A Good Old Cold (the Raven Cycle)

[lillian]

Ok so I couldn't think of a good title for this one. This is a Raven Cycle story, from the series by Maggie Steifvater. It's set pre-series, when the boys have yet to meet Blue or go on any adventures. It's just Ronan, Noah, and Gansey living at Monmouth, and Adam still living with his parents. Now for part one!

Sunday: Blessings

Ronan slipped into the back of the church as the bells finished their eleventh toll. Matthew and Declan were already in their pew. Matthew waved and Declan scowled. Ronan slid in beside Matthew, pointedly ignoring Declan’s glare. So he was late. At least he was there.

He rubbed his nose with his index finger. It had been itching like mad all morning. A tiny sniffle; it was running too. He’d been on his way out the door, nose buried in a tissue, when Gansey threatened him with tea and bedrest. Fifteen diplomatic minutes later, he was allowed to escape with Gansey’s Peruvian alpaca wool hat pulled snugly over his ears.

No hats in church though, even if one might possibly maybe have a slightly runny nose. His (rather, Gansey’s) hat was sticking out of his suit pocket. Ronan fumbled around it, pulling out some as-yet-unused tissues.

“hh… h’ngxt!”

That hurt.

“Bless you!” Matthew exclaimed.

Declan and Ronan shushed him.

 ***

Clustered around a table in a sunny diner, the Lynch boys hadn’t yet decided on lunch. Ronan hadn’t, because he was in the restroom blowing his nose.

“Do you want to share a plate of spaghetti with me?” Matthew asked him as he resettled himself at the table.

“No,” he said roughly. Matthew’s face fell.

“I’m not hungry,” he muttered, loosening his tie. He wrinkled his nose and pressed a finger against his twitching nostrils. After a few stuttery breaths, he jerked away from Matthew, towards the aisle, and crushed a tickly double between his index finger and thumb.  “h’ngxt…nkk!”

“Bless you!” Matthew said, looking up from his menu.

Ronan, still turned safely away, tried his best to silence yet another.

“ng’kshh!”

“God bless you.” That was Declan. Ronan nodded his thanks and allowed himself a sniffle. He sniffled again and realized he couldn’t smell Matthew’s cologne.

“Are you coming down with a cold?” Matthew asked, his brow furrowing. “You’re really sneezy.”

Declan looked up from his menu.

“No,” Ronan grumped. “We were just cleaning out the downstairs at Monmouth. Dust got to me.”

Declan’s eyes were daggers.

“Ronan,” he said icily, “you know how allergic you are to dust and how it aggravates your—“

“I know!” Ronan snapped. “Fuck off, Declan.”

“Guys…” Matthew’s lower lip quivered just a little. Declan sent a glare their direction and folded up his menu as the waitress approached.

“Are you ready to order?” she asked.

Ronan sneezed again. 

Edited August 1, 2016 by lillian

[queenie]

Oh my god! This is such a wonderful start and I canNOT wait for more of it. I've been contemplating some Raven Cycle fic of my own, but in the meantime yours does beautifully!

[lillian]

@queenie I'm glad you liked it! I'd love to see some of your Raven Cycle stuff! 

Monday: Snot.

The morning routine was interrupted at regular intervals as Ronan had to stop and blow his nose. Noah threw the balled up tissues at him like snowballs, and Gansey fretted.

Ronan was blowing his nose on the way to the breakfast table when Gansey touched his shoulder.

“Ronan…” Gansey was still wearing his glasses and his tie was mostly untied.

“Hn?” Ronan looked up blearily.

“Would you consider staying home today?” Gansey asked in his most diplomatic tone.

“No,” Ronan said, sliding into a chair and reaching for the cup of coffee already set out for him.

“But—“

“Got a project to do.” His and Adam’s project, more specifically. Damn his World History teacher for putting them together. Adam had enough shit to take care of as it was, and Ronan couldn’t justify abandoning him this time. “An’ I’m fine, before you a-ask…hh!”

Gansey held his reply as Ronan squashed a messy stifle into his elbow.

“You’ve clearly caught a cold,” Gansey said once Ronan had recovered somewhat. “And bless you.”

“Tissue?” Noah asked impishly, holding out the now-empty packet Ronan had bought last night.

“That’s not nice,” Gansey snapped. “Are we out? I don’t want you to have to use something rough…”

Ronan rubbed his nose, tinted a startling cherry, and sighed. “There are tissues at school,” he said, and drained his coffee.

 ****

“Are you okay?” Adam asked carefully. Ronan had sneezed more that morning than he usually sneezed in an entire week. Unless someone (Gansey) forgot about cleaning or it had been raining and the old school buildings developed a mold problem, he could hardly be considered a frequent sneezer.

“igk’shuh!” Ronan’s head hurt, his nose was stinging, and his chest was starting to ache. Dammit.

“I guess that’s a no?” Adam’s frown deepened.

“’m fine,” Ronan managed. He sat up straighter in his desk.

“Bless you!” Henry Cheng called from across the room. Ronan gave him a curt nod.

“Thanks.”

“Thank God someone has manners,” said a voice from the other side of the room. Adam turned to find Kavinsky’s hooded eyes trained on him, a leering grin pulling his thin lips sharp.

Ronan’s head bobbed only slightly, but the heavy sigh that followed was unmistakable.

“Bless you, Lynch,” Kavinsky cooed, still staring at Adam.

Adam blushed. He’d never gotten into the habit of blessing people. His friends had never seemed to mind. He turned away from Kavinsky with a slight shudder. Well he wouldn’t start just because Kavinsky thought he didn’t have manners.

A gurgling sniffle from Ronan got his attention. His head was pillowed on his arms, eyes closed. His dark eyebrows drew in and he buried his face in the crook of one arm to catch a wet “hrk’shhg!”

Adam’s stomach clenched in sympathy as Ronan blinked tears from his eyes. His head was still resting on his arms, and there was a flush across his nose and cheekbones, all the way up to the tips of his ears. Adam bit his lip.

“Bless you,” he murmured. 

Edited August 1, 2016 by lillian

[queenie]

Ohhhh that's so good! Trust Ronan to be enough of a little shit to go to class when he's sick, even though he doesn't go any other time. Gansey is such a mom friend and I love it. Adam, though, makes me a little dizzy with all his repressed emotions, so... great job with that. 

[LeapYearKisses]

I love The Raven Boys, especially Ronan!  I'm so psyched to see that you're writing fic for it!   Ronan, just go to bed, would you???  I need to read Book 4, but I should really reread the rest first.  You've really kindled my interest to get to it!

[lillian]

On May 25, 2016 at 10:25 AM, queenie said:

Ohhhh that's so good! Trust Ronan to be enough of a little shit to go to class when he's sick, even though he doesn't go any other time. Gansey is such a mom friend and I love it. Adam, though, makes me a little dizzy with all his repressed emotions, so... great job with that. 

Gansey is the king mom friend. I hope it's a good dizzy! 

 

On May 26, 2016 at 8:26 PM, LeapYearKisses said:

I love The Raven Boys, especially Ronan!  I'm so psyched to see that you're writing fic for it!   Ronan, just go to bed, would you???  I need to read Book 4, but I should really reread the rest first.  You've really kindled my interest to get to it!

I've had this story hanging around for awhile, but I haven't had time to get it onto the forum. Read book four! It will change your life!

Thank you all for hanging with me! It feels so nice to be back on the forum, even if I'm in a new fandom. This part is a little short, but there's more to come!

 

Tuesday: Stuffed.

“ehg’shhuh!” The day’s first sneeze was uncharacteristically loud.

“Bless you!” Gansey called from the main room.

“Bless!” Noah echoed.

Ronan grunted in reply, then coughed.

Gansey glanced towards Ronan’s door. That cough couldn’t be good. When Ronan shuffled out in just his boxers, Gansey frowned.

“Ronan…”

 Ronan waved him off. “Goi’g to be id the hot water id a bidute.” He attempted a sniffle. “Ugh…”

Gansey got out two mugs as Ronan disappeared into the bathroom. Noah materialized beside him.

“He sounds really sick,” Noah said. Gansey sighed and poured himself coffee.

“It’s just how colds progress. It has to get worse before it gets better,” Gansey said. “Ronan’s like clockwork. He starts out sneezing and pretty soon he’s all stuffed up like this. It’s when he starts coughing that you need to keep an eye on him.”

***

“Less stuffy?” Noah asked when Ronan emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam.

“hugk’shhyu!” Ronan sneezed in response.

“Insisting on going to school today?” Gansey said.

“h’ksch!” Ronan sneezed again, barely catching it in a fist while the other hand gripped the towel around his waist. He sniffed experimentally. Still stuffed.

“Bless you,” Gansey sighed.

 ***

Ronan ducked into his shoulder with a chesty cough. Adam sighed and turned the computer towards himself. He typed out the rest of Ronan’s sentence while the other boy caught his breath.

“Hey!” Ronan gasped, jerking the laptop back. “Fucg off, Parrish!”

“You should really take a decongestant,” Adam said, bracing himself for Ronan’s acid response.

Ronan started to say something.

“hegg’shhh!” but was interrupted. Not abruptly— it was the kind of sneeze that you saw coming three lines of dialogue away. Ronan, sleepy and stuffy, was still surprised.

“Bless you,” Adam said, the tips of his ears burning just a little.

Ronan thanked him, face still mostly buried in his elbow.  

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by lillian

[LeapYearKisses]

Quote

“Bless you,” Adam said, the tips of his ears burning just a little.

I LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING.

[Winged]

Ohhh this is such perfect timing because I literally just started book 4 and now you're giving me emotions darn you. 

1. KAVINSKY. What a cheeky little snot. I shivered a bit when his name popped up; I miss that asshole. 

2. My Pynch heart. And Ronan even went to CLASS for Adam, he's so whipped and he doesn't even know it. 

3. Gansey is the perfect mom friend! And of course Ronan just growls at him but tolerates it all the same because that's what these boys do. 

Only nit-picky thing is that I don't think they know Noah is dead yet? But other than that this is beautifully true to the books and the characters and I can't wait for more. You also may inspire me to write something of my own

[queenie]

Oh, yikes. Gansey reciting the classic progression of a Ronan illness makes me nervous/excited about things to come (plus-- of course he has memorized it). And Adam is so sweetly vulnerable with all the feelings he can't express, even to himself. I'm hardcore Into This. 

[truth]

i haven't had a chance to read this series yet, but i've heard soo much about it (and seen so much fanart... yum) so i thought i'd check this out, and i absolutely adore it! I'm glad it's pre-books, too, so no spoilers just beautiful sneezes

[LeapYearKisses]

Had to pop back in after finishing book 4 today to tell you I LOVE this fic!!

[lillian]

A/N: inserted head canon about Ronan having asthma. Sorry if that's not your thing! Also, I'm sorry if Gansey is kind of OOC. I'm not really sure how to write him.

 

Wednesday: Silenced

Gansey sat in the middle of Henrietta, gluing a fence to a neat green lawn. The ancient clock on the floor nearby read 5:04 am. Outside, winter night pressed tight against the windowpanes. The broken radiator growled, shooting a cloud of cold dust into the air. Gansey heard a set of teeth chatter behind him.

“Ronan?” he asked, twisting around to the dark over his shoulder. A hollow cough answered. Ronan fell into a seated position beside him. Gansey rested a hand on his subtly shaking knee. Ronan cleared his throat with a sound like tearing fabric. He tried to speak, but the air rushed past his vocal cords without making a sound. He gingerly felt under his jaw. Lymph nodes were definitely swollen. They’d been swollen since Saturday, if he was being honest with himself. That’s when his ears had started hurting, too. He sniffled.

Gansey looked up at the sniffle. As his eyes adjusted, Ronan’s face came into view. His eyes were glassy, and his nose and cheeks were bright red. Dark shadows bruised the fragile skin under his eyes.

“You okay?” Gansey asked, eyebrows furrowing. “You should be asleep.”

“So should you,” Ronan tried to say, but just produced a raspy croaky sound like a dying bullfrog. Gansey winced in sympathy.

“Lost your voice?”

Ronan nodded and lifted a fist to rub at a pink-tinged ear. He brought the fist to his mouth and turned away from Gansey to cough. The cough was hoarse and deep. Gansey winced again, tsking quietly. At Ronan’s next breath, he shook his head.

“I can hear you wheezing. Have you taken your inhaler?”

Ronan shot him an indignant look. A pause. A reluctant nod. Gansey sighed. If Ronan was already medicated, there wasn’t much Gansey could do. He couldn’t remember how often you could take an inhaler, or what the consequences were if you overdid it. Could you?

“hh…k’ncg!”

“Bless you.”

“…’ngxt!”

“Stop stifling!” Gansey said, rounding on him. “That sounds painful! I know you do it all the time but just don’t when you’re sick, okay?” Gansey’s eyes were wide in the dim light.

Ronan sniffled in reply. Utterly exhausted, he let his eyes slip closed and rested his head on his hand.

“Come on,” Gansey said, getting to his feet. He took Ronan’s arm and helped him up. “If you won’t sleep in your bed, you can sleep on the couch.” 

Edited August 1, 2016 by lillian

[Colds-and-Cuddles]

I just started the series this recently and was thinking it would be great to find a fic involving the boys, so I'm so glad that I found this! The characterization is spot on

[lillian]

13 hours ago, Colds-and-Cuddles said:

I just started the series this recently and was thinking it would be great to find a fic involving the boys, so I'm so glad that I found this! The characterization is spot on

I'm glad you liked it!

[LeapYearKisses]

RONANNNNNNNN

Still loving every bit of this!  I don't think Gansey's out of character.  He's such a mother hen; it's lovely.

[CPG]

aaaaaaah I love this fic so much!!! I've been rereading it like every other day, especially cause I'm finally getting around to finishing Raven King. Please update soon, or post any other TRC fics you have; I love the way you write these boys!!