"Hey," Leo's voice was soft and tired through the phone and Jonah opened a small sympathetic smile, squishing the device between his cheek and shoulder as he went through their freshly done laundry, separating it into two piles.
"How's he?"
"A mess," Leo scoffed, his voice slightly muffled, "black out drunk, we had to put him in the shower."
Vaguely, it registered that Leo sounded off, but not consciously, "yikes, you should've let me go help," Jonah sighed, "where are you?"
"Uhm," now Leo sounded sheepish, "downstairs...?"
"Downstairs whe- here? You're here?" Jonah dropped the polo he had been neatly folding, straightening up to give Leo his full attention, "with Vin?"
"No, Vince stayed at the hotel. Max is going over to bring him some extra clothes and if he's still in a bad shape, he'll spend the night," Leo's voice drifted off, while Jon paced to the living room, then to the front door, pulling it open.
"If you don't have Vince why aren't you coming upstairs?" Jonah frowned, looking around the empty foyer they shared with the only other apartment that occupied the floor.
"Uhh... Don't be mad."
"What's wrong?" Jonah's heart missed a beat and he wasn't sure if he was concerned or preemptively angry, "what happened?"
"Vin is like, really, heavy," Leo explained, "I think threw out my back-"
"AND YOU DROVE?!"
"I said don't be mad!"
"Bloody hell, Leo Wagner-Banks," Jonah scoffed, rushing to the elevator and pressing the g2 button, "are you a child?"
"Don't be ma-"
Jonah hung up, pocketing the phone and rubbing his face in a frustrated manner. Leo was trying to give him an ulcer, he decided.
His husband's car was in the usual spot, although parked a little wonky. Leo was still inside, with a pained frown plastered on his pasty face. Jonah immediately thought he was clammy, but upon a closer inspection realized he was actually soaked, probably from showering Vince to sober up.
"Hi angel," Leo opened a small, cheeky smile, "don't yell at me-"
"I can't believe you drove having thrown out your back," Jonah scoffed, "why didn't you just call me?"
"I just wanted to get home as fast as possible," Leo sighed, "can you help me out? It hurts..."
Deciding he could chew Leo and help, Jonah took a step closer, then hesitated, "do you want me to carry you...?"
"You can't carry me-" Leo rolled his eyes and Jon scrunched up his nose.
"Of course I can, you're not that heavy," he argued, although he knew for a fact that Leo was pretty damn heavy. Muscles weighted a lot, apparently.
"And then you will throw out your back and who's gonna baby me back to health?" Leo snickered, "please, just help me up, Jon, it's fucking burning."
"Sorry," Jonah scurried closer, sliding under one of Leo's arms so it was slung around his shoulder and wrapping his other arm behind his husband's back, grabbing onto his jeans belt loops, "on three, okay? One, two- THREE!"
He pulled up and out of the car, just for the blonde to let out a whimper, turning his face to hide it on Jon's neck, "fuckfuckfuck-aaaah," he groaned, as Jon pushed the car door shut his foot and rushed them across the garage.
"Hang in there, baby," Jonah coed, "just a couple minutes more."
"God, it huuuurts," Leo groaned, then let out a belch as soon as the elevator doors shut, "uh-oh."
Shit. Jonah was really not looking forward Leo throwing up from the pain, so he just cradled the blonde closer, trying to take most of his weight and stared firmly ahead, trying to will the elevator to go any faster.
It came to a stop with a ding! and Jonah wasted no time, trying to ignore Leo's panting and huffing, he dragged his husband inside as quickly as possible.
"Noo-" Leo whined as Jon forced them away from the couch, which was closest, "I wanna lie down-"
"I know, but the bed will be better," Jonah answered through his teeth and then let out a sigh of relief as they walked in the bedroom, "gonna hurt, Leo..." he warned, before twisting them around and letting go of Leo's waist, in order to help him into the bed.
Now no longer with most of his weight supported, Leo let out a pained whimper as his lower back ached fiercely, falling onto the bed on his stomach and grabbing onto a pillow, white knuckling it, "fuuuck, that hurt," he breathed out, squirming to try and get into a better position, "can you- Can you get me a bowl? Please?" his cheeks puffed out with a soft burp and Jonah darted out of the room.
He came back with an empty ice cream container that had been in the first cabinet he opened, a bad habit of Leo's to wash and keep all sorts of useless packaging, "here," Jon crouched out, holding it under Leo's face, "is this because of the pain?"
The blonde let out a minimal nod, drooling over the plastic bin. He didn't bring up anything, except for another hollow, sick burp, and a mouthful of drool, "okay, uhm- False alarm, I think."
"Good," Jonah planted the bin on the ground, combing his fingers through Leo's hair, "l'm gonna get you a straw and then I want you to drink some water, okay? If it stays down, I'll get you some muscle relaxers."
Due to the amount of meds Leo took daily, for depression and insomnia, Jonah wasn't willing to risk medicating him, then the blonde puking it up, and having to take the meds again. Anything more than one single pill would be a bad move on his part.
"Kay," Leo panted, eyes squeezed shut, "it's throbbing, Jon..."
"I think I still got some OTC patches, back from college," Jonah ran his thumb over Leo's cheek, "I'll check, hold on."
"It feels like that time the Boston Eagles kicked our asses," Leo snorted and Jonah lit up at the memory. Their team had been massacred by the Boston Eagles and he vividly remembered all of them bruised and battered sitting at Fredo's, even Jonah himself, probably too concussed to really give a crap they were in greasy little dinner. Leo and him hadn't even been dating at this point, that had been before Luke and Vin joined the team, their current captain some asshole that Jon had erased from his mind entirely.
"We were nearly all killed that day," Jonah snorted, pressing a kiss to Leo's temple, then moving around to grab the necessary items. Leo's chilled water bottle, a metal straw, the forgotten OTC salonpas in their first aid. He had to check the expiration date and it was only four months out, but was still good.
"Gonna have to take off your shirt, baby," Jon sighed, as he walked back into the room and found Leo in the exact same position, hugging his pillow, a frown carved in his face, "it's gonna hurt."
"Can't hurt worssEAH-" he interrupted himself with a cry as Jonah rolled up the shirt as much as possible, but Leo had to lift the upper part of his body in order to remove it fully, "fuCK- Oh, hol'hold-on..." he reached blindly for the plastic bin, hand completely missing it, throat working convulsively.
"Here," Jonah brought it up to his mouth, "you're okay, focus on my voice. The worst is over..."
Leo gulped down, lips pressed into an extremely thin line, sweat covering his face, "Okay..." he breathed out, "I'm okay..."
In order to give Leo's stomach a fighting chance, Jonah opted for applying the patches before even going near the water. He placed two on his lower back, hugging his hip and angling towards the valley that lead to his butt, then another one at Leo's cervical, near his nape.
"Tingles," Leo breathed out, face relaxing just a smidge, "stay with me?"
"Where else would I go?" Jonah snorted, moving around the room. He opened the balcony door to let in some of the cool night air, then carefully climbed into the bed, curling on his side so he was facing Leo's back and could pet his hair.
"Vince is devastated," Leo whispered, standing still as a statue, "it was heartbreaking."
Jonah's fingers froze for a second. He knew, objectively, that Wendy was being mean. There was no beating around it, she was being mean and cruel and he didn't deny it. The issue was, and that's where he diverged from Leo, Bella had hurt Wendy first in a much more cruel manner. Not inviting someone to a party wasn't comparable to outing their eating disorder.
And sure, he wasn't angry at Bell. She had been petty and hurt him, but truth be told, Jonah doubted Wendy would've told him about what was going on, and he wanted to know. Part of him was even glad, no matter how harshly Bella had broken the news to him
The issue was, and this was where his fingers hesitated, and he paused. Vince had fuckall to do with all this. In fact, the mere fact that Wendy was hurting Vin so purposefully made him worry about her, because if she was doing such a thing, then clearly she had lost the plot of her little revenge... Which made the whole party problem a little less black and white in his mind, now that he thought Wen had stepped over a line.
"Jon?"
He had zoned out, "sorry," he moved his hand down, stroking Leo's naked shoulder, "you were saying?"
"I invited Max to crash with us," Leo repeated himself, "I'm so worried about him, stuck between these two... The guy just moved to town, he's basically a prisoner in that apartment."
"He could always get a hotel," Jonah huffed and Leo craned his neck minimally, trying to glare at him.
"Have you met Max? He moved towns because he was lonely, you think he's gonna go to a hotel even if being in the middle of warzone is hurting him?" Leo said sharply, "we got a guest room."
"I don't mind him being here, baby," Jonah shrugged, although it'd be a little awkward, he believed Leo's judgement. If he was now friends with Max, then Jonah would like him. Probably.
"You need to talk with Wendy," Leo let out a whimper, as he shifted on the bed and his back ached. He breathed through the pain, skin covering with goosebumps as Jonah traced his fingers down his naked back, just barely ghosting it.
Jonah knew he had to. Without Leo saying it, it was obvious by her disregard of Vin's feelings that Wendy was in way over her head and he needed to step in and stop her before she did more things she'd regret.
"Luke and Bell are gone," Leo pressed on to his stomach, working up a little hollow belch and leaning over the side of the bed just a smidge, angling his face to the bin.
"You're nauseous?"
"Just queasy," the blonde spat the thick saliva accumulating in his mouth, falling back against the pillows with a relieved sigh.
"What do you mean Luke and Bell are gone?" Jonah moved his hand to rest on Leo's stomach, not quite a massage because he wouldn't dare until the salompas started giving him some relief and he had taken meds, "gone to where?"
"New Mexico," Leo melted under his gentle stroking, "Vin was blabbing about it while blackout drunk. I think he drove there and found the house empty and then texted Luke and he said they left."
It was weird for the couple to just up and leave without telling a soul, but Jonah had to admit they hadn't been in quite speaking terms, not since Bella had dragged him home, severely sick from the vertigo episode she caused. So maybe the trip was already in their plans? He didn't wanna believe the party had wounded them so deeply to skip town in some impromptu vacations, mostly because that would meant Luke was hurt and Jonah didn't like that. He could be neutral about Bella, although enough was enough even in that front, but not about Luke.
"Maybe they had planned the trip already," Jonah said and Leo let out a snort.
"Are we lying to ourselves now?"
"Fuck off," Jonah's cheeks heated up and he heard his husband chuckle, dryly.
"Wendy's going scorched earth, Jon. Please talk to her."
"I will," he promised and felt Leo relax, shoulders slumping.
"Thank you," the blonde yawned, "can you rub my back?"
"Of course, baby, your back, your tummy," Jonah sprung into action. Nursing Leo he could do, much better than sitting around thinking of the mess surrounding them, "anything you want."
If I'm leaning forwards over the counter and arching my back, it's not because I don't want to be taken rough and sloppy from behind, but mostly just because my back hurts.
