Man, did he feel so much better than he had the day before. Arron was a bit sweaty from his fever breaking, but as he sat up, the room didn't spin and he didn't feel like a hot cloud was hanging over his head any longer. Rylan was nowhere to be seen, so he quickly jumped out of bed and grabbed some clothing. He definitely needed a shower before he headed downstairs.

He could hear the TV going in the living room as he stepped into the bathroom and stripped off his boxers. The big football game was on, judging from what he could hear of it before he turned on the water.

After a good scrubbing, Arron shut off the water and got himself dried off, dressed, and brushed his teeth. He didn't bother messing with his hair, since it always stuck up in random directions anyways, and the half-mohawk didn't help that at all.

As he was heading downstairs, he had to pause.

"I can't wait to see him, it's been too long!"

Jordan's chuckle followed those words, but Arron was just focused on the first voice.

Mom!

He knew that she had heard his thoughts through their link, because as he ran down the steps she met him at the bottom and swung him around in her arms.

"Mom, you're back!"

Arron couldn't help but purr excitedly while they hugged. Even when she put him back on his feet, he wouldn't let her go.

"I missed you too, Arron." She said with a chuckle.

After a long moment Arron finally released her and got a kiss on the forehead.

"Happy birthday, my sweet kitten."

He smiled and kissed her cheek before glancing around. The entire dining and living room areas were decked out in party stuff. There was even a stack of presents on the dinner table.

He hardly ever got more then one or two presents normally, and they were never anything worth more than a few dollars, but they had always meant the world to him.

His feet were just about to take him toward the table when he was promptly picked up and tossed over Rylan's shoulder.

"Hey!" He yelled, squirming to try and get down.

"Not so fast, kid. It's lunch time first, then cake."

"Lunch?" Arron asked.

Rylan turned his head to the side and raised a brow at him.

"Yeah. It's one P.M."

"What?" Arron said, confused.

"You slept half the day away, Spots." Rylan said with a slight grin.

"I did?"

"Yeah, anyways. I'm starving and they won't let me eat till you do."

Before Arron could reply, he was toted into the kitchen and couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen so much food in one place besides the school cafeteria, and most of that wasn't even edible.

His cheetah perked up at the sight and mewed through his lips, making Jordan laugh. He was standing by a big bowl of pasta that was surrounded by three different sauces you could put on your portion.

Everything flipped abruptly as he was set back down and nudged toward the stack of plates, forks, and napkins. Arron quickly grabbed one of each and made his way through the line, hugging Jordan before he dished out a big helping of pasta.

He added the alfredo sauce, then some chicken and bacon bits to the pasta. On the side he put mashed potatoes with gravy and butter, and a big piece of freshly baked bread.

His mother tossed a few pieces of fruit onto the tiny spot between Arron's potatoes and bread, but he didn't mind. He loved fruit.

"Thank Mrs. Leo for cooking, hun." She said before getting a plate for herself.

She cooked all of this?

Arron quickly set his plate down and ran over to her, dodging around the half-full plate she held to give her a strong hug.

"Thank you so much for cooking, Mrs. Emma."

She smiled and patted his head with her free hand, then kissed his hair.

"Of course, Arron. I love cooking and wanted your birthday to be special."

She gave him a nudge back toward his plate and he happily obliged. After being sick, then sleeping for so long, he was absolutely starving. He found himself a seat next to his mother and Rylan, then got busy digging into his food.

"Oh man, this is good." He nearly moaned as he chewed a bite of food that tasted like pure heaven.

Rylan smirked and gave a light laugh. "Of course, my mom's cooking is the best you can get."

Arron grinned at him and laughed. It was obvious that he was playing nice for their parents, but either way, he was enjoying his attitude change and had no interest in calling him out on it. If he was going to be nice, Arron wasn't going to stop him. Especially not on his birthday.

The football game was still on, so they all eventually settled down to watch that for a good hour. Snacks were brought out after lunch, but they were all waiting on the cake.

When the game finally went into half time, Jordan jumped up and grabbed Arron, helping him up, too.

"Alright you! There are some candles that need blown out and cake that needs to be eaten."

He had no issue doing either of those things! Arron quickly snatched the covering off of the cake in the kitchen and grinned.

Jordan got the candles lit and Arron's mother gently settled her hands on her son's shoulders before he leaned forward and blew out the candles. It hurt not having his father there, but with Jordan, Emma, Rylan, Jamie, Jared, and his mother, he definitely felt like he still had his amazing family.

Tarren wasn't able to come, but he had noticed that there was a card from him sitting on the table earlier, which also meant a lot.

Once the candles were out, Rylan picked up a big knife and handed it to him to cut the first piece. There was no hesitation from him as he carved out a huge chunk of chocolate fudge cake and put it onto his plate. Everyone snickered because it was nearly a fourth of the cake, but there was more than enough left for everyone else.

His mother elbowed him lightly as he took the giant piece of cake back to his seat. She followed him with a fork. "We'll be sharing that, mister. We don't want a repeat of the last time you overdosed on sugar."

No, we probably don't.

Everyone ate cake throughout the second half of the game, but as soon as it was over Arron grabbed the first box from the stack of presents. Being the little brat that he was, he shook it, then smirked as he tore into it. Of course, his mother gave him a bit of a tap on the head when he ignored the card that was attached. With an annoyed grumble, Arron quickly tore open the card and read it out loud.

"From mom, with... love."

So mushy.

Either way, he set the card aside and finished demolishing the box... only to find a rock? His mother was giggling behind him as he grabbed a small piece of paper nearly hidden beneath it, then flipped it over to see what it was.

"Oh my gosh!"

Excitement had him jumping up and down as he turned and hugged her tightly. The gift was a new skateboard coupon to the local shop for fifty dollars. His old board was nearly in pieces so the coupon couldn't have come at a better time. That's why he had gotten his last job, but them moving had lost him the chance to get a good new board, so he had decided to save the money.

"Thank you, mom!"

"Alright, alright. You still have a lot more to open." She said.

She turned him around, then mussed up his hair, making him grin as he stepped forward. The next card was from Jordan and it said welcome to the family.

Jordan grinned over at him and he returned the smile and nodded. Turning back to the present, he shredded the wrapping and just... stared. Hell, he could even see Rylan's face from the corner of his eye looking pretty darn surprised, too.

It was an Xbox One with three games!

Arron slowly turned toward him with a dumbstruck look, but he just couldn't wipe it off of his face. It must have cost a ton. When he didn't move for several more moments, Jordan snickered and leaned over a little, opening his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Do I get a hug?" He asked.

Okay, that got him out of his daze. With the biggest grin he could manage, Arron stepped into his strong arms and felt them nearly crush him.

"Happy birthday."

Arron purred as Emma walked over and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you both."

A moment later, Jordan released him and nudged him back toward the table. Next he opened the card from Tarren and grinned when he found a twenty dollar bill in the envelope. He quickly pocketed the money and carefully put the card back in the envelope so that he could remember to call and thank him later.
The last present was surprisingly from Rylan. Arron glanced over at him, but he just smiled as Arron hesitantly began unwrapping the small box. When he took off the lid, he heard several gasps around him, but he was completely silent.

The container held a small black collar with a little silver bell attached. It was actually gorgeous and definitely expensive. The herb in the bell suppressed pheromones for those who had trouble attracting too much attention.

Arron wondered if Rylan thought that it was funny, but it was honestly a good idea. It also surprisingly grew and shrank with your shifter animal.

Why does it actually smell like him, though? Did he roll on it in his lion form before putting it in the box?

Hands were suddenly reaching over his shoulders and grabbing the expensive collar. Rylan? His fingers gently undid the clasp and then he was sliding the collar around Arron's neck. He then fastened it in the back. It fit perfectly, and when Arron looked over at his mother she was nearly crying. Before he knew it, Rylan was being hugged by his mom, drawing a rather confused stare out of Arron.

"Thank you so much, Rylan. I didn't think it would be possible to get a necklace for months. I've been saving as much as I could."

Rylan seemed a bit taken-aback, as was Arron, but Rylan quickly returned her hug. Arron's right hand went to the collar around his neck, feeling the beautiful bell as it jingled faintly. He remembered hearing that the herb inside it was extremely expensive because it was so hard to grow. The collars, even the basic ones, easily reached up to six hundred dollars. The bell on this one actually looks like it's made out of real silver, too.

As he tried to get words to come out of his mouth to thank him, Rylan walked over and grabbed his wrist with one hand, and the box with the gaming stuff with the other, tucking it under his arm.

"Come on Spots, let's go play."

Before he could reply, Arron was tugged all the way upstairs to Rylan's room. He was tossed two controllers to open as Rylan got the Xbox hooked up and a game put in. Arron quickly tore off the packaging and plugged the controllers in, then handed Rylan his as they sat down on his bed. He tugged Arron into his lap before they got started, but he didn't really mind. He was much too focused on killing Rylan's character in the game they were playing.

They were both yelling and jerking their controllers as they played, Rylan's in front of Arron's. To his surprise, he was actually holding his own pretty well.

Right after their fifth round, Arron was in the lead, but his mother knocked on the door, effectively stealing their attention away from the starting match.

"It's time to go home, Arron."

I get to go home with mom?

He was actually a bit hesitant to leave the home he was slowly beginning to get used to, but he definitely wouldn't pass up a chance to be with his mother.

"Okay."

She smiled at them and let him know that he had to be downstairs in a few minutes. When she left, he glanced back at Rylan to see an agitated look.

"I'll leave the Xbox here since I'll probably be back soon."

Setting the controller aside, he began to slide out of his lap, but Rylan quickly dropped his controller and pulled him back with a hug around his waist.

"Rylan?"

Arron honestly expected him to try and dominate him again, since no one was around to see, but what he said was a little surprising.

"Don't I get a thank you?"

One of Rylan's hands lifted to Arron's collar as he flicked the bell enough to make it jingle. Arron's face heated as he quickly mumbled. "Thank you... for the present."

"Arron! There's a boy named Erin here for you!"

Uh oh.

"Rylan, that hurts!"

Rylan was suddenly squeezing him way too hard.

Arron could hear him growling in his ear, but they really couldn't risk fighting in front of their parents. He needed to calm him down.

"Rylan, calm down, please. We can't start something in front of our parents."

He didn't seem to acknowledge what he was saying.

When Erin called up to him, Arron began to panic.

"Rylan."

What do I say? If they took more than another minute they were in trouble. He really wasn't sure what kept triggering Rylan's aggressive bouts but he had to start grasping at straws before he ended up attacking Erin.

"Uhm, we're not together." He hurried to say.

Nothing.

"I'll just go straight home." He added.

Again, nothing.

"I belong to you?"

That had the growls quieting a little and finally Rylan lifted his head. His eyes were glowing gold as he began rubbing his cheek against Arron's while his hands wandered under his shirt in a hurry.

Now really isn't the time for scent marking.

While it was extremely rude to mark someone else so much who wasn't your significant other, Arron let him do it. The possible fight just wasn't worth telling him to stop. It wasn't hurting anyone and it meant he wouldn't be attacking Erin, hopefully.

And Erin would definitely smell him on him and at least keep a physical distance. It all seemed like it would be okay. However, when Rylan's right hand dipped into his pants, Arron hissed in protest. He replied with a growl, but still rubbed his thigh before retracting his hand.

The second he was content, Rylan shoved him off his lap and growled for him to go.

Hmph!

Arron grumbled and stomped out of his room, then headed toward the stairs.

"Hold your tusks, I'm coming!"