She was warm again.

...Too warm.

Yet despite the intense heat, her tiny body shivered, beads of pearlescent sweat beginning to form on her silky skin, soaking into her fur.

She was burning up.

What was going on with her?

~~~

It had been only a little over a week since Fries had welcomed the tiny puffling into his home, creatively naming it- "Puffball". It had begun to show progress at first, drinking milk regularly and seeming more alert. 

But things quickly began to spiral downward, as the poor puff began to have trouble keeping food in its stomach, often vomiting mere minutes after drinking, and was rapidly losing weight as a result. Fries tried all he could to help the little thing, even resorting to holding its mouth shut after each feeding, shivering as he felt the creature struggle and retch, its tired body rejecting any previous meal.

"Buddy...please- I know...but you need to eat!" Fries held Puffball's tiny frame, holding his hand over its maw as the puffling squealed in pain and retched against him, trying to ease the overwhelming nausea that filled its miniscule body. Poor thing hadn't kept a meal down in 2 days, and Fries was seriously starting to notice physical changes. All the weight it had gained during the past days had been shed, leaving the creature even more malnourished and atrophied than it had been the day Fries found it.

Yet, the stomach issues weren't the end of its pain.

The fleas and ticks covering its fur had persisted despite daily bathing, and continued to siphon the very life out of the little Puffball. A nasty fever had settled in as well, forcing Fries to constantly wipe the sweat from the creature's fur, which had lost most of its color, with strands falling out constantly. 

Fries spent hours researching, trying to at least find some solution to the puffling's issues, and eventually decided that he needed to reach out to an actual doctor, hoping to get some advice and medicine.

~

The potato-based object stood nervously in the exam room, tears in his eyes as he waited for the doctor to return with Puffball. On the ride over, the tiny puffling suddenly began to convulse, squealing in pain, before it went completely unresponsive, lying limp in his arms. He fiddled with the blanket that once held the small creature, strands of pale pink fur covering the blue fabric.

It had been nearly 3 hours since Fries had brought Puffball in, and he was beginning to get seriously worried. He stared at the back room door, horrible thoughts racing through his mind.

What if it didn't survive? What if it had to be euthanized? What if-

The door to the back area opened.

"Well, we have a lot of catching up to do here." The doctor gently placed the tiny puff down on the table. It was, thankfully, responsive again, a small patch of fur shaved off its side to accompany a small IV tube and bag, taped to the creature's skin. "First of all- you're lucky she's alive. She's very underweight for a puffling her age, and is completely malnourished. What have you been feeding her?" Fries reached out to pet Puffball's fur, recounting her past diet. "Well- she's been really just drinking milk- that's about it...and I think she's a runt? Hell, I don't know anything about puffballs! I Didn't even know she was a GIRL before you told me!" 

The other object shook their head before rummaging in a drawer, producing a few packets of powder labelled "PUFFLING MILK REPLACEMENT". "You need to start feeding her this instead- she can't survive off regular dairy milk!" Fries nodded and took the packets, reading the directions before stowing them away in his box. 

"That's not all- she also needs this dewormer mixed in- and this flea medicine scrubbed on her skin, as well as some regular pain medicine. Her insides are basically swiss cheese at this point, so she's very uncomfortable at the moment." The doctor continued to push bottles of medicine over to Fries, as well as several prescription papers for everything Puffball would need on her road to recovery.

As Fries organized the medications inside his box, the doctor handed Puffball over to him, wrapping her up in that little blue blanket again. "Luckily, all of her symptoms were due to acute dehydration, and after a few hours on this IV tube, she should be stable enough to go home tonight. She's already had a bottle of formula- and I suggest that you give her at least 5 daily until she begins to gain weight again." And with that, the doctoral object pulled out Puffball's IV, placing a small bandaid over her needle wound, and sent Fries on his way.

"Well...we got a long road ahead of us, don't we, Puffy?" The box of potatoes smiled down at his little puffling, who was now fast asleep, before glancing down at the bill he was handed by the receptionist.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT-"

~~~Author's Notes~~~

Yeah- I know, it's been a while. College started back up for me and I've been pretty busy recently. 

Anyway, I hope you guys all enjoyed the chapter!

Btw, the doctor is kind whatever object you want? I didn't really wanna make a whole OC/introduce some other characters for a short section lol.

Btw, you might be seeing a familiar face next chapter! Who knows what I'll do :).

Thanks for reading, see y'all next time!

-Fire