"Is he sleeping?" Blake whispered beside me, his eyes not leaving the road.

I turned my head to look back at Cole's unconscious figure sprawled over the backseat and smiled, "Yep,"

Blake sighed and I noticed him steal a glimpse of Cole through the rearview mirror and purse his lips. My eyes moved to his white knuckles over the steering wheel, he was gripping it hard. His legs would slightly shake every few seconds and I knew he was trying his best to not freak out.

We were on the way to the hospital and although Cole's surgery's yet to take place tomorrow, Blake's anxiety was visibly creeping up on him and I just wanted to embrace him and assure him everything will be fine but I couldn't really do that at the moment.

We had to wake Cole up a bit earlier than he customarily does so we could take him to the hospital. He was extremely exhausted given that the both of us had spent the night solving the puzzle so he fell asleep the second he got inside the car.

I rested my hand over Blake's leg to catch his attention and he swiveled his head to look at me, I could see the fear of anything that could go wrong in Cole's surgery gnawing away at him. His lips were still pursed and I knew he was doing that for the sole purpose of stopping them from trembling.

I gave him a soft smile, "Everything's going to be alright, Blake. Push the thoughts away for just a few minutes until we reach the hospital. You think you can you do that?" I brushed a lock of his soft hair as he breathed and looked back at the road, "Cole's right behind you and he's perfectly fine and healthy, you can see that yourself. The tumor is benign Blake, Mr. Anderson paid for the best doctors to perform the surgery and it'll all be over before you know it."

Blake squeezed his eyes shut for a second before opening them and leaning his head further into my palm. "We need to be there for him right now." I whispered, "He might not look like he's that worried but he simply wouldn't be human if a part of him wasn't even slightly afraid. His family is two thousand miles away from here and we're the only ones he's got by his side. He needs us, Blake."

He took another breath and nodded his head against my palm, kissing it. "You're right. I'm sorry."

I smiled at his side profile and shook my head, "It's alright."

He sighed as he parked the car near the hospital's entrance and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Do you have your masks with you?"

I nodded my head and held the cloth mask up in the air, shaking it. Blake furrowed his eyebrows, "And the other one?"

I held the surgical one up and he nodded his head approvingly, grabbing both masks from my hands and leaning forward. He kissed my lips softly and then the tip of my nose, leaning down afterward so I could kiss his nose back and then pulling away.

He placed the surgical mask over my ears and brought the front of it over my nose, adjusting it before taking the cloth mask and placing that too over my face, so I was double masking.

Brushing my hair away from my face, he kissed my forehead and pulled back, taking more deep breaths and looking back at Cole. He stepped out of the car and walked towards the rear door, opening it and looking down at Cole's sleeping face.

Blake nudged him and gently shook him awake, making him let out a series of profanities and groans. Blake spoke to Cole and waited for him to sit up, handing him his masks and reminding him to put them both over his face and not just one.

Cole rubbed his eyes and grunted tiredly as Blake shut the back door and walked around the car, putting his masks on and opening the door for me. He locked our hands together and waited for Cole to get out of the car before locking it and beginning to walk towards the hospital entrance.

Cole walked right beside me, dragging his hands down his sleepy face, "Fuck my fucking..." And he went on.

♛

"You alright?" I brushed my thumb over Blake's fingers and looked at his tired face. His head was leaning against the wall behind us and I could only see his side profile but my heart couldn't help but start beating harder as I noticed the difference in how he looked from a few minutes ago.

He still had the two masks over his nose, covering most of his face since we were currently sitting outside Cole's room, but I could still see the change of color in his face. It was paler.

I also took notice of how his legs had stopped trembling and bouncing against the floor and I sat up straighter, frowning. Blake looked exhausted, even though he'd slept more than enough last night.

"Blake?"

He hummed in response and turned his head to look at me, his hair falling over his slightly damp forehead. Was he feeling hot?

"Are you okay?" I whispered behind my mask, leaning closer to him and bringing my sanitized hand over his cheek, which was covered by a mask, then moving it to his forehead, brushing his hair away so I could press the back of my hand there to feel his temperature.

He nodded his head and squeezed the hand that he was holding. I breathed as I kept pressing my hand over his forehead, not sure if the temperature was normal or not. "You're sweating. Are you hot?"

His cheeks slightly pulled up beneath the mask and I'm guessing he was giving me a small smile, "I'm alright- how many doctors are in the room again?"

I sighed and brushed his hair away one more time, "I don't remember." I answered before scrunching my face, "Why?"

He just shrugged and leaned his head back against the wall again, still looking at me tiredly. A sense of uneasiness held me rigid for a second as I looked at him and I stood up, my hand still locked with his. "Come on."

He furrowed his brows but didn't question where I was taking him as he slowly stood up, looking a bit dizzy, and tightened his hold over my hand, letting me lead him down the hallway.

My heart was still racing, seeing Blake in this tired state, and I knew it was all because of the worry and anxiety taking over his body. He was clearly drained. And thinking about Cole's surgery, which is only a few hours away, and the risks of whatever could go wrong during the surgery was clearly making him sick.

I came to a stop in front of one of the many bathrooms on this floor and pressed my index finger over the handle, trying my best to make minimum contact with all the surfaces surrounding me, even though we were in a hospital, which might be the most hygienic setting in this whole town.

"Livi, this is the men's-"

I hushed him and dragged him into the bathroom, locking the door behind us. It was a small bathroom that only had one toilet and two sinks in it. Everything looked shiny and clean but I still stayed cautious. God forbid I catch the nasty virus and transmit it to Blake... and Cole, who we actually really need to be careful around in the next week since he'd be coming out of surgery tomorrow morning.

"Take your masks off?" I softly spoke to him, gulping back the senses of uneasiness down my throat and turning towards the sink. I ripped a paper towel off the dispenser and wet it with cool water as he washed his hands so he could touch his face to take his mask off.

I sighed a sigh of relief when I noticed that the color of his face wasn't as bad as I thought it was moments ago when he had his mask over his nose and pulled him closer to me. I looked up at him and tried my best to keep his hair away from his forehead as I dabbed the cold wet paper towel over his face.

He didn't say anything and just simply stared down at me with an unreadable look as I tried my best to cool his face off with several other wet paper towels, keeping his hand interlocked with my free one.

I breathed through my mask after throwing the paper towels away and looked back at him, his masks were still hanging down his right ear. He stared straight into my eyes and I slowly watched as his expression grew more readable. I didn't exactly have enough time to read the emotions swimming behind his deep green eyes before he pulled me into his chest and squeezed me tighter than ever.

I slowly wrapped my arms around his waist and let him rest his chin over the top of my head. I felt his hands tremble only for a second over my back before he gripped the back of my shirt into a fist and breathed into my neck.

I let him hold me for a while and kept breathing in the comforting smell of his cologne until he pulled back and kissed my forehead tiredly, bringing his mask back over his face afterward and leading me out of the bathroom and back to Cole's room, passing the few doctors that were in his room before.

♛

A few days later...

"Cole for the love of God, lie down." I sighed, gently pushing his chest back against his bed, making sure his head softly hits the pillow.

"Is he alright?" Cole whispered tiredly.

Cole was released from the hospital today, I had to drive him back to our apartment since Blake left us two days ago because we noticed he was getting more sick by the days and was showing symptoms of the flu. He wanted to distance himself from us, especially Cole who had come out of surgery only days ago. Blake was terrified of us catching whatever he had so he stayed at least seven feet away from us at all times.

My heart ached thinking of him and how even more tired and sick he looked compared to the first day of Cole's surgery. He took a PCR test two days ago to check if he had caught the coronavirus and the results have yet a few more hours to come out.

"He's fine, Cole. You need rest. You heard what the doctors and your parents said, you still need time to recover and I don't think worrying yourself like this will do any good. I'm gonna go check on him in a few minutes after I make sure you stop being a brat and start cooperating."

Cole still managed to gasp dramatically in his tired state and I held back the urge to smile after rolling my eyes. "What do you want for dinner?" I asked.

"Literally anything but fucking chicken soup and jello, please." He closed his eyes and I laughed, remembering how much he complained about hospital food.

"Yessir, now can you please sleep?" I asked.

He softly hummed with his eyes still closed and I held back a sigh of relief. Finally.

I leaned down to kiss his cheek and caught him smiling like a baby as I walked out of his room and closed the door.

I walked towards Blake's room and stopped in front of the closed door, "Blake?" I knocked three times.

"Livi?" I almost winced at the sound of his hoarse voice. It sounded like it hurt to speak.

"Hey," I smiled even though he couldn't see me behind the door. "How are you doing?" I swallowed.

I heard him cough from the other side of the door. "Perfect." Definitely not perfect. "Is Cole resting? How's his head?"

"Yes, he's sleeping right now and he took his medicine and painkillers so his head should feel fine. Did you drink the soup that I left on the floor?" I looked down at the floor and noticed the bowl wasn't there.

"Yeah, thank you, baby." My heart fluttered at his gentle tone, even though his voice sounded like he was dying.

"Were you able to taste it?" I sat down in front of his door and leaned my back against it.

He coughed again, but a little harder this time. "Yes- but that still doesn't mean I don't have-"

"I know." I sighed, not believing there was a chance at him having caught the virus. "How's your throat?"

"It's fine, I can barely swallow my pills though." I heard something softly hit the door from the other side and I'm guessing he was resting his head against it too.

I smiled, thinking of that one scene in Frozen that Lizzie couldn't stop playing when she came over. "Do you want me to get you the liquid medini-"

"No!" He was quick to cut me off, "Please stay, I miss you. I already took the pills five minutes ago."

My lips tugged into a smile again, "I miss you too. I need to make dinner, though." I almost frowned.

I heard him whine like a child from the other side of the door, "I miss cooking in the kitchen with you."

I was about to respond to that when he kept going, "I fucking miss touching you." He coughed.

My stomach fluttered at what he said.

Ovaries: Yeah, we miss that too, Blake.

"I miss kissing you." I felt and heard him bang the back of his head against the door.

I chuckled, "We can facetime while I make dinner if you want."

"Yeah, I'd like that." I could hear a smile in his voice, "I look dead though."

"Even sexier," I said.

"Did you just say the word sexy?" Blake laughed and coughed at the same time.

My eyes widened, "I've been spending too much time with Cole, you can't blame me."

He hummed, "So how are you liking it?"

I furrowed my brows. "Liking what?

"Being a bad girl." He teased.

"Oh, shut up." I rolled my eyes.

"If only you could make me," he said in an even raspier voice.

I banged the door behind me where I expected his head to be leaning against since I couldn't slap his head at the moment and I heard him chuckle beneath his sick voice. "I miss you hitting me,"

"That sounded masochistic."

"Livi when it comes to you, I fucking am~" He almost whined.

He then continued, "The biggest proof of that is the color of my balls right now."

My eyes widened. "Blake!" I scolded.

"What? I swear, they've probably been like that since the day we first kissed in the kitchen."

I thought back to that day and smiled.

"You're thinking of it now, aren't you?" He asked and I just knew he was smirking.

"Yeah," I admitted.

"It was hot, wasn't it?"

I narrowed my eyes, "No, it was beautiful and cute."

"And balls-bluing." He added.

"That's not even a word?" I scrunched my face up.

"Blue-ballsing?" He tried again, sounding cute... even though he was talking about the current color of his genitalia.

"Still not a word," I held back a smile. "Try omitting the S."

"Blue-balling?"

"Probably."

"Damn, I like nuts-bluing more,"

"But that's not an actu-"

"Well, shit Leprotto, it is now." Okay, I guess.

♛

Cole let out a bunch of inappropriate noises as he chewed on the garlic bread Blake instructed me how to bake along with the pasta carbonara while we were on a video call earlier. "This is so good~"

"I kinda figured," I said under my breath and chuckled.

"Blake taught you how to make this?" He asked.

"Yeah, I was on a Facetime call with him as I cooked in the kitchen. He told me what to do" I answered, my eyes not leaving his bedroom TV as I played GTA.

Blake had fallen asleep on the call while the bread was being baked in the oven due to his tired and sick state which was getting worse and worse by the minute. I frowned remembering how ill he looked and thought about how I wanted nothing more than to just hug him and kiss his forehead repeatedly.

"Nic- OH! You missed the strip club, Ollie!" He practically yelled when I walked past the place.

I turned my head for a second to look at him, "Why would I want to go to the strip club, Cole?"

"Wrong question Oliver... why wouldn't you wanna go to the strip club?" He spoke to me in a tone that told me I was crazy.

I turned my head back at him again and stared at him with knitted eyebrows and a frown. He waited for me to speak but then opened his mouth when he realized I wasn't planning on answering his question.

"Topless chicks..." He tried to hint me the answer as if I was slow.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, looking back at the screen and trying my best to complete the mission while Cole ate dinner.

We stayed like that for about ten more minutes when we suddenly heard sounds coming from Blake's room and froze, I set the controller down on the bed and heard Cole speak beside me, "Is he..." I couldn't hear the rest with my fuzzed-up mind and I found myself running towards Blake's room without even thinking twice.

I knocked hard on his door as my heart clenched harder each time I heard more of the pained sounds coming from his room."Blake? Blake, is everything alright?"

I heard him suddenly let out a bunch of pained coughs and didn't think before twisting the doorknob and rushing into the room. I swallowed when I spotted him in the bathroom, hunched over the toilet and coughing violently.

I rushed to him and knelt beside him, grabbing a towel and rubbing his back. "No," he weakly protested in his hoarse voice, probably wanting me away from him so I don't get sick.

I ignored him and flushed the toilet. He coughed harder and I winced when I heard the sound of it this time. I gently brought his head back when I was sure his stomach wasn't planning on letting out its contents anymore and rubbed his back more.

When I saw that his coughs were stopping him from breathing properly I quickly grabbed both his arms and raised them over his head to raise his diaphragm and open up his lungs.

"Blake? Olivia?" I heard Cole's voice from the hallway and my eyes instantly widened.

"Cole no! Go back to your room and stay away! Everything's fine, just don't get near us. You need to stay in bed!" I yelled back to him as Blake slowly calmed down.

I spotted Blake's tear-rimmed eyes from how hard he was coughing and my heart sank deeper. "Shh, it's alright. Deep breaths, Blake." I said when he went back to coughing.

I waited for him to calm down again and gave him a small comforting smile when he looked into my eyes tiredly. "You shouldn't have come in," He sighed and rested his head against my shoulder.

"Guys, what the fuck is going on?" Cole's voice yelled out. Was he still in the hallway?

"Cole, everything's fine now, go back to your room and lay down, please." I rubbed the back of Blake's hair and wiped his mouth and the rest of his face with the towel.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Blake tried to louden his croaky voice but it just made it sound more painful and less clear. "Go lie down Cole."

We heard Cole let out a grunt and grumble something under his breath before walking away and we both smiled.

"Come on, you need to lie down too," I brushed Blake's hair away from his face and helped him up. He tiredly washed his mouth twice first then let me take him to his bed.

I fluffed his pillow to make it more comfortable and made him lie down. I then made a move to step away so I could close the door but he kept his hold on my hand, "You're leaving?" Damn it, my heart.

"No, I'm just closing the door," I answered and he nodded his head, his eyes getting really droopy now that his head was back to resting against the comfy pillow.

I peeked my head out of the doorway just to check if Cole was back in his room and closed the door when I was done. I grabbed the Gatorade that I found placed on Blake's desk as I made my way to his bed and sat down beside him.

I shook the bottle in front of his face and he blinked at me, "You didn't drink even a sip of it."

He shrugged and I narrowed my eyes at him, "Would you rather drink the ginger-"

"Fuck no that shit's nasty," He croaked.

I nudged him with the drink, "Then drink it, you idiot. You need to drink more fluids."

He shook his head, and stuffed his face into the pillow, "It hurts when I swallow."

"That what she said?" I tried.