Work Text:
If Neil just closes his eyes for a few minutes, then he’ll be able to get rid of his headache–he’s not on until the next act anyhow, seeing as they’re running the show in full for this rehearsal.
“Neil, Neil, it’s time for you to go back to Welton.” Their director, Ms. Hallon, shakes him awake.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep through rehearsal–”
“You’ve had your lines memorized longer than anyone else, Neil, I’m not worried about that. I am worried about the fever you’ve been running for at least this afternoon. You need to sleep more than you need to run lines right now.”
Neil feels worse now than he closed his eyes, but he doesn’t mention that to Ms. Hallon. It wouldn’t do any good.
There’s too much snow on the ground to use one of the school bikes, so Neil has to walk back. It takes a lot longer than usual.
“Neil?” Charlie stops him before he even gets to his dorm. “We had to take Todd to the nurse, he’s sick, but he’s just getting medication and he’ll be back. And you–” Charlie grabs him by the shoulders, and Neil sways a little.
“Fuck, you’re sick too.”
“Am not.” Neil mumbles. “I just need a nap. Hallon said so.”
“I bet you slept through rehearsal, your hair’s all weird.” Charlie says. “Okay, your dorm can be the sickroom, then. We’ll shove anyone else who gets sick in there with you.”
Neil doesn’t remember Charlie leading him to the nurse, or that Pitts has to carry him back to their dorm while Todd gets to walk.
“Todd?” He whispers, once the room is dark and he can think again. He’s pretty sure Todd is still here.
“Neil, why are you awake?”
Todd sounds bad. He shouldn’t sound like that.
“You’re so out of it, Neil,” Todd sighs, “Go back to sleep, okay?”
“You need water.”
“No, I don’t, I’m fine. You’re sicker than I am.”
“I will get it for you.”
“No. Neil, don’t make me get Charlie.”
Charlie can’t stop Neil. No one can stop Neil. He has to help Todd.
“Neil!”
… maybe the floor can stop Neil. It’s cold down here, it feels nice.
“Oh my god, Neil.” Todd gets out of bed–he’s not supposed to do that, Neil’s supposed to help him–and opens the door.
Todd can’t leave the room.
“Todd…”
“I’ll be right back, Neil, stay there.”
He can’t hear what Todd’s doing across the hall, but then there’s more people.
“Why is he on the floor?”
“I think he wanted to get me water.”
“You have the common cold.” Charlie, that’s Charlie, he’ll know what Neil wants to do and help him, he’s always good at that. “He has a fever and apparently can’t stand anymore.”
“He didn’t know that when he got out of bed?”
“Neil, buddy, let’s get you back in bed.” Neil’s moving again, and that’s bad, but also his bed is kind of nice, right now. Even if the mattress sucks. The floor was not better, he thinks, now that he’s off of it.
“You good to sit with him if I go get someone? He’s so out of it.”
“As long as he doesn’t decide I need water again.”
That’s what Neil was supposed to be doing–he needs to get Todd water.
“I will get Todd water if you’re that concerned about it, Neil. You will stay in bed and not move.”
Todd ends up having to sit on top of Neil to keep him in bed while Charlie goes to see if the nurse is awake.
It’s one thing to know that Neil likes to include him, to take care of him, in a way. It’s another to realize that he’ll do it even when he’s falling over himself trying to get out of bed, barely coherent.
“Todd.” Neil’s eyes are bright, too bright, when Todd looks at him.
“Yeah, Neil?”
“Why are you in my bed?”
“Because you keep trying to get out of it.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do, Neil.” There’s no point in arguing with him–Todd’s not sure he’s even aware of everything that he’s saying.
“Water.”
“Yes, I have water.” He should probably try and get Neil to drink some, too. “Here, do you want some?”
Neil’s hands are shaky, and it’s only a paper cup, but Todd doesn’t trust him to hold it. He helps Neil drink, and only a little spills out.
“I’m not sick, Todd. Don’t have time to be sick.”
“I don’t think you can decide that, Neil.”
“I can. I can’t be sick, I have to keep my grades up and the play, my father can’t find out.” By the time he’s done speaking, he’s devolved into half-sentences and cutoff words; Todd doesn’t really know what he means.
“Your grades will be okay if you’re out for a few days.” He says. Neil could be out all week and recover just fine–Todd’s pretty sure he did all of the chemistry homework at once and has just been handing it in over the term, and he’s got everything except trig and English done for this week.
“No.” Neil says, and that’s the last time Todd can understand him all night.
“I couldn’t get the nurse, but Keating was up.” Charlie opens the door. “How is he?”
“I got him to drink some water, but he’s not making sense anymore.”
“Is he breathing alright?” Keating asks.
“I think so. He just keeps trying to get up, and that’s a bad idea.”
“Alright.” Keating has a small box with him, one that Todd saw in the little infirmary earlier. He’d just needed cold meds; she hadn’t even taken his temperature.
“Todd, Charlie, you can go back to bed. Todd, you may want to sleep in Charlie’s room for the night.”
“What do you mean?” Charlie asks. “We can’t leave Neil like this.”
“You both have class in the morning, and Neil will not be attending. This door will be open, but you should sleep.”
As soon as Todd tries to get up, Neil tries to get up, too.
“I don’t know, sir, he’s just… clingy, I guess.”
“He always is, when he’s sick. I’ve done this before, Captain, a few times.” Charlie says. “And he won’t let go of Todd, so we’re staying.”
“If you insist.”
It takes a while, but they manage to get Neil settled enough so Keating can take his temperature.
“Charlie, Miss Betty should be back from her lunch by now. Please do go and get her.”
“How bad is it?” Todd asks.
“Neil will be alright, Todd, this just isn’t something we can handle in a dorm room. It’s a wonder he was sent back here in the first place.”
After Keating and Miss Betty manage to pry Neil off Todd and take him to the infirmary, Todd looks at Charlie.
“Has it ever been that bad?”
“No. He usually doesn’t have to stay in the infirmary–he hates it there, anyway. Want to come sleep in my dorm?”
“What if–”
“Keating’s not coming back to give us updates, no matter how much we want them. Might as well sleep.”
Todd doesn’t sleep well, in Charlie and Cameron’s room, but he sleeps better than he would have if he’d been left to stare at Neil’s empty bed all night.
He thinks Charlie knew that, somehow.
Neil’s fever breaks late in the afternoon the next day, though no one is allowed to see him until the next morning, and he’s not going to be back in classes for a few more days.
“I’m missing so much rehearsal.”
“I can read lines with you, Neil.” Todd offers, but for the first time, Neil turns him down.
“I think I need a nap, right now. Thanks, Todd. And tell Charlie thanks for me, too, okay?”
“Okay.”
Todd’s the only person he lets in, apparently, or else he really was sleeping most of the day.
“He kicks everyone out, Todd, don’t feel too bad about it.” Charlie waves his knife in the air. “Like I said, he hates it there. It’ll be better when he’s back in your room.”
Neil tries to do some of his trig work before everyone gets out of class and realizes that he’s out of the infirmary. He’s already been forbidden from returning to class–and rehearsals–for the rest of the week, but if he can stay on top of the homework, he won’t be too far behind.
“Neil?” Todd shuts their door before he says his name, thankfully. Now he won’t be swarmed.
“Hi, Todd.”
“Do you remember anything?”
He does, odd flashes here and there. Todd sat on him at one point, and Neil can’t figure out why. “No.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Did I say something? Did I–” he wouldn’t have–no. He wouldn’t have. Not even if Todd was sitting on him and he was that close; Neil knows better than that. Not with Charlie in the room, not with the door open. “Did I do something?”
“No, I was just wondering.” Todd sets his books down. “Need any help?”
“You hate trig.”
“I’ve also been in class the past few days.”
Todd pulls his chair up next to Neil’s, their knees and forearms bumping as they lean over his homework.
So maybe he didn’t kiss Todd when he was sick–that’s fine, because he wouldn’t remember it anyway.
He never forgets the problem they were working on when Todd kisses him over that trig homework.