Archive of Our Own ^beta

Just like any other Saturdays morning, Jude Kinkade was busy with walking down the aisles in groceries store to get the things he needs; meat, red wine, cereal for Zero and Waffles and Pancake Mix Powder so Zero wouldn’t make a mess out of his kitchen again.

He stood next to another customer who was selecting drinks. Just as Jude reached his hand forward to grabbed Dr Pepper and Sports drinks, the other guy found a right moment to sneeze right in Jude's face to the point all of his saliva and snot splashed on Jude.

Jude who was frozen in his spot, blinked a couple of times and then turned his head toward the middle age man who was wiping his nose with the back of his hand. The guy felt his burning gaze and just shrugged his shoulders and after he grabbed his drinks, he walked away like nothing really happened.

It took a while for Jude to get back to his sense and to noticed his still wet face.

Such an asshole

As Jude took out his handkerchief to wipe his face, he thought about to himself.

۞۞۞

But it didn’t cross his mind that he is going to be sick just because of that damn sneeze!

It's probably exhaustion

As he forcefully dragged his body to the edge of the bed, Jude thought about it. Him being awake after Zero was an odd case, but it seemed like his man already woken up and went to Arena for his daily practice. With a small groan Jude touched his warm forehead.

Albeit it wasn’t that warm but his eyes and throat were burning and his head felt heavy and breathing was kind of hard. If it wasn’t for his phone ringtone, he would probably fallen sleep like that.

With his eyes closed, Jude reached his hand forward blindly toward the source of the sound and grabbed his phone of the nightstand. Without looking at the caller he just answered the phone.

"Jude? Where the hell are you?! Don’t tell me you forgot about today's meetings?!", he heard the voice of Lionel from the other line. Jude sighed loudly and rubbed his temple.

"Sorry, overslept. I've be there in a while."

Lionel paused for a moment, "Are you okay, Jude? Because you don’t seem like…"

Jude smiled slightly and shook his head but then remembered that she can't see him.

"Yes, Yes. Just a little bit tired."

Lionel sighed, "Tell your boyfriend not to overdo it on workdays! Those activities are for the weekends!"

Jude Chuckled tiredly. If he was alright he would probably blush darkly or at least tried to whitewash it, but now he could only laugh at her teasing.

"Bye, Lionel."

"Be quick.", he didn’t know what he responded or when the line cut off but when he came back to his sense, Jude found himself in a same spot and position; sitting on the edge of the bed while holding his phone next to his ear.

With a groan he put the phone away. Just as he gotten up a wave of dizziness hit him and almost knocked him down.

Hold his head with both hands. Jude closed his eyes tightly and

I'm probably low on sugar blood and it's going to be fine with a caramel Americano

He smiled at his thought and walked inside his bathroom to washed up.

۞۞۞

But it didn’t actually work, however it made him worse too, to the point that Jude felt like shit with every second passing.

It happened 2 days after the whole sneeze incident, at first Jude didn’t really give it a thought and just put it on exhaustion and stress because of the whole situations that was happening to the team lately but now he thinks that he seriously needs some helps.

But Jude realized this a little too late because the next thing he faint in his office and scare the shit out of Lionel and almost gave Zero a heart attack.

When Jude woke up he found himself lying on a hospital bed with a worry Lionel right by his side and Anxious Zero who was facing back and forth in the room.

He turned his head slowly to look around the room. There was an oxygen tube placed in his nostrils that increased airflow and made him breathe better and an IV injected to the back of his hand to deliver medications. His head hurt and his temples throbbed and his vision was kind of blurry but it probably was the side effect of the medications.

"Ugh…what is going on?", his sudden question grabbed the both person's attention. Lionel's look turned soft and reached her hand to brushed some of the curls out of his forehead.

"You scared me, kiddo.", a frown formed on Jude's face.

"Why am I here-?", a fit of coughing didn’t let him to finish the sentence, it felt as if his throat and chest were on fire and hurt like hell.

"Why do you think?!", Zero suddenly spoke up and his loud voice made Jude's headache worse.

"Zero…", Lionel tried to calm the situation but it was no use.

"No seriously! What was he thinking?! He is not a child, Lionel! He is an adult, he should take care of himself! Or at least enlighten me!!", he thrown his hands on the air out of frustration.

"Do you know how I felt when I get a call from Lionel that you passed out?! It was hell Jude, HELL! Lionel was shaking out of fear when she found you sprawled out on the floor like that!"

That was the moment Jude noticed the trace of dried tears on Lionel's face. The woman quickly wiped her face even though there was nothing on her cheeks. Jude looked down at his hand with shame and fidgeted with his fingers.

"I'm sorry…I didn’t think it will be serious…"

Zero open his mouth to scolded him more but fortunately for Jude, one of the doctor decided to come inside and check on Jude. He took his temperature and blood pressure and then listen to his lungs and breathing which was weak and made a wheezing sound.

The doctor diagnosed that Jude came down to a very bad flu. He ensured Zero it's not a big deal and with some rest and right medications he is going to be alright.

"Now, you're free to go home anytime soon but you'll have to stay home to rest! Unless you want to lay down on this bed again. Please take the medication that I describe in a right dosage. The symptoms of the flu are fever, headache, cough, weakness and narcosis, myalgia and Nasal congestion but it's going to be different for other people. Be sure to drink a lot of liquids, have a healthy diet. Taking citrus is also going to help a lot in recovering."

Zero was the only one who was listening to the doctor closely and nodded his head with a solemn expression, "He will, thank you Doc."

"That's all. I wishing you a speedy recovery Mr. Kinkade.", the doctor smiled at three of them and then left the room. Now that the doctor ensured that nothing serious is wrong with Jude, Zero could breathed a sigh of relief for the first time in a while.

He finally sat on the armchair in the corner of the room and leaned his head back and then closed his eyes. Lionel who was observing all of the couple's moves, smiled slightly and grabbed Jude's hand who was almost pouting.

"When the IV is over we can go home so you can rest all you want, okay?"

Jude raised his head to looked at her with groggy eyes, "But what about work?"

A deep sigh heard from Zero and before he had any chance to argue more, Lionel step forward, "You heard the doctor, no more work until you are all recover. Don’t tell me you want to contagion others as well? Listen Jude, if you step in the Arena in this condition, I'm going to fire you! You understand?"

Jude almost flinched and nodded his head in fear. It's better not to poke the bear.

۞۞۞

It's been two days that Jude had been discharged out of the hospital. He didn’t get any better, in contrast he felt like worse than before too. His symptoms were fever, headache, narcosis, myalgia and also nausea and vomiting. Because of fatigue and due to some of his medicines most of the time he was sleeping, which at first made Zero worried but after a quick call, his doctor assured him that it's completely normal and he must rest as much as he can.

"Zero I'm telling! I'm fine, you don’t need to worry about me and just focus on this goddamn match! I'm going to be fine.", As Jude dragged his stiff body to the couch, he mumbled to Zero who was watching him like a momma bear.

"What it if something happen like the last time?! I don’t want to get a call again that you are in a hospital!"

Jude sighed loudly, his body hurt like a bitch and moving was like a torture and his headache was killing him. On the top of that Zero found a good time to talk about skipping one of his important match to do what? To take care of Jude!

"Gideon…listen. If you don’t go and pack your things right now and be in Arena in the next 15 minutes, you have to deal with Lionel by yourself!"

Zero opened his mouth to argue more but then shuddered at the thought. He walked forward and sat next to his sick boyfriend on the couch.

"Put yourself in my shoes, Jude. How did you feel when I dislocated my shoulder? I'm worry about you too.", he reached his hand to grabbed one of the man's hand and squeezed it lightly. Jude turned his head and sniffled lightly.

"You shouldn’t, Lionel promised she is going to check on me. There is nothing to be worry about. I'm in a trustworthy hand.", he raised his hand to touch Zero's stubble and smiled slightly, "I'm going to be fine."

His grumpy face softened and the sigh loudly. He leaned forward and put his head on Jude's shoulder which was covered with a thick blanket. "I don’t want to go…"

Jude smiled slightly and pet his head. "Then you have to deal with the aftermath."

"It's my first time going there alone… I will miss you."

"Arena literally is about 20 minutes far from here. With car, Zero. Do you want me to give you my pillow?"

"Ha Ha Ha, that was funny Jude."

۞۞۞

He got there in 25 minutes and was faced with Coach's rage. As They were sitting on the bench and were waiting for the Devil girls dance to be over, he stared down at his phone's screen. Zero wasn’t joking about missing Jude, his absence was like weight on his shoulder, most of the time, and he meant always, before the match Jude would stand next to him and they would just talk. Sometime they tease each other, other times they made jokes about Derek drooling over Ahsha or Terrence staring at Jelena's ass. Anyhow he was a big help in taking Zero's stress away.

He unlocked the phone to call for one last time but he recalled the last call he had with Jude and that means 5 minutes ago:

After a couple of rings, he heard Jude's weak voice. If he didn’t know about the flu, Zero would thought he called a wrong number.

"Yea'?"

"How are you?"

The man on the other hand chuckled lightly which turned into a fit of coughing. "Terrible…my fever risen up again and 10 minutes ago I was vomiting my guts out."

He jumped from the locker's bench and the loud noise cause his teammates to looked at him in surprise. "What?! Where is Lionel!! I told her to looked after you! I knew that this match is a mistake from the start! I need to come back!"

"Ze-" but before he had a chance to finish whatever he was about to say, his voice was cut off like someone took away the phone.

"Zero! I swear to god if you set your feet outside the Arena without finishing your goddamn game I'm going to cut off your balls with a blunt and rusty knife and I will shove them on Jude's hands! Don’t make a big deal out of it! these are the sign of a recovery. His body is fighting with the fucking virus. Don’t worry your Jude will be okay when you are back and you two can have sex all you want!"

His eyes went wide. "You have no right to talk about our relationship or Jude like that!"

"Oh shut up. I raised this boy. Now go take a fucking shower, I can still smell you behind the phone." And before he had any chance to protest more she hung up the phone.

Zero locked his phone with a loud sigh. He wasn’t going to risk his balls for calling Jude againg.

His phone made a ding sound and a notification popped up.

New Message on WhatsApp

He unlocked the phone and realized that the message was from Lionel. She sent a photo. As the photo reloaded, he was faced with Jude who put his head on the dining table and was fast sleep with a spoon in his hand and a bowl of soup next to his head.

A text came a second after:

'Do not worry, I'm taking care of your baby.'

He chuckled and decided to save the photo. Due to the medication that he used, Jude was groggily most of the time and Zero was kind of familiar with him passing out like this.

"What'cha looking out?" Zero turned his gazed to Derek who was checking out the nude picture of the Instagram's model.

"Nothing."

"You can't be this happy just because of a nothing. Tell me, did your boy sent you a nude?"

Zero grinned widely. He was happy that the other guys didn’t have any problem with him having a relationship with another guy. Most of the time people wouldn't be this fine; they would bully him for fucking another man and aside from calling him names or beating, they wouldn’t even let him set his foot in the locker room.

"Nah, he is sick and can't do any other activities."

"Poor you."

Someone clapped him on the back, Zero raised his head and saw Coach before him.

"I know that you are worry and if I could I've told you not to play. But Lionel told me if she doesn’t see you on the television tonight my balls would be in danger."

He laughed loudly. "It's okay, Coach. For you and myself sake I would play without any problem. Anyhow there is someone who is watching me and I don’t want to let him down,"

Coach nodded his head but he could still see the concern in Zero's eyes. "How is Jude?"

"Not bad, getting better, I guess."

Coach nodded his head again. "If you get a point tonight I'll let you go home straight away. No interview with reporters."

Zero smirked and got up with his teammates and hit Coach in the shoulder lightly, "Thanks Coach."

As they warming up or stretched in their spot, his phone buzzed one last time. he must give it to the Coach or German but they asked them to keep it so that he could be aware if anything happened to Jude.

New Message on WhatsApp

He opened the app and was faced with another photo.

This time Jude was sleeping as he was sitting on the couch with an open mouth and a piece of orange between his lips.

'Someone is watching you tonight. Do your best work'

He laughed loudly and saved the picture. He didn’t know why but everything about Jude was cute and hi being sick made it 10 times cuter.

Jude wasn’t tiny and small like any other girls but Zero love everything about him; like his curly hair that it almost took him one hour to style them, his dimple, his small curls on the chest, milky color skin or his cute freckles or his soft hips. Zero adored them all.

As the energy ran into his vein, Zero gave the phone away and runs to the field with the other.

۞۞۞

Zero used every opportunity that he had to get point as much as he could. During the game Jude was at the forefront of his thoughts but knowing that he was watching made Zero focus on the game and they successfully won.

Cheers of the audience risen up, they were clapping, whistling and even shouting. Soon the Devil Girls step forward to dance for the victory. The teammates made a circle to hug each other and congrats but Zero flee away and ran back to the Coach.

"That was amazing, Zero! Here my promise." Coach handed him back his phone and pointed to the exit door with his thumb.

"I owe you one, Coach.", as he was running and waving to the other shouted. He didn’t wat to waste his time by getting shower so he just grabbed his duffle bag from the locker room and runs out of the building.

He arrived sooner to the home because the rush hour settled down. Zero parked his car in driveway. by looking at the off light he could tell Jude was sleeping. Anyhow Lionel was a busy woman and she wasn’t their babysitter.

He opened the door and throw his bag somewhere in the house and made his way to their room.

There he was; Jude Kinkade, the only person who has the ability to drive Zero into madness, under a pile of blankets.

Zero silently walked toward the bed and after taking out his shoes he slid under the sheets and pulled Jude body toward his own, careful not to disturb his sleep. he squeezed his body and breathed deeply of his scent. Zero buried his nose in Jude's cured and let his body to be relaxed by his scent; he smelled like shampoo and a little bit of sweat that was because of fever but Zero couldn’t care less. What matter is Jude being safe and he was in his arms, finally.

It seemed like Jude felt his presence, because next he hugged him tightly and shoved his face into Zero's chest.

"I love you, stupid.", there was no respond but the warm body in his arms, the ragged breathing and the feet that were tangled in his own drew away the whole stressed he felt that day and lulled him to sleep.