Fluffy SKZ oneshots🧸

Blankie🍼🌡️

Sickie/Little: Seungmin

Caregiver: Hyung-line

No one's POV.:
As the seasons started to change, Seungmin had started to come down with a cold. It didn't really seem too bad. He was just a bit sniffly but otherwise fine, so he didn't let it hold him up. They were only about a week away from having a week off, so the members weren't too concerned about their second youngest. If any of them were in his position, they'd power through too and use their time off to rest and recover. Seungmin also did his best to look healthy to his friends, which wasn't too much of a struggle. Sure, his voice sounded a bit nasally and he was a bit sneezy but that was it. Towards their week off though, the vocalist started to have troubles sleeping, due to his blocked nose and on their last day of work, his throat started to feel scratchy. He didn't let that stop him though and nobody minded him pushing through the last day before their break. The members only started to get worried when they woke up on the first day of their break and Seungmin wasn't at the dorm. Apparently, he had left early to go to the studio and work on his singing, frustrated with the way he had sounded the previous days. Though he made sure to stay hydrated, his voice slowly grew raspier the longer he sang, which only frustrated him more and motivated him to practice longer, not realizing that he was only getting worse. He had ignored all of his friends' calls, not wanting to get distracted from his work, and kept on singing till the early evening without a single break. His head had started aching a while ago and his throat was on fire when he checked the time and realized he had missed lunch. He also startled, seeing the number of missed calls but barely had the time to dwell on it, when there was a knock at the door.

The members weren't too pleased when they noticed the young vocalist missing and tried to call him but all of their calls went to voicemail. They decided to wait for him to come home before giving him a talk about overworking himself on one of their rare breaks. As evening rolled around though, Chan decided to head over to the company building to check on the younger. It was something he didn't like to do, since they were all adults and capable of taking care of themselves but the fact that none of them were able to get a hold of Seungmin was worrying. It was almost dinnertime when he made it to the studio and knocked on the door. There was no reply but only a few moments later, the door opened. Seungmin's eye bags had only gotten darker since the previous day and Chan was confused by the complete lack of a greeting. The boy just stood there, looking at his hyung in silence. "Hey, we were wondering where you had disappeared to and since you didn't answer any calls, I decided to look for you", Chan smiled awkwardly. After clearing his throat, Seungmin admitted quietly: "I'm sorry, I turned it silent and completely forgot about the time." The older cringed at how flat and worn out his dongsaeng's voice sounded. Seungmin really shouldn't have sung at all today. "Let's go home, hm? You sound awful", Chan hummed, leaning against the door frame, "I'll wait here for you to pack your things up." Not feeling like he had enough voice left to argue, the younger reluctantly nodded and went to collect his things while Chan texted Minho about his plan. The leader was sure Seungmin would just repeat the same tomorrow, so he wanted to try and convince him of slipping into his headspace. Maybe if Seungmin went to bed little, he'd still be little in the morning and more worried about his plushies than leaving the dorm.

They walked home in complete silence, aside from Seungmin's soft sniffles. As the wind picked up, a weak shudder ran down the vocalist's spine and he wrapped his jacket around himself tighter. Now that he thought of it, he had been kinda cold all day. Maybe a hot shower would make him feel better. "Why didn't you enjoy a day off like the rest of us and instead kept working? It's not that often that we get the chance to rest", Chan hummed curiously when they were only one block away from their dorm. Seungmin shrugged, rasping: "I didn't like the way I sounded last week and wanted to improve. If I practice by myself, I can choose what I want to sing." – "I think you sounded alright, maybe a bit stuffed up but what do you expect when you're catching a cold? Now you certainly sound worse than before", the leader sighed. Instead of arguing back, Seungmin only gave a small cough and brought his sleeve up to rub at his nose. Seeing their building get closer, the vocalist decided it was now or never and admitted: "It makes me really insecure when I don't manage to sing as well as I'd like to. I can't stop practicing till I get through a song sounding perfect. If I can't, I'll lie awake all night unable to think about anything other than all the things I need to improve. It's just a cold, I don't even really feel sick, yet I can't get a clear note out." He didn't want his members to know how insecure he was about his voice but he wanted Chan to understand why he needed to practice. "It might be just a cold but it's affecting your throat and your breathing in general, so of course it's difficult to sing. I'm not going to tell you that the only thing fixing that is resting your voice till you recover from your cold, you know that yourself. Is there anything we can do to make it easier to stay away from the studio for a bit? Maybe distract you somehow?", Chan frowned. He knew his dongsaeng was a perfectionist and always hard on himself but straining his voice when he wasn't healthy to begin with, would only make him worse. Seungmin remained quiet, guiltily biting his lip. He should be able to make healthy decisions for himself and not rely on his hyung to drag him back home after being self-destructive again. The older was right, he knew resting was the only thing that would help but he couldn't. Wrapping an arm around the vocalist's shoulders, Chan hummed: "Maybe you could slip. You haven't been little in ages and it might be a pleasant distraction." – "You all have worked so hard, I'm certainly not going to make you take care of me when you finally get a break", Seungmin argued, turning to the side to cough. "So have you. We're your friends and will always take care of you, whether you're sick or little or both. We'll always be there for you and I'm certainly not going to take a break from being your hyung", Chan promised, "Just think about it, okay?"