Chapter Text
It’s been a month since Nate’s surgery, and he somehow manages to contract a stomach virus even though he’s barely left the house. Mikey will barely leave him alone, which means that he probably picked up the virus from the locker room and brought it home to his recovering boyfriend.
--
Nate wakes up in the morning feeling queasy, but he just assumes it’s from the medication he’s had to take during his recovery.
When the feeling persists after he’s eaten something, he knows it must be a virus of some sort. It’s bad enough that he has to rush to the bathroom after breakfast and retch into the toilet. Mikey’s right behind him in a second, rubbing his back and murmuring soothing words into his ear.
Nate vaguely feels Mikey’s hand shaking as it rubs against his back, but he’s so focused on trying to stop retching that he doesn’t pay much attention.
Mikey leads him back to their bedroom where he lies down and curls up for a much needed nap.
--
When Nate wakes up from his nap, he finds Mikey sitting next to him and playing with his hair.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Mikey asks, smiling at him softly.
“Sick,” Nate’s stomach still feels queasy, and there’s pain radiating from the middle of his stomach. He knows it’s just a virus and it will pass in a few days, but he can’t help but think back to when his appendix burst and he passed it off as nothing. He just tells himself that the pain is in the part of his stomach that’s common with viruses, and not something more serious. He can’t handle anything more happening to him. Mikey especially wouldn’t be able to handle that.
“You do look pretty sick.” Mikey makes a humming noise and presses the back of his other hand to Nate’s forehead. “But you don’t have a fever, so that’s good.”
“Think I have a stomach bug or something,” he mumbles, leaning into Mikey’s side.
Mikey tenses for a moment before relaxing and scooping Nate into his arms. “Try to get some more rest.”
Nate nods, closing his eyes.
--
He’s going to be sick. Like, right now.
Nate shoves himself off the bed and makes it to the bathroom just in time to retch once again. Ugh. This is getting ridiculous. It’s the fifth time in two hours. No matter what he does, he’s unable to keep anything down, which even includes the soup that Mikey got him from the deli down the street. Everything comes back up and makes his eyes burn with the force of expulsion.
He folds himself up on the floor and hangs his head. He hasn’t been this sick from a stomach virus in a long time. It makes him want his mom more than anything, but he’s glad he has Mikey to help him. Speaking of, Mikey’s still sleeping, blissfully unaware of what’s going on in the room next to him. Nate wants to wake him up, but he wants Mikey to get some sleep. He’s done nothing but take care of Nate, and he deserves some rest, too.
“Nate?” Mikey calls.
“Yeah?” He clears his throat and raises his head to look over at the other man.
“Nate!” Mikey calls again, louder this time. He’s still lying down on the bed, and it looks like… he’s still asleep?
“Mikey, I’m right here.” Nate flushes the toilet before standing and crossing the room. Mikey’s definitely still asleep, but his hands are gripping the covers like he’s in pain.
“Don’t leave me,” Tears begin to stream down Mikey’s face.
Nate shakes Mikey’s arm. “Mikey,”
“Please,”
“Mikey,” Nate says louder. He shakes Mikey’s arm again, and is rewarded by Mikey’s eyes snapping open.
Mikey looks around like a startled animal in an unfamiliar environment before his eyes land on Nate above him. His bottom lip twitches as a sob leaves his mouth.
“Hey, hey, shh…” Nate sits on the bed next to Mikey and pulls the shaking man into his chest.
Mikey shoves his face into Nate’s neck. “Please don’t leave me again.” It’s almost unintelligible with how loudly he’s crying.
“Shh, I’ll never leave you.” He rubs Mikey’s back in soothing circles.
“B-But,”
“Never.” Nate says.
--
When Mikey finally calms down, he pulls away from Nate and wipes his face with his sleeve. He sniffles. “I’m sorry,”
“There’s no need to be sorry.”
“I probably woke you up.” Mikey looks down at the bed.
“I was already awake.” Nate admits.
“Oh,”
Nate nods. “What was that about?”
“I…” Mikey trails off. “I had a dream about your appendix again.”
“I thought you said those were getting better.” Mikey said he hadn’t had a nightmare about what happened for a week. Either he wasn’t being completely honest to save Nate from feeling guilty or he really hadn’t had one and this was just a fluke.
“They were,” Mikey whispers.
“It’s okay. We’ll get through it, okay?”
“Okay,”