Chapter 1
It wasn’t often that Steven Grant slept anywhere besides his apartment. With his sleep disorder, that’s what he called it anyways, his patterns were completely unreliable. He had woken up in weird places more than once. Of course that was more because of his altars. There were 2 other men he shared a body with. Marc Spector and Jake Lockley. Even though Jake rarely made an appearance, he was quite fond of you and he was very fond of your baking. When you did decide to bake for them,you made them their own special treats.
Steven always got something vegan related, it varied between lemon bars or brownies, Marc got double chocolate chip cookies and Jake, depending on what mood you were in, was served devil’s food cake or monster cookies. Although he would deny it if he was asked, it was your baking that won him over. Even though they all share the same body, and technically the same stomach, they had their own preference of food. Most of the time Steven would have something healthy for dinner and Marc and Jake would give him shit about it. When one of the others fronted, Steven would give it right back.
It had been Jake’s idea to try and spend the night at your place. Each one of them missed you in their own way. It had been weeks since any of them had seen you. Between Khonshu’s crap, your pain flare ups, and life in general neither of you had time to really spend together.
The last time they had seen you was when Steven had gifted you a special gift. It was a new plush of the Egyptian Goddess Taweret. He had bought it to surprise you since your original one had accidentally been donated to charity and when you had come back for another they had been sold out. Steven knew you were heartbroken over it because you had bought it the day you had walked into him at the museum.
He had watched your face as you had unwrapped the box and when you had pulled the lid off you immediately broke down in tears. It was a new plush of Taweret you had been searching for. Slightly altered of course. Steven had a red heart patch sewn over her chest, right where her heart would be. When you had started to cry Steven was automatically concerned he had screwed up but you instantly reassured him that he did nothing wrong. You informed him that nobody had ever cared for you enough to do anything like this before.
During the trip over Jake and Marc had a conversation about you. The only reason Steven wasn’t involved was because it was really hard to reply to them on public transportation. They were excited to see you. Even though they heard your voice over the phone it just wasn’t the same. They preferred physical contact.
Once they arrived at your building they let themselves in. The landlord had been kind enough to let them have an extra key in case something went wrong. The boys had permission to enter your apartment with the key if you knew they were coming over, or if you didn’t answer the door after the 4th knock. Sometimes you would get distracted with baking, have the music a little too loud or you were in just so much pain you couldn’t get up to get to the door. The day you had a discussion about the key was the day where it took you a while to get to the door because of a flare up. Jake had been ready to break your door down because in his mind he thought something had happened to you. When you explained to them what had taken so long you could see a debate between them and it was Jake who had decided to take care of you. Even though it was just cuddling and a movie you didn’t complain. Just his company alone satisfied you. He hated that he couldn’t spend the night though but he promised they would come over immediately if you needed him.
When Steven let himself into your apartment he was a little surprised it was dark and quiet. Normally you had some kind of music playing from a speaker, were in the kitchen baking something, or were just watching television. Jake immediately grew concerned, afraid that something had happened, but before Jake could make an appearance and do something rash Marc told Steven to check the bedroom since the door was closed. The door wasn’t usually closed unless you were asleep.
Steven set his bag on the couch but kept his phone in his hand. He didn’t know what to expect behind the door. For all they knew you were unconscious on the floor. With the way your room was designed your bed was around the corner and couldn’t be seen just by opening the door. Quietly, Steven opened the door to check everything out. They were greeted by the soft yellow glow of the floor lamp in the corner. When they scanned the room they saw you curled up under your covers,clinging to your stuffed hippo Taweret. They knew you had trouble sleeping so Marc had warned Steven that if he woke you up while checking up on you he would make the promise of throwing them off the cliff. Now that they knew you were safe Steven came out the same way they went in. Steven didn’t mind waiting for you to wake up.
~~~~~
When you did finally wake up, your body and muscles were stiff as hell. It felt like somebody had thrown you in front of a bus. You had to force yourself to get up though. You needed to eat something before you took your pain medicine again. Plus your boyfriend is going to be over soon. When you stood up from the bed it felt like every bone in your body cracked. Even though it felt absolutely amazing it didn’t do much for the pain. Slowly you shuffled your way into the bathroom to clean yourself up. Your hair looked like a giant rat nest, you had pillow imprints on your cheeks, your pajamas weren’t even pajamas. It was just a tank top and a pair of mismatched shorts. Your original plan, after making the cookie dough which was now chilling in the fridge, was to make up a small snack and prep dinner, take a quick nap, shower and just chill with a movie or a book but your 30 minute lay down time turned into something way longer. Of course the migraine that hit you like a freight train after making up the cookie dough didn’t help anything.
Once you got yourself more presentable, you headed out to the kitchen to try and make yourself some food when you heard something. Was somebody in your apartment? After listening for a moment you realized it was your television. After hearing something about Egyptians you knew who it was. Steven must have already been here.
“I thought you weren’t going to be here until 6.”
“It’s after 8, Love. We let ourselves in when you didn’t answer the door, or your phone. We saw you were sleeping and we didn’t dare wake you up.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t up to greet you.” You tell him as you take a seat next to him on the couch. Even with the long nap your head was still pounding, and you felt like you could throw up the non existent food in your stomach, “ I had every intention to make dinner and dessert, shower and relax but apparently my body decided it didn’t like that idea. My head has been pounding for hours.”
The sudden shift in movement made you realize that Steven wasn’t in control anymore. You weren’t sure which one had taken control until you felt some loose hair being wiped away from your face.
“Have you had anything to eat today, mi niña hermosa?” The familiar, and very attractive, accent of Jake Lockley questioned you. He knew that sometimes you moved so fast, and zoned out, that you just forgot to eat. It was something they were all helping you to work on.
His question made you think for a second. Have you eaten today? You made coffee in the morning, then you got distracted by making some cookie dough, then that mess turned to cleaning and picking up, and after that your migraine hit you like a freight train so you laid down.
“I didn’t think so.” Jake leaned in and kissed your forehead before he got up. You needed something in your stomach.
When Jake got up from the couch you sighed. You didn’t want him to get up, you just wanted to lay here with them. The first thing Jake did was go into the refrigerator and get you a bottle of water. When he brought it back over, you had moved to laying down on the couch. You just didn’t want to move. You couldn’t help but smile at him as he crouched down next to you and opened it up.
“Drink this.” Jake told you as you propped yourself up on your elbows. “I’m going to make you some toast.”
“Jake, I don’t think I can stomach anything.”
“The last thing you need is to throw up on an empty stomach.” Jake explained as he got up from the floor. You had slowly started to sip on the ice cold water which actually tasted wonderful.
After drinking down the water you could handle, which wasn’t very much, you watched as Jake went into the kitchen. He was a man on a mission. It had only taken him a few minutes to make the toast and when he came back with it he set it on the end table then helped you sit back up. Just the smell of the toast made you nauseous but you knew Jake was right. You did need something besides the small amount of water in your stomach.
Even though it took you a bit of time you finished the toast while hardly paying attention to the Egyptian documentary Steven had left on.The sound and the brightness from the television was actually quite distracting and it didn’t help the jackhammer that was currently going on in your head. Jake watched your distress then reached over and turned the television off. It was time to go back to bed.
“Go lay down in bed. I’ll join you in a minute.”
Normally you would give him a little bit of an attitude because you wanted to spend time with him but you just didn’t have the energy. After forcing yourself to get up off the couch, you saw Jake walk away. On the walk back to your bedroom it took everything you had not to throw up.
The first thing you did was use the little remote to turn off your floor lamp. Even the soft yellow light was too much now. As you laid down on top of your bedsheets you set your glasses aside then grabbed Taweret and wrapped her under your arm. No matter the situation, whether it be a bad pain day or just missing the boys, she gave you comfort.
Your eyes focused, well tried to focus, on the door as you waited for Jake to return. Although you could barely see, now the only light in the room was the nightlight in the bathroom, you wanted to see him come back. There was something in the back of your mind that was worried he would leave. You could have sworn Khonshu called on the boys just to inconvenience them at times. He was an asshole like that.
When you heard the footsteps coming into the room you let out a sigh of relief. Jake had come back. He placed a hand on your shoulder so he didn’t scare you.
“Roll onto your stomach.”
You didn’t question his command. With a groan you rolled into your stomach then felt something on the back of your neck. It took you a second to realize what it was. He had brought you an ice pack wrapped in a towel. Jake went to the other side of the bed and slid in next to you. His hand absently rubbed at your shoulder blades as you closed your eyes. Between the movement of his hands making circles on your back, and the ice pack on the back of your neck, everything felt peaceful. Well almost peaceful. The jackhammer wasn’t helping anything.
He kept the movements up until you found yourself bolting off of the bed. Jake watched in confusion as you ran but once the door slammed shut he heard it. The toast he had insisted you eat was coming back up.
Jake slid off of the bed and picked up the ice pack that was now on the floor. He could hear what was going on in the bathroom and there was now a debate in his head on what the others wanted to do. Jake wanted to stay fronting while Steven wanted to take over to comfort you as well. Marc let them argue about it. He didn’t mind making his appearance tomorrow. Steven pleaded with Jake to let him take over for the night. He knew how to get you to fall asleep. Jake wanted to argue with him but the British man had a point. He did know how to get you to fall asleep. When Steven started to drone on about Egyptian mythology Jake found himself falling asleep himself.
As they waited for you to come out of the bathroom Jake decided to let Steven do his thing. They hated seeing you like this. Steven sat on the end of the bed while he waited for you to exit the bathroom. When you finally left the bathroom you were feeling a little bit better. Throwing up did seem to help but the jackhammer in your head was still going strong. While you were in there you took another dose of your medication and cleaned up. Now you just hoped they would kick in soon.
“Are you feeling any better, Love?”
‘A little bit.”
Steven moved off of the bed so you could lay back down. Once you were settled in comfortably, he pulled the blankets over your body and placed Taweret under your arm then put the ice pack back on the back of your neck. You felt the bed dip as he laid down next to you. Your eyes started to grow heavy as Steven started to rub circles against your shoulder blade as he started to babble on about ancient Egypt. The last thing you remember hearing was something about how modern navigation was created by the ancient Egyptians by the position of the stars.