Hongbin groaned softly as he woke, bundled up under his blankets as much as he could be. He felt awful, but that was to be expected with what had been going on lately. He’d been really busy with filming his upcoming drama and hadn’t had enough time to get some proper rest between that and the preparations for VIXX’s comeback next month. Any free time he’d had he spent with his boyfriend because Hongbin knew better than anyone that underneath that blank expression Taekwoon was very warm and kind-hearted and he didn’t want their relationship to suffer just because he was feeling a little tired. He and Taekwoon had actually gotten to spend a lot of time together one on one last week when they had gone filming for Dream Team; they had had a lot of fun together.

Thinking of his boyfriend, Hongbin rolled over and was disappointed to find that the blonde had already left their room. He sighed heavily and reluctantly climbed out of his comfy bed to go in search of the older man. The room swayed when he stood and he wished that he could just stay in bed all day, preferably curled up in Taekwoon’s arms, but they had practice today. They were filming their MV in a week and Hakyeon had begun cracking down on practice, as he tended to do when a comeback neared.

He decided he wasn’t going to say anything about not feeling well; he knew the others were tired too and he didn’t want to trouble them. He hoped that maybe the activity would help feel a little better or at least distract him from it and that, by some miracle, Hakyeon would decide to end practice early. Then they could come home and he could cuddle with his boyfriend and get some extra sleep.

Hongbin shuffled out into the living room and found Taekwoon sprawled across the couch with an arm slung over his eyes. He could hear Jaehwan and Hyuk talking animatedly in the kitchen and the usual early-morning groans of Wonsik floated through the slightly open bedroom door as the leader woke him up.

 Quietly, he snuck over to the couch and crouched down next to the blonde, “Taekwoonie-hyung, wake up. If N-hyung finds you sleeping out here you’re gonna get an earful.”

His words seemed to do the trick as the older man began to stretch lazily without opening his eyes and groaned, “Hongbin-ah...”

The brunette giggled and began to gently poke his boyfriend’s side to encourage him to wake up more. Taekwoon’s brow furrowed and he swatted at Hongbin’s teasing hand for a couple minutes before opening his eyes with a small smile. He did love it when Hongbin laughed.

The smile immediately fell when he got a good look at his boyfriend. Hongbin was pale and his usually bright, cheerful brown eyes looked glazed and dull.

“Hongbin-ah, are you alright?”

The younger’s eyes widened and he quickly tried to change the subject, “What are you talking about, hyung? I think I can hear Jaehwan calling me-”

Before he could get away one of Taekwoon’s long hands caught his arm and tugged him onto the couch as the elder sat up.

Seeing the panic in the other’s eyes Taekwoon softened his tone, “Hongbinnie, look at me. Tell me what’s wrong, you look pale. Are you feeling sick?”

Hongbin relaxed at the loving, concerned look in his boyfriend’s eyes and gave him a small smile before quietly admitting, “It’s just that with my hectic schedule lately I haven’t been able to get much rest, I guess it’s just catching up to me. But I’ll be fine.”

He gave him as sunny a smile as he could manage and tried to squash down the feeling of guilt that he didn’t tell Taekwoon that he was feeling sick and wasn’t up to practicing all day. He didn’t feel good about not telling his boyfriend the whole truth but he didn’t want him to worry about him more than he already was.

He gave the blonde a quick kiss on the cheek and retreated into the kitchen just as Jaehwan and Hyuk came out. He was sure he’d seen some orange juice in the fridge yesterday and hoped that it would help soothe his sore throat before they left.

Meanwhile, Taekwoon remained on the couch watching the pale brunette make his way to the kitchen, his slow and unsteady walk making it very clear how poorly the younger vocalist was feeling.

He silently promised to keep a close eye on Hongbin throughout the day, just in case anything happened.

About an hour later after having breakfast the members of VIXX piled into their van and headed off to the practice room.

Hongbin spent the drive tucked into Taekwoon’s side, wearing one of his boyfriend’s hoodies. The blonde softly the younger’s hair and eventually lulled him into a light doze that, unfortunately, only lasted about five minutes before the general loudness that accompanied the members of VIXX woke him back up.

Taekwoon took note of the warmth radiating from the younger despite the fact that he was shivering while he wrapped up in one of his own thicker hoodies.

Hongbin definitely had a fever.

When they arrived at the practice room they separated for their solo practice and spent a couple hours working on their own stuff before grouping back up for lunch. They ordered chicken from a nearby restaurant they all dug in hungrily with the exception of Hongbin, whose stomach was rebelling at the thought of solid food, but he eagerly gulped down the soup that Taekwoon had insisted that Hakyeon order. He sent his boyfriend a grateful smile as he ate the soup, flattered that his boyfriend was so concerned about him. The older man just sent him a fond look and nudged him with an elbow to encourage him to have some more.

He happily continued to eat and made light conversation with Wonsik, he kept his replies short in hopes that his friend wouldn’t notice the hoarseness of his voice.

Soon enough they wrapped up lunch and Hakyeon declared that they would spend the rest of the afternoon doing group practice. They spent the following hour practicing the live vocals for “Chained Up” and “Hot Enough” before moving on to practice the choreography for their title song.

For the first hour of dance practice Hongbin was able to keep up fairly well but as practice dragged on and Hakyeon kept calling for them to do it over again it started to put more of a strain on him.

The more tired he got, the more he stumbled and messed up which quickly drew the attention of their leader.

“Hongbin-ah what’s wrong with you today, huh? This is the third time you’ve messed up in the last twenty minutes and it’s really starting to get on my nerves. Our comeback is less than a month away, you need to focus.”

Hongbin gazed at the floor meekly, disappointed in himself for being a burden on the others.

Taekwoon bristled at Hakyeon’s scolding of his boyfriend and growled, “Lay off of him Hakyeon, he’s-”

Hongbin gasped and quickly rushed to put himself between his boyfriend and their leader. He appreciated Taekwoon’s intentions but the last thing they needed was the two oldest members getting into a fight mere weeks before their comeback.

He placed a soothing hand on the blonde’s chest, “Taekwoonie-hyung, stop it. He’s right, it’s my fault, so don’t get into a fight, okay?”

Taekwoon let out a frustrated huff and brushed the younger’s hand off of him before silently stalking across the room.

Hongbin sadly watched his boyfriend move, reading the obvious frustration in the firm set of his shoulders, and mumbled to the other brunette, “I’m sorry hyung, I’ll do better.”

Hakyeon patted him on the shoulder and called out to the others so that they could resume practice. As they took their places Taekwoon didn’t so much as glance at Hongbin.

Another hour passed and Hongbin forced his exhausted body to keep up with the others even when it protested. During their short break he decided to try to talk to his boyfriend and smooth things over at least a little.

He quietly approached the older man as he drank from a bottle of water and muffled a cough in his sleeve before reaching out to tap the other’s shoulder.

“Taekwoonie...”

The response he got was absolute silence, which made Hongbin sigh dejectedly. He knew why his boyfriend was mad at him; Taekwoon hated it when he didn’t look after himself or sold himself short.

He wanted to try to start a conversation again but Jaehwan called them back to the group to start practicing again which had Taekwoon moving quickly away from him without a word.

About half an hour into the next stretch of practice Hongbin started to feel incredibly dizzy. But even as the room started to blur around him he still forced himself to keep dancing and didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to cause any more trouble for his friends or his boyfriend.

They restarted one more time and halfway through the song the dizziness hit him harder than ever and darkness crept into the edges of his vision.

The last thing he heard before his world darkened completely and lost consciousness was Taekwoon’s distressed voice crying out, “Hongbinnie!”

When Hongbin woke up it was to an aching throat, a sore body and the sound of Jaehwan and Hakyeon’s loud voices somewhere nearby. He felt hot and just generally terrible but registered that he was being held in someone’s arms.

He fought through the fogginess in his head and forced his eyes to open to find himself cradled against Taekwoon’s chest.

“T-Taekwoonie-hyung?”

The blonde’s dark eyes flew to Hongbin’s face at the sound of his hoarse voice and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw Hongbin’s beautiful doe eyes staring back at him, albeit looking very confused.

“Hongbin-ah, I’m so glad you’re awake. You really had me worried there.”

The younger slowly sat up in his lap but rested his head on Taekwoon’s shoulder when the dizziness rushed back.

“W-What happened?”

The last thing he remembered was feeling dizzy while they were practicing and then... nothing.

It was Hakyeon who answered the dazed brunette’s question, “You passed out, that’s what happened! Hongbin if you were feeling sick you should of said something instead of waiting until you collapsed and scared us all half to death!”

Hongbin bit his lower lip, “I’m- I’m sorry, hyung...”

He buried his face in Taekwoon’s shoulder, feeling emotionally overwhelmed and sick, unable to stop the hot tears from welling up in his eyes.

Taekwoon tightened his arms around his sick, trembling boyfriend and shot the leader a cold glare over the younger’s head. He could tell that Hongbin already felt bad enough for having worried them and Hakyeon shouting at him wasn’t helping.

Before he could say anything though, Wonsik’s deep voice interrupted, “Hakyeon-hyung, that’s enough.”

The rapper crouched down in front of Taekwoon and Hongbin, “Hongbinnie, nobody’s mad at you okay? Hakyeon was just worried about you, like the rest of us. You just really scared us when you fell like that all of a sudden. So why didn’t you tell us that you haven’t been feeling well today?”

Hongbin sniffled, “I- I didn’t want to be a bother. We’ve all been busy lately a-and I didn’t want to seem like I was complaining...”

Hyuk then gently cut in, “But hyung, isn’t it more trouble is you ignore it? I mean, what if you had gotten really sick?”

Tears began to slip down Hongbin’s warm cheeks, “S-Sorry, I’m really sorry everyone.”

Wonsik chuckled and reached out to ruffle his best friend’s hair fondly, “Pabo, if you’re sorry then of course we forgive you. But the next time you feel sick just say something, alright? Your health and wellbeing is more important than a few hours of practice.”

“Thank you. I promise next time I’ll say something.”

With the issue resolved Hakyeon left the practice room to go see if the car was ready for them to head back to the dorm. The others began milling around the room, collecting their stuff in preparation to go home, leaving Hongbin and Taekwoon alone on the couch.

The couple sat in awkward silence for a few minutes which was a strange occurrence for them.

“Taekwoonie-hyung-”

“Hongbinnie-”

They froze when they spoke at the same time and the pair couldn’t help but laugh softly at their predicament.

Taekwoon smiled apologetically, “I’m sorry I got mad and ignored you before. It’s just- I know it was wrong of me but...”

“It’s alright Taekwoonie; I understand why you were mad. I should’ve just admitted to being sick when I got up this morning. I’m really sorry that I worried you, I really didn’t think it would get this bad.”

The blonde just pressed a kiss against Hongbin’s forehead, silently accepting the younger’s apology. He some hair out of his face and frowned a bit when he felt the heat still coming from his forehead.

He was relieved that they had made up; he and Hongbin didn’t fight much, even less so since they became a couple, but whenever they did get into an argument it always threw them both out of sorts. Hongbin had always been the one who understood him best since their trainee days, probably because they’d always been the two most laid back members of the group. He never had to worry about behaving a certain way around Hongbin or finding the right words to express himself because Hongbin accepted him as he was and had always been in tune with his emotions. Hakyeon had actually been jealous for a while after Hongbin first came to their company because they had gotten along so well right away.

But it also worked the other way because he was one of the few people that Hongbin openly expressed his insecurities to. Hongbin had always been told in their predebut days that he was handsome, always that he was so handsome and charming but they rarely ever praised him for his singing. That had followed him early on their career after VIXX was formed, to the point where he was so unconfident in singing his own parts live that he’d just lip sync more often than not. They had had plenty of talks about it, both before and after becoming a couple, and Taekwoon had happily offered to help the younger practice in secret, if only to help give him the confidence boost he needed. And in almost no time at all, Hongbin had grown more confident in his own abilities and really came into his own as a vocalist. Sure he would always be the handsome one and the visual of the group but now people also praised him for his voice just as much as his looks. It was all Hongbin had ever wanted since he chose to become a singer.

Taekwoon gently tilted up the younger’s chin and kissed him softly, making the brunette blush adorably.

“Taekwoonie-hyung, we’re still in the practice room...”

The blonde laughed softly against his boyfriend’s lips, “Always so cute, my Hongbinnie.”

He kissed him again just as Hakyeon came back into the room and announced that they were ready to leave.

Taekwoon helped Hongbin stand and kept an arm around his waist to steady him as they made their way to the door, “Let’s get you home.”

Hongbin leaned into his side, “I love you, Taekwoon.”

“And I love you, Hongbin.”

I really liked writing this! As I said before, I absolutely adore Leobin and it was so much fun to write a fic about them for the first time. They're so nice to write because both of them have so many different sides of themselves that you can bring out, like Leo's warmer side or Hongbin's insecure side, which just makes them so lovable.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this, I was so happy to see that so many people subscribed to this even with just the description up. If you'd like me to write more Leobin in the future, you can leave an idea for a fic in the comments and maybe I'll write it! Anyways thanks so much for reading, subscribing and/or commenting!