Work Text:
Connor got a nearly nonsense text message at quarter to four in the morning from Will Halstead, a jumble of mispellings that somehow were asking him to come over.
Connor: Are you drunk
Will: ni jst dyogn
Connor: Are you sick
Will: ye camet gt it if bed
Connor: I’m on my way stay there
Will: air aura caption
Connor wrapped himself in his jacket and scarf, and drove across the city to Will’s apartment. The door was unlocked, which was worrisome enough, but it was cold and damp inside when he got there, which was worse. He shuddered and wrapped his scarf around his neck tighter. Then, he followed the sound of a wet cough coming from behind the bedroom door. He tapped on it and then pushed it open so Will didn’t have to get out of bed. This room, too, was a wreck, chilly and uninviting, and laying in the middle of his bed, curled up nearly fetal with a thick blanket, was Will Halstead.
“Hey man,” Connor said, and he sank onto the edge of the mattress. It was alright, but he understood why Will complained about his back hurting often. “What’s going on?”
Will poked his head out of the blanket burrito he’d rolled himself in, and he looked miserable. There were pronounced shadows beneath his eyes, the rest of his face paler than usual, and there was a thin sheen of sweat along his skin.
“I wanna die,” Will murmured, and his voice was wrecked. “I’m so cold.”
“Why is it so cold in here?” he asked. “Is your heating broken?”
“No, well, maybe, can’t afford to turn it on.”
Connor paused and looked around at the scene around him. There was no way that Will was going to get better like this, in this room, and he sighed.
“C’mon, I’m going to take you back to my place, that way I can keep an eye on you.”
“No,” Will whined.
“Yeah, man, you gotta get up. My car is right downstairs, all warmed up, and we’ll go back to my place, get you something to eat and drink. I can turn my heat on, and just make sure you’re okay and not choking on your own tongue.”
Will started to protest, and Connor shut him down quickly.
“You asked for me to come over, and this is the consequences of your actions. I get to take care of you how I want, and this is how we’re doing it. Now, come on, you can stay wrapped up, I just need you to put on shoes.”
It took a little cajoling but he got Will out of bed, still wrapped up in his blanket, with a pair of shoes on his feet. Connor unwound his scarf from his own neck and wrapped it up around Will where the blanket exposed his neck. He hummed and buried his face into it.
“Smells good,” he murmured, even though his nose was stuffed enough that it came out nasally. He kept his face there, and Connor smiled a little to himself as he led Will out of the apartment, grabbing Will’s keys from the bowl next to the door and locking the door behind them. He kept a hand near Will all the way down to the car and made sure he was tucked into the passenger seat safely before driving home. Will was dozing lightly by the time they pulled into Connor’s parking spot in the private garage his building provider tenants with, always warmed and secure. He hated having to wake Will, but he couldn’t feasibly get him upstairs safely on his own. He reached over and touched Will’s shoulder and called his name.
“Huh?” Will mumbled.
“We’re at my place, Will. Let’s go upstairs.”
Will’s eyes blinked open, squinting at him in confusion, and Connor hadn’t seen anything cuter than that.
“Right,” he said, and Connor climbed out of the car, circling it to get to the passenger side. It took a little manuevering but he managed to get Will out of the car without hitting his head, and then carefully led him, arm around his waist, from the parking lot and into the elevator. Will slumped his weight into the wall behind them and groaned. “Everything hurts.”
“You’re sick, that makes sense.”
“I want to die,” Will grumbled.
“I know, but you’re not going to. You’re just going to be miserable for a little bit, and then you’ll be fine.”
“Doubtful,” Will said, and his voice was getting scratchy and thick. “Even opening my eyes hurts.”
“The light?”
“Mmm,” was all he got as Will closed his eyes and his head dipped forward. Connor leaned in and caught him from falling as he fell asleep briefly, the rocking motion startling him awake. “Fuck.”
“You’re alright, just lean into me. I’ll keep you upright until we can get into my apartment and get you back to bed.”
“Thought you’d at least buy me dinner first,” Will tried to joke, but it came out sleepy and tilted.
“Maybe once you’re better and could actually eat, I’ll take you out to a fancy restaurant and let you get whatever you want,” Connor said, and hooked his arm around Will’s waist again to tow him in as the elevator reached his floor. Will leaned in and rested his cheek against Connor’s shoulder, his own arm limply holding onto Connor in return. “How’s that sound, sunshine?”
Will hummed and let Connor lead him off the elevator and onto his floor, up to his door, pausing to unlock it. He was a solid weight against Connor’s side, and he kept his arm around Will so he didn’t drift away. He didn’t, though, he kept himself leaned into Connor as if he were the only thing holding Will up. He might be.
He got Will into the apartment and then led him carefully into the bedroom. He sat Will down on the edge of the bed and knelt down in front of Will so he could pull off his shoes. Then, gently, he eased Will backwards into the bed, laying him on his back before tucking the blankets around him.
“Do you remember the last time you ate or drank anything?”
“No,” Will said, voice raspy, his eyes starting to slip closed.
“Get some rest, Will, alright? I’ll wake you when I have something for you to drink.”
He made sure Will was tucked in securely, the warmth of the blankets wrapping around him, removing the scarf and setting it to the side so he wouldn’t strangle himself in his sleep. He busied himself with taking care of the bedroom before he left Will there just long enough to get a glass of water filled and the tea kettle started for a cup of tea. Back in the bedroom, Connor sank into the mattress beside the still lump of Will’s body hiding below the blankets, just the wild red waves visible. He tugged the blankets down just enough to see Will’s face.
“Hey, sorry, can you try and sip this for me?”
He slipped a free hand behind Will’s head and helped him sit up enough to try and sip the water from the glass. Connor had to give him props for the attempt Will put in, especially while he was so exhausted and looked as if he were going to pass out just from that effort. The water slipped out either side of his mouth, and he splurted as some slipped up and into his nose.
“Alright, well, that’s not going to work,” Connor said, setting the glass down just to ease Will back into the bed. “I think I have something else that might work. Stay here.”
Will hummed, barely conscious, and Connor left the bedroom again to search in his cabinets. He had, for some reason, a little sippy cup, and it should work as long as Will had enough energy to suckle, which was a basic human instinct that lingered past infancy. He filled the cup with tap water just barely cold so it wouldn’t shock Will’s system, and then returned to his side.
“Let’s try this,” Connor said, sitting down on the side of the bed again, and trying to ease the sippy cup up to Will’s mouth. He turned his head away with a grunt, and Connor stopped. “Will, you need some fluids. I just need you to take a sip or two, okay? You don’t have to finish it.”
Will groaned and turned his face away again.
“Okay, let’s try,” Connor said, and he shifted his grip and tried to sneak the lip up against Will’s mouth, as if the element of surprise would fix this. Instead, though, Will turned his head to the sigh the opposite direction, into Connor’s side and hid his face there. He was sweet, and adorable, but Connor knew he must be dehydrated so he had to get some water in him at the very least.
Finally, he tipped the sippy cup enough to wet his thumb just to run the pad over Will’s lower lip visible while his forehead pressed into Connor’s side. He hoped that teasing the hydration might trigger some kind of response in Will the way it did with babies. Luckily, it did. Will turned his head a bit and opened his mouth to suck Connor’s thumb into his mouth. Just as he’d hoped, he was suckling the digit like he would with the nipple on a bottle.
“There we go. Good boy.”
Carefully, he picked up the sippy cup and replaced his thumb with the opening of the cup. Will sucked water greedily down, and Connor had to ease the cup away so it didn’t make himself sick.
“Hey, careful, careful, baby,” Connor cooed. “That was good, though. That was really good. I’m going to put this over here, and if you need some water, it’s right there. I’m going to make myself some coffee and breakfast, but I’ll be just outside the bedroom if you need me.”
“Stay,” Will murmured. Connor looked at Will, curled up in his bed, using his pillow, like he belonged there. “Don’t go.”
“Okay, I won’t go,” he said, even though he was exhausted and starving, and he really needed a big cup of coffee. He needed to be where Will wanted him even more though. “I’ll be here.”
He ordered them breakfast to be delivered to the apartment, a coffee and a breakfast sandwich for himself and for Will, a cold remedy tea that Connor swore by even as a medical doctor. Because he’d spent his childhood under the care of Carlotta, he knew the healing power of a good tea and Spanish telenovelas, so he turned the TV to the best channel for telenovelas. Once he was sure Will was asleep, he crept out of bed to retrieve the order from the front door and then settled back onto the bed with his coffee. Will poked his head out of the comforter coccoon he’d made for himself at some point a few hours later, just enough to peer over the edge, and frowned at his surroundings and then at the TV.
“What’s this?” he asked, voice scraping.
“Corazón Salvaje,” Connor answered without further explanation. “How do you feel?”
“Like garbage. I smelled citrus tea, though.”
Connor picked up the tea he’d transferred into travel mug to keep warm and offered it to Will who sat up a bit on his elbows with a groan.
“Did I -” Will said and flushed, taking the tea so he could sip from it, and stalled having to finish the thought. “Am I crazy, or did I suck your thumb earlier?”
“You did,” Connor agreed. “But you’re also very sick, and should be in the hospital instead of my bed.”
“I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Will said. “I can’t afford it, and it’s just a cold.”
“This is not a cold, and you know that. You’re just ignoring it.”
“Of course I am,” Will grumbled and took another drink of his tea. It took too much effort to swallow, and Will winced as it went down, so Connor reached out to take the cup from him, setting it to the side but still within his reach.
“Are you hungry yet? Can I get you anything to eat?”
“No, I’m not hungry. Thank you, though. You’re a good guy, for bringing me home with you and taking care of me like some kind of stray you picked up.”
“You’re not a stray. You’re my friend, and you needed someone to take care of you. You messaged me because you needed someone, and I came when you called. You don’t need to thank me for that.”
“Yeah,” Will muttered. “Don’t tell anyone about the, the thumb sucking, though, please. I don’t think I could handle any jokes from the nurses or Ethan. God, if anyone found out, I’d never hear the end of it.”
“You don’t have to worry, sunshine. I’m not going to tell anyone. What happens in this bedroom stays in this bedroom, even if it’s just me nursing you back to health. You can trust me. I will let you suck my thumb as often as you need and I won’t tell anyone.”
Will groaned and covered his face with the blanket.
“Shut up, oh my god.”
Connor nudged Will playfully and said, “I don’t know if God has anything to do with this.”
“If I had the energy, I’d fling myself from the balcony to get away from this conversation,” Will said.
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop. I’m going to shower, and I have some work I need to do, but I’ll be nearby if you need me.”
Will looked up at him as he stood up, and Connor took a minute to look at him in return, the skin below his eyes delicately bruised with exhaustion, even his freckles drained of color. He needed to get some medicine in Will as well as some food, and he needed to take his temperature, except he had no idea where his thermometer was. Instead, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to Will’s forehead to test how warm he was.
Will hummed a little, and leaned into it.
“You have a fever,” Connor said, and Will nodded. “Lay back, watch telenovelas, and here.”
He paused to take a moment and pulled the funny little bell from his bedside drawer that Zanetti had gotten for him as a teasing gift. She had rung the bell as a way to award him almost for making her come with his mouth alone.
“Ring this if you need me.”
“I could just call your name like a normal person,” Will said, rolling his eyes at the bell.
“If you could get your voice that loud, sure, but you already sound like a broken party horn so let’s just stick to the bell.”
“I don’t,” Will said, and his voice broke in the middle, causing him to blush and sink down in the seat.
“Do you need anything right now?”
“It’s stupid, but I kind of don’t want you to go anyway, even if you’re just going into the bathroom or out into the living room. I feel worse when you’re not around.”
Connor smiled and knelt down on the bed again so he could take Will’s face in his hands, brushing his thumbs over Will’s slight stubble in broad sweeps.
“I won’t leave, then,” he said softly and leaned in to press his lips between Will’s eyebrows, a kiss to smooth out the worry lines there. “I’ll go grab my work bag, and I’ll be right back.”
He promised it with his forehead pressed against Will’s, and even though they were just friends, it felt important that Will believed him that he wouldn’t leave as long as Will wanted him around. He was here, and he wasn’t going anywhere.