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Luca awoke slowly, eyes struggling to adjust to the light in the room. There was a dull ache in his head, and despite only being under a thin blanket, he felt overly warm.
Groggily he raised his head and realized he was lying on the couch in Massimo’s house. Sitting up more, he looked over to see someone standing over the stove, humming softly as they cooked.
“Alberto?” Luca croaked out, reaching up to wipe his eyes in an attempt to focus them properly.
Alberto whipped around, moving quickly forward when he realized Luca was awake.
“Hey, Luca, how you feelin?” He smiled gently, reaching up to place his palm on Luca’s forehead for a moment.
“I… bad?” Luca offered, not sure what Alberto was doing or when he had fallen asleep on the couch.
Alberto removed his hand, glancing over at the stove behind him. “Yeah, Pà said you have a ‘fever,’ whatever that is. Apparently it happens to humans sometimes, but it’s not serious. He and Giulia left awhile ago to go shopping and give you some quiet.”
A fever.
Luca had heard about these before, hearing about classmates being home sick with them for a few days, but he had no idea sea monsters could get them too.
“Oh, speaking of-”
Alberto cut himself off to rush back to the stove, stirring something one last time before turning off the stove entirely. He looked to Luca with a proud smile.
“Pà said warm foods would help, so I made you a little something-something.” He puffed his chest out slightly, clearly satisfied by his ability to be helpful.
“Thank you Beto, but I… I’m not hungry,” Luca admitted, sad to think about Alberto’s accomplished smile disappearing.
However, contrary to what Luca expected, Alberto just shrugged and walked back over to Luca. “Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t be, but now you have something for when you are.”
“You… ‘figured’?”
“Giulia and Pà told me what happens when someone gets a fever. They start feeling warm, their head hurts, they get really tired, and they don’t have an appetite. Sometimes they’ll also cough or have a stuffy nose, but you don’t have that.”
Luca blinked up at his boyfriend, surprised at how knowledgeable he was concerning this human illness.
Alberto sat down on the couch, pulling Luca to rest against him. “I studied up a little while you were sleeping. Y’know, to make sure I was doing everything right.”
Luca smiled at the thought of Alberto studying for him, planting a kiss on his cheek before suddenly pulling their bodies apart.
“Wait, am I contagious?”
“Hmmm… probably?” Alberto responded, reaching for Luca again before getting his hand swatted away.
“Then- well then don’t touch me! I don’t wanna get you sick!”
Luca shimmied away from Alberto, trying to leave as much space as possible between them on the tiny couch.
Confused, Alberto filled the space, forcing Luca to lean into him yet again. “I don’t care about getting sick? I wanna hug you.”
“But- but what if you do get sick?” Luca resisted, though the fatigue in his body made it hard for him to squirm.
“Then you’ll take care of me,” Alberto replied matter-of-factly.
Luca stopped squirming, thinking on Alberto’s words.
He was right of course. If roles were reversed Luca knew he’d be doing the same for his boyfriend, but he still felt guilty for potentially getting Alberto sick.
“And what happens when we get stuck in an endless cycle of getting each other sick?” He asked, the inflection of a joke hiding just underneath the words.
“Then we’ll just have to spend the rest of our lives together,” Alberto answered, adjusting his sitting position to open a space for Luca on his chest.
“Hmph, how horrible,” Luca muttered, finally conceding and letting himself relax into Alberto’s arms.
“Don’t worry, that’s only the worst-case-scenario,” Alberto whispered as he reached for the blanket to pull it back over Luca’s shoulders.
A tiny laugh rumbled against his chest, and before Alberto could continue with another witty joke, he looked down to see Luca already half-asleep.
Alberto’s heart swelled with love looking down at his boyfriend, small and cute and nuzzled into him. He brought his arms up, holding Luca tight as he scattered a thousand tiny kisses into those brown curls.
To him, Luca was worth getting a million fevers.