So I asked for prompts with a pair and a word or mundane couple thing and then I started off easy XD
Ashley/Henry sweater
myfloralbonnet She's stolen his sweater again. It's grey and laces at the neck and he thinks he got it for Christmas for a few years ago. On Ashley it falls to mid thigh. She looks way better in it than he does. Usually.
Ashley sneezes again, following it with an unhappy groan-whine. She's shuffling out of the bathroom in slippers, sweats and his stolen sweater. It hangs off her haphazardly, exposing one shoulder. Her eyes are puffy and red, her nose more so.
"Hey." Standing he holds out his arms.
"I don't want you to get this," she says, keeping her distance. Her words sound funny because of her stuffed nose. She's brought her kleenex up to her face in a futile attempt to keep this abnormal flu from spreading back to him. Ashley looks adorably pathetic as she stares at him over the tissue.
"I already had it. So has everyone else, except you and Tesla." He gathers her up and brushes the hair off her forehead, leaving a kiss there. She's warm but not fever hot. The dangerous part has already passed. He rubs her back and she complains.
"That hurt?" he asks, immediately stopping.
She nods into his chest. "Everything hurts. My hair hurts. Hair shouldn't hurt."
"Why don't you try to get some sleep."
She nods again and crawls into bed with a small groan, and much shifting and adjusting of pillows and blankets. Henry helps until she bats his hands away. It's a pathetic gesture and he can't help but smile as she finally gets everything just so. She finally heaves a sigh and relaxes into the pile of pillows and blankets. One foot sticks out, the other is wrapped in their comforter. She's stolen his pillow again and her hair is a messy disarray. He chuckles as he shuts down his computer.
Ashley scowls from her nest of pillows and kleenex, eyes tracking him as he gets ready for bed. He turns it into a strip show, slowly peeling off his shirt and singing, "Dha na-na-na-na-nana Da! Da!" He tosses the shirt away and begins slipping the belt out of its loops. He looks over his shoulder to see if she's entertained. He can tell by the glittering eyes and the small smile that she is. He shakes his butt at her as he takes off his boxers for the full monty. He faces her, letting it all hang out, and strikes a pose.
"I'm sick," she complains, sounding like she's about seven. He doesn't feel bad until she begins coughing. The sound rattles around in her chest and he hurts to hear her. She whines as it finally comes back under control, hand fisting into the pile of Kleenex.
Henry tugs on the new pair of boxers and crouches by her head. He strokes her hair back from her face. "What can I get for you?"
"M'fine," she says. "Thanks for the show."
"For you? Anytime." He kisses her forehead again. She and Tesla were the only ones on their feet a couple weeks ago, making sure everyone else wasn't dying. Eventually even their immune systems succumbed. It hit them both fast and hard, seeming to compress a week of utter misery into a few tense days in the infirmary. He knew it had been bad when Tesla had been too sick to snark at him.
He slips into bed behind her, careful not to touch. He remembers how everything hurt. He's got his iPad and is content to catch up on some articles, ready if she needs something.
"I hate being sick."
Henry smiled. That much hasn't changed about her, certainly.
"M'bored."
That hasn't changed either. "Go back to sleep?"
"I did that all week. And I'm too sick to sleep."
Henry grins with a sudden thought. "Want me to read to you?"
She turns her head enough so she can eye him. "Read what?"
Henry thinks for a moment. He hadn't thought that far. "Batman?"
She snorts a laugh. "Sure." Her eyes are challenging him to read a comic to her.
He is so up for that challenge. He opened the first issue of the latest arc and clears his throat.
"Ahem. DC comics presents: Batman, issue seven-hundred and ten! Written by TONY DANIEL; Art by TONY DANIEL and RYAN WINN. Cover by TONY DANIEL, and performed by Henry Foss." He uses his very best audio book reader voice.
Ashley snickers.
Henry grins. "It is night in Gotham, a brooding twilight. Our Hero, The Dark Knight, has perched upon a gargoyle above the unruly city he has bent to his will. His cape billows anti-heroically in the night air." He describes the panels dramatically, gestuing with his hands and then using voices. Batman is dark and brooding and is kinda makes his throat hurt. He has no idea how the hell Christian Bale does it. When he gets to the first woman and affects a falsetto.
She begins laughing in earnest, rolling over so she's facing him. Henry helps her get settled, stealing back some pillows so he can prop himself up. She ends up with her head on his chest so she can see the iPad.
"Want me to stop?"
"No."
"On to page ten then."