It's their fifth "Paperwork Party" and Liam has stopped pretending he's going to leave once Break has dozed off. These weekly get-togethers have become important to him. Xerxes is important to him; that's been true for years but it's even more so now, and Liam wants to be with him as much as possible. Even if one or both of them are asleep.

Break drifts off much earlier than usual this time. The air has been especially dry the past few days, aggravating his new tendency to cough even without the Hatter — Liam has been subtly feeding him hard candies with honey in the center — and he hasn't been sleeping well because of it. There's a lot to do still, so Liam just keeps working, albeit not at his usual solitary pace. The older man manages to distract him and slow him down even when he's sleeping; Liam pauses to watch him every time he shifts, every time he coughs.

He shouldn't be moving around so much. Break is a fairly light sleeper, but not a restless one. When he's feeling well he'll sometimes stay comfortable in one position for the entire night. Liam works himself into a nice bit of concern over all the motion, and cringes when Break rolls onto his back. He already has the pen on the night stand and the paperwork put aside when Break falls into a fit and coughs himself awake.

"Xerxes," Liam says, taking his friend by the shoulder and forcing him onto his side, facing away from him; Break immediately starts to curl into a ball. The coughing sounds horrible. He has nothing to cough up, he just can't stop. Liam presses one hand into Break's back, feeling the muscles clenching under his palm, and he rubs at them, slowly, to help ease him through the spasms. He keeps rubbing when the coughing finally does die down, because Break's breathing is still unsteady and he probably scared himself, waking up choking like that.

"When you have a cough, laying on your back makes it worse," he murmurs, shifting to let his head rest against the back of Break's. "That's the first thing I ever remember my mother telling me. I used to catch every cold that came into the house."

"I was never sick as a child," Break replied softly. He could have almost sounded wistful, but his voice had gone just hoarse enough to disguise it. He let Liam coddle him for a while longer before he left the bed to find Liam's jacket and rifle through his pockets, looking for more honey candy.