Cough, cough, cough… I lie in my bed and stare up at the ceiling. It was morning- and I should be getting up- Cough, cough, COUGH…cough. Ugh. There's no way I'm getting up. Nope. Not with this headache, and hell infested illness.

Okay, bit of an exaggeration.

COUGH! COUGH! Holy crap that hurt!

And cue the sneezing. That also hurt. I hate colds.

Okay. Not that much of an exaggeration after all. This sucks. There's a knock at the door, and Olive peaks her head through. I don't even have the energy to look at her. Ugh. Did I mention I hate colds?

"Jacob, are you dying?" Olive asks not bothering to sugar coat it. She hasn't stepped into the room, so her head is still the only thing visible at the moment. At least, that's what it looks like when I glance my eyes downwards in her direction. I still haven't moved my head or the rest of my body yet. I groan in response, which was a stupid thing to do and it only made me cough.

"Miss Peregrine Jacob's dying!" Olive all but shouts down the hallway. I hear feet running towards my room- thanks Olive.

The Bird enters, deeply concerned at first, then her expression almost instantly changes into relief once she sees me.

"Oh you foolish girl, he's not dying. He merely has a flu of some sort."

"Humph. Looks fine to me, no need for all of this attention." Enoch mumbles beneath his breath. Yet a few people heard him. I send him a glare but it's not menacing at all as I start to cough.

"Hmm. Just for that comment Mr. O'Connor, you'll take care of him while I gather up some medicine." said the Bird.

"But-"

"No buts. You'll do it. It's about time you two got along for once. It's a wonder we got anything done at all!" The Bird begins to leave, when Millard speaks up.

"Uh, are you sure about this Miss P? I mean, what if Enoch kills him?" A pause, and the Bird gives a stern look in his direction. He's naked so no one can actually see where he is right now. "Then brings him back, and kills him again?"

Thank you Millard. Seriously. You're a great friend.

Enoch only huffed and glared at me again. What is his deal? Can't a guy feel like Hell in peace? Did that sound weird? I can't even think straight. UUUUGGGH. They'll never know how much I really hate this. I feel hot and cold at the same time, and I'm sweating like there's no tomorrow! My nose gets even more stuffed up if I lie on my side, so the only comfortable position is on my back. Plus once in a while my stomach flops uncomfortably.

I was fine yesterday! Completely fine. I even had a great sleep, which is why I'm not sleeping now.

Even though I'm exhausted as Hell.

Actually, that's a bad comparison. Hell is probably much more "exciting" than exhaustion. In fact Hell is probably livelier than people think. Wait. That's not right. Hell isn't lively in anyway, it's the opposite. It's dead…ly…

…

What the hell am I even thinking right now?

COUGH, COUGH.

Man, flus make my brain think the weirdest things.

"You look like hell." Enoch comments.

It's then I realize that it's only him and me in the room. Alone. Everyone else left.

"If you wanna torcher me, I'm warning you that this is bad enough. It is Hell. I mean, you can't exactly use your Peculiar on me, unless you do want to kill me so… " I croak out. It's not menacing- or whatever I tried to be- at all. Much like the failed glare from earlier. Honestly?

Colds and flus f**k everything up for me. EVERYTHING. It f***s my brain, my mouth, my body, it just-

Well this train of thought has to stop.

"Oh god, I'm gonna puke!" I lean over the bed and Enoch backs up and puts a bucket underneath me.

"Don't do it on me you idiot!"

I groan again. "Shut up." I wine. I hate puking. It's the absolute worse feeling. I try not to think about it though, because then I really will puke.

Luckily, I don't! I sigh in relief and lie back down. Moving made me headache worse. I groan for the umpteenth time this morning and rub my temple. It doesn't really help but it's a habit.

Enoch scoffed. "Does that even help?"

"No. Shut up. I have a fricking headache."

I hear Enoch sigh, (I can practically feel him rolling his eyes- prick,) and I risk a glance at him. "The Bird should be back soon with medicine." He hesitates like he's about to say something he doesn't want to say. "Do… do you need anything?" he grits out.

Ah, that so I was right. But still, his expression is concerning. Like he's trying to seem like he's annoyed, but secretly cares or something.

Bullshit right there.

Right?

"Jake. You heard me right, or are you now hallucinating?"

I had been staring at him like a confused dog for the past minute. Right. I should answer.

"What, no. I mean yes, but no."

Now Enoch's the confused dog.

Ugh, the things my sick infested brain comes up with.

…

See?

"Care to elaborate?"

"Ugh. I mean, yes I heard you, no to the hallucinating, and no to the question… well, except that f***ing medicine where is she?"

"She could have stepped out of the loop and gone to a store idiot. Or maybe it just takes a while to make it."

"You gonna sit down or just stand there and stare at me like I insulted you?"

"You have insulted me."

"When?"

"You are super confused when you're sick aren't you? Oi. This is going to be fun."

"No I'm not I just…" Just what? My brain is super messed up when I'm sick, there's no denying that. But I'm not confused… Most of the time. Okay there have been times on occasion when I've confused myself. I was sick okay? It happens! But I know for a fact that I'm not confused now. SO-

"I'm not confused. My brain just gets really messed up sometimes, but right now, at this moment, I'm not confused!"

"But sometimes you're confused."

F**k.

"…No…"

"Liar."

"Shut up." I huff and glare at him. "You try keeping a sane mind when you're sick!"

Suddenly I feel dizzy and I moan and close my eyes.

"Jake?" I groan softly in response. This has gotten a whole lot worse. Now I'm dizzy, and it won't stop.

"Dizzy… make it stop."

"Not sure I can without the medicine Jake."

I open my eyes when I feel his cool hand on my forehead. It feels… nice. And I realize that we haven't actually been this close before- willingly. Without a life threatening thing happening, or a push from another peculiar child telling us to get a room or they'll make us-

Wait.

What?

I blink as I begin to remember that- yeah- that happened. My f***ed up brain didn't come up with that one. Emma was making fun of us when we were arguing one time. I swear it was Millard that pushed me, I heard him laugh! I fell into Enoch's arms and when I looked up our faces were just inches away and-

"Jake you have a fever, and your face is red. Maybe I should see if Miss P is still here." Enoch begins to move away, but I grab his hand as it falls to his side. He groans.

"Jake, if I get sick I'm blaming you. Thanks a lot!"

"I…"

He turns to look at me, and his expression actually changes to concern. "Jacob?"

"I…" I try again, but I can't think of any words.

"Can you stay?"

Enoch isn't responding, so I let go of his hand.

"Sorry. Never mind. The uh, the medicine is more important." Why did I even ask that? It's not like we even like each other in any way. Most of the time we just tolerate each other for the saneness of the others. Saneness? Is that a word?

Saneness… Sane-ness. Sane…

Ugh, my brain. Seriously.

I lay back and look away from him. I hear him walk away. Great. For some reason that makes me upset. I expect to hear the door creak open and close, but I don't. I still don't look though. I hear something being lifted off of the floor, and I hear his footsteps come back.

And I hear him sit down in a chair.

He's sitting surprisingly close to the bed. My arm is almost brushing up against him.

"I'll stay." he says surprisingly softly. There's a pause of silence before he says, "I mean, I'm already infected, so why infect everyone else right?" But there's no sting to it. I risk a glance at him and scoff. But there's also no sting to that either. There's a small smirk forming on my lips when Enoch also smirks. "What? It's true. You've infected me!" he holds up the hand that I had grabbed. I guess it's true.

"Whatever."

There is a moment of silence, but it's surprisingly not uncomfortable.

"Can I ask you something?" Enoch asks after a while.

"Shoot."

"Why'd you ask me to stay?"

"I don't know…" I reply honestly as I thought about it. Why did I ask him to stay? It had come out of nowhere. "It just… happened." I shrug. He's looking at me funny. I wish I knew what his expression meant. It's confusing.

But he confused me, I didn't confuse myself!

Unless I'm just missing something. Ugh, no, stop. Or else you will confuse yourself you idiot.

"You haven't coughed in a while." Enoch says as if he felt the need to say something.

"Yeah…" It's true, I haven't. Weird. I've been coughing ever since I woke up. I haven't even taken any medicine yet. I shouldn't not be coughing. But I'm not. My throat was still croaky, but I haven't coughed because of it. I haven't even sneezed. Huh, even the dizziness is gone. Okay this is weird.

"Do you have some sort of magical ability to ward off colds?"

"What?"

"Uh…" I blink, "never mind. That was my messed up brain talking."

Communication from my brain to my mouth does not exist when I'm sick. Have I mentioned that?

Suddenly Enoch's laughing.

I stare at him.

Like, actually, honest to god, laughing.

I've never heard him laugh before! I can't stop staring. It's just… I've literally never seen him do that before. Plus, he's freaking smiling. A real smile. It's…

Wow.

"Uh…" Enoch says after a few seconds when he's calmed down, "sorry. I uh, I suddenly pictured the Bird shouting 'COLD BE GONE!' and throwing a handful of a potion at you."

I start to chuckle- because that is a funny image- but I try to stop because I know it'll hurt. "I uh, I've never seen you do that before."

He clears his throat and looks down. "Yeah, well… you've infected me. It must be starting already if I'm thinking of something like that."

I swear his cheeks are pink. But I don't say anything.

"It was just… nice… is all." I clear my throat- or at least, I try to clear it. "To uh, see you happy."

My face is heating up as he looks at me curiously. A few seconds pass. We've never held eye contact for this long, but I can't look away. I never knew how intense his eyes were before. Deep pools of brown that can just suck you in until you drown.

Suddenly he's close again, and he rests his palm on my forehead. We keep eye contact though.

"JUST KISS DAMN IT!"

We jerk away instantly in a shock and turn towards the voice.

"Damn it Millard! Come on!" I groan and lay back in the bed. It had never occurred to me that he never followed the others out. He was naked so he couldn't be seen! Ugh. That jerk. I was pretty sure my face was bright red- but I was also pretty sure Enoch's was too…

"Millard get lost!" Enoch says in frustration.

"I can't, I've been in here for too long. I'm probably infected too."

"Millard get the hell out, and don't tell anyone about this!" Enoch nearly shouts as the door opens and closes quickly. There's a moment of silence.

"You think he actually left or just opened and closed the door to humour us?" I ask.

"No he left, I heard his footsteps."

"Oh, good. I thought it was just the flu."

"Yep, now I can do this."

"Wha-mmph."

He's kissing me. Enoch O'Connor is kissing me.

On the lips.

It's not long before I start to kiss back because why wouldn't I? He's surprisingly a really good kisser! I'm smiling into the kiss like he is.

Soon we have to part for air, which is too soon if you ask me.

Panting hard, I let out a chuckle. Enoch looks at me funny. "What?"

"Well, it's just… now you really are infected." I chuckle some more.

"Oh shut up."

And he's kissing me again!

Thank you Millard.