Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters end up in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's the way of it.
Uncomfortable Situations
Harry did not feel well the next morning. Or to be more specific he felt a cold of some sort coming on, and that was enough to ruin his day even before it even started. He could tell, just from pressing the back of his hand against his forehead, that he was running quite a fever, already, and his limbs felt achy and his stomach…out of sorts. He didn't feel nauseated, thank heavens, but it…something was wrong there too. Off in some way that was somehow familiar…and had a sense of foreboding settling in his gut.
But there was also the possibility that it could have been something he ate as opposed to being sick, especially since Colin had mentioned feeling off the night before too. Wouldn't that be fun? Though still better than being ill for days…
Either way Eggsy's declared that Harry was staying home in bed for the rest of the day after feeling his forehead.
"That's…we have…work."
"And I'll work from home until lunch, and then come back afterwards with stuff from the office. I know we can't both miss that meeting, it was all we could do to nail Compton down for a bloody meal on us. But I'll have Mum come over while I'm away ta keep an eye on ye till I get back. And don't say that ya can tough it out, cause ya can't, Luv. Temperature high as yours feels, we'll have ta take ya ta the hospital, it gets much higher."
"Eggsy…"
"No arguin." Eggsy pointed a warning finger for emphasis. "Now settle back under those covers, and I'll get a some juice and somethin ta take down that fever."
Knowing a determined Eggsy when he saw one, not to mention the fact that he just did not want to fight or do anything but go back to sleep, Harry snuggled back under his covers with an involuntary sigh of relief.
"Good. Stay."
He was tempted to stick his tongue out, or remind his mate that he was a dragon, not a dog, thank you very much, but all that struck him as being too much effort, so Harry just closed his eyes and did his best to ignore everything else.
Vaguely he was aware when Eggsy came back, waking up just enough to swallow the medication and water without choking, and then Harry snuggled back under the covers, smiling when he felt Eggsy tucking the covers around him before kissing his cheek.
Best mate ever.
)
A firm shaking of his shoulders woke Harry part of the way up, the scent of chicken noodle soup doing the rest of the job as Harry opened his eyes slowly with a grimace, unhappy to be awake even as his stomach grumbled in hunger. That the first thing he saw once he focused was Eggsy's mother…well he could have done without that jolt to his system. Especially now that he was awake and aware enough to realize his body ached even more than it had the last time he was conscious. Which was…
"What time is it?"
"Little after noon. I've made ya some soup for lunch." A resigned look. "First things first though. Stick out yer tongue."
"Pardon?" He had to have misheard her.
"Let's see the tongue now. If you're sick it's best ta know how bad ya is before ya get worse. Now let's see it, then." A smirk. "I ain't gonna hurt ya."
He had absolutely no idea what she'd learn from looking at his tongue, perhaps it was a mother thing, but Harry stuck his tongue out and tried not to freak out over how close she got as she leaned in to study it. And then she was reaching out and running her fingers carefully over his throat, Harry asking her why since he figured it could come in handy in the future, when he and Eggsy adopted.
"Checkin ta see if it's swollen any. It ain't. And your tongue looks fine as well." A hand placed on his forehead, Michelle's brows furrowing. "But Eggsy weren't wrong about your fever seeming awful high. Stuffy head?"
"No. Just the fever, sore joints, and an out of sorts stomach."
The sound she made in the back of her throat…well Harry wasn't sure how to interpret it. He was just glad that she was moving away, putting a respectable space between them.
"All right then. Soup now. Better eat it while it's hot."
"Oh. Thank you."
Arms crossed, Michelle looked him over with the oddest expression on her face. Then she shook her head at him, or possible the situation they found themselves in. "No trouble. Ya are my son in law after all. Eggsy left bout ten minutes ago by the way, didn't want ta wake ya before he left. Said you've been in and out of it all morning, ya?"
Naturally she'd had no compulsion about waking him up, Harry mused as he agreed with her statement.
Shifting up so that his back was braced against the headboard for support, Harry watched as Michelle moved away and then came back with a bed tray, the soup and a glass of what he guessed was juice on it.
Thanking her again when she set it on his lap, Harry told her it all looked excellent.
"Just soup from a can. Ain't nothin special."
"Still. Thank you."
Scooping up some of the soup Harry blew on it and then cautiously sipped it up. Good.
"Is Daisy here? I wouldn't want her to get sick too."
"She's at a friend's for a playdate. And are you sure you're sick?"
"I had considered the possibility of food poisoning. Why?"
"It's just…" Trailing off, Michelle shook her head. "Nevermind. Ya'd know better than me and…eat your soup and drink the juice. Eggsy will have my ead if ya don't. He loses it, he does, when someone he loves is sick or hurt. Surprised he didn't give himself ulcers before, worrin about ya when you was still mated ta that King bastard."
Staring down at his soup, stirring it idly with his spoon, Harry didn't want to think about any of that, and so instead asked her what she'd meant before, about what she thought was wrong with him. He was curious now, and it was something to talk about.
For a minute it looked like she wasn't going to explain. "Well it's just…Lee, before he died, after Eggsy was born…he wanted me ta know stuff, ya know, in case somethin happened ta him and he weren't around ta see Eggsy grow up. Important, dragon stuff he said. So I'd be prepared if I..." Arms wrapped tight around her, as was often the case when she spoke of her late husband, Michelle looked away from him, out the window. "He told me about dominants and omegas like you. What ta look for if he was the latter. And he said that one of the signs ta look for, if Eggsy was gonna start goin in ta heat, was that he'd smell like cinnamon. Make the whole room he was in smell of it, even, when he was right close."
"Yes…that's true. And your point…?"
"A've you smelled yourself recently?"
Freezing as he got what she was implying, Harry let the spoon slip through his fingers to fall back in the bowl as he stared at her.
And though she had to be wrong, the gesture utterly pointless, Harry found himself lifting up his right arm, bringing his wrist to his nose to inhale deeply.
Cinnamon.
"Oh fuck."
In his shock Harry completely missed his mother in law's reaction to his cursing, if she had one. He was too busy mentally freaking out over what was to come and how mentally and physically unprepared he was to go into heat. He was going into heat for the first time in what had blissfully felt like forever, and how stupid was he not to have recognized the signs? Or had he in some corner of his brain, and just ignored them in some stupid, pathetic, avoidance technique? He wouldn't put it past himself. By the powers that be he was so stupid.
He'd have to call Eggsy, Harry recognized with growing dread, interrupt the business lunch and tell his mate to come home. He'd have to-but what were they going to do? It had been so since he'd had a heat, and when he had…
Visions of being cuffed the last few times Chester had visited him during his heat flashed through Harry's mind then. His former mate telling him he was too 'primitive' and out of control not to be when in heat. Restrained and at King's mercy until it was all over. Wrists raw from struggling against the restraints. And worst of all, or perhaps for the best, blank spaces in his memory as his dragon half refused to allow Harry an awareness of what happened when he went into heat. He just had to deal with the aftermath. King's disgust. Bruises and signs of blood shed. For both of them. What if he hurt Eggsy? What if he really turned into a monster and lashed out at his mate while he was out of his head? What if the cuffs really were necessary like Chester had always insisted they were? He'd never forgive himself if he-
"Stop it."
Flinching automatically at the commanding tone, Harry blinked hard as he focused on a very angry looking Michelle.
"Whatever ya're thinkin right now, stop it. Ya hear me?" Hands now on her hips, Michelle eyes flashed dangerously. "Don't ya go and paint my boy with the same brush as that King bastard, understand?"
"I don't know what-"
"Wot? Ya think I don't know that look you was wearin? Me? I see it all the time, don't I, in my own bloody mirror. But my boy, he's a good one. Like his dad. He won't ever abuse ya. Not ever. He don't have that in him, thank Christ." A sigh, and then Michelle continued to shock him as she took a seat on the side of the bed, holding eye contact with him even though she very obviously wasn't comfortable with any of this either. "Look, Harry…what they do…it's them, not us, ya know? They tell us we're stupid or ugly or can't do no better than them because they're all that and worse. They break ya down till ya're nothing, till ya believe ya don't deserve no better cause that's the only way they can keep ya. And ya put up with it cause it's your normal, and ya've been trained ta accept it. But…but ya just listen ta my boy, all right. He thinks you're the greatest thing since Adidas, and he'll love ya with his whole heart till his dying day. He told me so himself." A snort. "Not the Adidas part, but ya get what I'm sayin, right? Don't let this King of the bastards wreck things by focusin on the past. Don't ya dare."
Stunned silent, Harry just stared at her as he tried to wrap his mind around it all. And failing rather horribly, in all honesty. He knew some of what the woman's life had been like after Lee's death, and how bad it had gotten when she'd hooked up with Daisy's father. But he'd never heard her willingly talk about it before. At least not so honestly. And that shock was dwarfed by the reason she was saying any of it.
"Thank you." It was a weak response, but the best Harry could manage when he found his voice again. "And I'm…I really don't know what to say to you except that I love Eggsy. And I intend to take as good a care of him as he does of me."
"Good. And if ya need ta talk about before…well I have this group I go to, Eggsy made me start a couple years ago. You could come and talk ta them if ya want. Ignoring it does ya no good in the end. Or so they keep tellin me."
He'd known that Michelle was in a group meant to help women who had been victims of domestic abuse. Eggsy had mentioned it at the time because she hadn't wanted to go, and had fought Eggsy tooth and nail about it. Eggsy had made it clear that she had to deal with her issues if she wanted to keep custody of Daisy though, which Eggsy had agonized over it at the time, but it seemed that it had done her good. He was glad.
And now she was suggesting that he was a victim of abuse as well…and he…he wasn't used to thinking of it that way. He could see how it would seem that way in human terms, and if it was that way in human terms than why wasn't it in dragon terms? His former mate had never treated him the way Edward or Merlin treated their mates, and Harry had heard enough whispers and such over the decades to know that most of their kind hadn't approved of King's treatment of him. She was right to say that King…that the life he'd lived had been his normal. As for Chester's many attempts to demean and break him…
"It's complicated. He…he abused the human side of me, mostly just verbally, but my dragon side was always too strong for him. Never submitted or believed what he said about me. Us. And now that I've embraced that side of me more, and have Eggsy in my life, I realize that what King thought of me stopped mattering a long time ago. Which isn't to say there aren't scars, and that I don't see myself in negative ways at times, but I am getting better in that regard." Harry blew out a breath, realizing as he said it that his words rang true. "Your group…it might help, down the road. So thank you again, for the offer."
"Ya."
Feeling like they'd had a moment, and wasn't that just odd, Harry hesitantly reached over to give her hand a squeeze, Michelle staring down in shock at their hands for a moment before pulling hers away, not looking at him again.
"I don't want ta talk about it no more either."
Actually that hadn't been what Harry meant by the gesture, and he was opening his mouth to correct her when she all but jumped up off the bed, giving him her back once more as she reached into her pocket to retrieve her cellphone.
"You should call your assistant ta let her know the two of you ain't gonna be available for a while and I'll give Eggsy a ring, so he knows ta come straight back here. And eat the rest of your soup."
Nodding in agreement as he accepted that she'd said as much as she was comfortable saying for now, Harry watched her get up and stride out of the room, the speed with which she left making it clear that she couldn't wait to leave.
Taking a steadying breath, he needed it, Harry turned his attention to his cellphone, which Eggsy had place within easy reaching distance on the night table.
Picking it up Harry dialled Amelia's number, spooning up some soup with his free hand.
He needed to eat now, while he was still thinking enough to remember the importance of food.
)
After calling Amelia, who assured him that she'd hold down the fort in their absence, Harry finished up his soup and then set it and the tray off to the side. Now that he was aware of what the problem was…well it was like with most minor injuries that didn't start bothering you until you realized you were hurt in the first place. And without Michelle around to shock the hell out of him…well there was nothing distracting him from just how hot he felt now that he was wide awake and aware. How much he wanted to strip out of his clothes and at the very least bury himself in Eggsy's side of the bed so that he could inhale and surround himself with his mate's scent. Roll around in it…and rub off on it because fuck, he was hard and aching. And starting to leak as well, the scent of cinnamon becoming stronger by the minutes.
The need to be free of his clothes and full of his mate itched across his skin like a case of the chickenpox, Harry toying with the buttons of his pajama top before finally giving in and starting to undo them. Michelle had left after bringing up a small cooler with bottles of water in it for him, so at least he was alone. And maybe he should make himself drink a bottle after he got rid of his clothes. It might help. Or at least distract him from worrying about when Eggsy would get back and what he'd think of all this.
'Stop worrying and just get undressed. I'll be taking over soon enough.'
Blinking at the familiar voice in his head, Harry sighed. And told his dragon half that he was to be gentle with Eggsy and not hurt him. Or he'd keep him mentally chained down again.
There was genuine puzzlement in his dragon's voice. 'Why would I hurt him?'
'Because you're vicious when we're in heat.'
'No. I simply attempted to disembowel King whenever he tried to force us to mate while we were in heat. He should have known better than to keep trying after the first time.' A snort of disgust. 'As if I would risk us breeding with that pathetic creature. I'd rip our scales out first.'
Harry's jaw dropped. 'You were trying to kill him?'
'No. I knew what would happen to us if we killed him. But I would not allow him to mate us while I was in control. What you chose to do when this body was yours was up to you, but I would not submit and bruised and broke him to make that clear.'
'And that's why he chained our hands? So that you couldn't maul him?'
'Yes. Not that that stopped me. I made it clear I'd transform if necessary, to stop him. Those chains would have been useless then. Our magic is more powerful than his.'
'So that's why…why didn't you tell me this before?!'
The sense of a mental shrug had Harry wishing that he could strangle his other half. A lot.
