#Aiden has such a sensitive stomach🥲

[wordsmithwhumpsandfluff]

Okay you'll forgive me being sooo self indulgent with this ask, but: Sickie Aiden + Caretaker Spirit + tummy rubs. I NEED to see this girl be a softie towards him, I've been thinking of them all week

First request from the ask game!! Love this so much! Thank you, Soup!!

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The brewery/restaurant that was only a five-minute walk from campus had been a bold choice for Aiden’s lunch.

The place had those Mexican-style egg rolls and insanely good jalapeño burgers with thick patties. On any other day, Aiden would have been smart enough to know better than to get such a heavy and greasy meal. But after two morning exams and no breakfast or snacks, he had been too exhausted and too hungry to be smart.

Two Mexican eggrolls, a jalapeño burger, garlic fries, and a large Sprite is what he got himself. In the moment, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to him. But as soon as he finished his Sprite, he realized it was a major mistake

Thankfully, he didn’t have any more exams that day, but he did have to sit through a long and painful lecture while his stomach was gurgling horribly. He kept burping quietly into his fist, being as quiet as possible. He broke into a cold clammy sweat before the lecture ended, and he immediately left as fast as he could once the class was dismissed.

He found himself in the bathroom, on his knees in a stall while gagging dryly over the toilet. Nothing came up, even though he stayed for twenty whole minutes.

When he gave up on trying to puke, he was pasty as a ghost. He splashed some water on his face and went on his way. He felt like a zombie with a stomachache. He just wanted to go home, take some tums, and sleep.

He was so thankful that he didn’t live too far from campus. On the drive over and while going upstairs to his apartment, he kept letting out small airy burps that didn’t bring him any relief. Once inside, he immediately got the box of tums from his kitchen, popping two in his mouth on his way to his couch. Laying down, he used his fist to muffle a string of burps that burned in his nose and made him grimace.

He was dizzy with nausea, and just needed to close his eyes. It’ll pass, he told himself while planting a hand on his bloated stomach. It was straining against the black sweatpants he wore to class, and he pushed the waistband down to relieve the pressure.

Despite feeling tired and just wanting to sleep, he just couldn’t. He was so nauseous, but all that kept coming up was little annoying burps. He felt so shitty.

He stayed on the couch for so long, wishing to just fall asleep. But suddenly, he startled and his eyes opened when he heard a knock at his door.

He groaned, figuring it was one of his neighbors or something and hoping that if he ignored them, they’d just go away. More knocking. A bit more.

Then Aiden’s phone began to ring, and with an annoyed sigh he took it out of his pocket and looked at it. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he sat up too quickly, causing him to clamp a hand over his mouth as he felt his stomach leap. Nothing but a long, wet burp came up.

He’d forgotten Spirit was coming over. Over the last two weeks, they’d had maybe two or three more little movie hang-outs. And tonight was one of those hang-out nights.

He mentally cursed at himself for forgetting. He didn’t answer the phone and forced himself to get up and go the door, pulling his pants back up on his way there. Lo and behold, Spirit was standing there, holding something rectangle-shaped and wrapped a page from the school’s newspaper.

“Hey,” she said, and Aiden couldn’t help but get caught up on how beautiful she looked with her hair in messy twin-buns and wearing a ‘I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME’ t-shirt that went all the way down to her knees. The scars and bruises on her face hadn’t gone away completely just yet, but they added a sort of dangerous aspect to her beauty.

Meanwhile, he knew he looked pathetic in comparison to her. “Hey,” he said tiredly.

Spirit slightly raised her brow. “Were you asleep?”

He put on a smile and shrugged. “Um. . . not exactly.” He stepped aside so Spirit could walk in. “What’s that?” he asked, nodding to the rectangle-shaped thing in her hands.

“Oh,” she said, looking up at him with a smile. “I got you something.”

They went over to the couch and she handed him the gift. He ripped open the newspaper-wrapping and smiled as he looked down at 3 different books.

“They’re all thrifted, so the covers are a bit worn and there’s some fold-lines in the pages, but there’s no stains or notes or missing pages. I thought you’d like these.”

The books were ‘Wild Bird’, ‘Jellicoe Road’, and ‘Magnolia: Flower of Death’. Aiden had never seen or heard of any of these.

“There not super popular,” Spirit said with a shrug, “but I like them.”

“They look interesting.”

“‘Jellicoe Road’ and ‘Magnolia’ both have a little bit of a romantic sub-plot, so you might not be that into it, but—”

“Nah, I like romance,” Aiden said with a shrug. “I once read ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ because my mom wouldn’t shut up about it, and I actually liked it. Romance is cool.”

Spirit’s eyes widened with genuine surprise. It took everything in her not to smile because it was lowkey adorable to think that this big guy was a fan of romance books! Spirit blushed and prayed it wasn’t too obvious.

“This one doesn’t have any of those newspaper or author review things on the cover,” he said, holding up ‘MAGNOLIA: Flower of Death’.

“Yeah. It was written by some teenager who self-published. It’s not that popular, but it’s really good.”

Aiden nodded, putting the gifts on his coffee table. “Thanks so much,” he said, smiling at Spirit.

She smiled back.

They wound up putting on an action movie rather than a horror one this time. Aiden was thankful that Spirit was so enthralled by the movie that she didn’t notice him muffling a few small burps. However, she did notice something wrong with him when his stomach abruptly growled loudly, and he went about two shades paler.

“You okay?” Spirit asked, studying him.

Aiden tried his best to smile reassuringly. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Clearly, he was lying. That was the moment when Spirit learned this boy was a horrible liar.

“You look off,” she said, pausing the movie. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” he assured her, but he looked anything but and he wound up muffling another burb against his fist while Spirit was still studying him.

She frowned. “Are you sick?”

Aiden was about to deny it, but he realized there was no point. With a sigh, frowning, he nodded reluctantly. “It’s not a bug or anything. Lunch just didn’t settle right with me, but that’s my own fault.”

Spirit now noticed that Aiden’s belly was clearly bloated underneath his shirt. Now it made sense why he looked so tired when she got there.

“Do you want me to leave so you can sleep?” she asked. Aiden’s eyes widened at her question (or rather because she sounded a bit disappointed when she asked it) and he immediately told her he didn’t want her to leave.

“Let’s finish the movie,” he said to her. “Really, I don’t want you to leave yet.”

Spirit couldn’t help but smile a bit at him. “Okay.”

She pressed play on the movie. Now that she knew Aiden was sick though, she was more aware of him hesitantly rubbing his own stomach and the little burps he kept muffling. Eventually, an idea came to her that had her blushing just from thinking it.

“Hey,” she said to him, getting his attention. “Do you. . . would you want me to rub your stomach?” Just asking that made her blush with embarrassment. His eyes widened a bit, surprised by the offer, and Spirit noticed his pale cheeks turning a bit more pink than usual. She prayed that her own face wasn’t too flushed. 

He nodded, and Spirit wound up grabbing a cushion from the side of the couch and putting it on her lap. She patted the cushion, signaling for him to put his head there. 

Aiden hesitated for a second before moving down a bit to lay his head on the cushion, laying on his side. Spirit turned red, but thankfully Aiden didn’t see her at that moment.

She reached her hand down to his stomach, rubbing it over his shirt. She could feel how bloated and gurgle it was, and she let out a sympathetic sigh. “That probably feels gross,” she said, and he hummed in agreement.

Spirit kept trying to watch the movie, but her focus kept getting drawn to Aiden’s head on her lap. She had the overwhelming urge to run a hand through his tousled hair. She got lost in the motion of rubbing his stomach. She pressed in a bit, making his stomach gurgle louder than it had before and they both startled when a loud belch came up, and Spirit saw Aiden’s ears turn red and he sat up, covering his face with a hand. “Oh, God,” he groaned. “That was so gross. I am so sorry, Spirit.”

Spirit put a hand on his back, rubbing between his shoulder blades. “It’s okay,” she assured him. “A bit gross, yeah, but it really is fine.”

Aiden, still completely embarrassed and beet-red, looked at her. “You sure?”

Spirit smiled and patted the cushion on her lap again. “C’mon. I’ll keep rubbing your belly.”

Still red, he laid back down and Spirit kept rubbing, pressing in and making him burb a few more times, each time making him redder.

Eventually, Spirit was able to focus on the movie while still rubbing Aiden’s stomach. He eventually stopped belching, but Spirit didn’t stop massaging his upset gut.

”You feeling any better?” Spirit asked him eventually. She got no answer.

She leaned forward a bit to get a look at his face, and she had to bite her cheek to keep from grinning too much when she realized he was asleep with one of his limp hands on her knee.

She didn’t dare to wake him. Thankfully, she could grab the remote without moving. Still rubbing his stomach, she let him sleep and stayed.

There wasn’t any part of her that wanted to leave.