“Please leave me out of your capitalizations,” Justin said. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you all that.”
“I’ve lived for over six hundred years,” Randall said. “I don’t walk anywhere if I don’t have to.”
“So you’d rather just take Sam with you instead of all of us,” Ryan said, even though I thought he was okay with it. “Taking Sam away from his cornerstone. Taking Kevin’s voice away from him.”
“I want up on your nuts,” I whispered fervently.
Randall and Morgan exchanged a startled look. I didn’t think they’d actually thought about what would happen if I was separated from Kevin.
“I apologize,” Morgan said to the dragon. “We should have considered your bond with Sam.”
“It’s a very deep and loving bond,” Kevin agreed. “But mostly deep. Like that kind of deep when you get that perfect angle and can just thrust your way in and see the bulge in someone’s throat.”
We all stared at him.
He winked at us.
“Sam and I need some time alone,” Randall said.
“Gross,” Gary, Tiggy, and I said at the same time.
“I know what you mean,” Kevin said to Randall. “Congrats to you. Hit that so hard it breaks.”
“Wait,” Ryan said. “What.”
“Wizard to wizard,” Randall clarified.
“You mean wizard on wizard,” Kevin said.
“Gross,” Gary, Tiggy, and I said again.
“Fix this,” Randall growled at Morgan.
“Sam,” Morgan said. “Stand up, please.”
“I’m trying, but Gary won’t get his asshole off my—”
“Please,” Gary sniffed delicately. “Like you’ve never had your hand on my asshole before.”
“Wait,” Ryan said. “What.”
“That was one time,” I said as Gary pushed himself off me. Tiggy pulled me upright, and I sucked in a breath.
“What one time?” Ryan demanded.
“Long story,” I said, brushing myself off. “Involves pixies, an irate bartender, and Gary and I needing to pretend we were boyfriends to escape the clutches of a group of mad nuns.”
“It was my greatest role,” Gary said wistfully. “Too bad Sam here wasn’t believable.”
“Hey! I was so believable.”
“Sam, you were supposed to be madly in love with me. Instead you put your hand on my asshole and told everyone, ‘Yeah, this is my lover who I love with all my love. We do all the sex stuff because I like putting my junk in his butt.’”
“Ew,” everyone said, except for Kevin, who said, “It’s like my dreams are coming true.”
“They believed it,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, for, like, two seconds. Then Tiggy came in and smashed, and I kicked someone in the face, and we ran.”
“All of your stories end like that,” Justin said. “I don’t understand how you’re alive.”
“Wasting my time,” Randall said. “Again.”
Before I could turn his nose into a cock, Morgan took me by the elbow and tugged me away from the others.
“You can’t turn any part of him into a penis,” he said.
“I wasn’t even thinking about that.”
“Sam, I saw the look in your eyes.”
I squinted at him. “I have a specific look in my eyes when I want to turn parts of Randall into penises and you’re familiar with it?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s…. I don’t know what that is.”
“I know that the two of you can be somewhat volatile—”
“That might be an understatement if you know my Randall Penis Look, and gods, I wish I hadn’t just capitalized it, because now it’s a thing.”
“—but he cares about your well-being. I need you to listen to him. You may not agree with what he’s asking of you, but he’s doing it for you, Sam.”
I watched Morgan for a moment. “You believe that.”
He nodded. “I do.”
“You still think this is the right thing?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because there are things you’re hiding from us, Sam.”
I felt my face shutter at that. “Really. Funny, that coming from you.”
He put his hands on my shoulders. “You have your reasons. I trust that. But I need you to trust us. To trust him. Nothing good can be gained from keeping secrets from each other. Not now.”
I snorted. “You say that because your hand has been shown and you have nothing left.” I winced, feeling the fight drain out of me. “Shit. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know you didn’t,” he said, but I could see the tightness around his eyes. “But that was fair. I wish….” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I wish. Hindsight is there to remind us everything we should have done differently.”
“Sucks.”
The corners of his mouth pulled up slightly. “A little. Randall wants to help you, Sam. He could teach you things, things that even I cannot.”
That made me nervous. “You aren’t trying to pass me off on him, are you?” I said, laughing to try and cover up the feeling of wrongwrongwrong that was worming its way through me.
But of course Morgan of Shadows saw right through that. He always did. He squeezed my shoulders, jostling me softly. “Never,” he said. “You will always be mine. No one, not Randall, not Myrin, no one can take you away from me.”
I hugged him then. I couldn’t not. We weren’t on even footing. In all honesty, it would probably be a while before we were again. But I loved him dearly. Morgan was the first person outside of my parents to believe in me, even if it hadn’t exactly started the way I thought it had.
He made a little noise of surprise, as if he hadn’t expected it.
“You’re still my berry sunshine,” I said, reaching up to pet his face blindly. “Because you smell like berries and sunshine.”
“I don’t know why I put up with you,” he said but only held me closer.
GARY CRIED a little more. So did Tiggy.
Kevin told me that he would miss my sweet, sweet ass, but even his eyes were suspiciously shiny.
Justin rolled his eyes but allowed me to show him what our best friend 5eva handshake would look like, and I threatened to withhold said best friend 5eva friendship if he didn’t learn it completely by the next time I saw him. He didn’t look like he felt very threatened.
Ryan hugged me for a long time. I breathed him in, frantically trying to memorize everything I could about him.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he whispered. “You’ll see. I’ll follow you anywhere.”
We ignored the way I trembled at that.
There was a sharp crack behind us that signaled Randall’s return. I allowed myself another moment to hold on to Ryan before I let go and took a step back.