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“Look at it this way. You’re always going on about how much you miss your college days. I’m surprised you’re not more excited to have an opportunity to relive them."
“Not… not like this-” Jonah ground out, his head still buried in the toilet, breathless from the last bout of empty retching. “Not what I meant. Ugh.” He shuddered and straightened up, swaying slightly before Amy caught him with an arm wrapped around his shivering body. His grey sleep tee clung to his clammy skin, and Amy could feel the fever radiating off him. Frowning in sympathy, she moved to brush damp black curls off his forehead, lingering at the heat she felt there. Amy pressed her colder hand to his head and he moaned softly, closing his eyes and leaning forward drowsily into her touch.
“Back to bed?”
With Jonah emitting as much heat as he was, it had become uncomfortably warm with both of them sitting curled up on the floor of Amy’s tiny en-suite bathroom- with Jonah slumped over the toilet and Amy kneeling by his side. After he’d suddenly thrown up his dinner, it had been clear they were going to be in for a long night. Amy had been up and down with him ever since, but she figured it was the least she could do considering it was her fault he was sick in the first place.
Jonah nodded sleepily, allowing Amy to pull him weakly away from the toilet. Too tired to keep himself upright, he rested his head on her shoulder as she cleaned him up.
“You're sweet when you're this sick. You're all cuddly. It's kinda adorable actually.” She remarked quietly, as he sat, docile and compliant in her lap. She smiled, planting a kiss on his burning forehead.
“I’m sorry…” he slurred, his voice hoarse with illness. “It's late. You're tired.” Amy helped him up slowly until he was safely perched on the side of the bath and turned to get him a drink. “You can go. I’ll be ok here.”
“What, and find you passed out on my bathroom floor tomorrow morning?” Amy laughed. “You idiot. Of course I'm not leaving you here.” She handed him the cup of water which he sipped at, wincing.
“‘s not like I'm going anywhere…” he murmured quietly, coughing weakly into his elbow as Amy sat down next to him, rubbing his back gently. Jonah sniffled wetly and sighed, dragging a hand across his face groggily. Amy pulled him in close against her for a hug, still not liking the way he still shook in her arms. He looked so bone-achingly tired. He'd been up all night, unable to stop throwing up, and the lack of sleep was clearly taking its toll on him.
“My head hurts.” Jonah groaned quietly into her chest. “Everything hurts.”
“I would offer you more Tylenol, but we’ve seen how that ends.” Amy teased gently, handing him a tissue.
“As if Fresher’s Flu wasn’t bad enough the first time…” Jonah groaned and coughed again. “Never thought I’d catch it twice.” Amy felt a pang of guilt. When Emma had come home for the holidays, she’d told Amy she was pretty much over it. Not for a second had Amy imagined Jonah and his fragile immune system would still manage to catch it. Amy sighed.
“C’mon, let’s get you back to bed. You need rest.”
They made their way slowly into the bedroom. Jonah was unsteady on his feet and leant heavily on her. Amy could tell how unwell he felt just by how lethargic he was.
Helping him into bed, Jonah immediately burrowed under the thick duvet like they hadn’t had the heating on full blast all night trying to keep him warm. Amy felt bad for getting annoyed at him for repeatedly turning the heating up all evening, but in Amy’s defence, neither of them had realised he was ill at the time. That alone should have been enough to alert her to the fact that something wasn’t right with him- the fact that Jonah of all people was the one excessively turning up the heating when usually he was the one who was always banging on about energy savings and fossil fuels.
Jonah pulled another blanket over his head to block out the light as he collapsed back into the soft pillows Amy had put there earlier to try to prop him up slightly. She’d hoped it would help his cough and make him less nauseous so he’d be able to get some rest. Clearly, that had gone well.
“You’ll overheat in there. You're already far too warm.”
“’m cold.” He was so hoarse and congested that Amy barely understood his reply from underneath the duvet.
“You’re really not, but I’ll let you have this one- just this once.” Amy placed a fresh glass of water on his nightstand, knowing full well that it would stay there completely untouched unless she personally coaxed it to his lips. She'd made sure to grab a bucket from the kitchen too this time- they could certainly do without another two-hour stint on the bathroom floor.
Amy climbed into bed next to him, feeling the bed jolt slightly as Jonah sneezed weakly into a tissue. From somewhere within his makeshift blanket den, she heard him sniffle miserably with a small groan and felt her heart clench at the sad little shape of her flu-riddled boyfriend huddled under the covers next to her.
“Jonah, I swear there is an entire box worth of tissues in our bed right now…” Amy laughed, turning over to wrap her arms around him. He’d not been able to keep any Tylenol down long enough for it to do any good, and his small body still exuded an unnatural amount of heat as Amy held him tight and comforted him. She could tell how much discomfort he was in by how tense his poor aching body felt in her arms, but eventually, he started to relax a little- until he suddenly started a renewed burst of feverish protesting-
"I barely even saw Emma. I mean, whenever I enter the room she just says ‘ew’ and then walks off. It’s not like I even-” Jonah broke off into another fit of chesty coughs before Amy pulled his head onto her chest and stroked his hair softly, hushing him gently.
“Shh…” It only took a couple more short attempts at meaningless feverish ramblings before Amy eventually managed to calm him down. “Shhh. You're ok…” Finally able to relax, Jonah simply curled up closer to her as Amy held his hurting head and soothed him softly. She knew he was beyond exhausted, and that the fever had taken a lot out of him...
“There you go…” Eventually, his congested sniffles became slower and deeper until she realised he’d finally fallen asleep.