“Is that it?”Kai asked in the waist-deep water.
“Yes, that’s home.Come on, I’ll light the dream fire hearth for you to get you dry.”
Kai frowned and lifted a waterlogged sleeve.“How come my clothes are still wet in a dream?I saw your brother walk out of the ocean, dry as a powder puff.”
“Demon magic.”Fian tried his best to keep his color stable.He could have used that same demon magic to dry Kai, of course, but the idea of getting him all snug and warm in his own clothes and lazing in front of the hearth with him—Fian wanted that.
Kai rolled his eyes, but he kept smiling.
They made it to the shore.It was hard to tell whether Kai liked what he was seeing—the pile of driftwood that still needed carving, the studio shed and the little house.
Kai pointed.“What on earth is that?”
“Uh, those are old CDs?I didn’t steal them.I found them when I went looking for driftwood, and I like the colors.”Fian had made them into a mobile that hung from the eaves of the house, sparkling and catching color because he had added glass smoothed by the tides.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a CD in ten years.”
“It’s a shame humans never saw that they could be made into something pretty.Isn’t it such a waste?”
Kai just gave him a funny look, so Fian rushed to open the door for him.
Kai stepped through, looking around the small room.“Wow, this is cozy.And rustic.”
“I hope that’s good.”Fian closed the door behind them.“Let me light the hearth.”
Kai pulled at his drenched clothes again.“I’ll have to take these off, won’t I?”
At those words, Fian froze.What by all the salt in the sea was I thinking?He turned to face his landbride.
“Actually, if you want, I can magic them dry for you.I’m sorry.I just thought it would be nice to loan you some of my clothes and sit in front of the fire with you, talk.I wasn’t thinking.”
A distant look came over Kai’s face.Then he pulled his wet hoodie off, held it out to Fian.“It does sound nice.I want nice things.”
So Fian nodded, took the hoodie, and got to work.He hung up Kai’s clothes, top and bottom, and rushed to his armoire to get something dry for him to wear.
“Oh no.”
Kai walked over to him from the warming fire.“What?”
“Do you remember when you told me to take my pants off in the dream?I did, and they just floated away.I don’t actually own that many pairs.Tentacles, you know.Would you be okay with a long sweater?”
“You lost your pants when I told you to take them off?For real?I caused pants-loss for you?”
“You’re making fun of me, I can tell.I know I deserve it, but I promised you pants, and my only pair are back in the hotel room in the human realm.”
Kai was pressing his lips together.Fian wasn’t sure exactly, but he thought the human was trying not to laugh.
“We both need to go clothes shopping then.The sweater is fine.Hey, I saw you kept the jam I gave you.And put it next to your wooden dick.”
Fian flinched and nearly dropped the garment he was holding out to Kai, who took it and quickly pulled it on over his head.
When Fian saw Kai in his clothes, it was a revelation.Kai looked like a polished shell in them, even wet from playing in the water.It wasn’t the sweater that did that so much as the fact it was Fian’s clothes Kai had chosen to wear.All of Fian’s tentacles twitched and flexed, and one coiled around Kai’s ankle.
“The jam…ah.You know, you gave me that without me asking for it.That’s a special gift in the demon world.It indicates a strong bond, so I put it on my mantle.”
Kai nodded.“It’s just jam I no longer like, but I was mostly talking about the wooden dick.”
“Oh that.”
