hey guys, i've been feeling quite down today so i thought i'd write a quick sickfic for you all. sorry if it's shit, i'm super stressed with my gcse's starting this week and i just needed a break from studying haha.
let me know what you think x
(unedited)
Jack knew something was off with himself when he kept getting a strange feeling in his stomach, his eyebrows furrowing as he swallowed dryly. It kept him up all night.
The tour bus shakes under him, and he hears the soft snores of his bandmates, but he just groans, knowing that since no one else was awake; he is alone to suffer. He quickly crawls out of the bunk when he feels a wave of nausea overcome him, and he whimpers, gripping the wooden side of the bed tightly. He tries breathing deeply to relieve the pain, and eventually the nausea goes away. He sighs in relief, leaning against the bed as he tries to hold in the tears. He has to tell someone. He wonders over to Jonah's bunk and pulling the curtain back, making the older boy groan in annoyance as the slight light seeps through.
"Jack, what the fuck!" Jonah grumbles, his voice thick with fatigue. Jack looks at him guiltily, his stomach cramping, which causes him to cover it with his arm.
"Jo, I don't feel too good." Jack whimpers, looking at Jonah through glossy eyes. Jonah groans and reaches forwards, placing a hand on Jacks forehead for a few seconds. He then drops it angrily, rolling over.
"You're fine, you're barely warm. Have some medicine or something." He says, his tone frustrated, which makes Jack frown. He thought for sure Jonah would help him out.
"Shut the hell up, you dickheads. Some of us are trying to sleep!" Jack jumps at Zach's sudden snippy remark.
"Tell that to Jack." Jonah grumbles. Jack gulps and quickly apologises, stumbling towards the kitchen so that he can have some medicine.
He makes his way back to bed afterwards, just feeling worse about the whole situation. He hated being a burden to anyone, especially his best friends, so for now he was just going to suck it up.
He wakes up the next morning to the sound of light chatter, and notices he doesn't feel quite as bad as he did a few hours prior. Still, he didn't feel incredibly well, but he felt well enough to fake it so that he wouldn't be annoying to everyone. He stumbles out of bed and begins walking towards the main room of the bus, breathing deeply to alleviate some of the pain every few seconds. When he gets there, all eyes are on him, and he notices Jonah's slight glare. The older boy stands up straighter, the bags under his eyes fairly prominent.
"Speak of the devil." He grumbles, making Jack freeze in his tracks. They were talking about him?
"Good morning." Jack squeaks, still not understanding what was happening.
"How are you feeling?" Daniel raises his eyebrows at Jack, almost daringly. Jack then realises that they were probably talking about what happened last night.
"Oh, yeah, uh, a-a lot better." He stumbles over his words, smiling weakly. Jonah scoffs, quickly downing his coffee in short gulps.
"Of fucking course you do." He says angrily. Jack looks around at everyone, feeling small and very confused. Tyler eventually sighs.
"Jack, what have we said about waking others up when it isn't important? Jonah couldn't sleep after you woke him up, do you find that very fair?" Tyler lectures him, making Jack's eyes fill with overwhelmed tears.
"I-I don't, but it was important, I wasn't feeling well." And I'm still not, he wanted to add, but he knew the boys wouldn't be happy. They already think he's a burden, he must not make them any angrier.
"No, you were just being selfish, you even woke me up." Zach frowns over at Jack, who just looks at everyone, shocked.
"Alright, fine, I'm sorry for being so selfish and annoying, I just thought someone would have enough of a heart to actually care about me." Jack finally says, his voice cracking as he quickly rushes out of the room and into the bathroom, stumbling onto the cold, tiled floor. A wave of tears rushes down his face, and he holds back his sobs. He feels his stomach churning and he groans in annoyance, quickly rushing to the toilet as he begins dry heaving into it. Finally, he throws up, his tears mixing in the the repugnant liquid as it leaves his mouth. His body is tense and he shakes as he continues sobbing brokenly. The fact that none of his bandmates were willing to help him hurt; he thought they'd be there for everything.
Once he's done, he quickly washes his face and brushes his teeth, waiting for his hands to stop shaking. He quickly flushes the toilet and spray air freshener around, trying to hide the smell.
He could do this. He's not a baby, he can fake feeling okay for a few hours, until he gets to sleep again.
It can't be that hard.
***
Throughout the day, as Jack fakes feeling much better and tries to be lively in their interview, Jonah keeps sending him frustrated looks, making him feel guilty. He swallows his dizziness, blinking rapidly as a wave of nausea suddenly hits him. He can't do this whilst their filming, but he needs to lie down for a second. It didn't help that the interview wasn't even done sitting down. His hand grips the table harshly as he tries to regulate his breathing before anyone notices. Suddenly, a hand is thrown over his shoulder and he laughs along with everyone, even though he wasn't entirely sure what they were laughing about. Someone's breath fans over his neck as they approach him.
"Jack, your swaying, are you sure you're okay?" Corbyn's sweet voice asks him, and just the tone of it makes him calm down slightly.
"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine! Just fine." His voice wavers, but Corbyn seems to believe him. Either that or he didn't want to overwhelm the younger, who wasn't looking his best. Corbyn doesn't move away though, allowing him to lean on him, which lets Jack calm down a little. The interviewer keep talking, but Jack doesn't pay much attention, until he feels a soft jab in his stomach. He looks up suddenly, seeing everyone's gaze on him, and his face flushes in embarrassment. He feels his heart rate increase when the interviewer, with a slightly frustrated tone, repeats the question, and Jack thankfully manages to mutter out an answer.
"That's all for today guys, we hope you enjoyed, and thank you so much to Why Don't We for coming down here! Bye!" The cameras stop rolling, but Jack barely notices. His head has become hazy, lights seeming too bright and the sounds seeming far away. His breathing is becoming shallow, and he sways even more dangerously, moving out of Corbyn's grip towards the side.
Corbyn, noticing his hazy movements, lets out a cry, alerting the other boys. Daniel, from Jack's other side, quickly reaches out, grabbing Jack's limp body and letting out a loud 'umph' at the contact. Everyone's movement becomes frantic when they notice the severity of the situation.
"Guys, give him space!" Tyler calls out suddenly as he bends down beside the unconscious boy. Corbyn looks away, not being able to handle the sight of the deathly pale boy who looks partially dead. He notices Jonah looking at him with a fear-stricken face. As they decide to bring him back to the bus, the blonde boy goes up to his oldest bandmate and wraps his arms around his waist, burying his face into his shoulder and breathing out shakily. Jonah struggles to hug back, but eventually does.
"Shit." Jonah breathes into Corbyn's hair, tears pricking in his eyes, because he can't help but feel guilty. If anyone was being selfish last night, it was him, not Jack. His grip around Corbyn tightens slightly as he gets angrier at himself, repeatedly letting out curse words. Corbyn lets out a soft cry and quickly untangles himself from Jonah's grip, looking at the older boy sympathetically.
"Hey, it's not your fault Jo. We're all stressed and tired, you just took it out on the wrong person." Corbyn says softly, and Daniel comes over having heard the orders words.
"Jo, don't worry, he's gonna be fine. Ty has already taken him back to the tour bus, lets go." Daniel grabs the oldest's hand and begins to drag the reluctant boy along. Corbyn wraps an arm around the youngest of them all's shoulder, noticing his fear stricken face. He tries to console him, saying positive things into his ear.
None of them felt very positive though; especially Corbyn. He was scared.
***
Jack had been out for an hour before he started to finally wake up. Everyone suddenly becomes extremely attentive as they watch his eyes softly flutter open, a broken groan emitting immediately from his chest. Corbyn can't help but breathe out suddenly, all the bottled out tension he was holding finally leaving. He can't deny how relieved he is that Jack is awake, because he was beginning to look really dead, and it was scary.
"Jack!" Zach can't hold it in, lunging forwards onto his knees next to the older boy, who was spread across the sofa. Jack looks at Zach's tear stricken face in confusion, his eyes still slightly hazy.
"W-What happened?" He says, his voice extremely hoarse. Zach is quick to answer, not letting anyone else do so.
"You almost died!" His dramatic expression makes Jack's eyes widen in shock and fear, and he quickly looks over to the others.
"No, you didn't!" Tyler quickly shuts down, whilst Daniel softly hits the back of Zach's head, making the young groan lightly. "But you did give us a bit of a scare." Jack looks down guiltily.
"Sorry guys." He mutters, looking across all our faces. Corbyn pouts slightly, sitting down next to him and pulling him softly into his chest.
"It's not your fault at all buddy. It's entirely our, mine especially. I'm so, so sorry I didn't believe you. I'm such a dick." Jonah sighs, the guilt evident on his face.
"It's not your fault, shut up you doof." Jack rolls his eyes, blushing lightly as he buries his head into Corbyn's shoulder.
"That's the Jack we know and love." Daniel teases.
"Just watch some TV and relax for tonight guys. I'm gonna sort some stuff out, take care of noodles, okay?" Tyler says, winking before exiting the bus. Everyone's silent for a few seconds, before finally Jack breaks the silent.
"So, Harry Potter marathon?"