elizachoo's drabbles (HP and more)

[elizachoo]

I got inspired by @PropertyofCora's fall drabble challenge and decided to try it out myself! If you want to see the original challenge, I'll point you to her drabble thread. (I don't plan to write them in numerical order, just inspiration order.)

I pretty exclusively write illness, generally fandom. Most often that's Harry Potter, but also Buffy/Angel, and possibly other fandoms as they strike my fancy (although those two are especially suited to this set of prompts). I'm always particularly drawn to contagion stories that trace a cold from one person to another, so I might link several of these drabbles into different chains within a fandom. We'll see where it all takes us!

Let's start simple:

22. Cold (Petunia)

"chuuh!" Aunt Petunia caught a high pitched sneeze in her hands.

"Feeling all right, Petunia?" Uncle Vernon said, looking up from his paper. Aunt Petunia sniffed and pursed her lips. "I told Yvonne not to come to tea if she were catching a cold, but she insisted. She couldn't possibly let me down by canceling, she said. I must have washed my hands a dozen times when I got home, but a fine lot of good that did me." She shivered and pulled her jumper close as though she were chilled.

"Damn inconsiderate," grumbled Uncle Vernon. "A grown woman like that should know how to keep her sneezes and coughs to herself, instead of spreading her germs all over town just as the weather's turning cool. But then Yvonne never was very bright."

"She barely even covered her mouth," Aunt Petunia complained, coughing in the general direction of her fist. "A well-bred woman like Yvonne shouldn't even have to think about that. It should just be a habit, if she had to sneeze, to do it into a handkerchief. hishuhha!" She turned her head to sneeze away from Dudley and Uncle Vernon, obviously less concerned about handkerchiefs when the sneezes were hers.

Unfortunately for Harry, "away from Dudley and Uncle Vernon" translated into "right toward Harry." Any time one of the Dursleys caught a cold, they made a solid effort not to share it with each other. But since they mostly behaved as if Harry weren't there, they didn't take much care to keep *him* out of the path of their germs. Since breakfast had started, Aunt Petunia had sneezed at him twice, coughed on his grapefruit once, and he didn't even want to think about her sniffling over the oatmeal as she stirred it. He was mostly used to it, by now, but it didn't make it any more enjoyable. The last thing Harry wanted was to catch a cold just as school was starting.

 

[PropertyofCora]

I'm so excited you decided to do this!  And I'm even more excited that you kicked it off with this absolutely amazing Petunia drabble.   I absolutely love how she talks about the germ-spreading traits of another while doing the same herself.

On 9/5/2017 at 1:29 AM, elizachoo said:

"She barely even covered her mouth," Aunt Petunia complained, coughing in the general direction of her fist.

This line, right here, was absolute perfection.

[elizachoo]

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

That one is really taking off in my brain; it might get some linked drabbles in this challenge or it might become its own full length story. I haven't decided yet.

For now, here's a pair from a completely separate fandom:

29. Hay Ride (Gilmore Girls, Rory)

"But you have to, Rory!"

Rory blew her nose loudly on a napkin, drawing serious side-eye from the nearby Luke's diners. "Lade, this cold is biserable." She coughed into her elbow and took a sip of water to soothe her throat. "Add you're crazy. Why od earth do you wadt be to give it to you?"

"Rory. I have a hay ride Friday night." 

"I dever - hipshoo! - udderstood hay rides. What's fud about sittig od hay with stradgers?" She wiped her nose again, pulling the napkin back as Lane made a grab for it.

"Nothing. Get it? There is nothing at all fun about hay rides. There is especially nothing fun about hay rides with future proctologists that my mother has set me up with, and especially especially nothing fun about doing it all with his family sitting there staring at us to make sure we connect, but don't connect, you know? I have to catch your cold before Friday night so I can convince my mom that I can't go on the hay ride."

"There bust be ad easier way to get out of it. heshaa! hisshoo!" Rory was getting tired, and her elbow wasn't quite covering her sneezes as well as it had been, Lane noticed. She could see some the spray hit Rory's plate and glass, and she had an inspiration. As Rory was seized by another coughing fit, Lane seized Rory's water glass and started to drink. She grabbed Rory's soup spoon and licked it clean. When Rory tried to reach for them back, two more sneezes burst out without warning. hashoo! hisshaa! Leaning over the table towards Lane, her hands busy trying to reclaim her dishes, Rory was left with no place to aim her sneezes except straight into Lane's face. hureshoo!

Lane calmly picked up Rory's soiled napkin and carefully dabbed her face with it as Rory looked at her in shock. "I'b so sorry, Lade! That was so gross!"

"Don't be, Rory. That was exactly what I was looking for. There's no way I won't be sick for the hay ride now!" she smirked.

 

4. Black Cat (Lane)

rrrinnnggg! Rory rolled over in bed Sunday morning and caught the phone on its second ring. " 'lo?" she mumbled.

"Rory?" It took her a minute; there was something odd about the voice.

"Lane? What are you doing home on a Sunday morning?" Rory sat up in bed and sniffled thickly. She was definitely on the mend, but her nose was still stuffy and tickly.

ishaa! hachoo! hishoo! answered the voice on the other end of the line.

"Oh no, Lane! I'm so sorry. You caught my cold after you got back from the hay ride, didn't you?" Rory exclaimed.

"Dot quite," Lane sniffled. 

"But I thought your mom made you go Friday. Jeannie Stevens said she saw you there with a guy."

"She did. I thought I'd really bessed it up, at first - I was just startig to get sick on Friday after school, but dot edough for by bob to tell, just a sore throat add feelig off, so whed I said I didd't feel good, she thought I was bakig it up to get out of the hay ride. I'd seed a black cat od by walk to school that bordig, ad - hichaa - I thought baybe I was beig cursed add I was goig to have to go through this whole dight tryig to hide it frob this guy add thed spedd the rest of by weekedd id bed feelig awful." Lane paused to cough away from the phone.

"Well, didn't you? You sure sound awfully sick now." Rory said.

"Oh, I ab! But I got there faster thad I was afraid of. As sood as we got out idto the cold air I started sdifflig, add thed sdeezig, add I could tell the future doctor was totally grossed out add so were his paredts. I was too sick add irritated to care about coverig by sneezes add I didd't have ady tissues at all, so I just let them out wherever. You cad't really edd the hay ride early but as sood as it was over they drove be straight hobe. They couldd't wait to be rid of be." Lane sneezed a wet double and then blew her nose.

"Ew! Lane! Put down the phone to do that. I don't need to hear your amplified blowing. See?" Rory blew her own nose, giving Lane an earful back.

"Addyway, the best part is this - this bordig his bother called by bother screabig about how she sedt be od the hay ride sick as a dog add dow - hachoo! - her precious future doctor had caught by cold. By bob said she was coughig add sdifflig through the whole thig herself, they bust all have caught it. She said she would dever let her kid dear be agaid add - snrff - she was goig to tell all their frieds dot to let their sods go out with be either."

"Oh, Lane, that is amazing! I still feel bad that you're so sick now, but it sounds like it really was worth it to catch my cold if it'll get you off the hook with all those future Korean doctors' parents."

"Yep! hishoo! That black cat turned out to be lucky for me." Lane sniffled.

"Very rock and roll, Lane. hepshoo! Very rock and roll."

 

[Likesn]

These last two drabbles had me in quite a roller-coaster: At first I saw "Gilmore Girls, Rory" and I was like- "Yes!!" but then I saw the title "Hay Ride" and I thought- "Meh, probably an allergy fic, but let's read how she described Rory's sneezes"; and then I was like- "What?! Rory has a cold?! And Lane wants to catch it?! Is this a dream coming true?"; and then the first fic ended with all the talk about how Lane will catch the cold for sure but not actually describing it and I was like- "Bummer"; and then I saw that Lane is starring the next fic, but read the title "Black Cat" and thought- "O.K., probably cat allergy, but let's read how she described Lane's sneezes and try to think what they could have been like with Rory's cold"; and then it turned out that this was actually a continuation of the last fic, with Lane after catching Rory's cold, and at that point I more or less died.

Seriously though- these two drabbles were great. I was glad when I saw you started a drabble thread of your own and now it definitely starts to look like a drabble thread that would make my list of threads to always check out when updated. You're doing a great job, please keep going.  

[elizachoo]

Thank you so much @Likesn! You write such great contagion stories, so it makes me really happy to have written a couple of drabbles that you enjoyed that much!

[elizachoo]

12. Flying (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow)

“Honey, in case I wasn’t clear the last nine times - no more flying in the middle of winter, ok?” Tara gave her girlfriend a mock glare as she spoke.

hikshoo! hetshaa! ishoo! Willow answered. “I kdow, I kdow, but I had to get there fast. Pass be the tissues, please?” she sniffled wetly. Tara made as if to hand them over, but then pulled them back. “Promise me you won’t try flying again any time soon?”

Willow groaned and twitched her pink, chapped nose, trying not to sneeze again. “Tissues, baby. Please.” She reached for them, but Tara held them out of reach. “All you have to do is say ‘I promise not to fly during cold season’ and you can have all the tissues you want.” 

Willow’s breath began to hitch. “I... pro..ha...haahh..”

“What was that?” Tara asked innocently.

Willow gesticulated wildly toward the tissue box. “I... hiii..... hiiiii....”

Tara prompted her “I promise not to fly in the cold”

It was too much; Willow couldn’t hold it back any longer. HIIISHOOOOO! “I probise dot to fly id the widter. hachoo! Or if it’s cold outside. ishaa! Or if adyode adywhere has a cold that might have let gerbs adywhere idto the air. I’ll dever fly ever, ever agaid. heshoo! Cad I please have the tissues dow?”

Tara handed them over. “See? Was that so hard?”

Willow pulled three tissues and blew her nose hard. She folded them, blew again, wiped her nose, and tossed the crumpled tissues away from the bed. Tara put an arm around her and cuddled her close as she sniffled miserably and said, 

“Goddess, I hate airplades.”

[SexyGodlikeHair]

Teasing level 6000

very cute

[Likesn]

Yay!! This thread is back! And I love sneezy Willow.

[elizachoo]

I love any Willow.  

I did a lot of driving the last day or so and thought up some new possibilities, so hopefully I'll have more to post soon.