The bedroom was unbearably hot when Kibum woke up. It was dark, the only light coming from the moon shining through the window on the opposite wall. Everything was silent, except for the soft vibrating sound of the space heater near his bed and the sound of Donghae’s soft breathing from the other side of the room where he was sleeping on the bottom bunk.

Kibum groaned and to his side, kicking the blankets off and reaching over to turn off the space heater. It was too hot and he didn’t like it. He felt sticky and sweaty and it didn’t make him feel good. But then again, he wasn’t feeling good at all. He took a deep breath and rolled over again, clenching his eyes shut as his stomach started feeling queasy again. He slowly breathed through his nose and waited for it to pass, but after five minutes it only got worse.

He shakily pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around the room. It looked the same as it had before he’d gone to sleep a few hours ago, but it felt suffocating and hot and he didn’t want to be in there anymore. As he stood on the carpeted floor, his stomach gave a sudden turn and he felt himself gagging. He quickly made the fifteen steps over to the bathroom and leaned over the toilet and vomited the dinner he’d eaten earlier. He coughed and gasped and tried to regain his breath until the horrid sensation ceased a few minutes later.

He leaned back against the wall and wiped his mouth out with some toilet paper before flushing away the contents. He knew that he should brush his teeth or wash out his mouth, but right now he felt too miserable to care and so he stood up and shuffled over to Heechul’s room. He walked over to the giant king sized bed and crawled under the covers and snuggled up to Heechul. Minutes later, he was fast asleep.

Heechul stood at the stove and stirred the pot of oatmeal he had made for breakfast. It was almost nine-thirty and he had woken up an hour ago. He was a little surprised to see Kibum sleeping next to him, but thought nothing of it since it did happen every now and then. He turned the stove off and brought the oatmeal to the table and set it next to the glass plate of buttered toast and then walked over to the bedroom to go wake Donghae up. He flipped on the lights and walked over to where the younger boy was sleeping peacefully. Just as he was about to wake him up, Heechul noticed Donghae’s cell phone had dropped on the floor during the night. He bent over and picked it up and, unable to restrain himself, Heechul flipped it open to read- No no no no, I can’t do this! He shook his head and placed the phone on the dresser.

“Donghae, wake up, it’s time for breakfast,” Heechul said loudly, shaking Donghae awake.

“Hyuuung, stooop!” Donghae moaned, swatting Heechul’s hand away. He blinked open his eyes and glared up at his brother.

“Why? Were you having a dream about Eunhyuk?” Heechul teased with a grin.

“No! I was dreaming that you let me get a dog,” Donghae replied as he sat up and stretched.

“Well, keep dreaming because that’s never going to happen. Anyways, get up already. Breakfast is on the table,” Heechul said. Donghae nodded and stood up from his bed.

“Is Kibum already awake?” He asked through a yawn. Heechul shook his head and pointed to his bedroom and went inside, and Donghae walked into the kitchen to eat.

He the lights and then walked over to the bed, and it was only then that he realized that something was wrong. Kibum was curled up on his side shivering in his sleep and he was all sweaty that his hair was sticking to his flushed cheeks. Heechul frowned and reached over and pressed his hand against Kibum’s forehead and immediately felt the heat radiating off. Kibum whimpered and blinked open his eyes, which were glossy and hazy from fever.

“Hyung,” He moaned out.

“Are you okay, Kibum? You don’t look so good,” Heechul said softly, sitting on the edge of the bed and smoothing back Kibum’s hair out of his face.

“I don’t feel good. I threw up last night,” Kibum told him tiredly. Heechul nodded and told Kibum that he would be right back. He first went into the kitchen to get a cup of water for Kibum, he needed to drink liquids to get the fever down.

“Hyung, aren’t you going to eat?” Donghae asked as Heechul walked by.

“I will in a little while, Kibum’s sick,” Heechul said over his shoulder. He went to the bathroom and pulled the thermometer out of the cabinet and grabbed a wash cloth and set it under the cold water in the sink. He grabbed up everything and went back into his room, where Kibum was lying awake in bed still.

“My body hurts, hyung,” Kibum whispered out. Heechul nodded and once again sat next to him. He took the thermometer and stuck it in Kibum’s mouth and then used the wet rag to wipe of the sweat from his face. When the thermometer beeped a minute later Heechul took it out and read that Kibum had a fever of one ‘o two, which wasn’t good at all.

“What are we going to do with you, Kibum?” Heechul said sympathetically.

“Hyung, lay with me,” Kibum yawned out. Heechul nodded and slid back into the bed and Kibum cuddled up to him trying to get comfortable, to ignore the aching pain in his body. Heechul rubbed his back for awhile until Kibum’s breathing lightened and he was asleep.

Something just told him today wasn’t going to end well.

After lunch time, Donghae had once again gone out to hang around town. Heechul was aimlessly cleaning around the apartment to keep himself busy. He glanced at the clock and thought it was about time to wake Kibum up for some more water and try to get him to eat something. But just as he was about to head towards his bedroom to do so, the door flung opened and Kibum instantly went into the bathroom and Heechul could hear him retching.

He really didn’t know whether Kibum was just going through withdrawal again or if he was just sick. He waited on the couch for Kibum to finish and come back out, and when he did the younger boy no longer had flushed cheeks from fever. In fact this time he looked so pale that Heechul thought he would collapse again. But Kibum shuffled over to the couch and sat down next to Heechul.

“Do you feel any better?” Heechul asked, wrapping his arm around Kibum and pulling him closer. But Kibum shook his head and leaned against Heechul tiredly, closing his eyes.

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