“It was a long drive,” Killian murmured in agreement.
Nodding, the other Fate left, closing the door behind him.
Killian kicked his shoes off and plopped down onto the large bed. “Messy or not, at least it will fit all of us.”
Slipping off his own boots, Cyrus slowly crawled onto the bed with Ender in his arms. Lying down on his side, he smiled tiredly at the Siren as he stretched out with the Gorgon’s back against his chest, one arm wrapped around him.
Killian crawled further onto the bed, and snuggled against Ender’s other side. He pulled his Baby closer, wrapping his arms around the two men. “Night, Baby.”
“Night,” Killian mumbled, his voice barely audible as the Siren quickly drifted to sleep. Cyrus didn’t let himself think, and swiftly followed the man.
Severo inhaled sharply when his alarm went off and woke him up. Opening his eyes slowly, he frowned and reached for Seri when he didn’t find him in his arms. The frown deepened on realizing the bed was empty.
Quickly shutting off the alarm on his phone, Severo tugged on a pair of pajama bottoms and stumbled out of the bedroom, heading to the most likely location his Nymph would be—the kitchen.
He found Seri there sitting at the table, fully dressed in a long-sleeved gray tunic and black slacks, his cyan curls perfectly styled. The Nymph looked zoned out and tired as he clutched his coffee mug. His eyes narrowed slightly at the redness he saw under the Water Nymph’s eyes.
“What’s wrong? You’ve been crying…”
Seri’s cheeks flushed slightly. “It’s nothing really…just a bad dream.”
Severo slowly sat down next to him at the table. “I wish you had woken me up. Want to talk about it?”
“It was just another about Skya being taken. I calmed myself down just fine. You have work, so I didn’t see the point in waking you up.”
He snorted. “Today’s going to be a shitshow with or without a full night of sleep.”
Seri chuckled. “Right…‘cause Cyrus and Killian ran off to be with their pregnant baby daddy, Ender.”
He choked on spit, coughing before letting out a distressed groan. “Oh, that sounds so wrong.”
The Water Nymph giggled before sighing. “You know, I tried to be mad at Cyrus for Skya being kidnapped by traffickers…but I just couldn’t find it in me to actually hold on to that anger. I mean, the only way Skya wouldn’t have been taken was if Cyrus had let Killian die. How could I even say I’d prefer that? He was one of the first real friends I made. I couldn’t imagine him not being here…”
“Yeah, I can’t either. Though, now Cyrus and Killian are both not directly here, even if they are still alive.”
“Yep, ‘cause baby daddy.” Seri giggled, before rubbing his face with a groan. “Even without the dreams…I keep panicking when I wake up, and I shouldn’t be. It’s been months.”
Turning the man, chair and all, towards him, he wrapped his arms around the Water Nymph’s waist and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Seri, you know these things take time. There is no‘shouldn’t be’. There is just whatis. But I get it, I sometimes wake up panicked too.”
The Nymph stared, looking sad. “You do?”
“I do. And every time I do, I find myself running to Skya’s room with this pit of fear and pain in my chest, worried she won’t be there when I reach it. But then, I had to deal with the same thing when you were taken…”
Seri’s eyes widened slightly. “You never told me.”
“I’m pretty good at rationalizing myself into being better, even if some may think that it’s not exactly healthy to do. As for not mentioning it, I just didn’t want to add on to what you were already dealing with.”
The Nymph hugged him. “Don’t do that. I want to know if you are struggling too… Also—” The man huffed, sounding irritated. “—my broken ass needs to know you are less put together than I think you are.”
Severo chuckled. “Shouldn’t you know I’m a hot mess by now?”
Seri snorted, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, I’m going to up my therapy sessions. I think I need to. I kept putting it off, but…yeah…”
Ender re-joined the waking world,feeling as if an itch he had been dying to scratch had been itched just right. Not only that, he was warm.
Frowning slightly on noting he was in his Gorgon form, he pulled back from it, shifting to fully humanoid. That done, with his eyes still closed, he smiled as he cuddled in further, taking a deep breath in.
His eyes snapped open wide when the scents his nose caught instantly had him on high alert. Ender couldn’t help but wincewhen the memories came flooding back to him. Well, most of them. He remembered a heck of a lot…a bit of the rampaging he accomplished, and even seeing the two agents now in his fucking bed, but…he didn’t remember how he ended up in bed with the two men again.Damn fucking hormones.
