EXO started things off by moving Taemin into Kai's shared bedroom with Kyungsoo.

It just made to most sense; Kai was Taemin's closest friend, the room was connected to the bathroom, and D.O. kept saying that he didn't mind at all if Taemin slept in his bed and he slept on the couch for a few nights. So after Chanyeol carried Taemin and gingerly set him down on Kyungsoo's bed, the members of EXO decided to let him sleep. They all knew what it was like, and the number one thing sick people usually craved the most was rest.

Five hours had passed, and EXO had found different ways to amuse themselves. Watching movies, playing video games, taking naps, messing with Kai's dogs, practicing their dances, eating, getting on their computers- everyone had their own way of relaxing. A rather large thunderstorm had also developed. Looking outside through the living room window it almost looked like it was night time, despite it only being five o'clock in the afternoon.

In order to make things look a little less dreary, Luhan had closed the curtains so you couldn't see the sheets of icy water pelting the earth, or the fierce winds that blew full-grown trees until they were half bent over. Lightning would flash every couple seconds and then the thunder would boom; occasionally the sound was powerful enough to send vibrations into the floorboards. Other times it sounded like the sky was cracking open- not just one solitary boom, but a series of crackles that rolled across the sky in powerful consecutive waves.

Surprisingly enough, Taemin slept through a lot of the storm, only waking up when there was the horrific crack of gunshot lighting. The ear-splitting sound made everyone in the dorm jump, and Lay found himself walking instinctively to the room where Taemin was now probably wide awake and scared. 

Sure enough, as he slowly cracked the door open he could see the silhouette of a figure, still wrapped in the blankets, sitting up in the bed.

"Taemin?"

"... Lay?" The voice was small, hesitant, and it wasn't something that Lay had never heard the SHINee maknae sound like.

"Hey," he whispered as he sat down on the mattress, being careful not to sit on the poor kid. "Do you want to come into the living room with the rest of us?"

The shadowed figure of Taemin quickly nodded his head and made an effort to disentangle himself from the hold of Kyungsoo's cozy quilts and soft comforter. Lay grinned and watched as his junior of two years struggled, before taking pity on him and lifting the edge of the blankets.

Taemin went to climb out, but he heard a small groan and a little yawn from the spot next to him. He couldn't help the gasp that came from his mouth or the way he jumped away- because the blankets were moving.

But of course, out of the messy pile crawls two of Kai's dogs; Jianggu and Meonggu.

Meonggu tried to snuggle up into Taemin's side to fall asleep again, while Jianggu did a little shake to wake himself up before he the teenagers overly-hot face. Taemin was almost tempted to curl back up in the warmth of the bed, but another shot of lightning and a rumble of thunder quickly changed his mind.

When he was finally able to stand up, he realized how cold he felt and quietly grabbed the softest blanket of the pile and wrapped it around himself so the only thing peaking out was his head.

It was not lost on him the way Lay gently but protectively took him by the arm to lead him into the living room/dining room/kitchen.

Once he got into the three-room mesh, he gave Lay a small smile before he walked to the couch and unceremoniously plopped down next to Chanyeol. The happy virus, for his part, was happily lounging on the longer part of the couch, watching a movie with his arms pulled up above his head resting on the top of the couch.

When Lay led Taemin into the room, everyone stopped what they were doing to see what the sick boy was going to do. 

When he made a B-line for Chanyeol, the twenty year old's eyes widened comically. Taemin walked right over to him, threw himself down beside the taller boy, and just.... Stayed there.

Chanyeol cleared his throat. "Uh... Hi Minnie... How ya' feeling?"

When Chanyeol's only response was a muffled sigh, he tried his hardest not to laugh, opting instead to pat the pile of blankets where he assumed Taemin's head was.

That was when Baekhyun came over and tapped Taemin, clearly wanting the kid to look at him. The blanket wiggled a couple of times before a mop of unruly hair poked out of the top, followed by a pale youthful face. Baekhyun immediately snorted out a genuine laugh.

"Taeminnie.... Y-You kinda look like a burrito."

Taemin actually ended up laughing with him, because even though he still felt awful, the thought of a blanket-burrito with him inside was just comical. Or it was the fever making him loopy.

But then again, Taemin was hearing snorts of laughter from the other EXO members before everyone broke into fits of giggles like a bunch of fifth graders.

After everyone had calmed themselves down, they figured that they would just let Taemin do what he wanted and stop watching him like a bunch of worried mothers.

Taemin wriggled right up next to Chanyeol and dropped his head onto the giant's chest, to which Chanyeol casually draped an arm around the younger boys shoulders as he happily kept watching his movie.

It was strangely comforting to Taemin- he could hear every breath Chanyeol took and how his lungs expanded before letting the air out in a rush of carbon dioxide. Every beat of Chanyeol's heart, the steady 'thump-thump', fascinated the sick boy.

It was the sweetest lullaby to Taemin and his pounding headache; it didn't take long for him to fall asleep again.

Barely ten minutes had passed before the EXO members started swarming around to see the sleeping maknae.

Kai was about the only one who didn't think Taemin was totally adorable- he thought he was being cute, definitely. But he really thought it was funnier to tickle his best friend's foot in his sleep and watch how Taemin wiggled his toes in discomfort.

Luhan decided to poke a little at Tao and Sehun. "Man, SHINee sure is lucky. Their maknae is cute... Our maknaes...." He groaned dramatically in mock-disgust and tried his hardest not to laugh at the looks he was getting from the two youngest members- excluding Kai, of course; he was too busy pinching Taemin's cheeks to care.

Chen finally decided to rescue the sleeping boy.

"Leave him alone," he snapped. He shoved Kai's hand away from Taemin's face and watched as Kai all but rolled off the couch in his fit of laughter. Kai had one of those perfect laughs that just made everyone happy though- there was no real heat to what Chen had said or done; the EXO-K rapper had everyone grinning from ear-to-ear anyway.

It had been about three hours- it was 8:08 PM and everyone was getting ready for the dinner Kyungsoo and Suho had made.

It was basic chicken and rice, but especially for Taemin, they made a light vegetable soup.

"Hey Sehun?" 

In turn, the youngest boy looked up from his food to see what Suho wanted. 

EXO-K's leader was piling food onto his own plate while nodding his head in Taemin's direction. The SHINee maknae was still passed out on the couch. "Would you get him up for me? He needs to eat and take some medicine."

Sehun quickly shoveled some more food into his mouth and stuffed his cheeks like a chipmunk before doing as Suho asked.

Once he got over to the couch, he squatted down in front of his sleeping hyung. Taemin definitely didn't look any better than before- he was as pale as a sheet, his cheeks were flushed red rather than the earlier color of light pink, and he looked.... Troubled. Sehun knew that people were usually prone to nightmares when they had fevers, and that people usually didn't sleep well overall while they were sick, so this didn't come as a surprise to him.

He ran his fingers through Taemin's messy, tangled bangs to brush them off of his forehead. "Hey," he said, being careful to keep his voice low. "Wakey-wakey hyung~"

Taemin groaned and cracked his eyes open. He opened his mouth to say something, but it came out as more of, "HmLuhanmmjikolfuy." 

Sehun snorted and tried to keep his laughter to a minimum. "What?" He snickered a little more before he ran his fingers through Taemin's hair a second time. "C'mon Tae. You have to get up- you need to take some medicine and get something in your stomach."

Taemin smacked his dry lips and nodded his head sleepily. "M'kay..."

He clearly had no real intention of getting up.

Sehun shook his head and looked over at where EXO was eating and conversing happily, hoping to catch someone's eye. Kai, seeing Sehun's helplessly lost look, quickly walked over to Taemin, grabbed his hands, and pulled him up into a sitting position. "Come on Minnie. Up and at em'. You need medicine and food."

Taemin's eyes were glassy and slightly out of focus when he looked at his best friend, but he seemed to understand. "Okie dokie.... Help me up."

Kai obediently took Taemin's offered hand and easily lifted his much-lighter friend to his feet. But when he tried to walk Taemin over to the table, Taemin pulled back slightly. Giving his sick friend a questioning look, he glanced at Sehun who seemed as confused at he was.

Kai looked back to Taemin when he felt his friend's eyes on him, but he just smiled and shook his head when he saw the blanket now wrapped snuggly around Taemin's shoulders. "Are you really going to eat with that?"

The only answer Taemin gave was promptly shuffling over to the table.

Suho called to Taemin from the kitchen, "Your's is the bowl next to Xiumin, Minnie!"

Taemin sat down next to Xiumin, who looked at Taemin's flushed face with worry. "Are you okay, Taemin?" He asked carefully. 

Taemin really wasn't okay. It felt like someone had stuffed his head full of cotton, and he had a massive headache. He was achy all over and he was freezing. He honestly felt awful- but he nodded his head anyway. Xiumin obviously didn't buy it and lifted his hand to feel Taemin's burning forehead.

Feeling the unnatural heat radiating off his younger friend, he drew his hand back with wide, concerned eyes. He quickly whispered to Tao, who was sitting on Taemin's other side, telling him to get Kris and Suho's attention. 

Tao didn't speak as much Korean as he wished he did, but he spoke enough to where he could communicate to the Korean members when they couldn't understand Mandarin. "Kris?"

Kris looked up from his food to look for the voice of his youngest member. Making eye contact with him over the table, Tao quickly asked, "Can you and Suho come here? I think something's wrong with Taemin."

The leader of EXO-M wasted no time in nudging Suho's side and reiterating what Tao had told him.

It was no secret that the leaders of EXO were protective, just like every leader of every band normally was. It was a natural instinct- it was their job to take care of the other members. EXO and SHINee didn't really see themselves as separate to be honest; they made different music and performed different dances, sure, but the members were really just one giant band of seventeen young men having fun and watching out for each other.

So it didn't come as a surprise when not only Kris and Suho became worried, but everyone who heard Tao and Xiumin's low whisper became frantic as well. When Kris went to stand up to go to Taemin, Suho grabbed his arm to stop him from getting up.

At Kris's inquiring look, he simply whispered, "Look, Kris. He's actually eating. Let him finish what he can and then we'll talk to him. I don't want to say anything that would make him loose his appetite or make him not want to eat."

Kris saw the reason behind Suho's argument and heaved a sigh, but he sat back down none the less. Every instinct was screaming at him to take care of the sick boy, to find out what was wrong. Just by glancing at Kai's strained look, Kris could tell that he felt the same way.

After Taemin had sipped all the broth out of the soup and ate what few vegetables he could, he pushed the bowl away and sleepily laid his head on the table in front of him. Tao sympathetically ran his fingers through Taemin's hair and briefly massaged his friends back while Kris and Suho made their way around the table to get to him.

Suho laid a hand on Taemin's head. "Hey buddy. Come here for a second," and with that, Kris took Taemin's elbow and signaled for him to stand up, then steered him back into the living room and onto the couch once more.

Once they were there, Suho sat on the couch next to Taemin and Kris crouched down in front of them.

No one said a word, and Kris found himself reaching to touch Taemin's forehead. Just like Xiumin, his eyes grew wide with concern for his young friend. "Tae, you're really hot."

Taemin gave a snotty grin and replied in a hoarse voice. "Well thanks, bro; you're not so bad yourself."

Kai heard this from the table and replied in place of Suho and Kris. "Oh my God, shut up. God, you get so weird when you're sick..." Yet even as he said this, he was trying not to smile proudly at his friend's uncharacteristically snarky remark.

Taemin gave a small grin and laid his head on Suho's shoulder. Suho, still worried about Taemin's fever, laid a cool hand on Taemin's forehead. Taemin was instantly reminded of Key, and he suddenly felt the urgent need to be near the SHINee members. He felt miserable and he wanted to be around EXO, but he wanted Jonghyun, Onew, Key, and Minho to be with him too.

His eyes watered involuntarily and he was beyond glad that he had his eyes closed. He already had all of EXO freaked out about his fever, they didn't need to see him cry; that would be disastrous.

He took a deep, wheezing breath to calm himself, and he breathed in the comforting aroma of soap, rain, and something else that was just so Suho that he felt calm enough to open his eyes again and look at Kris, whose face was still drawn in worry. 

"Why don't you go on to sleep, Minnie?" He asked softly.

Taemin didn't bother to disagree; he simply nodded his head sleepily against Suho's shoulder.

Taemin was usually very aware of what was going on around him. He could be mindless sometimes, but he was never oblivious. Which is exactly why when he didn't seem to notice Tao and Sehun until they each grabbed one of his arms, the two maknaes were worried. As gently as they possibly could, they lifted him off of the couch and got him on his feet, asking him in quiet whispers if he was okay, and telling him what their next action would be as if he were a five year old.

The worry only grew when the two removed their hands from Taemin to let him stand on his own and he wavered dangerously. Quickly rushing back to the way they were before, with Tao holding Taemin's left arm in a firm grasp and Sehun having Taemin's right arm slung around his shoulders, they carried the sick boy's dead weight back into Kai and D.O.'s bedroom.

Tao dumped a couple of warm blankets on top of Taemin, and Sehun threw a couple of pillows at him. Once they reached the door on their way out of the room, they turned around.

Sehun kept his voice low. "Sweet dreams hyung~"

Tao wiggled his fingers at the lump on the bed, knowing that said lump wouldn't see him, but doing it all the same.

Taemin was asleep before they even left the room.

It wasn't until late that night that things got bad.

It started with Taemin having a simple nightmare. At least, he was pretty sure he had a nightmare. He couldn't remember any of the actual dream, but when he woke up he was covered in a cold sweat.

The first thing he noticed upon waking was that there was lightning flashing through a small window every couple seconds and he could hear the distinct rolls of thunder off in the distance.

The second thing he realized was that he was completely and utterly terrified.

And the last thing he realized was that he wasn't in his dorm. He wasn't in the SHINee dorm, and he didn't know where else he could be.

Slowly sitting up in the bed, he called out into the dark room, "Jonghyun..?" His voice came out weak and hoarse.

Jonghyun was strong, just like Minho. Jonghyun was safe, and Taemin knew without a doubt that he was protected around him. That was what he needed right now. He didn't like the tightness in his chest and the way his heart was in his throat.

Taemin heard a sleepy groan from the other side of the room. "Uh... Ug, what..?.. Taemin?"

Taemin knew that voice. He knew it. But he couldn't place where he knew it from, so he opted to stay silent in his terror.

"Taemin," the voice was more awake now, more cautious. "... Are you okay?"

The sound of rustling blankets was heard before the sound of bare feet walking on cold floor enveloped the room.

Taemin didn't know where he was. He didn't know who was talking to him. He didn't know who was walking towards him. So he did the natural thing and made a run for the door, but his legs were too weak and he didn't know why. 

When he stood up from the bed, his vision began to spin. He placed a hand on his head and closed his eyes instinctively, as if it might stabilize his view of the world.

"Woah, woah, woah," the voice was much closer now, accompanied by a lightly placed hand on his shoulder. Taemin jerked away from the foreign touch and lost his balance. While he was falling, he flailed for a hold on something to keep himself upright, but instead he only managed to painfully knock his arm into the corner of something hard.

He let out a brief yelp and he could hear a gasp mingled with a string of curses, and the 'click' of a lamp being . When he opened his eyes, the face of his best friend was hovering over him.

Jongin didn't look particularly happy. His face was contorted into anger, but Taemin knew that it was anger forged out of worry.

"Taemin! What are you thinking?" Jongin snapped in a harsh whisper. Feather-light, he quickly brushed his fingers over Taemin's arms, head, neck, and face to check for any blood or bumps. When he seemed satisfied that his friend was okay for the moment, he looked into Taemin's fever-glazed eyes. "What are you doing?"

Taemin wasted no time. He opened his mouth in a breathless whisper, "Jongin, where are we?" The fear was evident in his voice.

Jongin quickly understood that his friend's fever was messing with his brain. "Tae... We're in the EXO dorm, remember? SHINee had to go to Japan and you had to stay with us?" While he answered his friend in his most soothing tones, he placed the back of his hand on Taemin's forehead.

His eyes widened and he let out a small gasp. "Oh my God, Minnie! You're burning up!" He quickly started placing his hands on the sides and back of Taemin's neck, making sure he had felt the temperature right. When he felt the same frightening heat radiating there, he looked at Taemin desperately. "Okay buddy, hang on for a second, alright?"

He never gave Taemin a chance to respond because in that instant he lifted him up bridal-style and hefted him over to the bed where he placed him on top of the covers. "Stay there, I'll  be right back." Jongin's voice was urgent, and with that he ran out of the room calling for Suho in desperate tones.

Taemin was too out of it to understand what was going on; he vaguely remembered the scenario that Jongin had described for him and him having to stay with EXO, but he wasn't sure why he couldn't remember it as clearly as he should. Without realizing it, he laid his head against the wall behind him and fell asleep again.

Ironically, even though it was Suho that Jongin was calling for, it was Chen who reacted first. He heard Jongin's rushed voice calling for EXO-K's leader with such an urgency that he knew something was very wrong, and the only thing that registered in his half-asleep mind was that something was wrong with Taemin.

There was suddenly a demanding urge to take care of the sick boy.

Chen had only felt this rare need to protect a couple of times; when Jongin had been injured at the Incheon airport was one of the few painful examples. 

He didn't like this feeling for one reason and one reason only- it was always accompanied with the knowledge that someone he loved was hurt.

Chen's room was directly next to Kai and D.O.'s shared room, and he was already out and bolting to where he knew Taemin was before Kai had even made it down the hallway.

Upon entering, he found Taemin sound asleep, leaning against the wall behind D.O.'s bed. "Taemin?" Chen quickly bolted over and started using his hands to feel Taemin's face and neck. Registering the high heat, he tried to wake the fever-stricken boy up. "Taemin-ah~" he kept his voice a s soothing as he could, trying to remember how he had handled it when Lay had once gotten sick in China.

Taemin cracked his eyes open at the sound of his name being called. He wasn't particularly awake. That is, until there was another horrible crack of gunshot lightning, identical to the one earlier in the day.

Just like before, everyone jumped in alarm. For Taemin and his fever-muddled brain, however, it sounded like someone had just blown up the building next to their dorms.

He gasped and sat up fast enough to make Chen jump for a second time.

"Hey, hey," Chen was quick to soothe. "It's okay, just some thunder. It's going to be rainy for the next week, remember? Nothing to be scared of." Chen surprised himself with knowing exactly what to say to comfort the frightened​ boy.

At this point in time, Luhan ran in with Lay right on his heels. "Are you okay? " He asked frantically. "Jongin's really spazzing out."

Taemin had no idea what Jongin would be worried about. He just knew that he was sick, and he was really, really cold. So he shrugged his shoulders in response to the question at hand and bundled the covers around his quivering body.

Luhan, just like Kai and Chen before him, went to feel Taemin's neck and face with both of his hands. When he spoke, he did so in his calmest voice, and yet the worry seeping in could still heard clearly in the dark room. "Yeah, you are really warm, Tae-Tae..."

Lay quickly did the same thing as Luhan, feeling for his temperature. Chen looked at both Luhan and Lay; it wasn't hard to see the same worry he felt reflected in each of their eyes.

Taemin's fever was too high.

Just as Baekhyun and Chanyeol ran in, Chen asked Lay in a very gentle tone, "Would one of you guys go get me a bowl of cool water and a rag?" Lay took it upon himself and quickly left the room.

Chen ignored the worried questions of the members now flooding into the room, deciding to leave the explaining to Luhan and Jongin, and scooted himself up onto the bed until he was leaning against the wall, sitting beside Taemin. Taemin was obviously exhausted, so Chen just started running his fingers through Taemin's highlighted hair, remembering how his own older brother would do the same thing for him when he was sick.

It seemed to do the trick to calm the fever-dazed boy. Taemin had little by little begun to lay his head on Chen's shoulder, and was now lightly sleeping while contentedly using his companion as a pillow. When Lay came back in with the rag and cool water, Suho took over so that Chen wouldn't have to move and risk waking Taemin up again.

The EXO-K leader got the rag wet and quickly wrung out any extra water. He used the rag to wipe off Taemin's sweaty face before folding it neatly and placing it on the sleeping boy's forehead.

"Baek?" He asked. "Go into the bathroom and get me the thermometer."

The singer quickly did as he was told and retrieved the small object. EXO had one of the more expensive thermometers, so all Suho had to do was brush the end of the device over the sick boys forehead to quickly get a read on Taemin's temperature. When he saw the numbers blinking up at him, he sighed heavily.

"What?" Kai asked frantically. He peered over his leaders shoulder to see the number 103.8° Fahrenheit. "Jeez, Tae!" He placed a hand on his friends head and looked at him sympathetically. "Well.... You definitely don't do anything halfway, buddy."

Taemin looked (and felt) like crap, to be blunt.

He was pale and shaky. He got dizzy when he stood up. He had a terrible headache, and he was just so cold. The churning feeling in his nauseated stomach didn't help things, either.

EXO didn't know what to do. No one around SM got sick terribly often- it was the one thing the company was very careful about. If someone so much as coughed, the managers were all over them, asking if they were okay and telling them they needed to eat and sleep.

Realizing that they didn't know how to handle the situation, they looked back and forth at each other uncertainly.

They were in for a long week of improvising.

LOOKIE YOU GUYS I DID IT HOLY CRAP JUST LET ME HUG YOU ALL FOR BEING SUCH PATIENT LITTLE ANGELS<333

I love you all so much for commenting on this story (aaaand for not yelling at me for not updating... heh-heh... ^-^"" ).

Like, I REALLY FREAKING LOVE YOU GUYS.

So before I forget to ask y'all... I want the readers opinions: should I put the temperatures in Fahrenheit or Celsius? I know that most of the world uses Celsius, and yet America is the rebel who decided to use Fahrenheit. ¬_¬

So... I don't know, whatever you guys want is cool with me~~~

So. Just so y'all know:

1) When I talked about the thing with Taemin setting his head on Chanyeol's chest and listening to his heartbeat and his breathing? I do that with my oldest cousin (more like an older brother, really, but whatever~). We'll just be chillin' on the couch or the bed or where-ever and I'll just kinda.... Put my head on his chest and listen. He never says a word about it- he'll just keep watching the TV or keep texting his girlfriend while he plays with my hair.

2) The thing with Kai tickling Taemin's toes while he's asleep... I do that to my little brother. It's awful, I know, but it's just hysterical because the kid sleeps like a rock and it doesn't quite wake him up, so all he'll do is wriggle around and give me some kind of half-formed baby garble (which he doesn't even remember when he wakes up)... Its beyond funny. x"D

3) When Taemin tries to talk to Sehun when he first wakes up, and he can't form a coherent sentence?.... I can't even tell you how many times I've done that. I need coffee in the morning for a reason, people.

4) When I'm talking about how Taebaby is feeling when is temperature went up... That is from experience. I had a temperature of 103.7° Fahrenheit once, and I wasn't having a good week to say the least.

5) And Lastly.... I think the entire EXO fandom just needs a really big hug right now. #AlwaysSupportLuhan

Keep up the comments! I love you all~~<333