Male Stories I. Honeymoon The cold winter wind whisped around her, chilling her, reddening her cheeks, making her nose run a little. She sniffed and managed to hold on to the wood while turning the knob to the cabin with gloved yet still frozen fingers. The door closed behind her, shutting the cabin's one room off to the harshness of the early morning in January. As soon as she had entered, she looked upon him, the man she loved, given her heart to. He saw her, too, and waved her over to sit beside him at the fire. She did so, setting the wood down in the box and stripping off her heavy coat. Then she looked him over more carefully. Wearing loose sweats with a thick woolen blanket draped over his shoulders, she couldn't help but want to crawl inside with him, warm his fever-chilled body with hers, steadily growing warmer from the coldness of the outside. His short brown curls were in tangles, a far cry from the day before when they had been perfect for the wedding. His face was pale, though cheeks flushed and nose a sore red from blowing too much. She put her hand on his forehead and smiled at him as he smiled back, a perfect, simple smile. "You're no warmer. Fever's getting no worse. That's a good sign. It's just a cold, then?" He nodded, sniffing loudly. "Look, honey, I'm so sorry--" She stopped him quickly. "There's no need to be. It's not your fault." He quickly reached for a tissue from the box next to him and promptly sneezed into it once, twice, thrice, with sneezes not too loud but not too quiet either. He took another tissue and blew his nose hard, hoping in vein that he could perhaps blow out the rest of the head cold. He threw the used tissues into the fire and took another, running it under his nose as his nose ran, as well. She watched him carefully, curiously, wondering what she could do... and wondering if there was anything she wanted to do. He sniffed and cleared his throat, looking at her with fever-dazed, sad eyes. "I didn't want this to happen. Not now. This was to be the..." he paused as he felt the need to sneeze, but it backed off, filling his nose but not coming out. He continued, sniffing, "most romantic time of our lives. And what do I do? Go and get catch a blasted cold! On our *sniff* honeymoon! Have you ever heard a thing so idiotic?" Her heart went out to him as she answered, "It's not your fault. You can't help getting sick. Sometimes these things just happen." He had to agree, mostly because he felt too weak to argue about anything at present. Suddenly he felt the tickle again, working its way from soft to heavy, filling his nose from bridge to nostrils. He grabbed another tissue and gave a large sneeze, "Uh-Choo!" his nostrils flaring, his eyes squeezing shut at the force. When he opened then, after what seemed like minutes but were really only a few seconds at most, he saw his wife looking at him dreamily. He blew his nose a few times and asked her why she stared so. She smiled and went to him, meaning to kiss him on the lips, but he pulled back. "I don't want to get you sick," he protested. But she went forth and did so, his lips against hers, both warm, both in need of more. She put her arms around her confused husband and rested her head on his shoulder. "I don't care, love. To tell you the truth, I kind of like it." "Like it?" he asked in confusion. "What do you mean?" "Well," she started, not exactly knowing what she meant. "I've always been interested in sneezes. I mean, so fast, so mysterious, so powerful in weakening even a..." she grinned and continued "tough guy like you." She leaned back and kissed his red nose. "So don't feel the least bit sorry, love. Alright?" He nodded, understanding better, though not entirely. "Alriiii...CHOO!" he said, turning his head so as not to sneeze upon her as it caught him unaware. "What do you see?" she asked him quickly, curiously. "When you sneeze?" "See?" he snuffled, wiping his runny nose with a tissue. "I can't see anything; my eyes are closed." "Right," she said. "But what is there? An image in the darkness? Something that comes at you from the blackness? Like a friend... or a lover? Visiting you, taking you over..." He thought about it a moment, then sneezed again, inflamed nostrils flaring as it came out. Then he answered, "I guess *sniff* I don't quite know what it is." He sneezed again, going forward with a strong tilt of the head, as if someone had hit him on the back of his head to push it forward. "And that's the mystery," she explained as she watched him. "You don't quite know what it is when it comes at you... but it commands you, makes you do something so natural, takes control over your body..." she paused to reflect and give her words a little weight. "I'd like to have that-- over you." His watery eyes lit up as he felt himself grow warmer, as if surpassing his fever. "So you like that?" he asked, feeling the tickle come but holding it off so as not to destroy the mood. Quietly, "Yes I do. So don't be sorry one bit." His nose kept tickling and he kept fighting it, holding back the demon before it took hold of him in the way he wanted his wife to take hold of him. "I won't *sniff* any more, honey," he assured her, putting a hand on her thigh in assurance. He was glad to have her now. To have her with him throughout everything. To love him no matter what he looked like or what he did. "Good," she replied, taking her eyes off his for a second as she noticed his nose twitch slightly. She grew warmer, herself, to think of him holding it down, not letting it out. His nose was tickling fiercely as he tried to hold them off. Wrinkling up his nose, contorting his face, he inhaled the sharp, familiar breaths but tried to let them out slowly. "Uhhhh..." it backed away under his power. "Uhhh..." it came again, and left. "Uhh... Uhhh... UHHH..." stronger yet but still he managed to suppress it. Suddenly it was all too much and he couldn't stop it. "UH-CCHHOOO!" he went, his hand diving for the tissues. Before he could do anything, there came more. "Uhhh-choo! UH-choo! Uh-choooo!" Each was a bit different, some the inhalation longer and drawn out, others the release stronger, and some others quite short and pointed. However he sneezed, he found it impossible to stop, the tickles coming one after the other, giving him no time to blow or sniff or even attempt to hold them back this time. He just sneezed and sneezed, with his nose giving him no relief. "Uhhh-Choo! Uh-CHOO!" he sneezed, his head bending back at the beginning and forward when it came out, sometimes wet and visible against a tissue, if he was able to get one in time, sometimes flying against his palm, but mostly just into the air in the direction of the warm fireplace. When the fit had passed at last, he slowly turned back to his wife, who was holding a tissue up for him. She wiped his nose and kissed his cheek. And then held another tissue against his nose with the soft command, "blow." He took a deep breath and blew, feeling her free hand at the back of his neck, cool against his warm skin. When he was done, he couldn't help but sniff and say a stuffed, "I love yooo... Uh-CHOOooo! Uhh-Choo! Uh-chOOOO!" He broke off into another set, sneezing uncontrollably for almost fifteen minutes before stopping. At the silence that had finally come, as she knew it would, she smiled and returned the sentiment. "I know. I love you, too."