Jaebum watched as Mark took a seat next to Youngjae on the floor and handed him an uncapped bottle of water. Youngjae gave a wavering smile of thanks and took the bottle from him, raising it to his lips and taking a tentative sip. They were in the middle of an outdoor photo shoot, the sun was blazing and Youngjae had just asked to sit down because he felt dizzy.

He was worried about him. How could he not be? Youngjae had woken up with a headache, a bad one. He’d spent most of the morning squinting since the light made his eyes hurt and as far as Jaebum knew he hadn’t eaten. The painkillers he’d taken hadn’t helped and as soon as he’d gotten in the van he’d collapsed against BamBam with a groan and hidden his face in the crook of the younger boy’s neck, screwing his eyes shut. He hadn’t lifted his head again until the van had come to a stop.  After that he’d seemed a little better, smiling for the girl who’d done his make-up and nodding along to the photographer’s instructions but Jaebum hadn’t been fooled. He knew the difference between Youngjae’s fake smile and his real smile and he knew the difference between Youngjae actually paying attention and pretending to pay attention and he’d definitely been doing the latter if the slightly dazed expression he’d been sporting as he’d listened to the photographer drone on had been any indicator. 

And Jaebum hated to see him hurting, he really did. He wanted to send him home, order him to lie down in the dark with an ice pack  because there was no way his headache was simply a headache, it was a migraine and the heat was just making it worse. But he couldn’t do that, not without getting it in the neck from their manager.

Because he would.

A few weeks ago they’d had a rare weekend off. Jackson, Mark and BamBam had decided to go out and catch up with friends, Yugyeom, Jinyoung and their manager had gone to visit family and he and Youngjae had stayed at the dorm thinking they’d have the place to themselves. And they did, for a while, until their manager had realised he’d left his phone behind and come back to get it. He’d walked in on them curled up together on the couch. They might have been able to talk their way out of it and convince him that it wasn’t what it looked like if a) Jaebum’s hand hadn’t been under Youngjae’s shirt and b) Youngjae hadn’t had his lips pressed to his neck. But he'd been tracing patterns on Youngjae’s back and Youngjae had been scattering kisses down his neck and across his collarbone so there’d been no point trying to feign innocence.

But surprisingly their manager hadn’t exploded like they’d thought he would. He hadn’t yelled and he hadn’t told them they had to stop what they were doing. He’d said that what they got up to when he wasn’t around was their own business and that as long as they were careful and as long as he didn’t catch Jaebum playing favourites he would keep it to himself.  

And that was why he couldn’t ask for Youngjae to be sent home. It would be seen as playing favourites and that was something he’d promised not to do. So he left Youngjae to Mark, trusting him to come and tell him if he got any worse and he promised himself he’d make it up to him when they got back to the dorm.

~~~~~~~

Two days later and Youngjae had him worried. Again.

It had been a busy week, they were all tired but Youngjae had taken it to another level. He looked like he was about to keel over. But it was okay, their radio appearance was done they were on their way back to the dorm and they had a whole twenty four hours ahead of them that were schedule free. And he was going to spend that time making sure Youngjae ate properly and got enough rest. With how hard they’d been working lately it was no wonder he was feeling run down. Twenty four hours might not be enough time to fix that entirely but he was going to do is best.

So the first thing he did when he got home was shove Youngjae towards the shower before anyone could call dibs. As the door closed behind Youngjae he'd turned, ready to meet the barrage of complaints that were surely heading his way. It had been another hot and muggy day and no one wanted to go to bed sweaty and grimy, the shower was sure to be in high demand. But he obviously wasn’t the only one who’d noticed how exhausted Youngjae had looked because nobody had said a word.

Five minutes later Youngjae had emerged from the bathroom, yawning and half-heartedly patting his hair dry with a towel. With a fond smile (a yawning Youngjae was an adorable Youngjae) Jaebum had steered him away from the couch he’d been heading for and towards their room. There would be no staying up until the early hours of the morning playing video games, he needed sleep and he was going to make sure he got it. But Youngjae hadn’t protested, he’d dropped the towel and flopped down onto the mattress with a sigh. Then he’d mumbled something that had sounded like goodnight but really could have been anything and had promptly fallen asleep.

When Jaebum finally made it back from his own shower Youngjae was snoring. Any other night and he’d have elbowed him and told him to stop but with how worried he’d been about him lately he didn’t have the heart. So he did his best to ignore it and wormed his way under the blanket.

~~~~~~~

When he woke up he was on his back and Youngjae's head was on his chest. There was also a patch of drool on his t-shirt that was most certainly not his. He grimaced but decided against moving his boyfriend. He didn’t want to wake him, not when he was sleeping so soundly.

Only it seemed he needn’t have worried about waking him because Youngjae was soon stirring, kicking Jaebum’s shins as he stretched his legs and rubbing his face into the fabric of his shirt spreading the drool. At this point Jaebum very nearly shoved him off, he was awake already so he didn’t need to put with up with him drooling on him anymore but then Youngjae was raising his head and blinking blearily up at him and he changed his mind. He looked too cute to shove away. “Good morning sunshine.” He said instead, and he brought a hand up to try and smooth Youngjae’s hair down. Since he’d gone to bed with it still damp it was sticking up all over. He looked like he’d put his finger in a plug socket.

“Morning.” Youngjae croaked back and with a groan he dropped his head back down on his chest. “I don’t want to get up.” He mumbled groggily.

“You don’t have to get up.” Jaebum told him.

“I do.” Youngjae moaned. “I need to pee.”

“Then go pee.”

Youngjae gave a grunt that Jaebum assumed meant no.

“It’s either get up and go pee or wet the bed.” He reasoned, pushing his shoulder lightly. “And I’d really rather you didn’t wet the bed with me in it so…”

“Okay, I’m going,” Youngjae grumbled pushing himself up to sitting, his elbows digging into Jaebum’s stomach in the process.

“Ow.”

Youngjae, still half-asleep, ignored him. He rubbed at his eyes and rolled his shoulders. He got up on his knees and put one hand on the mattress ready to stand up. And then he froze.

Jaebum scrambled to sit up. “Are you okay?” he asked once he'd managed it.

“Yeah... yeah....” Youngjae told him, his voice quiet. “I’ll be okay in a minute.”

“What do you mean you’ll be okay?” For him to be okay in a minute that meant he was currently not okay. “What is it?”

“I feel a bit queasy.” Youngjae admitted. “But it’s fine.” He was quick to assure him. “I didn’t throw up yesterday and I won’t throw up today.”

Jaebum frowned. He’d known Youngjae hadn’t been feeling great yesterday but he hadn’t known he’d come close to throwing up. It irked him a little that he hadn’t told him. But now wasn’t the time to be annoyed, not when Youngjae was sitting there pale as a ghost. “