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Ethan coughed for what seems like the thousandth time as he wraps himself further into his blankets. He was cold and hot, his throat felt like sandpaper, and to top it all off he was dysphoric. Apparently, he should give his chest a break when he’s sick in bed (or at least that’s what Rory thinks, Ethan disagrees entirely).
After not being sick for two years, Ethan has managed to come down with what he’s pretty sure is death disease. Everything hurts and his nose is so stuffed his head is probably 90 percent snot at this point.
Benny has concluded that it’s the result of not taking care of himself for the past week while trying to finish his assignments. Ethan has concluded that the universe is trying to take him out.
Luckily though, he doesn’t have to suffer alone thanks to the perks of having roommates who have been attempting to take care of him. The downside however, is that they are just as bad at taking care of themselves as he is. Which is how they ended up in this situation.
-
He should have known something was going to go terribly wrong when Benny insisted he knew how to make soup from scratch. Confidently announcing, “how different from making potions can it really be?”
The cupboards were empty and the only pot they had was a tiny one they used to melt marshmallows in one time. Honestly, Ethan wasn’t even sure they have ever had more food in the kitchen than just frozen meals and candy. They were broke college students after all.
One emergency flight to the grocery store later, they had a mixture on the stove. Ethan isn’t sure it’s an edible mixture considering the aroma coming from the kitchen and he swears he saw Benny put some of his potion ingredients into it.
Ethan has never seen either of them do so much as cook pasta before. So, how they’re gonna make an entire soup from scratch he’s not sure. The three of them usually resorted to take out or reheating something frozen. Sometimes when Sarah would feel extra bad for them she would cook them something they could put in their freezer for the week. None of them have any cooking experience, but at this point Ethan is too exhausted to put up a fight.
Rory and Benny came to check on Ethan several times while cooking. Tucked him in, kissed his forehead, and told him to rest. His entire body felt heavy and his brain felt like mush so, listening to the sound of his partners voices drifting from the kitchen, he closed his eyes and started to fall asleep.
Through his barely conscious mind, Ethan thinks about how glad he is that he doesn’t have to spend this time alone. Being alone was never a good time for him as it has always been his biggest fear. Thankfully, he was lucky enough to have met Rory and Benny at a young age and they have been inseparable since. He has never been more grateful for anything than he is for being able to spend his life with his two best friends. It’s just a bonus that he gets to call them his partners. As sleep takes over his body he thinks about the love he feels for Rory and Benny and smiles.
Just as he’s reaching a completely peaceful sleep, Ethan was jerked awake. In the bleariness of his sleep soaked brain, the cause of his alertness was unknown. Something feels off, but he can’t get the thoughts to formulate.
Rory and Benny’s voices were coming from the kitchen. There appeared to be no signs of alarm from either of them as they were caught in a debate.
“No, I’m telling you, Spider-Man would kill in a drag performance. He’s all flexible and would easily wear heels,” Rory insisted
“But! Superman already has experience with capes and has that southern charm.” Benny retaliated.
Turning around to see the kitchen Ethan realizes two things at once. The thing that woke him up was the smell of burning and there is a cloud of smoke coming from the pot on the stove. Panic builds in him as he tries to get his voice to work.
“Uh, guys? The sou-” His sentence is interrupted as he dissolves into a coughing fit. This catches Rory and Benny’s attention as they look towards Ethan with concern. Pointing behind them he musters a weak, “fire.”
There’s the sound of banging and panicked shouting as the two of them try to deal with the burning soup.
“You were supposed to be watching the pot!” Benny shouts as he runs to turn off the burner.
“I thought you were!” Rory grabs a towel and tries to dissipate the smoke in the air.
“Wait, I think I can fix this!” Suddenly Benny is holding his spell book. Ethan groans weakly as he attempts to sink deeper into the couch.
Even though Benny has been practicing magic for a couple years now, he still hasn’t mastered all of the spells in his book.
The spells he uses frequently he can do with little to no accidents. The one he uses to produce flowers for Ethan and Rory he has down perfectly (he hasn’t produced a bag of flour in at least a year). However, whenever he tries a new spell, something goes wrong. There was the time he tried to give Rory a magical haircut and ended up dying their hair bright green (Rory ended up loving it, but that’s beside the point). Then there was the time Benny tried to use a spell to finish his essay but instead gave his computer twelve viruses (Ethan still isn’t quite sure on the logistics of that one, but he’s learned not to question magic).
So, needless to say, Ethan was hesitant every time the spell book was brought out to solve a problem.
Benny recites a spell and gesture and the smoke disappears. Letting out a relieved sigh, Benny smiles triumphantly. As he opens his mouth to speak the pot suddenly erupts into flames. There’s a scream as Benny dives to the floor with his hands over his head like a shield.
Panic erupts through the apartment as the three of them stare at the fire. Rory flails their arms around until their sleeve catches fire and they screams. Meanwhile, Benny is rolling around on the kitchen floor, crying.
Ethan has accepted two things in this moment. First, that this is his end, he doesn’t have to worry about the death disease killing him because he is going to die by fire. And second, that he is never letting Benny and Rory cook again. He tenses himself into a tiny ball on the couch and squeezes his eyes shut and waits for the apartment to be engulfed in flames.
He waits and waits and then suddenly it’s quiet. He slowly relaxes his limbs and opens his eyes. Peeking into the kitchen he sees the fire is gone, Benny isn’t crying anymore, and Rory is holding a fire extinguisher. Ethan didn’t even know they had a fire extinguisher.
Benny looks towards Ethan with a guilty smile and gives an even guiltier apology. Ethan looks at Rory who is staring at the fire extinguisher in awe and starts laughing. He laughs so hard he breaks into another coughing fit. Recovering he says, “so, how about pizza?”
-
The kitchen is a mess, but luckily Benny does this enough times that one of the spells he’s mastered is a clean up spell. Both Rory and Benny apologize profusely to Ethan, but he just tells them to make it up to him by ordering and paying for the pizza.
When the pizza arrives they all settle onto the couch and start a Star Wars marathon. They talk about anything and everything until three of them all fall asleep curled together (Rory pretends to sleep with them because he likes the feeling of them being together like this).
-
Ethan wakes up to Rory and Benny cuddled into his sides and smiles. The three of them may be absolute disasters, but he wouldn’t trade it for the world. He is the happiest he ever could be just sitting here with the two loves of his life. They’re together and that’s all that matters (and if Benny ends up getting sick too after this, well that’s just payback).