Chore Share (female, F/F, allergies/scent sensitivity) *oneshot*

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

So, I wrote another one random fic with these two.   Got the idea in my head and had to write it down before it was gone.

Cross-posted from tumblr. 

Some mess.

***

Savannah rarely did a lot of chores around the house; that was largely Linda’s domain (and frankly that was just the way Linda wanted it. She loved Savannah, but the other woman was either overly pedantic or terribly sloppy when it came to chores, depending on which chore it was. There was really no middle road with her). But once in a while, she pitched in, especially when she felt bad about working so much overtime. She hadn’t really figured out that Linda rather did the chores when she was home alone anyway, and then had the quality time she could get with her partner, but Linda wasn’t going to bitch about her doing stuff at home.

Either way Linda wasn’t around at the moment; it was Thursday and she always worked out after work on Thursdays. Savannah had gotten home earlier than usual this Thursday and had decided to cook today. Linda was an excellent cook, but Savannah wasn’t bad, and the spinach-mushroom lasagne in the oven was one of Linda’s favourites.

Deciding to do something else before Linda came home, Savannah went to do laundry. As she was sorting through the piles of dirty clothes, she felt a tickle in the back of her nose. She sniffed. It got worse. She rubbed her nose. It got even worse.

Frustrated, and also pretty sure she was going to sneeze, she looked up at the bright fluorescent ceiling light, trying to hurry the sneeze along. She didn’t really have the photic sneeze trait (not like Linda, who without fail would sneeze at least two or three times every time she looked into a bright light), but if she already felt a sneeze building, looking into a light source would usually tip her over the edge.

“HuhhISSSHHew!”

She remained still for a moment, assessing the tickle still teasing her nose, but deciding that she probably didn’t need to sneeze again.

Then she opened the detergent. It was a new brand, probably on discount – Linda did most of the grocery shopping and she always went for things on discount, even though Savannah had once, many years ago, pointed out that there was really no need to be cheap, they had money. ‘Cheap’ had been a red line for Linda and Savannah had learned the hard way that it was important to Linda to get the best price because that made her feel safe. Knowing there was really no arguing with feelings, they tended to be immune to rational arguments, Savannah just quietly backed off and left it to Linda. Over the years, their combined stable incomes had relaxed Linda a bit and she wasn’t quite as uptight about money anymore, but if she found a good discount, she would go for it on instinct.

She probably had this time, because this detergent wasn’t the one they usually got, and when she opened it and caught a whiff of the potent fragrance, Savannah’s nose immediately felt like it was on fire.

The first sneeze tumbled out of her so suddenly and so violently that she nearly dropped the bottle of detergent, which would have unleashed something akin to a full-scale natural disaster, but luckily, her hands were trained to remain steady even in an emergency, and the strongly scented liquid remained inside the bottle.

“Hiiih-JIIISSSSSHHHH!!!”

Certain other types of liquid did not remain inside of her, a massive cloud of droplets exploded out of her with the unusually (for her) high-pitched, violent sneeze, completely uncovered as she was taken by surprise by the sheer force of it.

She somehow managed to screw the cork back on the detergent bottle and containing the nasal assailant within, but enough had already invaded her sensitive, wildly flaring nostrils, and her breath hitched desperately as the allergic firestorm overwhelmed her sinuses.

She was blinded by the hot, allergy-provoked tears filling her green eyes and overflowing, streaming down her cheeks and mixing with the watery flow from her quivering nostrils. She was absolutely helpless against this sudden uprising that her body apparently needed to display, and she stumbled blind, unable to even think, only with two concepts left in her mind. One was that she really wanted to get this laundry started so she would feel like she actually sometimes contributed domestically in this relationship, and the second that she should probably at least cover these insanely wet outbursts, and she grabbed the next thing she could get in the pile of laundry and pressed it up against her face, unleashing a furious sneezing fit into the soft fabric.

“AayIISSSH! Aah-ISSSHHih-ISSCHEW! HihhISSSHHihh-ehhISSSHHuhh! HaaaIISSSHHIEW! Oh GohhddJIEESSSHHHEW!”

What Savannah was unaware of, was that the shirt she was currently pressing her whole face into, was one of the shirts Linda had worn working in the garden. And it was just her luck that it was still sprinkled with pollen.

Her nose was already in a state that she wouldn’t even notice this extra allergen, but while she might have recovered reasonably fast once she got away from the detergent’s strong scent, now with the added, more slow-burn allergic reaction to pollen, it promised that she’d be a sneezy mess all night.

She sneezed so violently that her abs – actually, every muscle in her whole body – hurt once the most desperate part of the seemingly never-ending fit began tapering off, and she was drippy, and everything itched.

That’s when Linda pulled into the driveway. A minute or two at the most, and she would be inside, and Savannah scrambled to suppress the remnants of the allergy attack, wipe her face, blow her nose – yeah, sorry hon, but your shirt is going in the laundry anyway – and try to get herself together.

Linda came inside, tossing her keys into the bowl on the kitchen island, and called out,

“Honey, I’m home! Wow, you’re cooking today?”

She heard Linda open the oven and then a squeal of approval – even in her dreadful state, that happy noise made her smile – and then how she began taking out plates to set the table.

“Babe, where are you?” Linda called.

Savannah stepped out of the laundry room, giving a sheepish wave.

“I’b here.”

“Whoa! What’s… uh…?”

Savannah’s entire face scrunched up in a desperate grimace as the urge to sneeze overtook her again. This time she got both hands up to her face and sneezed into them, capturing all the spray into her palms.

“IhhhDJSSSHHkk!-uhh… IISSSSHHHTT-TSSSSHEW!”

Linda’s jaw dropped.

“What the fuck, Annie?” She sounded shocked and worried but also a little bit amused. Okay, quite a bit. Well, to be honest, she had a hard time concealing the grin that wanted to spread over her face. “Bless you… what’s…?”

“I thigk I’b allergic to the dew lauddry detergedt.”

“Oh.” Linda brought a hand up to her lips, struggling to hide her amusement.

“You bay laugh, it is pretty fuddy,” Savannah said, although she didn’t think it was that funny at all. But Linda was amused. She roared with laughter. Savannah would’ve felt offended, at least somewhat, if Linda hadn’t pulled her into her arms and hugged her, rubbing her back soothingly, but she did do that, and it felt good.

“Babygirl,” Linda mumbled affectionately as she ran her fingers through her partner’s auburn hair, “I’ll do the laundry, don’t sweat it. It’s fine.”

“Cad we please buy the regular detergedt dext tibe?”

“I’ll pick some up tomorrow,” Linda promised.

Savannah sneezed again, soaking the front of Linda’s shirt where she’d buried her face.

“Sorry. Ugh, I thigk I got sdot od you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Linda said, still chuckling a little, “I probably deserved that for not consulting your nose before I got a different kind of detergent.”

Yeah. If she was completely honest, Savannah sort of agreed with that.

 

 

[ID2006]

Very cute

[poiub]

lovely story!

[Cedar]

This is so cute!

[pepperbreeze]

Such a fun scenario, these character's chemistry gives them a really sweet intimacy.

This one absolutely melted me.

[Chanel_no5]

On 12/6/2022 at 1:20 PM, pepperbreeze said:

Such a fun scenario, these character's chemistry gives them a really sweet intimacy.

This one absolutely melted me.

Thank you so much!  I'm glad you like it! I have way too much fun writing them too, they really are sweet together.  

On 12/5/2022 at 5:56 PM, Cedar said:

This is so cute!

Thank you!  

On 12/5/2022 at 9:44 AM, poiub said:

lovely story!

Thank you so much!

On 12/5/2022 at 7:16 AM, ID2006 said:

Very cute

Thank you!  

 

[farre385]

LOVE THIS I'm a huge fan of scent sensitivity

[kiku]

Mhhmmmm lovely! 😊 I totally melt away reading the description of Savannah's very sneezy reaction to the new laundry detergent...

[AntheaHolmes]

Lovely story. Very cute and funny