Chapter Text
BDubs awoke with a splitting headache and aching joints and groaned internally. He’d spent the night alone in his tree dome, planning to take down the banners left by La Revolution in the morning, but right now all he wanted to do was lay in bed and sleep for a year.
He sat up and the room started spinning. He ignored it in favor of standing and immediately found himself on the floor. Great. Love that. He pushed himself up, slower this time, and only almost collapsed in a heap. Perfect.
He started breaking banners with one hand, keeping his other on the wall to keep his balance. He had to stop every now and again to cough, blinking away black spots in his vision. He was leaning against the wall, seriously considering falling to the floor just so it'd stop moving when he heard someone clearing their throat behind him.
He turned to see who was there, finding Etho standing directly behind him. He stopped, focusing on his face. "You feeling okay? You look… a bit unsteady." He scoffed, which threw him into a coughing fit. Etho moved closer, placing a hand on his back and he waved him off.
"I'm fine, Etho, really."
"Oh, yeah, you've convinced me. Maybe you should take it easy for a couple days, have Doc check it out?"
"I told you, I'm fine, I can take care of myself!" Etho took another cautious step towards him, raising his hands.
"I never said you couldn't, I just thought…" He huffed at him, turning away. He'd find something else to do today.
"Well, you thought wrong. I'm fine, I can handle it. Love you, see you later, have fun." He took a couple steps and had to stop, falling against the wall. He heard Etho's voice coming closer, but the words weren't clear. He took a moment to wonder why the floor was rising before there were arms around him and the world was dark.
He was curled up under something soft and warm, surrounded by comforting pressure and darkness. He'd almost say he was comfortable if everything didn't hurt so much.
He cracked one eye open, looking around the room. He was laying in the middle of Doc's nest, and it was dark outside. At least the world wasn't spinning so fast anymore.
He slowly pushed the blanket off himself, shivering as the cold air hit him. He clumsily extracted himself from the tangle of limbs to leave the nest. He didn't need to be coddled, he could take care of himself just fine.
He tried to step over the edge of the nest only to trip, legs tangling in a blanket and sending him crashing to the floor. He somehow managed to hit his head hard against the wall on his way down and ended up in a crumpled pile, curled in a ball and clutching his head.
He heard something shuffling behind him, then hushed voices. A careful pair of hands cradled his head, tracing over the growing lump with gentle fingers and he flinched. There were more voices, then another pair of hands were holding him in place as the first pair pressed down harder and he thrashed against them with a cry.
"Shhh, it's okay sweetheart, I know it hurts but you need to let Doc help you or you'll just make it worse." He tried to shove the hands away, get them off, anything to make them stop. “Bubs, please- Etho, can you give me a hand here?” A third pair of hands wrapped around his wrists, pulling them away from his head as he started sobbing.
“Void, I hate this.” The voice sounded upset, and he wanted to apologize, he didn’t want to be a burden, he just wanted the pain to stop. “He’s hurting, and scared, and confused and the only thing we can do is hold him down.” There was something wet being pressed against his head and he stopped struggling, giving up as the first pair of hands quickly brushed a cold liquid over his head, stinging at first before giving way to a warm, pleasant numbness.
"There, that should feel a little better. Think you can drink the rest of this for me?" Rest of what? There was something pressing against his lips and he opened his eyes, finding Doc holding a potion bottle. He took a careful sip as Beef pulled him into his lap, propping him against his chest. Doc insisted on a few more sips before pulling the bottle away, climbing back into the nest, followed closely by Etho. He felt himself being lifted before he was placed between them, three pairs of hands carefully smoothing his hair back and rubbing circles into his back.
“Bubs? There a reason you tried to get up? It’s the middle of the night, even if you weren’t obviously sick you should be in bed.” He huffed, hiding his face in Etho’s chest. “Bubs? Can you hear me?” He nodded, and Doc gently turned his head out and briefly shone a light in his eyes. “Pupils dilated, I think he might have a concussion. We’ll need to keep an eye on him for a bit.” Great. They were talking to each other instead of him, they thought he couldn’t take care of himself. He tried to push himself up, only to fall back onto the blankets.
Wonderful.
“Alright, just take it easy. Think you can tell us what’s wrong?” He pressed his face into one of the pillows.
“C’n take care o’ m’self.” Beef pulled him into his lap, running a hand through his hair.
“We know you can, but sometimes we like to take care of you, too.” He sighed, curling into himself.
“You don’t have to.” Doc flopped on top of him, nuzzling into his hair.
“We know.” He rolled his eyes, smiling despite himself.
“I can’t wait to marry you guys.” He looked up, finding three confused faces staring back at him.
“Don’t you think you’re jumping the gun a little, Bubs? I know we’ve talked about it, but we haven’t made anything official."
"What're you talking about? Yes we have, I asked you a couple weeks ago, on date night."
"No, you didn't. You cooked, and set the table all fancy, but you never proposed." Shit.
“Oh, void dammit, I knew I was forgetting something- Hey guys, wanna get married?” They stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Oh, that’s real encouraging.” Etho tried to get his laughter under control, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“We’re sorry Bubs, it’s just- you’re half-concussed, trying to be romantic, acting like you don’t already have our hearts on a string.” He chuckled softly, curling up against Beef’s chest. “If you’ll still have us after that, then yes. Let’s get some sleep, we can plan tomorrow.” All three of them pulled him close, and he let sleep pull him in.