Ezra woke before everyone else, covered in a cold sweat. He gasped for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath. He was with the men he had recently married, not Rick. Not Rick ever again. He couldn't. Not anymore. The man was unstable, to stay the least. He shifted Holly's arm off of him, trying not to wake him up. Holly went easily enough, turning around and tangling himself around Giovanni instead. Holly was probably used to being untangled from people in the morning. He didn't seem to wake up particularly early. Leo had already let go of him some time during the night and that just left him to unwind from Dimitri.

 

He tried to tug Dimitri's arm from over his body, but instead, just got a muffled, protesting groan and suddenly, he was no longer on top. Dimitri rolled on him and buried his face against his neck.

 

Ezra smiled slightly, but he really needed to get up. He nudged the tall man, trying to get him to roll over the other way, but he just got another protesting rumble before Dimitri's eyes cracked, the feeling of his eyelashes brushing against Ezra's neck making him squirm. Dimitri raised his head, some strands of hair that had escaped from his braid falling in front of his eyes.

 

"Good morning," he mumbled.

 

Ezra smiled back. "Good morning to you too, Sunshine."

 

"I though-" Dimitri yawned widely before continuing. "I thought I was Darkness."

 

Ezra grinned. "Not this early."

 

"Why're you 'wake? Go back t' sleep."

 

Ezra smiled gently. "I need to get up big boy."

 

"No you don't." Dimitri buried his face in his shoulder.

 

Ezra laughed softly and nudged him. "Bathroom. And I need a shower."

 

Dimitri sighed gustily but finally rolled back over. “Fine.”

 

"Thank you, sunshine," he said with a small laugh.

 

He got up, trying once again not to disturb the other men and crawled to the edge of the bed before crawling off. As soon as he was free, Dimitri rolled into the warm spot left by him and curled up to Holly.

 

Ezra smiled softly at the picture they made and looked around the room. The first door he tried was the closet, but he got it right the second time and stepped into a spotless, almost glimmering bathroom. He looked around, spotting the towel rack and everything he needed. He sighed and relieved himself before he wandered into the shower. The first jet of extremely cold water woke him up and got rid of the cobwebs in his head but it quickly warmed to a more palatable temperature. He turned in the spray and then turned the water up and grabbing the loofah. He covered it in a generous amount of soap and started scrubbing. The sweat from the last few days was washed away quickly, the dirt from the first beating following quickly, but the tacky and dried blood took a moment longer. He scrubbed at his arm, from where it had been scraped up by the ground so hard that he took off the scab that had formed. The blood started again, turning the water pale pink where it swirled to the drain.

 

He stared at his bleeding arm, noting that the water was cooling down again and turned the water off. He stepped out, onto the soft, luxurious rug and packed toilet paper against his arm. He reached for the towel with his free one and dried himself off. He couldn't manage to wipe himself off as harshly as he wanted with the soft towel, but it was enough to wipe the water away at least and the press of his hand made the bruises ache fiercely.

 

He stared at the dirty and grimy clothing in the pile on the floor. He needed new clothing. He couldn’t… He couldn’t put that stuff back on. He kicked them towards the trash and wrapped the towel around his waist. He limped to the door and shoved it open, going past the bed of sleeping men as quietly as he could. He was lucky they were all deep sleepers, especially Leo. He closed Dimitri’s bedroom door quietly behind him and made his slow way down stairs. God, he was stiff today. Every movement pulled at one of his bruises, at least.

 

He was just stepping onto flat ground again, his ribs screaming at him by this point, when Ginger rounded the corner from the living room, happily prattling at Malachi and Rylan who were flanking her.

 

Her chatter cut off abruptly when she caught sight of Ezra and her eyes rounded dramatically. “Oh honey.”

 

She rushed forward and caught his arm.

 

“I’m fine,” he ground out.

 

She snorted. “I’m sure. Why don’t you actually tell me what’s wrong so I don’t have to waste energy finding out.” She guided him towards the guest bedroom again, pressing him down to the bed. Rylan and Malachi trailed behind her.

 

He sighed and laid down properly, wincing in relief when his ribs stopped hurting quite so badly for the first time in days.

 

He glanced at his husbands and then stared up at the ceiling. “The bruises. And he cracked a rib. Maybe two.”

 

Ginger pressed a hand to his bare stomach gently. “Or more. Head injuries?”

 

“I don’t think so. I didn’t really hit my head. He just punched my face a lot.”

 

She pressed a hand to his bruised, swollen cheek and frowned at Rylan. “You should have gotten ice on this before now.”

 

Rylan winced. “It didn’t look that bad before.”

 

Ginger glared at him.

 

“It was dark!”

 

“And his hair was covering that side of his face,” Malachi said softly, frowning at Ezra. “You said you didn’t need a hospital.”

 

Ezra stared at the ceiling. “Rick’s my emergency contact. And basically my health insurance.”

 

“We’re changing that,” Rylan growled. “Today.”

 

“No, Ezra is staying in this house and laying flat on his back today. I can’t mend his ribs right away but I can set a healing spell on them that’ll do the trick if he stays still for the next few days.”

 

Malachi nodded and when Ezra moved to object, he covered his mouth with his hand. ”We’ll make sure.”

 

Ginger scowled at him. “No manhandling though to make him stay. Be gentle.”

 

Malachi scowled back at her. “Of course.”

 

“Okay then. Move away or get out of the way or whatever.”

 

Malachi shifted away but just moved to the foot of the bed and rested a large hand over Ezra’s bare shin.

 

Rylan stayed leaning in the doorway, frowning heavily.

 

“This is going to hurt,” Ginger warned. “Healing broken bones is painful.”

 

Ezra nodded, closing his eyes. He wasn’t expecting how much it hurt though and arched up at the burst of pain, biting back a curse so it turned into a muffle moan.

 

Ginger pushed him back down, one hand at his shoulder.

 

“One down. Hold his waist,” she ordered to no one in particular.

 

Rylan was the one who moved forward to pin his hips to the bed.

 

The second made him groan again and buck against their hands, but the faes’ strength held him down.

 

“One more broken and another cracked.”

 

The third had been swearing loudly. After the first three, the fourth just made him whimper a little and the fading pain from his stomach area made him realize his shoulder now hurt.

 

He took a few panting breaths and then waved at it with his other arm. “Hurts,” he mumbled.

 

She checked it and sighed. “And you’re arm is now out of it’s socket. We actually probably just did that, although I’m sure the beating made it weaker. Ry, hold his chest.”

 

Ezra squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth. He knew what was coming at least this time. The wrench was just as painful as he remembered and the pop of his arm sliding back into it’s socket just as sickening. The gentle warmth healing the pain was new though and he cracked open his eyes and saw Ginger was once again in a healing trance.

 

He sighed in relief and relaxed.

 

Rylan grinned down at him and patted his upper thigh. His bare upper thigh. The towel had fallen off. He flushed and reached down with his non-recently healed arm and yanked the towel back up to cover him. Rylan’s grin widened and Ezra glanced down to see Malachi pale and very carefully looking the other way. He seemed to feel Ezra’s eyes on him because he glanced at him, down to the towel, back up to his face and then smiled as well, looking relieved.

 

“You have a concussion,” Ginger announced. “You’re dehydrated. And there’s… something else. Did he give you anything?” she asked, coming out of her healing trance to frown at him.

 

“I- yeah. I think it was a sedative.”

 

She frowned. “He’s lucky it didn’t have any negative side effects. I’m going to fix everything I can and then put you under. It should last about a twelve hours and will give the healing spell some time. After that, move as little as possible for another forty-eight. After that you can start moving around again, but be careful of your head and ribs for about a weak, yeah? Oh, and sleep and eat regularly and drink a lot of water. No booze.”

 

He nodded and she glanced at the two men. “You two got it too?”

 

They both nodded and she turned to Ezra, pressing a hand to his forehead. “Now sleep.” He was out in an instant.