"Ah-choo!"

For the millionth time that day, a sneeze broke the silence of the apartment. It came from none other than one of the apartment's two residents who was currently curled up under several blankets on the brown leather couch adorning the center of the living room.

Said resident, a man by the name of Kim Jongdae, groaned quietly and blew his nose into a tissue before throwing the tissue away in the nearby trash can with the other two thousand tissues he'd used today. Yes, Jongdae had caught the one thing that everyone hated getting in wintertime: the flu.

Jongdae didn't get sick often. He prided himself on his fantastic immune system and often laughed at his friends whenever they got sick. It had been nearly two years since his last bout with any sort of sickness, and he definitely hadn't missed it. He was miserable, in fact; his head was pounding, his stomach felt like it was constantly doing acrobatics inside of him, and he hadn't been able to keep any food down for more than an hour.

Sighing soflty, he laid back on the couch, only to realize that his constant sneezing had left his throat terribly dry. He wriggled his way out from underneath the six or seven blankets he was currently cocooned in and made his way to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and drank it down, greateful for the disappearance of his dry throat. He really did hate being sick. 

"What are you doing up?" A voice from behind him asked accusingly, and Jongdae turned around to face the other resident of the apartment: his boyfriend of three years, Minseok.

"I was just getting water, babe. My throat was dry." Jongdae smiled sheepishly at Minseok's stern look, unable to help but find the way Minseok put his hands on his hips and frowned at him anything other than endearing.

Minseok strode forward, plucking the empty glass from Jongdae's hands and herding him back towards the living room. "I told you not to get up and to call me over if you needed anything. Don't you listen?" The smaller man huffed, guiding Jongdae to lay down again and covering him back up with the blankets.

Jongdae tried to chuckle, but it turned into a series of coughs instead, and Minseok's frown deepened.

"See? My poor baby is sick. You need to rest." Minseok smiled and kissed Jongdae's forehead.

"Okay, okay." Jongdae nodded, turning onto his side so he could look at Minseok better. "I think my fever is going down a little. I don't feel as hot anymore."

Minseok placed a hand on Jongdae's forehead, nodding. "Yeah, you don't feel as warm as you did earlier. I told you that cough syrup would help."

Jongdae made a face and pretended to gag, shaking his head. "That cough syrup was disgusting. All it did was make my mouth taste really bad. Seriously, it didn't even taste like grape. It tasted lke evil."

Chuckling, Minseok shook his head. "You're such a baby. Are you hungry, though? I could try making you some chicken noodle soup if you'd like. That's pretty easy on your stomach."

"American food is always easy on the stomach." Jongdae coughed again, groaning as the nausea swirled in his stomach again. He waited for it to pass before nodding a bit. "Soup sounds good, though."

"Soup it is." Minseok smiled, kissing Jongdae's forehead one more time before hopping up and heading to the kitchen.

Jongdae closed his eyes while Minseok cooked, trying to ignore the pain of his headache. He couldn't decide if he was hot or cold at the moment, but the blankets still felt nice, so he pulled them tighter around them, wrapping himself up like a burrito. It was nice, but he still wished he could cuddle Minseok as well. He didn't want to get his boyfriend sick, though, so he was making himself abstain from most physical contact.

Minseok came back a few minutes later with his soup, chuckling at the sight of Jongdae buried beneath his blankets. "Comfy?"

"Extremely." Jongdae replied, accepting the soup with a smile, "Thank you, babe. I hope I'll be able to keep this down."

"Well, if you can't, there's a trash can right here." Minseok sat down at the end of the couch by Jongdae's feet.

Jongdae ate his soup, ignoring the nausea long enough to  finish all of it. It calmed his stomach a bit, but there was no telling whether or not it would come back up to visit anytime soon. He would just have to wait.

He set his empty bowl aside, snuggling down in his blankets. "Thank you for the soup. It was good."

"Good." Minseok smiled, standing up. "How did that feel on your stomach? Feel okay?"

"Yeah, feels alright for now." Jongdae nodded, closing his eyes again. "I think I'm going to take a little nap..."

Minseok chuckled and smoothed Jongdae's bangs away from his face, his hair a bit. "Okay. Sleep well. I'll just be in the bedroom if you need me."

Jongdae nodded again and nestled down further, getting comfortable as he slowly drifted off to sleep, falling into dreams of cough syrup that tasted like chocolate and the fun of the holidays that he could finally enjoy once he was over this stupid sickness.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow! Our final couple is, of course, Sulay. The last chapter of this will be posted by me on Christmas Day.

-MyNameIsCarla