wufei to the ground, held his nose until he opened his mouth and poured Nyquil down his uncooperative throat. If ever the gentle attention of a pre-school teacher and the stern will of a drill sergeant were captured in the personality of a single person, the small blonde was it. No one would have survived the cranky hyperactivity of the one patient or the death threats of the other without Quatre's calm interference (and comic books and sedatives...er, "cough syrup").
Alas, Heero and Quatre both lacked the benefit of a useful medical attendant. Fate even denied them the comfort that the quiet ministrations of Trowa Barton would have secured them since the taciturn pilot currently believed he was on death's doorstep. And so the three were left with an overly concerned Duo making more noise as he tried to tip-toe around the house and more mess as he tried to dole out tissues and drugs than he would have had he behaved normally.
This was the state of events when Duo bounded his way into Wufei's room.
"Fei-chan!" Perhaps not the best opener...
"..."
"Cmon, Wu-man. I need your help. Quatre took care of you when you had this cold and now you have to do the same." Upon reminding himself of his ill companions he lowered his voice to a loud whisper. "You're being ungrateful!"
"...I do not care for sick people. Find a woman to help you." Wufei returned to the data he was reading.
"But Faaaaaaaaaaayyy," The American bobbed up and down as he whined and produced a very genuine look of pained neglect. This tactic not producing the desired result, he tried a different track.
"But caring for someone is like giving them your time, right? And Quatre took care of you when he had really important things to do with his time. And so now that he has lots of time and can't do anything with it because you wont help him get better, you're still taking his time. Plus Trowa and Heero are wasting time now too which is inevitably messing up the schedule of Quatre's next mission which means that he's losing more time because of you. And taking and taking and taking from someone and never giving anything back is not just. Your actions constitute injustice!" Duo finished with a shout and a triumphant finger stabbing into the air.
Not until he was standing in the kitchen staring at bloody, slimy poultry while Duo tied the tapes of his apron did Wufei come to believe that righting injustice might not be his true calling in life.