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Ilya knew exactly how he got sick, but that didn’t make this whole ordeal better by any means. He had spent the night at the Pike’s a few days ago, watching the kids, and Arthur had been feeling under the weather. He hadn’t thought much of it, but now, as he hacked up a lung and sneezed, he wishes he had paid more attention to Arthur's symptoms.
“Kids are little germ factories, I’m sorry Ilya!”, Jackie had said on a facetime call, after Ilya had asked her how Arthur was doing. Partially because he missed the little guy and felt bad he couldn’t have fun with them the other day, but also to investigate just how long he was going to be feeling like this.
This sucks, he thought to himself after ending his call with Jackie. The worst part of it all was that he was all alone. He wouldn’t be seeing Shane for another week, as he was out doing brand deals, courtesy of Yuna Hollander. He loved her like she was his own mother, but dear god, she worked that man to the bone. Not that Shane didn’t enjoy it, he needed to keep himself busy, and this was something to do. But Ilya could think of better things.
When stood up to take himself to the nearest Shoppers Drug Mart, the room spun slightly. Ilya didn’t think much of it, he simply assumed it was his eyes tricking him, and continued heading to his car to go to the pharmacy. He still didn’t think much of it when his head started to hurt. Stupid outside brightness, stupid sun, he thought to himself.
He was greeted by the ringing of a bell when he walked into the pharmacy, and then a plethora of other loud sounds followed. People talking, someone asking him if he needed anything (he did, but didn’t even know where to start), a child yelling, another child crying, and other sounds he could not place. Suddenly every single sound felt overwhelming, and the lightheadedness he felt earlier returned with a vengeance.
Ilya made his way to the most empty isle he could find and leaned on one of the shelves for a few moments. He made a mental list of what he came into the store for, mucinex for congestion, some more tylenol, maybe some gatorade, tissues, cough drops, that should be enough to survive, he took a deep breath before dislodging himself from the shelf he had been leaning on. Ilya looked up at the boards with all the isle numbers and what was in each one of them. He had to do this quickly and get the hell out of there before either his head exploded from all the pain, or he passed out.
He quickly made his way through each of the isles, grabbing his items before making it to the self checkout, ringing himself up at what he thought was a very quick speed, but to anyone else watching him, he was going at an average pace, some may even say a bit sluggish.
Ilya walked back into his car with his bag of different assortments off the counter medications and his pack of gatorade, turning off the music the moment the car turned on, and sitting in the silence for a moment. He sighed. He never thought silence could be this good. Well, he did when he was with Shane, he loved the quiet where all he could hear was his boyfriend’s breaths.
When Ilya went to look up at his rearview mirror to back out of the drug mart, he felt lightheaded once again. Squeezing his eyes shut, he took a couple of deep breaths before opening them again. Maybe he needed to eat something. He would do that when he got home and then take something for the headache that he felt was very quickly turning into a migraine.
After parking in his driveway, Ilya turned off his car and took another break. He felt so exhausted all of a sudden, the adrenaline from earlier slowly disappearing. He closed his eyes and rested his head against his seat, the dizziness and lightheaded feeling returning once again. Ilya tried to make a mental list of things to do once again, he imagined himself going into his home, putting his stuff down, getting something quick and easy to make…maybe some instant ramen, do I have some leftover chicken for some protein? Then he would finally take some tylenol and mucinex for this headache and congestion and maybe he would nap for a little bit. Yes, that sounded good.
He kept imagining himself doing these things, but he never moved from his spot in the car. Ilya felt himself grow colder and the brightness outside was growing dimmer with each passing moment. He fell asleep until he heard frantic knocking on his window. Ilya’s eyes shot up, realizing what had just happened. He looked over and made eye contact with Shane’s worried and scared eyes. Ilya opened the car door.
“Ilya, how long have you been out here, it’s freezing out!”Shane said, passing Ilya an Ottawa Centaurs hoodie. Ilya reached his hand out for Shane’s, who immediately took it. “Let’s go inside.”Shane noticed how out of it Ilya looked and figured asking too many questions would make it worse. He helped Ilya out of the car, grabbing his bag of medicine and small pack of gatorade with him, and locking the car.
Inside Ilya’s home, Shane directed him to the couch, briefly turning on the lights, before noticing Ilya’s pained face. He has a migraine, god how long has he been like this? Shane thought to himself. Ilya laid down, while Shane went into the kitchen to prepare things for Ilya. While preparing some canned chicken noodle soup he found in Ilya’s pantry, he took out some of the mucinex Ilya had bought, two tylenol, and grabbed the headache cap his mom had bought him a few years ago. Shane would occasionally get migraines and he had read somewhere that having something cold on your head helped with the migraine pain.
Shane brought out a tray full of the items he prepared for his boyfriend, and Ilya gave him a small smile.
“I didn’t think I would be seeing you so soon.” He said, reaching for the end of Shane’s sweater.
“Jackie texted me that you weren’t feeling so great after watching the kids, I wanted to come take care of you. I didn’t realize how bad it was. I’m sorry.” Ilya frowned at Shane’s apology.
“Shane, I didn’t even know how bad it was, how could you have known?” Shane sat on the edge of the couch, and shrugged, biting the inside of his cheek.
“I don’t want you to think you have to handle things by yourself. You could have called me, I would have come running.”
“I know. I didn’t know how bad it was. But I would have. I promise. Now come here and hold me.”
And so Shane did. Despite the fact he knew he would probably be catching what Ilya has, he still held him because he would rather hold a sick Ilya than have Ilya ever think he had to go through anything alone.