Rumble's Ducky by KrishnaKarnak (Thunderlane/Rumble)

Rumble's Ducky by KrishnaKarnak

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Thunderlane laid the essentials on the bedside table. The warmth from his baby brother's body was almost like a heatwave; Thunderlane could physically feel Rumble's fever from a distance. Rumble, himself, was sleeping fretfully on his tummy, warming the room from corner to door.

"Wake up, kiddo," Thunderlane instructed, prodding his brother softly. "Come on, get up..."

"Mmmmphhh..." Rumble stirred and pushed up, looking towards his brother with a puffy red eye. "Thunder?"

Thunderlane sat on the edge of the bed, smoothly patting down his lil’ sibling's mane. With Gusty gone, his brother was his responsibility. And this was an interesting first hurdle.

"How you feeling? Is it any better?"

"N-no..." he answered with a cough. "I don't feel no better. Thundeeer, I feel worse than yesterday..." he whined, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"You're definitely burning up, bro," Thunderlane observed, pressing a hoof to his brother's forehead for a moment. "Doctor won't be in until tomorrow, though. I've got some medicine, but I don't know how much to give you unless I know how warm you are."

Rumble looked even more miserable at that prospect. It was clear to his elder brother that the little gray pegasus' dreams of a fun start to two weeks together with his best friend and favourite brother ever were crashing around his fluffy ears. With a whine, he opened his mouth dejectedly in defeat; Rumble hated the feeling of a thermometer against the soft fleshy tongue underside.

"Deep breath," Thunder cautioned preemptively, opening the brown paper pharmacy bag and reaching inside. He found the long package and pulled it out. "'Pre-sterilized'? That's friendly."

Rumble shut his eyes and braced himself as Thunder broke open the plastic packaging and removed the yellow instrument with the happy duckling head, mouth still lollying open, drool dripping onto his pillow. Thunderlane paused long enough to scan the writing on the thermometer’s back, frowning.

"Oops..."

"What's an oops, brother?" Rumble asked, licking his lips as spit continued to fall.

Thunderlane had resisted telling him to shut his mouth before now because it was a funny sight. Now, however, he had no choice.

"Weeell..." Thunderlane said delicately, sliding a hoof under the bed covers and lifting them up and away, "your numbskull of a brother bought the wrong one. Our little friend Quackers isn’t a universal one… so you can shut your mouth."

"Wh-what do you mean the wrong one?" Rumble shivered at the sudden exposure of his pajama clad body to the cooler air beyond his fleecy cocoon. "I don't under… oh.” The truth hit the colt with the subtlety of a bomb. “Nooo, Thunderlane... no way, no, brother!" His tail immediately moved to shield a certain spot. “Not up there!”

"Mmhmm," Thunderlane confirmed, seizing those pajama bottoms and pulling them down with a good yank, exposing Rumble's rump immediately, the clothing tangled up against the dock of his tail. "Luckily, I've got jelly to make it slid in better. Bought it for the rash. Now, pull your tail through."

"Brooother, nooo!" Rumble protested, reddening as he twisted away, one hoof covering his backside, the other flying to his mouth. "Put it in my mouff!" He illustrated his point by nearly knocking out his own teeth.

"It's not meant for there, it won't be accurate..." Thunderlane said, not entirely sure if that was the case or not.

Not being accurate was what their mom always said whenever Thunderlane found himself across her lap in a grumpy mood with cold glass sticking out of places where it really had no business being. Rumble had to deal with plastic, which was surely better! Maybe it'll also be better, and easier, if his brother was in the same position, he decided. He stopped halfway between reaching over to prise the hoof away and pull the cheeks apart.

"C'mere and c'mover," Thunderlane instructed, moving down the bed a little and leaning back, hoof tapping his lap pointedly. "Just like Mom does. It's digital, so it won't be long."

"N-no!" Rumble said a little more forcefully, starting to pull the pants up. "I'm not taking it there, Thunder!"

Thunderlane rolled his eyes. "Do you not want to get better? This'll help! Mom took your temp this way before, don't be stupid about it... let's just get it over with, you look sick, Rumble! I can only imagine how you must feel and the medicine will make you better, at least for today."

"Then just give me the medicine!" Rumble demanded angrily.

"I just told you! I gotta know how bad your fever is!" Thunderlane growled impatiently, annoyed at the audacity of his brother's anger. "Get over here, NOW!"

"I'm not getting my temp-temp-temperature taken like a li-little foal!" He was coughing again. “It ain't going in the poop-chute!”

Another thermometer, this one inside Thunderlane's head measuring his patience, rose to the top, quivered a bit, and burst. He seized Rumble and dragged him none-too-gently over and across his lap. The colt thrashed and fought and coughed again. His wings unfurled and started to beat in protest, whacking Thunderlane in the snout. With an effort, he pinned them down with his left forehoof. Rumble continued to struggle, flailing his hoofies everywhere and squirming nonstop.

So, Thunderlane had to not only lubricate the thermometer he was still clutching, but he had to carefully insert it with both hooves while keeping his brother from rolling off? And Rumble had pulled his pajama pants back up? All the while, he could feel the unnatural warmth still radiating from Rumble's body, pressed close to him. The fever was bad and the colt was making no effort whatsoever to cooperate. Thunderlane was out of solutions.

Rumble froze solid as ice when Thunderlane dropped the thermometer onto the bed and swung the hoof down in a good, firm smack against the seat of the pajamas. Thunderlane's hoof was still pressed hard into Rumble's right cheek, the colt stunned into silence for as long as it took to register.

"Let me take your temperature, bro, and give you medicine..." Thunderlane said in a long, exasperated sigh.

"Put! Me! DOWN!" Rumble shouted at him, choking back a startled, maybe even offended sob at the indignation of his brother clapping a hoof to his rump.

So be it, Thunderlane thought wryly. If he's going to resist being helped, he'll take the consequences.

Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Thunderlane started to spank him rapidly and firmly, intending to leave a heat in his wake to match the fury of the fever. There was no stunned disbelieving silence this time; Rumble sent his kicks in both directions, held in place by the hoof still keeping his wings pinned. Thunderlane's other continued to counsel his brother's butt, dodging every attempt the tail made to block, as Rumble started to cry in humiliation long before the pain reached the bawling point.

Rumble begged and pleaded and complained for a good thirty seconds, the older brother spanking resoundingly the entire time, planting a hoof swat over every inch of his younger sibling's rump. Giving the hoof a shake to get the ache from it, Thunderlane pulled the pajamas back down, reached toward the bag, and pulled out a small container of petroleum jelly. Releasing the hold, he trusted his thoroughly chastised brother to stay put so he could spread the jelly evenly over the tip of the instrument. Satisfied, he laid the container aside, looked squarely down at his brother's pinkening kiester, and angled the thermometer down.

"This'll be kinda cold, I expect..."

Thunderlane pulled the left cheek away from its twin, both quivering with Rumble's soft sobs. He saw the target of this little transaction, puckered tight and slightly discoloured from the rest of the skin between those cheeks. He pressed the tip against the hole, applying slight pressure until the thin part of the instrument penetrated. Then he slid it in with a slight more effort. Once it was an inch in, he held it steady after pressing the on button.
"The package said like forty seconds, or something..." Thunderlane mumbled, choosing to pretend like he hadn't just spanked his brother like their mother would.

Rumble didn't reply, but it hardly mattered. Keeping the thermometer in place, his free hoof stroked Rumble between the wing joints to quiet him. Inside, though, Thunderlane felt very, very queer. What an odd sensation, the strange shivers running down his spine to his tail. The sudden, unusual weight of his stomach making him feel eighty pounds heavier than he was. Well, whatever, he shrugged mentally, counting in his head. He was just weirded out, right?

Once Rumble had finished sniffling, there was certainly an irritatedly silence that followed. Thunderlane couldn't help but compare it to how he always felt, getting his temperature taken this way. It was never very comfortable, but once it was in, as long as he didn't squirm, it wasn't too bad.

A brief half minute of the brothers effectively ignoring one another later, and it was done. Beeping to alert that the reading was complete, Thunderlane mumbled an okay, and slowly pulled the instrument out. He held it six inches from his face, turning it to see the digital screen. Just under thirty nine? Yikes, that's high.

“It definitely gotta be sanitized again,” he said with a snicker, laying it down carefully so that the tip was hanging off the bed. “Funny thing is, even if I got the right thermometer, we still would have been here," he explained to the wall across his lap, reaching into the brown bag again and pulling out a box of fever medication. Opening it, he pulled out a strip and opened a sealed portion, removing a tiny, yellow, torpedo shaped pill. "Suppositories go up the butt!"

Rumble huffed angrily and Thunderlane had to snicker again. He carefully inserted the suppository, noticing Rumble's hooves curl as he did so. Using the thermometer again, he pushed it in good and deep and his brother squeaked his displeasure, whipping his tail.

"I'll give you two, because your fever is really freaking high," he told him. "We'll let the first one have a minute to start melting first, so it doesn't feel weird."

"It does feel weird..." Rumble protested, grabbing his own ears and tugging them down.

"Weirder than having two hard sticks in your butt at the same time, I meant. If one is melting, it won't be so bad when I shove the other in." The hooves curled again. "Sorry I had to get rough with you... but you weren't giving me a choice!"

Rumble huffed again and his elder brother rolled his eyes.

"We still cool?" Thunderlane asked playfully, removing the second pill from its packaging.

"Mmm," came a pointed, begrudged reply.

"Here," Thunderlane offered, taking a box of tissues from the bedside table and handing them to his sibling, "blow your nose to distract yourself. Second one is going in."

Rumble made a trumpeting noise as the second suppository was inserted and speared in with the thermometer. Another couple blows followed as the snot was cleared from his brother's sinuses, half from being sick, half from his brief cry.

Another couple minutes later, Thunderlane helped his brother back into bed and turned him onto his side. He wasn't sure if a colt with a pair of melting pills could safely lay on his back without making a mess, but he wasn't about to risk it.

"Don't pick at it and call out if you need me. I'll get you a glass of water and an orange, alright?"

"How in Equestria am I gonna pick at it?" Rumble asked, poking gingerly at his backside to test whether it still hurt or not. Apparently it didn't, as he started poking harder just in case.

"You of all ponies could find a way," Thunderlane said darkly.

He took the thermometer away to be cleaned and removed the medicine and petroleum jelly on his return, laying a peeled, quartered orange on a plate and a glass of tap water on the table.

"Make sure you eat. You're not too nauseous, are you?"

"Not really..." Rumble answered quietly, sounding like he might drift at any moment. "Brother, do you need to check my temperature again later?"

"Probably at bedtime just to be safe, unless your fever is still there by noon... That means more medicine, though probably later tonight."

Rumble sighed. Thunderlane reminded him to call out if he needed anything and left the room for his own. Half way down the hallway he felt his face reddening. What an experience…

Thunderlane darted to his bed, closing the door partially as he did so. Climbing under the covers, sweat beading his neck, his shivering hooves found his swelling dick. He only lasted fifteen seconds before his jizz gushed out in three short bursts, staining his bedsheets. All he had thought about was giving his brother a good hard spanking.

END