A Sparkly Encounter (A JongKey Fanfic)

A Sparkly Encounter (A JongKey Fanfic) FIFTY-FOUR

After sweeping and mopping the floors to the store JongHyun had to strap on his theoretical nurse’s outfit and tend to Key. Onew was at the table with his usual stack of papers when he came back up the steps.

            “Has Key come out?” he asked, stripping out of his work shirt.

            “Only to pee… But he wasn’t looking good. I think he might have a fever…” Onew informed.

            “It wouldn’t surprise me; he was really hot when I saw him earlier.”

            Conversation couldn’t grow much more than that as Key came stumbling out the door. His t-shirt was wrinkled and slipping off one of his creamy white shoulders since it was three sizes too large for him. The sweat pants he was wearing were falling off his hips and he ended up tripping on the hem of one of the legs.

            JongHyun was at his side in an instant, wrapping an arm around his slender waist to support his weight.

            “You okay?” he questioned.

            “Fine… I heard you talking and I wanted to say hi,” Key murmured, unconsciously leaning against JongHyun.

            “You should go back to bed. Come on…” The shorter boy carefully nudged Key back towards the bedroom where he had every intention of making him lay down and rest some more.

            “But I have to say hi to your sister,” Key objected.

            It took a moment for JongHyun to understand exactly what it was that Key was talking about. HyunJae had visited so long ago that he hadn’t even remembered telling him about his sister coming.

            “She left a long time ago, Key… Come on now, you’re really burning up…”

            Worry built up like a rock in the pit of JongHyun’s stomach. He feared that if he didn’t get the blonde back in bed he would collapse in his arms.

            “I’m fine,” Key continued to whine but he still followed his boyfriend back into his room. The sheets were in even bigger disarray than when they were the last time JongHyun had visited. One of the blankets had even slipped off the bed and pooled up at the base of the bed.

            “You can’t keep kicking off the blankets,” JongHyun scorned as he tucked Key back in.

            “But it’s hot…” Key whined. He could barely struggle against the blankets, though. Listening to JongHyun coo to him gently was about the only thing he could do. That and act like a raggedy Ann doll while he was tended to. Towels dampened with cold water were pressed to his heated body and medications meant to treat fever were fed to him until he was so drowsy from the action that he just fell back into the light slumber he’d been in the majority of the day.

            JongHyun waited until he was certain that Key was sleeping before abandoning his side. Only an hour had passed and yet he felt exhausted. He blamed it on the busy day he’d had and the worry he was still carrying around on his shoulders. Key’s fever hadn’t broken yet (though it hadn’t showed any signs of worsening) and that dinner party… With all this excitement and anxiousness involving Key and his family… It was hard for him to predict whether everyone would react positively or negatively.

            “Yah, JongHyun, you should get some sleep,” Onew said when he saw his roommate step out of the room.

            “But what if Key wakes up later? He’s loop with fever and medication.” JongHyun’s argument might have won out over Onew had a yawn not cut in halfway through his words. It was the elder’s turn to take charge now. His paperwork was abandoned for the time being so he could tune in to his – as Key had put it once – natural leader-like abilities and do to JongHyun what he had just done to Key.

            “You can sleep in my room tonight,” he said, grabbing onto JongHyun’s shoulders and pushing him to the bedroom.

            “Where are you going to sleep?” JongHyun asked.

            “The couch. I’ll be up late anyway fixing all this paperwork and stock so I can watch over Key at the same time. Rest easy, okay? Good night.” Onew closed the door before any objections could be made.

            Alone in the room, JongHyun was too exhausted to even bother to open the door again. He didn’t even care that he was still in jeans and a wife beater, he just wanted to mould into those pillows.

~

            The following morning was quite a peaceful one. Each boy was resting quietly in their individual quarters. JongHyun was stretched out and relaxed in Onew’s luxurious queen sized bed. The blankets had barely managed to cover up to his waist the night before. In the opposing room, where he usually slept, Key was sprawled in a mess of blankets and no longer covered in cold cloths. His fever had broken over night, leaving him weary and weak and a bit stuffy but nowhere near as bad as he had been the previous day. And poor Onew hadn’t even been able to reach the couch and instead had gone dormant at the table with just a few papers there to act as a pillow. Soft snores growled out of his half open mouth and chorused with the sound of the morning traffic rumbling by under the open window in the living room.

            On this calm day, the first one to stir out of sleep and wander about groggily was Key who – having slept enough the day before – had no desire to linger in bed any longer.

            A smile couldn’t stop itself from vandalizing Key’s face when he saw Onew sleeping at the table like he was. Despite being as frail feeling as he was now he decided to boil some water so that he could have coffee ready for his hyungs when they awoke.

            It seemed the smell of brewing coffee drew JongHyun out of his cave while Onew remained in deep hibernation. The short boy wobbled into the kitchen, gluing himself to Key’s backside as soon as his radar had pinpointed his location.

            “You should be lying down,” he said, trying to tug him away from the counter and towards the couch in the adjacent room.

            “I’m fine; I don’t even have a fever anymore. Only little sniffles,” Key dismissed. His heart warmed as if it was ill, though. JongHyun was just so caring of him.

            “Are you sure?”
            “Yes, I think the one we should be worrying about right now is Onew hyung… I think he’s overworking himself again.”

            “Do you?”

            “Yeah, he gets like this once a year when tax things start getting due. Sometimes he stays up all night and forgets to eat.”

            “Maybe I should go pick us up some food then? Chicken for him and muffins for us?”

            “Are you being serious?”

            “Yup, as long as you promise to take it easy today.”

            “I promise!”

            “Good then. I’ll be back.” JongHyun planted a quick kiss on Key’s forehead and then darted out to get the food like he’d said he would.

            Today, unbeknownst to any of the three boys, would be one of the last calm days they would have for a while.