*well well well well well well well
*what do we have here?
*an update?!
*lmao, idk, ive been workimg on writing this a while now and i think ive gotten a bit of a rhythm on where this is going now
*now if only i can find my ideas notebook, that would REALLY be helpful
*ive been neglecting these guys for a bit so here they are! ..kinda,,?
*I'll fix the formatting tomorrow, i still have exams to take afterall

---

Lachlan comes back from his jog with a smile on his face and sweat all over his clothes. He'd expected to be greeted with the delicious smell of breakfast, as well as the slumped forms of his nocturnal mates drowning themselves in coffee. He could already hear the tired groans from the front door and struggled to stiffle his laughter at the thought.

"Mornin', lads!" Lachlan yells before he's even crossed the hallway, fully intending to spread the digusting stench to the occupants. This was a lesson he'll make sure they learned.

Manners be damned, they were gonna pay for eating without him!

What he didn't account for, however, was the tension looming over the kitchen counters once he stepped into the room. He was half tempted to grab a knife and see if he could cut through it.

A half-hearted and lazy chorus of greetings replying back, Lachlan held back a pout and felt a bit disappointed. Jerome shoots him a trying, joking grin and the disappointment lifts by a smidgeon. At least he was trying.

Well, he supposed he should have expected this. They were barely-grown men living largely on their own afterall.

Rob had sat next to Preston and fiddled with the nearly empty mug in his hands nervously while keeping conversation. He seemed as confused and unknowing of the situation as the blond was, eyeing the Texan beside him worriedly and line of sight flitting towards Jerome periodiacally.

Lachlan mentally noted to ask Vikk if he knew what happened while he was out of the house. Maybe he could take ol' Robby with him on the hunt for answers? He'd appreciate that, Lachlan nodded to himself and sat beside the shortest member of the group. Yeah, definitely.

Vikk had been drinking when Lachlan sat himself next to him. Eyes drooping slightly and the sag in his shoulders telling the blond that his mate was still one foot in dreamland and one foot tiptoeing the world of the living.

He hid a chuckle by taking a sip from the mug in front of him. How generous of Vikk to make him his favorite in advance.

Doing a headcount, he couldn't help but notice that one of them has yet to come down and eat. Weirdly enough, he thought, when the Canadian was one of his fellow morning persons.

"Where's Mitch?"

A sharp inhale from his right had him grinning in triumph. Looks like Vikky's sleep-riddled brain finally caught on to his foul smell.

"Bathroom," comes Jerome's reply with a shrug. "You know how he is."

Lachlan nods and began to pull out his phone from his pocket, wanting to check on the all the pokemon he'd caught. He'd yet to catch that one pokemon he really, really wanted though-

Across him came Preston's voice, "Hey, no phones at the table."

So he did the mature thing to do and stuck his tongue at him.

Eventually, Mitch finally came down and joined them for breakfast. The tension had dissipated and The Pack were back in their rhythm.

For a moment, Lachlan almost forgot the weird tension even existed.

(Mitch began to stare blankly into his cereal. Lachlan wondered if the Benja was gonna fall asleep headfirst onto the milk again. He was still staring. Idle.

Wait, was that-

Jerome nudged and pulled Mitch into a conversation.

Huh.

Huh.)

Well. Almost.

---

It's been a few days since then.

The headset let out a slow hum.

He waited for the game to load, arms folded behind his head. Lachlan leaned back, the chair letting out a squeak. He hoped Vikk knew what he was doing.

Music started in his ears and he made to place the recording camera to its connector.  

Game time.

---

"So, what's the plan, Mitch?"

Hearing no reply, Rob glanced back at spawn and wondered if Mitch had forgotten to turn on his mic again. His friend had been doing that a lot lately.  Spacing out like he'd run himself ragged the day before.

He frowned.

Now he understood Vikk's worry. Mitch seemed to be pertually tired these past few months, despite being given the relatively same workload as everyone else. At first, he attributed that to the fact that he kept losing his recordings- for some mysterious reason.

They never did find out why and how the footage kept getting lost. Only that the next day after buying the nth camera of the month, Mitch stopped having troubles with his videos.

(The loud and relieved "Hallelujah!" that rang through the hall afterwards told them that much.)

Coincindentally, it also had been the same day that he began to suspect Preston of keeping a secret. And with Jerome, no less.

Not that there was anything wrong with that. It was just, weird? Because if Preston ever had wanted a secret keeper, he'd expected him to at least pick someone like his family, like maybe say, Landon?

(And maybe he was a tiny, bit hurt that he didn't trust him enough. Wasn't he Preston's best friend?)

And same with Jerome. Why keep a secret from his biggums? Maybe he didn't want Mitch to know? He blinked at the thought. No, that didn't make sense. Ugh, this was giving him a headache. He ought to stop thinking too hard about this.

He played around with the wood blocks in his hand.

Still, what are those two hiding-?

"Mitch? You didn't forget to turn your mic on, did you?"

Mitch's avatar had yet to make an appearance as well, he belatedly noticed. Rob was starting to get antsy from all this waiting.

Opening the menu, his hand hovered over the exit button. Was the stress of being in the dark getting to him? Why was he so worried-?

A flash of red caught his eye. Lo and behold was the source of his worries.

"Sorry, dude," came Mitch's sheepish voice. "Got some major lag while loading and my mic didn't wanna cooperate."

Lag, huh?

Raising an eyebrow but otherwise choosing not to comment on the obvious lie, Rob just patted the other on the shoulder with a grin.

"We'd better hurry for the intro, prep time just isn't the same without you."

"You mean Mitch time~"

Rob rolled his eyes and stopped fiddling with his inventory. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."