Praise Me [BL] COMPLETED

Chapter 23

"He's not waking up."

"Should we get the spray bottle?"

"No, that's mean." I swatted at Caesar's arm when he went to get up. He mumbled a small 'fine' and leaned over Morgan's unmoving body.

"Morgan." He lightly jostled his body but there was no movement. "He's always like this. He gets up just fine on his own but if someone tries and wakes him up, he's dead to the world."

I poked his leg repeatedly, not brave enough to jostle his body like Caesar. I felt a little bad even waking him up, he looked oddly peaceful with his face stuffed into the pillow.

We both froze when Morgan groaned and slowly turned his head. His hair was covering his face but I could make out his eyes opening, hooded and heavy with sleep. "What?" He mumbled tiredly, barely audible in the silent room.

Caesar carded a hand through Morgan's hair and brushed it away from his face. "We made dinner."

Morgan dragged his eyes over to me before slowly sitting up. He stared at nothing for far too long while Caesar lightly scratched at his scalp.

He reminded me of a cat when he leaned over and sprawled across my lap. His eyes slipped back closed as he pressed his face into my stomach. "I'm tired." It was muffled and slurred but I still patted his head in understanding.

"C'mon." Caesar pulled on his shirt and it was just then that I noticed what he was wearing. It would've been nothing unusual on someone else, but seeing him wear such an oversized shirt was new. Judging from the size and light pink shade, it was Caesar's.

After Caesar somehow managed to drag him out of bed, I mentally cooed at how he was basically swimming in it as it reached down to his thighs.

Morgan blinked slowly and stared at us for a few, long seconds. "Nice aprons." And then he was walking out of the room, leaving us as he followed the smell of food.

He seemed a little more awake as he inspected the food. "You made this?" Caesar nodded and Morgan reached up to ruffle his hair. "Good job."

"Harrison helped me~ He made the sauce."

"Yeah?" Morgan reached over to me and ruffled my hair too. I leaned into the touch and silently basked in his attention. "When did you get here?"

"Not that long ago. Declan left like an hour ago and then we made-"

He suddenly looked wide awake. "Declan was here?"

Caesar nodded while dishing the food out onto three separate plates. "Yeah, I got in trouble. He brought a baseball bat, babe."

"For me?!"

"I still don't know what he was gonna do with it." He shrugged while I looked at him incredulously. Why else would he have brought it.

"He's not actually mad at you." I told Morgan. "He's just pretending to be to scare you. He said it was funny."

"Funny?" He plopped down in a stool. "I've been paranoid for the last two days because it was funny?"

"It was a little cute to see you hiding behind all those trash cans." Caesar commented.

"Declan's scary when he's mad. I couldn't take any chances." Morgan defended and peered over at me. "Are you sure he's not mad?"

I nodded while chewing on a piece of steak. "He already scolded Caesar."

"You told him we're all dating?"

"Um," my head tilted, "kind of? He saw us kissing at school and figured out we were dating so I just assumed he would think me and Caesar were too. But I guess not, when I told him on the car ride here, he got kind of mad."

Caesar nodded in agreement. "He threatened to shove my balls so far up my ass that they'd come out of my mouth. He told me to pass that along to you too~"

"That's not even possible."

"You're gonna tell him that?" Caesar raised an eyebrow and Morgan quickly shook his head, hair swishing this way and that.

After dinner, Morgan didn't comment on the somewhat overdone beef, instead choosing to praise us for our efforts. "I'll clean up." He shooed me away when I went to wash the dirtied plates.

"But-"

"You helped make dinner, it's fine." He took the plates from me and sunk them in the sink to wash. Judging from the way Caesar was leaning against the counter, this was normal for them.

While Morgan was scrubbing at the few dishes left, his hair kept falling in his face. He blew the strands away but they fell back only seconds later.

Caesar watched him for a moment, amused by his frustrated sigh, before moving behind him with a hair tie around his wrist. "Why do you even sleep with your hair down? It gets tangled every time." He tied his hair back in a low pony tail before kissing his head.

Morgan tipped his head back and pursed his lips, humming contently after Caesar dipped down to peck his lips. "I just forget." He turned the faucet off and dried his hands on the small towel hanging from the cabinet.

He eyed the apron still tied around my waist, "You look cute," before turning to Caesar expectantly. "Where's my apron?"

Caesar gestured to the few bags still on the counter. "In one of those bags."

While Morgan dug around in the bags, I took my apron off and held it out to Caesar. "You bought three?"

"Of course." He took it and threw it in a random drawer along with his. "You come over all the time." My mind felt fuzzy knowing they were thinking about me even when I wasn't with them. It was something simple yet made me feel light in the best ways.

Morgan hummed in agreement. "You should just move in." I felt my mind go blank. Move in?

Caesar nudged Morgan. "That's not how we talked about asking him." They talked about it??

"'Cause you think about it too much, babe. We're not proposing." He held up the pink apron. "Why do you buy everything in pink?"

"Because I like it." He grabbed the apron from Morgan and put it away with the others. "And still, look at him, you can't just say it so casually."

Morgan looked over at me while I stared at nothing blankly. "You okay?" He reached over and touched my forehead. "Wow, great job, Caesar. You broke him."

"I broke him?"

Morgan cupped my cheeks and tilted my head up. "Was that too sudden, baby?" When I didn't answer, he patted Caesar's stomach. "Ask him your way." Move in? Me? With them??

My ears suddenly perked. "You want me to move in with you?"

They nodded. "You don't have to answer right away. We just thought it'd be more convenient since you come over all the time anyways." Caesar explained. "And I feel a little bad that we're all dating but Morgan and I see each other a lot more."

Morgan nodded in agreement. "If you move in with us then we can spend more time together."

Not able to contain the sudden excitement coursing through me, my tail started wagging quickly. "I want to! Can I?!"

"Well we asked~" Morgan laughed softly. "You don't wanna think about it?"

I quickly shook my head. "I really want to."

Caesar ruffled my hair. "Then it's decided."

-

"Caesar-" Morgan leaned over the couch with a grocery bag in his hand, "what the f**k?"

Caesar paused the movie that we were barely paying attention to and unwound his arm from around my shoulder. "What?" He peeked inside the bag. "Oh- how did that get in there?"

I sat up from his chest while Morgan stared at him dully. "You said you were gonna put it away."

"I was but then I got over there and saw they had more."

"You bought two?"

"Hear me out-" He pulled Morgan down to whisper something against his ear. At some point, Morgan looked over to me and let out a soft hum. Finally, Caesar pulled away and grinned at him. "See, you like the idea."

"Whatever." He mumbled. "I'm going to shower."

"Don't act like you don't~"

"Yeah, yeah." He waved off and padded away to their room, surely to shower.

Caesar wrapped his arm around my shoulder again and pulled me over so I was laying against his chest. "What did you buy?"

"Underwear." My lips formed a small 'o' in understanding while he unpaused the movie.

It had only been a few minutes, but I already lost interest in the movie. Caesar didn't seem much better, he was scrolling through his phone with his other hand while mindlessly toying with the neck of my sweater. It gradually slid down until my shoulder was exposed.

My brain was still trying to wrap itself around the idea of moving in with them. It still didn't feel real that they even asked me. I've thought about it now and then but never gave it any real consideration since I was living with Declan and his girlfriend. I never thought they'd ask me so easily either, as if it weren't a big deal.

Maybe to them it wasn't, since they've been living together for so long, but I've only ever lived with Declan. Even growing up, when Declan was old enough to raise me, he did. Our parents got a divorce early on and never really understood their role in shared custody.

Declan would be the one to wake me up for school with breakfast ready on the table. He was the one to help me with my homework even though he had his own to do. He would pay for all my school fees with the money he got from his part time job and brought me home dinner every night even if he was exhausted. It must've been hard for him, only a few years older, to take on the role of parent at such a young age.

Our parents would give us money now and then and I thought that, that was enough at the time. I didn't realize until a while later that they basically abandoned raising us when they thought that Declan was old enough to do it for them. Still, I kept all the cards they sent me on my birthday. Even if the 'I love you' signed at the bottom didn't hold any weight, it was enough since they'd given me so little.

My head tilted up when Caesar lightly pressed his fingers against my jaw. "What're you so lost in thought about?"

I shook my head. "Nothing important."