WC: 2,090
Nick knocks on the door to Barret’s house, a bookbag full of things on his back.
It was the day after Halloween and the teen had chosen to skip out on school for the day. For you see, he was on a mission. And that mission?
Operation: Fix Sick.
The door swings open and a surprised Barret looks down at Nick. “Nick…?” he mumbles, pulling the blanket he had on him tighter, “Wh-what’re you doin’ here…?”
“I’m here for you, dummy,” Nick smirks, pushing his way in. “I brought like, tea and junk. And those little crackers you like.”
Barret closes the door and follows Nick into the living room, where the latter is currently dumping the contents of his bag on the coffee table.
“Don’t…” Barret starts, sniffing, “Don’t you have like… Isn’t there…” He sighs. “School?” he finally ends up asking.
“Skipped,” Nick shrugs. “You’re more important.”
Barret doesn’t say anything after that, so Nick takes the time to sort out everything he brought. The aforementioned tea and crackers, as well as about five different kinds of medicines he could find around his house, some bottles of electrolyte juice he bought from the corner store and a book.
Eventually, Barret makes his way over to look at everything. “Into the Wild…?” he reads. “Is this one of your cat books?”
“It’s got a cat on it, doesn’t it?” Nick snarks.
Barret nods weakly and Nick frowns at himself a bit. He shouldn’t be mean right now. That was absolutely not a part of Operation: Fix Sick. In fact, it was quite literally at the top of the list of things not to do.
So, Nick quickly changes his tune. “I um… I thought maybe I could read it to you. Like a bedtime story or whatever.”
Barret smiles and takes a seat next to the other. “Aww,” he coos, sniffing again, “Look at you bein’ all sweet.”
“Pshh,” Nick breathes. “Yeah, yeah. You’re—” Don’t say dying. Don’t say dying. “—Sick ‘nd all, so…”
“I’d hug you if I wasn’t afraid of gettin’ all my gross germs all over ya,” Barret grins.
Nick smirks. “I never get sick,” he lies. “And you’re never gross. So like, if you wanted to hug me, thennn…”
He’s swallowed in a blanket covered hug not a moment later, Barret laughing airily. “I don’t wanna hear nothin’ from you when you’re sick later,” he giggles.
Barret is warm. He always is, but it probably just feels warmer because he’s sick. And that’s obviously the reason why Nick’s face is suddenly so hot too.
“Alright, alright,” Nick chuckles after a minute. Or maybe two. “You’re gonna fall asleep on me if we stay like this.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Barret says, then immediately starts fake snoring.
“Get up!” Nick laughs, lightly pushing at Barret. The other laughs as well, lifting up.
“Alright, alright,” he concedes. “So,” he starts, inspecting the things on the table, “What’s th’ plan for today?”
“Plan?” Nick asks, trying to pretend like he came here without one.
“I know you, Nick~” Barret singsongs a little. “You don’t do anything without havin’ some sorta plan in that head of yours.”
“Can’t a guy just come over to help his friend feel better?” Nick asks nicely.
“Ah,” Barret chuckles. “So you’re not leaving till I feel better, huh?”
Nick sucks his teeth. Damn. Caught red handed.
“I’ll leave whenever I damn well please,” Nick huffs, lying. He was not setting foot out of this house until he was sure Barret was doing at least a little better.
“Oh yeah?” Barret asks, opening up one of the juices and taking a few gulps.
“Yeah,” Nick pouts. “I don’t particularly feel like moving right now though. So you’re stuck with me.” He sticks his tongue out. “So there.”
Barret gives Nick the most shit eating grin he’s ever seen. “Sure,” is all he says.
Nick’s kneejerk reaction is to up and leave right then and there. No one tells Nick Lass what he will and won’t do. But then Barret sneezes and he remembers why he’s here again, and he just sighs.
“Look, whatever. Do you want some tea?” he asks, standing up. “I got like… honey?” He picks up the package. “Sleepytime honey,” he reads. “I heard it’s good for you.”
He thinks back on when he asked his sister about what to do to help someone sick the other day. She had suggested all the stuff he brought with him, save for the crackers. Those were from Nick specifically.
“That’d be nice,” Barret nods, reaching for the crackers now. “My throat kinda hurts.”
“But you’re eating crackers?” Nick laughs as he walks into the kitchen.
“I’m sick!” Barret calls back. “I’m allowed to do what I want!”
Nick just smiles fondly at the other’s words as he gets a pot and sets some water to boil. He readies a mug while he’s in here as well, putting two tea bags into it. “Hey, you like three spoonfuls of sugar right?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Barret confirms. “And we got more honey recently. It’s in the fridge.”
“Fridge…?” Nick mumbles. Who the hell kept honey in the fridge…?
Oh, whatever. The teen fishes the honey out from the weirdass place it was kept and pours it in the mug along with the sugar. By then, the pot he had put on full blast is about… one fourth done boiling.
Ugh.
He grabs one of the little apple timers on the counter (which, were very cute admittedly) and sets it for 8 minutes. The water should be nice and boiled by then.
“Did you only bring these three bottles?” Barret calls from the living room.
“What?” Nick asks, walking back to see all three juices gone. “Oh jesus christ, what did you do, drink them one after the other?”
“I was thirstyyy~” Barret laments.
“You’re ridiculous,” Nick says, rolling his eyes with a smile. “But yes, that’s ‘all I brought.’” He uses air quotes around the last bit, finding it insane he had already drank them all.
“And th’ tea?” the other asks.
“It takes 8 hours to boil water. You know that.”
“Ugh,” Barret groans. “It does, doesn’t it?”
“Here,” Nick says, grabbing the remote from the small place underneath the coffee table, “Let’s watch something while we wait.”
“Aww,” Barret pouts as the TV flicks on to some cartoon neither of them were invested in, “I thought you were gonna read to meee…” He leans over on Nick’s shoulder as he complains, causing the other to laugh a bit.
“I told you I’d read it to you so you could sleep, you big baby,” he jokes. “Besides, are not the wonderful tones of Timmy Turner’s voice not enough to lull you into a deep sleep?”
“You were on those poetry forums again,” Barret giggles. “Weren’t you?”
Nick flushes. “What, I can’t be poetic and shit on my own?”
“Never said that.”
“But you implied it!”
Barret gives Nick a sly look. “But I implied it.”
“You’re the worst!” Nick pouts, balling his fists and hitting Barret on his side lightly. The larger teen simply laughs and laughs until Nick tires himself out.
“So,” Barret sniffs after a moment, “How was th’ party?”
“Eh,” Nick shrugs. “It was a party, I guess.”
“Anything interesting happen?”
“I saw Brie.”
Barret gasps, eyes widening. “Brie?” he questions. “I thought Brie was dead!”
“That’s what I said,” Nick chuckles. “But no, they’re fine. Something happened and they had to like, leave school for some reason all of a sudden. But they’re okay.”
“That’s great,” Barret smiles, which then turns cheeky. “I bet Clover was happy to hear about that, huh?”
“Clove’s business is not Nick’s business,” Nick dismisses. “Besides, she probably knows already anyways.”
“You didn’t tell her?” Barret blinks.
“I didn’t think to,” Nick shrugs. “Like I said, Clove’s biz is not Nick’s biz.”
Ding!
“Oh shit, your tea.” Nick pushes a sniffing Barret over so he can stand. “Do you have lemon juice?”
“Lemon juice?” Barret repeats, confused.
“Yeah.” He walks back into the kitchen and opens the fridge again. “Kim said it helps a lot with healing the throat or something like that.”
“We should have some somewhere in the cabinets,” Barret calls back.
Nick blinks before groaning and closing the fridge. “You people are backwards as fuck, do you know that?” He throws open a couple of cabinets as he says it.
“Why? Do you keep yours somewhere else?” Barret asks.
“Yes!” Nick shouts, but there’s no anger in it. “The fridge! Like normal people!”
“But then it’d get cold?”
“Yes! That’s the point!”
Nick does find the lemon juice after a second, grabbing it and turning off the water finally. He pours the hot water into the mug first, and then the hot lemon juice. (Which is still crazy to him.)
Carefully he holds the mug’s handle and brings the tea to Barret, who takes it gratefully.
“Oh thank god, warmth,” he sighs.
“Oh what, am I not warm enough for you?” Nick jokes.
Barret smiles into his sip. “Your little ass couldn’t warm my pinkie in the summer,” he says scathingly.
Nick takes 5 points of mental damage that he will absolutely not try to process anytime soon.
“What the fuck ever,” he pouts, crossing his arms and leaning hard into the other, who laughs heartily.
Like he had observed earlier, Barret is obscenely warm. If he were even slightly tired right now, he might fall asleep on the poor guy.
Good thing he wasn’t. It wasn’t like he’d been up since 3 trying to get things together for today or anything.
He absolutely does not yawn a bit either.
It’s not until Nick is about on his 5th nod into nodding off does Barret jab at him gently. “C’mon man,” he laughs softly. “You still have a cat book to read to me.”
“Huh?” Nick yawns, stretching.
“Bedtime story?” Barret asks, a playful tone in his voice.
“Yeah, I’d love one,” Nick smiles, leaning back into the other. “Thanks, Bar.”
“Who’s ridiculous now?” Barret chuckles, standing and leaving Nick to fall into the space he once inhabited.
The shorter teen groans and rubs at his eyes. “Barrr you’re so warmmm. Can you blame me for getting all comfy?”
“Yes I can,” Barret calls from the kitchen. He must be rinsing out his cup. “Grab your book and meet me upstairs when you’re done being all comfy.”
“I’m only comfy when I’m with you…” Nick says mostly to himself as he lifts and stretches.
Barret doesn’t actually manage to get much further than him by the time he’s up. He’s only a couple of steps behind the other. The two of them enter Barret’s room together.
“Alright, Sleeping Beauty, it’s almost time to get some rest.”
“Almost?” Barret asks as he sits down on his bed.
“You do know you didn’t take a single thing of medicine the whole while I’ve been here, right?”
“Oh,” Barret blinks. “I honestly thought those were for you.”
“Me?” Nick blinks back, pointing at himself.
“Yeah. For when you get sick.”
“Pshh,” Nick scoffs. “I don’t get sick,” he lies again. “Anyways, why would I bring cold medicine to a sick person for myself?”
“‘Cause you’re Nick,” Barret shrugs.
Nick takes another 5 points of mental damage, but continues like he didn’t. “You’re taking some Nyquil at the very least,” he insists.
“Nick,” Barret starts with a wry smile. “Do you honestly think Kate Taylor: Mom Extraordinaire left me without making me take some long lasting medicine?”
Nick stares.
Barret bursts into a laugh.
“Oh, what the fuck ever!” Nick pouts. “Lay down already so I can read you this dumb book!”
Barret complies, but he doesn’t stop laughing at a steadily reddening Nick the whole time.
+++
Nick yawns as he wakes up. He had read Barret about four chapters of the book before the other fell asleep. Originally, he was more than content to simply go back downstairs and sleep on the couch, but then the thought of sleeping with a warm, warm Barret under his warm, warm blankets got the better of him.
Barret is currently not here, though. Which is odd.
Nick blinks hard. Why did his head feel so fuzzy? He shakes it a bit before taking a deep breath.
And then immediately sneezes.
Fuck.
The unmistakable sound of Barret laughing fills the air. “So,” he chuckles, walking in with the handful of medicines Nick had brought with him, “Dayquil or Nyquil?”