Darian woke up and laid back on the bed, blinking slowly as he waited for his brain to boot up, he turned his head to his sides instinctively to look for his mates and was surprised when he couldn't find either of them.
Huh? Where could they be?
He shot upright and instantly regretted it, cursing loudly as his lower back protested.
He shouldn't have jumped Leon's bones during training but did he regret it? No, not one bit, it had been absolutely worth it.
It didn't matter that in return, Leon had fucked his brains out last night as payback.
He had slowly laid back down the instant he tried to get up, he was really worried now that Leon could have broken his spine or ruptured some damn important nerve.
He tried sitting upright again, this time more slowly, he let out a squeak when he got up halfway, his back giving out on him.
"Fuck."
He should really give Jaxon and Leon more credit to be honest, how did they walk around the next day like nothing happened. Were they fucking superhuman?
He didn't even want to get started on Jaxon who took both of them, sometimes multiple times and still pranced around like it was no big deal.
Yet here he was, unable to even sit up, not to talk about lofty achievements such as walking.
He wasn't going to let the pain deter him though, much too concerned about something else.
Where the fuck were his mates?
None of them went to work on a Sunday so where could they possibly be? At least Leon had been kind enough to break his back on a weekend.
Sunlight streamed in through the open windows, the soft blue curtains swaying gently.
Such a lovely scenery and yet here he was, his spine snapped in half from being fucked far too hard the night before.
He pushed himself upright eventually, gritting his teeth through the pain.
Even more worrisome than whatever pain he was going through was the thought that his mates were trying to cook, that was far more disastrous.
So he trudged his way to the kitchen, using little, baby steps, he peeked in to find his greatest nightmare coming true.
"Stop!" He yelled at them, sounding horrified.
This startled them, one of the eggs that Jaxon had been holding jumped out of his hold and smacked Leon on the head.
"Good morning, babe." Leon greeted Darian tightly, egg white dripping down the side of his face. "Sleep well?"
Jaxon just slapped a hand over his mouth, making a sound like he wanted to cry but he couldn't help snickering.
Darian ignored his sarcasm-heavy tone and instead plodded on. "What the fuck do you think you're both doing?" He demanded, bent over from the throbbing pain in his back.
Leon paused his motion of wiping his face. "What the fuck does it look like... why are you standing like that?" He cut off his rant to ask, looking concerned.
"Because you fucking blew my back out last night but that's not the issue here, why are you two fire hazards in my kitchen?" He nagged, wearing nothing but sweatpants, his hair sleep tousled.
"Did he just call us fire hazards?" Jaxon muttered, looking lost.
Leon hadn't even heard that part, never going past Darian's first words. "I blew your back out? For real?" He sounded excited by the idea. "Try walking over here." He invited, his eyes fixed on Darian.
Darian had had enough though, his blood pressure shooting through the roof the longer he let them remain in the kitchen.
He waddled over much to the amusement of Leon, who laughed so hard that Jaxon had to drag him out, on the ground.
"And stay out!" Darian called to them, after kicking them out, doing the cooking himself.
Maybe that was a little petty but he couldn't even stand straight, he deserved to be petty for the rest of the day if he wanted to be.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" Jaxon asked in worry, looking like he might like to go check up on their mate.
"You worry too much, Cherry." Leon ruffled his hair, pulling out a scrunchie from the pockets of his sweatpants.
Jaxie sat still on the couch and let him gather up his hair, the recent tattoo that he had gotten getting revealed now that his curly mop of dark red hair was out of the way.
"There." Leon murmured, more to himself, leaning down to lightly kiss over Jaxon's tattoo.
Even though he had told him lots of times that the tattoo basically healed a couple hours after he got it, Leon was still tender with it and at this point, Jaxon didn't think it was because he was worried that his tattoo was still tender anymore.
He had wanted to get a tattoo for a while now and decided to do it on a spur of the moment without telling either of his mates.
He would have loved for either or both of them to have followed him but he wanted it to be a surprise to them and it had been.
He had gotten a small tattoo of a wolf's head tattooed on the side of his neck, just under his left ear.
The wolf had a dark red coat much like his own wolf but it was the eyes that really stood out, one of the wolf's eyes was a very dark blue and the other was an odd shade of blue.
The very same shade that matched the eyes staring down at him like he was the most precious thing in the world.
"Thank you, baby." He said to Leon, his words heartfelt.
~*~
"Whose turn is it to centre today?" Jaxon asked indignantly when naturally, his mates wanted to smother him as soon as they got into bed. "It has been me for the past couple days."
"I vote Leon." Darian said casually, lying belly down on the bed.
"Same." Jaxon agreed, quick to throw him under the bus.
"Hey! No fair! You're both teaming up against me." Leon protested, looking devastated.
"Just get into bed, Leo." Jaxie replied dryly.
Leon got on the bed but not without grumbling and making a fuss.
Darian immediately wrapped his arms around him like a cuddly bear, Jaxon joining on the other side.
Leon might complain but he didn't mind being at the center, he would even say that it was extremely comfortable.
He was the only one that truly felt that way, Darian didn't like being the center because he didn't like being hot, besides he preferred to do the cuddling.
And Jaxon didn't fancy it because it restricted his movements at night.
"Love you both." Leon murmured sleepily when they were all settled in.
He got matching responses from his mates who were snuggled by his sides.
Moonlight streaked into the room and he started to delve into his thoughts, only to be pulled out of it by Jaxie.
"Oi, I'm supposed to be the insomniac not you." He ruffled Leo's hair, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
"Now, go to sleep."