In the late hours of the night before they would have to help a new neighbor settle in, two roommates were wide awake. They were both deathly tired and strongly wanted to rest, but as one boy quivered beneath his bed sheets, the other was too worried to sleep.

"Kyungsoo," the faint sound of Xiumin's voice barely registered in Kyungsoo's ears as the rumbling of the earth mingled with his own shaky breaths.

"Ah... yeah?" Kyungsoo steadied his voice without realizing that the force in his words sounded rude. Xiumin wasn't deterred by the rough sound- if anything, he was drawn by it. He sat up and focused in on the trembling mass on the other side of the dark room.

"Are you alright?" he asked, reaching for the lamp beside his bed. Kyungsoo managed a broken hum in response and he couldn't see nor hear as his roommate the small light and got out of bed.

Kyungsoo only realized Xiumin had come over to him when he felt his sweat-dampened blanket be pulled over his head. The lamp light, though rather dim and yellow, stung even through Kyungsoo's tightly closed eyes, and the wave of cool air that came over him brought along with it a wave of nausea. Black hair matted down with sweat that made the open air feel even colder, Kyungsoo unconsciously pushed himself into the older man's arms. Xiumin felt his heart sink as he wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulder's and in attempt to soothe him through the brunt of his shivering.

Placing one hand on Kyungsoo's forehead, Xiumin gasped. "You're burning up!" he said before he realized that was probably not the most reassuring thing to tell someone in that state. He quickly moved on from saying that, loosening his hold on the boy and gently pushing him so that he could see his face. "Do you know what's wrong?" he asked, looking into the other's pained eyes.

The brunette did not react well to that question. His face contorted even worse and he collapsed against Xiumin, placing his head on Xiumin's shoulder as his own shoulders heaved. The pain in his bones seeped further into his head and his chest and he registered them as aches brought on by his earth-related sickness and misery and loneliness over not being able to reveal said sickness.

"Yes," he panted, his breath almost as hot as his skin against Xiumin's unclothed chest. He weakly curled his fingers on the other's back as his shivers began to dwindle. "Yes," he repeated, "but I can't tell you." After that, there was a moment of silence wherein one boy was angry to be crippled with a secret power that seemed to be weakening him, and the other boy mused over what sort of wild ailment it was that he could possibly be catching at the moment.

Though Kyungsoo's breaths were growing smoother, it felt like his temperature was rising. Xiumin observed how the boy was almost entirely dead weight on him. 'Man, I really don't want to catch what he has.' Xiumin's actions contradicted his thoughts as he climbed fully onto the bed and rearranged his and his roommates' bodies. Supporting Kyungsoo with his hands as he crawled around the boy, Xiumin took his place near the wall behind Kyungsoo. 

"Ok," he said softly, lying his hands on the boy's fallen shoulders. "You don't have to tell me. Just try to relax," his voice was slightly strained as he focused on something that Kyungsoo was unaware of. He was hardly able to find it odd when Xiumin touched something cold to the back of his neck and started to massage his shoulders without ever having gone to grab ice or anything like it. Primarily flinching away from the cold and later leaning into it, the anger and loneliness in him dulled along with the physical pain from earlier.

The tension at Xiumin's fingertips slowly faded and Kyungsoo's eyes closed. When Kyungsoo became unable to hold himself up, Xiumin helped him lie down, but not before he pushed the messed up blanket off of the bed. "Shh," the elder hushed the younger in a effort to keep him calm and remind him with sound that someone was there for him.

After rushing as quietly as possible to his side of the room to fetch a fresh blanket, Xiumin sat back on the side of Kyungsoo's bed and covered him up. For the rest of the night, there he sat, thinking about how he hadn't seen his roommate anything like this in the months that they had known each other. Whatever Kyungsoo had caught had to be serious for him to have behaved like he did, and Xiumin's previously free spirit was dampened with the strongest worry he had ever felt for the boy beside him.

As a low rumble in the building stopped and caught Xiumin's attention, he wondered what had been causing the sound in the first place. With the bizarre weather as of late, a sick roommate, and mysterious vibrations that could be felt throughout the entire room, it occurred to Xiumin that what was supposed to be a pleasant, restful night before an easy day would be just the opposite.

Much to his dismay, the better part of Xiumin's morning was spent tending to Kyungsoo, just as his night had been. Burdened equally by the desire to sleep in, the conflicting feeling of shame for daring to give less than his all in class, and a personal obligation to help the roommate with whom he wasn't even good friends, Xiumin was in and out of bed and various classrooms but not entirely "all there."

Despite the little differences in their schedules, Xiumin took it upon himself to the exhausted Kyungsoo to each of his classes and, if needed, the infirmary. Some of his and Kyungsoo's classes were at the same time, but each boy had at least one class that started in the middle of the other boy's, so Xiumin was half glad and half resentful that students were allowed to leave the room without asking permission. Not the sort of person to back out of a previous engagement, the paling Korean boy continued to check up on his extra sickly-looking schoolmate in spite of the increasing heaviness of his eyelids.

It was at the concurrent end of their last classes that Xiumin experienced the first bit of leisure that he had in over twelve hours. Hoisting his notebooks off of his desk, it took all of his remaining energy to trudge to Kyungsoo's classroom door and make the trip back to the dorms.

The manner in which Kyungsoo downcast his gaze immediately upon seeing Xiumin had the somewhat healthier of the two wondering if the other was uncomfortable around him. Disregarding how Kyungsoo was set against looking at him, he silently moved to the side of his junior and nestled right in under his arm. The dreariness hanging in the air was enough to get him a little irritated about how everyone younger than him seemed to be taller. At the same time, it kept him from dwelling on it, and his turbulent brain returned to the task at hand.

They started on their brief journey and Kyungsoo was already basically drooped across Xiumin's shoulders when he said, "You really don't have to do this, you know..." Through Xiumin's attempts to subdue the laugh that was coming on, he sniggled like a chipmunk. If the other students hadn't already wandered off, someone might have made a joke about him looking like one too. Most people would have felt like his laugh was sarcastic as well, which wasn't the case, but Kyungsoo didn't know him well and any chance that he would look up at his roommate vanished once he heard that sound.

"I want to do this," Xiumin replied. Kyungsoo didn't detect the bounce that showed up in Xiumin's step after that. Xiumin wasn't sure whether the kid was embarrassed to be depending on someone or surprised that anybody was willing to help him, or both, but seeing him all flustered and humbled was strangely charming. The only feedback he earned was a low sound from Kyungsoo, and that was all they said until they reached their room.

Assisting the tan boy more than he probably actually needed, Xiumin guided him to his bed and chucked the blanket to the side so he wouldn't lie down on top of it and fall asleep uncovered.

"Tell me if you start feeling worse so I can call someone or get you to the nurse, okay?"

Kyungsoo rocked his head forwards and backwards before wholly falling back. Clearing his throat, he coughed out a quick thanks and then swung his blanket over his body. The top half of his face and the bottoms of his sneakers peeked out from beneath the cotton. With his own version of a "teehee," Xiumin went to untie and remove the other boy's shoes. Kyungsoo must have passed out as soon as he'd leaned back, because he didn't move at all as his helper freed his feet from their confines.

As sure as he could be that Kyungsoo was comfortable, Xiumin sat on his own bed and tugged off his shoes. Lying down, he caught sight of his phone on the night stand next to him. He hadn't even thought about it while he was running around campus earlier.

Peering at the bright screen through a haze of tiredness, Xiumin smiled at the series of texts that Chen had sent him over the day. Every message but a select few was a smiley face or random jumble of letters that made no sense. The ones that mattered most were those that said, 'Where are you??', 'i'm gonna find you!', and 'I'm coming by after class. let's go somewhere fun!' Of course, those were accompanied by emoticons as well. Knowing Chen's last class had just begun and would end an hour from now, he didn't feel the need or have the strength to reply, and he didn't even check to see if his phone was set to fall asleep before he did.

Xiumin swore his eyes had only been closed for one second before there was a knock at the door.

He shoved himself up off of his mattress and shuffled to the door, yawning as he went. Swinging it open, he whined, "Chen, I'm sorry, but I'm too tired for this..." When his eyes fully opened he became aware that the person in front of him was not who he had been expecting.

"Um, it's Chanyeol..." the tall young man said, curling his hands together out of timidity, "I guess D.O. told you I was coming today? Er, I mean Kyungsoo did?"

Xiumin had been gaping the whole time Chanyeol talked and for a second they stared awkwardly until Xiumin started shooting off a few nervous, breathy noises. "Ah- no- yeah! I mean, I forgot, but yeah! Oh man, please come in." He moved and then jumped right back in the way, shout-whispering, "Wait, no, don't!"

Chanyeol stood there and gave him a wide-eyed stare and an tense smile. There was a pang in Xiumin's chest as he realized how loudly he'd been speaking, and he ever-so-slowly eyed Kyungsoo over his shoulder to make sure they had not woken him. Seeing that the boy had not moved since he'd lain on the bed, the elder roommate exhaled soundlessly and tip toed out the door.

Chanyeol did not notice that the smaller man was taking steps, that or he was under too much stress to make himself move, but either way he stood stiff as a board when Xiumin closed the door and took the space directly in front of him. Xiumin was similarly blind to their closeness until his upper arm pressed against Chanyeol's ribcage. Xiumin turned around and almost bumped the side of his face on Chanyeol's chin, but by then the huge boy had relayed the message from his brain to his limbs that he ought to take at least one step back.

"Yo-" a familiar merry voice carried from down the hallway before trailing off, "...oh?" Chen walked over, his hand dropping before he finished his excited wave. The bright smile on his face became something more distrustful as he took a look at the new face (which was despicably close to his friend's...). "Hey," he said in an alarmingly friendly tone, "What's up, guys?" Moving quickly but looking perfectly calm and graceful, he went to Xiumin's side and strung his arm around his shoulders, appreciating how Chanyeol backed up even more.

"Ah, Chen," Xiumin peeped, repeatedly patting Chen's chest for no reason, "This is Chanyeol. He's Kyungsoo's friend and Kyungsoo was going to show him around today, but he's not feeling well." Chanyeol had been listening in, which Xiumin probably knew, but the small man still turned to him with an apologetic gaze to say, "Yeah, Kyungsoo isn't feeling well, but if you still want to check out the dorms, I guess I could..."

"We can show you around," Chen beamed, giving Xiumin's shoulder a visible squeeze. Twiddling his thumbs, Chanyeol glanced at the door behind the two older guys, mentally willing Kyungsoo to perceive his distress. In the two or three seconds he had to strain to unlock a psychic ability, his newly appointed tour guides' faces began to fall. A short "ahem" from Chen brought his head down from the clouds.

"Oh, sure! Yeah... that'd be nice, thanks." With the tight-knit positioning of his eyebrows and the incessant wiggling of his fingers, Chen and Xiumin were not sure those words were truthful. But that did not matter, and time was of the essence, so Chen wiggled right between the others and started them on their way.

"Are you new here?" Chen asked the teenage fountain of awkwardness once they had all gotten their steps in sync.

"No! Ah, well, this is my first year here, but I've been here all semester."

"Ah, I see... I guess I can't expect to know everyone here, but you'd better make sure you know us."

"Oh, ok... Wait, why?"

"See, me and my friend here are special," Chen clucked, rubbing his nose in a display of confidence. "You're pretty lucky you ran into Minseok, because when there's Minseok, there's Jongdae..." Chanyeol alternated between gawking at Chen, studying people in the halls, and watching his feet, saying, "uh-huh," and not mentioning how he had no clue who or what those names he just said were. "...I'm Jongdae, he's Minseok, by the way..."

'Ok, that was convenient,' thought Chanyeol.

"...and I might as well let you know that we have super powers."

'Hfgjhfgjfjdfjl," thought Chanyeol.

Narrowly avoiding a group of friends at his left, Chanyeol got all up in Chen's face and said, "Ah- so are you a telepath? My friend is one of those, too! But me, I can control fire! It comes and goes, but yeah." A few people, Chen and Xiumin among them, flinched at Chanyeol's sudden burst of excited chatter. Xiumin had been in the process of punching Chen's shoulder for spouting "total nonsense, haha, funny Chen!" but now they were both giving the newbie open-mouthed stares.

"Hey, hey, hey," Chen hissed, his previous cockiness completely dissolved from his features as he raised a hand to lower the volume, "Don't play. Are you serious?"

Chanyeol gave him his signature dumb-founded toddler look and whispered, "Yeah... aren't you?"

The over-twenty pair looked about ready to explode.

Behind them, a couple of guys off in their own world started laughing and giving each other high-fives over something one had on his phone, and the quieted were reminded that they were in a public school and whispering secrets with people around might not actually keep them safe.

"Hey, while we've got time, let's just go to my room," Chen suggested, pushing Chanyeol and Xiumin along. Kind of disappointed to have been walking this long and not have learned anything about the dorms, Chanyeol just agreed to go.

"What's your name, anyway?" Chen asked, and Xiumin raised his eyebrows over how rude his friend had been tonight. Chanyeol, ever polite, answered and apologized like he was at fault for Chen not bothering to learn his name in the first place.

"Chanyeol, huh?" Chen chuckled, opening his door, "Well, damn, Chanyeol I'm liking you a lot more than I thought I would!"