“Take 5, and then we’re running it again from the top!”

 

Got7 members groan with both dread and relief at their choreographer’s instruction as they break the ending formation of their Look choreography. After running the dance 3 times in a row, the members are out of breath and about ready to collapse. The members mumble “thank you five” as they relax and gasp for breath, dispersing.

 

Yugyeom feels like he’s going to die. Not only is the dance practice exhausting his body, but he’s been so sleepy all day. He has been trying to keep his eyes from shutting during rehearsal. This is perhaps the first time in his life he’s felt like he could fall asleep dancing. He lolls his head to the side to check the time on the wall clock.

 

“11:45 pm”

 

Yugyeom groans. They’ve been practicing for over 2 hours. Yugyeom blinks several times as the sleepiness causes his eyes to droop and looks around for someone to pity him. He shuffles over to Jaebeom who is lounging on the black leather sofa in the corner with his eyes closed and his head leaning back against the wall.

 

“Jaeboem-hung I’m tiiiired.” Yugyeom whines, standing in front of his leader.

 

Jaebeom peeks one eye open to find his vision filled with his tall maknae. Yugyeom is blinking a lot, obviously struggling to keep his eyes open. Though his own body is aching from the nonstop dancing, he feels a pang of guilt for the youngest. As the leader, he feels responsible for not making sure that Yugyeom got enough sleep, or ate enough, or whatever was causing him to be so sleepy.

 

He closes his eye again and sighs.

 

“Do your best and finish practice well and you can take the first shower when we get home and then go straight to bed, okay?”

 

Yugyeom nods with his eyes closed and mumbles “straight to bed”. When he forces his eyes open again, Jaeboem’s are closed and he realizes that he will get no more attention here.

He checks the clock again.

 

“11:47”

 

He groans again, almost wishing that they hadn’t taken a break because he just wants to get this over with and sleep.

 

He shuffles over to Jackson, who is leaning with his forearms on the wall and focusing on steadying his heartbeat.

Yugyeom knows exactly which tactic to use with him and whines “Ssuenie-hyung” while making sweater paws and rubbing his eyes.

 

Jackson pretends not to melt upon hearing the affectionate nickname and forgets all about his heart rate as he looks up in the direction of the distinctive nasally voice of their maknae. He can’t hide his smile at the adorable sight of the tall boy rubbing his eyes.

 

“I’m sleepy, hyung.” Yugyeom whines, dropping his hands and pouting.

 

“Aw” Jackson coos and reaches up to ruffle yugyeom’s already-messy black hair. “It’s okay we’re almost done.”

 

Jackson giggles as Yugyeom yawns in response,.

 

“Time’s up. Starting positions!”

 

Jackson pats Yugyeom’s as they jog back into starting positions and says “fighting!” just before the music starts.

 

They run the song two more times and even after Jacson’s encouragement Yugyeom really doesn’t think he can do it again. He almost fell over toward the end of the last run, too exhausted to execute his moves expertly, relying completely on muscle memory. He hopes the choreographer didn’t notice as they hold the ending pose, gasping for breath as they wait for the choreographer to tell them whether they can go home or if they have to run it again.

 

“Good job guys, that’s all for today. Get some rest.”

 

Yugyeom almost cries with relief as he and the other boys thank the choreographer and start gathering their things.

 

He doesn’t even have the energy to smile at the other members as he practically runs to their van, climbing into the back corner seat.

 

He is settled in for almost a full five minutes before the other members all get their stuff together and make it out to the van.

 

Mark, usually the first one to the van, is surprised to see that Yugyeom has beat him there and on top of that, seems to be dozing off already.

 

He sits in the middle of the back seat, next to the maknae, and keeps an eye on him even as the other members finish loading in and the van starts.

 

Yugyeom doesn’t notice his hyung’s worried gaze as his focus quickly slips away, and his head falls forward.

 

Mark is about to ask him if he is okay when Yugyeom snores. Mark is shocked that he’s already fallen asleep, not even two minutes away from the company building. He sighs and gently guides Yugyeom’s head to his shoulder, figuring the boys neck will hurt worse if he just hangs his head like that.

 

As some of the other boys get loud in the van, talking and joking around, Mark harshly shushes them and points to Yugyeom.

 

They get quiet, but Mark almost wishes he had let them carry on. Jinyoung and Jaebum, who have recently become passionate at photography, turn around in their seats in the middle of the van and start snapping pictures of Mark and sleeping Yugyeom, whispering angles for mark to turn his head and gesturing him to change his expression. Mark rolls his eyes and looks out the window, pretending not to hear them as they click, click, click away.

 

When they get to the house everyone gets out of the car except for a fast asleep Yugyeom and a trapped Mark.

 

Mark is beginning to panic, knowing that he can’t carry Yugyeom and wondering if he’s going to have to sleep in the van when suddenly an ambulance whizzes by, siren blaring.

 

Yugyeom bolts awake, almost giving Mark a heart attack as he sits upright.

 

“Where am I? What’s going on?” He starts frantically questioning and he begins gasping as tears fall out of his eyes.

 

“It’s okay, Gyeomie. Your with me, Mark, and we just got home. You’re in the van.” Mark unbuckles himself and Yugyeom, surprised that the boy suddenly starting crying. He must have been sleeping really hard to wake up that disoriented.

 

Yugyeom puts his head in his hands and cries more, hiccuping. “I’m sorry hyung, I’m just so ti-tired. I just wanna go to sleep.”

 

Mark can tell that Yugyeom isn’t completely coherent yet, and he shushes him, petting his head.

 

The van opens and Jinyoung pokes his head in. “What’s taking you guys so long-Yugyeom what’s wrong?! What happened?”

 

He scrambles into the car and pulls Yugyeom’s head away from his hands to frantically start feeling his face and checking for fever or injuries.

 

Mark pushes the worried boy away. “Nothing happened Jinyoungie, he’s just really tired and woke up disoriented. Help me get him to bed.”

 

Jinyoung visibly sighs with relief and stops prodding the maknae, who’s head falls against the window as effortless tears continue to stream from his eyes.

 

“C’mon Gyeomie, let’s just get you inside then you can sleep all you want.”

Jinyoung says in a baby voice he has resigned for situations like these as he and Mark work together to get Yugyeom out of the car.

 

Yugyeom sighs, the tears stopping of their own accord as he leans on his hyungs and walks, barely awake, into the dorm.

 

Mark holds him up as Jinyoung kneels down and takes off the maknae’s shoes.

 

Jaebum watches the scene from the living room and shakes his head.

 

Yugyeom blearily glances at him and feels the delirious tears threaten to fall again.

 

“Do I have to shower, hyung? I just want to sleep. I wanna go to sleep.”

 

Jaebum feels the tinge of guilt again. “I’m sorry, but you have to shower Yugyeom. It’s not good for your body to go to sleep before showering after a hard dance practice”

 

“I’ll help him.” Bambam volunteers, coming back from the bedroom with two towels. “I don’t even think he could stand up in there by himself right now.”

 

The boys help get Yugyeom into the bathroom with Bambam and get Yugyeom, who compliantly lets his body be moved around, too tired to protest, out of his sweaty dance clothes.

 

“You sure you got him by yourself?” Jinyoung asks.

 

“I’ve got him, thanks hyungs.” Bambam answers

 

The older boys close the door behind the two maknaes as Bambam finishes stripping both of them down to their underwear.

 

“Sorry Bam, I’m just so tired. I can’t open my eyes.”

 

Bambam chuckles as he turns the water on and guides himself and Yugyeom into the shower.

 

“You don’t need to open your eyes. It’s actually better if they stay shut so you don’t get soap in them. Here, rub this soap over your body to stay awake and i’ll wash your hair so we can get you to sleep faster.” Bambam hands the drowsy boy a bar of soap as he gets to work shampooing his hair.

 

Yugyeom rubs slow sudsy stripes all over his body with the bar of soap, which is the only thing keeping him focused enough to stay conscious.

 

Bambam quickly washes himself and rinses off before taking the soap from Yugyeom’s hand and putting him under the water. Yugyeom barely reacts as the water washes over him and rinses all of the soap and shampoo away.

 

When he is satisfied that Yugyeom is clean, Bambam carefully helps him out of the bathtub and sits him on the toilet.

 

He towels himself off and then dries Yugyeom’s body and ruffles his hair as dry as he can with the towel.

 

“Okay Yugyeom, I need you to change into some dry underwear. I’m gonna go put on my pjs and I’ll be right back to put on yours okay?”

 

Yugyeom nods slowly, swaying as he follows the command robotically.

 

Bambam practically runs to his room and changes before grabbing some of Yugyeom’s pajamas and rushing back to the bathroom.

 

He helps pull an extra big t shirt over his best friend’s arms and slides some sweatpants onto him.

 

“Thank you Bamieee” Yugyeom mutters drowsily, already falling back asleep.

 

“No.no.no you have to get to your bed first!” Bam exclaims worriedly.

 

Youngjae appears in the doorway, yawning. “I’ll just bring him to my bed. It’s closer.”

 

He nonchalantly walks in and takes Yugyeom’s hand, leading him out of the bathroom. “Want to sleep with hyung, Gyeomie?” Youngjae asks cutely, opening his door and directing Yugyeom to his bed.

 

“Mm.” Yugyeom agrees quickly and almost cries again with relief as he crawls into the bed.

 

Youngjae smiles at the maknae and crawls in next to him, pulling the covers over both of them.

 

Yugyeom turns over with the last drop of his energy and snuggles into Youngjae’s chest.

 

Before Youngjae can even be surprised, Yugyeom is fast asleep.

Youngjae giggles and wraps his arms around his maknae, pressing his nose down into the still-damp hair. “Goodnight, my sleepy maknae.” he whispers, and closes his eyes, drifting off to sleep himself.

 

~

 

Yugyeom wakes up in the middle of the night and is very confused when he feels the direct warmth of another body holding him.

 

Youngjae wakes when he feels Yugyeom stirring.

 

“Go back to sleep baby. It’s okay, Youngjae’s got you. You can sleep as long as you want. No schedule in the morning.”

 

Yugyeom relaxes when he hears Youngjae’s voice and smiles, closing his eyes and gathering the material of Youngjae’s shirt in his hands for security as he cuddles against his chest, closing his eyes again. “Thank you, hyung. I’m really sleepy.”

 

Youngjae smiles and kisses his head.

 

“I know baby. Go back to sleep. I’ll stay right here.”

 

“Goodnight, hyung.”

 

“Goodnight, Gyeomie.”