Taking Care of You, Taking Care of Me

I watched as William's shoulders hitched and his face scrunched up. I handed him a tissue and waited for it. He sneezed almost violently and gave me a pathetic look. I made a face at him, "Ah, Billy, are you okay?"

"I don't feel so goods." He muttered and rubbed his face.

I pulled him up against me, so that his head was snuggled into the crook of my neck. I leaned my head over against his and cringed at how hot his skin was. I pushed his hair back off of his face with one hand and held him with the other, "What's wrong, babe?"

"My body aches and my head hurts and I feel all stuffy . . . " He sneezed again, jerking away so that he wasn't sneezing directly in my face, "There is no way I can go to the studio today."

I nodded and moved to pull him up. He made a face at me, "Travis, where are we going?"'

"I'm putting you to bed. You're gonna stay there until you feel better." I lead him up, making sure to keep a good grip on him in case he started to feel worse. He protested all the way up and I ignored them. He wasn't really fighting too hard to go to work, and I knew that his bandmates would understand. I handed him a pair of sweat pants and a tshirt, knowing he would be self-conscious about me helping him change. After all, we hadn't been together very long.

I stepped out to give him the privacy he'd like, and picked up the phone. Siska answered it after a few moments and I told him that William was sick. He groaned, "Ugh, he takes forever to get better. He never goes to the doctor and he'll insist on coming in even though it'd be a lot easier on us and him if he just stayed home-"

"Siska, shut up." I chuckled, "I have him under control. William's going to stay in bed all day."

"Ew, too much info, Travis."

"Shut up!" I laughed again but could hear William sneezing and coughing inside of his room. I hung up after telling the guy that William would be in tomorrow if he felt better and searched the medicine cabinets. I finally found a box of Theraflu and went down to warm up some water. William's watery gaze met mine when I handed him the steaming cup and a glass of orange juice. He downed one and then the other before laying back.

I handed him the box of tissues and leaned in to kiss his forehead, "Try to sleep some, William. I promise you'll feel better." I started to leave as he closed his eyes but he grabbed my hand and asked me to stay with him. I smiled and got under the covers with him, snuggling him against my chest.

He kissed my cheek, carefully avoiding a mouth-to-mouth kiss and smiled a bit, "Thanks for taking care of me, Travis."

I stroked his hair back again and smiled down at him, “It’s not problem, Will. You know I care about you. I don’t like to see you sick.”

“Um . . .” He snuggled closer and I felt my heart give a lurch. Most guys weren’t this affectionate with me and usually, when he was fully coherent neither was William. If it took him having the flu to get comfortable with me, maybe his getting sick wasn’t a bad thing. Not that I wanted him to stay sick, I just wasn’t sorry he did.

He slept like a rock and eventually I found myself getting sleepy too. I woke several times in the night to pour cough syrup down William’s throat or to get him more juice, but it wasn’t ever a hardship. Each time, he seemed to be feeling a little better, his sneezing and coughing quieting to small sniffles by the time I fell asleep the last time.

I woke the next morning to find William not in his bed. I shivered from the loss of body heat and followed the sound of him singing, his voice slightly husky but no coughing or wheezing to interrupt the still wonderful sound. He was making pancakes, standing at the stove in just his sleeping pants. I went and hugged him from behind and kissed the back of his neck, under his hair. He laughed a bit, turned the stove down, and turned to me, “Good morning, Travis.” His long, skinny arms went around me and my thumbs found his hip bones.

“Good morning, Will. How do you feel?” I pressed my lips into his forehead, glad to find that his fever had broke.

“I’m fine, baby. You took really good care of me yesterday.” He pressed our lips together and I sighed into the kiss, deepening it. He backed up and smiled at me, “Did you mean what you said?”

“What’s that?” So sue me, I didn’t want the kiss to end so I stalled answering, trying to get my lips back on his.

He turned his head, “That you care about me.”

“Of course I meant it. In fact, I think I . . .” No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening, not while I was in the middle of telling William I loved him. “I . . I . . Achoo!” I shook my head and William laughed a bit.

He turned the stove off, grabbed my hand, and lead me upstairs. I glared at him, and he leaned in to kiss me gently again before telling me, “It’s my turn.”

“No, I’m not sick.” I protested before sneezing again.

He rolled his eyes and pulled the cover up over me, “Orange juice or apple juice?”

“Neither. I’m not sick.” I protested. Too bad it came out, “Neffer, I’b knob dick.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re preaching to the choir on this one, babe.” He started out of the room and turned to look at me, “And Travis?”

“Yeah?” By now my eyes were watering with effort to hold back my sneezing until he was out of the room.

“I love you too.”