fade into you | shubman gill x ishan kishan

late night sickness

9:43pm
after a gruelling long match in chennai heat, ishan flopped onto the shared hotel room bed, grunting. the heat had risen periodically throughout the day, and now he felt a headache coming in. he had ditched his best mate shubman, in the dining room and rushed to bed before he felt any worse, too woozy to explain. but as he huddled up into the sheets, the memory of shubmans hurt puppy eyes as he left the room haunted him. however sick he was, ishan should have waited. he grunted in frustration again. too late now.

2:08am
ishan woke up in the middle of the night, a piercing pain rose through his body. he felt his skin which suddenly felt like it was going to fall off his body, and hissed at the burn. his head was pounding now. groaning, he tried to get out of bed, feeling around for the lamp switch, but his hand hit the glass next to him, the shattering sound echoing the room. he heard a small gasp from the other side of the bed, and opened his eyes just enough to see shubman get up.
'sorry sorry sorry-' ishan started.
'no, no its alright. what happened?' asked shubman. ishan could just make out how he was sitting on the bed, palms rubbing his eyes. cute.
' i-i don't know, i just woke up and my face hurts and my head feels like it's going to fall out of my butt and actually now that i think about it my skin burns and my eyes hurts when i open them and-'
ishan could hear the sheets rustle, and suddenly the night lamp was on and shubman was sitting on the bed next to him. in the faint light, ishan saw shubmans eyes widened and gleaming with worry, as he placed a cool hand to his cheek. ishan leaned into the touch. feels nice.

'ishu, you're burning up' shubman whispered, moving away from him. ishan moaned from the loss of contact, catching his arm.
'where are you going' ishan demanded, brows furrowed in annoyance.
't-to get the doctor' shubman was startled. ishan pulled him back into bed, slinging his arm around his waist for good measure.
'no you're not. stay here. please' the last words trailed off, as ishan placed his head on shubmans chest, forcing the younger to lay down on the bed.
shubmans breath hitched in his throat, a flurry of feelings coming out of him. he could feel ishans head, flush against his chest, and he couldn't understand. ishan was his friend, bhai, teammate and roommate ever since he joined the team three months ago, this was nothing new between them.  the nervous, introverted shubman back then would have never guessed that the loud light of the team would become his closest mate. they had started off just friendly, ishan taking pity of the new guy with soft eyes which seemed to always be on the ground, but eventually were attached at the hip. suddenly, pranks, matches, days and even nights were spent together, laughing, talking, being content with just each other. and if this included subtle touches, late night cuddling and secret smiles, it was no one else's business. ishan was the sun, and shubman his orbit, simple as that. then why did he suddenly feel like his heart was in his ass?

now, shubman was too overwhelmed to deal with what all of this meant, so he decided to do what felt right; sleep.

3:22 am
shubman awoke at the sound of sheets rustling. he groggily opening his eyes. ishan had now placed half his body onto shubmans, but was kicking and writhing.
'ish-ishan, ishan!' shubman exclaimed, hurriedly grabbing ishans arms. ishans eyes were squeezed shut, making his heart constrict in fear. his temperature had soared. shubman shook his shoulders, making ishan jolt awake.
'shubi?' his voice was tiny.
'yes, yes i'm right here. are you okay' he whispered, bringing ishan onto his lap. ishans adorable fringe had stuck to his forehead with sweat, his eyes red and face puffy. shubman examined his body. red welts had covered his arms and his ankles, his pale skin looking charred. his eyes were welling up with tears, the pain evident.
'shit, baby' he muttered. 'i'm gonna get you some ice, and then i'm gonna get you a doctor. please just stay here till i'm back, okay?'
ishan, too weak to protest, nodded and got off shubmans lap, laying back in bed. shubman raced out of the room after handing him the ice pack, straight to the teams nurse office. his mind fine tuning on one thing the whole run there. ishan ishan ishan ishan ishan.

shubman came back with the doctor a half hour later, sweaty and speaking at a mile per hour the whole way there to the poor sleep deprived doctor. 'he was complaining of a headache and he had a fever a couple hours ago, and then i woke up to him having like a fit and he has these horrible bumps and he's so red and-'
'i think i can examine my patient just fine mr. gill' the doctor replied nonchalantly.

when shubman opened the door and made his way to ishan, he was sound asleep. shubman let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. he had imagined the worst in the little time he had left. the doctor examined ishan and provided some tablets and shubman listened attentively. after the doctor left, ultimately declaring it was a mild case of heatstroke, he woke ishan up. the sleepy ishan was surprisingly obedient, when he usually hated taking medicines. this made shubman realise how bad ishan was hurting, his chest feeling suddenly heavy.

after feeding ishan some porridge and cleaning up, shubman sat on a chair beside ishan, taking it all in. the subtle way the moon glistened on ishans face, his little pout as he slept, his lashes wet and how his body huddled into itself. all of a sudden, a guilt grew in shubmans chest. ' i'm sorry, ishan. i shouldn't have fallen asleep when you clearly needed me. i should've guessed something was wrong when you left dinner early. my ego was too hurt to care. look how much worse you became, all because of me' shubman hung his head, sniffling. the worry and stress of the day had finally caught up to him. 'i hate seeing you like this.'

a warm hand fell on his cheek. 'ishan? oh my god, do you need anything? i've got water right here, fever medicine, headache ointment, porridge, which i know you hate, but the doc-'
'shhh' ishan brought his hand onto shubmans lips. he shuffled back onto the left side of the bed, signalling shubman to come in. he shyly obliged, letting his hand wrap protectively around ishan.
' don't be silly, dumbo. and don't cry. especially not because of me. hate seeing you cry' ishan muttered into the darkness.
shubman smiled.

4:30 am
' by the way, you called me baby'
' did not'
' did too'
' when!'
' when you were all like 'oh ishu baby! are you sick my baby boo boo! i would move a mountain for you!'
' shut up and go to sleep' shubman giggled

4:32 am
'ishan'
'hmm'
'by the way, i would move a mountain for you'

———- • • • ————
thank you so much for reading! this is my first book ever and i think i got a little carried away. please do comment and leave suggestions about new one shot ideas!! also keep in mind i don't have a clue about illnesses... so i don't know how accurate all this is. i do plan to have set weekly updates on saturday nights so stay tuned!!