This had to be the most embarrassing thing Minseok had ever done in his entire life.

No matter how much the place looked nondescript from the outside, Shadow Gallery artfully wrought over the entrance, all the locals knew this place for what it was, a love hotel, one that didn’t I.D., the very reason he was dragging Luhan through the simple white door and up to the shiny black counter top by his hand.

Luhan was lagging behind a few steps so when Minseok stopped in front of the desk clerk, brightly clad in an orange uniform shirt, it took him a few moments before he dazedly crashed into Minseoks back. The man, named Hui Shi if his name tag was any indication, raised his eyebrow at the seemingly intimate gesture, but unintentionally let his mouth fall open when Minseok snapped his free hand back to grip Luhans thigh tightly, looking to pull the slightly taller male more fully against his back.

Feeling Luhans head fall to his shoulder Minseok let the hand that had been clasping Luhans pull out his wallet and quirk his expressive eyebrow at the openly gapping man, his other hand hadn’t left Luhans thigh and Luhan had turned his face into the juncture of Minseoks neck and shoulder.

He was mouthing against the sensitive flesh, supposedly whispering something for only Minseok to hear, the only indication that these actions affected him was a very slightly flutter of his cat like eyes and a faint blush creeping up his face. Minseok was still staring the man down though so eventually he tore his gaze away long enough to ask Minseok how long they would be staying.

The poor desk clerk visibly jumped when his question was answered not by the smaller man holding the wallet, and presumably the money, but the honey blond trying to assault his lover in public.

“The whole night,” his voice was husky and just a little breathless, making even the experienced love hotel worker blush and fumble to ring up the appropriate amount.

After exchanging the One-Hundred and Forty dollars for the key to the ‘Classic Room’, the only room type that they rented nightly and not hourly, the couple stumbled over to the elevator, having more trouble than they should have as they were still pressed tightly together.

Minseok pressed the button for the second floor; the buildings only other floor, and collapsed against the elevators wall under Luhans weight. Pressed intimately against each other Minseoks attention was swiftly brought to how hot Luhan felt against him, he was gently petting Luhans newly lightened hair before he even recognized he’d moved his hand.

It took them mere seconds to reach the next floor, then they were staggering down the hall, Luhan pretty much draped over Minseok, and finally opening their room’s door before kicking it closed behind them.

To any outsider this entire exchange didn’t look too out of place in the establishment they were in, but from an insider’s point of view the situation was much, much different.

Luhan was burning up with a fever, they had been staying in different parks for the past three nights to try and avoid detection but last night it had rained horribly and the wind had picked up to the point that the warm weather hadn’t mattered anymore.

Minseok hurriedly pulled Luhan over to the overly large bed, only giving a cursory sweep of the room, briefly taking in the absurd see-through walls of the bathroom and shower, the blood red carpet, the dark wood every piece of furniture was made out of, and the tropical flowers strewn over the bed that he swept off as best he could with one arm before lying Luhan down as gently as he could manage.

Luhans complexion had continued to pale throughout the day worrying Minseok to no end, his plush lips had been drawn together tightly and sweat dampened his fringe against his eyebrows. The darker plaid shirt he wore clung to his perspiring body, the black and blue lines seemed darker while the white portions threatened to become see-through from all the moisture the material was soaking up.

The eyes that were fighting to stay open, and eventually failing, weren’t bright and full of vigor like normal, they were dull and lifeless, his heart hurt to see someone he had grown so close to in such obvious pain. And Minseok could hardly do anything, deadly men with guns he could deal with, that was his job, what he trained for, but he had no control over the fever wracking Luhans body.

Minseok was rushing around the room, panicking more now than when a horde of assailants had stormed Luhans apartment not even a week ago. They couldn’t go to the hospital or a doctor for fear of the police or the Lin family finding them, so Luhans best bet was convenience store fever medicine and Minseok trying to remember everything his mother had done for him and his little sister when they had fallen ill as children.

Nearly punching himself in the face in his haste to get his backpack off Minseok dumped the contents of the brown leather bag’s front pocket onto the half of the bed that Luhan wasn’t occupying. His petit fingers rummaged through the debris trying to identify the boxes and bottles that Luhan translated for him earlier that day, before his fever had gotten the better of him.

Minseok brought every bottle up to his face, squinting at the print like that would help him recognize a foreign language, his frustration was getting the better of him, sweat was beading on his forehead and Luhans labored breathing continued to distract him.

Finally coming across a bottle that had an English word he knew typed at the bottom nearly had Minseok tripping over himself to get a glass of water, clutching the pill bottle in his hand so hard he could hear the pills rattling inside. ‘Pain’ he knew that word, Luhan was in ‘pain’ so these would help him right?

He may have spilled half the water on himself and the carpet in his haste but there was enough left to help Luhan swallow to small red pills. While propping Luhans head Minseok was keenly aware of how sweaty the other man’s hair was, so after carefully placing the back of his head back onto the pillow Minseok quickly arranged all the bottles and boxes littered over the bed onto the table and tried to gently strip the unresponsive Luhan of his sweat soaked clothes.

No mean feat it turned out, he had to roll Luhan a few times to get the button down plaid shirt off and wriggling his jeans down his lean legs was a lot more difficult then he thought it would be. Not to mention he had to try and keep his gaze appropriate the entire time, it was embarrassing that his eyes caught on Luhans peaked s, lingered a little too long on the ridged muscles of his chest and abdomen from the shivering he was doing, and had to skip his groin region all together because his face felt like it was going to explode.

There was a very sick person depending on him and all he was doing was getting all by himself. It was mortifying really, he felt horrible, ogling his most likely straight boss while he was helpless. Minseok broke the seal on a bottle of VitaminWater he’d set on the bedside table for Luhan to drink and chugged a good bit before even registering that the drink wasn’t orange flavored like he’d assumed from its orange color, but tart and sweet like cranberry and something he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

Calming himself both mentally and physically with some deep breaths Minseok steeled his resolve, wringing most of the lukewarm water out of a wash cloth he wiped Luhans sweaty body as gently and impartially as he was could, repeating to himself over and over that Luhan was straight, straight, straight, straight.

It might have been the most trying ten minutes of his entire life so far, though that title was quickly challenged after finding that Luhans other clothes were dirty, obviously Minseok had only stuffed three pairs of clothes into Luhans small black backpack, while he knew he had packed himself four pairs.

Pulling out a clean plain black tee and similarly plain and black boxer briefs from his own bag Minseok stood there for a moment with the garments clutched in separate hands, staring at Luhans shivering body lying helpless and exposed on the love hotels bed.

He hadn’t thought as far ahead as taking off Luhans sweat soaked grey boxer briefs, his mind skittered away from the very thought of wiping the flesh that would be subsequently exposed. He couldn’t do this, his revolve was crumbling right out from underneath him, right up until Luhans whole body convulsed with powerful coughs that sounded so painful and deep tears jumped to Minseoks eyes even as he himself jumped to Luhans side.

After the coughing fit subsided Minseok observed the frail looking man with new fire in his eyes.

“I’m sorry Luhan,” Minseoks voice barely registered above a whisper but Luhan was probably too far gone at this point to even hear him, “I’m going to do something you most likely will not be happy about.”

Minseok would be a machine, a damned machine, sweaty boxer briefs off, wipe the sweat away, clean boxer briefs on. Simple, easy, he could do it, no problem.

Yeah right, the moment those grey boxer briefs cleared mid-thigh Minseok was forced to swallow the saliva that his mouth was suddenly producing too much of. He ended up ripping them the rest of the way down Luhans legs more forcefully then he’d meant to.

It wasn’t that Luhans body was unattractive, far from it, or even doing anything inappropriate, what with his fever taking control of his blood flow and all, but being two inches taller than Minseok correlated to Luhan being bigger then him, judging from a non-excited state of course.

He snapped his eyes shut, trying to give Luhan the privacy the man deserved, before tracing trembling fingers up to the newly exposed sweaty flesh. His breathing had picked up but he refused to acknowledge his body’s reactions to Luhans, finishing the front as best he could without freaking out and running away Minseok gently rolled Luhan on his side to, probably more attentively then necessary, the re-soaked wash cloth over possibly the most attractive he had ever laid eyes on.

Soccer hadn’t bulked Luhan the way taekwondo and kendo had done for Minseok but the man was toned, compact muscles ran the whole length of Luhans perfect body, the body shivering and running a fever, right, sidetracked, .

Swiftly dressing Luhan in the now borrowed clothes, pausing only a moment to observe how his shirt was just a little snugger around the taller man’s shoulders and stopped just a little higher on his waist, before tugging the sheet up to his cute little chin and mentally battling with himself over drawing the light blanket up as well. Eventually deciding he could always take it off later he tucked the soft material around Luhans shivering frame.

Thankfully there were quite a few washcloths available in the ridiculous see-through bathroom, so he was able to place carefully folded damp washcloths on Luhans forehead, neck and two others on reserve for his feet when he stopped shivering.

Pulling back from the bed Minseoks eyes darted around the room, trying to dredge up any more memories from when his sister would fall ill in the past. The only thing he could think of was food, but this hotel wasn’t equipped to make food of any sort, it didn’t even have a microwave. Though it did have a mini fridge, stocked with alcohol upon further inspection, but he was able to fit the various energy drinks and water bottles inside to keep them cool at least.

He didn’t even have a cell phone to order delivery from; he’d opted to leave both his and Luhans phones behind in case they could be tracked through them. Leaving his options at calling the front desk and asking them about the local restaurants or leaving Luhan alone to wander around and find something himself. As he didn’t know enough Mandarin or English to sufficiently converse with the front desk worker he would have to brave the second option.

Checking out the window he saw that the sun was about to set, he would have to hurry or all the shops would be closed!

He left a note for Luhan in case he woke up while Minseok was still gone and scuttled out the door trying to remember if the sign with Mandarin characters they’d passed on their way to Shadow Gallery had been a restaurant or not.

Passing the clerk a second time, this time alone, was just as embarrassing as the first, but he didn’t have time to dwell on his discomfort, Luhan was alone, sick, and possibly conscious at any moment.

The street was still pretty busy but he was able to spot the Mandarin characters kitty corner from him, though he had to jog up the street to be able to cross at the intersection to get to it.

It did actually turn out to be a restaurant, success! But Minseok couldn’t read the menu! Asking if anyone spoke Korean got him nowhere so he just mimed a sick person as best he could, half way through his fake coughing fit the young girl working the counter was pushed out of the way by a very small and irritated looking elderly woman.

She put the back of her hand against her forehead and fake coughed herself with a questioning look on her weathered face. Minseok nodded his head so hard he felt a pull on the muscles on the back of his neck before pointing to the menu and raising his hands in confusion. She pointed to him and raised her eyebrow and Minseok was shaking his head this time, she nodded her head and left Minseok with the bored hostess, hopefully she’d understood him, he didn’t want to be standing there waiting for her for no reason.

She did eventually step back through the curtain separating the kitchen and dining area, a to go bowl stacked on top of two to go boxes grasped in her tiny hands. He pointed at the food, gave a thumbs up and placed the back of his hand against his forehead. She nodded her head and handed the food to who he assumed was her granddaughter by the way she was talking to her before reaching across the counter to take his hand in both of hers while his food was being rung up and packed in a plastic bag.

He realized that his body language must have given away how panicked he was, her hands were small, but they were comforting just like her face that lost the annoyed look for the couple of seconds she smiled at him.

The granddaughter was pointing to the amount displayed on the cash register so he let his hand slip out of the grandmas with a grateful smile to pull out the correct amount before placing the back of his hand against his forehead and throwing his thumb over his shoulder. She was nodding, shooing him out the door was quick flutters of her hands.

Minseok jogged the whole way back to Shadow Gallery, all he could think about was if something had happened to Luhan the nearly half hour he had been gone.

He didn’t even slow down when he reached his destination, speeding past the reception desk, not even looking at the receptionist himself, and taking the stairs two at a time instead of wait for the elevator.

Thankfully Luhan was just how Minseok had left him, only shivering less and breathing slightly more evenly. He changed the washcloths that had warmed and dried while he’d been gone, again choosing not to put the cloths on his feet as he hadn’t stopped shivering completely.

He really hated to wake Luhan but the food wouldn’t stay warm for very long, choosing to inspect the contents to give Luhan just a few more moments of undisturbed sleep he plopped himself on the unused side of the bed and unpacked the to go bag onto the bed side table, the room didn’t have a table or even a chair.

He found that they had packed him two sets of chopsticks and some napkins, he hadn’t even checked before he had booked it out the door, bless them. He blushed prettily when he noticed the heart that had been drawn onto one of the chopstick wrappers by the granddaughter, she’d obviously found the small frantic foreigner adorable. Minseok found himself glancing back at Luhan then feeling stupid, the man was unconscious for goodness sake, of course he couldn’t witness the embarrassing situation.

Blushing even harder at his own actions he turned his attention back to the food, opening the soup container first revealed what was obviously chicken feet and peanuts soup, the decorative sprig of parsley had broken up and been shuffled around with the rest of the shaken ingredients from his mad dash earlier, he replaced the lid and left that one solely for Luhans consumption. The to go boxes were identical when he popped the lids so he closed one to keep the heat contained, he wasn’t sure if his running had mixed the ingredients so much or if they originally were prepared that way but the rice, chicken, vegetables, chinese sausage and salted fish were all tossed together.

Minseok only ate a few bites to take the edge off his hunger before turning his attention to the slumbering Luhan, he needed to get him to at least have some of the soup, he hadn’t eaten all day and his body needed all the nutrients it could get to get rid of this fever as soon as possible.

Luhan woke easily enough, even eat and drank some of the soup with Minseoks help, but quickly slipped back into sleeps embrace, though he did curl up on his side and seemed to sleep much more comfortably after Minseok had filled his empty stomach with warm soup.

Minseok sat back against the headboard and finished his own meal while watching Luhan, maybe if the other was awake he would have found it creepy, but he wasn’t, so Minseok stared to his heart’s content.

He managed to squeeze Luhans to go box and the half full to go bowl into the mini fridge after removing some of the energy drinks. Minseok checked on Luhans body temperature, it had dropped some so he rewetted the washcloth and placed it on Luhans neck as he couldn’t get one to stay on his forehead while he was sleeping on his side and crawled into bed next to his 'patient'.

Minseok was exhausted; he hadn’t really slept while they’d been on the run, just in case anyone tried anything on them while they were sleeping out in the open and this whole disaster of a day had only further sapped his strength.

He fell asleep facing away from Luhan, but eventually migrated close to the much warmer body, pulling it against his front just like he’d done the past three nights.

Luhan ended up crying in his sleep, just like he’d done for the past three nights, reliving taking a life, over and over.