It was a long car ride home. Aidan had to stop four times so Josh could get out and puke on the side of the road. Having a big breakfast had not been kind to Josh's situation, and he quietly moaned with indigestion for the majority of the drive. About two minutes after the final stop, Josh fell asleep, still groaning in pain.

Aidan figured he should be desensitized to the sound of Josh's pain by now, he had heard much worse each month while he sat beside the cage. But, the muffled and exhausted agony flowing from his friend caused Aidan's gut to tie itself in knots and his muscles to tense to the point where he thought he might just crush the steering wheel.

Aidan pulled up in front of the house, slowing softly to a stop so as not to wake Josh. He turned off the car and turned to his sleeping companion. Even when he was sick and smelled of vomit, Josh was unbelievably adorable. Aidan felt a rush of cold air and his hair stood up with static electricity. Sally. Shit.

Sally yelled as she materialized in the back seat, "Where the hell have you two been!" It was more of an accusation than a question.

Aidan lifted his eyebrows and gave her a serious look. Sally's first scream luckily hadn't woken Josh, but he didn't want to risk another. "Shhhh..." he breathed and held his finger over his lips. "He's sleeping and he's sick, so just go inside and be quiet, okay?"

Sally was clearly not happy with his tone, but she knew better than to fight with Aidan were Josh's well-being was concerned. So, with a childish look of anger on her face, she misted out of the car and into the house.

Aidan got out of the car and walked around to the other side. He paused, taking a large breath before opening Josh's door. Aidan slid his arms under Josh's knees and around his back, moving with soft precision to keep the sick man from waking up.

Josh's head leaned readily against Aidan's chest as he was lifted from the car. Aidan managed to close the car door with his leg without making any noise, and he quickly ascended the steps to the front door. He hadn't thought this through very well. He had Josh, who was still asleep, but he had no free hand to open the door. Aidan turned around, trying to think up a solution to his small but extremely frustrating problem.

An older woman was walking her dog down the street, and, just as she was passing the bottom of the steps, Aidan softly called to the woman: "Excuse me. Miss?" She turned, and seeing the strange scene, tilted her head to the side. Aidan cocked his head, using it to point to the door. "Could you please..."

"Oh, sure, dear." She picked up her dog and hurried up the steps. Opening the door, she smiled at Aidan and said, "It's nice to know there are still people out there who are good to their friends."

Aidan returned the smile and hurriedly thanked her. He knew he shouldn't have been, but he was actually a little bothered by the fact that the woman didn't assume he and Josh were together. But, he didn't have the attention necessary to dwell on that. For now, his only focus was getting Josh to bed.

Sally was standing on the stairs, and Aidan would've walked straight through her had she not evaporated first. She was clearly getting more frustrated with him, and, in order to keep her from exploding the lights, Aidan paused momentarily and gave her a look of his own apology mixed with his disapproval of her behavior. She felt just guilty enough to leave them alone for the next few minutes without causing havoc in the house.

Aidan got up the stairs to the hallway and stopped at the entrance to Josh's room. Everything inside the werewolf's room was immaculate and perfectly tucked away. Aidan knew that a sick Josh would make a mess, and he knew that a mess would make Josh sick; so, the sole option was to move him to the only place in the house that wasn't consistently kept clean: Aidan's room. It wasn't a disaster zone, but it certainly wasn't clean. Aidan set Josh down gently on the rumpled sheets and cleared away the dirty clothes from the foot of the bed.

Now that he wasn't burdened with his sleeping friend, Aidan moved at vampire speed around the room, getting rid of the dirty clothes and garbage scattered about. He walked out the door, pausing for a moment just to look at Josh, lying there on the bed with thinly-veiled discomfort.

Downstairs, Aidan grabbed the small trash can from under the sink and a thick quilt from the storage compartment under the front window's sill. Then he walked to the stairs, but Sally was standing right in the middle of them, and this time he had no real excuse to be in a rush.

"What?" Aidan sighed.

"Where were you guys?" It was much more of a question this time than the last.

"Ahhh, um... It's kind of a long story."

"Aidan. Of all people - things - we have time."

There was a moment where Aidan's face made it very clear that he didn't want to spill the beans, but Sally was adamant and he knew she held the real power here. "We were playing miniature golf."

"Mini golf?" she asked sarcastically. "At seven in the morning? Where? No, Why?"

"It's our day off. I wanted to have some fun and I knew Josh could use some normalcy."

Sally was intrigued, but she knew he was holding something back. "Aidan, playing mini golf that early in the morning isn't really normal. Why didn't you just wait until later today?"

"There were other plans."

"What other plans?"

"It's a long list. Can we discuss this later? I really should get this bucket up there before he pukes on my floor." Sally moved out of the way, but she would be sure to make Aidan explain later and he knew that.

Josh was still lying on the bed, but he was semi-conscious now. "Hey," Aidan said softly, "Go back to sleep." He draped the quilt over Josh and set the trash can next to the bed. Josh pushed the heavy quilt off of himself with weak and poorly aimed arm movements and kicks. "Josh," Aidan said in an almost maternal voice, "you know you have to keep covered to help get rid of your virus."

"Ungh," he groaned, "Too hot." Aidan was a nurse, but he hadn't ever had a werewolf patient, so he would just have to go by what Josh said he needed.

That's a lie. Aidan knew there was probably no major difference between werewolf flu and human flu, but he always caved to whatever Josh wanted.

He ran downstairs to try to find some ice, but Josh only really drank coffee and tea, and Aidan preferred his blood warm, so the only thing really cold to be found was a small bag of peas. He took the bag back upstairs and put it on Josh's forehead.

"Still too hot," Josh whined.

"There isn't anything else to cool you down with. What do you want me to do, Josh?" Josh whined again in response. Aidan thought about it for a minute and had an epiphany: he's a vampire; he's cold. Aidan moved to the other side of the bed and lay down behind Josh, leaving some room between them.

Josh could feel the cold behind him, and in his admittedly loopy state, pushed himself back onto Aidan to cool down. "That feels good. What is that?"

"It's me." Aidan said, his voice cracking slightly.

Josh froze and his eyes snapped open. He was suddenly lucid and he felt the need to vomit again. He sat bolt upright and bent over the side of the bed, puking into the bucket Aidan had put there.

"Well..." Aidan said, only slightly joking, "that doesn't help the ego any."

Josh groaned and lay back down on his back. Aidan was still lying on his side, staring at Josh and grinning slightly. "You know," Josh said, "this is probably your fault."

"Oh, really. How do you figure?"

"Remember that neighborhood watch party you threw? All those people in our house, touching things. They probably spread their crazy flu germs everywhere."

Aidan laughed at the clear manifestation of Josh's OCD. "You do realize we work in a hospital. You're more likely to have gotten sick there than here."

"No, dummy," Josh retorted condescendingly. "I use sanitizer and gloves and everything is sterile at work. Here the germs get in our - my food." There was a slight pause. "By the way, why are we in your room?"

"I figured you didn't want to puke in your room. It would've made a mess."

"Aww..." Josh swooned and turned his head, smiling weakly. "So thoughtful." Aidan shrugged humbly and then they just looked at each other for a while. They were completely content to just lie there, but then Sally popped in.

"Aidan," she beckoned, not realizing Josh was awake, "I'm expecting the full explanation now." Aidan gave her a slight glare and Josh rolled over. "Oops!" Sally yipped and she popped out of the room.

"I should probably go handle that," Aidan sighed and got up. "I'll be back in a bit."

"Okay," Josh began absentmindedly, "but hurry." Josh froze, embarrassed, and Aidan smirked and walked away.

Sally was waiting nervously on the bottom step. She began to speak at triple speed: "Oh-my-god, Aidan. I am so sorry. Did I wake him up? I woke him up. I'm sorry. I swear it won't happen again. Sorry."

"That's fine, Sally. He was already awake. Besides, I said I would tell you what the plans were and we might as well get it done now." The 'so I can pay more attention to Josh later' was implied. "Okay, so, the plan was to go to breakfast after we got out of the hospital this morning, then we went to the miniature golf place, which is where he got sick. After golf we were going to the aquarium to look at penguins and jellyfish and clownfish and stuff and then we were going to have brunch at the coffee place next to that park by the water, because you know Josh gets really hungry the day after the full moon, and then we were going to take a walk and people watch and-"

Sally cut him off with a smirk and a giggle, "Oh my god, Aidan. Seriously?"

"What?" Aidan was completely confused about Sally's reasons for cutting him off.

She hushed her voice but continued to giggle. "You planned a date?"

"No! Sally! What?" Aidan really hadn't been trying to plan a date, but now that Sally had shown it in that light, things became rather slanted.

"Well, I think I've heard enough to effectively release you from our explanation agreement. Go take care of your sick boyfriend."

Aidan decided to ignore her last comment because he actually did want to go check on Josh. When he got to the room he leaned against the doorway, folding his arms across his chest. Josh was still wide awake and he gained a slightly worried and amused expression the moment Aidan came into vision.

"So... How are you feeling?"

"Worse," Josh grumbled. "I think I'm getting sicker the more the wolf wears off. I'm sore, I'm nauseous, and I'm burning up."

Aidan walked over and knelt down at eye level with Josh, putting his hand on the sick man's feverish forehead. Josh pushed his head into the cool hand and closed his eyes. "I'll get you some medicine and then we'll cool you down."

"Can we skip the medicine?" Josh was losing his brain-to-mouth filter as his condition deteriorated, but he could still try to recover from his slips: "I hate cherry flavor?" It wasn't really supposed to be a question, but it served its purpose as well as anything else.

"I think we have some grape." Aidan disappeared into the bathroom and fumbled through the cupboards until he found a small bottle of purple liquid.

Josh was getting sicker and sicker, but he was comfortable despite the heat, fatigue, and nausea. It was the room. It smelled like Aidan. Everything. The sheets, the pillow, the air. It was covering Josh now, too. It was a dream come true. If only he was there under less uncomfortable circumstances.

Aidan returned with the bottle of purple medicine and a table spoon. He poured the liquid onto the spoon until there wasn't room for another drop. "Can you sit up?" Aidan asked softly. It was mostly rhetorical because he was going to help Josh up regardless. He placed a hand on Josh's back and pulled him up so he was sitting. "Open wide," Aidan said playfully, pushing the spoon toward Josh so gracefully that the medicine didn't even waver atop it.

Josh gave him a look that said 'funny, but not right now' and accepted the medicine. Aidan lowered him back onto the bed and then crawled over the top of his roommate to the other side so he could cool Josh down. Josh relaxed his body and fell back into Aidan, who just lay there at first, trying to diminish the awkwardness of the situation. But, that only made it worse; so, Aidan decided to make it full on awkward and wrapped his arms around his sick friend.

"Sorry I ruined your stay-cation plans." Josh knew he didn't have to apologize, it wasn't his fault he got sick. But, he also knew that Aidan had put a lot of effort into the agenda and now all that was lost.

"Don't worry about it," Aidan reassured. "We would have ended up back here eventually." He lowered his voice to a whisper, "Besides… this isn't all that terrible."