The Great Book of One-Shots

Sick

Prompt: Person A has a horrible horrible cough and the medicine doesn't help much and every time they cough they start crying because it hurts and person B hates that they can't help

As I promised, a one part one-shot!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben loved the idea of moving to America to live with his boyfriend. He didn't love the way that his immune system reacted to being in a new country. He had only been in America for a few days before he began to get sick.

At first, it was just a fever - nothing to worry about. So, Ian played doctor, giving Ben medicine and making sure he got plenty of rest. Oh, and love, he made sure the smaller boy got plenty of that too.

Ben's illness, however, only worsened as time went on. The fever had refused to go away and, now, had a runny nose and sore throat to go with it.

A few days later, the sore throat had evolved into horrible coughing. Ben's body ached all over and he felt so bad that he refused to get out of bed. He would just lay there coughing and shaking and in pain.

It hurt Ian to see his lover in this condition. So, the day he walked up to the bed and placed the back of his hand against Ben's forehead only to feel an extreme heat, he gave in.

It took a long conversation and a promise that the pain would go away to convince Ben to go to the hospital that he had refused to go to before. Feeling both guilty that he was taking Ben somewhere he really didn't want to go to and happy that Ben would be feeling better soon, Ian brought Ben to the hospital. There, the foreign boy was examined and prescribed a new, stronger medicine.

Both boys were glad that, in the next few days, Ben's fever had gone down, his nose stopped running, and his body ached less and less. The two boys almost were almost tempted to call the new medicine a miracle as it had taken away so much of Ben's pain in so little time. Though, the reality of the situation was that it hadn't actually worked on all of Ben's symptoms. The 'miracle' medicine hadn't done a thing to help Ben's sore throat or cough. In fact, they seemed to be worse than ever before.

Every time Ben tried to speak more than two or three words, he would end up in a painful coughing fit. Of course, this not only forced him to stop doing his job that he loved very much but, also severely limited his communication with Ian. Sure, Ben would text Ian if he really needed to say something but, it just wasn't the same. Texting didn't have the same personal feeling as talking did and Ben was starting to feel really lonely from just laying in bed all day and all night for what was, now, nearly a month.

Though, no amount of loneliness would be enough for Ben to actually have a conversation with anyone. No amount of comfort and companionship would make up for how much pain that would cause. Especially after a new symptom appeared.

It had seemed like another normal, lonely, pain-filled day for Ben when it happened. The dreaded tickle in his already very sore throat signaled that another random coughing fit was about to occur. Ben bit his lip, trying to delay the intense pain that he knew he was about to experience. Though, he could only hold out so long before the coughing took over.

By time the fit was done with, there were tears running down Ben's cheeks and he was breathing deeply to try to catch his breath but, he didn't seem to care about either of those facts. He was too scared to care about his crying or breathing. He was frozen in fear of what he saw on the arm he had coughed into.

Red. There were dark, red spots splattered onto his arm and Ben could't stop staring at them. He had an idea of what it could be and wished more than anything that he was wrong. But, there was only one thing it could be.

He was snapped out of his frozen state by the feeling of tears running down his face. Not tears of pain but, tears of fear. He sobbed and cried and every gasped breath felt like a hundred little blades being dragged down his throat all at once. Each painful sob brought up more of the terrifying red with it. He could only feel two things at that point: fear and pain. So, so, so, so much fear and pain.

Then, there was something else. A hand on his shoulder. He didn't know when Ian had come into the room but, he was glad that he wasn't alone. Ben turned to the older male and wrapped his arms around him. He cried against Ian for a moment before pulling away and speaking in a very pained, very hoarse voice, "I-It hur-rts..."

Ian smiled sadly down at his boyfriend and wiped a bit of blood off of his bottom lip before pulling him against his chest. His sadness showed through his sympathetic voice as he spoke, "I bet it does."

Ian ran a hand through Ben's hair before laying them both down in the bed. He protectively wrapped his arms around his lover and held him close. Ben snuggled against him and continued to cry. He cried and he cried and he cried until, with blood running from the corner of his mouth and splotches of it on Ian's shirt, he fell asleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

904 words!!

Requests always open!

~Angel ^-^