CA!Verse; Jade/Roderich

[penguinknitter]

Roderich hated being sick. Even a cold would knock him out, making him tired and miss teaching classes for days. Luckily, the school had a great substitute for German, and didn’t seem to mind, considering it happened so little.

Today though…was one of those days.

Something one of his students brought to class had him. He was curled up on bed, not moving, trying to sleep whatever it was off. Jade had come in for a moment, before leaving after seeing that Roderich wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon. Roderich pulled the blankets up over his head and dozed off, hoping to actually sleep the entire night. His coughing had kept him up, and Jade had ended up moving to the other bedroom since he still had class.

Roderich was jostled awake when he felt Jade come in and lie down next to him. He turned to look at him through half opened eyes, as if surprised that Jade was even trying to sleep here. There was no response to his glance and he settled down again, and jumped when he felt a hand rest against his back. Roderich found it reassuring, and closed his eyes again.

It felt like just a few minutes later when he felt hands gripping at his shirt pulling him into a sitting position. Opening his eyes, he started coughing, leaning against the body he was pulled against.

“Jade…what?” Roderich looked at his partner, seeing something flicker across his eyes that he hadn’t seen before, something that looked like worry….or fear. Jade’s hands gripped Roderich’s upper arms with a surprising strength as he looked at the younger man.

“You stopped breathing.”

“What?” Roderich started.

“You stopped breathing for a moment. Your breathing is raspy because of your infection. I woke up when I didn’t hear it.” Jade trailed off for a moment. “I had to move you to get you to start again.” Roderich looked at him.

“Maybe I should go sleep in the chair in the living room.” He moved to leave, but Jade’s grip tightened for a moment, so he couldn’t leave.

“No. Stay here.” Jade turned and moved some of the pillows, letting go of Roderich. He settled back and pulled Roderich against his side, so they were both in a semi seated position.

“Jade…”

“Don’t argue. This way I can listen and make sure you’re breathing.” Roderich didn’t say anything to that, realizing that the other man was serious about this. It was definitely out of character for the older man, not being one for holding and cuddling. He shifted to press his lips against Jade’s cheek before settling against his shoulder.

“Danke. I’ll be sure to repay you later.”