Chapter Text
Why must I suffer?
It wasn't the first time Darem thought this as he sat on his bed being held by his boyfriends. He stared at the spoon in front of him. He could practically see the disgust on his parents' faces if they saw this. He wasn't sick, he didn't need sickbay. He could push through this.
It was just a measly little cold.
Right?
"Darem?" Kyle asked with worry.
Damn him.
Damn him for worming his way into his heart. How could Darem hate Kyle for taking Jay-Den away when he kept pulling things like this and suggesting they could all be together?
Darem opened his mouth for a retort but all that came out was more coughing. Kyle pulled the spoon back and waited patiently for it to subside.
After a moment or two it subsided and Darem could breathe again.
"I'm perfectly capable of feeding myself." He argued.
"Riiiight and you'll get eighty percent of it all over your bed." Stupid Kyle pointed out. Stupid Kyle, Darem realized, was probably right.
The sigh that followed was blissfully phlegm-free. Darem leaned forward and glared at Kyle as his lips closed around the spoon.
Damn this bisque thing is really good.
Whatever a bisque was.
As he reluctantly took the spoonful, Darem became aware of a hand against his back. It sat at the upper part of the small, almost against his shoulder. Heat radiated from it like a furnace. Kyle didn't radiate like that. Plus he was too busy spoon feeding him.
It had to be Jay-Den.
The day's earlier shivering disappeared in his presence. Which was a blessing because Darem hadn't been able to control them. He'd hated that so much.
"Can…" Dare he even ask? It seemed like such a guilty pleasure to ask for more warmth.
He looked over at Jay-Den who'd tilted his head while watching him.
"Yes?"
Fuck it.
"Can you move closer? The heat's amazing."
Jay-Den looked baffled and glanced at Kyle who dissolved into barely contained giggles.
"I am…warm?"
Darem nodded. "Get your ass over here, babe. You're like a furnace." He blinked. "I-I mean that literally not as a weird hook up line." Kyle giggled even more.
"I was not aware I ran…warm." Jay-Den rumbled as he shuffled over. Darem felt his legs straddle him.
"Well—" he broke into a coughing fit. "By Khionian standards you do."
"And human." Kyle piped. He seemed to have recovered his dignity as he spooned more of the soup. Darem went cross-eyed following that spoon to within range. He heard Jay-Den chuckle behind him and ignored it as he took the next spoonful.
The spoon arrived again and Darem opened his mouth without thinking. He could not remember the last time someone had fed him by hand. It was almost certainly back on Khionia.
He remembered the nurse he had. Warm, friendly, but professional. She was feeding him some sort of clear broth as they floated there in their underwater house.
Young Darem turned towards the doorway, pausing in between spoons when he heard one of his parents swimming by. He swam over to the doorway, a cough racking him from even that small exertion.
Young Darem watched as his mother swam by the doorway. She paused only to stare at him with a hint of barely contained disgust.
"Mama?" He signed, hope welling in his chest. Her lips thinned. "Go back to your nurse." She signed back with a snort of disgust that sent bubbles up to the ceiling. She swam off with that hope dying behind his young sternum.
"Darem?" Jay-Den's worried voice came from beside him rather than behind. Darem blinked and he was back in his dorm. His chest still clenched as it had in the memory, but he shoved it down. A cuddly, tender kind of warmth that Darem didn’t know how to sit with nearly took its place. He shoved it back down. Darem had done nothing to deserve it, so why let himself feel it?
He felt Jay-Den's warm hand resting on his bicep now and turned to see him peering at him. "Is everything okay?"
"Fine…" he broke off to reach for a tissue. Kyle pulled back his spoon as he blew his nose. "Just fine."
All Jay-Den's reply was a soft, unbelieving hum. Darem didn't respond, but set the tissue down to be thrown away later, taking the last spoonful of soup.
"You haven't coughed in a while. Feeling better?" Kyle asked. Darem looked for any smugness in Kyle's voice, but found none. Had he stopped coughing? He hadn't noticed.
"Maybe." Darem responded and broke into a yawn. Kyle got up to go put the bowl on the table before coming back. By now Darem's head was drooping against his shoulder. Since when had he become so tired? He shouldn't be tired. First to rise, last to bed. That was his standard. That's what he and his parents had settled on. Yet here he was, evening and already wanting sleep.
Darem shuffled over when Kyle clambered back into bed. He moved back against Jay-Den's warm chest. Jay-Den wrapped his arms around him. Kyle pushed a few of the used tissues out of the way and cuddled in beside them.
First to rise, last to bed. Darem scoffed internally. How his parents would scoff at this. This…softness.
Yet they wanted him. Jay-Den and Kyle both wanted him and he'd done nothing to earn it. The idea baffled him as he felt Jay-Den's arms settle around him. Kyle wrapped himself around Darem's side, intertwining his legs.
They both wanted him.
Darem yawned and rested his head against Jay-Den's shoulder. He wasn't awake enough to deal with what that meant. What the implications were.
This…this is nice. I really don't want to move. He thought as his eyelids drifted shut. The lull of Jay-Den's breathing and the extra warmth from Kyle dragged him into the first restful sleep he'd had in a while.