Also, congratulations to those of you who have just finished your exams!  I hope they went well :D  And happy birthday to thunder_z  and joker891912 (11th) and happy early birthday to Kitty_Min (12th), and happy birthday to Taeminboa, whenever it is!

Semi was a wreck the next morning.  Xiumin wandered into the kitchen as she was mechanically brewing her seventh cup of coffee.

“I was wondering where you went—” he began before catching sight of the bags under her eyes.  His own eyes went to the almost entirely empty packet of coffee beans before settling on the mug in front of her, and he sniffed as if only just registering the scent of coffee.  “Which mug is that?” he asked.

Semi morosely held up seven fingers.  Without a word, Xiumin sat down next to her and tugged the mug away.  Semi almost reached for it, but she knew he was right: she’d had far too much caffeine.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly after a moment or two, eyeing the tremors shooting spasmodically through her body.  “You were sleeping soundly when I left – Taeyong woke up in pain and crying, so I went to calm him down and ended up drifting off there.”

Semi gnawed at her bottom lip, staring blankly at the table.  After a moment or two, Xiumin reached out, pressing a hand briefly to her forehead and then to the side of her neck.

“Your pulse is abnormally fast,” he noted as he withdrew his fingers.  “And you have a fever.  You’re not feeling sick at all, chest pains…?”

“Bit sick,” she admitted.  He sighed and pushed himself to his feet.

“Let’s get you some water.  Then you should probably go back to bed.  I don’t think Taeyong’s exactly going to help your condition when he’s up.”

As he turned to the sink, Semi’s body reacted without her thinking and she snatched at his wrist, forcing him to turn back.  An expression of sheer panic was on her face.

“Minseok, I-I-I… I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep.”

Xiumin slid his wrist out of her grip.  “I can’t just leave Taeyong by himself to stay with you.”

“I can’t sleep,” she repeated, tears welling up in her eyes.  “The car keeps crashing, Minseok, it won’t stop.”

It was Xiumin’s turn to chew his lip.  He looked genuinely flummoxed.

“I’ll figure something out,” he promised.  “But for now, you really need to hydrate yourself.”

Xiumin’s compromise was a day of watching TV.  Taeyong wasn’t particularly up to much, even though he did mumble something about his ear hurting less, and Semi was too drained to really do anything else.  At Taeyong’s request, they remained on the kids’ network watching cartoons.  As the day went on, he began to brighten up and regain colour in his cheeks (though he still protested about his medication) and his laughs got louder and louder.  Semi remained curled up in Xiumin’s lap and eventually dozed off while he played absently with her hair.  She had no idea that she’d actually slept most of the afternoon away until he shook her awake.

“Get up.  I need to make dinner.”

Dazed, Semi shifted off his lap and looked around.  It was dark outside, and she could see snow swirling against the night air.  On the rug in front of the TV, Taeyong was playing with some toy cars Xiumin had bought for him on Sunday, supplying the sound effects as they crashed into each other.  She flinched and turned away, wondering why it had had to be toy cars.  A shiver spiked through her body and she reached for her phone to call Sehun, only to realise she’d left it in her room.

“Noona!  Noooona!”

She jumped when Taeyong popped up in front of her, waving one of the cars.

“Noona, play with me!” he whined, pouting as he drove another car up her arm.  Semi withdrew it abruptly.

“Noona, I’m bored.  Please play with me?”

“Not right now, Taeyong—”

He tilted his head to one side.  “Are you ill again, noona?”

Before Semi could respond, he’d dropped the cars and bolted for the door, yelling: “Hyung, hyung, Semi Noona’s been attacked by the dragons and we need to save her!”

The net result was a TV meal with Xiumin wondering out loud how he’d ended up looking after two invalids and Taeyong trying to work out what the word meant.

Taeyong didn’t quite return to his usual hyperactive levels of energy after the meal, but he was definitely mostly recovered and also wanted Xiumin to stay with him again tonight.  One look at Semi, who was eyeing one of Taeyong’s toy cars that she’d nearly tripped over, told Xiumin that it wasn’t an option.

“You’re a big boy, Taeyong.  The dragons will be more scared of you if you sleep by yourself, you know.”

The boy pouted but reluctantly agreed that this was probably true.  It still took a lot of persuasion on Xiumin’s part to get him to finish his antibiotics prescription and go to bed, though.  Semi got up soon after, saying that she was exhausted.  Xiumin hastily joined her.

“I didn’t realise your phobia of cars extended to toy ones,” he commented as she toyed with the hem of her jumper, wondering if it was best to make an escape to the bathroom or to ask him to leave.  “Ah, sorry – I won’t look.  It’s just you seem okay with cars provided you’re not in the front seat.”  Back turned to her, he bounced on the balls of his feet.  “When exactly was the crash, anyway?  It seems to have been winter.”

Semi swallowed.  It wasn’t exactly something she wanted to think about.

“Soon,” she mumbled as she began to change into her pyjamas.  From a brief glimpse in the mirror at Xiumin’s face and his closed eyes, the answer wasn’t one he’d been expecting.  He shifted from foot to foot and opened his mouth.  Wincing, Semi turned away.  She didn’t want any more questions.

The question that did come, though, was a harmless one.

“Mind if I use your bathroom?” he asked when the tension was beginning to get unbearable.

Semi nodded.

“Semi?”

Realising he couldn’t see her with his eyes still closed, she cleared .  “Sure.”

Once the bathroom door had clicked shut behind him, Semi clambered into bed and retrieved one of her textbooks from the bedside table.

It was about fifteen minutes before Xiumin joined