Flu Event: Overprotective

[Levi Xu]

Levi, unlikely as it may sound, had spent the entire afternoon in his dorm room, alone, actually working on his homework. He didn't enjoy his English class much at all, but the assignment had been something that had really sparked his interest: Rewrite the ending of the book. The teacher had told them to focus less on the prose and more on the structure; the story was already a send-up of a biblical tale, so Levi had decided to choose a different one for the ending.

How often did he get a chance to actually make a happy ending of his own?

After a few hours dedicated to research and writing, he felt that he actually had a pretty good to pretty decent first draft, and he was sick of his desk. That could only mean one thing: It was time to go find Evan and head down to dinner. (It seemed that they ate together every night now, though he couldn't pinpoint when sometimes had become always.)

Funny thing, though, Even didn't answer his knock on his bedroom door. Levi had heard the older boy come in earlier that afternoon, and hadn't heard anything else from him since. (Though that was also strange. They did their homework together a lot too. Usually for Levi, that was the only time where he would get all of it done.) Eventually, after knocking again, he called out, "Hey, Evan? You want to go to dinner? You there?"

[Evan Brackett]

The day started out like any other day for Evan. He woke up, ate breakfast, went about his usual business. In fact, the first half of his day was rather mundane as far as days go. It wasn't until lunch that he started feeling kind of punky, and things just went downhill from there.

The first thing he did after emptying the contents of his stomach into a toilet in the boy's bathroom was head back to the dorm. He didn't want to go to the nurse yet--not if this was only a 24-hour stomach bug or something common like that--and he didn't need to be told he was sick. That was made obvious by the stomach problems and the fever he could feel coming on. Beelining for his bedroom, Evan wasted no time in changing out of his clothes and into his pj pants. He quickly flopped on his bed and was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Evan didn't rouse until the knock came at his dorm room door. He groaned and wrestled with his sheets for about three seconds before giving up on getting up. Unfortunately, his nap hadn't done much to break his fever and his head was still spinning, so he didn't really feel like answering the door. Of course, he changed his mind when the second knock was accompanied by Levi's voice. The phaser hadn't even realized it was dinner time; his appetite no where to be found and his delirium preventing him from noticing the clock.

With a sigh, he stumbled out of bed and cried out, "Coming." Van practically fell into the door as he pulled it opened and leaned on the frame, needing the support to stand up properly. "Hey," he greeted Levi with a weak smile. "Uh, I'm gonna skip out on dinner today. You can go without me." He could feel fever-induced perspiration on his brow, and hoped the other boy didn't notice. It was embarrassing.

[Levi Xu]

Levi looked up at his friend, frowning. He looked like crap. "You're sick?" Despite how it sounded, it wasn't a question. He could tell the older boy was ill, and wouldn't have let him go down to dinner anyway. "You're sick," he repeated, and put his hand on Van's chest, gently pushing him back into the room. "Get back in bed. I'll take care of you."

The younger boy was actually surprisingly efficient at this, touching Evan's forehead and cheek briefly. "You're burning up," he said, then nudged his friend back towards the bed. He'd been sick enough as a child to be remember what his grandmother's pattern had been. "Why didn't you go down to the health center?" But instead of listening, he hurried over to the bathroom and started the sink running cold water, then went and fetched a glass. There was some motrin in his room that he used for migraines, so he went and grabbed that bottle, too. "I brought you some medicine, take two, and I'll bring you some soup from the cafeteria. Or a sandwich? If you want it?"

Yes, Levi was hovering, but he was worried about the older boy. Evan spent so much time looking after him, he wanted to look after his friend now.

[Evan Brackett]

"Um..." Okay, maybe it was a lot more obvious than Van would have liked. He certainly felt like crap. There really was no use trying to deny it, not that he could think thoughts coherent enough to even attempt to do so anyway. He simply nodded once as the other boy pushed him back. "You don't have to, I'll be okay," he said with a frown. It was sweet that Levi wanted to help him, but he didn't want to be a bother to his friend.

That didn't seem to matter as Levi checked him for fever anyway. "You really don't have to--Well, I didn't, uh--" He fumbled over his protest and explanation, eventually stopping short as the other boy left him. "Oh, okay." Only after a moment's hesitation did he finally clamber back to bed.

Evan sat up when Levi came back, taking the glass and bottle with a small smile. "Thanks. Soup's fine, I guess," he said with a hint of uncertainty. The older boy still wasn't hungry, and he didn't think that he would be able to keep anything down, but he didn't want to continue arguing either. He actually was glad to have someone there to take care of him, and he didn't want to seem ungrateful.

"I didn't think it was anything serious," he added, cutting back to Levi's earlier question. Evan took a sip of water before fighting with the motrin bottle's safety cap. "I'm starting to rethink that."

[Levi Xu]

Levi smiled and rolled his eyes slightly at his best friend. He knew the older boy usually went out of his way to look out for him; what else was he expecting other than him doing the same for him. "I'll get you soup then, and I'll steal some teabags too. Tea's good when you're sick." At least that's what NaiNai said. Then again, NaiNai seemed to be of the opinion that tea was part of the solution to everything: tea and rest. "So just stay in bed, and if you're still feeling crappy tomorrow, we'll go to health center, okay?" And because Van looked pitiful enough being sick, Levi gently pulled the bottle of medicine from him and popped the top of it off. "There. Take two of those, and I'll be back real soon."

And Levi was off on his quest. Tea and soup, and grabbing a sandwich and an apple for his own dinner. Then he'd be heading back to the dorm to keep an eye on Evan and make sure he didn't die. (Not that it looked that serious, but if it was enough to slow down Spider-Man, even a little, he felt it should be monitored.)

About a half-hour later, Levi returned. But he was not alone.

"Van!" Levi burst into Evan's room again thrusting a plastic bowl of soup and a paper cup (thankfully with a lid firmly attached) of tea at him. "Guess who else is sick? He's gonna stay on our couch until he's better, so I can look out for him too!"

[Samuel Rixon]

After his conquering of the staff lounge (and subsequent encounter with the coolest security guard ever), Sam had felt pretty damn invincible. It had never really occurred to him that glomming all over someone that was sick wasn’t a good idea as he’d generally misbehaved. Not that glomming all over security staff members was ever a good idea, but a sick one?

That was exactly why he felt like he did now. He’d woken up fine that morning – just a little sore throat. He’d chalked it up to nothing and skipped on his merry way to class. But as the day had worn on, he’d felt worse and worse. He’d pulled off layers until he was just in his jeans and a t-shirt, and spent the majority of his classes with his head on the desk. He was used to feeling warm, but hot? The last time he’d felt like this...

Oh no. No no no no no no.

He was not going back to his dorm. His dorm meant Ember and Ember meant freezing showers and devil medicine. Forget that.

He’d been released mid-afternoon, during math class, by a teacher that had been nice enough to direct him to the infirmary. Not that he actually went. He’d skulked back to his dorm to ditch his things, change into a pair of shorts and a tank top, and stumble his way back out again.

But not before he had to detour to the bathroom and revisit breakfast. He spent a few moments on the cold floor, eyes closed, shivering, before he found the energy to flush, rinse his mouth out, and escape.

He hadn’t gone far – just down the halls and passing by the cafeteria when he’d run into Levi. A sick Sammy is a clingy Sammy, and he’d immediately latched onto his friend, telling him all about how awful he felt. Somehow, that earned him an invitation to Levi’s dorm, which he happily took him up on.

Too bad he’d have to fight Evan for the bathroom.

“Hi Van,” he called out before flopping on the couch, his arm draped over his face. Yeah, this was much, much better than being in his dorm with Ember. “Leeevi? Can I have a hug?”

And so it begins.

[Evan Brackett]

Evan struggled to focus as Levi spoke, teetering slightly as he sat on the bed. He nodded a little when he heard something about tea, but stopped because the motion did nothing to help his spinning head. "Yeah, okay," he quietly agreed, letting the younger boy take the motrin out of his hands. He smiled at Levi then at the opened bottle before taking it back and dumping two pills into his palm. "Mhm, thanks." After washing them down with a gulp of water, he abandoned the bottle on his nightstand and snuggled up under his sheets to wait for his friend's return.

He spent a good deal of the time staring at his alarm clock, wondering why time seemed to creep along so slowly when he was sick, but his eyelids grew heavy soon enough. Eventually, he drifted off.

The teen started when Levi suddenly popped into his room again, sitting up to take the containers from him. "What?" he asked, slightly confused. Then Sam called to him from the other room, and he instantly recognized the pyro's voice. "What?!" he repeated. With the grace of a young fawn on a frozen pond, Evan kicked off his bed sheets and tumbled to his bedroom door.

"No!" he shot out angrily, just as the other boy finished his question. Taken aback by the little outburst, Van stared stupidly, with his eyebrows raised, at their guest. It was hard for him to tell if he was flushed from sickness, annoyance, or embarrassment, but all things considered, it was probably a mix of the three. He looked at Levi as he tried to cover up. "Uh, I mean, I don't think hugging is a good idea. He could be contagious. What if you get sick too?" It was a bit of an awkward save.

[Levi Xu]

The second Sam had glommed onto him, Levi had noticed that the older boy actually felt warm. Considering how his skin was usually cold to the touch--the whole vampire thing, remember--it didn't take much for him to deduce that Sam was sick.

Also, Sam was moaning about being sick.

It only made sense to invite him back up to his dorm, since both of his closest friends were sick, he could take care of them both. It might even be fun. Not likely, but they looked out for him, so he'd do the same for them.

Levi wasn't expecting the announcement of Sam's arrival to make Van flail around like that, and he frowned at his friend's reaction. "Van, I think you better stay in bed..." But it was too late, Evan was at the door already. (Why were his best friends so dumb? They were supposed to be resting, not yelling at him or each other.) "If I get sick I'll go down to the health center because I'm not an idiot. Here's your soup." He was still holding the chicken noodle soup and the tea he'd swiped from the dinning hall, so he pushed them at the older boy. "At least drink something, so you don't get dehydrated. Let me get Sam a blanket."

Leaving the food with Van, he went back to his own room and pulled the blanket off the bed and threw it over the pyrokinetic on the couch, before giving Sam a one-armed hug. "You'll feel better soon. I'll get you something for the fever, okay?"

[Samuel Rixon]

Why did Van have to be so loud? It was all Sam could do to keep from jamming his hands over his ears in a childish way. “Duuuuuude. Quit yellin’.” He didn’t want to fight with Van. Honestly, he didn’t hate, or even dislike the other guy. In all honesty, he liked him well enough. He’d like him more if he gave up the macho ‘I’m not gay, what are you talking about?’ act, but you can’t have everything, apparently.

At least Levi was still taking pity on him. As soon as the blanket was dropped on him, he snuggled into it, then snuggled into Levi. At least until the medicine was mentioned. He let go of the younger boy in a flash, shrinking away from him. “Nooooo. Levi don’t make me take gross medicine. I’ll diiiiiiie.” Yes, enter Sick Sammy. Whining Extraordinaire.

He didn’t really want devil medicine, nor did he want to take a trip to the health centre. He’d spent enough time in there faking injuries to get out of gym, and illnesses to get out of exams. No way would they believe him now, which was exactly what he deserved for crying wolf so many times.

Rolling up in the blanket, he cast a pitiful look Evan’s way. Technically, he was there as Levi’s guest, and it didn’t matter how much Van didn’t seem to like him. He would get to stay. And it might not be such a bad thing. Sick as he was, he was starting to think. If Van got to see what he was missing with Levi, maybe he’d stop being such a stick in the mud and admit to being gay and in love with Levi. ... Okay, it made sense in his head. And now he had a plan. Hog Levi, and prove to Van that the kid was going to make a fuckawesome boyfriend. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

[Evan Brackett]

Evan gritted his teeth. First off, it was his dorm and he could be as loud as he wanted to be. Second, every time he ran into Sam, something bad happened, so of course he was yelling. In fact, he felt very justified in his dislike of the other boy, and didn't understand why Levi had to invite him over. Being sick was making him miserable enough, and he wasn't fond of the idea of having his number one instigator hanging out in the living room.

Levi's criticism quickly shut him up, though. The younger boy was right, after all, as it was stupid of him to skip out on going to the health center. Evan took the cup and bowl and migrated into the common area, placing the soup on the coffee table and curling up in a chair with the tea. Although he would have rather of been as far away from the pyro as humanly possible, he also knew first hand how bad Sam was at controlling his powers. Van wasn't sure how sickness would effect that, but he really didn't want to have to move to a different room because this one burnt down. That could mean being separated from Levi. To the boy with a quickly diminishing wardrobe, it seemed like a valid fear.

So instead of going back to bed like he probably should have, he was going to play fire marshal in the common room. At least he was sort of listening to Levi's instructions and drinking the tea. Evan snorted into his cup when the pyro started whining about medicine, and rolled his eyes at how pathetic and annoying it made him sound. He wasn't looking forward to dealing with this. Although, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because maybe Levi would think Sam was annoying too and send him back to his own dorm.

Van could dream.

[Levi Xu]

Levi rolled his eyes at the pyro's whining. Why did his friends have to be so whiny about things when they were sick? "It's just Motrin, Sam. It'll take care of your fever. You'll feel less like crap when your body stops cooking itself." (Dr. Xu was pretty blunt when it came to explaining to his kids what happened when they were sick.) He ducked back into Van's room for a moment to grab the bottle and tossed it over to his friend, then went to get another glass of water. "You'll be doing less dying. And maybe you'll go back to being freezing."

Seriously, if Sam was a kind of vampire that was susceptible to the flu, then he really was a pretty lame vampire.

When he brought the water over, he grinned a little at Evan. Yeah, maybe it was better if he stayed in bed and slept some more, but since he was eating now, it was nice what he chose to come and hang out with them.

"So...what do you guys want to do? I could bring out my laptop and we could watch something on netflix?" Without waiting for the response, he grabbed the computer and brought it out to the living room. "What should we watch?" Superhero movie? Vampire movie? He never hung out with both of his best friends at the same time, so this was pretty cool for him.

For someone whose power was entirely based on observations, he really was oblivious sometimes.

[Samuel Rixon]

“Nooo. Leeeevi! It’s medicine and it sucks and Emby makes me take it when I’m sick and... wait is Motrin a pill or liquid?” Yes, it made a difference to the whiny pyro. The awful tasting liquid made him gag and he wasn’t going to let it get anywhere near him. “My body’s always cooking itself.” That, he sounded proud of. Of course, it could just be the fever talking. If even the pyro felt hot, there was an issue. Of course, the heat was usually followed by chills, and that was exactly what happened. “Leeeevi. I don’t want to freeeeze.” He huddled into the blanket, shooting Evan a little grin.

Was he just a little smug that he was hogging Levi’s attention? A tad. Obviously Evan was going nowhere now. Which meant that he’d have the best seat in the house for the shameful(less?) display Sam was about to put on. By the time he was done, Evan would realize that Levi would make a great boyfriend.

Sammy watched as Levi took off to get the laptop and brought it out. Deciding that something romantic might put Evan in the mood to put the moves on Levi (yeah, right), he voiced his opinions. Loudly. “Something girly. Like... I dunno. I heard they’re supposed to... make you... feel better. Or something.” And with that said, he leaned forward to latch onto Levi again. “Come cuuuddle.” If romantic movies were good for anything when you were sick, it was boring you to sleep, in his not so humble opinion. But if it helped Evan and Levi fall in love, he’d suffer through it.

... With Levi in his arms. Clever.

[Evan Brackett]

For the most part, Evan had tuned out of the conversation. He wasn't any more amused by Sam's whining than he had been previously, and really, he had no desire to know what the other boy's body was doing. Really. Staring off into space wasn't enough to save him from the pyro's little grin, however. Evan looked back at the pyro with an eyebrow quirked, wondering why he was smiling at him like that and wishing he would stop. It was freaking him out just a bit.

It didn't even occur to him that Sam was doing anything other than trying to be creepy, and possibly trying to be annoying for the sake of being annoying. He had come to expect those types of behaviors from the older boy.

Smugness certainly wasn't what Evan was detecting. Particularly after Levi came back smiling at him, and he smiled back, shyly hiding behind the cup of tea for reasons he didn't fully understand yet. As far as he tell, Levi still cared about him more. Who here got soup and tea? Not you, Sam! So ha!

Van finally put the little paper cup down when Levi disappeared to get his laptop. When Sam spoke up, the phaser took it to be another shot at his sexuality, like the supposedly girly diary Miss Vasiliev was making him keep. Sam was just being mean to him now. He didn't like that the pyro was clinging to Levi either. "Ha. You're so funny," Evan said sarcastically. "If you want to feel better, how about a comedy? Laughter is suppose to be a cure-all...or something." He didn't really care as long as it took being sick off of his mind. And it wasn't something girly, because that was a stupid suggestion.

[Levi Xu]

The boy really didn't mind so much that Sam was a clingy, miserable thing when he was sick. Levi was used to being manhandled by him. "It's a pill, stupid, and it'll bring down your fever, so you'll stop freezing."

Levi looked back and forth between his two friends. He could get wanting to watch a comedy, if the old "Laughter is the best medicine" adage was to be believed. But why would they watch something girly?

Oh. No.

The youngest of the trio only avoided elbowing Sam in the stomach because he was sick and that really wouldn't be fair to start hitting him now. But what the hell was wrong with him? They both knew Evan was straight, and though Levi didn't have a doubt that his best friend wouldn't care that he wasn't, that could change if he knew that he liked him.

Wasn't that what straight guys on TV were always saying? "I don't care what you do, so long as you don't hit on me."

But protesting something girly would draw more attention to it, so Sam would have to be beaten up (kind of) later. They had three genres of movies now, Romance, Comedy, and Action.

Clearly, that meant they had to watch The Princess Bride, Shaun of the Dead, or Zombieland. "Are you guys feeling not-queasy enough for a zombie movie?"

[Event !]

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