“All heart.”
Seri giggled, before sighing. “What are we going to do about my mother? She can’t go back to the settlement…and honestly, even if she could, I wouldn’t want that for her.”
Severo grimaced. “I looked a bit more into her settlement this morning while you were sleeping, it’s honestly, worse than we feared. I’m hoping Cyrus convinces his family to begin trying to dismantle at least the ones like this, but to be honest, even the good ones sound pretty horrifying.”
“How much worse?”
“Well, for starters… It’s not that they don’t allow their people to leave, it’s that they won’t let members who decide they are women leave. Despite you all being a gender fluid species, they apparently are living back in the bygone days of gender bigotry, and you either are one or the other. To add on to the pile of bullshit they adhere to, they view women as lower beings.”
Seri stared, baffled for a moment, before growling, “My mother is not going anywhere near that damn place again.”
“Agreed.”
“But what are we going to do? I won’t leave her here, even if she is outside the settlement. Her job was inside that place, so she has no way to support herself. Even more so as she doesn’t have an ID Passbook. She is also worried that the damn people in charge there will refuse to let her enter to get her things.”
“We won’t leave her here. As for her things… We will go in together and get them, whether under force or threat, and then she can come live with us.”
He wanted that. So badly did he want that to happen. Seri wanted his mother by his side, in his life, living her own life happily. Yet…he still had to ask. Because as much as he wanted that, he knew it was a lot.
“Severo…” he rasped. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” Severo laughed. “She is your mother. And sweet as can be. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have the room.”
“Severo, we don’t have the room. We live in an overly small two-bedroom apartment. We can barely stand in the kitchen at the same time without bumping into each other.”
“About that…” Severo slowly smirked. “This morning, while you were still sleeping, I may have gotten a text from our realtor.”
Seri gasped. “We got the house?!”
The Dweller's smirk widened. “We got the house! And for lower than what we offered! Turns out, someone was murdered there. The nephew of the murdered man was apparently a greedy ass, so not only did he list the place high above market value, he also tried to not disclose that bit of information. Which is illegal, by the way, so that is how we got such a good deal! Unless…you know, you don’t want it now because of the murder, and in that case…I mean… Well, we can sell it and then keep looking.”
Seri stared blankly, holding back his laughter as Severo's expression drastically changed. He had to say, watching the man go from happy to looking absolutely horrified was hilarious. It also told him that Severo hadn’t even considered that Seri wouldn’t want to live in a murder house until this exact moment.
His giggle slipped free, despite his attempts to stop it.
Severo sagged. “My poor fragile heart! Be nice to me.”
Seri just giggled harder. “Sorry, you are just so fun to tease. But no, I don’t care that someone was murdered in the house. It’s sad, true. But I literally witnessed multiple murders, sometimes one per week, during those five years in Preston’s house of nightmares. A single one, that I didn't even witness, isn’t going to bother me much.”
“Right. Not sure how I forgot about that part of your written statement. The murders just paled in comparison to what happened to you in my mind.”
“I survived and they didn’t. I think they would have preferred to be alive.”
Severo scoffed. “They probably would be right now, if they hadn’t decided to work with Preston in the first place. Can’t say I feel bad.”
“Yes, but without one particular murder, we may have never met.”
“Ah right, that unfortunate fucker—Leal.” Severo sniffed. “May he rest in whatever damnation he believes in. You done?”
Seri set his half-finished pizza slice down. “Pretty much.”
He’d eaten two already, and had just been nibbling on the third.
“Good.” Severo stood up, and without warning, picked him up.
Seri squealed, smacking the Dweller’s chest with a giggle. “Put me down.”
“Never!” the man said playfully as he launched onto the bed. Seri huffed in exasperation when he found himself cocooned in Severo’s arms. Wiggling, he managed to turn around so he was facing him.
