Oc Sneezefics

Cat allergy

almost 2k words. sorry for being gone had some issues with medication LOL

Sam stretched, the undershirt fitting around his features smoothly. He was in the middle of dressing for a shoot. It was the first photoshoot he'd done for a relatively popular magazine, as opposed to the odd commercials he did normally. 

He shot a glance over at his outfit, dreading the process of putting it on. It consisted of a clunky, thick jacket, with heaps of charms and accessories littering it. 

He had gone to the gym the day prior, trying to fit the jacket over his sore arms would be miserable. Nothing he wasn't used to, though. 

As he began shuffling into the article, a dull tickle began pestering his nose. 'It's nothing,' he assured himself. With a nose as sensitive as his, he was prone to mild tickles throughout the day often. 'Probably just a stray piece of dust that had settled on the jacket,'

The tickle continued to nag at him. Despite ignoring it, it continued to grow steadily. He paused for a moment, midway through getting the jacket on. He began kneading his nose gently with his fist, attempting to ward off the frustrating itch. The congestion in his nose fought back with a squelch. 

"Hnchk!" He stifled the weak sneeze with ease, although not relieving the tickle much. 

He held his finger under his nose desperately, while trying to quickly put his other arm through the sleeve. He succeeded, albeit causing a slight lapse in his focus.
"HmPChu! H-Heh.. Hnnckh!"  They didn't exactly catch him by surprise, he was well aware of his habit of sneezing in trios. What did concern him,  though, was the tickle not dissipating completely. Thankfully, it had retreated into being manageable. 

He continued in his routine, putting on the hair clips and slipping into the thick boots he had been assigned to. There were a few points where the itch grew, foreboding a sneeze, but nothing came of them. 

Just as he was finishing up, a knock sounded from his door. He eagerly got up to respond, satisfied with his outfit.

It was the makeup artist. 

"Sam, you look great! I'd powder you down, but it looks like you've got the skincare process done already! I've taught you well," They chuckled, "You've got to be out to start shooting in 2~ minutes anyways, c'mon! Oh, there is one more thing, though," 

Sam cocked his head slightly in reply.
"There have been a couple of people saying there's a stray cat that got inside. If you see it, try to take it to the front desk. It probably won't bother us at all though,"

"Hmpphew!" The green-haired boy stifled embarrassingly. He was the type to sneeze at even the mention of an allergen. 

"Oh, I hope you're not coming down with anything," They commented. 
"Nah, my nose is just sensitive like that," He replied stuffily. 

Sam followed the makeup artist out into the brightly lit room, settling onto a seat while he awaited directions. 
A tall man turned towards him. It was Dr. Cassidy, his boss.

"Seems you got the outfit on no problem, I'm impressed. You can go sit on the bench on set, and we can begin shooting," 

Sam nodded, trying to discreetly sniffle and beat away his runny nose. Despite all his allergies, he was spared photo-sensitive sneezes. The light wouldn't set off his sensitive sinuses. 

"Now crouch down more, tilt your head upwards a bit," Cassidy called, surveying the two cameramen. 

Things were going as usual, when Sam felt his nostrils flare ever so slightly. It was clear he had to sneeze, badly. He couldn't bear excusing himself from the camera, though. The only alternatives were to release, and possibly get snot on the borrowed jacket, or hold back until they got the pictures.

This was different from his normal day-to-day tickles. He could feel something in his nose, creeping up his sinuses and teasing him. It was more akin to the allergies he struggled with. The more he thought about what could be the sources of the torturous itch, the worse it got. His breathing grew rapid, as he tried to mask his urge to sneeze. 

'Hh-hhh..'  A hitch snuck through, there was no way to conceal it. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice. 
The 30 or so seconds that had passed felt like an eternity. All the while, his itch grew and grew. Any lapse in his focus would lead to an all-out fit. He was too far in now, there was no communicating. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't ask for a tissue without triggering a fit of spray all over the jacket. 
The shutter of a camera distracted him ever-so-slightly, letting a soft 'h-hhehh...' escape him. A full 45 seconds had passed, his brain fogging over completely. 

He noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It looked ginger, with a fuzzy outline. 
The sight of interest was just the lapse in focus that would doom him. 

'Hh-hhh!' He dashed towards his dressing room, ignoring anyone's responses. His only priority was to find tissues, or at least not embarrass himself in front of the camera crew.
'Heh, He-EH!'  He fought off the twitching in his nostrils, bringing a knuckle to his nose in an urgent endeavor to abide the sneeze. He fidgeted with the door rapidly, as if on a timer. In a sense, he was. He couldn't fight the allergen forever. And with each step, it continued crawling through his sinuses, taunting him, growing.

He collapsed into his dressing room, barely closing the door behind him. He kept a box of tissues on his vanity just in case of a situation like this. 'Hh-hghheh..!' He pulled out at least 5 or so kleenexes, bunching them up and burying his nose in them. 

'HH-ATCHew! HheHH- He-AncHEW! H-ha-Ah'tshhiew! HMPH! HMPHew! HmpHEW! HmPH!'  He released into the tissue bunch, snot desecrating the paper. He continued a steady stream of kleenexes, almost soaking through them with each sneeze. 

'HH-ehhPHeW! Heh-PHM! HehPHM! HehPHM!'  He sprayed rapidly onto the paper, only getting a moment to breath. As he exhaled, he turned around to see the culprit of his fit:

A small orange tabby. It licked its paw innocently as if to mock Sam. 

This immediately triggered another short, desperate fit into the tissue he had in his hand. 

To his dismay, when he turned around to grab another sheet, he was completely out. 
"I just bought this box last week!" Sam thought to himself. 

He began trying to weasel out of the jacket. The sleeves were obnoxiously long, and it was hard to tell how long he'd be trapped in his dressing room without tissues. He would definitely have to sneeze into his hands, and he didn't want to risk dirtying it. 

'hih! Hih'ishu! Ih'chu! Tisch!' He sprayed outward, startling the kitten. He hung up the complex article on it's hook, still holding back a tickle. 

The green-haired boy cupped his hands around his nose, already feeling mucus pool in his palms.

"Hi-idsh-euw! Gh-heh--ISH'oo!" He panted desperately, as if gasping for air. He slumped to the ground, searching for his phone in his pocket.

He rapidly typed in a number, hoping it was the right one. In the congestion, their brain was cloudy and they could hardly remember their conversation.

"Sam! Did something happen? It's not like you to run out of a shoot like that. Are you ok?" The makeup artist's voice was distorted via the call.
"Y-Yeah, I uh- heh! Fo-uh-ound the stray ca- ah-t," He tried his best to mask his hitching, as the feline taunted him from under the dresser. Its tail curled back and forth rhythmically as if methodically spreading its dander. 
"Oh, that's great! Would you mind taking it to the fr-"
'He'ESHHW! H-hu-ehh--ESH'eww! EshEW! HHE'Idshew!'
His face turned bright red with embarrassment. It was bad enough to clue the artist into his sneezing fit, but the fact he interrupted them made it much worse. 
"Are you alright?" they asked, genuine concern seeping into their words.
"I'm not do-ohne yet, maybe it'd be better to te-ehh-xt EE'SSHEW! -you," 
He hung up without another word.

"You're an asshole, cgat." He sniffled, snot clouding his tone. 
He massaged his nose, trying to alleviate the congestion. 

"You know whadt?" Sam stared down the cat, "Yeah. I will tagke you to the frondt desgk."

He crouched onto his knees, wobbling over to the dresser. 
With one motion, he scooped up the kitten. 
It was tiny, it couldn't have been older than 3 months. 
And to his dismay, it was very fluffy. 

Sam liked cats. He thought they were adorable! Despite the trouble and embarrassment the creature had bestowed upon him, some part of him didn't want to sneeze on the thing's pristine fur. 

As he stood up, the tickle in his nose spiked. The feline let out a sharp mewl in protest. 

The green haired boy held the animal up and turned away sharply, releasing 2 or 3 harsh sneezes.
Cats were one of his worst allergies. The sneezes felt painful at times, snot shooting out of his nostrils with burning force. 

He inhaled sharply, trying to hold his breath as he burst out the door of his dressing room. The path to the front desk was burnt into his memory, he passed by it almost every day. The problem was not sneezing given the distance. 

He darted down the hallway, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible. Sam held the kitten away from his face, snot dribbling out his sensitive, itchy nostrils. 

His shoes skidded and squeaked against the marble. Any slip or stumble would've proved his attempts to holdback useless. 

He barely paid any attention to the person at the desk, simply gesturing for them to take the feline. As soon as the weight left his hands, he began desperately looking around for anything to sneeze into. 

"Do you hh-ahh-ave any tii--ihh-shhues? h'hh..." He brought a finger to his nose, trying to ward off the explosion of mucus that loomed. 

The attendant quickly pulled out a small pack of tissues, and placed them in Sam's outstretched palm. 

"Thaa-hh-aah-- AT'CHNXX! CHNX! CHN'NK! Hh.. HH'AtcHEW!" 

He could barely thank them before being hit with such intense sneezes they  nearly knocked him over. Spit and snot flooded the kleenex in an instant, soaking through to his hand.
"Guh... Sorry," he stuttered through a haze of congestion, "Ca-aht- allergies."

He quickly walked away, face buried in tissues to avoid the snot dripping down his chin.

When he finally returned to the security of his room, he let out a long, mucus-filled blow. The tissue was desecrated by the sheer amount of slime. It felt as if he had never had so much snot in his life. 

The blow was relieving, but only for a moment. Seconds later, the sharpest tickle triggered by the noseblow wriggled up his nose.
"Hh, hahh, ghh, hhah," He fanned his face, trying to retrieve a tissue.

"HAPTCHEW! HH'NCHW! HHATCH'W! CGH'SHW!" It was too late, he sneezed into the already ripped tissue, covering his palm with thick slime. The cat was gone, surely his allergies should've subsided a bit, right?

He caught a glance at the packaging of the tissues as he hitched relentlessly. Scented.

He released another spew of allergies onto a fresh tissue, feeling lightheaded. "CGH'SHW! CHSG'HEW! CUGHSH'HEW!"

Sam dug into his pocket, desperately trying to fend off the sneezes for long enough to focus. He pulled up his boyfriend's contact info.
Typing felt hard and ineffective. Instead, he pulled up the audio text option.

"Caa-ahhts. And s-scented tii-hh-sues. Hih'ishu! Ih'chu! Tisch! H-ha-Ah'tshhiew! Ggh... Hee-hlp." He ended the recording in a sniffling daze. He figured Jaiden would understand what he meant. 
Through his watery eyes, he could make out a message.
"Oh 😳I'll pick you up. Sounds like you need the day off, dear,"

Sam smiled, letting out a shuddering sigh of relief. 

(to be continued)