Winter cold (M, friend group, university setting)

[Sophie<3]

Hello! 

I am currently writing a novel involving these characters and as such, I am slightly obsessed with them. The novel is 100% vanilla (so I can share it with friends if I want to), but to keep myself entertained, I also really like to write sickfic with these characters. 

By the way, I feel that my writing conforms to a very particular niche, namely: close friend groups (found family?), group caretaking, uni settings, living together, always a bit of banter, often (but not always) fairly mild illness, authenticity regarding how the illness is handled (i.e., the appropriate casualness when it's literally just a cold, which for some reason I absolutely adore <3)

By the time this story takes place, the characters have been friends for 1.5 years and are living in a house together. I'm hoping the characterisation will be evident from the story itself, but to give you a brief idea:

William/Will: main character in this story, West London boy, went to boarding school, very handsome with blonde hair and blue-grey eyes, much nicer of a person than people expect based on those facts, a bit misunderstood
Harper: the loudest one in the group, very opinionated, frequent back-and-forth with Oscar and at times Will, attractive and makes that work in her favour
Oscar: always down to bully Harper (and be bullied by her; don't worry, they love each other), deep down also sweeter than people realise
Isla: the enigmatic one, terrifyingly intelligent but knows how to hide the extent of it, loves her friends to the point of obsession, pretty but has no use for being pretty
Zayne: parental figure of the group, the only sensible one (besides Isla), also quite intelligent and very studious, incredibly caring person who his friends can always rely on
Livie: painfully shy but can form a sentence without blushing among her friends, also from a very privileged background and not always super conscious of that, not quite as clever as the others and struggles with course work sometimes, appreciates Isla's unwavering support since they're on the same course, (secretly in unrequited love with Will, oops)

Alright, not sure that did them justice.  But anyway. Let me know what you think because I have lots more with these guys and I am willing to write lots more. 
 

 

It was freezing, but nonetheless they were on their way to the bridge; hats pulled over ears, numb fingers covered by gloves or pulled-down sleeves. Harper and Livie’s enthusiasm and their excited insistence that “It might snow!” was what had swayed the others, though Will, for one, was beginning to regret his decision. Not only did it feel like the cold had seeped into his bones and made a home for itself there, the chilly air was also making his otherwise blocked nose run, necessitating constant sniffles or wipes with the one tissue he had brought with him.

As so often, Harper was the energetic centre of the group, going on and on about a boy from her course whom she hated. “He’s awful, and rich like you, Will, but worse because at least you are self-aware.”

In response to that, Will only gave a tired salute as if to say, That’s me; privileged but self-aware.

               “The other day, we were talking after our seminar – and honestly, I have no idea why he was even talking to me, does he not realise that I hate him? – anyway, we were talking and he asked me unironically what my favourite place in Italy was!”

               So?, Will thought, not seeing what was so terrible about that seemingly innocuous question but knowing better than to say it out loud. He wasn’t in the constitution to go head to head with Harper. He was barely in the constitution to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

               “So?”, asked Livie innocently, echoing his thought and causing Will to turn his head to the side to hide his smile.

               “So?! Hello, Livie, prior to meeting Will I had never been outside of the bloody UK! We can’t all be taking trips to the continent every summer now, can we?”

               “Oh gosh, sorry, Harper, I didn’t think–”

               “Neither did he. Which is exactly what I mean about him.” Rather than berating Livie any further for her ignorance, Harper segued into a monologue about the wider issue of the ever-present class struggle. Will tuned her out. His head was pounding, the perpetual sniffle was annoying him, and walking was requiring a lot more effort than it had any right to. When a sudden, forceful sneeze took him by surprise, he stumbled.

               “Perhaps just try to ignore him?”, Isla suggested to Harper but without much hope in her voice.

               “Ah, she secretly enjoys him winding her up”, Oscar said. “Gives her an outlet for all that undirected energy.”

They had reached a street and, with a persistent and growing tickle in his sinuses, Will hurried across it before the next car could approach. He pressed his knuckles against his nose, willing the feeling away, but instead his breaths grew shaky until finally his head snapped forward. “heh’ISHh’eh!” Four seconds of build-up, then the second sneeze broke forth, tearing painfully at his throat. “hhh’TChhiew!”

               “–just oblivious to – bless you! – his own privilege, I mean completely blind to it.”

               “Thanks.” Will cringed at how terrible his voice sounded. He searched his pockets for the crumpled-up tissue, then, when he had found it, gave his nose a blow that did absolutely nothing to alleviate his congestion.

Walking had become so incredibly difficult. Why, he wondered faintly, should walking be this bloody difficult? Was walking usually this difficult?

He took care to pull his sleeves further down over his fingers. They felt numb from the cold, skin breaking.

               “Oh, yeah, and he loves skiing, because of course he does.”

               “I like skiing”, Livie said with a faint trace of protest in her voice.

               “It’s not about the activity itself, it’s about the casualness, the taken-for-grantedness!”

To his annoyance, Will noticed that the tickle in his nose had already started up again. With him, there were only two ends of the spectrum. Either the sneeze came on very quickly, usually taking him by surprise and hardly leaving him time to cover, or the process of getting it out was laborious, aggravating. This was one of the latter cases, it seemed. At some point, when he was only able to take quick, shallow breaths yet still the feeling never grew quite strong enough to push him over the edge, he simply had to pause and stand there, with his head titled back, waiting. As if all it had taken was him giving the ticklish feeling the proper attention, he was finally able to sneeze into his coat sleeve. Somehow, it sounded as exhausted as he was feeling.

               “Bless you. Keep walking, though. We’re almost there”, Harper said while Oscar gave him a slightly awkward pat on the back.

It was true, they weren’t far from the bridge now, but the tickle seemed to have migrated into his throat, causing Will to cough into his fist. Now, Harper took note and turned over her shoulder to look at him. “Fuck. Did your cough get worse?”

Will opened his mouth to reply, but the first syllable he spoke triggered a new coughing fit, painful and rough-sounding. Zayne, two steps away, was frowning at him. “That honestly sounds terrible.”

Will tried to take one breath through his stuffy nose, failed, then took a breath through his mouth instead, which instantly set off another round of coughing.

               “My God.” Harper gave him a look of mild horror. “Thought you were getting over this cold?”

He shrugged miserably. “So did I. But evi… evidently… hh… hhh… hhhhh… hk’TCHHuh!”

His right hand was covering the lower half of his face, and he kept his eyes closed for a moment, but when he opened them again, dropping his arm, he noticed that everyone had stopped walking and was looking at him.

               “Do you feel like you’re running a temperature?”, Isla asked, regarding him intently.

               “You’re shivering”, Livie whispered and when he looked down at his hands, sure enough, they were shaking. He was also using his jaw muscles to keep his teeth from chattering.

               “Um.” Will sniffled. He wished he could just breathe freely. “Could be. I’m not sure.”

He felt his own cheek with the back of his curled-up hand and recoiled; his fingers were so icy.

               “Here, let me”, Isla said and pulled off one of her light-grey gloves. Though not as cold as his, her hand on his forehead was also quite cool, enough to send a shiver down his spine.

               “Hm. I think you do have a temperature, Will”, she said, looking at him with compassion. Rather than respond, all he could do was quickly turn away from her when he felt another bout of coughing come on.

               “It literally sounds like you are about to cough up your own lungs”, Harper remarked, again with that strange mixture of concern and horrified fascination.

               “I am fucking freezing”, Will managed when the cough had finally loosened its grip on him.

               “We should just head home”, Zayne said, turning over his shoulder to look at where they had come from. “It’s a long walk and Will clearly isn’t well.”

               “Oh, but it’s not far to the bridge now, come on!”, Harper exclaimed. “I mean, it’s just a cold, right, Will? You’re not that ill.”

Will made another sad attempt at blowing his clogged nose, which triggered one of the sudden sneezes. “huh’tshhew!” The harshness of it hurt his throat, which resulted in more helpless coughing. His symptoms were like goddamn domino pieces, he thought.

               “Come on, Harper, the man is the answer to the question: ‘What if a Lemsip advert took on human form?’”, Oscar said, giving Will a doubtful look. “Let’s just…”

               “It’s what, like, two minutes away? Will, you can walk that far, right?”

He sniffed and shrugged. “I guess.”

               “Good man. Come on, people!”

So Will trudged along, trying to get the shivering under control and still the permanent scratching feeling in his throat by swallowing a lot (though the swallowing itself hurt and his method proofed ultimately ineffective). When the bridge finally came into view, he felt relieved.

It did look beautiful in winter, just like Livie had said, majestic, standing out in sharp contrast to the milky-white sky.

               “Gorgeous”, Livie smiled.

               “See, the view was worth it, wasn’t it”, Harper said in a voice much softer than her usual speaking voice and with an expression of something like awe on her face.

               “Let’s take a photo!”, Oscar suggested then, enthusiastically, and fished his phone out of his pocket. “Here, Zayne, you take it. You’re the tallest and you have the longest arms.”

               “Thanks?”

               “Just stating facts.”

Taking a group selfie with the bridge in the background proofed more difficult than anticipated not because Zayne was struggling to get them all into the frame but because Will had to sneeze twice in the exact second Zayne took the photo. When they finally managed it on the third or fourth attempt, Will didn’t even care to find out whether he looked as miserable in the picture as he felt.

He snuffled behind his sleeved hand, then noticed Oscar giving him the once over. “Like Harper said. I thought you were getting over this cold? It’s what, day three, day four?”

Will had no idea. “Not sure. I just know that somehow it got worse.”

               “Yeah, you’re like, deteriorating.”

He had to cough again. “Honestly?” He looked around, searching for one of their faces but not sure whose and wanting to reach out but not sure for what. “I feel super strange. Everything just feels… off. Like déjà vu or something, I don’t know.”

               “Déjà vu of when you had fresher’s flu”, said Harper, as if that settled it.

               “No, it’s… hhh’TCHuh! Excuse me. It’s more like everything feels surreal somehow.”

               “That’s from having a temperature, darling”, Isla put forward with pity and warmth.

               “God, you’re shivering! Here, have my gloves”, Zayne said and began pulling one off.

               “No, Zayne, no, I’m going to sneeze on them, you don’t want–”

               “It’s fine, I promise. Here.”

               “You sure?”

               “Yes.”

Gratefully, Will accepted Zayne’s offer and pulled the gloves over his hands.

               “Oh my God”, Harper suddenly whispered, tilting her head back to look up at the sky with stunned admiration. “Look!” Now, she was yelling excitedly. “It’s snowing! It’s actually snowing!”

Will titled his head back as well and for a second, the world went sideways and when he took a step, his foot caught on something and he tripped, only able to catch himself by grabbing Oscar’s arm. Harper was right, though. The softest, tiniest flurries had appeared in the sky, like light bits of ash or dandelion fluff, and they were descending to earth in an incredibly slow and delicate dance.

               “Wow”, Livie said, her eyes gleaming, and Harper put out her arms and spun slowly on her own axis, staring up into the sky and trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

They remained like that for a moment, looking down to the river and the winding street, over at the mighty bridge, then up into the sky again, to the swirling snowflakes.

Will noticed that he was beginning to shiver more violently, something that didn’t escape Harper’s notice either.

               “Ah, shit, come here”, she said and pulled him into an unexpected hug. The pressure on his lungs made him cough again and to his surprise, she didn’t jump back in disgust, only gave him an affectionate look, and reached up to pull his hat down further over his ears. “You are really ill, aren’t you?”

When he shrugged, she briefly touched the back of her hand to his forehead and said “God, you’re burning” under her breath.

               “The snow’s nice, though”, he mumbled, making her laugh and causing Livie to give him a sweet little smile.

               “Okay, let’s get Will home”, Isla said then, and after a slight delay, a few more moments taking in the snow flurries falling onto the bridge and down into the open mouth of the ravine, they tore themselves away and started walking again, decisively, towards home.

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Sophie<3

[Catsgotyourtounge]

This was amazing please continue!!

[RipleyToo]

Please do continue! Will the others catch his cold also? I’d love to see Zayne catch it, deny it and hide it from his friends 🥰 

[Sophie<3]

@Catsgotyourtounge and @RipleyToo Thank you so much, glad you liked it! However, this was meant to be a short story/oneshot, so I don't think I will continue it. I definitely should have clarified that before, sorry! 

[RipleyToo]

32 minutes ago, Sophie&lt;3 said:

@Catsgotyourtounge and @RipleyToo Thank you so much, glad you liked it! However, this was meant to be a short story/oneshot, so I don't think I will continue it. I definitely should have clarified that before, sorry! 

Darn! It was an amazing story nothing-less! Hopefully you’ll write about them again in the future  

[hellopeople123]

Oh this should definitely continue! 

[metroreality]

I love these characters!! I’m such a sucker for the found family trope 🥰

[Sophie<3]

@hellopeople123 Not this one, sorry! But glad you liked it 😊

@metroreality Aw, thank you so much! So am I! 🥰