Hello everyone! So sorry for not updating! I was meant to go on a writing spree much earlier than this as it is the Christmas holidays, but no words would type themselves on to the page. I've basically forced myself to write this today, so I'm currently sat here in a Christmas hat doing just that!

Also, I'm hoping to finish this in the next few chapters or so, as I don't want to drag it out for ages and I've got ideas for new stories! Therefore, if you have ANY suggestions on how I could finish it, PLEASE leave me a review or a PM!

Thank you for your patience! Here's the next chapter…

(Sorry no time to reply to reviews my laptop is dying and I need to get this posted!)

10.

Cal frowned warily over at where his little brother was sound asleep on the other sofa, blue eyes full of concern. It was Tuesday now and Cal was growing increasingly worried about Ethan. He hadn't eaten a sizable meal since his spaghetti hoops on Sunday, only picked at any food that Cal had given him and stolen the odd crisp or biscuit from his brother. He'd also been asleep for practically all of the time. Waking up only for a few moments each time to take a sip of water, or when Cal essentially forced his medication down his throat.

He'd just gotten in from work to find Ethan collapsed on the sofa as per usual, glass of water sat seemingly untouched on the table next to him. Cal let out he deep sigh, but supposed that Ethan not drinking all day wasn't the worst that could've happened. As yesterday had been his day off, today was the first day Cal had had to leave Ethan by himself and he'd been worried all day, but it seemed that he'd just been asleep for the duration of the 10 hours they'd been apart.

"Ethan, mate…" Cal said, shaking his shoulder lightly, "you need to wake up now."

Cal held a hand to Ethan's forehead, hissing under his breath at how hot he was. The younger leant into Cal's cool touch, moaning lightly as he stirred.

Ethan's eyes started to flutter and he opened his eyes, looking around at Cal disorientated. "Mmmm- Cal, you're back early…" he mumbled almost indecipherably.

"No, Eth, I think you've been asleep all day," Cal sighed, it certainly was contrasting of Ethan to sleep for that long in the day, even if he was ill or had just finished a 12 hour night shift.

"Then why do I still feel like I could quite possibly sleep for an eternity?" He whined, rolling over inside the blanket.

"Mmm, at this rate you're going to be sleeping all the way through your birthday," said Cal, referring to this Friday.

Ethan thought that might be a good thing, considering he'd never really enjoyed the awkward shenanigans of the day. "Oh well…" he rasped.

Cal snickered, but then lost his face of amusement when Ethan started coughing chestily into his elbow. "Maybe we should get you to a doctor Nibbles."

"That's a little insulting, Cal, I may be ill, but I'm still qualified in medicine."

"Yeh, I know. I just think it might be better if we get a second opinion. I'll ask Zoe tomorrow, you've been really ill for four days now and it's definitely not getting better. And it's absolutely not normal for you to be sleeping this much, either." Cal said, grabbing an untouched bag of crisps that he'd left abandoned on the coffee table yesterday.

"Okay," sighed Ethan, closing his eyes and scrunching his nose up as he lay back into the sofa. He groaned, sniffing and stretching to swipe a tissue from the table, wiping his nose and squeezing his eyes shut to try and stop the incessant sneezing that would inevitably follow.

Ethan ended up sneezing anyway.

It wasn't until later that Ethan actually managed to sum up enough energy to sit up and, of course, that happened to be just when Cal was getting ready to head to bed.

Ethan was still tired, but his chest hurt from coughing now and, coupled with the fact that his nose was well and truly blocked by now, Ethan was in too much discomfort to try and sleep again.

"Right you, let's get some more medicine in you and then send you off to bed," said Cal, ruffling Ethan's hair and snatching his blanket that was to be folded – no doubt untidily – over the back of the sofa.

Ethan grumbled, shivering at the loss of the heat from his previous worm-like position wrapped in the blanket. He curled further into himself, coughing chestily into his pyjama sleeve. He sniffled, "I don't think I want to sleep anymore," Ethan had barely any voice left now, "and my legs ache too much to move to my bed, it's too far."

"Well some of us are working a twelve hour shift tomorrow, and consequently do want to sleep," Cal stated. However, his expression softened when Ethan struggled to stifle four desperate sneezes into his wrist, breath hitching wildly. Cal offered Ethan a hand, intentionally taking the wrist he hadn't just sneezed into, and helped him stand from the sofa, supporting him by the shoulders afterwards. Cal gave in to a helpless Ethan staring pitifully up at him with sad eyes, "I suppose I'll have to run you a bath then, Nibbles," he sighed, guiding Ethan out of the room.

And despite feeling like his knees were going to buckle beneath him any second and being profoundly much too hot and too dizzy, Ethan was genuinely very elated and gratified that Cal had decided on running him a bath.

"Thank you, Cal," Ethan said later, after his bath, when Cal had insisted on tucking his brother into bed himself.

"No problem, Nibbles," Cal yawned, taking a seat on Ethan's bed, "try and get some sleep yeh?" he said, absentmindedly stroking his brother's blonde hair.

"That's all I've been doing, and I still feel rubbish," Ethan whispered pitifully.

"I'm sorry, Eth," Cal said sympathetically, "hopefully you'll feel better soon."

"I hope so too!" Ethan exclaimed hoarsely, he really did feel terrible, and, although he'd never say it aloud, he would actually be willing to go back to covering for Cal at work, if it meant he didn't have to feel this ill.

After Cal had laid out an assortment of a glass of water, tissues, paracetamol, throat soothers and Ethan's inhaler on the bedside table, he made sure Ethan was comfortable and said his goodnights, before returning to his own bedroom with only five hours before he needed to be up for his shift.

Ethan knew that it was completely impossible that he was going to get any sleep tonight. His stomach was swirling, head pounding and every cell in his body seemed to protest against his every move. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't go two minutes without either coughing or sneezing and his nose was completely blocked and his chest hurt and felt congested and every time he tried to take a breath he'd start- and now he was coughing again and his throat was burning. He had to kick off his covers every few minutes – without jostling his stomach – because he was too hot, but then he'd stare at them pleadingly, willing them to come back because by then he was shivering again and why did he feel dizzy when he was lying down?

Ethan panted, sitting up in bed and resting a fist under his chin in order to support his overheating dizzy head.

It was now 2:43am. Ethan knew this because he'd had to go through the whole ordeal of taking a tissue to wipe his watery eyes and then trying to locate his glasses in the dark abyss of his bedroom with a shaking hand because if he'd turned the light on it would've only worsened the thumping pain in his head. Knowing the time however, only added to the torture of not being able to sleep as it seemed whenever one was aware of the unearthly time and how much they really needed to get to sleep, it only made it more difficult to get to sleep.

Ethan didn't know how, but he suddenly found himself being lead out into the hallway by his feet, and approaching Cal's room. He couldn't remember why he was going there, but his head felt fuzzy and he thought that was probably a reasonable explanation for the confusion and drowsiness. Ethan also knew that if he were well enough, that he would tell himself that it really wasn't an advisable idea to go walking around his flat in the dark when he was ill and apparently prone to fainting spells now. But, he wasn't well, and his head was definitely fuzzy. Come to think of it, his whole body felt fuzzy. Heavy but almost light and tingly at the same time, like he was floating. His eyes wouldn't really focus on anything either, which was extremely irritating as Ethan was sure that he had made sure he put his glasses on before leaving the room.

He wasn't really aware that he was panting heavily though, or that his skin was clammy and definitely beyond the point where it was hotter than it should be. In fact he couldn't really be expected to be aware of much, and Ethan thought it was only fair that someone should stop spinning his flat around and turn off the high pitched ringing in his ears before they gave him a quiz on his surroundings, though.

Without too much care, Ethan opened – it could be better described as fell into – Cal's bedroom door and wandered into the room with the resemblance of a zombie.

"Cal," he panted. Ethan still hadn't remembered why he needed Cal, and he continued to rack his foggy brain for any clues on why his feet had decided on taking him here.

His stomach suddenly somersaulted like a washing machine, and Ethan fell to the floor at that moment in a similar motion, almost like he'd mimicked his stomach's queasy actions. The loud thumb of his body hitting the ground like a cartoon had Cal awake immediately, and he was by Ethan's side just in time for the younger to collapse from his sitting position into Cal's unexpecting arms.