Work Text:
Grading papers on a sick day wasn’t his idea of fun, but Jupiter knew it needed to be done.
The only good thing was that he knew Uranus wasn’t afflicted with the same issue—when he’d woken up, he was already up and in his studio, completely embroiled in another one of his paintings, singing quietly along to the music in his studio. The sight had been enough to make him forget his own aching throat… though he’d been reminded of it before long, enough that he hadn’t even gotten fully ready for the day, just changed into something comfortable and grabbed several cups of water before settling into his office to finish the stack of papers he’d been waiting for the right time to grade.
He’d gotten through less than he perhaps wanted, but—
A knock on the office door startled him from his thoughts.
“Jupiter?”
Uranus’s hesitant voice made an easy smile tug at his lips, the ache in his throat momentarily abating… even if it returned just as quickly, making him clear his throat roughly before he managed to call out, “You can come in, Uranus.”
The door opened slowly as Uranus peeked around it, eyes landing directly on him as he smiled sheepishly.
“Wasn’t sure if you were busy, mate,” he said equally as sheepishly, tipping his head to the side as his braid fell over his shoulder, untidy and disheveled. “I’ve been painting all morning. I think I’ve somehow started tasting it just from the bloody paint fumes.” The pink dash of smeared paint on his cheek made that nothing more than obvious, the sight of which made an achy laugh pull out of him to reignite the dull pain in his throat, but Jupiter ignored it and lifted one hand, beckoning him closer.
“I said you could come in, honey,” he said roughly, watching surprise flicker on Uranus’s face, his brow knitting, “you don’t need to hover in the doorway. I promise I’m not b-busy.” He fastidiously ignored the break in his voice at the last word.
Uranus blinked and kept his head tilted, leaving the door open as he slipped fully into the office.
“Are you sick? You sound bloody horrible.” And then he flushed right to the roots of his hair, dropping his head into his hands with an embarrassed sound. “I mean—uh, you sound great! I just meant you’re—uh… you’re sounding a little gravelly, mate.”
Jupiter couldn’t help an amused smile, fondly studying Uranus as he hunched in on himself, clearly embarrassed about the statement—though Jupiter frankly didn’t understand why. He did sound… well, as he’d said, bloody horrible. “It’s just a sore throat,” he said, nodding towards his water. “Nothing to worry about. I’m sure it’ll blow over if I keep hydrated.”
“Really?” Uranus eyed him, clearly unconvinced.
That Jupiter understood—he would have been just as unconvinced if Uranus had said the same, sounding like he did—but he just kept up his amused smile even as Uranus rounded the desk and crept up to him, squinting closely. “I don’t have a fever. Or nausea. Or a cough. It’s just a sore throat, Uranus.” He did nothing to resist when he lifted one hand, splaying it across his forehead like he expected him to be lying—and alright, Jupiter did have a tendency to downplay when he felt sick, but he was telling the truth this time. It was a simple sore throat that likely just needed time to disappear.
And if it got worse, then he’d make a trip to urgent care to test for the likely causes.
Nothing to worry about.
“Well, alright, mate, if you say so,” Uranus said, dropping his hand back to his side—or rather, dropping his hand away from his forehead as Jupiter reached out and caught it, lacing their fingers together gently. Uranus’s hand was icy against his as always, but he’d long grown used to it, so he ignored it to pull him closer, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. His cheeks went pink as he ducked his head, lips tugging into another smile. “Uh—what are you doing, anyway? I thought you’d be at work today.”
“Sore throat,” he reminded, lifting his eyebrows. “I didn’t want to risk spreading it to anyone else.”
Besides, it did give him the chance to catch up on grading papers, and it didn’t set him back on his schedule too much—not to mention his students were likely celebrating the canceled class, anyway. He just didn’t want to risk… He furrowed his brow, squeezing Uranus’s hand and gently releasing it. “In fact, you should definitely wash your hands after this. Just in case. I don’t want you to catch the same thing.” He should have known better, but… it was Uranus, after all.
“Oh, right.” Uranus’s smile dropped into a frown, his eyes narrowing. “Does it hurt much?”
“Like a sore throat would,” he said, squeezing his hand and gently releasing it. “It’s nothing I can’t ignore.”
“Uh-huh.” Still, Uranus stared at him silently for several seconds before abruptly straightening, pivoting on his heel and breaking for the door. “I’ll be—be right back, mate. Stay here!” He closed the door behind him, leaving Jupiter to stare at it with a vaguely confused head tilt and an arched eyebrow.
…Where would he even go?
Horribly amused, he sighed fondly and reached for his pen, settling back in to continue grading.
Despite the fact that he’d said I’ll be right back, it had to be more than an hour before there was another knock to his office door.
“Come in,” he repeated, not sounding at all different from that morning.
Uranus peeked around the door and then nudged it fully open, revealing a wide, awkward smile and a steaming mug in his hands. “Here you go, mate,” he said, crossing the room to set the mug down onto his desk. “For your throat!”
He set his pen down and reached out, grasping it and staring down into the orange-y liquid. “What is it?”
“It’s tea,” he said, hooking his fingers together and twisting them against each other. “I thought that the water might not be enough, and so I looked up the best remedies for a sore throat, and lots of people said that tea with honey was the best, so I thought I’d make you some tea, but then I tried to figure out which tea and mate, there’s a lot of tea out there, so I had to go to the store and look—” He’d gone to the store? Jupiter must’ve missed the sound of the garage door. “—for the best option, and that took bloody forever, but I ended up with… uh, it’s ginger turmeric? I really hope it tastes good, but I also picked up a couple different others, and if you want more honey, I got a whole bottle, so…”
His rambling trailed off into another sheepish smile, fingers continuing to twist against each other.
Jupiter felt nothing but an overwhelming fondness. “Uranus…”
“Try it,” he said, looking jittery and hopeful. “Please, mate? I can make a different one if it’s not good. Or—I got some cough drops, too. So you can take them. I got the honey flavor in those. And the strawberry.”
Rather than let Uranus continue to steep in his worry that he wouldn’t like it—though Jupiter thought he’d grit his teeth and drink it all even in the unlikely event it tasted horrible out of pure regard for the simple thought of it—he lifted the mug, taking several careful sips as Uranus peered at him, smile dropping into a wide-eyed stare.
And then he drank even more and nodded, carefully setting it onto the desk with a sigh of relief.
“It’s perfect, Uranus,” he said, voice equally relieved. “Thank you.”
Uranus gave his own sigh of relief, hands dropping back to his sides as he physically sagged in place. “It helps?”
“Yes. It does.” The water was good, but this was a metric times better… and even beyond that, the care in the action itself mattered more than the remedy. Jupiter stared down at the tea on the desk, and then back up at Uranus smiling at him, the pink dash of paint still smeared against his cheek, and the same overwhelming fondness rose in his chest, his own smile irrepressible.
“Come here?”
He would have liked to kiss him to show his thanks, but then again… sore throat. That was out of the question.
So he settled for waiting until Uranus stepped in front of him before reaching out and swiping his thumb against the smeared paint, rubbing gently back and forth until it disappeared—and to his luck, it was still new enough that it did so easily—as Uranus blinked at him, eyes darting between his hand and his face. “You had some paint on your cheek, honey,” he explained, smile just as strong; he swiped his thumb along the line of his cheekbone one final time before dropping his hand, reaching for a tissue to wipe the paint off his thumb. “I thought I’d wipe it off.”
Uranus’s mouth fell open. “Seriously? Bloody hell, how long?”
He restrained a laugh, settling for an amused huff.
“It was there when you came into my office earlier. You didn’t notice?”
“I went to the store like that?” Uranus dropped his head into his hands, once again turning red right to the roots of his hair, and that time Jupiter couldn’t restrain his laugh, giving a full crackly one as Uranus peered through his fingers, pleading, “M-ate.”
“I love you, Uranus,” he said, unbearably fond, amused as he somehow turned even redder. “Thank you. Really.”
“I love you, too, Jupiter,” he mumbled quietly in answer, dropping his hands from his face only to tug absently at his braid, the already untidy strands only made wilder by his worrying fingers.
Jupiter glanced down at the papers littered across his desk and found he suddenly wanted nothing to do with them. “I know you’ve already taken a break from painting, but why don’t I take a break as well?” he offered, already sorting the papers back into the stacks they’d been in before so he could return to them later. “We can sit in the living room and relax for a bit.”
Uranus perked up. “Really?”
He nodded. “Just give me a few to clean this mess up.”
“Okay,” Uranus said happily, “I’ll go make another tea, mate! Just in case.” He whirled around and disappeared through the open door with a bright smile, the sound of his footsteps fading as he hurried down the hall.
Jupiter just let out another unbearably fond sigh, lifting the tea to take another warm, relieving sip.