Chibi Duo sat on the grass, leaning against the tool shed’s red, white and blue original elephant art door, trying to appear nonchalant. “Hi, Melody!” he greeted her too cheerily. “Ya havin’ a nice day?”

“That depends,” Melody said. “Will you please move from in front of the door so Heero can come out?”

“What makes you think Heero’s in there?” Duo asked, completely puzzled as to how she could have figured that out so quickly.

“Webmommies know everything,” Melody answered mysteriously, reaching for Duo’s grimy, chubby hand. It was amazing to her that he could have gotten so dirty after having only been home for a few minutes. He was SUCH a dirt magnet! Duo let her help him stand up.

“Heero, the jig is up,” Duo said dramatically as he opened the shed door. He turned to Melody, who was trying hard not to smile. “I heard that on that cool old movie we watched last night ‘bout those gangsters.” Duo paused a moment, looking thoughtful. “Hey, Melody, can I be a gangster when I’m growed up?” he asked seriously.

“No,” Melody said firmly as she tried to keep from laughing. “Definitely not.” She peered into the dark shed. “You can come out now, Heero. I want to see your spots.”

Heero grudgingly emerged from his hiding place. “She’s such a tattletale,” he grumbled under his breath. He had hoped that Melody wouldn’t see his spots and thought that if Relena hadn’t told that she never would have noticed them. He stood in front of Melody and tolerated her as she examined him until she looked under his shirt. “Hey! Isn’t that ‘vadin’ my pers’nal space?” he objected crossly.

“Not when you’ve got chicken pox,” Melody answered. “And you definitely do.” She brushed his shaggy brown bangs out of his eyes and put her lips to his forehead. “Let’s go in the house and take your temperature. You feel feverish.”

“I shouldn’t a let her kiss me,” Heero thought grumpily. “Now she’ll make me stay in bed. When I catch Relena I’m gonna—“ Heero’s thoughts were interrupted by the only female chibi in the household as she tackled him from the side when he wasn’t expecting it, nearly knocking him down. She had pinned his arms to his sides and was hugging him tightly.

“Oh, Heero! Tegan says you’ll get better an’ that Duo don’t know what he’s talkin’ ‘bout!” she cried happily as she squeezed him even more tightly. Heero didn’t think that that was possible, but it was. “I PROMISE I’ll take good care a you while you’re sick, pumkin. I’ll go get my doctor kit.” With that she dashed back to the house ahead of everyone and the screen door slammed shut behind her.

Duo tugged Melody’s sleeve as they walked toward the back porch. “How come I can’t be a gangster?”

The next afternoon, Chibi Heero was in bed, feeling sorry for himself. There were comic books scattered all over the black and olive green reversible comforter and his library book, volume 3 of the 5 book series ‘Create Your Own Medieval Weaponry,’ which normally he could hardly be torn away from, lay on the bed untouched.

“Melody says I can bring you these t’ make you more comf’terble,” he heard Relena’s muffled voice say from the doorway. Her arms were full of every pillow she could find that didn't belong to someone. She dropped them on the floor beside his bed, helped him to sit up and started piling them behind him. Heero rolled his eyes, but did not protest that he was already comfortable enough because he knew it was useless. Melody had had a terrible time getting her to go to school that morning because she had wanted to stay home and take care of him, so he was thankful that she hadn’t been pestering him for MOST of the day. “An’ I brought you a boo-boo bunny ‘cause you got a bad tempercher.”

The boo-boo bunny was a washcloth that was rolled inward by two of the corners and folded in half and then the edges were folded backward and tied with a piece of yarn so that there was a head and the ends of the washcloth stuck upward, making the ears. In the center of the body was a piece of ice in a sandwich bag.*for instructions on how to make Relena’s boo-boo bunny, click here* Relena put the little rabbit friend on Heero’s forehead.

Heero could tolerate the pillows and the unwanted attention, but the boo-boo bunny was just a bit TOO MUCH. “Boo-boo bunnies aren’t for temperchers,” Heero said quietly and glared at her as he pushed her hand away. “They’re for bruises.”

“I know that, but I thought it might help ‘cause it’s cold so I made you one anyways,” Relena answered as she gently pushed him back against the pillows and placed the unwanted rabbit back on his forehead. “Anythin' else I can do for you, sweetie? Do you want some more water? Can I read to you?”

“No. You’ve done more’n ‘nough already.” Heero answered in a tone that was meant to discourage further conversation, but it failed.

“Now, you keep that on your head so your tempercher will get broken,” Relena instructed her patient firmly in her best doctor voice, shaking her finger at him for emphasis as she sat down on Trowa’s bed. “That’s really ‘portant.” She adjusted the orange plastic stethoscope which was hanging around her neck. “I’ve ‘cided to stay to keep you comp’ny,” she informed him with a happy smile. “You musta been lonesome all day by yourself.”

Before he could make an answer to that, to Heero’s relief, Tegan called up the stairs. “Relena! Your cupcakes are ready to come out of the oven.”

Relena jumped up and happily announced, “I made ya some cupcakes for a surprise! I’ll bring ‘em up as soon as they’re cooled ‘n frosted.” And she darted from the room.

Suddenly, Heero lost his appetite.

During dinner, Heero was surprised when Rashid carried his very tired little Quatre-sama into the Nursery and put him on his bed. He quietly took a pair of Quatre’s bunny jammies from the dresser drawer and helped him to put them on.

“What’s the matter with him?” Heero asked.

“He says he’s not hungry. He has the chicken pox.”

Heero looked doubtful. “I don’t see any spots on him.”

“That’s ‘cause they’re on my tummy,” Quatre told him as he yawned. Heero noticed that although Quatre was pale, his cheeks were slightly rosy from his fever. “Melody says I have to stay in bed just like you do.”

Rashid tucked the blankets around him. “I’ll be back in a moment, Quatre-sama,” he said. “I am going to get a chair.” He left the room and soon returned carrying the big bulky brown recliner from the living room.

“What’s that for?” Heero asked as he scratched his arm furiously.

“I am going to watch over Quatre-sama while he is sick,” Rashid said as he placed the chair near the head of Quatre's bed. He turned to the little blonde boy whom he adored. “Are you comfortable?” he asked, but he saw that the sweet child was already asleep.

Relena appeared in the doorway with a big smile on her face and a plate stacked with goodies which she had made all by herself. “Are ya ready for dessert yet, sugarplum?”

Heero and Quatre had recovered from their chicken pox, but the rest of the younger chibis were in bed in various stages of the illness. Milliardo and Treize were glad to have escaped the mini-plague by having already had them. Heero had been glad when Relena got sick the day after Quatre did because she was then confined to her room and couldn’t bother him. He frequently heard Melody say to her, “Heero is doing just fine. I checked on him a few minutes ago.”

A TV and VCR had been set up in the Nursery to try to keep the boredom at bay. At first there had been squabbling about what they would watch but after Melody told them that if they couldn’t get along she would take the TV away from them, they were able to come to an agreement about programming. Wufei and Heero had agreed to intersperse Duo’s favorite James Cagney gangster films with the numerous martial arts movies that Sam, their karate instructor, had sent to keep them busy. They just had to remember not to be bouncing in their beds and “fighting” along with the actors when Melody was nearby.

Heero and Quatre were the first ones allowed to go back to school, much to their classmate Dorothy’s delight, but because he became tired so easily these days, Rashid would not hear of Quatre going on the bus so he took him to school himself. He had rarely left the boy’s side during his illness, bathing his face with cool water, putting calamine lotion on his spots, reading to him and gently reminding him not to scratch.

Melody was unloading the dishwasher one day when Quatre came into the kitchen after school.

“Hi, sweetie. How was your day?”

“Okay,” he answered. “Melody, can you make me a boo-boo bunny?”

“What’s the matter? Did you bump your head?”

“No, it’s for Rashid.”

“How did he get hurt?”

“He didn’t,” Quatre answered solemnly. “But he’s got a tempercher an’ I gotta take care of him. He’s got the chicken spots.”