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It was another day at the studio, with them recording the new album. They were almost finished, but they had to record some more vocals. Jon was never satisfied with doing a few takes, he needed perfection. Unfortunately for him, today wasn’t the best day for him to be singing over and over again. He was starting to feel under the weather and ripping his vocal chords take after take wasn’t helping in the slightest. He wasn’t the only one who noticed this, as after the 7th take of the song, Richie stepped in, asking Jon to speak for a moment.
“Hey, Jonny, I don’t mean to be rude or something, but I think it’s sounding worse and worse after each take.” He shrugged, “Maybe you should take a break.”
“What! No way, I can totally do this.”
There he goes again, always trying to be perfect and have no flaws. Of course the Jon Bon Jovi could do a million takes even if he was coming down with a cold. But Richie could see past that facade.
“Hey man, I’m totally not saying you can’t. I’m just saying that sometimes you need a break, you know?” Richie said, trying to be kind and patient with Jon, but that’s when he noticed how tired his eyes looked. “Actually, are you feeling ok? You don’t look so good…”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”
“Really. Let me see-” He puts his hand up to the singer’s forehead “Jesus, Jon, you’re burning up. I’m gonna take you home right now, you need to get some rest.”
“But-” the singer tried to show Richie he was fine. He loved how the guitarist was always looking out for him and cared, but right now he needed to finish the album as soon as possible.
“Nope! I’m not hearing any of that, you’re going home to get some rest.”
Feeling his head throb more and more, the singer finally complied, letting out a deep sigh, he just nodded, following the guitarist out of the recording booth and out of the studio. Richie let the other guys know about the situation and told them that they’d have to keep going another day, to which they all gladly agreed, wanting a free day to relax as well.
The two got into Richie's car, seeing as the blonde shouldn’t drive in the state he was in. He turned on the radio on a low volume and drove home. By the time they got to Richie’s house Jon had already fallen asleep, lulled by the feeling of the car driving on the smooth pavement. The guitarist went to unlock the door, coming back to the car and smiling to himself as he saw how peaceful the singer looked sleeping in the passenger seat. He decided to carry him upstairs so as to not bother him too much for the moment. He settled the blonde on his bed and went to find him some medicine for the fever.
After getting some pills and a glass of water, the guitarist went back up where he found Jon curled up in his bed. He looked so comfortable that Richie didn’t even want to wake him up for him to take his medicine, but he knew he had to. He couldn’t stay with a fever, besides, he might get a fever dream or nightmares and he didn’t want Jon to be upset.
“Hey, Jonny, wake up. You gotta take your medicine now.” Richie softly nudged Jon’s arm.
“Hmm?” The singer slowly stirred awake, his eyes still droopy with sleep and exhaustion.
“Here, take this.” He said, handing over the pills and a glass of water. “It’ll make you feel better.”
The singer complied, slowly sitting up and taking what the guitarist was giving him.
“You know what else would help? Maybe I can run you a warm bath, if you’d like.” The brunette offered.
It sounded like a good idea, relaxing, so he nodded in agreement.
“Alright, let me go do that, then. Just wait here.”
After a couple minutes the water was warm and there was a clean set of comfy clothes set out for Jon, who was already feeling a bit better just being there. Meanwhile, Richie was downstairs preparing some soup for his sick bandmate, he remembered his mom would always make some for him when he felt unwell and it never failed to help him feel better. He went back upstairs with a bowl of warm soup and some more water, gladly finding Jon back in bed, already tucked in and looking much better.
“Hey! I’m glad the clothes fit you well, I tried to pick out the most comfortable ones.”
“Yeah, thanks, these were definitely a good choice.” He smiled at the guitarist.
“I made you some soup, in case you got hungry” he said as he set the bowl on the nightstand, along with the glass of water, “It’s my mom’s recipe. I swear it’s magical or something cuz it always made me feel better! Well, that is, if I made it justice…. I’m not the best cook and well-”
“Thanks Rich, I really appreciate it.” Jon smiled up at him “Of course, man! Anything to help you feel better.”
“Hmm… do you think we can play a movie before I go to sleep?”
“Sure! Just let me go grab something to eat, I’m hungry too you know.” He smiled.
As soon as he got back in the room he was met with a very happy Jon with an almost empty bowl of soup. “This thing is so good! Where did you learn to cook like that?”
“Well, it’s all in my genes of course” the guitarist joked, smiling.
“Right, of course, I should’ve figured that one out.” he laughed softly.
The movie was almost over when Richie noticed that Jon wasn’t doing any comments or reacting to the movie and hadn’t been doing so for a while.
“Jon? Are you still awake?” The guitarist turned to his bandmate, but he was only met with the sound of slow breathing and a very sleepy Jon. Smiling to himself he just turned off the TV and the lights, deciding that it was a good time to go to sleep. Before settling onto his side of the bed, he made sure that Jon’s pillow was fluffy and that he was tucked in properly, he didn’t want him getting cold at night. Looking at the blonde all he could think of was how beautiful he looked, even when he was sick. He noticed that still, even with the blankets and all, he was still shivering. So he decided to do the only logical thing, of course, he snuggled up next to him. He wrapped his arms around the singer, not caring if he himself got sick at all, he knew he wanted to do whatever he could to make Jon more comfortable. Besides, it wasn’t so bad for him after all, he wouldn’t admit it to anyone but cuddling next to his best friend was something he’d been wanting to do for a while. Feeling happy and relaxed, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Jon woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside and the sun in his eyes. He opened them and was confused for a moment. Where was he? Then he slowly remembered, he had felt sick and Richie took him home so he got better. Speaking of, he found himself being wrapped in his arms. Jon panicked for a moment, unsure if the guitarist would think this was weird. But after he saw the look on his face, the way his features were relaxed, his lashes fluttering softly, and the way he looked so beautiful, he felt more relaxed, no longer scared that something bad would happen. Still, he didn’t dare move, afraid that he would wake up the man sleeping next to him.
After a while, the sun and the birds also awakened the guitarist. He sighed contently, still relaxed after one of the best night’s sleep he’d had in a while. That was until he remembered he was holding someone, Jon. He tensed up for a sec, but he noticed that the singer was awake, and he hadn’t made any effort to move, so he took it as a good sign.
“Good morning” the singer smiled softly.
“Morning,” the guitarist smiled back. “How’re you feeling?”
“Much better actually, I think whatever I had went away now.”
“That’s great!” “Thanks for taking care of me, really. It helped me feel so much better.”
“Of course! I really enjoyed being able to spend some time with you, and to take care of you. Cuz you know I care about you, right?”
After saying that last part Richie noticed that Jon was thinking about something. Shit. Did he say something wrong? Hell, he didn’t wanna make him uncomfortable… He was about to panic and say something else until he saw Jon shift a little bit, getting somewhat closer, just enough to plant a kiss on his forehead.
“Yeah, I know. And I care about you too. So much.”