Shelter

Alex ended up staying at Jack’s house that night, not wanting to leave Jack there alone because he knew Jack wouldn’t bother getting up for food or water. Jack was pretty much helpless whenever he got sick, because he didn’t get sick often. The two of them slept in Jack’s bed together and went to bed pretty early, around ten.

In the middle of the night, Alex was woken up by a shout. He sat up quickly, thinking he had just had a mini-nightmare, but realized that Jack was whimpering beside him, gasping for breath. Alex scrambled to turn on the light and saw a look of terror on Jack’s face. Alex’s heart was pounding and he felt like he was on the verge of an anxiety attack, seeing him like that.

“A-Alex,” Jack choked out, making grabby hands for him. Alex took a deep breath and controlled his own emotions, hugging Jack to try and soothe him.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Alex asked, hugging Jack close to him. Jack nodded, burying his face into Alex’s chest tiredly. “It’s okay, it was just a dream. Nothing to be scared about.”

“I know, but…” Jack mumbled, closing his eyes. He was shaking a little and Alex frowned, realizing how hot his body felt. He put a hand to the younger boy’s forehead and it was burning up.

“Are you hot?” Alex questioned, pulling out of the hug and frowning.

“Nuh uh. I’m freezing,” Jack said, snuggling back under the covers. Alex could feel the heat radiating off of him under the blankets.

“Do you have a thermometer somewhere in the house, Jack?”

“No, why would I have that?” Jack mumbled. Alex sighed and stood up, pulling a few blankets off Jack and making him whine.

“Keep those blankets off, you’re getting too hot. I’m going to run out and get a thermometer real quick. I’ll be right back,” he promised, kissing him on the forehead. Jack grunted in response and Alex walked out of the room quickly, pulling a shirt on with his pajama pants.

He got into his car and headed to the drugstore down the street, which was luckily open at three in the morning. He spent five minutes looking for the damn thing before finally asking someone where the thermometers were at. He bought it and headed back to Jack’s apartment quickly, walking straight to his bedroom. Jack had buried himself under all the blankets again.

“Jack, I told you to keep the blankets off,” Alex groaned, pulling them off again.

“I’m freezing!” Jack whined, rubbing his eyes and frowning up at Alex.

“You’re going to get overheated,” Alex said, sticking the thermometer under Jack’s tongue when he opened his mouth to protest. “Keep that in your mouth for a few minutes.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes while they waited, and Alex finally reached over to pull it out of Jack’s mouth. He held it under the lamp to look at it and his eyes widened.

“Fuck, Jack. You have a 103 degree fever!” Alex cussed, feeling his anxiety building again. “Maybe I should take you to the ER. I think you’re sick enough to go there. Right?”

“Calm down. Go find the ibuprofen in my bathroom cupboard and bring me two of them. If it doesn’t go down in an hour or so, then take me. Otherwise, I’m going back to sleep,” Jack sighed, closing his eyes.

Well, at least he was speaking coherently.

Alex complied with Jack’s request, bringing him the ibuprofen and some water. Jack fell asleep quickly but Alex stayed up, worried about Jack. He poked at Jack’s mouth after an hour and a half, managing to put the thermometer in while he was still asleep. The thermometer read 100 and Alex breathed a sigh of relief. Jack was right; it had gone down. Maybe he shouldn’t have worried so much. Regardless, he was still worried. He tried to fight sleep but ended up finally falling asleep again around five in the morning.

Alex woke up a few hours later with Jack’s head on his stomach. He yawned and Jack opened his eyes, looking up at him. Alex chuckled in surprise, “Were you already awake?”

“Yeah. I woke up like twenty minutes ago and thought your stomach would be a comfortable pillow,” Jack said with a weak laugh.

“Are you feeling better?” Alex asked, running a hand through Jack’s hair.

“A little. I took my temperature and it was 101 so I took some more ibuprofen. I texted my mom to ask her what she thought, and she said I probably have the flu. She told me to sleep a lot and drink water,” Jack shrugged.

“Great. The flu is contagious,” Alex said, wrinkling his nose.

Jack laughed, “You chose to come over here, so it’s your fault if you get sick. Thanks for taking care of me though, Lex. I appreciate it. I’m also kind of proud of you, too.”

“Proud of me? Why?”

“That nightmare I had last night, it was scary. I woke up in a panic because I didn’t realize what was going on. I haven’t had any nightmares since I was a kid. I realized how scared you must feel when you get them, and it made a lot more sense to me. And I also realized that you were probably freaking out after I woke up from that, so I’m proud of you for not having an anxiety attack over it,” Jack said, ending his sentence with a yawn.

Alex blushed. “I felt like I was going to have one but I didn’t want to end up making you worried after you had gone through a nightmare. Especially since you had that ridiculously high fever.”

“Well, good job. I’d kiss you but if you’re not sick already, I don’t want to make you sick,” Jack smiled.

Alex smiled and kissed him on the forehead. “Enough cheesy shit. I’m going to go get you some toast and orange juice.”

“I hate orange juice!”

“Too bad, you’re going to drink it!”