"Zeke!" Cailen called out into the flat from the kitchen.
"When you're done with your homework, come and eat!" Cailen set the plate of food he had made down on the kitchen table, wiping his hands off on the towel and looking around the kitchen for that glass of juice he had poured.
He was a bit scatter brained at the moment because he was supposed to leave in five minutes or he'd be late and Noah wasn't here yet.
He resisted the urge to text him, the guy was doing a favor for him after all, and busied himself with cleaning up the kitchen.
He didn't want to be late because he knew he was already asking a lot of the hospital to split his shifts like this. He had to go talk to them and work out a shift that had him starting later in the day so he could drop Ezekiel off at school, then he was off early in order to pick him up and back to work a couple hours later to finish his shift.
It was a bit exhausting because the break between shifts was considered his break to eat and have a rest, but that was spent picking up Ezekiel, cooking dinner, and helping him with his homework.
"I have to go." He heard a Scottish accent say as the front door opened.
Cailen breathed a sigh of relief as he placed the pan he had used to fry the pork into the sink.
"Cami- I have to- I'm hanging up. No, I- Bye." Noah said as he rounded the corner, lowering his hand and pressing a button on his phone, his guitar in his other hand.
He sighed and lifted his head, an apologetic look on his face mixed with a distressed sort of look.
"I'm sorry, I'm late." Noah apologized with a sigh.
"That's fine, you're not really late." Cailen reasoned because he wasn't, he was just cutting it really close.
"She just- She says she wants to break up… But she won't leave me alone. Am I missing something?" Noah asked a bit helplessly.
Cailen gave him a sad smile, tossing the cloth into the sink.
"I think she's probably having just as hard of a time accepting it as you are, Noah." Cailen said honestly.
Noah looked like he wanted to say something, but then his phone was ringing again and the thought vanished from his eyes.
He looked down at his phone and sighed before hitting answer.
"Camille, I'm babysitting, I can't talk." Noah said into the phone, leaning against the counter.
Cailen squeezed his arm on his way by, truly feeling sorry for the guy.
He hoped they sorted this soon or Noah might just lose it. He understood them breaking up if they were always fighting, but he also knew how hard it was to keep away from each other when you loved someone.
He and Asher had a bit of a rough patch a few years ago where they had actually 'broken up' for a total of five days before Asher couldn't take it anymore and caved.
He called Cailen at two in the morning, drunk off his ass, and begged him to take him back.
Cailen had barely gotten the words out before Asher was knocking on Cailen's Mom's place where Cailen had taken up refuge.
The five days away from Asher was pure torture, really. He doesn't know how he made it that long, but it’s been a hell of a lot longer than five days with Noah and Camille and he's afraid it's been a bit too long.
Thinking back on it, he and Asher’s ‘break up’ was not even something serious like an affair or the likes. It was just because they were both so busy- Cailen just starting at his job and Asher with his fire fighter training.
They weren’t communicating properly and thought the other was losing time and doesn’t care anymore.
It was a hellish week, and looking back at it, both him and Asher made it through and learned so much from that experience.
Sadly, he can’t say the same when it comes to Noah and Camille.
"Zeke, love, are you almost done with your homework?" Cailen asked, walking into the living room where Ezekiel sat on the floor at the coffee table, his homework spread out infront of him.
Ezekiel looked up at him, Cailen clearly able to see a look of concentration on his face due to his new hair cut that left only about an inch or two of hair on his head.
"How do you spell 'Whale'?" Ezekiel asked as Cailen closed the distance between them, kneeling down behind him and glancing at his work.
Of course it wasn't hard work, not for Cailen.
It was a list of little pictures that Ezekiel was supposed to name and spell properly, and the only blank one left was of a whale, so obviously, Cailen couldn't just give it to him.
"Sound it out, what's the first sound?" Cailen asked, looking down at Ezekiel.
Ezekiel took a brief moment before making a 'wah' sound, Cailen nodding along.
"Yeah, and what letter goes with that?"
"Double-U?" Ezekiel asked.
Cailen nodded again.
"Yup, good job. What's the next sound?" Cailen asked and listened at Ezekiel made an 'eh' sound.
"So, an 'A'?" Ezekiel asked.
"Well, actually there's an 'H' between them, it's kind of hard to hear though." Cailen explained and watched as Ezekiel wrote down 'WHA' on the blank space provided.
They sounded out the rest of the word together, Cailen explaining about the 'E' on the end as well and then Cailen was packing up his books for him and slipping them into his backpack.
"Okay, I'm leaving for work. If you need me, get Noah to phone the hospital, okay?" Cailen explained.
"Okay." Ezekiel agreed.
"There's food on the table, so why don't you go wash up to come and eat?" Cailen suggested, placing a quick kiss to his cheek before standing up and holding out his hand to the boy.
Ezekiel took it and stood, running off towards the washroom to wash his hands.
"Hi, Noah!"
Cailen heard him shout and then he heard Noah's quick reply before he was mumbling into his phone again.
Cailen sighed before making his way back into the kitchen, grabbing his wallet and car keys.
"Camille, I'm sorry but I cannot talk right now. I'll call you later." Noah said stiffly into the phone. "Because I'm babysitting Zeke. No, I'm not lying. Cai is right here-"
"Hi, Camille!" Cailen said, leaning forward briefly into Noah's space so Camille could hear him.
Sure, she was kind of dragging his friend through emotional hell right now, but he didn't want to be rude to her and he was pretty sure Noah wouldn't appreciate it anyway.
"See? Okay, Bye." Noah said, hanging up the phone once again, then raking his hand down his face.
"You going to be okay?" Cailen asked a bit awkwardly.
He didn't know what he'd do if Noah said no. It's not like he could really ditch work at this point, but Noah nodded, sending him a small smile.
"Get out of here. Tell Ash I said hi." Noah told him, nodding towards the door just as Ezekiel bounded around the corner and jumped into the chair his food was at.
"Okay, I'm gone." Cailen said, leaning down to kiss the top of Ezekiel's head, and just because Noah was in a bit of mood, he leaned in as he passed and smacked a loud kiss to his cheek, making the guy swat at him jokingly, Ezekiel giggling behind them.
"Bye!"
"Bye!" They both said back together as Cailen left the flat, stopping to give Loki a quick pat as he left.
The dog looked a bit down the past few days, probably because he hadn't seen Asher in a long time.
He felt kind of bad about that and found himself sparing the dog more time than he normally did lately.
Loki let out a small bark and watched as Cailen left, Cailen sort of wishing he could bring the dog with him to the hospital but he knew how not okay his boss would be with that.
*****
When Cailen walked into Asher's room after his shift, there was a nurse in there, just fluffing up his pillows and making sure he had a fresh glass of water.
He could see Asher was awake but he wasn't saying much to the nurse even though she was trying to make small talk with him. He would grunt or nod every once in a while but otherwise, she might as well have been talking to herself.
She smiled politely at Cailen as she left, Cailen not recognizing her. There were a lot of nurses at the hospital, okay?
Once she was gone, Cailen stepped further into the room, revealing himself to Asher who smiled warmly at him, sort of surprising Cailen.
Asher had seemed to be in a foul mood with the nurse so Cailen was expecting a colder greeting than this, not that he was complaining.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Cailen asked, stepping forward towards the bed and leaning down to kiss him hello.
Asher smiled at him, reaching up with his good hand just to touch Cailen's cheek.
Cailen let him, leaning his cheek into his hand and waiting for a reply.
"Like shit." Asher answered honestly.
Cailen nodded, expecting as much. Cailen took his hand in his, taking a seat beside the bed like he normally did.
He knew he didn't have a lot of time, he had to relieve Noah of his babysitting duties but he always stopped in for a little bit to see Asher because even though Asher wasn't very sociable, he was sure it got lonely in here.
"I bet. They've got enough pain killers pumping through you to knock out a horse." Cailen said, smiling slightly.
He was going for a joke, but the truth was, Cailen hated that Asher needed so much medication.
He couldn't wait for the day that Asher was taken off them.
"They knock me out sometimes." Asher replied, mumbling a bit but Cailen was used to it by now.
All of Asher's responses were mumbled and sometimes broken up as he tried to think about what he wanted to say.
"I know." Cailen reminded him, having been here multiple times when this has happened.
Asher smiled lazily at this, squeezing Cailen's hand slightly in response.
"I love you." Asher mumbled, his eyes flicking up to meet Cailen's.
"I love you, too." Cailen replied immediately.
It was basically instinct to reply with that, but that didn't mean he didn't mean it.
"And I'm sorry." Asher said, now breaking their gaze and looking down at their hands.