Time frame: about a year and a half after the end of DotW

“Kyungsoo?”

Kyungsoo blinked his eyes, groggily looking around. He didn’t even realized they have reached the castle. Up ahead Iola and the others were already dismounting their peludas, the stable boys hurrying forward to take the reins.

“Kyungsoo, you alright?”

He blinked down at Jongin who still stood beside his peluda. He nodded to ease the concern he can see in his brother’s eyes, but the slight movement brought a wave of dizziness that Kyungsoo had to close his eyes and bit his lower lips in order not to gag.

“Kyungsoo?” Jongin’s hand was warm at it settled on Kyungsoo’s thigh. Kyungsoo felt impossibly cold.

Kyungsoo kept silent, getting down from his peluda with as little hasty movements as he could to not provoke another dizzy spell. Only once his feet stood on the solid ground did he answered the other man.

“I’m fine.” His voice shook a bit.

Jongin didn’t look convinced but was quickly distracted when Joonmyun called them over, hurrying them to come into the castle. Kyungsoo trailed after the others, feeling sluggish and tired. It was midsummer and the heat rising off from the ground felt lukewarm where it touched his bare skin and he wondered whether he had fallen ill.

He barely registered the walk along the castle’s hallways, only letting the sound of the other Guardians leading his feet forward. Once they reached the quarter reserved for the Guardians’ meeting room he bee lined towards one of the divan, too tired to even sit himself straight and just plopped face down on the soft surface. 

He turned his head aside when he heard a soft voice calling him, laced with worry.

“Kyungsoo?”

Iola was looking at him with clear concern etched on her face. Kyungsoo wanted to speak up, to reassure her that he was fine, but before he could even lift a finger he was fast asleep, his face burning and his ears blocked.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kyungsoo was cold.

He cradled his hands to his face, blowing puffs of air across his fingers to no avail. The coldness still seeped into his body like a second layer of skin.

He blinked as snowflakes built up on his lashes, looking up at the ominous clouds above. The sky was blue and bright before, but now it was cold and grey. He shook his head to get rid of the snow but it fell harder and harder the more time he tried. He can’t feel his ankles where the snow has reached up to and his legs were shaking, his lungs threatening to collapse.

Kyungsoo thought this must what it feel like to freeze to death and wondered if he could just stay there, because he was tired.

But somewhere, someone was calling to him urgently to come to them.

So Kyungsoo continued to walk forward and opened his eyes.

Kyungsoo was cold when he woke up.

The orange-hued sunlight that passed through the small window told him that it was late afternoon, and that he was in his own chamber instead of the meeting room. He could hear soft whispered conversation behind the slightly opened door and tried to get up, almost throwing aside the thick wool blanket draped over him. He pulled himself upright and a damp cloth fell to his lap. His forehead felt wet and his body too cold.

Iola met his eyes from behind the door.

“Kyungsoo!” She quickly ran to his side, gently pushing him to lay back down. “Don’t get up yet. Baekhyun is on his way to bring the healer and they’ll be here soon, so just take it easy.”

Kyungsoo drew the blanket around himself and blinked up at Iola. She seemed to understand what he wanted to ask and stopped her fussing, putting both hands on her waist as she glared down at him.

“You fell asleep the moment we came back. Chanyeol had to carry you back to your room and you didn’t even woke up once. You should’ve told us you’re not feeling well!”

Her tone softened as she sat down on the bed, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead, before comparing it to her own.

“How long have you been feeling sick?”

Kyungsoo tried to settle back into his pillow. He didn’t remember feeling sick, necessarily, just extremely cold and uncomfortable. The last time he felt this cold was in his teenage years when Minseok accidentally froze the whole Sanctuary into a giant block of ice.

“A few days?”

Kyungsoo shook his head and held up a finger.

“One day? Since yesterday?”

Kyungsoo nodded and was about to open his mouth when the door opened and in walked Joonmyun carrying a mug carefully with two hands, small tendrils of steam floating in the air above it.

“Ah, it’s done?” With a light spring Iola jumped up and took the mug from Joonmyun, blowing on the liquid inside as she walked back to the bed while Joonmyun hovered nearby. “I hope you likes this; my mother always make some for us whenever my brothers and I were sick.”

Kyungsoo let Joonmyun helped him up, leaning wearily on his leader’s strong shoulder before he peered at the mug Iola was holding out to him. The drink was colored dark brown and Kyungsoo tried to open his mouth to ask what it was but his teeth were chattering too violently. Behind him he could feel Joonmyun tensed and a crease that wasn’t normally there appeared between Iola’s eyebrows.

Iola handed Kyungsoo the drink, supporting his grip on the mug as he drank slowly. It was warm and comforting, with a hint of sweet and spicy at the end and Kyungsoo managed to drink half of it before he gave the mug back to her.

Iola grinned when Kyungsoo looked at her in askance. “It’s warm tea with ginger and honey. You don’t have those plants here but I remember last month an envoy from beyond the Eastern Sea came back with packets of dried leaves and roots that looks similar, and Mother Teirra confirmed that it was the same tea plant and ginger roots that I know of, so I instructed the kitchen’s staffs on how to make it. It’s good when you have a cold or a fever.”

Kyungsoo nodded. The drink was something he never had before but it was warm and soothed his throat.

Just as Joonmyun gently helped him to lay down the door opened again to show Sehun with a stack of blankets in his arms. Iola quickly took them from him and briskly unfolded the blankets.

“I don’t know how many you need. If you get too warm, just throw them aside, alright?”

Kyungsoo nodded, watching as Iola, Joonmyun and Sehun layered blanket after blankets across him, forming a solid cocoon of warmth around him. The last thing he saw was Iola’s gentle smile as she tucked a blanket across his chest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kyungsoo woke to the feeling of an unfamiliar hand on his forehead. His eyes shot open to meet Iola’s worried glance. She gave him a half smile when she saw him awoken and Kyungsoo tried to smile back but coughed violently instead. His brothers hovered nearby the bed, all looking more worried by the second.

“He’s running a high fever.”

A lanky old man with thick, grey mustache lifted his hand from Kyungsoo’s forehead. He recognized the man as the castle’s healer and wondered why the others didn’t call Yixing like they always do when one of them is injured or sick. Belatedly he realized that the other group of Guardians weren’t there, still left behind in the small province of Sagiv to oversee what’s left of the construction of the new dam while he and Iola and the rest of the brothers had gone back to the capital.

“How long has he been like this?”

“He’d been looking pale since yesterday, and this morning when we arrived he just sleep for hours,” Iola answered promptly.

The healer clicked his tongue and looked over Kyungsoo critically. “I would leave behind some medicine potions. He also needs liquid, as much as he can keep down. Also he needs to keep eating even if he’s not really hungry; anything easy to keep down and stay down.”

Iola nodded, pressed into a thin line. “Is he contagious?”

“I don’t know for sure,” the healer his moustache. “But it’s better to keep him away from the others.”

With a small bow the man left the room. Iola tucked the blanket to cover Kyungsoo more before turning to the others.

“You heard what the healer said. I want none of you here so that you won’t be sick too.”

“But Iola-“

“No buts, Joonmyun. I’ll take care of Kyungsoo while he’s sick, no arguments on that.”

“But you might get sick too!”

“I have a strong immunity, Chanyeol, I’m not too worried about that. Now, enough talking and get out of here. Make yourself useful and run to the kitchen to fetch the porridge I ask them to make.”

“B-but-“

“Get out!”

Kyungsoo would find the situation rather amusing, how Iola managed to shut his brothers up and make them leave the room all in under five minutes, if his body would only stop shivering from the cold.

Another layer of blanket was thrown over him and Kyungsoo blinked as Iola tutted, tucking the corners around the bed.

“They’re right, you know.” Kyungsoo winced when he heard his raspy voice. “You shouldn’t be here when I’m this sick.”

“Oh, hush you. I’m going to be here whether you like it or not, so deal with it.”

Iola went to the small table next to the bed, pouring some water into a small mug Kyungsoo kept there.

“Now, drink up. You heard what the healer said, you need to take as much liquid as you can.”

She helped him to sit up a little, fluffing some pillows to put behind him before handing the mug over. Kyungsoo’s hand were shaking as he tried to grip the mug, accidentally spilling some of it down his front. Iola’s hand shot out to help him, tilting the mug gently to his mouth, and urging him to finish. Kyungsoo tried not to feel embarrassed when Iola mop his tunic with a napkin, only nodding when she offered some more drink.

A knocking sound turned their attention to the door and Iola rushed to open it, speaking in soft conversation to whoever behind the door before closing it, her hand now holding a bowl. Slowly she make her way back, sitting on the bed with the bowl in her lap.

“You should eat some. I had the kitchen prepared some porridge f