It started out as a normal morning in the forest. Lumpy's alarm woke him up, and he turned it off before sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. After he got out of bed, he got ready for the day and left his house.
Cuddles was the first person he met, and he greeted him politely, as he did every time he met up with him. "Hey, Cuddles!"
"Hey, Lumpy!"
A short time after Cuddles had responded, an idea came to him. An idea that he had almost every time he was with Lumpy. He looked at Lumpy with a mischievous expression on his face, and raised his hands up for him to see.
Lumpy's eyes widened and his pupils shrunk when he did that. He knew where this was going, and he didn't want it to happen again.
"Please, don't..." Lumpy tried to prevent the inevitable, but Cuddles didn't want to listen.
Before Lumpy could say anything else, Cuddles went up to him, placed his hands right on Lumpy's tummy and started tickling him. He wiggled his fingers around as fast and as much as he could, as he almost always would when he tickled him.
Except this time, Lumpy didn't laugh. He cringed a little bit, but didn't start laughing like Cuddles expected him to. Cuddles kept going for a few seconds, but then realized that Lumpy wasn't laughing. He poked his belly button with his forefinger and tickled him there, trying to get him to laugh, but it didn't work. He tried moving his hands to his sides, then his usually more ticklish ribcage, but still got no reaction. Lumpy not only didn't laugh, but also didn't even smile.
"Why aren't you laughing? Doesn't it tickle?" Cuddles asked as he kept tickling Lumpy's ribcage.
"No..." Lumpy admitted. Even though he was usually extremely ticklish, it didn't tickle even slightly. It felt like all of the sensitivity of his tickle spots had been... disabled somehow.
"That's weird..." Cuddles finally stopped tickling Lumpy and pulled his hands away from him.
"Yeah. I don't know how it happened."
Lumpy was happy that he had stopped being so ticklish, for once, but Cuddles saw this as a problem. Lumpy was one of his favorites to tickle, and he didn't want him to be insensitive to his tickle sessions, so Cuddles tried to think of a solution. After a few seconds had gone by, he came up with an idea.
"Why don't you go talk to Sniffles?" he suggested. "I bet he could come up with a way to help you."
Lumpy took a moment to think about that. At this point, it had occurred to him that there were times when he did like being tickled, and it wouldn't be the same if he wasn't as ticklish as he used to be.
"I guess that seems like a good idea."
After finishing his conversation with Cuddles, Lumpy headed off to Sniffles' house. Sniffles was one of the smartest people he knew, and he did have a bit of a tickling fetish, so Lumpy was sure that the intelligent anteater could help him with his situation. Once he had arrived at Sniffles' house, Lumpy stood at the front door and rang the doorbell, then waited for a response. After a few minutes had gone by, the front door finally opened to reveal Sniffles.
"Why, hello, Lumpy," Sniffles greeted him. "Come on in."
Lumpy did as he was told. "Sniffles, could you help me with something?"
"Of course." Sniffles smiled at him. "What is it?"
"This is gonna sound really weird, but..." Lumpy tried to come up with a way to admit it. "I think I've lost my ticklishness..."
"Wait, what? Really?" Sniffles sounded like he just couldn't believe it.
"Yeah. I can't believe it myself." Lumpy blushed slightly. "I was talking to Cuddles, and he started tickling me, but it didn't make me laugh. At all."
"Are you sure it didn't?" Sniffles asked. "As far as I'm concerned, you are one of the most ticklish people I've ever seen..."
"I'm not even joking! I've been tickled before in the last few days or so, but today, I'm just not ticklish anymore!" Lumpy really wanted Sniffles to believe him; he knew that he liked tickling him, and he was aware of just how ticklish he was.
Sniffles didn't respond, but that was because he was trying to figure out what was wrong.
"You don't believe me, do you?" Lumpy asked.
"I'm afraid I don't," Sniffles said. "But if you'd like me to help you become ticklish again, I'll help you with that."
"That's... pretty much what I want..." Lumpy looked away as he blushed again.
"But first, I'll have to figure out why you're so insensitive in the first place," Sniffles stated. "Follow me into my lab."
Lumpy did as he was told, but he had an uneasy-looking expression on his face. Was this going where he thought it was going? Once they had gotten there, Sniffles pointed at a table, which had been cleared off.
"Now sit down on that table."
"Um, okay..." Lumpy went over to the table and sat down on it. His feet were sticking out in front of him. "But why?"
"Oh, you'll see..."
Sniffles reached behind his back and pulled out a large, soft feather. Just seeing it caused Lumpy to cringe slightly.
"I think I know what he's gonna do with that..." he thought to himself.
Sniffles went up to Lumpy, and began to brush the feather right on Lumpy's feet. Even though his feet were extremely ticklish on most days, Lumpy didn't laugh, because it didn't tickle this time around. He just winced slightly and curled his toes the moment the feather touched his soles.
"Does it tickle?" Sniffles asked.
"I never thought I'd say this, but no, it doesn't..." Lumpy really didn't want to admit that, but he had to. It was the truth.
Sniffles continued to tickle Lumpy's feet, wiggling the feather up and down his soles. He had always been aware that Lumpy's feet were two of the most ticklish spots on Lumpy's body. He watched Lumpy's reaction closely as he kept tickling him, but he stayed expressionless.
Sniffles then moved the feather up to Lumpy's toes and then brushed them. But Lumpy still didn't laugh, not even a little. The closest to a reaction was that he was blushing in embarrassment due to having his toes tickled. As a last resort, Sniffles held one of Lumpy's toes and began swiping the feather in between Lumpy's toes. He had done this to him before as part of an experiment, and in that, Lumpy was laughing up a storm.
Right now, however, Lumpy cringed and whimpered a little bit, curling his toes and trying to defend them from the tickles. Despite that he hadn't laughed since they had started, he felt like he was going to break any minute now.
"Sniffles, please, stop..." Lumpy begged. "I can't take this."
Sniffles heard him, but ignored him and continued with the tickling. He had been wiggling the feather in between Lumpy's toes for several seconds, and he still hadn't heard Lumpy laugh or seen him smile.
"How strange..."
Sniffles finally let go of Lumpy's toes and pulled the feather away from his feet. Temporarily putting down the feather, he got out his notepad and wrote something in it.
"Are we done?" Lumpy asked.
"No, this is only the beginning." Sniffles finished writing in his notepad and put it away. He picked up the feather again. Lumpy looked almost dismayed.
"Oh, not again..." he muttered to himself.
Sniffles pulled up one of Lumpy's arms and tickled him under the arm with the feather. No reaction. After about ten seconds of this, Sniffles moved to under Lumpy's other arm and tickled him there, but that didn't work, either. After ten more seconds of that, Sniffles let go of Lumpy's arm, and then placed the feather right on Lumpy's tummy and started wiggling it around gently.
Lumpy could only look on nervously. He really, really didn't want to have his tummy tickled, since it was one of his tickle spots. But despite that, he didn't laugh.
"Please, not there..." Lumpy begged quietly. "That's my tickle spot..."
"It doesn't seem like it to me." Sniffles continued tickling Lumpy's belly for a few seconds, but then stuck the tip of the feather into Lumpy's belly button and tickled him there.
Lumpy really didn't know how to get out of this situation. The only option that he could come up with was to act like it tickled. So he started laughing, trying to make it seem like his natural laugh, but it wasn't a very successful attempt.
"Hahaha..."
Sniffles looked at him while continuing to tickle his belly button with the feather. The anteater could tell that Lumpy wasn't really laughing, but pretending to.
"Hahahaha, stop! Hahahahaha! It tickles, hahahaha!" In Lumpy's mind, his fake laughter really didn't sound that much different from his real laughter. Sniffles, however, was a different story, to say the least.
"Lumpy, if it doesn't tickle, you don't have to act like it does," Sniffles told him.
In response, Lumpy stopped with his fake laughter. He could tell it wasn't working, anyway. After a few seconds, Sniffles stopped tickling Lumpy's belly button, only to tickle the sides of his belly instead. He gently stroked the feather up and down one side of Lumpy's belly, and then moved to the next side, repeating this several times. Still no laughter.
"It's too bad that this doesn't tickle," Lumpy thought to himself. "It feels pretty good..."
After a few seconds of this, Sniffles finally placed the feather on one side of Lumpy's ribcage and wiggled it around gently. Even though Lumpy's ribs were arguably the most ticklish part of his body, he didn't laugh or even smile. Sniffles moved the feather to the other side of Lumpy's ribcage and continued wiggling it around, but still got no reaction.
"This is almost... unnatural..." Sniffles said to himself.
He continued to tickle Lumpy's ribs for a full minute, but still got just about nothing. Sniffles sighed to himself, as though he actually wanted to hear Lumpy's laugh, as he pulled the feather away from Lumpy.
"Well, there's only one final part of the experiment before I record the results," he said.
"What do you mean? You've already tickled me just about everywhere," Lumpy mentioned.
"Yes, except one part." Sniffles raised the feather to the end of Lumpy's nose and began to tickle it gently.
Lumpy's eyes widened and his pupils shrunk. His snout cringed as his nostrils enlarged slightly. He thought he was going to sneeze. Just as Sniffles stopped tickling his nose, and pulled the feather away from it, Lumpy inhaled.
"Ah, aaaah..." Lumpy tilted his neck back, and then brought his hands up to his opening mouth. While he was doing this, however, Sniffles was watching his expression closely. He could clearly see that Lumpy's nostrils weren't even flaring up, and he could tell that his buildup didn't sound that convincing, either. So if he thought he had to sneeze, he most likely really didn't. "Aaaaah...!"
Just as Lumpy thought he was going to sneeze, he didn't. He opened his eyes, stopped inhaling and sniffed slightly. He rubbed his nostrils a few times with his forefinger, as if helping them recover from the tickle that he thought would make him sneeze.
"Sorry. False alarm," he said. "That didn't really tickle, either..."
"Hmm, interesting..." Sniffles picked up his notepad once more and again wrote something in it. While he was recording the results, Lumpy pulled his finger away from his nose and thought about what had happened before his near-sneeze. He hadn't felt a single urge to laugh while Sniffles was tickling him, even though he had done so on just about all of his tickle spots. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Lumpy, and he quickly raised his forefinger to his foot and wiggled it around quickly. But to no avail, no tickle... nothing.
Lumpy removed his finger and sighed to himself in despair. He could only conclude that all of the times where he was tickled had finally made him immune to being tickled. In some ways, it was better than being insanely ticklish, but in other ways, the other way around.
"I think I know what's wrong," Sniffles finally said.
"What is it?" Lumpy wanted to know.
Before responding, Sniffles took a deep breath, as if trying to gather all of his confidence needed to say what he was going to say.
"Lumpy, I'm afraid you have antiticklishness."
"What?!" Lumpy couldn't believe what he just heard. "What the heck is that?!"
"Antiticklishness is a very rare condition," Sniffles explained. "Whoever comes down with it temporarily becomes completely insensitive to being tickled."
"So that's why I didn't feel anything when you were tickling me?" Lumpy asked. "I could've sworn I was gonna start laughing my head off soon!"
"Fortunately, this condition is harmless, and will go away on its own," Sniffles went on. "It takes a few days for it to do so, however. But I do know how to cure it in less time..."
"Well, how are you gonna do that?"
"I can create a potion that will decrease the amount of time it takes for it to be cured. But I also have some... other plans... to get rid of it as well."
Lumpy didn't know what to think about the way Sniffles said that, but he gave it the benefit of the doubt.
"I'll be right back; I have to create the potion. Can I trust you not to touch anything until I'm finished?"
"Sure." Lumpy nodded his head in understanding.
"Thanks. I'll be back as soon as I can." Sniffles went to another part of the room, where he kept his chemistry set, and started mixing a potion.
Meanwhile, Lumpy stayed on the table that he was sitting on, waiting for Sniffles to finish. He felt a little calmer now that Sniffles had told him that his antiticklishness was harmless, but he just couldn't believe that he had it in the first place. If he had a dollar for every time he'd ever been tickled, no matter where and no matter who tickled him, he'd be rich.
As Lumpy looked around the table that he was sitting on, he saw that Sniffles had left the feather on it. Without thinking, Lumpy picked up the feather and started tickling the bottoms of his feet with it, trying to tickle himself. Lumpy was already aware that it wouldn't work, but there were times when he just wanted to enjoy that familiar, tickly sensation. As much as he usually didn't want to be tickled, it wasn't the same if he wasn't ticklish.
Due to his antiticklishness, the tickles from the feather just didn't affect Lumpy, but he kept going. He just wanted to make himself laugh. After about sixty seconds of tickling his soles, Lumpy decided to move the feather up to his toes and tickle them instead. Still no tickles, but Lumpy didn't stop there. He brushed the side of the feather right between his toes, but to his disappointment, that didn't work either.
As much as Lumpy enjoyed tickling himself, if there were any areas that he would never tickle, it was between his toes. They were just too ticklish for him to touch. He couldn't even try scratching between his toes with his forefinger, because if he did, he'd send himself into a giggling fit. But this time around, he didn't make himself laugh or even smile. It was no use; he wasn't ticklish anymore, so he stopped tickling and put the feather back down on the table.
There were so many times when Lumpy got tickled that it wasn't even funny. They had been going on since as early as his own childhood. He could still remember those times when his friends would pin him down and tickle him mercilessly, on his feet, his tummy, under his arms... everywhere. Even his own parents would torment him with tickles. As much as he disliked those times in the past, just remembering those at the moment brought a couple of tears to Lumpy's eyes.
After a long wait, Sniffles finally finished his potion and walked up to Lumpy. The potion he had finished was in a glass bottle.
"Here, Lumpy. Drink this," he said as he offered him the bottle.
"I... don't know about this..." Lumpy sounded a little reluctant.
"It's alright, Lumpy. This will help cure your antiticklishness. And besides, once you finish this..." Unbeknownst to Lumpy, Sniffles had his fingers crossed behind his back. "...I'll show you something that I think you're going to love."
"Um, okay..."
Lumpy nervously took the bottle, removed the lid, and started gulping it down. After a few seconds, however, he pulled the bottle away from his mouth.
"Oh- Oh, my gosh! Ugh, it tastes so weird!"
Despite his comment, however, he kept drinking it. He was partially doing it so that he could cure his antiticklishness, but he was also interested in whatever Sniffles wanted to show to him. Once he was finally finished, he again pulled the bottle away from his mouth and started gasping, trying to catch his breath.
"Okay, I'm done with it..." Lumpy gave the bottle back to Sniffles. "So what was that thing you wanted me to see?"
"Just one of my inventions that I decided to put to a good use." Sniffles winked at Lumpy in response.
Lumpy finally got off the table, and then Sniffles led him to a certain part of the lab. When they got there, it seemed to be nothing more than a metal table.
"This is it, Lumpy," Sniffles said.
"Um... what is it?" Lumpy asked.
"I'll show you in a minute. But first, I'd like you to lay down on it, and I'll turn it on," Sniffles instructed.
Lumpy looked a bit unsure about this, but he walked over to the metal table, and lay down on it. His feet were sticking out at one end of the table.
"Okay, now what?"
A mischievous smirk grew on Sniffles' face, and then he pressed a button on the table. Suddenly, a couple of metal shackles appeared from one end of the table and closed right on Lumpy's ankles. Lumpy saw this happen and gasped.
"My feet!" Lumpy tried to sit up and free his feet from the shackles, but before he could, two metal claws emerged from the table, grabbed onto his hands and held them high over his head. Then two more metal shackles appeared and closed right on Lumpy's wrists, trapping him.
"Sniffles! Why'd you do this?!" Lumpy demanded to know as he struggled to escape, but he couldn't move.
"It's part of the surprise that I've planned for you!" Sniffles responded.
"What are you talking about?!" Lumpy snapped.
"Oh, you'll see..." Sniffles rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He was looking forward to getting this started.
On the side of the table, right in front of the struggling Lumpy, was a control panel with several switches and buttons on it. Sniffles looked over the buttons that were available. There were two sets of buttons; one being labeled "ticklish spots" and one being labeled "tickle tools." Under "ticklish spots", there were "feet", "toes", "between toes", "belly", "belly button", "sides", "ribcage", and "underarms". Under "tickle tools," there were only two options: "claw", and "feather". There was also a "Restrain/Release" button, as well as a "Start/Stop" button over an "On/Off" button. Sniffles selected the "feet" button, then the "feather" button, and finally pushed the "Start/Stop" button.
From the bottom of the table, two panels opened, and a couple of robotic claws - each one of them holding a long, soft feather - emerged. Once they got close enough to Lumpy's feet, they started brushing the feathers up and down his soles. Lumpy tried to hold his laughter in, but this time around, it actually tickled - a lot. After barely five seconds had gone by, Lumpy broke into uncontrollable laughter.
"HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
No sooner did the tickling begin did Lumpy start guffawing, squirming around and wiggling all of his toes uncontrollably. The potion that he had consumed before this was doing its magic. He could feel his ticklishness returning to him with every second that he was tickled.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, THAT TICKLESSSSS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!"
"I can tell that it does," Sniffles responded. He continued tickling Lumpy's feet, smiling as he listened to his adorable laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lumpy continued to laugh and squirm around crazily. As much as he didn't want to be tickled, he was enjoying this a lot. It certainly beat not being ticklish at all. "HAHAHAHAAAAAAA!"
After about thirty seconds of tickling the soles of Lumpy's feet, Sniffles pressed the "toes" button, causing the claws to move up to Lumpy's toes. They began to wiggle the feathers right on Lumpy's toes, causing him to laugh even more.
"HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lumpy was squirming around constantly as he laughed helplessly. He tried to curl his toes, but the feathers kept tickling them. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
After half a minute of tickling his toes, Sniffles pressed the "between toes" button. The claws started brushing the sides of the feathers in between Lumpy's toes, causing him to laugh uncontrollably.
"HAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!" Lumpy absolutely lost it. Sniffles had found his tickle spot. He flailed around crazily as his feet twitched constantly, his toes curling involuntarily as they were tickled. "NOT THERE, NOT THEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHERE! HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"
Despite this, Sniffles continued to tickle between Lumpy's toes. He was in love with Lumpy's laugh; it was quite possibly the most adorable thing he'd ever heard. At this point, Lumpy had fully regained the ticklishness that his feet and toes used to have, but he was almost wishing they were still "antiticklish". Just feeling those feathers stroke the spaces between his toes sent him into a major laughing attack. He could barely even gasp for air, either.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! I CAN'T BREHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEEATHE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!"
Hearing him call that, Sniffles decided to stop tickling Lumpy's feet. He pressed the "Start/Stop" button to stop the tickling and give him a break. The claws that were holding the feathers pulled them away from Lumpy's toes and descended back into the table from which they came from.
"HAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lumpy kept laughing, squirming and wiggling his toes, as though he was still being tickled. But after a few moments had gone by, he finally stopped laughing and started panting, trying to regain his breath. A few giggles continued to transpire, however.
"Hee hee hee... oh, my gosh, that tickled so much! Hee hee hee...!"
"I bet it did," Sniffles responded. He knew that Lumpy would still be laughing after all of those tickles, so he didn't question it.
After a few minutes had gone by, Lumpy finally regained his breath. Sniffles pressed the "underarms" button, then the "feather" button, and finally the "Start/Stop" button.
From the bottom of the table, two panels opened, and the robotic claws from earlier emerged from them. And they were still holding the feathers that they had used on Lumpy's feet. This time, they moved the feathers right under Lumpy's arms and started to stroke them gently. Lumpy's reaction was instant.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! *gasp* AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lumpy started laughing and squirming around again.
Sniffles just couldn't help but smile as he heard Lumpy's laughter. It was simply adorable. So he continued tickling Lumpy's underarms, watching as the claws wiggled their feathers up and down his armpits, and listening as Lumpy just kept laughing.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" Lumpy laughed hard as he squirmed around. He tried to break free from the shackles that were holding him down, but just couldn't. "HAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"
Sniffles continued tickling Lumpy's underarms for about 30 seconds. Then he pressed the "Start/Stop" button again, and the claws pulled the feathers away from Lumpy's armpits. Lumpy panted constantly, trying to catch his breath.
"Are you enjoying this, Lumpy?" Sniffles asked.
"Yeah... but... I don't know... how much more... I can take..." Lumpy was panting constantly as he said that.
"Just hang in there, Lumpy. We're almost finished." Sniffles winked at him.
Even though Lumpy was still panting constantly, he was incredibly nervous inside. Where did Sniffles want to tickle him now?
"Sniffles, please... I feel like I'm... gonna die..." Lumpy tried to reason with Sniffles.
"Oh, alright. I'll just tickle your belly, and then we'll stop. Does that sound good?"
"I guess..." Deep down, Lumpy was fearing the worst.
Sniffles pressed the "belly" button, then the "claw" button, and finally the "Start/Stop" button. A panel in the table opened and a robotic claw came out, without holding anything this time. It moved right over Lumpy's belly and started wiggling its fingers around. Lumpy immediately started laughing again.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!" Lumpy squirmed within the shackles that were restraining him, trying to get his stomach away from the claw, but it didn't work. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Just for the heck of it, Sniffles pressed the "feather" button on the control panel, switching the claw that was tickling Lumpy for a claw that was holding a feather. That claw started wiggling the feather on Lumpy's tummy, making him laugh even more.
"HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!" Lumpy struggled to breathe as he was laughing so hard. "I CAN'T- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! -TAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAKE THIS ANYMOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHORE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"
After ten more seconds of this, Sniffles finally pressed the "Start/Stop" button. The claw finally stopped tickling Lumpy and pulled the feather away from his tummy. Then it descended back into the panel it came from while Lumpy gasped and panted, trying to catch his breath again. When the panel finally closed, Sniffles pressed the "Restrain/Release" button to free Lumpy from the shackles.
The shackles opened, and Lumpy sat up, covering his chest with one hand, and wiping some tears from his eyes with the other hand. He was still gasping and panting quite a lot.
"It looks like the potion was successful," Sniffles said. "You are now free of your antiticklishness!"
"That's great..." Lumpy kept panting and gasping for a few minutes, but then finally regained his breath. "But there is one place you didn't tickle me."
"And what's that?"
"My nose..." Lumpy blushed as he said that.
"Oh! Of course! How could I forget?"
Sniffles looked around for something to tickle Lumpy's nose with, only to find the feather on the table - the one on which Lumpy had been tickled earlier. He went over to that table for a moment, picked up the feather and returned to Lumpy.
"Just... please be careful. You're probably gonna make me sneeze right after you tickle my nose with that..." Lumpy warned.
"No problem!" Sniffles then proceeded to tickle Lumpy's nose with the feather.
Lumpy's eyes widened, and his pupils shrunk until they could barely be seen. His snout cringed, and his nostrils froze as they enlarged for a split second. This was an almost identical reaction to when he had his nose tickled earlier today, but this time, it was a genuine urge to sneeze. His eyelids fell halfway as his breath hitched.
"Aaaah..."
The moment he heard this inhale, Sniffles removed the feather from Lumpy's nose and looked on in amusement. No matter how loud Lumpy's sneezes were, Sniffles was always fond of hearing them, because he thought they were cute. This time, he knew that the sneeze was going to happen; he could clearly see Lumpy's snout twitching and his nostrils flaring up.
"Aaaaaaaaahhh... AaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH..." Lumpy tilted his neck back, and turned away from Sniffles. He wanted to cover his mouth, but this was going to be a big sneeze, and he didn't think he'd be able to cover it. Tilting his neck as far back as possible, Lumpy gave a final dramatic inhale.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Lumpy shot his neck forwards as he released the sneeze, which fired a good amount of spray from his mouth. The sneeze felt great to release, even though it was a little painful. Upon recovering from the sneeze, Lumpy sniffled and rubbed his nose with his forefinger.
"Gesundheit, Lumpy!" Sniffles said.
"Ugh... thanks," Lumpy said as he continued to rub his nose for a few seconds. When he finally finished, however, he looked over at Sniffles and gave him a big hug. "Thank you so much for curing me, Sniffles!"
Sniffles was a little surprised to receive this hug, but he returned the favor. "No problem, Lumpy. No problem."
After a few seconds, Lumpy let go of Sniffles. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"
"It's alright, Lumpy. Listening to your laughter while I was tickling you more than made up for it. You have the most adorable laugh I have ever heard."
Lumpy looked away, blushing and giggling cutely in response. When Sniffles least expected it, however, Lumpy went back up to him, placed his hands right on Sniffles' sides and started tickling him.
"Hehehehehehehehe!" The most adorable giggles escaped from Sniffles right when Lumpy started tickling him.
"Sorry, I can't resist!" Once Lumpy started, he'd go on for a few minutes or so. He tried to go as easy on Sniffles as possible so he wouldn't tire him out. "You were tickling me so much, I just wanted to tickle you, too!"
"It's- Heheheheheheheheheeee! It's fine, Lumpyyyheheheheheheheheheheheeee!"
Lumpy continued tickling Sniffles' sides for a while, but soon stopped to give him a break. Antiticklishness aside, this had just been another tickle-filled day between Lumpy and Sniffles.