Drabble Challenge - Oliver/Avery

[AdrianMarx]

There's no sneezing in this part but I made an attempt at stuffy talk. Idk how well that went.

-

56 - Ruin

It didn’t take long for Avery to fall ill again and he threw himself into his seat in Maths looking worse for wear. His headache only worsened when Miss Smith rapped her ruler on his desk, telling him sharply to pay attention. On any other day, he might have apologised but he felt ready just to burst into tears.

Oliver looped their arms together on the way out, taking Avery by surprise. It was easy to forget Oliver was in his maths class at all since he sat way in the back corner.

“Feeling alright?” Oliver asked softly, expertly manipulating his body to avoid hitting people going in the opposite direction. The corridors in this place were tiny.

Normally, Avery wouldn’t admit it. But he just felt so crap about everything that he’d shaken his head before he could stop himself. There was no time to elaborate before Avery bid Oliver a hasty farewell and ducked through the doors on his right on his way to Physics, leaving Oliver gazing after his retreating form with concern.

~

As utterly gripping as vectors were, Avery found himself zoning in and ou, unable to concentrate. When the bell rang for break time, he was both relieved and disheartened. How could he only have been in school for two hours? It felt like a week.

Slowly, he made his way to the cafeteria where he knew he’d find Oliver. Sure enough, he was sat at their usual table, looking intently at the door. Avery liked to pretend he’d been waiting for him.

“You look awful,” Oliver said the moment Avery sat down, wincing immediately at his lack of tact. Avery simply sighed.

“I dnow,” he said miserably, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his cupped hands. His entire sinuses just ached. “I’mb sorry. I ruind everythig,”

Oliver frowned, rubbing between Avery’s shoulder blades in what he hoped was a comforting manner. “No you don’t-” he began but was cut off.

“I do, though!” Avery said in exasperation, digging the heels of his hands into his tired eyes. “Dnobody ever sticks aroud as long as you because I ca’t hang out at the weekeds because I’mb always sick. I do’t have frieds; I just ruind everythig,”

He looked on the verge of tears and Oliver had absolutely no idea what to do. It dawned on him then that he didn’t actually know that much about Avery at all.

“I’ll stick around,” he promised.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,”

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

I love it

but errr.. more parts with sneezing please?

[Arty]

*W* awwwwwwwwwwww! These two boys. Oli...oh oli....so sweet! My heart.....and ur sick?' lets hope u get cared for by ur other half. Teehee. And ellen is awesome sauce!!

[AdrianMarx]

I love it

but errr.. more parts with sneezing please?

hehe there will be i promise c:

*W* awwwwwwwwwwww! These two boys. Oli...oh oli....so sweet! My heart.....and ur sick?' lets hope u get cared for by ur other half. Teehee. And ellen is awesome sauce!!

ahh i love oli he makes my heart all fuzzy i love writing him!

ahh yes D: well you never know (though i don't intend to actually tell him unless he asks. i wouldn't know how to subtly bring it up ahh.)

isn't she just! :3

[Arty]

Weeeee!!!

[AdrianMarx]

These are getting worse but I want to get to the plot and I'm worried I'm just dragging this out and and and please love me. (They get together soon, if you wanted to know!)

-

80 - Music

“Hetsch! Hgnxt!”

“Still?” Oliver asked in amusement, untangling the orange lead cable absently, attention fixed on Avery who looked like he still had another sneeze brewing on the periphery. He’d been getting over the last of a lingering cold for some time now. The boy gave a little nod, rubbing at his nose violently with the palm of his hand. Oliver chuckled but it was short-lived. He plugged the other end of the lead into his bass and immediately recoiled from the shrieking amp.

Avery raised an eyebrow. “You’d think you’d have learned by now,” he said with an air of breathless urgency about him. Oliver watched him wrinkle his nose before pulling up a seat.

“Alright, smartypants. Are we gonna play or what?”

Avery rolled his eyes. “If I’m not mistaken, you’re the one holding us up,” he grinned, strumming a D chord on his guitar to prove a point. He let the chord ring out while he pressed his index finger under his nose, suppressing another sneeze.

“Oh, shut up,” Oliver reached over to the old CD player and pressed play, holding his breath as he prayed for it not to jump to the middle as it had a tendency to do. He counted along with the beats in his head, beginning to pluck along with the music in front of him and waiting for Avery to pick up the tune three bars later.

But he never did.

And Oliver looked up to find him raising his head again, his shoulders relaxing as his breath left him. Oliver smiled, letting the drum beat carry on unaccompanied.

“Now look who’s holding us up,” he giggled. Avery stuck his tongue out petulantly and then they were just looking at each other. And looking. And looking. Suddenly self-conscious, Oliver glanced at his watch.

“Fifteen minutes until lunch,” he said longingly and the moment was gone.

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

Awh ash Playfulness, YES<3 . I really like the teasing. I really love this part They play instruments? Musicians are sexy . Ah. Yes. More please

[Arty]

D'aww of course i love u... and this was super dupeh cute!

[Quite Contrary]

You're not dragging it out, you're extending the delicious tension. You can write whatever you want so long as there's MORE! Also, this smiley seems appropriate given the last drabble: And that's all I have to say about that.

[AdrianMarx]

Awh ash Playfulness, YES<3 . I really like the teasing. I really love this part They play instruments? Musicians are sexy . Ah. Yes. More please

ah yes musicians are the reason i breathe espeically guitar players with arms like vic fuentes i mean woah

D'aww of course i love u... and this was super dupeh cute!

n'aww thank you<33

You're not dragging it out, you're extending the delicious tension. You can write whatever you want so long as there's MORE! Also, this smiley seems appropriate given the last drabble: And that's all I have to say about that.

ahh i'm pretty sure there will always be more writing is pretty much all i do with myself

[AdrianMarx]

I'm posting these two together since the second one has no sneezing and they're related anyway. I have the next one written and there is actual plot in that but I don't know how much posting is too much in one day? I'm sorry; I'm excited!

-

30 – June

Avery hoisted his backpack further up his shoulders, shifting from foot to foot as he waited. When Oliver opened the door in his pyjamas, Avery’s heart did something it had never done before.

“Hey,” Oliver managed breathlessly before descending into a fit of helpless sneezes which he hid in the crook of his arm. “Ai-higtchu! Hntsh! Etschu! Heh…aitsch!”

“Wow, bless you,” Avery shook his head, stepping over the threshold and turning Oliver round with one hand while shutting the door with the other. “Don’t take this the wrong way but you look awful,”

Oliver smiled. “Hngtsh! Yeah, about that…”

“You’re sick,” Avery said decisively, pulling Oliver towards his bedroom earnestly.

Oliver gave a chuckle which threatened to turn itself into a cough before long. “No shit, Sherlock,” he said weakly, settling himself in bed again. He sighed softly when Avery pulled the duvet up to his chin, his backpack still dangling off his shoulders. “Who gets a cold in weather like this?”

It was true. The sun had been splitting the trees recently, and Avery had been pleased to be able to walk to school in just a short sleeved shirt. It was the kind of heat everybody longed for until it arrived when it was complained about more than the rain.

Avery fluffed Oliver’s pillows around him gently, trying not to look like he was fussing over him when he was totally fussing over him. From what Avery could tell, it was just a head cold. He’d be okay in a couple of days.

“You’re going to be late,” Oliver whispered eventually, prompting Avery to glance at his wrist despite his lack of watch. The alarm clock on Oliver’s bedside table did the same job. He cursed quietly under his breath, yelling over his shoulder for Oliver to feel better before bolting out of the front door.

82 - Solitude

“Watch it, loser!”

Avery breezed on past without a glance back. The comments didn’t bother him anymore. Not really. He could handle those; mostly they rolled right off him. But today seemed different.

He’d gotten so used to having Oliver around over the past couple of months that being without him again felt beyond lonely. He was beginning to wish he’d just skipped school to stay home with him and look after him and generally get in the way and make a fuss. And he probably would have done but he wasn’t the type to skip school. Too scared.

Loneliness had been a common feature of Avery’s life for the past God knows how long but never had he felt loneliness like this. It’s all well and good to long for company you’ve never had. Having something and losing it, however. Well, that’s much harder to adjust to.

Though, it wasn’t all bad. He got his phone back - by proposing the cliché deal of doing Taylor’s homework for her. He didn’t even take Graphic Design. And the solitude made him realise something. It was less of a realisation and more of an acceptance.

So he skipped last two, too excited to really feel the anxiety, and ran straight home with his school bag battering against the small of his back.

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

Awh Oli sneezes? I suppose he's human . Cutecutecutecute<3 (In my head it's Oliver Sykes, keep wishing right ? ). Give Oliver allergies please ! and yes go skip Avery, little rebel.

[Arty]

Aww yes!!! Oli got sick!! And screw school...not when theres a sick oli lying in bed all alone in cold wishing-

Ohh.......0.0 my bad.

Ahem...

Carry on....

[AdrianMarx]

Awh Oli sneezes? I suppose he's human . Cutecutecutecute<3 (In my head it's Oliver Sykes, keep wishing right ? ). Give Oliver allergies please ! and yes go skip Avery, little rebel.

He does have allergies but they don't happen for a while yet. Unless I can think of another allergy to fit in with everything, that is. Hm.

[AdrianMarx]

Aww yes!!! Oli got sick!! And screw school...not when theres a sick oli lying in bed all alone in cold wishing-

Ohh.......0.0 my bad.

Ahem...

Carry on....

I couldn't help myself. Sick Oli was just too appealing.

[Not_Telling]

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THESE ARE SO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!

Awwww OLI! AVERY! AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

I love these! I really really love these!!

:hug:

[AdrianMarx]

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THESE ARE SO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!

Awwww OLI! AVERY! AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

I love these! I really really love these!!

squEALS THANK YOU<3 EEK

[AdrianMarx]

I wanted to be patient and wait to post this tomorrow but I got excited again. Three in one day is probably too much. I shouldn't write things in advance for this reason.

-

71 - Confession

Avery clutched at the small clump of six daffodils perhaps a little too tightly, his hands shaking as he went to knock the door but pulled away at the last minute. He couldn’t do this. Could he do this? He clenched his teeth to stop them from chattering and gave himself a shake. Summoning all his courage, he took a deep breath, puffed out his chest and...timidly knocked on the door twice, immediately planning his escape to Kenya.

His eyes were watering and his uniform crumpled from a long day at school. He knew he looked a mess. Oh God, he couldn’t do this.

Before he had a chance to run, however, Oliver’s mother appeared on the other side of the door with a wide smile.

“Hello, dear,” she said, smiling warmly. “Oli’s not very well today, I’m afraid,”

Avery swallowed. “I know,” he admitted, trying to tuck the flowers behind his leg and out of sight. He couldn’t stand having them any closer to his nose, even drugged up on far too many antihistamines, and he certainly didn’t want her to see before he had a chance to gauge Oliver’s reaction. “I just wanted to see how he was feeling,”

Oliver’s mother smiled knowingly, stepping aside to let him in.

“He’s upstairs,” she told him as she disappeared into the living room where she had presumably been before Avery had interrupted her. Only then did he allow himself to look down at the flowers, loosening his grip slightly to find the stems were a little crumpled. Still, he was here now. Might as well get it over with.

He found Oliver upstairs as promised, looking the same as he always did with an added pink nose and tired expression on his unusually pale face. He broke into a smile when he saw Avery all the same and, despite his nerves, Avery smiled back and would have gone to hug him had he not been frozen to the spot with nerves.

“Don’t get too close,” Oliver advised with a chuckle. When Avery actually complied, he looked puzzled. “You’re actually listening to me? Are you alright?”

His eyes travelled down to the yellow petals peeking out from behind Avery’s right thigh.

“What’s...heh...what’s tha- heh-itschu! What’s that?”

“Bless you,” Avery mumbled automatically, looking down and letting the flowers fall naturally to his side again. It took a moment for it to register. “Oh, these? Um, they’re for, uh, for you?”

It wasn’t a question but his pitch rose at the end like it could have been. Oliver giggled, bridging the distance to embrace his best friend and gently pry the flowers from his grip. When he pulled back, he lifted them to his nose and sniffed delicately.

“Can’t smell anything,” he muttered to himself, lifting his gaze to meet Avery’s eye. “I love daffodils,”

Avery smiled. “I know,”

Oliver looked at him for a long moment before leaving to deposit the flowers in the bathroom sink with a tiny bit of water, placing one hand on Avery’s chest to stop him from following. Avery had on a dramatic pout when he returned.

“You have that i’ve-got-a-tickle face on,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “What did you go and bring me flowers for, you muppet? You’ll make yourself ill!”

Avery looked down, digging his fingers into his eye to get rid of a deep-seated itch. “I wanted it to be special,”

“Wanted what to be special?” Oliver shook his head, not understanding. “You had to pick those, didn’t you? Avery, you’re not doing yourself any favours. I mean, how you’re even managing not to sneeze right this second is beyond me since-”

“Ireallylikeyoualot,”

Silence.

“Hh-mptschu! Mpt!”

Oliver resisted the urge to say, “I told you so,” and instead pulled Avery’s hand away from his face and mumbled shyly, “I really like you too,”

-

See, I said it wouldn't be long!

[Quite Contrary]

These are so cute!! I usually check this thread more times a day than I can reasonably expect anyone to post anything new... but today it paid off! Look at all these lovely drabbles! I'm surprised, Avery said it first! I was not expecting that. So so so cute! Take your time, I'll just be sitting here, waiting for more Avery and Oliver adorableness

[Arty]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THDVDCGFFHNTFBYGG SO CUTE DFGFGGGGGTDHGFG!

Hnnnghh....

XD

[AdrianMarx]

These are so cute!! I usually check this thread more times a day than I can reasonably expect anyone to post anything new... but today it paid off! Look at all these lovely drabbles! I'm surprised, Avery said it first! I was not expecting that. So so so cute! Take your time, I'll just be sitting here, waiting for more Avery and Oliver adorableness

I do that too! It's like "I wonder if they've updated in the time it's taken me to read that part?"

Ah, I decided I wanted that from the beginning but I'm not sure why. I just thought it could be so cute and awkward.

I'm honestly so glad you like it. I'm such an idiot but I'm kind of vaguely in awe of you oops.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THDVDCGFFHNTFBYGG SO CUTE DFGFGGGGGTDHGFG!

Hnnnghh....

XD

<33

[AdrianMarx]

I honestly didn't expect to get any kind of response to this and it's just been so positive. Thank you lots <3

-

73 - Remedy

They didn’t say it in so many words until several weeks later but they knew they were boyfriends from then on.

“You really don’t heh have to- ingtsh! do this,” Oliver said wearily, accepting the hot water bottle from Avery all the same and hugging it close to his chest while he sniffled. Despite being wrapped up in two blankets, he was still shivering. Bloody colds. They were aptly named, he’d give them that.

“I know,” Avery smiled, pecking Oliver’s forehead dismissively. He looked him over once with his lips twitching to the side as he thought. “Hm, you need anything else?”

Oliver shook his head, unleashing a tickly triple.

“Hngtch! Hhh...snff...initshu! Tschu!” Avery’s passing him a tissue stood as an unspoken, “Bless you,”

“You sure?” Avery didn’t look convinced. “I mean, I could make you some tea or something. Or something to eat. I might burn it but I can try really hard not to.”

“Avery-”

“And you’re running out of tissues. I can head down to the shop and buy you some, I mean, they don’t cost that much and-”

“Av-”

“I could also maybe get you some cold medicine unless you already have some hear and-”

“Avery!” Oliver tried to raise his voice to be heard over Avery’s ramblings but it came out as something of a croak. “I’m fine,”

Avery’s body visibly relaxed where he stood. “Sorry,” he said breathlessly. “I just-”

“Worry. I know,” Oliver finished for him, retrieving his arm from within his blankets and holding it out as an invitation, shivering in the gust of cold air the space let in. Avery grinned and scrambled in next to him.

“You know,” he began, a glint of something mischievous in his green eyes. “I read somewhere about a natural cold remedy,”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “And what would that be?”

When Avery kissed him, gently and sweetly, Oliver considered taking a better interest in home remedies.

[Arty]

Hahaha!! I love avery!!! I act just like him when people get sick...the worrier. ..

[AdrianMarx]

Hahaha!! I love avery!!! I act just like him when people get sick...the worrier. ..

Me too, to the point where it becomes a nuisance.

[Arty]

I testify to that!