i think i’m running a temperature

"I think you have a fever" - from someone else to the sickie. or... "I feel too warm" - from the sickie to another person.

But can we talk about all the other symptoms of someone developing a fever? Those little details make the reading experience so much better. It makes you feel pity for the poor sickie.

I'd love to see more of these golden nuggets:

Glossy eyes/eyes tearing up involuntarily.

Feeling heavy and sluggish all day/struggling with body weakness.

Eyes stinging from the heat, causing them to rub them.

Being told they look restless/tired more than once.

Flushed face AND ears, shoulders and neck are great too.

REDDEN LIPS! have you ever seen a cold person istg-

Dazed / distracted look, like they're thinking all the time.

Little groans / whimpers when moving because it hurts.

Eyes tearing up NOT involuntarily, they feel really bad.

Saying they don't feel hungry/thirsty but downing water like crazy.

Tender throats when drinking cold things, makes them wince.

Given the last two points, choking on water. Classic.

Slow reflexes, they are more clumsy than usual. Swaying on feet.

Stuffed-up headaches, lightheaded and/or having dizziness spells.

Passing out momentarily/knocked out cold. Womp Womp/aff.

Body sore and achy, from fever and constantly banging on stuff.

Nausea from the dizziness, it may or may not end of throwing up.

Tummy aches related to the cause of the fever! Those are good.

Seeking warmth because they feel "cold". They're burning up.

Additionally, someone notices how hot they are. "You're cold???"

Having fever dreams before/after noticing the fever. Daww...

And my personal favorite...

They try to carry on their activities as usual with two extra layers of clothes on them, and feeling off but blaming it on anything other than being sick, then feeling like absolute shit after they realize they are running a fever and, probably, are very sick too.

Not really adding anything new but sort of an amalgamation of what you already wrote:

Not being able to get comfortable.

Either feeling too hot or too cold (mainly too cold and shivering, poor thing).

Muscles aching.

Joints aching.

Beads of sweat gathering at their neck, upper lip or forehead, despite the chills running up and down their spine.

Dull pounding behind their fever hot and glazed eyes.

The normally so soft pyjama shirt or blanket suddenly feels coarse and rough on their sensitive feverish skin.

Tossing and turning (slowly, gently, while groaning from the discomfort) because no matter how tired they are, they are simply too uncomfortable to be able to fall asleep

“That’s a fever.”

Whumpee has been battling a high fever all day. Caretaker tries to sit them at the dinner table for some soup, to fill their belly so they can take some medicine. Poor fevered whumpee just sits there, listless, with a thousand yard stare and bright red cheeks. Caretaker tries to grab their attention, but it's all for nothing. Whumpee just keeps shivering and staring into the void.

btw i hope i phrased this right, english is not my first language

Hope you don't mind me answering these together, but since they're requesting basically the same theme I thought I'd group them. Here's some early Jack and Leo sickfic for you <3

***

Jack got off the train and hustled up the steps. He was going to be late for school if he didn't hurry. He'd overslept, mostly because he'd yelled at Leo the other morning when he knocked on his door to wake him so now Leo had stopped doing that and when Jack's alarm didn't go off he was just late. He knew it was his own fault, but that just made him more pissed at Leo about it. Why did he just stand there and take it when Jack chewed him out? What kind of man didn't stand up for himself?

He got a late slip from the secretary and slid into the empty desk next to Raina in home room. She shot him a look and he knew she would probably chew him out for being late after class. Sometimes he didn't know why he stayed friends with someone who gave him such a hard time about school and his grades and stuff. He slouched down in his seat and pulled a notebook and pen out of his backpack, flipping to the page from the day before that was 90% covered with drawings, his notes from class relegated to the margins. At least he had the first two classes with Ray and then lunch with Ray and Fonzo after fourth period. It was the only thing that made school bearable. He spent home room working on his drawing of Jello Biafra and then finishing up his Spanish homework before the next class. He walked Raina to her locker so she could get a book and endured her predictable rant about how he didn't take things seriously and he could do so much more. He endured the rant because she was the only person who thought he had potential. Well, not the only person now...but still, she was the first. Plus she was a lot prettier than Leo. She was wearing that oversized sweater with the cuffs that came down over her hands so they looked like little paws, and she caught him smiling at her and gave him a weird look.

The first two periods weren't so bad, but as the day went on, Jack's head started hurting and his throat got sore seemingly out of nowhere. By lunchtime he wasn't very hungry and just got a soda instead of lunch even though he'd skipped breakfast. Even the cold drink burned his throat. Luckily, Fonzo was in a chatty mood, holding forth on that week's episode of Lost, and Raina was half listening while she studied for her chemistry test. Jack leaned his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand, half listening to Fonzo. Raina pushed her second slice of pizza at him and raised an eyebrow when he shook his head. "Not hungry," he said.

"Dude you don't have to pretend you're not hungry when you're broke, we've been over this," Fonzo says, picking up the pizza and taking a bite.

"I'm not broke," Jack said, his voice cracking a little- god, how embarrassing- "I'm just not hungry." It was true, he could have bought lunch, or brought the lunch Leo packed for him. He felt a little pang of guilt at the fact that Leo packed a lunch for him every day and he never brought it with him. That was nice. Leo was nice. He had always wanted a nice parent who took car of him, but he didn't know what to do with himself now that he had one. He wasn't used to the attention and scrutiny that came with people caring about you.

Raina caught up with him in the hallway after lunch. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure?" She asked, knocking her shoulder into his arm. "You look pale and you never skip lunch."

"I'm fucking fine, okay!" Woah, he had not meant for it to come out like that.

"Okay, geez, sorry for being your friend." She turned on her heel and stomped off towards her Chemistry test.

Jack rubbed his forehead and pulled his backpack up on his shoulder. Why did he always do this shit? He never meant to be this way, but it always seemed to happen even if he didn't mean it.

Coming out of fifth period after his next class, Andy Garrett, the captain of the wrestling team, shouldered past Jack, knocking him into the lockers. "Asshole," Jack muttered, finding his footing and knocking his shoulder into the guy's side.

"You want some, art fag?" The wrestler grabbed Jack's shoulders and shoved him into the water fountain.

Jack squirmed out of his grasp and threw a right hook at the the guy. It glanced off his big, square jaw, but his friends were on Jack even as the guy crumpled as if Jack had landed a knockout punch. He got in a few more hits, but the wrestling lackey's worked him over pretty good before some of the other jocks and security broke up the fight.

The next hour was spent half getting lectured about fighting and half sitting outside the vice-principal's office licking blood off his lips. There had apparently been quite a few witnesses that heard what Garrett said, so Jack was vaguely hopeful that his bad kid reputation wouldn't get him blamed for this entirely. It probably also worked in his favor that the guy was twice his size.

As he swallowed another mouthful of bloody saliva, he realized how sore his throat had gotten. It was really sore. It was hard to swallow without wincing. His lip was busted and swollen and there was a cut on his cheek. he'd taken a few body shots too, but he didn't think anything was broken. It would be nice to lie down, though. Maybe Leo wouldn't be too mad when he showed up.

Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case. Leo looked pissed when he walked in and all through the meeting. He defended Jack, though, pointing out the fact that it was four against one and that even if he had thrown the first punch he wasn't the original aggressor.

Jack ended up with a two day suspension and Andy Garrett got a week. Fair enough, he supposed. Though it was his second suspension since he'd moved in with Leo, which probably wasn't good. Denise always just signed the slip and moved on. She never came to the meetings at the school because she was either working or drunk or just didn't care.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Leo asked as they walked down the sidewalk.

"He started it," was all Jack said.

"I know he started it," Leo said, "But you're the one who made it a fight."

"I thought you were on my side," Jack said. He pulled his collar up a little because he was getting some weird looks from people walking by on the street. Maybe his face looked worse than he thought. He hadn't been able to look in the mirror yet.

"I am on your side, Jack," Leo said as they turned the corner towards the nearest subway stop. "I'm the one who defended you in there, in case you have short term memory loss. But being on your side means I need you to stop doing stupid shit like this. You can't start a brawl every time someone bumps you in the hallway, that's no way to live your life."

"Oh geez, thanks for the great life advice." Jack rolled his eyes. "I'll be sure to remember that I should just let everyone walk all over me in the future."

"That is not what I said and you know it." It was Leo's turn to roll his eyes. "We can talk about it later, though. Are you okay? Your lip looks like it might need stitches, maybe we should go to urgent care."

"Oh my god, I'm fine," Jack scoffed. "You have to fucking calm down."

"Watch it," Leo said as they descended the subway steps. "Just for that I should make you go to the doctor," he muttered as they swiped through with their metrocards and got on the R heading back to the apartment.

They walked in the front door and Jack immediately went to his room and changed out of his jeans and into sweatpants. He came back out to the living room and turned on the TV. Leo grabbed the remote and turned it off. "No TV," he said, "A suspension is not a license to come home and veg out. You can read if you want or draw or do your homework."

"Don't you have to go back to work?" Jack asked.

"Nope," Leo sat down next to him on the couch. "I'm working from home the next couple of days, so I'll be right here making sure you don't enjoy yourself."

"This is bullshit," Jack said. Denise may have sucked but she never did this shit. "I'm too old to be punished."

"Think of it as the natural consequences of your choices," Leo said. "This is the second fight you've been in since you moved in with me. I don't know if you were listening in the principals office-"

"I wasn't."

Leo ignored the interruption, "-but the school does not look kindly on fighting and if you keep going like this you're going to get yourself expelled."

"Great," Jack said.

"Come on, Jack," Leo sighed. "You're a smart and talented kid. You could do a lot better than this. I'm not letting you throw your future away."

Jack just rolled his eyes again. "What future? Flipping burgers with my high school diploma." He knew he was being a dick. His grades were pretty decent, especially since he moved in with Leo. Partly because he didn't want to fuck things up with Leo and partly just because things were stable and he found himself with nothing to do but his homework most nights. Right now, though? He felt like being a dick.

"No." Leo said flatly. "College, maybe grad school, definitely something with art, I think. You have so much potential, Jack."

"Sure, potential," he snorted, "The only potential I have is the potential to end up in jail."

"That is not going to happen," Leo said. "And I don't think you think that's what's going to happen either. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing so well in school."

Damn, Leo had him there. Jack stood up. He felt dizzy for a moment but managed not to show it. "I'm going to my room."

"Sounds good to me," Leo called after him. "I was going to send you there anyway."

***

Leo sat on the couch rubbing his forehead for a few minutes before he got up and checked his email and worked halfheartedly for an hour or so before calling it a day. He knocked softly on Jack's door and there was no response, so he poked his head in to find Jack sprawled on his bed snoring. His lip and cheek were both swollen and he was starting to get a black eye. Leo cringed for a moment, wishing he had made Jack go to the doctor.

He went back to the kitchen and started dinner, making a pot of the chili that Jack liked. He knew that it was probably a good sign that Jack was being so defiant, he had read that might happen as he got more comfortable, but he hadn't expected it to start all at once. Up until a week before Jack had been pretty much a typical teenager, quiet, mild mannered, surprisingly tidy. Leo had seen his file and knew he had a lot of behavior issues in the past, and maybe he had let himself believe that it was just the bad environment h had been in. Now he knew that the way Jack had been raised had definitely left its mark on him.

The first fight two weeks before had been because a guy was bullying Jack's best friend for being gay. Leo had admittedly been a little proud due to the circumstances and maybe hadn't come down as hard on Jack as he should have. After that, Jack started popping off at Leo a lot more, and at his friends. This week had been particularly bad and Leo felt like every conversation they'd had was him scolding Jack about something, culminating in this afternoon.

He's testing boundaries, Leo reminded himself as he chopped onions and peppers. You have to be firm but kind and enforce them. That is the way to earn his respect. He had spent nearly every night since Jack came to live with him poring over parenting books and haunting online forums for foster and adoptive parents of teens.

When the chili was ready, Leo knocked on Jack's door again. "Hey, are you up? I made chili."

He heard Jack clear his throat. "Be there in a minute," came the response.

Leo was pleased he wasn't being frozen out. Jack emerged a few minutes later, rumpled and sleepy looking. He was quiet at dinner and didn't eat as enthusiastically as usual. Leo was kicking himself for making something spicy when Jack had a split lip, but he was surprised that Jack only had one piece of cornbread too.

Jack did the dishes after, since that was the habit they'd fallen into, while Leo stared into the fridge and wished he had a beer. He'd pretty much stopped drinking altogether since he found out about Jack's mom. He didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable or unsafe at home. It sounded really good right now, though. He shut the fridge door and turned around, "Hey I know I said no TV, and that definitely applies during the day when you're suspended, but we could watch a movie or something tonight if you want."

"That's okay," Jack said, turning off the tap and washing his hands. "I think I'm just gonna read and go to bed early."

"Okay," Leo said. "Are you okay? Is your face hurting?" Jack's lip and cheek looked sore and his left eye was starting to darken and swell.

Jack looked away. "A little, I guess." He dodged Leo's hand when he reached towards him.

"Let me get you an ice pack at least," Leo said, reaching into the freezer for one of the blue gel ice packs. He wrapped it in a dish towel and handed it to Jack. "And take some Advil too, it'll help with the swelling." He tried to pat Jack on the shoulder but he dodged yet again, and Leo resigned himself to spending the night alone in front of the TV.

***

Jack lay on his bed with an ice pack over his face, feeling miserable. His head ached, his face throbbed, and his throat felt like it was on fire. He tried to read for a while, but it was no use, his head hurt too much and he couldn't focus anyway. He listened to the new Say Anything album on his ipod. All he could think of was what an ass he was. He'd been mean to Ray, a dick to Leo, he'd gotten in a stupid fight just because he could. Sure he'd only swung after the guy had slammed him against the wall, but he could have just shrugged it off when Andy shouldered him into the lockers.

He rolled over onto his side and pressed his cheek hard against the ice pack. He just felt so wrong in his skin lately, like it was all too easy. Like he was just supposed to live this new life and pretend none of the old stuff had never happened to him. Like he was supposed to just forget that his mom didn't want him anymore. And she'd had him for fifteen years. What if Leo got sick of him too? He wasn't a cute little kid anymore, it would probably take a lot less time for Leo to get tired of dealing with him.

The cold ice felt good on his face and Jack drifted off to sleep trying to plan how he would save money for when Leo eventually kicked him out. Maybe he could get his old job at the pizzeria back, or maybe they were hiring at the new Barnes and Noble.

He woke up past midnight still on top of his covers, shivering and miserable. His throat was so sore that a tentative swallow left him whimpering with his eyes screwed shut. Fuck. He pushed his book and ice pack onto the floor and wrapped himself up in his covers like a burrito. He tried to fall back to sleep but he was so sore all over and his throat really hurt. Just breathing made it hurt. After a few minutes he got hot and pushed the covers off, only to pull them back over himself a few minutes after that. Finally, since he obviously wasn't going to get any sleep, he wrapped his comforter around himself and shuffled out to the couch. He turned on the tv with the volume low and curled up in a ball in one corner of the the sofa. He worried a little about waking Leo up, but he did this a lot when he couldn't sleep and Leo almost never came out of his room.

No such luck tonight, though. Only fifteen minutes into the Star Trek episode he found and Leo was in the doorway, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Jackie?"

"Couldn't sleep," Jack said, cringing at the rough sound of his voice.

"Me either," Leo said, plopping down on the other end of the sofa. "Is this the one with that video game they all get addicted to?"

"Yeah," Jack said. He leaned his head against the arm of the sofa, hoping the Leo would at least be quiet.

It seemed he would get his wish too, they watched in silence for a few minutes, until the commercial break started and then Leo looked over at him. "Hey, Jack, I'm sorry if I came down too hard on you, I just think it's really important that you think before you get physical. Violence isn't a good way to solve anything, it will just make your problems worse, you know."

"Yeah, I get it," Jack said. It hurt to talk. "Sorry for making trouble."

"You're only making trouble for yourself," Leo said, "Not for me, okay?"

"Okay."

Leo got up after a few more minutes. Jack could hear him in the kitchen. He came back with two steaming mugs.

"Hot chocolate," he said, handing Jack a mug.

"Thanks." Jack tried to sip the drink, expecting to find the hot liquid soothing, but it hurt to swallow just as much as anything else did. He kept sipping at it anyway, though, not wanting to seem ungrateful after Leo was so nice. He felt like such a fucking asshole. He was a dick all week and then Leo apologized to him? He didn't know if he was a jerk or Leo was a pushover or both. Probably both, he decided.

The hot chocolate was rich, made with milk and sugar and dark chocolate, and on top of being hard to swallow, it felt heavy in Jack's stomach. He put the mug down and leaned back against the the sofa. Looking over at Leo, he thought about just telling him he wasn't feeling well, but he didn't really feel like he deserved to be taken care of.

"I'm gonna go back to bed," he said after a while. He needed space to be miserable in peace. It was too tempting to get Leo all worried and fussing over him. God that was nice though, when he had pneumonia and Leo sat with him and got him popsicles and anything he wanted. He went back to his bedroom, dragging the comforter behind him.

Jack's head ached and spun dizzily as he walked back to the bedroom. He hadn't been in bed long when the chills started and he couldn't stop shivering. His face hurt and he was so cold and he just felt awful. He forced himself up to the bathroom and downed some Advil like Leo had suggested hours ago, wincing as the pills scraped down the sides of his throat. Huddling back under his covers he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to force himself to sleep.

He was just starting to drift off when he suddenly jolted awake, his stomach roiling and his mouth filling with saliva. He swallowed it down but it forced an acidic burp up, burning the back of his throat. "Nnnnghh," he groaned in pain. He burped again and then gagged, pushing himself out of bed and staggering to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet in time to throw up the advil, the hot chocolate, and his dinner in a projectile spray of painful acid. Tears were running down his cheeks from the pain as he brought up another wave of vomit, which came out his nose when he tried to keep it from coming up.

Jack let out choking sobs, and gagged again and again. His throat felt like it was full of broken glass and the stomach acid burned in his spit lip as he held onto the toilet with shaky hands. Every time he tried to swallow his throat was so painful it just made his nausea worse.

The bathroom light flicked on suddenly, and then there were warm hands rubbing his back.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, you're okay, just take some deep breaths," Leo's voice was so calm and concerned that Jack couldn't help but try and do what he said. He took a few shaky breaths and gagged again, then a few more, slumping back against Leo.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Hey, I was awake, remember," Leo said. He leaned Jack back against the wall and put his hands on his face. "That's quite a fever," he said, feeling Jack's cheeks. Jack winced when Leo touched the sides of his neck. "That hurt?" Leo asked.

Jack nodded miserably.

"Sore throat?" Leo asked.

Jack nodded again. Leo flushed the toilet and came back with a washcloth to wipe Jack's face.

"I'm sorry," he said, again.

"Don't worry about it," Leo said. "Everything's okay. Let's get you to bed."

Jack wasn't sure what happened exactly but he was in bed in a clean sweatshirt and warmly tucked under the covers with a thermometer under his tongue in what seemed like just a few moments.

"102.1," Leo shook his head. "I'm guessing you were feeling pretty crappy and irritable all day, huh?"

"It's no excuse," Jack said.

"No," Leo agreed. "But it is an explanation. We're gonna talk more about the fighting later, but for now you just get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay," Jack agreed meekly. He felt Leo's hand on his back and hoped Leo would stay until he fell asleep.

So this is a silly silly idea that came to me after looking at some older posts that brought up "cottagecore whump" aka, cozy whump and h/c situations taking place in a cottage or cabin. I then got thinking about some other popular aesthetics and how to whumpify them so...this.

Cottagecore: Spoonfuls of honey-laced medicine, quilts, creaking floorboards, panicked hushed voices under the light of kerosene lanterns, no proper insulation; cold and heat alike seeping into an old cottage, a hot fire and wool blankets; a mug of tea clasped between shaking hands

Dark Academia: Storms lashing at the windows, sleepless nights, hoarding secrets that slowly eat away at the psyche, getting trapped in old buildings, reawakened old traumas, dark undereye circles, feverish nightmares, literal and metaphorical ghosts, fires started from spilled candles, old scars

Goblincore: Poisonous fungi, a healer's hut deep in the woods filled with tiny glass bottles housing unsettling contents, chased by creatures that look like familiar woodland animals but aren't, finding bones in the woods (whose are they?), getting lost in the forest late at night, having to build or scrounge for shelter before it gets dark

Light Academia: Waking up in an unfamiliar bed; cold winter light spilling in from the half open window, recovering with quiet but kindly strangers, blood spilled on white marble floors, exhaustedly finding a mostly hidden nook in the library to sleep in, weak tea and bitter medicine, windows rattling ominously late at night

Whimsigoth: Sinister potions from masked figures who claim to know what they're doing, eerie hallucinations, possession, vampire bites and werewolf claws, a murder of crows watching over someone's fitful sleep, hypnosis, breaking curses

btw i hope i phrased this right, english is not my first language

Hope you don't mind me answering these together, but since they're requesting basically the same theme I thought I'd group them. Here's some early Jack and Leo sickfic for you <3

***

Jack got off the train and hustled up the steps. He was going to be late for school if he didn't hurry. He'd overslept, mostly because he'd yelled at Leo the other morning when he knocked on his door to wake him so now Leo had stopped doing that and when Jack's alarm didn't go off he was just late. He knew it was his own fault, but that just made him more pissed at Leo about it. Why did he just stand there and take it when Jack chewed him out? What kind of man didn't stand up for himself?

He got a late slip from the secretary and slid into the empty desk next to Raina in home room. She shot him a look and he knew she would probably chew him out for being late after class. Sometimes he didn't know why he stayed friends with someone who gave him such a hard time about school and his grades and stuff. He slouched down in his seat and pulled a notebook and pen out of his backpack, flipping to the page from the day before that was 90% covered with drawings, his notes from class relegated to the margins. At least he had the first two classes with Ray and then lunch with Ray and Fonzo after fourth period. It was the only thing that made school bearable. He spent home room working on his drawing of Jello Biafra and then finishing up his Spanish homework before the next class. He walked Raina to her locker so she could get a book and endured her predictable rant about how he didn't take things seriously and he could do so much more. He endured the rant because she was the only person who thought he had potential. Well, not the only person now...but still, she was the first. Plus she was a lot prettier than Leo. She was wearing that oversized sweater with the cuffs that came down over her hands so they looked like little paws, and she caught him smiling at her and gave him a weird look.

The first two periods weren't so bad, but as the day went on, Jack's head started hurting and his throat got sore seemingly out of nowhere. By lunchtime he wasn't very hungry and just got a soda instead of lunch even though he'd skipped breakfast. Even the cold drink burned his throat. Luckily, Fonzo was in a chatty mood, holding forth on that week's episode of Lost, and Raina was half listening while she studied for her chemistry test. Jack leaned his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand, half listening to Fonzo. Raina pushed her second slice of pizza at him and raised an eyebrow when he shook his head. "Not hungry," he said.

"Dude you don't have to pretend you're not hungry when you're broke, we've been over this," Fonzo says, picking up the pizza and taking a bite.

"I'm not broke," Jack said, his voice cracking a little- god, how embarrassing- "I'm just not hungry." It was true, he could have bought lunch, or brought the lunch Leo packed for him. He felt a little pang of guilt at the fact that Leo packed a lunch for him every day and he never brought it with him. That was nice. Leo was nice. He had always wanted a nice parent who took car of him, but he didn't know what to do with himself now that he had one. He wasn't used to the attention and scrutiny that came with people caring about you.

Raina caught up with him in the hallway after lunch. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure?" She asked, knocking her shoulder into his arm. "You look pale and you never skip lunch."

"I'm fucking fine, okay!" Woah, he had not meant for it to come out like that.

"Okay, geez, sorry for being your friend." She turned on her heel and stomped off towards her Chemistry test.

Jack rubbed his forehead and pulled his backpack up on his shoulder. Why did he always do this shit? He never meant to be this way, but it always seemed to happen even if he didn't mean it.

Coming out of fifth period after his next class, Andy Garrett, the captain of the wrestling team, shouldered past Jack, knocking him into the lockers. "Asshole," Jack muttered, finding his footing and knocking his shoulder into the guy's side.

"You want some, art fag?" The wrestler grabbed Jack's shoulders and shoved him into the water fountain.

Jack squirmed out of his grasp and threw a right hook at the the guy. It glanced off his big, square jaw, but his friends were on Jack even as the guy crumpled as if Jack had landed a knockout punch. He got in a few more hits, but the wrestling lackey's worked him over pretty good before some of the other jocks and security broke up the fight.

The next hour was spent half getting lectured about fighting and half sitting outside the vice-principal's office licking blood off his lips. There had apparently been quite a few witnesses that heard what Garrett said, so Jack was vaguely hopeful that his bad kid reputation wouldn't get him blamed for this entirely. It probably also worked in his favor that the guy was twice his size.

As he swallowed another mouthful of bloody saliva, he realized how sore his throat had gotten. It was really sore. It was hard to swallow without wincing. His lip was busted and swollen and there was a cut on his cheek. he'd taken a few body shots too, but he didn't think anything was broken. It would be nice to lie down, though. Maybe Leo wouldn't be too mad when he showed up.

Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case. Leo looked pissed when he walked in and all through the meeting. He defended Jack, though, pointing out the fact that it was four against one and that even if he had thrown the first punch he wasn't the original aggressor.

Jack ended up with a two day suspension and Andy Garrett got a week. Fair enough, he supposed. Though it was his second suspension since he'd moved in with Leo, which probably wasn't good. Denise always just signed the slip and moved on. She never came to the meetings at the school because she was either working or drunk or just didn't care.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Leo asked as they walked down the sidewalk.

"He started it," was all Jack said.

"I know he started it," Leo said, "But you're the one who made it a fight."

"I thought you were on my side," Jack said. He pulled his collar up a little because he was getting some weird looks from people walking by on the street. Maybe his face looked worse than he thought. He hadn't been able to look in the mirror yet.

"I am on your side, Jack," Leo said as they turned the corner towards the nearest subway stop. "I'm the one who defended you in there, in case you have short term memory loss. But being on your side means I need you to stop doing stupid shit like this. You can't start a brawl every time someone bumps you in the hallway, that's no way to live your life."

"Oh geez, thanks for the great life advice." Jack rolled his eyes. "I'll be sure to remember that I should just let everyone walk all over me in the future."

"That is not what I said and you know it." It was Leo's turn to roll his eyes. "We can talk about it later, though. Are you okay? Your lip looks like it might need stitches, maybe we should go to urgent care."

"Oh my god, I'm fine," Jack scoffed. "You have to fucking calm down."

"Watch it," Leo said as they descended the subway steps. "Just for that I should make you go to the doctor," he muttered as they swiped through with their metrocards and got on the R heading back to the apartment.

They walked in the front door and Jack immediately went to his room and changed out of his jeans and into sweatpants. He came back out to the living room and turned on the TV. Leo grabbed the remote and turned it off. "No TV," he said, "A suspension is not a license to come home and veg out. You can read if you want or draw or do your homework."

"Don't you have to go back to work?" Jack asked.

"Nope," Leo sat down next to him on the couch. "I'm working from home the next couple of days, so I'll be right here making sure you don't enjoy yourself."

"This is bullshit," Jack said. Denise may have sucked but she never did this shit. "I'm too old to be punished."

"Think of it as the natural consequences of your choices," Leo said. "This is the second fight you've been in since you moved in with me. I don't know if you were listening in the principals office-"

"I wasn't."

Leo ignored the interruption, "-but the school does not look kindly on fighting and if you keep going like this you're going to get yourself expelled."

"Great," Jack said.

"Come on, Jack," Leo sighed. "You're a smart and talented kid. You could do a lot better than this. I'm not letting you throw your future away."

Jack just rolled his eyes again. "What future? Flipping burgers with my high school diploma." He knew he was being a dick. His grades were pretty decent, especially since he moved in with Leo. Partly because he didn't want to fuck things up with Leo and partly just because things were stable and he found himself with nothing to do but his homework most nights. Right now, though? He felt like being a dick.

"No." Leo said flatly. "College, maybe grad school, definitely something with art, I think. You have so much potential, Jack."

"Sure, potential," he snorted, "The only potential I have is the potential to end up in jail."

"That is not going to happen," Leo said. "And I don't think you think that's what's going to happen either. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing so well in school."

Damn, Leo had him there. Jack stood up. He felt dizzy for a moment but managed not to show it. "I'm going to my room."

"Sounds good to me," Leo called after him. "I was going to send you there anyway."

***

Leo sat on the couch rubbing his forehead for a few minutes before he got up and checked his email and worked halfheartedly for an hour or so before calling it a day. He knocked softly on Jack's door and there was no response, so he poked his head in to find Jack sprawled on his bed snoring. His lip and cheek were both swollen and he was starting to get a black eye. Leo cringed for a moment, wishing he had made Jack go to the doctor.

He went back to the kitchen and started dinner, making a pot of the chili that Jack liked. He knew that it was probably a good sign that Jack was being so defiant, he had read that might happen as he got more comfortable, but he hadn't expected it to start all at once. Up until a week before Jack had been pretty much a typical teenager, quiet, mild mannered, surprisingly tidy. Leo had seen his file and knew he had a lot of behavior issues in the past, and maybe he had let himself believe that it was just the bad environment h had been in. Now he knew that the way Jack had been raised had definitely left its mark on him.

The first fight two weeks before had been because a guy was bullying Jack's best friend for being gay. Leo had admittedly been a little proud due to the circumstances and maybe hadn't come down as hard on Jack as he should have. After that, Jack started popping off at Leo a lot more, and at his friends. This week had been particularly bad and Leo felt like every conversation they'd had was him scolding Jack about something, culminating in this afternoon.

He's testing boundaries, Leo reminded himself as he chopped onions and peppers. You have to be firm but kind and enforce them. That is the way to earn his respect. He had spent nearly every night since Jack came to live with him poring over parenting books and haunting online forums for foster and adoptive parents of teens.

When the chili was ready, Leo knocked on Jack's door again. "Hey, are you up? I made chili."

He heard Jack clear his throat. "Be there in a minute," came the response.

Leo was pleased he wasn't being frozen out. Jack emerged a few minutes later, rumpled and sleepy looking. He was quiet at dinner and didn't eat as enthusiastically as usual. Leo was kicking himself for making something spicy when Jack had a split lip, but he was surprised that Jack only had one piece of cornbread too.

Jack did the dishes after, since that was the habit they'd fallen into, while Leo stared into the fridge and wished he had a beer. He'd pretty much stopped drinking altogether since he found out about Jack's mom. He didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable or unsafe at home. It sounded really good right now, though. He shut the fridge door and turned around, "Hey I know I said no TV, and that definitely applies during the day when you're suspended, but we could watch a movie or something tonight if you want."

"That's okay," Jack said, turning off the tap and washing his hands. "I think I'm just gonna read and go to bed early."

"Okay," Leo said. "Are you okay? Is your face hurting?" Jack's lip and cheek looked sore and his left eye was starting to darken and swell.

Jack looked away. "A little, I guess." He dodged Leo's hand when he reached towards him.

"Let me get you an ice pack at least," Leo said, reaching into the freezer for one of the blue gel ice packs. He wrapped it in a dish towel and handed it to Jack. "And take some Advil too, it'll help with the swelling." He tried to pat Jack on the shoulder but he dodged yet again, and Leo resigned himself to spending the night alone in front of the TV.

***

Jack lay on his bed with an ice pack over his face, feeling miserable. His head ached, his face throbbed, and his throat felt like it was on fire. He tried to read for a while, but it was no use, his head hurt too much and he couldn't focus anyway. He listened to the new Say Anything album on his ipod. All he could think of was what an ass he was. He'd been mean to Ray, a dick to Leo, he'd gotten in a stupid fight just because he could. Sure he'd only swung after the guy had slammed him against the wall, but he could have just shrugged it off when Andy shouldered him into the lockers.

He rolled over onto his side and pressed his cheek hard against the ice pack. He just felt so wrong in his skin lately, like it was all too easy. Like he was just supposed to live this new life and pretend none of the old stuff had never happened to him. Like he was supposed to just forget that his mom didn't want him anymore. And she'd had him for fifteen years. What if Leo got sick of him too? He wasn't a cute little kid anymore, it would probably take a lot less time for Leo to get tired of dealing with him.

The cold ice felt good on his face and Jack drifted off to sleep trying to plan how he would save money for when Leo eventually kicked him out. Maybe he could get his old job at the pizzeria back, or maybe they were hiring at the new Barnes and Noble.

He woke up past midnight still on top of his covers, shivering and miserable. His throat was so sore that a tentative swallow left him whimpering with his eyes screwed shut. Fuck. He pushed his book and ice pack onto the floor and wrapped himself up in his covers like a burrito. He tried to fall back to sleep but he was so sore all over and his throat really hurt. Just breathing made it hurt. After a few minutes he got hot and pushed the covers off, only to pull them back over himself a few minutes after that. Finally, since he obviously wasn't going to get any sleep, he wrapped his comforter around himself and shuffled out to the couch. He turned on the tv with the volume low and curled up in a ball in one corner of the the sofa. He worried a little about waking Leo up, but he did this a lot when he couldn't sleep and Leo almost never came out of his room.

No such luck tonight, though. Only fifteen minutes into the Star Trek episode he found and Leo was in the doorway, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Jackie?"

"Couldn't sleep," Jack said, cringing at the rough sound of his voice.

"Me either," Leo said, plopping down on the other end of the sofa. "Is this the one with that video game they all get addicted to?"

"Yeah," Jack said. He leaned his head against the arm of the sofa, hoping the Leo would at least be quiet.

It seemed he would get his wish too, they watched in silence for a few minutes, until the commercial break started and then Leo looked over at him. "Hey, Jack, I'm sorry if I came down too hard on you, I just think it's really important that you think before you get physical. Violence isn't a good way to solve anything, it will just make your problems worse, you know."

"Yeah, I get it," Jack said. It hurt to talk. "Sorry for making trouble."

"You're only making trouble for yourself," Leo said, "Not for me, okay?"

"Okay."

Leo got up after a few more minutes. Jack could hear him in the kitchen. He came back with two steaming mugs.

"Hot chocolate," he said, handing Jack a mug.

"Thanks." Jack tried to sip the drink, expecting to find the hot liquid soothing, but it hurt to swallow just as much as anything else did. He kept sipping at it anyway, though, not wanting to seem ungrateful after Leo was so nice. He felt like such a fucking asshole. He was a dick all week and then Leo apologized to him? He didn't know if he was a jerk or Leo was a pushover or both. Probably both, he decided.

The hot chocolate was rich, made with milk and sugar and dark chocolate, and on top of being hard to swallow, it felt heavy in Jack's stomach. He put the mug down and leaned back against the the sofa. Looking over at Leo, he thought about just telling him he wasn't feeling well, but he didn't really feel like he deserved to be taken care of.

"I'm gonna go back to bed," he said after a while. He needed space to be miserable in peace. It was too tempting to get Leo all worried and fussing over him. God that was nice though, when he had pneumonia and Leo sat with him and got him popsicles and anything he wanted. He went back to his bedroom, dragging the comforter behind him.

Jack's head ached and spun dizzily as he walked back to the bedroom. He hadn't been in bed long when the chills started and he couldn't stop shivering. His face hurt and he was so cold and he just felt awful. He forced himself up to the bathroom and downed some Advil like Leo had suggested hours ago, wincing as the pills scraped down the sides of his throat. Huddling back under his covers he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to force himself to sleep.

He was just starting to drift off when he suddenly jolted awake, his stomach roiling and his mouth filling with saliva. He swallowed it down but it forced an acidic burp up, burning the back of his throat. "Nnnnghh," he groaned in pain. He burped again and then gagged, pushing himself out of bed and staggering to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet in time to throw up the advil, the hot chocolate, and his dinner in a projectile spray of painful acid. Tears were running down his cheeks from the pain as he brought up another wave of vomit, which came out his nose when he tried to keep it from coming up.

Jack let out choking sobs, and gagged again and again. His throat felt like it was full of broken glass and the stomach acid burned in his spit lip as he held onto the toilet with shaky hands. Every time he tried to swallow his throat was so painful it just made his nausea worse.

The bathroom light flicked on suddenly, and then there were warm hands rubbing his back.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, you're okay, just take some deep breaths," Leo's voice was so calm and concerned that Jack couldn't help but try and do what he said. He took a few shaky breaths and gagged again, then a few more, slumping back against Leo.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Hey, I was awake, remember," Leo said. He leaned Jack back against the wall and put his hands on his face. "That's quite a fever," he said, feeling Jack's cheeks. Jack winced when Leo touched the sides of his neck. "That hurt?" Leo asked.

Jack nodded miserably.

"Sore throat?" Leo asked.

Jack nodded again. Leo flushed the toilet and came back with a washcloth to wipe Jack's face.

"I'm sorry," he said, again.

"Don't worry about it," Leo said. "Everything's okay. Let's get you to bed."

Jack wasn't sure what happened exactly but he was in bed in a clean sweatshirt and warmly tucked under the covers with a thermometer under his tongue in what seemed like just a few moments.

"102.1," Leo shook his head. "I'm guessing you were feeling pretty crappy and irritable all day, huh?"

"It's no excuse," Jack said.

"No," Leo agreed. "But it is an explanation. We're gonna talk more about the fighting later, but for now you just get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay," Jack agreed meekly. He felt Leo's hand on his back and hoped Leo would stay until he fell asleep.

Hi 🌷Anon! (I'm so excited to have a regular anon, btw)

Thanks so much for the message and there is a very angsty part two for you below the cut!

Ari sat on the edge of Leo's ugly plaid sofa stroking his boyfriend's sweaty curls while the digital thermometer registered. He felt simultaneously angry with Leo for not calling him and himself for not checking on his boyfriend the night before. He felt like a jerk for going out without him on Saturday, but it wasn't the fact that Leo was grieving that upset him, it was the way he was completely shutting Ari out and making it impossible to be supportive. He still should have called yesterday though, he shouldn't have waited until Cal called him when Leo didn't show up to open the bookstore that morning. Leo's fever was nearly 104 degrees and he was obviously delirious. Ari thought about the emergency room, but his first-year intern confidence won out. He coaxed a little bit of water into his boyfriend, made sure the ACs and fans were all blasting to cool the apartment off, and hauled him into the bathroom for a tepid bath.

“let me take your temperature. …oh, honey.”

“103.8? that’s impressive.”

“i can feel your heart pounding. does something hurt?”

feeling lymph nodes for swelling and picking up the febrile heat at the same time

“your fever is breaking. that’s a good thing.”

“drink some more water. i think you’re dehydrated.”

I am so, so, so late answering this prompt! My brain has just not wanted anything to do with writing my OCs for the last six months or so, but it seems to have switched back on finally. Thank you for the prompt, it's such a good one! There will be a part two of this coming soon <3 Leo Montelione was not having a good time. It was hot, the third week of a miserable August heat wave that made the New York City air like breathing soup. It was three months since they buried Salvatore at St. Michael's in Queens and Leo has never missed a Sunday visit. Today though, he woke up exhausted, with a strange burning feeling in his throat and sinuses, and a pounding headache. It was Sunday, and he had Sunday things to do, so he dragged himself out of bed around noon and got on the train. This was the only thing other than work that he'd reliably been able to get himself out of bed for all summer.

It was overcast, even more humid than usual, and the air in the graveyard was still. Leo sat cross legged in the dry grass next to the flat granite marker. It was a double headstone. Montelione across the top, Maria Paola 1946-1988 on the left, Antonio Salvatore 1944-1999 on the right. He had been coming with his dad every Sunday for years, though they had fallen off towards the end when it was harder for his dad to travel. The last time they came together had been in March, the first nice day of spring.

"Leonardo," his father had said, regarding the stone with the blank space under his own name, "Promise you will visit and keep the stone nice for your mother."

And so Leo still came every Sunday without fail. Ari always offered to come with him, but he went alone because he didn't know what to do with Ari there. It felt useless to try and explain what these visits were for, and his boyfriend would certainly find it strange to watch him sit there for hours, unmoving. That's all he did: sit there. He didn't cry, he didn't talk to them, he just sat and stared at the granite slab. It was better to do it alone. It seemed better to do most things alone lately. He didn't want to be observed or perceived, he just wanted to rot alone in his grief.

How could Ari understand when he went to his parents' for dinner every week, talked to his mom every day, and spent two weeks every summer with them in their cabin upstate?

The air was growing steadily heavier as he sat there that afternoon, and when thunder rolled overhead, Leo decided it was probably time to go. He swayed for a moment getting to his feet, his head swimming and little black dots sparking in the edges of his vision.

"Mmph," he grunted a little as the dizziness cleared and he got his bearings. Maybe it was too hot to be out here for so long with this headache. He hadn't had any breakfast either, or lunch, and it was closing in on five o'clock.

Leo walked among the stone angels and crosses, headstones simple and ornate alike. He started to feel lightheaded again and stopped to rest on a bench for a moment. His arms and legs felt heavy when he got up again, his whole body feeling weighed down while his head threatened dizzy weightlessness every time he moved it. It wasn't that unusual though, he had felt so heavy for so long now, limbs leaden with grief. The dull pounding behind his eyes had become sharper and clearer, piercing the gray nothingness that was going on in his head with an arc of pain.

Leo got up and continued on to the exit of the cemetery green, walking a block away to wait for the bus. There was no shelter at the stop, and no trees nearby either, so when the thunder rolled again and the heavens opened, there was no respite from the torrential summer downpour. The water felt good though, refreshing. Leo turned his face up, eyes closed, letting the rain wash him clean.

It took another ten minutes for the bus to come, and then it was only a few stops to the train. It was cold on the bus, and even colder when he got on the train, the air conditioner cranked up to compensate for the miserable heat outside. Leo had a long ride back to his apartment and he sat in a seat in the corner, arms wrapped around himself, trying not to visibly shiver. His teeth were chattering by the time he got off the F at Delancey, and the occasional lightheadedness from earlier in the day had turned into a constant dizziness. His head was swimming and he clung to the wet stair railing as he mounted the subway steps and made his way to his apartment.

He had thought that maybe, maybe Ari would be there when he got home, doing something in the kitchen or watching the game on TV, maybe. But when he walked into his empty apartment he remembered that they'd had a fight the night before. Well, not a fight exactly, but he hadn't wanted to go out with their friends and Ari had and they had sniped at each other a little. It wasn't like Ari lived with him anyway, but he had a key and he was there a lot.

Leo stumbled into his room and stripped, throwing his wet clothes into the tub. He pulled on a sweatshirt and boxers and got in bed, under the thin summer sheet, still shivering, hugging his pillow miserably. It smelled like Ari, but Ari wasn't here. Eventually, the shivering subsided a little and he fell into a troubled sleep, dreaming that he opened the medicine cabinet and found an entire apartment behind it where his parents were living on without him. He could see them there, going about their lives, but he couldn't make them hear or notice him.

Leo woke up drenched in sweat and trembling. Sitting up took a monumental effort. It was dark out. Without his glasses he couldn't really read his alarm clock but he thought it said 1:00. No Ari still. He stumbled to the bathroom to pee and splash water on his face. The chills were starting again by the time he made it back to bed. He threw off the sweat damp hoodie and pulled on Ari's college sweatshirt, curling up again.

The burning in his nose and throat had developed into constant pain and a nose that wouldn't stop dripping, clear liquid running down his top lip. Sleep didn't come easily. He tossed and turned. Everything hurt, his head, his throat, his body, and he started to develop a cough, dry and irritating, that felt like it was scraping against his sore throat.

Sometime before dawn, he stumbled out to the kitchen for water, sitting on the linoleum floor and drinking straight from the glass bottle he kept in the fridge. He thought about making caponata with his dad in this kitchen, and about his mother teaching him to bake, the way spilled flour would make a cloud like smoke when he tried to sweep it up. It was hot, and the room was swimming in front of him. It seemed he could see every memory the kitchen contained for him all at once. Tilting further and further to the side as he got dizzier, his face finally made contact with the cool tiles and he shut his eyes. Cooking in the kitchen. Plain linguine with a little butter and parmesan, the only thing his dad would eat. That green vinyl chair at Beth Israel and the beeping sound of the heart monitors. Studying to the sound of his dad's wrenching, horrible cough. Hospital bed in the center of their living room. Dean Martin on the record player, the soft afternoon light on his dad's gray face. The graveside. Ari's hand on his shoulder. Ari's voice. Ari's face swimming blurrily into view.

"Leo? Leo? Wake up, baby. Please wake up."

Leo blinked dry eyelids and frowned. "What?" was all he managed, his voice a croak. His headache was piercing and he was shivering again. "What's wrong?"

"You're fucking burning up is what's wrong," Ari said, "And you're lying on the kitchen floor without your AC on when it's 90 degrees out, numb nuts."

Leo tried to push himself up but he was so sore and so tired. He collapsed back on the tile instead, closing his eyes again until Ari shoved his hands under his arms and hauled him up to a standing position, half carrying him over to the couch. Ari peeled the hoodie off of him and turned on the air conditioner and fan. He coughed harshly as the cool air blew over him, his skin rippling with painful goosebumps while he shivered. Leo heard someone moving around and taking his sweatshirt, but he didn't really know what was going on and he couldn't keep his eyes open. Was Ari here? He opened his eyes for a moment and only saw his living room. Maybe it was his dad, not Ari. He couldn't remember why he felt so bad. "It's cold," he whimpered, curling into a ball. He hoped he didn't have to go to school today. Maybe his dad would let him stay home. "It's not cold," came the response. Then there something hard and metallic in his mouth. "Under your tongue," the voice instructed. It sounded like Ari and his dad all at once. His teeth chattered around the thing in his mouth. "I don't wanna go to school, I don't feel good," he mumbled.

"Well I don't think you have to worry about that. Don't talk, okay? Just let it register." A hand held his mouth closed around the...thing. He couldn't remember the word just now, the hotness measurer. He could barely breathe through his nose and he started to feel a little panicky, but then there was a loud beeping and some swearing.

@whumpgifathon | Day 2: "Fever"

against caretaker’s shoulder.

or chest. feeling the rise and fall with every breath, hearing a thundering pulse.