Work Text:
It was a sneeze that startled Chris awake from his doze. The script he was supposed to have been reading fell from his chest when he jerked upwards and landed on the floor beside the couch with a light thump on the thick carpet.
It wasn’t the quality of the script, or the lack thereof, that had caused him to fall asleep. It was just that the sneezing and coughing, and the snuffling and snoring, had stopped him from getting much quality or quantity of sleep since he had got home from filming pick ups for Cap 3 two days ago.
It wasn’t even his own sneeze. That would have been easier to handle if it were. Less worrying. But none of them were. They were all Sebastian’s.
It was the thud and muffled, nasally cursing emanating from their bedroom that followed a few seconds later that got Chris to his feet.
A quick glance at his phone as he picked up the fallen script and straightened out a few crumpled pages before dropping it onto the coffee table told him he’d been asleep for maybe 30 minutes. So about average since Sebastian had got sick with the flu. It was strange but Sebastian seemed to have the ability to sleep through his coughing fits. Chris, not so much. When it got really bad, when Chris thought Sebastian was about ready to cough up a lung or maybe his spleen, then Chris would wake Sebastian enough to take a few sips of water and some more of the cough syrup his mom had recommended. Sebastian would be back asleep within moments while Chris watched over him. It was really only the sneezing that woke Sebastian up.
The sight that met Chris’ eyes when he reached the open door of their bedroom brought a smile to his lips. “What the fuck are you doing?” he asked around a chuckle “Get back into bed. Can I seriously not leave you alone for five minutes?”
Sebastian looked up from where he was currently sprawled half in and half out of their bed, long legs still entangled in the sheets and most of his upper body hanging over the edge, left arm trembling slightly as he leaned on his elbow to support his weight, right arm raised. He threw the tissue he was holding towards the puddle on the floor before responding. “I’m trying to clean up my mess. I needed a Kleenex but I hit the glass instead and it fell and there’s water fucking everywhere now.”
“Okay, right, I got that part,” Chris said as he headed to their en suite bathroom to grab a towel. “What I don’t get,” he continued as he dropped to his knees to mop up the spilt water, “is how you thought throwing tissues at it would work.”
“Yeah, well, I kinda…” Sebastian looked forlornly back at the bed. “The bed wouldn’t let my legs go.”
“Smart bed. You should get back in it and let me deal with this.”
Sebastian tried to push up off the floor but all his arms did were tremble a little more. “Um, kinda stuck here. Little help?”
Chris was at Sebastian’s side at the first huff of annoyance, helping him upright and back onto the pillows. He smiled as he pushed some of Sebastian’s fever sweat damp hair back from his face and leaned in to kiss Sebastian’s forehead. He lifted away a little and brought his fingers to Sebastian’s chin to tilt his head up when Sebastian tried to pull away, hands ineffectively pushing at Chris’ chest. “Hey now. What’s this about?”
“I..I don’t want...you might catch it and…” Sebastian broke off, turning his head enough that he wouldn’t be breathing directly into Chris’s face but unable to break the hold Chris’ eyes had on his.
“And what, baby?”
“And I’m all kinds of gross right now.”
Chris gently turned Sebastian’s face back towards him. “Okay, first, we’ve been breathing the same air and sharing this exact bed for the last two days. If I’m gonna catch it I already did. And second…” He leaned in again, this time to press a soft his first to Sebastian’s forehead and then to his slightly chapped lips. “...you know how many kids my sisters have, right? I’ve been peed on and puked on numerous times and after all the outright nasty diapers I’ve changed and baby spit I’ve cleaned up I’m pretty sure I’m ungrossoutable. And that is totally a word,” he added at Sebastian’s dubious expression. “I’ve decided.”
“And thirdly, and most importantly, I love you. And god help me but I still think you’re gorgeous even when you’re all covered in fever sweat, producing enough snot to fill a bucket, and snoring loudly enough to rattle the windows in their frames.”
“Okay,” Sebastian said slowly. “That is...weird. But I’ll take it.”
He huffed out a laugh that inevitably turned into a cough
Chris helped Sebastian sit up to ease the coughing. “You wanna take a bath? The steam’ll help and you might feel a bit less gross.”
Sebastian smiled weakly. “Sure. Wanna join me?”
Chris returned his smile. “Sure.”