From anon prompt on tumblr: "Person A (Nate) has an allergic reaction while hanging out with Person B (Elena) and some friends (Sully). Person B freaks out while Person C rolls their eyes and epipens Person A."
It was just three days until their wedding, and yet she was sitting there working on devouring an entire cheesecake with Nate and Sully.
Of course Elena wasn't into the whole starve-to-be-pretty thing, but she'd been careful the past few weeks, trying to make sure the horribly expensive wedding dress she purchased didn't bulge in the wrong places and become immortalised in their wedding photos. She'd even lost a few pounds and had been feeling pretty good for the Big Day.
Her healthy eating kick died the moment a horrible thunderstorm began to rage in Miami and the three of them were stuck in doors, though. Nate and Sully had offered to brave the weather and go buy "binge food" while they waited out the storm and watched movies.
Elena knew what it was like taking Nate grocery shopping, and wasn't all that surprised with the amount of food they brought back. Chips, pop, beer, cake, ice cream, and what she thought was a two pound jar of gummy bears.
Right now they were two movies into The Mummy series and she was on her second slice of cake. Fortunately, the food was capturing Nate's focus instead of all the Hollywood inaccuracies around exploring old ruins and ancient Egyptian history happening on screen.
She had her feet wedged under Sully's legs at the opposite end of the couch, and Nate had claimed the floor space and coffee table in front of the television. Sully hadn't gotten to the cake yet, and was just nursing a beer. Probably the healthiest choice out of all their purchases.
"This is really good," she mumbled around her food, then swallowed her bite of cake. "Where'd you guys go?"
Nate shrugged and shoved a massive piece of cheesecake into his mouth. "'e b'ry 'o l'e—"
"What?"
He cleared his throat after a moment and tried again. "That bakery you like. The one on 9th? And then the grocery store for the rest." He set down his fork and coughed, rubbing at the front of his neck.
"What's wrong?" she asked, but he waved her off. She shrugged and took another bite. "Well I'm gonna have to thank them in person for making this. This is the best cherry chees—"
"Cherry?" Sully asked her, eyes wide, then looked down at her husband. "What the hell's wrong with you, kid?"
"What?" He held up his fork in defense and coughed again. She frowned, seeing his eyes starting to water. "I just picked the one that looked good—"
"What's wrong with cherry?" she asked. Sully sighed and shook his head, setting his beer can down.
"You haven't told her?" Sully asked. "You're on your second wedding and—"
"Wait—what?" she repeated, glaring at Nate. He'd begun wheezing, and his face looked puffy. He set his plate down on the coffee table and coughed again, and she finally put it together. "Nate? Are you—you're allergic to cherries, aren't you?"
"Not—" he coughed again, this time doubling over. "Not—not that b—"
She jumped off the couch, careful not to kick Nate, and grabbed her phone off the table. "Jesus Christ, Nate," she muttered, dialling 911. Even if he said it wasn't serious, he had a habit of underestimating things. "Oh god, the weather will slow the—"
Sully grabbed her wrist from his seat on the couch. "Don't worry about it," he told her, voice entirely too calm.
"What?" She gestured at her husband, who was going red in the face. "Look at him! He's swelling up like a balloon!"
Sully sighed and pushed up off the couch. "You need it, kid?"
Nate gave him a shaky nod, looking like he was trying to breathe around a swollen tongue.
"Need what?" Sully and Nate usually spoke to each other in some weird half-code that only the two of them understood, and she was glad they were so close, but—god, it felt like she was going crazy sometimes when they were this uncomfortably light on details.
Sully wandered towards his jacket thrown over the chair in the kitchen and Elena deleted the half-typed emergency call, running towards the front hall bathroom and trying to remember what they had in the way of antihistamines. Sully said don't call an ambulance, and he wouldn't just let Nate die of an allergic reaction—right? It can't be that bad.
She pulled open the bathroom mirror door and shoved aside toothbrushes and deodorant to find something to help him. She quickly found some diphenhydramine and grabbed the whole bottle, slamming the cabinet door shut. She'd make him take a big swig and hope it would work well enough. If he can get it down, that is. I hope his throat hasn't closed up.
When Elena bolted back into the living room, her heart beating wildly, she saw Sully leaning over a very puffy-looking Nate. He had a bulky yellow syringe in his hand and was brandishing it almost like a weapon.
He stabbed Nate in the thigh with it, who let out a small raspy yelp at the pain. Sully then helped to situate him up onto the couch, shoving the used syringe into his back pocket. "You okay, kid?"
It took about a minute, but the swelling and the puffiness seemed to be receding, and when Nate looked like he wasn't going to suffocate, he nodded and patted Sully's arm. "Yeah," he said, voice hoarse. "Yeah, I'm okay." His face was covered in splotches and his lips still looked red and swollen, but it was a hell of an improvement from before.
Now that he wasn't in immediate danger of dying from anaphylactic shock, her fear switched to anger. "What the hell?" She fisted her hands and rested them on her hips, still carrying the bottle of benadryl. "Why do you guys do shit like this?"
"Like—" Nate coughed into his arm. "Like what?"
"Like maybe not tell me that you're extremely allergic to cherries?"
He shrugged, watching Sully pick up his deadly plate of cheesecake. "It hasn't really come up before."
"What if you'd—" She shook her head. "You know what? Nevermind. And why does Sully have your EpiPen?"
Sully walked Nate's plate over to the kitchen, a wry grin on his face. "The kid lost it twice—"
"The second time was not my faul—"
"So I held onto it for him," Sully continued at a louder volume, shooting Nate a look. "But I guess you should probably have it now."
"Probably," she muttered, shaking her head. Her heart was still racing, and she placed a hand over her chest. "God, you scared me, Nate."
"After all the crazy shit we've done, no way am I gonna die because of a piece of fruit," he said, waving a hand at Elena's plate, as if that was some sort of reassurance.
"I'd prefer if you didn't die at all," she said with a sigh, then went to the table and grabbed her own plate. "Guess we should throw this out now." I'm going to miss you, cheesecake.
"No, you don't have to—"
"Do you want to have sex tonight?" she interrupted him, and his face sobered. "Because if you do, then I should stop eating this."
He hesitated, glancing between her and the plate. "I don't think my allergy is that sensitive."
"Well I'd rather not risk it and have an ambulance take you away naked." She huffed and wandered towards the kitchen. "So, any other allergies or life-threatening medical conditions I should know about?"
Nate shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of."
"Not that I'm aware of," she repeated under her breath, heading to the garbage and scraping off the cake. "Goodbye, cheesecake."
After a moment of silence for her dessert, she looked up at Sully. "Can you give him some of that, please?" she asked, pointing to the benadryl bottle she'd set down on the counter. "It'll help keep the reaction down."
"I can take medicine all by myself, thank you," Nate said behind her, and picked up the bottle. "Doesn't this stuff make you drowsy?"
"Better than puffy, hm?"
He frowned. "I wanted to watch the rest of the movie."
Elena put her plate in the sink and gave him a measured look. "Nate—" She opened a drawer and grabbed a teaspoon, thrusting it at him. "Drink up, buttercup. Two teaspoons, just to be safe."
He mumbled "fine" and twisted off the lid. Nate sulked while he gulped it down, making dramatic noises of distaste at the flavour.
"Shouldn't have bought the cheesecake," Sully said, sitting back down on the couch.
"You didn't notice it was cherry either," Nate shot back, then handed Elena the bottle and spoon.
She patted his arm and took the benadryl from him, tossing the sticky spoon in the sink. "Do you want ice cream instead?"
He heaved a big sigh. "Yeah, I guess."
Nate barely lasted the next twenty minutes, completely passed out on the carpet. His head was resting against her leg, his arm curled around her ankle. She threaded her fingers through his hair and sat back, watching Brendan Fraser fighting off pygmy mummies.
"Much easier to watch this when he's sleeping," Sully commented, looking drowsy himself.
She laughed, being careful not to disturb her husband. "It's a nice bonus," Elena agreed. "Will you, um, help me move him upstairs when the movie ends?"
Sully looked down at Nate, sighing. "I can try. He's heavy."
"So I've noticed."