mechanical | xiuchen

fifteen.

When Jongdae came back inside that morning, having woken up outside with a miserably sore back and bad breath that probably rivaled any canine's, it was clear to him by the way he shivered, the way his head pounded and his body ached, that it was official.

He was sick.

And it definitely wasn't helped by the fever dream he had last night that still lingered in his brain. Some lunatic had knocked him out with a chloroform rag, and it felt so real, he'd almost gotten it mixed up with reality.

When he opened the door, lugging his sore body into the cabin with a whimper of discomfort, he was not pleased to find that - just like a few mornings ago - Minseok laid limp on the couch, the button on his chest void of its usual blue glow.

A frown of concern quickly met his lips.

Great. This again.

Knowing himself, Jongdae pretty much expected the worst-case scenarios that began to run through his head.

What if he can't see? What if he can't hear? Or what if he's just broken?

Praying as hard as he could that he would be wrong, he approached the robot with tentative steps, half expecting him to just bolt up from his seat and scare Jongdae half to death. Paranoia was truly a constant weight on his back.

Then, with another simple push of the object of his distress - that being the button on Minseok's chest - just like before, his companion's systems awoke, the blue glow returning.

In fact, Jongdae was almost tricked into thinking that he'd gotten lucky this time. It figures.

"Hey," he greeted calmly as Minseok's eyelids lifted, flashing him a gentle smile even though the way his stomach was churning made him want to do the opposite. There was a part of his brain that wondered if he smiled enough, one day, Minseok would try to mirror the gesture. That was his hope, at least. "You feeling alright today?"

Jongdae was actually surprised that he hadn't anxiously dreamed up what ended up happening next.

At first, he wasn't really sure what to think when the strange look began to form on the robot's face. His body stilled, and fear rushed into his eyes, blowing them up so full that they widened by half their size.

It was a familiar fear that Jongdae understood, and even felt like he related to. A fear that he had felt before, though he couldn't quite identify it.

But his instincts did tell him one thing; this type of fear was not supposed to be affecting Minseok. It never had before, and by any normal circumstances, it never should have. Something was very wrong.

"What?" he questioned worriedly, reaching forward for Minseok's hand like he always did. No matter what happened, Jongdae trusted that he'd be able to comfort Minseok that way. "What's wrong?"

Today, it turned out, was different.

To his absolute shock, Minseok smacked his hand away and scrambled to his feet, aggressively grabbing ahold of Jongdae's shirt much like Chanyeol had done just days ago.

Jongdae's breath caught in his throat, and he raised a white flag, hands flying up in front of him in hopelessly confused surrender. "Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" he stammered.