masquerade ≠ ethan dolan

fourteen

Ethan walks quietly up behind Clover in the kitchen, both of his hands gripping her butt while he grins. She rolls her eyes, swatting his hands away.

Turning and placing a hand on her hip, "aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"Mm, no?" He says innocently. "If I'm super careful, there's no risk I'll hurt myself more!"

"But you're not exactly known for being careful," she reminds. "C'mon, just a few more days of rest."

It was just some cracked ribs, so really this was overkill, but Ethan didn't truly mind. Technically he could be walking around, doing light exercise, but she liked babying him and he definitely wasn't going to complain.

"Poor Ethan," Grayson snorts as Ethan pouts, wandering into the kitchen. "Having to stay in bed all day, being taken care of by the girl he likes."

"Shut up, asshole," Ethan mutters, shoving him. Grayson shoves Ethan back, and Clover is immediately stepping in the middle.

"Watch it, both of you," she scolds. "Ethan, c'mon. I'll be in in a minute,"

"But-"

"But," Grayson mocks, grinning as his brother beings to trudge away. Of course hearing that, he turns around and punches him in the arm. That leads to Grayson shoving him again, not even hard, but Ethan stumbles into the counter.

"Ow, ow, fuck," he inhales sharply, hand resting on his side. "Gray, I'm injured."

"Grayson!" Clover whines, rushing to Ethan's side. "Are you okay? Do you need ice? Does it hurt when you breathe?"

Ethan, being the drama queen he is, drags it out. He's moaning in pain, sitting on the floor, asking Clover for ice and help back to bed, absolutely eating up the attention. Truthfully, the pain had already begun to dull.

Rolling his eyes, Grayson leaves the two of them in the kitchen, not wanting to hear her coo at him and tend to his every unnecessary need. He knew Ethan was fine, he had experience with Ethan being hurt-but he wasn't gonna ruin the attention for him.

"Can I just sit on the couch today, Clover?" He whimpers. "Don't know if I can make it back to bed,"

"Yeah, okay. Whatever you need, Ethan," and he's grinning while she isn't looking.

"...kiss?"

"Once we get you on the couch," Clover laughs, helping him to his feet. "You and Grayson gotta be more careful. I hate seeing you hurt like this, E."

And he feels a little bit bad at the frown on her lips, as she's checking out the bruise to make sure it's not getting worse. But when she's leaning in to kiss him he really can't focus on that.

"You should rest," she hums after a moment. "I'll put on a movie for you, take a nap or something?"

"Clover," he pouts. "I'm injured, not sick! I can't take a nap right now. Come back,"

But she's shrugging, pressing play on Netflix and walking away from the needy boy on the couch. She knew he was being dramatic.

If he wanted the couch he could have it, but she'd make him sweat a little by being by himself. Clover was really just planning to get his laundry started-something he'd neglected to do for a bit-and join him again.

First though, she lies in his bed, scrolling through her phone, catching up on what she'd missed, She presses play on Ethan's Instagram story with a smile.

"Hey guys," he grins sleepily. "I just wanted to say thank you for being so worried about me lately. I'm starting to feel a lot better, should be good to film soon." Clover turns her brightness up to inspect the video a bit more. "I'm on bed-rest for a couple more days, but after that I can't wait to jump back into it. Love you guys."