A Good Day Needed
#2 of A Good Man Needed
A Good Day Needed
*
"HHrhrhghghghh!"
Ken blinked, grunted, huffed, coughed and grumbled again, and swallowed tentatively.
"Owww..."
He cringed and stopped the effort, and thankfully the seeming flow of burning glass dust in his throat ended.
"Oh God," Ken growled again, slumping his head onto the pillow. His legs ached, his head ached, his throat felt sore and the little sniffle on his nosepad had become a seeming plug of mucus that filled his entire nasal cavity.
The tiger groaned and rubbed a paw over his face, his palm ending up onto his forehead. It felt warm...much too warm.
"Shit."
This didn't bear good news, Ken thought. Getting sick was crappy enough to begin with, but right now...well, there really wasn't a good time to begin with, when you were a private entrepreneur, Ken thought with another painful huff from his chest that caused him to cough, which sent further waves of pain through his throat.
Ken grabbed his phone and checked the time. It was only 05:20 yet, meaning that it was still almost two hours until his normal time to wake up before another day of busily zooming around town on his various work sites.
Today was going to suck, he thought as he rolled onto his side and pushed the pillow over his head while grumbling again.
"Ughhhh...."
The big cat rolled around for a few moments more, coughed a bit more and felt a few chills go through his body while he tried to find a comfortable position and fall asleep again. He didn't usually have any trouble sleeping, with the amount of work he did each day, it usually was a matter of putting his head down onto a pillow and he'd be off.
The next time he looked at the phone, it was 05:42.
"Fffffhhh..." the tiger hissed harshly.
Ken got out of the bed but found himself torn with shivers and chills that forced his muscled arms around his body. He felt cold despite the T-shirt and the boxers, and saw no option beyond grabbing the covers and wrapping them around himself while he dragged himself into the bathroom. He barely dared to look at himself in the mirror before he did the difficult work of peeing without splashing any of it on the edges of the blanket around his shoulders. The sneezing fit that took him in the middle of it caused the stream to splatter all around the bowl, anyway, making him snort.
"Fuck."
Ken flushed and went over to the sink and washed his paws while observing his bloodshot eyes. His breathing rattled uncomfortable, and parts of him felt both too hot and too cold simultaneously, which was strange.
"Urgh."
Ken opened the mirror cabinet and grabbed the box of Vicks Cold & Flu Relief he had left over from the Terrible Summer Flu of 2013. His damp paws seemed clumsy while he popped out two capsules onto his palm, put some water into his tooth brushing cup and washed down the drugs with a grimace when even the lukewarm water made his throat contract painfully.
"Bhaah."
The tiger sloughed back into bed and spent some time tossing and turning, trying to forget his misery and find a comfortable posture, and most of all, trying to fall asleep. There was still a possibility that a few hours of sleep combined with the hefty dose of drugs might actually make him feel much better, if they'd bring the fever down and soothe his throat. Perhaps it'd turn out alright.
The next time he regained consciousness, he felt woozy, but only marginally better.
"Shit."
It was a few minutes past seven am now. His body seemed to have woken up based on its own clock, rather than the alarm, which was still a little bit off.
Ken felt like he just wanted to crawl under the bed and hide until the throbbing pain behind his temples subsided.
"Uhhh..."
*
"You look like shit, boss!"
Ken snorted wetly and gave a glaring look at the wolf who was looking him over with beady eyes.
"Thanks, Jerome," Ken huffed, "just a touch of cold, nothing more."
"It looks more than that to me," the helmet-wearing wolf replied.
Ken stomped the ground with his heavy safety boot and tired to avoid the wolf's gaze. He was shivering despite the extra sweater he had put on underneath his winter jacket, and even his pants seemed to be insufficient today. The scarf around his neck barely helped to begin with while they stood out there in the dark yard of the construction site, bathed in white glow from the floodlights.
"Well I might be a bit under the weather but I'll manage," Ken replied. "I'll just do my rounds and then go home to rest, I think."
"You don't look so good," the wolf muttered, his breath steaming in the cold air.
"Can we concentrate on the goddamn work at paw so that I don't have to freeze my ass off here for any longer than its necessary?" Ken grunted, which was more than enough to make him sneeze and cough again, much to the wolf's frowning dismay as he stepped aside to avoid the spray of mucus.
"Well, sure, sure," Jerome hurried to say, "you know how we're doing the attic here, it looks pretty good but..."
Ken listened wearily.
"...but I'm not sure about the beam, the nails...."
*
"Ugh."
Ken squinted at the snow falling onto his windscreen while he poured stale, if steaming, coffee from his thermos and forced more Vicks capsules down his sore, rebelling throat. He was pretty sure that he had already exceeded the daily dosage, but at least it seemed to make him feel a little bit better for now.
The tiger wiped his muzzle and revved up the engine again, having left it running so that he could keep the heaters on at maximum. His eyes felt bleary, staring out into the bleak city winterscape that was more black than white. Whatever it was, he knew that it was freezing cold, based on the awful feeling on his nosepad. He really felt like doing nothing more better than crawling under a blanket and forgetting he'd ever had the grand idea of starting a property developing company of his own. He might've known that the Crillewood estate was the last place to go before his obligatory survey of his work sites was done for today, but even that felt like a stretch. Ken steered with one paw for a moment as he felt up his forehead with his pads and didn't like what was evident there.
"Shit."
He coughed and it hurt.