I turned to Indi with a pointed look, waiting for an explanation.
"Cameo has a strict no pet rule," they said with a sigh. "But when I saw her in the store, she looked so bummed out in that fuckass little glass box they had her in? I couldn’t just leave her there.”
"So, what?” I asked with a laugh. “You bought her and just didn't tell anyone?"
“Didn’t need to. She’s basically silent, and doesn't leave the room. And she's too small to eat mice yet, so it’s just worms. I keep the live ones in the fridge in the office, and the rest are freeze dried… Kept the information to myself so Cameo wouldn’t find out, you know?”
I nodded, still not a hundred percent on how the hell Indigo managed to get a tank this size into the house without anyone noticing. "I'm assuming he knows now?"
"Yeah,” Joon said with a guilty laugh. “That might’ve been my fault.”
“Might.” Indigo rolled their eyes, pinching the omega’s side and making them squirm. “Absolutely was, you mean.”
I grinned at their antics. "What did you do?"
Joon wriggled away from Indi’s fingers, huffing. “Well, when Indi brought me over, obviously they told me about her.”
“Not much hiding her if you’re in the room, I fear.” Indi laughed.
Joon shot the alpha a look to tell them to stop interrupting, and they mimed zipping their lips with a shrug.
“As I wassaying,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I was under strict orders not to tell anyone about her, and I didn’t! But I felt bad that she was cooped up all the time, and let her hang out with me while I was drawing sometimes… One day I got a little too into it, and lost track of time, and…”
My eyes widened, hand covering my mouth in horror. "You lost her?"
“She’s small!" Joon whined. "And I didn't realize she could get through the crack under the door. The second I realized I couldn’t see her, I tore the room apart."
"It was a fuckin’ mess," Indi chimed in, earning a smack in the arm from Joon.
"Anyway,” he continued, with a pointed look at the alpha, “I started searching around the house for her, trying to be subtle. But I was digging around Cameo's room when he found me."
"What did you tell him?" I asked, barely stifling a laugh.
Cameo didn’t seem like the kind of alpha that took well to people going through his stuff.
"I tried to make something up, obviously. But the stupid alpha saw right through me, it’s honestly the most annoying thing about him?—”
“So he cracked, like immediately,” Indigo interrupted.
“Are you telling the story or me?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Indigo said, opening the top drawer to pull out a tin and pair of tweezers.
“I told Cameo the truth because I’d only been dating Indi for like four months, and I couldn’t kill their pet!”
The little snake unfurled at the sound of the tin, slowly slithering to the front of the glass enclosure to the sliding door. Her little little snoot pressed against the side of the tank, red eyes curious.
"Where did you find her?" I asked, coming close to watch Indigo.
"She was curled up in a box I'd left in my closet," Indi said. "Didn’t even leave."
I couldn't help it, I doubled over and started cackling. "Stop! So you told Cameo for nothing?!"
"It's not that funny," Joon complained.
"It's pretty fuckin’ funny, butterfly," Indi said, unscrewing the top of the tin to reveal a bunch of little black bits that I couldn’t quite make out in the low light of the room.
"I'm assuming Cameo changed the no pet rule?"
