"Gyu."

Sunggyu lay on his apartment couch, exhausted after spending a whole 15 hours on a flight from New York to Korea. Sunggyu had little to no hours of sleep on the flight due to the annoyance of a little kid kicking his chair the whole way through. 

"Hyung. Sunggyu. Wake up."

The last thing Sunggyu wanted was being bothered by anyone around him in the comfort of his own apartment. He only had a few hours of rest in the comfort of his own home until Infinite headed for another flight to Beijing. 

"Sunggyu, Gyu, Kim Sunggyu, hyung, please wake up."

Sunggyu scrunched up his face, grabbing the cushion and burying his face in it.  "Sungyeol, for goodness sakes, please leave me alone."

Sungyeol was also exhausted, his face pale and his eyes drooping with dark underbags to display his own lack of sleep. His figure was thin, frail and lacking any stamina. The normal choding demeanor escaped him, out of place and struggling to keep himself awake.

"Can you come with me somewhere?" Sungyeol asked, his voice soft and losing energy.

Sunggyu pressed the pillow on the back of his head and pushed it down, hoping that Sungyeol's voice would drown away in oblivion and disappear. This is a nightmare. All he wanted to do was sleep, but he knew that Sungyeol was not going to leave anytime soon. "What do you want..."

"I need to pick up medicine at the pharmacy.  I was gonna go with Dongwoo and Myungsoo, but everyone else went out to dinner when I was sleeping. The place closes in an hour and I need to get it before our flight."

Sunggyu hurled the pillow off of the bed towards Sungyeol, who stepped to the side in time to miss it. Sunggyu whined as he sat himself up on the couch, slouching in his seat and scratching his eye to wake himself up. he could not believe this was happening. "Sungyeol, what are you a baby? Why can't you do it by yourself?"

Sungyeol sighed, lowering his head to avoid eye contact with the bothered leader. He did not want to ask Sunggyu to come with him in the first place knowing that something like this was going to happen. Aggravating him was the last thing Sunggyu wanted to do, especially in the midst of a long world tour and an impending trip to the Mnet Asian Music Awards. Though every single member was tired from it all, it did not compare to the immensity of Sunggyu's weariness. "Manager hyung doesn't want me to go by myself just in case anything happened to me."

"Are you kidding me? Really?" Sunggyu buried his face in his hands, shaking his head and letting out a loud moan of displeasure by all of this. 

"You know what? I can go by myself, just lie to our manager and tell him that I'm taking a shower." Sungyeol walked away dejected from Sunggyu's lack of empathy.

"No." Sungyeol turned his head, seeing the tiresome leader push himself off the couch and pull his shirt down. "Give me a couple of minutes to change into jeans and we'll head out."

(((())))

Sunggyu and Sungyeol sat side-by-side on a crowded subway during rush hour to endure five long stops for their destination. The temperature inside was unbearable, the whole train dealing with body head and humidity inside. The two of them were in-and-out of sleeping, bobbing their heads to the rumbling of the train and bumping into the businessmen and school kids around them. During their outs, they did their best to stay awake by pinching their wrists or snapping their wristbands. To protect themselves from the general public, they both sported dark clothed hoodies to cover their faces. 

Sunggyu nodded his head back and forth, lurching forward and saving himself from falling off the seat and hitting the person in front of him. He shook his head rapidly, pouting his lip and blubbering raspberries to amuse himself. Sunggyu slapped his forehead, allowing it to fall down his face and flick off his lips. "Sungyeol, why the hell did you bring me here?"

Sungyeol jumped in his seat from hearing Sunggyu's piercing angry voice ringing in his ears, blinking his eyes to stay conscious. "What, what did you say?"

"Nothing." Sunggyu shook his head, letting his own stubbornness take over. "Just that this is the last place I want to be right now."

Sungyeol brought it upon himself as he pestered Sunggyu out of bed until he agreed to come, and now he felt bad for even bothering with all of this. "I'm sorry, I would have been fine by myself but manager hyung wanted someone to go with me."

"It's fine."

Sungyeol did not say a word, intimidated by his comment. Sunggyu was only there physically, and Sungyeol thought the same thing about himself. His mind was wandering off and envisioning a different mesh of colors that were supposed to be subway riders, he almost thought he was going to faint. Sungyeol shook his head to snap himself out of his state. 

Sunggyu was drifting back into his slumber, leaning his head away from Sungyeol.

He was in no mood to go joke around, but he wanted to try and liven up their train ride. Sungyeol playfully pinched the side of Sunggyu's cheek and pull it towards him to wake him up. 

"YA!" Sunggyu pushed Sungyeol's face away.

Sungyeol had little time to react, landing his head on a metal pole right next to his seat. He banged his head hard, holding onto the side of his head and closing his eyes to deal with the pain.

Sunggyu smirked, expecting some witty comeback out of Sungyeol next. "Serves you right."

Except it never came. 

Sungyeol held onto his head, leaning over to rest his elbows on his knees and look towards the metal ground. The world was spinning, the floor turning into different colors and making waves in his sight. Sungyeol heaved this throat, thinking he was going to throw up. 

"Woah, Sungyeol!" Sunggyu scooted his seat closer to Sungyeol to rub his back, knowing that he took his actions too far. "Yeol, I didn't mean for that to happen. Are you ok?"

Sungyeol's hands were shaking, the initial hit still keeping him buzzed and wary of anything else around him. His gagging eventually turned into normal coughing, putting his fist in front of his mouth to keep himself calm. Don't do this right now, don't do this right now. Sungyeol pulled his hood over his head to stretch the fabric to his nose, breathing heavily in the claustrophobic setting. He could barely make a word out to his leader. "Gyu hyung, I'm going to faint."

At that moment, the subway train arrived at some stop in the middle of their journey.

Sunggyu noticed the doors slide open, signaling for people to leave the train. "Yeol, we're going." Sunggyu helped pick up a limp Sungyeol and dragging him out of the train. The lanky giant was hard to carry out, his arms flailing on Sunggyu's shoulders and close to collapsing and losing all consciousness. Sungyeol's whole back as sweaty from staying inside, but Sunggyu ignored the fact to make sure his choding was ok.

Luckily, Sunggyu made it outside with Sunggyu just as the doors closed behind him. The cool fresh air infused into Sungyeol's senses, slowly waking him up and gaining awareness of his surrounds. "Don't do this to me Sungyeol, we're almost to a chair."

The station was empty, without a single person in his path to block him Sunggyu safely brought Sungyeol to a metal bench at the loading dock to set him down. Sunggyu took a seat next to Sungyeol and took his head to rest on his own shoulder. It was an awkward position for Sungyeol since he was taller than Sunggyu, but Sunggyu made it work by putting his arm around him and bringing his body down to reach his shoulder level.

Sungyeol's head was placed into the curves of Sunggyu's shoulder and neck. His heart was beating fast from the anxiety of his sudden panic attack, feeling like his whole body would implode on him. But being in the arms of his leader, who took the time out of his own personal life, to take him out and carry him to safety was more than enough for him to calm down.

"Yeollie," Sunggyu said under his breath, worried sick over him. His face was red in fear of something horrible happening to Sungyeol.

"I'm fine," Sungyeol made out, closing his eyes and opening his fist repeatedly to feel the blood running through his veins. He wanted none of this to happen, especially since Sunggyu had not a single idea how to deal with one of his episodes. "Did you get that snack on the counter I was telling you about."

"Yes." Sunggyu remembered exactly what he was talking about, slipping out a bag of raisins from his front pocket and ripping it open with his teeth. Several of the raisins fell onto his lap but Sunggyu did not care, taking a handful in his palm and raising it to Sungyeol's mouth to eat off of. He was skeptical the dried fruit would even help much, but anything was worth a shot at this point.

Sungyeol gently leaned his head forward to bite some raisins off of his palm, chewing on them quickly to get into his system. He repeated this until they were all eaten off.

"Geez Sungyeol, I had no idea it was this bad." Sunggyu knew that Sungyeol had been suffering from an iron deficiency, but he was unaware of its degree. Sunggyu could sense tears welling up in his eyes, unable to look at Sungyeol in this condition.

Sungyeol took one last gulp of his food, shaking his head as he continued to rest his head on Sunggyu's shoulder. "It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" The words only made Sunggyu hold onto Sungyeol tighter, pulling him close to embrace him. "Really, you're ing crazy. How can you say something like that after this happened?" Sunggyu shut his mouth, realizing that he needed to be more considerate of Sungyeol's feelings. Sungyeol was never the type to reveal many things to Sunggyu in the first place, but he wanted to know the truth. "I'm sorry."

Sungyeol felt a little guilty for dragging Sunggyu into a situation like this. What seemed like a harmless train ride would turn into this mess. He was apologetic for everything. "I'm sorry too."

"No, don't be." Sunggyu rubbed Sungyeol's arm in circles to relax his muscles. "You really... scared me."

"I know. I should've warned you."

"It's ok. Can you at least tell me... tell me more?" A single tear fell from Sungyeol's face. "I feel like a bad leader that I didn't know how bad this was. When manager hyung informed me of everything, I should have talked to you to learn more."

Sungyeol had no idea where to start, whether he should go from the beginning at finding out about his anemia or explaining about how he feels now. "I get really tired when we dance or workout, so I have to eat carefully and take my pills a couple times a day. Sometimes I feel weak because of it, fatigued by everything. I should have warned you about everything from the beginning. It's not your fault..."

Sunggyu bit his lip from hearing all of this arise. "And we're on a world tour too..."

"I know. It's all my fault for having a terrible body."

"What?!" Sunggyu had to deal with Myungsoo and Sungjong complain to him upfront about Sungyeol's self-deprecating attitude under pressure, but experiencing it first hand was more for his heart to take. As a leader, this was the last feeling he wanted any of s, his best friends, going through. "Yeollie, what the hell are you talking about..."

"I'm an awkward giant. I can't gain much muscle cause I'm too skinny. I can't have a good looking body like other members. And now this. I'm just really tired these days, and I can't give my all during these concerts."

"Yeollie." Sunggyu paused to choose his words carefully. 

Sungyeol lifted his head off of Sunggyu's shoulder, sniffing his nose from almost crying over it. His nose was red as well as his eyes, keeping his tears to himself as he looked at Sunggyu straight in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Sunggyu could not stand looking at Sungyeol this way, his bloodshot eyes on the verge of breaking down in front of him. This was not the Sungyeol who pranced around stage in a panda mask during their world tour. This was not the Sungyeol that practically chased him down five flights of stairs at their hotel in Thailand over one measly comment about Lee Bo Young. This was not the Sungyeol that Sunggyu cared a lot about.

This was not Sungyeol.

"Anytime I see you on stage, I always forget that there's even something remotely wrong with your body. You can't control your health, but it never stops you from being the Lee Sungyeol I know and love." Sunggyu choked up on his words, clearing his throat as he nervously talked to Sungyeol. "This is weird, we don't like this often."

"I know." Sungyeol sniffed his nose one more time, letting out all of his frustrations with one final exhale. Hearing those words were completely unexpected, especially out of someone like Sunggyu, who Sungyeol was always threatened by as not particularly caring for him on a regular basis compared to other members. On a list of Sunggyu's priorities as a leader, Sungyeol always listed himself as last. 

"I used to think I was tired all the time, but now I'm going to be more thoughtful that others around me might be even more exhausted than I am."

"Ok."

"Most of all, stop putting yourself down. No one likes to hear that, especially me," Sunggyu declared.

"I won't." Sungyeol nodded his head, hearing the ringing of bells to announce the arrival of another subway train. "Quite frankly, I didn't know you cared about my condition."

"I did care..." Sunggyu lowered his head, caught for not giving enough attention to Sungyeol. "... I just underestimated it. I promise next time to give more care to you and stay alert with your anemia. Sungyeol, I care so ing much about you. Not just about your iron, but every time you bag on yourself about anything. Sungyeol, you're a great person and I don't know what I'd do without you. To me, you're an iron giant. Indestructible no matter what lays in his path."

Sungyeol was touched, his eyes watering with tears that were ready to fall. "Thanks Gyu. Sometimes I don't know if people really care about me. I underestimated our relationship."

Sunggyu smiled, lifting up his own head to gaze into Sungyeol's eyes endearingly.

"Yeollie."

Sunggyu picked up a raisin that landed on his thigh and raised it to Sungyeol's mouth. 

"Eat this raisin."

"And get your leg germs? Gross!" Sungyeol laughed, slapping the raisin out of Sunggyu's hand.

The two of them had a sudden burst of energy with the power that came from being around each other and enjoying each other's company. It was as if they had slept for hours and woken up with better spirits. 

The next train arrived at the station to go in the previous direction they were heading for to the pharmacy. The train was significantly emptier than the first one, holding less people and leaving plenty of breathing room for Sungyeol to deal with. 

"Let's hop on this train and pick up your medicine. We barely have any time before we go to China." Sunggyu sprung out of his seat, brushing the extra raisins off of his jeans and fixing his outfit to continue the journey.

Sungyeol nodded his head, standing up from his seat and pulling his hood down to cover his eyes. The two of them ran off to catch the train before the doors closed behind them.