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“You’re staying in bed whether you like it or not.” Zatanna told you and she all but shoved you back into your bed. “You are sick; you won’t be at your best in your current condition.” You gave her a death glare and a low growl rumbled in your throat. “I’m getting up sooner or later.” It was almost impossible for you to not stretch your wings at least once. If she was going to make you stay in bad all day, then- “No, you are not.” Zatanna’s glare was sharp as a tack. “Tim, Bart, Jaime, Gar, and Cassie are staying here. If you need anything, ask them,” she was halfway out the door when she looked back at you again. “I told them to keep you in here using any measures necessary. This sickness only affects dragons. And in case you forgot, you were born of dragon blood. You can die if you don’t stay put.” You held both your hands up and said groggily, “Okay, okay, fine. You got me, I’ll stay in bed. No dying allowed.” You said, and you coincidentally started to feel weak. “Definitely staying in bed…” Zatanna gave you a sweet smile. “Now that’s what I like to hear. Sleep well and feel better soon. I’ll be back later.” You fell asleep almost immediately after Zatanna left. The sickness had a rapid effect on you, fluctuating between ‘relatively okay’ to ‘get your ass back in bed, you’re dying.’ At the moment, you were in the ‘relatively okay’ zone, save for your sudden sneezes. “Achoo-! Fuck.” Fire quickly flared after your sneeze and you nearly set your bed on fire. Again. On top of that, your wings ached like hell. It would be okay to stretch them, right? Being sick already sucked but having aching wings made it even more uncomfortable. You took a deep breath, preparing yourself for the effort it would take for you to get the hell up. Deciding to just ‘fuck it’ and get a move on, you grunted with the strain on your body as you pushed yourself into a sitting position on the edge of your bed. You had a moment of dizziness, but it quickly passed just as soon as it came. Fighting through another bought of effort, you were standing up and slowly staggering your way out of your room and into the common area of the cave. You didn’t see anyone around when you entered, and you thought you might be able to get away with this after all. Just as you were almost passed the couch on your way to the back door, the dizziness came back tenfold, making a groan escape you as you had to grip the back of the couch for support. The entire room seemed to be spinning around you and you had to close your eyes before you lost what little you were able to hold down. You were panting for breath as you finally sat down on the leather, your head tipping back to rest against it. Sweat was beading down your forehead and the room still felt like it was spinning even now that you weren’t standing up or moving. You sneezed once again, the force of it also causing your wings to stretch out wide. You only just narrowly avoided setting the coffee table in front of you on fire. As sick as you felt, your body burning hotter than usual due to the fever you were sporting, you felt your veins freeze when your wings knocked over the lamp on the end table next to you as you finished your sneeze. The sound of the decorative base shattering seemed louder than ever to your fever sensitized mind. You didn’t have much time to react, as that one sneeze sent you into a fit of more sneezes. You had to use your foot to push the coffee table out of the way of the fire, but even then, it managed to get just a small singe before it was out of range. You were sneezing so much, your wings fluttering here and there, that you missed when Tim, Bart, Jaime and Cassie had barged into the room. They had only heard the lamp being knocked over, but they were all shocked at the sight of you hunched over and sneezing literal fire. “Is she sneezing fire?” You jumped up at the sound of Cassie’s voice, turning to them with wide eyes. “Hold on I can explain-“ Another sneeze interrupted your sentence and you didn’t have enough time to cover it before they all had to jump out of the way from the incoming fire it produced. “Qué mierda- ella no va a hacernos daño! Escarabajo!” Jaime exclaimed, having to use his other hand to try and push his arm down that the scarab had morphed into a canon. Eventually, the armor around his hand disappeared. You were swaying on your feet, dizzy from the fever and from getting up as fast as you did. Cassie was quick to recover and help you sit back down on the couch. “You’re burning up! Zatanna said you were sick but we didn’t know it was this bad! Why are you even out of your room?” You mumbled something about your wings aching, your head pounding from all the sneezing you had just done. “You look like you’re totally feeling the mode right now. Like you shouldn’t even be able to be standing. How did you even manage to get this far?” Bart asked, suddenly appearing on your other side. “Not helping Bart. Jaime, get her some water and some food from the kitchen. Cassie, I need you to try and Carry her back to her room and Bart, I need you to go grab medicine for her fever. I’m going to see what information I can get out of Zatanna to help us out.” Tim barked out orders, everyone quickly moving to carry them out. It only came with a quiet argument from Jaime to presumably his scarab, you weren’t quite in the right state to be able to follow it. You felt gentle arms circle around you and you guessed that it was Cassie from the way they lifted your fever-sweaty body from the couch. You grimaced even if she didn’t. You weren’t sure if it was a good or bad thing that she didn’t mention it as she set you gently back down on your bed. Bart arrived shortly after, his arms laden with different bottles. “I wasn’t sure what you use for fever in this era, so I just brought them all.” Cassie Just sighed and grabbed some flu medicine as well as some Tylenol from the pile Bart had brought with him. She walked over and set them down on your nightstand as Tim walked back into the room. “I’m going to go with Bart to put all these away, then stop by the kitchen to help Jaime out, since it’s more likely he’ll get stuck there for hours arguing with his scarab over food options if no one is there to help him.” Tim nodded, and she ushered Bart out of the room. In a different situation, you would have been elated to be alone with Tim in a room. Even so, you were blushing although that could have easily just as well been the fever. You were drawn to him in a way you weren’t drawn to anyone else your age on this team. You couldn’t pinpoint the moment when you had fallen for your teammate, but you had been crushing on him for at least a year now, and you still didn’t have the courage to tell him how you felt. You didn’t even know if he felt the same way, the two of you hardly ever interacted outside of missions and training. It was a fact that frustrated you to no end, nut you weren’t sure how to change that. “Luckily Zatanna said that this will pass within a few days, and that normal cold and flu medicine should work.” Tim said, walking over to the nightstand and grabbing the bottle of liquid medicine. You grimaced, you preferred taking the pills, you hated the way the liquid tasted, even if it did work faster. Tim noticed your reaction. “I don’t blame you, I think it tastes gross too, but it’s all we have right now. I’ll see about sending someone out to get the pill form later though.” “You don’t have to.” You replied, your voice raspy. “Thanks, but we’re going to need more anyway. Zatanna said that while this stuff will work for you, your natural body heat coupled with the fever will burn through it at a faster rate, so we have to give you double the dosage twice as often for it to have any sort of effect.” You groaned again, glaring at the small cup of liquid Tim held out to you. “You know glaring at it won’t make it taste any better.” You snorted, grabbing the cup and quickly downing the contents before handing it back to Tim who only refilled it and made you go through the process one again. You grimaced as the second one went down and chugged the bottle of water he offered to you. You set the now half empty bottle onto your nightstand and glared at the bottle of medicine next to it, capped once again. “How much longer until I have to suffer that crap again.” Your voice wasn’t as raspy anymore after drinking something, but it was still noticeably different. “A few hours at the least.” You grumbled, and Tim let out a chuckle that set your stomach fluttering. AT least you think it was Tim, it could have also been your fever. You decided to say it was because of Tim, because that option sounded nicer. “Are you rethinking the offer of pills yet?”“Yes actually.” Things were quiet for a few moments, before Tim spoke up again. “Zatanna told me quite a bit about your powers.” You felt your stomach drop. “Why didn’t you tell any of us about it?” You shifted, buying yourself time to come up with an answer. “There’s still not a lot I know about them… and… I was worried.” “About what?” “How everyone would react…” “Well all the original team members know, so was it really everyone you were worried about? Or just someone in particular?” Curse Tim and his damn detective capabilities. You turned your head away from him, hoping that he wouldn’t figure out it was him if you just stared at the wall hard enough. “Yes… I was worried that they wouldn’t like me or be afraid of me… or even worse think I was a danger to everyone and try to get me taken off the team. I mean look at me, this is hardly anything natural.” You gestured to your wings and the numerous singe and burn marks littering the room. “Well I don’t think you’re unnatural. Your powers are different sure, but have you seen La’gaan? I can’t really judge anyone on how they look or what their powers are. Everyone here is unique, you included. Besides, you know that Nightwing would never allow someone to take you off the team right?” Tim had gotten closer to the bed, but your head was still turned away from him. “I know that, but it didn’t do anything to stop that thought from taking over, and then I couldn’t no matter how much I wanted to.” “I understand that completely. I get thoughts like those too. There’s this one thing I’ve been wanting to tell someone, but I’ve been too afraid of how they would react to even approach them most of the time.” You felt the bed dip as Tim sat down next to you. Your interest piqued, you finally turned your head back to him. “Oh? And what do you want to tell them?” You held a faint hope that he was talking about you, but you didn’t want to let them get to high, lest you be wrong. He shook his head. “That’s not really important right now. You need to rest and get through this. I’ll tell you about it when you’re better okay? I’m sure you’re wiped out after all that anyway.” You hadn’t realized until he mentioned it, but you were tired. You just nodded and let yourself get more comfortable on the bed. You had closed your eyes but opened them again when you saw noticed that Tim hadn’t moved. “You’re not leaving?” “No, I’ll wake you back up when Jaime’s done getting your food together. Besides, I’m sure it gets boring being stuck in this room all the time, so I’ll keep you company when you’re awake.” You just nodded, too tired to really process what he was saying fully at the moment. It would hit you when you woke back up however. Just as you were drifting off to sleep, you felt him reach out and grip your hand in his, giving it a light squeeze. You hoped to god this wasn’t just a fever dream.