Someone taking their sick friend/partner's temperature while they sit on the bed or the lid of the toilet or the edge of the bathtub, leaning their too-warm head against the healthy one's leg or hip until the thermometer beeps
i can't get the thought of swh + contagion out of my head...
A and B are hiding from someone. (maybe they were gathering evidence or secret intel, or maybe they're trespassing somewhere just for the hell of it, or maybe they're sneaking into some locked building past its opening hours.) in any case, they're not supposed to be there, and they'e going to be in big trouble if they get found out.
so when they hear footsteps approaching, they immediately duck into a nearby closet/side storage room. they just have to keep quiet until the person outside (the host, a security guard, an employee, etc. makes their rounds)...
except A is beginning to come down with an awful cold. the dustiness of the closet certainly isn't helping. the first time their breath hitches, B tenses—if A sneezes, they'll certainly be found. so B stops the sneeze in its tracks by pressing their index finger under A's nose.
A sniffles, their nose twitching, the sneeze evaporating in its tracks. crisis averted, for now... but their nose still tickles furiously.
it isn't long before their breath is starting to hitch again. this time, B presses their finger up to A's nose again, with enough pressure that they can feel the slight dampness against their finger.
"don't sneeze," B instructs.
"i can't h-help it," A mouths voicelessly, their breath hitching. "i... have to... hH... hAHH..."
this time, B—sensing impending disaster—pinches A's nose shut. A snaps forward with a messy,
"hAh'dXXtt!"
the sneeze is quiet, thankfully, but it still holds all the force it would've had if A had been able to let it out.
worse, A's nose is tickling even more now. they try and fail to communicate that the pressure of B's fingertips against their sinuses is more ticklish than relieving. soon, they're jerking forward with another: "hAHH'nNGxt!"
"you need to hold back," B admonishes. "i'm not about to risk getting caught."
"i'm trying... but it... hIHh... t-tickles so badly... hih... hiIh.... hiIIHhh..."
with the next sneeze, B clamps a hand over A's nose and mouth. A hits their hand with a spraying, "'TTSHHiish-!", which mists B's hand with thousands of droplets. their nose is openly running now.
the footsteps outside the door pause. B moves their index finger back under A's nose.
"what did i tell you?" they chastise. "if you sneeze again, we're going to be in serious trouble."
what follows is 2 minutes of intense ticklish torture A has ever experienced. they have to sneeze so badly, but every time they come close, B stops the sneeze in its tracks with a finger under their nose, or pinches their nose shut so the sneeze has no room to go anywhere.
"hhih... HIiih... hiiHHh...!!"
the tickle is almost unbearable, they need to sneeze so badly. on the other hand, B quiets them with little sympathy: "don't even think about it," they say. "i'm not going to let you sneeze."
after what seems like an eternity, the footsteps head off in the other direction. there's the sound of a heavy door shutting, and then they're alone again.
relieved, B lifts their cupped hand from A's mouth, seemingly forgetting that A's resolve was just seconds away from crumbling. meanwhile, A can't possibly hold back anymore. after minutes of denying themselves the relief their body so desperately needs, after every holdback and every false start fed directly into the itch in their sinuses, they can't take it anymore. A explodes forward with an absolutely drenching sneeze...
"HEHH'TCHHIIIIIew!!"
...directly onto B's face.
-
with all of those sneeze particles circulating in that small, cramped space... it's no wonder that B wakes up a few days later, sneezing their head off. 😌
I'm a horrible, horrible person, but it's so much better when two partners are angry at each other, fighting, pissed off, and one of them catches something. Like... ughhhh
someone leaning over to their partner who has Obviously (to them) been trying really not to sneeze the entire time / stifling harshly in a group setting. they cup their partners ear and whisper “just go out and sneeze already its fine”
When sombody who leaves the room because they just cannot stop sneezing can be heard sneezing as they moke their way down the hall
Or somebody who absalutoly refuses to let this one person (or anybody in genral) hear them sneeze so the second they realize they wont be able to hold back immediately ext only for them to be heard anyways as they sneezed their way down the hall
Or just somebody who is hiding their cold leaves the room every time their about to sneeze and the person their hiding it from is getting worried but then they hear the person sneeze from down the hall and imediatly know just by the sound o their sneezes that their sick ("they only sneeze like that when their sick")
Or they try this trick only for somebody to follow them. They stop abrupy just as the person reaches out to stop them, bending over in a desprete fit of sneezes, unable to hold back any longer.
someone who’s pulled the “can we rest? not for your sake, it’s just that i’m starting to feel sick too i think” trick one too many times before and now they actually are getting sick too but the other doesn’t believe them
someone handing over their scarf as if to derisively say, “here, poor thing. you sure seem to need it.” and the recipient, equally derisively, using it to blow their nose instead of wearing it. but the sound and length it goes on for demonstrates just how relieving the action is, so…at least it was put to some kind of good use?
I used to hate the phrase “sneezing up a storm” but now I can’t imagine anything sexier. Imagine characters with powers (wind, lightning, weather) sneezing helplessly, the air around them literally swirling and crackling with electricity.
A cold that isn't contagious, because the partner that's caught it is smaller, softer, has a weaker immune system. They're always catching little colds that linger in their heads, causing kittenish fits of congested sneezes, and then make their way into their chest. Their bigger, masc parter (I am imagining lesbians but do as you will) never worries about catching their colds, so they just cuddle up to them, wipe their nose, tut and fuss over them, gently chastise them for catching yet another little cold that anyone else could have fought off.
They end the night as usual when the femme is sick: cuddled up together in bed, the little one's snotty, dazed face propped up on their partner's chest, where they can muffle messy sneezes to their heart's content.
It's the bigger, masc partner who has a weaker immune system, and the smaller, femme partner who takes care of them and doesn't worry about catching their colds.
I think the cardiophiles are onto something... I wanna do that with lungs. I wanna see them expand bigger and bigger while building up to a huge sneeze.
