Weeks had passed since Grif's mother passed away.
Kai was back to her perky self around others, but she would often want to be with her brother and Simmons when she felt especially bad.
Yesterday, she had been sleeping in Simmons' room once more because she had a nightmare right at the beginning of the night.
She had come over with a low whine which Simmons heard and promptly let her in the room.
She had been in her wolven form.
It was pretty normal for wolvens to turn to their second form when they were afraid, on account of instincts and the like.
Gently getting up and sitting on the edge of the bed, he petted Kai's head until she fell asleep on the mattress still beside the bed.
Afterwards, Simmons went to bed while embracing Grif who had already started to get impatient and had begun searching for his missing mate.
On the following day, Grif went to work, Kai to school, and Simmons completed the tasks he had gotten from Kimball now that Grif was doing better. When the Grif siblings' mother had died, she had told him to look after the pack and let others cover the rest of his duties.
Since both of them were doing a lot better now, Kimball had started to give him other tasks again. If he was quick and went to work right after the breakfast, he usually was able to take a break around the time when Kai came back from school. He would do homework with her, trying to help her as best he could.
Ever since his injuries, Simmons had learned a lot about the pack, wolvens, and their dynamics. Since he had learnt so much, he often explained to the wolven girl scholarly things in wolven terms. Since he had started to explain things in that way to her, her grades had gotten progressively better and he even had managed to help raise her grades up about one mark.
Grif was pretty proud of Kai for making such good progress and proud of his mate for helping her in that pursuit as well.
When they were done with the homework, Kai often helped the redhead with the rest of his duties.
With Kai's help, Simmons was able to finish his tasks before Grif would return from the lumberyard and meet him at the mess hall for dinner.
Today was no different.
Simmons waited beside the entry to the mess hall with Grif showing up around dinnertime, sawdust still in his hair.
*Hey." Simmons greeted, leaning down to kiss the wolven who was already leaning into him.
"Hey." Grif replied after breaking the kiss, looking tired as fuck.
"How was your work?" Simmons asked, leading Grif into the mess hall and to the line to get food.
"Fine." Grif mumbled, standing close to Simmons.
Simmons could already tell that Grif apparently had a fucking bad day and that Simmons would have a short night as a result of that.
At least it was Friday.
Dwelling on the day more, he realized that it had been pretty much exactly six months since Moana had died.
No wonder Grif seemed to be in such a bad mood, he obviously was aware of that too.
Dinner was pretty silent, with Grif eating only one dish instead of his usual two before announcing that he had eaten enough and that he wanted to go to his room. Or to the room that Simmons and Grif shared.
Simmons finished his dinner quickly before walking with Grif to their room.
Grif shortly left to shower and get rid of the sweat and the sawdust of his work.
Simmons sat on the bed, waiting for the wolven to return.
When he did, the redhead patted the spot beside him, wordlessly asking for the wolven to sit with him.
Grif did as asked, sitting down beside his boyfriend although he still wasn't talking. Simmons didn't feel bothered by that.
When his boyfriend was so badly off, it was better to wait until he began talking on his own. Coaxing only helped in particular cases, but in this situation Simmons knew that he would start talk on his own. Simmons was pretty sure about that by now.
The only thing the redhead did was take the towel off of Grif's shoulders and start to dry his hair. It had become some kind of routine between the two of them, both of them highly enjoyed the activity.
Indeed, Simmons had just started drying his mate's dark, black hair when the wolven started telling him something. It was something that had happened recently, evidently.
During the time when Grif's mother was in the quarantine area, they often used to talk in their human form together with Moana taking all of the anger that her son directed towards her.
Simmons had known that Grif understood why his mom had reacted the way she did, but was still pretty hurt because she had left him without any notice when he was still so young and so inexperienced.
They had talked for hours, Grif telling Simmons that he had felt like they were getting along better with every passing day.
This, however, changed when his mom was released from the quarantine she had been under and was moved to his room.
She often stayed in her wolven form, as she obviously preferred this form over the other. Kai was often over whenever she had time, enjoying being with their mom.
Grif also was over there often, but whenever he visited he would come back to their now shared room pretty pissed off.
Simmons knew that because Grif often used to huff and sleep alone on the mattress beside the bed, which was a pretty good indicator that he didn't feel like talking and needed some time to get his shit straight.
Simmons never questioned what had happened, but now felt bad for not having asked as he heard the reason for Grif's bad moods back then now.
During the times when Grif was visiting her and Kai, Moana often questioned his ability to lead a pack, often making attempts to take over the leadership of the pack again just as she had done for her pups during the time when they had been young.
Female wolven were something akin to an Alpha for their pups until they left the pack. The Alpha of the group would need the permission of a female to interact with their pups.
Simmons didn't know if that was some kind of peculiar habit that Moana displayed in wanting to take over the lead of the group like she had before. Simmons didn't think of her to be power hungry, rather he more suspected her of being extremely protective of her pups and wanting to lead them to keep them safe — to give them the advantage of her experience concerning pack dynamics and everything.
Grif, however, being the Alpha that he was, didn't accept her questioning him.
Simmons had heard some noise around that time coming from the Grif Family's room, but he had chalked it up to Kai, Grif, or both having a little fun-fight—just slobbering around and playing like they sometimes did.
When Grif came back following the noise later on, the redhead noticed that his left ear was ripped. It never healed properly—even now, his left ear was still ripped. It was visible in both his human and his wolven forms.
To hide it, Simmons patched it up himself and together they decided to tell Grif's boss that he had gotten into a brawl and had gotten a ripped ear because of that.
Somehow, his boss seemed to have accepted the explanation and Grif kept the bandage on for some days following to hide his unusually fast healing ability as a wolven.
What he heard now from Grif about the incident was that both Grif and Moana had been brawling for the leadership of the pack with Kai keeping in a corner of the room, avoiding the fight.
Grif, although he had gotten bitten and had some pretty heavy bruises scattered all over his body due the skirmish, hadn't hurt his mom.
He had gone easy on her just like his dad did when he had gotten defiant towards the leadership of his dad years ago.
His mom luckily hadn't been hurt, and neither had Kai.
Only Grif received a ripped ear as a result of things, but at least his mother had accepted him as Alpha of the pack and acquiesced to his lead.
Although Grif's lead of the pack was settled now, he had been careful about his mom's actions for the next few days until he started trusting her again and accepting her as full-fledged member of the pack.
Although she was his mom, she was the lowest ranked member of the pack and was even underneath Simmons in the group dynamic despite him not really being a wolven. She had to earn her place again first.
All the while as Grif was telling his story, Simmons dried the wolven's hair, although the hair was dry by now and Simmons was just running the towel over his hair still to put his boyfriend at ease to make him tell the story through to its end.
"So your ear injury didn't come from a friendly brawl like you said?" Sure, Simmons felt a bit betrayed and hurt that Grif had lied to him about what had happened before now, but he didn't say a word about that.
"Yeah, I… It's something which only concerns the Alpha and the wolven getting cheeky." Grif muttered, leaning back into the redhead's chest.
"You didn't say what really happened because that's something that only concerns the wolvens directly involved in the brawl?" Simmons asked again, looking down at the wolven's closed eyes.
Grif only nodded, sighing lowly when Simmons put the towel aside and started carding his fingers through the Hawaiian's hair once more, easing out the knots.
"I'm actually pretty impressed that you didn't hurt her for ripping your ear apart." Simmons remarked with a proud note in his voice for Grif acting so grown up.
"She is… was my mom, after all." Grif muttered, correcting himself when he realized that he was still talking of his mom in present tense instead of past tense.
"Yeah, but not everyone can act so cool when they are getting hurt." Simmons replied with a fond smile, pressing a kiss to Grif's temple.
Grif only hummed, prompting Simmons to add, "Although your ripped ear does look pretty badass.
He could see a smile play along Grif's lips when he heard the comment, opening his eyes to look up at the redhead.
"You think?"
"Absolutely, it's awesome." Simmons agreed, letting his fingers travel over the ripped ear of the wolven, and causing him to shudder at the contact.
Grif had once told him that his ear now felt a bit like being wrapped up in cotton because of the destroyed nerves there. Simmons highly doubted the nerves would come back right around the scar.
It was some kind of an experience thing, actually. His left side also felt like it was packed up in cotton at some parts of his body because of the scar tissue and the destroyed nerves from the fire and the subsequent burns he had received.
Grif huffed, again leaning back and closing his eyes with a smile on his lips.
"You know, although I often didn't share the same opinion with my mom… I miss her." Grif spoke up suddenly, his voice filled with sadness.
"That's absolutely normal." Simmons told him, easing out another knot in the wolven's hair, "She was your mom, after all, and if your dad hadn't died in that battle before… you would have been with her even longer, don't you think?"
Grif nodded again, Simmons only registering his nod by feeling his head move over his collar bone. She was a good mom for the time she was with us." The Hawaiian said thoughtfully.
"I am sure of that. Kai and you turned out pretty well, at least." He placed another kiss to the temple of the wolven.
Said guy only huffed in reply, "In Kai's case, it was mostly me raising her."
"I know." Simmons replied calmly, continuing to card his fingers through Grif's hair, "But for you being able to raise your sister so well on your own, you needed parents who raised you well. Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to teach Kai the things she knows now."
Grif fell silent for a moment, obviously pondering over what Simmons had just told him.
"Maybe you're right." Grif muttered, again opening his eyes to stare at a faraway place.
Simmons suspected that Grif's thoughts had drifted to a place in his past.
"Hey, take it as that." Simmons told him, shoving Grif lightly to pull him out of his thoughts. Indeed, the wolven blinked several times before getting back to reality.
"Yeah, maybe you're right." Grif replied more acutely, his voice still thoughtful due to the heavy subject they were discussing.
"I am right." For once, Simmons decided to play the cocky asshole a bit in order to make Grif believe his words just then, "I am your mate and I am telling you that I am right."
Grif huffed once more with an amused smile twitched over his features, "Yeah, sure… who are you trying to fool, nerd?"
"I'm trying to fool you." Simmons deadpanned, although he was still smiling fondly.
Grif sighed in exasperation at that, but he was still smiling the same fond smile that the redhead had on his face, "Dunno, I don't think that's convincing me completely."
Simmons scratched Grif's scalp lightly, earning a contended hum from the wolven before he answered,
"At least it works halfway so I guess it's a win still."
"Always trying to think positive, nerd?" Grif raised an eyebrow in fake incredulity at that, "What happened to my anxious and always freaking out boyfriend? Just who are you?"
Simmons laughed lowly at Grif's last comment, "People change. I guess I have too."
"You? Never." Was the dry reply of the wolven, although the smile was still evident in his voice.
"Yeah, maybe you're right." Simmons responded, his voice thoughtful, "I still panic, but not as quickly as I used to before. I guess you've rubbed off on me."
"You know that Tucker would be so happy hearing you using innuendos?" Grif sat up, looking at the redhead with an amused glint in his eyes.
Simmons felt his face heating up while he pulled on a grimace, "Ugh… way to ruin the moment, Grif."
"What?" he gasped in fake shock, "You're the one who started in with the innuendos!"
"Yeah, but I didn't bring up Tucker when we were having a moment." Simmons retorted, enjoying the banter going on between them.
"Oh? We were having a moment?" Grif asked, although Simmons couldn't tell if he was fooling around or serious.
"Yes, Grif, we were having a moment and you just successfully and thoroughly ruined it." the redhead replied sarcastically, but his smile betrayed his words.
"So? Even if we did just have one, what if I don't give a fuck?" Grif's laidback attitude was shining through again.
"Yeah, I know. But what if I do give a fuck?" Simmons replied, playing the hurt partner and the drama queen just to fool around with Grif.
"Well, that's your problem." Grif shot back, although he took a moment to read Simmons' face to find out if he being was serious or not.
Simmons laughed lowly, checking the clock before asking, "It's pretty late. How about we go to bed and sleep in?"
"Good idea." Grif responded, although both of them knew that Simmons would get up around nine to get his tasks done regardless of when they went to bed. Grif shortly stopped before adding, "By sleeping in, do you mean…?"
Simmons, who had already gotten up and changed, walked back to the bed and lied down before saying,
"That's completely open to interpretation. But you better get changed now and get into bed with me regardless." He grinned wolfishly which was rather unusual for the redhead, causing Grif to shudder and hurry to get changed.
Throwing on his favorite orange shirt and some boxers, he soon toddled over to the bed and slipped under the covers beside the redhead.
Simmons didn't care if Grif was in the mood right now, or would be later on, or would be ever this night.
He left it to Grif to decide when the time was right for him, not wanting to hurry him.
When Grif leaned up to steal a kiss from the redhead, Simmons knew that they would first sleep before sleep.
Simmons could understand pretty well why Grif wasn't in the mood for sex considering the death of his mom and the rather sad mood he had been in during the whole day. He needed some distance and time from the things the wolven had told the redhead just moments before.
Simmons didn't question or chide him for this decision. Firstly because as had already been said, he had left it open for the wolven to decide when he was ready for it. Besides, considering what had just happened, Simmons would have probably had more problems understanding the wolven if Grif had decided that he wanted to go at it right away.
But… Thinking of it more, both outcomes were entirely plausible.
Some people didn't feel up for it right after telling someone a story like that or after an intense moment, whereas other people just wanted to take their minds off of recent happening if they were particularly upsetting ones.
And what helped better to take their minds off of something than sex?
Simmons knew he would feel sore tomorrow in that case, but he didn't care.
He liked it too much, loved Grif too much, and he thoroughly enjoyed seeing what reaction he could tease out of the wolven with which action.
However, Grif cuddling close to him and resting his head on the redhead's chest was enough for him now. He embraced the wolven tightly, replying to the kiss when the wolven straightened up to kiss Simmons.
When Grif settled back, Simmons pressed a kiss into Grif's freshly washed hair which smelled of pineapple and passion fruit, a smell Simmons immediately connected with Hawaii.
Grif fell asleep pretty quickly afterwards, Simmons following suit when he was sure that the wolven was sleeping soundly.