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stormysnz · 3 years ago

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Cuffed (M)

Sooooo this is heavily inspired by @smallsnzplz bc they made a post about a fifth-and-cuff (or fifth-and-a-friend) party and I literally never stopped thinking about it and immediately said I must write that for Grayson and Sage so thank you so much for the beautiful inspo. Of course, as always, contains Grayson's wonderfully horrible allergies, Sage's caretaking, and cuddles. Because who would I be if not consistent.

It had only been twenty minutes at the party when I realized that something was up. I was there with Grayson; one of Jess’s friends in our apartment complex was throwing a ‘fifth and cuff’ party. The rules were simple: You and your date were zip-tied together at the wrist, and the only way to get the tie cut was to finish a fifth of alcohol between the both of you. The perfect way to get obscenely drunk while also flirting the entire night with whoever you were tied to - one could see why these types of parties were so popular.

It felt like Grayson and I were in limbo with where our relationship stood. We had gone out for coffee a few times, gone to a couple parties together, hooked up once or twice, but there were no labels yet. We were right on the brink of slapping a label onto whatever the hell we were, and God, I was desperately wishing it all worked out. I was already in way too deep with this one.

Anyway, we had been cuffed for twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes and were having a great time. The both of us had taken a few shots to kick off the game, and I was starting to feel the warmth of the alcohol starting to take its effect on my body and loosen me up.

We had just finished a conversation with our friend Emily and her date, and had made our way to the kitchen to attempt to make some mixed drinks for ourselves. To no one’s surprise, this was fairly hard with two of our our hands attached together.

While we were flirting chatting in the kitchen, I absently noted Grayson beginning to sniff and clear his throat a bit. For Grayson, though, this wasn’t too out of the ordinary. He’d just about sneezed his head off for most of the times we’d hung out so far, so this wasn’t some kind of untreaded territory for us, it seemed. So, because of all this, I didn’t start putting anything together until the sneezing started up.

Out of almost nowhere, Grayson haphazardly slammed our fifth back on the counter from where he’d been pouring it into our cups and leaned as far away from me as humanly possible with our wrists still connected. His free arm hovered near his face for a second before he directed an itchy sneeze into his elbow. “hh-iiTTSHhh! Sorry, ‘scuse me,”

I blessed him, still not really thinking too much of the stray sneeze. It really wasn’t uncommon at all for Grayson to release a sneeze or two, considering the guy’s insanely sensitive nose. It wasn’t until he released another, and another, and another over the course of the next five minutes that I was beginning to catch on that something was wrong here.

I was also beginning to catch on to the fact that it was slightly hard to sneeze while one of your wrists was ziptied to someone else’s. Especially considering that Grayson had his right, dominant hand ziptied to my left one. Every time he sneezed, he seemed to have to put conscious thought into raising his free hand instead of his dominant hand that was currently attached to mine. He also ended up unintentionally tugging on our linked wrists as he bent to the side with each sneeze.

“Bless you. Are you alright?” I asked after another itchy sneeze, gazing up at Grayson. I was definitely feeling the effects of those shots. It was gonna be a long night, especially if he kept up all that sneezing.

“Hm? Yeah, I’m fine. Nose is just ihh-itchy,’ Grayson said, trying to brush off my concern. But, it didn’t exactly help that I could tell that he was building up for yet another sneeze.

Now, what happened next solidified the fact that the alcohol was beginning to have an affect on all the sneezing. Grayson, being much larger than me, had taken a few more shots than I had already, and I could tell that he was feeling it.

His nose scrunched up, and instead of ducking into his free elbow, like he had previously, Grayson automatically pulled both hands up to cover his nose, seemingly forgetting that my left wrist was still attached to his right one.

“hhiH! HI’TSHhhU! IttSHhh! hih-iiH! ISHHiiieWW!!”

“Bless y--” I had barely gotten out a blessing before my words reminded Grayson that my wrist was attached to his, and therefore too close to his sneezes for his liking.

A small noise of surprise escaped his throat and his eyes widened slightly when he looked and saw my hand so close to his face, immediately dropping his right hand from his face, and my hand along with it.

“Oh shit, I am so sorry, I didn’t even realize--” He started, blush beginning to rise to his tanned cheeks.

I cut off his little rambling with a shake of my head and a wave of my free hand. “It’s fine, it’s fine, promise. Are you alright, though? Getting sick?” I asked with a small, sympathetic frown.

Grayson shook his head, picking up his drink from where he’d placed it on a nearby table before he started sneezing. “Don’t think so. I felt fine until we got here,” He mentioned with a soft sniffle.

I raised an eyebrow. “Think it’s allergies?” I asked, mentally beginning to narrow down the culprits of what could be setting him off at the moment.

His eyes went hazy before he could answer my question, lashes beginning to flutter as his chest jumped with hitches. “hiiAESSHhhHUuu!!”

Oh, that one was loud. He’d been able to somewhat restrain the sneezes up to this point, but that one was as harsh and powerful as I knew his sneezes could be. A few others at the party glanced over in surprise at the noise, and Grayson scrubbed at his nose hard to ward off any stray sneezes.

“Umb, probably. Wouldn’t be surprised,” He finally answered with a self-depricating roll of his eyes, and a hint of congestion beginning to settle into his sinuses.

I frowned softly at Grayson’s response, the guy seemingly not really having any idea of what was setting off his allergies. “Are you gonna make it?” I asked softly.

He let out a soft chuckle, followed by a liquid sniffle. “Dod’t you worry about mbe, I’ll be fide,” Grayson brushed off with a flash of a grin.

Before I could say anything else, Jess and her date came running up to us -- Oh, they were definitely more finished with their fifth than we were -- and demanded that we took shots with them. Grayson and I exchanged looks and, with a shrug, were pouring out our shots. One shot each turned into two, which then turned into three for Grayson and Jess’s date.

Needless to say, as those next shots settled in, Grayson and I were now feeling the alcohol a lot more than earlier. To add to it, Grayson’s allergies weren’t letting up. At all.

We were a decent amount into our fifth, definitely over halfway at this point, and were just talking in the kitchen. Well, I was talking, and Grayson was mostly sneezing.

“Ad so thed, we wedt to...t-tohh! hhH! hHISSHhhU! iiiTShhHU! hih-iih-hhAESSHhhU! --uhhh” Grayson was, in fact, getting worse and worse at covering his sneezes as he got drunker and drunker. At this point, he kept accidentally bringing our attached hands up to cover, either with his hand or with his arm. Either way, I kept blushing and getting flustered every time it happened. I could only hope Grayson was too busy sneezing to notice.

“Bless you. You still don’t know what’s bothering you?” I asked, leaning back against the counter as I gazed up at him.

Grayson was sniffling desperately, his wrist pressed to his nose for a few seconds before he dropped it with a sigh. “I mbean...There’s odnly a few things that would mbake mbe sdeeze like this without direct exposure, but I dod’t know for sure,” He shrugged, sniffling back congestion yet again.

“You need tissues, don’t you? Let’s go to the bathroom, I bet there’s some in there,” I mentioned, grabbing our fifth and tugging Grayson to the bathroom. That was one perk that drunk me absolutely loved about the fifth and cuff - I could practically drag him anywhere through our wrists being tied together.

Once we made it into the bathroom and closed the door behind us, I went to start looking for some tissues, but Grayson seemed frozen in place. Glancing up at him, I saw that his large nostrils were flaring, his nose writhing with unshed allergic tickles. He rashly braced himself with a large hand against the wall of the bathroom, head tipping back as he built up to the release.

“ihhh-hi-hehhH! ETSSHHUU! hHESSHhIEW! hhah-AEESSHHUU! ahh-hah-AIISHHHUU! Hehh..”

Whoa, was not prepared for that. Apparently, since we had found a semi-private place in here, Grayson’s sensitive sinuses took that as an invitation to start sneezing his head off completely unrestrained.

“aAH-SHhHU!-TSHhhiU!...AESHhhIIEW!-K’TSHhhU!-SHHhU!”

I managed to snap myself out of whatever trance I had been held hostage in, my eyes moving away from the gorgeous visual of Grayson directing his helpless sneezes towards the ground. Unthinking, I rested my free hand on his back, brushing my nails up and down his back comfortingly as he ducked forward with a decidedly harsh, very allergic fit.

Eventually, though, the fit started winding down, with less huge, loud, back-to-back explosions, and more soft, exhausted, drawn-out sneezes. In his inebriated, exhausted state, he had accidently caught my arm in the crossfire of his spraying sneezes more than a few times, but Grayson definitely hadn’t noticed, so I saw no need to bring it up.

He tilted his head back once the fit was over, sniffling consistently. “uhhnn...Mb’sorry, thad was gross,” He said congestedly, blinking a few times to gain more awareness after the draining fit.

I brushed my nails up across the back of his neck lightly, scratching briefly at the hair that laid there before trailing them back down his neck and back. Grayson seemed to sag in relaxation under my touch, at one point a full-body shudder making its way down his frame in response to my ministrations. The alcohol was making me a lot more physically affectionate than usual, which was saying something considering I was already affectionate as it was. “Are you gonna make it? We can head out early,” I hummed softly, watching Grayson bring the back of his free hand up to wipe tiredly at his watery eyes before shaking his head.

“Ndo, ndo, I’m fide, I’m having a good tibe with you, really. Just dneed sobe tissues ad I’ll be good,” Grayson assured, straightening up and gathering up some energy.

I used my free hand to open the cabinet under the sink, finding a box of tissues and setting them on the table for Grayson. He looked at them with relief, immediately pulling out a few from the box and thanking me.

He grabbed a few with his free hand, layering them in his palm before pausing as he brought them to his face. His gaze subtly flickered over to me, a small motion that I caught ad understood.

“It’s fine, hon, go for it,” I encouraged, quickly realizing that he didn’t want to blow his nose with me so close.

A flush rose to his cheeks - one that had nothing to do with the alcohol - before proceeding to roughly blow his nose one-handed, using a good portion of the tissues over the next few minutes.

I busied myself by mindlessly scrolling on my phone, trying to ignore the Greek god blowing his nose directly next to me.

His blowing triggered a few coughs and a few stray sneezes, but after a few minutes, he dropped the last clump of tissues into the trash bin. With another swipe under his nose, he turned to me, and I glanced up from my phone to look at him.

“Thanks, I’m really sorry about all this, I didn’t take my medication because I didn’t think I would need to, but something’s obviously setting me off pretty badly--” Grayson started to ramble slightly, and I cut him off with a hand on his arm as I softly interrupted.

“Grayson, really, it’s okay, I promise,” I said, flooding my tone with warmth and assurance.

He blinked in hesitation before shaking his head, as if I wasn’t really understanding his point. “No, no, it’s just...all of it. Almost every time we’ve hung out something’s set me off, and you always make it seem like its not gross and you’re always so nice about it all…” Grayson trailed off, breaking eye contact as he trailed off, as if he thought I was going to break his heart over all of it.

I gave him a small, sympathetic frown. I hated that he thought that way. “Hon, I really don’t mind it,” Yeah, understatement of the goddamn year. “It’s really not your fault, it’s just allergies, I can handle a bit of sneezing,” I assured.

Once his eyes made their way back to mine, Grayson was looking down at me like I had just hung the stars in the sky, and the thought quickly flashed through my mind that maybe he’d never been told that before. If he was reacting like this to me just saying that, I briefly wondered what his reaction would be if I told him about my little...quirk.

That thought got derailed fairly quickly by Grayson ducking down, catching my lips with his. My eyes fluttered shut, quickly returning the searing kiss. My back leaned against the marble countertop of the sink, my free hand raising to pull him closer by the back of his neck. Grayson’s own free hand cupped my jaw, kissing me deeper and Oh wow, this guy could kiss, and--

The both of us jumped at a loud knock on the bathroom door, and loud voices calling in.

“Hey lovebirds, done with your fifth yet?!” God damn it, Jess.

Grayson and I glanced at each other, still slightly dazed from our quick make-out session. I giggled softly at the situation once I had recollected myself, grabbing the fifth with my free hand. “Come on, it looks like our presence is being missed,” I hummed lightly, Grayson following me towards the door with a chuckle. “We’ll pick up where we left off later,” He said lowly, causing my breath to catch in my throat with desire just before I opened the door.

To no one’s surprise, Jess and her date were again looking for partners to do shots with. Grayson and I glanced at each other with a smile. Well, we needed to finish the fifth somehow.

So, a few more shots and mixed drinks later, we were almost done with our fifth. We were now sitting on the couch with some others, just chatting contently, the alcohol really setting in now. Most of the other couples had gotten their zip-ties off at this point, but with our little bathroom detour, we were just a bit behind.

Also, although Grayson had seemed better for a while after blowing his nose, since sitting on the couch, the allergies had seemed to pick back up again, and a little worse than before.

“hih-TShhhU! hhhISHHhhU! HEIIShhhU!-TSHhhu!-KTSHhiiUU!...hhAh-AESHhuUU!” Again, with getting a little more intoxicated, Grayson was getting sloppy with covering his sneezes. Now, he was mostly either directing them towards his arm (his arm that was attached to mine, most times), or uncovered towards his lap. Either way, it was a fairly good assumption that every time he started up again, I’d get sprayed once or twice.

At some point in the night, between all the chatting and the alcohol, I’d kind of forgotten that Grayson wasn’t just sneezing his head off for the fun of it, he was definitely allergic to something here. And what reminded me of that fact was fairly unfortunate for Grayson.

While we were mid-conversation with a girl that lived on our floor in the apartment, I heard a few odd calls of a name, followed by people clamoring over to the hallway next to the living room that we were in. Both Grayson and I looked over and winced at what we saw. A cat had escaped from one of the rooms.

The owner was mentioning something about how they tried to keep him in her room when there were people over, but that was all background noise as I was focused on Grayson. As if just seeing the cat increased the allergic itch in his sinuses tenfold, he immediately ducked down towards his lap with a chain of back-to-back sneezes that seemed to tear right out of him.

“hhHIESSHHU!-ESSHhHU!-ETT’SHHHu!...hhaAESHHHU! hhEH!-”

Before I could even ask if he wanted to leave or if he was going to be alright, Grayson grabbed our fifth and downed the last bit of it when he got a break from his sneezes. Immediately after putting the empty bottle down, he grabbed the scissors from the table, cut our zip-tie, and hurried off to the bathroom.

I frowned at his actions, standing from the couch after I had processed everything that had happened. At our friend’s concerned inquires about whether or not Grayson would be alright, I told them that he was alright, just allergic to cats, and that I was going to go check on him.

I made my way over to the bathroom, hearing loud, itchy expulsions ring out. I knocked on the door, calling in and telling Grayson that it was just me. After a few moments, the lock clicked and I pushed my way in.

Grayson had closed the lid of the toilet and was sat down on it, assumingly feeling the need to sit down to ride out the intense fit. He was sneezing back-to-back like he was never going to stop, getting thrown forward with the intensity of each sneeze. He was just directing the spraying, uncontrollable sneezes down to his lap again, too busy sneezing to try to do anything else.

“hAASHHhHUU! HEASHHUU!-ESSHhHU!-ET’CHhhU!-ESSHHH!-AESH! hheh...HRRASHHhU!”

I sighed in sympathy at the sight, closing and locking the door again before making my way over to a still-sneezing Grayson. I pulled out a bunch of tissues from the box that was still stored under the sink, pressing them into Grayson’s hand so he could blow when he got the chance.

I then moved to look under the sink again, grabbing a wash cloth that was sitting nice and folded inside. I ran it under some warm water in the sink, dousing it before ringing it out so it wasn’t completely dripping wet.

Grayson blinked open his watery eyes, just for a moment, before they slammed shut again with ticklish need, allergic tears starting to trail down his cheeks. That moment was long enough to bring the wad of tissues to his face, his elbows now resting on his knees with his hands holding up the tissues in front of his face. With one desperate inhale, Grayson was off sneezing again, this time directed into the tissues.

“hHAESSHUu! HRRSHHIEW! AESHhHU!-ESSCHH!-ESSCHh-uUE!...hh-huh!... uhhhn…”

Grayson’s nostrils were flaring in and out to double their size, trembling and quivering as he hitched. His chest and shoulders were jumping with each inhale, his eyes narrowed to slits as he held the now useless tissues in front of his face.

I took this moment where he wasn’t sneezing non-stop to step in front of him where he was sitting, putting my hand under his chin and tilting his head up towards me. He blinked his eyes fully open in surprise for a moment before closing them against the irritation of the allergens assaulting his eyes and nose. I laid the warm washcloth over his eyes, pressing gently for a few moments before dabbing lightly at each eye to soothe them.

I think his surprise at my motions scared the sneezes away for a moment, as all he did was sigh and sag in relief, leaning into my touch. I wiped softly across his eyes, my free hand steadying his face as I tilted it up.

After a few more moments, I noticed Grayson’s nose scrunching up, twitching lightly, and his breath going uneven. “Sihh-Sage, I...I-”

Grayson didn’t get much farther in his sentence, as hitches overtook him, but I could discern the general sentiment. I’d like to contribute the alcohol to what happened next.

Grayson was much too inebriated to even think about covering the incoming sneezes, and I had a washcloth already on his face, so I, unthinking and also inebriated, just moved the washcloth down to cup his nose and mouth before the sneeze hit.

“hhISHHhU! iIISHhHU! hhuh’SSHHHU! AT’SHHH-TSHhhU! hhuH! HRRSHHUU!” Grayson sneezed into the carefully cupped washcloth, leaning into the touch. God, I was praying that Grayson was too busy sneezing to notice my blush. Considering he couldn’t stop sneezing for long enough to open his eyes at the moment, I felt like I was in the clear for now. Once he seemed done sneezing for the moment, I wiped gently at his nose. He let out a relieved moan at the touch that didn’t exactly help the whole blushing situation.

Once I was done, I set the rag on the sink, cupping Grayson’s cheek with one hand and brushing his hair back out of his face with the other.

“You seem absolutely exhausted. Come on, let’s get out of here,” I suggested.

He peeked up at me with a raised eyebrow and smirk at my words. I laughed as I realized that the ‘let’s get out of here’ had a bit of an implication.

“Not like that, hon,” I laughed. “You don’t exactly seem up for that at the moment,” I added, absentmindedly scratching at his scalp, my fingers intertwining with his hair.

He exhaustedly leaned his forehead onto my shoulder with a sigh. “Will you still stay if we go back to my apartment?” He asked, voice muffled against my skin. Seems like he got affectionate when drunk and tired, too.

“Yeah, ‘course I’ll stay with you,” I hummed lightly, feeling his frame tense for a moment before ducking off to the side with two, uncovered sneezes. He sighed and stood to his feet, taking a moment to blow his nose once more before sliding his hand into mine before we left the bathroom to say our goodbyes. I raised a slight eyebrow at his semi-intimate action, but supposed it wasn’t too surprising considering we’d just been zip-tied together for the past couple hours.

I made my way around to our friends, most of the time speaking on behalf of myself and Grayson to let them know that we were on our way out. Grayson tried to give his input a few times, but most of the time he was too busy sneezing to get more than three words out around the explosions.

Eventually, we said all of our goodbyes and made our way out of the apartment, heading up the elevator to Grayson’s apartment a few flights up. Although he was out of the cat hair-filled apartment, he was still sneezing very consistently. I had a feeling that he was going to be doing that for a majority of the night.

After finally entering Grayson’s apartment, he immediately went over to a box of tissues sitting on his counter and blew his nose roughly, the vibrations causing a few itchy sneezes immediately afterwards.

“You really should get out of those clothes and shower. I bet there’s cat hair all over,” I mentioned, locking the apartment door behind me.

I saw Grayson’s nose twinge at my comment, heaving another gasp and ducking forward into the awaiting tissues in his hand with a final sneeze.

“hhih-hIRSHhhhU! Oh, sorry. *snff!* But...your clothes and body also probably have cat hh-hair on them too, hmm?” Grayson said with a raised brow, coughing ticklishly for a moment before glancing down at me with a glint in his glassy eyes.

“...Yeah, they probably do. I can go home and change if you want me to, I’ll be right back--” I started, getting cut off by Grayson taking a few steps closer to me, tilting my head up to look at him with a large hand under my chin.

“Nuh-uh, that’s not what I’m s-saahh...say-HIHSHHIEW!-SHIEWW! hhIH’ESHHHUU!” Grayson quickly ducked to the side with the uncovered, spraying sneezes before continuing where he had left off. I was forcing my mind to stay on topic - stop thinking about him sneezing, please, Sage - as he spoke.

“If I’m already gonna shower off, and you need to shower too…” Grayson trailed off, rheumy eyes glancing down at me with want.

A smile tugged at my lips, the implication quickly setting in. “I mean, it would conserve water if we both showered together,” I shrugged with a grin, faux-apathetic at the situation.

Grayson’s lips mirrored mine at my answer, ducking his head slightly down with a low chuckle. He took my hand, leading me through his bedroom and into the bathroom. He leaned past the shower curtain to turn on the shower and let it heat up.

As Grayson turned around, I laid a caressing hand on his upper arm, my other hand tugging him closer by the waist. I pressed upwards, my eyes fluttering shut as our lips pressed together needily.

The room started to get hotter and fill with steam as we made out, bodies pressed flush together. At some point, Grayson had lifted me to sit on the counter, allowing for a more comfortable experience, as it diminished the height difference quite a bit.

After a few minutes, I managed to pull myself away from his lips. He chased after them for a moment before looking down at me with a disappointed look, causing a light laugh to bubble up from my chest.

“The water’s definitely hot enough, we can’t leave it running forever,” I pointed out with a grin.

Grayson groaned, stepping away from my body begrudgingly, stripping his shirt off. I tried to not be too obvious about my staring at his chest as I myself started stripping my clothes off. But, based on the glazed-over look in Grayson’s eyes as he watched me strip that I knew had nothing to do with the alcohol or allergies, I was sure he was feeling the same way.

I pulled back the curtain back to step into the shower, and Grayson stepped in behind me at my heels. Once adjusting to the heat of the water hitting me, I turned to Grayson, the water hitting my back and wetting my hair. I tilted my head slightly to the side when his back was facing me, his hand bracing himself against the tile wall.

“Are you okay, Gray--”

“hIISSHHhU! hASSHhhIEW! AT’SHHIEW! HIESSHhhU!-ESSHHU!-ISSHIEW! hhEH! HADJSSHHU!”

“Oh, bless you,” I mentioned softly, glancing up at Grayson when he finally turned around to face me. I had been a bit...distracted, to say the least, my eyes glued to his shuddering back muscles as he sneezed.

He sniffled liquidly a few times, his hand coming up to scrub at his red, pulsating nose. “Sorry, the steam alwahh..always-SSHHIEW-ESHhhU!! God, sorry, the steam always messes with my nose,” Grayson mentioned, as if this was something completely normal for him to say that wasn’t absolutely melting my brain.

He let his gaze roam appreciatively across my body for a few moments before reaching out and tugging me against him with two large hands on my back. I made a small noise of surprise before Grayson attached his lips to mine in a deep kiss. His fingers were pressing into the skin of my lower back, mine against the skin of his bicep, and all I could think about was making this kiss last longer and go deeper and--

All at once, Grayson’s lips were gone from mine, and he was whipping his head to the side to direct a few spraying sneezes towards the ground. The steam was definitely beginning to loosen things up in his sinuses, if the spray that hit my thigh had anything to say about it.

His quadruplet of sneezes reminded me of what we were supposed to be doing in the shower: getting all the cat hair off. I pulled slightly away from Grayson when he leaned back in to reconnect our lips, laughing softly at the little whine it elicited from him.

“Come on, wash everything off,” I encouraged, giving him a little push in the direction of the hot water. Begrudgingly, and through many sneezes, Grayson washed off his body and quickly shampooed his hair as well, mentioning regretfully that he was sure that some cat dander ended up caught in his hair.

Once he was finished, he pulled me against him with a grin, his large hands caressing my skin with body wash as he helped me wash off my body, pressing kisses across my neck, shoulders, anywhere he could reach, really, as he did so.

He tried to keep directing sneezes away from me, but when they came on as fast as Grayson’s did, he ended up catching me in the crossfire more than a few times. Not that he noticed. He was a bit...preoccupied at the moment, and I was more than distracted.

After a few more deep kisses, which resulted in my back being pressed the wall of the shower, with Grayson in front of me and his lips moving sensually against mine, I managed to pull back slightly.

“We should really take this to the bed,” I breathed out, eyes flicking up to meet Grayson’s. Both of our eyes were filled with desire, a glazed-over look in our gazes.

He gave my hip a squeeze in agreement, his head ducking down with a small fit of allergic sneezes. They were definitely starting to slow down since being in the shower, which was a good sign. Grayson reached behind him and shut off the shower water, taking my hand and helping me out. After both of our bodies were mostly dry, Grayson sent me a wicked grin and lead me out of the bathroom towards his bed...

~~~~

I started to bleed into consciousness the next morning as the light filtered through the window. I absently noticed a slight pressure at my neck, moving around, but I was much too dampened with sleep to realize anything that was happening. I began awakening more at the sound and feeling of warm air being released across my collarbone. What…?

My eyes blinked open, squinting against the harsh light from the window. Ugh, way too bright… Gaining a bit more semblance of the current situation, I finally recognized that Grayson was at my back, his arm thrown over my waist tugging my body close to his, and his face buried in my neck.

Heat trickled to my cheeks as I also began to realize that the moving pressure against my neck was Grayson rubbing his nose back and forth against my neck in his sleep. Jesus Christ. Yeah, he really was going to be the death of me one day.

Grayson mumbled incoherently in his sleep, pressing closer to me and tightening his arm around my waist minutely. I smiled fondly, affection written across my face and bleeding through my veins. You shouldn’t be getting that feeling in your chest this early, Sage, you’re not his girlfriend, A voice in my head told me.

But, tilting my head back to catch a glimpse of Grayson’s sleeping body, I shoved that voice out of my mind for the time being. It was still early in the morning, and I could blame the fleeting, too-affectionate feelings on the early time.

With another slight shift, Grayson scrunched up his nose, scrubbing it back and forth harshly against the skin between my neck and shoulder, beginning to sniffle softly. His lips parted to draw in two soft, stuttering breaths. Nnhh...hh…

As Grayson didn’t stop his motions, I began to realize what was inevitably going to happen. Without disturbing his position too much, I wrenched my head around to glance back at Grayson again. His eyebrows were pinched together, the itch crawling through his sinuses causing the beginnings of the crumpling of his facial features.

As I lazily glanced over at him, a harsher hitch told me that the itch was growing, and fast. hh...hiH’iiH!... His nose had scrunched up as he pushed it against my skin harder, creases forming on the bridge of his nose as he took in soft hitches through his parted lips.

After a few moments of waiting, I quickly realized that, though the itch was building, the blanket of sleep wasn’t going to let Grayson get the tickle out. He scrubbed his nose back and forth against the skin of my neck, his face scrunched up in his sleep and his breath stuttering with hitches on every inhale. But, again, the poor guy just wasn’t waking up. The tickle wasn’t big enough. Well, I could help with that.

I reached back, inching my nail feather-lightly down the scrunched up bridge of his nose and circled around his twitchy, flaring nostrils. Almost immediately after I took my finger away to move back to my previous position, Grayson’s face completely crumpled and he took in a few very vocal hitches. Oh yeah, he was definitely over the edge now. I turned my head back and placed it back on the pillow in its original position just before the sneezes hit.

“hehH-haAH! ATTSHhhHIEW! hH’hhAESSHhHu! eehh! ETSSHHhhU!--unnhh…*snff!*”

Grayson, still half-asleep and completely helpless to the allergic tickle, didn’t even think about covering his sneezes in his current state. Instead, the uncovered, unrestrained sneezes sprayed across my neck, collarbone, and shoulder, making me shudder. With each release, Grayson unintentionally tugged me closer with the hand around my torso. He let out a soft, sleepy, spent groan after the three sneezes, finally starting to shake off the sleepiness and come to consciousness.

“Bless you,” I let out warmly, now glancing over at him and reaching my hand back to card my hand through his hair.

Seemingly realizing just now that I was there, Grayson’s eyes slammed open and looked up at me. I gave him a small, knowing grin before his face flushed pink and he, very obviously flustered, pushed his face to hide in the crook of my neck with an embarrassed groan.

“Ugghh, did I just…? On your…? Ughhh...” He asked with another flustered groan, his voice muffled against my skin. As much as he had definitely been not aware of what he was doing when he had sneezed, he was starting to piece it together now.

I giggled lightly at his sheepish and blushy demeanor, continuing to affectionately card my fingers through his hair and scratch at his scalp. “It’s okay, you’re all good,” I assured with a soft hum, a fond smile across my lips. Again, understatement of the goddamn century.

“No, it’s not, I just sneezed on you, that’s so gross and the opposite of ‘okay’, I’m so sorry--” Grayson began to ramble, his mumbling words still pressed into my neck where he was still hiding. I cut him off quickly, not wanting the guy to talk himself in a circle of apologies forever.

“Grayson, I’m absolutely sure it’s completely fine. You were sleeping, you couldn’t help it,” I reassured, tugging lightly at his hair to try to get his face to emerge from its spot pushed into my neck so he’d look at me.

I smiled up at him when he lifted his face to look down at me, his cheeks still very obviously red with blush. Adorable. “I’m still sorry. I always sneeze in the morning, right when I wake up, I’m pretty sure it’s ‘cause my medicine wears off by the morning and all the duhhst and pollen and shih-iiH! Sorry, I gohhttasneeze-! hhIIISSSHhHU!” He picked his head up a bit more to direct the itchy, sudden sneeze away from me.

I reached up, cupping his cheek with my hand once he was done sneezing. “Bless you. I’m telling you, I really don’t mind. It’s okay,” I said warmly, yet again trying to reassure him that his sneezing was fine. More than fine, really. Though, he didn’t know all that about me yet.

His eyes shifted to look down at mine, his body now being propped up with his elbow next to me, while I was still laying on my back. His eyes softened when they met mine, seemingly analyzing me for a moment.

“You’re so...I can’t even describe it. I know I was talking about it last night, and all of it was completely true, you’re just always so nice and kind about it and just brush it all off, even though I know my allergies can be kind of...well, a lot, to say the least, and you always make it seem like it’s so normal and fine and-and you just...You…”

Grayson seemingly couldn’t find the words to continue what he was trying to say. His lips just quirked up softly and he leaned down to press a long, deep kiss to my lips in lieu of words. I smiled against his lips, easily returning the kiss and pushing all my fondness and acceptance for the guy through it.

He pulled back eventually, soft eyes looking down into mine. My lips quirked up and my thumb was brushing absentmindedly across his cheek where my hand rested. Something new seemed to flash in his eyes, making his face contort into an expression I wasn’t sure I’d seen before. He seemed to realize something, but that fond look was still present and written in his features.

“I...I really like you, Sage. Like, really like you. And I don’t know if you feel the same way, and I’m fine with keeping things how they are if you want to but...I’d really love for you to be my girlfriend. And I know maybe it’s too early, and it’s totally fine if you don’t want that, but I just--Oh!”

Yet again, I cut off his rambling. (He was rambling a lot this morning. Again, adorable.). This time, by tugging him down and capturing his lips in a searing, deep kiss, our lips moving together slowly. I began to pull away and my eyes fluttered open, giggling softly with a smile against his lips.

Grayson took a quick moment to recover from the deep kiss, his eyes still a little glazed over as he looked down at me, a grin quickly spreading across his lips that he seemingly couldn’t hold back. My face was radiating happiness, a mirror of his, as he asked: “Soo, is that a yes?”

#literally one of my favs of these two #again thank you so much smallsnzplz bc your beautiful scenario about the fifth-and-cuff did not leave my brain and forced me to write this #also woooooo they're official #OC: Grayson #OC: Sage #snzario #snzfic #also please send me more scenarios for me to write about these two because i <3 them #my writing

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