"Next time I would appreciate it if I was given a heads up when you decide to disappear into the night without taking even a single cell phone..."
"The least you could do was at least check the weather forecast, or take a car..."
Caspian shared a look with Asher, bundled up too tight to move.
"I expected that you would be more cautious, Caspian..."
Caspian shrank into his blankets when the scolding was focused on him.
It was hard to be intimidated when Jael nagged like a babysitter but he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.
They both got an earful until they were safe in the mansion. The rain had eased off a bit then, the guards all taking shelter.
A hot shower was in order when they got back to the bedroom, their makeout session resuming underneath the hot spray of water.
By the time they were bundled underneath the sheets, Caspian had forgotten about the dark parts of the evening.
Running around in the rain meant that he was too worn out for his thoughts to run rampant, falling asleep in Asher’s tight hold.
He only got a few hours of sleep before he was waking up.
Caspian opened his eyes with an expressive frown, feeling groggy.
It took a while for his slow brain to boot up but he eventually figured out why he had woken up.
It was because he was inside a furnace...
Actually wait, no. It was just Asher burning up.
The Alpha held him fast, his arms feeling like hot pieces of metal.
Getting Asher to let go of him was a struggle, the heat from his body was so uncomfortable that it made him sweaty.
When he finally broke free, he sat on his knees beside Asher, his panic slowly increasing.
He wore nothing but Asher’s shirt and comfortable shorts, the Alpha wearing just his pajama bottoms although Caspian had told him to wear a shirt to bed.
He could see now why Jael was always worrying and scolding him...
The Alpha had gotten a fever.
Asher’s long dark red hair was damp, his black earrings standing out against his heated skin.
He needed to get his temperature down, and he also needed to tell Jael about this.
Caspian got down from the bed and picked up his phone.
It was four AM, fortunately, so it was almost morning. He felt bad about bothering Jael’s sleep after the trouble they caused him last night.
But he would hate to be scolded again, so he called up the Beta.
Jael picked up on the second ring and it had him worrying if the Beta even slept at all.
"Asher has a fever," He said nervously, knowing that this would be the prelude to getting scolded again.
But in his defense, he had tried really hard to get Asher to cover up, the Alpha was just too stubborn.
The call dropped immediately, and he knew that it was because Jael was coming over.
Caspian sighed and started for the bathroom, knowing that a scolding was inevitable.
Just as he was stepping out of the bathroom with a bowl of water and a towel, the door to the bedroom slammed open.
A frazzled Jael stood at the doorway, still clutching his phone like a weapon. "Asher is sick?"
Caspian had never seen the Beta get this distressed before, "It’s just a fever," He said quietly. "He probably just caught a cold."
"But Asher never falls sick," Jael mumbled, still standing in the doorway.
"That’s actually a little concerning," Caspian had to say, walking to Asher’s side.
"Fuck, I need to get a doctor over here-"
"No! Wait..." Caspian stopped him. "It’s just a little cold- come inside," He cut himself off to say, losing his patience at Jael remaining in the doorway.
Jael slowly trudged in and the closer he got, the better Caspian could get a good look at him.
His nightshirt was soaked through, his face damp.
"Oh my fucking god," Caspian muttered in dismay.
He didn’t even need to put his hand up to Jael’s face to know that the Beta was also running a high temperature.
"You’re delirious," He said to himself, walking over to Jael to pull the reluctant Beta over to the bed.
"Get on the bed," He ordered Jael.
For someone who was definitely out of it, he listened better than Asher did when he was lucid, lying down without a protest.
Caspian had to hurry back to the bathroom for another towel, playing nurse to both men.
He couldn’t believe that just a little rain had made them both come down with a fever.
Asher’s fever was completely his fault but he rather felt guilty that they were the reason that Jael had come down with a cold.
He spent the early hours of the morning bringing their temperature down.
They slept better because he managed their temperatures and he knew that they would spend most of the day sleeping off the cold.
It was going very peacefully, he had even switched off Jael’s constantly ringing phone so that Beta could get some rest.
Whatever needed him could wait until he was better.
It went great until they both woke up at the same time. It was like an internal clock went off, the soft light of the morning sun beaming behind the curtains.
Asher took one look at Jael half naked on the bed and Caspian in between them and immediately brought out a gun.
"Where did you even get that?" Caspian asked in disbelief, struggling to disarm Asher before he fired the weapon.
It was to this that the door opened, Lucy standing in the doorway, horror on her face.
"It’s not what you think," Caspian said at the same time that Jael did, making him and Asher slowly turn to the Beta.
Caspian was the first to recover, using the moment of confusion to pry the gun from Asher’s hand.
"Lucy please help me out, they’re both down with a fever," He explained to the one person he could trust.
That broke Lucy out of her shock, "The boss fell sick?" She clarified, disbelief heavy in her voice.