“Luhan...” A voice called out in the warm darkness. Luhan scrunched his eyes tighter shut and twisted his blankets in his hands. “Luhan...” There it was again. The voice. It was so quiet he could barely hear it... “Hyung!” The voice yelled. Luhan winced at the noise and shot to a sitting position in his warm bed. His fluttering hand clutched at his head as the bright lights and movement made it pound like church bells.

“Yes...” He hissed in pained response to Lay who was pulling a shirt over his head in the middle of their room. At his tone, Lay turned to face him, his eyebrows knitting with concern.

“Hold on. I’ll be right back...” he held up a finger as if to detain Luhan from going somewhere and left. Luhan really wasn’t feeling the whole ‘get out of bed’ thing, though. He was freezing, chills wracking his body, and his head felt as if it was being crushed.He swallowed slowly, feeling his throat rasp together and separate. Lay reappeared in the doorway with a concerned Suho.

“Luhan? Lay says you’re not feeling well.” Suho said with worry, coming to sit on Luhan’s bed. He placed a pleasantly cool hand to the other boy’s forehead and frowned. “Hm. It looks like you have a fever. That means no practice for you today. Get some sleep. I’ll leave some medicine on the kitchen table for you to take when you get up.” Suho told him briskly, gently pressing Luhan back onto the bed and tucking him in. Luhan could only nod and whisper a thank-you. Lay and Suho left again, closing the door behind them with gentle consideration. Now alone, Luhan could no longer resist the sleep that would momentarily remove him from the pain he was experiencing.

“Luhan has a pretty serious fever so he won’t be coming to practice today.” Suho announced to the group shuffling around the dorm, some holding coffee, others eating breakfast. Sehun’s head shot up from his cereal bowl with a jerk.

“He’s sick?” Sehun asked. He bit his lip and waited for a response. Scenes of a feverish Luhan alone all day in the dorm floated before his mind’s eye, worrying him.

“Yeah. It looks like he’s got a pretty high fever.” Suho replied, tucking one hand into the pocket of his jeans and running the other through his hair.

“Someone should stay home with him in case something happens.” Lay decided loudly. “How ‘bout you, Sehun? I’ll have to teach Luhan the new choreography anyways. It wouldn’t be any trouble to teach you too.” He said, casually peeling a banana he picked up off the kitchen table.

“But why me?” Sehun asked, a little bit apprehensive.

Does he know? Could he possibly have guessed? He panicked inwardly.

“Well you and I usually review choreography together anyways because it takes you longer to memorize it, so it would be less inconvenient for you to do it.” Lay bit into the banana cheerfully.

Oh thank God.

“Well, I guess that makes sense.” Sehun fake-pouted, stabbing at his cereal with the spoon to feign annoyance.

And now I won’t have to be worrying about him all day!

Soon, the other boys had slouched off to their rehearsal and Sehun was left alone. Almost as soon as the door had clicked shut, he tiptoed over to Luhan’s room to check in on him. Silently twisting the doorknob and easing it open, he peeked through the door. Luhan was curled in the fetal position under his blankets, hands lying by his face, fingers twitching occasionally as he dreamt. Sweat was beaded on his forehead, staining his hair dark and his cheeks were flushed with fever. He looked so weak, completely different from his usually confident self, that Sehun’s heart went out to him. Inching quietly into the room, the taller boy went to kneel beside Luhan’s bed. Sehun simply couldn’t resist gently the side of his face with his long fingers. Luhan made a little sleepy noise and Sehun had to cover his mouth to prevent a little giggle from escaping. His poor hyung.

I should probably cook him something to eat. He’ll need food when he wakes up. Sehun stood and softly padded out of the room, leaving the door open. He’ll need lots of fluids too... I should probably put a glass of water by his bed for him.

Sehun trotted off into the kitchen, yanking his phone out of his pocket and searched soup recipes. Ten minutes later, the smell of cooking began to waft through the dorm.

Urgh. I feel awful....Luhan moaned to himself as he slowly awoke. His mouth felt fuzzy and tasted weird and his headache had only marginally improved since the first time he woke up that day. He’d known he had a cold yesterday, but he never thought that one night could make such an enormous difference to his health. He slowly wrenched his eyes open, rubbing the grit from his eyes. He slowly rolled over and placed his bare feet on the freezing floor. Wincing slightly, he grabbed at a clean pair of socks that had been sitting in a laundry basket with his other clean clothes for several days. Luhan then noticed a glass of water on his nightstand. A post-it note had been stuck on. It read:

“You can’t come out until you drink some water, so please drink it all!”

“Hm.” Luhan grunted, peeling the note off and lifting the glass to his dry lips. He took his time sipping down the water, allowing it to soothe his tortured throat and wash away the sticky sleep-taste on his tongue. A single drop escaped the corner of his mouth and dripped down his chin. Luhan finished the glass and reset it on the bedside table, swiping the moisture from his face and pulled a fleece blanket off his bed to wrap around his shoulders. Shivering slightly, he delicately struggled to his feet and shuffled slowly out of the room and into the hallway. Immediately, the sounds of cooking aded his ears and, curious, he headed towards the sounds.

The living room was much warmer than the bedroom and, even through his clogged nose, Luhan could smell something cooking. He stumbled into the kitchen and was stopped dead in his tracks by the image of Sehun. The taller boy was holding a wooden spoon in one hand, wearing an oven mitt on the other, and had an apron wrapped around his waist. He was bent over the stove and appeared to be concentrating intensely on whatever was bubbling in the pot in front of him.

“Se-Sehun?” Luhan asked, dumbfounded. The taller boy spun around at the sound of his voice and grinned widely.

“Hey Luhan-hyung! Did you drink all of your water?” He asked him happily.

“Yeah. ” Luhan sniffed, sitting down at the kitchen table. He stretched slowly and crossed his arms, holding the blanket close to his shoulders.

“Suho put out some medicine for you to take. It’s on the table there.” Sehun said, turning back to his pot.

This feels...nice. Sehun decided. He doesn’t usually let any of us take care of him. I kinda like it.

Luhan stared dubiously at the grape-flavored fever syrup and frowned.

“Does Suho ever buy grown-up medicine? This is children’s fever-reducer.”

“I don’t know why he does that, but he does. That’s just our Umma. Drink some more water now, we don’t want you to get dehydrated.”

“I don’t want to.” Luhan pouted. “I don’t want any more. My stomach feels sloshy.”

“Well look who’s acting like...” Sehun started, laughingly.

“You?” Luhan finished for him.

“I was going to say a brat, but...Wait, do you think I’m bratty?” Sehun asked, turning around to meet Luhan’s eyes, face lined with minor distress.

“Yeah. It’s kinda cute.” Luhan said idly, choking back the medicine with a grimace. He didn’t notice the little smile that Sehun tried to hide behind his oven mitt, nor did he really have the mental capacity at the moment to realize what he’d just said.

Cute? Me? Sehun bubbled to himself. The stove’s timer dinged and Sehun suppressed his giggly feelings to switch off the stove and ladle some of the soup into a bowl for Luhan.

“Here. Eat up.” He watched to see Luhan’s reaction as he dipped the spoon into the hot soup and, after blowing on it to cool it down, slurped it into his mouth.

“Mmm. Good.” Luhan grunted appreciatively, too sick to be more elaborate. Sehun watched him eat a few more spoonfuls contentedly. Luhan shivered again and held the blanket closer around him, whimpering a little.

“Are you okay?” Sehun asked. “Do you want me to help you back to bed?” Luhan nodded silently, placing his spoon on the table by the bowl and pushing his chair back. He tried to stand by himself, but stumbled a little. Catching his elbow to steady him, Sehun wrapped his other arm around the older boy’s waist, gently guiding him towards his bedroom.

This feels so much different than our usual skinship. Sehun thought to himself. It’s only for practical reasons, so why does it feel so tender to take care of him like this?

Sehun led him through the door and gently helped him sit down on his bed. As he stood to go, he told Luhan that:

“You should get some rest, I’ll be outside if you need m--” He was cut off by Luhan’s hand grasping at his wrist.

“Stay.” He ordered sullenly. “Sit next to me and talk to me for a while.” Sehun smiled and complied. He kind of liked bratty Luhan. As he sat on the bed, Sehun started to talk soothingly about the first thing that popped into his head: a new anime he was watching. He barely knew what he was saying, mostly using his concentration on memorizing every detail of Luhan’s sleepy, feverish face. He sat and talked for probably half an hour before Luhan opened his eyes and gestured for Sehun to lean down. The heat from Luhan’s skin could be felt from a foot away, which worried Sehun. Luhan muttered something that he couldn’t quite hear.

“What?” He asked, leaning as close to Luhan’s face as he dared.

“You’re pretty, Sehunnie...” The sick boy murmured before placing a sleepy kiss on the corner of Sehun’s mouth. Sehun recoiled, almost falling off the bed in surprise.

“What...Wha- Luhan?” He stammered, but Luhan already appeared to have fallen asleep again.

Why did he just kiss me?