Jaxon rubbed a hand over his face as he read the same email for what had to be the fifth time and still managed to process nothing, he almost felt bad for the poor person who had settled down to type up the email.
He dropped his head on his cluttered desk after pushing his hair away from his face more times than he had blinked.
It had been this way all day, who knew that he would feel their absences this much.
Usually, by now, they were already lounging around in his office, bickering.
He always thought that their presences were distracting but it was evident now that it wasn't, considering that he hadn't been able to get any meaningful work done and it was already noon.
It wasn't entirely surprising that Virgil took the whole grounding thing seriously, it was one thing about the serious Alpha, you could never really tell if he was kidding or not.
After wasting more time on the same fucking email, he decided to take a short stroll to the Kitchens, maybe cooking himself a meal would center him.
He rarely had the time to cook properly for himself here at the Pack House, considering he wasn't a bad cook and had fed himself through the short years of college.
He pushed off from his desk, convincing both the angel and the devil on his shoulders that he wasn't in the least bit hoping to bump into either one of them, that it was absolutely natural for him to want to go down to the Kitchens and cook a meal for himself from scratch.
There were always leftovers so he could just as easily heat up something but it wasn't like he wanted to hang around the Kitchens just in case either Head Warrior came wandering, right?
He just wanted to make himself a freshly cooked meal, that was all there was!
At this point he was already marching down the hallways with determination, there was no going back now.
He got to the stairs that led to the third floor, still having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Virgil had truly made them disappear for a day.
Well, there was no fixing that now, it was just for one day.
This could even be good for him, it was noon and preparations for lunch wouldn't begin for an hour more, not a lot of people had lunch with the rest of the Pack, most preferring to eat separately.
Just as he had been expecting, the Kitchens were empty.
Well, he was already there and hungry, he might as well make something.
He went to get out the ingredients needed… just what would he make?
~*~
"I refuse." Kieran said icily, shooting up to his feet.
"Too late, Kie." Dream waved with a charming smile, readying to leave. "I don't want them hanging around while I'm trying to go down on Dale in his office."
Kieran's expression darkened, Bryan choking and turning a bright red from where he was sitting in a corner of Kieran's office, on the ground.
"We all did not need to hear that." He muttered dryly. "But still, I don't want to babysit them, you can't just dump them on me."
"I just did." Dream smiled coyly. "Plus they terrify Erin, it's only for a while, don't tell me you're scared of them."
Kieran went quiet at this, visibly upset, he glanced at Leon and Darian who had similar expressions which spelt out 'we're right here!'
It would have been strange that they were so quiet about the bantering that was going on over their heads about them but one look at the bat in Dream's hand explained things, at least it wasn't a frying pan.
In his opinion, a frying pan in Dream's hand was far too lethal and if he brandished one, it was best to start running out of the continent.
"I'm not scared, I just don't like people around me."
"But there's that kid." Leon pointed out, inclining his head in Bryan's direction.
"Bryan isn't people." Kieran countered immediately.
"Is that why you have him sitting on the ground?" Darian accused, butting into the conversation.
Keiran lightly spluttered. "No! I don't even want him here at all."
Bryan started at this, pausing his furious scribbling to look at Kieran. "You made me come all the way here."
"So you want him here?" Leon asked with a raised brow.
"Why would he make him sit on the ground though?' Darian frowned.
"Because I kept littering papers all over his desk." Bryan said blankly.
"So he punished you?" Leon perked up, getting comfortable on a chair. "Kinky."
"Ca… can… you not..." Kieran spluttered.
"I don't think Bryan appreciates you treating him like a child." Darian contributed again, sounding serious.
Dream spoke up at this point. "Excellent! You're all getting along." He beamed like a mother hen.
"W-what? We are not…."
"Treating him like a child?" Leon whistled. "That's some dark stuff."
"Your brain is made of dark stuff." Darian shot at him.
"Bye, Kie, try to keep them all alive… including yourself." Dream said with a sly smile, drifting out of the office.
"Fuck." Kieran cursed under his breath, Darian was already engrossed in convincing Bryan to stop sitting on the ground while Leon had thrown his legs on Kieran's precious desk.
He dropped his head on his desk, groaning miserably, maybe he should just throw himself out the window? It was far better than the shitshow going down.
With another curse, he rifled through his drawers for a pack of cigarettes, he had never needed the sticks of nicotine this much before.
He let out a sigh of relief as he pulled out a stick of cigarette, hurriedly putting it in between his lips, only to realise...
"Bryan! You fucking replaced all of my cigarettes with candy sticks?" He demanded in disbelief, the condiment sticking from his mouth.
Bryan just shrugged. "They smell and taste better."
"He has a point though." Leon agreed, taking one for himself. "Hey, you guys want some?" He asked Darian and Bryan.
"Don't share my cigarettes!" Kieran raged.
"This is good stuff." Darian muttered, already reaching for another.
Kieran had enough at this point, shooting to his feet to snatch the rapidly emptying packet.