— SEI —
There was a ghost of a smirk on his face.

“We’ll keep it at yellow next–”

He didn’t quite get to complete that joke, and didn’t quite get to grasp Teegan’s hand, as there was a very sudden door slam.

“Aw, ******** was home. He knew what that meant. He would go get his phone to see if he could figure out what Diryas or Tobias had texted him since they had stopped paying attention to their phones, but it was too late. Not much he could do with Tobias and Diryas standing in the doorway, and Tobias running the interference he promised he would.

Zebulon awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Dise!”


— AMA —
Diryas’ face was unreadable even for him, and he seemed to be ignoring Tobias wholesale. He also seemed to be ignoring Zebulon, eyes boring into Teegan’s. That was, at least, until he spoke.

“Why is he here? Like this?”

Ah, Teegan thought. That’s what it sounded like when a rattlesnake shook its rattle.


— SEI —
How the hell did he get himself out of this pickle?

This had not been the plan. He had not planned for Diryas to come back to witness this. Arguably, he hadn’t planned at all. He had gotten too far into his head. Teegan had probably gotten too far into his own head, too, but he had tried to leave. Zebulon had stopped him from doing so a few times.

This was definitely Zebulon’s fault. Diryas was going to core him. Could Tobias even stop him?

“Catharsis, mainly?” He couldn’t quite help the way his fully baritone voice slightly inched toward a tenor. Project confidence, Zebulon. “Not his fault, for what it’s worth.”

The last thing he needed was for Diryas to get even more pissed at Teegan. Zebulon held his entire life as he knew it in his hands and he needed to make sure he didn’t throw it to the ground and let it shatter.


— AMA —
”I had one—“ Diryas was cut off by a wordless shout from Tobias as the latter pushed his way finally into the room and swept the broken cane off of the floor. Tobias turned from Diryas to squarely face Zebulon, brandishing the broken cane as an accusation.

His voice was icy. ”What did you do?”

”Tobias, please,” began Teegan, only for Tobias to cut him off with a sharp gesture with his other hand.

“Zeb, what the ******** did you do?!”

”Tobias!” Teegan tried again. “It’s okay! It was an accident!” Tobias shushed him. Startled, Teegan shushed.

”That’s not an accident,” Diryas coolly observed. His tone didn’t indicate, however, what he thought of that possibility. Tobias gestured toward Diryas this time, rolling his eyes and whipping his head back toward Zebulon.


— SEI —
Oh no.

He held the entirety of his quartet’s stability in his hands, and he definitely just watched a piece of that shatter– How the ******** did he explain this one? Teegan was right, but Diryas was pissed and was very unwilling to defend him–a**–and Tobias wouldn’t have listened anyway. Tobias was far from the most stubborn of them, but he sure still was a mule. Even if he said that Teegan was right, Tobias might say that Zebulon pressured him into it. He hadn’t! Not at all!

This was a bad idea.

“Toby!” Well. “I got carried away!”

What was the point of lying? He had already been caught ********. Or– never mind.

He was really gunning for that hole in the ground for himself, wasn’t he?


— AMA —
“Clearly.” Diryas’ voice was utterly dry and flat. In another setting, Teegan would have probably laughed. This was not that setting.

“Just carried away?” Tobias’ eyes narrowed further. He turned his head to Diryas. “And you— Is this what you want? Is that going to be enough for you?” Tobias threw the broken cane to the ground in obvious contempt and stormed over to the bed without waiting for a reply. His eyes scanned the food and water at the same time as he indicated that Teegan turn his back toward him.

No broken skin, just an otherwise impressive amount of welting and bruising.

“See?” Teegan tried again. “I’m fine.” He flinched and winced as Tobias touched the marks on his back and shoulders. They were tender enough for just the air to hurt, much less Tobias’ fingers, gentle as they were. “I told him to stop, and he did.”

He wanted to glance Zebulon’s way, but he didn’t want to say or do anything that would alert Tobias to Teegan’s half-truth. So he didn’t and maybe he’d tease Zebulon later, if they survived this, that Zebulon owed him one.

Tobias frowned, folding his arms over his chest. Zebulon wasn’t the type to just get carried away. He’d never gotten that carried away before. He’d accept emotions being high given the situation, and they’d been rough before, but… something didn’t feel right about it. He looked over his shoulder to Diryas, who stared back at him impassively.

“Can’t you, like, go get some bruise cream instead of just standing there?”

Diryas’ eyes narrowed, and Tobias felt the tension in the room elevate again. But Diryas glanced back to Zebulon and Teegan, then rolled his eyes and left the room. Tobias turned his attention back to the other two left in the room. He sat on the edge of the bed, brushing Teegan’s hair away from his face and inspecting him closely, something Teegan responded to with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t look at me like that,” Tobias muttered.

”Why not?” The casualness felt a little forced considering the circumstances, but Teegan went for it anyway. “You’re looking at me like that.”

”I’m making sure nothing else is wrong,” came Tobias’ irritable reply. A suspicious glance toward Zebulon. “I can’t prove s**t, and I don’t trust it, but if you say it was an accident-“

”It was.”

”-If you say it was honestly an accident, then I’ll let it go.” As angry as Tobias was, this was uncharacteristic from Zebulon, and he did have to admit that. Was it worth beleaguering the point? And was he actually going to get anywhere if Teegan insisted on defending Zebulon?


— SEI —
Zebulon felt like he was sitting on a bed of coals. Or maybe lava was the better word. Lava would have been a faster death.

He kept quiet and let the other three speak. Felt like there was no point in speaking up to intercept. What would he say? Tobias wasn’t going to believe him. Diryas either didn’t care or was more interested in Zebulon getting in trouble from this–again, a**. Teegan was the one who could probably best defend, but did Zebulon even deserve that considering that no, he hadn’t immediately halted? He had apologized! Everything was fine! Teegan wasn’t hurt!

… Okay, he wasn’t hurt seriously. Zebulon watched as Tobias touched over some of Teegan’s wounds, and he murmured a, “Sorry,” but what the hell else was he supposed to do? He couldn’t exactly undo it.

He was going to owe Teegan big, wasn’t he?

It had been an accident! Zebulon hadn’t meant for that! It wasn’t quite a lie! But there had been a reason for the word catharsis that he had used with Diryas. It was supposed to be for both of them. Emotions had been high. Were still high. He was waiting for that cane’s splintered ends to be smacked back on him.

Then they weren’t, but Zebulon wasn’t about to relax.

“Didn’t ask Teeg to defend me, if that helps at all. Was an accident.” He could come up with excuses. He wasn’t used to his strength, especially with how much Teegan didn’t mind it. Their emotions were running high. This whole situation was unusual. Better to just own it as an accident and hopefully move on.

Who was he kidding?


— AMA —
Tobias was interrupted from his reply by Diryas behind him intoning, “I have the cream.” That seemed to take a considerable amount of energy out of Tobias’ retort, and he turned, sliding past Diryas and heading for the door.

“I’ll be right back. No one kill each other until I return.” His tone promised dire consequences as he left the room. That left Diryas holding the cream jar, watching where Tobias had gone. His intent had been to give the jar to Tobias, to make Tobias take care of Teegan if he was going to insist on going to bat for him so hard. Or, hell, maybe he’d make Zebulon do it, since it was Zebulon’s fault that Teegan was even in the house.

He almost handed Zebulon the jar, until he realized that Teegan was reaching out for it. And he almost handed Teegan the jar. Let him take care of himself. Keep Diryas out of it, like he’d asked them all to do.

Instead, Diryas pulled the jar back to himself. Teegan paused, confused, wondering if Diryas was taking the opportunity to get some revenge of his own with Tobias out of the room. It seemed a little petty, though perhaps a pettiness Teegan could understand. After another moment of hesitation, Teegan dropped his hand back to his lap, burying the wince at the pain in his shoulders.

Diryas watched him. He stared at him for quite a long span of time. Then, with a wordless mutter, he untwisted the lid and tossed it to the blanket between Zebulon and Teegan. He took the two or three steps required to bring him to the edge of the bed, digging his fingers into the cream in the jar. Without a word, Diryas reached up to smear it across the back of Teegan’s shoulders.

Teegan sat, frozen, glancing to Zebulon for his reaction and not daring to move. He didn’t even jump at how cold the cream was on his inflamed skin.


— SEI —
Until? G-d, Zebulon was ******** had expected Diryas to hand him the cream when Tobias excused himself. He even prepped himself for that, despite Teegan reaching out for it. What was even running through his husband’s mind? Diryas had a way of looking fully unexpressive, and usually Zebulon could get a feel through that, but right now, all he could get was nothing. Was he angry? Probably. Was he concerned? Maybe. He kept staring at Teegan. Diryas usually stared at things he was concerned with.

Or angry with.

Zebulon relaxed his back, not quite sure what to do in the situation he found himself in. Did he interrupt? Did he act? Did he just try to melt into the bed and pretend he didn’t exist at all until the other three forgot about him?

He came out of his thoughts with a jump as Diryas chucked the lid onto the bed.

It came as an even bigger surprise that Diryas started applying the cream to Teegan’s back, and Teegan would have seen that in the way his brows rose.

Perhaps it wasn’t as surprising as he thought, though. The two of them had spoken after the return from Cybele’s homeworld. Diryas had gotten fired up about Emain Ablach’s presence in a way that indicated that trench of emotions. He had done well enough with ignoring his concept for a while, but it had welled up until it got stronger. Was this a sign of those feelings toward Teegan taking a different tack?

He rubbed his neck as Diryas worked.

“Y’all need anything?”


— AMA —
Exhaustion was starting to creep in, and the careful motions of Diryas’ hand on his back weren’t helping. “My clothes and a nap, I guess.” He would probably get dressed and head out once Diryas decided he was done… Go back to the Bells’ house and take that nap…

Diryas’ response to Zebulon was a wordless grunt. He didn’t pause what he was doing. He did, however, look up when Tobias came back into the room holding clothing and a pillow. Notably, Diryas observed, that was not Teegan’s clothing. It looked like Zebulon’s.

What was Tobias up to?

Diryas didn’t have to wait long to find out. Tobias tossed the clothing at Zebulon. “Here, I grabbed a set of your pajamas to put him in. Help him get dressed once Dise is done.” The pillow was tossed over their heads to land on the other side of the bed. “And that’s for him for tonight.”

“He’s not staying the night.” Diryas had stopped what he was doing, fixing Tobias with a level stare. Tobias returned it without blinking or flinching.

“Diryas.”

”He’s getting patched up, and then he’s leaving. This already went too far.”

”Diryas.”

”My one condition was that he stayed away from the house. Saying my name isn’t going to change anything.”

Tobias sighed, aggravation settling in his posture and the rubbing of the bridge of his nose. “Well, he’s here now. We should at least let him stay to make sure he doesn’t have to go to the hospital.” To say nothing of the fact that, to be quite ******** honest, this all just felt silly at this point, and Tobias had been over it for months.

”I’m fine-“

“You be quiet.” Tobias turned his attention back to Diryas. They stared at each other as silence stretched on. Tobias was the first to break it. Time to try another tactic. “Diryas, please.” Diryas’ eyes narrowed at the softening of Tobias’ tone and posture.

“Begging? That’s not like you.”

”Oh for ********— I’m not begging.” Tobias groaned in frustration, nearly tugging out his own hair and pacing across the room just to have somewhere for the agitated energy to go. “This is stupid. We all know this is stupid! Dise, please for the love of—“

”Fine.”


— SEI —
A nap was fair at this point. He also would take a nap, if he wasn’t fairly sure that napping would be the way to make sure he wouldn’t wake back up. The wordless grunt from Diryas was not unexpected, but it did concern him with how he was actually taking care of Teegan himself. Was Diryas upset with him for more than just letting Teegan in there?

Tobias returned with the clothing for a nap and tossed it in Zebulon’s direction with a direction to dress Teegan. Zebulon would argue that Teegan could dress himself, but he knew the intention of the direction. Aftercare and all that. Also, the fact that both Diryas and Tobias were acting like Teegan was hurt a bit worse than he was.

The delight Zebulon had been feeling over those bruises had long faded, though. “Got it, boss,” murmured Zebulon, who didn’t usually take orders but he had a bad feeling rejecting one at this point would be a bad idea–

As he double-checked to make sure this pair would fit Teegan–not like their size was all that dissimilar–Tobias and Diryas got into the dead staring match.

An immovable object meets unstoppable force.

“I told you the reason why I invited him over here–” Zebulon attempted to get a word in edgewise when the condition was stated, but Diryas shot him a look that immediately told him to shut up. The moment he looked back to the pajamas, Diryas went back to staring at Tobias.

Teegan was told to shut up, too. Felt like they were both pawns in this argument at this point. This … dead silent staring argument.

Fine.

Was that it? Zebulon rubbed his neck.

“Hope you like leopard print,” murmured Zebulon to Teegan, as he glanced over his nose at both Diryas and Tobias. Did Tobias win this one? Was the childhood bestie the one to enlist in this? Or was there something a little bigger at work here–


— AMA —
”’Fine’?” Tobias knew better than to celebrate too soon.

“Fine.” Diryas looked over Teegan’s back and wiped the last of the cream on his hand on the last of the area that needed to be covered. “But he sleeps in here.” He waited patiently for Teegan to finish dressing and then, “lid.”

Somewhat taken aback, Teegan handed him the lid.

“I brought the pillow for a reason,” Tobias replied. He rolled his eyes, but there was no venom in it. “I didn’t think you’d jump right to letting him back in the main bed.” Diryas grunted an affirmative, screwing the lid onto the jar and setting the jar on the dresser.

“And you stay the night, too.” Tobias raised an eyebrow.

”Fine, but I’ll stay in here with Teegan.”

”Fine.” Diryas seemed faintly irritated, turning toward the bedroom door again. “He goes home in the morning.”

”Fine.” Tobias shrugged. “So do I. If I’m here, so is he.”

”Whatever.” Diryas looked over his shoulder before leaving the room. “At least leave me out of the goddamn decision for what’s for dinner, then.” And then he was gone. Tobias turned his head toward the other two and opened his mouth to say something, when Diryas’ voice from the hallway called, “make sure you take a shower at some point.” Tobias rolled his eyes again.

”Yeah, sure.”

”Not you. Teegan. Use my extra shampoo or something, I don’t care.”

“How kind of you.” Silence. Tobias turned back to Zebulon and Teegan. “Well, you heard the man. Guess we should figure out what’s for dinner.” The look Tobias gave Zebulon flatly dared him to be contrary to the idea.


— SEI —
Zebulon pulled back once Teegan had gotten himself dressed and fell back into a tense silence. The entire conversation and debate was between Tobias and Diryas. Zebulon could say something, but he’d be told to hush with Diryas’ eyes. Teegan could try talking again, but the surprise on his face was likely the sign that he wasn’t even going to bother. Maybe he shouldn’t bother, either.

Was Tobias holding himself for ransom? If they wanted to see Tobias, they would have to see Teegan too. Was Diryas actually okay with this, or was he just tired? Tired of arguing, tired of fighting, tired of reasoning out?

What had happened?

He had a feeling there was still a lot more to discuss, but he was relieved he wasn’t getting reemed–

Though Tobias was giving him a look that could have killed him if he thought too hard about it. Zebulon sighed, turning his gaze away first. “Maybe we should just order food to the house. Think everyone’s had some high emotions today.” He wasn’t in the mood to get into a fight about food. He wasn’t in the mood to get into a fight about anything, really, less so than usual.

He shot Teegan a wry expression.

“Ya know,” he snorted, “I kept having the background thought that something drastic might need to happen.”

Had he wanted it to be Diryas being upset with him for Teegan being in the house? Or upset with him for Teegan being hurt or whatever that was all about? Or Tobias being upset with him for Teegan being hurt? Well, no.

But they were here now.