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Niki has a fear of blood, which doesn't go well with frequent nosebleeds. He doesn't want to ruin the night for the members, so he keeps it quiet despite his own suffering.

Warning: blood
-

Niki's eyes narrowed as he focused on the game, button mashing the controller in the hopes it could compete against Jay's mastery of the game.

It couldn't, as he lost another round, and he exchanged a challenging glance with Jay. He didn't care how many times he lost, he was going to play until he won.

The next round started and Niki immediately got the advantage, and he couldn't hide his smirk as his avatar launched their fist into Jay's avatar before Jay could block it.

Once he had the advantage, Niki was sure he was going to win. He kept button mashing until his fingers hurt. He was so close to winning, so close to finally beating Jay, when he put the controller down. Jay was almost disappointed to not have any competition.

Niki stood up and left, hastily making his way to the bathroom. He locked the door behind him and got some tissue, holding it to his nose as he avoided looking in the mirror. He'd felt it begin to drip, and he could only hope that it wasn't a nosebleed.

He took the tissue away from his nose as it was almost soaked through, and he got more tissue as his nose didn't stop running. A chill ran up his spine as he caught a glimpse of red when he put the tissue to one side.

His hands shaking, he sat down and tried to calm himself down, keeping his breathing deep and even. It was hard to ignore the thought of blood while he was bleeding. He got more tissues and closed his eyes, gasping as he felt his warm blood against his skin. Why was it so hard to ignore?

A knock on the door jolted him out of his thoughts, as he heard Jake's kind voice from the other side.

"Hey, Niki? You've been in there a while, are you okay?"

Niki hadn't even noticed how long he had been in the bathroom, he was more focused on the blood that was still running from his nose.

"I'm fine hyung, I'll be out in a minute."

Jake seemed satisfied with the answer as he didn't press any further, and Niki got yet another clump of tissues as he threw the used one to the side. God, he hated blood. Even his worst nightmares didn't have much blood in them, that was how afraid his mind was of blood. He couldn't even think about it.

Eventually the blood began to stop, and he wiped the remnants of it off his face with a grimace, and he threw the tissues in the bin in the corner of the bathroom. He could only hope that the other members wouldn't be observant enough to notice the bloody tissues, he didn't want any questions to be asked.

When he returned to the living room, he decided not to play any games for the rest of the night. It was mainly to avoid it being too noticeable if he had to disappear again, but also because he already felt mentally drained and just wanted to relax for the rest of the night.

He watched as Jay beat everyone at the game but lost to Sunoo, who had never played before. Jay sulked as he passed the games controller to someone else, abiding by their rule of winner stays on.

"Do you want a rematch after Heeseung and Sunoo play this match?" Jay asked, and Niki didn't want to say no considering Jay was already sulking. But he didn't have the energy to play another game.

"No, I think you'd just beat me anyway," Niki said, giving up his pride.

"Why don't we find out then?"

"I'll play with you if you want," Jake suggested, and Niki wanted to hug him. He was pretty sure Jake could see that he didn't want to play, or hurt Jay's feelings either. He'd have to return the favour to Jake at some point.

"Oh, okay," Jay said, beginning to catch on as he agreed to a match with Jake.

Niki didn't stay up much longer, as his head kept nodding and it felt like a chore to stay awake. Time passed in a blur as he changed into his pyjamas and brushed his teeth, and he fell asleep almost as soon as he got into bed.

-

He felt dizzy as soon as he woke up, and he was drenched in pitch darkness. His nose was running again, the warm liquid dripping onto his lip. He knew it was blood, the nasty coppery taste prominent in his mouth.

He stood up and reached his arm out to keep himself steady using the bunk bed. As long as it stayed dark, he wouldn't have to see the blood. The thought was making him nauseous, but he pushed it as far into the back of his mind as possible.

"Sunoo.... Sunoo-hyung," he whispered, holding one hand over his nose as he tapped Sunoo's shoulder using the other.

Sunoo squinted as he opened his eyes, waking up properly as soon as he saw the distressed state Niki was in. Sunoo got out of his bunk and Niki sat on his own bunk again.

"What's wrong?" Sunoo asked, sitting beside Niki as he reached over to turn the lamp on. Niki stopped him, pointing to his bloody nose. Sunoo could hardly see in the dark, but he listened and didn't turn on the lamp.

"My nose is bleeding. Don't... don't turn the light on," Niki explained, with a stutter in his breath as he felt the blood dripping down his chin and neck.

"Are you scared of blood?" Sunoo asked, and Niki mumbled a quiet 'yes' to avoid nodding. He was worried anything would make the nosebleed worse.

"Don't worry," Sunoo continued, "It's only a nosebleed. It just happens, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with you."

"I know, I just really hate blood." Sunoo heard the panic in Niki's voice, and he began to get the hint of just how much Niki hated blood.

"I'm going to get you some tissues so we can clean it up, okay?" Niki nodded, and Sunoo took that as his queue to leave the room in search of tissues. He went to the bathroom to find the box of tissues they usually kept in there, but it was completely empty.

He got some toilet paper instead, but he sighed when he spotted the pile of red-stained tissues in the trash can.

Deciding to ask Niki about it later, he left the bathroom and returned to the bedroom. He cursed under his breath when he heard the raggedness of Niki's breathing, and he sat down next to him and cleaned some of the blood off his neck and face.

"Niki, slow down, okay? Breathe." He held Niki's hand while he finished getting the blood off his chin, and he held some tissues under Niki's nose.

"Don't tilt your head back, it'll go down your throat," Sunoo warned, letting go of Niki's hand to hold his neck and make sure he wasn't leaning his head back.

"It does that?" Niki asked, and Sunoo saw a glisten of tears running down Niki's face in the dim light from the corridor.

Sunoo heard rustling from one of the bunks and a very sleepy Sunghoon emerged, rubbing his eyes as he tried to see in the dark.

"What's up? And why are you in the dark, put the lamp on," Sunghoon said, his voice a low grumble because he just woke up.

"Don't turn the lamp on, his nose is bleeding and he doesn't want to see the blood," Sunoo explained. Sunghoon understood, and he knelt beside Niki's bunk as he tried to help comfort him.

"You know it's just a nosebleed, right? It won't last long, don't worry about it," Sunghoon said, but it didn't do much to comfort the maknae.

"I know it's not that bad, it just really scares me."

"It's okay, it's almost stopped now," Sunoo reassured quietly, "Just calm down, you can go back to sleep soon."

Niki nodded, trying to even out his breaths but struggling as he hiccuped from all the crying. Sunoo smiled and kissed Niki's forehead, holding his hand again to comfort him.

They only stayed up for a couple more minutes before Niki began to calm down, and the emotional exhaustion made him fall asleep quickly. Sunoo and Sunghoon slept in his bunk on either side of him for the rest of the night, just in case he woke up again.

-

Fortunately, Niki slept well and hardly wanted to wake up in the morning. He was exhausted, and he felt bad that Sunoo was also tired.

"Sorry for keeping you up, hyung," Niki said as Sunoo crawled over him to get out of the bunk.

"It's okay, you can wake me up anytime if you need me." Niki smiled and nodded, crawling over a half-asleep Sunghoon.

He walked around as he waited for the bathroom to be unoccupied so he could take a shower, and he passed Jay, who did a double take.

"Niki, you're bleeding," he said, unaware of Niki's fear of blood. He became quickly aware of though as Niki paled, rubbing his nose with his hand. He saw the blood that his fingers were now coated in, feeling dizzy and lightheaded.

He wasn't sure if it was from bleeding so much over the past few hours, or from his drastic phobia, but his body became weak and Jay had to catch him as he almost fell to the floor. He leaned on the wall, too afraid to hold his own weight.

The room spun around him, and all he could think about was the warm, sticky liquid that was running down his chin and fingers.

"What happened? What's wrong with Niki?" Heeseung asked as he knelt by Niki's side.

"I think he fainted, because of the blood," Jay said, feeling guilty for having pointed it out to him.

"He had two nosebleeds last night too... I think we should take him to a doctor, just in case," Sunoo said, staying a few steps away to not overwhelm Niki. He already looked confused and only half-conscious, the members didn't want to make anything worse.

"Is that okay with you, Niki? We're going to call the manager to take you to the hospital," Heeseung said, and Niki didn't have the energy to protest or claim that he was fine. He just nodded, leaning on Heeseung as the older boy helped him to his feet.

-

After a slightly traumatic hospital visit, though Niki would call any hospital visit traumatic even if it didn't involve a blood test that he hadn't been prepared for.

As it turned out, he had nothing wrong with him that was serious, and the nosebleeds were most likely caused by high blood pressure. He was recommended to take some time off the tight schedules, in case it was a stress-caused condition.

"You should tell us if you're stressed. And why didn't you say when it first bled last night? Trust us, Niki, then we can help right away. And make sure you sleep a lot. And drink a lot of water too, don't get sick because that will just make stress worse," Jay rambled as he helped Niki out of the manager's car even though he was very much capable of walking by himself at this point.

"I will, hyung," Niki smiled, as they went inside and they made sure he got in bed to get some rest. Sunghoon lay beside him, playing with his hair as Niki closed his eyes and tucked his head under Sunghoon's chin.

"You okay?" Sunghoon asked softly, and it was the sweetest thing he'd heard all day.

"I am now. Thank you," Niki responded, nuzzling into Sunghoon's chest as he finally began to relax.

--

I'm so glad this didn't take too long! I'll get working on some requests next, I have a lot though... I'll do my best though!

I haven't read through this fic yet so there may be some mistakes, sorry if there is.

- Kiran 💙