Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds.
Sicktember Prompt 25: Sick At Work/School, with Alan (requested by justactsupernatural) and smother hen!Scott (requested by ak47stylegirl)
He felt the sneeze before it happened, and mentally groaned even as his nose twitched instinctively. No, not now! Now was terrible timing and Alan really, really, didn't want to deal with the consequences of it. But a sneeze was a sneeze and there was really no stopping them – even if, for one blessed moment, he thought it had bailed at the last moment and spared him.
Then it exploded out and he groaned, releasing the manoeuvring jet control for a moment to wipe at his nose, disgruntled. Now he was in for it, thank you, body.
"Alan?" His co-pilot, also known as his biggest brother, reacted immediately, peering across at him with eyes narrowed in clear concern. Alan had seen that look in Scott's eyes entirely too many times in his life, and it seemed like the smother hen was once again surfacing – as though it ever really went away.
"M'fine." He waved him off before returning his hand to the controls and fine-tuning their course. Not that it needed it – Thunderbird Three was sensitive, but her general environment didn't lend itself to needing pin-point accuracy on her route the entire time. Only when space debris of some kind or other was involved. "Just some dust."
A startled look crossed Scott's face, before he was leaning in closer, and Alan mentally scrambled to work out why he hadn't been reassure-
Ah. Dust. In his pristine, space-rated rocket that had just been deep-cleaned by Brains and MAX – mostly MAX – before their current mission. Nice one, Alan. Should've just kept his mouth shut.
"You're sure you're not coming down with something?" Scott was leaning across so far he was barely in his own seat any more. With one shoulder restraint raised, it certainly wasn't a safe position to be in, and Alan would have been subjected to multiple lectures if he tried to do the same.
One rule for him, one rule for big brothers.
"You've been a little quiet recently," Scott continued – was that a hand coming for his forehead? Alan ducked out of the way with a scowl. "And then there was that rescue in Sao Paulo-"
"Where nothing happened," Alan interrupted him. "You and Virgil scanned me five times before you were satisfied." Except Scott wasn't satisfied, was he, because that hand wasn't giving up, and his big brother had long limbs. Easily long enough to span the distance between their two seats and unerringly find his forehead with a gloved hand despite Alan's best attempts to the contrary. "I'm fine, Scott."
Surprise, surprise, Scott didn't seem satisfied in the slightest. Alan loved his big brother, he really did, and sometimes he genuinely appreciated Scott's desire to keep him safe, but there were times when the smothering was just overbearing and entirely too much.
This was one such occasion, not least because they were out on a rescue, and when in uniform Alan was supposed to be a fellow operative, and not the baby brother. He knew that his brothers couldn't quite turn that switch off entirely, of course, and he himself couldn't entirely step away from the reassurance of his big brothers' confidence, but still. There was keeping an eye on him, and then there was this, and quite frankly Alan was very much not in the mood for Scott's smothering tendencies.
"Stop it," he said irritably, pushing the hand away and trying to ignore the pursed lips and concernedly considering blue eyes focused intently on his face. "I'm fine, alright, Scott?"
It was just a sneeze. And maybe there were the beginnings of a sore throat making itself known, although he was being careful not to show any hints about that one. But Alan wasn't ill – the scanner had said so. Several times.
Scott was just overreacting. Anyway, it wasn't like a little cold ever stopped him from going on rescues, so why should it stop Alan?
If Scott really thought he would keep meekly following the irritating one rule for him, one rule for the rest of them, his big brother had another thing coming. It was called the Tracy Stubbornness – not the Scott Stubbornness – for a reason.
Here, in Thunderbird Three – Alan's own domain, not Scott's or anyone else's – he wasn't backing down.
More Alan... and more Alan PoV, which is unusual for me. He's not normally my go-to, and yet I've done it twice in a row now! Only short because I'm pretty busy at the moment.
I'm dabbling in Sicktember over on tumblr! Only doing prompts that I get a character request for, so feel free to drop by with a request. You can find the list on the sicktember tumblr blog!
Thanks for reading!
Tsari