Tonight it felt especially good because his nose had caught a bit of a tickle of its own. Qui-Gon had found himself rubbing his nose at some point in the afternoon, trying to work out an itch that had lodged itself deep inside. The more he rubbed, the itchier his nose got. He had tried pinching the nostrils shut, working them back and forth between his thumb and index finger, but that only seemed to make the itch recede and immediately return, stronger than before. Qui-Gon had tried to ignore the sensation. That worked for a while, until his nose starting twitching and he had to press his finger beneath and rub vigorously just to make it stop.
The nose rubbing had gone on for most of the evening and resulted in nothing more than a few irritating sniffles. The touch wasn't quite right to work a sneeze out of his nose. But now he had Obi-Wan cuddled up next to him and rubbing his face into his padawan's hair seemed to encourage the itch. Already he could feel the first fluttering need to sneeze come over his senses. Qui-Gon nuzzled in closer and concentrated on letting the soft brush of Obi-Wan's hair tickle his nose.
"That feels nice," Obi-Wan murmured, briefly looking up from his reading to give Qui-Gon a smile. "It tickles."
Qui-Gon nodded and nosed deeper into Obi-Wan's hair. He rubbed more firmly and his nose moved back and forth, then up and down as he nuzzled. When he pulled away a fraction, Qui-Gon felt the itch spread through and converge at the tip of his quivering nose. "T-t-hih! tickles, me, too," he said, voice quavering. The tickle buzzed over his nose as he nuzzled more lightly, soft, clean hair tickling over his nostrils. "ahh, ah... ah, hahahhahh..." Another tiny, tickly nuzzle brought the building-up breaths to a shaky halt. "hah, hah-CHOOOO!"
"Bless you!" Obi-Wan shivered against Qui-Gon as the strong, loud sneeze brushed over his hair. "Tickle in your nose, Qui?"
"h'CHOOO!" Qui-Gon sneezed in reply. It felt so good to finally work the tickle out his nose that he couldn't resist the opportunity to sneeze freely. He turned his head and sneezed a big "HurrusshSCHOOOO!" over his shoulder. His body shook a little with the force of the sneeze, but it felt more like relief than anything else. "Pardon me," he murmured and returned the smile that his padawan was giving him.
"Bless you." Hugging himself to Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan patted his chest. "Your nose gets sensitive sometimes, I know. Do you need to sneeze again?"
"One more..." Qui-Gon's nose twitched as the remaining tickle worked its way out. He held his head still, taking soft, sniffly breaths through his nose. In almost no time, the sniffles led to sneezes. "heh, heheheh, h'h'h'CHOOOO! EIIISHOOO! YEISSCHOOO!" Qui-Gon leaned into the three more big, delicious, tickle relieving sneezes that burst out from his itchy nose. With a satisfied sigh, Qui-Gon gave his head a little shake. "Or three. Excuse me."
"Blessings! Are you finished?" This time Obi-Wan turned his head to press a kiss to Qui-Gon's chest. "All the tickles gone?"
"Nearly." Qui-Gon drew a hanky from his tunics. Using his free hand, he muffled a long, honking blow into the hanky and then wiped his nose. It still tingled a bit, but nowhere near as much as it had before he had been able to coax the itch into a fit of sneezes. The slight tingling and sniffle that remained suggested that he might have caught a little cold. Right now, however, Qui-Gon felt relaxed and relieved. He drew Obi-Wan back in close to him and gave his hair a warm, nuzzling kiss. Settled back down and prepared to spend the rest of the evening thusly, he picked up his datapad "Ahh, hmm... I needed that. And thank you. Now I'm finished."
