All good things...

Exhausted

A/N: Kind of angsty, mentioning of dubcon. Stay safe and skip the chapter if needed, the next one will be sappy and fluffy as hell!

Credits for the lack of grammar and spelling errors belong as usual to rainbowsraging! Thank you so much!

Scott can't remember ever being this tired. Or exhausted. That's the correct word. His brain feels foggy and slow and every single bone in his body is screaming "don't move" at him. He wants a shower so badly, but not because he's dirty; he just needs the comfort of the hot water, the nice scents. And then the comfort of his boyfriends, snuggled against both his sides. He needs love.

Opening the door of their flat makes him sigh in relief. It's crazy how comforting their omnipresent smell is to him, even if they're not in his arms yet. He quickly turns his phone off and steps into the kitchen, where Mason is cooking and Mark is sitting on a chair chatting to him. As soon as Mason sees Scott, he seems to know that something is wrong. Of course he does, it's a natural talent which makes him the good Sir for them that he is.

"Oh Scotty, are you okay? What's wrong? Do you need cuddles?" He asks, and since there is no way for him to stop stirring in the pot - he would ruin the sauce - Mark takes over for him and pulls Scott into a tight hug.

One of the best things for Scott about being in a polyamorous relationship is that he literally receives the double amount of love. His heart has been always too big for the monogamous world he's living in, with rigid expectations of how to differentiate between friends and lovers , how romantic love and platonic love should be... He has always had too much love to love just one person. Although this is his first polyamorous relationship and he has never betrayed his previous partners, it feels right for the first time.

He is allowed to have two wonderful partners, to love and cherish them. He is allowed to love other people from the bottom of his heart in a platonic way, like he has always done with Mitch, and he knows if he comes to love another person in a romantic way - or if he is physical attracted to another person - they will find a way to accommodate it. Their relationship is about trust, not about limits.

But the disadvantage to having a heart as big as Scott's is that he needs a lot of love too. Although there is almost no way to measure these things, sometimes he feels like he will never get enough love. He needs a lot of cuddles, kisses, attention and reassurance, and he always feels like he's overburdening his partner. But now, with two of them, it works. It really works. When Mason has no hands free to cuddle him immediately, there is Mark and vice versa. It's perfect for him.

Scott relaxes inside Mark's arms and feels like he exhales for the first time in hours. He closes his eyes and becomes soft and pliant in Mark's arms. He hasn't said one word since he entered the room, but he knows that he doesn't have to. His boyfriends will take care of him no matter what.

"Alright, babes, what about taking a shower together? I need half an hour until I'm done with cooking and then we can cuddle on the couch with a movie?" Mason offers and Scott nods, still being held in Mark's arms.

"Let's take a shower, princess, I'll take care of you..." Mark suggests and tries to free himself from Scott's tight grip, chuckling when he doesn't succeed first. But after a few moments, Scott nods again and lets up his hold on Mark, grasping for his hand instead.

"Don't forget your rules, sweethearts," Mason smiles when they leave the kitchen to make their way into the bathroom. And honestly, forgetting the rules - which basically means "don't do anything more than kissing" - is the last thing on Scott's mind at the moment.

He'd never have thought that he could be too exhausted to even think of sex.

***

After dinner, Mark cleans up the kitchen while Scott and Mason take a seat on their big couch. Scott immediately snuggles into Mason's side and closes his eyes. He doesn't want to sleep, he just want to relax and not worry about anything. He can deal with problems again tomorrow, but not tonight. Tonight he wants to feel safe.