Work Text:
Shut Up And Let Me Take Care Of You
The sound of retching in the bathroom across the hall woke Tracey from his slumber. He noticed the open space next to him on the bed and sat up with a yawn, groggily reaching for his phone to check the time. It was the middle of the night - hours since sundown and several more to go before sunrise. He climbed out of bed and headed down to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water, giving Gary a few moments of privacy as the day's poor decisions caught up with him.
Water in hand, he waited for the current round of vomiting to end before gently knocking on the door. There was no reply, so he cautiously opened the door and was greeted with the sight of his pale and clammy mess of a boyfriend sitting on the floor in front of the toilet. Gary was breathing heavily, either trying to catch his breath or battling another round of nausea.
It was the latter apparently, and it was a battle he quickly lost. Tracey winced at the sound of the painful retching and knelt down next to him, resting a hand on his back. He rubbed gently, staying quiet until Gary reached out with a shaking hand to flush the toilet. Tracey offered the glass of water but Gary shook his head, wrapping his arms about his stomach and curling in on himself.
Poor thing.
Tracey set the water on the ground and wrapped his arm around Gary’s shoulders, gently pulling him closer. He pressed a kiss to Gary’s temple and threaded the fingers of his free hand through Gary’s hair.
“Easy,” he soothed, “I’ve got you.”
Gary groaned, shivering against him, his skin hot and clammy. Still, Tracey felt him sink against him, relaxing bit by bit as the alcohol-induced illness started to loosen its hold on him.
“Sorry for overreacting earlier,” Gary mumbled after a bit, once the worst of the shaking had subsided.
Tracey hummed, accepting the apology with ease. “We all make mistakes,” he assured his boyfriend. “Just… maybe don’t jump to drinking yourself sick next time something goes wrong, yeah?”
Gary nodded, wincing a bit afterwards. He rested his head against Tracey’s shoulder and closed his eyes. “It's a problem…” he said, his voice significantly smaller than usual.
He and the professor had discussed that very thing only a few hours earlier. Tracey pressed another kiss to Gary's temple, buying himself a moment before replying. “It is when you're upset,” he acknowledged. “You’re usually pretty responsible otherwise.”
“Except the tequila incident,” Gary added weakly.
He sounded as though he might be sick again, but that could have just been the memory of that particular night. Tracey couldn’t blame him for that. He repositioned so that Gary wouldn’t be sick on him, if he did get sick again – just to be safe. Better safe than puked on.
“Well, that was for Ash’s birthday, plus Dawn and Misty were there,” Tracey reasoned. If he and Brock hadn’t left those four alone… Oh, who was he kidding? That amount of chaos couldn’t be controlled. At least the only lasting damage had been to the upholstery of his car.
But he wasn’t going to think about that right now. He rubbed his boyfriend’s back gently and passed him the glass of water again.
“It’s one thing to drink yourself stupid with your friends for an occasion when you’re twenty. Drinking yourself sick because you had a disagreement with your boyfriend is different… By the way, if you do that again, I’m not gonna let you drink anymore,” he added as an afterthought, though meaning it absolutely no less seriously.
There was a serious conversation to be had there still, but that would have to wait until the next afternoon, when Gary’s hangover had faded to just a headache and embarrassment. Hopefully he would come to the decision to talk to someone – anyone – about it on his own, because Tracey really didn’t want it to turn into an argument. He would push for it if he had to, because something about telling Gary that he didn’t want to be kept a secret and that he needed to communicate with him if they wanted this to work had apparently ripped open some old wound that needed tending to. While Tracey was happy to help, he could only do so much.
“That’s fair,” Gary murmured, taking an obedient sip of water before putting the glass down.
At least he wasn’t arguing it. Actually… The lack of argument meant he didn’t have the energy to argue, so that meant… “Okay, let’s get you back to bed,” Tracey decided. His boyfriend needed to sleep it the rest of the way off, the overreacting idiot. The thought was exasperated, but fond.
“I don’t wanna move,” Gary groaned sleepily, sounding utterly pathetic.
Tracey wasn’t having it. “You’re practically falling asleep on me. We’re going back to bed,” he said firmly, standing and gently pulling Gary to his feet. Gary staggered and swallowed hard, and Tracey worried briefly that he had made it worse. He bent to pick up the glass of water from the floor and moved towards the door, in case the vomiting started again.
But it seemed to pass. Gary took a deep breath and reached for the glass of water, taking a long sip once Tracey handed it to him.
“Better?”
Gary started to nod but stopped, wincing again. “Yeah,” he agreed quietly.
“Good.” Tracey took the glass from him and rubbed his back with his other hand, steering him towards the door.
“I’m fine, Trace,” he mumbled, stumbling through the doorway and into the hall.
Tracey rolled his eyes and helped him across the hall and back to his bed. “Gary, you can barely walk. Shut up and let me take care of you.”
Gary shot him a glance at that, mostly surprised but there was a touch of amusement in his eyes, beneath the exhaustion. “Okay,” he agreed, letting Tracey lead him to bed and ease him back against the pillows. Another testament to how tired he was.
Good . Hopefully he would sleep the rest of the night and a good chunk of the morning too. Tracey placed the water glass on the bedside table and repositioned the trash bin he had placed next to the bed earlier, just in case.
He leaned over to press a kiss to Gary’s forehead and ran his fingers through his hair one last time. “Get some rest.”
This whole situation with their disagreement and Gary’s little overreaction wasn’t quite over yet, but if the conversation on the bathroom floor went that well, then Tracey wasn’t too worried.