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It all started with an awful sore throat. Then it escalated to a pain and difficulty to swallow. Then your nose got congested and your head started throbing. The first day you took medicine for the flu but you hit the limit doses and you still felt like trash. You didn’t had fever nor general discomfort but you did took regular naps that made things worse.
Everything started on a Saturday and around the early morning of the Sunday your nose was so congested and your throat so painful that you decided that you needed to visit the hospital since you suspected you were having mycoplasma again. You were a teacher and the worst enemies of a teacher were not parents or students or administration, it was diseases because at least the first three were visible, but diseases were not.
In the past you had been given germs by the students that had made you sick with similar sympthoms so you decided that going to the hospital was the most responsable thing.
The only problem was that you didn’t trust yourself to drive or take yourself there since you barely slept and you didn’t want to risk an accident.
So, at around 2:00 AM you called the only person that could help you.
“‘Ello?”, they asked, with a clear sleepy tone. “Is everything alright?”
“No”, you answered, with a congested nose. Right then you sneezed in a tissue and then you cursed, annoyed at the fact that your head hurtled awfully when you sneezed.
“What happened?”
“I’m sick”, you answered, throwing the used tissue in the trash can and grabbing another. “I think one of my students gave it to me. Besides, is flu season and I can’t survive flu season without getting sick”.
You swallow causing discomfort while breathing through your mouth.
“Aw, yes, you sound very sick. Do you need anything? I’m currently babysitting, but Kyle is back home if he arrives early from the pub”.
At that, a little and almost inaudible oh escaped you while you blinked heavily.
“I do need to go to the hospital. I feel like I can’t breathe and I don’t trust myself to drive”.
“Understandable. I will drive you myself, but I can’t leave the kids alone. My friends are out for the weekend and they don’t return until Monday. I will call Kyle to see if he can take you, he won’t say no, especially since is a real emergency”.
“I don’t want to bother your friend”, you pause for a second to sneeze again and then to blow your nose. “Sorry for that”.
“You aren’t a bother, and you know that”.
“Well, he may disagree since we can’t agree on anything”.
You know they are rolling their eyes at the other side of the phone. You just know them that well.
“Well, you two tend to fight almost all the time, but I’m sure you will find common ground once you understand how much in common you two have”.
You roll your eyes this time before you touch your temple to massage it.
“I’ll call him. He won’t say no in your moment of need”.
And then you open your mouth to complain, but they say goodbye and hang up.
When you look at your phone, you sigh and it comes out as weird since your nose is congested.
After a few sneezes and a few coughs, you drink water and start changing your clothes. You decide to wear the first comfy clothes you find, some oversized hoodies with your university logo and some sneakers. You lazily did your hair and then grabbed a bag to pack tissues, disinfectant, a lot of snacks, and a lot of face masks. You then packed water, your wallet, and other stuff you may need. Finally, you grabbed a blanket since you hated cold and you were not going to die because of it on a hospital chair.
You sat down to wait and just when you were blowing your nose again, you recieved a text from your best friend.
“Kyle is on his way. Let me know when you get to the hospital and how things go. If I don’t answer is because I fell asleep. I love you”.
You answer them back and fall back on the couch. While you wait, you look at the ceiling while breathing through your mouth.
Kyle was your best friend’s friend. You didn’t get along very well. He was a nice person, but not with you. It was probably because you were too political and he was a soldier. Your views about life and death did not align very well.
Your best friend has tried to make the two of you get along. You tried to be civil with him and you guessed that he did too at some point, but it didn’t matter if you started a fight five minutes later of smiling at each other.
Your best friend gave up a long time ago, but you were mature enough now to not make faces or start arguments about politics at dinner or whenever you visited and he was present.
Also, there was another fact that made you fight him constantly and it was fairly personal and a thing you hadn’t told them yet.
You shook your head and waited patiently until you heard a knock on the door through your clogged ears.
You grabbed a face mask, put it on, and then opened the door with your bag in hand.
Just as you imagined, there it was, Kyle Elliot Garrick, in all his glory, looking like he hadn’t gotten out of bed twenty minutes ago or so. He looked fresh and ready to rumble, something you guessed was thanks to the military.
He had comfortable clothes that included a hoodie with a military logo you didn’t recognize, a stubble of a few days and an annoyed face that you were sure was because of seeing you, but he wasn’t wearing that stupid cap he always wore everywhere.
He looked at you for a second or two.
“You look like rubbish”, he comments, in a tone that is not mean but serious, like he is just talking about the weather.
“Note taken”, you say, before exiting your flat and locking the door with your key.
He looks at you for a second more before he turns around and starts walking to the lift.
The way to his car is total silence and you are glad of it. When you get in his car, some random music starts playing from the radio but you don’t mind because you fall asleep fast, like a baby.
You only wake up when he shakes your arm kind of roughly.
“We’re here”.
You blink several times and you don’t realize he is out of the car until he opens your door and waits for you to get out.
You slowly get out, but when you try to grab your bag and blanket, he is faster and ends up giving you just the blanket.
You are too sleepy to argue, so you start walking to the white building in front of the parking lot.
He follows you close by in silence.
Once inside the emergency room, you notice a few people coughing and sneezing like you as well as someone vomiting in a bucket. You are glad you don’t feel that bad.
You make your way to the patient registration computer in a corner and Kyle follows you to it.
After starting the registration, you blink several times frozen in place. Kyle must notice since you feel his tall warmth behind you.
“What’s wrong?”
“I forgot my phone number for a moment”, you answer before you start writing it.
“How can you forget it?”
“Well, I don’t call myself, for starters”.
You swear you hear him snicker behind you, but you ignore it to introduce your name, gender and main complain. When you are finished with the registration, a little paper comes out of the computer and Kyle and you sit down in a pair of the many chairs around.
Kyle puts your bag in the chair next to him and you don’t waste time cuddling in your chair and using the blanket to keep yourself warm.
A TV running a silly old movie helps you fall asleep until you start coughing and you wake up annoyed.
A hand stretching a tissue your way reminds you Kyle is still with you. You take the tissue and cough on it before he also offers you some of the water you brought.
When you finish coughing and you can put your face mask back on you look at him while he returns to his phone.
“I thought you’ll leave”, you confessed, with a severed voice.
“They asked me to stay with you until you are back at your flat”, he simply answered, while his scared fingers moved over his phone texting something.
You sighed.
“Contrary to what you may believe, is not an inconvenience to me”.
You blink heavily at him, but he doesn’t look at you.
Putting the used tissue away, you return to sleep until a nurse calls you to take your vitals. You pass to them alone, but you can tell Kyle has his eyes on you since the moment you stand from the chair.
The nurse makes you the routine questions. Takes your blood pressure, weights you, asks you about traveling, your profession, and other stuff you wished you didn’t need to answer since your throat was hurting like a bitch.
Once the nurse is finished, you are free to return to your chair. Kyle looks at your annoyed face and smiles.
“Don’t laugh at my misfortune”.
“Why do you hate hospitals so much?”
“Who said I do?”, you asked, sitting next to him again.
“I can see it on your face”, he answers, crossing his arms over his chest since he isn’t using the phone anymore.
You simply sigh, before you go back to sleep. He doesn’t bother you again, until he softly nodges your arm again so they can admit you officially into the hospital. Kyle gives you your wallet, like he knew where it was all this time, and exchanges it for your blanket so you can go to the person who is calling you.
After some questions, giving your ID, you end up giving some signatures and then they put you a blue band around your right wrist.
After that, you hear someone vomit in a bucket and your stomach churns uncomfortably.
When you are on your way to your seat, you get the sudden urge to go to the bathroom so you deviate and you can feel Kyle’s eyes on you the whole time.
You don’t vomit, but you do spend a long time using the bathroom since you have drank a lot of water. When you are about to exit, you hear a knock and Kyle’s almost concerned voice.
“You alright?”
You don’t answer and instead, you open the door.
He gives you a once over, which makes you think if that’s how he looks at his mates when he is concerned about them at work.
When you are about to pass him, he stops you by grabbing your arm softly, making you look at him through glassy eyes since you were sneezing a few seconds ago.
“Answer me”, he asks, quite gently.
“I’m fine. There is no need to follow me like a puppy”.
He doesn’t say anything, or at least, you don’t give him a chance to since you shake his hand away and walk back to the chair you were occupying.
You put the blanket around you and cuddle in the chair. Kyle joins you a few seconds later in the chair beside you. He stays in an awful silence.
The emergency room stays a coir of sneezes, coughs, and vomits. It all makes you feel ten times worse, especially when you wake up sneezing or coughing and Kyle is always there with a tissue and a water bottle.
You try to sleep but at some point, the chair is too uncomfortable and the ambience around you doesn’t let you close your eyes.
When you look at your silent partner, he has his arms crossed over his chest, lost in his thoughts.
You blink heavily at him for a few seconds, until he realizes this.
“Need somethin’?”
You shake your head.
He doesn’t look away.
“What’s wrong then?”
“Nothin’”.
He sighs, like he always does when he is annoyed, especially at you. Is almost like he developed an unique sigh of annoyance for your person only.
“Even sick, you are unbearable”.
That makes you chuckle for some reason, but you regret it as soon as you do since your throat hurts badly and you start coughing.
Kyle passes you another tissue, some water, and then some disinfectant when you finish coughing.
After a few seconds of silence and of you blinking heavily at him again, he turns slightly to watch you back.
He hadn’t changed much from the first time you saw him walking at your best friend’s side. It had been a complete surprise to see him again after so much time, but you kept your mouth shut and acted like you didn’t know him.
Like you hadn’t gotten lost in those brown eyes of his like you hadn’t run your fingers through his curly hair, like you hadn’t smiled for the thousand of photos he took of you in your secondary school days.
You were friends, then you were lovers and then, when you graduated, you broke into pieces and your paths separated. He wanted to join the military, you wanted to go to university. You decided that it was not your destiny to be together so you let each other go.
Until a year ago, when your best friend and former university classmate, introduced you to him in a party and you realized that, yes, it was him.
It was the Kyle you knew, but he had changed in some aspects.
He was more handsome, his hair was shorter, he was taller and stronger, and he knew how to mask his emotions.
The arguing and the bickering was all a defense mechanism. If you fought him, you’ll forget he had been yours, if you fought him, you’ll forget he was no longer yours.
If you forget him, you will not regret being immature and stupid back then, letting him go.
Till now, it hadn’t work very well, because you swear that that special tension that always characterized your relationship was still there and that some people could see it. You knew they gave you looks, you knew it was a matter of time before your best friend started asking questions.
You just wished that day never came.
But while he was there, with you, waiting in a hospital chair so you’d get called and treated for these awful symptoms you had, you just watched him with the typical honesty all sick people have.
After a while, he sighs and turns his head away from you.
You do the same as strangers will.
Minutes turn into hours and no one calls your name again. Sickness and tiredness takes the best of you and you end up falling asleep.
Is not until someone calls your name several times, that you realized you fell asleep in a soft, warm, comfortable and solid place.
The rush to get up and follow the doctor doesn’t let you process the fact that you fell asleep in Kyle’s arm.
A doctor sees you, asks questions, and checks your nose and throat. He sends you to get a lot of medicine, do some blood tests, gets your nose raided for a mycoplasma/influenza/Covid-19 test, and get injected twice in the same buttcheek. Then he sends you back to the waiting room.
When Kyle sees your annoyed face, he starts laughing and you hit him, which makes him laugh harder.
“Shut up”.
He doesn’t say anything and proceeds to get a photo of your annoyed face showing a middle finger to send to your best friend.
A few minutes later, your stomach churns again at someone vomiting in the room.
You use the toilet again and when you return, you try to fetch some of the snacks you brought, but you can’t find them with how much sneezing you start doing.
“Oi, I’ll do it, sit down”.
You try not to back down, more ego than anything else, but you end up doing so when he catches your hands and puts them away from your bag. Once seated, he gives you a tissue, water, and alcohol and then gets you a soft bar so you can eat.
He even opens it for you.
“Are you always this kind or is just pity for the sick?”
“I have always been a good person”.
You bite the soft bar to not answer, but after a second you turn to him, to see him fixing some things in your bag.
“You aren’t going to eat anything?”
“I’m not hungry”.
“Is five in the morning”, you say, looking at the clock on the wall. “You must be hungry”.
“I’m fine”.
“You are so stubborn”, you simply say, before you jump over him to grab another soft bar from your bag and throw it onto his lap on your way back to your seat.
He looks at you with his usual disapproving face.
“Eat”.
He does eat the bar and once you two are finished, he throws the trash away.
He returns to your side after going to the bathroom himself. While he is away you text your best friend, but like the previous messages, they didn’t answer.
They were probably sleeping. You yawned and started falling asleep again, mostly thanks to the medicines you took.
When Kyle returned you opened your eyes while he gave you a look you were too sleepy to decipher.
He sits down next to you again and crosses his arms over his chest.
Like a river following a flow, your head falls in his shoulder and when you realize that, your heart gives several skips, but he doesn’t move nor says anything.
You wait for the blow, like a boxer waits for a punch, but it never comes. No movement that expressed annoyance or discomfort, no words about this being innapropiate.
Nothing except silence.
His shoulder was comfortable as you remembered. Well, it had changed a little since it now felt firmer and wider, but it was warm and inviting, just like those afternoons in the library or those bus rides back home.
Fate had a cruel way of playing with your heart.
You blinked heavily for a few seconds, trying to fight it all, the feelings, the sleep, everything in between.
But you gave up at the end and you fell asleep like a kitten in the middle of the sun.
He shakes you awake.
You blink several times, confused, only noticing the drool all over your face because you were finally able to sleep like the gods.
You stand up immediately when you realize a nurse is calling you. On your way to them, you fail to notice Kyle grabbing your blanket before it touches the floor or that his head had been over yours before you moved.
The doctor confirms your fears.
You do have mycoplasma, so he gives you several medicines, explains their effects to you, and also gives you a medical certificate because you will not be going to work for at least five days.
You had mixed feelings about that, because you liked being a teacher, but you weren’t exactly complaining about taking a break from those sick brats that gave you mycoplasma in the first place.
When the doctor finished all and gave you some instructions you could follow, you went to the nurses so they could discharge you.
While you waited because there was a few people ahead of you being annoying to the nurses, you recieved a text from Kyle.
He never texted or called you. He only did it when it was an emergency or when your best friend didn’t have any charge on their phone.
He didn’t even have a contact picture in your phone and his name was barely there. Like something you hated to see.
“Everything okay?”
“Just mycoplasma and an obligatory five-day leave with medicine that tastes like shit. But yes, everything is fine”.
He answers with several emojis that annoy and amuse you in equal parts.
When you are finally discharged, he is waiting for you in the waiting room ready to go. He was close to the exit, with your bag in hand and the blanket perfectly folded under his arm.
“Done?”
“More than done”, you answered and to your surprise, he opened the door for you.
You are stunned for a second before you cross and exit the hospital.
“Do we have to stop somewhere?”
“Yes. I need a few medicines and a couple of soup packages”, you said, blinking heavily at the fact that there is too much light for you outside.
You stop momentarily to make a face while you get your face mask off because you are suffocating.
“Alright?”
“Is just the light. How much time we were inside?”
“Is nine thirty-two”.
You sigh, annoyed.
“There are worst ways to spend a Sunday morning”.
“Really?”, you ask, kind of sarcastic. He looks down at you and for a moment you are aware of the height difference between the two of you.
“Have you ever been in a hostage situation on a Sunday morning?”
You blink several times head pounding slightly.
“No”.
He then smirks and for a moment you wished you could wipe it out with a kiss.
“I have been. Didn’t even have time to brush my teeth before my Captain was yelling for us to get up. When we arrived there, it was a terrorist attack and they had at least ten hostages. The situation went out of our hands and only four survived. One of the worst Sunday mornings of my career”.
You stay still and quiet. He looks you in the eyes for a few moments, before he looks away to the parking lot.
“Why you are telling me this?”
“Because there are worse destinies than being sick on a Sunday morning”.
And with that he started walking with your bag and blanket to the parking lot. When he realized you weren’t following him, he stopped and turned.
He looked at you, asking with his brown eyes why weren’t you following.
“Why are you still standing there?”
You sigh and without answering you start walking. When you reach him he follows slightly behind you. Once in the car, you lean back the seat and close your eyes.
“Where are the prescriptions?”
You don’t say anything and you pass them to him.
He starts the car a few seconds later and after leaving, you start falling asleep until his car suddenly stops and he pulls the emergency lever. You open your eyes, confused.
“Do you still have a favorite brand of soup?”
“What?”, you ask, looking at him with sleepy eyes.
“Do you still have a favorite brand of soup?”, he repeats and that’s when you notice that he is holding the presciption in his hands.
“I just like soup when I’m sick”.
“Okay”, and then he turns to open his door.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back”, is all he says, before he goes out, closes the door, and waits for the traffic to cross the street.
He enters the pharmacy on the other side of the street while you just watch with an open mouth and wide eyes.
You decide to lean down again and close your eyes, not opening them until the door opens again. He climbs in, with a bag that he puts on your lap once he closes the door.
“Lay down, I’ll take you home in a bit”.
“How much is it?”
“The UK government pays it”.
You frown, but he just limits himself to smirk before the car joins traffic.
You don’t say anything and lie down again.
You wake up when he shakes your arm, this time, softer. When you blink everything is confusing because your door is open and he is holding your bag, the bag of medicines and your blanket at the same time he is offering your hand to get out.
“C’mon”.
“Where are we?”, you ask, suddenly feeling like a damn piece of shit. Your head is pounding and your nose is completely clogged.
“Home”.
“Yours or mine?”
“Yours of course”.
At that, you take his hand without thinking too much and once you are out of the car, he closes the door with a soft kick.
He guides you through your building to your flat. If you find familiar faces among the way that smile like they know something you don’t you say that is just your imagination and your sickness playing tricks on your mind.
He gets your keys from your bag to open your door and once inside your flat you don’t wait much and drop yoruself in the settee. Kyle says something but you don’t hear him clearly so you get off your shoes, grab your blanket and roll over to sleep.
His raspy voice pronouncing your name wakes you up.
After opening your eyes and blinking several times, you find him in front of you. You slowly sit down per his request and a hand flies to your neck.
“Told you not to fall asleep in the settee”.
You sigh in answer.
“I prepared you soup”, he simply says, stretching his hand to you again. “After you eat it you can take your medicine, take a bath and sleep in your bed”.
You blink sleepily before looking at him. He looks at you back with his hand still reaching in your direction.
“I thought you’d leave”.
“I thought it too”.
“Why you stayed?”
“Would you have preferred for me to leave?”
“You left once, what was stopping you this time?”
“I didn’t leave”.
And even if you are sleepy and sick you know for a fact that this time he is not talking about the current situation but the past you have in common.
“You did”.
He sighs, his hand reaching for you, falling.
“You left too”.
“For college”.
“Exactly. Is the same”.
“I would have stayed if you had asked”.
“I was not going to ask you to give up your future for me”.
“Why not? We were in love”.
“That would have been selfish and stupid of both of us”.
You blink with watery eyes. Your head pounds and a fever attacks you.
“If had stayed, you wouldn’t be a successful person”.
“But I would have been happy”.
He looks away.
“Come, the soup will get cold”.
This time you don’t fight him and when he stretches his hand for you to take it, you do take it. He guides you to your dining room where you sit down in front of a bowl of soup. You eat it without a lot of energy and in total silence while he watches you from the kitchen. When you finish, he takes the bowl away and returns with the medicines and a cup of water. You take them without him having to explain anything and when you finish, you walk yourself to the bathroom.
After a shower and getting dressed in your favorite pijamas, you brush your teeth and get into your bed. Kyle appears when you are about to get in bed and after exchanging a silent look, you lay down under the blankets and he fixes the curtains and the lights.
Before he can leave, though, you stop him.
“Thanks for everything”.
“Anytime”.
There is a moment of silence as if both of you were waiting for something else, but when nothing happens, he closes your door softly and you close your eyes.
You wake up next when the door opens. Blinking in the room’s darkness, you notice Kyle again, this time with your medicines in hand and another cup of water.
He walks to the bedside and leaves the medicines on the nightstand. You blink at him before he turns the lamp on.
“What is it?”, you ask, voice husky since you haven’t used it.
“Time for the medicines”.
You groan, but you sit down slowly so he passes you the medicines and the water. Once it's done, he looks you over while you lay down in bed again.
He stretches his hand for a moment to move some hair from your face and you lean into his touch for a second unconciously.
“Do you feel any better?”
“I think so”, you answer, noticing that your cough and sneezing have slow down a little since taking the medicine.
He nods before he gets his phone out to text something.
“Just letting our friend know since you stopped texting them”.
“Sorry”.
“Is okay, they get it. They were just worried”, and then he takes a photo of you and you try to kick him, which makes him smile.
You smile by reflex.
You roll on the bed and close your eyes. When he finishes texting, he turns off the lamp and walks to the door again, yet, before he can leave, your eyes open and your tongue is faster than your sickly brain.
“Kyle”, you call.
He stops and turns in your direction almost immediately.
“Yes?”
You stare at him for a couple of seconds. He stares back, waiting, with a glint of something you can’t decipher in his eyes.
“Would you stay? For real this time”.
You are not aware of your question until a second after. Until his eyes change and he steps further into the room.
“As long as you want me”.
“Perhaps forever?”
He smiles, then chuckles and you do the same in the same fashion without realizing it.
“Yes, sounds good to me”.
And he doesn’t need anything else for he enters, closes the door, and walks to the opposite side of your bed. He gets his shoes off, puts his phone on the nightstand, and gets under the covers.
You both lay down in silence for a couple of minutes, until you slowly make your way to his side of the bed until you are fairly close to him and his arm. You settle your head there but it only lasts for a couple of seconds since he changes positions so your head is in his chest and his arms around you.
“Sorry if you get sick”.
“It will be worth it”.
You close your eyes and for the first time in the last couple of years you felt like you could rest when you sleep.
If your best friend notices that you finally stop arguing over every little thing after that, they don't say something but they are kind of glad.