burning_smile | (no subject)

There was a frown, and Jake shrugged.

"If you overdo it gram is going to be ten times worse about scolding you," he said lightly.

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"All right, good."

He had the niggling sense that he probably should stay home anyway, just from the vague heavy tiredness that was lingering a bit more than just from not having slept well worrying over Dirk. But if he slept now he should be fine, so he just sort of dozed at the table while Dirk finished his soup.

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"Excuse me, when did this become you worrying about me?" he offered, smiling. He took Dirk's plate and bowl and put them in the sink, wandering back over to him and taking his hand. "Doing all right?"

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"Good to hear." He laced their fingers together as they meandered back up the stairs, and rested his forehead atop Dirk's when they got into his room.

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And Jake returned the gesture, having slightly joined Dirk in the strange sensation of things not quite feeling real. He laughed a little, after, and shook his head as he pulled away.

"This is not resting," he explained.

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"You can have the laptop in bed if you'd like," Jake offered idly, crawling over toward the wall and watching Dirk with a smile. He left his glasses on the table where Dirk picked his up from.

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He curled up on his side and watched Dirk with a faint smile on his face, reaching across the bed to touch his shoulder. Without his glasses on, even in the light of just Dirk's computer there were circles under his eyes. When had those gotten there? He just smiled and watched him type, and didn't have the presence of mind to keep the stupid smile off of his face.

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"I'm tired," Jake whined quietly. He pressed his face into Dirk's hand for a moment. "...come to bed."

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His body was preemptively trying to force him down and make him rest so he didn't fall prey to illness, but he wasn't really listening. He latched onto Dirk and buried his face in him, humming quietly.

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He didn't really sleep much. Not restfully at least. His brain refused to shut down, thinking and spinning and twisting itself in knots about nothing in particular. When his alarm went off at 7am he was shaking slightly, from cold or exhaustion or both. He sat up and fiddled with his phone for a while, trying to keep the faint wheeze to his breath quiet enough to not be telling to Dirk.

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Good. Jake smiled and crouched over him to press his lips to Dirk's forehead before he climbed out of bed, rustling around in the semi-darkness of the drawn curtains to gather some clean clothes and take a shower. It was far more telling when he found himself needing to sit in the shower than his simple tiredness had been, but he powered on, convincing himself he was just sleep deprived.

It wasn't until he was on the lower level of the house seeking his car keys that he really had to stop, because Bec had whuffed at something on the back porch and startled him and he'd wound up sitting on the floor without meaning to at all when he turned too quickly to figure out what the animal was on about. Luckily or unluckily or both, Jade wandered up from her lab while he was still on the floor and she tutted at him.

"Picking up what your boyfriend is getting rid of?" Her tone was gentle, but still scolding. Jake tried to not look chastised.

"He's not my boyfriend," he offered meekly.

"Same difference. Go back upstairs, I'll bring you both some coffee and if you're feeling better in an hour I'll let you go to your second class." Jake whined, but cooperated, trudging back upstairs and sitting in his computer chair sort of uncoordinatedly, folding over the desk and trying to remember when he'd run out of breath.

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He picked his head up only enough to set it on his arms and level Dirk with a sort of foggy stare.

"Gram's not letting me go to class unless coffee makes me less woozy," he offered, rasping slightly. "I fell."

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"Mmmn," Jake shook his head slowly. "I could have slept on the couch if I was worried about it. To be honest I haven't felt right since before you came down with a fever."

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