Title: Of Sunburns and Solarcaine
Author: carrole
Ships: Sweiss
Disclaimer: If I could make money off this, don't you think I'd be working for ABC?
Summary: Sweiss fluffiness in honor of WhoaLikeSarkney's birthday. ;) Weiss' POV.
A/N: About the Solarcaine/sister/screaming thing…you can thank my aunt for that inspiration.
A/N 2: Crossposted to and possibly Supernova (see profile for link).
It had been a good vacation. It really had, despite forgetting my sunscreen. The worst part of it was that Sydney had reminded me to take my sunscreen with me, and I swore up and down to her that I had it.
Now, I was going to have to be a man, march over there, admit I was wrong and beg for a sunburn remedy.
She opened the door and started to laugh. And While I'm glad that I provide Sydney with a great deal of much needed amusement, it would have been nice to get, "Weiss, hi!" or even "Eric, I've missed you," or a hug or something before she started cracking up.
"Oh, my God, you look like a lobster," she said, nearly wheezing, she was laughing so hard. "Let me guess. Sunscreen was sitting on the bathroom counter."
"Worse," I said. "Kitchen counter. I'd set it out so I wouldn't forget it."
She bit her tongue to keep from completely letting herself over to hysterical laughter, moving out of the way to let me in. She pulled away my baseball cap to get an even better view of my face, which happened to be the same color red of any teenage boy caught kissing his girlfriend in front of her dad.
"Did you at least have fun in Florida?" she asked.
"Yeah, I had a great time," I said. "Until the sunburn at least."
"They do sell sunscreen in Florida," she pointed out.
I sighed. "Syd. I'm a guy. This stuff doesn't occur to me. Nor does the fact that I might need my own can of Solarcaine before I hid it in my sister's purse."
Obviously, that made no sense, as I could tell by Syd's puzzled expression. "My sister has been afraid of Solarcaine every since she was little. The word Solarcaine makes her scream. So, being the ever-loving big brother I am, I hid my can in her purse the last time she visited me."
"That is so strange," she said, either amazed at my choice of pranks or at my sister's weird phobia. What do you call that anyway? Solarcaine phobia? Sunburnus remedius phobius? Fearus of aloe veraus?
"So, you have no Solarcaine, and you didn't come over here because you couldn't wait to see me, or you needed to catch up at work, but because you need something for your sunburn," she said, sounding disappointed.
"Well, I would have come over to see your shining face anyway," I said. "But Syd, please tell me you have some Solarcaine."
Her eyebrow twitched, I swear it did. "Depends. What did you bring me?"
I held out the shirt in mute offering, and she unfolded the red shirt and read it aloud. "My best friend went to Florida and all he brought me back was this lousy T-shirt."
"Well, I brought you something else," I said, pulling out the paperweight I'd bought her. It was a clear thing with really luridly colored fish swimming around, but it was a nice paperweight, not one of these silly touristy ones. Still probably not the most sophisticated thing I could have brought her, but she laughed.
"Here," she said, placing it on the mantel under the light. "It's perfect. Brightens up the whole room. Sit down, I'll find the Solarcaine."
So I sat down, glad that my humble offerings had been so well received. I love Sydney's couch. It may be a butt-ugly shade of brown, but it sure is comfortable.
"Hey, it looks pretty good," Sydney said, reappearing out of the bathroom wearing the T-shirt I'd brought her, and I was really pleased with my color choice.
"Yeah, it does,: I said, my voice trailing off as my eyes focused on the bottle of Solarcaine in her hand and I swore mentally. Syd didn't have the Solarcaine in the aerosol can. It figures that of all the things to be ecologically minded about, Syd would have Solarcaine in the green aloe vera gel instead of the aerosol spray. I was hoping to pull back my shirt collar, spray some Solarcaine down my back, and sigh in relief.
"Come here, I'll rub it on your back," she said.
More internal swearing. I'm in pretty good shape now, but it's Syd who's in crazy good shape, and I look like a lobster, and taking off my shirt was really going to hurt, and oh, my God, Sydney was going to rub green stuff all over my back.
I pulled my shirt off, letting sunburn pain rip me back into consciousness and out of my panic.
Wow. Her hands were cold and so was the Solarcaine, but it felt good. I could tell she was silently laughing when I sighed in relief.
"You are going to double-check and make sure you have sunscreen next time, aren't you," she said, gently tapping on shoulder. "Here, turn around." She rubbed one hand down my arm. I swallowed hard and obediently turned around.
She spread the stuff over the tops of my shoulders. Surprisingly, my chest had pretty much survived my encounter with the beach, and she did my other arm. "What were you doing that got you so burned?"
"Surfing," I said, and saw her smile.
"I didn't know you surfed."
"I'm learning," I said, as she squeezed a little more gel out. Her fingers brushed it against my face and I could feel myself take in a breath, too sharply. I closed my eyes and her fingers traced along my nose and over my cheeks. I felt her shift on the couch, and I opened my eyes. She was studying my face, and leaned forward.
Oh, my God. Michael married Lauren after kissing Sydney Bristow? Is he insane? Sydney kissing me is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced in my life.
She pulled back, laughing, and I felt my ego deflate something horrible. "You smell like Solarcaine," she said, snickering.
I grabbed a pillow and flung it at her in retaliation for her laughter. "Well, duh, you just emptied half the bottle on me."
She hit me back and I grabbed another pillow to fend off her attacks. Sydney may the dominatrix of the universe when it comes to kicking butt and taking names, but no one beats me at a pillow fight. We scuffled a bit until I finally pinned her to the couch. I know for certain that Sydney could have gotten out of that, probably maiming me in the process, but she didn't, and the laughing she'd done when she kissed me was suddenly soothed by the fact that she wasn't objecting to lying on the couch with me looking down at her.
"You know what?" she said, propping herself up on her elbows. Her voice was soft.
"What?" I asked, gratefully thanking the powers that be that my voice hadn't cracked.
"I've always liked the smell of Solarcaine."