Happy Halloween! (a snz fic)
Male - cold, mess!, implied future contagion
~*~
He wakes up to sinuses that are absolutely packed with congestion. He’d gone to sleep last night with a tickle in his throat and a bit of a headache, but he certainly didn’t expect to wake up to this.
His nose starts streaming the second he sits up in bed, setting off a tickle deep in his nose. Still hazy from sleep and a head that feels like it’s stuffed full of cotton, he only manages to get his hand halfway to his face before erupting with a thick sneeze – “heh-nnggK’SHO!” that forces the gunk that had accumulated in his sinuses out, covering his hand in mess, the rest escaping into the air. He’s left with twin trails of clear liquid coating his upper lip as he shivers, dazed.
Leaning over to the nightstand, he thanks his past self for keeping a box of tissues stocked there as he pulls out several of them. He buries his face in the soft cotton and lets out a truly ill-sounding blow. The sound of it crackles through the air as more snot is dislodged, filling the bundle and soaking through to his hands.
He throws the ruined tissues to the floor and grabs the box, setting it next to him on the bed and pulling out fresh ones. His breath scissors in his chest before he snaps forward with a violent – “huh…ha-AHH’EEHGGSHH’IUE!” that explodes out of him.
He doesn’t dare remove the tissues from his face, groaning as he feels the wet mess of it against his skin. He gives a damp, clearing blow, strong enough to shift the pressure in his ears. He’s forced to breathe through his mouth as he crumples up the Kleenex and tosses them to the side.
I’m going to go through the whole box by noon, at this point, he thinks, flopping back onto his soft pillows. He rubs his knuckles against his itchy nose, already well on its way to becoming pink.
It fucking had to be today, he laments, allowing himself a small pity party. It’s Halloween, and he’d been planning on spending the day making treats for the party later tonight, as well as handing out candy to the trick or treaters. He’s just going to have to power through. Maybe it just seems worse because it’s still early and his body hasn’t had time to wake up yet.
As soon as he thinks it, his nostrils flare and he’s surprised by a wrenching double – “ha’GSSHH’IUE! Huh..ha’NGGSSHH’uh!” At the mercy of his own body and unable to cover in time, the viscous spray of it mists the sheets in front of him. “Ugh… oh god,” he groans, swiping at the mess on his face with his hand.
Remembering the box next to him, he pulls out a fistful of Kleenex and releases a gurgling, cold-ridden blow into the waiting tissues.
“Fugg, I don’t wadda be – heh… ha’ERRSSHH’IUE! – SNF. I don’t wadda be sigg today.” Noting the squishy pressure that still clogs his sinuses after so many clearing sneezes, he resigns himself to the fact that he most likely has come down with the cold from hell.
Yet, determined as he is, he’s not going to let it stop him from going on with his plans. He can still make the food for the party tonight, he’ll just have to be very careful about washing his hands and covering his sneezes. If he has to make them one-handed while holding a tissue to his dripping nose the whole time, then so be it.
He should be able to hide his illness enough that no one will be worried. Hopefully he’ll be able to hold it off enough so they won’t take one look at him and decide it isn’t worth the risk. Hell, the way he sounds, even just being in the same room as him might be risky enough. But he can’t let his friends down, and he doesn’t want to miss the party.
Pulling more tissues from the box, he catches a harsh, scraping – “uh…huh…ha’NNGGGSSH’ah!” into the bundle, containing all of the dense, contagious mess that his nose is constantly trying to force out of him. He gives one last marshy blow before getting up to start the day, box of tissues in hand. If he can just keep his nose under control, everything should be fine.
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Sicktember #28
Prompt: “I should have stayed home.”
Fandom/OCs: MCU (Sick Steve Rogers)
Words: 860
Sicknario inspo: "You ARE sick" from this post and this post.
Author’s comments/background: Read the label on this one I guess. Sick miserable Steve as requested with caregiver Bucky. Short and sweet as always. Nothing much to see here.
CW: Emeto, v*mit. Not overly long or explicit, but definitely there.
~~~***~~~
Steve was lying facedown on a bunk in the Quinjet when the rest of the team (except for Bruce, who was working on de-Hulking) entered, talking in low voices. Natasha went to him immediately, looking worriedly at the blood coating one side of his uniform as she shook his shoulder. He turned toward her, his face drawn and pale.
"Steve, are you okay? Did you call for a medevac?"
Steve shook his head. "I'm not dying. There's no emergency."
"Then why the hell did you pull out? We almost had them!" Tony shouted. "You almost cost us the fight!"
Steve winced. "I was a liability out there. I was barely functioning. I'm not… I'm not well at all…."
"Wait, was that spear that hit you poisoned or something?" Clint asked anxiously, joining Natasha at his side, probing the area to find the source of the blood, but Steve moved away, shaking his head.
"Think I'm coming down with something," he mumbled. "It started a while ago, even before we left. And I think my side is already healed. It's just the old blood now."
Natasha pressed a hand against his forehead, none-too gently, but pulled it back almost immediately. "Whew, you ARE sick! Jesus, I almost got a first degree burn from your skin."
"I thought you couldn't get sick!" Tony chimed in.
"So did I," Steve groaned. "I have no idea what's happening."
"Well we're not gonna figure it out in the middle of the jungle. Let's just get out of here. We can deal with it when we get home," Clint said.
"Roger that," Tony said, going to the controls. "Soon as we find our big green friend."
"Are you sure you'll make it, Steve?" Natasha asked. "You look awful."
"I feel it, too," he agreed. "But I don't think I'm dying just yet. I can hold out a while longer."
~~~
Many hours later, Steve was again lying facedown, this time in bed in his suite in Avengers Tower. He heard JARVIS unlock his door and swing it open to admit Bucky, who had just returned from his own mission. Neither spoke at first as Bucky took in the bloody clothes on the floor and the supersoldier huddled on the bed under a mound of blankets.
"How's it going, Stevie?" Bucky finally asked, sounding overly casual as he pulled up a chair to the side of the bed.
"Not so great, Buck. I feel absolutely awful."
"It must be really bad if you're admitting it, especially to me. Did something happen to you on the mission or is it just that you're sick?"
"Nothing happened on the mission, but I might as well not have gone. I wasn't feeling great before we left and it only got worse. That's how I got stabbed--I was totally out of it and my reflexes were shot. The team handled it. But going didn't do me any favors. I should have stayed home."
Bucky leaned forward to press the back of his hand to Steve's cheek. "Classic Stevie with a raging fever, just like the old days," Bucky sighed. "At least you're not a 90 pound shrimp anymore. What did–?"
"Oh God," Steve interjected with a guttural groan. "Bucky…."
"Oh shit!" Bucky said, leaping up when he saw Steve's expression. "I've got it, hang on…."
He dashed to the bathroom and snagged the garbage basket then rushed back to Steve's side, holding the pail to his face just in time to catch the rush of sick that came spewing out of the younger man. The explosion was short-lived and, thanks to Bucky’s quick action, overall mess-free. It left both of them panting, though. Poor Steve fell back into the pillow with another groan, this time self-pitying and exuding abject misery while Bucky made his way back to the bathroom, holding the bin at arm’s length.
“Whew, you ARE sick,” Bucky said, trying to take on a lighthearted tone as he washed out the can in the shower.
“Nat sat the same thing,” Steve replied with, Bucky thought, a hint of a smile.
“You’re the only person I’ve ever known who throws up from a high fever. Unless there’s something else going on that you’re not telling me,” Bucky said, glancing at the bloody clothes again as he reentered the main room.
“No. Just the fever. I’d really hoped the serum had taken that lovely symptom away, but no such luck. It’s like adding insult to injury. And Medical says they don’t have anything I can take for it, either, as usual. I’ll just have to ride it out apparently.”
“And they have no idea why you’re sick? I thought that couldn’t happen to you anymore.”
“So did I. Another thing I thought I left back in the 1940’s. No, they have no idea. They just drew a bunch of blood to run tests, but none of them sounded hopeful that they'll find anything. Lucky me.”
“Lucky you,” Bucky chuckled, sitting back down at his friend’s side. “But you’ll make it through this just like every other sickness you’ve ever had. And I’ll be right here with you the whole time, just like always.”
“Really, Buck?” Steve said, a hopeful, innocent look crossing his face as he lifted his head slightly to look over.
“Really, Stevie. Cross my heart.”
The pair shared a tiny smile before Bucky helped Steve lie back down, covering him warmly.
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