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June first noticed it two weeks after the Night Games. At the time, she didn't think much of the reflexive shiver that jerked through Maks when her and Ernest escorted Maks to the Wright's for Blended Food Fun Times.
She didn’t notice the number of times Maks stole Ernest's sweaters.
June didn’t notice until the day after Maks had gotten his jaw unwired and they were celebrating with a ridiculous amount of baked goods courtesy of Ernest.
Between chattering at Ernest and stealing bits of dough, Maks bounced around the room, waving his still casted arm as he talked. June was sitting at the table, sewing the booties together for Maks' costume.
"And you know what Zip did?" Maks asked and continued talking without a pause. "She just stuck her hand over Mal's mouth and you should have seen the look on his face. Trés Mal." He grinned at June and spotted what she was working on. "Ooooooooooh."
"Oh no you don't," June said, holding up a hand. "I can deal with your awful puns, that even Ernest thinks are bad, but the project is off limits."
"I don’t think the puns are that bad," Ernest muttered behind her.
June turned and raised an eyebrow at his back. Ernest was siding with Maks on the issue of puns? Oh boy. She opened her mouth to begin explaining why Maks' puns were the worst ever seriously, when Maks grabbed her hand.
"June, my eternal summer queeeeeeen," he sang, "You adore my wit and humor and I make your life so much brighter!" He lit up, blue sparkles everywhere and he wiggled around, gently tugging her arm back and forth.
She almost told him off before she noticed... his hands were freezing. And not just normal person temperature. Maks' hands were like blocks of ice.
June rolled her eyes to cover her worry. “Yes, yes I adore you.” Perhaps it was only his hands? A plan flashed through her mind and she dropped the booties under the table. Grabbing both of his hands, June pulled Maks closer and stood up. She tucked his hands between her stomach and her arm, trapping them with one hand and reaching up with the other.
“You are the most wonderful thing,” June said as she patted Maks’ cheek, leaving her hand there for longer than normal. Even his face was cold.
“I knew you loved me!” Maks said, leaning his face into June’s hand. In fact, he basically snuggled into it, eyes sliding closed.
That was it. Clearly he'd been hiding this and June was not going to tolerate that. Maks was hanging out with her and Ernest, for crying out loud! She made flaming creatures and Ernest was basically a walking furnace. Maks knew this. Which meant he didn't want them to notice.
Ernest cleared his throat. He looked confused, eyes darting between June and Maks.
June gave him a tight smile and tried to convey how cold Maks was with eyebrow wiggles but Ernest apparently didn't understand by the continued puppy dog look. She stared him down, ignoring Maks' halfhearted wiggling and tried to convey “we need a plan to warm up this moron”
The timer dinged and Ernest startled, almost hitting his head on a cabinet in his haste to remove the muffins. Not that it would really do anything to Ernest physically, but breaking the cabinet would probably make him upset. Then June would have to deal with a cold Maks and an upset Ernest.
Looking back at Maks, June waited to see if he was actually going to move considering how close he was to faceplanting in her chest. But he still was leaning into her hand still, eyes half closed.
June indulged in one last eye roll before taking charge. “Alright. Ernest, are you finished baking now?”
He nodded once, wiping down the counters around the cooling muffins.
“Then get your butt over into the living room, we’re watching movies,” June said, slinging her arm around Maks’ shoulders so he couldn’t wiggle off. She tugged him along and deposited him on the couch before collecting all of the blankets she could find in less than a minute. It was an impressive amount.
Maks was still sitting on the couch where she left him, looking dazed and June stopped. That was weird. Maks usually was talking no matter what.
She took the blankets and dropped them on the couch before gently cupping Maks' face and turning it towards her. "Hey, you awake in there?"
He met her eyes and blinked twice, clearly not with the program and he leaned into her hand again.
"Oooookay." June saw Ernest hovering in the doorway and motioned him over with a jerk of her head. "Can you put on The Princess Bride?"
He nodded and dropped the small plates of muffins on the end table, expression tight. June let Maks go, shoved a muffin at him and followed Ernest to the movie cubby. He had his back to her still, crouched down and was looking through the stacks very slowly.
June watched him for a few seconds before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Ernest. Maks needs us both right now."
He jerked around, eyes wide. "Wait, why? Whats going on?"
"He's cold. Too cold." June sighed. "With the weight loss, he's probably had trouble staying warm. Right now we're going to focus on that and then we're going to have a nice long talk about your feelings again."
"I don't, I mean, uh, not," Ernest stuttered before clamping his mouth shut.
June rolled her eyes again. Boys. Seriously. She hooked her hand around his bicep and tugged. "Don't think you're getting out of that. Now let's go."
Movie in hand, June and Ernest walked back to the couch to find Maks sprawled out and four of the muffins gone.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" Maks said, bolting upright and making grabby hands at the movie. "I love this movie."
June dropped onto the couch next to Maks and snagged a muffin. Operation Get Maks Warm was a go.
"So what's this movie about anyway?" Ernest said, sitting down on the other side of Maks. He looked uncertain again and June wished she could talk mind to mind because it would be so useful right now.
Before June could say anything, Maks chimed in, "I can't tell you, it wouldn't be very Wright of me."
She groaned around her mouthful of muffin. That was awful. So instead she just shoved Maks a bit, enough to push him into Ernest and pinned him there. “Quiet and watch the movie.”
“But Juuuuune,” Maks started to say before Ernest dropped a blanket on his head. He was smiling now and met June’s gaze over Maks.
“Got it” he mouthed before wrapping an arm around Maks’ shoulders, tucking him in close. He must have grabbed Maks’ hands or something and figured it out. Good. Having Maks be cold was ridiculous and they needed to fix it now.
After a few seconds of sputtering, Maks pulled the blanket off his head and arranged it over all of their laps. He was glowing slightly. “That was completely unnecessary, you know. You could have just given it to me and-“
June gave into the urge to pet Maks’ amazing hair, digging her fingers into the curls and he just melted. Like boneless, slumping down between Ernest and June, arms splayed over them. Frankly, June was surprised he didn’t start purring.
On the tv, the movie started, “You feeling any better?”
~~
There was something warm and solid under her head. A chest breathed in and out against her rib cage and June was really incredibly warm. She shifted slightly, shrugging the blankets down lower and realized there were a lot of limbs on her. Way too many to be just Ernest, whose muscle-y chest was under her head.
She cracked her eyes open and nearly jumped at how close Maks' face was. He was still asleep, his breathing slow and even. Tilting her head up, June got a look at Ernest's sleeping face before tucking her head back under his chin. It was far, far too early for her to be awake.
The memory of Maks' cold hands came back to her and she blinked her eyes open again. Extracting her arm, June laid her hand on Maks' face again. He shifted slightly into it but this time he was warm, safe and comfortable.
Their plan was a success. Now they just had to make sure Maks stayed warm and didn't pull this nonsense again. Hiding his condition from them was unacceptable especially considering they were friends. Maks and Ernest were her boys and nothing was going to keep her from protecting them.
~END~