No Place Like Home (A sequel to Would You Like a Cold with Your Coffee?) -PART 13-

[truth]

This is such clever and wonderful writing! {don't think I didn't catch that bit about 'a strong surge of feeling which he thought he knew the name of'. CutiEs}

I think I might like Tobias' sneezes even more than Aaron's, oh my.

[PetalPunk]

ASDFGHJKL!! I've been gone for a while. I had no idea there was more!!! Thank you so much! You are an amazing writer!

[happybunny]

ahh omg thank you for this story I just love these guys and your storytelling so much!!!!

I can't wait till you upload again.You have me on the edge of my seat with all the feels!!

[meepsy]

Lovely I like that Aaron isn't hounding him about being sick, but I'm hopeful that Tobias will be willing to allow Aaron to do some care taking. And what a huge family situation to be sick during.

I dunno Tobias is being pretty stubborn haha! I think he'll need a little more pushing before he cracks I know, and there's still more family to come too! (am i crazy? I'm a little crazy )

XD oh Tobias. I love him...

eep I know he's a charmer right? Thanks for sharing your love!!

Eep, I'm so late on [publicly] commenting on Part 2 that I came back and there's a Part 3! Yay!!

I like lists, so:

• His sneezes. So many of them. So wonderful.
  
• So many people, all with the best intentions... there's nowhere to hide.
  
• Aww, Tobias and his maman, what a cutie.
  
• Dinner! We get to see dinner-- again, nowhere to hide.
  
• I love that Aaron and Elise found a connection. It's so nice to find at least one person in a new crowd that you can easily talk to!
  
• Paul calling him out on the stifles... he's not gonna let his little brother slide under the radar with anything!
  
• Falling asleep on the table I mean leaning down to pet Roxy...
  
• And he finally got to go to bed! Curled up with Aaron; even better. But of course, there's always tomorrow...
  

Basically, there was a lot of "aww"-ing and a lot of, "Tobias, babe, go to bed!" I see I'm not alone on either of those. :-) Loving where this is going, keep it up!

p.s. thank you for the Sympathy shoutout, you're so sweet. :-)

AHH THANK YOU THANK YOU! I like lists too haha! Thanks for picking out all these little deets that you liked -- it makes me so giddily happy!!! I'm really glad Tobias's exhaustion resonated so well! It almost makes me feel guilty about what I have in store for him (no it doesn't )

Thank YOU for being great and awesome and inspiring!! Loved the update and am so looking forward to more!!

Loving this!

Ahh thank you! I'm so glad!

This is such clever and wonderful writing! {don't think I didn't catch that bit about 'a strong surge of feeling which he thought he knew the name of'. CutiEs}

I think I might like Tobias' sneezes even more than Aaron's, oh my.

Ah ohmigosh thank you! haha I'm glad you did! I tried to be subtle but not tooo subtle That's good, cuz there's lots more sneezes waiting on the horizon!

ASDFGHJKL!! I've been gone for a while. I had no idea there was more!!! Thank you so much! You are an amazing writer!

Ahh I'm glad you found it!! Thank you for your support!! You are too sweet!

ahh omg thank you for this story I just love these guys and your storytelling so much!!!!

I can't wait till you upload again.You have me on the edge of my seat with all the feels!!

Haha Thank you so much!! Here you go! Although this one's a bit of a cliffhanger I have to say...

~o~

Thank you so much guys!! Here is the shortish next part. A bit light on the sneezing, unfortunately, but hopefully what's there will be worth it

~o~

Part Four

*cough cough*...

*cough cough COUGH COUGH cough cough cough*...

*COUGH COUGH cough cough cough*... Nnnngggh...

Tobias was coughing before he even woke up fully, and the fit that resulted was sharp, stinging, and self-generative, enticing a moan out of him in his grogginess when it finally did abate. He lay catching his breath for a moment, trying to come to terms with how incredibly un-recovered he was feeling. His head was throbbing – no, quaking – the ache encompassed nearly all of Tobias's attention, and brought tears to his eyes with its intensity. His sinuses felt like they'd been filled with cement overnight – even attempting to breath through his nose was painful, not to mention completely fruitless.

A shiver ran through him as his conscious mind tried to adjust to his body's current state of misery. He sniffled uselessly, and rolled over, seeking refuge in his boyfriend's warm and nice-to-cuddle body, but was met with only a pile of crumpled blankets – Aaron was nowhere to be found.

Tobias sat up slowly, one hand pressed firm against his head to try and relieve some of the pain, and glowered, feeling irrationally slighted. He swallowed against the thick trickle of mucus leaking down his throat and breathed out shakily –trying to steel himself.

At last, he gathered the will to get out of bed. He considered staying in his pajamas, but decided against it – feeling as though it would only add further evidence against his front of health – which he fully intended to project, because the alternative was lying in bed all day and being treated like a sick little kid – which he'd gotten more than his fill of when he actually was a little kid, thank you very much.

He tugged on jeans and a pullover, and dragged himself into the bathroom, surveying his secret aggregation of medications, before deciding that his headache was the most imperative symptom to give treatment to, and popped a couple of Excedrins into his mouth, washing them down with a swig of water from his cupped hand.

He finger-combed his hair, wiped his already-dripping nose with the side of his wrist, and sighed, preparing for his trek downstairs into the kitchen, where he could already hear his family bustling around, being their crazy, usual selves.

The grad student shuffled down the stairs and trudged into the kitchen, grimacing immediately against the sharp sound of the coffee grinder jack-hammering into his brain.

“Oho! Well good mornin' Sunshine!” Paul called over his newspaper from the kitchen table. His mother turned from her place at the counter and smiled at him.

“Oh, Toby, you're just in time. Aaron's been teaching us how to make coffee!” The barista looked up from the coffee grinder and blushed.

“I just set the machine on a finer grind, that's all,” he amended with a bashful half-grin. Tobias realized a beat too late that they were waiting for a reaction from him.

“Coool,” he muttered, forcing a quick grin on his face, before dropping into an empty seat, putting all of his effort into breathing out of his mouth as discreetly as possible.

“Whoa now! Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed!” Paul said in his usual exclamatory fashion. He received a small smack on the arm from Claire for the remark. The pregnant woman sighed and regarded Tobias with a look of sympathy.

<“How are you feeling, Toby?”> she asked in French. Tobias closed his eyes, summoned strength, opened them.

<“Jusdt greadt, thangks. And you?”> He noted with displeasure the deep, husky register his voice had apparently decided to adopt, and resisted clearing his throat, knowing that it would only draw more unwanted attention to his less-than-healthy state of health.

His eldest older sister sighed, not quite rolling her eyes, but coming pretty darn close: <“Fine, dear. Fine.”>

Tobias grunted in reply, hoping that would be the last of the inquiries about his health that he'd have to combat. He felt eyes upon him, and flicked a quick glance toward his boyfriend, finding the barista looking at him with intense, silent scrutiny. He turned away, opting to look instead out the window at the fluffy blanket of white that covered the landscape outside, (it had snowed a bit overnight, apparently).

He felt the hot, prickling tingles of a sneeze brewing in his previously dormant sinuses. He sucked in a quick, resistant breath – knowing the repercussions of such an expulsion were bound to be both ample and messy – and closed his eyes in concentration:

“hhh... hhh...” He exhaled shiveringly, but the itch was back upon him just as soon as he thought he was in the clear. He ducked his head toward his shoulder, as he fought to gain back control:

“hhh... hhh... hehh-hh-hh-huhHH!”

“...UHHGTTSSHhhh!” Tobias sneezed explosively, catching a veritable torrent of thick fluid into his cupped hand, before snapping forward once more with another: “...EHKTSSHHhuu!” The grad student sniffled deeply, sucking back into his nose what mess he was able to, and reached with his clean hand toward the roll of paper towels that was sitting thankfully within arm's distance, tearing off a sizable length, before burying his nose into the sheets, trying to blow as little as possible, finally cleaning off his other, soiled hand as well.

He was vaguely conscious of a mug of coffee being placed in front of him, and looked up to find Aaron regarding him with stern, almost parental, disapproval. “...Bless you,” the smaller man said tightly, and Tobias could only assume that the red flush in his cheeks was due to barely-held-back frustration.

Still though, Tobias wasn't ready to admit defeat. Colds were always at their worst in the morning anyway, he rationalized to himself. Out load he muttered a low but appreciative “thangks,” and smiled a bit, feeling warmed by his boyfriend's close presence, as the barista dropped huffily into the seat beside him.

He took diminutive sips of his coffee, feeling his headache beginning to yield at last, relishing the small respite from mollycoddling his family had apparently decided to grant him, (as well as the chaste thumb-caresses the barista was treating his thigh to under the table), until his nephews, having finished their breakfast, and being oblivious in their youth, came over to him in great earnest:

“Hey, Uncle Toby, do you want to have a snowball fight?” Russ, the elder, asked, and Jackson, the younger, chimed in: “Yes, do you? Please, please, please?” The boys chorused another “Please?” before Paul cut them off with fatherly sternness:

“Hey, boys, leave your uncle alone. I don't think he's up for a snowball fight right now.” Tobias felt his feathers ruffle immediately. The “cool uncle” status he knew he held in his nephews' eyes was in jeopardy, something he (or his ego, really) would just not stand for.

“Says who?” the grad student asked challengingly, although a snowball fight was pretty much the absolute last thing he wanted to be partaking in at the moment. “...I thinkg a sndowball fighdt sounds ligke an awesombe idea, if you guys really thinkg you cand takge mbe, thadt is.” He grinned victoriously at the cheers of his nephews, meeting his brother's raised “really?” eyebrows with a bratty shrug.

A pointed throat-clearing sounded next to him, and he turned to find a very incredulous-looking Aaron glaring at him as if he'd in fact just agreed to go murder someone.

“You dondn't have tdo combe, Aar,” Tobias attempted to placate, as his nephews ran to go put on their snow gear. “I wond't be oudt there long, ligke a half hour, tobps.” The barista continued to glare, tight-lipped, for a beat longer, before sighing.

“Oh, I'm definitely coming,” he replied with a small hint of a smirk. “You wouldn't last five seconds out there on your own. Your nephews would have you down for the count before you could even say "uncle”.

“I apbreciate the wordpblay, but I resent the assumbption,” Tobias retorted as he pushed back his chair and followed the young brothers into the foyer, feeling secretly that -- given his current condition -- his boyfriend's snarky claim was nonetheless 100% accurate.

~o~

(More to come soon! <3 <3)

Edited February 16, 2015 by meepsy

[Arty]

Evil....just pure evil and OH SO GOOD!!! Snowball fights ..

With a horrid headcold?

Oh you tease.

[truth]

Evil....just pure evil and OH SO GOOD!!! Snowball fights ..

With a horrid headcold?

Oh you tease.

my thoughts exactly. We are rather an evil bunch of people on this website. And I love it. Torture him more more.

also maybe laters some cuddling with Aaron? Those babies are too much.

[happybunny]

AHHHH YOU UPDATED!!!

I love how you wrote the coughing, capitalizing the harsh ones. I could really feel for Toby man. Them chest colds are the worst!! And I'm excited to see how playing outside in his condition will mess with him. Oh man this is just getting so juicy!!!!

[HPG]

[CHOCOLATE <3]

Oh Toby.

Your stubbornness is gonna kill you, you know.

but I don't care as long as you SUFFER

[kendisima]

I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

The way you write colds is literally the hottest thing ever. Like. I can't even handle your stories. So excited to see what's next

[phoenix]

Oh, Tobias... *sighs dramatically in his direction.* And those forceful, messy sneezes! I'm not always into them, but if it's him? Yes. Definitely yes. Can't wait to see where this little outdoor excursion leads us...

[ellwren]

You posted more! Hooray!

[CHOCOLATE <3]

I'm dying for another update. I wanna see how badly Tobias screws himself over

[crypticsweetheart]

Cant wait for the new update! Love this story!

[meepsy]

Evil....just pure evil and OH SO GOOD!!! Snowball fights ..

With a horrid headcold?

Oh you tease.

I know I simply could not resist! Muahahaha! (need to work on the evil laugh tho)

[meepsy]

Aaak! My comp is bein' real weird and not letting me quote you guys with the fancy quote tool, so I'm just gonna respond the ol' fashioned way:

@PoisonPassion: More torture comin' right up! As for cuddles, well... Okay, yeah, cuddles are good too

@happybunny: Ahh I'm so happy you liked the coughing!! I really like the coughing aspect of colds too (just, like, the whole miserable thing really) but they're a bit harder to illustrate, linguistically speaking. So I'm glad what I did worked out haha! And yeah, can't say that this little adventure will bode too well, but yanno, he's asking for it, sooo...

@HarryPotterGeek: Also, and , haha!

@CHOCOLATE <3: Right? So stubborn, like duuuude, come ooon. He shall suffer, oh he shall!

@kendaahhll: Aw dude, thank you so much for your support! I really can't tell you how irrationally happy your comment makes me! So glad to hear you're enjoying this! Hopefully I can keep up the intrigue!

@phoenix: ahaha, yeah little brother syndrom much? The forceful sneezes I wasn't actually planning on, but recent personal experience kind of hit the "cold sneezes = way stronger (and stupider) than regular sneezes" message home pretty hard, so I decided to run with it. I imagine that normally Tobias doesn't mind sneezing, and even kind of enjoys the attention he gets from it, but actual sick sneezes are a different story

@ellwren: Aha I'm glad you're so excited!!!

@CHOCOLATE <3 (x2): Haha ohmigosh, well, here you go! Self-sabotage ahoy!!

@crypticsweetheart: Aww haha thank you so much! So glad you're enjoying it!!

~o~

Thanks soooo much you guy!! *hugs everyone to peices* Here is part five! Again it's a little light on sneezes... I'm just trying to build up the suspense, y'see? *runs away* ...Enjoy!

~o~

Part Five

Of all the great many things in the world that Aaron hated, snowball fights had to be pretty goddamn close to topping the list. Why shaping and throwing cold, hard, often painful lumps of snow at another person – and willfully having them thrown back at you – was considered fun in any sense of the word was completely beyond him, had always been beyond him, and he'd resented every minute of every one he'd ever been forced to participate in with a bitterness unspeakable. Which was why this current quest to help his stubborn, reckless, idiot boyfriend save face in front of his nephews was the purest act of love (well, not love exactly, it was a bit too early for that, but... something? Something...) Aaron could bestow upon the taller man. He only hoped it was the right thing to do, and would not end up being a further detriment to the grad student's already severely questionable state of health.

It was more than apparent now to the barista that Tobias was clearly suffering from some sort of cold-type deal, which he – for some asinine reason – was refusing to admit to. The barista guessed it had something to do with the pretty overwhelmingly insistent fussing his boyfriend's family had thus far been guilty of (which, of course, Tobias himself was also very guilty of, when he was on the other side of the fence), but maybe it had to do with his own hyper-senstivity as well? Maybe he had over-noticed Tobias's symptoms, and had made the grad student uncomfortable somehow? Or maybe Tobias really was fine, and Aaron was just worrying for nothing. After all, a cold was just a cold, right? Certainly nothing to freak out over -- or so he tried to tell himself anyway.

Aaron flung a carelessly-aimed snowball at one of the scampering urchins and ducked back behind his own snowy barricade, trying to figure out what to do about the whole situation. He felt guilty and torn, feeling like it was his duty as “boyfriend” to make sure the grad student was taking care of his cold properly, but at the same time worried about smothering him and having him pull away emotionally...

When the grad student finally scrambled back to join him behind their makeshift fort, Aaron was in full out rumination-bordering-on-panic-attack mode. He tried to shake his anxiety away, painting what he hoped was a neutral-looking expression on his face, not that Tobias was on top of his game enough to notice anyway.

“Oh mby god, these kids are totdally kigcking our asses!” the grad student exclaimed breathlessly. He bent forward in a fit of harsh coughs, which started dry but took on a wettish crackle near the end. Aaron fretted internally, for a wide host of reasons.

“Well, obviously,” he forced himself to agree in his typical deadpanning fashion. “...so you ready to surrender yet or what?”

After the fit had ceased, Tobias let out a throat-clearing groan, and nodded: “Yup. Mbosdt defindately.” When the two brothers inevitably stormed their blockade moments later, the grad student put his hands up, crying “Okgay Okgay! We give upb! Pblease, have mbercy!”

The two boys tackled him to the ground, shouting “Never!” and Tobias played along, dragging his defeat out with dramatic flair, until at at last he broke character with a tired “Okgay, thadt's endough, guys, for real.”

Aaron sighed as the two boys scurried laughingly away, and helped his boyfriend get back up on his feet. The grad student forced out a shivery laugh. “Sheesh! C-cgrazy kgids.” He coughed into his fist, and sniffled wetly, a visible shudder running through him, and Aaron – still plagued with self-doubt and indecision – swallowed back the effusive concern he felt bubble inside him, and instead offered up only a small, sympathetic smirk.

“Come on, you big idiot,” he muttered, turning to follow the boys' lead back toward the house. The grad student complied without argument, continuing to shiver and sniffle as the two young men made their way to the front door, only to find Tobias's mother already there, waiting for their return.

“Okay!” Marie professed with motherly (and grandmotherly) authority. “Wet clothes off, blankets on!” The two younger boys jumped into action at once, peeling off their parkas, snow pants and boots, piling them all in a messy lump on the towels laid on the floor for exactly such a purpose. The woman looked on with approval, before turning her attention toward the older pair. “You boys too,” she said with a small, knowing grin.

Aaron blushed, but obliged her nonetheless – discarding his jacket, boots, and the gloves he had borrowed, thankful that – due to his bare-minimum efforts “on the field” – he jeans were still dry enough to be left on. Tobias's, however, were more than worse for the wear, and the grad student (under his mother's mandate) trudged upstairs, re-emerging moments later with a fresh pair donned.

“Sit,” Marie commanded gently as she tugged a thick blanket over her son's shoulders, and Tobias obeyed dutifully, sinking down beside an already-blanketed Aaron on the living room loveseat. The barista could feel the sharp shudders still coursing through the taller man's body – his breathing tumbling and shaky – like a rickety roller coaster – until it caught, suddenly, as Tobias's body tensed:

“huh!-hhEHTSSHHuuh! ...hhuhhTTSHCHh!..n-nungh *snf* d-dambidt.” The two sneezes that seemed to have all but teared their way out the shivering grad student were atypically forceful and impossibly – wincingly – wet. Aaron tried not to stare as his boyfriend struggled with the resulting mess – sniffling hard while pressing the side of his hand under his nose – until Claire saved the day, handing them each a mug of hot chocolate, her brother's accompanied by a thick stack of napkins.

“Ah tes souhaits,” she blessed, clearly trying to keep any condescension from entering her tone, and Tobias – too weary, it seemed, to take up defense anyway – merely replied with a hoarse “thangks,” and blew wetly into a few of the square, white sheets. He crumpled the sodden sheets in his hand, raising them back up to his face in order to dab at his now-streaming nose, and leaned into Aaron heavily – releasing a soft, low moan, his body still wracked with shivery chills.

All Aaron wanted to do was wrap Tobias up in his arms and cuddle and shush his clearly-indisposed boyfriend into repose, but he didn't think that would be quite prudent in front of the grad student's family, so – in effort to find a way to soothe his boyfriend while still being well-mannered – Aaron wormed his arm behind Tobias's back, welcoming the grad student to lean further in, (which he did), and used his knuckles to rub small, slow strokes against the taller man's side, feeling the shiver in Tobias's breaths slowly to start to ease, though each intake was still marked by a small, wet sniffle.

“...You know, Toby,” Marie said carefully, after giving pause to seemingly decide whether or not this was the appropriate moment to resume the battle. “...You don't have to come with us into the city today, if you'd rather just stay here and take it easy.” Aaron felt the grad student's body stiffen at once, then pull away to sit back up. The barista sighed through his nose, swallowing back a groan of frustration.

“Dond't be ridicgulous, Mba,” Tobias said, his voice so thick with congestion it was almost impossible to understand him. “...I'mb tdotally finde, and besides, Aarond's never beend tdo Mbontreal. I'mb ndot gonnda drag himb on a five and a half hour tribp and thend ndot even show himb the pblace.”

Aaron prepared himself to chime in, but Marie beat him to the punch.

“We're more than capable of showing Aaron around, and you look like you need a day to kick back and relax,” she steamrolled, then looked toward the barista, reading the thoughts on his face. “...Or Aaron can stay with you, if he wants,” she added graciously, and Aaron accepted her baton, offering up a timid “I really don't mind, you know,” before Tobias interrupted with an irritated growl.

“Cudt idt oudt, both of you. I feel finde and I'mb going. End of sdtory.” He shifted away to lean pouting against the arm of the loveseat, and Aaron and Marie, after sharing a clandestine look of exasperation, resumed normal behavior – Aaron quietly sipping his hot chocolate, Marie going off into the kitchen to bustle over some other matter – both agreeing silently to press the issue no further.

~o~

(More to come soon! <3)

Edited February 16, 2015 by meepsy

[CHOCOLATE <3]

SELF SABOTAGE YESSSSSS Poor Toby. I really, um, feel bad for him. I hope his fever spikes he gets better

[CHOCOLATE <3]

I wonder if someone is going to have to tie him to his bed or the couch or something, 'cause dude won't rest on his own

[Arty]

What in the world Toby!?! Get ur sick ass in bed!!!

[CHOCOLATE <3]

What in the world Toby!?! Get ur sick ass in bed!!!

Shhh he's going to end up with pneumonia or something like that fine. He's really sick not that sick

[happybunny]

YESSS I hope they stay home and have fuzzy together time!!! But going out and experiencing pure tourture is just as good too of course.

Ahhh the anticipation for your updates is RIDICULOUS like I check back everyday ahh I need this story!!!

[ellwren]

Ahhh the anticipation for your updates is RIDICULOUS like I check back everyday ahh I need this story!!!

Me, too!

[truth]

Eee ! Cuddles! Or some semblance of them.

And Tobias, you ain't fooling anyone, kid.

[ellwren]

So, I don't mean to, like, nag you to write more or anything like that, but I felt compelled to post again because i am obsessively stalking here to check for updates.

Just thought you should know.

[NameTaken]

Yoooo I just finished reading all of 'Would you like a cold with your coffee' and this fic too and omg, girl. Your narrative, the characterisation, the spellings, the lovely pictures you paint of an utterly miserable cold....wow.

Add another fan to your list! Can't wait to see more!