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Tao woke up feeling...weird. He was heavy and felt like he had eaten a thousand rocks and then gone to sleep. His head felt like someone had tucked cotton inside his brain and it hurt. He let out a pained groan as a cramp hit his stomach, he was feeling truly awful, his head had started spinning as soon as he made the motion to stand up so he decided to stay in his bed and wait for his stomach to stop doing somersaults.
When he thought he was feeling good enough to stand up, or at least when he didn’t feel that the second he stood up he would pass out, he moved to Kris’s bed looking for some comfort for his cramping stomach and a spinning head. To his disappointment, the older wasn’t in his bed and after focusing for a bit he noticed noises coming out of the bathroom, Tao must have been too concentrated on his pain to notice that the shower was running, right, they had a concert to do today, they had some interviews to attend to but Tao had a bathroom to run to because he was sure he would throw up any second now.
He stood up from the older’s bed and knocked on the bathroom door praying to the gods that Kris could hear how desperate he was and let him in. “Gege please open up, I don’t feel good” Tao said trying to get Kris’ attention but it was to no avail, he could feel the bile rising up his throat and he started to knock on the door harder knowing that if he stayed there he would ruin the room’s carpet.
After some more knocking and some “please let me in” here and there, the shower stopped and the door opened revealing a very confused Kris, but Tao had no time to appreciate his ge’s features, pushing Kris out of the way he made his way to the toilet as fast as he could, dropped to his knees while opening the lid and threw up probably everything he had eaten the past week, at least that’s how Tao felt it.
Kris stood there for a bit, not knowing exactly what was happening. Vomit scent filled his nostrils and that’s when he came back to reality, he kneeled down next to the youngest and started rubbing, what he expected to be, soothing circles on Tao’s back in hopes of calming him down. Tao felt like his insides where being torn apart, one round after another, bile kept rising up his throat and his stomach didn’t seem to let up any time soon. Kris kept telling him that it was going to be ok but Tao really doubted it, he couldn’t see the end to this torture, and the pain just became worse by the second.
Tao had started crying in the middle of the whole thing and was now driving himself into a state of panic and Kris knew he had to do something. He picked to youngest’s hands into his and hugged him tightly while telling him to breathe “Breathe baby, it’s going to be ok, ssshh” Kris kept repeating those same words and at some point, they started working because Tao had started breathing normally and his once sobs had become silent hiccups and more importantly, he no longer felt like he was dying.
Pressed against his ge’s chest he could feel his breathing, his heartbeat and he could hear how he whispered sweet nothings to his ear and suddenly the pain felt just like background noise, no longer pressing him down to the floor and finally feeling at peace, he allowed himself to sleep in the older’s embrace.
Once Kris was sure that Tao was asleep, he carried him back to the room and laid him down on his bed. Now that Kris paid attention, Tao was shivering, he was sure he had turned the AC off, it was actually pretty warm inside the house and then he decided to check Tao’s forehead, as expected, the youngest was warm, warmer than he was supposed to be. Quickly he changed into his clothes remembering he had come out of the shower with nothing more than a towel and once he was ready he went on a mission to find the thermometer he knew they had somewhere in the dorm.
Once outside his room, Kris was welcomed with the scent of pancakes, Kyungsoo had probably cooked and honestly, they smelled delicious but at the moment he was on a more important mission than eating, trying to cure his didi.
He stepped into the living room where most of the members were already chatting and fooling around. He must’ve looked really worried because the second he entered the room Suho approached him with a concerned looked on his face.
“Hey hey, what’s wrong? Where’s Tao?” yeah, that was the problem, Tao was...kind of dead, or at least Kris perceived it that way. “Tao is sick and he started throwing up and I’m pretty sure he has a fever so I’m looking for a thermometer” his calm facade he always carried was long gone, too worried for the younger to care about looking calm and composed.
Before he could say anything more, Sehun was already heading to their room and Suho was already looking for the thermometer, Baekhyun had occupied himself on wetting towels to put on Tao’s forehead for his fever, Chan was heading to their room with a bucket and some medicine and Kris just found it slightly funny how everyone had gone into protective mode in less than two minutes.
“I’ll call management so that they know what’s going on,” Kris said to no one in particular but rather for everyone in the room. He didn’t think Tao would be able to do the concert or the interviews but they would have to see what the company thought. He went into the hallway and made the call, he was expecting some understanding you know, an “Of course! We can let him rest today” but no, he received an exasperated sigh and a “He can miss the interviews but he has to do the concert” and then nothing, they had hung up on him. To say that he was angry was an understatement, he was furious, how did they expect Tao to do the concert when he could barely stand up. These people were going to kill him someday, and if they didn’t kill him..he would kill them.
Kris was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard his name being called from the other side of the house, from his room to be more specific. He ran to where the sound was coming from to find some dirty sheets, a vomit-covered Tao and Sehun, and a very apologetic Tao trying to say something behind his tears.
Carefully, Kris approached the sick boy, he gave a smile to Sehun meaning that it was ok, that he would handle it from there and that he could go clean up, many meanings for a smile, but the point was that the boy understood. Sehun patted his fellow maknae’s head one last time and left the boys alone.
“I didn’t mean to ruin your bed ge. I was asleep and then I just got sick, I’m sorry” Tao said while crying and speaking some sort of konese (Korean–Chinese) that even Kris had a hard time understanding but he knew that the poor boy must have been too overwhelmed to think in proper Korean.
Kris wasn’t mad at all, right now his first priority was to clean the boy up and make sure he was ok. “It’s ok baby, it’s ok, now don’t cry,” Kris said while he carefully caressed the younger’s head, Tao seemed to relax a bit but then his face went pale and Kris knew what was happening so he picked the bucket Chen had brought earlier and placed it under the younger’s chin.
Tao gagged and coughed but nothing seemed to come out, he felt extremely nauseous and the pain in his stomach was starting to become unbearable but for some reason, his body decided that he would not be throwing up. “Don’t hold it, it’s going to be ok, I’m right here with you yeah?” Tao understood that but he really wasn’t holding it, at least not intentionally, he just couldn’t seem to bring anything up, until he did.
He felt liquid coming up his throat and suddenly he was getting sick all over again but this time, it was only acid, he had thrown up everything before and the acid was hurting his throat. He wanted it to stop but he couldn’t, his stomach cramped with every wave of sick that rushed out of his body and it seemed like he would be like this forever. Kris kept his hair out of the way and placed his hands on the other’s shoulders reassuringly until Tao got a break. He removed the bucket from under his chin and cleaned his mouth. It was then and there that Kris decided, fuck management, he was calling them later to say they wouldn’t be performing today, he wasn’t going to risk his didi’s health because of a concert.
“You think you’re done?” Kris asked while trying to take the bucket away just for it to be grabbed by Tao and for the whole thing to start all over again, the poor boy only got a 5-minute break before his body was expelling all its contents once more. Kris felt powerless, he could do nothing but hold the boy tightly and reassure him that he was going to feel better even if he didn’t exactly believe it himself.
Tao felt completely awful, round after round of sick left his body non–stop, he was shaking and cold and he wanted to cry because he was just in so much pain, but at least now, his body was giving him a break. Kris took the bucket away, threw its contents in the toilet, flushed it down, and came back to his crying didi.
Tao was pulled into the older’s embrace while he cried, he couldn’t stop the tears just like he couldn’t stop the pain and he held Kris’ t-shirt like it was his life support. Kris held him and rocked him back and forth trying to bring some comfort to the sick boy. When Tao was calmer, he removed his and Tao’s T-shirt and put some new clothes on them, because as you may remember, Tao had previously thrown up all over himself and because Kris had hugged him, he was now dirty too. “Mum,” Tao said in no more than a whisper and Kris didn’t know whether he was calling for Suho, or if his fever was starting to make him a bit delusional, anyway, the only one he could help with at the moment was bringing Suho, the leader was probably still looking for the thermometer and that reminded Kris of the fact that they really had to organise things better around the dorm.
Just as Kris was going to call Suho, he came in the room, thermometer in hand and tired expression on his face, the older had probably been looking for that thermometer like crazy and Kris found the image quite funny until a whimper was heard from beneath him, or rather, from inside his arms. Tao had a pained expression adorning his face and had started squirming a bit while still calling for “Mum”. Both, Suho and Kris looked at each other concerned, Kris could tell Tao’s temperature had risen in the past few minutes and he could hear his stomach rumbling beneath his hands. They had to give the boy some medicine, lower his fever, and...now that he thought about it, where the hell was Baekhyun with those wet towels.
As if on cue, Baekhyun entered the room with said towels, both leaders gave him a death glare and took the towels from his hands. Baekhyun stayed for a bit while they laid the sick boy down on Kris’ bed, placed a towel on his forehead, placed the thermometer in his ear, and waited for it to beep, 39.4ºC (103ºF).
“He’s burning up,” Baekhyun said while caressing the younger’s cheek. They were worried, none of the members had ever gotten that sick and Tao just seemed to get worse by the second. “If his fever doesn’t go down after giving him the medicine, we’re taking him to the hospital,” Kris said with a firm tone in his voice, the others agreed, they couldn’t let their maknae (at least ExoM maknae) get worse.
After kissing the younger’s forehead, Baekhyun left the room leaving the two leaders inside. “He’s been calling for mum” Suho only hummed in response. They didn’t want to wake Tao up but they knew they had to give him some medicine. Suho slightly shook the younger trying to wake him up, Tao’s little eyes fluttered open, he looked kind of cute with his pink cheeks, slightly parted lips and fluttering eyes, they wanted to hug him and pinch his cheeks and say aaaawww but then, reality hit them like a truck.
“Hi, baby, how’re you feeling?” Suho said trying to sound calm, a groan was everything he got in response, he caressed Tao’s hair and spoke again, “I’m going to give you some medicine ok?” and with that, he picked a glass of water and prepared some painkillers and fever reducers while Kris cleaned Tao’s face with another towel.
Tao sat up with the older’s help and leaned in the wall. He stared at the pills that were given to him, he knew that he was probably going to throw them up later but he had to try right? Plus, he didn’t have enough energy to argue with his hyungs so he took a deep breath and took the pills with some water, he could already feel how the pills weighed heavy on his stomach and he let out a groan, it wasn’t exactly because of the pain, because yes, he was still in pain, but because he didn’t want to get sick again and the idea just scared him a bit.
A desperate whine left his mouth and he looked at his gege, then at his hyung looking for some comfort from any of them. Quickly he was pulled into Suho’s embrace and shushed “Mum”, that’s probably the only word that had left Tao’s mouth the past hour but it was because he really needed Suho’s comfort, not that Kris’ wasn’t as good but, but...he was selfish and wanted comfort from both of them.
He buried his face into Suho’s chest and breathed on his cologne, Kris had started cleaning his neck and back with some of the wet towels and Tao felt like he was in heaven, that was until he noticed how dirty he felt, his shirt was sticking to his skin and his bangs were all sweaty, his mouth probably smelled like vomit and now he was really thankful to his ge for changing his shirt before. “I need to shower,” he said, his voice hoarse from all the crying and getting sick.
Kris carried him towards the shower while Suho filled the bathtub. “Do you want me to stay?’ Kris already knew the answer but he still had to ask just in case Tao’s ideas of showering with someone else had changed. The younger nodded weakly and Kris started removing his clothes, Tao was left in his underwear and once the bathtub was ready and Suho had left he removed that piece of clothing too and went inside the water.
Kris cleaned his back, his hair, and arms all the while he hummed to some song he had heard on the radio. Tao enjoyed his gege’s touch and the water cleaning him up, it felt as if the soap was removing the sickness and he felt exponentially better. It could also be the pills doing their job but he decided to think it was his gege’s magic hands that were healing him.
After he felt clean, he came out of the water, gave a last rinse with the shower, and came out. Suho had left some clean clothes inside the bathroom so that he wouldn’t have to go out and get cold. Kris helped him get dressed and carried him to their room. Tao was tired, he wanted to sleep but he didn’t want to be alone in the room so he decided he would lay down on the sofa that was in the living room. Kris didn’t quite like the idea at first because he knew how the members could be and were afraid they would bother the younger too much but seeing as the boy was so reluctant to stay in the room he had no choice but to carry the boy to the living room.
They hadn’t even gotten to the living room when Tao fell asleep in the older’s embrace. When they arrived, 10 pairs of eyes turned to them with concerned looks, Kris shushed them so that they wouldn’t wake Tao up and then laid him on top of Kyungsoo’s legs, slowly everyone sat around them in different positions, with different blankets and soon they were discussing what movie they would be watching. Eventually, Tao woke up to find his hyungs, and well, Sehun, asleep in a puddle of limbs, all connected to the other, every9one touched an arm, a face, a leg, a head, everyone had someone and Tao felt happy, even if he wasn’t feeling his best, he was happy because he had his brothers there, all 11 of them.