This Or That Gothic Snippet 8- Bedridden

“Between the sprain and the sniffles, you really can’t catch a break this week" with Keith and whichever caretaker you wanna write? ☺️

Thanks for the request, I hope you don’t mind a fluffy AU! And as usual, thanks to my dear @vcepsis for beta reading my stuff! I’d be lost without you! 😘

—-

Shiro sighed tiredly, and leaned against the counter, his fingers pulling back the soft tuft of white hair on his forehead. Quiet, at last.

The afternoon had been pretty hectic at the Altea Gourmet Cafè, but finally, the shop had emptied itself of the customers for the afternoon, and Shiro had the chance to have a moment to himself. He poured himself a glass of water, taking his time to destress, gazing out of the big window on the wall.

It was starting to snow outside, white confetti leaving tiny wet halos on the pavement in front of the shop.

Shiro took a moment to relish into the sight of the Christmas lights sparkling in the street, getting brighter and brighter  with the arrival of the evening.

The tiny bell above the door rang, distracting Shiro from his train of thought. A slender figure in an oversized red hoodie hobbled inside, bringing the cold December wind with them. Shiro didn’t even need to look to know who they were. The clacking of a pair of crutches against the hardwood floor, the sigh of relief when the customer realized how warm it was inside. Shiro smiled.

“Hello, Keith!”

The other boy lowered the hood, exposing his black hair and frost-kissed, red cheeks.

Keith was a regular customer of the cafè. He studied Physics at the university down the road, and he had picked up the habit of stopping at the cafè every day after class. He and Shiro were close in age, Keith being just a couple of years younger than Shiro, and they quickly started befriending each other.

Keith was extremely introverted, but he was only human, and he wasn’t immune to the charm of that really good-looking barista.

When the cafè wasn’t crowded, Keith loved to spend some time at the counter with Shiro, sipping his latte and talking about literally anything.

But that evening, Keith didn’t really seem in the mood for chatting. He slowly hobbled his way to the counter, cursing under his breath when the wet tip of one of his crutches slipped and he almost faceplanted, managing to steady himself at the last moment.

Shiro gasped, but smiled at Keith again.

“That was a close call! Be careful. How’s your ankle?”

Keith reached the counter and climbed on a stool, not without difficulty, propping his crutches against the bar.

“Ankle hurts. But it’s not as swollen as it was two days ago. It’s starting to bruise though.”

Shiro whistled. Keith’s voice was rough and scratchy, way deeper than usual. Upon closer inspection, he could see how red rimmed his eyes were, and how scrubbed raw his nose looked, already starting to peel. Keith kept rubbing it against his sleeve, sniffing wetly.

“Wow, what was that? Did you swallow a toad or something?”

Keith groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose with his pale, slender fingers.

“Ugh, shuddup. Can you make me a tea? Any flavour will do.”

Shiro nodded, busying himself to brew the tea.

“Well, that’s unfortunate. Between the sprain and the sniffles, you really can’t catch a break this week.”

Keith rolled his eyes and tried to protest.

“I don’t have t-the… the s-…” a throat-scraping, painful sneeze escaped his lungs, leaving him to clutch his chest in discomfort. “…sdiffles.”

Shiro chuckled, plopping a teabag into the hot water.

“Yeah, and I’m the King of the Fairies. Here, take a napkin, your nose is running.”

Reluctantly, Keith plucked a couple of rough napkins and blew. It felt like sandpaper against his already chapped nose, but it was still better than using the sleeve of his hoodie.

A pained moan escaped Keith’s lips and Shiro felt bad for him.

“Listen, why don’t you go sit on that bench over there? You can stretch your leg and I can bring you a pillow, to make you more comfortable. Plus, it’s closer to the stove, you’ll be warmer. What do you think?”

Keith shrugged, then nodded.

“Yeah… I was planning to stay for a while anyway. I have work to do on my computer, and the wi-fi is fairly decent here. And I’m certainly not going home until it stops snowing. A sprained ankle is already enough, I don’t want to risk a broken leg.”

Keith limped to the bench, Shiro hot on his heels, cup of tea in his hands. Keith settled himself on the bench, stretching his leg on a chair on the opposite side of the table.

Keith coughed in his elbow and nodded gratefully when Shiro set the hot drink in front of him.

“Thank you. Sorry to be a nuisance.”

Shiro clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

“You’re not a nuisance. I’m sorry you’re feeling so poorly.”

Keith sipped the tea tentatively, but his nose started to run and he dabbed at it with the napkin.

“It’s just a cold. And a sprain. I can deal with it. No need to be concerned.”

Shiro hesitated, and he was about to ask Keith if he wanted him to bring him other napkins, when three new customers entered the cafè, and Shiro had to excuse himself to serve them.

Keith just nodded, turning on his laptop and starting to work on his assignments.

In the following hour, a steady stream of customers kept Shiro busy, but the barista often found himself looking in the direction of Keith’s table, a crease of worry on his brow.

Keith seemed to be struggling. His eyes were puffy and glassy, and his nose and cheeks were bright red. He looked like he had trouble keeping his head up, and eventually Shiro found him fast asleep, with his head resting on his crossed arms.

Shiro had to keep himself from cooing. Keith looked incredibly cute, asleep with his head on the table like an exhausted baby cat.

Eventually, closing time came by. Shiro locked the front door and cleaned the coffee machine, before he headed to Keith’s table and gently shook him awake.

“Keith. Time to go, buddy.”

Keith gasped, lifting his head and looking around, disoriented. The only lights in the cafè were the strings of fairy lights around the shop window, golden flickers in a sea of darkness.

Keith rubbed his eyes and swallowed a few times, a pained expression on his face.

“What time is it? How long have I been asleep?”

“It’s 8 pm, and you’ve been out cold for a couple of hours. How are you feeling? You don’t look good at all.”

Keith sighed, and started collecting his things and stuffing them in his backpack.

“I’m okay. I’m sorry I’ve kept you here over your working time. I should go.”

He stopped to give in to a coughing fit, each cough sounding wetter and sicker than the previous one.

Shiro huffed, unrolling the sleeves of his shirt and taking off the black vest of his uniform.

“Keith, where do you think you’re going, exactly? Look at you, hurt and sick, wearing just a hoodie. It’s snowing heavily outside, you’ll catch your death if you go out like this. Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

Keith seemed to hesitate, picking up his crutches.

“Are you… really sure? My house isn’t far from here, I can make it.”

Shiro pulled his car keys out of his pocket, suggesting that he was not willing to negotiate.

“I insist. Come on.”

Keith caved in. He was cold, and his ankle hurt, and he felt overall too awful to argue. His sinuses felt like they were full of concrete, and he was really looking forward to burrowing under every blanket he owned.

They slowly made their way through the parking lot, Shiro standing by Keith’s side to make sure he didn’t slip on the slushy, grey mess on the ground.

Keith sighed in relief when he reached the passenger seat, and Shiro started the engine.

They stopped at a red light, and Shiro cranked up the heat.

“Stay at my place tonight.”

Keith almost choked on saliva, and ended up coughing and spluttering.

“What?”

“Stay at my place tonight,” Shiro repeated calmly.

Keith seemed uncomfortable.

“I don’t really want to disturb… I mean, I don’t want to be a burden. You’re probably tired after work.”

Shiro shot him a ‘no nonsense’ look.

“Keith, I mean it. Have you taken a look at yourself in the mirror today? You look like a zombie. Stay at my place. I can fix ourselves some dinner, and maybe a nice cup of tea too. I can also start a nice cozy fire. And somebody really needs to make sure you take some medicine for that cold.”

Keith sighed, as deep as his congested sinuses allowed him.

“How can I say no when you put it like that?”

Shiro rewarded him with his best supermodel smile, and Keith’s heart fluttered.

Damn, he thought, I want to kiss him.

My results.

hi m!! i'm a new whump(?)/comfort blog, it's heavily inspired by your prompts + drabbles (which i've liked for over a year now) and i plan to mainly write about the whole caretaking aspect y'know?

and while i plan to participate in sicktember, i'm currently struggling to find topics for my first few posts to lift my blog up off the ground. so you have any resources or prompt lists regarding this topic i can find + any tips for this as a whole? i'm new to the whole whump community and like you, i've taken a liking to it without even knowing what it was haha.

sorry for the long ask, but i'd really appreciate your help!!

hi there! i'm so so sorry this took so long! I'm so honored that you love my posts 🥺 hopefully this isn’t too late, but here are a few thoughts I had for you!!!

on my own masterlist, I have some lists of prompts of some of my personal fave topics, so those are totally fair game for you to use if you’d like! (it’s a bit out of date atm but there are still a few on there and I’m going to try to update it soon!) 

honestly, i just search “whump prompts” in tumblr - the search function is pretty terrible, but sometimes that can generate some good stuff! i know i also have whump prompts that I like tagged, and you can find those here! (here are the hurt comfort prompts

whump/hurt/comfort, I’ll often scroll through their tagged reblogs to see if there’s any more stuff i like!) 

this is my all time favorite cold whump prompt list

sometimes I will go to lists of past whump events (whumptober, februwhump, whumpmas in july) and take a look at those prompt lists even if the event is done to see if there are any great lists! some of these are a bit more intense than the usual hurt comfort, but there are some great prompts mixed in as well

hope this helps, and if i think of any more i’ll reblog and add them in! happy writing, anon, and can’t wait to see what you come up with for sicktember! 

happy birthday to my favorite bug ever 💚

Redraw of one of my very first Bug Fables fanarts...may turn it into a full illustration later!

(alt text in image)

idk i really like when a character gets progressively sick like

Day 1 Character A goes to school with a slightly runny nose and an occasional cough. Character B notices and comments on it but Character A is like “nah i’m good”

Day 2 Character A’s slightly running nose is slowly turning into a waterfall and the coughing gets more frequent and is accompanied by a raspy voice. Character B questions why Character A is even at school and Character A brushes the question off with “it’s just a small cold”

Day 3 Character A is running a fever. Their face is flushed and glistening with sweat despite the chills wracking their body. The runny nose leads to aggressive sneezing fits and the coughing is pushing every few seconds. After an intense coughing fit at their locker, Character A is forced to grab onto the locker door to keep from toppling over as they start to sway. Character B is downright worried now and scolds Character A before carefully leading them into the parking lot and into the car to go back to Character B’s house. Character A tries to protest but Character B brushes any complaints off. 

A has a cold and is so congested that they’re struggling to fall asleep. Eventually, they manage to pass out, too exhausted to stay awake any longer, but they keep sniffling and coughing in their sleep, keeping B awake. So B gently slips a cough drop between their lips, and when A wakes up, they realize what B has done for them during the night and thanks them with mentohol flavoured kisses.

finally continuing this damn crossover

1/2/3/4/5/?