Touch

2.

A few days had passed, and nothing out of the ordinary had happened. They had breakfast together, recorded some, edited some, seen a movie or just relaxed together and then went to bed. This was their usual routine, and the amount of physical contact had remained stable. They were filming another episode today, one of those "try not to laugh"-challenges. The camera was all set up from yesterday's filming, all that remained was to press "record" and they were off.

Eddy didn't seem to feel all that great today, really. Brett had noticed how his hands were trembling, his cheeks looked warmer than an average oven and a goldfish probably had a better ability to concentrate than him today. He needed to be able to concentrate to record, and if Eddy wasn't feeling it today they could do something else useful.
"You alright there, bro?" Brett asked while starting up his laptop for them to look at videos on. Eddy was still by the only mirror in the room trying to get his hair antenna to lie down.
"Y...Yeah, just... hair, you know?" he stuttered and tried to make his hair cooperate again to no avail. He let out a huge sigh and went to sit down next in his spot behind the desk. They were close, arms almost touching. Brett didn't think of it, but Eddy moved so they'd be a few centimeters apart.

"Ready then?" Brett said as he clicked on the first video they were checking out. He turned to look at his partner, who's cheeks were redder than a traffic light. "Dude, you're literally burning up. You got a fever or something?" He pressed the inside of his wrist against Eddy's forehead. A bit warm maybe?
"No, it's nothing. I'm fine, really", he said with a shaky voice. Brett furrowed his brows.
"Dude, you're all red from heat. Come on, we'll do this tomorrow or when you feel better." He got out of his chair and closed his laptop. "I can tell you got something going on, and we need you all healthy for the livestream this weekend." Eddy let out a shaky sigh and gave in.
"Fine, we'll wait with this until tomorrow, but we gotta get it done tomorrow." Brett crossed his arms.
"Well, if you're feeling better, then yeah", he said and grabbed a hold of Eddy's hand feeling the slight tremble in Eddy's hands up close. "Come on, let's watch a movie or something", he said and dragged the seemingly sick boy over to their shared living room and pushed him gently into the couch.

"You want anything to eat? Or drink? I'll fix us something", Brett said, only really caring about Eddy stopping being sick. He always worried that Eddy wouldn't take care of his health himself if Brett didn't point out to him how important it was. It had happened before, and it might as well happen again. Besides, he didn't mind taking care of him.
"I... I'm fine, really..." Eddy insisted, trying to convince Brett by adding a little smile as well. His red cheeks seemed to be telling a different story though.
"Some water maybe?" Brett suggested. "You look like you're burning up." Eddy responded to that by placing his hands on his cheeks and letting out a sigh.
"Water would be nice", he mumbled, giving in to Brett's care much to Brett's relief. He went out to the kitchen and got some water for both of them as well as some chips they had lying around in the cupboard.

When he got back to the living room he found Eddy sitting with his legs crossed in the couch. He put the two glasses of water as well as the bag of chips on the table. The redness in his face had calmed down slightly, but not completely. Brett sat down next to him on the couch and put his arm around him like he normally would, but this time Eddy pulled away. Brett looked at him, confused.
"Uh... can we... not right now?" Eddy requested with a slight tremble on his voice. Brett just shrugged and pulled away his arm, even though inside he was screaming with uncertainity. Eddy had never denied a touch like that before.
"Uhm... just, hot... you know?" Right, that made sense to Brett. He probably didn't need any extra body heat if the redness of his cheeks had anything to do with how warm he actually was.
"Have you found a movie you wanna watch, then?" Brett asked in an attempt to push the slightly awkward situation into the past. Eddy shrugged.
"I don't really wanna watch a movie, I want to record that video and be productive", Eddy said and reached for his glass of water that Brett had brought him.
"Tomorrow", Brett responded with a joking serious look on his face and poked Eddy's arm carefully.
"Unless I die in my sleep it'll happen tomorrow, alright?" Eddy said and sipped his water. Cold and crisp water, helped him cool down a bit mentally and lifted some of the pink fog clouding his mind every time Brett touched him.
"Alright", Brett replied, knowing he would definitly say no to recording if Eddy didn't seem better than his current state.