Lean on Me (aos Simmons, allergy)

[The Kneezle]

A/N: I am trash for Jemma Simmons sneezing okay. Could be read as Simmorse (Jemma/Bobbi) if you want. There's a part two alerady halfway done so stay tuned.

 

 

“Bobbi - ”

 

“No time, into the closet, short stuff.”

 

And before Jemma can protest, she finds herself being shoved backwards into a very cramped, very uncomfortable broom closet, with Bobbi squashed in in front.

 

“Nice and cozy,” Bobbi quips under her breath.

 

They’re face-to-face, or rather, Jemma’s face is level with Bobbi’s chest. Jemma’s left arm is tangled behind her, her right pinned to her side by a stack of boxes. A very dusty stack of boxes. Everything in here, it seems, was coated in a fine layer of dust which they kicked up the moment they shoved their way in.

 

Jemma can already feel it making her lip curl. Oh god. She has always been terribly allergic to dust. One swat from a feather duster could set her off for hours. She can feel it thick in the air, already making her nose tingle, settling softly on her hair, cheeks, lashes. All over her clothes.

 

The Hydra agents are thudding around in the room they just vacated. Their course voices make her stomach turn. Bobbi must sense her anxiety because she squeezes Jemma’s fingers in the dark.

 

Her nose is starting to run. She can feel a thin sheen of snot starting to gather on her upper lip and prays to god it’s too dark for Bobbi to notice. She can’t help but indulge in a little sniffle though. Big mistake. Aside from sending the itchy tingle in her nose zinging through her sinuses, it also catches Bobbi’s attention.

 

“You alright, short stuff?” she whispers on a breath.

 

Jemma nods. They’re squished close enough she’s sure Bobbi feels the movement. She blinks hard. God. She has to sneeze, now. She has to sneeze so badly she can feel it in her ears. But both hands are pinned in bad positions. The only way to get one free would be to risk toppling the dusty boxes. She can do nothing but wriggle and wriggle the offending appendage in the hopes it will do any good at all.

 

Outside their hiding place, chairs are scraping back. Papers are shuffling. Bloody Hell they’re settling in for a meeting.

 

Jemma holds her breath and presses her tongue to the roof of her mouth. She can do this. Mind over matter. She can - ihh -

 

A shaking, involuntary breath escapes her.

 

Bobbi frowns down at her. “You sure you’re okay?”

 

She knows it’s coming, knows that, short of suffocation, she cannot stop herself from sneezing for the entire duration of a HYDRA meeting. Not with both arms stuck as they are.

 

“B-hh-Bobbi?” This is going to be humiliating beyond belief. But maybe it’ll be better than being dead. “I - I’ve got to -” she breaks off to wrinkle her nose, trying to push down the overwhelming urge (oh god the itch is so deep in her nose).

 

“What?” Bobbi breathes back. “What is it?”

 

Jemma sniffles thickly, a dam of congestion having finally broken. “I have to sneeze,” she finishes, breathless and mortified.

 

“Oh - oh,” it takes Bobbi only a second to understand the predicament. “Okay, um, try to hold your breath.”

 

Jemma shakes her head. “I’m tryheh- trying, but - it’s all the dust - “

 

“You’re allergic,” Bobbi sighs.

 

Flaming red, she’s sure, Jemma nods. “And - um - “ she sniffles again, getting quite desperate. The urge to sneeze is crawling into her chest now, making each breath unsteady. “Rubbing my nose usually helps, but I can’t - I can’t - “

 

Her lip curls as her head rears back - she can’t stop it any longer.

 

But then Bubbi’s finger is under her nose, pressing up against her septum, massaging her upper lip, knuckles rubbing against the side of Jemma’s flaring nostrils.

 

“Ihhh - ehh - haaaaaa,” Jemma finally sighs softly as the sneeze ebbs.

 

“Better?”

 

“Yes, thank you, but, erm, don’t stop.” She mumbles the last part, painfully embarrassed to request Bobbi’s continued ministrations, but she knows the moment the hand is taken away she’ll succumb to the fit of desperate allergic sneezes begging to be let out.

 

This seems to be working, for now. The urge is still there, irking her with its ticklish tendrils, but the pressure of Bobbi’s fingers against her septum, the gentle rub of her thumb against the side of Jemma’s nose seems to be keeping actual sneezes at bay. Of course this is only part one of the embarrassment. The moment those Hydra goons are out of earshot, Jemma is going to break down in one of the worst allergy fits she’s had in years. Every shaky inhalation of the dusty air promises her that.

 

Her eyes are streaming and itching terribly, and she knows she’s snotting all over Bobbi’s fingers.  The only saving grace is that Bobbi’s wearing gloves.

 

For a while Bobbi’s fingers under her nose seems to work. They stand pressed almost flush against each other, and listen to the meeting taking place right on the other side of a very flimsy piece of wood. Jemma hopes Bobbi is taking mental notes because her efforts of concentration are focused too entirely on the sensation flaring and ebbing in her sinuses to retain much of what’s being said.

 

It’s a long meeting. She’s not sure, but it feels like ages that they’ve been standing there when, for no discernable reason, Jemma sucks in a sharp, gasping breath.

 

“Jemma?” Bobbi hisses, an urgent question.

 

There’s no time to head it off or explain. She’s going to sneeze -

 

Bobbi gets it from the panicked look on Jemma’s face in the dim closet, or maybe from the desperate hitch of her shoulders. She pulls Jemma’s face into her shoulder, one hand at the back of her head, the other wrapped around her waste in an anchoring grip.

 

“-xch!” the stifle barely makes a noise, but it wracks Jemma’s whole frame and is so unjustly unsatisfying.

 

“Hi-hih-ehhih….” Jemma’s forehead nocks into Bobbi’s shoulder with one, two, three silent, swallowed sneezes that leave her eyes streaming and her ears buzzing and the desperate, itchy feeling crawling madly under her skin.

 

Bobbi’s arm tightens around her waist, fingers carding through her hair.

 

Jemma struggles mightily against the urge to sneeze, blinking furiously. Oh god what she wouldn’t give to scrub at her twitching nose, rub a knuckle into her eye. She nuzzles the side of her face against Bobbi’s jacket, panting desperately.

 

“Ngshoo!” it’s half swallowed, half whispered, so soft on her lips and yet it makes her entire body shudder.

 

“Hang in there, shorty,” Bobbi murmurs in her ear.

 

Jemma does her best to hold in the tide of sneezing, forcing back the urge until her breath is a frantic, high-pitched tremble. Then she succumbs to two or three or four silent or near-silent, rapid sneezes and the process repeats. Bobbi’s hand moves from her hair to rub the back of her neck.

 

“You don’t have asthma, to you?” she whispers, sounding anxious. Jemma is in the middle of her longest string of stifles yet, jerking against Bobbi with each one, but she manages to shake her head. She had as a child, but she’s mostly grown out of it now.

 

By the time they finally hear the agents shuffling out of the room, Jemma is convulsing constantly with entirely stifled and unproductive sneezes as her body tries desperately to rid itself of the irritants. Bobbi’s arms tighten around her as they continue to wait, both holding their breath as they listen for confirmation that the cost is clear.

 

“I think we’re good,” Bobbi finally says softly and not a moment too soon.

[SexyGodlikeHair]

DUDE

This was  f a n t a s t i c. Practically perfect. Thank you so, so much for painting this beautiful picture of smol, gay, sneezy Simmons. The truest Simmons. Thank you.

[JadeStone]

I've been trying to find this fic again for AGES!!!!! I love the 'closet scenario'. Good job!!

[MIN]

I have honestly lost count how many times I've read this! @The Kneezle if you ever decide to continue this on (I realise it's been a minute) or just if anyone would want to carry this on in general I would be over the bloody moon!

[Sneeze37]

I would be down to carry this on!But maybe with some help...;)

[MiraKarat]

The hottest thing I have ever red!! Thank you so much author✨❤️

[uwus and love]

please more. i'm begging please

[Whysprr]

So glad this was resurrected, also so inspired to rewatch! This is perfection.