Jiyong removed his hand from his pocket and pushed the button next to the white wooden door, the customary ding-dong chimed and echoed through the entire hallway as he waited for the sound of paddling footsteps to join in. He looked down and pulled at the hem of his shirt, dusting away any invisible particles.

But the echoes have ceased, the sound of footsteps never came and he was still standing in the same position as he did a minute ago. He tried again.

Ding-dong

And Nothing.

Jiyong’s brows furrowed, this was odd, knowing Seunghyun, he would’ve stopped whatever he was doing and would be scrambling his dear way to the door the second it rang.

Ding-dong Ding-dong.

He chewed on his bottom lip, impatient. But then finally, slow muffled footsteps sounded from the other side of the door and soon enough, the door opened to reveal the tall brunette Jiyong had been longing to see.

“You do know that you’re supposed to use the set of keys I gave you, right?” If Jiyong’s mind hadn’t been so occupied with the sight before him he would’ve noticed that the boy’s usually deep voice was hoarse and just a tad bit nasally. The brunette leaned against the door frame, nose and cheeks slightly flushed and his hair was tousled, strands of sepia falling into dark eyes. He was wearing a pair of dark blue flannel pants and a plain t-shirt which hugged extremely well to his chest. It’s only been seconds and Jiyong’s heart was already pounding against his ribcage in a way that would only be called abnormal and not to mention unhealthy. Given the countless times Seunghyun has done this to him, Jiyong thought he should’ve gotten used to the flutters and butterflies. But he didn’t, he didn’t think he could ever be able to get used to the way the other man made him feel.

“You only gave me the keys just because you were too lazy to get the door?” Recovering, Jiyong snorted and met the brunette’s eyes. “And here I thought it was because you trusted me enough.”

Seunghyun’s low chuckle floated up to Jiyong’s ears like the sweetest of melodies, and he took a second to marvel at the way the corners of the brunette’s eyes crinkled whenever he smiled. And of course those dimples which bracketed his beautiful, kissable kitten lips.

“Well, that, too.” Seunghyun stepped aside for Jiyong to enter his apartment, letting out a sound which sounded like something between a chuckle and a cough. Jiyong dismissed the brunette’s remark and dropped his bag on the carpeted floor next to the couch while the taller man trailed behind him. “So, what happened to you?”

The older man plopped down onto the cream colored leather seat and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, grimacing. “You tell me, I feel like .” Seunghyun muttered between audible sniffs.

Rolling his eyes, he walked over to where Seunghyun was sitting and took his place next to the brunette. Jiyong reached for the box of tissue on the coffee table in front of them and handed a piece of the soft translucent paper to a snotty, but nonetheless adorable Seunghyun. It’s the first time Jiyong has seen the other man get sick, he has always been the stronger and healthier one. But there’s a first time for everything.

He took the tissue paper from Jiyong , mumbling a small thanks to the blonde and proceeded to empty his nose of the irritating mucus in hopes to breathe again. Jiyong noticed how the brush of Seunghyun’s cold fingers against his warm ones sent chills to ripple through his body. It fell odd to Jiyong since usually he was the one with cold hands and it would always be Seunghyun’s job to warm them with his larger, and warmer ones. So when the other man finished blowing his nose and discarded the used tissue to the bin on the floor next to him, Jiyong leaned forward and reached out to take Seunghyun’s hands and enveloped them in his warm ones.

Both of them stared at their linked hands in silence for a moment. Soon a content smile crept up on the older man’s lips as he took a deep breath through his nose and maneuvered his body so that he was sitting sideways.  He lifted his feet and placed them upon Jiyong’s lap one after the another. They shared a brief moment of comfortable silence before the brunette spoke. “But I feel better now.”

Jiyong’s eyes immediately met Seunghyun’s as the words left his mouth, nothing more than a soft murmur, the way those dark eyes held his chocolate-brown ones connoted something more. And as much as Jiyong wanted to just smother the man with kisses he knew better than to do that. Seunghyun’s fingers moved and slowly weaved themselves through Jiyong’s. Jiyong could hear the man’s steady breathing next to him and gently, he removed one of his hands to rest on top of the other man’s knee and began tracing invisible patterns on the patch of fabric above his knee. He knew that Seunghyun liked it judging by the low sound of approval that rumbled through his chest.

"You know you could've just called and told me you were sick, we could hang out another time when you're not like this." Jiyong muttered. "This was so not how I'd expected to see you when I came over."

Seunghyun’s soft chuckles rang in Jiyong’s ears. "Sorry to disappoint." He scooted forward, bringing their bodies closer and rested his head on the younger man's shoulder, inhaling slowly.

The blonde couldn’t fight the huge grin that made its way across his face, his chest was threatening to explode with all the affections he had for the man beside him. He tilted his head and rested it on top of Seunghyun’s, it never ceased to amaze Jiyong how perfectly his head fit into the junction where his neck met his shoulder. And sure enough, it was the exact same the other way around. Still smiling, Jiyong tenderly brushed his thumb across the back of Seunghyun’s palm. "I never said I was disappointed."

Seunghyun simply shrugged - as much as his current position would allow him anyway - and buried his face further into the crook of his neck, the innocent gesture sending currents to shoot through Jiyong’s entire body. "And we could still hang out, here. I missed you, I didn't want to reschedule just because of a stupid flu and not be able to see you." Seunghyun’s breath against the skin of his neck felt like heaven and Jiyong closed his eyes for a brief moment, letting himself being completely swallowed by the warm feeling in the pit of his stomach.

The blonde man’s grin grew bigger, Seunghyun missed him. Seunghyun missed him.

“I missed you too.” He sighed, contentment basically spilling out and covering his words.

It’s been a while since he’s seen Seunghyun let alone be able to share this sort of body contact with the man. Maybe it was the amount of time he’s been away from Seunghyun or the fact that he was sick, but having Seunghyun being this affectionate brought even more joy to Jiyong. He was pretty sure that Seunghyun was sick out of his mind, and most probably so was he. They shared a comfortable silence except the sounds of their synchronized breathing before Jiyong spoke. "Have you been to the doctor’s?"

"Yeah." Seunghyun murmured, tiredness evident in his voice. "Took the pills already, not sure if they're working, though, everything still feels kind of ty to me." He ended the sentence with a yawn followed by a loud exhale which sounded more like a baby’s sigh to Jiyong's ears.

Jiyong tried to move backwards to look at Seunghyun but the grunt that sounded from the sick man stilled his movements. Emitting a sigh, he gave up and asked. "What time did you sleep last night?"

"I didn't." The brunette replied casually.

"What? Are you serious?" Jiyong moved back despite the older man's oppositions and stared at him, incredulous and to be honest, slightly worried.

"Couldn't sleep." He replied softly, tugging at Jiyong's hand in hopes to get him to return to his initial position so he could rest on his best friend's shoulder again.

"Aish. Why didn’t you call me or something if you were this sick?" Jiyong asked, running his free hand through his blonde hair. Seunghyun was like a child sometimes – okay most of the time – but it has rarely resulted to become one of Jiyong’s worries.

Seunghyun shrugged and nuzzled against the side of Jiyong’s neck, as amazing as it felt Jiyong forced himself to remove his upper body from Seunghyun’s. He pulled back just far enough to look into his eyes. “Have you eaten?” Jiyong winced at the tone that colored his voice; he sounded like his mother. God no.

"I ate breakfast this morning; late breakfast."

Jiyong glanced at the clock situated on Seunghyun's desk in the far corner of the living room and almost growled at the other man. “But it’s like three in the afternoon!”

He didn’t even give a chance for the other man to respond and just continued. "You’re sick, Seunghyun! You can’t be like that, you gotta take care of yourself.”

Lifting his eyes to meet Seunghyun’s, whose dark ones were glazed with humor and just like sand to a fire, one simple look at Seunghyun immediately extinguished any trace of anger that was bubbling inside Jiyong’s chest.

“I was hoping you could do something about that.”

Mother of God.

Jiyong blinked before narrowing his eyes at Seunghyun. “I could, but I won’t.” He was going to get up from the couch and go to the kitchen – Jiyong knew he wouldn’t be able to refuse the older man – but before he could lift himself off the couch, strong arms went around his waist and pulled him back to a warm chest. Jiyong let out a surprised yelp as he fell backwards. He in a sharp breath, eyes wide as the other man’s arms went around his waist like strong barriers. And it didn’t help calm the blonde man’s frantic heartbeat Seunghyun’s arm tightened around at his waist, face burying into the smaller man’s shoulder.

“Seunghyun?” Jiyong’s voice was soft, hardly above a whisper over the sound of his erratic heartbeat pulsing through his frozen body, and he was pretty sure Seunghyun could hear it too.

“Don’t go.” He maundered before pressing a kiss on the exposed skin on his neck, Jiyong’s small frame shuddered at the contact.

“But you have to eat.” Jiyong shut his eyes and tried to breathe normally, his mind was fuzzy and his body was tingling from all the things Seunghyun was doing to him.

Silence filled the air for a few heartbeats and then the arms around Jiyong’s waist reluctantly loosened as Seunghyun withdrew his arms and folded them across his chest. “Fine.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jiyong quickly stood up, keeping his still flushed face away from the Seunghyun. He made a beeline to the kitchen without another word being said from either one of them. The blonde man opened the refrigerator and rolled his eyes at the sight of the almost empty fridge. He raided the kitchen shelves and finally decided on making ramen with tofu and bean sprout with minced beef omelet. A very simple and bland meal but Jiyong decided it’d be best upon seeing the look on Seunghyun’s sick face earlier.

He could hear sounds coming from the living room as he dumped the ramen into the pot and poured boiling water into it. Jiyong sighed as he started beating the eggs with a fork. His mind was somewhere else, though, replaying what had happened in the living room over and over again. The butterflies in his stomach have subsided by now and he could finally think clearly.

To Jiyong’s surprise, Seunghyun didn’t say anything or complain about the plainness of his food despite most of the meals Jiyong has cooked for them have been anything but plain. Jiyong liked to experiment with different flavors and cooking styles and Seunghyun would always be there to share the experience with him. After the meal Seunghyun returned to his place on the couch while Jiyong took the empty dishes to the kitchen. He filled the bowls with water for him or Seunghyun to wash later – Jiyong would most probably do it though.

When he made his way back to the sitting room to see Seunghyun curled up on the couch, eyes closed and breathing steady, he grabbed the blanket from the armrest and placed it on top of his resting form. A hand wrapped around his wrist and – very much like what happened earlier, Jiyong should’ve totally seen this coming – yanked him backwards and the next moment Jiyong found himself enveloped in Seunghyun’s arms for the second time that day. Even though there was a blanket separating their bodies he could still feel the heat radiating from the man beneath him.

Jiyong started to wiggle in the other man’s arms, in attempts to free himself when Seunghyun groaned and the other man immediately stopped moving. Seunghyun’s voice was a bit raspy from the mucus in his swollen throat, but that only seemed to make him sound even more magnetic. Jiyong didn’t even bother to make any snarky remark about Seunghyun getting him sick. To be completely honest, even if Seunghyun really did get him sick, he wouldn’t care. Not one bit.

So he slowly turned around in the other man’s arms and feverishly planted kisses on Seunghyun’s forehead, and then on his closed eyelids, the tip of his nose, and then both sides of his cheeks making sure his lips didn’t touch the other man’s. He knew Seunghyun wanted more by the way he tilted his face slightly to the angle by which Jiyong quickly dodged by kissing his chin instead, earning a groan from the other man. When he finally decided that it was enough, he kissed the tip of Seunghyun’s slightly reddened nose once more before situating his head on Seunghyun’s chest. The arms around him only hugged him tighter as Jiyong listened to the sound of the other man’s heart beating inside his chest.

 “Just stay here for a while. I –” Seunghyun mumbled but the sentence was cut off by a rather throaty and loud cough. He never finished the rest of the sentence, he simply muttered something incoherent and drew the other man closer to his chest if it was even possible. But it was and Jiyong snuggled closer to the heat of Seunghyun’s body, filing away another precious piece of memory shared with the beautiful child-man of a boyfriend he had.

How can he even manage to be this adorable when he’s sick.

A/N: Okay so here you go, you guys can imagine this as a companion (future) piece to Lightless since I'd meant for this to be a part of the Lightless plot but now I just think that this little snippet / ficlet / one-shot is better as a separate piece. It's just a little fuffly ficlet, I'm now working on my prompt for the 25 Lives collab project as well as my on-going fic "Lightless" so please check them out. Thank you for reading and supporting me and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it and please let me know what you think c:

-Vannie