“I’ve clocked a few hours,” they chuckled, steering me towards the next area, a formal dining room that’d make Count Dracula himself jealous.
“Wait, what was that room on the other side when we came in?”
"That's Cameo's hobby room and office," Joon said in an amused tone. "If you ask, I'm sure he'll show you around."
I paused at the door for a minute, wondering what kind of hobby the strange alpha would have. Knitting seemed pretty unlikely, but the idea of finding Cameo tucked into a cozy chair with a pair of needles in hand drew a smile to my face anyway.
Deciding that my version of events was more interesting than anything that Indigo and Joon would share, I let the subject drop. Besides, Cameo was sure to tell me himself sooner rather than later, and I wanted to hold onto the ridiculous vision of him knitting pastel baby hats as long as I could.
“This must’ve taken forever,” I said to Indi as I took in the massive oval table. “How did you even find ten chairs that match?”
“Got lucky at an estate sale,” they said. “Got the table at the same place, it’s a shame we barely use it.”
“Except on Sundays,” Joon chimed in, but I was only half listening.
At the end of the table they’d hung a massive, almost true to life painting of a woman in a white gown. Her dark brown eyes seemed to follow me as I walked around the room, downturned lips set into a permanent judgy frown.
I couldn’t help it, I shook off Indigo’s arm to hop back and forth, but no matter where I was, it felt like we were making direct eye contact.
Creepy.
“What’s Sunday?" I asked, assuming that since neither of them commented on my tilting, it probably meant they’d done the same thing.
“Pack dinner,” Indi answered, the thread of a laugh in their voice. “Cameo comes from a big pack, he insists it’s the only reason they didn’t kill each other.”
If I signed the contract, would I be expected to come to those? Or were incubators exempt from family activities?
“Huh,” I said, looking to Joon. “He doesn’t seem the big happy family type, does he?”
“You’d be so shocked,” Joon chuckled. “He’s the one spearheading this whole thing, you know? Anyway, enough about Cameo! I want to show you our room. Come on?”
I nodded, letting the excitable omega tow me back to the hall and up the stairs with Indigo following closely behind.
It was… nice. I’d half expected things to still be a little tense between the three of us. But it was comfortable, following Joon through the house with my hand in his.
“It’s a little dark, but I think its cool anyway—Indi is really sweet, they even hung up some of my art!” Joon said, mouth going a mile a minute as they opened the door with a flourish.
If they hadn’t told me before, I would’ve known now that Indi had spearheaded the decorations for the rest of the house because their room matchedperfectly. It was the same deep green as the front hall, with a matching bedspread and a large fireplace in the middle of the far wall.
“It’s original,” Indigo said from behind, leaning in the doorframe as they followed my eyes. “I tried to keep as much of the house’s charm as possible.”
“It shows,” I praised, earning a big grin that made my knees feel weak.
Along the far wall was a small shelf, stacked to the brim with comics and records. The player sat on top, the protective plastic casing pulled down to keep the needle dust free, and above there were a few thin shelves displaying what I immediately assumed were favorites of Joon’s. There was no way that Indigo loved L-OV enough to front face all three of their albums.
A large tank sat on one of the dressers lining the interior wall, filled with large logs, plants, and a fair bit of substrate. A sunlamp beat down onto a low dish filled with water and part ofthe log, offering a warm place for a familiar knot of dusky rose scales to rest.
"Is that Potato?" I asked, walking towards the snake.
"Uh-huh," Indi said, following me over. “I moved her back out of the office, I don’t think she liked the lights much.”
"How long have you had her?” I asked, trying to remember when they’d first shown the beautiful little pink snake on stream.
“A few years.”
“What? You only told me about her a couple months ago!” I tried not to be offended since they obviously weren't required to tell me anything, but we’d been friends for a long time, and I was sure I hadn’t heard about the snake until pretty recently.
"It's not about you," Joon said, like they’d read my mind. "They were keeping her a secret from everyone.”
