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“This is dot fair.” Ian complained from the couch. He had a mild cold and his nose was stuffed to the point where his N’s sounded like D’s and his M’s like B’s when he spoke.
“I’m sure it won’t be for long.” Mickey tried to comfort his clearly miserable husband while trying not to smile. He couldn’t help it, Ian looked like a grumpy five-year-old with his crossed arms and an adorable pout.
“Don’t laugh at be, Bick.” Ian frowned, clearly seeing his lover’s amusement. This was serious and he couldn’t understand why his husband didn’t see that. Even if he tried to blow his nose, nothing would come out and his nostrils would remain clogged. He could barely breathe when he was eating and no amount of hot tea or medicine could change that.
But most importantly...He couldn’t smell his husband! This was the worst of it all. Mickey’s smell comforted him. Mickey’s smell eased him into sleep. Mickey’s smell just made everything better and unfortunately for Ian, it was highly addictive so having to be without it, felt like torture.
“What are you so grumpy about? This is hardly the worst cold you’ve had and you’ve never been this fussy.” Mickey pointed out, now sitting at the edge of their couch. Mickey was usually the cranky patient, not Ian. Ian’s always been cooperative when sick, just resigned for the illness to pass. But whatever was going on with him now, had quite the opposite effect on him.
Ian turned around, buried his head into his pillow, and mumbled something into it.
“Yeah, I can’t hear you like that.” Mickey rolled his eyes at his dramatic husband.
Ian turned his head to the side so his face wasn’t smushed into the pillow and took a breath. “I said I can’t sbell you.”
And then it hit Mickey. He knew about Ian’s fixation on his scent. Of course he did. He noticed very early on in their relationship when Ian thought he was being subtle about smelling him. The older man remembers the one time he crashed at the Gallagher house and Carl asked Ian if he loved Mickey. Ian just said he liked how Mickey smelled and that was also the first time Mickey heard him confirm it out loud.
Since then his husband told him numerous times how he loved his scent and he likes to smell him any chance he gets.
“Oh.” Mickey let out. It was actually adorable that his husband was upset about this out of all the things that were happening to him. He could barely breathe, he couldn’t taste anything and Mickey was pretty sure he still had a mild headache. Despite all this, not being able to smell Mickey was the thing he was distressed about the most.
"Yeah. It really sucks." Ian jutted his chin out. He wasn’t making eye contact with Mickey, still very much frustrated so Mickey moved to lay down on the couch, positioning his husband into his arms, and covering them with a blanket. Ian slightly relaxed into the embrace and snuggled his head under Mickey’s chin.
“Better?” Mickey whispered. Ian didn’t say anything but Mickey could feel him nodding. “I’m sorry you’re feeling bad, but I promise you’ll be able to sniff me all you want in no time.” He added.
Ian weakly smiled. Mickey was gently running his fingers through his red strands of hair and it was making him sleepy. “And you know… you can still kiss me.” Mickey proposed.
Ian lifted his head from Mickey’s chest and planted his lips on his husband’s, kissing him gently. They kissed only for a few seconds since Ian needed to breathe somehow and doing that through his nose wasn’t an option, but Ian felt his frustration fade.
Mickey also knew how tired his husband was and so he peppered a few more kisses all over Ian’s face before letting the redhead bury his head back into Mickey’s neck, both of them getting comfortable on the couch.
“I love you.” The younger man confessed. Sometimes these three words felt like an understatement of what he felt for his soulmate, but he supposed that no words could truly capture what he and Mickey had together. What they felt for each other.
“I love you too.” Mickey whispered back with one more lingering kiss on his lover’s forehead. He then continued the gentle combing through Ian’s hair, easing him into a peaceful sleep.