4. Virus

Of hugs and reassurance

That night, Yifan awoke at the sound of a door opening in a hurry and someone sobbing. It surprised him because he was nearly impossible to wake up unless someone screamed at his face or threw him a whole bucket of cold water, but also because Luhan, who was in the contrary a rather light sleeper, was still deep asleep in the other bed of the room. Worried, Yifan slipped out of his blanket and left the chamber. On his way out, he grabbed one of his huge hooded jacket. He knew the others members loved to wear his – or Chanyeol's - gigantic clothes when they were sick, which was the reason why Yifan had the biggest wardrobe of them all : his clothes weren't his anymore as time passed.


 

Another broken sob made Yifan walk faster. The bathroom. That was where the tiny pleas were coming from. The door was wide open, light attacking Yifan's eyes, and when he turned around the corner, it took him a few seconds to recognize who was softly crying beside the toilets, back to Yifan, for his eyes had to adjust to the light. A mop of pink, pastel bed hair gave Minseok away as he turned around to see who was the owner of the loud steps in the hallway.

Minseok was obviously sick, decided Yifan as he threw himself on his knees, just beside the elder. His face was blank, paler even than the white ceramic of the washbasin just behind him. He had enormous bags under his eyes, testifying of his probable lack of sleep that night, along with bloodshot cornea. A few tears had made their way out of the elder's eyes, wetting his cheeks and falling one after the other without a pause. Yifan noticed a string of drool falling out of Minseok's mouth.


 

Minseok ?” Concern was present in his voice. Knees on the floor, Yifan rubbed the elder's back hopefully soothingly. Minseok wiped away the drool with a sheet of toilet paper, then tried to dry his face without a lot of success since the tears kept coming out. Yifan finally noticed the foul smell hovering in the air, quickly identifying it as puke. . Yifan got up, filling a glass of water before handing it to a coughing Minseok, knowing the taste would only make everything worse. Minseok thanked him quietly with a nod before taking a mouthful of water, then spitting it in the basin. He did this a couple of time again before flushing the toilets.


 

He had stopped crying now, and Yifan wasn't really worried about the sobs anymore. He knew that when the elder was sick, he tended to cry a lot for small things – although Yifan wouldn't call vomit the entirety of his stomach a small thing. Beside him, Minseok was trying to regulate his breath, still hasty because of the recent convulsions his body had gone through. It was only now that Yifan noticed how the elder was dressed. He had probably ran from under his blanket, nestled in his bed, toward the bathroom, because he was only dressed in a pair of boxer and a very loose, giant tank top – wait, wasn't this Yifan's – on his small frame. He was shivering, but Yifan was sure that if he were to touch his forehead, Minseok would burn his palm up.


 

Yifan draped his sweat shirt over Minseok's shoulder, rubbing his back once again.


 

Th- Thanks. Sorry I woke you up.” Minseok stuttered, but his voice was calm now, reassuring the youngest of the two. He turned around, lower back flat on the floor before fiddling with the piece of clothe, trying to put it on despite the shivers, uncontrolled movements of his body.


 

You can get up ?” Yifan nearly whispered, trying to be as gentle as he could. When Minseok was in this state, they all knew the shouldn't be loud or snarky. Or angry. Even if Yifan couldn't even begin to comprehend how someone could stay mad after seeing Minseok's face, whether it was tired, sad, happy or neutral. As an answer, Minseok shook his head, unsure of his legs. He'd rather stay on the cold tiles than risking getting up and letting s hedge themselves under him.


 

He did not forecast the arm under his knees and the other around his shoulders, lifting him up like he weighed nothing – which, Yifan thought, was close to reality, after all, the chinese leader was one of the weakest among them all and he could raise him up in his arms without any troubles.


 

Minseok kept himself from yelping, knowing the ten others were all asleep by now and certainly didn't need to be woken up. So he relaxed into Yifan's arm, letting himself be held, allowing his head to roll against the taller man's chest and maybe his eyelids finally closed themselves, helping Minseok drifting away, at last.


 


 

+


 


 

This time, hushed whispers dragged Yifan out of his slumber. And this time, he wasn't as surprised as earlier, yet he had matter to be surprised. For him to be stretched out on the couch in the morning was very rare. That in itself confused him a bit. But then the weightless warm tiny body hugging him tightly in his sleep reminded him of the evening's – or rather the night's - events. When he had picked up an exhausted and sick Minseok in his arms, the elder had instantly fallen asleep, curled up against him. Yifan had decided to let him rest and try to gently drop him on Minseok's bed, but the way the elder was comfortably nestled against him told him that the moment Minseok would get away from the warm giant that was Yifan, he would wake up.


 

In those moments, Yifan really felt like the dad of their group, taking care of one of their babies.


 

After he successfully – but not without troubles and contortion – landed Minseok and his own too-big-for-the-couch-body on the sofa, he managed to throw a blanket – he thanked Jongdae and Baekhyun's movie nights on the couch and their endless stock of covers – over their two cuddled up forms. He had dozed off not long after, lulled by Minseok's soft sleepy sighs. Thankfully, they did not have anything to do the next day beside practice.


 

But now there were two persons beside the couch, looking at them and talking softly, trying not to wake them up – and failing miserably at the task. Yifan opened an eye, then the other, adjusting to the light.


 

Minseok Hyung keeps cuddling on the couch with the tall ones, it's not fair...” That whiny voice was without doubt Jongdae, Yifan told himself.


 

He keeps ending up there without even asking to. The tall ones just love cuddling him. Probably because he's so tiny.” The second voice said, a bit more distant from them than Jongdae was.


 

You're not much taller yourself Junmyeon. We're not much taller to be honest.” Jongdae's cocky cat-like smile was audible to the chinese man, when he listened to him.


 

If you want to cuddle you can always ask, you know,” Yifan groaned, voice thick with sleep.


 

Jongdae beamed at him, asking for a cuddle session after he was done with their Hyung. Junmyeon rapidly apologized for waking him up, but Yifan brushed it away. The couch wasn't very comfortable for his godzilla-like body, anyway. It was the couch's fault. They asked about why they were here and not even in one of their room. Yifan explained how he had woken up to a sick to the guts Minseok, and how the elder wouldn't let go of him when he had lifted him up in his arms. Junmyeon hurried to the kitchen, saying something about medication, while Jongdae checked Minseok's forehead for temperature. It was stunning how the only fact that his dear Hyung was sick changed Jongdae's behavior. Well, it wasn't only Jongdae. It was all of them.


 

Their leader returned with a glass of water and a few pills, telling Yifan to make Minseok drink them when he woke up. A few others had left their rooms in the meantime, and Jongdae quickly informed them about Minseok's wellbeing. This was one of the most quiet morning Yifan had ever had, with only a few words being whispered among each other and small snickers that were quickly silenced. None of them wanted to wake Minseok up.


 

Almost an hour after Yifan had woken up, Minseok started to stir awake, hiding his face from the light in the crook of Yifan's neck, who had settled for another hour of rest while being trapped under Minseok's small stature. He groaned, curling himself into the blanket, before slowly opening his eyes. The elder observed his surrounding, still not entirely out of his deep, needed rest. He didn't feel like moving, here, between the thick blanket and his leader's warm body, but the sudden need to throw up made him raise a hand to his mouth, then, even faster than the first time, run to the bathroom. The missing weight and sudden movement startled Yifan awake – though he only had his eyes closed, he hadn't been really sleeping – and he caught a glimpse of Minseok's frame running to the toilets.


 

Yifan jumped on his two feet, ready to comfort the elder. He heard the toilet flush, and the same sobs as hours earlier made their way to his ears. Yifan quietly opened the door to find Minseok hunched over the sink, gripping the rim of the washbasin to hold himself up. He splashed water on his face, hoping to relieve himself from the uneasy feeling churning in his stomach, before wiping the wetness away with a towel. But tears kept falling. Yifan walked over Minseok, embracing him from behind but careful not to press his arms over his friend's stomach.


 

Minseok slowly turned around, hiding his face in the younger's chest, which soon was wet with the unstoppable, quiet drop of water leaving Minseok's eyes. He returned the hug, circling Yifan's waist with his arms, lazily dropping his hands on top of the taller's tailbone.


 

I ing hate my life right now.” He mumbled. Yifan chuckled lightly, massaging the elder's neck with one of his huge hands. “I wanna watch Nemo. Watch Nemo with me.”


 

And that's how they found themselves curled up against each other under a couple of blankets, Yifan comforting Minseok as he cried because No but you don't understand it's so sad Marlin lost most of his children and his wife at the same time I can't or They're happy I'm happy I'm so happy I'm crying what has become my life, Yifan, what is it now, crying over cartoons. Minseok kept drifting aimlessly between sleep and awakening, almost never moving away from Yifan, only to throw up again – which only happened once, but still – or to take the meds Junmyeon had gotten him.


 

At the end of the day, he was feeling way better, but still cried for nothing – he spilled water over Luhan, who had kindly filled him a glass and ended up a sobbing mess on the ground – and stayed glued to Yifan – because he was the only one he could cuddle with right now since it was too late for him to try to escape the virus – on the couch. Around 9 pm, Minseok fell asleep for good. Yifan wished their other teammates good night and lifted him up in his arms, much like the night before.

He hadn't really liked sleeping on the couch, his whole body ached. He was decided to sleep on an actual bed. He managed to swiftly tug Minseok under the covers, soon joining him and once again assuring his presence by hugging him tightly. A few minutes later, he had joined Minseok in a deep slumber, soft – for Minseok – snoring feeling the silence in Yifan's room.


 

At 3 am, Yifan woke up with the horrible feeling of wanting to throw up.

 

A/N : I'M SORRY YIFAN HAHA but hey you got to cuddle a whole day with xiumin ain't that beautiful.

Early-ish update because i'm in holidays and i had time to write earlier hehe now i'm going to drown myself under work ( highschool).

I Hope you liked it (heart at u) ! Have a good day !

 

EDIT : So I really love those drabbles tbh and I've decided to draw a serie of pic from those. The first four chapters have been edited and the pic added. If you like my art, be free to follow me on hysenk.tumblr.com . Art tag is zelart.

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Comments

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Jung_SooyeonBD
#1
Chapter 6: this is AMAZING
Xiuminheartsign
#2
Chapter 12: Absolutely breathtaking. Thank you for this story! <3
GlazedDounuts
#3
Chapter 12: Just absolutely phenomenal work, author-nim! You are such a talented writer, and your words are very deep, honest and beautiful. I actually felt some of them hit my heart like arrows by the accuracy. Everything is just like the title of the chapter warm. I felt the 'warmth'. You are talented that is for sure :) Thank you for sharing these drabbles with us. :)
bbibaekie
#4
Chapter 12: This really hit home for me. This is so beautifully written though, I just love how soft everything felt and how everyone just cared for Minseok so lovingly.
Deem99
#5
Chapter 13: I'll gladly wanna read your new story author-nim but I can't access that link :O
prodinius_0623 #6
Chapter 3: Xiusoo feels. ❄❄❄
Grimmrose #7
Chapter 12: I FINALLY READ THESE!
you know you're really good writer right??? These are very well written!!
I really liked these drabbles.
I don't, to be honest, really read stories that are kind of telling abt their "real" life u know, like that they're a band and have their idol activities and so on.
BUT I wanted to read these, not just because I felt like I had to or because I already started to read, but because I REALLY, HONESTLY LIKED THESE. I really love how you described their relationships, and personalities, and how they all had these different ways to be there for Minseok.
I'm happy, for me and others who read these, but also for _you_ that you wrote these. I'm happy that writing these helped you, and how your drabbles are also able to make someone else feel better.
REALLY GOOD JOB <3
profoundenigma #8
I just found 5his and I am so glad I did. I love how each chapter could stand on it own but was one complete story. I love how it shows how each member depends on Minsoek as much as he depends on them even if he does not see it. I can completely relate to this. Thank you.
ichwillnichthiersein #9
Chapter 12: Yes, I loved reading it!!! And I feel especially related to this grande finale XD Which may be the reason why I liked it the best, though I really liked all of them ♥
I`m also glad you don't force yourself to write something you don't feel like / are too busy for ♥ You did a good job here <3<3