Baekhyun felt like everything that had happened in PKO was just a dream. That he only dreamt that he was once again back together with Chanyeol, that they kissed, and if he wasn‘t sitting beside him in his car and holding his hand as Chanyeol drove them home, Baekhyun probably wouldn‘t have believed all the events of today actually happened.

As for the bad things, the sickness Baekhyun had only worsened after they left PKO. His head felt like it was being shattered to pieces, and then sloppily hammered back together countless times. Also, Baekhyun felt terribly cold. Trying to help him with at least that, Chanyeol had turned up the heating in the car to maximum. But now he himself was sitting without his jacket on (which he wrapped around the shivering Baekhyun), and his forehead was already traitorously glistening with sweat. He was so clearly too hot because of the heating, but Baekhyun didn‘t feel any heat, and was still shivering like a leaf.

He felt so sorry for Chanyeol, who was almost panting to cool himself at least a little. He voiced out the suggestion of turning off the heating, but Chanyeol instantly rejected that, insisting that Baekhyun needed to be warm now or his fever could worsen.

 “I think we should go to the hospital,” Chanyeol murmured.

“No,” Baekhyun frowned. “I hate hospitals. And it’s just a simple fever, why bother doctors about it?”

“Because it might not go away with simple cold medicine, it looks like it’s too high,” Chanyeol threw a worried look at him. “And I’m not willing to risk your health. Can we please go see the doctor, Baekhyun?”
Baekhyun heaved a sigh.

“I’m not going to die from a simple fever, Chanyeol,” he stubbornly insisted. “You’re overreacting. I’ll take some anti-fever pills and I’ll be just fine by tomorrow.”

Not convinced, Chanyeol tapped his fingers on the wheel, inner conflict obvious on his features. Baekhyun knew, if Chanyeol was a tad more forceful, or could somehow summon back the authoritative Chanyeol from the conference room, he would drag Baekhyun’s to the doctor even if he screamed he didn’t want to go. But this was his Chanyeol, the one who put up with anything to make Baekhyun happy, therefore the smaller was sure he wasn’t going to see any hospital tonight.

Baekhyun was so lucky, and he knew it.

 “Baekhyun,” Chanyeol said, fingers fiddling nervously on the wheel. “W-would you mind if.. if I took you to my place, instead of yours?”

Baekhyun’s heart fluttered at those words.

How much he wanted to stay with Chanyeol right now. He didn’t want to even think about separating from him ever again.

“N—“

“I just don’t want to leave you alone, when you’re sick,” the redhead hastily explained, cheeks already reddening. “I know that we just got back together again, and it’s soon, and I’m… m-maybe let’s just go to the doctor, instead.”

“No, no doctors,” Baekhyun hurried to object. “Let’s go to your place. I really don’t want to go to the doctor, and I need to sleep so bad I feel like I’m going to faint soon. Also… I want to stay with you now, Yeol.”

Chanyeol stilled. Baekhyun wasn’t sure if his cheeks were already red because of the heat, or they turned that way because of his confession. But the important thing was that the redhead nodded, and wordlessly allowed Baekhyun to win the argument. He turned the car around, and headed towards his neighborhood, while Baekhyun could relax, and finally close his tired eyes.

He didn’t notice how they got to Chanyeol’s place, having fallen into a strange sleep, which felt like being asleep and awake at the same time. Half- dreaming, Baekhyun only got his conscience back when he felt Chanyeol unfasten his seat belt, and opened his eyes to see what was going on. Chanyeol was leaning over him. Baekhyun dizzily looked at the lean shoulder before him, and flexing arm muscles.

It took him two seconds to realize the position he was in, and start blushing.

Chanyeol didn’t say anything as he put his arm around Baekhyun. He kindly helped him out of the car and onto his feet. Still holding the smaller close, Chanyeol closed the door behind Baekhyun’s back and locked the car, stuffing the car keys back into his pocket.

Baekhyun stood with his eyes half-closed, disoriented. He could feel Chanyeol’s eyes glued on him, but his mind was too dizzy to form coherent thoughts or sentences, so he just waited for whatever the taller was going to decide and then would go along with it.

Although he didn’t quite expect him to decide giving him a piggy back ride. Chanyeol moved in front of him and bent his knees, looking up at Baekhyun through his shoulder.

“Come on,” he encouraged. “I’ll carry you to my apartment, Baek.”

Usually, Baekhyun would have rejected piggy-back ride offers, because he found those too sappy and really uncomfortable, and in no way they matched his always-self-reliant personality. But now, he was too light-headed, tired and sick, and above everything he just wanted to rest his throbbing head somewhere. Not to mention that this was a chance for him to get closer to Chanyeol again, and there was no way Baekhyun would have passed up an opportunity like that.

So he did get closer after all, and wrapped his arms around the redhead’s neck, trying not to make him uncomfortable in any way. Almost instantly, Chanyeol hoisted him up effortlessly, his arms around Baekhyun’s legs, and checked if Baekhyun was comfortable before starting to walk. Baekhyun rested his cheek on Chanyeol’s back, feeling the taller’s pleasant scent fill the air all around him, and soothe him. Baekhyun was still wearing his jacket, and he was also being carried on Chanyeol’s back – there was hardly any way he could be any closer to him than he was right now. And Baekhyun thrived in that feeling.

The guard gave them a funny look when Chanyeol greeted him, but Baekhyun was too exhausted to care about other people. He closed his eyes, and nuzzled his nose into Chanyeol’s back, hiding his face from everything. Even though he felt Chanyeol’s warmth underneath him, it still wasn’t enough to take away the shivers, that still ran through his skin.  

Opening the door of his apartment, Chanyeol carried Baekhyun inside, and to the familiar living room. Baekhyun’s heart ached when he felt the warm scent of Chanyeol’s home, and saw the couch, on which just a week ago he was snuggling to Chanyeol’s side whilst being so happy. Now, he was happy, too, but it took a lot of pain to get there. It was different.

Chanyeol squatted at the couch, letting Baekhyun get off comfortably, before turning around and looking worriedly into the smaller male’s eyes.

“How are you feeling?” he asked gently, brown eyes scanning Baekhyun’s sweaty forehead, red cheeks and hazy eyes. “Are you still cold?”

Baekhyun nodded, trying to hold back the shivers.

“I’m cold, and my head hurts a lot,” he told him, leaning his back on the soft cushions. “And I can feel my throat swelling, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. I’m always like this when I get a fever.”

Chanyeol bit his lip and stood up.

“I’m going to get you medicine and water,” he said. “You will need to drink all the water, Baek, whilst I get the bed ready for you. If your fever is really high, you might become dehydrated.”

 “You sound like you’re experienced in healing fevers,” Baekhyun opened one eye, suspicious. “Why is that?”

Chanyeol gently draped Jongin’s blanket over Baekhyun, and tucked him in so that he would be as covered and warm as possible.

“I’ve been living on my own since I was out of high school,” he answered, gently brushing Baekhyun’s hair back, and placing his hand on the smaller male’s forehead. “And I’ve had quite a lot of fevers in those five years. I think your fever went down a tiny bit, though, but I might be wrong.”

Instead of worrying about his fever going up or down, Baekhyun’s heart ached at the thought of Chanyeol being all by himself when sick. He imagined him checking his own temperature, and going to the cold kitchen to make himself tea. Then sleeping alone, with nobody to tell him that the sickness was going to pass soon, and that he was going to be okay soon.

The views in his head were too heartbreaking to take.

“I’ll take care of you next time you have a fever,” Baekhyun murmured sleepily, closing his eyes and laying down on his side. “I promise, Chanyeol.”

He didn’t see Chanyeol’s eyes turn from worried to gentle, and he didn’t see how they filled up with warmth at the words of promise he just made. Baekhyun just felt a gentle touch on his forehead, and when he tiredly opened his eyes to see what it was, he only saw Chanyeol pulling away.

“I love you,” Chanyeol whispered, fingers lingering on Baekhyun’s hand. A second later he straightened his back, and walked off to get the water and medicine.

Never in his life Baekhyun thought he would feel so much affection and love for somebody, as he did at this very moment for Chanyeol. He pulled his legs close to his chest, trying to keep warm under the blanket, and watched Chanyeol shuffling around as he made tea for him, and poured a glass of water in the kitchen. He watched him as he brought a thermometre and measured Baekhyun’s temperature, and gasped when he found out the number was above thirty eight degrees. The redhead’s eyes were filled with worry the whole time, and everytime he laid them on Baekhyun, he looked as though he desperately wished to just take Baekhyun’s fever to himself and help him feel better by sacrificing his own health. And Baekhyun loved him for that. Although he would’ve never agreed to such a thing.

“Okay, the medicine should start working soon,” Chanyeol told him when Baekhyun gulped down the pill with the water the taller brought him before. “You need to change clothes before that, because the medicine might put you to sleep, and you can’t sleep in the suit.”

Baekhyun frowned, eyes still closed. He was still curled up in a ball, trying to get as much warmth out of the blanket as he could, and the idea of getting out from under it didn’t seem tempting at all. Not to mention that there was no need to worry about the medicine making him sleep – if Chanyeol wasn’t fussing over him, Baekhyun would have been asleep long time ago.

“I don’t need to change,” he whined, opening one eye to mildly glare at Chanyeol. “I’ll be fine, Yeol, calm down. I just want to sleep and--”

 “You sweated a lot so your clothes are damp,” the taller insisted. “Come on, I’ll help you to the bathroom, Baek.”

Baekhyun barely held back a curseword, being forcefully dragged out of his warm spot under the blanket and pulled along to the bathroom. Chanyeol had already put some of his clothes for Baekhyun to change in there, and as he was pulled inside through the door, Baekhyun eyed them with the corner of his eye.

“I chose the smallest clothes I could find,” Chanyeol said, scratching the back of his neck, cutely embarassed. “If you need anything, or you feel dizzy, just call for me, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you, Yeol.”

 Chanyeol just nodded and took a step backwards. He closed the door, and Baekhyun was left all alone in the bathroom. He looked at the mirror, frowning at the mess that was his hair and the redness of his face.

The sooner you change, the sooner you can go to sleep, Baekhyun reminded himself, and tore his look from the mirror, grasping his suit jacket with his fingers to slip out of it quickly. Then he changed his pants, and pouted at the sight of Chanyeol’s being way too long. Frowning at the shortness of his limbs, he rolled the ends upwards and made himself forget it. That wasn’t the time to mope around for being too short.

 Baekhyun then unclasped the buttons of his shirt, taking it off of one side, and then turning to peel it off completely. But as he was trying to take it off, his head wasn’t cooperating too well, and all of a sudden his balance turned off, making Baekhyun sway to his side and lean on the sink with whole of his weight. As he tried to hold himself up, Baekhyun accidentally knocked the bottle of liquid soap off of the sink with his elbow, and the bottle fell to the ground with a loud, clattering noise.

“,” Baekhyun cursed, closing his eyes.

Everything around was spinning, and he felt nauseous. He knew that the fever was affecting him that much because he hadn’t been taking care of his health this past week, he wasn’t sleeping well and hadn’t been eating as much as he should have. Therefore, the flu had caught his body weak and unprepared to fight it, and now it was unable to keep Baekhyun from feeling so bad.

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol rushed into the room, immediately helping Baekhyun to his feet. “What happened? I head something fall, are you okay?”

He threw a glance at the bottle of soap on the ground, and then looked back at Baekhyun, panic and worry evident in his face.

“I just felt a bit dizzy and hit the bottle of soap, nothing to worry about, Yeol,” Baekhyun murmured, holding onto Chanyeol’s arms for support. “I really need to sleep this thing off.”

Chanyeol bit his lip.

“I shouldn’t have left you alone,” he murmured, angry with himself. “Come here, I’ll help you.”

Baekhyun was expecting Chanyeol to be shy of the half- state he was in, but Chanyeol was so worried and scared for him that the fact didn’t seem to reach his mind. He helped Baekhyun to the washing machine, on top of which he left the clothes.

“I’ll help you to put it on,” Chanyeol told him gently, taking the fluffy red sweater out of the pile and unfolding it. Baekhyun noticed that it was probably the warmest piece of clothing he ever saw of Chanyeol’s.

He stood calmly and obedien