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Rocinante coughed into his elbow with a grimace, and reached into his pocket for the bag of throat lozenges he’d been carrying there all week. He was about to pop it in his mouth when a hand wrapped around his wrist, and he found himself staring at his brother. Doffy looked upset, which was rare, and only years of training kept fear from flickering across Rocinante’s face at the thought that he might have been found out somehow.
“How long have you been sick?” he asked, releasing Rocinante’s wrist as he threw the yellow lump over his shoulder into the wastebasket in the corner.
‘‘Not long.’’ he signed, and Doffy’s frown worsened.
“How long?” he demanded again.
‘‘Since we left Shier.’’ he signed slower, and Doflamingo outright scowled.
“And you haven’t taken anything for it but these things?” Doffy made a grab for his coat pocket, and Rocinante nearly overbalanced dodging. “Hold still, you-” Doffy managed to get one of his coat sleeves, and pulled the whole damn thing off. The sudden lack of feathery weight across his shoulders unbalanced him, and Rocinante yelped as he went down.
“These?” Doflamingo pulled the bag out of his pocket and tossed the coat aside, leaning down to wave the bag in Rocinante’s face. “These aren’t medicine.”
‘‘Yes they are.’’ Rocinante signed, and Doflamingo dropped the bag to grab the front of his shirt with both hands and pull him halfway up off the floor.
“No, they’re not!” he shouted, shaking Rocinante. “I’m not-” he stopped, teeth gritted, a vein pulsing visibly in his forehead, and then he exhaled heavily and set Rocinante back down, kneeling beside him. “I’m not letting this turn into something worse because you’re a stubborn ass who hates taking his medicine.”
Rocinante sat up and raised his hands to sign that he was taking medicine, but paused when Doffy pushed his sunglasses up into his hair and gave him a look. “You can throw him through the wall afterwards, if you want, but you need to let Law take a look at you. Captain’s orders.”
Rocinante pulled a face, and Doffy chuckled as he stood and offered him a hand. “I don’t want to tempt fate by letting this cough turn into something serious, especially when you only came back so recently.”
Rocinante let Doflamingo pull him to his feet, and returned his brother’s grin with a small smile of his own. For approximately half a second before a coughing fit hit and his face was buried in his arm again.
“Alright, that’s it.” Doffy grabbed him by the elbow as soon as he straightened up. “You’re coming to see Law with me right now or I’m stringing you up and forcing medicine down your throat myself.”
Rocinante sighed, and grabbed his coat as he was dragged past it. Letting Law treat him would only reinforce the kid’s idea that he was supposed to be here, but if Doffy was upset enough to threaten using his devil fruit he didn’t have much of a choice. He’d just have to do something worse than usual later, like actually throw him overboard instead of into the railing like usual.