#ngaeoc

a/n: Just a little blurb from a longer fic. It's a flashback that works as a stand alone. Each character is of age of consent. It's sliiightly different from the main fic it's from because I went and revised it to work better for my main fic. word count: 610

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The first time he saw Draco sneeze was before they dated. They managed to get detention together after being scolded for trying to hex each other as 6th years. The two of them barely knew each other, but got into a scuffle over something so stupid that they couldn’t even remember what started the fight. Their punishment was to clean the storage closet in the Charms classroom. No magic, no potions, just a broom, dust rag, and dustpan. 

Nico had gotten quite a pile of dust collected into his dustpan while sweeping the shelves off. While walking over the waste bin, he tripped over Draco’s broom, tumbling onto the ground with a hard thud and a crack. He yelped in pain, hands instantly grabbing  his now bloodied chin. The dustpan was completely forgotten and hit the ground, sending a poof of dust into the air. 

“You bloody dimwit! Now there’s even m-more du–hhhhst to snf snf to clean uhhh–up!” Draco’s gaze became unfocused, his nose scrunched up and he slowly brought his elbow up to his face. Nico sat up on the floor, hands still clutching his chin, but caught in a daze while watching Draco lose control of his nose. 

“Thh–that was a lot hHHh..of d-duhH’HMPHFSH!! eH’HFSHH! F-fucking hehH’MPSHH! –PshH! –hH’PHSHH! ehH’MFF’Shiewww–!” Draco sneezed and sneezed into the crook of his elbow, only slightly bending at the waist from the force of the fit. Nico watched in awe. The Slytherin Prince, reduced to an itchy, watery, sneeze fit from a cloud of dust. 

Nico took one hand off his chin and reached into his pocket to pull out a spare handkerchief. He finally stood up in order to offer his handkerchief, as he did not think Draco would even notice it with his eyes screwed shut and nose buried in his elbow.

Nico carefully pressed the handkerchief on the top of Draco’s nose. Draco’s eyes squinted open, then he quickly pinched his nose into the cloth. “hH’NGxt–! n’Gxt–! ‘ngT’ngt’hHh’GXsht–!!  h’GXtch! hahhH…hH’HGXSHT!” With one last harsh stifle he gave a hard couple blows into the handkerchief, his nose seemingly calming down after that. 

“Sorry Malfoy. Didn’t mean to make your nose explode like that,” Nico chuckled as Draco gave a slight glare, his eyes peeking over the top of the handkerchief still. Draco was about to berate him about being more cautious of his surroundings when he noticed a look of discomfort on Nico’s face. “Are you alright?” He asked a bit harsher than intended.

“Hm? Oh, I’m um– yeah I’m fine,” Nico’s weak smile was clearly forced and a look of pain came over his face when he did so. Draco glared again and Nico’s smile dropped at this. “Okay, you caught me. I heard my chin crack when I face planted into the floor.” He replied with slight amusement in his voice. Draco sighed and grabbed Nico’s arm to lower his hand from his injured chin.

“You should go to Madame Pomfrey.” He stated as a matter of factly. Now it was Nico’s turn to sigh.

“We have to finish dusting first though… won’t we get in trouble for this?” Nico desperately wished to go get this healed, as he didn’t have his wand to heal it himself. Though he didn’t want to be sentenced to more detention for leaving early. 

“I’ll cover for you. Your wound needs treatment,” Draco glanced over his shoulder to the door, “This will take at least another hour. Just hurry back as soon as you're done there.” Nico nodded reluctantly, but his face was full of gratitude.

“Thanks Malfoy, I promise, I’ll be right back.”