#oc lor

Shit, shit, he needed to cool it. Piper still slept soundly with her head in his lap. The last thing he needed was for his needy cock to stir her. 

They’d had a few conversations on the topic since then. None that lasted long, before Lor felt too shy to continue. Piper never rushed him. She simply made sure he always knew that she was 100% ready whenever he wanted to explore this fascination together. 

“Surprise me, Sheldon. I’m up for anything. You’re in charge.” 

Woah, fuck, why did that turn him on so much every time he remembered it? 

Piper would answer favorably if he were able to ask her permission. No doubt in his mind about it. There would be zero hesitation. So it would be…okay, right? To just do it? 

He swallowed, the light of the television casting shadows around the room. He had to get Piper’s head out of his lap, anyway, right? She never wanted to stay on the couch too long after falling asleep. They both always seemed to sleep better when they drifted off in each other’s arms in bed. They woke up apart, reliably, but that much-needed intimacy while fading into sleep was…also intoxicating. Still foreign to the both of them, certainly, but also welcoming and comfortable. Safe. Loving. Home.

Yeah. Yeah, she’d want him to make a move. 

Lor took a deep breath before beginning.

He started by lightly setting an index finger on her pointed nose. Piper simply continued to breathe in and out steadily as she lay facing the television. With a little more pressure, her nose started to scrunch. Piper sniffed once, nestling her temple into his thigh. Fuck, she was cute.

Lor swallowed, watching to see if she was stirring awake. Weed typically turned her into a pretty deep sleeper, but he was too paranoid not to check. Once Lor was satisfied with the low rumble of her snore, he continued. 

He rubbed the tip of her nose in small, slow circles. Fuck, okay, he was already sweaty just watching the way her nostrils moved with the teasing little pushes. He added a touch more pressure when Piper seemed unbothered. Hmm. Okay. Rubbing wasn’t all that effective, was it? Maybe…something else? External?

Lor glanced around at his surroundings before his eyes settled on the down blanket draped over Piper’s sleeping form. Perfect. He already saw the quill of a feather waiting to be pulled out of one slight snag in the fabric.

Lor pinched the quill and eased it out of the pillow. Ohhhkay, it was lengthy and perfectly fluffy. His stomach gave a flustered little flip at the sheer mental image of each delicate little tuft brushing against the equally delicate inner walls of Piper’s--

Hoooooo, fuck. Focus on the mission, Sheldon.

 After tracing around Piper’s nostrils a few times, Lor watched carefully to gauge a reaction. Again, she mostly sniffled and scrunched her nose. It wasn’t until he took a deep breath and managed to ease the feather into her nose that Piper’s nostrils flared in response to the stroke of afterfeather. Oh. Not only did her nostrils flare, they goddamn quivered. 

Piper sniffled sharply. Made a little noise in the back of her throat. Her hand moved. Lor pulled the feather out of her nose just before Piper could knuckle at her nostrils. He supposed the way the feather brushed the walls of her nose on the way out wasn’t helping things, judging by the little snag of her breath. 

She grumbled, now half-asleep as she rubbed at her nose. It didn’t seem like Piper was aware of Lor’s intervention, but he held his breath, anyway. 

Piper’s lashes fluttered, but she didn’t fully open her eyes in the light of the television. She stopped scrubbing so aggressively at her nose, but the back of her hand now lingered a few inches before her face. She sniffled with mounting congestion, nostrils now a quivering pink. She breathed in slow, sleepy pants. 

He tried again. Piper reacted sooner this time, almost the exact moment that the tender feather stroked at her septum. One nostril scrunched with a snort as she murmured wordlessly. Piper pressed the back of her hand to the underside of her nose, scrubbing and scrubbing until Lor heard a truly shiver-worthy squelch. When she lowered her arm, there was a streak of dampness on the back of her hand. Lor fought an eager little squirm at the very vision. 

Gauging how far he could go this time, Lor once more considered his options as Piper settled again. Even as she rested comfortably beneath the quilt, her nostrils still scrunched and spasmed with sniffly breaths. 

….Huh. 

He moved slowly, carefully, to give Piper’s nostrils a light pinch with his thumb and index finger. Lor’s stomach dropped pleasantly, as if he were on the best roller coaster of his life, when Piper’s nostrils fought to flare against his fingertips. He didn’t budge. She took in a truly nostril-quaking sniffle in response, eyebrows beginning to knit together.

Nostril-quaking. Jesus, he was going to have to incorporate that one into his internal Horny Lexicon. 

Piper’s breath finally started to snag, now that her nostrils weren’t allowed to squirm out of her control. That tickle progressed rapidly before his eyes.

This was the greatest idea of his life. 

Lor eased his fingers off of Piper’s reddened nostrils. They immediately widened, taking up as much space as they could. Though her nostrils had as much freedom to quiver as possible, the damage had been done. Lor watched for several beats, waiting until the perfect moment to give the underside of Piper’s nose one slooooow stroke with the feather.

That pushed her over the edge. She convulsed with a sneeze covered by nothing but the back of her hand at a distance. Piper’s head bounced slightly in Lor’s lap as her whole body shuddered, buckling into itself. “Hed’DTSCHH’ooh!!”

Lor’s stomach flipped at the vision of a fine mist bursting from her urged nose. Jesus, he could write an entire thesis on the way the sheer strength of that sneeze was increased by her nose’s initial resistance alone. Piper took in one gulping breath before sneezing again, completely uncovered this time, nostrils shuddering out another expulsion of mist. 

Piper let out the littlest moan of relief after that second sneeze tumbled out of her. She fanned lazily beneath her nose, using the same hand that she had just sneezed against. Piper sniffled and finally opened her eyes. Her gaze was fixed on the television for several moments before she sneezed again, taunted by the glow of the screen. “Addh’DTSHH! Hh…hh! HuhHHD’schoo!”

“Bless you…” Lor said quietly, cheeks burning. He could lean over to the end table to grab the box of tissues, but the thought didn’t even occur to him. At the moment, he was nothing but thoroughly enchanted with the way Piper’s nose just…moved. When she sneezed. When she was gearing up for or recovering from a sneeze. When she was just relaxed enough with him to be so comfortable with letting her nose control her for a moment. 

Piper didn’t say anything straight away. She started to ease up from her place on the couch, letting out one uncovered sneeze halfway through the process. F-Fuck, the mist of that sneeze in the light of the television was mesmerizing, wasn’t it? 

Piper took in two rapid, gambling hitches as another sneeze crept up on her. Oh. Oh, she just wasn’t stopping. This time, Piper was able to yank the collar of her shirt over her nose. She kept herself steady with one arm on the couch, but was promptly knocked off-kilter when she sneezed damply into her shirt. Lor wrapped both arms around Piper’s torso, keeping her as steady as possible. He leaned back into the couch, bringing Piper with him. 

“Bless you,” Lor breathed, blinking at Piper in a lovestruck gaze. Feelings of affection and attraction flooded him as Lor dipped his head to set a kiss in Piper’s hair. “A lot. You okay, babe?”

“Mmm..sdf! Fuck, sorry…” she exhaled, finally managing to sit up fully on the couch. Lor dutifully let her go. Piper started to blink slowly, adjusting her eyes to the light. “Didn’t mean to sneeze like a spray bottle there. Jesus, I really needed that, though. My nose f-feels---sdf, ugh, I dunno…itchy….”

“I-It’s okay,” he answered too quickly. Lor gulped and fumbled for the tissue box on the table. “I don’t mind. I mean, you know I don’t, but…y’know.” 

Piper nodded, rubbing lazily beneath her nose. She seemed to be flaring her nostrils consciously, as if testing if there was another sneeze hidden anywhere. “Yeah, I do. I dunno, I dreamed something was…in my nose? And it tickled like a motherfuck, like a-...” 

She trailed off. Lor followed Piper’s gaze until it reached the feather that sat in his lap. Lor was quiet for several seconds before a low chuckle rumbled in Piper’s chest. She gave him a knowing little smirk as she reached for him. 

“Shel. You beautiful slut. Did you…?”

He felt like he was shrinking beneath her gaze. Lor gulped and glanced away, shame flooding every inch of him. “Um. I-I’m sorry. It was…”

“Hey, hey. Don’t be,” Piper hummed, reaching for him with ease. “That’s hot. Seriously. No idea you had it in you, Sheldon.” She snorted with laughter. This, apparently, stirred another tickle in her. Piper sniffled sharply, reaching to pinch at the freckled bridge of her nose. She massaged up and down. “Hoh, fuck. It’s right there.” Piper eased her free hand down to his thigh, delivering a squeeze to it. Her other hand continued to rub up and down the side of her nose with steady care.  

“...C-Can I help you?” Lor asked on a nervous breath. 

She gave him a slow, sexy bat of her eyelashes before her expression crumbled with a shaky hitch. The sneeze seemed to back off almost immediately, allowing Piper to scoot closer to him. Oh, fuck. Okay. Yeah. He could do this. Piper tilted her head back as she faced him, nostrils exposed perfectly to Lor. She moved closer to him on the couch, hand still in contact with his leg. He swallowed fiercely, enchanted with the way her nostrils squirmed and flared with each breath she took. Was she doing this on purpose? Or was this just naturally happening to her body? Both were incredibly sexy explanations. 

Lor set one hand on the small of Piper’s back before easing the feather back into her nostril. This just sent her nostrils quivering further. Her chest started to rise and fall at a faster pace than a moment ago. 

Lor didn’t stop. He continued to steadily twist it around in her right nostril. Her breath snagged as Piper gave her head a shallow nod. Okay. He could see it in her face. That tickled. He was--he was going to make her sneeze. And she was helping him do it. And she was okay with that. 

Piper let her head loll lazily to one side. Lor followed her motions with his hand, feather still held tight between his fingers. He carefully stroked down the inner walls of her nose before Piper let out a stuffy little chuckle. “Th-That feels kinda good, Lor...” 

“Y-Yeah?” Lor clarified, a smile starting to twitch at his lips. “Think I can…make it better?” 

Piper could only nod, jaw slack and nostrils squirming with an impending sneeze. He continued to give the inner walls of her right nostril taunting little strokes with the feather. It wasn’t until he started to ease the feather out of her nostril did she react with one heady, desperate hitch. Lor quickly released the feather, allowing it to linger in her full, damp nose. He then watched Piper shudder out a…truly unprecedented sneezing fit. 

The feather wasn’t completely expelled with her first sneeze. It was powerful, sure, and misted the front of Lor’s sweater, but the feather remained lodged in her overactive nose. In fact, the fourth sneeze of the fit was what finally expelled the feather from her nostril. It lay, damp and useless on Lor’s thigh. 

Piper let out a quivered little breath, nose scrunching with a much-needed sniffle.

“Bless you,” Lor said on a weak exhale as Piper started to clean up the underside of her nose with a group of hastily grabbed tissues. She tossed them carelessly to the floor without a second thought once her nose was somewhat tidier. 

Her nose, clearly, wasn’t quite finished with her yet. She sneezed again, disastrously, as soon as she threw the tissues aside. Piper gave one stuffy groan. She gazed at him through eyelashes heavy in maroon glitter from the day. “Hey, Sheldon,” she breathed, nostrils flaring with a lazy inhale. “You….sdf! You still wanna shower before bed?” 

Lor didn’t even question her motivation for this seemingly unrelated question. He just nodded, eyes fixated on her nostrils. 

 “Good.” Without looking away from Lor, she drew the bottom of his sweater up until it lingered just before her nose. He shivered, both at the sudden chill on his abdomen as well as the vision of Piper’s nose hovering desperately above the fabric of his turtleneck. That he was wearing. Right now. 

Again, Piper’s nostrils fluttered. Her chest rose and fell with taunting hitches. Fuck, she had to sneeze. She had to sneeze so badly, didn’t she? He wanted her more than anything.

Piper buckled into his sweater with a sneeze. Oh--and then another. She let out this lasting moan of a hitch that Lor knew was added dramatics. He didn’t mind. He liked that she was adding dramatics for him. That kinda made this even better, right? That she was so excited to tease him? Jesus, and tease she did.

She took in a slow, testing breath through her nose. When she didn’t immediately sneeze, Piper rutted her nose into his sweater, rubbing with quiet desperation. After several seconds of this, Piper groaned and dropped his sweater. Instead, she leaned forward to trail her nose along his jawline. Fuck, the tip of it was still damp.

“I still have to sneeze…” she murmured, starting to kiss at his neck. Almost instantly after, she leaned back with a gasping snag to her breath. “Hh! Hhh--!” He’d have to take this sweater off in a moment, right? 

Folding the sleeve of the oversized sweater over his hand, Lor pressed it right beneath Piper’s nose. There was no hesitation on Piper’s part as she clamped his hand firmly over his. She shuddered out a muffled sneeze. 

Yeah, he was hard. He was very, very hard. 

A moment later, Piper left out three more rapid sneezes into the fabric. They all sounded absolutely desperate, even while being quieted by his sleeve. Lor’s breath was stuck in his lungs the entire time. The warmth of those productive sneezes met his palm through his sleeve almost immediately. 

After one final sneeze that was particularly cushion-shaking--”AhHYD’SCHuhh!”--Piper exhaled through parted lips. Her knitted brows slowly began to relax, now only twitching slightly. “That’s better…” she murmured, using Lor’s covered hand to rub beneath her nose. Lor was expecting her to realize that his hand was, in fact, attached to this convenient fabric that she had turned into a tissue, but…Piper met his eyes, teary though hers were. She knew exactly how he would feel about this. 

She started to move his hand, up and down against her nose. Lor watched in absolute awe as Piper’s jaw started to slacken again. Was it possible that he could feel her nostrils flaring from beneath his sleeve?

When it seemed like Piper was just about to sneeze, she let his hand go. Lor blinked as she leaned back from him, her activated nose continuing to scrunch and twitch. She reached for the damp bottom of his sweater, beginning to pull it up. Lor could think of nothing he wanted more in that moment than to comply.  “C’mon…” Piper said with a damp sniffle. “L-Let m-hh!--me sneeze on more of you.” 

“Fuck, I love you,” Lor exhaled with adoration in every syllable as he carefully removed his sweater. He tossed it aside without fanfare. There were barely a few beats before Piper leaned forward, nestling her nose against his bare shoulder. Her nostrils were damp and squirming and right. There. 

“I love you, too,” Piper said quietly, sniffing congestedly along his collarbone. 

Lor shuddered and gulped, placing his hands on her shoulders. Despite everything in his body screaming at him to stay just like this, he gently pushed Piper back so they could meet eyes. 

“I--I want this,” he said on a shaky gasp. “I really, really want this. I just--I’d feel better if I could go, I-I dunno, shower, and get myself kinda ready for--for everything this is gonna lead to? I-I just prefer those kinds of…experiences to be, um. Clean. Me, clean. Y-You clean, too, actually. If that’s okay.” 

Piper leaned back from him at Lor’s prompting. She sniffled, knuckling one nostril as she offered him a teary smile. “Me, clean, too, don’t worry. I could use a shower, now, anyway. Helps to…unstuffify me. Add that to your horny lexicon.” 

She knew him so well!

Lor nodded. “You can go first, if you want.” 

Piper snorted, her lips pulling upward into a smirk before the expression crumpled again. She sneezed down towards Lor’s now-bare chest, making him shiver at the feeling of the uncontained sneeze making direct contact with what felt like every inch of him. 

She sniffled lazily and finally completed that smile, taking both of Lor’s hands. “I mean that I could use a shower with you.” 

Oh. “Oh!” Lor gasped, a snaggly smile immediately spreading across his face. Lor started to stand, offering his hands to help Piper up as well. “Okay! Let’s--yeah! Let’s go!” 

“Ohh, muffin,” she said softly, fingers beginning to run through his hair. “I know I don’t have to, but I want to. You just think of me as your temporary stand-in mother.” Em said this with a playful upturn of her lips, though the genuine warmth was more than evident in her voice. She noted Lor’s shivering and went to the unfolded luggage rack that had a small stack of cardigans and sweaters. “Do you have a preference for cozy clothes, sweetheart?”

“Oh, um…” Lor sniffled and shook his head. “Any is fine, but, uh...the gray one is my favorite.”

Em retrieved it and brought it back. Lor thanked her quietly as he pulled the cable knit sweater over his head. Emerging from it with disheveled hair, Lor still couldn’t look at her. His greatest fear at the moment was Em suddenly realizing how absolutely terrible he was, and deciding that even she couldn’t manage to be good to him. 

It didn’t always used to be like this. Sure, Lor had always been insecure with a poor self image, but it’s like that had all increased tenfold ever since…

Well. He couldn’t think about that relationship ending. 

Lor took a tissue from the box on the nightstand and folded it beneath his nose as it threatened to drip. Desperate to fill the silence so Em wouldn’t have to be forced to focus on Lor cleaning himself up, he said the first thing that came to mind. “I never got this sort of thing from...my mother…”

Em was quiet for a beat before taking a seat next to him on the bed. The mattress dipped slightly with her added presence, and Lor suddenly found himself sliding closer an inch. Normally he would be perturbed by anyone coming closer when he was clearly in a worse state than usual, but it was like Em always had a bubble of peace and calm and love around her. He wasn’t sure when the last time was that he had ever felt this...comforted. “Oh?” “Yeah, uh…” 

He had talked about his terrible mother to Piper some, both when they dated and when they used to be friends, but not enough to push himself past the point of ‘bitter and angry child’ and into the territory of ‘genuinely hurt and wounded child’. His brother was more of a ‘don’t hang onto the past’ kind of person. Lor was endlessly frustrated with this approach. Maybe it was because his past was so full of bruises that kept being pressed and pressed and pressed enough to keep them from healing even slightly. His brother had always been handsome and sociable and funny and athletic. His brother never had to worry about anyone hurting him.

Especially not the way that Piper had hurt Lor. 

God. The pain in his chest was a searing knife. When was this going to be over? When was he going to be able to think about her without feeling like he was dying? 

Em reached to squeeze his shoulder. Lor startled and looked at her with wide eyes before promptly sniffling, lower lip wobbling as he fought to keep tears back. He had spent years learning to steel himself against crying in the face of being mercilessly bullied, but he had never had to do it in response to someone...being good to him. It just plainly didn’t happen.

“I miss her so much,” he said through tight wheezes, visions of Piper’s face flooding his mind. He fumbled for his inhaler, popping the cap and taking two deep puffs of the medication. Lor squeezed his eyes shut, forcing hot tears to stream down his cheeks. He was feverish and cold and alone in the world, and his tear ducts knew this all too well. 

“Oh, you poor baby…” Em cooed, reaching to hold his face again. Lor finally, finally met her eyes. Her expression was one of ginger, permeating warmth that touched every bit of his aching heart. Why was she being so nice? Why did she care about him? How could she care about him? All these questions swam through his mind, but he couldn’t bring himself to move away. Lor closed his eyes again and trembled. “When did she pass?”

“...What?” Lor asked with a sniffle.

Em’s eyebrows were drawn upward in sympathy. She reached for two tissues and began to dry the tears running down his cheeks. “Your mother, honey. How long ago did she die?”

Oh. She thought he was missing his mother. Lor would have let an embittered laugh tumble out of him were his nose not scrunching with a noisy sniffle. He didn’t often get a warning when a tickle was brewing enough to turn into something concerning; Part of his chronic rhinitis keeping him congested a solid chunk of the time also came with a dulled sense of being able to predict when he had to sneeze. Thus, he usually wound up just barely managing to either A) twist away from what he was doing, B) cover, or C) both, when he got extremely lucky. This response was usually activated in kind in public, blessedly, though when he was relaxed or distracted, it wasn’t quite as diligent. His laptop could definitely attest to that. 

Luckily, Lor never really managed to be relaxed around much of anyone, which is what made this moment with Em so...challenging. He was now being given the briefest warning as his nose ran further, and--God, a running nose always--made him--

He fumbled to snatch the tear-stained tissues from Em, yanking them over his nose just as a hitch wheezed out of him. The softness of the mattress compressed beneath Lor with two sibilating sneezes that took him by surprise, hunching his shoulders. “Hh-! Hahh--Hhzz’zhuh! HehhzzHUE!”

The set of sneezes left him thoroughly winded. This wasn’t exactly a difficult feat to accomplish, but the asthmatic astronomer still found himself woozy in the aftermath. Lor tried to sniffle and was unsuccessful. Lungs rattling with a weak exhale, he reached to fumble for the inhaler on the bedside table again. Lor finally opened his eyes and was only able to see through one lens of his glasses; the other was slightly too low after the temple had been jostled off his ear.

“B-..Bless you, pumpkin.” 

He was holding the folded tissues to his nose, and Em’s soft fingers along with it. She seemed startled, but instantaneously started to soothe him before Lor could even force his brain to work long enough to react to his hideous situation.

“Shhh, shhh, it’s alright,” Em cooed softly, easing her hand away as Lor stared at her with wide eyes. “Don’t worry--”

It was like her gentle voice was the button to jumpstart his horrified reaction. Lor scrambled back from her, headboard sounding off a loud thunk! in response to his head knocking against it. “Oh, my God, I’m sorry, I’m disgusting.”

Em shook her head as she slowly reached for him. “Darling, you’re not. I mean it. You’re feeling miserable. You just lost a relationship that was important to you, you’re missing your mother…You’re not disgusting. You’re tired and under the weather. And I’m going to get you taken care of, alright?”

It wasn’t the whole accidentally sneezing in a tissue held by his host thing that made Lor snap. He could have recovered from that with her gentle urging, even if the incident would haunt him before he fell asleep for the rest of his life. It was the soft, gentle promise to take care of him that sent him over an edge that he hadn’t been aware was coming up so fast. It was the straw on the proverbial camel’s back. 

There was no possible way for her to look at what an unlovable human being he was and still want to treat him like this. 

“Let me check your temp, lovebug--”

Lor’s fingers clenched into fists and unclenched rapidly as he squeezed his eyes shut. “Stop being nice to me!” he begged. “Stop--Stop calling me pet names and stop touching me and stop acting like you like me!” 

He couldn’t look at her. Every breath was coming in short, raspy pants that he couldn’t even begin to control. His arms shook as he let out an overwhelmed whimper, thrusting the palms of his hands over his eyes. Lor’s fingers pressed against his forehead and temples, turning the tan skin there to an irritated red. His brain was on fire as he curled in tight to himself with the meltdown--

The pause button was pressed immediately as Em held his cheeks again. Peace flooded his brain like fresh water being poured into oil. It was only then that Lor realized that this had to be magic in her touch; There was no other possible way for an episode to come grinding to a halt. He had spent his whole life trying. His mother had spent his whole life trying, though her harsh methods certainly wound up doing far more harm to him than good. 

This was unlike any calm he had ever felt, even as he continued to wheeze. 

“Use your inhaler, Lory, sweetheart,” Em whispered. “I promise I won’t touch you again after this. I just had to help you fir--” “No, no, I…” Lor sniffled and took two more puffs of his inhaler. The healing medicine helped him breathe again almost instantly, though he was still sounding worse for wear. Another weak whimper completely deflated his body as he leaned into Em’s cool touch. “It’s okay. I-I’m okay with it. It’s nice. I just…"

His nostrils both flared at once. Lor brought the tissues to his face, breath snagging with hitch after hitch as a sharp tickle raged through his sinuses. After several false starts, a low whine rumbled in his throat as he tried to urge the irritation along. “Hnngg…hh! S-Sorry…”

“Shh,” Em said with a shake of her head, rubbing Lor’s opposite arm as his head fell to her shoulder. “You take your time.”

His jaw hung slack with the mind-numbing tingling coursing through his nose. After several long beats of sneezy weightlessness, he was finally able to buckle into his tissues with a sneeze that shook he and Em both as he remained with his head on her shoulder. His nimble knees jerked toward his chest with the release. “HzzZZEUH! Woah…” Lor blushed, sniffling heavily as he mopped up the underside of his nose. “Sorry, th-that was—sdff! Big…”

Em immediately laughed with all the love in the world in her voice. Lor would normally bristle over someone laughing at anything related to his nose, but it was evident that Em was laughing fondly. She raised one hand and dried a sneezy tear from Lor's cheek before pecking his temple. "My goodness. Bless you, sweet thing. That cold’s just got you by the nose and isn’t letting go, mm?” She gave Lor’s arm a slow rub. “Now. What were you saying, love?”

Lor sniffled, lowering the tissues from his face. He leaned into Em’s hold, feeling perfectly enveloped by her warmth and love. “I, um…” He squeezed his eyes shut, chin wobbling as he spoke. “I…I don’t mind being touched by you. It’s comforting, and—and I’ve never had anything like this before. But I feel like I…I don’t deserve it.”

“You feel unlovable,” Em said quietly, thumbing the tears from his cheeks again. “You feel like nobody could ever think that the person you are is worth looking past your appearance. Which, by the way, is darling. I think you’re just as cute as a button, and I’m sure your mother thought you were handsome, too.”

Lor tried to laugh, but all that came out was a sound that seemed to be a mix of a sigh and a sob. “She’s not dead,” he murmured. “I wish. She never…” Fresh tears were streaming down his cheeks every moment. “She never loved me, I don’t think. Never acted like she did, anyway. And, and you being nice is so...weird...because nobody has ever looked at me and thought I was-....w-worth being taken care of…” He sobbed again. “And I try to make myself think that I don’t need anyone to ever love me, but….”

She was patient and quiet as he struggled to get ahold of himself. Lor was sure his teary, dripping face had to be the worst thing she could possibly be seeing, but everything in him was just so...soothed by her energy. 

“But this is really nice…” Lor hiccuped weakly. “And it’s painful, because nobody is ever going to love me enough to--”

“I will.” Em took Lor by the chin and gently raised his face. She looked into his eyes with purpose. “Alright? I don’t care what your horrible mother thinks. I feel everything good inside of you, and that is worth loving. You’ve been hurt, and damaged, and that clouds the way you view the world, but you still aren’t bad. You are a wonderful young man.”

He felt horrible for flinching. Everything she was saying was so special, and unlike anything he had ever heard, but…“Um-...” Lor sniffled and rubbed a tired wrist back and forth beneath his nose. “Maybe, um… Maybe I don’t like being called a-...uh, a-a man…”

Em processed this information for a beat before nodding. Her hands slowly moved back from his face as he began to recover. “Of course. Well, you are a wonderful Lawrence. And I want you to stay here. Alright?” She gave him a small smile, eyes filled with more emotions than he knew were possible to have at once. “I think you’ve spent too long living on your own.”

He blinked slowly through teary eyes. Lor was exhausted and emotional, and the thought of being in a place where he could get warmth like this without even having to ask for it was....too good to be true, right? But, God, still so, so good. 

“...O-Okay,” he said quietly, sniffling as his nose threatened to run again. “...Thank you. Let’s--um, just let me know what rent and utilities and--hih!--hhh--!" Damn all this fucking hitching! His breath snagged for another several seconds before the tickle backed off. Lor let out a shivery breath. "And...And how much all that is..." he murmured exhaustedly.

“Shh, shh, shh.” Em gave his hand a small squeeze before beginning to stand up. Lor was hardly aware of the way she gently urged him down as she spoke, reaching to remove his glasses. “You just think about getting better, my dear. Everything else can wait.”

Lor’s head eased into the pillow. He closed his eyes immediately and felt a heavy weight on them. Em’s next few words barely made sense as sleep so thoroughly consumed him. The last thing he was aware of was the way her fingers remained laced with his, unrelentingly loving. 

So Lor is Indian, 5'6 and looks like he'd blow over if you look at him wrong. Since I know it's the most important detail: His nose isn't shockingly huge or anything but it's on the bigger side and visibly bulky. He hates it! It's got several cute freckles on it, though, which he doesn't know about because he hates looking at himself in the mirror too closely. :) He's also got some super expressive nostrils that get all flared when he's angry or flustered. Prone to lots of scrunching.

He's got one hell of a snaggletooth and avoids smiling at all costs (unless it's with someone he trusts deeply, which is a VERY low number. It was at 0 for most of his life). He had BAD acne as a teenager and still has an abundance of fading scars from that time. He's also just got scattered small beauty marks around his body. He's got very thick eyebrows that he chooses to pluck often (even though it makes him sneeze as hell). Blushes a LOT when he's getting all stammery and awkward, which is often. Wears some pretty 70s-esque glasses (he found one pair he liked and just keeps changing the lenses out whenever his prescription changes). I'm bad at describing hair so just know it's exactly the same as the first picrew lol, very soft and kind of wavy! He does NOT like changing hair styles even slightly and goes to get it cut way more than most people would.

He religiously wears long-sleeved compression shirts and a dark-colored turtleneck over it. The boy has heart problems and gets cold super easy, and tight clothes are just most comfortable for him.

He's neurodivergent as hell and usually has his hands pulled to his chest, and has to FIGHT not to visibly tap his fingers super fast when he's excited/nervous/etc. In general he's super prone to a lot of stimming with his hands, but he does a lot to try to quash it.

He's also got an EXTREMELY impressive dick So, here's the boy!!

Lor looked up. Quivering, damp nostrils were the only things he could focus on at the moment. Well, that and a pair of tusks, exposed in a ticklish snarl and only becoming more and more evident as Alexander geared up for what looked like had to be a hell of a sneeze. Lor’s reaction may have been a bit more appropriate were he not stupid drunk. Instead of getting the pack of tissues that he knew were in his back pocket, Lor simply reached out a hand to place on Alexander’s shoulder. It jumped with one hitch, and then another--

“Hidd’tch!” Alexander buckled into his handkerchief, bouncing the trampoline slightly with the force. Oh. Not the ‘hell of a sneeze’ Lor had expected, but still decently strong. Something in him still knew the strong one would be coming eventually, though. 

In this case, ‘knew’ may have been synonymous with ‘hoped’. 

 Alexander sniffled blearily after that sneeze. He let his head loll back on the rubber of the trampoline, looking like he was ready to continue the conversation they had been having a moment ago-- “Hh-!” 

That second sneeze still needed to make an appearance, though. 

“Hihhd’scht!” 

There it was. 

“You’ve been sneezing a lot,” Lor murmured before he could properly process the statement. 

Alexander snuffled, rounded nose being visibly rubbed back and forth in the handkerchief. It was only when he looked up that Lor realized that had been said...out loud. Alexander’s lashes fluttered once, seeming to be more from sleepiness and drink than a need to sneeze. He finally lowered his handkerchief, but had evidently been unable to get his nose as clean as he might prefer. “Yeah. Yeah, I have, haven’ I?” Alexander murmured, nose scrunching with a dragging sniffle. He turned his head to squint over at the picnic bench that held their drinks. “...Maaaay’ve grabbed your acorn wine by m’stake...stuff’s magic as magic gets, I s’pose? An’...tastes like the regular stuff...a-ahhhhn’ all…”

Lor nodded slowly, eyes still fixed on his friend’s nose as it scrunched back and forth. Alexander winced and buried his nose right back into his handkerchief, clearly not done chasing this tickle off. “Sdf, ugh… Augh, gods… hihh!... ugh…”

He could only watch, transfixed, as Alexander rubbed slowly at the tip of his nose. Deliberate. Urging. He saw the pudgy domes of his nostrils, red and twitching and flaring as he seemed to…rub the tickle out of them? 

“Hh’ktch! Hh’eschuh! ” Alexander sneezed into his handkerchief, one right after the other. Well...not quite all in his handkerchief. The guy couldn’t help a bit of release escaping where the cloth hadn’t yet covered his nose completely. He quickly snuffled and went to start mopping up his nose. That’s how Lor knew that Alexander was drunk, too. Normally, he couldn’t imagine the gnorc just giving Lor a clear view of this...process.

“Bless you,” Lor said on an exhale. “Uhm. Did you...uh, did…” He could barely even say the words. “Did you...rub that one out?”

Oh. Oh. Oh, and now Lor was thinking about Alexander rubbing one out, in the traditional sense. Both that and his nose. At the same time. Oh. “Um. Sorry. I-I mean, make yourself…” Alexander didn’t seem to be making any connections here. Lor just awkwardly continued on.  “....Snneeeeze…?”

Ah! There was recognition on the gnorc’s face. “Sdf…yeah, y’ve gotta sometimes,” he said dazedly with a nostril scrunching sniffle, “when the ol’ gnome nose just won’t let’cha be done yet. So, ya just give ‘er a good rub like…”

No handkerchief this time. Alexander was just rubbing the tip of his nose with the flat of his hand. He went in a slow, sleepy swirl. Then, his nostrils started flaring. 

“A-...Alexander?” Lor murmured. 

His nose scrunched, and breath quaked, but he hardly seemed to notice. “Like… Hh..hheh--! L-Like thi--...hihh...”

“I-I-If you do that, you’re gonna…”

Lor acted impulsively, as he did frequently when drinking. He shot his hand out to snatch Alexander by the sleeve, fingers curling easily around his friend’s much smaller arm. His thumb connected with his middle and ring finger easily. Lor pushed Alexander’s forearm up to his dripping, teased nostrils, just as another two sneezes--- “hadt’zzzschoo! Haht’izzschhoo!” -- barrelled out of him.

Lor had successfully gotten Alexander’s cardigan to cover his nose, though...with his closed hand right in the way. Alexander snuffled with his eyebrows twitching sleepily together, eyes completely shut in the aftermath. He used the same forearm--and therefore the back of Lor’s hand--to rub his nose into. Alexander’s nostrils instantly flared when the sensitive tip was rubbed against the stationary hand of his best friend, and not the plush material of his cardigan. His brow furrowed with the instant need to sneeze, though he was evidently not aware of what was against his nose.

“Hhhnn…?” Alexander murmured once before the weight of that tickle set in. He could barely hitch once before Lor yoinked his hand back. With all the brains of a half-trained monkey, Lor took Alexander’s nose instead. Thumb on the dome of one nostrils, index and middle finger on the other. Was this dumb? Yes! Did his drunken, idiot mind know any other way of keeping Alexander from sneezing disastrously? It wasn’t like Lor …minded. But, ah, it would be best to preserve Alexander’s dignity the best he could, right? And, just like that, he pinched Alexander’s nostrils shut mid-flare. 

Alexander took in three quivering breaths that ticked his shoulders up a little higher each time. There was a long pause...and then his breathing slowed all together. The sneeze had mostly been scared off by the surprise of Lor’s sudden move. Alexander blinked dazedly for a moment before pulling back slowly out of his friend’s hold. Lor expected for Alexander to be embarrassed, or at least offended, but... 

“Heh...thanks, Lor,” Alexander chuckled blearily with the cutest tusked grin that Lor had ever seen. He buried his nose into his handkerchief yet again to wipe up the evidence of this brief sneezing spell. He tried, anyway. Again, didn’t have a handle on the entire thing right now. 

Was it extremely...cute? Attractive? Augh, something, that Alexander was just unable to realize what a mess he was right now? “B-...Bless you,” Lor gulped, hand held against his stomach. Saturn’s rings, he felt like he had just waltzed off a crazy rollercoaster at the county fair. 

“Thagks,” Alexander said again with a congested little snort. When he spoke again, his voice was much less stuffy. He relaxed into the rubber of the trampoline as it continued bouncing just slightly after that brief fit of his. “Hoooh. Kerlin’s coins, Mi’rah would love how much this d--snf--dimension makes me sneeze…”

Lor furrowed his brow. Alexander had mentioned Mi’rah before, sure, but...what was that about her, and, uh, sneezing…? 

Alexander needed no prompting to continue. “She has the loveliest sparkle in ‘er eye when I feel--ah...felt a sneeze comin’ on, y’know. Sweet Mi’rah...I hope she’s got a nice someone around who’ll let her play with their nose.” He sighed and looked up into Lor's eyes. Lor couldn’t get himself to look away. “I could sneeze real easy for her and all. I mean...I was practically made for the job. Gnomes, we sneeze at the drop of a hat. Hardly a challenge, and she would always be happy with the results…”

After several seconds of processing, Lor spoke again. “She...she liked it? When you were sneezing?” 

“Mhmm. Such a cute little kink, I think.” Alexander paused to stop and giggle at his rhyme. “Easiest thing in the world to entertain her.” 

 Was Lor only just now realizing what this thing of his was? A kink? Yes! And Alexander had...experience in this area. Christ alive. “Uh,” Lor murmured, “What sort of things did she…like seeing? I-I-I-If I can ask.”

“Ohhhh...” Alexander hummed before giggling again, bringing a curled knuckle up to rub back and forth beneath his nose. His smile was just as fond as it always was when he brought up happy memories to Lor. “‘Course you can ask. Mmm...where do I begin? Big fan ‘a just watchin’ when I felt a sneeze comin’ on. Wasn’t too rare when I spent time in her room. Biscuits made sure of tha’.”

Oh, yeah. Biscuits. Mi’rah’s cat. Just...hanging around, surely. Lounging on the bed. Rubbing up against pant legs. Shedding. “Uh, wh-...ahem, wh-what sorta thing was her...y-ya know. Favorite to watch?”

Lor figured a sober Alexander would have had a keen enough eye to tell that he was sweating bullets and keeping his hands held tight to his chest. This tipsy and magic-filled Alexander was far less observant. The gnorc’s bright green eyes were hardly focused, but they were still aimed in Lor’s direction. “Mmm...lemme see...she really jus’ liked noses for noses’ sake, too. Really liked it when...Well, I’m sure you can see how much I can get my nostrils to flare…”

 He tilted his chin up to demonstrate fully. Lor felt an instant jolt of lightning to his gut. Alexander gave them two, and then three impressive nostril flexes. He had to sniffle back a running nose then, but didn’t have nearly the comprehension that might have been there normally. “She--snf--would tease me about how they’d scrunch and twitch, but...‘tween you an’ me…”

Lor gulped as Alexander leaned close to him. Alexander sniffled and got the most secretive smile on her face. He winked at Lor. “I added a liiiiiittle drama to it when I could. Extra flarin’ and quiverin’. Got her tickled pink, heheh. And tended to just t--hih--tickle me more, too…” 

Every molecule in Lor’s body was desperate to say…something. Anything. All he could do, however, was blink at Alexander in a slow, mystified daze. What an enchanted life Mi’rah had to lead. Having someone (nobody in particular!) around all the time who...who let her toy with his nose--

“Ahh, that maaaay have been too...what’s the term? TMI? May’ve been too that...” Alexander said with a sheepish little wince. One nostril scrunched up with another budding irritation. He sniffled and knuckled the side of his nose, one eye squinting against the stimulant. “Should…snf, get m’self to be--”

“I think I have that, too.” 

Alexander stared at Lor. It took Lor several seconds to realize that had come from his own mouth. Alexander blinked slowly, his rubbing motions frozen at the side of his nose. Slowly, he lowered his hand and...chuckled. Just barely. “Heheh. So sorry, Lor. I’ve clearly had far too much to drink, ‘cause it sounded like you were tryin’ to say you…”

 Alexander seemed to be expecting Lor to shake his head and say ’of course not!’ in response to this insinuation. Alexander waited for that moment to come. When it didn’t, he continued with another unsure chuckle. “Say you, heh, had the same lil’ kink as dear Mi’rah.” 

Lor could have pretended to fall asleep. Or need to run to the bathroom. Or have an asthma attack. Yet, here he was, face to face with a guy whose nose was…clearly quite used to some tampering.

Again, he gulped. “...I-I dunno,” Lor said quietly, pushing his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. Every word felt like its own deep, dark confession. Despite his best efforts, Lor could only let his gaze flicker between Alexander’s eyes…and his nose. Alexander’s eyes… and his nose. “I, uh...k-kinda find myself thinking about that sorta thing a lot. And feeling that...sorta thing...when other people do that...sorta thing? I never realized it was a…thing. I-I just thought I was weird for noticing something like that.”

Alexander was still squinting, slowly putting together a toddler-sized 8-piece puzzle of a puppy in his mind. His eyes were on Lor’s before sloooowly crossing to look at the tip of his own nose. It twitched with the attention. Apparently, Alexander’s tipsy brain convinced him he was being subtle, because he immediately cleared his throat and spoke casually. “Oh? What...sorta thing? A-And what...sorta people? If you don’t mind me asking…” 

“No!” Lor quickly said with a shake of his head. “No, no, I don’t mind. And, uh...what sorta thing…?” Hmm. What sort of thing did he find himself particularly drawn to? 

“Hh--heh!...” 

Oh. Alexander already seemed like he was about to have another sneezing spell. He snuffled and rubbed his nose in that same back-and-forth motion. Still, Lor spoke, though his voice cracked a bit more than he was happy with. He watched Alexander’s curled knuckles all the while. 

“Well.” Good a start as any! “I, uh...always seem to be staring when somebody...really rubs their nose a lot...” 

Alexander’s nostrils flared against his knuckles. 

“I-I don’t notice right away. Notice myself noticing, anyway. Kinda just get transfixed, ya know? Especially when they, uh...look like they’ll be sneezing any moment now. And when they do--”

These sneezes were too wrenching for Alexander to contain. He barely sucked in one quavering little hitch before pressing the back of his hand beneath his nose. This...did not create the cover that he clearly had hoped it would. “Hadht’szzchoo! Ht’esschhoo!”

Lor’s stomach flipped. “L-Like that,” he said, voice little more than a wobble. Lor regretted the words an instant later. He squeezed his eyes shut immediately so that he wouldn’t have to see Alexander’s complete look of disgust that had to be coming. “Hhnn. Sorry. Sorry. That was weird. That was really weird, right? F-Forget I said it, I’m just...drunk, and dumb, and…” 

There was no recoil. No tone peppered with discomfort. Simply Alexander taking in one long, dragging sniffle before speaking. 

“...Lor, it’s alright.” 

Alright? How could it be when he’d just confessed to thinking his best friend sneezing was...aughhh, Lor couldn’t even think it in his own head. He slowly cracked his eyes open to look at Alexander’s reassuring little smile. His nose ran slightly still, gravity doing its work by urging the drip to go a direct 90 degrees from Alexander’s offending nostril. He remained facing Lor, lying on his side. 

“You might be just as drunk as I am, but you’re hardly stupid,” Alexander said with an ineffective sniffle. “Kinks are perfectly harmless. ‘Specially this one. Geshtianna’s garter belt, you heard how fondly I just spoke about Mi’rah’s preferences, right?” 

Lor kept his gaze down. He studied every button of Alexander’s waistcoat. “...Well, yeah. But she was your girlfriend, she was supposed to be attracted to you.”

“...Oh.” 

Lor could tell from that ‘oh’ that he must have said something either very right, or very wrong. 

“I, ah...heh. Didn’ realize you were of a gentlemanly persuasion, yourself, Lor.” 

He wasn’t! He couldn’t be! Liking women was distracting enough on its own, but adding guys to the mix…? Lor would have loved to debunk this thought immediately, but…hoo, Alexander’s nose and his eyes and tusks and aughh his nose--

“Uh.” Lor’s expression tugged into a reluctant smile. If anyone wouldn’t shame him about this, it was probably Alexander, right? “...Yeah. I-I must, I guess? Because when I, uh...When you’re… I feel…? A-And Mi’rah must have had quite the college experience, heh, just based on the little bit you just told me…”

Alexander was quiet for a long enough time to make Lor worry. Just before he could ask if this had been a mistake, Alexander spoke. Lor couldn’t bear to look at his face. 

“...Lor. Stop me at any time, a’course, if I’m g-getting any of this---sdf--wrong… But, if you’re sayin you’d like--?” 

“Yeah.” Lor swallowed hard and looked back up at Alexander, chewing at his bottom lip with nerves. “Yeah. Uh. If you--? But, I mean, I guess, why would you...But, if you did, then...y-yeah. You can...ya know. Show me everything you did for Mi’rah…? To, uh...keep you practiced, and all. For when you get back to her.” 

Once again, the cutest smile curled the corners of Alexander’s lips. “...Heh. Keep me practiced indeed,” he hummed with a tilt of his head. “Everything, you said?” 

Lor felt like the air in his lungs was suspended in time. “Everything,” he repeated with a nod. 

It was common knowledge that Alexander could romance the hell out of whoever he wanted. Maybe not common knowledge, but…evident. It seemed to be the easiest thing in the world for Alexander to wrap his fingers around Lor’s wrist and draw his hand upward. “Here we are…” Alexander said with an inebriated little smile. He brought Lor’s hand to linger just before his rounded gnome nose. “She always loved just...givin’ it a lil’ push, whenever I had to--...”

He trailed off, tusks exposing themselves in a quivering little sneer. Lor could tell that Alexander was making a valiant effort to keep from sneezing. With a deep breath, Lor followed Alexander’s urging. He set his index and middle finger just at the tip of Alexander’s nose. The little push alone made his breath snag, but Lor took it a step further by sloooowly rubbing Alexander’s nose in a circular motion, just in the way Alexander had earlier. Lor watched as his jaw dropped lazily. Just as they had a few minutes ago, Alexander’s nostrils flared with the attention. His chest quaked with the impending sneeze. 

“...I-I think I always wanted to do this,” Lor murmured. 

A smile had just barely started to twitch at Alexander’s trembling lips when the sneeze took him over completely. He fanned uselessly at his nose for a few breathy seconds before pulling back from Lor’s hand. Alexander buried his nose into his wrist, sneezing powerfully-- “idht’IZSCHoo!” -- in a rapid-- hgh’izschhuh!”-- trio-- ”hh’yissschoo!--...Ugh.” Alexander wobbled in that aftermath. Lor took him by the shoulder. 

“Bless you,” Lor breathed, cheeks burning just as much as they were before. “You… Uhmm. Y-You’re really good at this.” 

“Th--hih! Thank you…” Alexander sighed into his handkerchief, sniffling with a dragging heaviness. He looked at Lor through teary eyes. The moment his handkerchief was gone, there was an evident little grin on his face. “Snf...That’s the sorta thing she’d do first…”

Lor gulped for what had to be the hundredth time. “What, uh...wh-what about what…you’d do?”

Lor himself didn’t really know what he meant, exactly, with that question. Alexander seemed to, though. He raised his eyebrows thoughtfully and regarded Lor before him. “...Well, snf...better ask wha’ you’re up for, first.” 

“Anything.” The answer came out of him before Lor could even fully process Alexander’s question. “Wh-Whatever you...did for her, you can…do with me. Y-You can even go a...a little further. Maybe a lot further? If...you want...I, uh...” Deep breaths, Sheldon. “You can...do whatever to me. W-With me. Whichever.”

Again, Alexander had his finger on the pulse despite his wobbly reaction to the booze and magic both. He was pushing himself into a side-sitting position immediately. Alexander seemed quite dizzy initially, taking several seconds to reorient himself. Once he had, Lor found himself with a hand just to the right of his shoulder, pressing into the trampoline. “I certainly want,” Alexander said quietly. In an instant, he was...not quite straddling Lor, but keeping himself held up with one knee on either side of Lor’s waist. Alexander didn’t sit just yet. He looked down at Lor through encouraging, teary eyes. He sniffled, and the results were more than visible to Lor at this angle. 

“I’d...keep her held just a lil’, like this. She was a good foot taller than you, Lor, so...experience was a lil’ different, I’d say, but just as nice. If this seems…good to you--?”

“Yeah,” Lor said quietly, eyes wide as he looked up. “Yeah, it’s. It’s good. Th-This is really good.” 

Alexander needed no further prompting than Lor’s breathy encouragement. He eased down, straddling Lor completely. Lor swallowed and shut his eyes against the rosy blush consuming his cheeks again at feeling Alexander just…on him. He was small, of course, and lightweight, but that was hardly what Lor was focusing on right now. Alexander sniffled with a bubbling little sound to it that sent a delighted chill racing up Lor’s spine. Just then, he reached to tuck one lone lock of hair behind Lor's ear. With his hand still lingering there, Alexander’s breath snagged. 

“I-I’d…straddle her, an’...” That sneeze was really torturing him. Alexander absently let his head loll back, slender chest rising and falling with each tickling breath. He reached up, firmly palming the underside of his nose. He sniffled in rapid succession, expression shifting into that sneezy blankness that Lor had come to anticipate. And, just like always, it led into a…. “Ihdt’szchhoo!”, smothered into his sleeve. Once again, the trampoline bounced slightly beneath them. Alexander’s thighs only hugged Lor’s waist tighter. One soupy sniffle later, another… “hhah!adt’izzdchoo!-- Oogh…”

Hooo. All of that was mind-blowing, but the breathy little moan after that second sneeze… Lor knew it was that showmanship that Alexander had mentioned, but maybe that’s what made this so...fuck, he could say it. So hot. 

“Bless you,” Lor murmured in a shivering exhale. “Y-...Y-You’re really...really hot right now. I-Is that...okay to say?”

Alexander’s dark eyebrows shot upward in surprise. He lowered his sleeve, nose a drippy red. He gave Lor the sleepiest, most sultry smile that the taller one between them had ever seen. “More than okay. I live to please, you know. An’ th--hih! Thank you…” Alexander said with a congested sniffle. Immediately after, Alexander reached down to feather his fingers in the curls at Lor’s temple. The touch sent another shiver through Lor’s body. “Pardon tha’…sdff, interruption. To continue….I would touch her gently, after tha’...She loved her hair being toyed with. May I take a guess that you do, too, Lor?”

Of course, Alexander received an eager nod in response. He smiled and leaned down closer, one hand coming to lightly hold Lor’s bicep. “Sometimes she liked a bit more, though, if she was really in the mood...Buttons coming undone, you know, and little kisses to her neck...Sometimes I’d just nuzzle her right….” He traced the simplest little circle on Lor’s neck. “...here, with my nose. Get her all fluttery. Lor, if you--?”

Again, he nodded. Lor felt he was outside of his own body as he reached for Alexander’s bicep right back, tugging him closer. That sealed it for the both of them. Alexander’s nose was soon nestling at the most sensitive spot on Lor’s neck. Lor gave one shivering little gasp as Alexander huffed a chuckle. The soft warmth of Alexander’s nose trailed down Lor’s neck and to his clavicle. It was only when his nose was just barely starting to nuzzle at the collar of Lor’s shirt did a hitch shake Alexander’s body. Lor should have kept his mouth shut, but fuck. This was hot. This was so, so, so, so fucking hot. 

“I...think you’re gonna sneeze,” he said with the most sheepish little exhale. 

Alexander nodded slowly and hitched against Lor’s neck again. “H-hih! How could you t-hehhh-tell?” he asked in the cheekiest little whisper. He snorted with a scrunch to his nose that Lor could feel occurring just beneath his chin. “I certainly hope I don’t--don’t--snff-- don’t sneeze while I’m still...t-tangled up with you...hih! Hehh--!”

The kitchen light flipped on. The glow filtered out into the backyard, just barely missing Lor and Alexander’s spot on the trampoline. They both froze. Even the sneeze was scared out of Alexander’s nose in what Lor knew had to be a fizzy, unsatisfied feeling. Quick as a whip, though, Alexander rolled off of Lor to flop right beside him on the trampoline. The moment they were in the clear, the irritation in Alexander’s nose decided to come back with a vengeance. He was hardly able to say one word to Lor before his bottom lip quivered audibly through a snagging breath-- “Hehtzzchuhh!” he buckled with a sneeze aimed toward his chest, but absolutely caught Lor’s arm in its misty release. Alexander tried to sit up, but could only sneeze himself back down after just one gulping hitch. “haHH’dzzzschoo!”

Another sneeze was nearly there when Lor sat up himself, setting one hand on Alexander’s back while the other was held out in case he needed to stabilize himself somehow. Lor wasn’t the strongest guy alive, but he wanted to at least try to keep Alexander steady. As if by reflex, Alexander desperately took Lor’s proffered hand before squeezing it just a bit tighter as that third sneeze finally tumbled out of him without mercy. “Hhh!hadtszchhoo!” 

His nose was a wreck. Dripping mercilessly into his lap and twitching still. Alexander was barely able to keep himself sitting, much less notice said wreck. Lor was about to try to find that handkerchief for Alexander before his friend took in a heady, high-pitched gasp that sent him wrenching with another uncovered sneeze---”ahdt’ZZssshuh!”-- that...well. Did, to his credit, completely rid himself of that steady drip from his nose. Seemed like Alexander had sneezed the remnants away for the moment. “S--hih! Sorry,” Alexander breathed, expression still a tickled snarl. “Sorry. Fuck, sddFF, ugh…”

“Bless you,” Lor said, giving his hand one slow rub where it sat on Alexander’s back. Alexander shivered immediately and leaned back into the touch. He opened his eyes blearily in Lor’s direction. 

“Thank you,” Alexander breathed...

...Just as Emmaline came out onto the deck. “Oh, you two come in!” she called, robe wrapped tight around her. “I didn’t even know you were out here! I was just about to go to bed, but I saw your rooms were empty. You’ll freeze out here, silly boys! Alexander, you’re already sneezing yourself straight into bed.”

Whose bed? was Lor’s only thought. 

Alexander sniffled desperately, finding his handkerchief and drawing it to his nose. “Right, Emmaline! We were just about to head in!” he called with a voice perfectly practiced in the art of assuring others that he was completely fine. His voice was congested, sure, but just as convincing as ever. “You head to sleep, by all means! We’ll see you in the morning!”

Lor could see her pout from this distance, but Emmaline eventually nodded and stepped back inside. “Alright, my loves. Rest well!” 

“Y-You, too!” Lor was finally able to call out. He didn’t manage to breathe until Emmaline had closed the sliding glass door and disappeared back down the hallway. Only then did Lor let out a shaky exhale. Fuck, what had he been doing? He was dumb, he was so dumb for being so ridiculous, and…

“Thank you....” 

Thank you? 

“For, sddfff!...h-helping me sneeze…” Alexander said in the flirtiest little hum as he nestled his nose against Lor’s shoulder. The tip rubbed slowly back and forth against the fabric of Lor’s fluffy turtleneck. Alexander’s nostrils twitched in response. “You know how I’ll, sdff, be sneezing a while yet...I won’t keep you up, will I?” 

Lor had his hand on Alexander’s waist before the gnorc could even finish that question.

 “Can you?”