When Sickness Hits

Ch.3

Zayns POV

I woke up in the middle of the night to some loud wet coughing and rustling. It was nearly 3:00 AM in the morning and I knew that Niall was beside me, so it was probably him coughing up the storm beside me. I opened my eyes and looked around and saw Niall in the very corner of the bed sitting up, coughing harshly into some of the bed sheets and a pillow.

I rubbed his back as the coughing went on and on. However it wouldn't stop. He would take a few seconds in between fits to take a breath, but then he was back to coughing and I could see that it was hurting him. He had tears in his eyes and his body shook with every painful cough.

I reached over and passed Niall the glass of water that was right beside him, however he couldn't even see my gesture because his face was buried in his pillow that his head was supposed to be resting on while he coughed. It was really hard to help him, but once he stopped for a bit I gave him the water and he drank the whole thing down in a very little amount of seconds.

"Hey you alright? You were coughing pretty hard there." I asked, still rubbing his back while he drank the last bit of water that was in the cup. After he drank his cup, I gave him more water from my water bottle that I always kept beside my bed.

"Yeah I guess i'm ok. Just really tired still." Niall said trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. His voice sounded pretty strained and congested and I couldn't help but also wonder why he was so tired. He was sleeping the whole night!

"What's been keeping you up? You've been sleeping the whole night." I said

"I've been coughing the whole night. This was the worst one i've had tonight so it woke you up, but I was barely even sleeping." Niall said. He took a big yawn and I could only feel guilty at the fact that I was fine, but Niall wasn't. It even looked like it hurt for him to yawn because his throat was so sore from coughing.

"Oh I never knew. Why didn't you wake me up? I could have given you an extra pillow or something. It's good to elevate your head when you have a bad cough you know." I suggested.

Niall coughed once more in his elbow which sent him in a small coughing fit again but then he nodded yes to my suggestion of another pillow. I looked over through the room, but didn't see any pillows so I picked up the pillow from under my head and gave it to him.

"Are you sure? I don't want to rob you of your comfort just because of my throat." Niall said.

"I don't want you coughing the whole night. You won't be comfortable enough. Just take my pillow, i'll use clothes or something." I said grabbing my fluffy sweater to show my new pillow to Niall.

"Thanks mate." Niall said, another cough interrupting him in mid-sentence.

"Welcome. Now get some rest and stop talking. You're gonna end up coughing more if you talk." I said patting his shoulder. Niall laid back down and rested his head on a third pillow and slanted it to make himself more comfortable.

I could hear him coughing a couple more time for the next five minutes so I got him some water from the kitchen, but after that everything else was good. At least I was doing a good job at keeping Niall comfortable. I'd be glad to be his personal caretaker for the next few days anyways.

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Liam's POV

It was finally the next morning and I got up from my loud alarm clock. I hated getting up in the mornings, but at least now i'd be able to replenish my energy by waking up the other boys. It was truthfully the best part about the mornings for all of us. I got up first, then Louis, then Harry, then Niall, and we'd all pitch in to do our part for Zayn. It was a natural process and without i'd feel kind of lost.