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Jamie sighed as he lay face-down on the couch in his living room, blinds drawn with the air conditioning on full blast.
Despite the cool atmosphere in the house, his shirt was carelessly chucked into the corner of the couch, half tucked behind a cushion.
His skin felt almost electrified, with his hairs standing on end and his back felt like an unoiled door that had seen a little too much use.
Anyone else would probably figure it was the fault of the air conditioning, but it was hot as hell outside, even for him. And he had only recently gotten back from Melbourne.
He pressed his side against the back of the couch, frustrated both at his inability to ease his discomfort and his lack of knowledge as to why exactly he was so uncomfortable.
Was it because of the strikes? Was he stressing out over it? He had enough money to last himself quite a while with no work, he was sure. Even more so now that he had finished the fan meets.
He couldn’t believe the Directors’ Guild had sided so easily with the studios again. But that wasn’t directly his problem.
He pouted as an uncomfortable shiver ran across his skin, pushing down the minute whim to let out a cry as he felt his eyes tear up. He wasn’t even really sad. Just frustrated. He wanted to shove his thumb into his mouth but fought the urge down.
He was regretting that he had given his neighbours the go ahead to take his dogs on their cross-country trip now. He could use some company.
His ex had left for her condo not too long ago after she had left him some groceries and a few snacks, so he couldn’t even bug her to at least crack his back a little or something.
And Joe….was all the way in goddamned England.
The reminder that his Daddy boyfriend wasn’t even in the same country as him made a wave of sadness rush through him on top of his existing frustration, making the blond let out a huff to fight back the tears as he curled into the fetal position as much as his couch would let him.
His thumb found its way into his mouth before he even realised what he was doing, but he couldn’t be arsed to stop.
He wanted Daddy Joe.
Wiggling his free hand from under him, he grabbed his phone and shot off a text of screaming gibberish in all caps to Sam, knowing his brother would sympathise with his frustration at the very least, even if he didn’t know what it was about. Sure enough, his little brother responded with ‘sad’ and ‘hugs’ emojis and even a GIF. It only somewhat helped.
He kicked his leg into the cushions, hoping it would at least quell his misery and lightly dug his teeth into his thumb when it didn't.
Gods, he could practically feel the headache forming behind his eyes.
He knew he had promised Joe he’d try not to regress without some sort of supervision, but he didn’t want to call her and have to head all the way back here when she'd just left. Especially considering she was heading there specifically because she had two days worth of work to do and didn’t want to make the trip back.
Musingly, he pulled his thumb from his mouth and sat up. Maybe just a light regression? Just a little bit?
He glanced toward his bedroom. Would he need to change? He figured it was best to. He’d rather not have to clean up soaked clothes later. Or change the bedsheets again so soon.
He shuddered in light horror remembering the ordeal he had that one time he had to vinegar-soak and wet-vac the couch after he’d come out of littlespace.
Yeah, he should probably get changed.
He was halfway up the stairs, shirt in hand, when the doorbell rang and his phone, still on the couch, buzzed with the Ring notification.
He really should try to remember to extend the alert field.
He wasn’t expecting anyone over so he debated just ignoring it but it rang again before he could make up his mind. Well at least that meant it wasn’t the door to door people. Although how they would get past the gate was another question.
Sighing in exasperation, he pulled his shirt back on and walked over to the door feeling like his feet were filled with lead.
“Coming!” Jamie called tiredly, not bothering to speed up any. Whoever was there would just have to wait.
He took a breath before opening the lock, not wanting to put his bad mood onto whichever poor bastard was outside.
When he finally laid eyes on his visitor, he could feel his jaw drop.
“Joe?!”
There in the flesh, and a cream button up and dark pants, stood none other than Joseph Quinn. While one hand was on the handle of his carry-on, in the other, he was holding a single sunflower with the innermost petals dyed blue.
Joseph had the absolute sweetest grin on his face as he stood in Jamie’s doorway, clearly pleased with his successful surprise.
“Well hello, Handsome. How are you doing, darling?” The younger man’s voice was practically a purr as he pulled Jamie into a hug, careful not to squish the flower in his hand.
Jamie couldn’t believe what he was experiencing as he allowed the other to pull him into an all-encompassing hug. He didn’t even try to resist his wants and happily buried his face in the other man’s neck, inhaling his scent as deeply as he could force his lungs to take it.
Joseph’s chuckle vibrated right into Jamie’s bones, prompting him to hold on even tighter as he let out a soft whine.
“Happy to see me, are we?” This was followed by warm lips pressing against his hair which only made him nuzzle even deeper into his lover.
“As much as I love hugging you like this, sweetheart, can I come in? It’s a bit hot out here.”
It was. Oh shit.
“Oh. Oh Shit. I’m so sorry, babe.” Jamie hurriedly pulled back and dragged Joe inside to much cooler air, making sure to lock the door behind him.
Jamie however, was still rather uncomfortably warm. Maybe he should drop it a few more degrees?
He turned around to Joseph’s hands on his face and a set of soft, warm lips were pressed promptly to his, and all thoughts of the AC were temporarily chased from his head.
As Joe deepened the kiss, Jamie could feel himself letting out a whimper as he let the man’s tongue push into his mouth.
While his short-circuiting brain focused on breathing deeply through his nose, Jamie put the last bits of his strength into sucking on the long muscle invading his mouth. He could feel himself turning into a puddle of goo already.
Which, to be fair, was only to be expected when Joseph put his wonderful mouth and large, firm hands on him. It was to be expected when he put any part of himself in contact with Jamie, really.
As the other's hands gripped his waist and ran up and down his back, sliding under his shirt sensually, he broke the kiss only to bury his face against Joe’s neck to better take his feel and scent in.
He let out a satisfied groan when the hand under his shirt moved to press his head further into Joseph’s body, coaxing him to take an even deeper breath once more. The welcoming musk of his skin with just the barest hint of that Dior perfume he usually wore was slowly calming the jitteryness beneath Jamie’s skin. He was sure there was the ever-lingering smell of cigarettes too, but at this point he felt both of them had pretty much gone nose blind to that one.
Joseph hummed and the light vibration ran pleasantly through Jamie’s skin. He gripped the younger man even tighter and reluctantly turned his face from Joe’s neck so he could take some actual air into his protesting lungs. Jamie had the stray thought that if he could live off Joseph’s scent, he’d do it.
The warm hands gently stroking his back soothed his ire at something a little.
“Missed me?” Joseph asked, rocking the pair of them gently on their feet.
“Always.” was the only response Jamie could give.
A sudden crash behind Joe made both him and Jamie look over to see his carry on had fallen over. Thankfully it had missed falling on the flower but his luggage was still on the floor.
Reluctantly, Jamie pulled back to let Joe grab his bag, but the man just pushed it back up without a care and snagged the flower instead.
Jamie felt his face hurt with how widely he smiled when Joe brushed off and handed him the dyed sunflower.
“For You.” he gave a small bow and seemed to fighting his own wide smile as he did it.
“For Me? Quite the Casanova, aren’t we, Mr. Quinn?” Jamie played along, accepting his gift. “What about your boyfriend? Won’t he be jealous?”
He gave a surprised grunt as Joe pulled him close again, hand going behind Jamie’s head to push their foreheads together.
“Oh he won’t mind.” Joseph purred, “Handsome Devil like you? He’d understand completely.”
The flower was probably squished between them but that was an issue for future Jamie.
“Tease~” Jamie whispered back, meeting Joseph’s chocolate-button eyes with his own blue-grey and breathing heavily despite not having done anything taxing. Joseph’s mere proximity to him was more than enough to get his heart rate up and skin warm and flushed, anyway. Well, warm er.
Their lips met in a slow, soft kiss that made them both groan and whimper as they licked into each other’s mouths before they were forced to part or suffocate.
Jamie’s eyes were half closed when Joseph eased the scrunched flower from his hand and pulled him to rest his head on the shorter man’s broad shoulders, nose to his neck, and the blond whined as his partner cradled him and started moving them both in a gentle rocking motion again.
The low heat that had been simmering in his belly had dulled and spread throughout him into a full, comforting feeling that was slowly easing him into a relaxed headspace. Joseph’s arms around him and the soothing warmth of his frame against Jamie’s front was both making him relax and increasing his irritation with the layers of fabric separating them.
Finally he convinced himself that pulling back to quickly strip their shirts off was worth the feeling of skin-on-skin he’d get later.
“Woah! Easy there, tiger. In a hurry much?” Joe joked as Jamie suddenly pulled back and almost tore his own shirt off.
“M’twichy. Hugs.” Jamie muttered as he unbuttoned Joseph’s shirt, burying his face back against his neck before he’d even hit the third button.
Joe eased Jamie’s blindly grappling fingers away from his shirt and shed the garment himself one-handed, the other wrapping back around Jamie’s waist.
“Twitchy, huh?” Joe murmured near Jamie’s ear. He’d barely shrugged the shirt off before Jamie had nestled himself back against him, urging Joe to hug and sway with him again. The man got the hint rather quickly and complied, tucking Jamie’s slightly taller body against his and pressing kisses to the skin now directly below his lips.
Jamie could only hum in answer, too engrossed in the other man to speak full sentences in the moment.
Joseph slowly walked Jamie back to the couch and settled down with the man in his arms. He had convinced him to cooperate, so Jamie was now laying comfortably half-on his boyfriend, who was now resting his head on one of the many pillow-cushions previously stacked against the L-bend.
Thank God for wide couches.
As he relaxed into his boyfriend’s presence and touch, Jamie idly guided one of Joseph’s hands up to his mouth so he could softly chew on his index and middle fingers.
Chuckling, the man let him slip his fingers into his mouth, and relaxed into the soft five-seater, shifting his other arm so it passed comfortably under Jamie’s head and so his palm rested on his hip.
Jamie was still kind of uncomfortably chilly-warm and feeling a bit tingly, but Joseph being here made things better.
He could feel Joseph’s gaze on him and his mind flashed back to that scene in ‘Hoard’ where Joe, in nothing but a vest and some sinfully tight briefs (that still made Jamie squirm remembering it), had looked ‘Sara’ up and down so intensely that Jamie actually whined when the camera had done a full frontal of him. And of course his dear partner, ever supportive of his plight, had snorted tea out her nose laughing.
It was no less intense now.
“Jamie?” the other asked, rubbing his thumb on Jamie’s cheek as the blond sucked on his fingers.
“Mmmmm?” Jamie didn’t really feel like moving his head right now so this was the most Joe would get from him. He felt like he was supposed to be doing something right now but he couldn’t remember what and really didn’t want to fuss about that either. Joe’s gaze on him wasn’t helping.
“Are....” Joe paused and cleared his throat before continuing, “Are you feeling ok? Your skin is a bit warm, love.”
“......mmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhh......” Jamie really didn’t have a satisfactory answer to that one. He didn’t want to try lying to Joe because it wasn’t like he was some stranger off the street. But he also didn’t want to worry him.
“Yeahhhh. I’m going to take that as a ‘No.’.” A kiss was pressed to Jamie’s head as the blond pouted, pulling the man’s fingers out his mouth reluctantly so he could nuzzle the bare chest under him only to find it covered in drool.
He let out a dissatisfied ‘Ugh’ and frowned at his boyfriend who was looking at him with furrowed brows.
“Y’didn’t say I was drooling on you.” he grumbled at the other actor.
“I didn’t mind.” was his response, wiping drool from Jamie’s face with his knuckles. “My more immediate concern,” he gave Jamie a pointed look, “is that you’re warm. And probably sick.”
He wasn’t sick. He had just been feeling weird for......oh bugger.
Jamie shifted his gaze to his living room, almost guiltily. He didn’t want to admit he was sick to his boyfriend, or even to himself.
Joe probably came here to hang out. And now he was stuck with a sick Jamie?
Wait, why was he even in the States?
He spun his head back to his boyfriend in realization. “Wait you’re moving over now?! For Fantastic Four, right?”
Joseph gave a small smile at him. “Yeah I told you remember? Figured I should get a place quick and get settled in. Still wanna move in with you though.” Even though the strikes had put a pause on filming, his work visa had already been approved so it made sense he’d use it.
But Jamie lived in LA and Joe would probably be in New York for the majority of the filming.
Oh well. At least Jamie would be able to go see him for sure until the strikes were over.
“Gonna get a vanilla job or....?” If Joe got a public-facing day job, Jamie was going to show up there as much as he could stand to go out. It would be hilarious.
Unless Jamie couldn’t because he got fucking sick.
“Hmmm, maybe. We’ll see how it works out.”
After Joe wiped the saliva off, he put his head back onto his lover’s torso and felt he felt could almost purr when the other started petting his hair, even with how iffy he was still feeling.
He wanted to apologise for being sick and effectively putting Joe in the caretaker role, but he knew what Joe would say to that.
He would probably scold him like he was in littlespace. And while the idea was somewhat appealing and would definitely nudge Jamie to drop, he didn’t want to stress Joe out or run into it so quickly now that his Daddy boyfriend was back with him.
As Joseph progressed from just petting his hair to stroking down to his back with a gentle caress, the warmth of his palm and press of his fingers made a tingling warmth blossom under Jamie’s skin.
He exhaled shakily as it combined with his skin’s already warmer-than-normal temperature and briefly caused him to tear up.
The brunet’s gentleness with him made his heart swell with even more emotion for the man and he inadvertently let out a sob when he opened his mouth to take an even deeper breath as the symphony of everything he was feeling seized its chance to be expressed.
Joseph, understandably (but unfortunately) read his sob and tears completely wrong and assumed he was either frustrated or in pain. Or both. Jamie wasn’t really feeling up to taking a guess right now.
And he just remembered that he hadn’t taken his anxiety medication.
Joy.
“Hey, hey. It’s ok.” Joe soothed him, voice almost whisper-soft, pressing his face to Jamie’s head. “Have you had any paracetamol? C’mon let’s get you something for the fever, hmm?”
In response to the man’s attempt to move, Jamie tried pushing himself down on top of Joseph so he’d be even more of a dead weight than he already was. “Nuhhhhhhhhhhhhaaahhhhh.” was his articulate enunciation of his desires.
It didn’t do much to actually hold Joe down, but he did turn back, pull Jamie up and try to walk the blond into the downstairs bathroom with him.
“C’mon, love.” he coaxed as Jamie held tight to him, pressing his entire torso into the other and just barely moving his feet so they weren’t dragging across the floor and poor Joe wouldn’t be stuck carrying his entire bodyweight.
Jamie rewarded Joe’s efforts by looking at him with a full on pout.
Meds meant he’d have to eat something. And he really, really, really didn’t want to.
Which, now that he thought about it, was the whole reason he’d missed his anxiety meds in the first place.
And because Joe was a fucking mind reader, his next question hit that nail on the head.
“Did you take the rest of your meds already?”
As Joe had managed to drag a nigh unto uncooperative Jamie to his medicine press, the least he could do was give him a proper answer.
“Nuguhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
“Right. That’s a no then. Is it just the anxiety – Sertraline?” The man held Jamie up with one hand and was riffling through his pills with the other, pulling out the Sertraline bottle and Tylenol Complete like he had done this a million times, while Jamie just pushed himself against Joseph’s bare torso and tried to snuggle back into him while still standing. “I take mine whenever, but I try for mornings. Do you need to stick to a time?”
Jamie could feel the whisper of a headache becoming almost insistent.
If he lied, could he go to sleep? But Joe....
“Nuhh.” He couldn’t lie to him like that.
“Alright.” Why did he have to sound so....energetic? “It says ‘Take with food.’ so I’m afraid you’ll have to stomach something.”
Jamie pouted and took a lazy mock bite of Joe’s shoulder for his troubles, purposely covering the spot grasped between his teeth in saliva.
Joe took his behaviour in stride, pressing a kiss to Jamie’s bare shoulder. “No, I’m afraid I’m not on the menu. Yet, anyways.” He let that implication linger between them for a bit. “C’mon. Let’s see what’s in the pantry. You’ll have at least some broth or an Ensure.”
Joe wiped the spit off his shoulder, and with an arm around Jamie’s waist and Joe’s body pressed to his, Jamie was led to his kitchen. The lights the younger man turned on made the blond’s almost-headache become worse so he closed his eyes and buried his face in Joseph’s neck to help block things out. He could feel the grimace he was making as Joe rubbed his back and looked through his fridge.
The man leaned forward before Jamie heard the door close. Had he found something? The prospect of swallowing something and having it in his stomach was not making Jamie happy but he was grumpily trying to weigh it against how happy Joseph would be if he made an attempt anyways.
“I know you don’t want to,” was the compromise, “but at least have a mouthful or two. And then take your meds.”
Jamie let out a frustrated grunt of neither assent nor dissent.
“C’mon.” Joe urged gently, voice vibrating pleasantly against Jamie’s face, although it did irritate his not-headache slightly, he considered it a benefit of being close to the other man. Not that there were really any disadvantages to having Joseph Quinn nearby. Even if he could be horribly stubborn sometimes.
Like now.
He heard the shake of his pills and the caps being popped off and felt his mouth get unpleasantly dry at the notion of what was to follow.
“C’mon love.” A kiss was pressed to his head. “Daddy’ll even put the rest in your cup for later, hmm? How’s that sound?”
And that nudged Jamie slightly further down ever so gently.
His lips trembled and he let out a soft whine of discontentment with his current state.
A soothing “Shhhhhhhhh.” was followed with his back being rubbed again and a slow back-and-forth motion as Joe mimicked rocking him. He could feel himself tear up just from mild frustration.
But Joseph, ever-present and a good Daddy, just kept cooing at him, rubbing his back and rocking their bodies together slowly, easing Jamie further down into his little-headspace as he pressed his face and lips against the blond’s head.
Maybe just two mouthfuls? If he tried his hardest he wouldn’t even taste the icky pills. And daddy would be happy....and they would go snuggle faster.
He liked snuggling with his daddy. And getting kisses. Joe always gave the best cuddles and kisses.
Jamie idly started to suckle at the skin under his lips as his daddy kept rocking them both and rubbing his back.
Joseph just kept his face buried his face in Jamie’s hair and pressed more kisses to his head before moving them back slightly so he could brace against the counter and hold Jamie tighter as the blond man just kept breathing slow and deep, trying to ease the oncoming headache and psych himself up to take the icky pills. And put something in his stomach.
Inhaling Joseph’s sweet floral and smoky scent was actually helping him feel....less irritated about having to put something in his belly.
“C’mon sweet boy. Just a little bit.”
His mouth still dried up as Joseph turned his head and pressed a bottle of chocolate Ensure to his lips, but he forced himself to drink it, scrunching his face at the weight in his stomach as his daddy finally lowered the bottle.
“Now one more. Last time, I promise.”
One - ? Oh. The pills.
He made a face of disgust as Joseph held the medicine out in front of him, but didn’t protest as he was fed the pills and then more Ensure.
“Just an extra mouthful, love. You don’t want that Sertraline stuck in your throat again, remember?”
He did. And forced himself to take a third mouthful of Ensure just to try and make sure that never happened again. It had been so painful and he’d gotten so sick of drinking water and full and having his throat burn that he’d almost started crying in front of everyone.
Thankfully all the pills went down easily this time. Now if only the nausea would go away too.
And he was getting a cold-sweat again.
Wonderful. Sarcasm intended.
Joe’s soft cooing at him and praises about how much of a good boy he was made things only marginally better as the man tried coaxing him upstairs before deciding to just carry him up the final few stairs.
Thankfully his role this time required bulking up instead of losing weight. That was one of the things SAG was striking for again. Using CGI over making actors lose weight.
Jamie shivered as another bout of chilliness struck him as they entered the master bedroom, and it made his nausea a little worse.
Joseph made a soothing shush and rubbed his back as he set him down.
It made things worse and Jamie felt his mouth flood with saliva.
Shit.
He’d barely managed to turn his head away from his boyfriend before he promptly emptied his stomach onto the carpeted bedroom floor.
“Jamie?!”
Joe was behind him immediately, rubbing his back and belly, telling him to just let it out as he dry heaved the last dregs of his stomach contents.
Thankfully the man moved him from the pile of puke so he didn’t have to rely on his own strength to keep himself from face planting into it.
He was swiftly carried into the bathroom to wash his mouth before he found himself laid gently on his bed on his side. Joe even put stuff behind him to prop him up.
At least the nausea was gone. Sadly the cold sweat was still there and his almost-headache had graduated to an actual headache.
He let out the loudest groan/whine he could, in spite of the massive throb of pain that shot through his skull and he felt the bed dip slightly behind him before Joe came back into his sight.
“I’m here, darling, I’m here.” the younger man soothed. “Gimme a minute, ok? Just let me finish cleaning up.”
It was the longest minute Jamie could remember experiencing, as he flipped between glancing around as much as he could without moving too much and just keeping his eyes shut but eventually Joe came back, put him on his back and pulled the rest of his clothes off.
He was confused as to where this was going but the headache was quickly deterring any urge to think about anything so he decided to just trust whatever process Joseph had going.
A cool wipe being run over his face and down his neck brought a little more clarity to things and Jamie felt himself relax even further as Joseph gave him a wipe down everywhere, going between his fingers, under his armpits, down his torso, pushing his legs up to get the creases between his thighs properly, and even down his legs and between every one of his toes. He even turned Jamie onto his side again so he could do a repeat on his back.
The headache was still there but the rest of Jamie was a puddle of goo as much as he could be, considering everything.
He was practically floaty, the headache seeming both there and far away by the time Joseph pushed his thighs apart to put the anti-chafing powder on him and pulled his nappy around him, expertly getting the fit with the tabs just right the first time.
Of course he still double-checked, tucking two fingers under the waist to make sure it wasn’t too tight or too loose on Jamie before he pulled what felt like a pair of boxers over it.
Peeking his eyes open again, he saw Joseph head out and return with a bottle of water barely a minute later.
“Here, drink some of this. If you can’t keep this down, we are headed right to A&E.”
Jamie pouted but couldn’t deny the man his reasoning.
Thankfully, the idea of the water going down was worse than the actual water going into his stomach and though it grumbled slightly, it didn’t protest otherwise.
Joseph spent a bit rubbing Jamie’s stomach before he seemed to be satisfied the other wouldn’t throw up again.
Jamie then watched the younger man strip himself to his briefs and get in bed with him, snuggling close to Jamie and pulling the other end of the blanket over them, trapping Jamie in with him.
If Jamie said he had a problem with this, he’d be the biggest liar in existence.
“Daddy’s so sorry he made you drink that, baby.”
Jamie grunted, closing his eyes and nuzzling close to Joseph’s chest, hoping that would be the end of it. It wasn’t like his partner intended to make him throw up.
Unfortunately his daddy didn’t take the hint and kept talking.
“I promise I – mhlugh”
So Jamie just shoved his hand onto his boyfriend’s mouth for a bit before stretching it over his shoulder and snuggling back into his spot.
He felt the man’s chuckle vibrate against him.
“Got it. Shutting up. But if you still have a fever later, we’re trying again with the paracetamol.”
A kiss was pressed to his head again and Joe settled down against him, arm around his waist, allowing Jamie to doze as best he could with the fever and headache still there.
But Joseph was also there. And that made everything infinitely better than if he wasn’t.
The man’s warmth, weight, scent and just his presence was making Jamie feel much more content already and he felt certain that he would only get better even quicker with him present.