Only Us

Chapter 8

Mark stumbled awake. "...Uhmmm..." He grumbled as his eyes fully opened to see him cuddled up with his older brother. "Uh..." Mark's paws led him back to his part of the den and pretended to be busy.

A few moments after Mark had awaken, Caden had finally woke. His fur all matted, he yawned and shook out his fur. "Hmm..." Eyes moving to glance towards Mark, he could see a little bit of guilt on his face. Like... Something was off with him, but he didn't want to comment. "...Hey, g'morning bro..."

The younger brother whipped his body around and smiled awkwardly. "Oh, hey..." Mark paused. "I-"

Caden realized that his fur smelt like not only Redina, who was still sleeping, but Mark as well. "Hm? Were you... Cuddling with me?" He asked, a grin slowly appearing on his face.

"What?!" Mark sounded like he didn't know what his eldest brother was accusing him of, but deep inside, he was embarrassed. "What makes you think I would do that?" His face started flushing.

"Hahaha you were!" Caden laughed and pranced around in triumph. "Dude I would never expect that from you!"

His mouth opened to protest, but his mind wandered to somewhere else. Somewhere about Redina. "Hey..." Mark started as he looked at Redina with concern. "Is she getting any better?" He asked slowly.

"Well, I can't tell just yet." Caden looked back at Redina, who appeared to just start to wake up. A smile crept across his face as he padded up to her.

"...Alright." Mark looked at Redina, who appeared to look sickly and tired. 'Is she ok?' He questioned in his mind. His brain just knocked him in the head and just told himself it was a pregnancy thing. And yet he still felt bad for her.

Caden looked down at her. "You good?" He asked. His eyes flickered and could tell that she wasn't the greatest she's ever been, and felt sympathetic for Redina.

"Oofta, yes I'm ok." She shook out her long, glossy pelt and looked up at Caden. Redina then started to smile, like she didn't know what state her body was in. "I wanna go on a walk!" She snuffed.

Caden snickered slightly. He slowly craned his neck around to look back at Mark. "I hope you don't mind if we take off to walk around..." his mind wandered slightly though, almost as if he was slowly, but surely, drifting off into the space in his own mind.

"Well, I guess you could. It's not like anyone's coming around anytime soon." But Mark's mind kept drifting away, back to when he was cuddling with his brother. His chest tightened slightly at the thought, embarrassment running loose in his mind. He snapped into the real world. "Yeah, feel free to leave, I can watch the den while you two are gone."

"M'kay, thanks!" Redina sparked a very happy smile as her tail intertwined with Caden's as they walked out of the mouth of den.

Mark smile turned into a more depressive expression as they faded out of sight. He sighed slightly. "I wonder how he found out..."

"Hey Redina." Cadenpaw grabbed her attention. "Something... odd happened before you woke up..."

Redina looked up and cocked her head to the side. "Oh? Well what happened..?" Her eyes looked into his. She felt an awkward aura coming from Caden, but she continued to sit quietly.

Looking both confused and embarrassed he spoke. "While we were sleeping, apparently Mark started to sleep with us. I busted him this morning."

Redina's expression became mediocre. "Seriously? That's it? You're such a doof, y'know that...?" She batted him in a playful manner.

"Pssh, not as much as you." He stuck his tongue out in a mocking, yet lighthearted manner. "But it was odd, since it's not like him to do that."

In mid eye-roll, Redina spoke. "I've seen that. He's very... rebellious..."