Summer Colds And Freshly Cut Grass (female, cold + allergies, F/F)

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

So, things have been really rough for a while. Full story under spoiler. 

Spoiler

Life was already tough as it as, then I was off my meds and couldn't get hold of a doctor to renew them, so I first had to go through withdrawals, which were brutal, and then go back to my unmedicated state which is a bottomless dark abyss. And then I got my meds back finally, but then my cat developed a huge lump on his face out of the blue, and I had to scramble to find someone I could borrow money from to pay a vet, but I've solved that now - in case it's not a crazy expensive diagnosis/treatment because God help me then - so he has a vet appointment Tuesday. I really hope they won't find anything concerning; he's a very senior cat but I'm really not ready to let him go yet. 😭 (the vet wasn't too concerned over the phone, thankfully, apart from the very prominent visual appearance, it doesn't seem to bother Mr Cat at all. He eats, grooms himself, purrs, plays, cuddles, bosses me around, all in all is his usual obnoxious and wonderful self, so that is a relief, but I'm still worried, because, well... I love him).

Either way, after the past weeks of ordeals I'm inching back to writing. I feel very scatter-brained and still emotionally all over the place, so the quality might be so-and-so, but I'm back and trying to fulfill some requests and trades at least. 🤷‍♀️

 

***

It was late July and a potent, sharp yet sweet scent of freshly cut grass permeated the afternoon haze in the sleepy suburban area. The temperatures had been soaring the past few days and the sky had remained cloudless and rainless. The air was filled with dust and pollen, and a thousand rivalling scents from a plethora of flowering plants around the neighbourhood.

It was a lovely summer afternoon, perfect to sit outside and soak up the sun while waiting for the right time to start the barbecue, and that was exactly what Linda was doing, stretched out in sunchair, wearing a black halterneck bikini top and a pair of neon-pink hotpants.

Savannah stepped out on the back patio, unlike Linda she was bundled up in oversized knitted sweater and black slacks. Her auburn hair, bleached to a light strawberry-blonde from hours in the summer sun, was collected into a messy ponytail, her freckled skin paler than usual but with dark circles around her eyes and reddish spots glowing on her cheeks. Her mouth was wide open because that was the only way she could breathe; her nose was so thoroughly clogged up from the nasty summer cold she’d suffered from the past five-six days or so. Her beautifully shaped nostrils were a deep burgundy, and their edges chapped, her upper lip was chapped as well, and her chest was filled with congestion just about ready to loosen its grip on her. She had been coughing all night, until she had finally taken some of the really heavy-duty medication that she, as a doctor, had access to but didn’t want to use. Last night had been so bad however, that she didn’t see a choice.

Linda, feeling a bit guilty for giving her wife this nightmare cold in the first place – though it hadn’t been that bad when she hosted the infection the week before Savannah’s throat had started to ache – sat up and turned around just in time to get a full view of her wife giving in to the cold-induced prickle in her nose.

“HehhGGTSSSHHIEW!”

Savannah tried to cover the sneeze, but the fuzzy congested cold feeling made her feel sluggish and foggy, and the raised hand wasn’t exactly containing anything, she just sneezed all over her hand and arm and some spray landed on Linda as well. Linda discreetly wiped it off her neck and shoulder before Savannah noticed; she didn’t want her to be embarrassed.

“Oh dear God,” Savannah muttered under her breath and gave a helplessly snotty sniffle, pressing her knuckles against her raw nostrils and blinked away some tears.

“Bless you, baby,” Linda mumbled, tipping her sunglasses down towards the tip of her nose so she could watch her wife above them. “Did you sleep at all?”

Savannah had reluctantly taken Linda’s advice to take a nap, but honestly she looked worse rather than better now.

“A little bit,” she said, which when translated from Savannah speak to real people estimates was probably about five minutes. Linda sighed and beckoned her closer, placing a hand on the other woman’s forehead.

“Ouch, I think you’re running a fever,” Linda said.

“Agaid?” Savannah groaned. “Oh for heaved’s sake, I thought I was over that.”

“Yeah… unless you’re getting a sinus infection too, you sure sound like it.”

“Great. Wodderful.” Savannah rolled her eyes and sat down in the other sunchair, sniffling so thickly it was more of a snort. “Bight as well kill be dow.”

“Someone’s being dramatic today,” Linda chuckled and stood up, placing a brief kiss on her wife’s forehead.

“Where are you going?” Savannah asked.

“I’m going to poison some tea and bring it to you, as per your explicit wishes,” Linda replied with a straight face.

Savannah laughed, the laugh turned into a raspy, chesty cough, and then into a sneeze, back into a cough. Linda shook her head, knowing she’d be stuck in that loop for a while, and went to make some tea. Sans poison, of course. But with tissues on the side.

Savannah leaned back and closed her eyes. She was tired enough that she should have been able to nap for hours, but the congestion was so thick and made her head feel so heavy, it was nearly impossible to fall asleep in the first place. She couldn’t smell anything, she was that blocked up.

Unfortunately, already being congested and sniffly didn’t mean that allergens wouldn’t get to her, and even if she couldn’t smell the heavy scent of freshly cut grass, her nose still reacted to it. Her eyes, already watery from the illness, began to itch. Her throat, raw from the coughing, began to prickle. And her poor nose, past the runny stage of the cold, suddenly started dripping again, a watery stream that was too intense to sniffle back, especially since she was so stuffed up she could barely sniffle in the first place.

The irritation in her nose, constant for the past few days, felt like she had gotten water up her nose. This new, extra irritation, the allergic one, added white-hot pins and barbs to the discomfort, and before she even knew it, she snapped forward with a sudden and very intense sneeze, immediately followed by three more.

“HaaaRSSHHHoo! Hah-! AhhESSSSHH! AaaISSSHHHEW-ISSSSHHH!”

This time, being outside and for the time being alone, she didn’t bother covering, just let the itchy, spraying sneezing fit out uninhibited.

The itch didn’t go away; it felt like it simply reloaded and came at her again, and she bent over, almost folding over her own lap, and sneezed helplessly again, over and over. Her body, desperate to get a cough out as well, completely revolted against her. Itchy, violent sneezes transforming into a thick, chesty cough and then back into messy sneezing fits again, she couldn’t do anything but to surrender.

Linda had heard this unusually intense fit of, well, everything, and came outside to check on her wife.

Savannah was a complete mess, dripping with snot and tears, and either coughing, sneezing, or both at the same time. At first Linda was at a loss what had caused this; Savannah had had pretty intense coughing fits the past few days, and she had been sneezing a lot too, but this was definitely out of the ordinary. 

Then a light breeze carrying the sharp, green scent of freshly cut grass hit Linda in the face. Since she didn’t have any allergies herself, she didn’t always connect this lovely scent with sneezing, and hadn’t even considered it when Savannah first stepped outside. And Savannah of course must be way too congested to smell it herself and know in advance what was about to hit her.

“Okay babycakes, let’s get you away from all the allergens,” Linda said and helped her wife get up.

“I c-cahh… can’t…. ehhhISSSHHH! EEEEIIISSSSHHHEW! Stop… ugh, what the hell is going on? HaaaISSSSHHHoo!”

“It’s okay, someone mowed the lawn,” Linda said. “You probably couldn’t feel the scent.”

“AaaaDJESSSHHHuh! Oh Jesus Ch-christ… ahhhESSSSHHH!…”

“Don’t drag that poor guy into this,” Linda grunted and Savannah let out a breathless laughter, sprinkled with hitches and then dissolving into another raspy coughing fit.

By the time Linda had guided her coughing and sneezing wife to the living room couch, Savannah had more or less regained control over herself. It was a brittle control, but for now it held.

Linda closed the door and plopped down on the couch next to her wife.

“Whoa, that was pretty intense.”

Savannah gave her a watery-eyed glare, but miserable as she felt, it was not completely devoid of humour.

“You thigk?”

“Oh, I don’t think, I know.” Linda chuckled. “Sit tight, Red, I’ll get you some tissues.”

“You thigk ‘sobe tissues’ will be edough to deal with this? HehhhGTSSHKK!”

“Point taken, I’ll get a towel.” She got up from the couch and kissed Savannah’s cheek. The redhead recoiled.

“Aren’t you put off by this?”

“Believe me honey, you can never ‘put me off’. I love you. Snotty disaster zone or not.”

“Oh that’s dice, thag you.”

Linda grinned.

“I said I love you before I called you that.”

Savannah chuckled, it was a wheezy chuckle but at least it didn’t turn into another coughing fit.

“I love you too.”

 

 

[Italiangirl]

Amazing story as always, @Chanel_no5! 🥰🥰

You're really good at describing the thick, overwhelming congestion that comes with a nasty cold and the spelled sneezes were just the cherry on top! 😍😍

Thanks for sharing! 😊😊

[poiub]

Wonderful little story!

Hope the IRL stuff works out okay 💜

Edited September 25, 2023 by poiub

[Chanel_no5]

On 9/25/2023 at 1:24 AM, Italiangirl said:

Amazing story as always, @Chanel_no5! 🥰🥰

You're really good at describing the thick, overwhelming congestion that comes with a nasty cold and the spelled sneezes were just the cherry on top! 😍😍

Thanks for sharing! 😊😊

Thank you so much! Usually I prefer to keep allergies and colds separate, buuuuuut sometimes I guess it's a good thing to try a mix. I don't really have allergies myself (I mean I guess I kind of do since I turned 30, but it's just dry/itchy throat and eyes, no nose symptoms), so I don't know first-hand if there's a difference between the congestion from a cold and allergies, but I used to have a friend who had really bad grass allergies and she said that the difference for her was that allergy congestion felt "dry" and cold congestion felt "wet", but in a thick way, like thick but not yet dried cement. It was so depressing how that girl's sneezes did nothing for me because she always said such fetish-friendly things.  

On 9/25/2023 at 7:47 AM, poiub said:

Wonderful little story!

Hope the IRL stuff works out okay 💜

Thank you so much! Yes it did so far, Mr Cat is home wearing the cone of shame and on a course of antibiotics, but he is home and it didn't even get as expensive as I feared. 🥰

 

[Italiangirl]

22 minutes ago, Chanel_no5 said:

Thank you so much! Usually I prefer to keep allergies and colds separate, buuuuuut sometimes I guess it's a good thing to try a mix. I don't really have allergies myself (I mean I guess I kind of do since I turned 30, but it's just dry/itchy throat and eyes, no nose symptoms), so I don't know first-hand if there's a difference between the congestion from a cold and allergies, but I used to have a friend who had really bad grass allergies and she said that the difference for her was that allergy congestion felt "dry" and cold congestion felt "wet", but in a thick way, like thick but not yet dried cement. It was so depressing how that girl's sneezes did nothing for me because she always said such fetish-friendly things.  

Thank you so much! Yes it did so far, Mr Cat is home wearing the cone of shame and on a course of antibiotics, but he is home and it didn't even get as expensive as I feared. 🥰

 

You're welcome and I'm glad the irl stuff worked out! 🥰🥰

What your friend said is interesting because it's different for me!

The congestion I get with a cold is very thick and it feels like my sinuses are stuffed with (dried) cement, while the congestion I get from allergy is less overwhelming, less "intense" and it feels less thick. 

 

[maddragon]

Lovely. Just splendid.

[MIN]

So glad everything worked out irl 🫶 Beautifully written as always Chanel 😍

[Chanel_no5]

On 9/27/2023 at 1:45 PM, Italiangirl said:

You're welcome and I'm glad the irl stuff worked out! 🥰🥰

What your friend said is interesting because it's different for me!

The congestion I get with a cold is very thick and it feels like my sinuses are stuffed with (dried) cement, while the congestion I get from allergy is less overwhelming, less "intense" and it feels less thick. 

 

That's interesting, I guess we all experience things in our own way but there's still usually something distinctly different between the two that you can tell which it is. Really cool. I think in general that Linda is better at picking up the signs of cold vs allergies when it comes to what ails Savannah than she is herself, but I think that's probably more because whichever it is she'll be in denial about it as long as she can, and/or too distracted by important things to really notice anything's wrong with her.  

On 9/27/2023 at 8:49 PM, maddragon said:

Lovely. Just splendid.

Thank you so much! 

On 9/27/2023 at 11:21 PM, MIN said:

So glad everything worked out irl 🫶 Beautifully written as always Chanel 😍

Not fully worked out yet, but in a much better position than I was the other day, so that's a huge relief.   I should be back in business with that trade fic soon, too. Thank you so much! I was really not confident about this fic at all, so I'm very glad (and relieved) that you liked it!  

 

[Alexmeiai774]

I hope the irl stuff continues to work itself out! Thank you for the lovely story

[MIN]

22 hours ago, Pumpkin_no5 said:

Not fully worked out yet, but in a much better position than I was the other day, so that's a huge relief.   I should be back in business with that trade fic soon, too. Thank you so much! I was really not confident about this fic at all, so I'm very glad (and relieved) that you liked it!  

 

You wigged me out something chronic with the name and profile pic change 🤣 I was like pumpkin? 🤔🤔🤣

Good! I'm glad! I hope the rest of it gets sorted soon! Absolutely no rush, I've been rather similar irl with the spicy sads the last couple weeks, but I'm slowly knocking out that lil extra for you! 🫶 

Hope the response has given you a bit more confidence to write similar in the future! I've just re read it, I was in need of some comfort! 😄

[sneezemeister]

This was great!

I'm sorry things have been tough for you irl lately. I hope things will be looking up soon!