Man Flu - 1. Man flu

“I’m dying...”

“You’re not dying,” Justin found his boyfriend’s toes under the duvet and wiggled his foot gently, “you just don’t want to clean the bathroom.”

“Unnnnnnn...”

“If you will stay up until four in the morning playing goblins and magic with people on the other side of the planet...” Justin pulled on Oli’s foot more firmly. “And you didn’t wake me up.”

“Huuurn,”Oli’s voice was hard to distinguish under the duvet. “Didn’t wanna disturb you.”

“And what am I supposed to do with this now?” Justin glanced down at his hard-on, trapped in his boxers, and sighed. “Are you actually ill?”

“Yes.”

Head on one side, Justin moved around the bed and knelt on the mattress where he’d slept, feeling under the covers for his boyfriend. Oli didn’t normally steal all the blankets, and one of the reasons Justin always slept better with his lover in the bed was the other man’s ability to act like a giant sexy radiator. His questing fingers found Oli’s skin, and his boyfriend was super-hot to the touch, but his skin was clammy, and he was shivering.

“Oh babe.”

Oli made a noise like a startled elephant, and then swore in a colourful manner.

“Tissues?”

“We’ll need an industrial strength mop for this,” Oli’s voice sounded thick with phlegm. “Glllah...”

“Go take a shower babe, you’ll feel better.” Justin was only vaguely certain of the truth of his suggestion. He wasn’t great at playing nursemaid, the same as he wasn’t great at being coddled over when he was ill, but he loved Oli, and as his boyfriend appeared, groaning and shaking from the bed, lurching towards the bathroom unsteadily, Justin felt guilty for his initial suspicion. He glanced down at his morning wood and rolled his eyes. “You’re not a great deal of help right now.”

Justin found a discarded jumper on the floor, it might have been Oli’s, it was grey, but without looking at the label it was hard to tell, and pulled in on as he paced downstairs in bare feet to the kitchen. The click of the kettle was accompanied by a cold wet nose on his calf.

“Morning pup,” Justin reached down automatically to fondle the lurcher’s super soft ears, “No, I’m not ill too, just him.” The dog rubbed against the back of his legs, then pushed an impertinent nose into the cleft of his butt. “Get off! You rude beast.” Justin swiped at the hound, who gave him a cheeky look, and trotted off to stand by the back door, looking hopeful. “Yeah, yeah, in a minute.”

He finished making tea, and headed back upstairs with the steaming mug of rooibos to find Oli standing by the bed, dripping and shivering.

“You’re useless at being ill.” Justin set the tea down, grabbed another towel and threw it over his boyfriend’s head, rubbing at his scalp and shoulders. “Dry your beard.”

“I have man flu.” Oli grumbled.

“Bollocks you do,” Justin shook his head. “Man flu isn’t real. You felt ‘not great’ yesterday, but you didn’t take any tablets and stayed up playing online with people in the Midwest rather than getting a decent night’s sleep.” Or coming to bed to fuck your boyfriend senseless, he added mentally. He finished drying Oli, removed him from the towels and pointed to the bed. “Get in!”

By the time he returned from the bathroom, having hung the towels and wiped condensation from the mirror, Oli was in bed once more, the blankets tucked up to his chin.

“Pup wants to go walkies. I’ll make you something when I get back. Hot fluid’s for you.” To Justin’s surprise, Oli’s hand caught him around the top of one thigh, pulling him closer to the bed.

“You have hot fluids.”

“Babe...”

“What?” Oli might have been ill, but that was no cure for his filthy subconscious. “It’s protein.”

“You’re ridiculous. Drink your tea.” Justin sighed, and made to move away, but Oli’s eyes were alight with horny mischief: it was a look Justin normally loved to see, because it usually heralded the beginning of something delicious and erotic, and sometimes very very lewd.

“I’m thirsty.” Oli ran a hand up his leg to the front of his boxers, and his still very interested erection. Justin groaned.

“Hence the tea.”

“You know they say you should suck on something hard when you’re thirsty,” Oli massaged the front of his underwear in a very unhelpful manner, considering Justin was going to go and walk the dog. “Encourages saliva production.”

“Indeed.”

“Uh-huh,” Oli was just looking like he might follow through on his suggestion when his body shook with a series of wet coughs. He fell back into the nest of blankets and pillows with a groan. Justin exhaled and passed him a box of tissues.

“Babe, as much as I love you, I think your ability to give excellent head is currently impeded by the amount of mucus trying to exit through your face. Just get some rest.”

“Jus...”

“Nu-uh,” Justin bent to kiss his boyfriend’s forehead before backing away and locating a pair of jeans. “I love you babe.”

“Mmmm...”

Justin thought Oli might complain more, but by the time he was finished wrestling his erection into the tight button-up fly of his jeans, and had located socks, Oli was already asleep and breathing steadily. Justin padded downstairs to find the lurcher still waiting patiently for him by the front door.

“Alright pup, let’s go to the woods.”

It was a fairly common Saturday ritual, except that often Oli could be persuaded to join them, or else they left him, toast in hand, already tuned into his computer, speaking languages only other high-functioning software engineer nerds could understand, and making the processor fan in his top-spec machine work overtime. Justin left the four-by-four sitting not quite in the ditch at the end of the lane which was helpfully labelled ‘not suitable for motors’ and was frequented by everyone who wanted to walk their dogs in the woods and was willing to pay for off road tyres in the winter. He and the lurcher headed off-piste as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and explored the woods together.

After not quite an hour, they were deep in the woods, a good couple of miles hike back over rough ground, when the sky crackled ominously.

“There wasn’t supposed to be rain today pup.” Justin made to check the weather app on his phone, but there was no signal of any type to be had when surrounded by trees. The dog gave him a sideways glance and a half shrug: he didn’t care if it rained, except it would make the appearance of delicious rabbits far less likely. “We should head back, eh?”

And so it rained.

Of course, Justin thought to himself with not quite enough irony to find the situation funny, It would start just when we’re as far away from the car as we could get.

Could be worse, his inner voice smirked, You could have brought a coat.

There was no such thing as a quick way back through the woodland, and it was the sort of rain which made a body soaked through in minutes, so there was little point in hurrying. As Justin slunk, stamped, and clambered his way through the maze of mixed deciduous and pine trees, fallen logs, and thickly fronded ferns, the driving rain made him aware he was in fact still only wearing just a hoodie, no shirt, and he hadn’t chosen his most waterproof boots. It was a cold and shivery miserable looking pair of creatures who found their way back to the bumpy lane and the welcoming dry of the four-by-four.

The lurcher leapt into the boot as soon as the door was open, and Justin stood in the pouring rain and dried the dog with a towel as fast and thoroughly as he could before he made himself comfortable in his all-weather bed. Scowling, Justin wrapped the damp and dirty dog towel around his shoulders and slammed the driver’s door shut the moment he’d gotten all his limbs in the car. The four-by-four only had half-leather seats, and Justin knew he’d be wiping condensation from the inside of the windows for weeks if he allowed his clothes to leak into the upholstery too much. The vehicle started on the first try, which wasn’t always the case, and Justin drove home with the wipers going as fast as they could, shivering, and shaking water droplets out of his hair periodically as they tried to get in his eyes.

Both he and the dog got wet again on the way to the front door, and Justin knelt in the hallway, ever grateful they had decided upon laminate floors, and used another fresh towel to dry his faithful companion.

“Well, was it worth it pup?” The lurcher nuzzled under his chin before doing his best to stick his tongue in Justin’s ear. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then.”

Justin rubbed him with a towel until the dog’s fur was going nearly curly once more, then released the pup from his arms and watched as he sprung away into his sheepskin lined bed and proceeded to turn it into a nest. The dog shot him a look Justin correctly interpreted as ‘I’m staying here for the rest of the day, please bring me squeaky toys’, handed the dog a new tennis ball and a dried pig’s ear, stood his boots on the old dog towel in order to avoid them leaving a puddle on the floor, and began to strip out of his clothes, placing the sodden items directly into the washing machine.

He stripped out of his boxers, which had gone from sexily fitted to far too clingy with the addition of cold rain, and hoping the neighbours wouldn’t see him, nipped past the big picture window completely nude and dashed up the stairs.

Upstairs, Oli was fast asleep, breathing softly, and completely unaware his boyfriend stood dripping and shivering next to the bed. His fever had obviously broken, because he’d rolled over and flung the duvet off from around his shoulders, the blankets lying in a mess over his hips and legs, his smooth chest rising and falling softly. Justin smiled and resisted the urge to stroke his lover’s slack unconscious lips, and instead made his way to the bathroom, and a hot shower.

Ten minutes later, hot, damp, and with hair once again dripping water, Justin decided he couldn’t face the idea of getting dressed again, and the temptation of breakfast wasn’t nearly as strong as the draw of bed. Justin snuck in under the covers and tried not to shiver too obviously.

A soft groan preceded Oli’s questing hand, and told him his boyfriend was awake.

“Jus?”

“Shhh… go back to sleep.”

“Mmm hmm.” Even partially unconscious and ill, Oli was not the sort of guy who kept to his own side of the mattress. He found Justin’s torso with a happy mumble. “Mmm, naked boyfriend.”

“You’re supposed to be resting.” Justin reminded him softly.

Oli’s fingers reached up, tracing over his face, and touched his wet hair.

“You’re gonna catch a cold if you don’t dry your hair. Is it raining?”

“Yes.”

“You’re cold,” Oli’s words were accompanied by his hand wrapping around Justin’s bicep, yanking him closer, “c’mere.”

“You’re gonna get me ill, aren’t you?” Justin couldn’t help but grin, tucking himself against the length of his lover’s warm body, delighting in their nakedness together under the covers. It wasn’t more than another ten heartbeats before his erection once again made itself known. He felt Oli’s grin against his neck.

“I promise I’ll make it worth it.”

“Is that right?”

Oli took his chin, tilted his face down, and kissed him hard. Justin groaned under the onslaught of his boyfriend’s tongue, opening himself up, not caring that he was probably going to spend the next day feeling much much worse because of his sexual indulgence. But Oli was a great kisser, and Justin had always been weak when it came to resisting him.

“You’re feeling better?”

“I slept well,” Oli replied. “You taste better than tea.”

“Hot liquids are good for you, babe.”

“Yup.”

Oli brought his hips closer, and Justin moaned into his boyfriend’s mouth as Oli wrapped a hand around them both.

“Babe!”

“Don’t worry Jus, if we both get sick, we can lay around in bed and do this all day.”

Justin tried to laugh in between groans as his lover took their pleasure in hand.

“The restorative powers of sex?” he joked.

Oli grinned.

“I dunno about you, but having a hot man in my bed always makes me feel better.”