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The first time the noise sounds, Rax ignores it. He’s peaceful where he is, holding Hunk in his arms. His back is against the wall and his datemate’s back is against his chest. He’s not sure what Hunk is doing – no matter how much he peers, the strange markings on the “paper” make little sense to him – so instead he rests his chin on Hunk’s head, closing his eyes and exhaling peacefully. He is certain he will never get over the feeling of not having to watch his back, to not have to worry about the Galra, and he owes it all to the being nestled in his arm.
The second time the noise sounds, Rax realizes that Hunk is moving with the noise. Their chest and stomach jerk with the sound – he can feel it against his chest, and he frowns, opening his eyes to peer down at the other.
Before he can ask, the noise sounds again, and yes, it’s definitely coming from Hunk. What? “Hunk, what is it that you are saying?” he questions, confused.
Hunk looks up at him, distracted, their face scrunching up. Rax still isn’t sure what emotion that means, at least for Hunk. “I didn’t say anything.”
The Balmeran is even further perplexed. “I thought you-“ Before he could finish his sentence, Hunk made the sound AGAIN, their body jerking. “That! There! What does your noise mean?”
For a moment, their datemate stared at him. Rax stared back. Hunk made the noiseagain, body quivering, and then laughed slightly, shaking their head. “I’m not saying anything, Rax. It’s called the hiccups. Humans get them sometimes.”
That didn’t help Rax’s confusion at all, and his frown deepened. “Are you ill? We need to find the Princess so she may cure you, Hunk.”
They grinned, making another ‘hiccup’. “It’s not a disease. It just… happens sometimes.”
Rax didn’t like the idea that sometimes, it could ‘just happen’ that his datemate made strange noises and send strange movements through their body without even trying to, but there didn’t seem to be much he could do about that. It was one of the perils of dating a strange alien creature, he supposed, one that was FAR too fleshy and prone to injury.
And, apparently, prone to ‘hiccups’. “What can be done to cure you?” he questioned, furrowing his brow. Even if he had to walk to the other end of the Balmera, even leave his home, he was determined to find whatever this cure might be.
Hunk turned more in his lap, reaching up to pat Rax’s cheek with one fleshy hand, letting out another hiccup. “There’s no real cure. They just go away after a while.”
That was very, very alarming. “You cannot rid yourself of them?”
Maybe something in his expression showed his fear at the thought, of holding his noise-making and jerking datemate for the rest of however long this lasted, because Hunk softened. “Well, there are some things that you can do to get rid of them, um…” They frowned, considering. “I don’t suppose you have any peanut butter or sugar?”
“…What?”
“Didn’t think so.” They snorted. “They’re foods on Earth that you eat and they’ll sometimes get rid of hiccups.”
The more he heard about this, the more concerned he got. “Sometimes?” he parroted, giving Hunk a protective squeeze. “You do not have the means to cure it even on your planet? Please, let us go to the Princess…”
Hunk shook their head. “No, no, there’s more way.” Pulling slightly away – much to Rax’s disappointment – they dug around in their ‘backpack’ until they pulled out a bottle of water. “Let me try this…” They tipped their head back and gulped down some of the liquid quickly. Too quickly.
Rax was definitely worried.
Hunk paused for a moment after drinking, and his boyfriend wondered if he should say anything – before Hunk let out another hiccup. “Darn, that didn’t work. Hang on.” With that, they sucked in air and. Nothing.
They simply held the air in their chubby cheeks and didn’t breathe, and Rax thrummed with nervous tension. He didn’t like this at all. Not one bit, not at all. Some strange… thing that made Hunk’s body vibrate, that there wasn’t one precise cure for, AND all the cures seemed to be… not quite right. Eating strange food that Rax had never heard of before (at least the food the Princess provided seemed somewhat reasonable to him), drinking water so fast that he was afraid Hunk would choke, and now they were holding their breath? Humans needed to breathe to live!
Hunk had told him that the first time they had hugged the other.
Before Rax could decide he was Very Done With This Human Nonsense, Hunk let out a giant exhale, all the breath coming out of his body in one big rush, and they started breathing normally again. “Why did you do that?” Rax demanded, scowling at his datemate as they wheezed for air.
It took a few very anxious moments before Hunk could respond, and then they gave him a small smile. “If you hold your breath long enough, the hiccups-“ As if on cue, they let out another hiccup. “Darn it! Usually that gets rid of them…”
Rax reached up and rubbed their back with one large hand, hoping that would soothe them. The quivers of their body made it seem like hiccups were painful, and he didn’t want the human in any amount of pain. “Hunk, please, the princess…”
They sighed. “Let me try one more thing before we go to Allura?” They shook their head, grumbling under their breath. “Lance would never let me live it down, god…”
He caved. “Fine. One more human fix, and then you must go to the princess. She will make you better, I am sure.”
“Thanks, babe.” Whenever Hunk used one of their endearments, it very, very much embarrassed Rax. In a good way. He hunched over, making a small whining noise as he rested his forehead on Hunk’s shoulder, and they laughed. “You’re cute.”
It was a good thing no one else was around – this was Rax’s private cave, after all, a place deep below where only he and now Hunk could be – or Rax was positive he would have died on the spot from sheer principle. As it was, he let out another small whine.
He remained like that for a few moments more, listening to his datemate open the bottle of water back up again, before Hunk made a strange noise he had never heard them do before. Surprised, they pulled back to stare. Hunk’s head was tipped back and they were making this strange vibrating noise that sounded… familiar but not something that Rax had heard from Hunk before…
No. No, he had heard that from when an unfortunate Balmeran discovered one of the underground springs. When they were drowning.
Alarmed as hell, Rax grabbed the arms of his datemate, shaking them back and forth with perhaps a bit too much power. “Hunk! Do not do that! You will die!” They were somehow drowning from having water in their mouth and Rax shook them violently again.
Hunk promptly spat all their water in Rax’s face, stared at him, and burst into laughter.
Rax sat there, stunned. “Wh…” He swallowed, letting go of Hunk with one hand to reach up and wipe gingerly at his face. “What…?”
The human was still helplessly laughing, shaking their head. “I’m- I was g-gargling, I’mfine , holy shit-“ Rax let go of their other arm, and they promptly rolled right off onto the cave floor. Hunk hadn’t been drowning. Hunk hadn’t been dying. Hunk had been doing another perfectly safe cure for their hiccups, and Rax had overreacted.
Again.
He folded his legs up to his chest, resting his forehead on them and making a wounded noise. He overreacted a lot, it seemed like. Even when he was younger he was always prone to ‘freaking out’ over the slightest of things, he had overreacted when Hunk arrived, and now he was overreacting here yet again…
In the wells of his thoughts, he didn’t notice his datemate’s laughter tapering off until their arms wrapped around Rax’s shoulders, pulling him into their warmth and against their chest. He hesitated a moment, before he wrapped his arms around them in return, burying his face against their soft, warm pudge. “Hey. Rax, you’re fine,” he murmured soothingly.
“Sorry,” he still whispered anyway, feeling bad. He fucked up a lot. He apologized a lot. Not like his sister, she-
“You cured my hiccups, come on.”
At that, Rax pulled away, blinking up at his datemate. Hunk grinned down at him, and sure enough – they weren’t making that strange noise anymore. “I… what?”
“One way to cure the hiccups is to scare someone,” they explained. “When you reacted like that, heh, you really scared me.”
Part of him was upset that he scared Hunk. He was Hunk’s boyfriend. He shouldn’t scare them! But… the other part, and the much bigger part, was pleased. Very, very pleased. He had cured Hunk’s hiccups, their strange disease, just like he had said he would. He swelled with pride, tightening his grip around his datemate and yanking them down to sit on their lap once more, squeezing them. “I did. I cured you.”
Hunk grinned, and leaned in to kiss his nose. “My hero.”
Rax frowned slightly at that. “Is that the kind of kiss heroes are to get?” he questioned, raising a brow. “That is not the kind of kiss Shay gives the Princess.”
His datemate laughed, a sound he would never tire of. “Alright, alright,” they said. “You get a hero’s kiss for saving me from my hiccups.”
They wound their arms around his neck, leaning up to press their lips to his, and Rax was content. Just as it should be.