Cold season, warm hearts
"Ah…ah…achoo!"
As Santana sniffled, rubbing a tired hand across the bridge of her nose, she let her shoulders slump forward, giving a frustrated groan. Standing in front of the coffee maker, she tried again to remove the pot to pour herself her first cup, wanting to wait until she was steady enough that she wouldn't spill and scald herself. But she inhaled sharply again as the deep tickle in her nose returned, and she hurriedly shoved the pot back before catching her second sneeze in the crook of her elbow.
"Achoo!"
"Sweetie, let me get that for you," her wife said softly, touching her arm.
Brittany gently smoothed Santana's hair back off of her shoulders, rubbing a hand in between her shoulder blades in sympathy as she leaned down to kiss Santana's temple. Santana closed her eyes, leaning back into her unconsciously, as Brittany's hand continued to stroke her forehead, lingering against her skin.
"You're burning up, baby. And you're all sweaty. Come sit down."
"I'm fine," Santana insisted, as she always did, but Brittany could hear the whine in her tone that they both knew showed up only when she was really tired or really feeling badly- both, which applied to her then.
She had been up coughing most of the night, hard enough that the bed had shook and Brittany had rubbed her back for over an hour, trying to soothe her tensed muscles into relaxing enough to allow for sleep. Thankfully, it was a Saturday, so Santana wasn't trying to insist on going to work, but she had already been determined to get out of bed and attempt to start her day as if it wasn't making her leg muscles shaky just to stand.
Brittany felt Santana's muscles tense against her hand and heard another quick intake of breath, and she was able this time to wrap her arms around her and hold her supportively before Santana sneezed again, this time with enough force that it sounded like it might have actually hurt her. Santana sniffled, giving another weak groan as Brittany rubbed her arms, kissing the top of her head again.
"Come on, honey, come sit down."
"Brittany, I'm fine," Santana argued, but her voice was so stuffy the word "fine" sounded more like "fibe," and she leaned her head against Brittany's shoulder, letting her take on the full weight of her. She let herself be guided to the couch rather than to the kitchen table, and when Brittany returned to her a few minutes later, it was with Gatorade and orange juice rather than coffee that she set on the coffee table in front of her.
"Where's my coffee?" Santana asked, sniffling, and Brittany couldn't exactly miss that she had located the tissue box on the side table and was holding one up to her face, covering both her nose and her mouth. Brittany sat beside her easily, wrapping an arm around Santana's shoulders and kissing her temple again, as much to check her temperature as to give her affection as she replied.
"Well, it's Saturday, so I thought today would be a really nice day for us to be totally lazy. Coffee will keep you up so it's a no go. Today, I just want to lay around with my beautiful, totally sexy wife and snuggle and watch movies and sleep."
She wasn't lying; it did sound like an amazing day to her even in the best of times. But moreover, it was the kind of day that her clearly sick wife, who never did want to acknowledge that she was sick, actually needed, and Brittany had every intention of doing and saying whatever she needed to, to make sure that this was the kind of day Santana got.
Santana side eyed her, seeming to know exactly what it was that she was doing, her groggy eyes narrowed. But she smiled slightly, sniffling, and nodded, leaning against Brittany's side and resting her head against her shoulder.
"Okay. If that's what you want."
"Of course it is," Brittany told her, stroking back her hair from her face and wrapping a protective arm around her shoulders. Subtly she tugged the blanket off the back of the couch and spread it over Santana's shoulders, anchoring her more closely against her side. "What could be better than spending a day curled up with my girl?"
She didn't mention the fact that Santana's red little nose and cheeks were completely adorable to her and reminded her of Rudolph. She didn't mention that every time Santana burrowed her face against her shoulder or rubbed her eyes or nose like an overgrown child after sneezing made her want to squeeze her until she gasped for breath with how incredibly cute it was. She didn't comment when Santana slowly sunk more and more against her until her head was in Brittany's lap as Brittany stroked her hair, her eyes barely open at all, and when Santana fell asleep, mouth open, snoring softly and breathing with snuffly congestion, it took everything she had not to kiss her awake just so she could share with her how much she loved her, everything about her, even when Santana herself hated her current state. She just held her, letting movies replace each other on Netflix until they seemed to blend into one, and savored the warmth in her heart as much as the warmth of the woman in her arms.