Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The alarm had been going off for at least ten minutes. Louis could sense it. He also could hear it, very cleary to add, since the stupid thing was right beside him on the nightstand. The young man groaned as he raised an arm and slammed a finger down, successfully shutting the obnoxious noise off. Louis fluttered his eyes open and found it was half till eight. Time to get up.

“Clem,” Louis croaked to his wife as he rose to a sitting position. “Babe, time to get up,” He looked to his wife, who was hidden beneath the comfort of their sheets. All that was shown to prove she was there was a decently sized lump under the sewed up pieces of fabric. Getting no response from her disappointed him, mainly since he wanted to hear her lovely voice, but knew she’d wake up soon. Slipping out of bed the freckled man stretched his exposed arms out, happily sighing as his body relaxed. He sensed today would be another good day.

Of course it was going to be a good day, why wouldn’t it be? Louis knew the second his eyes peeled open. Why? It was his and Clem’s wedding anniversary. The day where they bound themselves together for life, aka Louis’ dream day. He had the whole day planned. They’d go out for breakfast, visit the spot where they had their first date (the local aquarium), they’d go out for lunch at their favorite cafe, take a stroll through their favorite local park, then end the day with a romantic dinner. Ruby helped Louis plan the entire day. Brody helped too. And Aasim. Yeah, Louis needed a lot of help.

He rounds around the bed to get to the bathroom but notices an unnaturally large pile of tissues flooding the trash can beside Clementine’s nightstand. It was overflowing so much some of the tissues had already found its way to the floor. The sight made Louis’ brows rise. When did they use that many tissues? More specifically, when did Clem use that many tissues? Oh well, Louis would get answers when she wakes up. Right now the only thing on his mind was the fact his bladder might explode.

Okay, scratch that. He had to do more than pissing, so he took longer in the bathroom. He takes his piss and he brushes his teeth - what, did you think he was doing something else? - and leaves the bathroom. When he enters the bedroom again he finds Clementine still in bed. Was she really still sleeping? On a day like today? Even sleeping through that disgrace of an alarm?

“Clementine,” Louis tried using a stern voice. It didn’t come out stern at all. “Clem, hon, c’mon, it’s time to get up.” Mumbles from under the sheets were all that were heard. Louis sighed to himself. He stepped forward to the edge of the bed and simply yanked the sheets up.

He regretted doing so.

He yelped loudly and dropped the sheets to his feet while taking in the sight before him. There his wife was, still alive thankfully, snoozing soundly with a soft smile resting on her face. That wasn’t what got Louis all freaked out. What got him freaked out was the fact her nose was all red and sweat was beating down her forehead. “Good god, Clem!” He bent down and placed a palm to her cheek. He winced at how it practically burned his skin. “Oh no… this doesn’t look good.”

“Lou…?” Clem mumbled to her husband. It sounded more like a whisper with how lost her voice sounded. “What time is it?”

Louis frowned at not only the level of her voice, but also at how scratchy it played out. “Almost eight. Jesus, Clem, you’re burning up.” He told her to wait one moment before rushing into the bathroom. He grabs a washcloth from the side and runs in under some cool water before going back to his wife’s side and gently placing the wet cloth upon her forehead. “Here, we should probably take your temperature too…”

“I feel like literal crap , Louis,” The brunette’s voice slurred a bit when saying the dreadlocked one’s name. “I had trouble sleeping last night… and…”

“It’s okay, darling,” Louis took her hand and caressed her palm with his thumb. “Just wait here while I go grab a thermometer, okay?”

It was worse than it looked. Clem’s temperature was way above one hundred degrees fahrenheit, nearly tipping over to one hundred and six. Louis had to turn on the ceiling fan in the bedroom since the brunette was getting extremely sweaty. He went downstairs to prepare some soup for the brunette and rang Ruby up, since he knew he’d need the medical advice.

“... Make sure she stays in bed, gettin’ lots of rest is important,” Ruby said through the phone. “Oh sugars- today is your anniversary! A pain she’s sick on y’all’s special day…”

“It’s fine, Ruby, we can always do it tomorrow…”

“But it won’t be the same!” She whines. “Just… make sure she gets her beauty sleep and gets some soup in her system. Soup is a miracle when it comes to colds.”

“Fever. She has a fever.”

“Oh good lord- a fever?! Why didn’t you tell me!”

Louis rolled his eyes as he turned off the heat to the stove, letting the finished soup cool down. “I did tell you, Rubs!” He heard the redhead grumble unintelligibly through the line. “Look, I’ll make sure to keep a close eye on her, okay?”

“I know you will, sug. You care about her more than anything. But it’s not that I’m worried about.”

Louis wondered what she meant by that but chose not to question it. “I’ll text you an update later. Gotta give Clem her soup,” They exchanged goodbyes and Louis hung up. He poured some of the soup into a bowl and got some crackers before taking it back to their bedroom. When he arrived he found Clementine curled up in bed, tissues laying by her head as her face was all red and scrunched up.

“Heyy Clem,” Louis cooed as he entered the room. “I got ya some soup,”

Clem’s nose twitched. “My nose is so stuffy I can’t even smell it,” She laughed weakly. “But it looks good.”

“Here, sit up,” Louis set the bowl down on the nightstand and helped his wife sit upon their bed. He then handed the dish to her, earning a warm thanks from the brunette before she dug in. Louis plopped himself at the edge of the bed as he observed. “So…” Louis began hesitantly. “About today…-”

“I know, Lou,” Clementine cut him off. “It’s our anniversary, how could I forget? And knowing your fantastic self you had plans arranged for us.”

“... Yeah, pretty much.” Louis sighed in defeat. “I just wanted to give my amazing wife an amazing day.”

Clementine’s lips quivered into a smile. “Your presence has already done that.”

Louis allowed himself to snort. “That was the corniest thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth!”

“You’ve said cornier!”

“Alas, I have,” The freckled man’s eyes darted to his lap. “I don’t know, we were gonna go to the aquarium and everything and-”

“Babe, love, honey, relax , you’re thinking too much about it. How about when I get better we make up for it all? That sound good?”

Louis averted his eyes from his lap and turned them back to the brunette. She was right, they could always do the same things on a different day. A day where Clem wasn’t sick and feeling as if the world was standing right beside the sun. Besides, even if Louis did disagree with her - which he was silently doing, deep down in his gut he was disagreeing with the whole thing - Clementine would change his mind in a snap. She tended to do that a lot. “Okay, fine. We’ll do that.”

“Good. Glad we came-” She paused to cough. “-came to an agreement.”

“Rest for now, darling. You need it.”

Clementine didn’t argue. She hummed to show she acknowledged his words and sank back into the comfort of their bed. Louis bent over and snagged her bowl of food so she wouldn’t spill it. The dreadlocked man wiggled his way back to his side of the bed and watched as his wife’s breathing was ragged and hitched. It made him frown deeply. It wasn’t even fever season, how did she catch this? That wasn’t important. What mattered most was Clem getting better, and Louis was determined to succeed. 

If only he remembered the other advice Ruby gave.