Ironically Married~ Chensung/Chenji

Chapter 13

"'Just get some sleep,' you said," Chenle tried his best to mock as Jisung fetched a spare blanket they never thought they'd need. "'It'll go away in the morning,' you said." Jisung smirked, throwing the blanket over him.

"I can't take you seriously with that voice."

"What voice?" Chenle said weakly, suddenly having another coughing fit.

"If you're gonna die, do it quietly," Jisung cheekily said knowing full well Chenle couldn't be bothered to sit up and slap him. "You may get a pass from work today but I don't." He once again tried to mock his voice in gibberish, but combined with his blocked-nose-voice, it came out more like pathetic sniffles.

"Need anything else?" The urge to laugh was getting hard to hold at this point. As was another curiosity of his, but it would probably not the best to find out the answer to it whilst Chenle was sick.

"Can you work in here? Keyboard tapping sounds are nice," Chenle croaked. Jisung raised an eyebrow.

"You know I barely just about get work done- what keyboard tapping sounds are there to speak of?"

"-you can sit up against the bedside," Chenle had a satisfied smile on; something extremely hard to say no to. And his smile only got wider as he heard a fake exasperated sigh from the door, and soon enough, footsteps coming back carrying Jisung's laptop. He sat by the bedside, but not before giving the duvet a good slap.

"Tell me if you need anything else, princess," he grumbled.

"Nothing for now, love," Chenle snorted out a laugh. Though if he was being honest, he might be able to get used to that sarcastic impromptu nickname. And it might've just been because he was ill, but that morning was possibly the fastest he'd ever fallen asleep.

He wouldn't remember in much detail when he woke up, but Chenle had a dream. Everyone was neither child, nor teenager, nor adult. Immortal, you could say. And yet, childish laughter echoed throughout a nearly abandoned playground, eerily. He was part of that laughter, as was Jisung, Jeno, Donghyuck...even some long forgotten (for good reasons) classmates from school and college, and strangely despite his mind making them merely fuzzy shadows, he could identify all of them. The swing creaked loudly, and Chenle thought he could even smell the rust on its chains as he swung periodically, like the ticking of a clock. He took a glance to the sky; the sun had painted it in what reminded him of blood-red, with not a cloud. And it stayed like way perpetually, never fading to pink or waning to black.

The second he swung back down, he looked down to a sea of red covering what was once sand. Laughter drowned out now, as if it was on the other side of the world. His screams were swallowed, and he couldn't tell if he was screaming so loud that he'd made himself deaf, or that no sound was coming out at all. White noise completely consumed his surroundings, but he didn't dare let go of the chains of time. Until a soft voice came from beside him, another dark figure on the same swing: Jisung.

"So this is hell?" the familiar voice spoke. Hot tears began to boil in Chenle's eyes

"What do you mean?" he asked, strangled. Even though the shadows had no mouths and the white noise was drowning him out, he could still tell that Jisung had replied. But for once, their usual communication without words didn't work. Disbelieving, he tried calling over the noise.

"What do you mean?"

It echoed, until the shadow disintegrated.

Almost needless to say, he woke up in simultaneously hot and cold sweat, and a concerned Jisung peering over him.

"Are-" he was cut off as Chenle grabbed his shoulders, nearly making him fall onto the bed in a desperate hug.

"I nearly lost you."

"I'm right here though?" Poor Jisung said, confused, but hugging him back and ever-so gently patting his hair down. Chenle could melt to that touch.

"Yeah, I know, but..." he rambled nonsense, to which Jisung merely sat by and combed out some tangles.

"Does it mean anything?" he absent-mindedly asked, honestly only half paying attention to this story that was barely like the original. Chenle stopped in his tracks, slumping against his headboard, apparently too suddenly that Jisung let out an alarmed sound. A dull ache started to spread from the back of Chenle's head.

"I doubt it," he drawled.

"Maybe think about it when your mind is clearer then. Drink some water," Jisung offered him the cup from his bedside. It slipped down his throat, cold and cutting. He gulped a breath of air and lay back down, contemplating.

"I can tell you anything, right?" he brought the blanket to his chin.

"Are you not already?" Jisung half-jokingly said, expecting another laugh in return, but instead his face turned more solemn as he observed Chenle's slight pout and twitching foot.

"What are we?" Chenle said quietly. "Have you ever thought about that?"

"We're human," Jisung answered very blankly, receiving a light slap on the arm.

"You know what I mean."

"Always." They fell into a thoughtful silence. Chenle sighed and turned over so that his back was facing Jisung.

"Maybe it's just young excitement. New life, new excitement." his stuffy voice came from the other side of the bed. Jisung blew a raspberry.

"We're hardly young anymore."

"Physically, I suppose so. Mentally...that's questionable."

"Yeah, especially for you."

"Especially for you more like," Chenle turned his head to see his reaction, a smug grin playing on his face. They bickered back and forth some more, before Jisung slid back onto the floor and Chenle flipped so that he was looking down on him from the bed.