I sneezed.

There's a range of degrees of sneezes, so when I say, 'I sneezed,' you have to understand that the word hardly does justice to the explosion of noise, discomfort, and general grossness that emerged from me. This wasn't a polite, dainty, at-the-dinner-table, covering-the-nose-gently-with-the-handkerchief-and-putting-it-back-into-the-purse sort of a sneeze. This was a effort of my respiratory system to expel any and all invaders, and quite possibly a few things that were meant to stay inside me as well. Like my ribs.

What was worse, I had thrown my back out the day before, shoveling, so the movement associated with the violence of the act sent spasms through my spine.

Much like 'sneezed' kind of fails to properly explain everything that went into that action, 'miserable' fails to properly explain how I was feeling.

"You okay?" I heard Tia's voice drifting up from downstairs.

"No," I groaned, knowing that she wouldn't hear me. I reached for a tissue and felt the last ones come out of the box. I raised my voice some. "I'm out of sneeze rags!"

The reply floated back up to me. "I'll bring some up with lunch!"

I cleaned myself up as best as I could, and snuggled up tighter under the blankets.

Tia had brought the bug home from work; she'd barely had a sniffle. My stupid immune system decided that I, meanwhile, was going to have an overdramatic reaction to just about every pathogen that got into my body, and this cold was absolutely no exception. Tia got better, I got worse. I managed to do some work and shovel the walk Friday, but Saturday meant that Tia could take care of me, so the only reason I got out of bed at all was to use the bathroom.

My dark-skinned beauty walked in with a bed tray, complete with a steaming bowl of chicken soup, a handful of soda crackers, a glass of grape juice, and a fresh box of tissues for my tormented nose.

And of course our silver ouroboros charm around her neck, given to her after I used it that morning.

She wasn't naked, but she was close to it. A pair of cute pale blue panties were all that she was wearing. If my suggestions held, she didn't know that that was all that she was wearing.

I was sick, I wasn't dead. And even if I didn't have the energy to do anything about it, I could enjoy the view.

I propped myself up against the pillows so I could try to get some lunch into me. My back twinged as I did and I gasped in pain, prompting Tia to put the tray down on the floor and move to help me. My nightgown got a bit tangled up in the process, and I shrugged it off my shoulders.

Again, sick, not dead, and Tia was more than welcome to enjoy the view I was able to give her.

Still, her focus was on my well-being, not on my tits, at least until I was sat up nicely. "You doing okay?" she asked me again.

I sighed and didn't answer, but I'm sure I smiled through bleary eyes and and tired lips.

She straddled my hips and put her hands on my shoulders and rubbed, nice and deep, and I slumped forward into her touch. For a brief moment, everything was alright: my sinuses were clear, and my head was foggy. My pain went away with any stiffness in my muscles, however temporarily. There were words in my ear. Tia was saying things, things I didn't really care to pay attention to, but suddenly, as I came around, I was hungry. The smell of the soup wove its way through my mucus-clogged senses and made my mouth water, more even than the slender bare back of the beautiful woman who had turned to retrieve the food she was bringing me.

When I'm sick, hunger is usually the last thing on my mind, but at that moment, I desperately wanted the food.

I could hardly wait for Tia to bring it to me. I shifted myself to be more comfortable, which was a challenge, not being able to move my legs and all, but I managed. Tia put the tray over my lap, where her knees had been just a lovely moment before. She knelt beside that tray on the bed and lightly stroked my cheek, and I slumped back. Like usual, my pretty caretaker took a spoonful of soup and waved it gently under my nose. I opened my mouth, and she expertly put the spoon in. I drank down the soup, and it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted, despite my cold-deadened senses.

I knew who I had to thank for that.

"Tia," I said once I'd swallowed, "you made some great soup."

She giggled. "Just came out of the can."

"Yeah, well..." I nodded my chin towards the soup, asking for another spoonful in the physical language we'd developed in the years we'd been together, since I couldn't move below the neck. "I'm pretty sure your magic words have something to do with that."

Tia wiggled with pleasure, and her breasts moved delightfully, drawing my eyes. She went for another spoonful. "You know how much I love what I can do in your mind..." She put the spoon in my mouth. "And what you do in mine."

I grinned as I swallowed the broth. Absolutely delicious. "Even when you have no idea about it?"

"And you," she said, carefully putting a hand on the tray to steady it before leaning in to give me a kiss. It was nearly, but not quite, as tasty as the food. She grinned at me. "More soup?"

"Oh, yes, yes please." The moment she asked, everything else fell away and I only wanted more of that amazing soup. It was all I could do to keep from flopping forward, pressing my face into the bowl, and lapping up the meal in cat-like fashion. If I had been able to move my arms, I would have grabbed the bowl and drunk it all down, but this was our life.

Fortunately I had a wonderful caretaker.

I started to think about how we got together, how such an active and vivacious woman wound up with an invalid like me, but the soup in my mouth wiped away all those thoughts, and a few more. There was only the soup, and how incredible it was. Spoon after spoon of the best soup ever, with the best woman ever, dressed only in the best panties ever, feeding it to me, and all I could think to do, all I could manage to do, was sit there and be fed and feel so, so good about it all. It didn't matter that it had come straight from the can, that it was rapidly cooling. I couldn't even bring myself to worry about the cold I had.

I didn't have the energy to orgasm, but if I did, I'd have cum hard for that soup. As it was, the final spoonful left me breathless and starry-eyed.

Tia took my limp hand and put it on her chest, and somehow it managed to cup her breast. I could almost feel her warm flesh through my nerveless fingertips. "Did you think I wouldn't notice this?" she asked me with a grin. "The first splash that hit my chest woke me up to my state of dress."

"Mm, I hope you didn't get hurt."

She shook her head. "Naw, it was cold water. But it was a surprise." She pressed her pert boob into my hand. "It does mean that I know enough what'll happen if I slip my underwear off, of course..."

My eyes went involuntarily to the silver snake around her neck.

"Yep, that's right. You'd be helpless. More even than you are now."

My arm flopped back onto the bed, lifeless as ever. "Oh no, whatever would I do?" I giggled.

Tia moved the tray off the bed, leaned in close, and kissed my forehead. "You'd remember," she said.

And I did.

My arms sprang to life and wrapped around my love. My legs twitched. My head was... still stuffed up. "You're mean," I said.

"Am I?" Her hands ran down my torso and to her own panties. "Being sick is no excuse for being rude. Maybe I need to fix that attitude on you, Pel."

In response, I took a deep breath. "Tissue, please," I gasped.

Tia laughed and grabbed a couple from the tray, handing them to me just in time for me to catch my sneeze. "Feel a little better?" she asked me.

"When you're here?" I said, wiping my nose. "Always."

I cleaned up as Tia got down off the bed. "I'm guessing you've had enough?"

"Yeah, pretty much," I sighed. "Thanks for getting some food in me."

She kissed me fiercely. "Can't let my love fall apart. Not entirely, anyway."

I kissed her back with as much energy as I could muster. "I appreciate it." I let myself slide back into the pillows. "Ugh. Not sure if I wanna try and watch something, or get up and do a sketch, or..."

"Need a nap?" Tia asked me.

I closed my eyes. "I dunno."

Something soft hit me in the shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked. Tia's blue panties.

The silver charm around her neck caught my eyes.

"This morning you ordered me to help you," she said. "So I'm helping you."

I nodded, my thoughts moving glacially slow.

"And it would make you feel better if you got a nice, long nap."

I nodded and slid lower into the bed, and lower, and lower...