#writing w/ no focus on emeto is always a ride

[bellysoupset]

Strep throat

----

Jonah was still sleep drunk as he stumbled into their living room, barely looking around as he went for the coffee machine. He didn't feel human until he was almost done with his first mug.

Once he was filling it up a second time, he finally noticed Leo was gone. Jonah frowned, cradling his mug and walking out of the kitchen area to peek at the balcony. No Leo there either.

"Leo?"

No answer, except for JD's soft little steps in the hallway as he had attracted her attention. She rubbed herself against his ankles, meowing, and Jonah crouch down to pet her.

"Did you see Leo?" he asked, then opened a smile when she pressed her face to his instead of answering him in any form. He kissed her between her ears, scratching her under the chin, "okay, I'm gonna take that as a no..."

He filled up her bowl and then went to the bathroom to take a shower, wondering where Leo could be at such an early hour of the morning.

Jonah was busy combing the tangle teaser through his hair to make sure it was all lathered with conditioner, when the bathroom door opened. He rubbed a hand against the foggy glass and raised his eyebrows.

"Where were you?"

Leo shrugged, "gym," he answered quietly, stripping off his sweater and removing his socks, before his hands went to his pants. He finished stripping, entering the shower area.

Jonah let out a huff, "gym at 7 AM on a Sund-" but the rest of his words got swallowed by a kiss. Leo looped an arm around his neck, pulling them both under the hot water spray and Jonah let out a content noise, kissing him back.

"Fine," he sighed, cupping the back of his boyfriend's head and pulling back just enough to breathe, "fine, I guess."

Leo muffled a little giggle against his neck, planting a kiss there, fingers curling on Jonah's hair and pulling him back in. Jonah's hand dropped from his shoulders, down his naked back, then resting on his ass.

The blonde let out a chuckle, which quickly morphed into a cough and Jonah laughed, pulling back and tugging Leo out from under the water that was clearly drowning him.

"Sooo sexy," he teased, thumping gently on Leo's back, only for his boyfriend to let out a whimper and his hands dart up, cupping his throat.

"Urgh... hurts," he gasped and Jonah frowned, his good mood sliding off of him just as the hot water was.

"What's up with your voice?"

Leo didn't answer him, only kept coughing for another two minutes, his whole face turning red. In the meantime, Jon rinsed the conditioner off his hair and shut off the water, grabbing a big fluffy towel and draping it around his boyfriend's shoulders.

"Okay, out-" he forced Leo to move, pushing him to sit down on the closed toilet, "look up, it'll help."

Leo obeyed, looking up at the ceiling and coughing as Jonah fixed his posture and forced his arms up too, clearing his airways. He let out a heavy sigh once air started flowing normally, curling up, "sorry."

"Don't apologize. What's wrong with your voice?" Jonah rolled his eyes, wrapping a towel around his own hips and crouching down in front of him, "open up your mouth."

"Don't go all doctor on me-"

"Wagner, open up," Jonah glared at him, touching his throat. He cringed as he could feel that Leo's nodules were swollen, "I can tell you're sick already, so no point hiding it."

"I wasn't hiding," Leo scoffed, but opened up his mouth. Jonah hit the secondary light in the bathroom, then tilted his boyfriend's face so he could see better and let out a groan.

Leo's throat was red and swollen, dotted with little white points, "great, that's just great," Jonah sighed, pulling back, "that's a sore throat alright."

"Uhm," Leo whined, tugging on his towel, his hair lying limply around his face, "amazing."

"Yep," Jonah stood up straight and helping Leo up, pushing him towards the bedroom. He got dressed quickly, before rushing out of the room and returning with the first aid kit.

"Under your tongue," Jonah instructed, handing Leo the thermometer and the other man looked terribly annoyed as he obeyed.

37.5ºC, Leo stared at the thermometer, trying to remember if that meant a fever or not and coming to the conclusion he needed to buy his own thermometer. Jon took it from him, letting out a sigh, "not that bad. Tylenol and get under the blankets," he said very matter of fact and Leo groaned.

"I wanted to make out," he whined, causing Jon's frown to clear up in a soft smile.

"I'm sorry you're horny, but we're not doing anything while you're sick."

"Because you hate me," Leo whined and Jonah rolled his eyes at the theatrics.

"Yeah, sure," he smoothed the blonde's hair back, before focusing on finding the tylenol in the first aid kit, "take these."

Leo obeyed, pouting and rolling on his side, curling up under the blankets, "I'm bored, this sucks."

"I bet," Jonah shrugged, squeezing his arm, "get some rest."

Leo glared at him, his blue eyes dazed with fever, but didn't say anything. After nearly fifteen minutes of him huffing and puffing, getting interrupted by some horrible coughs, while Jon absently minded petted his hair, finally Leo seemed to fall in some uneasy sleep.

Jonah let out a sigh himself, leaning in to press a kiss to his overly warm forehead and getting up from the side of the bed.

With Leo asleep, Jon decided to catch up on the reading he never had the time to. He sprawled on the living room couch and a few moments later, JD let out an offended meow over being abandoned in the bedroom and jumped on the couch, curling up on his lap.

Jonah was sucked in by the book, so he didn't feel the hours passing. He only broke out of his trance, when his stomach growled loudly enough to spook JD and she pressed her pawls to his belly, starting to knead it.

Jon grinned, turning JD around and scratching her tummy, "I'm not a kitten, don't go kneading on my sweater you fur ball," he teased, "it's cashmere."

She meowed again, jumping from his lap and starting to speed across the living room, being hit with the zoomies. Jonah rolled his eyes fondly at her, getting up to fix himself some lunch.

While he waited for the frozen meal to heat up, he decided to check on Leo... And found an empty bed.

Jonah frowned, hunger forgotten, walking further into the room, "Leo?" he called, checking the opposite side of the bed in case his boyfriend was fallen on the ground.

Jon expected to find him in the bathroom, but he wasn't there either. He wasn't anywhere in the apartment.

"LEO?" Jonah called loudly, searching for his phone. It rang and rang and went straight to voicemail.

"For fuck's sake," Jonah groaned, walking to the front door and noticing Leo's car key were missing from the bowl. He simply couldn't believe the man had snuck out without him noticing.

However, as he got down to the parking lot and saw Leo's spot empty, Jonah was forced to deal with the fact this was a reality. He was going to strangle his boyfriend.

"Hello?" Lucas sounded all breathless and happy as he picked up the phone, which was a welcome change that Jon would have appreciated more if he wasn't going out of his mind with worry.

"Is he there?"

"Who? Leo?"

"Of course it's Leo!" Jonah snapped, walking to his own car, "he is, isn't he?"

"Sorry, Jon," Luke chuckled, "I'm not even home, Bell and I are about two hours out of town for some geeky cosplay thing-"

"It's not cosplay!" Bella yelled in the background and Jonah let out a groan.

"Nevermind, I gotta go."

"Wait, Jo-"

He hung up before Luke could try and snoop, getting in the car and slowly driving out of the garage. Jon kept his eyes open for Leo's car plate, scanning the streets.

It didn't help that a thin snow had started to fall.

"This fucking guy," he whispered darkly, hitting the steering wheel when driving back to the building, stomach squeezing with worry. Jonah was equal parts furious and concerned out of his mind.

He was sitting there, trying to come up with something, when his phone rang. Jonah picked it up without even looking at the screen, seething.

"Leo, when I get my hands-"

"Whoa!" Vince's voice interrupted him, a chuckle present in it, "that's a nasty tone to use with your boyfriend, man."

"Oh shut up," Jonah groaned, leaning forward and resting his forehead to the steering wheel, "why are you calling?"

"I got your boy on my couch," Vince said lightly and Jonah's shoulders dropped with relief, only for his brows to furrow.

"In Doveport!?" he exclaimed, "that's four- HOw-"

"No! Nononono, Wendy's couch. Remember you guys were supposed to come over for dinner?"

Jonah did not, in fact, remember that until that very moment. Still, it was only lunch time, there were hours before they were supposed to meet up.

"Yeah?"

"I think the kid's scrambled brain thought it was time already. He's got a raging fever," Vince sighed and Jonah's heart squeezed in worry. He started the car back up, driving out of the building once again.

"How is he?"

"Coughing up a lung every other ten minutes," Vince sounded worried, "really warm."

"I'm going over, I'll be right there... Thank you."

"No problem, dude," he could almost hear Vince shrugging.

True to what Vince had said, Leo didn't look so well. He was curled up on the couch, half sitting-half lying down, and there was a mixing bowl next to him. He was waxy pale, with sweat glistening on his forehead.

"Leo," Jonah sighed, barging in the room and completely missing on Vince, who was sitting on the coffee table and staring worriedly at the blonde, "what the fuck was going through your mind?"

"I was bored," Leo rasped, pathetically, curling up even more, "I don't feel well."

"Yeah, no shit?" Jon rolled his eyes, looking around the room and only then noticing Vince. It was almost funny that the first time he laid eyes on Vince in three weeks had to be like this.

The man raised his fingers in a seepish hand wave, "He's almost hitting 102," he said, gesturing to the termomether in his hand, "I don't know what to do. I was gonna call Wen-"

"Dooon't," Leo groaned, his head lolling and Jonah let out a scoff, sitting on the arm of the couch and pushing his sweaty hair away from his forehead.

"Where is she, anyway?"

"Yoga class," Vince shrugged, "Leo was lucky I was even here, I was supposed to have tagged along."

"Bloody hell," Jonah whispered at the frightening mental image of a super feverish Leo just lying in the cold hallway, "okay, help me here, baby. We're gonna cool you off-"

"Shower?" Vince guessed, springing up, while Leo shook his head vehemently.

"No- nosh-sh-" Before he could finish that sentence, he was hit with a coughing fit. Horrible, lung aching coughs, that caused him to whimper, hand darting to his throat as if he could help anything.

His pale face turned red and his coughs wet, then a burp slipped in the middle of one. A retch.

"Shit-" Jonah held him by the shoulder, to stop Leo from folding in half, but he was too distraught at the moment for any rational action beyond that.

"Here," Vince grabbed the mixing bowl, pushing it before Leo just in time for him cough up some bright yellow bile and a lot of water.

Leo let out a pained whimper, panting over the bowl, almost like he was about to cry and Jonah turned his face away from the bowl, but kept the other man pressed to his side, an arm around his shoulders.

"You're okay, baby, just take a breath through your mouth-"

"It hurts," he whined, rubbing his chest, "I don't think..." he let out another little burp and lunged forward, bringing up more vomit, this time out of real nausea, not just from the incessant coughing.

Leo groaned loudly, not bothering to straighten up, a line of spit hanging from his bottom lip and tears down his cheeks, "I don't feel good."

Most of the puke was just cloudy water and Leo had almost nothing in his belly, so it really didn't smell, but that didn't stop Jonah from bringing up a fist to his mouth to muffle a queasy burp, squeezing his eyes shut as he could feel his belly contracting with sympathy nausea.

"You done?" Vince asked and Jonah felt Leo jerk as he nodded weakly, then the mixing bowl was taken away and the blonde fully collapsed against Jonah, dirty face be damned.

He pressed his face to his boyfriend's chest, groaning, "Jon, do something..."

Jon's heart squeezed and the annoyance at his boyfriend running off melted away, shelved for another moment, as he turned so he could better hug Leo and rubbed his back in circles.

"We're going to bring that fever down and then get some meds in you, okay? You'll be sleeping this off in no time," he promised, helping Leo up from the couch and the other man groaned, slumping against him.

Jonah wrapped an arm around his waist, digging his foot down in order to hold him up, "Vin?"

"I gotcha, I gotcha-" Vince sped back to the living room, holding Leo by the opposite side, "c'mon, kiddo."

"Wendy'sssnever gonna let me live thissdown," Leo slurred, his head hanging, his voice even raspier and Jonah let out a snort, while following Vince's lead towards the only full bathroom.

"As long as you stay for dinner, she won't mind," Vince teased him, causing Jonah to let out a surprised chuckle and Leo to groan even louder, pressing his overly warm forehead to Jon's shoulder.