Fluffy ATEEZ Oneshots🧸

Sleepless🍼🌡️

Sickie/Little: Jongho

Caregiver: Mingi

Idea by: dinahthecat2112

No one's POV.:

Jongho hadn't been having too great of a time lately, with his ever-present insecurities about his skills and his place in the group, the maknae struggled to clear his mind. He knew if he stayed awake to practice on his own, he'd be exhausted and do even worse during group practices, so he tried to avoid that. However, just because he went to bed didn't mean he'd be able to sleep. Most of the night, Jongho lay awake over-analyzing how he had done during a performance and what he had to improve to earn his spot in the group. Sure, he was the main vocalist but close to all members were vocalists, so that was nothing special. Plus, his dancing was lacking so much. After he had missed quite a bit of practice due to his injury, he had yet to catch up to the rest of the group. He couldn't just practice more to make up for the lost time though, as his ankle instantly started to hurt again if he overdid it even just a little. On the days that he had mainly spent singing, Jongho still squeezed in a short dance practice in hopes of catching up and on the days that had already consisted of mostly dancing, he headed straight home and head to his room, where he would try to memorize his lyrics, at least if his roommates weren't bothering him. Yeosang was a pleasant roommate, while Wooyoung was alright but slightly annoying at times, too loud for Jongho to focus on anything.

Despite practicing late and exhausting himself to the bone, Jongho still struggled to fall asleep, too many thoughts on his mind. Usually, he had rather reliable coping mechanism in place for situations like this but he didn't feel like he deserved using it. He should much rather use his time effectively, working and improving his skills instead of slipping into his headspace. Feeling like he was already burdening his hyungs too much with his lack of skill, Jongho didn't want to burden them with his age regression too. Although he usually took care of his little-self quite well, keeping it a secret was still rather difficult when sharing a room with two other people. He only had a small box containing his pacifier and sippy cup, which were pretty easy to hide. His bunny plushie and fluffy blanket usually stayed on his bed, so they weren't a problem to hide either but him actually slipping was a problem to hide. He shouldn't slip anyway, Jongho reminded himself, he should head back to the practice room and get another one or two hours of practice in, so he might be good enough for his group at some point.

The maknae did eventually drift off into a restless slumber but was woken way too soon by Yeosang telling him to get ready for their schedule. At least his hyung quietly asked him to get ready, while Wooyoung probably would've jumped on him and screamed, which Jongho wouldn't have been able to handle with the headache he had woken up to. His head spun for a moment after forcing himself to his feet but he sluggishly made his way to the bathroom to get ready. When the maknae looked at his complexion in the mirror, he cringed. The lack of sleep was really showing, as Jongho couldn't remember if he had ever had such prominent eyebags. After splashing some cold water in his face, he patted it dry and applied a generous amount of concealer, so he'd hopefully look less dead when joining his hyungs.

Jongho ended up skipping breakfast for two main reasons, he had taken too long getting ready and with his appetite not really there, he didn't see why he should force something down his scratchy throat. He had probably overdone it during vocal practice the previous day but if he avoided to talk unnecessarily, his throat should be back to normal in a day or two. Sadly, skipping his meal also meant he couldn't take anything for his headache but he'd handle it. At least Jongho was determined he would. Along with the headache had come a fog that made it hard to think straight and to coordinate his limbs, which was quite inconvenient, considering they'd have a day with only dance practice today. They wanted to go over a choreography that the youngest already struggled with anyway, so his chances of getting through this with only little mistakes were already blown the moment they got started. It also didn't help that Jongho's entire body just felt heavy and cold, like he was frozen stiff and every single move ached. He should really sleep more.