What We Left Unsaid

“Short Shit! Wake the fu-- are you fucking kidding me? Get the hell out of bed, you stupid fuckers!”

For just a moment, the beta female seriously considered testing her werewolf strength by grabbing the bassist beside her and seeing if she was capable of throwing him at the guitarist standing in the doorway. She seriously considered it. But when the man beside her growled lowly, cursed at his bandmate, and chucked a pillow at the nuisance -- and actually made the shot, by the sounds of it -- she managed to refrain from doing anything rash. Instead, she just growled irritably and nuzzled her head into the warm chest beneath her.

“Go away, Syn!” the shorter man groaned, just before the same pillow slammed into both of their heads.

Blue eyes blinked open as the blonde gave a much darker growl in response, one of her hands already flexing into a fist because even without looking, she knew that bastard in the doorway was smirking like an idiot. But she didn’t want to give him what she knew he wanted, so, forcing herself to take a deep, calming breath, she blinked those eyes of hers closed again, relaxed her clenched hand, and tried to ignore the intruder. That worked for all of a minute.

A large weight slamming into her back as the lead guitarist leapt onto the bed with them was absolutely impossible to ignore, however, and she fell right into his trap almost immediately. A fierce snarl on her lips, she was wide awake and launching herself over the bassist within seconds, slamming right into the dark haired man and wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. He was quick to try and escape from her grip, but it took a few minutes of solid struggling for him to finally roll in a way that allowed him to barely slip out.

And then he was on top of her, using the blanket that was still rather irritatingly wrapped around her to his advantage. He had her pinned pretty easily, a lazy smirk on his lips as he looked down at her, but he had majorly underestimated her irritation, and her subsequent willingness to snatch the lamp from the end table and crash it right into his head proved that.

“Fuck!” he hissed out as the glass splintered everywhere, his body shifting quickly and the momentum of his movement causing him to fall off of the bed.

And Ava was right behind him, already slipping out from under the comforter and starting to launch herself at him again. She didn’t get far at all, though, because the second she made a move to leap, two strong arms wrapped around her torso and twisted her so that she slammed right back down into the bed.

“Fucking hell! Both of you, would you just chill the fuck out?” Johnny shouted, his voice an entertaining mixture of sleepiness and surprise, but his interruption seemed to do it’s job, for neither of the two other werewolves made a move to attack again.

Instead, the blonde merely nodded, taking a deep, relaxing breath and pulling herself up into a seated position at the head of the bed, managing to avoid the pieces of shattered glass as she moved. She didn’t even think to apologize, but she did manage to send a sheepish little smile Brian’s way, his own expression mirroring hers as he snorted in amusement.

“Thank you!” the shorter man huffed, running a palm over his face. “Now what’s up, Bri? Why the fuck are you waking us up this early?”

“It’s ten! It’s a perfectly reasonable time!” the other man objected, before waving it off dismissively just a moment later. “I was only trying to wake you up, though,” he continued, chocolate eyes narrowing when he pointedly shifted his attention to the woman in the room. “You weren’t supposed to be here. Didn’t I kick you out of my room last night specifically so you could go and sort shit out with your mate?”

She only shrugged, but the lower-ranked man in the room appeared far more surprised by this knowledge. “That’s why you woke me up in the middle of the goddamn night to let you in here? Because Brian kicked you out?”

She gave an indignant snort. ”No,” she contradicted, “I came in here because you’re comfortable, Johnny.”

“And because she can’t sleep without someone else to curl up on, now that something obviously happened between her and Zacky.”

The blonde’s immediate reaction was a hiss of objection, blue eyes flashing amber as she glared at her lifelong friend. “You don’t--”

“You come knocking on my door around the same time Zee’s suddenly exhausted and moody as hell and you think I honestly won’t be able to connect the dots? You know me better than that, Ava,” the guitarist chided, clicking his tongue disapprovingly and giving his head a little shake to add to the dramatics.

She only growled, not at all liking how much of an obnoxious-know-it-all he had suddenly decided to become. Sure, the man was able to make it sound like he had pieced everything together, but the simple truth of the matter was that he didn’t know half of what he was talking about. He couldn’t know the half of it, because she didn’t even know all of it. Of course, he had been right about something happening between her and her mate, but she sure as hell wasn’t about to tell him that. She’d have to admit that they’d been sharing a bed at night if she went ahead and agreed with him, and that was something her old friend sure as hell did not know, and wasn’t about to find out about. She still wasn’t completely comfortable with it herself, even if breaking that little habit had left her restless as hell when she was trying to get some sleep at night.

“You don’t have to connect any dots with that, Syn. We were all there last night in the hot tub. What happened, Blondie? What’s going on?”

For a moment, she considered grabbing the alarm clock from the end table, too, and smashing it against her own head. “Oh, no. We’re not having this conversation! Absolutely-fucking-positively-not!”

“You’re damned right we’re not having that conversation!” the pureblooded man quickly interjected, earning an incredulous look from the other man in the room as he did. “We are absolutely not talking about that -- fuck no! But we are going to talk about what the hell has got the both of you so pissy lately!”

“As opposed to... what? All of those moments when Baker’s the epitome of calm and rational?”

Her comment earned her a little snicker from the smaller man in the room, but Brian didn’t appear to be having any of it. “Damn it, Ava! I told you to go and figure out what the hell was up his ass!”

“And I don’t do what you tell me to do, Haner.”

“That’s--”

“Not what you meant, I know. But come on! I know you’re not trying to tell me him flipping out for no reason was my fault, and we all know I’m the last person that should be sent to calm him down.”

“You’re mates, though, and--”

“And I don’t particularly give a damn if he’s pissed off and being psychotic. Sorry, but I don’t care. Yeah, we’re mates, and you don’t need to remind me of that, but that doesn’t make me suddenly give a damn about if he’s feeling upset. I rather enjoy it when he’s upset, in case you haven’t noticed that over the last few ye--”

“Did you wake me up for a reason?”

Lips pursed, the beta didn’t even complain about being interrupted, instead just taking a little breath again and letting the conversation completely change. Hell, she was grateful for the change in topic, because she was so not interested in arguing with Brian over something as stupid as Zacky throwing a temper tantrum again. She’d dealt with that enough last night -- or was it that morning?

Her old friend had always been more interested in talking about things than she was. Of course, neither of them cared about discussing insignificant details and little things like that; they were werewolves, for fuck’s sake -- they just got over some things and pretended they hadn’t happened. No one needed to talk out their issues if they just had one minor temper snap; it was normal. But Brian did want to talk about some things that he really had no business interfering in, things that didn’t really involve him at all but for whatever reason he wanted to try and get in the middle of. And, to be fair, Ava did know the reason: he wanted to try and solve problems because he wanted to see her, and all of their friends, happy. He had good intentions.

But the thing was, there wasn’t a problem for him to solve! He didn’t need to be poking and prodding her and trying to get her to suddenly realize how unhappy she was, because she was happy. Of course, she had to worry a bit about dealing with her brother and restraining herself from killing her idiot of a mate, but she was in a pack with her friends and she was happy. She just apparently wasn’t living up to Brian’s standards of happy, and she was getting sick and tired of him backing her into corners to try and fix her. He needed to let his silly delusions go.

“Alright, ten minutes and we’re fucking leaving, so get your ass ready ASAP! And Blondie! I have no problem kicking you out of all of our rooms tonight if I need to, so keep that in mind.”

Making a face at the man as he finally made his way out of the room, Ava rolled her eyes and blew out a little huff of a sigh. “What an ass!” she muttered under her breath, sneaking a quick glance in the remaining man’s direction and groaning audibly when she recognized the look on his face. “Not you, too! Johnny, I’ll buy you a new lamp if you just let the stupid conversation go!”

He hesitated, taking a moment to get up and head over to his closet before deciding to speak again. For a moment, she actually thought he might take her offer. Instead, he simply sent her a wary look. “How are you doing, Ava?”

It was a stupid question. “Just peachy, Johnny! Jesus! We’re not going to do this whole question-every-little-thing-I-do thing again, are we? Seriously; everything’s fine. I did the exact opposite of what Brian tried to tell me to do -- that’s the epitome of normal!”

“I’m just asking in general,” he tried to defend as he slipped a shirt over his head. “I’d be asking what was wrong with you if you had decided to go talk to Zacky last night; I don’t care about that. I just... a lot has been going on lately, for all of us, and I wanted to make sure that at least someone asked you how you were.”

Brows furrowed together, the blonde took a good, long look at the shorter man, lips inevitably twitching upwards a bit as she let her expression soften just the tiniest bit. “That’s sweet of you,” she declared, before arching an eyebrow pointedly, “but completely ridiculous. You’d know if there was something going on.” Snorting a little bit in amusement, she rolled her eyes and hopped off of the bed, careful to watch where she stepped. It was definitely on her to clean up the mess, and she would do that without complaint, but she planned on eating breakfast first, and not cutting her foot open on the way downstairs.

Johnny stopped her just before she could get to the door, however, choosing to step directly in front of it and completely block her way. There was grim determination on his face when he looked up at her. “That’s why I’m asking, Ava. I do know somethings up, I just don’t know what. And if Brian’s not pussy-footing around it anymore, than neither am I. You flipped the fuck out last night when I accidentally nudged you with my knee, and the only time you’re ever that jumpy when you’re sleeping is when you’re tense as hell. So what’s got you all worked up? What’s got you on edge enough that you’re actually pissed about Brian suggesting you talk to Zacky?”

“Brian’s completely lost his--”

“Brian’s on to something! If he was off base, you wouldn’t have been getting irritated.”

Blue eyes narrowed dangerously. “Brian’s way off base, and you’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. This isn’t some silly little argument, Johnny; he’s been trying to talk me into wanting to have pups with Zacky.”

For a moment, the male looked surprised by her revelation, but his expression quickly morphed into one of contemplation as he glanced over her. “Do you want to have pups, Ava?”

She didn’t even dignify his question with an answer, simply growling and letting her eyes flash amber in warning as she once again clenched her hand into a fist. “Seward!”

“I get it, okay? I get why you’re irritated with him -- with me -- but I don’t think Brian’s trying to interfere. You and Zack... you’ve obviously got your issues, and those are your issues, not ours, but we all just want... I don’t know. We all want both of you to be happy, and I get how ridiculous that sounds, but it’s the truth. And I get that you hate each other for whatever reason, but... maybe it’s time to try and bury the hatchet, you know? You’re mates, and you’re going to end up getting each other killed because one of you can’t ignore a single opportunity to fuck with the--”

“He’s the one that couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut when Drake showed up, not me!”

“And he’s also the one that stopped you from drinking silver!” he reminded pointedly. “Just... for the sake of the pack, maybe you should think about actually talking to him and trying to settle some of your problems. You don’t have to like each other, but a little less hatred around here could go a long way. I know you don’t do apologies or anything--”

“Because I have nothing to apologize for!”

“--but maybe you could just offer to meet him half way.”

“Half way?” Ava repeated in a growl, eyes flashing amber again as she stepped forward threateningly toward her friend. He had to be kidding her, because if any one needed to try and meet anyone half way, it was her mate -- not her. And she said as much, each and every word harsher than the one before it. “You’re forgetting that I’m the one that’s solved his problems for him! Why don’t all of you go and harass him about apologizing and meeting me in the middle, huh? Maybe I’ve already fucking tried!”

“I’m just asking you to try again, because I know that he won’t. You’re both prideful idiots, but I know you value this pack more than you value your hatred of Zacky. Forget about your usual issues, something was obviously going on last night, and we really need the both of you stable enough to not spontaneously blow a fuse at a bad moment. Just for the pack, Ava, please consider trying to at least solve whatever issue had him flipping the fuck out. For the pack.”

She simply stared at him, a bored expression on her face as she waited for him to give his little speech, knowing that if she tried to interrupt him or just push him aside, he’d simply follow her and continue talking until he’d had his say anyway. So she let him finish his little rant, and she only blinked back at him when he was done. “Your vote has been counted,” she told him. “I’ll get back to you if my life ever becomes a democracy. Now move, Johnny, because I’m starving right now and you are standing between me and the kitchen.

He only sighed and stepped out of her way, pulling open the door for her and following as she made her way directly to the kitchen. He didn’t try and say anything more, though, so she tried to force herself to relax and pretend the conversation hadn’t just happened.

That wasn’t possible when she stepped through the doorway into the kitchen and saw Brian sitting right there, an eyebrow raising pointedly as he tilted his head in the direction of his fellow guitarist, who was sitting with his back to her, somewhat violently stabbing the eggs on his plate, clearly not in the best of moods.

But, again, she didn’t care, and she tried to communicate exactly how much she wasn’t concerned about it by simply ignoring her friend’s little implication and heading right on over to the coffee machine.

“How’s it going, Matt?” she asked as she poured herself a cup, turning and leaning against the counter as she sent a glance in the alpha’s direction. He seemed tense, which obviously made complete sense when they were all about to go and talk to the record label about a record they’d been delaying releasing for a while now. Not to mention the fact that there was the constant threat of an attack from her brother to try and be prepared for.

“It’s... going,” was all the larger man offered in response, rolling one of his shoulders as he continued reading the paper in front of him.

She nodded in understanding. “I was thinking about shooting a few hoops later, if you wanted to join me,” she added after taking a moment to sip from the glass, doing her best to pretend not to notice the little glances both the lead guitarist and the bassist were sending between she and her mate. “I think I owe you a game of around the world?”

The vocalist took a moment to respond, glancing up from the paper at her for a moment before letting his gaze, too, trail over to the beta male and then back up to her. “That sounds right,” he confirmed, though he didn’t sound particularly interested in collecting on that in the near future. She didn’t blame him; she’d promised him the game weeks ago. “I don’t...” he started, before cutting himself off and rolling a shoulder again. “Maybe after we get back, sure. Unless something more important comes up, of course.”

He was looking right back at her moody little mate again, his hazel eyes widening and narrowing with whatever nonverbal little conversation the two of them were having. And, of course, those eyes of his slipped right back up to look at her, his lips pulling into a forced little smile as they did. It wasn’t hard for her to connect those dots, and the second she did, she was sighing and making her way out of the room, deciding that she’d hold off on the whole breakfast thing until the rest of them were out of the house and not around to sit there and judge her.

It wasn’t enough the Brian had been hounding her for months, but Johnny had to go and try to play the do-it-for-the-pack card, and now Matt was making pointed little glances and who knew what exactly had gone down in the conversation he’d had with Zacky the night before. Obviously something had been said, and obviously none of the bullshit was going to go away until something more was said. By her.

Fine. She’d talk to her fucking mate.