Unconventional

Chapter Nine - Sick Day

CHEN:

When I woke up, I was sweating, and I didn't know why. We keep our bedroom pretty chilly; Xiumin likes the cold. So waking up feeling like I was sleeping in the desert was really confusing me.

I rolled over to face Xiumin, pressing my chest against his back, and I knew immediately what the problem was. I felt his forehead, checking just to be sure, and I was right. Xiumin had a fever. I couldn't be sure if anything else was wrong until he woke up, but since he was sleeping so peacefully, I thought it would be best to just leave him be and check up on him when he did wake up.

I got up from bed and headed to the bathroom, intending to take a shower. I didn't think I'd have much free time today, what with Xiumin being sick, so I wanted to go ahead and get it out of the way.

Xiumin isn't needy at all when he's sick; he actually wants to completely take care of himself. But when I'm there, I'm not having that and end up taking care of him all day.

When I got out of the shower and got dressed, I saw that Xiumin still hadn't woken up, so I grabbed his phone from the table next to him and found Henry's number in the contacts. Surprisingly, he answered pretty quickly.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Henry, it's Chen."

"Oh hey. What's up?"

"I just wanted you to know that Xiumin wouldn't be coming in today. He's picked up a cold or something so I'm keeping him home and hopefully he'll be better tomorrow."

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah. All I can tell is that he's got a fever right now since he's still asleep. I'll know more when he wakes up and I'll let you know."

"Ok. Thanks. Make sure he takes it easy."

"I definitely will. Oh, and, I'm thinking of taking you up on your offer soon. No date in mind yet, but it's something I want to do soon."

"Oh yeah. Then we'll have to get together soon and iron out some details. I look forward to it."

"As do I. I'll talk to you later, Henry. I think he's waking up."

"Okay. Make sure he gets better. I need my number one employee back."

"I will. Talk to you later, Henry."

"Bye, Chen."

I hung up the phone and set it back on Xiumin's table, moving to sit on the edge of the bed where he was starting to stir and quickly opened his eyes.

"How you feeling, babe?"

"Cold. Very cold. Why am I so cold?"

"You got a fever, babe. I just called Henry to tell him you'd be staying home today so I could take care of you."

"No, Chen. You don't have to do that."

"It's too late because I already called him and I keep my word. I'm taking care of you today whether you like it or not." He huffed a little, trying to sit up in bed, but he didn't argue further. "Now, do you wanna stay in here or lay in living room today?"

"Living room. I probably won't have anything else to do but watch TV today anyway if you're taking care of me."

"Quit being so grumpy and wait here a second."

I walked down to the guestroom where Suho and Lay had stayed after the party and grabbed a couple extras pillows from the closet and an extra thick blanket, then carried them out to the living room, setting up a makeshift bed on the couch for Xiumin before walking back to our bedroom and pulling the blanket down from him. I picked him up bridal-style, much to his protest, and carried him out to the living room and set him on the couch, covering him up and tucking him in slightly before taking a seat at his feet and gently rubbing his legs through the blanket, despite the look on his face.