Could you write a fic where taehyung has a fever and is really sneezy but he has a headache and sore throat and every time he sneezes his head hurts?
Hope this is what you were looking for!?! I kinda glossed over the snz content and turned it more toward the sore throat and the headache. Sorry it took me so long to get done! I hope you can enjoy it! Thanks so much for the request! <3
Pairing: Taejoon - platonic intentions but read how you want. Ft. minor Taejin.
Words: 2732
Warnings: Illness || Snz Content || Sick Member || Fever || Sore Throat/Lost Voice || Headache/Migraine || Graphic Descriptions of Cold Symptoms || Graphic Descriptions of Headache || Crying/Emotional Distress
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“HEEEtsch, EETthhu, HEHnxtch”
Taehyung’s sneezes are louder than any alarm clock Namjoon's ever owned. So when Taehyung sneezes three times in the middle of the night, it startles Namjoon awake with a gasp.
“'M up. 'M awake” Namjoon slurs his words, scanning the room with squinted eyes. Everything is still dark and blurry, but he can tell it’s still the middle of the night. He swears he set his alarm for 8:30. He is certain that a loud noise invaded his dream and pulled him from sleep. But now that he’s awake, the room is silent.
Well, mostly silent. Taehyung is sniffling from his bed. There’s a lot of shifting, even for Taehyung, and Namjoon figures that the younger is awake. “Tae-yah? Did you hear something?” He asks. He needs the validation just to ensure he’s not going mad.
“Sorry, hyung. It was just my sneezing. Did I wake you?” Taehyung feigns ignorance. He knows the answer is a blaring yes. He had been enviously listening to the sounds of Namjoon’s peaceful sleep. Because he’s been awake the whole night, bargaining with his budding cold symptoms. Negotiations have gotten him nowhere.
Namjoon nods, “S’okay. Are you okay?” If the rapper were fully conscious, he would have quickly recalled that Taehyung does not sneeze in multiples unless it’s illness related. He might have noticed that Taehyung doesn’t sound sleepy at all, but rather a little congested. But he’s still swaddled in the warmth of his covers and clinging onto a promised sleep. Too close to the edge to notice those intricate little details. Not all of his neurons are firing. He doesn’t have the mental capacity to think about how his roommate usually sneezes right now.
So Taehyung takes advantage of it. The vocalist knows he’s getting sick. He could feel it coming on since the previous day. And he feels like it’s going to be a bad one. But he knows Namjoon is trying to sleep, resting well after a long day. And he wants it to stay that way. He promises to tell someone in the morning. But for now, the others need their rest. It’s too early for Namjoon, or any of them, to be taking care of him. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tickle. Must have been some dust on my bed or something.” The lie comes easy. It has been a while since he changed his linens. He’ll add that to his post-cold to-do list. “Go back to sleep, hyung. We still have a few hours.” he gently encourages. Namjoon doesn’t fight it.
Taehyung feels more sneezes inching their way to the top of his nose. But he doesn’t want to bother Namjoon anymore than he already has. He doesn’t want to risk waking him again. So he holds them back, shaking his head and tucking a finger under his nose to scare them off. But that’s only a temporary solution. They still lie in wait for a loud and wet release. So he waits until he’s certain Namjoon’s sleeping deeply again. Once the leader’s snores confirm it, Taehyung sneaks out of the room with his blanket and relocates to the couch. Hopefully far enough away from the bedrooms to sneeze freely without waking anyone up.
Sleep doesn’t find him any easier on the couch than it did in his bed. He’s still turning over every time his sinuses shift. He’s still coughing as post-nasal drip fills his throat. And he’s still sneezing when he feels the tickle in his nose. It’s impossible to even get a few minutes of shut eye. And when he does feel on the brink of sleep, a feverish chill shakes him back to consciousness. It’s hell on earth, he thinks with a whine.
He does manage to fall asleep at some point. He wouldn't believe it given how exhausted he still is. But he's awoken by the sounds of voices nearby. He keeps his eyes closed, pretending he can't hear them. But it's Seokjin and Namjoon, neither of them do well with hushed conversation. It sounds like they are arguing. Or maybe Taehyung's headache is just amplifying the sound of their voices. Any noise at this point is too loud for him.
He picks up bits and pieces of the conversation. From what Taehyung can gather from his eavesdropping, Seokjin is angry at Namjoon. Something about the Daegu vocalist spending the night on the couch. And even though Namjoon seems equally upset about it, the oldest hyung is blaming the leader.
The realization that his hyungs are fighting because of him hits his fevered mind. That's silly. Namjoon didn't do anything wrong. It was his decision to leave the room. It was his decision to sleep on the couch. He has to take responsibility for it. He needs to end the argument with the truth. Because he hates it when his hyungs fight.
Maybe he also hates it when they are loud. Maybe he has a splitting headache and wants to sleep more. Maybe he knows that Seokjin and Namjoon can go on for hours with petty arguments like this and he just wants them to stop. But he doesn't feel well, so he can be a little selfish. The outcome will benefit them all in the end.
His body aches as he sits up on the couch. He pulls his blanket around his shoulders and clutches the corners around his chin to fight the chill. The ends of the blanket drag behind him as he follows his hyung's voices to the kitchen. It's a long, shuffling journey. His whole body tells him to stop.
Two loud sneezes alert the two older members to Taehyung's presence. They both turn and look at the sick member. He has definitely seen better days. His skin is blotchy with fever spots, the tip of his nose is bright red, and he can barely keep his eyes open. He looks so small wrapped up in a blanket, quaking at the knees like standing is simply too much.
"Tae-yah, you should go rest." Seokjin's voice is gentle and caring. "Hyung will get you something to eat, go lay down."
Taehyung opens his mouth to speak. He wants to say that he didn't want to bother Namjoon with his cold. He wants to say he chose to leave the room when Namjoon fell asleep. He wants to say he chose to sleep on the couch and it's not Namjoon's fault. But croaky broken syllables and raspy breaths take the place of his words. His voice is completely gone, but he doesn’t remember losing it. It was fine enough when he was talking to Namjoon in the middle of the night.
He pouts in frustration, massaging his throat with the hand not clutching his blanket. His neck feels hard and swollen, but he aims to be able to speak again. He clears his throat with some wet coughs before attempting to speak again. But it’s the same result. Nothing intelligible comes up, he ends up hunched over coughing deeply into his fist.
Seokjin’s expression softens immediately. He forgets entirely about his spat with Namjoon and runs to Taehyung’s side. He immediately goes into mother hen mode, pressing a palm to his fellow vocalist’s sweaty forehead. “You’ve caught yourself quite a nasty cold, Tae bear.” He consoles once Taehyung’s done coughing. “Don’t you worry, you’ll start feeling better soon.”
Taehyung leans against Seokjin, too weak to support his own body weight for another second. He lets out a whimper and a yawn. “You’re tired,” Seokjin understands, “Let’s put you to bed then.” He starts guiding Taehyung toward the bedrooms. The younger man makes it as far as the stairs before he quits. He looks at Seokjin with desperation. There’s no way he can climb the steps. He just won’t make it.
The oldest understands instantly. “Alright, Tae. Can you get on my back?” He squats to make it easier for Taehyung to climb on. He scrambles for a few minutes while trying to push himself up, but he’s lacking the usual upper body strength he needs to latch on. With a little help from Namjoon, Taehyung is able to secure himself to his hyung for the journey to the bedrooms. Seokjin marches up the steps with ease despite the added weight and deposits the sick member in his bed. “There you go. Hyung’s going to go get some supplies for you. Can you stay awake for five more minutes?”
Taehyung nods with no confidence in his answer. Seokjin doesn’t believe it either given the way the vocalist’s eyelids droop as soon as his head hits the pillow.
It actually takes Seokjin about 15 minutes to return to the room. So he can’t blame Taehyung for being asleep when he returns. He looks so peaceful while he’s resting, Seokjin doesn’t want to disturb him. He looks like death warmed over. He needs every second of rest he can get. So he decides to do the best he can while still ensuring that Taehyung stays asleep. He scans his forehead with a temporal thermometer and confirms the presence of a significant fever. With gentle motions, he smooths a damp rag over the sick vocalist’s forehead. Food and medicine will have to wait until he wakes.
Seokjin does everything he can for Taehyung before he absolutely does have to leave the dorm. He’s got schedules to attend, things to do, places to be. But he doesn’t want to leave Taehyung alone, so he recruits Namjoon to look after him for the day. It may be more of a demand, a repentance to compensate for the fact that Taehyung slept on the couch. But Namjoon accepts it regardless. He knows he can work on things from home. It’ll be easy enough to work on tracks on his laptop while keeping an eye on Taehyung.
“HEP’tichi, HESHhu, ehh-HE’tch”
Taehyung’s nose only allows him a meager half hour of sleep before he startles himself awake with forceful sneezes. Despite losing his voice, his sneezes are still monstrous roars that claw through his throat with vengeance on the way out. There’s an ache that grows each time he pitches with a harsh sneeze, traveling from the bridge of his nose to the backs of his eyes all the way around to the base of his neck. It hurts everywhere.
He’s in too much pain to sleep, despite how his body yearns for a few more hours. His body is playing tricks on him, making him believe that he’s thirsty. But it seems to be just a cruel way to trick him into swallowing. The action is painful and does little to soothe his raw throat. Every time he starts to doze off, another string of sneezes forces him back to consciousness.
There’s no relief. He tries to massage around his temples, he tries to shift positions in the bed. He tries pulling the blanket over his head to block the light and even tries to bite the tip of his thumb because he heard somewhere that it's supposed to help with headaches. But nothing eases his ache in the slightest. The humming of the air conditioning is deafening. The dimly lit lamp is blinding. The pulsing pressure of blood against his skull is agonizing. It’s a waiting game against the pain. And just when he thinks the drumming ache is receding, he sneezes again and he’s right back where he started.
After repeating the cycle four times over, he can’t maintain his composure. He cries. He weeps in desperation and in pain. He feels the most miserable he’s ever felt in his life. He doesn’t see an end to the suffering in sight. He has no hope for any relief. So he cries.
He wants comfort. He wants to draw someone’s attention, someone’s sympathy, someone’s love. He wants someone to coddle him, just a bit. He wants to be reassured that he will be okay. But no one will ever hear him. His cries are silent, nothing but heavy breaths and pitchy croaks as tears pour mercilessly down his cheeks. He tries calling out for the members, but he can’t force a single syllable. As therapeutic as the crying seems at the moment, it only proves to make his headache even worse.
Eventually, Namjoon returns to the room. It’s been a while since Seokjin checked Taehyung’s temperature and he wants to know if the rest has been doing the vocalist any good. He opens the door to find Taehyung sitting up in the bed, sniffling as tears drip quickly from his chin onto his blanket. His expressions are devastating, eyes squinted shut and mouth hanging out like he’s trying to scream. He scrubs at his face with balled fists and jerks with sobs that just land him coughing into the open air. The urge to comfort him is immediate.
As soon as Namjoon lays a finger on Taehyung’s shoulder, the vocalist wraps his whole body around the leader. Similar to how a boa constrictor would envelop their prey, only Taehyung is much more distraught than intimidating. The vocalist will never let go. He never wants to be alone again. The pain is too much for him to cope with by himself.
Namjoon’s struggling to breathe in Taehyung’s clutches, but he could not care any less. Because watching Taehyung bawl his eyes out makes Namjoon’s stomach flip. So he doesn’t care what happens to him if it means that Taehyung will calm down. He consoles, brushing fingers through Taehyung’s hair and scratching gently against his back. His skin burns, Namjoon suspects a fever spike played a part in Taehyung’s breakdown. He keeps his verbal reassurances low and rhythmic.
It’s a long while before Taehyung finally calms himself down. He’s still sniffling and catching his breath. His eyes are bloodshot and watery, but finally open enough to look pleadingly into Namjoon’s big brown eyes. “There you go, Tae Tae. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay. All better.”
Taehyung tries again to speak, but nothing comes out and he realizes he’s right back where he started. He’s not better now. He’s worse. He’s miserable and he still doesn’t feel well at all and it feels like it’s never going to end. And to make matters worse, he can’t even express that appropriately. So he tries to make Namjoon understand, through the sheer power of body language.
But Taehyung’s gestures are flailing and vague and just hard to understand. Namjoon can’t make sense of it. Until he sees the events in action.
All the crying had shifted the contents of Taehyung’s sinuses. His nose runs relentlessly in an effort to clear it. Taehyung sniffles harshly in between gestures to ward off the tickle but it eventually wins out. “EHRshhh, ee’NXTtch” He pitches forward with a messy double. When he picks himself up, his hands shoot to his head as the splitting pain returns with a vengeance. He winces and shuts his eyes, pressing himself impossibly closer to Namjoon. And Namjoon finally understands that Taehyung’s got a headache. A borderline migraine by the looks of it. Suddenly all the flailing makes sense.
“Is it your head, TaeTae?” Namjoon questions, whispering. He starts to pull himself away. Taehyung nods, a small movement so he doesn’t have to jostle his throbbing head too much.
Namjoon has to pry the vocalist off of him before he manages to get Taehyung to lay back down in bed. There’s a few whimpers and a whole lot of teary-eyed pouting, but Namjoon assures him he’ll only be gone for a few minutes and then they can resume cuddling. Taehyung accepts with the promise of more cuddling.
Namjoon hurries to gather the supplies Seokjin left for him. He finds the bottle of painkillers and gives a dose to Taehyung. He turns the lights off in the room, leaving only the minor light of a dimmed desk lamp to make sure he doesn’t trip over anything in the room on his journey to the bed. He climbs into the bed and leans against the headboard, arms wide open expectantly for the vocalist's arrival.
Taehyung finds some comfort in pressing himself to Namjoon’s stomach, arms wrapping around his torso to once again prevent his escape. Namjoon allows it, gently massaging the area around Taehyung’s temples until the younger member is finally able to fall into a steady sleep.
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A/N: Wonder how many fics I have ended with the sickie falling asleep?? I need to be more original. LOL. As always, thanks for reading to the end! Feedback is always appreciated. And please let me know if I missed any tags or TWs. Please call me out for any errors you notice!