Mitch heard Scott come back a couple of minutes later but didn't open his eyes in time to see what he brought with him. By the time he fluttered his lids open again, Scott had already set everything on the floor on the other side of Mitch's bed and crawled onto it, pressing his hand to Mitch's forehead again. He trailed his hand down to Mitch's neck and Mitch watched Scott in the dim light as he pressed two fingers against his throat, moving them around until he found what he was looking for.
"Oh god, those nodes. I'm so sorry, baby. They're so swollen, that much hurt so much."
Mitch just nodded, glad to finally have somebody's attention after being alone and miserable all day. "It does. My stomach hurts, too. I was so nauseous before I took my nap."
"Is it better now?"
"Yeah, a little."
"Anything else hurt?"
"Yeah, everything."
Scott tugged down the covers enough to reveal Mitch's stomach and kissed it over his tshirt, giving it a little pat before pulling the blanket up again. He patiently fed Mitch a few more spoonfuls of food until he didn't want to eat anymore, and he set the plate on the floor and out of Mitch's sight. He kissed him on the head for at least trying to finish and asked if he was ready for his presents, and was glad that Mitch shook his head yes. He was excited to show him everything he'd bought for him. Scott turned the lamp on and the room flooded with a soft, yellow light, finally letting the two boys actually see each other.
Mitch really did look pretty rough. His eyes were tired and irritated from crying on and off all day and his skin looked pale and feverish, his hair a sweaty mess. He looked weak and sad and Scott's heart dropped at the sight of him. Mitch almost cried again at how unfairly handsome Scott looked in his tank top and his styled hair and wished Scott would look away from him, knowing he was a mess. He wished he could get a hold over his emotions because as much as he wanted to, he was way too tired to cry again, especially over something as silly as the fact that Scott looked good while he didn't.
Scott picked up the hint that Mitch didn't want to be stated at and lugged the first bag from the floor, and it was a big one. He set it in his lap and started pulling out neatly folded clothes. "Here's the first part. It's not that exciting, but I realized you don't have a lot of comfy clothes to wear around home. You always end up wearing your nice stuff around the house so I got you some stuff from H&M." He pulled out a stack of six tshirts, all in different colors, four pairs of shorts and seven pairs of boxer briefs. "Do you like them? I know you probably don't need more underwear, but it's always nice to have some new ones. Feel the shorts, they're so soft."
Mitch reached over for a pair of shorts, rubbing the material between his fingers. "So comfy. Thank you, Scott. I love them."
"Do you wanna change into these? You've been cold-sweating in that tshirt all day, you'll feel better in fresh clothes."
Mitch frowned, raking his eyes over the colorful stack of simple, comfortable tshirts in front of him. "I want to, but I'm gonna make them all gross. I want to shower so bad."
"I know, baby, but it's not worth it. You can take a showervwhen you start feeling better, okay? Don't worry about getting these dirty, we'll wash them and they'll be good as new. They're not that nice anyway. Let me help you."
He helped an embarrassed Mitch out of his damp tshirt and boxers, helping him wiggle into his comfy new clothes without having to get out of bed. He pulled the covers back over his legs and gave Mitch a once-over. The skinny boy was propped up against the back of the bed with a pillow and wearing his new dark green tshirt and some white boxers, finally smiling a little at Scott as he brushed Mitch's hair back out of his face.
"Better?"
"Mhmm. Much less sticky. My skin still feels all clammy and gross though, I'm already ruining this shirt. I wish you didn't have to see me like this, Scott. I look horrible."
"No, you don't."
"I do!" He whined, irritated. "Don't lie to me just to be nice. Let me feel ugly in peace."
Scott watched Mitch's soft smile turn into a grumpy frown and put his arm around his shoulders, giving him a squeeze. "You're not 'ugly', Mitch. You never will be. You look sick because you are, and that's all there is to it. You're still beautiful, don't even bother fighting me on this. Ready for your next present?"
Mitch crossed his arms out of stubbornness at the abrupt end to Scott's lie but nodded yes, ready to see what else Scott had gotten him. Scott grabbed another bag off of the floor and gently set it on the bed, this one much smaller than the monstrous H&M bag. He took a flat cardboard box out of the bag and opened it to pull out something that was wrapped in layers and layers of bubble wrap. He carefully ripped at the packaging and pushed it out of the way, placing the gift gently in Mitch's blanket covered lap.
Mitch lifted it up to look at it more closely, which was a bit of a struggle with his weakened arms that he hadn't used all day. It looked like a sheet of glass with pressed flowers scattered on all four sides embedded in it. His hand brushed across a small nub on the back of the sheet of glass and he realized it was a picture frame, probably meant to be hung on a wall rather than propped up anywhere. He ran his fingers across the smooth glass over the gorgeous red flowers, the petals of the larger ones lined with goldleaf while the smaller red flowers that surrounded them had been left unplated. It was so simplistic and stunning that Mitch just stared at it, looking at the way each flower was pressed and how each petal bent a little differently than the others. It was by far the most beautiful thing he'd seen all day and he was so consumed by its subtle intricacies that he forgot for a minute that Scott was waiting for a reaction. He stared and stared until he felt Scott's hand rub his thigh, pulling him out of his daze.
"You like it?"
Mitch nodded, his eyes still trailing over the pressed flowers. "I love it, Scotty. This is so beautiful." He set the glass frame on Scott's lap, tracing his fingertips over the flowers one last time. He blushed thinking of how lovey and coupley it would be to have the frame hung somewhere in the house, a photo of them in it with their smiling faces surrounded by pretty red and gold flowers. "So, so beautiful. Thank you so much. Where'd you get this?"
He kept rubbing Mitch's thigh and let him stare at it a little longer, happy that he liked it. "I don't remember what the place was called, but there was so much cool stuff there. It was kinda far away from the mall, but that's okay. I'll take you there before we get to Texas so we can shop for your mom, I saw so many things she would like. I took pictures but I'll show you later. We should hang this in our bedroom once you're healthy enough to stop sleeping in here. It would so look pretty against the white walls, right? It'll be fun to pick a picture for it together, there are so many good ones of us that I don't even know where to begin. Alright, anyway, ready for the next one?"
Mitch felt a yawn fighting it's way up but he suppressed it and nodded. Scott was talking so much and it was making him sleepy, but his heart was growing fuller and fuller with every gift and he was getting antsy to see what else Scott had gotten him. "More?"
"Uh huh! And this you can even make use of while you're sick! Hold on a sec..." he leaned over to the floor to pick up an even smaller bag than the last and plopped it unceremoniously on Mitch's lap, instantly letting him know that this one was not made of glass. He pulled the green and white plastic bag closer and wiggled out two books, gasping when he saw the bright yellow cover of the hardcover.
"Oh my god, Scott! I just found out about this one yesterday!" He smiled widely at the cover of the latest Harry Potter book, the one he hadn't even known about until he saw everyone posting pictures of their copies online when it was released yesterday. "Oh my god! I'm so excited! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Mitch leaned into Scott and let Scott hug him as he happily reached for the other book, a thin paperback. Scott giggled at his reaction to the Harry Potter book, his heart bursting at how happy Mitch had gotten. Of all the gifts he'd shown him, Scott was surprised that this was the one that got the strongest reaction out of him. In fact, he hadn't even hoped to get a smile that wide and genuine out of him, knowing how horrible Mitch felt and how moody he was. He left his arm wrapped around him and gave Mitch a little squeeze as he flipped the book over to read description on the back.
"I haven't heard of this one before. What's it about?"
"It's a French love story where both of the lovers are genderless. It's not exactly 'romance,' but kinda in that realm, you'll see. You'll like it though, it's right up your alley. I read it in my second semester of college and kinda forgot about it, but I saw it when I was getting the other book and I had to buy it for you. It's beautifully written and kinda heartbreaking but I was obsessed with it."
"Wow." Mitch kept skimming the editorial reviews on the inside cover once Scott finished. He stayed leaning against Scott, holding it a little higher and letting him read with him. "The strength of 'Sphinx' lies in it's philosophical eloquence... sounds intense. I'm down for some philosophy. Love, viewed as a nihilistic transcendence- I don't even know what that means. This sounds like a weapon more than a book, Scotty. Wait, what's an 'ennui'? I've never even heard that wor- oooh..." Mitch smirked, pointing to a particular review in the middle of the page. "Anne Garréta's novel is an intensely erotic tale of two...intensely erotic? Really?"
"Uh huh. I told you, right up your alley."
"And it stays genderless? Even during the spicy parts? Promise?"
"Yup. I swear to god, completely ambiguous. I tried so hard freshman year to find a slip up but there isn't even a single hint that gave anything away about either of their genders. It has a sad ending but it's such a good story, you're gonna love it."
"I know I will. That's so cool. Thank you so much, Scotty, I can't wait to read these." He leaned up to kiss him before remembering that he really shouldn't, and hesitantly pulled away. He gave him a smile instead, his eyes still shining with happiness.
"You missed the best part, Mitchie. Look." Scott poked his hand into the bag and pulled out a plastic bookmark with an animated sphynx cat on it, a little word bubble next to his head reading 'What greater gift than the love of a cat?" It was silly and it made Mitch giggle.
"That looks like Wyatt. I love it."
"I'm glad. Ready for the next one?"
Mitch blushed, setting his new books on his night stand and tucking the bookmark into the cover of the yellow one, knowing he would read it first. "More? Scott, you shouldn't have. This is so much."
"It's nothing. Seeing you smile so big has been the best thing that's happened to me all day, Mitchie. Seriously, you're making me so happy. I wish I could kiss you."
"I wish I could kiss you, too. I love you so, so much." He pouted, nestling his forehead against Scott's neck for more contact before the blond pulled away.
"Oh god, stop tempting me. You don't know how hard it is not to kiss you, but that makes it so much worse. Anyway, here's your last gift. Aww, I'm sad that this is almost over." Scott slowly pulled two little black and white striped bags onto the bed, and Mitch immediately recognized them as bags from Sephora.
"Makeup?"
"Yup. For the prettiest girl in the whole world."
"Yaaay!" He smiled sweetly at the cute compliment, and Scott wanted to laugh at how happy he looked with his hair sticking out in different directions and a little bit of wetness running unnoticed from his nose. "Can I see?"
"Of course. It's yours." Scott placed the first bag on his lap and Mitch pulled the red decorative paper out before peeking inside. He seemed to recognize what it was almost immediately and his smile melted away, which surprised Scott. Mitch took a deep, heavy breath, playing with the string of the bag while he stared at what was inside.
"Scotty..." It had sounded like a whine but Scott knew better than to think he was upset and smiled a little when Mitch pulled out the pink rectangular box. "Oh my god, Scott. I've been meaning to get this since before it even came out! How did you know I wanted it? I never told you." He leaned into Scott and let him wrap his arm around him again as he toyed with the pretty packaging. He undid one side of the box but hesitated to slide the pallette out, overwhelmed by everything Scott had done for him today.
"It's okay, baby. Open it."
He didn't. He ran his fingers over the letters of the sleek box reading 'Modern Renaissance,' frowning at the stark white letters that graced the pretty light pink box. "I should have gotten this myself, Scott. I've wanted this for so long and I just forgot to. How did you know?"
"Nicole told me about it. She said you've been getting into eyeshadow recently and that you ask her to teach you how to put it on sometimes. She said you told her you liked this one and told me to get it because it's by Anastasia, and she says they're really good. It was only, like, forty dollars so I got her one too, but she probably already has one so I might give it to Candice instead. Anyway, go ahead. Open it."
He bit his bottom lip and carefully slid the pallette out of its packaging, putting the cover box on top of the books on his night stand. He traced the letters on the cover of the pallette again, his eyes unexpectedly brimming with tears. "It's so pretty. I don't wanna touch it."
"Please touch it. It's yours. You can't use it if you don't touch it, can you?"
Mitch rubbed the lid of the pallette with his fingertips, sniffling and trying to keep himself together through this sudden and weirdly heavy wave of emotion. It didn't work, though, and there were hot, silent tears already rolling down his cheeks all over again. He had no explanation this time. He should have been well into playing with his pretty new eyeshadow pallette by now, not crying over it, but he couldn't stop himself. He let his tears fall as he rubbed his fingers over the soft texture of the lid.
"It's velvety, Scott. Feel it. I didn't know the pallette was velv-" he cut himself off when his throat tightened. He tried to finish his sentence but was too embarrassed by the small noises he was making in an effort not to cry.
Scott rubbed the cover of the pallette with his thumb and tried not to be upset that Mitch wasn't smiling anymore. He knew these weren't necessarily sad tears, but they were tears nonetheless, and he didn't like seeing tears on Mitch. It wasn't his fault that his body was acting the way it was and Scott tried to keep his hopes up. He gave Mitch's hand a squeeze to comfort him, but instead of it bringing a smile to his face Mitch's bottom lip began to wobble.
"Wow. You're right, Mitchie, it is velvety. Is that okay? Do you still like it?"
Mitch nodded tearfully, sad little noises still leaving his mouth as he thought of how badly he wanted to hug Scott, to kiss him until he was dizzy and let him know how much he loved him. He wanted so badly to tell Scott how special and perfect and amazing he was and how much he loved all of the beautiful gifts he'd showered him with. He was got more and more upset thinking of how good Scott was to him. It was too much, and he didn't deserve all of this just for laying in bed all day and hurting.
"Oh, no. My poor, emotional baby. I'm so sorry, honey. It's okay, this is the last one and then I'll let you go to bed and get some more rest. Can you open it, please? I wanna see which colors you like the most."
Mitch finally lifted the lid and took a minute to compose himself as he looked at all the beautiful colors. He sniffled a little as he scrutinized them and pointed out the ones he liked the most, which were mostly the neutral shades and a shimmery dark brown. He was too afraid to touch them and get germs in the product, even though Scott assured him it wasn't that expensive and he could throw it away once he wasn't sick anymore and keep the extra one he'd bought as a gift for their stylist. He let Scott swatch some of them on him, both of them wanting to see how each of the colors would look on his skin. Scott laid down next to him on his stomach so that he could read the name of each color as he padded the different shades on the smooth part of Mitch's forearm and soon enough there was a mass of colorful blotches decorating his skin.
"Hey, you wanna know which one is my favorite? It's this one..." He tapped his finger into a strong magenta color and patted it onto Mitch's arm. "It's called 'love letter'. I told the lady at Sephora that I didn't think you'd like this pallette because the colors are too bold, but she said you can do anything you want with them. It doesn't have to be bold even if the color's that intense. Let me show you."
Mitch smiled a little as Scott squinted his eyes at the pallette, trying to read the names at the bottoms of the shades. "She showed me on her hand, she mixed 'love letter' with this one called 'vermeer', and it was like magic..." Scott wiped his finger clean and dipped it into into the shimmery champagne color and tried blending it with the magenta splotch on Mitch's arm, but he was a little confused at the result. He realized he must have rubbed too hard because the deep pink was nearly gone and there was a sheen of sparkle covering a flushed portion of his skin instead.
"Oh, shit. Okay, so that's not how you do that. You probably know more about this anyway, I was just trying to impress you." He smiled up at Mitch and Mitch giggled, closing the pallette and setting it on his night stand with everything else.
"Thank you so much, I love it. It's beautiful. I'll learn how to make 'love letter' not look crazy so that I can wear it for you all the time."
"You don't have to do that. Use this however you want, sweetheart. Oh, and look," he grabbed the other bag that the two had nearly forgotten about. "I got you some blendy brushes. Nicole said you didn't have any and that you'd definitely need them if you wanted to use this yourself. And I got you makeup wipes too, and I know you like these ones 'cause you take them on tour with you."
Mitch giggled as Scott tore open the small package, pulling out a wipe to clean Mitch's arm with. "Blending brushes, Scott, not blendy. That's so cute. Thank you so much, you made me so happy with all of these presents and I love all of them. You're the biggest gift of all though, Scotty. I love you so much I could explode."
"Well, don't do that. I don't need my boy exploding just because of a few little gifts, I'd miss you too much. Ugh, sap. Anything else you want that I should bring you tomorrow?"
"No, thank you so much. I wish I could sleep with you, though. I miss your bed." He really did. They hadn't bothered moving into a room together when they started dating a couple of years ago, Mitch had just moved into Scott's room because he had a bigger bed. A lot of his stuff was still in his old room but he hadn't slept here in for so long that he felt like he was in a completely new environment.
"You do? You can just sleep there, baby. I'll wash the sheets once you're better. I can carry you there if you want."
"No, it's okay. I didn't mean the room part so much, I just miss sleeping with you. I'm not used to sleeping alone after being with you for so long." Mitch smiled but let his eyes fall shut, finally worn out. "I'm tired, Scott. Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?"
"Sure, baby. I'll even bring some blankets in here and sleep on the floor to keep an eye on you once you're out. You want me to read to you?" He was eyeing the books on Mitch's night stand, wanting to read the Harry Potter one and hoping Mitch wouldn't catch on to his little trick. He was too tired, though, and declined.
"Not right now, my ears are tired. Can you rub my tummy, though?"
"Of course." Scott switched the lamp off and laid back down next to him, snaking his hand below the covers and under Mitch's shirt. He began rubbing softly and smiled when he heard a small, contented sigh. "Hey, if you need anything at all tonight- water or medicine or a trash can or company or whatever- just say my name, alright? I'll be right on the floor on a pile of blankets and I'll get it done for you, you won't even have to move. I got you, Mitchie."
"Thanks, Scott. Love you." He rested his hand over Scott's as it moved over his belly, already drifting off. His mind lingered over all of Scott's gifts, particularly focusing on that shade of eyeshadow he'd told Mitch he liked. That intense magenta called 'love letter' that he though looked nearly impossible to make wearable. He would take it to Nicole, though, and figure it out. He'd find some way to use it so that he could wear it just for Scott.
"Love you more, baby."
So this was initially a cute request from @TurquoiseDaisy about Scott cheering Mitch up and I started adding so much plot, I hope I didn't ruin it😁 here's the pallette for reference (it's beautiful and they are so buttery). Also the book Sphinx by Anne Garréta really is amazing and heartbreaking please read it if you get a chance!