Pizza and Hazmats on Valentine's Day
Rating: PG
Summary: Spinner Cortez is determined to not let his Germ-o-phobia ruin another Valentine's day
Pairing: Stanford/Spinner (established)
Warnings: Slash, a bit OOC-ness, and Un-beta-ed
...
He had been six, when his grandmother Benita tried to give him a Valentine's day kiss. One look at his grand mother's grubby lips and he had screamed and ran away.
Four years later, Lisa May, the cutest girl in his class attempted to give Spinner a Valentine at the 4th grade Valentine party. Of course this just happened to be the month Lisa had been suffering from pink eye and instead of taking her valentine, Spinner screamed and locked himself in the boys bathroom.
Six years later, Spinner was dancing at the Valentine's day dance when his Marcy Green had un-intentionally sneezed in his direction. Spinner spent the rest of the night in the shower scrubbing.
...
Spinner awoke on Valentine's day to the sound of Stanford coughing and instantly he found himself panicking. He didn't run away immediately as he might have done in the past although he did excuse himself fairly quickly. He showered and scrubbed for what seemed like hours, making sure that every germ was dead. When he got out he found out that it was official. Stanford Isaac Rhodes was suffering from the dreaded cold virus.
"My head feels like it's stuffed to the blood brim with mucus," Stanford moaned to Vert and Zoom, as the two of them stood around in the kitchen. "I swear that I feel like my head is about to explode, my throat is hurting and I keep sneezing up this green goo-"
"O-okay," Zoom said, pushing away the food he was currently eating, "too much information."
"I thought just last week you were telling us that stout-hearted Rhodes men don't ever get sick," Vert said, raising any eyebrow.
"Well clearly this is a rare mutant strain of the virus that not even the strongest man can stop from catching," Stanford said, right before sneezing into a tissue he fished from his pocket. He moaned in a way that Spinner figured a dying man might moan. "I'm going back to bed. Wake me only if the world is ending-" As Stanford turned he noticed Spinner still standing in the kitchen door. "Hey there lover, you enjoy your shower? I'm surprised you are not a giant prune, you were in there so long."
"Um...I've got to go..." Spinner turned and ran.
...
Sherman was the one to find Spinner, whom had resorted to hiding out at Zeke's. "How long are you going to hide here?" the larger Cortez asked as he sat down next to his brother at the counter.
"I don't know," Spinner sighed. "How long do you think it would take to fumigate the entire base?"
"Spinner, I know you are afraid of germs," Sherman said, laying his hand on his brother's shoulder, "but you can't spend the rest of your life running away from them. It's clearly effected your relationships this far."
"I know, I know," Spinner sighed, putting his face into his hands. "I know but I can't help but panic each and every time I even think about those...things...crawling all over me, making me sick..." Just the thought of them on him made his whole body shiver with disgust.
"Germs are a problem Spinner," Sherman admitted. "But it's Valentine's day, the one day of the year that you should be spending with the person you really care about. I know if I had a new boyfriend I'd want to spend this day with him, germs or no germs."
"I couldn't help but over hear," Zeke said, a knowing grin on his face as walked over to the brothers, "but if it's germs that you are worried about then I think I got a solution to your problem."
...
Stanford was resting on his bed when Spinner walked in. Stanford raised an eyebrow in Spinner's direction as the shorter man walked in carrying a pizza box, and wearing a hazmat suit. "Did you suddenly decide to join a toxic waste clean up team?" Stanford chuckled.
"No," Spinner answered, smiling through the clear plastic face mask. "Zeke's letting me borrow his alien virus protection suit. He says that it will protect against all germs, alien or otherwise." He held out the pizza box proudly. "I brought you a special Valentine's pizza."
Stanford sat up and took the box. He opened it and laughed. "Well I have to say that this is my first time having a heart shaped pizza as a Valentine's present. I must say that it's an inspired gift idea indeed."
"Yeah, I figured it would be," Spinner said, still smiling.
"Are you going to stand there or are you going to sit down?" Stanford asked.
Spinner hesitated a moment, feeling the need to run grow in his gut. But looking at Stanford's face he couldn't just run away. He really liked Stanford, more then he had like anyone else before. So he moved over to the bed, slowly as it was difficult to move around in the bulky suit, and took a seat on the bed next to Stanford. He only flinched a little as Stanford put the pizza down and moved closer to him.
"So, you've been avoiding me today because of the fact that I'm sick?" Stanford asked, cocking up another curious eyebrow.
"Well, kind of," Spinner said, a layer of guilt in his voice. He looked at Stanford in a pleading way. "It's not you, it's all me, I swear! Ever since I was a little kid I just hate germs and when ever I think I'm going to come in contact with one I tend to freak out and just want to run to a bathroom." He sighed as he looked into Stanford's beautiful green eyes. "But I swear I'm getting better, or at least trying to get better. It's not easy but I want to be around you so I'm going to keep working on it until I'm able to stop being so freaked out…and maybe only be a little freaked out." He was thankful when Stanford gave him a gentle smile in return.
"I'm actually very touched that you would face your fear so you could be with me."
"It was about time to get over my fear anyways. I can't keep running all my life especially when there are so many things I could be missing."
"And with that said I believe that it's my turn to give you a present," Stanford said reaching under the bed and producing a box with red wrapping paper.
It was a little difficult for Spinner to open the box with his gloved hands but once he had managed to he looked at the present and found himself a little confused. "Hand sanitizer?"
"Said to kill ninety-nine percent of all cold and flu germs," Stanford chuckled.
"Wow, thank you," Spinner laughed, holding the bottle in his gloved hands. "I think this is probably one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever gotten."
"So does that mean that I get a kiss?" Stanford asked.
Spinner froze. His heart was already beginning to race and underneath the suit he could feel himself beginning to sweat. The need to run was even worse then when he sat down, his flight or fight reflex pointing clearly to flight. But as Spinner again looked into Stanford's eyes, those sexy I'm-sometimes-as-cool-as-James-Bond like eyes, and he found his heart beating for a completely different reason. After a moment of the two reasons battling it out in his mind and heart, Spinner hesitantly reached up removed the hazmat helmet. "Happy?"
"Yes, very," Stanford said. He then proceeded to kiss Spinner in a way that was both fantastic and left the smaller man breathless but happy as the pulled apart. "So you feel like running away to the bathroom?"
"In a minute," Spinner breathed, his lips turned up in a dazed smile. He could do lots of scrubbing later, Stanford's kisses always came first.