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The trailer door opens just as a slow drizzle begins to fall from above, pattering against the hood of your raincoat. The sky is dreary—full of rolling grey clouds swollen with rain—, but not nearly as dreary as Eddie looks as he stands hunched in the doorway. He's paler than usual, his cheeks rosier too. The tip of his nose is red and his dark chocolate eyes appear glossy and hazy.
Wrapped around his shoulders is the fuzzy purple blanket you left here last weekend and his very frizzy hair is tied in a low bun.
“I told you not to come, sweetheart. Don’t wanna get you sick,” Eddie worries, voice thick with congestion as he pulls the blanket over the lower half of his face to prevent the spread of his germs. He looks like a vampire pulling a cape over his face, only his dark eyes visible.
He did tell you that. But he sounded terrible over the phone, and uncle Wayne is out of town this weekend, and the knowledge that Eddie was home alone feeling miserable made your heart ache.
“I know, but I thought you might need some stuff,” You say as you lift the plastic bag in your left hand, shaking it lightly so the plastic rustles gently at him.
Eddie looks skeptical, like he’s a moment away from shooing you down the porch steps, so you quickly add: “Plus, I’ll probably catch a cold anyway if you leave me out here.”
This seems to work; his skepticism is replaced with a look that tells you he knows that you’re manipulating him, but he’s too tired to fight you further on the matter.
Eddie moves to the side to allow you to enter, blanket swaying with the movement. You step inside and Eddie closes the door as you pull your hood down and discard your rain jacket entirely.
When you step toward him, hand outstretched to feel his forehead with the back of your hand, Eddie leans away and walks to the couch, collapsing onto the cushions which causes them to groan.
You frown, creases appearing between your brows as you take in the state of him, of his living room. Tissues litter the coffee table, a couple mostly empty glasses of water strewn about amongst a smattering of other clutter on the table and the surrounding floor.
“Why won’t you let me take care of you?” You wonder, slightly hurt, but mostly just concerned for your sick boyfriend.
Eddie shrugs tiredly from his spot on the couch and sniffles. “Don't want you to get sick,” He utters simply.
You sigh and move to sit next to him on the couch. Eddie shifts away from you so he’s on the far end of the couch, but you shift over with him so you’re sat right next to him again, facing him with your legs crossed under you. Eddie pouts, but makes no move to shift away from you again.
“You know what I think? I think you’re not used to people wanting to take care of you. So you push us away because you don’t think we really mean it,” You say softly, tucking a stray chunk of hair behind his ear and placing your hand on his warm cheek. “But I mean it, Eddie. Just let me do this for you, baby.”
Eddie’s eyes are suddenly wide and you think they look more watery than earlier, but you can’t tell for sure.
Finally, he nods and you take this as his acceptance of your words. With that, you plant a soft kiss to his cheek (which he leans into instead of pulling away) and usher him to his bedroom to lay down in his bed rather than on the couch.
After that—and once all the tissues on the table are discarded, the half-full glasses in the sink, and the living room restored to its relative tidiness—, you grab a washcloth from the small linen closet across from Eddie’s bathroom. After soaking the cloth with cold water, you wander into his bedroom where he lays wrapped in your blanket and press the cold cloth to his forehead to soothe his headache. His eyes close for a moment, content, the feeling surely soothing as he whispers, “Thank you.”
But before you can leave the room to get the rest of the things you brought for him, Eddie catches your wrist.
“Stay,” he requests, eyes pleading and voice scratchy. It’s hard to believe he was rejecting your doting mere minutes ago and now he’s allowing you to see how fragile and vulnerable he feels right now. “Will you lay with me?”
Your heart melts and you rub softly at his wrist with your thumb. “‘Course, Teddy. I just gotta get the rest of your stuff, okay?” You ask.
Eddie nods.
“Okay,” You confirm as he closes his eyes once more and releases your wrist, letting his fall to the soft duvet.
As you boil water for the tea you bought him in the kitchen, Eddie fights a coughing fit down the hall and you frown to yourself at the awful sound.
Shortly after, you return to his room and sit at the edge of his bed to deliver the warm tea to him, along with some cold medicine you bought at the drugstore.
“What’s this?” Eddie asks when you hand him the mug. Bringing it to his nose, he sniffs at the steaming beverage. “It smells like gum,” He observes.
You smile softly at his slightly silly comment.
“It's peppermint tea. It'll help your throat and your cough. Now drink up and take these too,” You say, offering him a couple loose pills, one of which will hopefully help to reduce his fever.
Eddie takes the pills from you and after swallowing them with a sip of the tea, he leans back against the wall his bed is pushed up against, eyes wide and pupils blown as he stares at you.
“I love you. And I’m sorry if I get you sick,” He whispers, brows knitting together.
“I love you too. But don’t even think about that, I just want you to get better,” You say earnestly before placing a sweet kiss to his cheek.
Once Eddie has finished his tea, you brush through his knotted waves carefully and braid his hair into two plaits. Eddie basically purrs like a cat as you do so, enjoying the way your nails scratch at his scalp occasionally.
Finally, you fulfill your promise of laying with him and he falls asleep soon after with your chest pressed to his back, legs tangled with his.
You spend the rest of the weekend at Eddie's, laying around watching old movies, drinking copious amounts of peppermint tea and, most importantly, snuggling up with him under your fuzzy purple blanket.
Not a bad way to spend your weekend.