I wanted to do something to thank her. But burnt toast, rock hard pastries and fruit that looks like a toddler has chopped it up with a spoon weren’t exactly what I had envisaged.
She appears, looking sleep-rumpled. Her blonde hair is sticking up all over her head and she shoots us each a sleepy smile. I pour her a coffee and she grabs a small selection of the horror laid out in front of her, digging in without batting an eyelid.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt whatever is bubbling inside of me. Not as my own emotions or as something external, either. It’s like a pool of pure warmth swelling up inside me and every time Sin smiles, the warmth overflows and fills my veins.
“No cuff today?” she asks as she bravely chews and chews and chews the thing that should have been a foolproof bake-from-frozen pastry.
How we fucked that up, I have no idea.
“Not today.” I cup the back of my neck and shove some toast into my mouth as I try to build up the courage to tell her my idea of how I’d like this morning to go. The toast is dry and tastes like charred cardboard and I have to chase it down with half a mug of coffee before I can swallow it.
“I was hoping I could give you a tour of the house. Show you around and then you can choose a space to work from,” I say. “Unless you have, uh, plans?”
I mean, she just got here. She can’t have plans already, right? But I’m feeling kind of flustered and I know that particular sensation is not coming from anywhere else other than myself.
Something about Sin being here is turning me inside out.
I pass my eyes over her rumpled appearance and the way she’s chowing down on an inedible breakfast, just to be nice. There are lines on one side of her face from her pillow and my eyes dart to her full lips as she sucks some jam off her thumb. That movement has me shifting awkwardly, trying not to get a boner from such a small thing.
She smiles at me and takes a swig of coffee. “I was planning on watching a bunch of your shows today and looking at your set design to see what I can add and where.”
“Iri can show you all that,” I tell her.
He’s the one with input on pretty much everything. From our costumes to the set design and the locations we tour. Probably because he’s the only one of us that doesn’t need to sleep. He gets bored in all those hours when everyone else is unconscious.
And no one wants to see the consequences of Iri when he’s bored.
“I’d love that,” Sin says. “Do you want to lead the way?”
I glance over at Cal, who is staring around at the mess in the kitchen in dismay.
He nods with a little grunt. “Go ahead. I’ll clean this up before Iri has a shitfit.”
AND SO, I GIVE SINa tour of the cabin. We own a bunch of places dotted around the world, but this one is definitely my favorite. The four of us designed it together as a place we could escape to. Inside, it’s big enough that we can all spread out and never have to see eachother if we don’t want to. The floors are all solid wood and there’s a lot of wood paneling and floor to ceiling windows in every room, so it’s almost like it’s a part of the woods that surround us. But it’s still cozy as hell.
The open-plan kitchen leads onto a living room with a huge TV and Dorian and Cal’s game consoles and an entire wall of books we’ve collected over the years. There’s a glass atrium leading to the music room and I point out Cal and Dorian’s bedrooms, which are on this floor. My workshop’s at the end, but I skirt past it to lead Sin upstairs. Up here we have enough spare rooms for all of Cal’s family to descend if they want to.
Sin’s reaction to our home gives me all the warm fuzzy feelings I was hoping for and they only increase as I get blasted with her interest as I lead her around the house and point out all my favorite features. I show her the fireplace in the living room and the chairs and sofas we spent hours picking out to find mismatching ones that fit our asses just right. Onto the music practice room of our dreams, complete with every instrument we ever wanted to try our hand at playing. Then I lead Sin back downstairs, through the kitchen and living room to the other side of the house.
“Uh, we were thinking this can be your workshop, if that works for you?” After a hurried, hushed conversation with Iri last night after we got in, I know he spent at least a couple of hours sweeping the dust and clearing out a bunch of boxes to make it ready for her.
I push open the door, revealing a sparse room we haven’t been using for anything. It was supposed to be a study or maybe an art studio, but none of us ever decided to set it up properly. There’s a bench lining one wall and another massive window, but beyond the bench and a chair, there isn’t anything else in here.
Sin’s eyes go massive as she stares around the space.
“This is for me? Seriously? This is amazing.”
I feel the surge of pleasure that fills her, followed by a zing of excitement, and I hide my giddy grin by turning away.
“Fuck yeah, this is amazing.” She charges out of the room and into the bedroom she slept in last night. I follow along behind and help her to carry the assorted boxes and suitcases filled with what sounds like a lot of bits of jangly metal into her workroom.
There’s excitement and anticipation rolling off her, and I’m grinning like an idiot. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so excited about setting up a workshop before. She then flits around the room, unpacking and carefully placing her tools on the bench.
—and I just watch her, acting like I’m helping, but mostly standing around like a weirdo.
I subtly grab the cuff from my pocket and slip it on, drifting into a space where it drowns everything else out, leaving me with only my own emotions to deal with. The cuff is giving off a steady dose of mild comfort, like someone I care about is playing gently with my hair.
It’s fucking nice.
