Sickie: Felix

Caregiver: Stray Kids

Request/Idea - hearts4lixie

~~~

Seungmin's eyes followed the sound coming from beside him and looked from down at the table to up at Felix, where the latter was currently going through another pretty bad coughing fit. Although it wasn't something new, something that just started that morning, Seungmin was still surprised and worried at how bad it sounded. Felix has been stuck with this bad cough for quite a while and the more days that passed, the worse the cough got. So, when the cough didn't light up and Felix kept on going, Seungmin was almost sure that the dancer wasn't just choking on his breakfast.

He moved Felix's plate away from him and told him he'd be right back before getting up from his chair and rushed to the kitchen. Seungmin opened the cabinet his hand was the closest to, grabbing the first cup he saw and filled it up with cold water. Over the tap running, Seungmin's foot tapping against the ground out of pure impatience and worry and being in a completely different room, he could still hear the wheezing and raspy breaths Felix was emitting. The water suddenly seemed like it was taking way too long to fill the small cup Seungmin had grabbed, which in turn, seemed like it was way bigger than the vocalist thought. Eventually though, Seungmin just said "Fuck it" and shut off the tap when the glass was only half full.

Seungmin went back into the dining room and sat back down in his spot, setting the glass of water down in front of Felix. He couldn't do much to help him through the fit except for rubbing the older's back and pushing his hair out of the way to get a better view to watch. Felix's coughing fit started to light up a few minutes later and fortunately, he stopped coughing. Between the silence after coughing and the first words being spoken, Felix had his head cast downwards while trying to catch his breath. That fit was one of the worst he'd experience so far, leaving him fully out of breath and tired. Seungmin offered his hand out to the dancer, who instantly took it and leaned his weight against Seungmin. After a couple more (painfully sounding) deep breaths, Seungmin deemed it the right time to start talking.

"Yikes. That cold isn't getting any better, is it?" he pushed the glass of water closer to Felix, who wasted no time in taking it.

"Hmm" Felix hummed while gulping down the water, "Unfortunately, no. I think– *Cough x2* I think that was my worst coughing fit yet."

"Oh god, Lixie" the tone in his voice couldn't be any closer to feeling sympathetic for Felix.

"Thanks for the water" Felix mumbled in between drinking the last couple drops of water.

"No problem. But anyways, do you think you'll be able to join us today? With a full day of dance practice and a cough like that, I highly doubt you're gonna fare well" Seungmin left to the kitchen to get Felix some more water, the latter following after him.

"There's no harm in at least trying" Felix shrugged.

Seungmin was very skeptical, to say the least, about letting Felix come along with them when he could barely breathe without having one of those notorious coughing fits. He overheard a couple days ago when they were last at the practice room that today was gonna be focused on some of their more energetic choreo. Bad news for Felix but either he must've not heard or he did but still wanted to go.

He looked back at Felix, who had his hand now clutching the edge of the kitchen island and looked like another coughing fit was on the rise. Seungmin was more concerned for his fellow idol than displeased at him seemingly choosing to follow his schedule that day at this point. The younger set the glass down on the counter before sitting on one of the stools and staying with him. He did wanna do something more but there really wasn't much he could do during these fits. Seungmin watched Felix as he kept on coughing, and coughing, and entering what looked like a state of pain and agony.

"Ugh, I hate this cough so much" Felix grumbled after his last couple of coughs, accepting the water sitting in front of him.

"Starting to rethink that idea of wanting to try to go to the practice room today?" Seungmin questioned, rubbing his back while he drank the water.

"I should still try, Minnie" he took the seat next to Seungmin, "Even if I can only dance to one song and have to take lots of breaks, I wanna try."

"Felix, you're sounding a lot like Chan hyung right now" the vocalist noted.

Felix rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well, Chan wouldn't be saying 'if only one song'. No, he'd be saying he could last the whole day without those breaks."

"For himself, yes. Meanwhile for you, he'd be telling you to stay at the dorm and rest while he calls you in sick" he paused, "Either that or he'd come over to the dorm and take you to the hospital."

"He wouldn't even take HIMSELF to the hospital if he had my cough" the dancer chuckled.

Seungmin shook his head in agreement, "Yeah, he wouldn't. Enough about Chan though. We still need to decide what to do with you."

Felix was trying not to be so persistent on going; he was trying not to sound like he had to follow his schedule. He knew how bad his cough was getting– it was his cough after all –and he knew how bad it sounded when he did cough. It was nowhere near sounding like he was healthy enough to go to the company and spend over 10 hours dancing. Wheezing, a slight rasp whenever he talked and feeling so out of breath after every single fit should have been sure-fire signs for the dancer to stay back.

At least to Seungmin, they were. He was being more insistent, telling Felix to stay back at their dorm and he'd make sure to call him in sick. Seungmin was really only trying to look out for his fellow Stray Kid and make sure he didn't get worse by dancing while sick. That was all. Felix could tell this was what he wanted but he was doing his best to stamp the idea that he'd watch out for himself during dance practice onto Seungmin's brain. The weren't really arguing, it was more like a small disagreement. In the end, Felix's words worked against Seungmin and the younger accepted the idea of him going. As they were about to leave, Seungmin went around the dorm to make sure Felix had extra medicine, water (a fuck ton of water) and some warmer clothing before they left for outside.

~ Timeskip to Seunglix arriving ~

When Seungmin and Felix arrived at the practice room, the other six members all turned their heads to look at the younger duo. There was a bit of surprise shared between the members as seeing Felix standing in the doorway confused them. They had all thought that at some point soon, Felix's cough would've gotten even worse and Seungmin would show up alone. Since they've all been around for at least one of his bad fits, it was expected that that day would be coming sooner than later.

"Hey, Felix. Hey, Seungmin" Chan was the first to speak, getting up from his spot on the floor and heading over to the duo, "How's that cough, Lixie?"

"Not good, hyung" Felix shook his head, "Not good. I've already had two bad coughing fits and *Cough x3* Seungmin was pretty skeptical about letting me leave the dorm."

"Don't you hear how he sounds though? He doesn't sound like he should be dancing right now" Seungmin spoke up.

"True..."

"And~ might I add that both coughing fits sounded way worse than anything before" the vocalist continued.

Chan turned to look at Felix, "You should've stayed home if your cough got worse, Felix. Maybe not even at the dorm but the hospital because this sounds like something more serious."

"*Cough* I told Seungmin I'd be careful and take breaks if I need them. He knows that I'm gonna be watching over myself" Felix's words were unwavering; a soft tone but strong enough to convince Chan.

Felix could see his hyung deciding what to do through the look he was being given. His face was emotionless, still, he couldn't tell what way the other was gonna end up going. Felix tried to decipher it though but the farthest he ended up getting was when Chan finally came to a decision and looked back at Felix.

The leader went to open his mouth to speak, and Felix felt a little happier at his words, "One, if we see you need a break and tell you, then you'll take that break. And two, please don't overwork yourself. I already know way too much about doing that and it's not that good. That's all I ask for you to do if you wanna stay here."

"I'll– *Cough* I'll do my best, Chan hyung."

Felix set his stuff down, taking some sips of water right when Chan had looked over in his direction before joining the rest of the group for warmups. He surprisingly only had to stop halfway in because of a somewhat bad coughing fit but it wasn't as bad as his morning with Seungmin. Aside from that, the idol was able to get through the rest of the warmups without that many complications. Stray Kids took a small break after warming up and Seungmin instructed Felix to go take some of the medicine they brought before starting.

The Danceracha maknae got through the first song successfully without a coughing fit in between. That fit must've been waiting for the song to end because right as the last couple notes of 'JJAM' rang throughout the practice room, Felix dropped to the floor and started coughing like crazy. He landed on his hands and knees, pressing his palms firmly into the ground as he coughed his lungs out. His head was cast towards the floor while he stared at the space in between his hands so he couldn't see what the other members were doing. Chan rushed to Felix's side with his water bottle and a towel, Hyunjin joined Chan in sitting beside Felix and the rest sat down on the floor but kept their distance. Minho called for a break when Felix stopped coughing and the latter couldn't be happier for it.

Not even 5 minutes after finishing a runthrough of the fourth song 'LALALALA', Stray Kids was taking another break and Felix was laying on the couch with his head in Hyunjin's lap. He was trying to just relax and get some rest before the next song but he was already feeling the effects of choosing to go to dance practice. The dancer wasn't overworking himself like Chan said not to do nor was he breaking his promise and not caring for himself. He was making sure to keep his word. But, he could still feel a coughing fit lingering in his chest and this one– unlike the others he had –was making his chest hurt. He moved his right hand to press down right in the middle of his chest and tried taking a deep breath. What made everything in the room stop was when Felix took that deep breath and it sounded like he could barely breathe.

"Felix?!" Hyunjin dropped his phone, helping the younger sit up and lean against his side.

"Hyun–" Felix's raspy voice was interrupted by that coughing fit he knew was coming.

"It's okay, Felix. Just– speak when you're done."

Jisung sat down on the other side of Felix and along with the oldest of the '00 line, tried their best to comfort him through the fit. Hyunjin kept his hand on Felix's upper back, rubbing it in big circles while Jisung replaced his hand with Felix's and lightly rubbed his chest. Changbin fetched his water bottle for Felix as the latter finished all the water he brought, Seungin sat down on the floor a couple feet away from Felix and Minchan went to talk to the staff present in the room. Hyunjin was slightly holding onto Felix by his shoulders as the younger leaned deeper into the coughing. His body was shaking at this point, his cough sounded worse than what a cough should be, Felix seemed like he could barely breathe. Scratch that coughing fit back in the dorm, this was the worst one he experienced. Felix leaned back into Hyunjin's hold when the coughing died down after two minutes and just sat there breathing.

"Damn, Felix" Minho exclaimed when he and Chan came back, "You really can't catch a break."

Felix hesitated to respond. His voice had gotten caught in his throat and he could barely talk loud enough for the members to hear.

"I– I don't know, Minho hyung."

"I think we should stop for the day and take you back to your dorm" Hyunjin brushed Felix's hair out of his face and checked his temperature in the process.

"Actually Hyunjin, I think we need to take Felix to a hospital" Chan interrupted, "With what just happened, this for sure isn't part of his cold recovery. We probably won't know what it is until we take him."

"I just wanna go home, Channie" Felix was in so much pain from that that he wanted to do nothing more than going home.

The leader sighed, "Felix, as much as I wanna take you to your dorm right now and let you rest, you need to go to the hospital."

"Umm..."

It wasn't that Felix was afraid of hospitals but more like he didn't think he could move without sending himself into another coughing fit.

"You obviously wouldn't be going alone, hyung. We'd be coming with you" Jeongin followed up with.

"Thanks, Innie" Felix chuckled at his dongsaeng, "But that's not why I was hesitating."

Jisung was next to speak, "Jeongin's right though. We'd come and stay with you until you can leave the hospital."

"Yeah. C'mon, Lixie. Let's get going" Hyunjin took Felix's hand and helped him stand up.

Minho, Changbin, Jisung, Seungmin and Jeongin all started walking first, Chan and Hyunjin walking at the back with Felix in between them and letting him go at his own pace. They had taken Felix's stuff with them, his bag being held in Chan's hand and his new (Changbin's) water bottle in Hyunjin's hand. The group had left all their stuff (with the exception of a couple items Felix was borrowing) in favor of the dancer having everything he needed and/or wanted to have with him. It was more important that Felix felt comfortable– well, as comfortable as possible while sick than having their own stuff with them.

The wait in the hospital lobby was a long, boring and painful one. There were lots of other people waiting too and Stray Kids had to wait there for a good 45 minutes because the hospital was borderline full. Meanwhile, Felix had gone through a few more coughing fits and ended up finishing off Changbin's water too. His chest was starting to hurt more with each passing minute and cough and Felix was growing more impatient the more they waited in that lobby. He'd watch doctors and nurses pass by, calling out the names of the other people waiting except for his. He'd glance up at the clock to see how much longer he was waiting to see it had only been 5 minutes. He'd glance over at the other members who were all equally stressed and shared the same level of impatience as himself. Just as Felix was dozing off against Chan because waiting was tiring him out, someone finally came and called his name.

"Lee Felix."

Chan tapped his dongsaeng's shoulder, gesturing to the nurse waiting for them. Felix got up and went to start walking with Chan but Seungmin jumped up from his chair and said he'd go with the duo. The nurse led the trio of idols down a hallway and into a small doctor's office, motioning for Felix to sit down. He could still barely talk from coughing so much so Chan chose to do most of the explaining, going into even the small details like what the other's coughs sounded like. From the base of it, the nurse suggested what this could be but took a couple more notes before leaving to go get a doctor. Thankfully, the doctor came in way sooner than the nurse and entered the room Chan, Felix and Seungmin were sitting in. He only had to take a few tests on Felix then was ready to tell the idols what was going on with Felix.

"So, it turns out that the cold Felix had never really gone away and as it might've seemed like he was improving, the cough indicated that he was developing something worse in its place. From the looks of it and just about everything that's been going on, it appears like Felix has bronchitis" the doctor explained.

"What does that mean for Felix then?" Seungmin questioned, seeing a look on Felix's face that looked like he finally understood his cough.

"Well, Felix will have to go on a hiatus for basically until the bronchitis is fully gone. That should take about a couple of weeks and when he starts to feel the coughing die down then I'd suggest coming back and doing another small test to see how he's doing. There isn't much Felix can really take to help his bronchitis go away, he could just take some of the medication already at home. Definitely resting and taking it slow, nothing too exerting otherwise there's always that chance of him getting worse. Other than that, there isn't really anything else to say."

Chan turned to Felix, "Looks like you'll finally get that rest you've been wanting, Lixie."

A smile appeared on Felix's lips and he was so happy to get rid of this awful cough.

~~~

WC: 2982

I hope you all enjoyed this oneshot and there may or may not be a few more books currently being written...

Song recommendation: 'Gimme Gimme' by All(h)ours