Somewhat to Elliot’s surprise, Luke did let his wings unfurl and protect Elliot and Serene both. Neither Luke nor Serene told Elliot off for yelling at Dale, and Elliot was pretty sure that Luke had not heard what Elliot was yelling about, and everything was all right.
After Elliot had spent a while being smug about escaping the rain, Delia Winterchild ran in under Luke’s wing too, and said something awkwardly positive about them. She looked guilty and grateful, both at the same time.
Elliot had known it was only a matter of time before the prejudice of the cadets crumbled in the face of all they knew of Luke, and all Luke had done and would do for the Border. Elliot believed that even Dale was going to overcome his distaste of harpies, and Serene agreed with him.
“Elliot must have put Wavechaser off by screeching at him,” was the way Serene put it, since she was the cruel one of the friends group, but she was right. Dale and Luke were definitely going to get together.
Elliot was certain everything was going to work out, once again, for Luke Sunborn.
For a change, Elliot found, he did not mind at all.
“So your middle name is Jerome?” asked Luke as they made their way home. “Ha!”
Actually Elliot was mistaken. Both his friends were cruel and terrible people. He felt quite cheerful about it, though.
Things were better for Luke when they returned home from the Forest of the Suicides. Elliot wished this was because peace had been achieved between humans and harpies, and people recognized what a milestone that was, but he suspected it was actually because there were fresh tales of Luke being heroic and the Border camp were all battle groupies.
Also, a lot of people were into the wings.
“Can I touch them,” said Adara Cornripe one day, after Trigon practise.
There had been talk of cutting Luke from Trigon, but then everyone on Luke’s team had wept and had nervous breakdowns at the idea of cutting Luke from Trigon, so nobody talked about it anymore. Luke preferred to wait until everyone else had changed, though, so he came and sat with Elliot in the stands until everyone else was gone.
Elliot faithfully went to Trigon practise, even though Serene had stopped going. She insisted that she had to pen long letters to her elven betrothed, even though Elliot had told her that her behavior was disgraceful and she should put swordsisters before misters. It was humiliating. People were going to think Elliot had a real interest in sport. Elliot felt the very least Luke could do was bring out the wings and shelter him when it was drizzling.
He had not bargained for Adara.
“I’d rather if you . . .,” Luke began as Adara tweaked some feathers.
“Why did you bother to ask when you were already doing it?” Elliot snapped, irritable because he shared her impulse.
Adara sent him an unrepentant wink, but removed her hand. “All right, I’m not touching the wings.”
“Luke,” said Elliot. Adara looked interrogative. “They’re his wings, like they’re his arms. You’re not touching Luke.”
“You’re no fun,” said Adara. “Well. Hardly ever.”
“Thanks,” said Luke after Adara was gone. “I don’t like it when people I don’t know that well get too close.”
Since Elliot had seen Luke sidling away from people and refusing to dance at parties for years now, this was not news. What was new was Luke telling Elliot something like that: trusting that he would not use the information against Elliot.
What was new was that they were both trying not to hurt each other, and trusting that neither of them wanted to hurt the other.
“I was being a huge hypocrite,” Elliot pointed out. “I grabbed the wings first thing.”
It was a little embarrassing to admit, but Luke had known Elliot for years and must have noticed him wandering around going “oooh elves dwarves mermaids ooh.”
“That’s different,” said Luke. “That’s okay.”
Elliot glanced over at him, but Luke was looking at something in the distance, profile and wings touched with the gold of the setting sun.
“It had better be, because unless you study for your military history exam I’m going to pull out all your feathers and stuff a pillow with them,” Elliot threatened. “I will tell everyone you have harpy pattern baldness. Don’t test me. Do not test me!”
Luke laughed.
Elliot was not as good at this new “being nice to each other” thing as Luke, but it was a great relief to Elliot that, now Luke knew Elliot liked him, he was no longer taking Elliot’s horrible personality personally.
Dale, emerging from the changing rooms, said: “Great game, Luke,” and pointedly did not look at Elliot.
Luke smiled, then glanced at Elliot and stopped smiling.
“It’s fine, Luke,” said Elliot. “You like each other, he’s mad at me for insulting him, he will get over it. Trust me, I am an expert. I insult people all the time.”
Luke raised his eyebrows. “This is shocking new information.”
Elliot laughed. “You’re such a jerk,” he noted approvingly.
A silence followed his statement that went on too long. Elliot glanced over at Luke with sudden apprehension that he’d gone too far. Luke did not look angry or hurt, though. He was staring at the horizon with a concentration that Elliot did not think belonged to the sunset.
“Is that why you didn’t tell me?” Luke asked. “What you told Commander Woodsinger? Because I’m a jerk?”
“You’re not a jerk,” Elliot snapped.
He understood when Luke gave him a look that accused Elliot of being contradictory and unreasonable. He felt it was fair.
“You’re not usually a jerk,” he explained. “And when you are a jerk, I usually like it.”
He looked at Luke, who was clearly torn between embarrassed pleasure and hot defence of himself as not a jerk at all. Elliot, who was totally a jerk, found it extremely amusing.
“Anyway, why do you keep talking about what I told Commander Woodsinger?”
“I don’t,” said Luke. “I never think about it.”
“Cool,” said Elliot. “What did I tell her, though? Did I tell her about the jellybeans?”
“No, you . . . What happened with the jellybeans?”
“Best you don’t know,” Elliot decided. “Did I tell her about the ill-fated attempts at sorcery?”
“No,” said Luke. “Please don’t. I remember those. We would all get expelled.”
It had been a great sadness to Elliot, that even in a magic land, humans could not do magic: that in no world could you solve any of your problems by lifting your hands and wishing. Apparently, it was always harder than that.
“Oh no,” said Elliot, genuinely stricken. “Did I tell her about the food processor?”
“No,” said Luke, sounding vexed.
Elliot barely heard him. “I’d have to be drunk,” he said. “I swore to myself I would never tell anyone. I didn’t know what was going to happen to it when I brought it over the Border. There are some things the commander should never know. There are some things nobody should ever know.”
Luke snapped. “I was not talking about food processors. I never talk about food processors. I don’t even know what a food processor is. I was talking about the fact that you date people called Jason as well as people called Serene and Myra and Adara!”