Air - (22 Parts)

[untiluntiluntil]

Thanks, guys! Hoping I'll have time to write more tonight.

[Da Greenz Yo]

Can't wait for moooore

[SomethingClever]

this amazes me...

It's like all the things I LOVE rolled into one thread...

totally have always had a kinda major thing for asthma

so I just died a little bit...

[untiluntiluntil]

Thanks guys Sorry it's been quiet for awhile--holiday stuff. I thought of a new story with the boys last night and I'm hoping I'll have time to type it out tonight. I think you'll like this one...

[untiluntiluntil]

“And breathe in,” Charlie whispered to himself.

He waited by the midfield line with his hands on his knees, facing his team's goal and tracking the soccer ball with his eyes. As soon as the ball approached his line, he needed to get moving, and knowing his goalie that couldn't be more than a few seconds from now. But for now, breathe. He wheezed in, feeling his shoulder blades draw together. He felt like he'd gotten nothing but a lungful of pollen. “H'KISH!” Soccer was the only time, ever, he could force himself to sneeze in singles. They didn't do much to get rid of the itch in his nose, but a quick sneeze, no matter how tickly, was an excusable amount of time to be distracted from the game.

Distractions. Soccer was full of distractions, so there had to be some clear cut rules. Don't look at the cheerleaders. Don't look at Eric. Don't sneeze unless you absofuckinglutely have to.

“KISH!” Okay, he had to. Four pounds of Claritin wouldn't keep him from sneezing during a soccer game. Or wheezing...he coughed shortly and rubbed his wrist against his mouth. He was stupid as hell for putting himself through this. He wouldn't even sit by the field at Eric's football games, but he'd play soccer until his lungs broke. Which typically didn't take long.

He risked a glance at Eric. There he was in the first row, hand clasped around the epipen just in case Charlie got stung by a bee. Frowning even while he cheered, eyes glued to Charlie and not the ball.

“H''KISH!”

“Bless you,” Eric mouthed, and Charlie gave him a small smile.

Fuck. He snapped his attention back to the game. One of his dfensemen had lobbed the ball his way. Charlie bounded forwards and bounced the ball off his hand. He could picture the effing pollen falling off the ball and straight into his nose. Ghh. No sneezing!

The other midfielder trapped it and passed the ball back to Charlie as the guards began to crowd him. Charlie stifled a quick sneeze into his shoulder--”H'TISH!”--and opened his eyes to a ball between his feet. And off he went towards the goal.

He heard, “GO CHARLIE!” in Eric's booming bass, and he smiled in spite of his difficulty breathing, the scratchy feeling in his nose, and the other team's guard just a few feet away from blocking Charlie from the goal...

Where were his fucking teammates? He looked around for a pass just as his breath started hitching. Shit, shit, not now. He kept dribbling, avoiding the guard's feet, watching the ball with all possible intensity to make sure that little bitch did not get away.

“GO CHARLIE GO CHARLIE GO!”

Eric was so adorable, but so distracting, and God, he just needed to sneeze. He took a choked breath in and tried not to cough. Wheeze. Wheeze. He sounded like an eighty-year-old with pneumonia.

The guard grunted, “Gonna pass out?” as Charlie kept driving him down the field.

Charlie tried to spit out an insult, but the breath in was too much for his nose. “H'TISH'uh! H'KISH!” Damn it. But the sneezes had the same effect as a good comeback; the guard jerked back with a face—Charlie rarely put in the effort to cover his sneezes during a soccer game—and, for a half-second, Charlie had a clear shot at the goal. His soccer sense tingled along with his nose, and he took the shot. The cloud of pollen his kick raised drew his attention away, which pissed him off, and a few “K'ish! K'HISH! H'TISH'uh”s meant he missed watching his kick sink into the goal.

His teammates grabbed him and hugged him, messing up his hair and pounding his back, while Eric cheered his ass off in the stands, the gorgeous thing.

“Easy,” Charlie mumbled, trying to free himself from their hands, blushing. “Easy, can't breathe.”

“Seriously?” the other midfielder said, gently, and Charlie broke into a fit of coughing like he had something to prove. He wheezed in and tried to sniffle back his runny nose, but he was just too congested to have any luck.

One of his teammates signaled to the coach, and the whistle sounded for a time out.

“Good job,” Charlie's coach said, clapping him on the shoulder. Charlie just wheezed and rescanned the stands until he found Eric. Eric was watching him, a small, concerned smile on his lips, He mimed taking an inhaler to Charlie, who shook his head and glanced down. He hated taking his inhaler in front of the team. They already heard him breathe like a spaz; they didn't need validation that he wasn't physically able to play through a whole game.

And he was. He was, damn it, and he'd prove it. “That was a good goal, yeah?” He wheezed and dropped to a squat, his hands hands on his knees. “H'KISH'uh! H'TISH!” He rubbed his nose against his sleeve,e, still too congested to risk a sniffle. “I'll get two more just like it.”

His coach laughed. “Don't think so, kid. Bench for you.”

“I'b fide.” Damn it. “Jusd need a goddab tissue...”

“Bench, kid.” The coach turned to his clipboard and made a mark before he pushed another kid in in Charlie's place. The whistle blew, and Charlie crossed his arms and sat down, pouting. Damn it. Damn his lungs.

He heard a large someone climb off the bleachers and plop down next to him. “Take your inhaler.”

“Do.” Charlie dropped his head on Eric's shoulder and glanced up at his coach to see if he'd object to inter-player/fan bench cuddling. He was too busy yelling at a sluggish defender.

Eric chuckled softly. “Listen to you.” He gave Charlie a tissue. “ Here.”

Charlie blew his nose as hard as he could, to little or no avail. His nose was too plugged to release the congestion. He rubbed his sinuses and sneezed softly.

“Just one?” Eric said. “You know you're out of the game now, right?”

“So sduffy. Can'd breathe. Can'd sneeze.” He wheezed until Eric located his inhaler, shook it, and placed it in Charlie's hand. He took it reluctantly.

“Poor baby.” Eric plucked a weed out of the grass—a dandelion long gone to fluff. “Did you ever play with these as a kid? Bet they'd do a number on your nose. We used to make wishes on them.”

Charlie shook his head, and, purely out of goddamn pissed off curiosity, he rested the dandelion under his nose and sniffed just hard enough for a bit of gray fluff to float into his nose.

He didn't even get a second to wonder what would happen. Instead of a usual hayfever attack, when the itch built slowly and tortured him with false starts, he barely had time to take in a breath before the sneezes started. “H'TISH'uh! K'KISH! KISH'uh! KISH! K'HISH'oo! T'HISH'uh! HISH'uh! Kish'OOH!” They were hard and fast, and his previously blocked nose started streaming. He felt Eric's hand on his back. “H'KISH'UH! H'TISH'uh! KISH! H'KISH!” It was like his nose was full of pollen-coated feathers. “H'TISH'uh! T'HISH'uh!”

“Jesus, Charlie. You okay?”

Charlie nodded. The sneezes were gone as quickly as they'd come. He blew his nose and smiled at the result. He could practically breathe through his nose now. And his breathing was no worse than before the dandelion play.

He might, he thought, have just discovered a miracle.

Eric rubbed his back. “I'm sorry about that.”

“No. That was...sort of incredible.”

“Your voice sounds better.”

“Look at this.” Charlie plucked off a single seed and sniffed it into his nose. “H'TISH'uh! H'KISH! KISH! ISH! ISH'oo!”

“You're such a masochist.”

“No, I'm not.” He blew his nose one last time, then inhaled. “Listen to that. Breathing through my nose.”

“Huh. That's interesting.”

Charlie rubbed his nose, studying the dandelion. “Interesting indeed.”

[SomethingClever]

Awwwww...

just... so adorable

[jsullivan]

Just read the entire thing tonight--this is wonderful. Keep up the good work!

[sneeze(:]

This is so cute. Like SO cute.

[starpollen]

Yeah. I really am in love with these guys. I dated a guy in high school with super bad asthma, so I totally empathize with Eric. Worried all the time. At the same time, Charlie's sneezes are VERY cute!! Happy to read more!

Edited December 27, 2009 by starpollen

[Zane]

SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!

[Aprilcot]

Love it!!!!

Please continue!!!!

[everest]

Soccer sneezes!

I love it!!!

[untiluntiluntil]

Thanks, guys Here's a new little one:

--

“No more sneezing.” Charlie shook his head. “No more...H'KISH!”

Eric gently wiped his boyfriend's twitchy nose. He didn't blame Charlie for being fed-up. They hadn't even gotten out of bed yet, and Charlie was already red-eyed and scratchy-voiced. “I know, baby.”

“H'TISH'uh! KISH! ISH!”

“Your nose is so red.” Eric kissed it gently.

“Hey...K'TISH! ISH!”

“You look like a clown. A really adorable clown.”

Charlie pouted, but a second later his nose started twitching. It was always the same progression, with him. First the nose twitches, so light Charlie probably didn't notice them himself. Then the little shake of the upper lip, like he was about to cry, then a series of hitched breath, each with a little wheeze at the end. “H'KISH! I'TISH'uh! KISH! ISH!” And then a flurry of tiny sneezes, like he'd held each one off until it was at the very tip of his nose.

“Bless you.” Eric kissed the poor thing's swollen eyelids. “The pollen will be lower tomorrow.”

“H'TISH'uh!” Charlie hid his face in the pillow. “I don't want to sneeze anymore.”

“I know. My poor baby.”

Charlie giggled a little.

“My poor sneezy baby.” Eric crawled gently on top of Charlie, covering the boy's body with his. If only protecting him from the pollen where this easy. Though he was pretty adorable like this...

Charlie sneezed and whimpered.

Eric kissed his ear. “Tell you what.”

Charlie rolled over and looked at Eric. “Nose transplant?”

“Not quite.” He kissed Charlie gently. “But how about every time you sneeze, I'll tell you something nice?”

“What kind of nice?”

“I'm sure you'll see soon. Very soon, in fact, if that precious little look on your face is any indication. Nose itching, darling?”

Charlie nodded a little, breathing through his mouth, and eventually buried his nose in Eric's collar for a few more sneezes. “H'TISH! K'ish! TISH'uh!”

“I love you like I've never loved anyone.”

Charlie sniffled. “Knew that one already. H'TISH!”

“You remind me of those British pop love songs I never understood.” He sang quietly, nibbling Charlie's earlobe until the next sneeze. Charlie held on a good thirty seconds without sneezing—longer than he had all morning—probably because he didn't want this round of flirting to end.

Like he didn't know there would always be more.

“Gonna sneeze?” Eric said, when Charlie's breathing grew irregular again.

“N-no. N—h'TISH'uh!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Something nice! H'KISH'uh! KISH! TISH!”

“Poor thing.”

“That's not nice...H'KISH! ISH!”

“You're right, you're right.” He wiped Charlie's nose gently. “You okay? That was a lot.”

Charlie sniffled miserably. “Nice things.”

“I know. I owe you two now, don't I? Let's see...you're beautiful. So beautiful that...this is so silly.” Eric looked down with a small smile. “Every time I see you and you're fresh out of the shower, your hair all wet and in your eyes, wearing nothing but a pair of my sweatpants, I start believing in angels again.”

And those angelic eyes stared right into Eric's now. For a second, he forgot which of them was supposed to be the one with trouble breathing.

“One more,” Charlie whispered.

Eric kissed Charlie's nose lightly. “And you don't ever need to be embarrassed. Of any of this.” He moved his kisses down to Charlie's throat, then his chest, over those poor crackly lungs. “Because I would still love you if you didn't have asthma and allergies, but I'm not sure I'd love you quite as much. Because you wouldn't be my Charlie.”

Charlie whispered, “Kiss me.”

And what started as just sneezing turned into sneezing and some kissing, then kissing and some sneezing, then just kissing...with a few sneezes, because that was Charlie.

[onlyhim]

Awwwwwwwww!!!

[starpollen]

Awwwwwwwww!!!

Yeah. That about sums it up.

[Zane]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......................................... Cute!!!! I love it! haha. It was amazing! I'm so addicted to these stories. lol. I feel like a story addict now. haha. thanks so much!

[SomethingClever]

I may have just melted a little...

so very adorable...

[obsessed]

Awww. Their relationship, and the everything...

Best wishes to an amaaaaazing 2010.

[katia]

Awww... I just read the last two stories and they are both phenomenal, particularly the soccer one, which I ADORED. Thank you so much for writing these.

[Aprilcot]

I love that!!!!!

These are soo cute!!!!!!!!!!

Please do more!!!!!!

[Hawkeye]

THEY ARE SO CUTE. I LOVE THEM.

[untiluntiluntil]

Thanks, guys!

I'm working on a new scenario with them...I have nothing in my head at the moment, but I'm sure something will fall in

[jsullivan]

I'm sure something will come to you--you're fantastic at this!

[Zane]

I agree with jsullivan!

[Aprilcot]

I totally agree