***

Damon unceremoniously slammed his face into Jun's pecs, much to Jun's confusion. He patted Damon's hair consolingly, the dear lamb, despite not having any clue why Damon would be so distressed. One, Jun had never met Damon's parents and didn't know anything about them. And two, he didn't know what Damon had done at the gala, and he didn't know that Damon's ex-boyfriend was the pack leader's son.

So, he would have no idea that a phone call from Damon's parents, about the gala, was likely to be them yelling at Damon for insulting their friends.

Damon had just sucked Jun off no less than five minutes ago. He didn't really want to talk to his parents right now.

But Mark was waiting. And if Damon blew them off now, the consequences would be worse later. So with a groan, he reluctantly sat up, Jun following him. As Damon put his pants back on – he hadn't even noticed that Jun had left them off, the sneaky boy – and rolled off the bed, Jun stuck to him like his shadow, going so far as to hook a finger into one of Damon's belt loops like he was afraid he was going to get lost. Damon looked over his shoulder at him. Jun blinked back innocently.

Damn that face of his.

Damon let Jun tag along and opened the door, ignoring Mark's blush as he looked from Damon and his disheveled clothing to Jun hulking behind him like a big, considerably more dangerous, teddy bear. He handed Damon his cell phone and quickly made himself scarce.

He took a deep breath, steeling himself, and put the phone up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Damon?" his mother said – her tone thankfully less angry than it was worried. "Honey, what happened? Hailey just called me – distraught – and I – "

Damon sucked in a breath. "Mom, don't worry about it. We just had a little disagreement. Can I tell you about it later?"

"Well – alright," his mother said, sounding rather confused and on the verge of being upset. "Honey, she said you were mean to Malachi. I know you two broke up, but that's all in the past, right? I bet you probably got worked up over something and didn't mean it, so just stop in and apologize sometime, okay? For me?"

Damon only barely stopped his jaw from dropping. Him? He was mean to Malachi? What, are they in the third fucking grade?

And in what universe was he the bad guy here?

"Damon?" his mom prompted again. "That new boy that's courting you didn't tell you to hurt Malachi's feelings out of jealousy, right?"

Damon choked. He spluttered for what felt like a full minute, determinedly ignoring Jun's hot stare on the side of his face. He thought he could see Jun mouth 'new boy' in bewilderment out of the corner of his eye. "No – mom, what are you talking about?"

"When I talked to Hailey, she was too upset, but she mumbled something about the new boy changing you. Sweetie, if that boy is trying to make you do something, kick him to the curb, okay? I never told you this, but when you told me and your father you were in a new courtship, I wasn't really on board. It's your life, sweetie, but I really think Malachi was the right one for you. You were so happy with him – "

It was at this point that there was a terrifying crack and Damon flinched, looking over to see that Jun's other hand, which he had been resting against the doorframe, was now embedded into the wood – his fingers had pierced right through it. Damon stared at the splintered wood blankly.

"Damon? Damon – "

"Huh?" Damon mumbled into the phone. His mother had been calling him for a while now.

"I heard a noise. Is everything alright?"

Damon swallowed hard, tearing his eyes away from the damaged doorframe. "Uh, yeah – listen, I have to go, so –"

"Oh, alright, but do apologize, Damon, alright? The Reynes have always been good friends to us, I don't like the idea of them mad at us. I'll talk to you later, sweetie."

She hung up.

And left Damon with an in-heat alpha who was incensed enough to be able to pierce through solid wood with one hand. Great. Alright. There's nothing for it. He just had to turn around.

Slowly, he turned his head to see Jun's expression. Even though Jun's hand was now buried in splinters, his other hand, tucked in Damon's belt loop, remaining loose, as if he couldn't even bear to grip too hard on Damon's clothes. As if he was afraid he would splinter Damon too.

Jun's head was bowed, staring at the floor. Damon couldn't tell what he was thinking. "...Jun?" he called softly.

Jun didn't look up, but he did slowly drag his hand out of the wall, dust and bits of wood falling to the floor as he did. Damon sighed softly. It was time to have that talk wasn't it.

The exes talk. At the very least, Damon had to clarify that the Reynes were apparently either dramatically blowing a misunderstanding out of proportion, or Hailey had lied to Damon's mother and told her Jun was responsible for Damon's behavior, which of course, was simply not true.

It was her awful, piece of shit son that was responsible. So Damon grabbed Jun's wrist – his hand was, strangely, not even scratched – and led him back over to the bed. He lightly pushed Jun down by the shoulders until he was sitting and scrubbed his hands over his face. This conversation...was going to take a while.

Suddenly, Damon had a really terrible idea. But hey, why not make one more bad decision tonight?

"Jun," he started, "can I sleep over?"

That got his attention. His head shot up – a trace of subdued misery quickly fading from his gaze as disbelief replaced it, followed closely by joy. He nodded frantically.

Damon couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Not for that. We have to talk about some stuff and it's late. Plus, I really want to shower, and I don't want to walk home like this. Is that okay?"

Jun's gaze softened and he nodded, slowly wrapping his big hands around Damon's, comparatively tiny, waist, rubbing slightly. "I'll get you some clothes." He stood to go to the dresser and Damon silently let out a breath, relaxing a bit. Now all he had to do was send home Mark, Ava, and Paul – who had just heard some very indecent things coming from this room – shower, and try to tell Jun about the Malachi chronicles without him destroying any other parts of his own apartment.

Easy peasy...ugh.