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Magnus was harassed. His patience had worn thin due to three days of virtually no sleep. The irritating tears that just wouldn't stop didn't exactly help either. Magnus wasn't generally the crying type, but the mental and physical exertion caused by his role of mother chicken had taken its toll on him. And seriously, if he had to eat broth for one more night, he would lose it.
The cause of all his worries was a wretched virus. Funny how a microscopic organism could ruin his carefully built life in the matter of days. The city was facing an epidemic, and all three of his family members- Rafe, Max and Alec had managed to get it at the same time. This, of course, meant sleepless nights spent trying to quell Max's cries so he wouldn't wake the others, harried mornings trying to get the three to clean up and busy days as Magnus tried to successfully alternate between the patients.
Magnus walked out of the bathroom, having just washed his face to clear it of the residue salt from his tears. Not that it helped, since they did not seem to want to stop. Trying- quite unsuccessfully- to muffle his sniffles, Magnus stood still, trying to get a second's rest before he started the daily regime of helping his husband and kids clean up. It was due to his closed eyes that Magnus did not see Alec moving on the bed, trying to manipulate his body in such a way that the thin beam of sunlight did not enter his eyes.
It was due to this attempt that Alec saw Magnus' huddled figure, eyes red and nose blotchy. Cleary, he had been –was still- crying. Instantly, Alec felt guilty for putting Magnus through hell in the past days. He should have gotten up and helped him take care of the boys, but he was too busy moaning about the alternating chills and bouts of warmth that he had forgotten all about Magnus.
He sat up, with great difficulty, and called out Magnus' name. Magnus started. "I'm awake, I'm awake, please don't start crying again, Max!" he said, tired eyes frantic. Alec sighed, and ignored the protests of his tired body to get up from the bed and towards Magnus. "Hey, hey, hey, Magnus, it's ok, it's just me. Max and Rafe are still asleep. What happened?"He said in a worried tone.
Magnus shook his head slowly, fresh tears leaking out of his puffed up eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be crying. You have enough to worry about already, and I don't want to be a burden. Go back to sleep, I'll be fine." He said. "Well, you're clearly not OK, seeing that you're shedding waterfalls. Seriously. What happened?"
"I'm just so tired. Max keeps on crying the entire night, and my days are spent worrying about the three of you. I haven't been able to sleep, and I have a building headache." Said Magnus, putting his head on his husband's shoulder.
"Well then, we'll just have to correct that, won't we? We can't have our caretaker falling on his feet, can we? Come on, let's catch some sleep, it'll do both of us some good." Said Alec, pulling Magnus towards the bed. Magnus tried to pull away, but his tired body did not cooperate with him. He tried half-heartedly to tell Alec about all of the things he still had to do, but Alec was having none of that. "Max and Rafe are asleep, thankfully, so we should be too. Now come on. Under the covers." He said, sounding as stern as he could with a scratchy voice.
Magnus sunk down on the bed, immediately curling into himself and falling asleep. Alec stared at his (now finally) peaceful face, wondering how he had managed to get so lucky. He silently vowed to repay Magnus for this, and his lips twisted into an eager smirk as he thought of the wonderful ways he could do that.