His forehead just felt tired from the heat of the bed and his slumber. He set his aching neck down again, his body relaxing as he sighed. "I'll get up soon. I'm just really tired, I guess."
Lily barked softly at Cameron, nosing him again with her wet, cold nose. Cameron grumbled and gently pushed it away.
“Just stay in bed. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself and the pups,” Ava tells him with a soft sigh. “Lily, Kreja, do you two want your breakfast?” Smiling at the dogs, she gestures for them to get off of the bed and to come with her.
Cameron shook his head. "I'll be up soon–" He got interrupted by Lily hopping down off of the bed with soft barks. She ran in small circles around Ava, still barking and wagging her tail.
"Oh, Lily, stop," Cameron snapped at the dog, waving a hand down at her. The dog stopped promptly.
"Cameron, don't get a tone with her." Ava fixes him with a glare. The poor dog didn't deserve to be snapped at. "Just stay in bed. The dogs and I will be fine by ourselves. I'll bring you something to eat in a few minutes." Reaching down, she pets both Lily and Kreja on their heads.
"If she's being loud, I have to stop her. She knows better." He glared a little at the dog, who was panting innocently, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Her tail thumped on the ground at the mention of food.
"Come on, pups." She waves the dogs out of the room. "I'll be back in ten minutes. Try to be in a better mood," She tells him, scowling. Despite her lack of cooking skills, she's determined to make him something edible so he won't have to come down the stairs.
Cameron just growled faintly as he relaxed back down into his bed, already dropping off into a snooze.
Lily thumped down the steps, barking excitedly, her tail wagging wildly. She barked for Kreja to join.
Ava rolls her eyes at him before exiting the room and heading down the stairs. Stepping into the kitchen, she gathers up the dog bowls and puts in the appropriate about of food before setting them on the ground. “Do you two think I could manage cooking eggs?” She asks the dogs, rummaging through the fridge.
Kreja leaps off of the bed and scurries after Lily. He slides across the floors in the kitchen, ending up slamming into the counter. Tail wagging like crazy, he starts to devour his food.
Lily carefully stayed near Ava, her tail slapping her knee as the bowl of food was set down. She started to gobble it right up, her tail somehow wagging harder when Kreja joined them in the kitchen.
Lily tilted her head up when she finished her food, sitting down near Ava's feet when she got started.
Ava pulls a carton of eggs, butter, and milk out of the fridge. “Let’s hope that I don’t burn the kitchen down,” She chuckles, setting the items on the counter before grabbing a pan, a bowl, a fork, and a spatula. This seems about right. She carefully cracks three eggs into the bowl, getting a few small pieces of shells in there. She then adds a little salt, pepper, and milk as she stirs the mixture up with the fork. “Time for the real challenge,” She mutters as she pours the eggs into the pan. Five minutes later, nothing is on fire and the fire have been successfully cooked. They’re a little burnt and crunchy but she did pretty good for her standards. She starts heading up the stairs, the plate of eggs in one hand and a glass of water in the other.
Kreja gobbles all of his food down before trotting over to Lily and sniffing at her ears, his tail still wagging. The sight of his owner cooking is baffling but he’s still happy to beg for scraps.
Lily watched her cook, sitting there as if standing guard for something bad. When Kreja joined her as Ava walked up the steps, she stood to her paws, her tail wagging rapidly at the kiss. She leaned forward and returned it, barking softly.
When Ava entered Cameron's bedroom, the man stirred faintly, raising his head only a couple inches before plopping it back down with an exhausted yawn. He was too tired to even breathe without dozing. What happened to him?
Ava steps into the bedroom and moves over to the bed. When she sees the state that Cameron is in, she frowns deeply. She’s never seen him like this before and it’s worrying. “I brought you some eggs and water. The eggs are actually edible. Mostly,” She tells him, setting the plate and cup down on the nightstand. “How are you feeling?”
Kreja’s entire body wiggles as he wags his tail. He licks Lily’s cheek several times before playfully nudging her and bounding up the stairs.
Cameron grunted, peeking open an eye to the eggs as they got set down. "Looks like they're overcooked. Could you bring me some ketchup?" He asked, sounding careworn as he sat up slowly, his entire body screaming in protest. He ignored it and just stretched out his legs and arms.
Lily ducked down into a play position, then bounded up after Kreja. Her tail wagged fierecely, almost slapping Kreja a couple times.
"Just be happy that I made you something instead of letting you starve." Ava rolls her eyes at him. "Yeah, I'll be back in a second." Ketchup on eggs sounds less than appealing but it's not like she's the one who has to eat it. She exits the room and heads down stairs. After a few minutes, she returns with a bottle of ketchup.
Kreja barrels into his owner's bedroom and flings himself onto the bed. He barks several times and play bows, overly excited.
Cameron ignored her sassy comment and took a long slug of his drink. When she came back, he finished the drink and set it down with another small yawn, looking up and accepting the ketchup.
"Thanks. You fed the dogs, right?"
Lily barked and flew after him, her tail doing anything but stopping as she flung herself after Kreja, barreling all of her weight onto him.
“Trust me, I wouldn’t forget the feed the dogs. I might forget to feed you but I could never forget about those babies,” Ava tells him with a nod. Besides, the dogs would bark and pitch a fit if she didn’t feed them. “Now eat your overcooked eggs and ketchup.”
Kreja hits the bed with a slight yelp. The other dog is bigger than him so being tackled hurts a little. He grabs onto Lily’s ear and playfully tugs at it.
Cameron just grunted again, squeezing a small amount of ketchup onto the egg and stirring it up with a soft sigh.
"I will, then. I'll bring down the plate and clean anything I need to." He put the fork into his mouth, chewing and thinking about it. "Needs more salt, but otherwise it's fine. You just need more practice."
Lily whimpered at his whine but immedately shifted back into play mode, hopping around Ava's bed excitedly, her tail slapping the metal poles.
“No. You’re going to stay in bed today. I’ll drop off some food whenever you need it but other than that, I’m staying downstairs with the dogs,” Ava says sternly. There’s way she’s going to get sick because he decided to prance around the house instead of staying in quarantine.
Kreja scrambles across the bed, completely messing up the sheets. He barks several times, overly excited.
"No, I'm not staying in bed today. I just bled out too much. I'm fine," He stubbornly growled. He didn't like her questioning how confident he was with his body. Especially after missions. If he picked up something from those disgusting gang members, she would have gotten it too. They just cut him up a good bit, which made his body give out too much blood.
Lily hared after him, barking just as loud in return, crouching down on her front paws playfully, her butt jutted up in the air in an invitation to play.
“Don’t be such a baby, Cameron. Keep your sorry ass in bed. If ya bled out too much then ya need to rest.” She places her hands on her hips and stares him down. “Pain in my ass,” She mutters to herself, shaking her head. This is why she preferred to work alone. She didn’t have to worry about anyone bleeding out and she only had to care for herself and Kreja.
Kreja pounces on Lily, playfully pulling her tail. He sniffs at her ears before lunching off of the bed and tearing down the hall. The dog barrels into Cameron’s bedroom, barking loudly as he jumps on the bed.
"I'm a pain in your ass?" Cameron asked with an annoyed tone in his voice as he ate another forkful of egg. He went to continue, only to be interrupted by Kreja and Lily flinging their bodies into his bed and against him. He grunted as heavy Lily thrust herself against him, shouldering her off and setting down his plate.
"You two seriously need to relax," He huffed at them irritably, taking one hell of a tone with them.
“Yes, you’re a huge pain in my ass,” Ava tells him, unfazed by the fact that he hears her. Upon seeing the dogs, she can’t help but snicker. “Come on, babies, leave grandpa alone.” If she wasn’t so amused by the dogs then she’d smack Cameron for taking that tone with them.
Kreja bounces on top of Cameron and licks his face a few times before jumping off of the bed. He hasn’t stopped barking for a second.
"You need to relax, too," Cameron growled at Ava, curling his legs up onto the bed with another wince as Lily crawled over him in haste to follow the barking Kreja. Cameron groaned at the noise, sitting back and hitting his head a little. If he were being honest with himself, he wouldn't have cared if it snapped his neck in two and killed him right there, just to put him out of his misery.
“Oh, fuck you. I am plenty relaxed.” Ava glares daggers at him. “Kreja, Lily, quiet down.” The barking is just increasing in volume so she needs to put a stop to it. She digs into her pocket and pulls out a deck of cards. “There. Play Solitaire or something to entertain yourself.”
Kreja slides to a stop when he’s basically told to shut up. He huffs quietly in disappointment.
"Yeah, fuck your cards." He waved his hands, denying them in probably the most polite way he could as he was in throbbing pain all over his body. "I'll just watch TV and sleep like the sick man you think I am." He huffed at Lily who took a bit longer to quiet down because of how excited she was.