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Several months after Sho and Jun bonds, Sho learns that he tends to do stupid things when Jun’s sick.
It starts off with Jun’s voice. When Jun clears his throat for the tenth time in the morning, Sho finds himself extremely suspicious – but says nothing, simply silently nudging Jun a cup of tea laced with honey after Jun’s first cup of coffee, instead of feeding him his second dose of caffeine for the day.
Jun doesn’t say anything, pressing a soft kiss of thanks against Sho’s temple, and asking Sho about his schedule for the rest of the day. Sho picks out the hoarseness in his throat, but chooses not to mention it – they often got sore throats often from long days of recording, especially if they forgot to drink enough water; Sho suspected that Jun wouldn’t appreciate if he went full on paranoid with Jun’s health, even if that is true (which it is, of course).
Except that it doesn’t get better after a day. Or two. Or three.
Sho grows increasingly concerned when the hoarseness doesn’t disappear; rather, the tissues appears – sniffing, nose running, eyes red. The only relief Sho gets is the fact that Jun isn’t running a fever – and Sho checks silently, whenever he hugs Jun in the mornings and at nights and occasionally in the day. He also makes sure that Jun gets enough food and stays warm. He’s known Jun long enough to know that the only people he’d listen to when he’s sick is Nino and Aiba – Nino because Nino is Nino, and Aiba because the beta had puppy eyes no one could ever say no to. And also because Jun has this aversion to doctors, after his hospital stint.
(Everyone knows his distaste for doctors, period – which is why despite coming into work with a nose red enough to rival Rudolph’s, no one forces him to see one or chides him; it applies to anyone in the band, really – not unless they look bat shit awful. Then that changes things.)
He lets Jun go about it for exactly four days, inhaling his herbal tea (Sho doesn’t know how Jun can even drink that horrendous concoction, and he hopes he never has to, but with the omega has his bond-mate, the alpha knows it’s inevitable, likely) and sniffling and sounding progressively hoarse.
He lets him go about it for exactly four days, and then it changes on the morning when Sho has to leave earlier to catch a Shinkansen for Iwate Prefecture. Sho loves travelling for his segments – it means he gets to buy gifts for Jun and eat good food and bring some of that good food back for the others. However, this time, he finds himself reluctant to do so, when especially when Jun looks so haggard despite also being dressed for work.
Sho reaches to hug Jun from behind as his bond-mate is perusing his latest script, and presses a kiss to the back of Jun’s neck. His heart falls when he leans forward to press his hand rests on his shoulder and realizes this time, Jun is warm. A bit too warm.
There is only one very clear way to evaluate Jun’s (worsening) health. Due to Jun’s scent cancelling soap he has to use for work, Sho is unable to smell his lovely coffee-rain-yuzu scent that Sho absolutely loves, but his nose is so attuned to Jun, it doesn’t take too much effort for him to identify the faint comforting scent, burying his nose just where Jun’s hair starts.
Jun smiles at the action, reaching behind with a hand to card his fingers into Sho’s hair. “Leaving soon?” Jun’s voice is hoarse, and sounds thick to Sho’s ears. Feeling a nod, Jun continues, “Stay safe – I’ll see you tonight.”
And then Jun poorly stifles a cough that sounds horribly wet to Sho’s ears, and the alpha stiffens, taking a longer sniff into Jun’s neck, this time sliding to rest right above the scent mark. “You smell off.” He murmurs, feeling his alpha pheromones peak in concern. “You’re warm. You’re sick.”
This earns casual wave from Jun, who turns around to press a kiss to Sho’s forehead. “Your nose is off. I’m fine.”
Sho scrutinizes Jun’s face carefully, gripping it by the chin and tilting it up slowly and then slowly tracing the dark circles under Jun’s eyes, slightly hidden behind the charming glasses that Sho loves. “You’re pale. Your eyes are bloodshot, Macchan. And you’re starting to look like a panda. A cute panda, but a panda nonetheless. And I’m not going to pretend you that you have been well the last few days.” He points out, earning a roll of the eyes from Jun.
“You speak as though you’ve never seen yourself on Zero on some Mondays.” Jun scoffs, batting away his hands, voice tinged with annoyance, His eyes flashes momentarily, causing Sho to bite the inside of his cheek. Maybe a different method then.
“What do you have scheduled today?”
“Meeting with the director and producer,” Jun taps at his script. “Pre-filming prep. That’s all,”
Sho holds back his sigh of relief – nothing too strenuous then - and nods as he presses another kiss to Jun’s temple. “Don’t push yourself too hard, please? I’m just concerned. Don’t wait up for me tonight.”
Jun’s eyes soften at the admission, and grudgingly nods. “Your manager is going to be here soon. Go ahead down.”
The alpha reluctantly grabs his backpack from the floor by his feet, and hugs Jun once more. “Have a good day. Try to get some rest.”
--
It’s late when Sho finally arrives home, just an hour and a half before midnight. As he lugs his now filled backpack into the kitchen to some omiyage in the fridge, Sho wonders what are the chances that Jun is already asleep – the lights on the main floor were already switched off, sans the foyer lights, but knowing Jun...
He silently peeks into the bedroom, and smiles when he notices that Jun is already curled up on his side of the bed.
The smile doesn’t last very long, when he takes a good whiff of the room and realizes that the smell of unwell is stronger in the air. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he presses his palm against Jun’s forehead and has to bite down a curse when it’s clear that Jun was certainly running a high fever, his breath coming out unevenly and wet.
“Jun?” Sho murmurs, softly stroking the omega’s sweat-slicked hair. Sho hesitates to wake him, but he needs to check if Jun has drunk any medication before sleeping because, well, he needs to. Inwardly, Sho decides that whether the omega likes it or not, he is going to see the doctor, especially with such a fever. When Jun barely stirs, Sho swallows some of his guilt and calls Jun’s name again, albeit slightly louder.
This time Jun stirs lightly. Sho watches intently as Jun’s eyes flutter open, fingers itching to caress the fever spots on his cheeks away, if it were even possible.
“Sho? You’re back,” Jun stifles a small yawn, and then promptly bursts into a series of horribly sounding coughs that make Sho wince just hearing them. Sho reaches over to firmly rub his back until the fit abated. Jun clears his throat, and inches closer to Sho. “How is your day?”
His voice and breathing sounds awful to Sho’s especially sensitive alpha hearing, and Sho is unable to help himself as he blurts out, “I’m taking you to the doctor tomorrow.”
Jun stiffens, and buries himself into the comforter. “Don’t need one.”
“Yes you do.” Sho would have laughed at the petulant, child-like response, except that this concerned Jun’s health, which means that there is no way Sho is going let the incident slide like that. “You look and sound awful. You smell sick. You’re going to the doctor.”
“I’m fine.” Jun snaps.
If it were on any other issues that weren’t pertaining to Jun’s health, Sho might have let it slide, but he’d already seen Jun in a hospital bed once, and there is no way he’d allow that to happen all over again. “No. You’re not fine, and you’re going to the doctor tomorrow, whether you like it or not.” When Jun remains silent, Sho reaches over to tug the comforter away, having to fight with Jun a bit before the omega let Sho tug the comforter away, face stony.
In a way, Sho knows that the only reason Jun is being disagreeable about the issue is likely because he feels terrible, but nonetheless, Sho wants Jun to agree to it – it would make bringing him to see the doctor a lot easier.
“I don’t want to, I’m not going.” Jun sniffs, and a hand reaches up to press against his ear, forehead pinching. Sho catches the action immediately, recognizing the action from having two younger siblings, and quickly grips Jun’s wrist to cease the action, certain that yes, Jun is definitely not going to get away with avoiding the doctor. His hands were cold.
“Is your ear hurting?” Sho frowns when Jun chooses to say nothing, weakly shaking his wrist free from Sho’s grip. “Doctor, tomorrow, Jun. You’re not going to change my mind. Even if I have to drag you there. I get that you don’t want to see one but that’s not happening.” He asserted fiercely, pursing his lips and making his alpha pheromones known to Jun.
In retrospect, Sho should have been a lot gentler with the execution, especially with Jun clearly feeling unwell. Not to mention, Sho thinks with an internal wince, he should remember that Jun doesn’t take orders very well from alphas, in general, when he’s like this. So... using dominance to make Jun agreeable? Not a very good idea.
Good going Sho.
Jun freezes, eyes narrowing and taking a steel that immediately informs Sho that yes, Sho has fucked up. “Did you just try to make me submit to your orders?”
“Jun-“ Sho stutters.
The next thing he knows, his pillow is being roughly flung to his face, and he yelps when the action causes him to fall onto the floor in surprise. Stifling a cough, Jun roughly points a finger at the door, eyes hard. “You can take that alpha attitude and get out, you’re not sleeping here tonight.” Jun snarls. He would have made a fiercer sight if his nose didn’t sound terribly clogged and eyes were bloodshot, but Sho had to resist shrinking nonetheless.
“Jun, you’re s-“ Sho protests, not wanting to be in a separate room from Jun when the omega is sick – he would never forgive himself if something were to happen to Jun overnight.
A second pillow is thrown on his face. “Out.” Jun hissed. “Now.”
“But-“
“Out!”
Sho gulped and quickly grabbed the pillow, skittering out of the room. He didn’t want to make Jun any angrier than he is – it would be counter intuitive, for now.
When the door slams behind him, the alpha curses – in the end, he hadn’t managed to ask after Jun’s welfare. Considering that he didn’t hear Jun lock the door, Sho considers sneaking in later in the night to check on Jun; however, he didn’t want to risk Jun’s wrath and end up being ignored (or glared at) for the next few days when all Sho wanted to do is make sure his omega is okay.
In the end, Sho could only resort to grabbing the extra blanket from the guest room and dragging his tired body to the couch that is on the second floor – at least he could hear Jun if anything were to happen. Closing his eyes, Sho settled in for the sleepless night.
--
Sho nervously knocks on the door the following morning, balancing a tray with a bowl of soup (store-bought, rest assured, because he doesn’t want to risk Jun getting food poisoning, and also because he knows Jun would slaughter him for even attempting to cook in Jun’s kitchen) and a glass of water and orange juice. He made the doctor’s appointment for noon in the morning, so Sho had approximately three hours to make-nice with Jun and convince him to go.
Which brings him outside the bedroom door.
Sho knows that Jun is awake, mainly because he heard heavy coughing and heavy shuffling footsteps less than fifteen minutes ago. As such, Sho figures it’s time for him to apologize, as well as check on Jun (because Sho could barely sleep a wink the previous night, ears alert for any sounds that might require him to charge into the room to Jun’s rescue, or something of that sort).
“Jun?” He calls out hesitantly, but loudly enough that Jun should be able to hear him through the door. “I have some soup for you. And orange juice. Can I come in?”
There is a stiff silence from the room, but with heightened alpha hearing, it isn’t difficult for him to pick out Jun’s sniffing. Then, “No.”
Sho nearly groans at the response, but steels his nerve, resting a hand on the door knob. “You need to eat something, Macchan.” He hoped the use of the nickname would soften Jun’s anger, but judging from the lack thereof response, it isn’t working very well.
“Take a step into the door and I’ll ignore you for the rest of the week.”
Sho’s hand automatically flinches from the door knob, and this time, Sho pouts. “Macchan-“ Sho moves to protest, but the door opens to reveal a bedraggled Jun, and the alpha finds himself having to stop himself from dropping the contents of the tray to the ground to hug his bond-mate.
Jun looks awful, and if Sho thinks that he’s had little sleep the previous night, Jun looks like he hadn’t slept for a week – face almost gray and eyes tired. Sho doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know to deduce that Jun had a fever.
“You look awful.” Sho wants to slap his own mouth when he says this, but he meant it in a nice way, honestly. Jun simply levels Sho with a cold glare, and takes the tray away from the alpha with a scowl. “That came out wrong.” Sho fibbed nervously. “I’m sorry about last night, Jun, I’m just worried – You look like you need to see a doctor.”
He bravely takes a step forward to hug his bond-mate, and is promptly met with air as Jun takes a step back.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
And the door promptly slams into Sho’s face.
The alpha sighs, and takes out his phone. Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all.
--
“Well done, Sho-chan.” Nino drawls as he shoves an entire bag of worth of groceries into Sho’s chest, eyes bright with mischief. “Way to get Jun to go to the doctor. ‘Oh, I’m going to order him to do so.’ Yeah, like that would work so well.”
Pouting, Sho places the groceries on the bar counter. “I didn’t mean to. It was unintentional, I swear. I was really worried. He looked – well, still looks – awful.”
“I hope you didn’t tell him that.” Nino pats his shoulder reassuringly, then bursts out in laughter when he sees the pinched look on Sho’s face. “Oh my god. You did, didn’t you?”
“It came out wrong!” Sho whines, crossing his arms across his chest defensively. “I just don’t like seeing him like that. And now I can’t even take care of him. I just want to make him feel better.”
Nino cocks his head at the words, and then smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners. Rubbing his hands together, he looks at the maisonette staircase. “Upstairs, right?”
“I think you’ll be able to scent him from the hallway.”
“Excellent. I’ll have him out in fifteen minutes.”
True to his words, fifteen minutes later, Sho hears unsteady footsteps and looks up from his fiddling of his car keys, freezing when he sees Jun wobbily walking down, Nino supporting him a careful grip around his shoulders. Sho has to stop himself from cooing when he realizes that Jun is in his Keio hoodie, but settles for waiting at the base of steps, unsure if he should reach out to help his bond-mate or not, especially if the omega is still angry at him.
His heart stops when Jun promptly buries himself into Sho’s chest, arms wrapping around Sho tightly.
Suffice to say, Sho’s confused. Wrapping his arms around the trembling man, Sho gives Nino a questioning look. Nino simply throws him a smug look, although his eyes betray his own worry for Jun. “He says his ears hurt.”
Sho frowns at that, although he had his suspicions since the previous night. Tightening his arms around Jun, Sho presses a soft kiss on the top of his bond-mate’s head. “Doctor, okay, Macchan?” He feels a stab of concern when all Jun does is nod into his chest, Sho feeling Jun’s fevered forehead through his shirt. “Will you be okay here?” He directs the question to Nino this time.
Nino waves the alpha off, heading off to the kitchen. “I’ve got a key to your place, remember? Aiba said he’ll pick me up later. Don’t worry. You should go ahead.”
Distracted with his concern for Jun, Sho simply agrees, rather than (responsibly) ask Nino what he is doing unpacking the groceries onto the kitchen benchtop and using Jun’s utensils. Nevertheless, Jun remains quiet, and his silence only eggs Sho on to quickly bring him to the doctor’s.
--
Jun remained worryingly silent throughout the drive to and back from the doctors, besides the occasional blowing of his nose and frequent coughs that sounded nasty enough for Sho to wince in sympathy. (Fortunately, they didn’t have any more recordings to do for the rest of the month. Not that Sho had the intentional to even let Jun go to work, if he could help it.) The omega was curled up against the car seat the entire ride home, and despite them being of relatively similar sizes, Sho couldn’t help but think how small Jun looked in his hoodie.
The only time Jun spoke was at the doctor’s office, and he sounded so miserable describing his symptoms that Sho had to resist the temptation to just wrap him up in blankets and do whatever he could to make Jun feel better.
When they finally arrived home, the apartment is (unsurprisingly) empty, with only a pot sitting on the stove top and a note written in Nino’s scrawl left on the kitchen island.
//I made food for Jun-pon. You have a microwave. You know how to reheat it safely, I hope. -Nino
PS. Give him a hug for me.
PPS. Feel better, Jun-pon <3
PPPS. I took the omiyage from the fridge. Thanks for the food, Sho-chan~//
Sho really needed to treat Nino for lunch soon, he decides, when he peeks into the pot and sees (and smells) delicious garlic chives porridge, still warm – right on time, as the doctor had promptly prescribed a whole slew of drugs to help Jun with his throat and ear infection that he should take after food.
(Nasty. No wonder Jun looked so awful.)
Pressing a kiss against Jun’s temple, Sho lightly nudges him in the direction of the stairs. “Why don’t you change into something comfortable and get settled in bed? I’ll head up in a bit with some food and your meds, alright?”
Jun nods against Sho’s neck, hugging him briefly before slowly making his way up the stairs. Sho watches as Jun moves out of the view, before silently preparing a tray to bring up.
Sho finds the master bedroom empty when he comes up, much to his confusion; instead the door to Jun’s nest is wide open in invitation. Peeking inside, Sho feels his heart stutter and a coo rise in his throat when he sees Jun.
The omega was wearing one of his own tank tops, but... he was wearing two parkas. Two of Sho’s parkas, actually. With Jun’s cheeks flushed with fever and eyes glassy, he looked miserable but adorable, especially wearing Sho’s clothes. In double parka style. The sight only made the alpha want to snuggle him and never let him out of his sight.
Sho couldn’t help it. He cooed, earning Jun’s attention.
Automatically, Jun’s large eyes flickered up to Sho, and his arms stretch towards Sho in askance for hug. The alpha could never deny him, placing the tray by the entrance and quickly enveloping Jun in a tight cuddle, pressing multiple kisses against his hair. Despite Jun smelling unwell, it didn’t detract Sho from that fact that he missed Jun, especially after not having the opportunity to snuggle with him the night before.
At the open clinginess, Sho wonders what Nino had said to Jun earlier to make him so affectionate.
Sho frowns when Jun leans away to cough heavily, chest heaving at the exertion. Pressing the back of hand against Jun’s forehead, Sho tuts at the heat and grabs the fever patch he prepared, removing the backing with relative ease. Cupping Jun’s too warm cheek, Sho turns Jun’s head towards him and softly brushes away the hair from his forehead to stick the cooling patch on, followed by a kiss.
“Do you suppose you can eat something? You should drink your meds.” Sho asks softly, fingers gently carding into Jun’s hair.
At the rough “okay”, Sho grabs the warm bowl and picks up the spoon.
“I can feed myself.” Jun protests weakly, attempting to seize the spoon from the alpha’s hand. Sho tsks, holding the utensil away from Jun’s arms.
“Humor me, would you? Let me take care of you for a bit.”
The omega blushes at the words, looking as though he’d resist for a fair bit more, but upon looking at Sho’s serious face, Jun simply sighs and rests his head tiredly against the pillows.
Sho brightens instantly, scooping up the warm porridge and bringing it to Jun’s mouth.
“Open wide~” Sho sang lightly. Jun rolled his eyes.
“I’m not five.” Jun grumbles, but doing so anyway, accepting the food.
The alpha watches intently as Jun chews lightly, before swallowing. “Is it good?” He queries as he takes the next scoop.
Jun tilts his head lightly. “It’s good. Can’t taste it properly though.” The complaint comes out as a miserable whine, and Sho hums in sympathy.
“The more you eat, the faster you can recover.” He offers the next scoop, preening when Jun opens his mouth in acceptance.
When the bowl was finally empty, and Jun drugged to Sho’s satisfaction, the pair ends up in a tangle of legs and octopi arms. Burying his nose into the Jun’s nape, the alpha nibbles on it lightly, before nuzzling into it.
Between the comforting scent of Jun and the nesting linens and the cuddles, he definitely missed Jun last night. “How are you feeling, actually?”
Jun shifts uncomfortably. “My ear hurts. My throat hurts. My head feels weird.” Sho croons at how miserable his omega sounds, rubbing Jun’s arm comfortingly. He hugs Jun tightly, wishing his touch could miraculously make Jun feel better.
“Try to sleep?” It was a redundant suggestion, given that one of the prescriptions was meant to knock the omega out. Nonetheless, Jun nodded into the nesting linens pitiably, the two descending to a comfortable silence.
Given that Sho barely slept the night before, he found himself being lulled to sleep, especially with Jun in his arms.
“I’m sorry.”
Sho lightly stirs at that, humming in confusion. “What?”
“For last night.” Jun turns around to cuddle into Sho’s chest, the cool patch resting right at the alpha’s shoulder and causing him to shiver at the sensation. “I reacted badly.” He clears his throat roughly. “Nino told me that you were worried. I shouldn’t have been so hard on you.”
“It’s okay.” The alpha murmurs, hand lightly crawling up stroke Jun’s hair. Despite recognizing this conversation as a relatively serious one, he was very sleepy. “You weren’t feeling well. It wasn’t very nice of me to try to do that.”
“But...” Jun starts to protest, but Sho shushes him sleepily.
“It’s okay. I just don’t like seeing you so sick and sad, so...” Sho tugs Jun closer, nearly dozing off now. “just get better quickly, okay?”
Sho doesn’t stay awake long enough to see Jun blush, but he definitely registers the too warm lips kissing him just under his neck.