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When Bill woke up shivering but yet sweaty against the sheets, he knew immediately that Tess and Joel hadn’t just left them with medicine, nails and a bag of flour during their last visit. It may get lonely all isolated by themselves but the lack of illnesses that came their way was a plus.
Bill turned his head to look at Frank, still sleeping peacefully on his stomach, none the wiser to his partner’s current state. Bill was resolved to go about his day as normally as possible and wanted to get some distance between him and Frank before he made the other man sick. Winter had just started in earnest, so his chores shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. Maybe tonight he could sleep in the guest bedroom.
As he sat up though, Frank turned onto his side toward Bill, blinking blearily into the morning sunlight. “Good morning,” he said with a small stretch.
“Morning,” replied Bill in a gruff voice that caused him to bark out a cough.
Instantly Frank was more alert. “Hey, what’s up? Are you feeling okay?” he asked, sitting up in bed.
Bill shakily got to his feet, but had to stop to wait out the pounding in his head. “I’m fine. I think your QZ friends might have traded me a cold for that pumpkin I gave them.”
Frank stood up, coming around to the other side of the bed, inspecting his partner. His hand came to wrap around Bill’s arm while the other rested gently on Bill’s forehead. “Sweetheart, you’re burning up. And do you have a headache?”
Blue eyes avoided his gaze. “Bill, answer the question,” said Frank.
“Yes,” said Bill with a sigh.
“And do you feel really achy?”
“Frank I’m old and it’s the apocalypse, I always feel achy.”
“Okay, fair enough, but like more so than normal?”
Bill stretched his neck and shoulders and sighed with a roll of the eyes, “I suppose yes.”
“Then William, it sounds like you have the flu, not a cold and that means you are getting prescribed a nice day of rest and relaxation from yours truly. So back in bed!” Frank finished by directing Bill with an arm wrapped around his back.
Bill sat back down reluctantly, “But what about the chores?”
“Bill there’s three feet of snow out there,” Frank said with a thumb pointed at the window, “And by the look of those clouds we are gonna get more today. I don’t think we are going to be getting any visitors, infected or otherwise.”
“Raiders strike when you least expect them.”
“No they don’t! They aren’t gonna come out in a blizzard to try and break into your electric fence. They are holed up somewhere like everyone else because it’s fucking cold. Now lay down,” Frank said as he lightly pushed Bill’s shoulder, “I can handle the place for a day, or even two if need be. I will check the cameras, I will make sure everything is in working order, see if we caught any rabbits, I’ll feed the chickens and let them out for a bit. But first I’m going to get you a big glass of water and an aspirin for that headache.”
Bill then got resettled back into bed. Frank leaned over and pressed a kiss to Bill’s sweaty forehead and then made for the door, only stopping when Bill let out a cautious “Frank?”
Frank stopped and turned, “Hmm?”
“What if you get sick? What if I make you sick?” asked Bill.
“Then you’ll take care of me,” said Frank with a smile and a wink before turning back to his task.
ʚ🍓ɞ
Bill dozed throughout the morning, his fever holding steady and plaguing him with uncomfortable not fully formed dreams. Some were nonsensical, others just left him a feeling of dread. Dread was a familiar feeling living in the world they lived in, and no number of protections and precautions fully made it go away. Unease might as well have been breathing.
Frank flitted in and out of the bedroom, taking his temperature and making him drink more water. At one point he made him get up so he could strip the bed and make it up with fresh linens and a thicker quilt.
As Bill got back into the decidedly more comfortable bed, he quipped, “I thought I was supposed to get rest. How am I supposed to do that with you mother henning me?”
“Can’t get good rest on sweaty sheets that need a wash,” said Frank as he pulled a chair up to Bill’s side of the bed, grabbing a damp washcloth from a bowl he had brought into the bedroom and stroking his partner’s flushed face. Bill let out a sigh of contentment.
“Was your mom overbearing then when you got sick? My mom was,” Frank said with a laugh, “About went into hysterics everytime I got a runny nose thinking I was dying.”
Bill frowned, they didn’t talk about their families much, they didn’t talk about the before times much at all, “My mother was more concerned about my soul than my physical body, I think. Just pressed a rosary in my hand and told me to say a few decades, maybe say a prayer to Saint Blaise. She’d light a candle for me at church if she remembered.”
“Geez” said Frank, leaving the cloth on Bill’s forehead and moving to run his fingers through his hair.
“You were close to your parents then?” asked Bill
Frank sat back and sighed, “When I was young, I guess yeah. We were very typical middle class suburban America. But I came out and well they weren’t religious like your family, but it still didn’t fit the image you know? They cut off contact in the 80s, saying they couldn’t ‘support my lifestyle anymore’. I think they were seeing all the news and thought AIDs would get me too. Wanted to get out ahead of the grief. Huh, kind of ironic if you think about everything that has happened.”
Bill reached forward and squeezed Frank’s hand, neither of them wanting to get lost in the past. Frank smiled at Bill patting their clenched hands, “Well how about some soup?”
“You’re gonna cook?” asked Bill suspiciously.
“Oh come on! I can manage to boil chicken stock and water with carrots and onions and spices. I’m not that incompetent in the kitchen. Plus we still have a little bit of that last loaf of bread left, it’s kind of stale but you could dip it in the soup.”
“Not exactly a grilled cheese and tomato soup.”
Frank scoffed, “How dare you mention cheese! Are you sure we can’t get a goat?”
“We’ve been over this. Joel and Tess are never gonna be able to smuggle a whole ass animal to us, so what? We just gonna find a lactating goat in the wilds of Massachusetts?”
“There were petting zoos around here, small homesteads, who knows, there could be a wild goat herd just in reach. All the cheese we wanted. Just think about what Joel and Tess could trade to us for cheese. Americans like pumpkin, but Americans love cheese.”
ʚ🍓ɞ
That night Bill’s headache subsides and his fever breaks. He eats Frank’s soup that he begrudgingly admits isn’t half bad. He makes Frank update him on the status of everything around their home, relaxing (relaxing as much as Bill ever does) when he is assured that everything seems safe and sound.
There will be other days. Days when they scream themselves hoarse yelling at each other. Days when Bill will pace the perimeter of the fence for hours trying to blow off steam. Days when Frank will swear that the next time Joel and Tess come for a visit he will be joining them to return to the QZ, only for him to wave them off like normal when they leave.
But tonight Bill and Frank will fall asleep under a warm quilt, smelling of the lavender soap that Frank made himself. The room will be illuminated by the soft glow of the wood stove heater. Large, fat snowflakes will continue to blanket them throughout the undisturbed, serene night.