When Jongdae came back inside that morning, having woken up outside with a miserably sore back and bad breath that probably rivaled any canine's, it was clear to him by the way he shivered, the way his head pounded and his body ached, that it was official.

He was sick.

This was also supported by the fact that he couldn't really remember much of what had happened last night; it was all a blur of fatigue and daydreams, and with the way he felt right now, he couldn't be bothered to try and recall any of it.

When he opened the door, lugging his sore body into the cabin with a whimper of discomfort, he was not pleased to find that - just like a few mornings ago - Minseok laid limp on the couch, the button on his chest void of its usual blue glow.

A frown of concern quickly met his lips.

Great. This again.

Knowing himself, Jongdae pretty much expected the worst-case scenarios that began to run through his head.

What if he can't see? What if he can't hear? Or what if he's just broken?

Praying as hard as he could that he would be wrong, he approached the robot with tentative steps, half expecting him to just bolt up from his seat and scare Jongdae half to death. Paranoia was truly a constant weight on his back.

Then, with another simple push of the object of his distress - that being the button on Minseok's chest - just like before, his companion's systems awoke, the blue glow returning.

In fact, Jongdae was almost tricked into thinking that he'd gotten lucky this time. It figures.

"Hey," he greeted calmly as Minseok's eyelids lifted, flashing him a gentle smile even though the way his stomach was churning made him want to do the opposite. There was a part of his brain that wondered if he smiled enough, one day, Minseok would try to mirror the gesture. That was his hope, at least. "You feeling alright today?"

Knowing himself, Jongdae was actually surprised that he hadn't anxiously dreamed up what ended up happening next.

At first, he wasn't really sure what to think when the strange look began to form on the robot's face. His body stilled, and fear rushed into his eyes, blowing them up so full that they widened by half their size.

It was a familiar fear that Jongdae understood, and even felt like he related to. A fear that he had felt before, though he couldn't quite identify it.

But his instincts did tell him one thing; this type of fear was not supposed to be affecting Minseok. It never had before, and by any normal circumstances, it never should have. Something was very wrong.

"What?" he questioned worriedly, reaching forward for Minseok's hand like he always did. No matter what happened, Jongdae trusted that he'd be able to comfort Minseok that way. "What's wrong?"

Today, it turned out, was different.

To his absolute shock, Minseok smacked his hand away and scrambled to his feet, aggressively grabbing ahold of Jongdae's shirt much like Chanyeol had done just days ago.

Jongdae's breath caught in his throat, and he raised a white flag, hands flying up in front of him in hopelessly confused surrender. "Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" he stammered.

Minseok had never grabbed at him like this before. Hell, Minseok rarely even made his own move to touch him, let alone grip him by his shirt collar and hold him several inches off the ground like he was some sort of threat. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that the time for worrying was finally upon him.

"What are you doing?" he repeated as Minseok remained still and silent, staring intently at him as if he might find answers to a burning question somewhere in Jongdae's face. It was like he had a wild animal looking back at him; so different from Jongdae's calm, polite companion. "What's going on-"

Jongdae felt the pain before he even realized what was happening.

Shocks of it like lightening bolts shot through his head and down his back, and he knew he would've cried out if he'd been able to, but he couldn't even breathe, the air knocked clear out of him.

He was now laying on the floor, he realized with watering eyes from the hurt and confusion swirling around in his head. Minseok had thrown his already aching body to the floor like an object.

Finally, he was able to gasp a breath into his lungs, his chest quivering pitifully as he stared up at the spinning ceiling. Weak and shaking, he made a desperate attempt to push himself away, clinging to his chance of not being beaten, but only groaned in helplessness as he saw a figure step over him through the blur of his tears.

"Minseok," he choked out pathetically, dizziness slurring his voice. The robot had thrown him down so hard, the impact his head made with the floor was starting to make his senses foggy.

But then, all of a sudden, Minseok went completely still.

Jongdae still breathed unsteadily underneath his looming figure, terrified and confused and dizzy, and he blinked away his tears to try and see again, each one slipping from the corners of his eyes and down his red cheeks towards the floor.

Minseok stood there above him with his fingers brushing against his own throat as he stared at nothing, lips open and twitching slightly. It looked like he was searching for his voice and just couldn't seem to locate it, and suddenly, even in his daze, Jongdae realized what was happening.

"Your voice cut out a few days ago, Minseok. I've been trying to fix it," he explained, trying to keep his voice from trembling as he brushed his fingers against Minseok's legs in a sort of plea for mercy, a plea for the robot to believe what he was saying.

The contemplative blue eyes looked back down at him, and he searched hopefully for any sign that Minseok accepted his explanation as truth. When he found nothing but pure confusion, though, he continued on in the hope that maybe more of the story would earn back his trust.

"I'm Jongdae, remember?" he told him, letting one hand rest loosely around the robot's ankle and using the other to wipe the hot tears off of his face. "You saved my life when I had a really bad fall and there was no one else to help me. I'm repaying you by finishing you. For Luhan."

Minseok looked so lost standing there above him, so confused, but at the mention of that name, some sort of vague understanding seemed to be coming over him. The guilt that had been there just days ago seemed to be glazed over his pupils once more, and the still disconcerted boy on the floor clung to his hope.

Putting his trust in Minseok even though his head still pounded because of him, he reached a feeble hand up, and as miraculous as it was void of any real compassion, Minseok took it, helping him back onto his feet.

He was a little unsteady, his head spinning as his legs pushed up off of the floor, but with arms as strong as Minseok's helping him up, it would have been hard to fail at getting himself upright.

The crushing weight of panic that had been pushing on his chest was finally disintegrating despite him still stumbling a bit, and he was so glad that the robot had stopped when he did. Though, it obviously would have been ideal for him to have done so before he'd thrown Jongdae down to the floorboards.

But again, it could have been much worse, so he wasn't complaining.

"Are you okay now?" he asked, keeping a hand on Minseok's shoulder so he didn't just topple over like a domino. The robot supported him without protest. Not that he could have done so verbally, but he didn't try to move away either. Jongdae wondered if it really was the guilt.

Minseok's facial expression would only contribute to that idea, considering that he still looked like he was having an internal battle of the mind, and he opened his mouth again, seemingly forgetting the absence of his voice and trying to speak on instinct.

Jongdae frowned, feeling sympathy and even guilt well up in his chest; he should have made himself focus more on writing notes last night. "You want to tell me something?" he asked.

Minseok nodded in reply, and Jongdae hoped he wasn't imagining the way that the proposition seemed to help relax him a bit.

As slowly as possible, Jongdae let go of his shoulder, taking a deep breath to try and help regain his balance. It's not that he didn't know it would be best for him to get himself a glass of water, maybe even lay down for a while considering that he felt like absolute (he suspected he had a fever for whatever reason).

But that didn't really matter, because Minseok had something to say to him, and so he hobbled like a newborn fawn to the front door.

The cold, dry air immediately bit at his nose when he pulled it open, and he felt disappointment join the slight nausea in his stomach. Apparently, the weather gods had decided that Jongdae freezing his off in Luhan's old, paper-thin jacket was an entertaining sight for them.

Lovely.

Shivering underneath his already thin clothes, (he briefly wondered just how impressive Luhan's tolerance to the cold had been) he quickly ran out to grab his notebook and pencil from where he'd fallen asleep the night before.

Then, much like a startled cat, he dashed back inside, yanking the door shut behind him in relief.

"Here," he offered as he turned around, handing the book and pencil to Minseok, who accepted it from him politely. "Write down what you want to say."

Simply nodding in compliance, the robot opened the notebook to a random page somewhere in the middle, and naturally, Jongdae just expected him to keep turning until he found an empty one.

On the contrary, Minseok actually seemed to be pausing on the page he was currently on, reading through the words that Jongdae had jotted down.

That seemed a little odd to him. Even if Minseok had curiosity programmed into him, he was normally one to just do what Jongdae told him.

Then again, Minseok wasn't acting normal this morning by any means.

And to make things weirder, he didn't even turn the page to start writing something. Instead, he drew an arrow - pointing to something in particular that Jongdae had written - right on the page he was on, then scratched down his own little note.

Jongdae raised an eyebrow as Minseok handed it to him, and he looked down at the page, unsure of what he was about to see. It took him less than a second to find the handwriting that wasn't his; Minseok's looked like a computer font, which he supposed made sense, but it didn't make it any less weird.

What does this word mean?

Jongdae followed the arrow with his eyes, and when he read what was at the end of it, he could feel his heart start to crumple into itself like an empty candy wrapper.

I'm scared that I'm in love with Minseok.

Just because the universe hates him, the robot had chosen to underline that stupid word, that evil word, that word that was giving Jongdae so much trouble when really it shouldn't have been.

How is my luck this bad?

"That..." he muttered quietly, swallowing.

Oh my god. How am I supposed to respond to that?

He his lips, opening them, then shutting them. Then opening them again.

"It's..."

Minseok waited patiently, unsuspecting of anything.

"Is it okay if I explain later?" he asked finally. Because when it doubt, putting off the inevitable is always an option.

To his relief, Minseok just nodded his head yes, and Jongdae released a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding. "Good," he said, literally taking matters into his own hands by grabbing the notebook and turning it to an empty page where Minseok could no longer read the embarrassing bull Jongdae wrote down for his own coping.

"There," he remarked, pointing to the top of the page. "Now you can tell me what you need to."

Over the next hour or so, they used the notebook to talk to each other, Jongdae answering any question Minseok would ask him about the things he didn't remember. It wasn't long before Jongdae felt too achy to be standing up anymore, so they moved over to the couch where he could rest.

It was so weird to have to tell Minseok these things. Things like when Jongdae had gotten hurt, if Jongdae had known Luhan, if Jongdae's injuries had healed, what Jongdae had already done to continue working on him. He felt like he was in the much weirder version of a cliché romance movie where one of the main characters gets amnesia and doesn't remember their lover.

Nevertheless, as Minseok relearned more and more about Jongdae and the things that had happened over the past months, he seemed to quickly develop more and more of a responsibility towards his human companion, placing his hand on Jongdae's forehead to check for heat and afterwards, fetching him a glass of water from the kitchen ("You're sick; you need to stay hydrated").

Although this comforted Jongdae, mainly because it showed that at least Minseok wasn't losing his emotions, he still didn't feel like he knew him when things were like this. Even though the robot knew the facts about him, how he should treat him, everything Jongdae could think to tell him about, (which was enough for his throat to be getting sore, mind you) he wasn't the same Minseok from before.

The knowledge was there, but the memories weren't.

That's ultimately what made Jongdae decide something. Once he started feeling better, he was going to get to the bottom of this.

He was going to get his Minseok back.

*****

The question at hand:

Was Jongdae going to spend more time sleeping?

That was easy; of course he was. His fever was only becoming worse by the hour, his body feeling more sore than ever along with shivers and goosebumps paired with sweats and flushed cheeks. He'd have to be certifiably insane to spend another minute awake.

At least, that's what he thought. But that was only up until the moment that he shut his eyes.

See, he'd been sitting awake for a little while before then anyways, mainly because Minseok had already fallen asleep himself. Jongdae had frowned to himself when he realized it.

He's been spending so much time asleep. I don't like it.

Is there another thing wrong with him that I'm just not aware of?

He supposed that it wouldn't be the first time. When it came down to it, Jongdae wasn't really as observant as he would like to think he was. Or maybe it would be better to say that he was bad at interpreting the things he observed.

He saw most things, but didn't understand many of them.

It didn't really matter though, because all of this thinking was about to give him another headache, and he was pretty sure he'd rather eat lawn fertilizer with a spoon than have to deal with that again.

That was what lead him to shut his eyelids, breathing in deep and letting his body sink down into the cushions of the couch. To his dismay, it did take him a little while to actually get to the point of almost falling asleep, which he blamed on his still burning face, but when he pressed his freezing cold palms to his cheeks, it helped to relax him, to coax him towards rest.

But before he could finally drift off to sleep, something stopped him. Something froze his bones and set his nerves alert.

Distant sounds echoing to his ears from who knows how far away, causing a chill to creep up his spine.

At first he thought that it sounded a bit like a machine running wild, but after a few moments, it occurred to him what it really was.

A voice.

He sat up, listening closer to make sure that he wasn't imagining what he was hearing. The sounds just continued, tearing through the forest outside in a dissonant melody that set Jongdae's nerves on edge.

The longer he listened, the more the noises sounded like distant, ripping cries of agony, and Jongdae could feel his pulse quickening in horror. What the hell?...

His eyes darted nervously back over to Minseok's peacefully sleeping form on the couch cushions, his ears totally unaware of the horrid low noises outside that Jongdae wasn't even sure were human.

There's something really wrong. We've gotta hide.

Suddenly fearing for the wellbeing of both of them, (although that wasn't unusual) he raised himself to his feet with a small creak of the floorboards.

This was the best thing to do. They couldn't stay here; even if nothing happened, (which it really could) he would drive himself crazy with worry.

Impulsively, he slid his hands underneath Minseok's back, scooping up his sleeping form as gently as possible and hurrying to carry him off towards the back of the cabin.

Maybe it was just the paranoia weighing down on him again, but honestly, he didn't really care. He'd rather spend a night on the basement floor despite there being no actual threat than spend the night upstairs and be slaughtered by some bat crazy guy with a chainsaw.

There was this cringe that remains on his face the whole time he was going down the stairs, not only because of the awful screaming but also because Minseok's foot just kept on hitting the wall as he went, hard enough to make Jongdae wonder how he was even staying asleep.

Once they were finally safe downstairs, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief, feeling around on the wall for the light switch. It took him a second, but when he found it, he flipped on one of the dimmer lights before taking the still peaceful Minseok over to a spot up against the wall.

Alright. We're probably not gonna get murdered here, so that's a plus.

As carefully as he could, he sat down on the hard floor, watching to make sure Minseok was still asleep, and at first, the robot remained completely still, just like he had been before. Jongdae was rather proud of himself, actually; he was pretty much the dictionary definition of klutz, but somehow he had managed to get the robot all the way down here without waking him up.

Ironically enough, that was the exact moment that he heard him take a particularly big breath in, feeling a slight movement in his lap, and when Jongdae glanced back down, Minseok was staring back up at him with cute, sleepy doe eyes.

They seemed questioning, like they were asking Jongdae why they were here and no longer upstairs.

Actually, as selfish as it may seem, Jongdae was a little glad that Minseok couldn't speak in that moment. If he had done so, in a quiet, sleepy tone as he laid there in his lap, Jongdae thought he literally may have started to have heart palpitations.

"You can go back to sleep, okay?" he murmured gently despite the faint traces of that same urgent voice ripping out through the night air. Soothingly, he slid his fingers through Minseok's silky hair, letting one of his thumbs drag softly back and forth over his cheek.

Still barely conscious and not seeming to notice the distant yelling, Minseok just nodded slowly up at him, and Jongdae watched as his blue eyes fell shut again. As minutes passed, he briefly wondered if somehow, his arms around the small robot's body had helped him fall back asleep.

For a long time, Jongdae just sat there on the basement floor, holding Minseok close. It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep. That was the opposite of what it was, actually. If he were anywhere else, under any other circumstances, he was pretty sure he would have slept for the next century or so without cracking an eye open once.

But even so, Jongdae stayed up all night that night, holding Minseok against his chest.

---

I'VE BEEN SO PRODUCTIVE HOLY

I actually like this chapter a lot ?? It was surprisingly eventful

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed ♡ See you soon! c: