Anniversary

[aggedy_ann]

Tim and Ethan celebrate their first anniversary 

 

Wednesday, Two days before their anniversary weekend:

 

“HatShoo!”

 

Tim looked up as Ethan sneezed for the 10^th time since getting home from work.   He’d woken up with a cold this morning and, clearly, the DayQuil wasn’t helping.   “Bless you.   Are you sure you don’t want to cancel this weekend?  You’re going to be pretty miserable up there.”

 

Ethan sniffled, blew his nose, then sniffled again.  “I really don’t.  This B&B is pretty hard to get into.”  He sighed.  “It’s just bad timing on my part.  Besides, it gives us more of a reason to stay in bed together.”

 

Tim laughed.  “If it’s what you want.  But this is our deadline to cancel.”

 

“I know.”  Ethan cleared his throat.   “I’ll be fine, Tim.   I’ll hit this thing with rest and orange juice.   I’ll make you drive and sleep on the way up.   Besides, maybe this won’t be a bad cold; can’t tell that on day one.”

 

Tim nodded, but he was not reassured.   “Ok.”  He curled up with his book and Ethan resumed watching TV.   Ten minutes in: 

 

“AhShoo!”

 

“E, go to bed.”

 

Friday, day of departure:

 

 Tim glanced at Ethan across the table.   Ethan had been up about half an hour, and as usual, was wrapped up in his morning sneezes.   

 

“Hashoo!”  Ethan hastily brought his elbow up.

 

“Bless you.   You sure about this?   I’m sure Alex would take the reservation or…”

 

“I’m fine.” Ethan said firmly.    “It’s our anniversary.”

 

“You’re at 9.  In half the time you usually reach that number.”

 

“Yesterday was 19.”  Ethan pointed out.  “I was alright at work.”  Truth be told, he’d been miserable, but he wasn’t going to tell Tim that.   

 

“And you were in bed by 8:00.  And slept in this morning.”

 

“So I could get my rest.”  Ethan punctuated this with a few sharp coughs and a bite of eggs.   “Is there a reason youdon’t want to go?”   

 

“I just know how much it sucks to be sick in a strange bed.”

 

Ethan froze.  “You’re not sick?”  He picked up his napkin from where it lay in easy reach.   “AtChoo!”

 

“Bless you.  And I’m fine.  Not a single sniffle.  I just…I feel like you’d have more fun if you felt better.”

 

Ethan laughed and grinned.  “True. But it won’t be our anniversary.  So maybe we can’t do a ‘quiet’ activity because my sneezing’s too disruptive, but there’s still plenty we can do.   It’s a cold.   I’m not stuck in bed…unless you want to spend the weekend there.”

 

“Ok. Ok.  Leave in an hour?”  It was a six hour drive to San Francisco and their B&B.

 

Ethan finished his breakfast.   “Sounds good.  I’m gonna go shower.”   Sneezing, he made his way down the hall.

 

Several hours later, they were in the driveway of their B&B.   Ethan, true to his word, had slept much of the trip up.    They checked in, then climbed the stairs of the old Victorian to their room.    

 

Tired from driving, Tim sank down to sit on the bed while Ethan began putting their things away.   

 

“YyehhShoo!  HehhYyehhShoo!”

 

“Bless you.” Ethan called, looking over, but thinking nothing of Tim’s sneezes.

 

“Thanks.”  Tim gave his nose a hard rub.  “Guess I got my sneezes out of the way for the weeh…hhegghShoo! HehhRahshoo!”

 

“Bless you.”  This time, Ethan plucked the tissues out of his tote bag and handed them to Tim who immediately smothered another set of sneezes in one.

 

“Bless you.”  Ethan’s eyes widened.  “You ok?”

 

Tim kept the tissue clamped over his nose.  “Just can’t shake this feeling like I have to sneeze.  Started when I sat on the bed.”

 

Ethan examined the bed, resting his hand on a pillow before picking it up.   “Feathers.” He concluded.

 

Tim was off the bed and across the room, as far away from the pillows as he could get.  “I can’t sleep on those.”  He said from behind his tissue.  

 

“I know, babe.  I’ll run down to the desk.   See if they have anything different.”

 

“HehhRehShoo!  HehrShoo!  Please.”

 

“Hatshoo!  I’ll be right back.”  Ethan grabbed the pillows off the bed and headed downstairs.  

 

“HahhYehhShoo! Yyehhshoo!  HeyyehhtShoo!  EttSchuhh!”  Ethan could hear Tim sneezing as he headed towards the stairs.   

 

5 minutes later, Ethan was back, carrying two fresh pillows.   He took a look at Tim, in the aftermath of the allergy attack.

 

 

Tim wiped his eyes carefully and smiled at Ethan.   “They had pillows?”  He asked, hoping against hope that Ethan wasn’t carrying the same two he had left with.

 

“They had pillows.   No feathers.”   He hesitated before setting them on the bed.   “Can you still sleep on the bed?  Do we need clean bedding that didn’t touch the pillows?”

 

Tim shook his head.  “I should be fine.  Maybe a little…” He trailed off, taking a fresh tissue.   “HehhckShoo!  HeyyyYeckShoo!  Might be stuffy, but I’ll be ok.”

 

Ethan bit his lip to keep from laughing.

 

“What’s so funny?”  Tim demanded.

 

“You were worried about me being miserable this weekend.”

 

“Now that the pillows are gone, that’s still more likely.”  Tim pointed out, blowing his nose.

 

Ethan took the tissues from him, following suit.

 

“This is the one time I traveled without Benadryl,” he apologized.  “AtChoo!”

 

“Bless you.  Give me a few hours.   I’ll be fine.”

 

“Sleep it off?”  Ethan suggested, laying the pillows on the bed.

 

“Sounds like a lovely start to our weekend.”

[brownsasha11]

What a lovely surprise @aggedy_ann. I am soooo excited for more

[MyOwnPrivateSFC]

What @brownsasha11said! 

[sneezevibes]

Excited to read more!  

[2SHY222]

This is soooooooo sweet 🥰

[Stillwater]

This is a great start! Can’t wait to read more.

[aggedy_ann]

Ok, the end to this is really short, but, I think if I try to make it longer, I’ll ruin it.

 

Despite Tim’s lingering sniffles and Ethan’s relentless cold, they’d managed to enjoy a nice dinner out and a walk through the neighborhood before retiring back to the room.   

“HatShoo!”  Ethan sneezed loudly into his shoulder, sitting down to take off his shoes.   

“Bless.”  Tim offered, with a slight sniffle.   “You’re sicker than you’ve been letting on.”  He commented.

“‘M fine.   Just sneezing more than usual.”  At Tim’s glance, he sighed, “ok, a lot more than usual.  But it’s stuck to basically that and a runny nose.   Barely even a headache.”  He yawned.   

“Wanna go to bed early?”

“Honestly?  Yeah, but I doubt you do.”

Tim shrugged, rubbing his nose.   “I’m a little tired from the drive.   Might read for a little bit, but I think an early night sounds good.”

Ethan nodded.  “Not gonna lie.  It sounds very good.   Rest now, I’ll be up for more tomorrow.”

A short bit later, Ethan was under the covers, and Tim was curled up on the loveseat in the room, reading.   An hour and a half later, he joined Ethan in bed; Ethan woke enough to mumble “sleep sweet” but otherwise didn’t stir.

Ethan did fully wake around 2 am, feeling the bed shake with Tim’s sneeze.

“Hayyahhshoo! Ahhshoo!”

Ethan’s breath caught as Tim continued sneezing.   

“YahhShoo! HehhYahrShoo! AhrrShoo! HehhRahhShehh!”

12 more sneezes followed, and Ethan sighed.   “That’s not leftover allergies?” He asked hopefully, grabbing the tissues off his bedside table and offering them.

His response was a head shake and five loud gurgles as Tim blew his nose.  “No.”  Tim sighed, finally.   “Unfortunately, it’s not.”  He’d caught Ethan’s cold and they both knew it.   

Ethan got up and pulled a blister pack of NyQuil from his toiletry bag.  Tim downed it with a long swallow of water.

“Looks like the next stop…” he trailed off pressing the back of his hand to his nose.  “Hatchoo!  Next stop on our romantic weekend: a pharmacy.”

Tim nodded.  Ethan had only brought enough cold medicine and tissues for himself.  “And maybe we are spending most of the weekend in bed.”  He sniffled.

“I’m not going to complain about that.  I don’t care what we do as long as we’re together.”  He snuggled against Tim and started to close his eyes as Tim shifted away to sneeze again.

“HeyyeckShoo! EhhdShoo!”

“Bless you, love.”  Ethan moved away, resting the tissues in between them.   This wasn’t the anniversary they’d planned, but in so many ways, it mirrored the start of their relationship.   It’d do.
 

[MyOwnPrivateSFC]

Aw! I really loved this, but I especially loved the end! Super sweet and perfect! 😍

[Dc1]

I’ve always loved these two 🥰

great work as always ❤️